As I finish up Andrew Ross Sorkin's book, "Too Big To Fail", and also reading this article about Rodge Cohan....I can't help but wonder how much commission was offered to the writers to pen these ego boosts. A book about the largest financial scams in history and I find myself searching desperately to find the antagonist(s). Instead, Sorkin paints most of the players as heroes doing Patriotic dealing to save us (and add to their income)....yikes. Upon introduction of many of the players it is as if Sorkin asked them to "please relate an amusing and cuddly anecdote of yourself so that you appear to be a mere mortal to the taxpayers you raped".
One of the most nauseating moments (of many) of Sorkins book comes as TaxEvading Timmy was set to take a morning jog along the East River after a hellish weekend of commandeering taxpyers money to bailout AIG (so they could give it to Goldman Sachs). Young Timmy gazes out at the morning commuters wondering if he has done the right thing. Seeing us, the unwashed non-financial masses, he thinks "it is about them", "Never mind the staggering numbers. Never mind the ruthless complexity of structured finance and derivitives, nor the million-dollar bonuses of those who made bad bets. This is what saving the financial industry is really about...protecting ordinary people with ordinary jobs" (page 409). Gee whiz, thanks Tim. Thanks for being there for us!!! No matter that the guys you are bailing out cost us "ordinary" folks untold amounts of present and future wealth and earnings, and taxes.
No need for Syrup of Ipecac after a dose of that...
