END GAME

We must be getting close because Bill Rhodes appeared on CNBC today. For those of you who don't know him, Bill is a retired Vice Chairman of Citibank who made his bones back in the eighties by running damn near every soverign debt restructuring for the better part of 15 years and then some. He was really good at what he did. Relentless. He would never give up. I not sure he understood all of what he was doing but his #1 job was to save Citibank who had a pile of crap from every dead beat country in the world and he did it. Made a fortune along the way and owned the best Roledex in the history of the western world...a Roledex is where one kept business cards, addresses...oh hell, it's an IPhone for old people. Anyhoo, there was Bill looking a bit older and considerably thinner proclaiming that this Euro thing better get fixed because it is really a banking mess and as everyone knows the banks are more important in Europe than they are here.

When Rhodes appears can a restructuring be far behind? He would love it; one last great fight before the all eternal night. And so, I'm even more in favor of doing the right thing if for no other reason to give Bill another shot at it and watch the Ghosts rise up to save the world one more time. Who says a remake can't be better than the original?

Just might happen, too. The Portugese parliament met today and came up with...NAO. Or at least I think that's what happened as it was looking like that when I wrote this. Given that every opposition party had stated that they would not be supportive of the government's plan that Jose saying he was going to resign if they did not, I suspect we will have a fallen government when we wake up tomorrow morning. The Portugese 10 year yield was moving closer to 8%..assuming a bid that is...and that of course is completely unsustainable. If the government falls it will be the better part of two months before another is formed, and down the road the can gets kicked while on the touch line the cry goes up, "Put in Rhodes, Put in Rhodes!" Delicious.

Northward, on the Emerald Isle, the lads are getting their Irish up. Being told what to do by the Germans and the Continentals has never gone down very well and time has not improved the digestion. And so tomorrow, the continuation of last week's Euro conference which should be a doozy not the least bit aided by the fact they everyone has gotten stuck in the sand box called Lybia over on the political side. Nothing like an undeclared war to liven things up but of course with The Leader desperately trying to figure out how to extract himself from the mess into which he got himself, maybe all the troubles of the world can be blamed on us Americans. God knows there is precedent for that. We shall be watching and looking for material which I am sure will be forthcoming.

Oh, my Texas buddy, Denny, wrote to mention that there is a computer somewhere up at MIT that does things like figure out CPI. I don't know if there is but Denny says this thing is now predicting inflation at the end of the year to be 8.3%. Not good for Mrs. James' little boy Charlie and his fixed (almost) income. In the mean time, more and more Fed watchers are beginning to believe that the son of QE II will be born in the not too distant future because Mr. B. and Billy the Dud are completely enamoured with the concept. I REALLY hope Rhodes gets that restructuring gig. I'm going to need a job.