Wilbur leads the way to 2008

I read about this guy Wilbur who recently purchased American Home Mortgage . Here we sit with daily death notices being published by the media an Wilbur wants us to believe that he would buy a company crippled by sub prime mortgages years before the market corrects itself...gee Wilbur I really don't like South Florida property. I just can't make sense of what Wilbur is trying to convince us of...that is with all those adjustable rate mortgages have days of reckoning coming up. Month after month of billions coming due should scare anyone out that market...B of A just dumped their wholesale division putting it behind them. Where are you taking your loan portfolio Wilbur?

Here we sit right in the middle of a major event that has changed the fabric of the American dream and we still have folks who won't do straight talk. Sub prime isn't gone. Nobody shot and buried it. Done legit its how many investors accumulate properties and build empires it just got out of control. In many companies risk management was sent home while money was being made all through the house all were told to be quiet as mice.

The CEO of Merrill quit this week. Some say he didn't know how to manage risk others just say he lost billions. Will someone say how much he made during the fast and furious heydays? Risk or do we mean fraud since most of the problems really connect to rampant fraud. In 2005-2006 when he moved their income up a substantial amount.

Everyone knew the market was volatile and either you sat still and watched all the other players or you jumped in to the hottest part of the flame. Merrill does not employ a bunch of amateurs. Like Bo they know risk what no one knew was how bad the fraud was. We put third world countries to shame with our no holds barred behavior. Greed was the order of the day right up to the day the phones went quiet. Suddenly there was time to look at all the folders of loans that were going to come back to haunt.

Just think through this time a person who could falsify his citizenship, lie about his income, actually you could lie about anything and get a loan on a house. Not a citizen easy to beat foreclosure...grab a new identity. Strange how easy that was in a post 9/11 era. If you were unlucky and were a citizen blame the person you gave the phony info to.

It concerns me to think that we are no more sophisticated in 2007 than we were on the black days that crashed markets. Folks quit teaching school, left the factory floors and halls of telemarketing havens to either sell real estate or sell mortgages services. Now houses don't sell and mortgage companies are fighting over one real folder.

The guys at the top took the heat. Some did not survive but in my book they are the best qualified to bring a company back from this red bath.

Leave the mortgage General alone...

Out there in the business battlefield is a General I will call "Angelo." This General is not in the military but he has his troops fighting for their corporate lives just as if he were on the line. Prior to this time "Angelo" was a Star...the kind of person who ends up on the cover of time magazine. In the battle of business he made lots of people lots of money...then his Battle of the Bulge hit him head on. There was no McAuliffe to hold down the forest. Just lots of bad wolves coming out looking to do him in. OK, so he didn't say nuts but rather something more importantly significant..."we'll be profitable by the end of the year."

No there is not a herd of politicians calling for his head but instead poor fund managers who were to busy living the good life to properly manage their funds. Has it been that many years ago that we have forgotten about a young lady fund manager who was so on top of her duties that she saved her clients tons of money. I don't know but I bet she is still the best around in today's investment world. Why would you want to remove the one man who has brought his company through its darkest days and has it back on its ways to profitability? Come on folks don't let these fund managers hoodwink you.

I don't know "Angelo" but I know folks who's lives depend on their spouses jobs with this company. To the person they are upbeat and confident that "Angelo" has saved them and their livelihood. I have asked how they know...what do your spouses tell you? They reply "we can just sense it" and no they don't say anything they are disciplined troops...it's obvious in their upbeat manner they look forward to going to work. Another comment was that "Angelo's" company was seriously reaching out to the consumer trying to help get as many as possible back on track.

So make sense of this...here is the guy who has saved the day and guys and gals who took advantage of the day...want his head on the platter. Something wrong with that? Doesn't make sense.

They clapped her to death...

Women in the west have no idea what madness existed in the male minds of Imperial China. Bound feet "Golden Lilies" to incapacitate--render helpless for sensual gratification. Yes, it was the smell of the trapped sweat on rotting flesh that aroused and marked the the low point of male dominance in Imperial China. The practice came to an end at the end of the last great dynasty as women perhaps in a draft preamble to the freedoms they would demand and enjoy mid-century. However, during the Ching or Manchu period the women of the Manchu did not buy into the denigrating custom...but so as not to offend they pretended to need the same assistance getting around but rest assured once returned to the safety of their homes sighed, not us. One young lady who unbound her feet, sold her jewelry to purchase passage to Japan to study was the heroine--Qui Jin. In this person is valor to match any male deed that overcame the odds. Tragedy marked the end of her life...one should read more and be inspired by this person. The end came for her betrayed by her own people she chose liberty in death and has in a way become a symbol of fighting the old the adds nothing to the quality of life but instead suppresses a segment of it own population.