As of 2009, Wachovia was the fourth largest financial institution in North America (www.annualreports.com). The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation will insure up to $100,000 in any privately owned fund by a U.S. citizen (www.fdic.gov). As the credit crisis became worse, people began to pull out money that was above this threshold and moved it into different accounts with longer term, fixed interest rates. Banks usually provide small loans to each other, which is why multiple bank headquarters are located in one city (New York, San Francisco, Charlotte). Wachovia lost almost a full percent of its available cash on one day, which will cripple nearly any bank in a capitalist economy. In this example, a center existed "within the structure and outside it." Bob Steel, then CEO of Wachovia, spent so much time claiming that the company would remain independent that he failed to realize the structure around him was falling. The center existing outside of the structure, the FDIC, mandated the liquidation of $12 billion in stock incentives to CitiGroup in exchange for a loan to hopefully bail the company out. As the company continued to lose money, the FDIC, and ultimately everyone reading this, are still paying for it.
After the dollar per share stock price had fallen low enough that shareholders could not receive dividends, the FDIC forced the sale of Wachovia to Wells Fargo. The center outside of the structure replaced the one within it to control the "free play" that was happening. Had Steel been able to adjust the mutual fund and securities divisions accordingly before people pulled cash directly out of their accounts, the company may have survived. Derrida's idea that there is no fixed center certainly applies here. Nearly anything in this world is possible if a company with $3 trillion in assets can fail in less than a year.
I think that it is interesting to relate Derrida's argument to the way our economy operates. Companies experience sharp rises and falls, similar to the idea that there is no absolute truth. Derrida's idea of "decentering" may be beneficial to many companies. Spreading the decisions and ideas out to more than just a few select people could help companies in similar situations to Wachovia. The center, Bob Steel, became so removed from the actual structure that he didn't understand the rupture that was occurring inside. Several entry level financial advisers predicted what the center was not able to (www.bestcashcow.com), and the structure required a new center because of it.
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