#189 – Dick Bernard: Goldman-Sachs et al, Gaming the System

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Tuesday, April 27, Goldman-Sachs testified at the U.S. Senate about their part in the mortgage meltdown. The media is awash with details about this. The long and short is that Goldman-Sachs defense appears to be that they did nothing wrong, they were simply following the rules of the game. They probably have a strong case. On the other hand, I suppose the defendants at Nuremburg, My Lai, Abu Ghraib also thought they had a strong case…just following orders. For Goldman-Sachs and the others, they were simply loyal and productive soldiers in the financial marketplace.
It’s odd how this issue gets “spun”: This morning at coffee four old guys (my age) took the table next to me. One of them I know reasonably well, the others I see occasionally. Their first topic was yesterday’s hearing where one Senator or another swore several times, using the “s–tty” word, and wasn’t that terrible? Of course, this profanity is among the most common and inoffensive of the swear words, known and used by almost everyone over the age of 10 these days, certainly by the guys at that table, so there isn’t much of a moral dimension to it.
Not mentioned was that all the Senators were doing was repeating the precise language of a Goldman-Sachs internal memo commenting on the quality (“s–tty”) of the mortgage investments they were selling, and simultaneously betting on the failure of those same investments. They couldn’t lose.
And, of course, the rules they had followed were the very same rules that they had lobbied successfully to pass through Congress in the high-flying days of rampant deregulation in the 1990s and early 2000s. Not mentioned was that these catastrophic rules legalized financial instruments that virtually nobody, including company executives, understood EXCEPT to the extent that their use could possibly make the company (and others) a ton of money.
If you can make assault with a deadly weapon legal, and resulting death a misdemeanor, so be it. That’s how the game is played. Those with the Money and the Power use their money and power to enhance their own status; in the competition of American life, the junior high school football B-squad (“we the people”) are up against the current Super Bowl champions. The outcome is never in doubt. The Rubes lose.
The table conversation went on: the illegals in Arizona – Obamas fault; how about some environmentalists swimming out to that horrible oil slick in the Gulf of Mexico and protesting there? It was all light banter, from some otherwise upstanding citizens of an upscale suburb in a prosperous metropolitan area. There was not a single clue, at that table, of any responsibility. Everything was about rights.
“We, the people” vastly outnumber those slick Goldman-Sachs zillionaires who sat at the Hearing Table in Washington, and that is something of a problem for the Powerful.
There are antidotes to this, liberally used, and used very effectively: make Money the mother’s milk of getting elected; make sure the rules level the playing field to the extent that corporations are people, citizens, just like the rest of us. Get the victims, like those four guys at the table next to me this morning, lobbying in behalf of Big Business and Free Enterprise and the goodness of obscene Individual Wealth. Most importantly, convince those who feel they are powerless that they truly have no power. “That’s just how it is.” This happens in countries with dictators, and it happens in the Third World, and it as assuredly happens here.
Back when the mortgage meltdown was becoming obvious – 2007 – I remember getting an e-mail from someone of my general station in life, living in a modest house, etc.
The thrust of the e-mail, probably from some talking points somewhere, was that the mortgage meltdown was the fault of the irresponsible poor people who bought houses they couldn’t afford. Nowhere was there mention of the alternate reality: that these same poor people were part of the engine making Wall Street richer and richer and richer, they were the “rubes”…and then everything collapsed. It was the rubes fault.
On and on we go. Where we stop, we all should now know…but denial is alive and very, very well.

#189 – Dick Bernard: Navigating the Mean Streets of Activism, or Passivism….

