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.

Annie Leibovitz

Today's Financial Times includes a very interesting, and rather long, piece on Annie Leibovitz.

The article skillfully leverages reporting about the photographer's financial and personal issues into an examination of the art world. The article does explore Leibovitz's entirely earned reputation as a diva and as an asshole. (Not mentioned in the piece are the vendors, the "small people," Leibovitz routinely stiffed.) Had the article stopped with the petty gossip about the photographer, the piece would not have been a strong one. Instead, the writer wisely and thoughtfully portrayed why Leibovitz's travails and difficulties were met with the art world's silent, but well-known nod of approval.

Curiously, the article asserts Leibovitz's prints do not generate large selling prices. It was astonishing to read that her prints are worth far less than $10,000, while other "name" photographers easily earn ten times that amount for a print.

Of course, a British newspaper broke the story. The New York-based art media has too much at stake to touch the Leibovitz story, especially her embarrassing near-bankruptcy and the unflattering perspective on her personality. It's true The New York Times ran a worthwhile story around the time Leibovitz was sued by a creditor. It's also the only time the newspaper has done so in Leibovitz's career.

However, Leibovitz has discovered a hard lesson about life in New York: it's one thing to be fashionable, but it's another to be respected.

Will UK Budget Cut Wind Blow Across Atlantic?

Britain's Conservative government announced earlier this week its recommendation to cut nearly a half-million public service jobs from the current total. This 20% haircut has been characterized by Prime Minister David Cameron (seen at right) as necessary in order to address the UK's grim budget scenario.

The United Kingdom's American cousins will emulate this socially drastic script after the election bloodbath is over. The Republicans will want it, Democrats will not resist too strongly, and Obama already has his eyes on re-election. Likely targets will be postal workers, teachers, and municipal employees. The British, at least, will have brains enough to tax banks. The Americans will try the unique approach of giving the banks more money, especially once the foreclosure scandal reveals the tawdry state of major money center banks' balance sheets.

Do you still think the Great Recession is over?

Shot Put

The other day, The New York Times ran an obituary about a "shot-put innovator," James E. Fuchs. His life story is an interesting one, and includes his collaboration with George Steinbrenner to establish a scholarship fund for children of deceased police officers. The caveat was that the police officers had to be from the New York area and had to have died in the line of duty.

I threw shot-put in high school. I had no business doing so. My weight and size militated against any sort of long-term success. The exercise and practice sessions were often deadly dull. I didn't enjoy the sport, and my participation in it was largely pointless.

The only benefits of over three years of shot-put futility was that I got to know Bob Guida and Pat Conte. From them, I learned a great deal about music, both recorded and performed. I also gained insight from them into the finer points of a true New York "slice." To this day, like nearly all New Yorkers, I regard the New York slice as pizza's gold standard.

I also had the opportunity to participate in a sport that offers almost nothing modern in its style or substance. That fact offers some consolation, and more than a little wonder that it can still attract a following.

Flash Crash

In what is evolving into a series of episodes, the NYSE experienced yet another flash crash yesterday. This incident involved SPY, an ETF that tracks the S&P 500 Index. About a half-billion dollars in trades were voided as a result of yesterday's flash crash.

That represents a big "oops," even in devalued U.S. dollars. All a non-professional in the world of equity trading can say is something is very wrong with a market structure that collapses as often as one sneezes.

The recent SEC investigation of a recent flash crash cited Waddell & Reed, a relatively obscure Midwestern firm, for causing an entire sophisticated market to seize up. The SEC's assertion was met with considerable skepticism. It is unlikely that the same firm caused yesterday's flash crash; a "system upgrade" at NYSE Arca has been cited as the culprit for this episode. Buyers for this story are not exactly lining up. The SEC, NYSE, and other market players have a lot of explaining to do.

Belva Plain

The popular novelist Belva Plain passed away last week at her home in nearby Short Hills, New Jersey. She was 95. The New York Times obituary provides details about her life.

When I worked in New York retail bookstores, Plain's books were a popular customer choice. I had never read her work, and to this day, have not. However, I remember her name and the covers of her paperbacks quite distinctly. After all, her first name was one-of-a-kind, even if her prose (at least, by reputation) was not.

The Orionids

I visited a friend today at her apartment. One of the curious items in a living room filled with curious items was a telescope. Now, my friend doesn't seem the type to spend hours gazing into the heavens. However, she has used the instrument on occasion. I didn't have an opportunity today to talk at length with her about the telescope, except to learn that it's challenging to properly use.

