'Get The Culture Right Again': Greg Smith's Final Words Upon Departing Goldman-Sachs

(HT Jesse, who has an uncanny ability to shuffle through millions of words to find the best ones to share.)

This sort of little announcement usually means little to the outside world:

Greg Smith is resigning today as a Goldman Sachs executive director and head of the firm’s United States equity derivatives business in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

OK, another banker/broker type has made his wad by making great deals from which he made profits, and he's off to do other things with his wealth that interest him more.

No biggie, happens every month somewhere.


This little announcement is different, because it is attached to Mr. Smith's Op-Ed piece in the YewNorkTimez, announcing the reasons for his departure. It is a wonderful thing to read, in no small part because Mr. Smith tells us in tones loud and clear that Culture Shapes Economy Before Economy Shapes Culture, which is what OS has been saying alllllll along.

Every paragraph is pithy, and the article is pre-loaded to blow up in the faces of the G-S PR hacks who will go to great lengths to destroy his reputation. (OS assumes Mr Smith has great lawyers to protect him when G-S calls in its favors to the SEC and Justice Department to have him prosecuted and sued for his public departure. The Corleones used the garotte and decapitated heads of favorite horses. Our modern-day Corleones use the bought-and-paid-for government.)

One of the best portions--it is difficult to choose--is this:

It makes me ill how callously people talk about ripping their clients off. Over the last 12 months I have seen five different managing directors refer to their own clients as “muppets,” sometimes over internal e-mail. Even after the S.E.C., Fabulous Fab, Abacus, God’s work, Carl Levin, Vampire Squids? No humility? I mean, come on. Integrity? It is eroding. I don’t know of any illegal behavior, but will people push the envelope and pitch lucrative and complicated products to clients even if they are not the simplest investments or the ones most directly aligned with the client’s goals? Absolutely. Every day, in fact.

It astounds me how little senior management gets a basic truth: If clients don’t trust you they will eventually stop doing business with you. It doesn’t matter how smart you are.

Mr. Smith writes of humility, integrity, working for the best interest of the client, respect, work ethic--all the hallmarks that make a great business, a great family, a great house of worship, a great city, a great country. When those things go away, it is only. a. matter. of. time. before things cave in upon themselves.

So, thanks to Mr. Smith. He will undoubtedly go through the swamp full of alligators and sewage once this article gets around, and OS assumes he has a book deal in place, for which this essay was a teaser. If not, he'll have one by the end of April. OS hopes he carefully tucked plenty of very damning evidence away in his briefcase for these past several years. One always needs a bit of leverage in dealing with sociopaths--they respond only to the prospect of gaining more money or power, or to the fear of exposure and humiliation. An appeal to ethics or any greater good simply does not register anywhere within what little may remain of their souls.

Three Minutes Of Inspiration From Count Basie

Shared by one of OS's friends and colleagues.

Basie's band always played well, but sometimes all the planets aligned, the clouds parted, and the divine made a brief visit, just to remind us all of what might yet be possible.

A simple blues riff song, yet drummer Harold Jones and the entire band seemed to absolutely think as one.

OS hopes ya'll enjoy it, and share it along to cheer the world a bit.

DanHan: Comes A Point When You Run Out Of Track...

OS watched in horror a few years ago as Clarkson and the boys undertook their ill-advised journey through Florida, across the Gulf Coast, terminating their travels in NawLeenz. It got so ugly, so quickly.

There was, however, a truly funny moment when the boys were told they were to engage in the classic timed quarter-mile straight sprint in their junker cars, on a track that was only a quarter-mile plus about fifty yards. At yard fifty-one lay the ditch full of alligators.

Fahr-'em-up boyz!! And off they went, with brakes that were definitely not up to the task. No one was injured, blessedly, but things ended badly for one of the cars, if memory serves.

