As I previously suggested, Battery Park would be the ideal staging for La Place de la Concord redux.  But, if that’s too gruesome - hard to imagine for the nation that raised precious little stink over the CIA’s Global Torture Gulag and flocks to movies in which extras are snuffed by the thousands - use the law: Investigate, Indite, Prosecute, Execute!

To Blackspeare,

You wrote about Maddoff investing style:
“A legitimate pyramid investment plan actually invests the acquired money in various securities while using future investments to keep everything afloat. “
Can you explain to somewhat economicaly not so sophisticated people what that supposed to mean??
I don’t understand why a good investment manager need to depend on constant flow of new investors?
This jis ust waiting for a disaster to happen. And that was 70 years old sophisticated investor!!
However, I think what happened was not fraud but
a hedge fund that went bust. Mathematics no matter how sophisticated cannot account fully for real human behaviour and life situations
Maddoff sacrificed himself and claimed it to be a Ponzi scheme in order for his clients and relatives to get some compensation.
According to the law, there is a difference between
being a victim of a bad investment or being a victim of a fraud. In the fraud case, the person can get
some compensation.

r

Any one of us with money in any of these “rip-off” financial companies[Bank of Am-Bear Sterns-Citigroup] should go TODAY and remove your accounts-Put these companies OUT OF BUSINESS…take your money to a credit union instead…If you can re-fi your home away from these greedy leeches-DO IT!!!!
I can’t afford a spa vacation….So I’m going to do my best to see them lose theirs[since they are taking them at my expense]......

Only troublesum gets it right: This is all grandstanding to get media points with no action and thus no COST to Obama at all.

The Clintons used to be the greatest masters of playing liberals this way. Give them a media bone and then sell them out to the military industrial complex.

To be fair here, though, this is not an attack on Obama or the Clnton’s really. There is no way to be President without making these deals with the powerful.

It isn’t about them. That’s the whole point.

Only troublesum gets it right: This is all grandstanding to get media points with no action and thus no COST to Obama at all.

The Clintons used to be the greatest masters of playing liberals this way. Give them a media bone and then sell them out to the military industrial complex.t an attack on Obama or the Clnton’s really. There is no way to be President without making these deals with the powerful.

It isn’t about them. That’s the whole point.

To be fair here, though, this is no

RE: “Moreover, it’s been reported the accounting is such a mess, most investors can’t get sorted out for them what of anything they have left.”

Don’t believe what you read or hear in the media.  All investors get a periodic statement, usually monthly, that tells exactly where their money is invested. All of the investors in Madoff’s plan are quite wealthy in their own right and I can guarantee that no one will be homeless or do without.  Its more of a media circus than actuality.  As a matter of fact a large bank already offered to put up money to partially compensate the investors.  Of course, in return the bank will get the right to those securities and can afford to wait for better times to make a nice profit.

RE: All of Madoff’s pyramid plan investors will get most of their money back in time.

Depends…what was in most Derivatives and certain Hedge Funds is more likely “dust in the wind.” If any of the portfolio is heavily into investment banks, those not yet collapsed are still in danger of doing so and many of their issues are virtual “junk.”

Moreover, it’s been reported the accounting is such a mess, most investors can’t get sorted out for them what of anything they have left.

Just a couple of course correcting thoughts…

Obama, as well as a host of congressmen are grandstanding on this issue of bonuses.  It is well known that compensation packages on Wall Street are heavily structured towards bonuses rather than base salary.  So even in poorly performing times Wall Street compensation includes what would be considered a small “bonus”——so it looks worse than it really is.

As for Madoff, there is a misconception between Ponzi and pyramid investment plans.  A Ponzi scheme is a fraudulent pyramid investment plan where the operators of the Ponzi actually abscond with their investor’s money.  A legitimate pyramid investment plan actually invests the acquired money in various securities while using future investments to keep everything afloat.  In good times, it works real well thus the ability of Madoff to maintain his plan for a long time.  In bad times a pyramid plan has difficulties, as new investors become less in number, current investors withdraw or make less investments, and the value of the securities decline.  This is what happened to Madoff.  He never stole any money, but just took his percentage.  That is why he is not in jail——he did nothing illegal he’s just caught in a sign of the times.  He will be acquitted!  In the meantime, those securities are still in place and in time will recover.  All of Madoff’s pyramid plan investors will get most of their money back in time.

