People like their drama and their trauma. They revel in all the excitement.
The histrionics, the temper tantrums, the war metaphors, the plate throwing, the dressing room sulks, the “asshole transplants” *, the scalding of people’s soft bits with cooking implements; this is the way people do their business in high finance, haute cuisine, haute couture, high church, high technology, highly creative arts. It creates a manic economy.
* We learn of a certain executive at Lehman’s, whose goal “to be number one in the industry by 2012, whatever the cost” encouraged aggressive bets in surging asset markets and whose rages were described as an experience analogous to being provided with ‘a new asshole’ and who was ‘affectionately’ known as ‘Darth Vader’.
Subjectively, the financial mania will be over when people get bored of it.
