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Taking Stock of Bonds

By Aleksandrs Rozens, IDD Magazine

March 26, 2009

Channeling Anger

The U.S. President has recently said that he would like to channel anger and outrage to productive uses. But it is a little late for that when protestors jump on buses to harass executives –- at their homes -- who received bonuses, or when professionals from the banking community are threatened -– either outright or subtly.

[Ask yourselves: who paid for the buses and who are these mobs of people that have time to get away from their jobs to harass the execs at AIG?]

In the U.S. –- as far as we can tell –- the anger has been in the form of civil disobedience that has not resulted in any actual harm to person or property. Hopefully it stays that way. But, in France an executive was actually held hostage by irate workers and in the U.K. news reports show broken windows of a bank executive’s home. Bankers in London’s financial district are actually being advised to dress down to avoid problems with protestors at the upcoming G20 meeting.

Anger and outrage have been stoked by Washington, D.C. –- Congressmen, Senators, and yes, President Obama –- who are ALL playing to the masses. Interestingly, all of them seem to be able to “switch it on and off” with the ease of a Gloria Swanson –- “Mr. DeMille, I'm ready for my closeup" -- when TV cameras are rolling.

But lawmkers playing to the masses better be careful. When anger and frustration are unbottled and are actively stoked it usually leads to a lack of control. Put simply, if you yell "fire" in a crowded theater and people get hurt there is no question about your guilt. Here it is more subtle but the parallels are there.

What lawmakers ought to be encouraging among the nation’s voters is a little self-reflection. How did we get here? How do we fix it all? Not, who are we going to blame? If someone gets hurt or property gets damaged by protestors taking their cue from Washington, D.C., then the lawmakers have some big explaining to do. Then, the anger that they unbottled and fanned will be channeled at them.

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Aleksandrs Rozens

Aleksandrs Rozens has 17 years of experience as a financial journalist. He started his career at Dow Jones, and he has worked at Knight Ridder's business news wire where he wrote about mortgage bonds and real estate as well as interest rate swaps. He also edited Private Equity Week and IPO Reporter, and was a reporter for National Mortgage News and helped start the mortgage backed and asset backed coverage at Reuters news agency. Rozens also worked briefly at the AP where he covered real estate, mergers and corporate bankruptcies. Prior to joining IDD he was editor of Bankruptcy Insider. Rozens graduated from Fordham University where he studied English Literature and Russian Studies.

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