This episode is not unlike what we now see happening in both the United States and Europe. February 2012 was the highest monthly deficit this nation has ever recorded, in over two hundred years since the Constitution was ratified. The Senate will not pass a budget. The White House is a runaway freight train.

This can only end badly, and OS, in his darker moments, wonders if perhaps folks in the White House have some sort of train-over-the-cliff moment in mind for us all. It explains their behavior, when nothing else will.

Meanwhile, DanHan (as always) states the case succinctly. OS does wish we could lease this gent for a couple of decades. Sort of a reverse Lend-Lease back to Great Britain. We'll even give them Puerto Rico in the bargain, since we took some islands from them in the 1940's.

Chicago NorthSide Riot Reported--Near Wrigley Field

You can read and follow the trail here.

For those not too familiar with Chicago, the area around Wrigley Field, home field of the beloved (and usually inept) Cubs, is a very nice part of the city. The SouthSide, where the White Sox play, has always been a gritty part of the world. Group muggings and street violence just aren't part of life up in Wrigleyville.

Things are becoming increasingly unglued in Chicago, ya'll.

OS shares this, just to remind one and all that this is Obama's city and state,  run by his former campaign manager and chief of staff.

This is a city that has been in the hands of Obama's political ancestors and current chums for decades.

This is the future that awaits the country, if it is left in their hands.

Yeppireee, Buckwheat! Massah Obama Bin Callin' All His Frins' To Make Shur They Don't Vote Fer No XL Pipeline--It Might Kreeate Jobs!

This just about sez it all, ya'll.

Remember, ya'll, while you're fussin' betwixt yerselves about who's the most Right-eous Conservative, who married and divorced whom when, etc. etc. etc., the President continues his war on the American culture and economy. The spending continues, the debt grows, and our children will have their lives crushed under the weight of it.

Time to settle down, and turn our attentions to sending Himself and his clown circus on their way, while we still have a country.

That means--voting in sane conservatives from the town council up to the White House, giving money and time and energy to the effort of getting this done.In 2010, OS voted and donated against someone he really liked, because he knew that the stakes were too high to let that affection determine his vote.

After the dust settles, all the fundamentalists can go back to loathing one another over whatever issues they choose to loathe one another over this month.

Mitt Romney or Rick Santorum or Ron Paul or Newt Gingrich aren't a menace to our country.

Barack Obama is.

Mr. And Mrs. OS Do Super Tuesday In Tennessee

Os admits he didn't visit the mailbox in the past few days, so the card announcing the change of the precinct location likely awaits him later today. We wandered into the wrong precinct, and the very helpful poll workers sent us off to the correct location. Some idiot had posted a Santorum campaign sign illegally inside the 'no signage' zone, and we reported it to them. The gent running the precinct thanked us, and promptly removed the sign. His irritation at the violation of the rules was evident. OS remarked, 'They don't read', and he remarked, 'They don't listen, either.'

Fundamentalists, of any stripe, always think that rules are for other people, and that their inherent righteousness gives them license to do whatever they please. This little incident, multiplied by another few hundred over the years, will help explain why Santorum was never on OS's list of possible votes. His followers never seem to have gotten the memo that they live in a civil society, full of other sorts of people, and election day rules.

In any case, we found our little precinct. Turnout has been light so far today in our little precinct.

Mrs. OS and Mr. OS don't talk about politics much, except to note how utterly horrified we are by what has transpired in this beautiful country. We talked a bit on the way over about how unhappy our choices are betwixt Romney, Gingrich, and Paul. No one really seems up to the job ahead, frankly.

The Tennessee GOP primary is a three-part affair: Presidential preference, election of 14 delegates, most pledged to a candidate, and election of 3 delegates chosen from the Congressional district.
In the end, her preference vote was Romney, and OS voted for Newt. We split our delegate choices between Paul, Romney and Newt, in hopes that we will contribute to a deadlocked GOP convention. It's time the GOP have a long and loud discussion about real life, bankers, politicians, moralizers, the Fed, and how best to get rid not just of Obama but all he stands for.

