Financial professionals continue to be targeted

[Ehud]

After leaving the Army, I had wanted to enter the financial sector. I'm glad the economy collapsed before I left. It forced me to rethink my future plans and I reacted accordingly. I am now in one of the few growing industries in this country.

There is a lot of anger out there directed at people in finance. Watch out, it may become directed towards anyone who has $20 in their pocket.

Bankers might be feeling public’s wrath — literally


By Daniel Tencer
Thursday, December 10th, 2009 -- 4:13 pm

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A Los Angeles lawyer who had represented a failed subprime mortgage lender is found dead outside his home, having been shot in the head.

Three men allegedly invade the home of a former subprime lender, and are arrested after reportedly injuring three people inside.

Vandals target the home of the former CEO of the Royal Bank of Scotland, smashing windows in the banker's home and car.

Those are just three notable incidents of violence aimed at people who were in some way linked to the financial crisis that has unfolded over the past year. And while in many of those cases it's unclear whether the incidents were politically motivated, or motivated by financial issues, or just a coincidence, the cases fit into a pattern of escalating crime and violence in the wake of the recession.

Matthew Padilla of the Orange Country Register reports on a series of violent incidents in California in some way linked to the financial collapse.

"While fortunes were won during the credit boom, reports of violence are now surfacing as California continues to struggle with the credit bust and fortunes lost," Padilla writes, noting the case of lawyer Jeffrey Tidus, who was found dead outside his home in Los Angeles on Monday.

The Associated Press reports that Tidus had represented New Century Financial, which was the US's second-largest subprime lender until the company went bust in 2007. Coincidentally or not, the SEC began legal proceedings against three New Century executives the day before Tidus was shot.

The same day that Tidus died, three men allegedly forced their way into the Newport Beach, California, home of Daniel Sadek, who had reportedly made billions in subprime loans before his company, Quick Loan Funding, went bankrupt in 2007. The Orange County Register reports that, two weeks earlier, a Mercedes parked in Sadek's driveway was set on fire.

And these incidents are by no means limited to California. In a highly-publicized incident this spring, the home of a former CEO of Royal Bank of Scotland, one of the UK's biggest banks, was vandalized. A local newspaper "received an email from an anonymous address reporting the house had been vandalised ... in connection with the row over Sir Fred’s £700,000 [$1.2 million] pension payout," the Daily Telegraph reported.

Criminologists have long noted a correlation between violent crimes and recession, but the phenomenon of business leaders being targeted -- potentially for their roles in a financial loss of some kind -- appears to be unique to this recession.

Northeastern University criminologist Jack Levin told the Christian Science Monitor that during the recession of the early 1990s, for example, there was a trend towards employee violence against employers and co-workers. The early 1990s "saw a dramatic increase in workplace violence committed by vengeful ex-workers who decided to come back and get even with their boss and their co-workers through the barrel of an AK-47," Levin said.

The CSM reported:

And in the midst of this downturn, one study released Monday in Florida finds a link between domestic violence and economic tragedies like job loss and foreclosures. The Sunshine State saw an almost 40 percent jump in demand for domestic-violence centers, an increase related to the state of the economy, the study says. George Sheldon, secretary of Florida's Department of Children and Families, calls the situation "the worst I've seen in years," according to the Associated Press.
And a report released this year linked an upsurge in violence among teenagers to the recession.

BLACKMAIL ON THE RISE

In the wake of the much-publicized attempt to blackmail late night talk show host David Letterman, security companies are reporting a rise in the number of blackmail incidents, most of them apparently targeted at wealthy individuals, the Wall Street Journal reported Thursday.

Some private security experts say a growing number of clients are calling on them for protection from extortion threats. The severe recession and high unemployment rates, as well as general turmoil following last year's economic meltdown, appear to be swelling the ranks of blackmailers, they say.

"The economy is at low ebb, and people are looking for a mark," said security consultant Michael Guidry, chief executive of the Guidry Group, in Montgomery, Texas.

