Greed Takes A Holiday (DS)

We had a dream……and in that dream we saw Greed standing alone in front of the panoramic window of his imperial penthouse suite perched near the top of The Palm Hotel-Atlantis in Dubai. He gazed out at the glistening Persian Gulf with disconsolation, and tried to shake off the gnawing irritation he felt at the fact that the only palm frond island he could see from his luxurious living room was the Palm Jumeirah.

As Greed stood there, fully saturated in his entitlements, he firmly believed with good reason that only one of anything would simply never be enough. His insatiable heart demanded that he have it all.

And Wall Street was a man after his own heart. Wall Street knew that one of the fastest ways to win the heart of Greed was to bundle up a few derivatives in a red bow, and have them laid on his pillow every evening when his king-sized bed was turned down by the personal maid who never forgot to put that quintessential chocolate crème de menthe on top.

Wall Street owed Greed in a big way for several very banner years, and Wall Street didn’t disappoint when it heartily comped Greed’s recent holiday junket which included an epicurean Celebrity cruise from his doorstep in Dubai to the Cayman Islands for a little tax free R & R.

Our dream followed Greed to the marina where he boarded a cruise ship that looked to be worthy of him, for it was the biggest and best on the Gulf. Few ships sailing the high seas were elite enough to fly the badge of the Red Shield from its flagpole, and the “Black Pearl” was a flagship indeed.

Every level on the ship prominently housed no less than four ATM cash machines, each boldly sponsored by the Big Four banking buddies whose direct lines were stored on Greed’s cell phone speed-dial. He was heartened to see the ATMs on board ship for little could boost the bankers’ bottom line faster than weeks of hefty international cash advance fees assessed upon a full boat of high end cruisers. No doubt a Big Four bank-sponsored Greed-junket was long overdue.

As in life, so in love…..er, lust..... and never to settle for just one of anything, his evenings were filled with gluttonous options; and since Greed was on holiday, he let his southern head do some of the heavy thinking after sundown. At least until the warm currents of the Indian Ocean carried the ship around the Horn of Africa and into the greedy clutches of the Somalian pirates.

Well, that Red Shield luxury liner may’ve been too rich for the pirates to pass up, but by the time Greed finished dissecting their bottom line calculations and made it known that his cut wasn’t big enough, the pirates couldn’t release his ship fast enough. It seems the only real difference that exists between Greed and the Somali pirates is that Greed doesn’t bother to take hostages. Yet his tentacles are far reaching and equal opportunity abounds.

And then we woke up and wondered if Bernie (see definition below) ever dreamed about outliving his wife Ruth and making Greed the sole beneficiary in his will.

So when Greed comes knocking on your door looking for more, will he be turned away in earnest or will he receive the red carpet treatment he expects?

As the masses move to survive, the Greedy secretly move their assets. Follow the money in our ‘In The Rear View Mirror’ April 13, 2009 posting "Greed Goes Underground”.