Friday, January 28, 2011

THE RACE TO WASTE (of time)

It's going to be a close one this year. Davos is always an early leader of the pack what with it's expenditures approaching a billion dollars this year on nothing but ego. A long discussion yesterday on financial regulation produced absolutely nothing I am told except a couple of fairly heated, private arguments. Jamie Dimon announcing that he was tired of hearing criticism of banks and a general consensus that if it wan't business as usual, it was damn close. Oh yeah, Jamie also put his imprematur on the Greek bail-out and by implication, Ireland, Portugal and whatever else comes along I guess. By the by, Jamie is of Greek heritage. Beware of Greeks bearing gifts...and especially those who change their names. Wonder what it was?

The other contender for the biggest waste of time is the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, chaired by Phil Angelides, whose report was issued the other day. Wait, I take that back. Having but ten members THREE reports were issued: one by Democrats on the committee, one by three Republicans and one by one guy who said the other two reports were crap. Surprisingly, no one has paid any attention other than to state that this 500-odd page, soon to be best-seller, is now on sale at a Borders near you; which may be an indication why Borders is in the toilet. I have no idea what the hell this exercise cost the American people but it has to be in the millions. Now besides being the former head of the California Democratic Party, ol' Phil was in charge of the finances for Los Angeles County. The theory behind his appointment as Chair was, I guess, "it takes one to know one," but I may be wrong. The scary part is I bet at some point The Leader and The Suit will start quoting from some part of the majority's report to prove a point. The lame, leading the halt, leading...God knows what whilst ignoring the Bowles/Wing Nut commission which had some pretty good ideas to chew on.

Nevertheless, next week we shall have our own little discussion as to these meaty issues which seem to have brought all of these great minds world-wide to a grinding standstill. Stay tuned, and if you run into Al Gore, send him this way. We have a few folks around here who would like to ask him some questions about this global warming thingy. See you Monday.

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