Lying, Cheating, Stealing on the Rise on Wall Street, in Medicine, Education, and Politics

In the December 2008 issue of Conde Nast Portfolio, former investor and author Michael Lewis reveals the nasty underbelly of Wall Street and how it all fell apart, or should it be said, he re-visits that which he warned us decades ago in his tell-all book Liar's Poker (1990), a must read for all looking for answers to the current economic collapse.

In the article he speaks of lenders who gave a Mexican immigrant making $14,000 a loan for a $700,000 house; two women of moderate means (one his housekeeper) who bought a property in New York City and then were able to refinance again and again buying five properties total none of which they could afford from the outset. And on and on and on the stories go.

Lewis speaks of a little known Meredith Whitney, "an obscure analyst of financial firms for Oppenheimer Securities who, on October 31, 2007, ceased to be obscure." She told the world that Citigroup had seriously mismanaged its finances and would have to seriously slash its dividend or go bottom up. According to Lewis, there is a lot that influences stocks and few if any ever know the direct influences, so that which specifically influences any stock is unclear, except for that day in October. For it was clear to everyone that Whitney had caused the market in financial stocks to crash.

Lewis, made rich after three years of financial advising, tells readers that he had no schooling in accounting, never owned a business, that he never even had a savings account of his own to manage, but within a short period of time he was giving expert financial advice to people who took his every word as gospel. Because of the lying and deceit (including his own) that filled the financial world on Wall Street, he soon became sickened by it all, quit, and wrote his tell-all book. (There is great deception in many an "expert" who are such merely because of marketing and positioning, creating a dangerous situation for those on the receiving end of alleged "expert" advice.)

My wife and I personally know of many who received financing for homes with mortgages that they could barely afford. This we saw time and time again. We had even gone for a mortgage and realized at the time that we could not afford a house, never mind barely, yet the agent tried again and again to "make it work." Fortunately for us we did not purchase at that time and waited until we were in much better shape financially.

But there is great deception occurring in other areas of society as well.

Being an educator for over eight years, I saw much lying and stealing going on: board members and administrators taking money from educators and their students again and again. For example, several years ago before there was a union at The College of the Canyons in Santa Clarita, several adjuncts, myself included, attended numerous board meetings to see where the money was going. To our surprise, while the economy was suffering (this was some five / six years ago), the president took two consecutive $25,000 annual increases while adjuncts and full time faculty were let go, classes cut, and tuition increased. At that time, we also witnessed other board members receive annual raises anywhere from $4,000 to $8,000. This type of "administrating" goes on at community colleges in California to this day.

But more than these lies are the lies perpetuated by educators, politicians, and the media that education is the end-all and the cure-all. I heard one student say that he'll live like a king with a $100,000 salary as an anastegeologist (with that salary, you can barely live comfortably in Los Angeles, where the student resides). Another asked what "job" will afford him the opportunity to live the luxurious life style. My answer, very few if any. There are jobs that are few and far between that will allow one to live like a king, but only if that job provides in excess of $125,000 / year. Even then, you are most likely to work like a slave, as my wife says, such as a physician or lawyer tied to your desk, paperwork, or pager. A friend of mine who just became a lawyer is now doing that which he has always detested and wanted to avoid in a career: paper work, and lots of it.

Time and again students are lied to or misinformed about careers, careers in which students blindly look to the salary or prestige of the position over that of a correct skills, ability, desire match to job / career often resulting in a mismatch, one that results in 70% of students no longer working in their field of study within 5 to 10 years.

Personally, it is these lies, mis-truths and missing-truths that inspired me to begin my business, helping to coach and advise the thousands and potential hundreds of thousands who are heading for a guaranteed fall not only in education but career and life because of the majority of what they are told and, more damaging, that which they are not told. Lies abound. It is the duty of the lied-to in excess to warn their neighbors and bring them in from the rain, the howling winds, and in some cases, the tsunami.

But we see lying, cheating, and stealing elsewhere in society.

In medicine, drug companies and doctors work in cahoots to the detriment of patient and family alike. We hear of the stories again and again of drug companies pushing drugs such as those used in chemotherapy, a process that is so harsh, so damaging, so destructive that few oncologist would ever prescribe such a fix for themselves.

Ah, but it doesn't stop there.

Drugs that are harmful that may result in serious side effects or death litter the pharmaceutical market. Personally, when I had cancer, I had to take an anti-biotic that had such evil, harsh side effects that I could not stand the pain, almost preferring death if it continued (I am not exaggerating here). The doctor told me that he had never seen a reaction such as mine to the drug. Fortunately, he prescribed another anti-biotic and the side effects subsided.

Some time later, I was watching television when the anti-biotic that had given me so much trouble appeared on the news. The story mentioned how the drug company was pushing this particular anti-biotic because it was a serious profit maker; however, its side effects were serious, dangerous, if not life threatening. There were other antibiotics on the market that were more effective and certainly less harmful, however, not as profitable.