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Thursday I had the opportunity to drive author Paul Loeb from place to place in Minneapolis. Paul had spoken the previous evening on the new revision of his best-selling book “Soul of a Citizen”, and as authors do when their new works are published, he was making the rounds, and we had a few minutes to chat. It was an interesting and stimulating afternoon. (The book is inspiring and stimulating. Check it out.)
I was a little late picking Paul up, and had an excuse. Right before I left home, the phone rang and a friend of my wife was on the other end. Cathy wasn’t home, so I was about to simply take a message, but the friend – let’s call her Joan – needed to give somebody a piece of her mind. Usually it would have been Cathy, who’s stuck with this friendship for years. Today it was me.
Joan, who I don’t know very well, works for a medical products corporation in a major city and is by all accounts pretty successful. I gather her salary is somewhere in the lower six figures; she has a couple of million in her investment portfolio, and it would be more except for some financial manager who made very bad decisions with her money some years ago. She’s never been married, and somebody has advised her that she needs a nest egg of $5 million to have a decent retirement…. She’ll probably make that goal, but she will not be satisfied with reaching it. So it goes. It’s Joan against the world; nothing will ever be enough.
But that wasn’t her litany on Thursday noon.
She had been at a meeting at Corporate that morning, and it was said that because of higher taxes as a result of the Obama Health Care Reform they were probably going to have to lay off people, and furthermore, new people she needed for her own department could not be hired. It’s Obama’s fault….
I told her I couldn’t agree with her, but I didn’t have time to get into an argument, since I was already running late.
I have no idea if she was telling me “facts”, or just her interpretation of what was said in the meeting. Similarly, I don’t know if the company spokespeople were telling facts, or just their interpretation of facts, for their own reasons. You never know.
Had she continued, I know she would have gotten into her favorite topics: teachers get paid too much and besides have three months paid vacation; welfare is disgusting – she works hard, and they don’t work at all; taxes are too high, and on and on and on. She is relentless.
Meanwhile, Paul Loeb was talking to another type of audience that could easily be said to be polar opposites of Joan. He was puzzled that progressives seemed to write off Obama as a failure after only a few months on the job; and worse, it seems that many feel that their only duty was to vote in a new President, and then leave the work up to he and the other politicians to accomplish, essentially, with little or no support.
In this unholy mess that is the United States of America, there are lots of people who are befuddled, some intentionally, and plenty of fools, oftentimes fooling themselves. Some of these folks we know pretty well: some are us.
We seem to expect that are simple solutions to complex problems, so Joan, who probably doesn’t even vote, is content to complain about her circumstances which are extremely good compared to most of her fellow citizens. That doesn’t make any difference to her.
And the beat goes on.

Paul Loeb at U of Minnesota April 22, 2010

#188 – Dick Bernard: Meeting the Mayor

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Last evening I was invited to one of the frequent “meet the candidate” events that represent a common and important part of the American political process.
I parked on the street at the home where the event was to take place, and as it happened, at the same time I was walking up the driveway, Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak joined me: he had arrived at the same time I had, just another citizen, but with a different role, that of “candidate”. He is one of many candidates for Minnesota Governor in 2010.
I’d never met the Mayor before. There was the usual small talk on the driveway, and soon we were among 20 or so citizens who were there, like I was, to meet the candidate.
I have been to many of these events over the years and they are all basically the same. Someone hosts the gathering, the candidate comes and gives his or her pitch, there are questions and answers, and we all go home.
Rybak devoted most of his time to questions and answers and was very impressive. I’m not a delegate to the state DFL (Democratic Party) Convention this weekend, so I won’t have an opportunity to get in on the formal process of deciding who the Democrats finally endorse. (I had an opportunity to run for delegate, but I declined.)
Rybak is a strong possibility as DFL endorsee, but exactly who gets the nod on Saturday is still uncertain…and following that is a Primary Election in August. There are many candidates still in the running, and all of them bring energy and commitment to their quest. It is at meetings like this that bolster my faith in the American political process. Ordinary citizens showing up, committed to make a difference.
There is plenty of time between now and the election to get to know the candidates beyond the often ridiculous rhetoric involved in attempting to destroy the competition.
Every potential candidate these days has a website, and as soon a the candidate field is decided by the political conventions, it will be a good time to visit those websites, and become an active and engaged citizen, neither blindly supporting nor rejecting one candidate or the other.
The meeting over, I walked down the same driveway, got in my car and went home. So did Mayor Rybak. Today, doubtless, he was doing the same after-hours work as he was yesterday.
Mayor Rybak knows, as do all of his fellow candidates, that politics is a tough and demanding job.
I for one respect those who care enough to want to represent me. And I hope to do what I can for the person I ultimately support, including financially.

#187 – Dick Bernard: Watching Tiger Woods

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NOTE COMMENTS at end of this post.