I had the thought that perhaps this whole bail-out   is a ponzi scheme (jiggling the money around) by the know-it-alls on Wall Street…lining their own pockets without letting the taxpayers and government knowing where the money is ACTUALLY going.

I saw on another site: What would Jesus, the Jew, say to Madoff, the Jew, “You cannot serve God and money”.  The christian Wall Streeter falls into this to.

RE: Let the buyer beware. In the sesquicentennial year of the publication of Charles Darwin’s “On the Origin of Species,” may we consider this?  Whether we have progressed as a “civilized” species from the time when caveat emptor (ca. 16th C.) served to caution consumers at the public market about the potential danger of the meat - i.e. smell before you buy.

Q: who has the time, or the olfactory acumen in the world of financial investment, to sort the ripe from the rotten?

Many cautious investors caught a bad case of putrid insolvency buying from Bernie Madoff. Don’t we pay for professional regulation that’s supposed to protect the public? Is it “buyer beware” or “dog eat dog?” So much for evolution.

Publically held companies should adhere to strict rules regarding extra-comphensation and performance, private held companies should not.

Let the buyer beware.

Since President Obama reads articles and gets outraged, I wonder if he saw this gem from Washington Post staff writers, Connolly, Stephens and Smith. From 2/1/09:
“The disclosure of Daschle’s tax problems coincided with the release of the financial statement he submitted to the Office of Government Ethics, which details for the first time exactly how, without becoming a registered lobbyist, he made millions of dollars giving public speeches and private counsel to insurers, hospitals, realtors, energy firms and telecommunications companies with complex regulatory and legislative interests in Washington.”
from Washington Post, February 1, 2009

The Wall Street wrecking crew needs to be fired, not get bonuses from taxpayers.

reply to littlebrother….President Obama has LOTS to be outraged about-and this brood cow is just one instance…her whole situation is WHAT IS WRONG WITH OUR SYSTEM…This has to do with health care-doctor negligence-hospital mismanagement-welfare-bankruptcy-.....Her family declared bankruptcy….She already has 6 kids-no baby daddy for ANY of them-all with fertility help[she should be sterilized]-now 8 more-Gramps is going BACK TO IRAQ?? to do GOVERNMENT WORK??-......
Who is paying for all these goods and services?????YOU AND ME!!!!
Our taxes keep these folks in the manner they have become accustomed to…
President Obama has enough problems-what with the Re_Pukes blocking his every move…And now this retarded brood cow-and her mother and iraqui army soldier father are going to live better than many Americans I know who bust their asses to pay the bills!?!?!?
How bout this???Send them ALL to Iraq….They can live there and be supported by grandads family…..get jobs there…bank there….medical care there….raise the kids there…go to school there…get all the extra things these “children with problems” are going to require….WITHOUT using OUR TAX DOLLARS….
This pea brained idiot wanted these kids-and her family helped her achieve her goals-[could it be they saw big welfare checks??]THEREFORE…..THEY SHOULD BE RESPONSIBLE….Not you….Not me….Not welfare…..

RE: <i> “trust me”....<i> as much as anyone should trust Robert Rubin, even though “Rubin, a paid adviser and lead director [to Citigroup] since 1999, has collected an annual bonus of $14 million plus an annual salary of $1 million. Last year, he waived the $14 million bonus.” - http://www.nypost.com/seven/12052008/business/no_bonus_for_citi_execs_this_year_142764.htm - how big of him.

OOPS! Not so fast: http://www.nypost.com/seven/12042008/business/ponzi_scheme_at_citi_142511.htm

‘PONZI SCHEME’ AT CITI; SUIT SLAMS RUBIN (insiders reaped millions on toxic investments)
NY POST ^ | 12/4/08 | PAUL THARP
Posted on December 4, 2008 8:30:53 AM PST by Liz

Citigroup scandal engulfs Robert Rubin and his former disciple Chuck Prince in an alleged Ponzi-style scheme now-choking world banking….an alleged complex cover-up of toxic securities spread across the globe, wiping out trillions of dollars in their destructive paths. ...accused of overseeing repackaging unmarketable collateralized debt obligations (CDOs) no one wanted, then reselling them to Citi and hiding the poisonous exposure off the books in shell entities ......when the bottom fell out of the shaky assets, Citi’s stock collapsed, wiping out more than $122B shareholder value. Rubin and other top insiders kept Citi shares afloat until they could cash out more than $150M for themselves in “suspicious” stock sales from undisclosed inside information,” the lawsuit said…...a 500-page investigation by Citigroup investors adds new details to an investor lawsuit filed a year ago.