National statistics on blackmail are hard to get because extortion can be a federal or state crime and is charged under a number of different statutes, including larceny, wire fraud and mail fraud. The number of defendants in such federal cases has averaged about 145 per year since 1994, except in 2002, when they suddenly spiked to 205 during the last recession.

http://rawstory.com/2009/12/bankers-pub ... literally/

Further down the page were these delightful vignettes from readers:

WJM51

This is what happens, ultra rich scum bags, when you set about to destroy the lives of the middle class in your country. Those who USED to have something, anything, and who have lost it will come looking for those who ended up with it. Those that you ROBBED of a livelihood, a future, a home, and a reason to live WILL come back and hunt you down. Maybe if you HADN'T decided to kill off the entire middle class right after Watergate, you wouldn't be worrying about keeping your heads attached to your shoulders right now. And if you DARE to come looking to people like me for support, I will rat you out to the biggest mob I can find without hesitation. I can think of nothing more fitting.

You scum bags brought this upon your own heads, don't think that the "security guards" that you hired will keep us away from you, either. They USED to have good, decently paying jobs, too, and now they are stuck kissing the asses of the USELESS class. Do you think THEY are happy about going from a $55,000 job to a job watching YOUR houses for $15.00 an hour? My guess is that they curse you every time you drive by in your chauffered limo. And remember, some of them have GUNS.

This won't get better, at least not for you, until some of you wake the hell up and realize that this country is NOT here for only YOUR benefit. And since you took it upon yourselves to sow the wind, so shall you reap the whirlwind. It will be nasty, it won't be painless, and history says that you WILL go down in a blaze with NO glory. And I will be on the sidelines, cheering on those who would take you to the guillotine.

And remember what Frank Zappa said to the cute and beautiful people of the world: "There's a LOT more of us ugly m*****f***** (my edit) than there are of you". Scared yet? I would be if I were you. Enjoy the country's money in solitude with THAT hanging over your heads. Oh, and one more thing: CHOKE ON IT.

Or how about this tidbit from the ghost of Gen. Jack T. Ripper:

It is war. The people who have been robbed of their homes, and whose childrens futures are being severely compromised. Those whose families are being torn apart and thrown into poverty and desperation. Those who wanted nothing more than to do an honest days work and live a free life. Those people who have had all of this ripped from their grasp by obscenely greedy elites who engineered this train wreck of an American economy. By those putrid globalist bankers who have removed this country of its industry, trashed its education, put fluoride in the drinking water (my emphasis), aspartame in the food, mercury in the vaccines and genetically modify our food.....all the misery you have caused the people will come back to you A THOUSAND FOLD. Your disease is terminal greed for which there is only one cure!! And we will cure ALL of you until there is not ONE of you left standing!!

One guy posted Lloyd Blankfein's address which I will not do here along with an invitation to violence.

Coming out of the military and its self-segregated culture, I read things like this and I can not compare the America I see with the America of my youth and I'm only 35. This is not the country I remembered when I left civilian life.

[Nonc Hilare]

I believe I wrote this here during the first few days of this board but what we need is a real Ehud willing to take advantage of his placement at the tyrant's table and who can grab the opportunity to disembowel our financial Siseras as they squat in their summer houses.

Trickle down economics was a sham but trickle down lawlessness is a real process.

[Collingwood]

I am now in one of the few growing industries in this country.

Ehud,

This industry? If so, wise choice: great future.

[quasar]

Ehud,

Good to see that I am not alone in being disturbed by these incitements to violence. It's understandable that people are angry at the financial elites who engineered this mess. (Though, to be fair, many of the same people need to sit down and think long and hard about how their own profligate spending and borrowing may have contributed to this crisis.)

What is absolutely sinister and deeply troubling is the attitude that seems to be taking hold among many of the less-privileged, that violent reprisals against financial professionals (and their lawyers!) are somehow justified. I don't know how widespread this attitude is, but I am seeing a lot of it on the Internet, and it seems quite novel -- have any previous financial/economic crises in America produced such ferocious hatred toward, and so many violent threats against, an entire profession?

There is a sense that "the bankers etc. broke the law, therefore why shouldn't I?" Elsewhere I linked to a Time article that reports that middle-class shoplifting is on the rise. I found this bit very interesting:

"Though most thieves rationalize their acts, the current situation has many people feeling the entire system is broken, that politicians are too corrupt or inept to fix it, and that there's nothing wrong with stealing from these big companies and fancy stores that — the thinking goes — are themselves making out like thieves," Bamfield [Joshua Bamfield, director of the Britain-based Center for Retail Research] explains. "There's a real perception among many new shoplifters that if you work hard, put money away and play the game, you're asking for someone to come along and rip you off."

It's not such a big leap from that, to this:

Jack Mehoff says:
December 10, 2009 at 9:30 pm

Why isnt this Sadek clown in prison?
If the govt wont jail him, let the people bring him to justice in their own way. I know lots of realtors and loan brokers that should be very afraid right now - very afraid.

