"Greed is good": Or is it?

The movie Wall Street stands as a monument to the real driving force of the free capital market. Now greed is blamed for the problems of the U.S. economy. That is something new.

In America, this word has hardly ever been used as often as it has in the last few days. This is “greed, theft and extortion of the government”, Hilary Kramer said in a CNN-debate a few days ago.

John McCain’s message in a new political TV-ad is that the economy of the United States is in crisis because of the “greed of Wall Street”

Everywhere people are talking and writing about a culture of greed that has broken the American economy almost overnight. “Greed is good”, Gordon Gekko says in Wall Street. But now this does not apply anymore.

Culture of Greed.

For Norwegians this is not very surprising. The criticism of ruthless capitalism and the culture of greed is part of ordinary discourse in the Nordic countries but in America, it is not. That is why American leaders and voters are confused and facing a crisis that obviously stems back to galloping greed. A culture of greed that no longer can be confused with American virtues such as ambition, hard work and the will to make it in life.

The earthquakes of the last few weeks could represent a deciding turn in the development of American capitalism, just as The Wall Street Journal implies. The largest financial shock since the great depression has made the Republican Secretary of the Treasury launch the largest government intervention since the same depression. There is no more time to flirt with disaster – action needs to be taken.

New Thoughts

In America these are new thoughts. And they are not easy to accept for everyone. Or as the Republican senator Jim Bunning of Kentucky put it. “The only difference between what the Fed did and what Hugo Chavez is doing in Venezuela is Chavez doesn’t put taxpayer dollars at risk when he takes over companies – he just takes them.”

Because the America of today is not about living what you have been learning.

The average American is confused and dejected over what is happening. “I wish the government would bail me out of all my bad decisions”, a caller said to one of the countless talkshows debating the crisis.

But that is not going to happen. Instead it is worth noting the predictions about us facing the end of decades of deregulation. That could mean that the time has come for more control and oversight of the economy. Because something has gone horribly wrong.

Few Opportunities.

This is the biggest challenge for the 44th President of the United States, whether his name is Barack Obama or John McCain. No matter who gets elected, George W. Bush has left behind an economy that offers few options, the Republican friendly newspaper, The New York Post, says. That is how Bush gets four more years.

So we can remember the endorsement Carly Fiorinas gave Obama and McCain. She was fired as the head of Hewlett-Packard three years ago – with a gigantic golden parachute of course – and today she is one of McCain’s advisors. Fiorina said that neither of the two candidates were qualified to lead a large corporation. Not a great endorsement, you would think.

But that was before the consequences of greed were uncovered. And it happened in the playpen of Gordon Gekko.