Watching a Pickpocket

At the Oakland Airport I once watched a pickpocket crowd behind a woman getting on a bus, she with an open purse and he fishing it out.  I have a fairly commanding voice, and I called out to the woman, quite clearly, to mind her purse, it was being picked.  At this point anyone who did not notice could no longer ignore it.  I was about 8 people back, and I assumed my calling out would stop the theft.  No.

The woman stupidly ignored me as her wallet was worked all the more out.  I shouted out louder, and the others became uneasy for fear of confronting so bold a thief.  Privately I adore violence, so I shouted again louder, finally arousing a stupid glance down at her purse only to see a hand in it (if you are a woman with a purse, and someone is shouting loudly "lady your wallet is being stolen from your purse," at least glance down...)  She was shocked and pulled her purse up, by then I was at the door with her, and the thief backed off denying everything... the only thing that surprised me was how relentless he was.  I suggested to the bus driver he radio in a complaint to the cops, and he said no, cops wouldn't do anything and it would just delay the shuttle bus.  If patron protection was in private hands of course, I could report the driver, who would be forensically investigated to see if he was in on the pickpocketing, by assisting the pickpocket by positioning people to be robbed.  Stats would show this, whether or not.

Anyway, if Oakland did not care about crime, it's not my concern, I am just a guest and visitor.  But I'll always be impressed by the boldness and relentlessness of the pickpocket.

I am reminded of this when I see bondwriters are creating 50 year junk bond notes at 6 and an eighth that cannot be called for 5 years, with a $25 face value.  Gee!  I wonder who the target is?  Well, bonds are for those on fixed incomes, and a $25 face value means even the poorest can get one, but they cannot be called for 5 years.  You could not design a better product to rip off anyone who managed to escape the great rip-off of 2008.  It is not enough for these people to grind down the yield for fixed income folks to zero, their principle must be stolen too!

This is all going on in broad daylight, compliments of the villains who brought the economic crisis, while they are being criticized and investigated, but so what?  They will never be prosecuted, and the old folks have no where else to go.  Funded by the government, protected by the government, immune by operation of the government, there is no downside.  The teaparty winners will not do anything either.  It will all be blamed on the free market, mistakes were made, we only need teap party rules, subsidies and protections.


As Mish notes, the big players will flog these and then short them when they go bad.

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