The more we learn about CEOs and the world of big business, the more the book “American Psycho” seems like a cultural study. I’ve never actually met any of these corporate vampires. Most people I associate with have been within a check or two of financial collapse their entire lives. So the stereotypical Gordon Gekko (of the film Wall Street) Wall Street hustler has been a distant half reality in the land of the have-not. They’re like that neighbor who turns out to be a serial killer. You know serial killers exist, but it’s difficult to connect it to a reality you’re familiar with until he’s being dragged off his front porch in handcuffs.
Since the beginning of this massive financial wane we’ve seen several of these characters come out of the woodwork. Rolling Stone magazine recently listed its “Dirty Dozen,” the 12 bankers and brokers who hold a good share of responsibility for the current financial crisis. They listed Sandy Weill who was the CEO of Citigroup and creator of the first too-big-to-fail company. He reportedly celebrated the $45 billion bailout of Citigroup by hopping a company jet and vacationing in Mexico.
John Thain, who is the former chief executive officer who helped sink Merrill Lynch, and after merging with Bank of America, became famous for spending $1.2 million in bailout money on personal office renovations. Just in case you were wondering what could possibly cost so much, he spent $130,000 on rugs, $35,000 on a toilet, and $1,300 on a wastebasket. If most people lived in Thain’s diluted world, they would literally not have a pot to piss in.
My personal favorite from the list is Dick Fuld. Fuld was the Chief Executive Officer for Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. He made about $40 million in 2006, $35 million in 2007 and repaid the investors by sending the company into bankruptcy in 2008. He purchased a mansion in Florida in 2004 for $13 million and was kind enough to sell it to his wife last year for $100 to protect the home during any possible legal action.
The footnote to the lives of these business hounds is that there probably won’t be any repercussions. They were rich before the economic bust, and they’re rich while being scolded for helping to cause this mess. There are plenty of people who need to hold their fair share of the blame, including Joe Six-Pack who lives well beyond his means, and Jenny Quick-Cash who decided to flip houses for a quick buck. The difference is that those people are feeling their bad decisions while these CEOs are basking at our expense.
Now we’re hearing conservative fears about too much government influence in the free market. There’s absolutely no doubt that there are folks in the government who are looking to take their share of pie, and there’s no reason to devote your blind trust to any establishment. That being said, when it comes to the economy, I trust the government to establish rules and regulations more than I trust CEOs to self-regulate. The government is predictable depending on who’s in Congress. CEOs, on the other hand, are difficult to gauge because we won’t know the depth of their evil and incompetence until the pools have run dry.