And, he’ll still get confirmed as Secretary of the Treasury. Rubin must be the mystery ingredient for change, with Clinton the “change agent,” and with Obama, who signals a “time for change!” Incredible in the purest sense of the word.

Re: blogdog

Your comment: “UNREGULATED SPECULATION in Derivatives and Hedge Funds, is what exploded the crisis beyond control. And that’s what the finance bankers want the bail out money for, to shore up their phony Derivatives and Hedge Funds markets, not for loaning to rebuild the nation in a substantive New-Deal fashion. The auto industry is desperate for cash flow, but Wall Street’s not lending. They have no vision for rebuilding, only for speculating.

Thank you.  It seems impossible to emphasis this enough.

That aside, I’m wondering, if you might be interested in this piece of paper “wrote up”.... I “speculate” it’s worth about $75,000… hey, it’s open for bidding if blogdog turns me down.  Truth be told, I also have a really nice bridge I might be willing to part with at the right price…what’s that…sure, I’ll take what ever you’ve got in your pocket.  You won’t be disappointed, “trust me”....

RE: You roll the dice, you takes your chances!

Fine, so long as it’s your own money and not somebody else’s pension fund, educational endowment, insurance settlement font - the sort of funds that should BY LAW, only be held in the most secure investments and not wafted from one pipe-dream instrument to another, just so the handlers can get their buzz off the secondary smoke, or worse puff up an issue to artificially manipulate its market price - bottom line is this: there is no such thing as a free market. If it’s not regulated for the common good, it’s manipulated by heavy weights, ergo: regulated for their benefit only.

As for Obama’s theatre of financial guidance…anyone care to venture when, if ever, he’ll call for public disclosure of where exactly the TARP funds are going?

A great deal of this mess is the result of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, so a trip down memory lane…. 

This “follow the money” article from OpenSecrets lays out some of the details. (dated 9-23-08)

“There was little difference in the money collected by Republicans who supported the bill and those who opposed it; the 255 GOP supporters collected an average of $179,175, while the opponents in their ranks-and there were only five of them-collected $171,890. On the Democratic side, however, there was a wide gulf, as the graph indicates. The 195 Democrats who supported the Financial Services Modernization Act had received an average of $179,920 in the two years and 10 months leading up to its passage, while the 59 Democrats who opposed it received just $83,475.

For Gramm-Leach-Bliley’s Democratic supporters, at least, the contributions from that time suggest they were cozier with the financial sector than the bill’s opponents and, thus, more inclined to vote for a piece of legislation that—at least until Wall Street’s recent collapse—greatly benefited their contributors.”

(Scroll down for charts)
http://www.opensecrets.org/news/2008/09/money-and-votes-aligned-in-con.html

Re: WMark

Your comment: “To me, that sounds like the federal government dictating how much money you are allowed to make, or how much you are allowed to pay your employees.  Be wary of statements like “until they no longer rely on government aid,” because “aid” can take many forms.”

This is an interim proposition.  Although I understand your concern and partially agree.  Do you have a better plan/idea?  This is somewhat the same as “mainstreet” collecting food stamps regardless of their wage…?  Do you also feel that there be NO CONSTRAINTS on “mainstreet” also?

Blogdog- we agree on more points than we disagree…I actually believe that speculation has little place as a productive part of our system, and that is an area where we do indeed need some changes.  Ironically, our own regulatory efforts to limit speculation in the US drove many speculators overseas…and into the oil markets…

Maybe instead of giving banks a bunch of (borrowed) tax dollars, we should have considered changing the accounting rules on asset valuation.  That would have slowed things down a bit, and given the markets time to adjust.  Or, perhaps we should consider setting up a trust for distressed assets until market values rebound, which they eventually should.  I’m not so sure the hedge funds should be a part of that, though.  You roll the dice, you takes your chances!

RE: Derivatives and Hedge Funds are directly tied to the fluctuations of value in the market…once again, I reference the sudden surplus of housing that appeared in an overinflated market…

Not so fast, I will again point out that were it only fluctuation in the “housing market” it would be manageable, and moreover, would respond to time-honored market principals, unlike the recent crash in the price of oil, related in no way to the real market in real oil, only to the futures/options market in “virtual” (i.e. speculative oil).

