2 from Tuesday
Law professor Joseph Grundfest of Stanford, in a 2002 class for Fortune 500 directors, as recalled in today’s Times by Andrew Ross Sorkin:
“If there are ways people in this room go to jail, it’s probably through crimes of upholstery – the cover-up will kill you.â€
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Bob Herbert in his Op-Ed column, “When Madmen Reign,†about the right wing congressmen who scuttled the bailout plan:
“These were the reckless clowns who led us into the foolish multitrillion-dollar debacle in Iraq and who crafted tax policies that enormously benefitted millionaires and billionaires while at the same time ran up staggering amounts of government debt. This is the crowd that contributed mightily to the greatest disparities in wealth in the U.S. since the gilded age.
“This was the crowd that cut the cords of corporate and financial regulations and in myriad other ways gleefully hacked away at the best interests of the United States.
“Now we’re looking into the abyss.â€
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One from 1894
French author Jules Renard, in a novel called Poil de Carotte:
“I don’t know if God exists, but it would be better for his reputation if He didn’t.â€
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& One from the nameless, placeless e-mailosphere:
Dozens of Japanese banks have been caught in the wake of the U. S. financial crisis. In the past few days Origami Bank has folded, Sumo Financial has gone belly up, and Bonsai plans to cut back some of its branches. Karaoke is up for sale and expected to go for a song. Shares in Kamikaze were suspended after they nose-dived and ultimately crashed, and 500 back-office employees at Karate got the chop. Analysts suspect something fishy is going on at Sushi Bank and, with layoffs expected, staffers fear a raw deal.