A Penny Saved is a Penny Earned...

White collar crime is back people with "2 Former Bear Sterns Excutives Arrested". There's nothing quite as strange as seeing suits escorted into court in handcuffs. These are guys who probably last quarter were sitting in their corner offices on Madison Avenue or Wall Street planning their golf outings around financial earings calls on the links. Now they're busted,

Lyrics to Ray Charles' "Busted":

"My bills are all due and the baby needs shoes and I'm busted
Cotton is down to a quarter a pound, but I'm busted
I got a cow that went dry and a hen that won't lay
A big stack of bills that gets bigger each day
The county's gonna haul my belongings away cause I'm busted.

I went to my brother to ask for a loan cause I was busted
I hate to beg like a dog without his bone, but I'm busted
My brother said there ain't a thing I can do,
My wife and my kids are all down with the flu,
And I was just thinking about calling on you 'cause I'm busted.

Well, I am no thief, but a man can go wrong when he's busted
The food that we canned last summer is gone and I'm busted
The fields are all bare and the cotton won't grow,
Me and my family got to pack up and go,
But I'll make a living, just where I don't know cause I'm busted.

I'm broke, no bread, I mean like nothing.."


Maybe they do have some bread to eat but their cash reserve is bound to dry up quickly. Wives will be divorcing them and ailimony bills will come due soon enough. They'll be sitting in an orange jumpsuit instead of Hugo Boss or Brooks Brother and Lifetime will not be making a movie about their prison stay (see "Martha Behind Bars").

In other semi-related news, I found out the CEO of my old company is g-o-n-e and they're shutting down the office I set up and hauled ass to, to sit there for someone to show up maybe once a week to use the space. I was tipped off when the old HR director called to ask if the office furniture was leased or owned. I left her a v.m. with the particulars and called her assistant when I knew she wouldn't be there to get the d.l.

All I can say is I got out JUST in time, I mean that place is either moving its operations abroad or it will not exist by year's end, IF they're lucky. I suspect this year's annual shareholders meeting will be quite "dramatic" to say the least.

I can't wait to talk to George about this! He's on his first business trip and it's been amusing for him (my words, not his). As a finance MBA and a history buff, he has very little tolerance for the old-money upper class movers and shakers. More on that later....