Regulators, Investigators, Cover-ups and Christians

As I've mentioned previously one of the most striking things to be revealed as a result of the recent leaks has been the relationship between the corporate sector and the US government.

It's long been known that the figures at the top of the economic world rotate in and out of government. In many cases the regulators are literally people who have just left the banking industry. It's the foxes guarding the henhouse.

I think I can say that none of it has proven surprising. I'm speaking both of the activities and the fact that virtually no one has been held to account.

While many of the recent leaks have exposed the 'shift' in governmental powers regarding the police state, surveillance and foreign policy, I think with the financial sector the term 'exposure' is probably more appropriate.

 http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/18/business/sec-illegally-destroyed-documents-whistle-blower-alleges.html?_r=0

http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/sec-still-destroying-records-illegally-whistleblowers-lawyer-says/2011/09/06/gIQAAD7E7J_story.html

Privatization and Deregulation were the norm in the 70's and 80's and it was the 90's economy that reaped the real harvest. But even that economy was something of a myth. Unemployment numbers were artificially low and the profits were being concentrated in the hands of stockholders and those on top of the Corporate pyramid. Millions of blue collar workers watched their jobs evaporate into the ether of the outsourced universe.

We won't even dive into what this new economy was doing overseas. That's yet another realm of criminality and deceit. It was the era that birthed Globalization.

SEC whistleblower Darcy Flynn revealed how the regulators have helped in hiding the criminality by destroying evidence and the trail or flow of investigations. The data was broken up, destroying any ability to collate, synthesize and create a big picture that an investigator could utilize to grasp the big picture.

No one can ever connect the dots when as soon as they appear they go through a document shredder.

Again none of this surprising but I think it's instructive because it's a clear testimony and example of how a cover-up can work within a large organization and how investigations can be blocked and hindered.

This lesson is certainly applicable to a wider range of issues.

As you take in the totality of the financial reporting that's been trickling in over the past five years or so and you grasp the magnitude of the corruption, deceit and manipulation I'm left just laughing when I hear Christian commentators and people I know suggest that this all happened because a bunch of people were greedy or irresponsible and took on mortgages they couldn't afford.

This ignores the reality of living in a bubble. Some people just needed houses to live in and in that market had little choice.

The fact that the bubble was artificial made it even worse. We already knew about these types of schemes during the Enron collapse. Why would people think Countrywide had more integrity?

Plenty of people were deceived and taken in by the consumer culture and the whole 'treat your house like an investment' mentality. A lot of people were greedy and got into house-flipping. That was nothing new either.

Despite the stupidity and even corruption among the borrowers and consumers to place all the blame on them is ridiculous. There were so many things going on that contributed to the downfall of the economy that to reduce it to irresponsibility on the part of the borrowers simply demonstrates a lack of understanding or an unwillingness to take on the larger issues.

I also think of the Christian commentaries which try and suggest that as Christians we're going to venture out into this financial sector and somehow maintain Christian integrity, work as Christians and somehow glorify God in the midst of it? In this system? I sincerely think these people are dreaming or again more likely are utterly failing to grasp the magnitude of what is going on and how it works.

I spent several months doing remodeling work within a financial office. Just listening to all the talk of annuities, residuals, municipal bonds, and Roth IRA's made me literally sick. I would chat with the agents during the in-between times and pick their brains. People love to talk and I seem to have a gift for getting them to open up. Everyone says I'd make a great bartender.

But as I've mentioned before I feel a little disingenuous at times. They're rambling on, and I'm taking mental notes. I'd ask lots of questions and sometimes go home and spend some time looking up things they told me to try and understand it better.

Just interacting with them made me more convinced than ever that I wanted nothing to do with their world. I'd listen to them, raise the ethical points when I detected something. They'd grin, shrug their shoulders or shake their heads in agreement. That's just the way it is.

And they would be reckoned the low-level 'good' guys. Certainly not the big corrupt and reckless players on Wall Street.

But it doesn't matter. They're still plugged into it, drinking from the same font, feeding from the same trough, wallowing in the same mire.

I think of all the individual Christians, businesses and 'ministries' who are invested in the markets through individual stocks, mutual and retirement funds and when I consider how it all works and the havoc and destruction this system causes around the world I want to just bury my face in my hands.

That said, we keep learning, press on, and pray for discernment.