The Weekly Witticism of Thurston Howell

Geithner Grilling

Little Timmy Bonaparte testified today before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee and it looked as if he was going to explode on national television. I must say I am surprised that he decided to come out so aggressively. I was waiting for someone on the panel to ask him if he “ordered the code red”? (If you don’t know what I mean, see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hopNAI8Pefg

I must admit I was amused. Bonaparte scored one on the congressional panelist who told him to speak into the microphone (a standard intimidation tactic) to which he caustically replied “I’m almost eating it”. I think he also scored a blow when he forcefully reminded them that “this was a GOVERNMENT” bailout. I ‘m no fan of Geithner, in fact, I believe he is unworthy of working under the shadow of a genius like Hamilton, but I loved the fact that he didn’t allow the sanctimonious politicians to play the guiltless heroes. That’s as ridiculous as watching these Lear Jet flying, limousine liberals chastise the autos for flying their private jets to one of these congressional performances - while Nancy Pelosi gets a Lear Jet on the public ta-ta without any animadversion whatsoever.

Apple unveils the much hyped i-Pad

I have long admired the visionary Steve Jobs and Apple so I don't want to seem antagonistic but when I saw Jobs unveil the price of the new i-Pad today, it seemed like he was trying to channel the spirit of Billy Mays. He said “not for $999… (dramatic pause) just $499.00..." I’m going to wait another month for the “order within the next 30 minutes and we’ll DOUBLE the offer!” Maybe Apple will even throw in a Magic Bullet or a set of steak knives.


The Global Recovery is off to a STRONG Start! (According to one of the world's largest Ponzi schemes, the IMF).

This was the headline from a Marketwatch column linked below featuring a dissertation from apparent rock star Paul Volcker.

What is the deal with Paul Volker anyway? He must be drinking his Dos Equis because he’s risen from a footnote in contemporary history to "the most interesting man in the world". Who does he think he is and what’s he running for - Antichrist?

See Volcker interview:
http://www.marketwatch.com/video/asset/future-of-finance-volcker-rules-qna/7D3DBF2E-D5AB-4093-98F7-2D58F32B715E

Subsequently, Here’s a link to an excellent article written by the venerable money manager Jim Rogers -exposing- the IMF and World Bank (from Worth Magazine). It was my first exposure to Rogers (over 10 years ago).

98/05 The Ponzi Pair By Jim Rogers

“The IMF and the World Bank keep issuing larger and larger loans to their borrowers--a practice that has all the earmarks of a classic financial swindle In 1990, curious to take a hard look at the planet, I embarked on a two- and-a-half-year motorcycle trip around the globe. One reason I wanted to do this was to see what happened when Western public money was spent on projects mounted by developing nations. I knew that thousands of these undertakings, worth tens of billions of dollars, had been set up and funded by U.S. and European agencies, public and private.

So I steered to the sites of these works as often as I could to see just how successful they had been. I visited many such projects in Latin America, Africa, and Asia. Upon arriving at the scene, however, I often found only factories that were falling apart, telephone systems that didn't work, fertilizer plants that had collapsed, roads that led nowhere, and overgrown agricultural developments that raised nothing. In Bangui, the capital of the Central African Republic, I saw uninhabited college dorms and an empty soccer stadium. In Zambia, I saw vast networks of muddy ditches that had been dug for a water project that was abandoned.

Today, these memories seem almost surreal as I peruse the sleek annual reports of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. They list page after page of projects that..”

http://www.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id=002e59