ThirstyFish

Greed "is the inordinate desire to possess wealth, goods, or objects of abstract value with the intention to keep it for one's self, far beyond the dictates of basic survival and comfort". It is one of the Seven Deadly Sins. It inspires actions such as "scavenging and hoarding of materials or objects, theft and robbery, through violence, trickery, or manipulation of authority". And in the eyes of many laissez-faire economists and Wall Street executives, "greed is good".

In Game Theory, there are four types of possible behavior directly impacting the welfare of two actors; selfishness, altruism, spite, and cooperation. Selfishness is harming someone else in order to help oneself; Altruism is harming oneself in order to help someone else; Spite is harming oneself in order to harm someone else; Cooperation is helping someone else and also helping oneself. Game Theory also predicts that, to achieve a healthy financial market, regulation is necessary. But as always, practice is different from Mathematical Theory. Game Theory is unable to model "rigged games"; where the "rules of the game" can be changed on demand by one or more players. When the "game is rigged", theft, robbery, trickery, and manipulation of authority ensue. The idea that greed, (selfishness as defined earlier), is a good thing that will make the world prosper, is at best laughable. "Who's Kidding Who"?

Making money is not immoral, nor is it amoral. Regulations are only as good as their regulators. Speculation has no underlying or intrinsic value. Correlation does not imply causation. Everyone can not ride the gravy train. Greed is a slippery slope, in fact, Fuck Greed!

Seven Occupy Wall Street posts in a row. Tired of them yet?

Song of the Day: Have a Cigar - Pink Floyd (1975)