My book Without Warning details the toxic nature of silent problems. Possibly the most dangerous problems to solve. Today from the New York Post comes a story titled, “Star Power Dimming At Some Street Firms” (I hate that title). Here’s a brief caption of the story.
Some of Wall Street’s harshest analysts — and, as it turns out, most prescient — are discovering that there’s a steep price for being honest. A growing number of analysts who were either critical of the financial sector or were early raisers of red flags in the mortgage market are getting the cold shoulder from their employers, which has led to the analysts being forced out or silenced. .. Highly regarded mortgage analyst Laurie Goodman, who when she worked at UBS was one of the first researchers to sound the alarm about the dangers of the subprime market, is said to have drawn the ire of UBS brass as her clarion calls crimped the bank’s ability to sell billions in bonds backed by subprime loans. Goodman stopped publishing her 15-year-old weekly research studies in October and a month later left UBS to join boutique Austin, Texas-based firm Amherst Holdings as its research head.
As this story illustrates, problems at times are “Silenced,” which I refer to as Icebox Silent Problems. These problems are being managed and controlled, which makes them extremely difficult to dislodge. From my perspective, this New York Post article is analagous to previous stories related to Enron, Worldcomm and others. The analysts that were screaming “Wolf” should have had their voices heard and heeded. Instead, they were silenced. The financial impact to you and me from this silence is staggering.
Note. The book provides a process for getting your word out, when the individuals above you are holding you down.