You don’t need to know me very well, or for very long, to know that I’ve never been a fan of golf. I once was told I swing a golf club like a baseball bat. It’s probably true. I’ve never had a lesson.
So, why did I spend all Saturday and Sunday afternoon watching the Masters at Augusta GA, or, rather, watching Tiger Woods?
Before the first swing of the Master’s I predicted that Woods would finish in the top five. I had no basis for this guess. I didn’t think he’d win and “Top five” seemed pretty good. In the end, he finished in a tie for fourth. (I didn’t put the ‘evidence’ of my prediction somewhere, like writing an e-mail to myself: now I wish I had.)
I had never really watched Woods play golf before. This was an opportunity to see how he played, but equally as interesting for me, was to see how he would be played by the assorted interests that have been following his every move, particularly in the last five months.
He really played his role perfectly.
In this society which worships competition and winners and the perfection which accompanies success, it’s hard to find anyone as competitive as Woods. He was raised by his Dad to win. And he plays to win, it seems, fair and square.
Still, I wasn’t prepared for his unwillingness to at least pretend to be happy to have finished fourth. He said, in the brief interview after the 72nd hole, that he came to the Masters to win, and he didn’t, and that wasn’t pleasing. In reality, he was reacting exactly as a highly competitive winner is supposed to react: dissatisfied with anything short of perfection. In an individual sport, which golf is, the player has only him (or her)self to blame.
And Woods wasn’t perfect. Even I could see that.
There was one green near the end of the match where he earned a very sloppy bogey. The Associated Press writer described it as “an inexplicable three-putt from 6 feet [which] ended his hopes at the 14th.” His performance looked like I would have looked on most any green, most any time I’ve been unfortunate enough to be on one. And, on occasion, he even ended up in the woods, or stuck in a sand trap.
Still, given five months absence, and returning under what had to be incredible pressure, he finished tied for fourth in one of the most prestigious golf matches in the world.
For all the piousness and clucking about Woods abundant personal failings, Tiger Woods was a gold mine for professional golf and for the media last week. Suddenly, golf terms became respectable double entendres used on-air by people in the respectable media. What appeared to be his single ad for Nike will probably net Nike a bundle, long term, and was great fodder for endless spoofs and interpretations of it by others. But the company’s who advertised on the shirts and caps of the other golfers made out like bandits too. I would suspect I was not the only fair weather fan watching the Master’s this year. Woods was a bonanza.
Much was made of the gallery at Augusta. How would they react to Woods, and he to them? Fact of the matter: they were there, and they were among the very privileged few who had the chance. They loved the spectacle, up close and personal.
Has Tiger learned his personal lesson? Who knows. He’s human, still young, constantly in the spotlight, a celebrity among celebrities. Will his marriage survive? Who knows that, as well. He and his wife are human. There will be a lot of “cost” whatever the decision is, for he, his wife, his kids…. He will stay under the klieg lights for far longer than the rest of we mere mortals.
For me, I’m happy I watched the Masters. And I’m gratified that, as awful a golfer as I am, on one or two holes last weekend I might have matched Tiger Woods!
I only wish I would have made a wager with somebody about my prediction about how he’d do in the Masters.
COMMENTS:
Will S: Like everyone else who has screwed up one way or another, Tiger Woods deserves another chance. But it isn’t the public’s to negotiate, it’s his wife.
Not many people know that Woods operates a Learning Academy near San Diego. You can find out what it’s all about on the internet. When the revelations about his personal life began to emerge, I wrote the academy and told them no matter how his personal life shakes out, he should continue the Academy and in fact I suggested he open a second one in the Twin Cities. That, apparently, is not going to happen or at least not in the foreseeable future.
Of course, he is marked for life with his own scarlet letter but his redemption, if it comes at all, will not be on the golf course but with his wife and family.
As one who has done more than his share of screwing up, I wish him well and his wife and children, as well.
Jeff P: Professional golf had two “goldmines”:
a) the publicity on Woods lead up to the Masters and his participation;
b) Phil Mickelson’s win and his heartfelt seemingly endless hug of his wife after leaving the 18th green.
In the morality play of America, Tiger played his role, but the guy in the white hat triumphed.
Bob H: You caught the essence of Tiger Woods and too much of U.S.: Win at all costs; be number one. And like the man who was interviewed who had been bilked by a fraudulent ticket for the Minnesota Twins opener, he was satisfied that he had come at least because he had seen the “fly over.”
Now whatever a “fly over” has to do with a sport and how many of hundreds of thousand or our tax dollars went to that momentary spectacle confuses and worries me. That a military connection and ignoring cost and power is related to our national malaise about winning at any cost is worth it!
Check out our nation’s priorities here:
Paul M: Good analysis – the muffed 3 putt is very rare by Tiger standards, maybe a first, he has always said he only wants to win even as a rookie when the seasoned pro (Curtis Strange) said he will get over that. Tiger and Michael Jordan represent US sports at its cutthroat best (or worst), they will step on their own wives to win/get pleasure, you prediction was spot on, you should have bet, and been a winner.