I wonder if she'll use the telescope to view the Orionids. They're a meteor display reputedly derived from the remains of Halley's Comet. The Orionids will be in this week's night sky, although ambient moonlight may minimize the opportunities to see the heavenly show.

Telescopes remind one of speculative activities that have been conducted since human beings walked on two legs instead of all fours. These astronomical investigations have occurred in Aboriginal Australia, Imperial China, the mysterious Mayan period in Mexico, and the Islamic crescent. They tap our deepest, universal sense of curiosity about the world we know, and the endless reaches of what we do not know.

Van Cortlandt Park

Van Cortlandt Park in The Bronx, a hilly, wooded stretch of mainland Gotham, is beautiful at this time of year. It's also very busy with sports activities, especially cross country. Runners from the New York region fill the park's unforgiving cross country circuit on weekends. The athletes include many of the city's high school sports teams, from track and field to basketball. On a given Saturday in October, it's not unusual to see runners who will one day become pro sports stars. They run on this course because cross country gets one fit. The experience is similar to training camp: no one likes it, but there's no substitute for its rigor.

Cross country events take place rain or shine, regardless of temperature or other conditions. The event is a timed one, and records are kept, but I've never known an athlete who cared about a cross country record. The idea is to get in shape, and go home.

Other visitors to Van Cortlandt Park play the public golf course there. I did when I was in high school. At the time, I had no game whatsover. I hardly knew how to properly hold a club. While my golf partner, a cross-eyed classmate, could hit a ball straight, I hooked and sliced them all over the course. As a result, I became very familiar with the trees along the fairways. I had many opportunities to admire their brilliant fall colors while searching for my Titleist, Champion, or other golf balls among the fallen leaves.

Van Cortlandt Park is a side of New York that still feels stubbornly rooted to the city, its quirky personality, and the people that call it home. Now is the best time of year to see the park, and get a sense of one of New York's locally known icons.

Camp Randall

Tomorrow night, Ohio State will play Wisconsin at the Badgers' home field, Camp Randall Stadium. I went to UW football games when I attended the university. The games were very rowdy, a lot of fun, and sometimes freezing cold in the stands. At that time, Wisconsin's football teams were around .500. The highlight of the season was when a Big Ten powerhouse came to town. That meant either Ohio State or Michigan.

While I never saw a Michigan game, I did catch the Buckeyes. Woody Hayes, in the twlight of his career, was the coach. When one attends a sports event in person, one quickly notices the size of players. The difference in perception between live action and television is most noticeable in nuances such as relative sizes of the athletes. Ohio State's players were far bigger than anything Wisconsin had on the field. They were also faster, but it was the size differential that was very, very striking.

At the end of the game, I was very upset that State had won. We were seated within a stone's throw of the area where the Ohio State team exited the field. I took the "throw" part to heart, picked up an object, and was about ready to throw it at Hayes himself. Fortunately, a friend (Charlie, for those who know the people in the story) kept his head and prevented me from what would have been an act of certain folly, likely severe injury, and probable arrest. He scolded me and told me I was crazy to even contemplate such an act.

He was right, of course.

I know better now. And I remain a fan. I still root for the Badgers. I work with someone whose daughter attends Ohio State. We didn't bet on the game, but we know where we stand. One of us will be happier than the other on Monday.

Duck

A quick post this evening. Take time to read this Washington Post feature on Harry Whttington, the man Dick Cheney shot during a hunting party in South Texas.

Obama Administration's Nolo Contendere in Foreclosure Servicing Crisis

Earlier today, the Obama Administration floated a proposal to address the burgeoning foreclosure servicing crisis. One has to read it to believe it. The Washington Post has the details. I'll provide some of the story's choicer items:

Exhibit A: Federal regulators on Wednesday urged the nation's lenders to verify that paperwork filed as part of the foreclosure process was properly reviewed and to file new documents if problems are found. But regulators also said that lenders should continue as quickly as possible with foreclosures when no problems are found.

Exhibit B: (I)t's not clear whether (the Federal Housing Finance Agency) will play a positive role in cleaning up the foreclosure mess. The regulatory framework largely repeated what regulators have already said or what banks were already doing.

In essence, it tells banks to make sure that documents used as part of the foreclosure were properly reviewed and signed. If they weren't, banks must work with local lawyers for a fix. This might include filing new paperwork that has been properly reviewed, the framework says.

