4 ms·

Humor aside, the real crimes are the systemic from the top, like the Libor clowns, which will erase public trust at some point, which will cause the public go b

by imglorp 10y ago

Humor aside, the real crimes are the systemic from the top, like the Libor clowns, which will erase public trust at some point, which will cause the public go back to keeping money in mattresses. Fortunately there are some small wins, like these little fish going to jail: http://www.bbc.com/news/business-36737666 http://www.bbc.com/news/business-36737666 but we need to keep it up and restore accountability.

wangchow 10y ago
At that point money won't be worth putting under mattresses but water and food will.
ozim 10y ago
In The Netherlands they come up with oath: https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2015-04-01/dutch-bankers-start-taking-an-oath-to-behave-better https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2015-04-01/dutch-ban...
jondubois 10y ago
Yes, I think 'honesty', 'trust' and 'reputation' used to be very important in the old days but not so much now - The system is extremely generous when it comes to giving people 'second chances'. In our semi-globalized world, you can take HUGE risks and make a COMPLETE MESS of your reputation and credit rating in your home country, but then you can move to a different country (and often, you can also bring along your dirty money with you) and start fresh as though nothing ever happened. Unless you're a major public figure; no one will know what a crook you are. A partially-globalized world is a perfect world for crooks. I think we should either give up on globalization completely or go full steam ahead and merge into a 'world government' under which everyone can be held accountable for their past behaviour without any loopholes.
- hx87 10y ago
  We don't need a global government as much as a global reputation system, and we're slowly moving towards that direction. It's especially true of the United States and Europe--if you screw up big time there, it's easy to find out, and it's not like authoritarian regimes outside the west have any incentive to protect the reputations of western companies via censorship.

by imglorp 10y ago

wangchow 10y ago

At that point money won't be worth putting under mattresses but water and food will.

ozim 10y ago

In The Netherlands they come up with oath: https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2015-04-01/dutch-bankers-start-taking-an-oath-to-behave-better https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2015-04-01/dutch-ban...

jondubois 10y ago

Yes, I think 'honesty', 'trust' and 'reputation' used to be very important in the old days but not so much now - The system is extremely generous when it comes to giving people 'second chances'. In our semi-globalized world, you can take HUGE risks and make a COMPLETE MESS of your reputation and credit rating in your home country, but then you can move to a different country (and often, you can also bring along your dirty money with you) and start fresh as though nothing ever happened. Unless you're a major public figure; no one will know what a crook you are. A partially-globalized world is a perfect world for crooks. I think we should either give up on globalization completely or go full steam ahead and merge into a 'world government' under which everyone can be held accountable for their past behaviour without any loopholes.

hx87 10y ago
We don't need a global government as much as a global reputation system, and we're slowly moving towards that direction. It's especially true of the United States and Europe--if you screw up big time there, it's easy to find out, and it's not like authoritarian regimes outside the west have any incentive to protect the reputations of western companies via censorship.