Op-Ed: No more mismanagement with bailout money- Obama By By Paul Wallis Jan 23, 2009 in Business In any other country on Earth, America’s corporate cretins would be facing lengthy jail terms, bankruptcy, and be utterly discredited. Now the problem is to get them to stop redecorating their offices with bailout money. Fine, but there’s another problem. Nobody imagines that the last couple of years have been an example of America at its best. But the meltdown has made a horribly difficult question unavoidable: How did these clowns ever get jobs which didn’t involve selling hot dogs? Of all the many crimes perpetrated on the American public by its stunningly incompetent financial executive class, so many of them have their roots in this apparent obliviousness to reality. On that basis, “The business is going down the tube, so spend a few million building a commemorative urinal”, actually makes sense. At least it does insofar as it’s consistent with the total lack of talent and awareness that created the mess in the first place. How is it possible that people who are supposed to have been the absolute top in the professional investment sphere went so far off the beam? Why are they still walking around outside institutions, penal or mental? The response to the meltdown was another example of the sheer lack of transparency which corporate shills and spills used to cover the trail of destruction. They could get away with total silence. In most countries disclosure rules alone prevent that. Huge firms fell over and the first the investors knew was a headline. They had no access to even coherent rumors, let alone facts. Lehmann Bros. was a shock to the financial system, not because of why it fell over, but because its condition was a shock to people who thought they knew what was going on. Madoff, who’s accused of operating a type of scheme which has never worked in recorded history, came as a shock because again, people thought they knew him, personally. One of his friends said bitterly he’d been friends for 20 years with “a person who apparently didn’t exist”. It’s starting to look very much like the whole corporate myth never really existed. If credibility is the basis of business life, a lot of these guys are actually long dead, they just happen to be still running America’s finances. The President’s words come after a long and bitter saga of complaints that the executive enemas are still living the high life as the country suffers. Congress is also now demanding more oversight.Fine, but there’s another problem. Nobody imagines that the last couple of years have been an example of America at its best. But the meltdown has made a horribly difficult question unavoidable:How did these clowns ever get jobs which didn’t involve selling hot dogs?Of all the many crimes perpetrated on the American public by its stunningly incompetent financial executive class, so many of them have their roots in this apparent obliviousness to reality. On that basis, “The business is going down the tube, so spend a few million building a commemorative urinal”, actually makes sense. At least it does insofar as it’s consistent with the total lack of talent and awareness that created the mess in the first place.How is it possible that people who are supposed to have been the absolute top in the professional investment sphere went so far off the beam?Why are they still walking around outside institutions, penal or mental?The response to the meltdown was another example of the sheer lack of transparency which corporate shills and spills used to cover the trail of destruction. They could get away with total silence. In most countries disclosure rules alone prevent that. Huge firms fell over and the first the investors knew was a headline. They had no access to even coherent rumors, let alone facts.Lehmann Bros. was a shock to the financial system, not because of why it fell over, but because its condition was a shock to people who thought they knew what was going on. Madoff, who’s accused of operating a type of scheme which has never worked in recorded history, came as a shock because again, people thought they knew him, personally. One of his friends said bitterly he’d been friends for 20 years with “a person who apparently didn’t exist”.It’s starting to look very much like the whole corporate myth never really existed. If credibility is the basis of business life, a lot of these guys are actually long dead, they just happen to be still running America’s finances. This opinion article was written by an independent writer. The opinions and views expressed herein are those of the author and are not necessarily intended to reflect those of DigitalJournal.com More about Bailouts, Oversight, Obama congress More news from bailouts oversight obama congress