UNREGULATED SPECULATION in Derivatives and Hedge Funds, is what exploded the crisis beyond control. And that’s what the finance bankers want the bail out money for, to shore up their phony Derivatives and Hedge Funds markets, not for loaning to rebuild the nation in a substantive New-Deal fashion. The auto industry is desperate for cash flow, but Wall Street’s not lending. They have no vision for rebuilding, only for speculating.

Some argue that these arrogant speculators, wallowing in their so-called, free market Capitalist Paradise, should be made to suffer some good old fashioned “tough love” Market Discipline, that might actually see them behind bars, rather than being given a socialist tit to comfort them.

Others recommend just letting them run off to Uruguay, where they can party down with Ken Lay on the Bush Getaway Ranch for their remaining days, and find genuinely educated economists to run the world’s biggest economy like adults. Surely you’d agree that casinos and video arcades are for the immature.

Rae - you are exactly right…the shareholders SHOULD be pissed at a board of directors that pays CEO’s a bonus when a company fails…but remember that bonuses go to more than just CEO’s…they often go all the way down the line, and they are considered part of the total compension package.  “Wall St bonuses of $18B” is a lot more than executive pay, I guarantee you.

Blogdog - Derivatives and Hedge Funds are directly tied to the fluctuations of value in the market…once again, I reference the sudden surplus of housing that appeared in an overinflated market…
And yes..POTUS is playing the masses…such theater…all these people getting excited over bonus pay when the truth is that limiting it won’t bring a single bank back into the black.

RE: Nationalization LED to this mess….Congress created laws that required banks to provide more loans to those that didn’t qualify,..

Were that all that led the credit crisis, it would be quite manageable, after all once a property falls into foreclosure, there’s still something of value.

What you fail to mention even once is the exponential expansion of Derivatives and Hedge Funds - those bubbles, when exploded leave behind precious little more than mountains of virtually worthless paper. And those investment instruments were deregulated in the 80s and 90s, mainly by those now advising the POTUS.

Your knee-jerk Left vs. Right reaction to all this is pretty superficial. What’s really going on is that global finance oligarchs have literally hi-jacked the world’s monetary system and are holding it hostage.

To be sure, some of the few laws left, regulating the financial industry have been broken. But, none in power dare bite the hand that feeds them.

This display by the new POTUS is simply a sop for pissed off tax payers - i.e. theatre for the masses.

Since the SHAREHOLDERS of these private financial institutions benefit from the management “performance” of the executives they hire, I submit it is the SHAREHOLDERS that should be paying the bonuses. The millions should be skimmed off the top of the “profits” - anything left over then should be divided up amongst the stakeholders.

What? The SHAREHOLDERS object to THEIR money being used for paying bonuses?

Tough shit.

Bottom line: not a penny from the public purse to these quasi-legal crooks. The sooner they go belly-up the better.

To WMark,

Either you are a Wall St.‘s TROLL or don’t know what the “bleep” you are talking about. There is no sense
of wasting time and energy with someone like you who
is inventing stories and letting his imagination
runs wild. OVER AND OUT!!!

1.  I don’t see where any laws have been broken, so no, I’m not proposing anyone reward criminal behavior.  Investors have lost a lot of money, but there is no crime here, although it is a terrible situation for everyone.  It’s also no crime for a company to pay whatever they want to their employees, with the Board of Director’s oversite. 

2.  Nationalization LED to this mess….Congress created laws that required banks to provide more loans to those that didn’t qualify, and Freddie Mae and Fannie Mac (“Nationalized” institutions, in case you didn’t know) bought the loans.  To this day, Freddie Mae and Fannie Mac are STILL buying loans made to people with 50-60% debt income ratios (typically, banks don’t like to go over 38%).  These borrowers were the first to default, in huge numbers, after the market became overinflated (remember, the govt made it easy for EVERYONE to buy a home, so the market went bezerk with builders trying to provide enough supply!)  So, with an overinflated housing market (due to government-created demand), the foreclosures had the effect of tanking home values for EVERYONE, which dramatically affected the assets of our financial institutions (they have to count their assets as what they are worth TODAY, not what they bought them at or what they would be worth in a “normal” market…another wonderful fed govt idea, by the way, thank you Barney Frank). 

