Readings That Remind Us of Class

Predatory Habits How Wall Street Transformed Work in America

"In order to capitalize mortgage securities, expected future earnings and corporate debts, Wall Street elites must first capitalize on our personal insecurities. They make their exploits appear necessary, natural, even laudable. This is quite a feat, since in those moments when we suspend our faith in the financial sector and candidly examine its performance, we generally judge Wall Street’s behavior to be avaricious and destabilizing, immoral and imprudent. At the best of times, Wall Street provides white noise amidst entrepreneurs’ and workers’ attempts to actualize their ambitions and projects. We are still learning what happens at the worst of times.

The myth of the financial sector goes something like this: only men and women equipped with the highest intelligence, the will to work death-defying hours and the most advanced technology can be entrusted with the sacred and mysterious task of ensuring the growth of the economy. Using complicated financial instruments, these elites (a) spread the risks involved in different ventures and (b) discipline firms to minimize costs—thus guaranteeing the best investments are extended sufficient credit. According to this myth, Wall Street is the economy’s private nutritionist, advising and assisting only the most motivated firms—and these fitter firms will provide jobs and pave the path to national prosperity. If the rest of us do not understand exactly why trading credit derivatives and commodity futures would achieve all this, this is because we are not as smart as the people working on Wall Street. Even Wall Street elites are happy to admit that they do not really know how the system works; such admissions only testify to the immensity of their noble task..."

-- GloverWright - 4 March 2010

Unconventional Wisdom: An Interview with Doug Henwood

Q: What electoral policies should the U.S. left be pursuing? Or are we already focused too much on electoral efforts?

A: I’d say we’re focused too much on electoral efforts. To me, the most promising thing would be to organize around very specific issues, like living wage or single-payer campaigns – things that have great potential appeal and can unite a lot of constituencies in a common struggle. I wouldn’t rule out electoral politics, of course – you don’t want to give up on the state. But nothing higher than the House. When you get to the Senate, and especially the presidential level, you’re on the bourgeoisie’s terrain. None of the third-party or insurgent Dem campaigns -- Jackson, Nader, Kucinich, McKinney? , whatever -- has ever broken away from the cult of personality trap and become an occasion for a real national organizing effort. A presidential campaign just isn’t the place to do that sort of thing, something that the last 20 or 30 years has pretty conclusively proved. It’s best to organize independent movements and parties that might, if we’re lucky, force the higher-ups to take notice. I was impressed, in reading that debased bit of political gossip Game Change, to learn how bent out of shape Hillary Clinton was by the complaints of the antiwar movement. She was really concerned, and her husband spent hours in the King David Hotel, of all places, writing a devious letter on her behalf, meant to defuse the opposition’s threat. It was all bullshit, of course, but it shows that an active left can have an influence even on the most centrist of Dems. That lesson seems to have been lost, at least until now, in relation to the Obama administration, whose various offenses have been denied, excused, or indulged by unions, peaceniks, greens, and other people who should be behaving better.

-- GloverWright - 2 March 2010

A young lawyer who didn't get to pawn his license "an interesting essay by a lawyer who graduated in 2007 into the waiting arms of unemployment. He decided to begin helping people who were deep underwater on their mortgages by trying to get them loan modifications. This is the story of his first client and his first encounter with Wells Fargo. Also includes an interesting side note about new California law that discourages lawyers from taking on these types of cases."

-- JohnSchwab - 26 Feb 2010

Why she went to law school

-- DRussellKraft - 24 Feb 2010

"DNA's Dirty Little Secret"

This article concerns "cold hit" DNA prosecutions. These occur when the police, with no particular suspect in mind, run DNA evidence through a database of prior offenders. This method has a high probability of false matches, one-third in the case in the article, but is still used as key evidence at trial. -- JohnAlbanese - 25 Feb 2010

Harvard 3Ls Can't Find Jobs

Do people really believe that, even at the top law schools, they're entitled to a 160K job? No profession other than law allows 25 year olds to make that kind of money with no relevant work experience and by judging them on one year of grades and a name. We are basically handed summer associate positions at EIP next fall- that is a deal that is too good to be true and anyone who has even a toe in the real world should have known it wasn't going to last.

This article anticipates our class discussion of the Leff piece. Saks Fifth Avenue's new ad campaign uses "wit and whimsy" to get customers back into their stores. After all, customers can still have "fun" during "serious times."

FOR EXAMPLE, although the average customer can no longer afford to buy both a new tunic and a matching belt, Saks "wittily" and "whimsically" suggests the customer buy the tunic and use her husband's "old tie" as a belt. Lovely!

-- KalliopeKefallinos - 03 Mar 2010

http://sfbay.craigslist.org/sfc/clt/1616836329.html by way of Rebecca Lesnick's facebook page

-- NonaFarahnik - 05 Mar 2010