Session 3: Greed, Cash and Complaining Too Much

The Money Pod started with Roger Martin, who gave us the goods on why the 1% – CEOs and hedge fund managers primarily – are making record incomes even as they contribute to the stock market crash. To understand why this is the case, Martin used a helpful football analogy to elucidate the distinction between real markets and expectations markets. The linking of these two markets, unlike in football where players are suspended for life if they bet on an NFL game, is why CEOs now care not about performance but the expectations of performance. We are giving them incentives to hype expectations and then cash out. But as the Dean of the Rotman school of Management, Martin’s idealism, we hope, will turn out more of the kinds of people who are in the game for the greater good.

David Chilton is the guru of the other side of the money equation – personal finances –  but he had a different kind of message for our audience today. Chilton thinks we here in Canada have completely lost the ability to distinguish between minor inconveniences and major problems. Helping us get a bit of perspective on  how lucky we are, Chilton argued that everything is better now, from TV remotes to the health care system, and yet we complain more than ever. His final message – one of optimism – was that life is good!

Third in the trifecta of money-men was David Wolman, who advocates a cashless future. “Cash is anachronistic, germ-infested, carbon-heavy, and criminals love it” was his memorable assessment of those greenbacks we can’t seem to live without. Wolman gave a series of arguments in defense of a monetary revolution that he believes is already in the works, despite our resistance and our attachment to the physical aspect of cash.

Then, as per tradition here at ideacity, a stretch-break got the audience up and moving. Physical exercise was crucial to the ancient Greek philosophers, after all. Audie Goslan led the audience in his signature style of yoga – Kabalah Yoga.

There was an awful lot to discuss by the time the conversation break rolled around…