Monday, February 13, 2017

AS I WAS SAYING...

Well, we moved.  Catastrophe.  5400 to 3600 with half the closet space.  Trouble and Strife managed to find wedding gifts as yet unused .  We haven't gone to the mattresses but to the packing boxes and on top of it all my desk top died, I lost tuns of stuff and trying to write on an iPad for me is impossible.  Short and sweet until I get a new big machine and clear out a place to put it.  But for all of you that have inquired as to my existence I will be forever grateful.  And so...

Speaking of mattresses, Big Danny Tarullo--as predicted I might add-- announced on Friday that he has fled the coop.  The greatest eat shake-down racket of all time was about to end with the new Capo di Tutti Cappi,  Donaldo, now running for the show.  Danny's underboss, Crazy Lizzy, damn near got wacked by the head of the Hill mob the other day and Danny saw the handwriting on the wall.  Gone, finito and not a tear shed.  So with half of the retired legions of Goldman Sachs running anything financial in Washington here comes Christmas a bit early this year for the Street.  And if the stock market is any indicator, for a lot of other people.  I've been speaking with a lot of local business guys here in the fly-over zone and there seems to be a common thread: not too many people like the President as a person but a lot voted for him because of a belief that he would reduce regulation.  As one guy told me in Illinois last week: "Catapiller does't give a damn, they just spend $50 million on lawyers and they're in compliance.  But it kills me."   Never thought about the little guy...that's how far down it goes.  And as for the community banks...they think Trump is the second coming. Forget about approval ratings; these people would vote for him again in a heartbeat...unless he doesn't come through on his promises.  If that happens, he's dead meat in...as he would put it..an unbelievable manner.

What else has gone on?  Well, the Euros have managed to make things even worse if one could imagine that and as I try to get back up to speed I think I will start there...from France to Greece with a few stops in between.  It's been quite remarkable given the problems facing our friends Over There that there has been very little reportage.  Trump simply takes the air out of the room and out popular press (and theirs) are quite prepared to spend countless hours covering one perceived mis-step after another and criticizing the knot on his tie in the hope that something sticks and POOF, he disappears while a couple of very real crises are bubbling up amid the Zone.  It falls to us I guess to bring light unto the darkness but a warning!    It may not be every day for a while until I get organized.  We fly tomorrow.

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