#186 – Dick Bernard: Haiti today and tomorrow, as viewed by Dr. Joia Mukherjee of Partners in Health

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Less than two months after the devastating January 12 earthquake, Haiti has become old news.
Dr. Joia Mukherjee, native of Bengal and graduate of the University of Minnesota Medical School, and for 11 of her 17 years as a physician part of Partners in Health, brought Haiti back in sharp focus before a large audience at St. Paul’s Macalester College Tuesday evening. Here is a recent commentary about Haiti written by Dr. Mukharjee. Her remarks on Minnesota Public Radio on April 6, 2010, are here.
The awful remains obvious in Haiti: according to Dr. Mukherjee, 250,000 died in the quake, roughly one of every ten Haitians in Port-au-Prince and area. 300,000 more were injured, mostly orthopedic and neurological injuries requiring surgery. And 1.7 million Haitians were displaced, one of every five Haitians.
Some of the worst problems – basic mental health issues as a consequence of the Quake and displacement, and the upcoming rainy season – are less obvious now, but are major. Haitians are resilient, but this catastrophe stretches the national and individual psyche to the breaking point.
In a country with essentially no government, and no funds, with the rainy season fast approaching, and hurricane season not far behind, it is hard to see any silver lining behind the abundant misery in Haiti.
But Dr. Mukherjee conveyed a message of hope, most dramatically through the voice of an old woman who told her not long after the tragedy, near neg maron, the statue of the free man in the ruined Presidential Palace area, “The free man will never be defeated”. Through all of the tragedy which came along with independence when Haiti’s slaves threw off their shackles in 1804, Haitians have an enduring pride and resilience and it is that spirit which holds them in good stead even when hope seems an impossible dream.
We were given a brief lesson about Haiti, and with the lesson an encouragement to learn more about this place and its people. Kreyol is thought to be primarily French, but the richest parts of the language come from its African Bantu roots.
There are immense challenges ahead for the Haitians, Dr. Mukherjee said, but with assistance they are equal to the task.
Given the immensity of the disaster, and the slowness of recovery efforts, it is remarkable how little violence there has been. Encampments have quite effectively organized themselves into communities with de facto leaders, “mayors” in a sense. Partners in Health believes that true accompaniment – walking with the people – is absolutely essential in the recovery efforts. Rather than telling, ask the people what they need. They know. Work with the people and with the Government as it exists, then do what can be done to help the people fulfill the needs, and have them rebuild their own society. Basic rights for all people are education, medical care, water, food and shelter.
Partners in Health, which began in Haiti, but now works throughout the world, has an important sense of what works for Haitians in Haiti. The vast majority of PIH’s staff is native Haitian.
A particular and perhaps paradoxical dilemma in Haiti is the massive number of non-governmental organizations (NGOs). In Rwanda, we were told, there are 200 NGOs; in Haiti, about 10,000. And these are countries roughly similar in size and population. NGOs are essentially governments unto themselves, and represent their own particular problems. They are a mixed blessing.
Haiti’s government essentially ceased to exist after the quake, and recovery has been slow and difficult. The government has no money. Of every dollar in aid, only one cent goes to the Haiti government. The standard excuse for this is “fear of corruption”. The doctor retorted that this is a misplaced fear. If we wish to view corruption, all we have to do is to look at the Wall Street collapse of 2008. Most corruption occurs long before the money reaches any one in Haiti.
Dr. Mukherjee feels we all have a very useful role to play in Haiti’s recovery and future. We need to keep seeing Haiti, and there needs to be a movement of solidarity for Haiti. Such movements against Apartheid in South Africa and more recently the AIDs initiatives resulted from people working together over a long period of time. In all the many ways that we can, we need to make our own government aware that we are watching, and we are concerned.

