Taken from the DOL press release: http://www.dol.gov/opa/media/press/eta/ui/eta20081873.htm

““Zheng Xiaoyu, former head of the food and drug watchdog, the State Food and Drug Administration, was executed last year for taking bribes and dereliction of duty in the wake of a series of drug safety scandals.”
While I voted for Obama, I suspect that when it comes to dealing with our own financial criminals, we will all be left “looking for more”.”

Yes, and in Japan they used to commit suicide when they were caught in dishonorable acts. Here “the buck stops here” has become just a quaint idea adhered to only by those naive enough to still accept responsibility for their own actions. After all, taking responsibility can be painful; it is much more agreeable to hire a good attorney and get off easy.

from Reuters (via the FT)…

“The chairwoman of the Chinese company at the heart of a tainted milk scandal that has killed at least six children and made thousands ill went on trial in China on Wednesday, facing a maximum penalty of death. ”

Bush would have appointed her to head the FDA.

Talk about your cultural differences.

From the same article…

“Zheng Xiaoyu, former head of the food and drug watchdog, the State Food and Drug Administration, was executed last year for taking bribes and dereliction of duty in the wake of a series of drug safety scandals.”

While I voted for Obama, I suspect that when it comes to dealing with our own financial criminals, we will all be left “looking for more”.

If I’m wrong, I’ll gladly buy leftback a burger for every indictment.

“Here’s to the end of the Tyranny of the Incompetent. I am willing to wager that President Obama has a few surprises up his sleeve for members of the financial elite. All is not lost.”

I too have not lost faith in O. People can scoff, but IMO he is the closest thing to a real outsider / “man of the people” as president we have had in my lifetime. But I am worried: for one thing he always leaves me looking for more from him. In reading his two books and often when I hear him speak, it sounds very good, but he seems to fall short on the really big ideas. He throws great long passes, and his ground game is superb, but he seems to not be able to get it across the goal line for me.

Plus he is emulating Lincoln, whom I think he sees him as a consensus builder like himself, and to me the only way to govern with consensus is to end up in the middle, like Clinton. That makes him more susceptible to being coopted by TPTB. Also, real change is not going to happen in the middle. Further, the prez is only one person, and what he can realistically accomplish against TPTB is much less than we like to think.

All is not lost, but we do need a serious course correction throughout our culture and society, and that is not going to come from the top. O may set the right tone, but it will be up to us to make it happen, and that is what I am worried most about, that the American people have lost the ability to think and act for themselves and by themselves.

Thanks to all, including Barry, for enlightening comments and engaging debates. I look forward to more of the same in ’09. Much happiness and good health to us all in the new year.

This is the John Mauldin “muddle through” approach. We all get through this thing somehow, without the whole system falling apart. The price will be inflation in things we need (food, oil, gasoline), and continued deflation in things that had formed enormous bubbles (houses, I-Banks, nail salons, luxury car dealerships).

Here’s to the end of the Tyranny of the Incompetent. I am willing to wager that President Obama has a few surprises up his sleeve for members of the financial elite. All is not lost.

It’s always darkest before the dawn. Opportunities will beckon for those who have acted wisely.