One of my recent favorite movies was Mongol, based on the life of Genghis Khan… everyone has a misty knowledge of Khan’s great 13th century territorial successes… conquering all of Asia Minor… on horseback… decrepit civilizations demolished…
But there is some later parts of Khan’s life which elevate it to its historic place… the Khan created and imposed “civil” law (Yassa) … from wikipedia,,,
~~ “The main purpose was likely to eliminate social and economic disputes among the Mongols and future allied people. Among the rules was that there would be no stealing of livestock from other people, sharing foods with travellers, stealing women from other families, or defecting among soldiers.
It represented a day-to-day set of rules for people under Mongol control that was enforced strictly with very stiff punishments for violators. People were free to worship as they pleased, as long as the laws of the Yassa were observed.
The word Yassa translates into “order” or “decree”.The Yassa was written on scrolls and bound into volumes that could only be seen by the Khan or his closest advisors, but the rules in the content were widely known and were followed…” ~~
Create the law… share the law… follow the law…
In Khan’s empire “order” was maintained through harsh punishments… which is a method of keeping order… one used in many forms…
But the more powerrful method is when the people want to follow the law… they know that “order” makes life better for them,,, they know that they are part of the “order”…
Create the law… share the law… love the law…
This whole process works in a free nation when the people love the law… and willingly live by the rules… it’s similar to how a family or any close unit works… we respect and care for each and subjegate some of our own interests for the well being of the family…
I’m in Oklahoma now… this is a place where people love the law… it’s a conservative place… the “order” that we share is desired for social harmony…
It’s not perfect here… plenty of rough edges… but a more general social harmony prevails… people expect fair dealing and truthful relations… honesty is prized… corruption is considered poisonous…
In the fixed income space we have an established set of rules… it is a weak template of general rules for representing the characteristics of securities and loosely representing those to investors…
We are now seeing the harsh readjustment of corporate behaviors to established rules… fines… buybacks… maybe court cases… the auction rate securities slaughter…
I imagine throughout C-suites teeth are nashing… the rules were laid out for brokers to follow in selling these securities… blith disregard of the most minimum of investor protection rules… it’s dark… the clients have no idea what is going on… taking them is so easy… roll over… “just like cash”…
The former rules were weak… and did little to serve the interests of investors… in almost every case rules were crafted to advantage the broker/dealer… the 5% markup rule is a case in point… the most minimum of disclosure required…
I’m not sure in the current carnage if anyone is giving thought to new rules…
Of course I’ve got some ideas… looking around at these people in Oklahoma I feel the desire for “fair dealing” and “truthful relations”… I hear you friends… love the law…
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