Active and Passive Vices…err…Voices…err…Values!

Active and Passive Vices…err…Voices…err…Values!



Ganga Prasad G. Rao
http://myprofile.cos.com/gangar


It was a dark storm that had engulfed the FinMin. The economy was in doldrums. Inflation was rampant, and every index of production intent on taking an ‘U’ and diving south. And to complicate matters, the capital markets were all too foresighted and taking plunges after plunges anticipating the economic downturn. The Economic Advisors to the Minister had their ear-ful but had nothing to offer beyond the usual prescriptions. With elections impending, the Minister was at his wits end, receptive to any suggestion, no matter how untried and untested to shore up his party at the polls. Now there’s always one who awaits the ‘Opportunity knocks but once’ circumstance. And who could it be but the infamous Iamsly. Years,… no, decades of doing business with corrupt politicians, whom he had enriched with crumbs from the mineral resources he had exploited, had turned him a billionaire many times over. Call it the pangs of patriotism, empathy for the profession/industry, or a desire to ‘give back’ to those whom he had so mercilessly exploited, but Iamsly was willing to consider a ‘not insubstantial’ donation to a few ‘worthy’ causes, if his excesses were overlooked. Christmas is all about giving, isn’t it?

Does it take a soothsayer to predict what happens when desire meets urge? Or, when one hears a rumor of money to be given away? They turned up sooner than a fly seeks spilled syrup! …Predictably, the first one thru the door claimed to represent those impenured by Iamsly’s International mining firm, in fact representing those accursed in the ‘resource curse’ era. Rubbing shoulders, the other smiling face offered his credentials; he represented the environmentally exploited, and yet in poverty. And forcing her way between the two, the fat lady drew Iamsly’s attention with her charm as she introduced herself as the Head of the Charities for the Aborted Unborns (and,sly sly, MIAs). Behind her was a, … well, many with their begging bowls, small, large, and… hmm.

Was it strategic, genius, or a mere coincidence when Iamsly’s Advisor-Son-Heir apparent -let’s call him Ash shall we? - suggested a ‘tri-partite’ round of Golf meeting between Iamsly, the Minister and the representatives of the various Charities? Perhaps the ‘unscheduled’ mid-term elections were around the corner, for the Minister, uncharacteristically, willingly accommodated the golf picnic, albeit after insisting upon an Attorney by his side. And so, they congregated, in the shade of the White Oak by the golf course. The preliminaries behind, Ash put forth his proposal. He recalled that, over the decades, the nation had witnessed several regime changes – from democratic to dynastic, autocratic to dictatorial…and that Iamsly was an ardent supporter of consensual democracy. Ash pressed the point that tax laws were obeyed more in the exception in those ‘doldrum’ years, then fixed against the Resource barons - ostensibly so the nation could tide over its growing pains, then overturned again to accommodate a dictator’s vengeance, and now were being repealed all over again. Was it Iamsly’s fault that he was incriminated in a dozen tax claims across three decades?

The pressure of the upcoming unscheduled mid-terms must have been intense, for the Minister was all ears. He wondered what the heir had in mind to resolve the matter?Capitalizing on the opportunity, Ash was quick to his point:Shouldn’t the Government, in the spirit of ‘reconciliation’, forgive prior the elections, the (tax) excesses of years past? Referring obliquely to the 2 dozen tax cases that he would inherit, Ash, proposed that the Ministry could repeal the tax laws and permit negotiated tri-partite settlements that channelled the disputed tax amounts to ‘worthy’ causes. Couldn’t we, argued Ash persuasively, in the spirit of the Yuletide, ….ahem…. add a clause that permitted Charities and NGOs to bid for the disputed tax monies set aside in escrow accounts? Why, they could compete amongst themselves in bidding rounds by varying the ‘degree of forgivance’ they would offer to the defendant, to sway the donation their way, and thus resolve the dispute amicably. What Ash didn’t divulge was his hope that the more severe the crash crunch the NGOs and charities faced, the worthier and the less-correlated their cause, (or, the looser their principles) the larger would be the degree of tax forgivance they would risk in the bidding rounds. Plainspeak: Forgive my ‘the-axe’ excesses and I fill your stockings!.

The Attorney interrupted Ash as he outlined his proposal, and insisted that any tax settlement be recorded formally as an affidavit in the arbitration documents to be signed by the Minister. But it was the Minister who foresaw that Iamsly(and his ilk) would get away with looting the Fort Knox in broad daylight, what with several Charities bidding for the ‘escrow largesse’. Uprightly, he insisted that the ‘forgivers’ have choice aplenty as to the party with whom to engage in the ‘forgivance business’. Surprised with the Minister’s acumen, Ash presumed the Minister would also be wise to the possibility NGOs would cross-compete and forgive the grossest of sins, crimes and evasions in bidding against each other even as they defended their own turf in interests dear to them. And indeed, the Minister, fearing the subversion of Justice, sought the opinion of the bemused Attorney, who suggested a EqSF/EfSF variant, that empowered those NGOs that truly believed in their cause, to outbid the more forgiving and the less-principled amongst them, and claim restitution for the ‘unforgiven’ wrongs via the ‘Bond market – Full key’ resolution. Ash cringed at the prospect of the bond market playing volatility on his escrow until the wrong was corrected, but played along fearing the talks would break down.

In the months that followed Iamsly, Ash, and those other Iamnasty,gathered under the watchful eye of the Attorney as the various charities and NGOs – environmental, health, social, animal rights, gay rights, you name it – bid against each other to offer various degrees of ‘tax forgivances’. A case of a $10 million tax avoidance was bid up to 60% forgivance, in return for a $2 million endowment to the environmental organization.A ‘tax case’ involving oil spill in the Mid-Atlantic counted for near nothing in a settlement with a Gay rights organization – the guilty excused a good 90% of his oil spill dues. In another dispute, a firm in the dock for a Superfund NIMBY violation, was cornered with a ‘meet you half-way’ offer by the Vietnam Vets,literally for the cake!Worse, a case of ‘Leaded Gasoline with 6% Benzene’ was bid away by an EqSF environmental organization that sponsored and underwrote a new issue of ‘Education for the Poor’ bonds with the wrong.

A lonely intern whom the Attorney had accompany him, took note of the ‘principals’ and ‘principles’ involved in the ‘tax forgivance – sin encashing – fund raising’ trading sessions, in particular the implicit ‘premiums and discounts’ across the various settlements. He hoped to collect sufficient data to put together a model that would facilitate the elicitation of overt and passive values for environmental and social causes, as well as WTAs among the ‘Forgivers’,and WTPs among the ‘Forgiven’ for various environmental sins that fouled the commons. He hypothesized that an incentive existed to permit the proliferation of Charities and NGOs, staff them with unethical managers, and hold their finances on a leash, so they’d be willing, even waiting to ‘forgive and forget’ the sins, omissions and commissions of the industry for a pittance. He hoped to get a Master’s thesis out of it. As for his thesis committee, the Attorney was already weighing upon him.....and an Iamnasty waiting in the wings to fund him even an entire year.

Here’s wishing him all luck! (and, years to his life)

Au Revoir !