And what if a negligible fraction of the population (say, 0.001% = 3,000 people) decide to act on these sentiments? Could it be the beginning of a new lawlessness in America? Angry people taking the law into their own hands -- to the cheers of a disgruntled public?

-quasar (formerly Avicenna)

[Ehud]

Nonc Hilare,

"Trickle Down" was not a sham. Lowering tax rates on people who work in the private sector so that they can have more time, more opportunity and allow them to spend more time doing other things besides constantly working to support government bureaucracies is a good thing. It is not an exercise in fraud.

I don't know if you'd argue with spending the Soviet Union into the ground. As an adult I'm glad they are not around threatening with nuclear weapons. However, even if you think it was a bad investment, the Reagan arms buildup paled in comparison to Social Security and Medicare.

What is a sham is removing regulations without removing government guarantees, thus socializing risk. What is a sham is bloating a government with jobs that aren't absolutely necessary to execute those duties allocated to the federal government by the Constitution. What is a sham is an attitude of wanting something for nothing. We have the politicians and the financiers we truly deserve. They are truly a reflection of us. When politicians can go before millions of people and promise tax cuts without thinking about moderating long-term spending or promise greater benefits by simply taxing those who are successful are two sides of the same coin. We are addicted to the most democratic sort of greed: the something-for-nothing mentality.

I believe I wrote this here during the first few days of this board but what we need is a real Ehud willing to take advantage of his placement at the tyrant's table and who can grab the opportunity to disembowel our financial Siseras as they squat in their summer houses.

Trickle down economics was a sham but trickle down lawlessness is a real process.

[Ehud]

Collingwood,

With the increased sense of lawlessness I have found an opportunity to keep carrying a weapon. I've joined Dog the Bounty Hunter in catching criminals. Granted you may think this is unusual work for a Jewish boy, but you have to think of the big picture. Its not so much the money I get from cashing in on the bounties, its the evantual royalties from syndication. Plus, I get to do my Jewish duty to be a light unto the nations. So the next time you see a guy with a shotgun and a kippah lecturing a prostitute that there are better things to be done with her life, you'll know its me.

http://www.dogthebountyhunter.com/

I am now in one of the few growing industries in this country.

Ehud,

This industry? If so, wise choice: great future.

[Ehud]

Quasar,

Its not the violence or the sense of entitlement that disturbs me as it is the barbarism. I went to Iraq and I saw enough barbarism to last a lifetime. From the very old ordering mafia style hits to the middle age planting IEDs in his village to kill Americans while too often killing or wounding his neighbor to very young beating up other kids for candy thrown from US military vehicles I'd had enough of it. To come home and potentially see the same kind of barbarism is disheartening.

Ehud,

Good to see that I am not alone in being disturbed by these incitements to violence. It's understandable that people are angry at the financial elites who engineered this mess. (Though, to be fair, many of the same people need to sit down and think long and hard about how their own profligate spending and borrowing may have contributed to this crisis.)

What is absolutely sinister and deeply troubling is the attitude that seems to be taking hold among many of the less-privileged, that violent reprisals against financial professionals (and their lawyers!) are somehow justified. I don't know how widespread this attitude is, but I am seeing a lot of it on the Internet, and it seems quite novel -- have any previous financial/economic crises in America produced such ferocious hatred toward, and so many violent threats against, an entire profession?

There is a sense that "the bankers etc. broke the law, therefore why shouldn't I?" Elsewhere I linked to a Time article that reports that middle-class shoplifting is on the rise. I found this bit very interesting:

"Though most thieves rationalize their acts, the current situation has many people feeling the entire system is broken, that politicians are too corrupt or inept to fix it, and that there's nothing wrong with stealing from these big companies and fancy stores that — the thinking goes — are themselves making out like thieves," Bamfield [Joshua Bamfield, director of the Britain-based Center for Retail Research] explains. "There's a real perception among many new shoplifters that if you work hard, put money away and play the game, you're asking for someone to come along and rip you off."

It's not such a big leap from that, to this:

Jack Mehoff says:
December 10, 2009 at 9:30 pm

Why isnt this Sadek clown in prison?
If the govt wont jail him, let the people bring him to justice in their own way. I know lots of realtors and loan brokers that should be very afraid right now - very afraid.

