jude folly

As far and widely as I’ve read and listened to commentary about the economic crisis the country faces, this 60 Minutes story strikes me as the best explanation of what went wrong. Take note of this strand of the narrative: investment banks that sold the ‘repackaged’ mortagages of questionable credit also offered ‘credit default swaps‘ as a means to ‘insure’ investors against loss should the underlying investment result in default.

As most readers have probably already found out earlier this week,  a resumed search for cluesinto the disappearance Steve Fossett has lead to a discovery of wreckage from the plane flown by the millionaire adventurer.

In an entry back on June 12, I speculated on the possibility that he had intentionally vanished from human contact as an act of the ultimate adventure. At the time I was not aware of a suggestionmade by US Civil Air Patrol’s Lieutenant Colonel Cynthia Ryan - that Fossett might still be alive, since the aircraft had yet to be discovered.  Now that the revived search has confirmed the finding of human remains at the crash site, it appears likely that this story amounts to no more than the tragic end to an exceptional life.

However, I await the results of DNA testing to be absolutely certain that this was not Fossett’s greatest feat.