I'm Back

Well, glad I didn't shut the door on my little joint here...;-)

I've been reading up on this Madoff character and, as I get more information on how his web seems to have spread, I'm starting to get a more complex opinion of it.

Obviously, I don't condone financial monkeyshines of any kind. If this story is remotely true, Bernie seems to deserve the public scorn and legally-inflicted punishment headed his way.

That said, an article in Saturday's Times lays out how people became involved in this investment scheme. It was not presented as a publicly-available financial product to invest in, but rather a membership in some kind of exclusive club. Friends meeting each other at their synagogues, country clubs and charity events would offer the opportunity to invest as kind of a membership in a clique.

These folks seem to have thought they had one up on regular Joes the Plumber, if you will. They were the smart cats who knew the right people and were not going to invest their dollars in the products that the rest of us might be stuck with...no, they were special and wouldn't offer it to the rest of us.

This is not something that I think merits them getting lied to and screwed out of their fortunes, and I certainly place the recipients and volunteers connected to charity work in a whole different ballpark, but there's a little part of me that has trouble drumming up a great deal of sympathy for people who thought they were more special than the rest of us and reaping benefits of financial relationships not available to everyone.

I'll need to learn more about this, but this is what was going through my mind when reading about this fascinating scheme this shyster was able to pull off.

"Bank of America Would Also be Prohibited From Riding the Gravy Train of Pinstripe Patronage"

Here's yet another problem with the government 'bailouts' of the Banks...and it don't bode well for the future.

Bank of America was one of the TARP recipients.

Over the last few weeks, they decided to turn off a line of credit for a Chicago manufacturing plant which was then forced to close its doors.

Its workers, scared they would not get their due vacation and severance pay, have staged a sit-in, which has gotten the attention of lots of attention seekers, like Rep. Louis Gutierrez, who are now stepping in and trying to dictate just how BOA should do business.

I'm not smart or informed enough to know exactly how much BOA is directly responsible for the decision to close the company's doors or how much control it has over money paid out to the employees here, but it seems to me that if this tactic works in the Windy City for employees, we could be in for a very bumpy ride going forward, with lots more ad hoc government intervention in how banks do business.

Buckle up.

I Need to Thnk More About This on the Way Home

...but I wanted to at least get the rough thought out there on the tubes of the internets.

I thik that one of the benefits of this long campaign for the Democrats is that we're getting a good idea of the elasticity of their support.

For instance, Quinnipiac polling says that despite his 'clinging' faux pas last week, Barack's support in PA is virtually unchanged.

On the other hand, when Hillary tears up in New Hampshire, hers goes up.

Have to let it bake a little more, but we might be onto something.