Some Food For Thought

A couple things happened this week that were worth commenting on, but not necessarily enough to devote an entire post to.  So here are some brief tidbits for your brain to chew on…

1.  I heard that if all the banks in the DOW went to zero the index would only drop 260 points.  

This is because the DOW is a price weighted index.  Companies in the DOW with higher stock prices have a bigger impact on the index than companies with a lower stock price.  So for example, on any given day the movement of IBM (currently $89/share) is more important than the movement of Citigroup (currently $3/share) when it comes to the index.

2.  Apparently former Merrill Lynch CEO John Thain paid his driver $230,000 last year.  

Yes, you read that right… his driver made $230,000.  I have just one question to ask…  How on Earth do you get a job like that?  I mean seriously, John if you’re reading this I’ll drive you around for $200K flat.

3.  Timothy Geithner became the the new U.S. Treasury Secretary.

In case you didn’t know, part of the treasury secretary’s job among other things is to oversee the IRS. This is really odd considering that Geithner DIDN’T PAY HIS TAXES.  Well actually he did end up paying them, only after he was nominated for the treasury secretary job.  Geithner went on the record and said the tax issue was a “mistake”.

I have two scenarios in my head about the Geithner tax issue…

Scenario A - Geithner intentionally didn’t pay part of his taxes.  In this case, the man is a crook and should be in jail.  He should not be U.S. Treasury Secretary.

Scenario B - Geithner made an honest mistake on his taxes.  In this case I ask, do we really want a man who can’t do his own taxes in charge of the IRS and entire financial system?  Remember this is the guy who is going to be running the TARP, and will be in charge of getting us out of this economic mess.  It doesn’t exactly inspire confidence that the man can’t get his own taxes right.

Just something for you to think about.