And what if a negligible fraction of the population (say, 0.001% = 3,000 people) decide to act on these sentiments? Could it be the beginning of a new lawlessness in America? Angry people taking the law into their own hands -- to the cheers of a disgruntled public?

-quasar (formerly Avicenna)

[CognitiveDistoibance]

...
With the increased sense of lawlessness I have found an opportunity to keep carrying a weapon. I've joined Dog the Bounty Hunter in catching criminals. Granted you may think this is unusual work for a Jewish boy, but you have to think of the big picture. Its not so much the money I get from cashing in on the bounties, its the evantual royalties from syndication. Plus, I get to do my Jewish duty to be a light unto the nations. So the next time you see a guy with a shotgun and a kippah lecturing a prostitute that there are better things to be done with her life, you'll know its me.
...

It's sad in a way, but I've got a 20 yr old son who is more interested in mixed martial arts training and working as a part-time bouncer than his studies. It's probably just a matter of time before he looks into this.

[Nonc Hilare]

"Trickle Down" was not a sham. Lowering tax rates on people who work in the private sector so that they can have more time, more opportunity and allow them to spend more time doing other things besides constantly working to support government bureaucracies is a good thing. It is not an exercise in fraud.

Lowering tax rates and spending are simply good conservative practice. Trickle down, supply side or as Bush called it - voodoo economics - was the idea that lowering tax rates without lowering spending would result in prosperity. Its founder, David Stockman, later admitted it was a fraud designed to get tax relief for top tier taxpayers and to my knowledge it was never supported by a single legitimate economist.

As for the Reagan/Wanta financial assault on the Soviet Union I'm afraid I really don't understand the particulars. I have been told it involved currency manipulation but that is the limit of what I know. I would appreciate a good link to a summary of that event svp.

[Ehud]

NH,

Our friendly host was instrumental in it. Check out his review of the Pope, the President and the Prime Minister.

The Russians could not hope to match US arms spending in quality as well as quantity...

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Front_Page/IA23Aa01.html

"Trickle Down" was not a sham. Lowering tax rates on people who work in the private sector so that they can have more time, more opportunity and allow them to spend more time doing other things besides constantly working to support government bureaucracies is a good thing. It is not an exercise in fraud.

Lowering tax rates and spending are simply good conservative practice. Trickle down, supply side or as Bush called it - voodoo economics - was the idea that lowering tax rates without lowering spending would result in prosperity. Its founder, David Stockman, later admitted it was a fraud designed to get tax relief for top tier taxpayers and to my knowledge it was never supported by a single legitimate economist.

As for the Reagan/Wanta financial assault on the Soviet Union I'm afraid I really don't understand the particulars. I have been told it involved currency manipulation but that is the limit of what I know. I would appreciate a good link to a summary of that event svp.

[Ehud]

CD,

Bourgeois society is boring and so requires that young men be tamed though it is not in their nature. I was lucky enough that 9/11 occurred when I was working in a cubicle and hair trigger ready to shoot my boss. Your son will either find a girl or eventually realize that there are better ways to make a living than getting your nose broken in a bar. That is unless looking like Curly is a family trait.

...
With the increased sense of lawlessness I have found an opportunity to keep carrying a weapon. I've joined Dog the Bounty Hunter in catching criminals. Granted you may think this is unusual work for a Jewish boy, but you have to think of the big picture. Its not so much the money I get from cashing in on the bounties, its the evantual royalties from syndication. Plus, I get to do my Jewish duty to be a light unto the nations. So the next time you see a guy with a shotgun and a kippah lecturing a prostitute that there are better things to be done with her life, you'll know its me.
...

It's sad in a way, but I've got a 20 yr old son who is more interested in mixed martial arts training and working as a part-time bouncer than his studies. It's probably just a matter of time before he looks into this.

[CognitiveDistoibance]

CD,

Bourgeois society is boring and so requires that young men be tamed though it is not in their nature. I was lucky enough that 9/11 occurred when I was working in a cubicle and hair trigger ready to shoot my boss. Your son will either find a girl or eventually realize that there are better ways to make a living than getting your nose broken in a bar. That is unless looking like Curly is a family trait.

Curly, not so much. But handsome, eh, maybe not so much either. My father has been told he resembles Walter Mathau, if that give you a sense. The imprint is strong, I resemble my father, and my oldest, me. Thank heavens, my daugher looks in no way, shape or form like me. When she was little I lived in fear that when I had her with me in public that someone would think I stole her from someone. Conversely, with my oldest son, complete strangers would remark on the resemblence. At a gun show one time, the guy behind the table told my son (he was probably only 6), "Your daddy can't deny you!"

