WAGES OF SIN

"Greed is good," we were told. (By the way,
that's a foundational belief for the market
idolatry that has now crashed.) "Greed drives
the world economy," we were told. Well, it
does. It drove it into the ditch because no one
was steering. We left that to Adam Smith's
imaginary "invisible hand." Smith, who pub-
lished The Wealth of Nations in 1776, was a
devout Presbyterian who understood full well
that greed is one of the seven deadly sins, and
breeds others, like fraud and deception.

Smith was not naive. He said of the captains of
industry: "They aren't together ten minutes be-
fore they are conspiring against the public good."
He advocated therefore a structure of laws and
public morality that required complete trans-
parency in business matters. This was part of
British patriotism in his day. A Brit's word was
his bond. Goods were delivered as represented.
And represented honestly and accurately. His
"invisible hand" in which the market efficiently
allocates labor, resources and rewards, assumed
British people dealing honestly with each other
for the public good. And that''s the only way it
works!

Fast forward to Bernie Madoff and his clones.
His Ponzi scheme worked so well for so long be-
cause it operated within a larger one, in a conta-
gious fever of greed and the atmosphere of a big
casino. It was a rudderless ship of fools, and
bound to smash up. Like the Titanic, it was de-
signed to be unsinkable. In that shipwreck, the
captain ordered full speed ahead when warned
of ice bergs in the area. He didn't know that the
builders had used thinner steel plates than called
for to protect the sides, and inferior rivets to
hold them on. That had been done to increase
profits. Greed and deception killed the captain
and his crew and all the male passengers!

Deception has been prominent and highly re-
warded in the current econ. meltdown. Fabulous
profits and bonuses in the $bns. have been col-
lected by purveyors of false security and false
securities. Now someone has to pay. Guess who?
Some of the crooks may go to jail. But most of
the paying will be done by the public that has
been gulled. The market worshippers are trying
to blame the gulled for the mess. They can't
blame the market! It can't err. The wages of
sin are widely dispersed, even when narrowly
earned.

P. S. If you want to learn more about the market
religion, its myths and methods, and what it has
done to government and our economy during
the past 30 years of its dominance, read the new
book by Thomas Frank: The Wrecking Crew.
He also wrote What's the Matter With Kansas?,
which I have recommended elsewhere. Also,
Nobel prize-winning economist Paul Krugman
frequently addresses the errors and foibles of
the free-market crowd, in his op-ed columns in
the NYT. He's awsome! (I've never said that
before, about anyone, not even Obama, who of
course is also.)