ow it's the winter of the year and I still can't tell Governor Palin from Tina Fey. I'm still trying to understand the Ponzi Scheme that's shaking more than just Wall Street. How did Bernard Madoff get away with it for so many years? He has confessed to running a $50 billion dollar scam. I can in no way believe that there is only one corrupt individual in this monstrous fraud. He even got friends and family members to invest in his fund.
If the Jewish religion believed in hell - I bet I know where he'd be headed next.
Governor of Illinois, Blagojevich (I think I spelled his name correctly, but I don't really care) . What an arrogant dummy! (Or do I need to say an "allegedly" crooked individual?)
So many significant events mark the passage of the year 2008. It will pass into history having been dominated by many events both memorable and terrible. Will the election of Barrack Obama as our next president be a more significant event than the collapse of Lehman Bothers? We certainly hope so. He hasn't taken office as yet and our expectations and hopes are high. His accession could be epochal. Thus far he has made no false steps and his cabinet is notable for at least two qualities; skilled choices and real bipartisanship.
General Motors is on the edge of bankruptcy. Will Ford and Chrysler follow? Gordon Rachman writing in the Financial Times recently quoted a gloomy banker in Paris saying "This is not just another boom and bust cycle. This is the failure of a system. It is the collapse of the Berlin Wall." Perhaps a slight exaggeration, but it is a fact, we've witnessed the disintegration of nations: Zimbabwe and Sudan.Now, all but forgotten,the Chinese hosted Olympic Games. And then there's been the fluctuating price of oil. As the year ends the price is far lower than anyone could have anticipated at 2008's beginning. The movement of Russian tanks into Bosnia might be repeated elsewhere. The price of gold rises into the 800s. The disappearance of investment banks. As the war winds down in Iraq, after so many bloody years and with so little achieved, the warfare in Afghanistan will be heating up. Another year featuring terrorists wanton slaying of innocents in Mumbai and elsewhere..This list could go on and on. And it probably will, tomorrow.