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A great man and athlete won’t be attending the China Olympics.  China won’t let him attend. 

While Joey Cheek won a gold medal for speedskating in Torino in the Winter Olympics of 2006, he is best known as the founder of Team Darfur – a group of 70 athletes whose goal is to raise global awareness of the human rights violations taking part in the Darfur region of Sudan.  (After winning the gold, he donated his $25,000 USOC bonus check to Darfur and implored his sponsors to do the same.)

Cheek was honest.  He announced that he was traveling to China to support Team Darfur.  That didn’t fly with the Chinese government, and they denied Cheek’s visa.  The Chinese are determined to do everything they can to sweep any political activism under the rug and have the world focus on athletics and China’s beautiful Olympic buildings.

It’ll be interesting to see how that works.

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Each year I follow the Kentucky Derby hoping that one of the underdogs will beat out the favorites.  I love a Cinderella story.  However, in today’s Wall Street Journal I read a sad statement that made me think that horse racing isn’t about the best jockey or best trainer.  It’s all about the best blood lines and which millionaire will pay the most for the best bred horse.

According to today’s WSJ, “14 of the last Derby winners (including this year’s winner: Big Brown) are descendants of Native Dancer…a champion horse from the 1950’s whose bloodlines are prized by breeders for producing precociously fast hoses that excel at the Derby.”

So it seems that anyone can win the Derby.  All you have to do is buy a horse that is a descendant of Native Dancer.  Let’s hope the KY sperm bank that houses Native Dancer’s “goods” has enough supply on hand for the next twenty millionaires who want to win the Derby!

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Ben Bernanke came in as Chairman of the Fed lambasting Greenspan for being a puppy dog to Wall Street.  His appointment was a direct reaction to Greenspan’s over-eagerness to constantly rescue Wall Street by providing artificially low interest rates which helped keep our economic gravy train rolling. 

Well, things finally did hit the fan.  And what did Bernanke do?  He did what his predecessor did.  He started slashing the fed funds interest rate to ease credit conditions. 

Below are two videos courtesy of the students at Colombia Business School which summarize Bernanke’s tenure at the Fed.  Enjoy!

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I just read the most amazing, outrageous thing.  At yesterday’s testimony in front of the Senate Banking Committee, Bob Steel (Treasury Under Secretary) said that his boss (Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson) set it up for JP Morgan to buy Bear Stearns at the low ball price of $2 per share.  (Just one week prior Bear’s stock was trading at $70.) 

It is now clear that the $2 stock price offer (which was orchestrated by Paulson and Bernanke) would justify the government’s highly criticized $30bn bailout of Bear.  (“We had to bail out Bear.  It was a sinking ship.  Look, it was only worth $2 per share.”)

Bear had to accept any offer that was given to it.  It was desperate and in no position to negotiate price.  The Fed and Treasury hand picked JP Morgan and told them: “if you buy Bear Stearns and save our collective political asses, we will “give” Bear to you for $2 per share.” 

Remember, Bear’s stock price traded at $70 one week prior to this and $170 12 months ago.  So the Fed and Treasury screwed Bear’s employees and shareholders by giving away the company for $2 per share.  Why did they do this?  To save their political futures – that’s why.

At the end of the day, even JP Morgan could not get away with this crime.  So they eventually bought Bear for $10 per share.  Still pretty damn cheap.

Bob Steel had better watch out.  His old Goldman buddy Hank might be in trouble - big trouble.  The Democrats have a huge incentive to go after Hank for his blatant cronyism.  Hank threw Bear shareholders under the bus to temporarily save is butt.  He might just throw Steel under the bus next.

Moral hazard my foot.  Physical hazard is more like it.  Heads are going to roll for this circus act.

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The obvious question is why Chavez paid the FARC $300 million for the release of the hostages last month?  This “ransom” payment severed two purposes.  It bought Chavez some much-needed positive international PR.  For a brief moment, he could grab international headlines for something positive.  It also gave Chavez an easy way to pay back the FARC for the $150,000 they “lent” him back in 1992 when he was sitting in jail for a failed coup d’état.  That’s a 60% annual ROI for the FARC for the past 16 years.  Quite an investment!

Now that Colombian officials possess the FARC’s computer records showing a long trail of Chavista FARC support, Chavez has reason to be nervous.  His Venezuelan support base is poorer, hungrier, and getting tired of Hugo’s false promises.  Now, they have a smoking gun – their red-beret wearing, outspoken  leader has been a pillar of support for the feared and hated FARC.  The biggest danger is that Chavez will do something stupid in a desperate attempt to show strength. 

As I write, he is moving troops to the Colombian border.  This should be interesting.

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Review of the Movie Glory:OK.  I was looking for a great movie to watch - an oldie but goodie.  I found it… “Glory” (1998).  Wow!  This movie was terrific.  It literally has changed my life.

Having grown up in Florida (very loosely defined as “the South”), I grew up with the mental Civil War image of white Union soldiers marching through the South fighting their fellow Americans to rid the Confederacy of slavery.  I knew the war was brutal and bloody, but I (naively) thought it was white men fighting each other.Then I learned of the 54^th.  The 54^th was a volunteer militia made up of free black men – most of which were second generation free blacks – who volunteered to fight to end slavery.  The 54^th were trained in Boston but were recruited from all over – as far away as Canada.  (The city that sent the most recruits was Oberlin, Ohio!?) 

The 54^th was led by Col. Robert Gould Shaw – a white man commissioned to lead this motley crew.  Shaw reluctantly accepted the charge – a call to action that was hardly seen as a worthy (and certainly not a well-respected) leadership position among senior military officers).

“Glory” is a movie that documents the growth of Col. Shaw and the 54^th – both individually and together.  Shaw learns to respect and admire his troops.  The black troops triumph over all odds and prove to be awe-inspiring heroes of the Civil War. 

This movie will inspire you and change your life.

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