Diligence

Is it just me or is the stench coming in off the lending and insurance ocean just getting stronger? It was bad enough with the predatory lending and servicing stink but now somebody's got a harpoon into at least one big one and it's getting messy as the others turn tail and try to run.

I know there's so much money to be made that it attracts some of the more daring and creative crooks, but why would executives simply believe everyone working for them is honest? Just because they signed something that said they would be? So much for diligence in leadership.

Either they knew about it (likely in the judgement of this court) and approved of it, or they're dumber than a box of rocks.

I don't think Greenburg, et. al., is dumber than a box of rocks, which means he (or they) knew and it looks like for a long time they worked with a lot of the other squaliformes to keep it as part and parcel of industry practices by not doing anything about it.

And the investors who paid any attention to the ratings firms and put money into insurers are getting exactly what they paid for. Which is exactly Nada. Zip. Nothing. In fact, they're getting screwed partly because they were dumb enough to think the raters were smarter than a box of rocks.

More likely, as in the above example, they knew about it and turned a blind eye.

Well, wink-wink nodd-nodd don't cut it in this court. You yahoos at Moodys and S&P didn't learn from Fitch's playing dumb in the mortgage business, so this is two strikes against the lot of you.

I probably don't have to wait long for the third strike. I suspect it's not gonna be long before Mr. Spitzer hauls in one of those buoys that are now bobbing around on the top of the ocean, attached way down below to another squliforme with a harpoon in it.

Mr. Spitzer, please do me a favor and consider a change of venue to my Court. If nothing else the justice out here will take less time and you won't need a lot of cell space.

The Honorable Judge Roy Bean.