Must-Read: Yes, 1 Percenters Are That Bad - "What I Saw When I Crashed a Wall Street Secret Society"

[Hissyspit]

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2014/02/i-crashed-a-wall-street-secret-society.html

Today at 12:05 AM 321 Comments

One-Percent Jokes and Plutocrats in Drag: What I Saw When I Crashed a Wall Street Secret Society

By Kevin Roose

Recently, our nation’s financial chieftains have been feeling a little unloved. Venture capitalists are comparing the persecution of the rich to the plight of Jews at Kristallnacht, Wall Street titans are saying that they’re sick of being beaten up, and this week, a billionaire investor, Wilbur Ross, proclaimed that “the 1 percent is being picked on for political reasons.”

Ross's statement seemed particularly odd, because two years ago, I met Ross at an event that might single-handedly explain why the rest of the country still hates financial tycoons – the annual black-tie induction ceremony of a secret Wall Street fraternity called Kappa Beta Phi.

- snip -

• Warren Stephens, an investment banking CEO, took the stage in a Confederate flag hat and sang a song about the financial crisis, set to the tune of “Dixie.” (“In Wall Street land we’ll take our stand, said Morgan and Goldman. But first we better get some loans, so quick, get to the Fed, man.”)

A few more acts followed, during which the veteran Kappas continued to gorge themselves on racks of lamb, throw petits fours at the stage, and laugh uproariously. Michael Novogratz, a former Army helicopter pilot with a shaved head and a stocky build whose firm, Fortress Investment Group, had made him a billionaire, was sitting next to me, drinking liberally and annotating each performance with jokes and insults.
“Can you fuckin’ believe Lasry up there?” Novogratz asked me. I nodded. He added, “He just gave me a ride in his jet a month ago.”
The neophytes – who had changed from their drag outfits into Mormon missionary costumes — broke into their musical finale: a parody version of “I Believe,” the hit ballad from The Book of Mormon, with customized lyrics like “I believe that God has a plan for all of us. I believe my plan involves a seven-figure bonus.” Amused, I pulled out my phone, and began recording the proceedings on video. Wrong move.

The grand finale, a parody of "I Believe" from The Book of Mormon

“Who the hell are you?” Novogratz demanded.
I felt my pulse spike. I was tempted to make a run for it, but – due to the ethics code of the New York Times, my then-employer – I had no choice but to out myself.

“I’m a reporter,” I said.
Novogratz stood up from the table.

"You’re not allowed to be here," he said.
I, too, stood, and tried to excuse myself, but he grabbed my arm and wouldn’t let go.

“Give me that or I’ll fucking break it!” Novogratz yelled, grabbing for my phone, which was filled with damning evidence. His eyes were bloodshot, and his neck veins were bulging. The song onstage was now over, and a number of prominent Kappas had rushed over to our table. Before the situation could escalate dangerously, a bond investor and former Grand Swipe named Alexandra Lebenthal stepped in between us. Wilbur Ross quickly followed, and the two of them led me out into the lobby, past a throng of Wall Street tycoons, some of whom seemed to be hyperventilating.

- snip -

The first and most obvious conclusion was that the upper ranks of finance are composed of people who have completely divorced themselves from reality. No self-aware and socially conscious Wall Street executive would have agreed to be part of a group whose tacit mission is to make light of the financial sector’s foibles. Not when those foibles had resulted in real harm to millions of people in the form of foreclosures, wrecked 401(k)s, and a devastating unemployment crisis.

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[JustAnotherGen]

1. I just ordered

his book Young Money this morning. I like this guy - I like him a great deal!

[enlightenment]

2. I wonder why it took him two years to publish this?

I wonder if the NYT refused the story.

[grasswire]

3. so did the NYT fire him? nt

[Hekate]

4. KnR. Off to read the whole article.

Oy -- just when you think they couldn't get worse...

[Hekate]

5. Wall Street chapter of KBP appears to have been founded in the auspicious year of 1929...

...by four students of George W. Bush's caliber and sensibility (i.e. boasting of their C+ average from an elite college). Their motto and "key" mock those of the Phi Beta Kappa society.

Just another frat house dedicated to drinking, partying, networking among the elite, and stunting their growth as human beings. Can't say worse than that without spitting in their martinis.


source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kappa_Beta_Phi

[Rex]

6. Wealthy people divorced from reality?

Impossible, America is always growing stronger in the Dream of prosperity. Must be a recent trend.


Thank God nations and governments exist to help the poor! This recent trend of greed will no doubt be stopped in it's tracks.

[antigop]

7. already posted in GD....

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024519653

[Hissyspit]

10. Thanks, I was wondering why it wasn't getting more reaction.

Last edited Tue Feb 18, 2014, 05:29 PM - Edit history (1)

Notice MaDEM's first comment reaction was the same as mine: Must-Read.

[PADemD]

8. Check out the full membership list attachment to the article.

[Gman]

9. If it wasn't for the link

I'd think this is The Onion.

[Fantastic Anarchist]

11. The Author of this is a God Among Men!!

This was a literal "let them eat cake" moment, captured and documented.

This really needs to go viral so the morons who vote against their interest can finally see what their overseers really think of them.

It's time for the 1%ers to start making some fucking concessions.

"<...>that if you had dropped a bomb on the roof, global finance as we know it might have ceased to exist."

I can think of worse things to happen.

Signed,

Furious

[Fantastic Anarchist]

12. I just got this recommendation from another site:

The Psychopath Test

Here's the publishers blurb:

This is a story about madness. It all starts when journalist Jon Ronson is contacted by a leading neurologist. She and several colleagues have recently received a cryptically puzzling book in the mail, and Jon is challenged to solve the mystery behind it. As he searches for the answer, Jon soon finds himself, unexpectedly, on an utterly compelling and often unbelievable adventure into the world of madness. Jon meets a Broadmoor inmate who swears he faked a mental disorder to get a lighter sentence but is now stuck there, with nobody believing he's sane. He meets some of the people who catalogue mental illness, and those who vehemently oppose them. He meets the influential psychologist who developed the industry standard Psychopath Test and who is convinced that many important CEOs and politicians are in fact psychopaths. Jon learns from him how to ferret out these high-flying psychopaths and, armed with his new psychopath-spotting abilities, heads into the corridors of power . . . Combining Jon's trademark humour, charm and investigative incision, The Psychopath Test is a deeply honest book unearthing dangerous truths and asking serious questions about how we define normality in a world where we are increasingly judged by our maddest edges.

Google Books

[brooklynite]

13. Last time I checked, you can find the same obnoxiousness among people who DON'T work on Wall Street.

...even among R/Wers who aren't in the 1%.

[Hekate]

14. "Many...had surely been first-year bankers once"

The final paragraphs:

The last thought I had, and the saddest, was that many of these self-righteous Kappa Beta Phi members had surely been first-year bankers once. And in the 20, 30, or 40 years since, something fundamental about them had changed. Their pursuit of money and power had removed them from the larger world to the sad extent that, now, in the primes of their careers, the only people with whom they could be truly themselves were a handful of other prominent financiers.

Perhaps, I realized, this social isolation is why despite extraordinary evidence to the contrary, one-percenters like Ross keep saying how badly persecuted they are. When you’re a member of the fraternity of money, it can be hard to see past the foie gras to the real world.

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2014/02/i-crashed-a-wall-street-secret-society.html