. . . Yaawwnnnn. . . No Matter How Things Change....They Stay the Same. . .
U.S.F.R.A...makes sense, Rock....and sorta has a ring to it. >smirk< I mean talk about "waking up". What is the national debt currently? How many trillions of dollars do "we the people" owe to the private families of the Federal Reserve? Bank failures scare the FED. No doubt. Which is why the closed door meeting of the FED, U.S. Congress, the SEC and the U.S. Treasury on Thursday evening. I wonder who else was there!!
Interestingly, take a gander at a chart of Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley....the two investment banks left standing.....(standing to make a killing that is....now that all their competition is essentially gone.) The past year, they have been under pressure (like most), then just this week the volume on both spiked by like 1000+% as short sellers took aim. The price of both began dropping.... (like the apples from my tree if I don't get out there and pick them this morning.)
So what happens? Well, it apparently is one thing to allow Bear, Lehman and Merrill to teeter at the edge of the abyss. But you'd better leave Goldman alone....or we (the above named federal and private entities) will have to do something about it. Goldman drops like 50 points or so....and it becomes a federal case, requiring unprecedented moves, like restricting short sales.
I doubt anyone out there necessarily sees it as i do...or even agrees with me on this. That's OK. I've been there before. But again, all I do is read the greed. I was actually hoping GS would be the one to fail...(I could use the dance exercise)....but deep inside, I knew it couldn't happen.
Whatever illegalities keep visitors or cameras from ever getting beyond the downstairs lobby reception area, are safe from exposure once again. The back room antics of the key execs will not be spread across Newsweek this week. The sordid details of relationships with and pressures placed on corporate CEOs and CFOs....[to show consecutive profitable quarters in order to be awarded new private placements, public offerings and retail pumping to provide a big injection of fresh cash]... will not be tomorrow's front page news. The cavalry has arrived....with the generous support of the U.S. government. [Case in point: Enron & Merrill] sec.gov
Who wins in the end? Well, like I said...Goldman and Morgan are going to be quite happy down the road without all that competition. Not to mention the money they made shorting Lehman, Bear and Merrill to oblivion. (Did I say that out loud or just think it?)
It is "another man's game". That is for certain. And we all get to pay about $3k each (that's each citizen of any age) for this first round of bailouts. John Q Public keeps asking what was wrong with banks failing, especially if they were the ones pushing A.R.M.s to the elderly and granting first times to the underemployed. You play...you pay. That's what John Q believes.
But apparently, in the upper echelon and the inner chambers...laughter can be heard..."we play....you pay"....is the punchline to a joke, heard among the tinkling of crystal and the pompous uttering of the fattest of cats.
"It is all a game, boys....and we are the kings!.....even the U.S. government bows its head when WE say. There is only one rule. There are no rules! In US we trust!! Now let us lift our glasses and drink. Merriment to us all. And most importantly, let us each have great laughter. Laugh, boys! Laugh, I say....all the way to the bank!!"
Apparently, there are no cold days in hell.
Rande Is |