And you want our Fed Govt to take over banking?  There won’t be any money for investment….nobody will buy stock (because the govt will be the preferred stockholder and will take all profits), no money will be available at all for expansion.  Look at Russia.

To WMark,

You are insisting on rewarding criminal behaviour
claiming that you are defending the “free enerprise”
system.
Is it free enterprise to come to the government with
hat in hand and asking for a rescue after bankrupting
your institution?!. Is it privatizing the profits and
socializing the losses.
The banking systm should be nationalized.

Dear Outraged,

Your previous comment reads:

“Her office said the $400,000 compensation cap she was proposing would include salary, bonuses and stock options.

‘We should have done it in the first place,’ McCaskill said of the proposed salary cap, ‘but I don’t think any of us thought these guys were this stupid.’

To me….that sounds like a plan, good call.”

I disagree.  To me, that sounds like the federal government dictating how much money you are allowed to make, or how much you are allowed to pay your employees.  Be wary of statements like “until they no longer rely on government aid,” because “aid” can take many forms.  Did you get a tax deduction last year for having a mortgage?  Guess what…I know Senators that would call that “government aid!”

Too bad all they are pissed off about is the fact that CEO’s are getting big bonuses while the majority of us are pissed off that these companies got the money in the first place.  Through the years businesses big and small have come and gone.  In their places new businesses have risen up and provided the same types of services and this countries economy has marched on.

Unfortunately the same fostering of incompentence that occurs in the government has now been perpetrated in the private sector and paid for with taxpayer dollars.  Congress only has itself to blame for not ever putting conditions in place for companies borrowing the money.  The money has been lent and Congress shouldn’t be re-writting the terms of an existing loan that they made through their own incompetence.  Of course what do you expect from the same politicians who promised that when they passed the $700 billion stimulas bill that they would be putting in strict oversight which they never did.

If you don’t like what is happening just remember to thank yourselve or your friends who voted for the foolish politicians who passed the $700 billion stimulas plan in the first place.

If Rudi is correct and the bonus is required to save NY, then they ought to distribute the bonus evenly to every New Yorker. That is distasteful but better than what they did. I realize there are folks that may individually deserve a bonus. There were also Arthur Andersen employees that did not deserve to lose their jobs - but they did. If you work for a company that is on the government dole you should not get a bonus. If you’re good go find another company to work for. That way you may earn a bonus next year.

The latest news from Reuters:

“as a Democratic senator proposed capping employee salaries at companies receiving government aid and the White House pledged action from President Barack Obama as well.

“We should have done it in the first place,” McCaskill said of the proposed salary cap, “but I don’t think any of us thought these guys were this stupid.”

http://www.reuters.com/article/ousivMolt/idUSTRE50T5JN20090130

To me….that sounds like a plan, good call.

Rudy, you might want to read the (unabridged) history of the French Revolution.

Battery Park would serve:  La Place de la Concord redux - not far from Wall Streert - make the traders pull the carts - they’d be getting off easy, it’s all downhill.

Rudi says, “let them eat at restaurants.”

hippy pam, the story of the compulsive mega-breeder is pretty creepy, alright—but what does it have to do with Obama’s feigned outrage at his Wall Street business partners feeding way too noisily and greedily at the trough?

SHAMEFUL….This Unwed woman with 6 kids-artificially impregnated-with 8 more-lives with her parents-the granddad is going BACK to IRAQ to do government contract work while the babies become american citizens[due to birth here]-And WHO is gonna pay for the HOSPITAL DELIVERY BILL?AND DIAPERS/BOTTLES/MEDICAL?????Can you spell…....
W-E-L-F-A-R-E

And my friends daughter-who works 2 jobs-her husband works 2 also-and no insurance-owes THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS for the birth of their baby-They can’t even apply for food stamps or assistance-cuz they make to much money[on minimum wage]....This is JUST WRONG…

I thought he brilliantly captured the situation when he said that we’re in an economic hole, and these people are digging a deeper one even as taxpayers are being asked to fill it up.

