Tag: Options

On being tough

Larry McMurty wrote this great read, Lonesome Dove. I read it in 1986 and fell in love with the characters, the writing, the story, the ideas. I loved that even kids could hunt a rabbit and fix it for a meal. Or that guys could trek hundreds of hard miles on horseback, sleep under the stars and survive storms and winters that way. They crossed rivers, fought with skill, drove cattle and horses… these lucky few were really free. Not in lack of hardship, but they had options. They had options.

As we have created our lives, seeking freedom from the mundane tasks of living, we have become prisoners. Of those who feed us and clothe us and house us. We are domesticated like farm animals. We have the mentality of our pets… forgetting how to fend for themselves, staying as kittens and puppies, forever young and helpless.

We have robbed ourselves of options. The poor in cities can’t grow anything on the concrete. Those in the suburbs wouldn’t know how to plant, much less maintain, a vegetable garden. How many of us could start a fire without a match? Or catch even a mouse (if we could force ourselves to eat it).

Do we have the option to survive outside of the very society that is strangling us? Can we even imagine it?

 

It can Pay to be on the Inside

Usually they get away with …

Usually they trade their knowledge, for money or power, and no one notices —

But not always:

Insider-Trading Ring Bust May Fuel Hedge-Fund Concern

By David Scheer – March 2, 2007

March 2, (Bloomberg) — The U.S. government’s accusations that Morgan Stanley, UBS AG and Bear Stearns Cos. employees were central figures in an insider-trading ring illustrate why regulators and lawmakers are suspicious of Wall Street’s relationship with hedge funds.

Prosecutors in New York and Washington yesterday brought criminal charges against 13 people, claiming that an executive at UBS and a former compliance lawyer at Morgan Stanley tipped off hedge-fund traders and brokers to new analyst ratings and secret takeover talks. Bear Stearns was home to at least four professionals who traded on information leaked from inside the two firms, according to a complaint filed by the Securities and Exchange Commission.

(emphasis added)

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/…

White Collar Crime, is not any less heinous, because they commit it with a Keyboard, instead of a Handgun.  Yet more often than not, in the Wild West of electronic casinos, these criminals can make “a killing”, without having to pull that trigger themselves … without ever having to worry about ever facing their “day in court” …