More Cooperation

Radio talk show host and recovering politician Mike Huckabee calls for less confrontation, more conversation.  We agree, and wonder what Gment would be like with more cooperation.  What if we all were not treated like terrorists by TSA?  What if Gment actually was there to help, and not to accuse and harass?  Maybe if, instead of being spied on, the Gment actually told us what it was doing we could feel like part of it rather than its target.  To a specific:  The Gment thinks that SAC Capital made money insider trading so it has indicted it.  Yet, Gment also said that it does not want to hurt SAC’s investors so it will not seek to interfere with SAC’s operations.  This would ring more useful if it had happened as soon as the Gment thought there was something wrong, not after it had already attacked SAC.  The Gment wants to keep SAC in business even after calling it a “veritable magnet for cheaters.”  Why keep it in business if that is true?  Don’t its investors NOT deserve such ill gotten gains?  Was such cheating just profiting the wrong people?  With the Gment picking winners and losers, and where the Gment knows no bounds in using its (our) resources for political ends, did we just have the wrong people politically in control?  There are certainly allegations that SAC’s head was no FOO (friend of Obama).  If it was illegal shut it down; if it wasn’t leave it alone.  And where did the insider knowledge come from?  Where are those indictments?  When the Gment indicted Arthur Andersen. LLP in 2001 (related to auditing work on Enron), the conviction was overturned on appeal, years after it collapsed and thousands of employees lost their jobs.  So we applaud some restraint; but the restraint is too little too late here.  What we need is less confrontation and more cooperation.  How about working with firms to ensure compliance with whatever the rules du jour are rather than destroying the people that built it while arguably trying to leave the firm intact?  The later smacks of rank jealousy more than anything.  You built it but I want to control it even though I could never have done what you did.  Why is it always “us versus them”?  Trust the Buzz, you’re not as good as you think and they’re probably not as bad as you think.  Why not actually work to reform it rather than playing games of “gotcha”?

--  Paul Marotta