Start the Witch Hunt

Working in finance, I have become very familiar with the concept of benchmark performance. Because it's how folks keep score in finance, benchmark performance has tangible consequences. Moreover, with just about everyone in the business losing money, it still carries weight (unlike your 401k).

Here's the point: the current downturn, the whole debacle, is about people losing perspective. Benchmark performance epitomizes institutionalized relativism, the rationale being, "as long as I am doing better than the other guy, I am winning." Relativism obstructs the bigger picture, preventing individuals from looking beyond the immediate gain (ie, higher interest rates from structured investment vehicles) and recognizing risks (ie, that you shouldn't loan money to people who can't prove income or have no tangible assets.)

Far be it from me to assign blame for this mess. Bankers, clearly, suck. People who took out loans made a gamble and lost. I don't know how aware they were that they were gambling, but that doesn't really change things. The rest of us, well, we're all paying for it. As long as we're mulling all this over, why not talk about the real culprit: relativism. We need big picture people in charge, otherwise everyone gets screwed. Hopefully, we can get it right next time.