A rogue executive with a funny name gets arrested for losing billions in unauthorized transactions.
Another Rogue Trader
Ted Rall
Ted Rall is a syndicated political cartoonist for Andrews McMeel Syndication and WhoWhatWhy.org and Counterpoint. He is a contributor to Centerclip and co-host of "The Final Countdown" talk show on Radio Sputnik. He is a graphic novelist and author of many books of art and prose, and an occasional war correspondent. He is, recently, the author of the graphic novel "2024: Revisited."
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Never happen, Ted – this trader was no rogue ; he just played according to the company rules. If you want to get those responsible, you’ll have to go higher up….
Henri
Ted,
Speaking of rogue traders and what they cause, let’s look to the Occupy Wall Street protests. Now, you have some knowledge of protests, Ted. Answer this:
Has it EVER been advantageous for the protesters to act like idiots and freaks?
The Occupy Wall Street protest is very serious to the protesters. I think it should be very serious to everyone. And that means that the people organizing it have to accept that there are certain PR tactics they must employ. It’s not an orgy or a party. Put your top back on, lady. You on the stilts? Get off them. You three? Put away your goddamn iPhones.
As expected, the media is pretty much reporting the protest as a bunch of goof-offs who the police HAVE to arrest because the goofs are disrupting normal people from going about their business.
Translation: Maybe these protesters are right, but if they are, then I will have to join them in fighting back against being taken for a ride. So, cognitive dissonance being what it is, I will choose to find that the problem isn’t the system, it’s these odd-ball malcontents. There, the collar around my neck feels much better now.
Why is it that progressives simply are never able to plan anything beyond about the second step?
“Hey, let’s protest Wall Street by occupying a park! Everyone, bring your sleeping bag and dress real crazy!” These protesters should have taken a tip from the blacks and the gays. The original 1950s protests consisted of clean-cut, well-groomed people protesting. Why? Because protest isn’t about convincing the other side, protesting is about convincing the undecided majority. Most people aren’t fighting Wall Street because they don’t see any group they can trust. You aren’t going to get the average 50-year-old office worker up in arms with a bunch of 20-somethings showing up to what looks like a Phish concert.
Simple rule: Show up to a protest like you’d show up to court. Wear a damned suit. All those iPhones? Use them to video police aggression, because you know that the affidavits the police file on the arrests will be fiction. When a cop clubs someone over the head and then maced the unconscious person in the face, you know the arrest report will say that the cop had no choice because the person was violently resisting. It’s what happened at the RNC. All those arrests and 90% of them got tossed because of videos.
This time, the protesters should have enough brains to refuse to let the charges be dropped. Have the day in court in front of a jury. Show the jury how the cops lie. Win a verdict. Sue the police. THAT is how you disrupt, folks. That is how you win. But a protest were everyone’ flying their freak flag? You’re already losing public support. “What’s wrong with these young people today? Don’t they understand that they have to buckle down and grow up?”
The message is lost on the people you’re trying to get to.
With the caveat that this is how young people behave, I agree that protests should have a lot more dignity than they do. I can’t say I’m surprised at the way the Occupy Wall Street protests have gone down: wanky and disorganized. Consider, for example, this update I received from Adbusters Magazine, which has been central to this effort:
“For the wild?” “Dreamers”? “[Culture] jammers”? What, no poets or mimes? No wonder they’re attracting idiots. Anyone serious–anyone who brings a strong class analysis–after all, this is a protest that ought to be all about class struggle–will be turned off. When I read that rhetoric, I knew I wanted no part of it because it is doomed to failure.
Revolution isn’t about dreaming. It requires extraordinary risk, sacrifice, blood and sweat and terror, along with the serious determination to throw out the existing order of EVERYTHING and build society and the economy back from scratch. I don’t know about you, but I’m not willing to take an hour out of my day, much less risk getting beaten up by the NYPD, for a formless be-in.
P.S. You can’t promise “maybe even 100,000” people for anything. “Wouldn’t that be something?” Sure. It would also be “something” if I farted gold bullion.
Jesus, Ted. If you start farting gold, I’d like to invite you to my all-you-can-eat bean dinner and cabbage fest.
Ted, when are you going to start talking about the GOP field of contenders? Or are you so ardently anti Obama that you’ll be voting Republican next year?? The GOP is so far off to the right that Mitt Romney and Ronald Reagan are starting to look like liberals, ya know that right?
I know. So does everyone else, so there’s no need for me to say much.