In a New York magazine article, "My Manhattan Project: How I helped build the bomb that blew up Wall Street", former programmer Michael Osinski tells of his part in the making of the financial meltdown. But along the way he also tells us something of the trader culture he helped to enable, where the really big bucks were. For example:
Now that I was spending more time on the floor, I wondered why the men's room always stank. Then one afternoon at three, when I was in there taking a leak, I discovered the hideous truth. Traders had a contest. Coming in at eight, they never left their desks all day, eating and drinking while working. Then, at three o'clock, they marched into the men's room and stood at the wall opposite the urinals. Dropping their pants, they bet $100 on who could train his stream the longest on the urinals across the lavatory. As their hydraulic pressure waned, the three traders waddled, pants at their ankles, across the floor, desperately trying to keep their pee on target. This is what $2 million of bonus can do to grown men.
These are the guys we have to keep happy?
I'm not just after a cheap shot here. Last month, the Compulsive Theorist posted a couple of posts on "business and cultural norms in the financial sector". The little vignette above is simply a vivid reminder of just how warped those norms have become. And you know what? The conservatives are right: the issue of moral values goes right to the core of our politics, and the fate of our nation. Only it's their values that are the problem.
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