BACK FOR ANOTHER TRY

The last time I wrote something substantive, Google blew it up. I have no idea why. I am still getting told I am being blocked and if this is to go through I have to decipher one of those stupid curly-cue messages to confirm identity although having done a half-dozen of those one would think Google might have figured it out by this time. We shall see. In the mean time all sorts of mischief has been going on which we will get to in a minute, but first Alan Greenspan was up on the Hill today getting grilled.

I think everyone realizes that Greenspan got it badly wrong. Fine, but what is the purpose of extracting a pound of flesh at this stage of the man's life. There is no point to it: he knows he got it wrong; he knows he was one of the major reasons things went south, he knows everybody else knows. Leave him to heaven and let's move on.

Now for substance.

The WSJ allowed Poo Bair to get into print on Monday. The woman is shameless, absolutely shameless. Now I can't prove it but the Journal pulled one of the great editorial hatchet jobs in history by following Poo's nonsensical piece with one byPeter Wallison and David Skeel today which demolishes every one of her arguments. Consider:

Poo: "Over its 76 year history, the FDIC has handled thousands of resolutions of all manner of size and complexity."

W & S: "The largest bank ever to fail, Con Il in 1984, had assets of $40 billion. At $639 billion Lehmam Bros. was over 15 times larger."

Poo: "...the legislation would allow the FDIC to create a temporary institution to...prevent a systemic collapse while the firm is being liquidated."

W & S: "In the course of Lehman's resolution...the firm had over 900,000 derivative contracts, more than 700,000 of which were cancelled and rest either enforced or settled...The FDIC has NO (emphasis added) significant experience with broker dealers, investment management, securities underwriting [or] derivative contracts."

It goes on and on. Poo actually has the audacity to say that, and I again quote, "Great Britain and the European Union are both seeking to construct special resolution mechanisms . The U.S. should draw on the FDIC's long experience and lead the way."

The other side of the pond has absolutely no interest in the U.S. leading the way especially led by a minor organization with outside-hired help, an with half of whose regular staff probably don't own a passport and never have. There is and never has been a relationship between the FDIC and non-American institutions that is in any way useful in creating some grand schematic of regulatory agreement. Neither she nor the institution she represents is taken seriously by anyone other than the clowns in Washington who bear a good deal of blame for the present mess and are about to insure that we are almost certain to have another one. With all the evidence to the contrary, I find it astounding that we continue to believe that we are the center of the financial universe. This remains a bad joke but one that could have some very serious consequences.

Now, lets see if Google has the nerve to block this!