41 Comments
“Let me begin with the caveats: I like men,” writes Barnard’s president in today’s Washington Post, “But as the financial debacle unfolds, I can’t help noticing that all the perpetrators of the greatest economic mess in eight decades are, well, men.”
Oh yes, you may have heard many other explanations for the Wall Street crisis: irresponsible lending agencies, insane hedge fund managers, a housing prices bubble, and so on. But according to Barnard’s president (who was a professor at Harvard Business School before coming to Morningside Heights), though, the problem lies in the nefarious XY chromosome pairing. Male-dominated Wall Street DSpar argues, could have been saved by some female leadership, because “women may be less inclined than men to place the kind of bets that can get them in real trouble.” Oh, and female whistleblowers (on Wall Street or elsewhere) are also never listened to.
Don’t worry, though, guys: Spar assures you that “I have spent most of my career surrounded by men, and I have no major complaints.”
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41 Comments
@blackminorcapullets Interesting concept but greed might have more to do with it than testosterone…and there is lots of greedy estrogen around.
@30 rocker Jack Donaghey was right. It IS hardest to be a white male in this country.
@more... Kenneth: “I am also a white man–”
Jack: “No you are not. Socio-economically speaking you are more like an inner-city Latina.”
@Abby “Im gonna smack your balls off” -Abigail Adams
@twat is twat ok? Can I call her a twat?
@lol only if we can call you a limp-dicked shithead
@go ahead at least I won’t be a sandy twat about it.
@That's one of the stupidest things I’ve heard.
It’s sad when feminists destroy their cred by reading sexism/chauvanism into situations where it just simply doesn’t apply.
I’m sure that there are anti-regulatory women as well, ones who would have made similar choices. Sarah Palin, anyone?
@... o right. lets listen to the woman trying to capitalize on a bad situation to steer attention away from the real problems and onto her pet interests. that sort of behavior is nothing like what got us into this mess in the first place…
@"Once upon a time and a very good time it was there was a moocow coming down along the road [called Wall Street] and this moocow that was coming down along the road met a nicens little boy named baby tuckoo”
adapted from Joyce
@wonder if ill be deleted maybe the reason men cause the problems is because they’re the only ones with enough power to actually make a difference.
@cow sez moo
@yeah it’s really irritating when bwog censors. i’m sure the comments are idiotic, but w/e?
@women just need to know their place that’s all
@Can people stop name-calling DSpar and Barnard students? Her argument was flawed but calling her an ugly cunt and a ho only makes you look like a sexist asshole.
@lol dspar Shame that no men can donate to your shit college. Enjoy going under, you crap ho.
@Good, but Really Debra Spar? You seem to have overlooked that the CLO, a financial instrument misused that led to the subprime mortgage crisis, (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collateralized_loan_obligation) was created by a woman, Blythe Masters of JPMorgan.
Recessions are Equal Opportunity
@Thanks for bashing 40% of my winter break, ass.
@gco personally, i think the “innate sexual differences” question is a non-starter, and is about as exciting to watch as world’s strongest man reruns
@Hmm Unquestioned essentialism with a tinge of hate-mongering. Barnard’s in for a fun few years! Unless those men have anything to say about it!
@Hmm... Well, I do believe that the XX pairing is a nefarious problem, but I don’t think that was the article’s original intention.
@FBI? Her mention of the FBI agent was dumb. That’s not even a case of an excessive reliance on risk vs. whistle-blowing. That has more to do with institutional inefficiencies and inter-agency incompetence.
Poor choice.
@ummm she looks like a man, just like the rest of the barnard girls
@Last I checked Erin Callan is not a man.
@good analysis Dspar. But you know what, I think the real reason there was a crash is because there are far too few cows on Wall Street. Now I have nothing against non-cows – my parents and brother are not cows. But cows are simply not inclined to take the kinds of risks homo sapiens are. Trust me! Cows do not “embrace the kind of massively aggressive behavior that brought us a Dow of 14,000 and then, seemingly overnight, a crash of epic proportions”.
“Conversely, [cows] may also be more inclined to blow the whistle on others’ risky business.” Consider that if you approach a cow suspiciously, it will stare at you and moo.
Cows are exactly what we need on Wall Street, and in general. This I state without proof because clearly a wall-street with few cows has not worked.
@It's true that men are on average much more likely to take risks – not just in finance but pretty much everywhere. Sometimes it’s successful; sometimes not. When it’s successful, it generates enormous returns to society – think explorers and entrepeneurs – but it can also fail, which it clearly did here. So, blaming the economic crisis on men is accurate but meaningless, since the economic growth that has collapsed during the crisis was ALSO created predominately by men.
@iono the article wasn’t quite as stupid as it seems at first glance, but i’m not very impressed. there’s been plenty of male whistle-blowers, and the girls who work at goldman sachs are prolly just as psycho.
not a very convincing frame of analysis. but yeah, more women should work on wall street!
@thank god the first comment in this was about the xx thing. to be “snarky” and stupid at the same time is weak.
@bwog XY.
lern 2 science.
@well she’s probably right
@The King of Spain I wonder if if the “But I have a husband” cop-out will become the next “But I have gay friends?”
@surrounded by men that’s what she said
@Double Standard? Larry Summers got into a whole load of trouble for questioning whether innate differences between men and women account for the lack of women in top science and engineering positions. Will the PC police attack DSpar with the same vehemence for daring to insinuate that men and women manage risk differently?
@Seriously, Bwog? XX? Seriously?
@Anish Fixed, thanks.