• Has it really been ten years?
  
  
• What if the March 17th Federal Reserve bailout wasn’t aimed at Bear Stearns (BSC)?
  
  
• What if it was actually a bailout of JP Morgan (JPM)?

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• For instance, what if billionaire Joe Lewis had a “knock out” provision on his Bear Stearns exposure?
  
  
• And JP Morgan was the counter-party on that transaction?
  
  
• Could it be that JP Morgan was responsible for listing—and trading—the out-of-the-money puts in Bear Stearns?
  
  
• Is that why we never saw an investigation of that outsized activity?
  
  
• How many Minyans wanna mingle in Seattle on May 27th?
  
  
• If you perceive a 70% chance that Fannie Mae (FNM) goes to zero and a 30% chance that it zooms to $100 (in front of the election with the Federal Reserve blowing in its sails), how would you position yourself?
  
  
• If TiVo (TIVO) crowed Madison Avenue out of television and satellite is doing the same to radio, aren’t video games (and massive multiplayer online games) the next intuitive advertising spend?
  
  
• Isn’t that ample motivation for Electronic Arts (ERTS) to up its bid for Take-Two (TTWO)?
  
  
• Or, extending that logic to the next generation media landscape, wouldn’t Microsoft (MSFT) pay up for Yahoo (YHOO)?
  
  
• Speaking of which, have you turned your kids on to Minyanland yet?
  
  
• Is the widespread perception that Microsoft will deploy its capital in another manner—such as Facebook, where it's currently kicking the tires—the root cause of its heavy action?
  
  
• If the company turns its attention inward and announces a massive buy-back, won’t the shorts be left holding the bag?
  
  
• What is this bag and why are so many people constantly grasping at it?
  
  
• Is it humanly possible to listen to too much Neil Young?
  
  
• Y’all see the lower highs in the drillers despite incessant all-time highs in crude?
  
  
• Isn’t that the textbook definition of a negative divergence?
  
  
• Are investors in the financials finally drawing the distinction between liquidity and capital?
  
  
• Have I communicated to thy faithful that I’ll be out of the office tomorrow, first for a funeral and then for a wedding?
  
  
• If you only see your family for weddings and funerals, isn’t it high time that changed?
  
  
• In ten years, will we look back at this period and rationally conclude that the U.S. was the credit engine rather than the growth engine?
  
  
• What if that engine room finds more steam?

R.P.