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http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/14/opini ... wanted=all
The firm changed the way it thought about leadership. Leadership used to be about ideas, setting an example and doing the right thing. Today, if you make enough money for the firm (and are not currently an ax murderer) you will be promoted into a position of influence.
这个事情其实没有什么新闻价值。上市公司越来越面临华尔街的压力,自上到下对顾客对shareholders的责任和公司的长远健康,跟华尔街的要求和短期个人好处,必然产生直接冲突,长远的建设必然让路于短期捞一把的诱惑。不仅是银行金融界蜕变为 screw your clients 自己捞一把的文化,而且其他行业也不得不“进化”成短期利益第一,长远发展第二的风气。别以为自由竞争和市场大手能分辨出好坏来,只要表面文章做得够美,每个季度的 balance sheet 好看,华尔街就热烈支持往里塞钱。等到真的维持不住垮掉了,罪魁祸首们早就挂着金色降落伞飞走了,留下雇员、股民、纳税人收拾残局。难怪现在全世界充满惶惶然的末世感,大家都忙着赶快自己捞一笔,哪管明天会给谁留下怎样的烂摊子。It makes me ill how callously people talk about ripping their clients off. Over the last 12 months I have seen five different managing directors refer to their own clients as “muppets,” sometimes over internal e-mail. Even after the S.E.C., Fabulous Fab, Abacus, God’s work, Carl Levin, Vampire Squids? No humility? I mean, come on. Integrity? It is eroding. I don’t know of any illegal behavior, but will people push the envelope and pitch lucrative and complicated products to clients even if they are not the simplest investments or the ones most directly aligned with the client’s goals? Absolutely. Every day, in fact.