Ya'll remember OldSouth quoting that bizarre interview with the German finance minister last week?
The one where he admitted 'We don't really know who holds all that Greek debt, and how much is held by whom.'?
You know, that one!
Apparently, the domesticated feline mammalian unit has escaped the portable burlap transportation unit.
JPMorgan’s exposure to the five so-called PIIGS countries is $36.3 billion, equating to 28 percent of the firm’s Tier-1 capital, a measure of financial strength, Wells Fargo analysts including Matthew Burnell wrote today. Morgan Stanley holds $32.4 billion of debt in the region, which equates to 69 percent of its Tier 1 capital, Burnell wrote.
Now, really, OS is not in the habit of cursing in print, but this one deserves a rousing:
Well, Shhhheeeeeeeuuuuuuuttttt!!
It's so satisfying to say that sometimes, releasing all that air, spittle, frustration and utter disbelief in one extended dipthong.
What sort of moron places 36 billion dollars on the table on: 'I'm gonna buy me a bunch of debt instruments from those paragons of progress and capitalist free markets, Greece and Portugal.'
'OK, spin that there roulette wheel, Bubba! What could go wrong?'
In other words, not one damn thing was learned in the Great Meltdown of 2008, except that no matter how bad the screw-up, Uncle Sam will shovel in enough money to make everything all right.
OS saw a rerun of the classic movie 'Tin Cup'
last night. The final ten minutes is almost unbearably painful to watch, which is one reason it is such a great flick. OS was struck by how wonderfully the screenwriters did their job. That 'focal point moment of truth' happens before the carnage begins. 'Tin Cup' Roy McAvoy, totally amped up on his own ego, begins ranting about 'his moment of immortality' as he is about to risk his whole life on a golf shot that has maybe a 10% chance of success. He is Don Quixote at the windmill. His Sancho Panza of a caddy, played by Cheech Marin, totally loses patience and shouts: 'Homes, you don't need your immortality! You need your seven-iron! Lay the ball up!'Of course, reason did not rule, and that final painful ten minutes proceeds.
Romeo the caddy, the eternal Sancho Panza, stands on the 18th fairway with his friend who has spent his life snatching disaster from the jaws of success, pleading with him to act sanely at least once in his benighted existence. Play the seven iron, reduce your risk, win the US Open. Think of all the people who have invested so much of themselves in you. Play the seven-iron!
Here in the small towns and neighborhoods of America, we don't ask for much from the Great and Good, really. Just that they not act like Tin Cup McAvoy.
We wish they would locate the seven-iron in the bag. Before they blow themselves, us, and everything around them to kingdom come.
