THE SOUND OF SILENCE

The Leader appeared in New York today on the sight of Washington's farewell address to the nation. He spoke to the leaders of the financial community as to the future and to the plans his administration has for its continued success. From one in attendance there was a smattering of applause regarding the need for a consumer regulator and for the rest of the address, the sound of silence...stony silence. I listened to the speech or lecture, which might be a better word, and began to realize that the silence that greeted The Leader was not as a result of what he said for as usual there was absolutely nothing but vague generalities but the dawning understanding that this guy really didn't know of what he was speaking. More and more when forced to deal in specifics he is a reader of words fed into the teleprompter from some unknown source without and understanding or a care as to what is being said. One wonders if this guy is in fact The Leader or is he the spokesman for a greater force.

How in heavens name can he announce that Barney Frank and Chris will have, by the end of the year legislation in place that will prevent another financial melt-down when everyone in the room knows full well that Messrs. Frank and Dodd were the key players, ON MULTIPLE OCCASIONS in the prevention of legislation that sought to rein in the madness that went on at Fanny and Freddie which will probably cost the American taxpayers a trillion dollars before all of this is over. How can he suggest that Sen. Dodd, receipient of sweetheart loans from Countrywide for which he may well lose his seat next November, be in any position to have the moral authority to captain this legislation? The mind boggles. And yet he lectured on, displaying a complete non-understanding of the complexity of the world-wide financial establishment whose agreement in our plans shall be shepherded to conclusion by The Suit. "We're going to solve the systemic risk problem," as if he or anyone else has a definition of systemic risk any better than the throw-away line I have used over the last few weeks. Derivatives, those awful things? Yeah, we're going to solve that problem too. Uh huh. Compensation? We'll straighten that out. Capital? We're going to require more as though that will do any good. How much more? Hell, I thought the Basel accords solved that some time back? But The Suit is going to get that all straightened out in Pittsburgh in the G-20 meeting The Leader will chair.

While all of this was going on he proudly announced that it was because of his love for free markets that he slapped a 33% tariff on the Chinese for tires. Ah, Mr. Leader, we know you have to act up for your union buddies, but let's keep in mind that we owe these guys 2 trillion with maturities that are getting shorter and shorter. I know my friend Larry says they are in a dollar trap but they have constituents as well and in the context of their political system, there are IOUs that come due. Another thing that you should keep in mind Mr. Leader is that our importance in their neck of the woods aint what it used to be. Do not expect the universal support we once enjoyed there or anywhere else. Not once today did you mention the enormous fiscal mess we are in other than to blame it on the previous administration. No one outside of your constituency cares or is listening. What is needed is a plan for the future--especially abroad. Arranging deck chairs on the Ship of State is not the solution for which many good folks here and abroad are looking.

A bit of a rant I realize but a final note i I think is in order. Do you, like me, smirk at the obvious stage managing and imputed symbolism in all of these addresses to the Nation? Come to New York. Where do I speak? Why, where Washington once spoke. Perfect! Comparisons will certainly be made. Arguably, our greatest, or certainly one of our greatest Presidents was ol' George. The people will get it. Yes they will Mr. Axelrod except like Hamlet the comment might be, "Such a falling-off there were."

I'll try to stick to the facts regarding what the future might hold for our financial institutions for the rest of the week. By the way, hope you caught college football on Saturday. Great stuff.