OB

Were I'm from, flip town, one town, bluff city, flip town – Memphis; them young boys had a saying called OG. It meant original gangster. Albeit I have never been involved in any thing remotely gangster or regarding being a thug, I was often called and considered an OG by them young cats. In particular them that were in the same social club.

See we did not claim such for on the one had we all got along and would never drive by and shot somebody over petty shit that would put am other person other than the target at risk an innocent person getting injured over a small business conundrum. Yep, them were the days.

Seem that the gang problem has gotten worse if you asked me, and no I’m not talking about Crips, Bloods, Vice Lords or Gangster Disciples, nope I’m talking about these Bankers. Seems that bankers just don’t get it. First It was Madoff, I mean really his indication that he didn’t like jail and that he would prefer to be on house arrest in his penthouse mansion. Then the folks at Goldman Sachs, talking about how they suffering because now when they travel they have to stay in places like Embassy Suites now versus the Ritz-Carlton or the Carlyle. And before all of this, the tirade by that dumb fuck, CNBC's reporter Rick Santelli on the floor of the stock exchange. Santelli, a former financial executive himself, also served as managing director at the Derivative Products Group of Geldermann, Inc., and was Vice President in charge of Interest Rate Futures and Options at the Chicago Board of Trade for Drexel, Burnham, Lambert.

Not to mention it seems also that the folks at the FDIC [Sheila Bair] as well as the SEC [Mary Schapiro] were all former Bankers and the ones that got us into this mess by looking out or worse the other way for their fellow Banking gang members. Bankers don’t give a fuck about the common man, the investor, the home owner. Not to mention it should have been folk on places like CNBC that should have smelled all of this crap as opposed to dumb laymen as myself. But instead, they Applauded folks like former Merrill Lynch CEO John Thain when he is appointed as such, but want to grill him after the fact.

I say they should change the name of the gang task force to the banker task force and chase them down wherever they are. They should put these folks in prisons all around the country so they can handle themselves when the face the Mexican Mafia, Crips or the Aryan Nation while on lock down. Maybe even give them the death penalty and apply the three strike rule as well. So I ask you who the real gangsters are. And I also suggest that we call them what they really are – O B’s (the Original Bankers).

Ye old revolving doors

I was some what amazed at the Bernard Madoff scandal, maybe not amazed, but rather amused. Not because a few folks killed themselves, or a lot of rich folks lost all they loot, but rather because this crook, was also once the former chairman of NASDEQ. Now if that aint funny nothing is, not to mention that his investment arm was not even registered with the SEC until September 2006. Add to that, who would not be leery of a man with the name made-off? But that is how Washington and Wall Street insiders act, they used to going through them revolving doors from Washington to Wall Street, and to the SEC in this example. Madoff had a good reputation with folk on Wall Street and for a typical insider that is good enough for them. That’s the problem.

The SEC will never work as an effective watch dog over folk like Madoff. Namely because they are folk. Madoff as others on Wall Street interchange jobs like a connecting flight through Hartsfield/Jackson international Airport. The Madoff scandal is a black eye to the reputation of the Securities and Exchange Commission, who is supposed to police shit like this. However, folks like outgoing SEC Chairman Christopher Cox seem to have no clue or worse, turn a blind eye to their own kind. Cox after all said that Bear Stearns was in good shape three days before this investment house belly-flopped. Not to mention he mad at folks in the SEC (when they had been informed for decades) for not being able to notice the foul stuff being implemented by Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC.

Folks around the world took looses because institutions like the SEC and our Federal government care more about the folks who they know and support them than the implementation of objective critical thought. In the United Kingdom, Kingate Global Fund Ltd, reportedly lost $2.5 billion. Ascot Partners $1.8 billion, Access International Advisors $1.4 billion, Maxam Capital Management LLC $280 million and the banks HSBC and RBS have lost $1 billion and $600 million. The Spanish bank Banco Santander and Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria (BBV), have reported losses of $3.1 billion and $405 million accordingly.

I do not see these types of acts changing in the near future, and suspect a many more complex hustles in the futures and securities markets to be still in play, even with Obama naming the current head of the Wall Street Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, Mary Schapiro, as the new head of the SEC. Why do I say this? Well truth is known is that the folks who work for the big banks and financial institution of Wall Street are the same ones who work in the SEC. They go back and forth like the rubber ball in a game of dodge ball. Take Cox for example, which from 1978 to 1986, who was a venture capital and corporate finance lawyer with the international law firm of Latham & Watkins. He was supposedly over the Corporate Department in Orange County (they went bankrupt a few years back). He also received a MBA and JD from Harvard as well as taught federal income tax courses at the Harvard Business School.

Schapiro is no different. She was appointed by President Clinton in 1994 to be chairperson of the federal Commodity Futures Trading Commission – we see where that got us today, although she was supposed to be responsible for regulating the US futures markets. Before that, she served for six years as a Commissioner of the Securities and Exchange Commission being appointed in 1988 by President Reagan and reappointed by President Bush in 1989.

The SEC, regardless of who runs it, will never look out for the common man (folks who don’t work on Wall Street or hold political office). In October of last year, they gave "preferential treatment" to Wall Street executive John Mack during an insider trading investigation because he was about to become CEO of the Morgan Stanley investment banking firm. Now I am only saying that it is impossible for folks to police themselves. I don’t think you would let Crips police Crips in a federal correctional facility, so what is difference here? None, nada, zero is the answer. I don’t know why folks are so protective of the next president of these United States of America; likewise, I do not know why they are hypersensitive of folks who review and evaluate his proposed policies and his cabinet choices. It only makes logical sense to me. I remember doing the same regarding the current Bush – especially with respect to his incessant mentioning of “compassionate Conservatism.” His words, policies and appointments demonstrated neither compassion nor conservatism to me, especially with appointments of folk the likes of Dick Cheney, Don Rumsfeld and Paul Wolfowitz. No one, in particular black folks didn’t say a word against my evaluative pragmatism then.

Obama is the president and as president it is our job to be critical and free thinking about his office, policy and problem solving capacity – especially with respect to his words and what he said he will do. The only difference outside of his color for me is that his mantra is not “compassionate conservatism” but rather “change.” Show me some change, or better yet, where is the beef. For we will continue to have these problems until we clean house. These same old Washington folks done messed things up enough, don’t you agree? I feel that we can find just as competent folk, if not more competent folks outside the beltway. I’m just glad medicine isn’t like that, or else one would only be able to have an expert physician or Surgeon in Washington, DC.