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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsWall Street Taught Me How to Cheat
http://www.alternet.org/economy/wall-street-ethicsMy first year on Wall Street, 1993, I was paid 14 times more than I earned the prior year and three times more than my father's best year. For that money, I helped my company create financial products that were disguised to look simple, but which required complex math to properly understand. That first year I was roundly applauded by my bosses, who told me I was clever, and to my surprise they gave me $20,000 bonus beyond my salary.
The products were sold to many investors, many who didnt fully understand what they were buying, most of them what we called clueless Japanese. The profits to my company were huge hundreds of millions of dollars huge. The main product that made my firm great money for close to five years was was called, in typically dense finance jargon, a YIF, or a Yield Indexed Forward.
Eventually, investors got wise, realizing what they had bought was complex, loaded with hidden leverage, and became most dangerous during moments of distress.
I never did meet the buyers; that was someone else's job. I stayed behind the spreadsheets. My job was to try to extract as much value as possible through math and clever trading. Japan would send us faxes of documents from our competitors. Many were selling far weirder products and doing it in far larger volume than we were. The conversation with our Japanese customers would end with them urging us on: We cant fall behind.
Laelth
(32,017 posts)-Laelth
cantbeserious
(13,039 posts)eom
Scuba
(53,475 posts)Oh wait, gotta bust some gardeners instead.
The Wizard
(12,545 posts)now house crooked bankers, and Iceland has made a faster recovery than any other country. We still give bonuses for failure and corruption. Roman empire get ready for some company.
Now if we were to grab some Wall Street shysters and tie them to poles in the public square for shaming and whipping, things would change. During the French Revolution it was guillotines and head baskets.
Dustlawyer
(10,495 posts)Holder will never prosecute, and neither will the next AG, or the next....
Join me in my attempt at spreading the word the we need COMPLETE CAMPAIGN FINANCE REFORM and PUBLICLY FUND ELECTIONS!!!
Locrian
(4,522 posts)It's all those 'god damn poor people / welfare cheats' that are the REAL problem
FOX and everyone else TOLD me so....
99Forever
(14,524 posts)... the author has had lunch and private closed door meetings at the Whitehouse in the last few years?
Enthusiast
(50,983 posts)We seldom hear any criticism for these ethereal financial products by Democrats currently holding office.
Are we the "good guys" or are we the bad guys? I want to know.
If we are the good guys we must be the good guys on all the issues, not just women's rights, LGBT issues, torture, civil rights and war. Because this bad paper destroyed the world economy and disrupted millions of lives.
progressoid
(49,991 posts)USA USA USA
Octafish
(55,745 posts)Like the wave-particle duality (or real alchemy or perpetual motion; takes your pick):
Money to get Power and Power to get Money (repeat ad infinitum).
Know your BFEE: Spawn of Wall Street and the Third Reich