on how those Cantor Fitzgerald commercials take him back to the greedy years some people call "the 80's." I for one don't think the greed ended there. Look at the news today - WorldCom "misstated" 3.8 billion greenbacks in transfers to make their bottom line look better. If you can't bring home the bacon, you have to cook the books. The CFO of my old company didn't like that joke. It hit a little too close to home. She was a forensic accountant who was hired to make our financials look good for potential buyers. The company got bought for a whopping $100 million in 1999. The company had 55 employees and about $10 million in annual revenue. The owner had become rich beyond his wildest fantasies. And we found out later the IRS was ready to take over the business just days before we got bought. The owner didn't pay payroll taxes for the whole year leading up to the sale. He was in deep weeds, he rolled the dice, and he beat the odds. I think he had a little help from way, way south of here. By that I mean from hell. He's always been very lucky. About a month after the company got bought a bunch of us are out to dinner with the owner. The check comes and he jokes that he can't pay it because he's living on a fixed income. "Yeah, we're the ones who fixed it for you," I say. The cachinnation occured with such gusto that everyone flailed uncontrollably and spilled their beers. Three people at the table laughed so hard that they threw up. The former owner of our firm was red-faced like a chubby little devil.
The culture of greed has been with us for a while. It's as much a poison to a company as it is to the soul of an individual. Of course none of us knew the IRS was about to shut down the company - we didn't know anything about the financials. We just did our jobs and took care of the customers. I imagine Enron was like before the unpleasantness there. Ditto for Worldcom. You put some tough-minded and greedy people at the top in companies and you get great results or you get calamity. The fallout from the Worldcom debacle is going to be felt in the markets for a long time to come. And for all us little people who invest in the stock market that pushes back the date we might one day retire.
I can't knock capitalism. As an economic system it's the best we humans have, but it's like a gun - what people do with it might be bad. Democracy can be described this way too.
I won't criticize the owner of Cantor Fitzgerald. I haven't seen the commercials, but seeing this company that was ravaged by the 9-11 attacks rebuild itself gives me hope. I think this is a different situation than the 80's. And the 90's. And today at Worldcom.
