I watched Paulson's "explanation" this morning regarding the money going to bail out companies is necessary, and blah blah blah blah. Then I thought I was having auditory hallucinations, or perhaps simply flashing back to the time, almost 5 years ago, when this same kind of twisted verbage spewed from the mouth of my husband's business partner, who had left the country with nearly every asset we had, including over $2 million dollars in company and client funds.
The problem we have, those of us without a "numbers" background, is that we have to TRUST those we put in charge of our money. When those people take all the money we put into our little shoeboxes and run away with it, we can't just keep handing them more boxes! They use the language of their profession to confuse us, to reassure us, and to rob us blind! Even those of us who do have a "numbers" background, but who are generous and trusting, as most progressive people are, have a hard time getting their heads around how these sleazy bedbugs can sleep at night after doing the things they do. I still don't really understand, but here's one way of seeing this enormous con game on a very small scale: (it's been an enlightening journey!)
Several years ago, my husband and a colleague of his decided to go into business together. Their motivation was, of course, to make a living, but was also protective; they had come to realize over the course of their work together at a financial planning company that senior citizens, in particular, were quite vulnerable to unscrupulous brokers and vendors that often took advantage of their fear and naivete when it came to managing their retirement finances. This new company, therefore, would focus on finding the best ways to help their clients manage their money and educate them so that they would always know how much money was in their accounts, how much they could have immediate access to, and so on.
The partnership seemed ideal; both men believed in the premise that being honest in their relationships with their clients, and truly providing the best possible financial management advice for them, would allow them earn a good living, to mentor others to do the same, and that, at the end of the day, they could be proud of how they were making that living.
The working partnership they established drew on each of their individual strengths. My husband was (and still is!) a very savvy businessman, salesman, and guardian, and it was his job to find new ways to build the portfolios of their clients, to show them how certain products or investments could benefit them, to educate and explain, over and over again, if necessary, how it all worked. He has never lost a client, and each year, we are inundated with the seasonal "goodies" many of his clients provide him. (We haven’t had to grow a tomato, a pumpkin, or bake a single Christmas cookie in fifteen years!)
Jorge’s (and yes, that is his real name) part of the business was as the accountant. He was a CPA, and would be responsible for making sure the actual business was in order, growing when possible, making sure the taxes were paid, dotting the "I"’s and crossing the "T"’s. When Jorge suggested that their business was doing so well that they should open a second office, and then a third, they were excited and proud of their growing success and the financial growth of their clients. As a result of the work they did, they traveled to conferences and meetings all over the country, and even to Europe and Hawaii on behalf of the brokerages that were able, at the time, to provide their expenses for those conferences.
Shortly after Christmas 5 years ago, my husband, who was suffering from a nasty cold he’d been fighting through the holidays, decided he would take the day off and stay in bed. It was a bleary Northern Ohio Monday in January, there was no pressing business at the office, and Jorge and his family were on a fairly extended Caribbean cruise, so he had said, so there was no need to get up and moving.
No need, that is, until about 9:30 that morning, when the office manager called and said to him, "I need you to come down to the office. We have a problem and I don’t know how to deal with it." My husband, sick and annoyed, pressed for details, but she would only tell him that there were some people there that were asking questions about certain accounts, and she didn’t have the files they were questioning.
An hour later, every file in the office had been confiscated and removed, taken in boxes and loaded into vans and shipped to...well...no one would say. The people who had shown up at the office that Monday morning were the financial police; they worked for the SEC, for the FBI, even Homeland Security.
As it turned out, Jorge was definitely not on an extended Caribbean cruise with his family, although he may have been on one by himself, and he was most definitely not available to explain the phony accounts and missing money totaling over $2 million in company and client funds, personal and business taxes unpaid for several years, and an array of debt due to excessive "borrowing" from the company in order to "expand" their operation. Jorge, it seemed, had simply left his family, friends, and business partner standing with their mouths agape and their minds blown while he fled the country with money stashed in offshore accounts and who knew where else.
