“China’s HNA Group said on Wednesday that Wang Jian, 57, the group’s chairman and co-founder, accidentally fell and died from his injuries during a business trip in France.
“The company said the death occurred on Tuesday, but didn’t provide further details.
“One of China’s most acquisitive companies, HNA has been under heavy financial and regulatory pressure since last year due to its heavy debt load.”
- Caixin Global, 4 July 2018.
The world of economics is indebted to JK Galbraith, author of The Great Crash 1929, for his coinage, the bezzle.
To the economist embezzlement is the most interesting of crimes. Alone among the various forms of larceny it has a time parameter. Weeks, months, or years may elapse between the commission of the crime and its discovery. (This is a period, incidentally, when the embezzler has his gain and the man who has been embezzled, oddly enough, feels no loss. There is a net increase in psychic wealth.) At any given time there exists an inventory of undiscovered embezzlement in – or more precisely not in – the country’s businesses and banks. This inventory – it should perhaps be called the bezzle – amounts at any moment to many millions of dollars. It also varies in size with the business cycle. In good times people are relaxed, trusting, and money is plentiful. But even though money is plentiful, there are always many people who need more. Under these circumstances the rate of embezzlement grows, the rate of discovery falls off, and the bezzle increases rapidly. In depression all this is reversed. Money is watched with a narrow, suspicious eye. The man who handles it is assumed to be dishonest until he proves himself otherwise. Audits are penetrating and meticulous. Commercial morality is enormously improved. The bezzle shrinks.