Another example of the lies being purported in medicine can be found in going back to my  ongoing experience with cancer and its treatment. At one point, due to death of many of my white blood cells from chemotherapy, an infection occurred in my lower colon. My oncologist and his weekend replacement both diagnosed the problem as hemorrhoids. I applied the medication as advised; however, after going to the bathroom, I writhed in pain for close to an hour, putting on the air-conditioner so as to not bother or alert the neighbors.

I went back to the oncologist who sent me to a surgeon. With one quick look this practitioner, he of much greater hands-on experience, told me that I had an abscess and that they would have to operate immediately to clean it. They did so and my problem was solved to a great degree, even though six years later I still suffer from the "healing:" deadened nerves in my feet, scared lungs, and damaged heart due to chemotherapy and radiation. The intrusive nature of this "medicine" that is sanctioned by the state is a profit maker. There are alternative remedies that are much less harmful to the body and effective, yet not such great profit makers to the big drug companies.

Finally, at one point I asked my doctor why cancer was on the rise (today 1 in 3 will get cancer at some point in their life as apposed to 1 in 4 or 1 in 5 of years ago). He told me he didn't know. I know. It comes from poor diets due mostly to fast food (tumors in children have increased markedly over the last 30 years, a time period that coincides with the advent of fast food joints) with MSG that increases the likelihood of autism, ADHD, cancer and other diseases. But it's not just fast food that is the killer. Overall, diets high in fats, sweets, and saturated with chemicals have resulted in 60% obesity (20% over the ideal weight) country wide.

My wife is appalled at the number of obese in the U.S. and the number of cancer cases. She's told me that in Colombia one will rarely see all these problems. Unfortunately, in the U.S. with the excessive use of additives, especially MSG, carcinogenic toxins in the air from all our electromagnetic radiating technical devises and polluted air and water, why should we be surprised by the increase in cancer cases? Yet many physicians, even leading physicians, plead ignorance when confronted with the question of why the number of cases are on the rise.

But the lying, cheating, and stealing does not stop there. Others are taking our money and years from our productivity and happiness.

Of course we all know of the lies prevalent in politics, one of the reasons someone as "Christian" or honest as Jimmy Carter had such a difficult time during his presidency dealing with "the system." For years, politicians have been lying right under the public's noses while talking out the other side of their faces. This goes back to the turn of the 20th century when America's economy went global or when the world became very important to the U.S. economy.

We can begin with Teddy Roosevelt who manipulated the breaking away of Panama from Colombia so that he could build the Panama Canal. A great thing for the U.S., of course, but the managing of the situation was questionable. Then we can look to Woodrow Wilson's manipulation of Latin American governments for economic gain, often times doing so in an underhanded and unethical manor. But many politicians over the years, up to the present, have preached democracy and the fairness of liberty while at the same time bombing or setting economic sanctions on communist and democratic countries alike all in the name of raising the all-mighty dollar. (For more on this, a must read is almost anything by Noam Chomsky.)

Not a bad thing to do to bring greater economic growth and security to this country, but when 6% of the world's population harbors close to 60% of the world's wealth while joblessness outside the U.S. hovers around 30%, when is enough, enough? When are U.S. decisions on, say for example, energy going to be more pro-global than pro-west?

Of course, ideally, it is difficult if not impossible to change the ways of this country if not the world, but where does change begin? a beginning to the healing of the woes of which I speak? Most in the know will tell you that great things begin with awareness, in minds not willing to quit or give in to the impossible.

Jimmy Carter was told that bringing peace to the Middle East was impossible that bringing peace to the dealings between Israel and Egypt was impossible. Carter's renewed emphasis on human rights in international politics not only brought temporary peace but a mindset that influenced thousands if not millions with his giving, a giving that has gone beyond his presidency in the great impact it has had on the world. There have been many great minds like his, but they are in need of help, and the only limitations are put there by the fears we harbor . . . nothing else.

The greatest minds and hearts have put forth magnificent efforts that transcend what the majority believe. Few have the faith or tenacity or bravery required to pull off the magnificent, the beautiful, the critical or that effort required to turn this world around to push us further into the light and away from the dark that is growing on this fine earth.

May we all in our small ways move toward the light with brave hearts, heads, and minds through the cultivating of family, friends and strangers alike to take part in this life sustaining and perpetuating party we call hope.

Hope that does not spring up over night. Hope that is not easily achieved by any stretch of the imagination. Hope that comes at the hands of the few, the brave, the hardworking and willing to bring greater change to this country, this continent, this world.

Come join us in the impossible, the unexpected, the impractical and bring the marvelous nature and power of hope to the hearts and minds of all you encounter.

Peace to you and yours.