We both sense that the freedoms that allowed us to create our lives and educate our children are rapidly slipping away, and that our children and their will be crushed by the debts this generation has run up with reckless disregard. That is the real moral issue facing us, not contraception or what Rush Limbaugh has to say about some dingbat law student.

We both happily voted for our beloved Winfield Dunn, the great GOP governor of Tennessee from the early 1970's, our first GOP governor in over fifty years at the time. A finer, kinder gentleman than Winfield is hard to locate, and he has our good wishes and regards.

Bebe's Visit, This Time

It is a busy day, but OS wishes to note progress, however incremental in the process of raising LittleBarry and getting him to put on his big-boy pants.

When Netanyahu visited the first time, in 2009, TheWinnerOfTheNobelPeacePrize wouldn't have lunch with the man, and sent him and his party out the back door of the White House, where the refuse dumpsters reside.

This time, since there is an election coming up, and everything Bebe has said about the Iranians has proven to be true, Himself has changed his public tune a bit, even allowing public photo with a handshake.

We should not, however, even consider this a change of heart, or an acknowledgment of the realities of the situation in that part of the world. That would require a President who is not an anti-Semite, and has a semblance of good judgment.

That guy is either Romney or Gingrich, at this point, and still almost a year away from the next inauguration.

Fassen' yer seat belts, ya'll. This flight could git all choppy on us.

Let's Not Admit We Were Wrong About The Spotted Owl, Let's Shoot Barred Owls Instead

It's always the detail mentioned 'below the fold' which bears reading.

From The Washington Post:

WASHINGTON — To save the imperiled spotted owl, the Obama administration is moving forward with a controversial plan to shoot barred owls, a rival bird that has shoved its smaller cousin aside.
The plan is the latest federal attempt to protect the northern spotted owl, the passive, one-pound bird that sparked an epic battle over logging in the Pacific Northwest two decades ago.

The government set aside millions of acres of forest to protect the owl, but the bird’s population continues to decline — a 40 percent slide in 25 years.
 
A plan announced Tuesday would designate habitat considered critical for the bird’s survival, while allowing logging to reduce the risk of catastrophic wildfire and to create jobs. Habitat loss and competition from barred owls are the biggest threats to the spotted owl.

Millions of acres closed to logging--an entire industry and way of life nearly destroyed. Small towns gutted by the job losses imposed by the federal government-in both Dem and GOP administrations.

So, one would ask, given this abject failure, why wouldn't sane people just say, 'Ya'll, this was a bad idea that produced terrible consequences. We wuz wrong, and we're gunna stop doin' this bad stuff to people.'

No, no, no, no, no, no......

The Greenies need the Spotted Owl, 'cuz it's an Endangered Species (now more than ever!). It provides the pretext that allows them to shut down and gut entire swaths of the American economy and way of life. Like the Snail Darter that forced the abandonment of a dam project in Tennessee some years ago--a blind, cave-dwelling salamander that no human eye ever sees, because it lives in caves, out of sight, in the dark. The country could use that electricity, and the Tennessee Valley could have used that flood control in Spring 2010, when hundreds of people died. That's really OK in the minds of the Greenies--they were just LittlePeople, not Princeton graduates like us. We'll be fine in any case, and those helpless little critters need US to protect THEM!

Even if it kills them, too.

The Endangered Species Act is the legal basis for a massive scam by the Left, and it is time to repeal this sucker, and send all those Greenies off to find honest work.

Like logging, or farming.

