Mammon Goes Mainstream

A few of us are aware the Jesus told us that we cannot worship God and Mammon at the same time.  For regular readers of this blog, you are familiar with the word "Mammon"....but my guess is that only 1 out of 100 people walking around America would have ANY idea what you were talking about if you threw out that word.

If you are a new reader, Mammon refers to the god of wealth, material things and money.  That being said, it is pretty obvious that America has been overrun by Mammon worship.

So today a reader sends me an article written by the founder of PIMCO which is one of the largest mutual fund providers in the world....and HE refers to Mammon.

Money would also become the economic and political wedge for profound changes in American society. Fifty years ago, the highest paid and most prestigious professions were that of a doctor or a 707 airline pilot who flew the “golden” route from Los Angeles to Honolulu. Today the yellow brick road begins on Wall Street or the City. Aside from supernova innovators such as Steve Jobs or Mark Zuckerberg, the money is made from securitizing things instead of booting and rebuilding America. The tallest buildings in almost every major city are banks, with tens of thousands of people shuffling and trading paper for a living. One of this country’s premier investment banks paid each of its 26,000 employees an average of $370,000 in 2010, nearly ten times the take-home pay of other American workers. Almost a quarter of the 400 wealthiest people on Forbes annual richest list make their money from money, whereas only 8% could make that claim in its first issue in 1982, and probably close to 0% when I first read my economic primer in 1966.

Having been part of this process and even a member of the rogue’s gallery itself, I know one thing for sure: This is not God’s work – it has the unmistakable odor of Mammon. PIMCO, while Mammonesque, is a company to be proud of. I can say with confidence that there are very few clients who have not benefited from our investment management over the years. Some of the rest of this industry, however, I’m not so sure of: rating agencies that perpetually fail at commonsensical quality judgments, bankers that make loans to subterranean credits and then extend the beggar’s bowl for themselves, and 80% of active money managers that underperform the market. As a profession we have failed miserably at our primary function – the efficient and productive allocation of capital: The S&L debacle of the early 1980s, the Asian crisis, LTCM, dotcoms, subprimes, Lehman and the resurrection, instead of the reformation, of Wall Street, are major sins of the modern era of money. Hang your heads, moneychangers. And no, it is not yet time to move on, as many banking CEOs suggest. How can bond traders make ten, one hundred, one thousand times more money than an engineer or social worker given their dismal historical performance? Why is it that some of today’s doctors are using food stamps while investment banking executives complain about millions of dollars in compensation that might be deferred in case of a future bailout?

See it here; http://www.pimco.com/Pages/Devils-Bargain.aspx

Interesting that this article is titled Devil's Bargain. Also notice that he uses the word, "moneychangers"....which was used by Jesus when he chased the moneychangers off the Temple Mount.  I think it is fairly clear that this PIMCO dude is reading his Bible.

Hat tip to Jared F.