I believe that means the niceties of due process for the foreclosed homeowner can be safely ignored, while the banks and mortgage fixers get a free pass and a "do-over." Don't worry: the foreclosed family might receive an "oops" note in the mail from their mortgage lender. This document, however, probably won't be delivered by a process server.

Exhibit C: "The country's housing finance system remains fragile and I intend to maintain our focus on addressing this issue in a manner that is fair to delinquent households, but also fair to servicers, mortgage investors, neighborhoods and, most of all, is in the best interests of taxpayers and housing market," said FHFA acting director Edward DeMarco in a statement.

It's heartening to learn that the FHFA is being "fair" to servicers, a number of whom are being investigated by various states' attorneys general for civil and criminal violations of the law. The servicers are made to order to take the fall for the volatile mortgage scandals.

Today's Wall Street Journal named names in the Florida AG's investigation of servicers. There are four principal players in this field in the Sunshine State. Guess how they got their lucrative, politically connected, behind-the-curtain business? They were chosen by Freddie Mac and Freddie Mae representatives. Freddie and Fannie execs were key Democratic Party fundraisers and acceptable faces to the now-restive corporate world. One wonders just how edgy the rapidly escalating foreclosure documentation crisis is making White House operatives.

The corruption runs deep, and touches all of us.

Bobby Cox

Bobby Cox's last game as the Atlanta Braves' manager took place last night. In an act that showed class, the San Francisco Giants stopped their playoff victory celebration, clapped for Cox and tipped their caps to him.

This is almost unheard of in baseball, and the act gave Cox a gesture of dignity and respect that he entirely earned. It was one of the sport's proud moments.

History vs. Memoir

Reporter Fareed Zakaria recently interviewed China's premier Wen Jiabao for Time magazine. The piece, whose brevity strongly suggests Zakaria had around ten minutes with the PRC's numero uno, wasn't terribly informative. However, there was one unanticipated, golden moment. Here's the direct quote from the Time piece:

Q: Is there a book you've read in the past few months that has impressed you?

A: The books that are always on my shelves are books about history, because I believe history is like a mirror, and I like to read both Chinese history and history of foreign countries. There are two books that I often travel with. One is The Theory of Moral Sentiments, by Adam Smith. The other is The Meditations [of Marcus Aurelius]. There are too many memoirs selling nowadays. I don't like reading those books.

While Wen's politics are often objectionable, I'll second his motion regarding history vs. memoirs.

The image shows Wen in 2007 honoring a photograph taken by China's first lunar probe.

Black Bear

I saw a black bear today. My wife and I were driving through Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area this afternoon when we saw the animal near the side of the narrow road. The bear looked over its shoulder when it heard our car's engine. One glance at our vehicle was enough to convince the creature to run away from us. Well, it didn't exactly run. The bear's gait was more akin to a clumsy gallop than a run. The bear made it into the trees and bushes and then checked us out again.

I was completely charmed. I had never seen a black bear in the wild, and the sighting was the last thing I expected this afternoon. I had not planned to go out today, as I had a project deadline to meet. Work was done ahead of schedule, and that gave my wife and I time to go out. Visiting the National Recreation Area was unintended, as we simply drove west toward the Delaware River and got off at the last exit on Interstate 80 in New Jersey.

I had seen bears in the wild once before. However, those bears were brown and I saw them from the deck of a ship off the Alaskan coast. Today's sighting was much more satisfying and visceral, as it was a complete surprise, and we were rather close to the bear.

For me, spotting a bear in the wild is as unique as when I saw a palm tree for the first time. To this day, I remember the palm tree, and I'm certain I'll remember the black bear hastily and wisely avoiding human contact. I'll also look in the night sky, where Ursa Major is a frequent visitor.

Sanofi-Aventis Says "Adieu" to 1,700 US Employees

French multinational "big pharma" firm Sanofi-Aventis announced yesterday that it would trim 1,700 jobs from its United States workforce. About 300 will be dropped from Sanofi's North American headquarters in Bridgewater, New Jersey.

Bridgewater is no backwater in the pharma world. Multinational pharmaceuticals and satellite firms are clustered near one another in central New Jersey, including Bridgewater. The firms want this arrangement, as it's easier to attract and keep its high-priced scientific talent, poach others from their competitors, and leverage the advantage of the region's roughly equidistant geographic position between New York and Philadelphia.

