BUSINESS is BUSINESS

MOBSTERS everywhere understand that personal feelings can never get in the way of business. When they "whack" someone it is totally dispassionate. My instincts have always been a little less "business" than personal. I get wrapped up in the dynamics of friendship and often "forgive" the transgressions of others. They forgive mine as well. In affairs of the heart and soul this works. In affairs of money and business, the ancient Hebrew and Babylonian civilizations and King Solomon himself felt the need to codify how to deal with money and property and invented concepts we still use today like "treble damages."

To do less than seek just compensation in those cultures was considered uncivilized. As you can see by some of my recent blogs, I have come to the end of my rope with forgive and forget when it comes to economic wrongs. The excuse that it is all due to Washington DC and their failure to supervise is BS. The problem is greed and avarice and the fever to make money by riding the gravy-train-de-jour...the housing bubble, the tech bubble, or any other get rich quick scheme such as the ones in which bankers lent money for mortgages with their eyes closed because of profits and their salaries and bonuses. Sure we can pile on Sen Dodd and Congressman Frank, and the Community Redevelopment Act but the rubber-meets-the-road at the loan desk of your local banker. In my case, as a share holder of more than one bank in my lifetime, I can see that in this last venture someone had dollar signs where the pupils of their eyes should have been. Accountability has to factor in there somewhere. Unfortunately, what will probably happen is the folks who screwed-the-pooch in this most recent collapsed investment will probably be back in the game in another bank before the ink is dry on the FDIC order.