Many have expressed confusion about the Banksters’ success in hustling ever greater piles of public cash.

The first Yakuza Papers film was released in 1973 by the Toei Company. “Battles Without Honor and Humanity” was so brilliantly written (Iiboshi & Kasahara), and directed (Fukasaku) that it inspired a five part series, countless filmmakers, and initiated a style of crime story that is popular still. A recent excellent example is Borrone’s 2008 “Gomorrah”.

How do otherwise well intentioned, hard working and responsible professionals become caught up in bad deals?

In the 1872 novel “Demons” (aka “The Possessed”, & “The Devils”), Dostoevsky’s character Stavrogin confronts character Pyotr Stepanovich with dangerous insight:

Here you’re counting off on your fingers what forces make up a circle? All this officialdom and sentimentality - it’s good glue, but there’s one thing better still: get four members of a circle to bump off a fifth on the pretense of his being an informer, and with this shed blood you’ll immediately tie them together in a single knot. They’ll become your slaves, they won’t dare rebel or call you to accounts.

It’s an extreme literary metaphor - written as dark caution against the risks of nihilism. Possibly also an oblique argument in favor of matrix management models; those where the benefits of transparency outweigh the inefficiencies/discomfort of chaos, complexity, and red tape.

Good time to consult our old friend Ira U. Cobleigh. Mr. Cobleigh wrote the cleverly titled book “How to Gain Security & Financial Independence” (Hawthorn Books, New York, 1956). Ira’s first chapter has the romantic heading “Thrift and Gracious Living”. Here are his five major goals of thrift:

(1.) an emergency rainy day fund,
(2.) life insurance coverage,
(3.) a specific sum for the purchase and furnishing of a home,
(4.) the education of children, and
(5.) a fund to create or supplement retirement income.

Ira doesn’t mention the importance of paying down high interest credit card debt. It was a different time!