Why financiers commit suicide

Some theories on why losing a few million can prompt taking your life

These tough economic times “appear to be leading to more suicides by rich people,” said Yael Abouhalkah in the Kansas City Star online. Recent cases include German billionaire Adolf Merckle, Chicago real estate executive Steven Good, and fund manager Thierry Magon de La Villehuchet. “It’s not an upbeat topic," but we should try to understand what losing everything does to someone with "massive wealth and prestige," because there are more losses to come.

Suicide can be seen many ways—“as honorable, cowardly, sad, tragic,” said Michael Lewis in Bloomberg. But some financial types seem to be under the “strange assumption” that it’s “a form of ‘taking responsibility.’” Well, “there’s no noticeable decline in the sum total of responsibility in need of taking” when a financier kills himself, and his clients and creditors are no better off.

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