The Path Whisperer

Ha!!  The truth spreads like a virus!  This post will be “borrowed” from http://www.washingtonsblog.com/.  And you thought I was the only one.  ‘That PW, such an unhealthy fascination with psychopaths.’  ‘Sad really, just sad.’ ‘Indubitably, indubitably.’  I hear your whisperings, I see you looking askance at me when you think I’m not looking.  And you even call me paranoid — gasp!!  . . . But, enough about me . . . read on:

All the following quotes (and the post title) are from http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2012/01/psychopaths-caused-the-financial-crisis-and-they-will-do-it-again-and-again-unless-they-are-removed-from-power.html#comment-27721 [green highlighting added].

Psychopaths Caused the Financial Crisis

The “corporate psychopaths” at the helm of our financial institutions are to blame [for the financial crisis].

Clive R. Boddy, most recently a professor at the Nottingham Business School at Nottingham Trent University, says psychopaths are the 1 percent of “people who, perhaps due to physical factors to do with abnormal brain connectivity and chemistry” lack a “conscience, have few emotions and display an inability to have any feelings, sympathy or empathy for other people.”

. . . . . .

How do people with such obvious personality flaws make it to the top of seemingly successful corporations? Boddy says psychopaths take advantage of the “relative chaotic nature of the modern corporation,” including “rapid change, constant renewal” and high turnover of “key personnel.” Such circumstances allow them to ascend through a combination of “charm” and “charisma,” which makes “their behaviour invisible” and “makes them appear normal and even to be ideal leaders

. . . . . .

Then, according to Boddy’s “Corporate Psychopaths Theory of the Global Financial Crisis,” these men were “able to influence the moral climate of the whole organization” to wield “considerable power.”

Psychopaths Have Different Brain Chemistry from the Rest of Us

In October, we observed:

I noted last year:

Vanderbilt researchers have found that the brains of psychopaths have a dopamine abnormality which creates a drive for rewards at any cost, and causes them to ignore risks.

As PhysOrg writes:

Abnormalities in how the nucleus accumbens, highlighted here, processes dopamine have been found in individuals with psychopathic traits and may be linked to violent, criminal behavior. Credit: Gregory R.Samanez-Larkin and Joshua W. Buckholtz

The brains of psychopaths appear to be wired to keep seeking a reward at any cost, new research from Vanderbilt University finds. The research uncovers the role of the brain’s reward system in psychopathy and opens a new area of study for understanding what drives these individuals.

. . . . . .

Has anyone tested the heads of the too big to fails for this dopamine abnormality?

What are the odds that they have it? And if they have it, what are the odds that they will voluntarily start acting responsibly, especially given the broken incentive system?

Experts also tell us that many politicians also share traits with serial killers. Specifically, the Los Angeles Times noted in 2009:

Using his law enforcement experience and data drawn from the FBI’s behavioral analysis unit, Jim Kouri has collected a series of personality traits common to a couple of professions.

Kouri, who’s a vice president of the National Assn. of Chiefs of Police, has assembled traits such as superficial charm, an exaggerated sense of self-worth, glibness, lying, lack of remorse and manipulation of others.

These traits, Kouri points out in his analysis, are common to psychopathic serial killers.

. . . . . .

Unless We Remove the Psychopaths from Power, They Will Cause More and More Destruction

The inmates are still running the asylum.

Anyone who knows Jamie Dimon, Lloyd Blankfein or the other Wall Street “leaders” can tell you that they haven’t changed a bit since 2008. They are not repentent for their role in the financial crisis. They don’t feel bad that the taxpayers have had to bail them out again and again …

. . . . . .

I noted in October:

As former IMF chief economist Simon Johnson notes, the American finance industry has effectively captured our government in a “quiet coup”, a state of affairs that is at the center of many emerging-market crises, and that recovery will fail unless we break the financial oligarchy that is blocking essential reform.

***

The U.S. has become a kleptocracy, an oligarchy, a banana republic, a socialist or fascist state … which acts without the consent of the governed. There is a malignant symbiotic relationship between the governmental leaders and their cronies, which makes a handful rich at the public trough[.]

From having worked at UBS, PaineWebber, Union Bank of Switzerland (an earlier iteration), Lehman Brothers, Salomon Brothers, Drexel, EF Hutton, I couldn’t agree more.

Let me add that the claim that they brought about this economic collapse/disaster purposely is pure bs — a standard psychopathic canard.  They do this for three mutually supporting reasons:  1) they hate to lose, 2) if they can define a loss as a win it actually becomes a win — here’s their distorted cause and effect reality, their strange view of words, and much else, and 3) they wish to demoralize/undercut/confuse the opposition to prevent effective countermeasures.

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