{"id":439,"date":"2015-05-16T19:41:00","date_gmt":"2015-05-16T23:41:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bringingfreudtofraud.com\/?p=439"},"modified":"2015-05-16T22:05:34","modified_gmt":"2015-05-17T02:05:34","slug":"opulent-excess-when-does-it-stop-being-funny","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bringingfreudtofraud.com\/?p=439","title":{"rendered":"OPULENT EXCESS: WHEN DOES IT STOP BEING FUNNY?"},"content":{"rendered":"

(By Joe Koletar<\/a>) Crain\u2019s New York Business of February 2-8, 2015 carries the following article:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe house that Ira built: Trial begins for mining maven Ira Rennert, Accused of Looting his Company to Build the Nation\u2019s Largest Private Mansion,\u201d<\/em> by Aaron Elstein, page 1.<\/p>\n

The article cites information from estimates and other sources indicating that Mr. Rennert, who later would be convicted of wrong-doing, seems to have gone a bit far in the view of some. His mansion is described as having: 29 bedrooms, 39 bathrooms, 3 dining rooms, 3 swimming pools, a 164-seat theater, gymnasium, basketball court, and bowling alley. Its assessed tax value is reported to be $248 million; its property taxes last year were $756 thousand, and its estimated size is 62 thousand square feet.<\/p>\n

Ordered by a federal jury to return $118.2 million plus interest to his defunct company, Mr. Rennert\u2019s current legal situation is actually not the issue. For this posting, the issue is our society\u2019s concept of \u201cMore.\u201d If one slice of rich pie is good, are four slices that much better? Some wealthy and famous people \u2013 like Bill Gates and Warren Buffet \u2013 are reported to have arranged to give most of their accumulated wealth away to charities.<\/p>\n

The game is over. You and your team have won. Now what do you do with all the trophies? An old Texas oil baron is reported to have once said, \u201cHell, son, it ain\u2019t the money. It\u2019s just how we keep score.\u201d<\/p>\n

Which brings us to an observation once made by the noted novelist, William Styron, who once referred to \u201cThe American bitch-goddess. Success.\u201d<\/p>\n

Indeed, how much \u201csuccess\u201d is enough? Is \u201cmore\u201d always better than \u201cenough?\u201d We address such issues in The A.B.C.\u2019s of Behavioral Forensics<\/a>. What seems to prompt excessive behavior?
\nEgo? Love of self (Narcissism)? Clinical or sub-clinical psychosis? The fact, in the long run, seems to be it is all a game of some sort, and the kid with the most marbles can decide what
\nthey want to do with them once they have \u201cwon\u201d the \u201cgame.\u201d<\/p>\n

This would be an amusing commentary on human nature were it not, in more than a few instances, so closely connected to human suffering: jobs lost, savings depleted, bankruptcies and mortgage foreclosures, etc. Is the game so important that what the military calls \u201ccollateral damage\u201d is seen as just an unfortunate circumstance of little concern?<\/p>\n

More than a few entertainers have used the concept of \u201cexcess\u201d to be funny: Dolly Parton and her bust size; Dean Martin in acting drunk; Woody Allen with his neuroses; Rodney Dangerfield and being a loser; Jerry Lewis with ineptness. These excesses make us laugh and we enjoy the entertainment, but the raise a somewhat simple question:<\/p>\n

When does it stop being funny?<\/p>\n

Join us for more insights into behavioral forensics (behind fraud and similar white collar crimes) from the authors of <\/span><\/em>A.B.C.s of Behavioral Forensics<\/span><\/span><\/a> (Wiley, 2013): Sri Ramamoorti, Ph. D., Daven Morrison, M.D., and Joe Koletar, D.P.A., along with Vic Hartman, J.D. These distinguished experts come from the disciplines of psychology, medicine, accounting, law, and law enforcement to explain and prevent fraud. Because we are inspired to bring to light and address the fraud problems in today\u2019s headlines, we encourage our readers to come back and revisit us regularly at BringingFreudtoFraud.com.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(By Joe Koletar) Crain\u2019s New York Business of February 2-8, 2015 carries the following article: \u201cThe house that Ira built: Trial begins for mining maven Ira Rennert, Accused of Looting his Company to Build the Nation\u2019s Largest Private Mansion,\u201d by Aaron Elstein, page 1. The article cites information from estimates and other sources indicating that … Continue reading OPULENT EXCESS: WHEN DOES IT STOP BEING FUNNY?<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-439","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-audit"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bringingfreudtofraud.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/439","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bringingfreudtofraud.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bringingfreudtofraud.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bringingfreudtofraud.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bringingfreudtofraud.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=439"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/bringingfreudtofraud.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/439\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":447,"href":"https:\/\/bringingfreudtofraud.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/439\/revisions\/447"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bringingfreudtofraud.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=439"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bringingfreudtofraud.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=439"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bringingfreudtofraud.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=439"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}