Financial reform?

23. April 2010 by Evan FitzGerald.

How exactly do you stop stupid people from doing stupid things?

What law could possibly end the herd mentality that drives the bubble and bust cycle?

But worst of all. Why are the stupid protected and the smart demonized for profiting from actually knowing what is going on?

People who threw their money at things they didn’t understand are “innocent victims” while people who saw an opportunity, took a risk, and won are “greedy pigs profiting off the ‘misfortune’ of others.”

Give me a break.

Don’t get me wrong here. I support financial reform. I just want to see the right people held accountable for their actions.

Financial sales people who lie: Bad.

Being able to get a loan with unusual terms: Good.

Executives who didn’t care if loans were viable because they were securitized and sold: Bad.

Derivatives: Good.

People who think the government (which can’t balance it’s own budget) has even the slightest chance of making this country financially safer: Stupid.

Hedge fund managers who bought bank stock during the bailout: Smart.

The list goes on but the real point is that no matter what happens there will still be bad people doing bad things and good people doing good things. Let’s try to keep it straight which are which and not make the lives of good people harder.

And let’s not protect stupidity and punish intelligence. That would be a real crime.

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