Little Dorrit Gives Wall Street a Haircut

While watching Little Dorrit with my PBS-addicted wife, I was struck by Dickens's stinging critique of finance capital. It's obvious that Dickens attacks the cruelty of poverty, the stupidity of debtors' prisons, the idleness and conceit of the upper classes, and the inefficiency of government bureaucracies (which he so wonderfully calls the "Circumlocution Office"). But also, he goes after financial elites with a vengeance. Like Adam Smith, he draws a sharp distinction between those who put money, skill and energy to productive uses and those who simply move money around, or waste it by living lavishly, while doing nothing except collecting dividends and rents.

In the story, Amy Dorrit grows up debtor's prison, the Marshalsea, with her impoverished father. (Dickens's real father also was sent there.) After many Dicksonian twists, it turns out that the Dorrit family actually has an enormous inheritance which gets the father out of prison and allows them to hobnob with the elite. After more twists, the Dorrits loose all of its newfound wealth by investing it Mr. Merdle's bank, which had been all the rage of London until its Ponzi scheme blew up. (Bernie Madoff could have studied at Merdle's feet, except that Dickens's Merdle graciously committed suicide with a pen knife while enjoying a public steam bath.)

Although the Merdle Ponzi scheme destroys the Dorrits' wealth, the real economy allows Amy Dorrit to save and then marry her one true love, Arthur Clennam. When the bank collapsed, Arthur also lost all the capital of the business enterprise he and Daniel Doyce owned and operated. Arthur is sent to debtor's prison and is a broken man. The angelic Amy nurses him back to life, but then, out of male pride, Arthur refuses to let her pay off his debts to get him out of prison. (This is not a feminist story.) Amy then discovers that her inheritance also is lost to Merdle, so now she and Arthur are free to marry.... except that Arthur is still stuck in debtor's prison.

Enter the real-economy-as-savior in the form of Daniel Doyce. While away in St. Petersburg, Doyce perfects one of his inventions. As a result, their bankrupt company is about to boom again. So Arthur, his debts paid, leaves prison and marries Amy. True love and the real economy conquers the deceit of finance capital and the spend-thrift classes. If only.

There's one more scene that could have been written yesterday -- a perfect parody of the Obama-Chrysler debt-holder negotiations. As we know, certain hedge funds and investment groups are whining about getting only 30 cents on each dollar of the Chrysler debt they hold. (In financial-speak, they are getting "haircuts".) Dickens takes this literally. Denks, who is a rent collector for a Mr. Casby, sleuths around the slums while, under Casby's orders, squeezing the poor tenants for every last penny owed. Meanwhile, Casby, who hides the origin of his wealth, is well known as a philanthropist, walking the same slums giving out alms to the poor, while winning the adulation of the very people he is ripping off. At the end of the PBS version, Denks can take no more. After being dressed down again by Casby for not squeezing the poor hard enough, he accosts his boss who is on a jaunt through the slum, waving to his admirers and patting the heads of impoverished children. Denks, before all, blows Casby's cover. Then to the jeers and amazement of the angry crowd, Denks says, among other things, "You are a driver in disguise, a screwer by deputy, a wringer, and squeezer, and shaver by substitute. You're a philanthropic sneak. You're a shabby deciever!'

Then Denks "whipped out a pair of shears, and swoooped upon the Patriarch from behind, and snipped off short the sacred locks that flowed upon his shoulders." I kid you not.

Now there's a bankruptcy court!

Les Leopold is the author of The Looting of America: How Wall Street's Game of Fantasy Finance Destroyed Our Jobs, Pensions, and Prosperity-- and What We Can Do about It, (Chelsea Green Publishing, June 2009)

Comments

[dcguy123]

For those that purchased the DVD of Little Dorrit, there are scenes on the original BBC series that you will see that were edited out of the USA PBS version of the mini-series. They had to condense the original 14 episode BBC program into 5 PBS episodes and decide where to end each episode. When the episode went over the allocated time slot, they had to remove scenes in order to allow for that episode to fit that time slot. So there are some new scenes on the DVD that were never shown on USA TV back in March-April 2009.

[ntmessage]

My wife and I both remarked after watching the five part series, how relevant is it today and how so many Dickens novels demonstrate - human nature does not change.

[AngryOhioan]

The Senior non-tarp debt holders are being ripped off. By law they should be first in line but king obama decided they should get less than subordinated claims by parties with more political clout. Who needs rule of law when we have king Obama making all the decisions.

