Following on from Oliver's and Patrick's comment, there is also 'The
Corporation' a book by Joel Bakan that makes the point that corporations can
be compared to an individual with a psychopathic personality. So I would
extend earlier comments about psychopathic traders to corporations and
neo-liberalism ideology in general.
Marcello
Marcello Bertotti, BSc, MA, PhD, Research Fellow
Institute for Health and Human Development,University of East London, UH 250,
Water Lane, Stratford, London, E15 4LZ
Tel.020 8223 4139; 07900 593 655; www.uel.ac.uk/ihhd
________________________________
From: A forum for critical and radical geographers on behalf of Patrick
Bigger
Sent: Thu 29/09/2011 18:36
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: The End is Nigh
To follow up Oliver's comments, it's not just traders' behaviors that match
up with psychopaths- it's neoclassical economists in general:
"It has been found that the only people who really fit the simplified
mathematical model of self-interested rational behaviour at all times are
economists and psychopaths."
That's the last line from the second episode of Adam Curtis's 2007 piece, The
Trap, having explored John Nash's contribution to game theory while Nash was
suffering from full blown paranoid schizophrenia. Now known as prisoner's
dilemma, Nash originally called the game 'fuck you buddy.' At least he was
honest I suppose.
I haven't been able to find a citation for that claim, but I would welcome
it.
-patrick
Patrick Bigger I PhD Student I Department of Geography I UK Political Ecology
Working Group
University of Kentucky I 1457 Patterson Office Tower I Lexington, KY 40506
[log in to unmask] I politicalecology.org <http://politicalecology.org/>
Let us not, however, flatter ourselves overmuch on account of our human
victories over nature. For each such victory nature takes its revenge on us.
Each victory, it is true, in the first place brings about the results we
expected, but in the second and third places it has quite different,
unforeseen effects which only too often cancel the first.
Friedrich Engels, The Part Played by Labour in the Transition from Ape to Man
On Thu, Sep 29, 2011 at 12:03 PM, Oliver Belcher <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
This guy is NOT a con-man. But, he may be a psychopath. Here are two
interesting articles on the guy out today from Forbes and the Telegraph.
Forbes, in particular, has a money-quote:
"A University of St. Gallen study shows stock market traders display
similarities to certified psychopaths. The study, authored by MBA students
Pascal Scherrer and Thomas Noll, compares decisions made by 27 equity,
derivative and forex traders in a computer simulation against an existing
study of 24 psychopaths in high-security hospitals in Germany. Not only do
the traders match their counterparts, but, as Der Speigel succinctly puts it,
the "stockbrokers' behavior is more reckless and manipulative than that of
psychopaths."
http://www.forbes.com/sites/chrisbarth/2011/09/26/new-study-old-news-stock-tr
aders-are-psychopaths/
Here is today's story on the guy from the Telegraph:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/8792829/BBC-financial-expert-Ale
ssio-Rastani-Im-an-attention-seeker-not-a-trader.html
Nevertheless, what surprises me most is not so much what Rastini
says, but the shock that people have that Rastini would say such a thing "on
the news." Speaking from personal experience, I have friends from childhood
who unfortunately went "into business" after high school, and they all repeat
Rastini's mantra to a T: the point is to make money off of crises. In other
words, they either have no sense of how economic depressions are violent, or
they ignore it, like Rastini.
Oliver!
On Thu, Sep 29, 2011 at 6:53 PM, Thomas Doerfler
<[log in to unmask]> wrote:
Am 29.09.2011 um 17:35 schrieb Jonathan Cloke:
> Those of you who read/remember my previous post on the
ongoing market collapse and forthcoming break-up of the Eurozone should
listen to this gentleman, Alessio Rastani. Every so often, through the fog of
battle and pure propaganda, someone forgets themself and you hear the pure,
unalloyed truth. Worth watching for the reaction of the BBC newsreader alone:
>
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jsDjTbP7TS0
seems so far as if he's a con man. And in fact, he doesn't
tell anything with substance, listen closely. Albeit he's right what he says
'bout the system in his mockery. If you need a talented actor for a critical
play on today's capitalism, take him.
thomas
--
Oliver Christian Belcher
PhD Student
Department of Geography
University of British Columbia
Twitter: http://twitter.com/deadlyparadigms
Blog: http://oliverbelcher.tumblr.com
<http://oliverbelcher.tumblr.com/>
"The hope that earthly horror does not possess the last word is, to
be sure, a non-scientific wish." Max Horkheimer
"No one likes armed missionaries." Maximilien Robespierre
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