Archive for the ‘Economy’ Category

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On May
18, 1986 Ivan Boesky, the Wall Street arbitrageur who amassed a fortune of over $200 million dollars illegally using insider information to bet on corporate takeovers, gave the commencement address at the University of California at Berkeley’s business school.  “I
think greed is healthy,” he said.  “You can
be greedy and still feel good about yourself.” 

Back then the comment got lots of media play. When I read his speech, I remember thinking that Boesky and Paul Revere had two things in common: both were prosperous businessmen and both, by their actions, were harbingers that trouble was on the way. For Revere, it was the British. For Boesky, it was an unprecedented time of selfishness, denial and corruption in America. But that’s where there similarities end. Their differences, on the other hand, could not be more striking.

Revere was a patriot who, when his country was in need, set aside his personal business to serve the greater good. The message he (and others) carried that famous night from Boston to Lexington was to warn of British troop movements toward Lexington to arrest John Hancock and Samuel Adams. His actions were to preserve and protect the will of the people and the emerging nation. His personal dedication and sacrifice were indicative of so many at that time who understood that much of what was familiar would have to be relinquished, on faith, in order to gain the freedom and fairness for which they hungered.

Boesky was the bearer of quite a different message. His focus was personal. The greater good was of no concern to him. Contrary to Revere’s personal sacrifice, Boesky crossed ethical and legal boundaries, without concern or conscience, in a rabid quest for endless personal gain. What he wanted he wanted for himself and damn those obstacles along the way…and damn his country as well. He had the audacity and smugness to advise college graduates, about to make their mark in the world, that more is never enough… and how you acquire it is of little consequence.

It seems self-evident which man is to be admired. And yet, for the past 22 years we, as a nation, took up Boesky’s call and instead of seeing it for what it was (and him for who he was), a bright light shone upon a dark problem, we revered (no pun intended) his quest for material gain combined with diminished social conscience, and sought to emulate the worst of what we are capable of when we become lost in our own egos and lose sight of personal responsibility.

The current financial and energy crises are not the fault of Republicans or Democrats or Wall Street or Main Street. They are the fault of Republicans and Democrats and Wall Street and Main Street. We are each responsible for thinking and acting as if all that matters is acquiring more, newer, better and faster “things” with total disregard for how our methods of satisfying our endless hunger infringes upon every other life form on the planet…not to mention the planet Itself. We have behaved with impudence and without conscience. We have worshiped at the feet of false idols most clearly represented by the Ivan Boeskys of our world. Even those of us who saw through the illusion and knew better were too long absent and too long silent in our dissent.

Now the hour is late. Now it is time to be counted. Now it is time to be heard. Now it is time to say and do, as the Colonists and Funding Fathers did, that the greater good can only be accomplished when we understand and accept that more never is enough because it cannot satisfy the only longing that matters…that of the Soul… which is to return to Oneness and provide for All.  Not to provide equality for All, but equal access for All. What one does with that access is the prerogative given each of us by Free Will. But so long as we allow people to starve and governments to remain corrupted and the environment to be destroyed…all in the name of profit and progress…we say through word, deed and inaction that Ivan Boesky was right and the Founding Fathers were wrong…and by so doing we are a nation writing its own epitaph.

I believe in the highest good.

I believe, at this moment in time, we are confronted with the opportunity to aspire to the greater good.

I believe it is an opportunity we welcome and one at which we will prevail.

Somebody
should remind the President of Iran that it isn’t over ‘til the fat lady sings.
He’s been heard of late at the U.N. and on Larry King Live (of all places!) heralding
the demise of the United States. You can’t blame a guy for jumping on (for that
matter leading) the bandwagon of Doomsayers who are intent on painting the current
U.S. economic crunch as an indisputable sign ushering in the End of Days.
After all, what kind of harbingers of disaster would they be to squander such a
golden opportunity to bolster their dark view of human evolution?

To
panic or not to panic: that is the question.

You can relax. I have the answer.
Well, actually Nature has the answer.

I’m just the messenger.

Nature
is where I’ve always looked for the answers to dilemmas that seem to elude
humankind. I just figured out early on in Life that any intelligence that was
capable of creating a system so complex, diverse, inherently in balance,
self-sustaining and just plain visually magnificent had pretty much calculated
and provided for all the possible combinations and permutations that might
arise. So, the answers were actually built into the problems. Hence, every
problem is an opportunity to uncover the answer within.

This
brings me to the caterpillar, metamorphosis and the butterfly.

It’s
a complicated process but let me sum it up. When a caterpillar has eaten enough
it turns into what is called a pupa. To do this it stops eating and finds
somewhere safe, becomes very still, molts its skin then grows a much thicker
and stronger one. A lot of the caterpillar’s
old body dies. It then sort of digests
itself from the inside out. Not all the tissue is destroyed and some of the
insect’s old tissue passes on to its new self. A new body is then formed out of the “soup”
that the insect’s digestive juices have made of the old larval body. This
rebuilding process is called histogenesis. During this time the insect is very vulnerable
because it cannot run away which is why insects try to choose somewhere safe to
hide when going through this incredible change.

Why
the lesson in metamorphosis in a blog about the economy?

The
President of Iran, in viewing our current economic crisis, sees the caterpillar
stewing in its own juices, so to speak. He is frozen in time and can’t see past
the moment. In reality he is witnessing the end of a growth phase and, because of his limited
understanding and perspective, thinks he is witnessing the end of the process itself. He is stuck in mourning the death of the
caterpillar and so cannot see the birth of the butterfly.

Which
is why the answer to the question “to panic or not to panic?” is: Not to panic!

What
the economy and our entire value system
are experiencing is the natural process
of moving us from caterpillar to butterfly. Yes it’s a trying time. Yes we will
have to find a safe place in which to do this internal work. Yes we will have
to shed some skin in order to make room for new, improved cells to take root
and multiply. And yes we will have to rebuild.

The
important point to remember is that this so-called “problem” is really an opportunity
for us to transform ourselves and our nation into something much more beautiful,
while also remembering that the answer to the future is locked away inside the
caterpillar…inside us.

Inherent
in our crisis is the answer to it. Nature is designed that way and we are a
part of Nature.

Only
by our willingness to shed the skin in which we have become complacent and by our
courage to see the process through…will we come to experience the beauty we are
truly capable of and, oh yes, to joyfully fly away leaving the Ahmadinejads
behind.

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