Oh, Those Dastardly Francophobic Americans

I have yet to see any mention in the US general interest press, or even the financial press of the nationality of the Goldman Sachs VP who played a supporting role to John Paulson, the man behind the failed financial product that the SEC’s nicely timed investigation is all about.

Otherwise, you find the usual anonymous net nitwit comments that reveal a soul of a nation, the one that likes to find associations between nationalities and inherent wrongness in the same way bombasts used to use race:

Je suis très étonnée qu'il n'y ai que des français qui aient très mauvaise réputation. Tous les traders sont à mettre dans le même panier. on devrait supprimer la BOURSE on serait tranquille.

or:

“I am very surprised that there have only the French who have very bad reputation. All traders are put in one basket. we should eliminate STOCK to keep things calm”

As usual, there are no other people out there in the world, and that fact that people are more relevant for who they are instead of what they do figures into a good reason to bloviate stupidly about market economics that the commenter doesn’t understand anyway.

It’s like the old off-hand statement one used to hear “those smart, humane people” say about how there shouldn’t be any money, and then everyone will be free of worry and prosperous.

In either case, I’m always trying to figure out who’s taking the other side of that trade.