"The point is, ladies and gentleman, that greed -- for lack of a better word -- is good." - Gordon Gecko (Wall Street, 1987)
Ever since the fallout of the US economy, it's been one bad news after another. First it was the sub-prime failure follow by the fall of the big financial institutions. Even a country (aka Iceland) goes into bankruptcy. And when Lehman Brothers name no longer exist, so do all the savings of those who invested in their mini-bonds. As America is praying for some bailout plan for the three US automakers, it is hit by news of the Madoff fraud.
How did it end up like this? The answer is greed. When the economy is booming, the lure of easy money causes people to let their guard down. Checking of reliability and soundness of investment plans and packages has becomes “leh chay” and considered to be slowing down the road to riches. Everyone is blinded by greed over the obvious risk.
It is only when the bubble burst and the well runs dry, will people realize the faults and mistakes they made. History has taught so many times the pitfalls of greed. Yet every time we managed to crawl out of a hole, we managed to dig ourselves into another one. Back to the post title above, is greed really good? Yes, not only it is good, it is also perfect…
…for self-destruction.
Ever since the fallout of the US economy, it's been one bad news after another. First it was the sub-prime failure follow by the fall of the big financial institutions. Even a country (aka Iceland) goes into bankruptcy. And when Lehman Brothers name no longer exist, so do all the savings of those who invested in their mini-bonds. As America is praying for some bailout plan for the three US automakers, it is hit by news of the Madoff fraud.
How did it end up like this? The answer is greed. When the economy is booming, the lure of easy money causes people to let their guard down. Checking of reliability and soundness of investment plans and packages has becomes “leh chay” and considered to be slowing down the road to riches. Everyone is blinded by greed over the obvious risk.
It is only when the bubble burst and the well runs dry, will people realize the faults and mistakes they made. History has taught so many times the pitfalls of greed. Yet every time we managed to crawl out of a hole, we managed to dig ourselves into another one. Back to the post title above, is greed really good? Yes, not only it is good, it is also perfect…
…for self-destruction.
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