Danielle Levy

When JPMorgan lost $6.2 billion in what is now called the “ London Whale” it was in the context of world news, a beep, mentioned but not much talked about. Now that the report from the Senate inquiry into the trading loss has been released, the beep is a bit louder but so far doesn’t seem it will be given the weight it ought to have. Here is a “too big to fail” institution being able to engage in an operation that to an outsider like me seems bizarre. According to the Senate report, high placed executives went along with what Floyd Norris of the NYT called gibberish, possibly an explanation no one wanted to pull the curtain on, evoking in a reader the sense that the tale of the emperor’s new clothes had come to life. What is even more distressing is that if the Senate committee refers the matter for criminal prosecution, not much is likely to happen. Justice Department officials have suggested that big banks are too big to prosecute, apparently meaning that a prosecution of such a huge institution would harm the financial system. That does and ought to scare us—Criminality being sheltered because of size!

The result of a survey conducted on behalf of The Center for Biological Diversity, a non-profit environmental group, shows that 59% of those polled believe that population growth is important to environmental issues. Since population growth is often not a popular subject, other environmental groups have shied away from linking it to environmental concerns, but the Center for Biological Diversity wanted to show among other things that the connection wasn’t as problematic as many thought. As a result of the survey’s findings the organization has swelled both its membership and its donations. Other results: 50% of those polled think the world population is growing too fast, 68% expressed concern about disappearing wildlife, and depending on how the question was put to them, 57% to 64% said it was because population growth was having an adverse effect. Another interesting finding is that 48% think the average American consumes too much. It may be one organization and one survey but it does seem to show that given the opportunity the public is more savvy than we often realize.

I don’t mind that there are 1426 billionaires in the world (83 of them members of China’s parliament). Given a total world population of 7 billion people, that is a small fraction. I don’t mind that the richest is Carlos Slim, the Mexican oil magnate with a fortune of $73 billion, in a country where despite some inroads, the percentage of poor is still appalling. I don’t mind who’s on the list besides Bill Gates and Warren Buffet, people like Larry Ellison of Oracle, Seigei Brin and Larry Page of Google,or Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook, although his net worth dropped by $4.2 billion. But I mind that there was a 16% increase in their number over last year. I mind that not only their number but their bank accounts were also fattened. The average net worth is said to have jumped to $3.8 billion or a %3 increase from the previous year. I mind that these are not figures we can apply to the middle class or to any ordinary citizen.