Our Sages, ever so perceptive of human nature, note that a person reveals his true self through his “pocket, his drink and his anger (b’kiso, koso, kaaso)”. The sudden turn in the economy allow us to take stock of the connection between our financial challenges and our moral fortitude. The Talmud defines a Jew as one who is merciful, self effacing and benevolent. That these traits still permeate our community can be seen by the many whohave stepped forward to fill charity voids left by others.
However evidence of the moral malaise that is at the root of the economic crisis abounds. How sad to read how the former CEO of Merrill Lynch John Thain gave early authorization to the payment of bonuses totaling four billion dollars just before they were acquired by Bank of America. Why a company that was to lose upwards of 15 billon dollars in the quarter is paying any bonuses (and doing so in an underhanded fashion) is a question that should leave us morally shaken. Bank of America appears to be a good partner for Merrill running as they do a similar corporate culture. ABC news reported that the Bank which has happily accepted billions and billions in federal taxpayer bailout funds spent over 10 million dollars sponsoring a Super Bowl party.
The list of such obscene corporate expenditures is seemingly never ending. While there are always those ready to explain the necessity of such spending, and some of the points may even have some validity, the overall environment is one of personal entitlement with little regard for the consequences or the context of such spending. Such lack of broader context helps explain the ever widening salary gaps between top level executives and the average worker on the job. While once again such a gap can be explained by market forces which in of themselves are not immoral the overall impact of such increasingly wide discrepancies are unhealthy for all.
Our tradition has long recognized that our actions may be technically legal yet morally deficient. In many a case the hands of the court are powerless to act against those who are “exempt from the laws of man yet liable in the eyes of Heaven”. The aggressiveness of the financial industry in granting credit where it should not have is just one of many current examples of this idea.
Such moral failings of the corporate world while regrettable are not surprising. They are a manifestation of the rabbinic teachings that “jealousy, lust and honour drive a person from this world”. It is thus up to the government and regulators to try and enact legislation to try and close the gap between the legal and the ethical. Unfortunately the prognosis is not promising.
Judaism has always demanded that only those who have the best interests of the community at heart, even at personal loss, are fit for leadership. Enacting legislation whose main criteria is reelection does not qualify. Whatever one may think of the most recent Canadian budget almost all analysts understand it as serving political rather than economic ends.
Much more frightening is the current wave of protectionism coming out of Washington. It is hard to fathom (actually maybe it is not so hard) why the leaders of the free world would want to enact legislation similar to that which caused the great depression. When leaders want to be seen as doing something and pander to the masses, whose grasp of economic theory is next to non existent, long term thinking is neglected with potentially dire consequences. Let us pray that our leaders rise to the challenges before them.