Keep Gitmo in Good repair, Binden has the right Idea ‘To the Brigg’. In fact let’s be sure to ‘grandfather’ in Bush’s ‘methods’ for our Wall Street Terrorists!They have fulfilled Bin Ladens wildest dream, when actual destruction doesn’t do the trick, go for the internal workings.
Wall streeters should be tried and convicted on Economic Terrorism and Treason..I’m NOT Joking!
They not only came ‘hat in hand’ to swindle US out of Bailout money (with a 2 1/2 page death threat), they also have been strong arming their credit card customers with higher interest rates and ‘default’ rates. They are Literally killing US from two sides. Why should Citibank be sending ME a Bill when they Owe me more then I owe them?
Pres Obama need to first roll back interest rate- to no more than 1% over what these banks borrow money from the Fed (what at 0.05% now) and it should be rolled back to at least a year ago. Take that outrageous interest rate off my bill and I’ll have more money to spend, at least on necessities. he should also require that no more than a 5% minimun payment be expected while consumers are facing massive layoffs.
I don’t need a tax break, I need a Job and a stop credit card companies extortion!Many Americnas mortgages are not killing them, it’s their credit card bills!! We’ve lost about $7500 in income, that is what caused our credit card debt, so reimburse US for this Economic treason committed by the Financial industry over the last 8 yrs, along with their blood thirsty interest rates! Literally I had one card TRIPLE my interst rate in Aug, even though I paid my bill faithfully. I’m a small business Owner now looking for alternative steady work just to meet the cost of trying to do business in a 8 yr long recession.

Let us recall one of the memorable and timelessly relevant moments from the classic film “Casablanca”, wherein the captain of the French garrison (Claude Rains) reacts when German soldiers raid Rick’s Café because illegal gambling is taking place:

Captain Renault: I’m shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here!

[a croupier hands Renault a pile of money]

Croupier: Your winnings, sir.

Captain Renault: [sotto voce] Oh, thank you very much.

[aloud]

Captain Renault: Everybody out at once!
————————————
Obama’s performance is no less convincing.

Obama is correct, but that only states the MORE THAN obvious.  Just the same, it’s important he acknowledges the despicable acts of these undesirables.  Now for accountability…...

Speaking of shameful, notice he didn’t get rid of the patriot act, yet.  Still trying to understand why american citizens are having to pay for 9/11.

Taken alone the remarks were insufficient. Sure, he’s barely a week in office and the AG is not yet in place.

However, the stimulus and tarp strategy demands   transparency, regulation and prosecution.

The impact of massive spending programs will be held in check unless we take the criminals to task.

Who do you think you’re kidding TD?  This was 20 lashes on the back of the hand with a wet noodle.
Did he say anything about prosecuting those people who defrauded the government?  Those guys are laughing all the way to Aruba.

I did watch and listen—live on CNN when he said it to bonus givers, and—maybe?—to bonus recipients. I sure did enjoy dressing down, though I thought Obama way, way too kind. Were I Obama, I’d have had grand larceners arrested to be prosecuted. Upon conviction, sentenced to many, many, many years in prison. At least for more years than any absurdly convicted and sentenced for drug use. (I do understand that “correction” too is business opportunity also requiring cut-rate labor. Which has long been upplied by so-called “justice” system in the form of ex-drug users. According to highly regarded “rule of law,” much esteemed by most all, especially power, not really surprisingly. The one union that has thrived all these years has been prison-guards union. Well, and the AMA, and of course any and all state Bars. The latter from among which so many of our political representatives have arisen to better lives.)

Or, perhaps (pipe-dreaming now), what British naval officers used to have done to HMS seamen who misbehaved. None of those seamen deserved that nearly so much as Wall Street parasites who never put in a serious day’s work in their picayune lives. (So smart is each and every one.) If not quite so picayune lives as those led by majority of Congresspersons, who for their part might be charged with aiding and abetting, if not quite with conspiracy to commit, grand larceny in collusion with Wall Street gang compared to which Mexican drug cartels are penny-ante.

Can you say EIGHTEEN BILLION DOLLARS!? More money than any drug-cartel tsar ever dreamed of.

None—especially Obama—should underestimate those Buffett referred to as “my class.” When Buffett honestly talked of class warfare and of how his class was (still is, far as I know) winning. I didn’t hear Obama say, like any old-time sheriff—back when there was something sorta, kinda justice-like—often said to any looking for trouble: “You got ‘til sundown….” In sheriff’s case for whatever low-life to get outta town; in this (our) case to return the loot.

Otherwise, I never again want to hear or read three words: “rule of law.”