THE GAMES BANKERS DO PLAY
By: DAVID LOVATTSMITH

Headline on Google news a couple of minutes ago:

US INVESTORS FEAR 'DOMINO' EFFECT FROM BEAR STEARNS DEMISE

Figures. With Wall Street bankers, if it’s not dominos, it’s golf, bridge, tennis, or playing stupid games with other people’s money.

For instance, and very much to the point, Alan “Ace” Greenberg, chairman of Bear Stearns for more than 20 years, is- according to The New York Times (and they should know, being the ones who uncovered- if that's the right word- the name of the doxie Eliot Spitzer boffed) a championship bridge player.

He sure ain’t done much championship banking lately. He just helped to deal his bank, the one that was, until last week, a venerable institution founded in 1923, down the toilet.

Way to go, Ace.

How do these bozos get to the top? I mean, if I run my overdraft a couple dollars overboard, they send in the heavies. If “Legendary” bankers, on the other hand, run their company’s shares down from $170 to $2 in the space of one year,the Fed bails them out. And you know what? They’ll get away with it. At best, they’ll get put out to grass on some six-star PGA country club. At worst they’ll get a coupla years in minimum security, time enough to pen their multi-million dollar autobiographies.

Apparently, and I quote Street Stories, Bear Sterns’s Mr. Greenberg is known for “his legerdemain as an amateur magician.” Ain’t that the truth.

The same source says that he is known “for his terse one-liners.”

Like, “We’re broke, fellers.”

Meantime, the foreclosed are still living in their Chevys.

David Lovattsmith plays an erudite game of Solitaire. XP, not the fancy country club version on Vista.

The Mets will have it wrapped up by the All Star break!

A quick scan around Major League Baseball will reveal some really tight races in 5 out of the 6 divisions, but make no mistake about it, the Atlanta Braves reign at the top of the NL East is over. The New York Mets have been money in the bank for bettors all year and especially in their most recent road trip. How about a 9-1 mark on the 10-games road trip, where they outscored their opponents 79-39 and now they lead the Philadelphia Phillies by 9 ½ games! Hey check these numbers out. . .

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