Work As If It Mattered: Jordan Ballor At Acton Institute

These thoughts are not about a burning issue of the hour, but do merit reading.

In the meantime, OS is working against several deadlines this week, deeply grateful for his life, work, and family. But he does look longingly at the perfect golf weather as he plows through the next stack of ThingsThatSimplyCannotBeDelayed.

Sometimes, Only Laughter Will Do: The Abraham Lincoln Ad

OS is, well, weary. The week is being spent on restoring the house post-flood, post-contractor, pre-academic year.

Yesterday was spent helping rescue an 80+ year old friend from the clutches of an auto dealer in Brentwood, Tennessee, who attempted to convince her that her lovely Caddy need $3500 of work, and that she needed to just get rid of it (e.g. trade it to us for about 2K or so), and buy another car (from us). OS drove it to his mechanic, who serviced it, replaced one tie rod end, replaced a piece of molding ($10 in supplies consumed), went over it with a fine-toothed comb, and charged her $233 for his efforts. The car has 70k miles on it, and drives showroom new.

When the propaganda about the 'New GM' begins to ratchet up, and the dealers pipe in about their 'new approaches to customer care', remember this little old lady. OS suggests we all run the other direction.

Another friend has lost a family member to a tragic drowning. A student is in the process of being tossed from her family, because she wishes to go to college, which is anathema in her world. Another friend was just summarily fired after eleven years, because the boss doesn't like him, and the organization he helped hold together (the church OS holds his membership in) is about to go through a period of chaos. OS lacks the energy to get involved, but he is anyway...

So, with nothing to say of value, OS offers a moment of dry, lovely humor. His readers in the US have seen this, but the readers from overseas likely haven't. Kudos to the creators of this little gem.

The Millenial Business Plan: Secretly Insure Your Neighbor's House, Then Burn That Sucker Down

This bit of insight from the New York Times:  The banks that helped Greece hide its debts also bet that it would default on the debts they helped hide.

As one insider describes it:  Imagine you are able to take out fire insurance on your neighbor's house.  It gives you profound incentive to burn it down at some point in the future.

Damn! I wish I'da thought of that one! I wuz raised to think that sort of behavior was, well, fraudulent and harmful to my neighbors. Sunday School teachers kept drilling that 'Golden Rule' thang into my head. Little did I suspect, it's actually a business plan! And it works! And it's legal!

Damn!

Invest in premiums, gasoline, and matches...all you need is a compliant insurance agent (with whom you share the proceeds). Write the policy, pay the premiums, bide your time, wait until the owner is on vacation.

Hold a house barbecue.

Collect the payoff.

Now, in the spirit of Bill (It's the economy, stupid!) Clinton, we'll just waive any discussion of ethics.

Ethics, Shmethics. It's about making money, honey.

(Of course, this makes me wonder if someone's insured MY house! Maybe I should put off that vacation, after all...)

Three Zombies, And One Who Isn't

Woke up, slurped some coffee, and saw the bizarre story of the L.A. 'BlingRing'--bored teenagers who broke into movie stars' homes and cleaned them out, just because they could. Millions of dollar of stuff.  Just because they could. You know, like bankers and banana-republic tin-hats.



Little George Stephanapoulos was a bit incredulous as he interviewed this kid, who had obviously been carefully coached by some expensive legal talent. Subtext--'Yes, of course I never grew a conscience, but I'm much too pretty to go to jail!'

George has no complaint. He got his start parsing language and spinning for Bill Clinton. He shouldn't feign surprise at the inevitable result of his earlier activities.

****

OS, in a moment of weakness, took on the job of helping a teeny-tiny not-for-profit out with some adminstrative tasks. In Sunday School as a child, he was told he'd get extra stars in his crown when he meets his Maker, if he was nice to folks.  Every little bit helps, given his track record....

So, twice a year, he takes a huge stack of papers and checks to a bank in Nashville, borrows a conference room, and he and his spreadsheet turn them into little stacks and deposit slips.  It's a pain, but it's temporary.

This bank is in a good location, except for the ghost mall across the street.  OS showed up at 11:30, and made his final deposit just before 4:00.  Of the three side offices where bank officers should be busily beavering away, lending and collecting money, only two had any signs of occupancy, and only one had the lights on. The 'service desk' front and center in the lobby hasn't been occupied in well over a year. One teller, a branch manager, an assistant.  OS was doing his thing with stacks of paper, and noticed that nothing was happening out there. No customers walking in or driving up. Phone barely rang. Employees stood around and shot the breeze about cars, internet dating sites, family, etc.

Finally a few random customers...two retirees with pension and social security checks to deposit. One brought his dog and pics of his old custom car, and joined in the general palaver. He was lonely, and they were pleasant company. A couple of retail employees cashing paychecks. And the guy in the conference room occasionally emerging with a deposit slip.

It was eerie. Nothing is really something, when it's happening at the branch of a pretty large regional bank.

******

Chatted with two friends at church supper (it's a Southern Thing). One teaches at university, another at an exclusive private high school. Both were comparing notes on students and families, and a general theme emerged. They are dealing with a lot of people who are intent on 'gaming the system', to appear to be outrageously over-achieving while all they are doing is competing, by hook or crook, for high standardized scores. 

No real intellectual activity happening, just zombie students.

Zombie banks.

Zombie teen-aged felons.

Hmm..

But here, by contrast, is someone who definitely has embraced life, the opposite of zombie-dom.

Enjoy Christopher Parkening, and take courage.

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.

 

Monday Morning Morality Moment

Always good to begin the week with a strong cup of coffee laced with a dose of sober reality.

It's the account of one Harry Markopolos, the financial analyst from Boston who uncovered the Madoff Ponzi scheme a decade before Bernie turned himself in to the FBI.

Culture creates economy...