1 Samuel 18:7

The title of this blog (and of the book it frequently references) "Stones from the Creek" is a Biblical reference.  In 1Samuel 17:40 the young shepherd who will become King David takes five smooth stones from the creek as ammunition for his slingshot and then goes to fight the giant, Goliath.  I thought of all the ways that people have to pick up what is at hand when they ready themselves to fight the Giant.  In the second story of Stones from the Creek, the only thing at hand for White Painted Woman is imaginative lies.  But, as the story's title says, "The Giant Believed Her."

The story "Who Could Have Foreseen It", about the Banker's Panic of 1907, contains a different kind of allusion to the David and Goliath story.  This refers to 1 Samuel 18:7 which tells us that in celebrating David's victory:

The women sang as they danced, and they chanted:
Saul has slain his thousands;
David, his tens of thousands!

In the Bible, this is the beginning of Saul's jealousy and downfall, but the point here is very different.

"Who Could Have Foreseen It" is only interested in the parallelism and how the repetitions sound.  Comparing the various thieves and their thefts we read:

And what of the Hell Hound?  For if the Lawyer had tried to steal his thousands, and the Iceman had tried to steal his millions, then the Hell Hound had succeeded in stealing his hundreds of millions.  It is as our grandfathers said: Klaineh genaivim hengt men; groisseh shenkt men.   “Petty thieves are hanged, great thieves are pardoned.”  Need I say more?

From its inception this story was as much about the Recession of 2008 as it was about the Panic of 1907.  Investment scams are a part of every financial bubble.  This one was no exception.  Bernie Madoff made off with approximately $18 billion when the dust settled and the accountants went over the books.  For this he is serving a 150 year sentence.  But what about Jamie Dimon who lied about the "London Whale" derivative scandal until the last minute.  He is still heading JP Morgan Chase and was considered for the Fed chairmanship by Obama.

What of Robert Rubin and Larry Summers of Citigroup?  They engineered the repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act and the deregulation of derivatives contracts.  Summers was named head of the National Economic Council by Obama.

I won't go on.  My point here is that there are crimes that seem to get punished and there are crimes that are treated as admirable.  This week I have been thinking about Freedom Industries' accidental poisoning of West Virginia drinking water, which may be punished; and about the intentional and wholesale poisoning of West Virginia by the practice of mountaintop removal mining, which will never be punished.  It is as our grandfathers said: Klaineh genaivim hengt men; groisseh shenkt men.