Geithner replacement tells you where Obama is headed. There were strong rumours in the States last night that President Barack Obama will nominate Jack Lew to replace Tim Geithner as the next Secretary of the Treasury. Lew career highlights include getting a $900,000 bonus at Citigroup, during a period when Citi got a $45 billion bailout, saw $27.7 billion in loses, and suffered a 90% depletion in value. Lew is a former derivatives trader who made a pile from hedge-fund betting. Legislators would do well to check the consistency of his advice on this matter between bank and investor projects.
Dunraidin’. Further to last week’s post about the Spanish pension fund being even emptier than the WSJ realised, further news reaches Slogger’s Roost on the subject of ClubMed treasuries in general: they are all pretty much raided out, aka empty. The observation applies to every member of the Valley of Doom: Greece, Portugal, Cyprus, Spain and Italy. Italy has yet to yield up the awkward fact of complete misreporting about past sovereign debt levels, Spain’s caja crisis has been woefully underestimated, and Greek banks are now kept alive 24/7 be ECB life support and accountancy somersaults. Bottom line: Mario will have to find other ways to pretend that any of these nations can survive Troika demands. (For more heartening economic news from euroland, follow this link)
A Scottish grave leading all the way to Westminster? Forensic scientists were yesterday exhuming a grave in a Lanarkshire cemetery. The hitherto unsuspected second body detected in it will almost certainly turn out to be that of Moira Anderson, a small girl killed in 1957 by the notorious Scottish paedophile Alex Gartshore.
Jock police are working on the basis of strong leads suggesting a well-connected Central Scottish paedophile ring that went about its happy business for three decades until the end of the 1970s. Some memoirs and Wikipedia entries may require careful revision and editing as a result.
The Slog 