Three weeks later, in order to protect our family, my husband had to declare both personal and professional bankruptcy. Three weeks after that, he was in the hospital having a defibrillating pacemaker inserted into his (seriously) broken heart. Then, he received one of what would be several e-mails from his "wanted" partner from some "invisible" email account. He apologized, sort of, for what he had done, but mostly he tried to justify it, and fished for information about what was happening with the status of his case. He complained because he was unable to get to the money he had stashed for fear that he would reveal himself and be caught, so he had to spend his days in little beachside huts in some poor country until "the heat was off".
About a year after he left the country, Jorge was arrested trying to re-enter the U.S., was sentenced to 8 years in Federal prison, served almost 4 of them, and was released this year. Just before his release, my husband received a phone call from his former partner, telling him that he would soon be released from prison, and that he had an idea for a new business--buying bad mortgages--and wondered if he could put that new business in my husband’s name so that he could get licensed as a broker or whatever in order to do it!
I relay this story for one reason. I watched Henry Paulson this morning, explaining to the nation why it was important to "borrow" over $2 trillion dollars of taxpayer money to bail out the ailing investment firms, banks, and industries that are in jeopardy of crashing and burning due to the stupid and corrupt, possibly criminal practices of the heads of those companies, and it made me sick. I watched as he used that language peculiar to accountants and gamblers and con artists to misconstrue facts, misdirect our attention, justify his actions, and explain why he needed to do this in our (taxpayer’s) names so that he could have carte blanche doing what he needs to do to try to save his ass and the asses of his colleagues in crime.
Where was Mr. Paulson when we were left with nothing due to a partner's deceit, mismanagement, and theft?
Where was Mr. Paulson when we lost the life we had before this happened, when we felt secure that, with a little help from loans or scholarships,our kids could afford to go to college, and that our health care was covered, and that we could afford our mortgage, our car payments, our weekend movie nights?
Where was Mr. Paulson when we discovered that my husband had only about 15% of his heart working, but had to restart a business and career-not to mention re-establishing his reputation-at the age of 50?
Henry Paulson wasn’t there for us...as a matter of fact, no one from this government was. Our only recourse was to file for bankruptcy, which "helped" us to keep our house and one of our cars, and start all over again.
Thankfully, because there was never even a whisper of suspicion regarding my husband's ethics or practices, he was able to go back to work the very next day.
The FBI, SEC, and Homeland Security? We don’t know anything. We don’t even know if they ever found the money Jorge stole (we certainly never got it back!) or exactly how it happened; and there certainly was no "bailout" for us!
Which brings me (I know, finally!) to my point.
This was, as far as we knew, a good family man that we trusted with, well, everything. And because we trusted him, we were suckered in by his very effective slight-of-hand numbers on balance sheets, his reassuring confidence that he knew what was best and he knew what he was doing; his confusing explanations for why my husband seemed to be working so hard for the eight months before Jorge disappeared, yet didn’t seem to be enjoying much growth in his paychecks.
Watching Henry Paulson this morning, I saw those same slimy words crawl out of his pinched lips. I could almost hear the the sounds of overpaid CEOs who are STEALING taxpayer money and their mocking laughter as they high-five each other and wink and arrange to meet at the usual watering hole in Aruba in January.
At what point do we get to stand up, pull up our pants and point to those who have raped us and yell "FOUL!"?
At what point do we, as taxpaying, investing, honest, working people get to celebrate with our fat friends and pay $6,000 for a golf outing, including a $550 bar tab with money from the government?
http://cbs11tv.com/...
When do we get to take week-long, $440,000 spa vacations in California after mismanaging a pal’s business and not being prosecuted for our incompetence or potentially criminal activity?
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/...
What the hell is wrong with us?
Why in god’s name are we allowing the likes of Henry Paulson, Ben Bernanke, George W., and that whole fat-cat group in the White House to rob us blind and make us think we're happy they are doing it?
There are better ways to get this country and our economy back together. But we have to start thinking outside the box instead of handing it over to those who would steal it.