IDEASMILLIONDOLLAR

For years, as a financial advisor, it was near impossible to publish.  

 

The Compliance departments of large brokerages are driven by risk-aversion and 

 to publish my own opinions and commentary or participate in the culture wars taking place on modern digital media platforms was verboten.

 

"Fuck You, Wall Street" was not a book they were willing to let me publish.  For some reason, the powers that be even seemed to take offense at the crudity of it! 

 

Meanwhile, myself, I can't take anything without a grain of humor to sweeten the bitter truths.  I believe that humour is the saving grace of the human race and that its better to laugh with the sinners than cry with the saints, though I would giggle with Christie Brinkly and weep with Billy Joel over beers if he wanted to. 

 

However, because of the constraints of the financial industry, I  sat on the sidelines and watched as over the past thirteen years our nation was overrun by mediocrity and mendacity.  It felt (as Tom Stoppard once wrote) as if I was being trampled by a travelling parade of simpletons.

 

So I might abbreviate when I title the book I'm working on now, and which will be published in sections in the Finance area of this website. "Wall Street Snafu" will be able to be prominently displayed in family bookstores across the nation without concern for the fact that the situation, being all fucked up, is normal.  

 

(And then with a title like that it will be able to be stuck out on the back table cutout section eventually too, so the good news is that it'll be shown all over the bookstore, front and back!)  

 

But first, I seek to self-publish without the typical intermediaries who might object to a book cover, for example, of W. Bush wiping his bottom on a copy of the Economic Recovery Act of 2009 or something.  (We'll see what I eventually go with).  

 

As a capitalist, I do believe that (with some guardrails) the system we have here is the worst... but better than all the others.  One of the great things I cherish about America is the freedom of speech we enjoy, even the freedom to make jokes about it being "the worst".  A sophisticated mind can hold two opposing ideas in equal regard, so I see it as my patriotic duty to rip Wall Street and conservatives a new one (that might let out all the bile they keep building up) as an act of love for my country.

 

I believe that a functioning democracy demands educated citizens who are not afraid to criticise the country in order to make it better and are not intimidated by the cudgel of partisan politics.  

 

Some people say "Oh, I don't get involved with politics."  Perhaps most.  But you are in with the Polis whether you like it or not.  Either you play the game or the game is playing you... there is no opting out.

 

There are some who want to win the game by cheating, and some who want to win by scaring or scarring their opponents off the field.  We will not allow such cynical strategies to be successful.  So... Play the game of money and politics right, and play to win.  I am also fairly Libertarian in nature.  I believe that you often can't legislate morality and that abuse of government power is exactly what the Founding Fathers wanted to prevent.

 

 Instead, I believe in the power of ideas and education, and I want to have greater freedom in the creativity I can bring to such a humanist project.  I have worked long enough in the mines of capitalism; now I want to inspect it for safety and sustainability and then suggest solar, wind and biotech instead as a metaphorical solution.

 

In fact, my strength has always been as a creative outsider with a keen way of observing how the sausage could be made better.  As an auto-didact, I am committed to thinking for myself and that means I constantly reject most conventional wisdom until I've been able to critique it myself.  

 

If there is one thing I am sure of it is that I must think for myself, work for myself, and pass my knowledge and unique worldview on to the next generation before I pass away.

 

 That is why today I am an entreprenuer who will be seeking to capitalize on the kinds of creative possibilities and unlimited reach which the internet gives authors today.

 

And that is why I will be publishing excerpts of my novel "Wall Street Snafu" on this site.  At the intersection of finance, culture and politics... thats where I want to plant my flag.

 

See you at the Pen Awards!