Tell It To Al

“Los Cochinas” by comedians Cheech & Chong was one of my favorite albums from my misspent youth, especially the “White World of Sports” track followed by “Basketball Jones.”

I found this YouTube of a 1975 animation of “Basketball Jones” and thought I’d embed it.

The reason Cheech & Chong came to memory was because of some securities fraud charges filed against some hedge fund guys last week. One of them actually got on his BBM to tell and associate to erase all the incriminating BBMs, according to charges filed in court.

Reminded me of a track from Los Cochinas called “Don’t Bug Me.” Click here to read my column.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke told Congress last week that inflation in the U.S. is “very low.”

Indeed, as measured by the government, it clocked in at 1.2% last year.

Of course, anyone who has been to the grocery store or the gas station saw much higher inflation than this.

Click here to read my column on the big inflation disconnect in The Sunday Wall Street Journal.

Office romances can lead to lower productivity, complaints of favoritism, weird office politics and even sexual harassment lawsuits.

They also result in marriages.

A web survey by the Mountain States Employers Council found that 77% of its member have had employees who met their spouses at work.

If you don’t marry your high school sweetheart or college squeeze, where else can you hook up – besides the Internet?

Surveys over the years have routinely reported that 40% or more of those surveyed have had an office romance.

“With employees spending more and more time at work, it only makes sense that some people will find romance in the workplace,” said Lorrie Ray, Membership Development Director for MSEC. “The key for employers is making sure that workplace dating does not turn into workplace harassment.”

Have you had an office romance? Did you find your spouse at work? What do you expect for Valentines’ Day? A new brief case or pen set?

Before Lehman Brothers collapsed, it wore out a wrestler named Stanley J. Dziedzic Jr.

Dziedzic, an Olympic medalist in 1976 and a world champion in 1977, gave up as manager of the investment bank’s Atlanta office in 2005 — “retiring” at age 55.

Dziedzic, on bottom of photo, said he had no idea the firm would soon be retired. He was just tired of getting up every day and going to the mat with his bosses in New York.

“I no longer liked working for the people I reported to,” he said. “Lehman started to lose its bearings, and those people were partly responsible for it.”

Click here to read my column about Dziedzic. Click here for his book “Lehman Brother’s Dance with Delusion.”

A Super Bowl ticket for $277,000?

Another sign of an improving economy? Another symptom of the widening gap between rich and poor? Or just business as usual for a sport that milks whatever it can from whoever it can?

Click here to read column.

I can’t imagine anyone goes to Taco Bell for the meat.

Sure, the meat is an essential part of the overall taco experience, but if it’s mixed right, it doesn’t have to be very good meat to make up a decent taco.

Taco Bell may be battling a lawsuit challenging the true content of its tacos, but it’s restaurants have been doing quite well. I suspect they’ll continue to do well no matter what’s in the mystery meat.

Click here to read my column on Taco Bell.

If you want to hear someone really ragging on Wall Street, look no further than the venerable Bill Gross of Pimco, one of the biggest money managers in the world.

Why suffer the banter of left-leaning anti-capitalist bloggers when you can get the same complaints from one of the finest minds on Wall Street?

Some highlights from Gross’ lastest “Investment Outlook”:

“Money is made from securitizing things instead of booting and rebuilding America.

“The tallest buildings in almost every major city are banks, with tens of thousands of people shuffling and trading paper for a living. One of this country’s premier investment banks paid each of its 26,000 employees an average of $370,000 in 2010, nearly ten times the take-home pay of other American workers.

“This is not God’s work – it has the unmistakable odor of Mammon.

“As a profession we have failed miserably at our primary function – the efficient and productive allocation of capital: The S&L debacle of the early 1980s, the Asian crisis, LTCM, dotcoms, subprimes, Lehman and the resurrection, instead of the reformation, of Wall Street, are major sins of the modern era of money. Hang your heads, moneychangers.

“And no, it is not yet time to move on, as many banking CEOs suggest. How can bond traders make ten, one hundred, one thousand times more money than an engineer or social worker given their dismal historical performance? Why is it that some of today’s doctors are using food stamps while investment banking executives complain about millions of dollars in compensation that might be deferred in case of a future bailout?

Click here to read the complete text of Gross’ latest remarks.

At least some bankers admit it:

“Over the course of the crisis, we, as an industry, caused a lot of damage. Never has it been clearer how poor business judgments we have made have affected Main Street.” – Brian Moynihan, CEO Bank of America.

I pulled Moynihan’s quote from the report released last week by the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission. The report comes to no new conclusions. Nor will it result in any indictments or regulatory actions.

It basically blames everyone one, and when everyone is to blame, no one is to blame.

But at least it is chock-full of colorful quotes

Click here to read my column on the report.

Click here to read the full report from the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission.