On the moral superiority of blogging hedgies

While I am an avid follower of several financial blogs written by folks who make their money managing money, I at times become impatient with their unrelenting condemnation of the messed up world situation while they are actively trying to arbitrage it.  As Dmitri Orlov has said, the financial types are the ones earliest to understanding of the extent of the rape and pillage of Main Street by Wall Street, and the complicity of Washington—the Fed and the federal government.

I get tired of the attitude of moral superiority, even as I appreciate the information and knowledge flow provided, that just isn’t reliably going to occur in the MSM.  I do hope these people are doing something with their money for charitable causes.  We salarymen can hardly imagine the amounts of money they make.  A young friend who just moved to London took a flat in Notting Hill with another young American working in The City, who casually allowed that he was in the habit of spending 300 pounds a night when he goes out. The stories of financial sector excess are rife, but they sting when it comes close to you.

In sum, these folks are part of the problem, exacerbating the inequalities that are tearing the world apart.  Cassandra recently schooled those peers who let their moral indignation get in the way of making good investment decisions.  Of all the financial bloggers, Barry Ritholtz stands out as having the best follow-through on policy recommendations, informed by legal training and a proudly middle class, up on your merits, background.  Barry’s positioning in the New York and Washington media outlets suggests some higher levels of support.  Yves is good but lets her cynicism get the better of her too often; likes to carp too much.  Kyle Bass keeps forecasting doom for the Japanese but doesn’t seem to recognize that only about 5 percent of Japan’s government debt is owned by foreigners, so the MMT refrain of “print to pay” applies.  Japanese life expectancies have been rising during their supposedly lost two decades, which I’ve never heard Paul Krugman acknowledge.  The Japanese take care of each other as a big family.  Japanese boomers may very well come up with methods of forgiveness to keep the kids on the islands, so long as the boomers can eat and have a roof over their heads.

Make a nonrandom act of kindness today. 

Peace.