Vatican Laundry

Today's Washington Post includes an Associated Press story about the Vatican's reluctant entry into financial transparency. The back story is unsavory, largely thanks to the Roman Catholic sovereign state financiers' consistent willingness to work with criminal underworlds and rogue money. In essence, the Vatican is an ambiguous wild card in the finance world, with its ability to bridge legit institutions and shadow players.

This positioning reminds one of the Riggs Bank scandal, in which a Washington, D.C.-based bank became a significant money laundering enterprise, with CIA "blessing." Well, the Riggs episode does make clear that the Vatican apparently has not cornered the market on selling blessings.

The Associated Press story also notes the Holy See's reluctance to embrace financial transparency is being conflated with the thesis that the Vatican stored art looted

by the Nazis during World War II. Holocaust survivors represented by attorney Jonathan Levy are pressing this case.

Hunchback of Notre Dame

All Hallow's Eve seemed like the right time to watch the 1939 version of the Hunchback of Notre Dame, courtesy of Turner Classic Movies. I admit I consistently forget the movie is based on Victor Hugo's novel. The film's ending remains an enduring moment. In it, Charles Laughton, playing Quasimodo, sits next to one of the cathedral's gargoyles and sighs Why was I not made of stone like thee?

This wonderful line has the right tone and sentiment for this holiday weekend, at once entirely American and a complete departure from the American way.

PS. TCM showed a newsreel about Paris and a world's fair that took place in the post-war years. One sequence showed a water-skier being pulled along the Seine. That moment, in which the water-skier glides by Paris' architectural patrimony, is right at home in the heart of Surrealism.

Pontiac R.I.P.

Today's New York Times reminds us that the General Motors Pontiac brand's Halloween will not be happy. In fact, the brand will be a zombie as of November 1st. It will be kaput.

I mentioned the story to my wife. She recalled how her family once owned a Pontiac. In her family's case, the car of choice was a white Bonneville. The car was equipped with a center console that, at the time, was an unusual feature.

While I haven't broached the subject with others, I feel safe in assuming many have had a Pontiac in their family histories. Pontiacs were an everyperson sort of car, and someone's dad drove one. I've never owned a Pontiac, but I did rent one. The ride was nice, but in the end I didn't care.

For the Pontiac brand, in the end, not enough people cared about it.

The photograph, from a different time, shows a 1958 Pontiac Star Chief.

Google's Tax Strategy

Steven Pearlstein in today's Washington Post offers an interesting, troubling opinion piece on multinational corporations' tax strategies. He focuses on Google, and the firm's elaborate tax avoidance schemes. Pearlstein's brief descriptions of Google's cagey, international money movements and corporate structures cast light on a corrupt system. As Pearlstein points out, Google's pushing its duty to shareholders as a sort of human shield against criticism is bullshit, plain and simple. He notes that small businesses, who lack the army of fixers to make tax liabilities vanish, tend to pay higher taxes than "do no evil" Google.

Of course, one understands the awkwardness of criticizing a firm that provides the forum for this blog. However, it's in the public interest, and Google's ultimate interest, to pay its fair share for the common good in the United States. That statement should be written, here and elsewhere, and acted upon, without delay.

The photograph shows the Cayman National Bank building in Grand Cayman.

Wells Fargo's Mortgage Market "Oops"

Wells Fargo announced it planned to "correct and resubmit" 55,000 documents that, if competently used, would get many homeowners The New York Times story expresses skepticim toward the Wells Fargo line.

The significance of the story is that Wells Fargo's stonewalling broke down. It had been the last major bank to try to dodge and weave through the housing crisis. The story seemed to have its own life, with Wells' heaping on the denials while other banks waved the white flag.

The photo shows a Wells Fargo strong box from a very different time.

Rocky and Bullwinkle Creator Passes Away

Alex Anderson, who created the cartoon characters Rocky and Bullwinkle, died in Carmel, California recently. He was 90 years old.

I grew up around the time the Flying Squirrel and Bullwinkle the Moose were constant television companions. I enjoyed the puns, some of which were outrageously funny. The characters were great fun, more in tune with adult tastes than anything a child would truly grasp. Each episode showed a sense of playfulness, of not taking life too seriously, of wit and occasional wisdom.

