Ethics in an Evil System

During this eight weeks journey I have learnt a lot of US Bank history, regulations, the role of the state and The Federal Government and how banks and government are so close related. Money, as one of the most important factor in our daily lives and Banks as the most important intermediaries of money supply, need to be and must be highly regulated and controlled. The direct access banks have to money and the temptations that are implied need people with strong ethical principles and behaviors. I also have learnt the dark side of the coin; the Madoff case was an excellent opportunity to observe how greed turns an intelligent competent person into a criminal.

I can split this course in two big blocks: a technical and an ethical one. In the technical I have learnt the most important regulations that rule bank industry in the United States. As an international student, this information was new to me and it caught my attention from the beginning, because of the differences with our system in Colombia. All banks in my country are national chartered and all control agencies are national as well among other differences.  

Something that arise my attention is bank failures and Ponzi schemes in the US and in my country. We have had several bank failures in the 20^th century and the responsible of those failures left the country without a penalty. In 2008 like in the US we had the biggest Ponzi scheme DMG (David Murcia Guzmán) a Madoff similar case which fooled people during six years. He was a blue collar worker without a college degree. The man would have continued his Ponzi scheme if he would have not fought with the sons of the President of Colombia.  This case was another shame of Colombian justice. At the end the guy was sent to the US convicted of money laundry. A lot of politicians, drug dealers and common people were involved in the fraud. One of the reasons why he was extradited to the US was to shut him up and diminish the consequences of the politicians who were involved. With this example I just want to point out that no matter the nationality or background there will be always people thirsty for money.

One of deepest reflections during this course is that banks are legalized and controlled Ponzi schemes. If we, as depositors all around the world decide to withdraw just half of our money, banks would not be able to pay and they would collapse.  In order to keep monetary system rolling and working, it was necessary to keep this industry under strong and regulated controls in a way that all borrowers always have the feeling of trust and never withdraw their money. This leads me to the following question, how can we have trust in a system that by definition is not fair? (I mean, it is clearly a regulated Ponzi scheme for the benefit of a few people). One of the reasons people involved in banking always do incorrect things is because they know the business is evil and they do not care because easy money will be always a corruption factor in today’s society.

Trust is based in a two ways directions relationship and both sides must be fair and clean. The challenge for the future is to answer the question: how can we have trust in a system that by definition is not fair?  and build a new sustainable model, more balanced and honest for the people. I have said in the discussions and in my papers: “A man has to do what a man has to do” I am 36 years old and I know what is right and what is not. So Let ‘s do the right thing.