Category Archives: People and Places

The Language of Crime

Life has been particularly engaging of late! I am taking on a lot of responsibilities at work and am learning the craft. I’ve also been fortunate to meet some amazing people recently; for it all, I am grateful.

Occupy Boston may be gone, but I’m still paying attention. Recently, rouge micro-trading software from Knight Capital Group briefly messed up the stock market. On the watch of Knight’s archetypical CEO, Thomas Joyce (57), the firm found itself in need of a $400M bailout. Knight, a leader in “market making,” has all the hallmarks of a sleazy financial services operator. If this story sounds familiar, you have probably read or heard about it, and that’s what I’m writing about.

As I followed the Knight story, I began to notice a certain similarity in the tone of the articles; Knight was blamed for errors, but never publicly charged with a crime, as is every petty criminal.

So, in homage to that sociology class I took back in college, I surveyed the coverage of the story. Starting, loyally, from the:

Knight Press Release : Technical Issue

Reuters : Error
WSJ : Snafu
FOX Business : Glitch
MSNBC : Glitch
NY Times : Debacle
CNBC : Debacle
Seeking Alpha : Malfunction

My sample size is admittedly small, but it’s pretty diverse and mainstream.

Something very important and very dangerous had happened. This event laid bare, or if you will, further exposed, the rigged nature of the financial services industry. And boy was it being hushed up. Criminal conduct is vast; whether with malice or recklessness, something had happened, and it needed to be contained. Containment of such explosive news begins with deliberate verbal soft-pedaling. “Gee-whiz” type language attempts to evoke empathy and chagrin. Accordingly, the exceptional, or infamous, is rendered common.

Who hasn’t ever made an error? Haven’t we all found ourselves in a snafu? And damn, who hasn’t experienced a technical glitch and/or malfunction? Heck, maybe we laugh about it all in hindsight. That said, I must reluctantly give the Times and CNBC the win here with debacle. Defined by m-w.com in context, a debacle is “a complete failure.” Ouch.

The bottom line with Knight is that, as the very least, there was a certain wanton recklessness that any first year law student could tell you was criminal. So to start, Knight’s criminal behavior was couched in familiar language. Who hasn’t made a poor choice at a restaurant, gossiped and gotten into a bind, or attempted to re-string a weed wacker? Such errors, snafus, and malfunctions are routine. That they do not evoke alarm is the point.

In other news: New York settles with Standard Chartered for $340M on money laundering charges while the DOJ nets $300K from Barclays for same. Both banks, though they acted in direct contravention of the laws of the United States, continue to do business with and with the countenance of the government.

Complete failure is for chumps. Define the parameters of the debate, set the tone, and amplify.

Well, I think I smell skunk; I suppose I’ve said my bit.

Take care,

~WD

Landings

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It has been a few months since I’ve moved into my own apartment in East Boston. I’ve been pretty busy trying to furnish the place tastefully and develop a routine. While I finally feel like I have a place to call my own, I still don’t know very many people in my neighborhood. So I was pleased to find out recently that a nice guy that I’d met through the fall softball league was going to be moving in just a few blocks from me. Sadly, when he first moved in, I was in the middle of a nasty cold. Thankfully, by last night I was finally feeling better, so we were able to get together for a delightful dinner. While I was walking over to his place, I noticed a man sitting on a stoop near his apartment; it was cold out and the man seemed dejected and without anywhere to go. However, this being a big city, I didn’t’ stop or attempt to engage him.

I meet up with my friend and we went out for dinner. After dinner, I walked him home, said goodnight, and continued back to my place. About half way there, I see a young guy standing in the street looking down at the curb, and as I approach, I notice that there is a man lying half on the sidewalk, half in the street. I asked the guy what had happened, and he responded that he had just come across the man lying there, and had called 911. I asked if he was going to wait until help arrived, and when he said yes, I continued back to my apartment, passing a fire truck responding to the call en route. The sight of the man in lying there has stuck with me. His legs were on the sidewalk, and his torso and head were on the street, near the curb. I’m not sure if it was the same guy I saw earlier sitting on the stoop, but my gut tells me that it was.

I wonder what happened to him; how did he end up there, in that sad position, all alone. The street where he was lying borders Logan airport; he had come to rest not far whence jetliners ascended and descended daily in their mechanical monotony. Where was he from? Did he lose his housing at the end of last month? Will he be okay? Such are the sights that one does not see in the sanitized streets of self-segregating suburbia.

It was a melancholic encounter, for sure, but it forced me to reflect on what I have and what I have to give.

Hardware

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Being an (early) member of the Millennial generation, society at large knows that I require constant praise. As such, I found it fitting to receive, today, a little more hardware for my cabinet:

RMSL Softball Trophy

This goofy trophy represents a great team effort by the Ashmont Grill Lightning in this fall’s Rick Sylvia Memorial Softball League. I joined the league a week late in order to get out of the house and socialize a bit with some other men in the area. By chance, I was placed on one of the strongest teams. Although we were stymied by excessively rainy weather, we managed to see the season through to completion.