My son wears his hair even shorter than Curly. Cuts it to 1/8 inch every couple days. <sigh>

[Ehud]

CD,

I personally chose units in the military that would allow for normal looking hair. I always considered myself a businessman first.

CD,

Bourgeois society is boring and so requires that young men be tamed though it is not in their nature. I was lucky enough that 9/11 occurred when I was working in a cubicle and hair trigger ready to shoot my boss. Your son will either find a girl or eventually realize that there are better ways to make a living than getting your nose broken in a bar. That is unless looking like Curly is a family trait.

Curly, not so much. But handsome, eh, maybe not so much either. My father has been told he resembles Walter Mathau, if that give you a sense. The imprint is strong, I resemble my father, and my oldest, me. Thank heavens, my daugher looks in no way, shape or form like me. When she was little I lived in fear that when I had her with me in public that someone would think I stole her from someone. Conversely, with my oldest son, complete strangers would remark on the resemblence. At a gun show one time, the guy behind the table told my son (he was probably only 6), "Your daddy can't deny you!"

My son wears his hair even shorter than Curly. Cuts it to 1/8 inch every couple days. <sigh>

[cargo33]

I work for a big bank. My main concern with the entire financial adviser system is that it is sales nor service focused. Very few financial advisers are really financial advisers, but are rather sales people of financial products. Unless you have a lot of money, and can hire someone really smart to manage your money (or just manage your own), things are not going to work out well for you. I once saw a student, having very little income so little or not tax write off for a registered investment, who was borrowing at (not short term) 4.5 percent so they could buy a GIC and get 0.75 percent interest back. Why not just keep your money under the mattress and write us a check every month!


Ehud, I think it is a frustration born of ignorance, they do not yet realize that at least for your status in the life, the only one who watches your back is yourself. So they blame their enablers. People keep talking about people losing their homes, well I work a lot and spend very little, and that is why I can afford a home of modest size and value. I have little feelings of compassion for those losing the houses they never earned. So you have two options in your financial life, 1. be very conservative with spending and financial decisions unless you have a great deal of faith in your own abilities; 2. risk and hopefully your luck and abilities will see you to a better position or come to ruin. We should stop socializing the financial system, it is the only way to bring back this normal discipline.

By the way--I hate white collar work, any other jobs which pay okay that anyone might recommend?

[Ehud]

Cargo33,

I must agree with you. I have very little trust in the mutual fund industry. I do my own research on trends and then find a stock broker who does his own research and as long as his trends are matching up with mine I'll let him choose the individual shares with my oversight. Currently, I'm with someone who is more international and resource focused. When I feel the trends have changed my strategy will change, if he isn't on board as well I won't stick with him.

There is a great fear when it comes to finance. Money brings up so many emotional issues that aren't dealt with so they sublet that part of their life to someone else. Oddly enough they figure someone else would be better at managing the fruit of their life's work rather than themselves. If that isn't a parallel for the welfare state mentality I don't know what is. With the government giving people tax deferred accounts, it actually makes them think that they feel smart for doing it.

I work for a big bank. My main concern with the entire financial adviser system is that it is sales nor service focused. Very few financial advisers are really financial advisers, but are rather sales people of financial products. Unless you have a lot of money, and can hire someone really smart to manage your money (or just manage your own), things are not going to work out well for you. I once saw a student, having very little income so little or not tax write off for a registered investment, who was borrowing at (not short term) 4.5 percent so they could buy a GIC and get 0.75 percent interest back. Why not just keep your money under the mattress and write us a check every month!


Ehud, I think it is a frustration born of ignorance, they do not yet realize that at least for your status in the life, the only one who watches your back is yourself. So they blame their enablers. People keep talking about people losing their homes, well I work a lot and spend very little, and that is why I can afford a home of modest size and value. I have little feelings of compassion for those losing the houses they never earned. So you have two options in your financial life, 1. be very conservative with spending and financial decisions unless you have a great deal of faith in your own abilities; 2. risk and hopefully your luck and abilities will see you to a better position or come to ruin. We should stop socializing the financial system, it is the only way to bring back this normal discipline.

By the way--I hate white collar work, any other jobs which pay okay that anyone might recommend?