GWRT 103
Professor Jones
10/28/2010
Too Big to Fail
When people talk about crimes, they envision extremely violent and unethical crimes such as murder, rape, or robbery that usually committed by these unfortunates who couldn't help but lose hope in themselves while struggle to find their places in society. These are the street gang members who struggle in poverty and hunted by ignorance of knowledge and ghosts of their past. However, there are different types of crimes that are usually referred to as “office crime”, which are committed by white collar workers or big corporations who have become thoroughly unscrupulous in their desire for profits. In his cartoon “Too Big to Fail” which is published in Global Market, Elison Elliott addressed the issue of big corporation’s financial crimes and how they have been treated differently by U.S. Government from other criminals.
In the cartoon, Elliott pictured four people falling from tall business buildings while hundreds of tax payers formed a safety net under their falling. The idea behind it is that these four giant financial institutions have committed crimes that involve accounting fraud, but they have not been brought before justice which is represented by the safety net. Because they’re too important to the macro economy, the government has developed plans to help them even though they have committed crimes through accounting fraud. The fattest individual, or the corporation that committed most crimes, is most likely to get catch by the justice system while there are small individuals who are able to escape from the U.S. legal system and avoid the consequences of it.
Elliott first used the title of the cartoon to effectively capture audience’s attention. According to the Free Dictionary.com, banks are “too-big-to-fail” because they’re so central to a macro economy that their failure will be disastrous to an economy therefore governments should provide financial services to eliminate bankruptcy of large financial institutions. By reading the title of the cartoon, audience starts wondering what the title means automatically, and if the content, or author’s message of the cartoon, contradicts with the title of the cartoon, it is especially hard for the readers to forget about the message. It is apparent that the author believes banks and big corporations should not be privileged under the law while the title of his cartoon calls for importance of financial institutions. This technique is especially effective because by providing contradictory title and message of a cartoon, the author induces readers’ full attention and thus making his message hard to be removed from readers’ brains.
Additionally, the display of the cartoon itself adds meanings to Elliott’s message. Elliott used typography to convey meanings in his cartoon. Because human eye is very receptive to differences in brightness within a text body, artists and cartoonists manipulate black and white, skinny and fat, of the front and images to attract audience attention and emphasis words. By using the boldface technique to emphasize the text “safety net”, Elliott is highlighting the concept of “safety net” by providing easy visual scanning of the text.
From the choice of black-and-white format instead of colored format, it is easy associate law (black and white, or guilty and innocent) with the two opposite colors. From the psychological perspective, black is often used as a symbol of menace or evil, and it is also popular as an indicator of power (Cherry). The four falling figures in the cartoon are mainly covered in black; they represent Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Bear Sterns, and banks that are famous for their immoral crimes in accounting fraud. Black is well used in demonstrating deceiving corporations which have lost morality in committing unethical crimes. White, on the other hand, represents purity or innocence (Cherry). Space between the “safety net” is represented using white, which could be seen as innocent individuals or corporations. Keep in mind that color associations come from the person who interprets it, therefore they can differ from culture to culture, and they can change over time. However, the color association of black and white is universal and has been agreed upon worldwide cultures. It is easy to infer from this point that Elliott’s targeted audience come from all nations and all cultures.
The fat lady who represents Fannie Mea is holding a bag of cash that reads "Gov bail out." The message demonstrates the central message of the entire cartoon: government bails out the nation's financial institutions and big corporations from crimes because they're "too big to fail". In September, 2008, U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson and the chairman of the Federal Reserve, Ben S. Bernanke, came up with a proposal from to bail out U.S. Financial institutions; they acted after "a series of ad-hoc bailouts and government-brokered sale of investment banks like Bear Stearns....and of giant lenders like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac" ("Credit Crisis-Bailout Plan"). Because financial institutions such as Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and Bear Stearns are playing a very important and vital role in preventing financial calamities in macro economy, the federal government could not afford to lose them, even if they committed crimes.
Investigations exposed a shocking truth that guild audience into the secrete world of big corporations'. The image of corporations such as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac as low-risked, best institutions in the business is actually a facade. Many people are probably aware of the accounting scandals of big corporations back in 2003 and 2005. Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and Bear Stearns happen to be three of the companies involved in manipulating accounting and financial-reporting abuse (Weil).
The three individuals falling from the cartoon represent Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and Bear Sterns from left to right protraited in order of biggest and fattest to less heavy cartoon people. It is interesting to note that all falling figures are portrait in tie and formal clothes while the tax payers dress up in T-shirts. Elliott is apparently using the difference between the falling figures and tax payers to show the difference in wealth and power between big corporations and average citizens. Not only do big corporations like Fannie Mae escape jails, compensations, and all legal consequences after committing crimes, but U.S. Government actually stands behind them because they're "too-big-to-fail". But is it really ethical to bail out financial institutions out of jails because they're too essential for macrocosmic? Is it democratic to treat big corporations and average criminals differently under U.S. Justice System?
Elliott is presenting to the world of these questions through "Too Big To Fail" cartoon. His primary purpose of publishing this cartoon is to inform audience of this injustice through Global Economy, a magazine targeting worldwide nations, not just to U.S. audience. The source Global Economy revealed that Elliott’s targeted audience is business people worldwide. It also helped Elliott establishes ethos, or trust and credibility, by simply publishing the cartoon at the reliable source: the Global Market. The fact that the Global Market relates to business macroeconomics even adds more credibility to this cartoon. The author Elliott himself also contributed to the cartoon’s ethos. According to the Global Market, Elison Elliott is a professional investment advisor for the Global Wealth and Investment Management division of a major worldwide financial services firm. He has eighteen years of experience in the field of global financial market. As an expert in the financial market, Elliott’s advice and opinions are exceedingly reliable.
In the cartoon “Too Big to Fail”, Elliott informs audience regarding government reaction to big corporations committing crimes. Just because the big corporations are too important does not mean they can be treated differently from individual criminals when committing a crime. Big corporations are running amok; they understand their value to U.S. economy and they know they have been privileged by U.S. Government over average citizens. Is it another beginning of another era of privileged "nobles" verses "poor peasants"? Everyone is equal under the law, but in practice, do government’s actions reflect true means of "democracy"?
Work Cited
Elliott, Elison. “’Too Big to Fail’ is ‘Too Big to Exist’”. Global
Market, Foreign Policy Association, Oct 28, 2010.
http://globaleconomy.foreignpolicyblogs.com/2009/10/31/obama-finally-endorses-stronger-tbtf-reforms/reforms/
Cherry, Kendra. “Color Psychology-Black”, About.com Guide:
Psychology, Part of the New
York Times Company, Oct 30, 2010.
http://psychology.about.com/od/sensationandperception/a/color_black.htm
Cherry, Kendra. “Color Psychology-White”, About.com Guide:
Psychology, part of the New York Times Company, Oct 30,
2010.
http://psychology.about.com/od/sensationandperception/a/color_white.htm
"Credit Crisis--Bailout Plan", The New York Times, The New York
Times Company, July 12, 2010,
http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/c/credit_crisis/bailout_plan/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier
Weil, Jonathan. "Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac Still Too Big to Nail",
Bloomberg L.P. July 28, 2010.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-07-29/fannie-mae-freddie-mac-still-too-big-to-nail-commentary-by-jonathan-weil.html
This work, for which I received, no unauthorized assistance, complies with the JMU Honor Code. Miranda Tong
