HAPPY BIRTHDAY

Dodd/Frank is five years old today.  Infanticide was called for but like so many truisms of the past six years I suppose that this creature is going to remain around in some perverse form until the next crisis which will prove it to be totally useless very much like the IMF...which brings me to friend Carter.

Carter asks "why is the IMF useless," pointing to the fact that it outed the BS quotient in the Greek drama as to the impossibility of the paying of Greece's debts.  Hell, Carter, I told everybody that 3 years ago and nobody listened then either, so if that is the value of this clown show why not pay me 10% of the billions that it takes to run that place and let's get on with it.  I'm funnier than Mme. Legarde as well.  Anyway, let's get serious.

The international Monetary Fund was founded at the Bretton Woods conference in 1946, just after the close of the Big One.  The first thing one should ask is, "where in the hell is Bretton Woods." and one will find that paradoxically no one knows.  So, for the record, Bretton Woods is in the state of New Hampshire, USA, the state motto of which is, "Live free or die," and is noted primarily for, in the summertime, the densest concentration of viciously-biting black flies and mosquitoes of any place on earth save for the Alaskan tundra.  Moose have been known to commit suicide to stop the torment.  Moose.  SUICIDE!  Anyway, that's is where the economic leaders of the world gathered back then to create an organization that would insure the monetary stability of the world's currencies and to avoid the killing devaluations that accompanied the Great Depression.  I kid you not.  As an American politician said a few years back, "How's that working out for ya?"  I mean like, can you say, "Quantitative Easing?"No?  Well, how about, "Screw your neighbor or trading partner."  Funny, it is pronounced the same way in English, German, Japanese, Chinese and any other country's national language that comes to mind.  Hell it's more understood and recognized than Coke Cola.

It's not that it wasn't a good idea, it's just that no one cares anymore and the organization is focused on that most natural of all animal endeavors, self preservation.  Part of doing that is making yourself look as though you are needed, hence the brilliant expose of the real state of Greece's financial condition.   Problem is it was never about Greece, it was about the EZ, the Euro, the reputations of a couple of hundred politicians, the stability of the banking system and when all of these things are what really count, don't screw things up at the last minute by pointing out what everybody already knows except for the Great Unwashed who may, somehow, queer the entire deal in a fit of pique from having been conned all along.  This mob is also known as "voters."  Dumb, truly dumb.  For whether one agrees or not, this exercise was really about some important things

Now why would the IMF do something like that you might ask?  I did and I led you wrong last week. Chrissie was up to her wonderful Gaelic nose in this one.  Chrissie wants out and the next job is Madame Le President.  And Chrissie wants to be able to say that she always spoke the truth.  And so from its storied and bug-infested beginnings, the Fund is now the launching pad for a run at the Elysee Palace.  Maybe this one works.  I am sure Chrissie will not succumb to base instincts like her predecessor.  Alons enfants!

And finally, thanks to Carter, who of course knew all of this but made damn sure he was going to keep me honest...and give me a topic.  We need more like him.  I need more like him.  I'm pretty sure of that.