When the desirability of economic globalization gained traction some years ago, its advocates strongly asserted that the phenomenon would help the United States prosper. In particular, globalization's supporters (stand up, Clinton Democrats) pointed to "high-value" jobs in fields such as pharma as a strong reason to accept the "good" of globalization with the "bad". What a difference a few years make! Now, multinationals such as Sanofi-Aventis focus their efforts and their personnel in "high growth," cheaper labor regions of the globe, such as Asia south of China. The United States is not projected to experience either exciting growth or significantly cheaper labor costs for scientific talent.

Of course, if the Great Recession were truly finis, Sanofi's workforce trim would have been far less likely. The French firm has manifestly demonstrated, in deeds and not words, that the Great Recession has modified its economic expectations for America. Given the Gallic vote of little confidence in the USA's financial future, do you think those Sanofi jobs will return? Or that Apple, Amazon, and Google can single-handedly lift the American economy into a better place than it currently finds itself? Where will the money come from?

Playoff Baseball

I saw a few innings of the Philadelphia-Cincinnati baseball playoff game on television this evening. The game had some very exciting moments, including hit batsmen, defensive gaffes, and poised play. It also featured new faces to the playoff show, such as Cincinnati star Joey Votto and Philadelphia's extraordinary pitcher Roy Halladay.

Baseball desperately needed new, dynamic blood into its big time showcases. Fans across the country will now get to see underappreciated talents such as Texas' Michael Young and rising stars such as the Giants' Tim Lincecum. They're thriving, even though they play far from Yankee Stadium or Fenway Park.

For a time, television networks assumed on our behalf that the only truly desirable baseball "products" were the Yankees and Red Sox. During the post-season, solid teams such as the Minnesota Twins, lost in the shadows of major market franchises, get their moment in the bright lights. I admit I root for the Yankees, but I enjoy how baseball's new generation of great players make a playoff baseball game something to savor.

Cultural Revolution Stamp Collection

Earlier this evening, I watched Mao's Last Dancer, a film based on the autobiography of the Chinese ballet dancer Li Cunxin. The movie includes a sequence in which the dancer performs for Jiang Qing, Mao Zedong's wife and leader of the Gang of Four during China's Cultural Revolution. In a few minutes, the movie successfully recalls how oppressive, dangerous, and deluded China's leadership was during that dark period.

When I taught English in New York's Chinatown many years ago, I met students who had experienced the Cultural Revolution. It is difficult for us to grasp the swirl of revolutionary hysteria that gripped China at that time. The historical episode touched every Chinese. I don't take such incidents lightly, and occasionally reflect on how something similar could happen elsewhere.

One of my Chinese students showed me her stamp collection featuring pristine stamps from the Cultural Revolution. Heroic farmers, dedicated leaders, strident slogans graced those

functional objects, transforming them into aggressive political icons. The student knew the stamps were more than simply collector's items. They reflected history, one that directly,negatively impacted her family.

To this day, I recall the stamps' lurid power, and hoped I would never have to encounter such collective insanity as the student's family did over four decades ago.

Finally, the Nobel committee's award of the Nobel Peace Prize to Chinese dissident Liu Xiabo is an unintended, yet entirely suitable coda to this post. The Chinese government's reaction to the honor, which it characterized as an "obscenity," baldly demonstrates why people of thought are persistently troubled the country's current, rigid political direction and have profound intellectual and moral doubts about its future.

Food Stamp Usage Hits New High

According to The New York Times, the Great Recession is not only over, but ended many months ago. I suggest the editors get their heads out of their collective asses and look around at evidence to the contrary.

Here's Exhibit A: recent government statistics show about 1/8th of the entire United States population now receives federal government food stamps. That's right: one out of every eight people. That's a modern day record, as the sports announcers like to say.

This is not complicated evidence. It's freely available, and paid for with tax dollars. All one has to do to understand it is have an ability to read a simple chart and grasp a little bit of English. That might be asking too much of a newspaper that has the hubris to advertise it has the greatest reporters in the world and then have the chutzpah to add "there's no arguing that."

Meanwhile, one in eight Americans need government assistance to avoid starvation. There's no arguing that.

Rogue Traders

A French court passed sentence today on so-called rogue trader Jerome Kerviel, whose unauthorized trades supposedly put the august French financial institution Societe Generale (Soc Gen) in jeopardy of financial collapse. The former trader was convicted of forgery, breach of trust, and unauthorized use of computer systems. He received a prison sentence and a fine of nearly five billion Euros. That's right -- billion.

