On Wednesday, Gretchen Morgenson, journalist for the New York Times, visited and spoke at BYU. What Morgensen spoke about (as well as what her novel "Reckless Endangerment" is about) was the aftermath of the 2008 credit crisis. While I may consider myself a journalist, I have never considered myself economically or politically savvy. With this much said, Morgensen's speech was at times difficult to follow; however, it was ultimately enlightening.
What Morgensen has done is investigate past history and current events to discover that recently the financial side of government has become increasing immoral in its practices. One fact she mentioned that stood out to me was that in the sequence of the "Savings and Loans Crisis" of the 80's and 90's, more than 11,000 prosecutions were filed. Astoundingly, while this economic fail was much less significant than that of 2008, there has been only one successful prosecution filed. Morgensen also stated that she discovered 51 cases where the SEC has promised companies they will not prosecute.
With the economic fail, Morgensen states that "financial programs need to be constructive, not destructive." It baffles her that programs such as the mortgage society have been created, when they were obviously designed to fail.
She concluded her lecture with a quote:
What Morgensen has done is investigate past history and current events to discover that recently the financial side of government has become increasing immoral in its practices. One fact she mentioned that stood out to me was that in the sequence of the "Savings and Loans Crisis" of the 80's and 90's, more than 11,000 prosecutions were filed. Astoundingly, while this economic fail was much less significant than that of 2008, there has been only one successful prosecution filed. Morgensen also stated that she discovered 51 cases where the SEC has promised companies they will not prosecute.
With the economic fail, Morgensen states that "financial programs need to be constructive, not destructive." It baffles her that programs such as the mortgage society have been created, when they were obviously designed to fail.
She concluded her lecture with a quote:
"When plunder becomes a way of life for a group of men,
they create for themselves, in the course of time,
a legal system that authorizes it,
and a moral code that glorifies it." - Frederic Bastait
If society continues along the path that Morgensen believes they are, the immorality and corruption of the current situation are going to become the norm of the institution. My question now is how do we stop this?
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