Give Me A Break

The other day I listened to a man on CNBC say that if regulation and oversight got tougher that Wall Street might just pick up and go to another country. HORSE SHIT!!!

I could not believe my ears. Can you believe someone would try and scare the American public into believing that if regulation and oversight of the securities industry was done right that the big investment banking houses in the United States would leave New York City. Yes, and on the same train will be the New York Yankees too. As Bill Clinton would say, “give me a break.”

Just how stupid do these people they put on TV think the American public is? First, the big investment houses have offices around the world already. Their money does not sleep, someone is trading for the big brokerage firms 24 hours a day. They wire the funds around the world as easy as pushing a button on a keyboard. Second, with the trillions of dollars in pension fund assets both public and private, 401-k’s, foundations and endowments, does anyone really think that the sharks are going to feed where there are fewer fish to eat.

Most reasonable people that are familiar with the securities industry just want the enforcement of the laws and rules that are on the books. That alone would go a long way to deter futures abuses of the system. But, with the computer, new and creative tools of finance have been used and some of these, like mortgage-backed bonds, need to be monitored that the quality is there before the rating goes on. This one thing, the proper rating of debt in the United States, would go a long way to prevent future mortgage bond meltdowns. Is that asking too much? The billions of dollars that were invested in mortgage-backed bonds should have the ability to pay that the rating companies say the bonds have. Again, Is that too much to ask? We expect a drug to have the efficacy that the drug company and the tests done for the FDA say the drug will have. And, if there is a problem, we expect them to pull the drug before it kills or injures a few million people. How many millions were affected by the sub prime mortgage meltdown?

Today is August 8, 2008. What I wanted to do today is review where I was and what I was doing starting with 4/04/44 and bring it to the present 8/08/08. Since just a very few people read my blog, I figured why not. How many people would care? 3, 4 maybe on a good day 10, but I doubt I ever had 10 people read my blog in one day. Well, here goes.

4/04/44 I was 18 months old and I lived on the third floor of an apartment building on the corner of Reading Road and Prospect Avenue in Avondale with my mother and father who owned a fish & poultry store around the corner on Prospect Avenue. My only memory is of my father making me count the wood steps as we walked up the back steps to our third floor apartment. At 18 months, I thought counting all those steps was a lot of work. I was born lazy.

5/05/55 I was sitting in 7th grade math class at Woodward High School, when my math teacher, and later my track coach, I ran the half mile or 880 yard run, mentioned the fact that today is 5/5/55. He then said something about the next time something like this would occur would be 6/6/66. I was probably busy drawing cars and not paying a lot of attention. I went to summer school for 7th grade math because I spent my time drawing instead of learning math.

6/06/66 June 6, 1966, I was in the U.S. Army and stationed in Korea. I worked at 8th U.S. Army Headquarters as an assistant to the Staff Historian of 8th U.S. Army, Herman Katz. The job suited me just perfect. I worked for a civilian and I read newspapers and books all day unless I was doing some research for a speech writer or someone else.

7/07/77 I was a Bond Investment Officer at the Central Trust Company Bank trust department. My office was in the bond department at the back of the building on the first floor where they stuck me in a room the size of a closet. It was a fun time working with Tom and Al, who ran the bond department and the bank’s investment portfolio.

8/08/88 I was a broker at Legg Mason and working in the same building I had worked in in 1978, 79, 80 and part of 81. I did not like being a broker. Being a portfolio manager in a trust department was more to my temperament.

9/09/99 I was working in Columbus, Ohio for the Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation as a Senior Investment Officer. That was a nice place to work because of the people. My immediate boss, Bob Cowman the CIO, was one of the nicest and most decent people I ever had the pleasure to work with or know.

8/08/08 Today I am retired. I write a blog, MONEYTHOUGHTS and I draw and paint pictures. I don’t count steps, but I can still run up them. I am still drawing, something I hope to do for many more years. Oh, I also like riding my bike and driving my BMW.

How’s that for my life in 30 seconds? All of my many readers out there on the Internet have a safe and happy weekend, and a happy 8/08/08!

Stay tuned.