Seriously?

What a great 8 or 9 months we have had. At the end of last year we realized that the banks had a ton of unsalable, un-priceable, derivative "TOXIC" assets. They had all of these securities and credit default swaps which were ultimately tied to real estate but were such a web of sales, re-sales and "bundles" that they could not be unwound. Fortunately the Bush administration set up a 700 million dollar TARP fund to buy these assets from the banks and make them healthy again. And boy did it work. The TARP fund bought all those assets, the banks took their losses and are no longer gambling our money in ways that they and no one else understand. They have also reigned in their compensation systems so that their people are not compensated for taking insane risks with our money based on short term production. It was brilliant and without Obama's follow through on the system it never would have worked. It has been a great example of public and private addressing and correcting a problem for the good of the public and for their shareholders and clients.

Accept of course that is not what happened. Not at all. Because they could not agree on price the TARP funds never bought the toxic assets. They are still owned by the banks although some small market has begun to spring up for them. More importantly through the wizardry of accounting we changed the rules so that the bank did not have to list those assets on their balance sheets at "market" price (what they could sell them for) but instead are able to list them for their purchase cost...or their "appraised" value or...well, for whatever they want.

This allowed them to be pronounced "healthy" and pass their stress tests to that now they could repay their TARP loans, which were made to them to strengthen their formerly weak balance sheets. Once the accounting rules were changed, the Tarp money re-payed, and them pronounced rehabilitated, they were now free to go back to their old ways which they have done with a vengeance. This had led them to have their lobbyists rail against "socialism" and the auto bailouts and more importantly totally stop the regulation of the derivative and hedge fund industry. Even better they have resumed massive bonuses again to the traders who helped get us here in the first place because they cannot afford to lose all that talent.

"There are foxes in the hen house,
the cows are in the corn".-Steve Earle

How could we let these guys fall right back into place?

How could we let an industry which dragged and with money drugged us in a fever of greed to the brink and beyond with no one punished, admonished or even better regulated. When there was a run on there stock and deposits the government steps up but with a wave of the accounting rules, loans are repaid, and bonuses made. And lets be clear, none of the banks problems have been solved or even changed. They still own those toxic assets. The mortgage loan situation has not improved. The commercial loan domino is starting to fall and the credit card defaults are next. When these institutions fail the next time we should take every one of them and move them all into one of the empty extreme suburb planned communities that lay vacant since their planned funding fell through. They could grow their own food but you know they would screw that up to. They would leverage the projected profits from their fields and hedge against no rain and in the mean time forget to grow anything. We have lost site of so much. In the mean time these guys are dong it again.

The cows are in the corn? I don't think so. I think the pigs are in the corn.

Tour De France Obsession

It is well know that I have...charitably.... a lot of issues. One of then is that this time of year (which is the Long Dark tea Time of the sports lover's soul) tend to obsess over the Tour De France. I mean REALLY obsess. Thios time of year it seems like all we have. Baseball is meaningless until late August and other then that there are repeats of the World Series of Poker and well, nothing else. And I love repeats of The World Series of Poker. Norman Chad is one of the great unappreciated geniuses of American Broadcasting but still... I need more and this time of year I MAKE the Tour de France more.

I fell in love with the Tour a long time ago. I started watching the year Greg Lemond was supposed to win and Bernard Hinault had agreed that it was his year, then he screwed him. The French press loved it and ever since that time I have been a hopeless addict of the tour. The ascendance of Armstrong was a bonus and through his reign and leaving the Tour in a rain (reign) of drug and doping allegations and ineffectual stars I have still loved it and was very excited two years ago when Alberto Contador burst onto the scene as the next great champion. Last year was lost because hos team (Astana) got banned but it was still fun to watch.

This year the drama is back. Armstrong came out of retirement allegedly to support Contador on Astana and to push his main life project of "LiveStrong" which is his not for profit set up to combat cancer. Armstrong is of course an amazing story as a cancer survivor and his battle destroyed his first attempt to dominate the Tour and then his bounce back was an unbelievable exhibition of the unbeatable human spirit. This year he and Contador are about to duke it out in a soap opera drama type of fashion as the tour hit's the mountains. Contador arguably screwed Armstrong taking off on a break while he held back and Armstron seems pissed but tomorrow they hit the Alps and.... the best man will win. Contador... the young, amazing Spanish Climber against Armstrong, cancer surviving, American. Drama. I love it.

And this postcript is just for you Larry....JESUS!

Still Hiding In Michigan

Soooooo.... another day of semi effective hiding is completed. Wednesday is kind of a day out of camp so with nothing to do there after morning program we hopped in the mini van and headed up to "Joe's Friendly Tavern" in Empire Michigan. http://www.empiretaverns.com/joesopen.html. Joes is self touted to have "the worlds best hamburger" and Empire is only about 40 minutes north so, what the hell? It was a nice trip on a beautiful day and we took another one of Laura's friends along who just finished her freshman year at Cincinnati as an Industrial Design major. She never stopped talking and provided excellent entertainment. Her dad worked for P&G for years...Tide Boxes.... something...I don't know. We headed up 22 which is the Michigan equivalent to Highway 1 in California. Not many Lake Michigan views but when they come they take your breath away.

