Reflections on Greed

I returned to work last week and so went from a comfortable life style of pursuing my interests, managing a portfolio, reading and writing to the center of capitalism in one of its cruder forms.

I entered this realm knowingly after a two and a half year hiatus although my timing was somewhat precarious. The Middle East was in turmoil-the decision to enforce the no-fly zone was just being agreed bringing to light a myriad of geopolitical thrusts under crisis conditions. Japan was reeling from the devastation of an earthquake, tsunami and the spread of radiation. And the fate of the Euro was again being thrown into the balance with the next round of insolvency surfacing in the form of Portugal.

Obviously as part of trading my own portfolio the macro component meant that I was constantly following world events in terms of what I thought the medium to long term effects would be. My daily micro focus however was somewhat limited to market movements and trying to pick entry and exit points.

Once comfortable with that I would then step away from the financial aspect and reflect on the political, environmental and philosophical meaning of world events.

Now in reentering the work world I suddenly find myself analysing events strictly on a financial basis. Either something is deemed to have an immediate effect on the economy and will be pursued accordingly, or it is dropped.

There is no time for philosophical reflection during the trading day. The focus is on the next trade. Execute and move on. As we primarily facilitate clients transactions with very little principal risk the longer term ramifications of events are only interesting in terms of how they will impact various economic sectors and how will we as a firm position ourselves with respect to the affected areas.

And when I say position I mean the future (re)allocation of human resources, not the purchase or sale of securities in a proprietary book.

It doesn't really come as a surprise given that this was the world in which I had spent 30 years before retiring. In that world one has little time for reflection. The market is all encompassing and so the financial dimension is not just the most important aspect, one could say it the only aspect.

I am purposefully painting a black and white picture. Of course outside of work one could reflect on the broader implication of events beyond the financial realm. Now however with the benefit of hindsight I see how much that was the exception, and not the rule.

In retirement one has the time to indulge one's interests regardless of the financial implications. To do so at work would be construed to be "fluffy" or "woolly", and certainly not relevant to the work at hand.

I believe this is not just the case in the world of finance. I think it takes place in almost every commercial endeavour. It is the explanation, to a degree, as to why reactors are built on fault lines or on coastlines which are susceptible to tidal waves. It explains how sub-prime spun out of control; how disasters like Bhopal occur. It is the driver behind the Nestle "white ladies" programs, the BCE outbreaks, and, my pet peeve, GM crops to name but a few calamities that have befallen us.

It is why we need regulation. So every time someone complains about red-tape and unwarranted costs and bureaucracies, we have to point out that almost all or our disasters are man made, in pursuit of financial gain, whatever the cost.

It doesn't stop commerce. It stops catastrophe.