written July 26, 2002
(The following information reflect the opinions of Stilldigging.com and the characters are fictional)


[a think tank in washington]

Fred 'I just don't get it'
[Tuck stares back curiously]
Fred 'top congressional officials have asked him to resign,
'due to his track record he's under tremendous scrutiny, while scandal is seemingly everywhere, '
'he's making 6.9 %, that's less than 10 % of his 2 million dollar a year private practice salary,'
'yet he chooses to stay on, and ride the deriding wave of mounting controversy'

[Fred glares at Tuck as if accusing him]
[Tuck looks back almost helplessly and shrugs] 'I don't know'
Fred 'then he asks for a raise and he get's ridiculed by congressional leaders, '
'and his own white house try to distance themselves'

[pause]

Fred 'I just don't get it' it doesn't make any sense, why does he stay?'

Tuck 'well if you really think about it, of all corporations that went bankrupt
'in the last 20 years, 2/3 or 67% went bankrupt under his protec.. I mean watch'
'we're talking about a 12 month period, out of 20 years, or 240 months'
Fred 'that's a 5% window' and yor saying that 67% of these bankruptcy's '
'happened in this very small 5% window of time'

Tuck 'exactly'
'that's 295 billion dollars in assets, which is 77 % of the total assets for all major '
'bankruptcy's in the last 20 years' this doesn't include the millions that were embez.. I mean '
'overstated by creative accounting practices, and the millions that CEO's and friends '
'did a grab and run with'

Fred 'Worldcom said they overstated their books by 3.8 billion, that's allot a money'

Tuck 'with this kind of track record, who would the corporations most want doing the '
'so called investigations and convictions'

[pause]

Tuck 'you say he's making only 7% of a 2 million dollar a year private practice salary'
'this is nothing compared to the billions that mark these major corporations'
'any controversy is nothing compared to these gigantic billion dollar market movers'

[Fred stares back as if awe struck]

Tuck 'according to New York Times stats, history has shown, at least with Nixon and Reagan, '
'that a recession is good for a president, if it happens at the outset, and the markets rally to normal '
'levels before election time'

[pause]

Tuck 'what did you say Bush's middle name is? Herbert Walker aint it'
Fred 'I have no idea'
Tuck 'now Herbert, there's a name that strikes a chord'
'Yeah, the year was 1929, the big financial take.. I mean crash, under Herbert Hoover's watch,
' that led to the Great Depression' According to the Times the S&P Index was -18.6 in 1929, '
'when the market crashed' Guess what it was a few days ago? The same index was -36.9 last July 22'
'that's double, a minus double what it was in 1929 '
.
[pause]

Tuck 'does it look like there's something fishy in Denmark?'
'judging by the rash of corporate scandal, wouldn't you call this predatory insanity?'
'quickly now, who engaged in predatory behavior in 1989?'

[Fred continues to stare back as if speechless]

Tuck 'if you can't explain the chairman's behavior, don't even try, this is big, it's monstrous'

Fred 'by the way, I noticed he wanted a 21% pay raise'
'quickly now, what happened on the 21st month of the 21st century?'
Tuck 'I give up'
Fred '9-11'

[pause]

Fred 'Had they approved the pay raise, this would have been a $28,500 increase,
and the salary would have been $166,700'
'quickly now, what structure was built in 1966, at a cost of 700 million dollars?'
Tuck 'I give up'
Fred 'The twin towers'

[pause]

Fred 'according to the Times, the SEC asked for 5 items to be included in the new legislation'
'Item 5, requested an elevation in status from a level 3, to a level 1'
Tuck 'so'
Fred 'it's a symbolic number, the 31, you'll have to ask DT'
Tuck 'no, I'm asking you'
Fred 'the towers stood for 31 years before that tragic day on September 11'