How did it really go?

In this large American investment bank, “the end” of the last economic cycle starts. After a few hours, the traders sell “toxic assets”, an enormous quantity of inconsistent mortgage-backed financial assets which would never be paid.

These titles damage the portfolios of almost all the world banks in very few days, and for a “handful” of managers that avoided the “collapse”, millions of families lose their savings and their jobs. An escalation which still has not reached its peak after 4 years, that how toxic the assets are. The footage is taken from the film “Margin Call”, an impressive representation of the world financial collapse. If someone is still asking themselves what happened in 2008, or why their company struggles to get to the end of the month (given the decrease in sales), then they must watch this film to realize how “money” makes the “blind” see.

This is also the case for those benefit cheats who declare they are blind in order to get money. It’s amazing the lengths some people will go to “for money”.

Returning to the scene, what I want to propose to you is not a metaphor. Not this time. Unfortunately, it is the bitter moment in which reality overcomes pretence. The trading manager is well aware that it will destroy the firm’s dealing with its counterparties and that the accusations will be extremely serious. He also knows that many of his colleagues will lose their carriers because they know too much. And he also knows that the impact on the sales market will be so great that it will permanently damage the world economy.

Despite this he has already lost his own personal battle. He gives himself three choices: admit his responsibility, hand in his notice or continue the massacre. He opts for the third, deciding that he has not one ounce of integrity left in him.

Against the consequences they will have to face, a conspicuous amount of money is offered to each collaborator, who is able to erase in just one go all that would mean correctness, ethics and transparency.

The most bitter discovery is that none of those present step down. Nobody saying “I don’t agree!”. Nobody refusing to sell their soul to the Devil.

Would you have done it? Would I have done it?

Difficult to say when you are one of the victims. We always search for a sense of justice which, inevitably, goes beyond morality. However, we cannot remain “indifferent” to so much “cynicism”. The manager (played by a marvelous Kevin Spacey) tries to do so by lowering himself to that level of understanding. We see him sitting down and changing his tone to warn about the imminent disaster falling on the traders, but as if it were a cardboard cut-out discussion, he stands up again and mumbles a few words which are at the core of the deceit: .
“Our talents have been used for the greater good”

Greater for who? The clients? The economy? Or those few individuals who are power- and money-driven?
Everything starts here, from this meeting and from these instructions. The names change, the shades change, but the storyline remains the same.

A script that none of us would want to see both as a spectator or an actor, and nonetheless, it has hit us like a natural devastating event. Now, as Sam says in the scene: “The crux of it is… in the firms thinking, the party’s over as of this morning!”: any scam, whatever the size, lasts no longer than a day.

Think about a sale.
If you rip the client off, he will not come back.
Think about your relationships.
If you betray your wife, she will not trust you anymore.
Think about your self-esteem.
If you promise something for the umpteenth time and you do not keep the promise, you will end up not believing in yourself.

May be two million six hundred thousand dollars are a lot for selling your soul to the devil, but in exchange I would not want to be in the shoes of those traders today. My conscience is enough, which is already hard on me.

I want to wish everyone a great day: readers, friends and clients that have followed me for years; you do know that you form part of my motivation and my ethical choices, don’t you?

“… and in case I don’t see ya…

good afternoon, good evening and good night!”…

(The Truman Show)

Virginio