The sentence, the fine, the accusation should be considered in light of Soc Gen's reputation as masterful derivative traders, skilled risk takers, and core members of the French power structure. It is extremely unlikely that an institution with a disposition toward firm control, such as Soc Gen, would have let a rogue trader run wild for a couple of years. When things were good for Soc Gen and its rogue, the bank made billions from his trades. When events challenged Soc Gen's business, Kerviel became a convenient fall guy.

The severe fine was precisely levied to send a message to French society: the elite can pretty much get away with anything. This warped ethic is not unique to France. Recently, a judge in the United States (clearly a rogue in his own way) compelled a mortgage company to produce appropriate documentation relating to foreclosures. The firm couldn't do it. The case expanded, and we now understand that the American mortgage business, already battered from the subprime catastrophe, has again displayed a breathtaking embrace of corrupt practices. A significant number of homeowners were booted from their homes, while the court system provided easy, no-questions-asked process that essentially mocked the rights of those whose homes were being foreclosed. Now, thanks to a "rogue" judge, that process has been temporarily halted, with members of Congress now asking the Department of Justice to investigate "irregularities" committed by Ally, J.P. Morgan Chase, and other firms.

The American housing disaster includes many elite institutions where "the best and the brightest" work. The episode should be a source of shame for those trained to lead. Instead, they have been absolutely brilliant at shamelessly exploiting retail customers while arrogantly harming the financial fabric of our country. However, the American elite will soon show their French peers that they, too, can find fall guys for their fiscal folly and their degradation of even minimal moral business standards. After all, people need to get the message that crime doesn't pay.

Philip Roth at 77

Philip Roth's new novel, Nemesis, is ready and waiting for readers. The book is Roth's 31st, most of which are novels. That number represents an incredible body of work, often written at a high level of skill and intellectual engagement. I have not read all thirty-one works -- very far from it. The publication of Nemesis also comes with Roth enduring interviewers from various media outlets. I watched one interview, a segment on "CBS Sunday Morning," in which the interviewer managed to come across as a smiling dunce. She spent much of the segment stating obvious points, drumming up personal history to no useful purpose, and making no attempt to understand why Roth writes.

There was one good moment which the interviewer almost accidentally elicited. She asked Roth about awards, and the 31-book man said (I'm paraphrasing) "I like awards. I like winning them." Good for you, Mr. Roth. It was a good, human moment, far away from the bromides of the "distinguished literary voice" supposedly above the needs of praise, the awards of ambition, the pettiness of vanity.

The illustration is the front cover from the German language edition of The Breast.

What is a Musical?

My wife and I recently went to a performance of a play characterized in the program as a "rock concert musical." The description seemed apt, given that the first of the play's two acts consisted almost entirely of musical numbers. However, appearances can be deceiving. We spoke with the theatre's artistic director during intermission. He quite firmly informed me the play was not a musical.

This perspective baffled me. It did lead me to consider the useful question of defining what a musical is. I don't have any bright ideas on the subject, but I'm curious about what others think on this topic. You're welcome to offer your comments.

Ronnie Brown's Secret

Miami Dolphin running back Ronnie Brown recently spoke at a Florida middle school about teen violence. The complete story, as reported in Yahoo, is interesting and thought provoking. What caught my eye was Brown's secret, which he revealed to the assembled students: his parents had been incarcerated when Brown was a young boy.

How a child considers and manages the unpleasant fact of a relative's incarceration is a topic suited for a writer with a Russian novelist's skill. The crime does not necessarily have to be a violent one; the charge could be embezzlement. The legacy of "guilty" goes beyond the individual into the adult family members, the children, and in some cases, the generations to come.

Brown managed to overcome this emotional impediment, and I'm assuming competitive athletics helped him do so. It's easy to forget, in the schools' test-crazy, data-driven nightmare, that character development is damn important, and often occurs through extra-curricular activities such as athletics. Young women and men are tested inside and outside a classroom, including some edgy ways for which activities such as athletics provide excellent preparation. One can only hope schools find the money to maintain these programs.

The BOCX

Just a quickie, but the message is as important as a longer, more "composed" post:

My good friend Phil operates an Internet-based radio station which is very much worth your time. His musical taste comfortably embraces old and new schools, with a preference toward chilled, soulful selections. Listen for yourself. Here's the link: www.thebocx.com.