You know, this whole situation with Citadel and Griffin and the other defendants has caused a great deal of reflection for me and I'm sure hundreds of other people close to or aware of what's happened to Northwest and other companies in our securities markets.
For me, it has rekindled the thoughts surrounding a childhood incident that bothered me for years afterwards. I was about 10 years old and me and my buddies used to go to the neighborhood drugstore every Saturday and sit at the counter and order Cherry Phosphates and ice cream sundaes. We were from "well to do" families and always had enough pocket change to buy what we wanted. Across from the counter, right behind us was to candy shelf and right next to that was the toy shelf!! So on this particular day, a poor kid from a few blocks away walked in the drugstore and sat by himself at the end of the counter. I watched him for a few minutes as he looked at the framed menu on the wall behind the counter deciding what he wanted to order and he pulled out a white cloth sack from his pocket and poured out some change on the counter to "count up" his money to see what he could afford!! As he counted his pennies, nickels and dimes, the look on his face gradually changed from excitement to realization of what he could afford.
When the waitress went to the end of the counter to take his order, one of my friends got up and walked to the toy shelf where the waitress couldn't see him and pocketed two toys and quickly sat back down at the counter.After a few minutes, we got up and started to leave the store and I asked Tommy if he'd paid for the toys and he said "Heck no!", I don't have to cause nobody saw me take em!" At that moment, I should have told him to pay or else, but I didn't. I took the easy way and chose to ignore the theft!!!
As you can tell from reading this post, I've never forgotten that experience or have never been able to forget that experience when confronted with "right or wrong" decisions. And you know what??? That drugstore scene continues to play out over and over in life, when "deep pockets" can buy a "free pass" for stealing billions of dollars in illegal market operations that are "gaming the system"!!! Ken Griffin and Citadel are stealing the toys while the rest of America is counting the change in their money sack!!! And you want to know why!!! Because the people in charge of enforcement are doing what I did at the drugstore that day. They're taking the easy way by choosing to ignore the theft!!
I'm confident that the Northwest lawsuit will rewrite the rule book and change market operations forever, denying the Citadel's of the world the opportunity to steal America's financial future and change our money sacks from holding coins to "C Notes" !!!
Cheers,
BB
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