Due - yes, good folk - and good stuff from them that you've been posting for quite a while now.
The thought crossed my mind about massive self-deception and problems with projection, triggered by your post and the sequences we all have followed on this board.
The massive delusion ? That securities laws make even one single damn bit of difference to stemming fraud and corruption.
The self-projection ? Believing that those laws make a difference because WE take laws seriously - and very dangerously project that same type of 'concern/respect/conformity to rule of law' onto others.
As with our current government in this country, the 'financial' world habitation is rife with sociopaths (proper definition of the word being employed here) through ALL levels - including the federal reserve board, US treasury, and the boards, ceos, cfos, and other officers of our major financial 'institutions' (double entendre intended). This includes the so-called 'insurance' industry.
You and I have run into these sociopaths routinely in our scam-busting days - and correctly identified them.
Perhaps we thought we could 'make a difference', help 'clean up' some of the corruption - at least with the 'small guys' - that the 'rule of law' actually meant something.
Enron showed some of the socio-pathy that exists in the market - and WE (the collective we, all of us honest, mostly law-abiding citizens) delude ourselves if we think for even the most miniscule particle of time that the 'Enrons' are the 'exception to the rule' and that more 'regulation/enforcement' will make even the tiniest dent in what goes on in perpetuity.
Anybody that has studied the penny stock scamming for even a short period of time, has, of course, looked at the clinical definitions and discourses about 'sociopathic' personalities. What should strike us firmly between the orbital lobes is the fact that sociopaths that one meets in everyday life are generally going to be above-average in intelligence, if not brilliant. That is a not only a type of darwinism, (because those sociopaths that are NOT above the cut - get caught and incarcerated) but is also a product of life-long training and conditioning of these types. They continually learn how to mask their motives/thoughts/actions through continued implementation - and either get better at their evil, or fail catastrophically.
Revisiting the 'projection' issue above, and the collective belief that the 'Enrons and WorldComs' of this world are 'aberrations' - in light of the above quickie micro-rant on sociopaths - Perhaps we can say that the 'Enrons and WorldComs' of this world are the exception to the rule.
Here we go:
The Enrons and the WorldComs of our financial and government markets are the exception to the rule .... exception to the rule in that they were too damn stupid and got caught. The rest of the big thieves are much better at it than they were.
Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good ...
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