Dr. Mukherjee at right, visits with Joelle Vitello and Laura Flynn Apr 6 10


After-talk conversation April 6, 2010


NOTE: My personal website on Haiti is here.

#185 – Dick Bernard: Easter (and other) Postcards from the olden days

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Happy Easter.
Some years ago I convinced my Uncle to loan me his collection of old postcards, sent to the rural North Dakota farm where he and my mother and many others grew up. The cards were mostly from the early 1900s, and in the end I scanned over 150 of them, and wrote a commentary about them which is still accessible. (At the end of the commentary I suggest that the cards are still viewable, but they are no longer available from that source. Maybe another spring project…. See paragraph below.)
I comment on the Easter cards in the post. Succinctly, about 40% of the cards had a religious theme, while the other 60% had more seasonal or secular themes. This surprised me somewhat because this farm family and its root family was very religious. And these cards were mostly from the first decade of the 1900s.
Following are samples of the cards, secular, religious.
There are many others. (The on-line album listed at the article is no longer available. Here is a link to all of the postcards, including the Easter themes.)
Have a good Easter, or spring day, or whatever is your wish or belief on this April 4, 2010.


#184 – Dick Bernard: April 1, Census Day 2010, "Coming to America"

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Today is Census Day. A week ago today I had the privilege of listening to the Second and Fourth Graders at South St. Paul’s Lincoln Center Elementary present their music programs to their fellow students and people like me. These kinds of events are always highlights for me. On stage were two of my grandkids, but the effect would have been the same if they were “just kids” up there front and center. One feels the enthusiasm and pride of the students; and sees the skill and respect of the adults involved in such productions.
In the morning session, the Fourth Graders did a wonderful program, “Let Music Surround You”, which closed with their rendition of Neil Diamond’s “America” (presented here by Neil Diamond himself). One of the fourth graders played the Statue of Liberty; fourth grader Teddy was one of those who carried in a banner. I choked up. After seven playful songs, the music teacher told us that the last number would be serious, and it was, in a wonderfully positive way.

I present this vignette on Census Day, 2010, since for almost the last year I’ve been completing my French-Canadian family history which goes back nearly 400 years in North America, and almost 160 years in the United States. Were it not for our immigrant forbears we would not be here.
A goodly part of the research base for ordinary family history is assorted census records. While my family came to the U.S. long before Ellis Island, and to North America long before there was a United States, the feelings and the dynamics were largely the same then, as they are now. “America” is a nation of immigrants, perhaps the most heterogeneous society ever existing on earth, still bringing together all of the rich variety of human beings.
I’ve sent in my census forum, and it was a simple, painless form to complete.
It was not always so simple, as I’ve found from attempting to decipher handwritten census documents generated from 1857 on in the United States, and earlier in Canada.
One can envision a census taker in 1857, walking from home to home, taking the census. The U.S. census taker could write (legibility often in question), and speak English. But frequently the people enumerated were not conversant with English (In my case, they spoke French, or German) and they were often illiterate. So the assorted census documents require a certain amount of interpretation a century or more later.
In eight censuses from 1857 to 1895, for instance, one of my great-great-grandmothers was recorded under four different first names (Ida, Adeline, Lydia, Hattie). The ages of the residents were recorded in each census, and it was obvious that a precise age was not a priority to the resident; it was more likely an approximate age.
In the days before Immigration, a question was asked in which country the children were born, and the adults, if born in another country, were asked if they were naturalized citizen. It was simply a question.
Censuses also recorded other important information about buildings and livestock and crops. One would guess that the only significant difference between then and now is the sophistication of record keeping, but census records have always been kept, and they are important.
Back at the concerts, the last number sung by the second graders, including granddaughter Kelly, was Joy to the World by Hoyt Axton. Thanks to the magic of YouTube, here’s a rendition of that song, actually sung by Hoyt Axton, (which was modified, slightly, to fit Second Grade and the theme of their program, “McElligot’s Pool, by Dr. Seuss”.
“Coming to America”, and “Joy to the World”, indeed. Happy Census Day!