Empire is in the middle of Sleeping Bear Dunes National Park and has a huge public beach that is pretty sweet. Long story short is that we ate 5 burgers and they were unremarkable. They were of medium thickness and we had a number of incarnations from cheeseburger to bacon cheeseburger to BBQ bacon cheeseburger. They did not ask how you wanted it cooked. All were medium well ad of that middle thickness we do not see too much of in the Lou. At home the burgers are squashed flat like the Steak n Shake/Carls burger or served fat like Blueberry Hill or O'Connells. This burger was an inferior and unloved version of The Village Bars version. We were underhwhelmed. Nothing wrong with these burgers but nothing memorable and certainly nothing that would lead to any "world's best" appellation. How about "Northwest Michigan's" Best? I could buy that.

Which brings us to another general point. Northern Michigan Cuisine is...wanting. People rave about places. Fine food, diners, roadhouses, breakfasts etc... I discussed it with the sometimes brilliant Tim Tiemann and sold him on the idea that food up here was like food in Germany. There was nothing great about it but also nothing abominable. It is not as bad as English food (an atrocity) but is certainly no France or Italy. In short, when dining here I surprisingly find the camp food at Arcadia as good as anything I can find in restaurant up here. Maybe I am wrong. Sue me.

So we are going to have another party tonight and another opportunity to add to my inestimable beer can pyramid. I have very high hopes. Spending some quality time now fleshing out the first CD of Neil Young's new box set retrospective. This is a monster which will take the rest of the summer to digest but when he sings "Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere"... I feel like he is speaking just to me and no one else. Neil sounds good in Michigan.

Hiding In Michigan

"I have come here to get high, to do more then just get by, I have come to test the timber of my heart" Joe Pug/"Hymn 101"

Sooooo it is July. I snuck out of the Lou a day early since the office was officially "closed". The Banks were open, my clients were still broke but the office was "closed" so I bullied my brother in law and sister to leave early and take me to Michigan. I could have waited at home for my daughter to get home. She was in Oklahoma on a servant event with our church and allegedly had not potable water and a bevy of scorpions and snakes. That sounded suspiciously like my job but who am I to call her a liar? Anyway, my wife could picker up and they could drive up Saturday. Me, I needed to go to Michigan NOW!

After all it is only three weeks since they tried to arrest me. As a post script to that I have to tell you that Manistee County had indeed screwed up and I had paid the ticket and the great news is that I now can drive in Michigan again. My privilege to do so was "unrevoked". Imagine my relief. So I got in the car with them and hauled ass up here. We had no incidents and ate lake perch in Holland Michigan. We hit town around 11:00 P.M. and I found my house full of kids (19-26) drinking my beer and celebrating my arrival...by drinking my beer. It was a minor party. The next day when my brother in law went to golf I had him drop me off in Pierport and walked a few miles on the beach back to camp. I got sunburned and my whole body still aches.

But why Michigan? Well there are a lot of reasons:
1. We have been going to family camp up here for 14 years
2. I know lots of people here
3. Most of them are Lutherans which makes them:
a. boring
b. generally non threatening; and
c. very comfortable around a cold beer
4. My son has been working up here the last three summers.
5. The weather is flawless and Lake Michigan looks like the Caribbean (a very cold caribbean).
6. We have a house there now
7. The dogs (which my wife loves more then me) can come along
8. A lot of the people I know here I consider friends (they might not but I have found that is ok)
9. There is still a bar in town called The Big Apple and often we are able to drink their kegs of La batts, Budweiser and Bud Light dry.
10. The Big Apple has an internet jukebox.
11. Cell phone reception in Arcadia sucks
12. My kids love it here
13. Their are always at least 5 vacationing pastors to take my confession
14. You can talk about God and contemplate your faith....but you do not have to.
15. The Camp has events planned every night which you can attend...or not.
16. About this time of year the berry crop comes in.
17. I feel better here
18. I am far away from most people
19. I could go on and on.
20. I can work on that beer can pyramid I never got around to in college.
21. When you take your cans back you get 10 cents

It is a nice place to hide. My wife came on Saturday with the dogs, my daughter and one of her friends. My brother showed up with his wife. When they came I was sitting at Pastor Tiemann's house drinking my 3rd Bud Light of the afternoon. We ate. It was the 4th of July and they all went to see fireworks. We went home and my wife and I talked and was able to talk her into not leaving me again.

I really love my country. I am grateful to live here. The 4th of July with it's forced rah-rah, yay us mentality leaves me cold. I didn't go see fireworks because I go up here to get away from crowds. Besides, one of my dogs (the mentally ill older one) goes nuts during storms and any loud noises so we had to stay around and comfort it. We drank beer and went to bed.

On Sunday up here you have the chance to get up and go to this little Lutheran Church in the center of town. From our house I can here the bells as they chime off each hour. The church is old and small and pretty and if you pack it with a bunch of Germans it can realluy rock the house for "A Mighty Fortress Is Our God". This is good stuff. John Nunes is up here this week as Dean (head spiritual guy) at the Camp and he is one of my favorite people. He makes me think big thoughts. It stretches me out in a non threatening way and is very different from being stretched out at work.

"I have come to be untroubled in my seeking.
I have come to see that nothing is for naught" Joe Pug/"Hymn 101"

Bottom lione for why I go to Michigan. I go to hide. Everyone should have a place to hide and if they can hide with friends then sometimes you get to recieve a little Grace (capital G Grace) right here on earth which....is sweet.

"Life is sweet, life is sweet, life is sweet, bittersweet, and days keep rolling along". Maria Mc Kee/"Life is Sweet"