[Tallulah Morehead - Huffpost Blogger]

Obama was elected. That's a president. Kings rule by usurping power from rightfully chosen leaders.

Now who in the last 9 years has seized the presidency illegally from a lawfully-elected candidate? Whom?

Hmmmmmm.

[Konnie]

"getting a haircut".........................hmmmmm do ya think maybe that's where the saying came from in the first place.................?

just sayin'

[Tallulah Morehead - Huffpost Blogger]

Just the reverse. Pancks was making concrete the already-extant expression, in order to make a moral point, and humiliate Casby.

[Mixpixlix]

The bottom line is that human nature has not changed and the rich will continue to take advantage of the poor until society says ENOUGH. While we no longer have debtor's prison (what a ridiculous idea that was), we have credit ratings and finance companies that gouge and gouge and gouge, then cut off credit and leave people destittute. It would all be very familiar to Dickens.

In addition to haircusts, I think the disgraced CEOs should spend some time in the stocks. A little public humilation would go along way to making the remaining CEOs think twice about the decisions they make and schemes they allow. Of course that assume they're still capable of feeling shame.

[Tallulah Morehead - Huffpost Blogger]

Actually much of LITTLE DORRIT, the Merdle plot in particular (and the Medoff scandal in reality) is about the rich taking advantage of the rich. After all, the rich have so much more to steal.

[jobecky20]

I really loved that series! I am depressed that it is over.

[Lauren SoFlo]

Me too. I'm in Little Dorrit withdrawal.

[neoprimordial]

I recorded the show, and watched swaths of it--standard operating procedure for me. What was troubling for me was Dorrit's Dad totally bewitched by his new-found wealth. Those moments in the show were so... distasteful. I'll watch it all at some point (hopefully).

A movie that recently came and went from the theaters is "The International." World class, in my humble opinion, and wonderfully relevant, as "Little Dorrit."

[Tallulah Morehead - Huffpost Blogger]

Mr. Dorrit's reaction to his wealth is intended, by Dickens, to be disturbing. But it's not wealth that corrupts Dorritt, it's snobbery. In prison it was just trying to maintain a little self-esteem, but when money = class, then when Dorritt inherits a title, he becomes a flaming jerk in pursuit of this idea of "class" and "superiority," and that corrupts his nature, which is then acerbated by his debilitating mental state, the result of the years in prison.

Tom Courtney was great in the role. Alec Guiness was nominated for an Oscar 22 years ago for his somewhat different approach to the role in the movie.

But I can not imagine criticizing the plot of a 13 hour miniseries when I'd only seen part of it.

[280park]

I want a haircut too!

[Tallulah Morehead - Huffpost Blogger]

Watching LITTLE DORRIT, I was, like anyone awake, struck by how identical the Merdle-Medoff scandals were. Both also worked so well (at theft) by becoming a fad among the well-off and famous, people investing with Merdle and/or Medoff because everyone who is anyone hands over all their money to Merdle/Medoff. They are "in".

But, at the risk of exposing the fact that I've actually read the novel LITTLE DORRIT, and not just watched the movie and the mini-series, I must point out that the rent-agent who works for Casby and gives him that public trimming, is named PANCKS, not DENKS. Great character, a heart-of-gold he must keep hidden professionally.

In the book Casby is not quite such a broad Jewish-stereotype as he was presented on PBS. Dickens had learnt a bit since the controversies that surrounded his somewhat anti-semitic portrayal of Fagin 18 years before.

[carrieanna]

I watched the series on PBS, too. I couldn't believe how relevant the story seemed to our current issues. But everything was sooooo bleak that I could barely contain my happiness when Arthur and Amy end up together at the end. I had started thinking Dickens would end on a down note, having damned everyone and their money-grubbing ways. Dickens' scorn really came through on the Dorritt father, son and dance-hall daughter.

I really liked the image of the Clennam house coming down, having rotted away from the core. Reminded me of Lehman Brothers.

[caphillprof]

I wondered over the weeks whether the broadcast of Little Dorrit was fortuitous or a commentary on these times of bank bankruptcies and ponzi schemes.

[twohearts]

Good post! I agree with you - Dickens didn't pull any punches in Little Dorrit. No matter how popular the book was then, I don't believe it did any good.

But it was a great mirror of our own recent & current history!

JMS