Lex Luz

John Thain, R.I.P.

I have resisted just blasting out hate-filled messages about people like this, but Thain is really too much. It has been obvious for at least a decade that bankers at this level are all entirely dishonest and so chock-full of gall that they'll do anything at any time to any one without a care in the world how it impacts institutional risks or the stakeholders in those institutions. This guy is so far over the top that it quite literally defies description.

All of these people should be publicly tortured and killed. We need a serious, national catharsis, and we need to rid ourselves of these scoundrels once and for all. Thain ought to be first in line to be tarred and feathered, and then drawn and quartered. And it all ought to happen on the National Mall and on national television. After we're done with Thain, we ought to go get every single C-level officer at every bank and other institution that's taken TARP funds, and treat 'em to the same. When they're all piled up like cordwood, we can start the national renewal at long last.

Massive Government and Private Sector Job Cuts Coming

When the automobile came along, a whole lot of farriers (people who shoe horses) went out of business, and those farrier jobs never came back. Oddly enough the world did not end, the sun rose in the east and set in the west, and perhaps even more oddly the world's economies continued to grow, with intermittent periods of contraction.

Mish is right that many of the financial engineering jobs created over the past decade are gone, and frankly, good riddance to them. He's also right in my view that we're headed for a pretty tough road aheahd, and we'll face a period of contraction. It seems we don't share the following view, though: the world is not ending, tomorrow the sun will rise in the east and set in the west, and the world's economies will continue to grow after this period of contraction. Yes, a lot of people are going to lose their jobs. They'll figure out something else to do. A few might kill themselves. The earth will continue to spin on its axis.