This New York Times story on the tenth anniversary of the U.S. financial meltdown shows that the checks put in place have had little impact. It also shows that people who blow the whistle on wrongdoings pay a price.
The resentment caused by the 2008 financial crisis set off a populist backlash that fomented distrust of expertise and political division, which could have worrying consequences.
When we look at all of the checks that were supposedly put into place, nothing has really changed. In fact, one could argue that if we look at the occurrence of wrongdoing reported every day, what happened ten years ago did not register with the financial sector, nor any other sector for that matter.
This Goldman report is coming out ten years after the fallout. A senior banker called Goldman Sachs’s whistle-blower hotline, a rare dissent by a partner at the firm. His superiors, including the next chief executive, told him to relax.
The Edelman Report indicates there has been an even further erosion of trust. Finally, people are starting to recognize why there is the polarization. People are angry. They are angry because of the betrayal by people whom they should be able to trust. They can’t trust their bank, church, employer, or the associations they belong to. So, who can they trust? What is it going to take?