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Taking Stock of Bonds

By Aleksandrs Rozens, IDD Magazine

February 13, 2008

The Definition Of Farce

These days, a lot of time is being spent determining whether an aged baseball player used drugs to help his performance on the mound. Legislators in our great capitol are rushing around, determined to get to the bottom of this scandal. Outrage is in the air. How could they do this to our favorite pastime, they are asking.

There is a sense of drama and urgency in their air akin to an Italian opera. In better times -- days when there was no credit crisis and we were not hunting for the jackals that brought down the World Trade Center -- the great show trials of Roger Clemens would be humorous. They'd be up there with latest Britney Spears or Paris Hilton drama we breathlessly awaited.

Pardon me for not wearing the party smile -- my wife always says I am a pessimist -- but should we not be focusing on more serious issues? Figuring out the mortgage crisis, maybe? Figuring out what to do with people who lose their homes? Figuring out what to do when crime rises -- as it will -- when jobs are lost and people get desperate? How about repairing our infrastructure? Getting serious about funding Social Security? The list goes on.

Decades from now they will be asking of this generation in Washington D.C.: What were they thinking? Banks were forced to go with a beggar's cup overseas, the social fabric is being torn by a serious housing crisis and the big issue is whether an athlete spiked his vein with performance enhancing dope.

Whatever your political affiliation you have got to be disgusted. It’s a farce worthy of a Joseph Heller novel.

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Aleksandrs Rozens

Aleksandrs Rozens has 17 years of experience as a financial journalist. He started his career at Dow Jones, and he has worked at Knight Ridder's business news wire where he wrote about mortgage bonds and real estate as well as interest rate swaps. He also edited Private Equity Week and IPO Reporter, and was a reporter for National Mortgage News and helped start the mortgage backed and asset backed coverage at Reuters news agency. Rozens also worked briefly at the AP where he covered real estate, mergers and corporate bankruptcies. Prior to joining IDD he was editor of Bankruptcy Insider. Rozens graduated from Fordham University where he studied English Literature and Russian Studies.

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