Disincentivizing the Worship of Wealth
Financial reforms will only work — and prevent disasters — if they take into account human nature and disincentivize greed. The latest proposals fall far short, warns Neal Gabler.
Financial reform will only work if it takes into account human nature and disincentivizes greed, warns Neal Gabler. “The system malfunctioned because the human beings who ran it were greedy…That means that the recession from which we are still reeling was primarily a result of human nature, which the latest reforms don’t begin to address.” The 2010 Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act is intended to help avoid another meltdown, but “to change that behavior and prevent future disasters, one needs a much different and, frankly, far simpler solution than the one President Obama signed — one that disincentivizes greed.”