For The Weekend, A Song Lyric

It is a good thing to be of a 'certain age'--not that old, at least in my own mind, but must make the admission that time has passed.  Steely Dan's Hey, Nineteen used to make me chuckle, with its lament of a middle-aged man to a sweet young thing who never heard of Aretha Franklin...now I wince!

For reasons not clear to me, Hal David's lyric Alfie has run through my mind all day.  It was written and released in the late 60's, and I remember being moved and troubled by it even then. 

Hal David was prescient in so many of his lyrics, subtly jabbing the culture that had already gone morally blind.  Add Burt Bacharach's ability to paint lyric with melody, and small masterpieces were created.

So, for those who already know this lyric, indulge me.  For so many who never have heard it, I hope it moves you:

Alfie

Lyric by Hal David

What's it all about, Alfie?

Is it just for the moment we live?

What's it all about, when you sort it out, Alfie?

Are we meant to take more than we give;

or are we meant to be kind?

And, if...

Only fools are kind, Alfie;

Then I guess it is wise to be cruel.

And if life belongs only to the strong, Alfie;

What will you lend on an old Golden Rule?

As sure as I believe there's a heaven above, Alfie--

I know there's something much more:

Something even non-believers can believe in...

I believe in love, Alfie

Without true love we just exist, Alfie;

Until you find the love you've missed, you're nothing, Alfie!

When you walk, let your heart lead the way;

And you'll find love any day,

Alfie...

Have a good weekend.

Hug the ones you love a little tighter to you, and let's remember to be grateful for all the blessings we enjoy, and scarcely notice.

Green Shoots Nominee--Seika Girls High School Wind Ensemble

Sent to me by my bride, a hat tip and much more to her!

This video is eight minutes of inspiration, on all levels.

One question I keep hearing echo through my poor brain is: 'What's possible?' And the answer echoes back: 'Why, anything, if we're willing to work hard enough for it!'

These are adolescent girls, not jaded pros, not even whiz-kid conservatory students. As a musician, I assure you, this piece is wicked hard to perform.

I have a conversation at least monthly with parents, faculty members, students, and it goes like this: 'You tell me that the expectations are just too high, that (fill in the name) can't possibly be expected to practice/study that many hours per week, or meet these standards you tell us are normative. Well, this student's competition in his/her career is not likely sitting in some small college in the US. He or she is in Japan, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Bangalore, Capetown, or some other corner of the world. That young person's family is focused on achievement.'

I'll be showing this video to help illustrate the point.

Green shoots, in unexpected places. If what we see and hear happening here could be translated across the culture---

What's Possible?

Jonah And The Banksters

Matthew Goldstein at Seeking Alpha shares this tidbit of news:

In the second quarter of this year, the notional value of derivatives contracts at JPMorgan Chase (JPM), Goldman Sachs (GS), Bank of America (BAC) and Citigroup (C) increased by $1.92 trillion, to $191 trillion. Shockingly, Citi is responsible for most of that gain from the end of the first quarter.

Overall, the total dollar value of outstanding derivatives transactions at the top 25 U.S. commercial banks was $203 trillion, according to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, meaning that the nation’s four biggest banks account for 94 percent of the industry’s total exposure to derivatives.

Now the concentration of derivatives at a handful of banks isn’t new. It’s even to be expected, bank regulators say.

The OCC, in its quarterly derivatives report, routinely notes that the Big Four “have the resources needed to be able to operate this business in a safe and sound manner.” In other words, the biggest banks are best suited to handle all these derivatives contracts because they’ve been doing it for so long.

Well, yes, one could make a breathtakingly stupid statement like that--the OCC, I mean, not Mr. Goldstein--if one lives with the assumption that no matter how reckless the behaviour of these firms, the taxpayer can always be shaken down if something goes awry.

One year ago today, we were being told by The People Who Know About Such Things that massive exposure to derivatives by these huge institutions had nearly brought the world to its knees.

Today, we are told by the same people that all is well and boys will be boys.  Let them play in their sandbox.  What could possibly go wrong?

I keep thinking, 'My unborn grandchildren will be paying for this...my unborn grandchildren will be paying for this... '

This week, the light dawned on my poor brain:  My unborn grandchildren can't vote, or consume, or invest, or do anything to aggrandize the power and wealth of either the politicians or the banksters.

Their unborn grandchildren will inherit wealth, one way or another, so all is fine and good.

And, if this world is really all there is--this life in which we work, play, live, die--is really all there is, and then we die and cease to exist...then what should they care about anyone's grandchildren, born or unborn.  Those 'unborns' can shift for themselves, thank you very much.

We don't just have an ethical problem in this fair country. At heart, we may have a theological problem. The culture shapes the economy...

The story of Jonah is not about the guy in the belly of the big fish, so much as it is about how the Almighty spared a society that had lost its moral compass.  The guy the fish coughed up on the shore had informed them that The End was at hand, unless they changed their ways.

Which they did, for a while.

Eventually, they forgot about all that, and then one day they ceased to exist.
  

The Wiki article seems to be well-written, and gives good resources if one is interested. Until well into the 19th Century, the location of the site of this city was unknown, not a trace left behind. The most evocative line in the article is delivered in deadpan academic style: Many unburied skeletons were found by the archaeologists at the site.

 

The Organic Fertilizer Rapidly Approaches An Intersection With The Electrically-Powered Portable Bladed Air-Moving Device

So,  here we have news from the FDIC that they plan to assess $45 billion dollars from the banks left standing in order to cover their losses on the banks that have fallen/are about to fall and can't get up.

And the little solvent banks are going raise that cash from where?

New customers and loan business?

Present customers?  Assess fees on each account and/or check processed?

Laying off employees?

Closing branches and trying to sell off the buildings? (It took three years for a bank to unload a closed branch locally.  Sold or leased it on the cheap to two guys who installed a liquor store in it!)

Where?

Will $45 billion really be enough? Or is this just round one of an ongoing shakedown of the the solvent banks?

I mean, I'm at a loss.  This past Friday afternoon, the final Friday of September, in the final hour of business, I was the only customer at my bank. I hung around and gossiped, just to see if it was a fluke of timing.   (I was making deposits, sure as shootin' wasn't talking to them about taking on more debt!)

It wasn't a fluke. I was it. The tellers were doing cross-stitch, and looking for tasks to do on behalf of their employer.

And this bank's not on the 'watch list'.

Ruh-Roh!

I am not sophisticated enough in either law or finance to be able to judge this bit of news with any reliability.  I hope someone (Sackerson, you there?) might be able to look at this and enlighten further.

A court in Kansas has ruled that MERS, the mortgage clearing-house(I've never heard of it, but what do I know?), which has been the party filing foreclosures on behalf of bondholders, is in reality a straw-man, without standing to foreclose on anyone's house in Kansas.

It seems that a court has ruled that about half of the mortgage market has been run as a criminal enterprise for years, which would invalidate any potential foreclosure proceedings for about, oh, 60 million mortgages. The court ruled that the electronic transfer system used by the private company MERS — a clearing system for mortgages, similar to a depository, that is used for about half the mortgage market — is fundamentally unreliable, and any mortgage sold and/or transferred through MERS can’t be foreclosed upon, at least not in Kansas.

If this means what it seems to mean, then all those mortgages that were sliced-and-diced into mortgage-backed-securities, insured by credit-default-swaps, are now unenforceable, at least in Kansas.  Would that mean all those holders of MBS's are left holding the bag, in possession of literally worthless paper?

They would want their money back, wouldn't they?  All at once, once the word got out?

I don't know, that's why I'm posing the questions.

Toto, I don't think we're in Kansas anymore...