Hi Ray,
Let me just take one paragraph from your message:
(REH)
>>>>
These people [in the White House] love Renaissance Bankers but they praise
the Renaissance and
then create in mono-syllables. You might want to reference Renaissance on
Encarta or Britannica on that. Things like the roots of opera and the
roots of accounting coming out of the same time and culture. Are they
connected? I believe they are, both culturally and intellectually. But
today's bankers complain about culture rather than growing and understanding
it. They simply want cash! Cash is the only reason for work! Cash is
the only reason for their lives!
>>>>
Well, I'm glad you agree with me that banking (double-entry book-keeping,
promissory notes and the like) and the roots of opera (from Banchieri's
Academia dei Floridi and the like) came from the same source.
But the the big difference between today and then is that the great bankers
of the Renaissance were also polymaths and people of high culture. Today,
specialised as we are, the brightest people go into quantum physics and the
like and have very little time for anything else. I'd say that there are
very few bankers with any knowledge of the world outside their immediate
province. The only exception I can think of is Martin Taylor who, as a
relatively young man (in his early 40s), was parachuted into the job as CEO
of Barclays Bank in the UK. But he was far too versatile for that job,
didn't like the politics of it, and after about a year he simply resigned
without a (public) word of explanation.
But when you write "They simply want cash!", well I don't think you should
be so pious about it. We all want cash. It's the basis of everything we do.
Without it we couldn't exist. At bottom it's the only way of ensuring that
we share our skills with one another. It would be nice it we could all
operate on the basis of trust and, as it were, keep mental balance sheets
of our obligations inside our heads, but our needs are too great and life
is too complex for that now.
Keith
___________________________________________________________________
Keith Hudson, General Editor, Calus <http://www.calus.org>
6 Upper Camden Place, Bath BA1 5HX, England
Tel: +44 1225 312622; Fax: +44 1225 447727;
mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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