A Pandemic Of Greed

Paul, writing in the first chapter of Romans, makes a blanket condemnation of all ungodliness [verses 18 and 29] then goes on to list a lot of "ungodly" things that people do.
Having thought about Madoff (yesterday) and Stein Bagger (today), I decided it was time to sound off about "covetousness" and " maliciousness" from Paul's list. [Note: concerning Madoff, this man was once President of NASDAQ!] He singlehandedly destroyed those fortunate and unfortunate; taking money from philantropic organizations whose good works for the unfortunate was derived from the growth of monies "entrusted" to his company. He stole in excess of 50 billion dollars. [How long does it take to count fifty billion dollars?]
To my one good eye it looks like wickedness in the world has reached record ,pandemic proportions. Madoff's exploits a.k.a. exploitations, stagger the mind, defying explanation or descritption by a single noun or string of nouns. Enough of Madoff, already.
One commentator called Bagger's exploits the end of "Nordic rectitude." Being Norwegian, I'm not surprised at such stupidity from the Danes. It's kind of like during WWII when the "brave Danes" threw sticks of dynamite at the Germans. But then the Germans lit the fuses and threw them back. (It's a joke, folks).
So what did Bagger do? Well, it seems he owned some sort of a computer manufacturing or supply company and the stock was soaring. On the day he was to be honored as Entrepreneur of The Year he fled a hotel in Dubai, flew to America, drove to San Francisco and turned himself in. He was sent back to Denmark where the whole mess spilled on the press. Blagger was taking investors money and using it to buy his own products so that it would look like the company was thriving.
Is that brilliant, or is that Dane dumb?
Perhaps the most curious bit about this latest covetousness installment is that none of the company bean counters had a clue or smelled anything rotten! That's Denmark. No...that's too harsh. That's me. That's you. That's us. That's the kind of stuff that sinners do. So why am I writing? I don't know. I guess I am stunned by the bold salacity and magnitude of what seems to be a pandemic of greed. I am stunned by what seems to be evil, of record proportions, emerging at record rates in a world in collapse before our eyes.
The writing will stop for today because if I were to start in on any of the other issues listed by Paul I'd have to go to bed, pull the covers over my head, and wait for the coming of the Lord! Sin is just too depressing. "Good Grief", Charlie Brown!
God Bless; we need it. e.c.