As a rusty newcomer, I was placed in right field, a position with which I was familiar from my little league days (Pittsburgh Pirates… ’nuff said). Out in right field I managed to look busy, miss a few fly balls, and learn who all the lefties were in the league. Thankfully I was a bit better at bat, and managed to contribute my fair share of runs.

When all the data was tabulated, lo and behold, the Ashmont Grill Lightning was victorious, beating out the Alley Cats and Club Cafe Blue Ballers (sorry pretty boys…). The league was great fun, with stiff competition and positive vibes, a welcome respite from club culture.

So when you see me at the gym in my green team t-shirt, feel free to praise me like you should.

Living on a Prayer

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As I prepare to graduate in a month, I must admit that I’m not in the happiest of places. While some parts of New Orleans have been good for me (such as becoming a less inhibited dancer,) I never really fell in with any crowd here. During my first two years I attempted to host a lot of events, but due to a general lack of reciprocity, I just kinda threw in the towel.

I’m also getting tired of being single. Someone did recently captivate my heart; for our brief time together, I felt as if I had found my other half. But, as Hedwig so told, perhaps our destiny was but as “lonely two-legged creatures.”

Maybe it’s my itinerant lifestyle… I’ve become the consummate outsider. Still, I long for that which I’ve glimpsed in others; committed relationships that may indeed be separated by great distance. Either I’m wearing my heart on my sleeve or just looking around in my own world, too shy (shy).

While such pity parties are best not attended too often, I am mindful that insanity is often described as “doing the same thing over and over again while expecting a different result each time.” Is that me? As a deeply curious person, I’m always trying to learn from others and improve myself along the way.

In these uncertain times, I often feel adrift in an amoral universe, pushing forward with what little we know into a future we can not possibly comprehend. Maybe it’s time I made peace with such uncertainty and just enjoyed the ride… but that little voice always manages to rise above the din to ask: “but what are you doing?” I don’t have an answer. What would you say? What keeps you grounded? Have you settled?

So as I prepare to leave once again, to return to the unfamiliar, I can see the highway receding in the rear view mirror, flat and anonymous. Did I succeed or did I fail (both myself and others)? Did this journey take me forward or did it starkly expose my limits? Am I doing the right thing?

Dear reader, thanks for sticking this one out; its been difficult to write but I needed to do it. Wishing you well, from here, for now,

~WD

Autumn Update

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Well it is finally autumn down here in New Orleans. Unfortunately, my pumpkin rotted and I had to trash it. As the front sweeps away down here, the drama in the air is palpable. On most every front, there is a lot of heady shit going down. For instance, it appears that Halliburton was indeed the culprit behind the Deepwater Horizon disaster. This is the same corporation that has been defrauding American taxpayers for years. Pause for a moment and consider the recent news that GlaxoSmithKlien had been ordered to pay a $750 M fine for selling tainted drugs. The settlement, negotiated with the DOJ, was for civil and criminal penalties. I begin to wonder whether this is just the “cost of doing business,” at least when you are out to poison people anyway. The fine is a landmark, though, and I’ll take it. My mini-course on the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) touched upon many of these themes. Were the DOJ to tackle Halliburton, the Federal Govt. could just possibly recover some of the assets sucked up by the Cheney network.

On top of this (already old) news, we’re also in an election season… yay! Luckily I don’t watch much network TV, so I’m spared most of the local ads. What I do see is that a crazed movement, two parts sheer ignorance and one part racism, is out to wreak great havoc. As a soon to be young lawyer, I’m hoping that things don’t go completely off the rails. Did you know that a question on the Massachusetts ballet would reduce revenue thereby necessitating major service cuts on the T? Whatever. The Taxes are Too Damn High! Last stop, Brighton Beach.

But there are also some signs of hope, particularly in California. Now, California has really become a dysfunctional mess of late; however, it’s importance to America necessitates an optimism about the Golden State. California may legalize the recreational use of marijuana. Given the violence and collateral damage of the “war on drugs,” isn’t it time we re-thought or national policies? Geez. Should this pass, I’d like to see what Justice does about it. Perhaps the deeper question here is whether/how we can transition from a military industrial complex to a R&D industrial complex. The U.S. is lagging way behind its peers on these expenditures. We do, however, get royally ripped off by our B.S. healthcare system and our lousy educational system (at least for the poor).

Federalism, a concept most “tea partiers” do not care to understand, allows the states to serve as laboratories of democracy. It also constructs, or concedes, certain functions to the federal government. I’m not so cynical to say that this system can no longer function, but I’m not so blind to see how it has been severely perverted. America has become somewhat perverted. We can’t even change unconscionable, legally deficient policies? Obama’s got to heat back up, because his bi-partisanship has really slowed things to a glacial crawl. Actually, I’ll take that back; the glaciers are probably chipping away at an increased rate these days… again, whatever. Kick in the crotch!

So, let us celebrate that we may (and really must) vote, get dressed up/down for halloween, and eat one too many tootsie rolls. Toast some apple cider, spiced or otherwise, to the possibility that this may be our last best chance.

~WD