Thoughts On Dodging The Tornadic Bullet In Tennessee, March 2 2012

For OS's readers from overseas, especially in Northern European sorts of climes, one fact should be mentioned at the outset: Tornadoes are just a fact of life for everyone who lives anywhere from the Gulf Coast to the Great Lakes, and from Florida to the Chesapeake Basin. No stopping them or preventing them, although the art of predicting and tracking them has made great strides. The local TV broadcasters compete for viewers by installing and manning sophisticated equipment to predict and track individual storm cells in 3-D, with the ability to track the path down to the neighborhood level. It helps, and does save lives, but few structures built can withstand a direct hit by a storm traveling 60 mph while generating 150-mph winds. Houses, even brick houses, just disintegrate when struck.  Large forests look as if a giant lawnmower has swept across, topping or toppling every tree. Trucks and cars are flipped like toys.

OS has lived through his share of them, even observed one form fifty yards behind his house and begin a march to the northeast that leveled a subdivision forty miles away. He watched the historic Louisville tornado of 1974 patiently grind its way through the oldest and best neighborhoods of the city, on an otherwise blue-sky day. Those parts of the city looked like they had suffered an air raid, and there is still a discernable path of newer houses and younger trees to this day.

All this to say--Friday's tornado was a close call, setting down in a friend's pasture about 1/2 mile to the north. Shingles lost off the roof was all that was suffered, but OS has a sense that this house's day may come, after 40 years of existence. Time to up insurance coverages, and have a Plan B in place.

And this to say as well, about America: Before the storm, OS's mobile phone lit up with friends calling to warn him, and afterward, more friends calling to check on him. This morning, OS visited a small church with a parishioner with family in Henryville, Indiana--which was flattened. Her son's house was destroyed. He called his mom to assure her that all her family were safe, and that 100 people had shown up unbidden at what used to be his house to assist in the cleanup and salvage. His message was, 'Don't send any more people in, we're overrun with help.'

It's all those values--church, family, community, frugality, industry, initiative--all those things the TrendyLeft ridicules and daily attempts to exterminate, that will rebuild places like Henryville, Indiana and New Liberty, Kentucky. Yes, government plays a role, especially by having an emergency response system in place, mainly run by the counties and the states. But these dumb beer-drinkin', football-lovin', gun-ownin', church-goin' rednecks are the ones who climb into their pickups (loaded down with chainsaws, bobcats, power tools, generators, winches, water, ice chests, food and beer) and hightail it toward the Henryvilles of this country.

They ain't glamorous, they ain't pretty, they talk and act funny. But they keep things quietly glued together. OS hopes he's been able to share a bit about them with his friends overseas, and hopes the PowersThatBe in this country will cease making war on them.

Jo Johnson, MP For Orpington, Confronts David Cameron On The Tappin Extradition: Cameron Attempts To Slither Away

From 22 February PMQ's:

Jo Johnson: On Friday, United States marshals will escort my 65-year-old constituent Chris Tappin from Heathrow to a jail in Texas, where he will face pressure to plea bargain in order to avoid lengthy incarceration pending a financially ruinous trial for a crime that he insists he did not commit. What steps is the Prime Minister considering to reform the US-UK extradition treaty, which has been so unfair to the likes of Gary McKinnon and, now, my constituent Mr Tappin?

The Prime Minister: I quite understand why my hon. Friend has raised the case of his constituent. Obviously Chris Tappin has been through a number of processes, including those of the magistrates court and the High Court, and the Home Secretary has thoroughly considered his case.

My hon. Friend has also raised the more general issue of Sir Scott Baker's report on the extradition arrangements, which he has completed and which we are now considering. He did not call for fundamental reform, but my right hon. Friend the Home Secretary will examine his findings carefully, and will also take into account the views of Parliament that have been expressed in recent debates. Of course, balancing the arguments is vital, but I think it important for us to remember at the same time why we enter into these extradition treaties: to show respect for each other's judicial processes, and to make sure that people who are accused of crimes can be tried for those crimes—and Britain can benefit from that as well. A proper, sober, thoughtful review needs to take place, and this case shows why.

In other words, Mr. Johnson, we plan to do precisely zilch, and you are an ungrateful yob for even raising the question.