Did cocaine use by bankers cause the global financial crisis?
Wow….that’s a pretty alarming statement but if you really dig into why certain studies support this you might actually agree with the statement. Cocaine is the drug that makes you want more, more, more and the part of the brain that Cocaine hijacks, makes us want more, more, more.
I actually agree that Cocaine is the drug that results in intense bouts of over exuberance and over confidence that gives people the power to talk and act on things they know little about, and all the while convincing others that they know exactly what they are talking about.
Everyone accepts that a fragile credit bubble was built during the build up of our financial collapse and studies now show that a lot of cocaine was being used by those on Wall Street and all over the United States during this “build up” to collapse. It’s also argued that traders were more mentally equipped to sell mortgages that were sure to collapse if they were jacked up on Cocaine and full of narcotic-induced self confidence! And on the flip side, a lot of coked up buyers didn’t think their mortgages through before signing away on bad investments.
Some of the big wigs that played a major role in the economic collapse were known Cocaine users. Bernie Madoff’s office was known as the “North Pole” to other investors because of the amount of “snow” that was there in a regular basis. Also, Jimmy Cayne (former CEO of Bear Sterns) was known to always carry an antacid bottle filled with cocaine on him at all times.
Dr. Chris Luke was the head of the major study that showed prominent figures in the financial and political circles made horrible decisions under the influence of heavy cocaine use and were 110% sure that they were correct. This heavily fueled the economic collapse. Greed and selfishness also played its role but you would have to be completely blind to not see the impact Cocaine played on our economic ruin of a few years ago.