Here's a link to Rocky & Bullwinkle's Opening Theme.

Harvard and "The Social Network"

The initial critical focus about The Social Network involved the film's portrayal of Mark Zuckerberg. The unflattering portrait of Facebook's supreme being, masterfully performed by Jesse Eisenberg, certainly merited the attention.

However, The Social Network's script allowed for sentiment, even compassion, to elbow its way into the picture. No such quarter was given to Harvard University. The school is depicted as an extraordinarily unpleasant arena, in which ego, ambition, wealth, and social status collide rather than mesh. No Harvard student, faculty member, administrator, or alum comes across as even remotely decent. The caustic sketch of former Harvard president (and Obama advisor) Lawrence Summers is especially damning. The school's unsparing atmosphere is positively unnerving. Why would a parent encourage their daughter or son to immerse her or himself in such a troubled institution?

This portrait of America's "best and brightest" is very disturbing, far more so than Zuckerberg callously promoting his algorithmically-based nightmare. Harvard's role in incubating its talent and shaping its pupils in its code of behavior appears malignant rather than salubrious. If this is the best our country can do, then heaven help us all.

The image is a still from plume, a 2006 work by Tessa Johung. The work appeared in Frame by Frame: Animation at Harvard, a show held at the Carpenter Center for the Arts at Harvard University.

Sherlock Holmes in Film

Thanks to Netflix, I was recently able to watch a streamed version of a Sherlock Holmes movie. The film starred Sir Basil Rathbone, who established a Holmes persona that's tough to beat. Others have tried, and some interpretations are interesting. I showed the most recently Sherlock Holmes movie, in which Robert Downey, Jr. gave a worthy portrayal of the British sleuth.

One of the enduring characteristics of iconic characters, such as Sherlock Holmes, is the range it offers actors. The James Bond franchise is another example; one suspects Jason Bourne will follow in the Holmes-Bond path.

I've often wondered if this phenomenon is restricted to Anglo-Saxon characters. I can't think of a similar character in a language other than English. Fellini's development of an alter ego character comes closest, with Marcello Mastroianni providing the interpretation. If the multiple interpretations are limited to the English-speaking world, one has to consider what is in the culture to permit these variations, or what limits other cultures from developing the next James Bond, Sherlock Holmes, or Jason Bourne.

Yanquis Go Home

The Texas Rangers knocked the Yankees out of the baseball playoffs the other day. The series turned out to be a mismatch, but not in the expected way. The Rangers shattered the New York team in all aspects of the game. The Yankees won two games, but never really looked like they were in the series.

What became evident was that injuries and age caught up with the Yankees. What was really amazing was that New York won 95 games in the regular season. Their best players, except a relatively young Robinson Cano, were hurt at some point during the year. The team showed a lot of grit, and manager Joe Girardi deserves credit for getting the team into the money season.

Girardi's best move was convincing Yankee general manager Brian Cashman to obtain pitcher Kerry Wood from Cleveland during the season. Girardi knew Wood when the pitcher was a Chicago Cub star and Girardi was with the club. Wood stabilized the Yankee relief corps, and carried the Yankees to the ninth inning and Mariano Rivera.

Perhaps the most telling detail of the Yankees' playoff demise was that the Yankees were often knocked out before Rivera had a chance to warm up.

For the Yankees, the so-called "Core Four" has reached its Waterloo. Rivera will be 41 years old next year. An aging Derek Jeter is clearly living on his reputation rather than his current performance. Alex Rodriguez is thirty-five and might be the only player in major league baseball this year to have over one hundred RBIs' and have an "off year." Andy Pettitte is ready to retire. While Cashman has made the Yankees younger, he'll have his work cut out for him this off-season. With all the fuss about Cliff Lee, the Yankees larger need might be younger position players.

In the meantime, Yankee haters have had their moment, courtesy of the Texas Rangers. However, there was no doubt Texas was the better team in American League championship series, and the team George W. Bush once owned will soon play in its first World Series.