September 17, 2008: Like most small town police chiefs, Ben McBride of Valentine, Nebraska 2,650 has the usual set of mundane tasks.  He investigates petty crime, chances down the occasional speeder and is at the forefront of taking butt prints from the scenes of some bizarre acts of vandalism.  Someone in this sleepy town likes to hop from business to business in the dead of night and leave imprints of his butt (sometimes his groin) on windows.  To ensure that the imprint sticks, this artiste softens his chosen medium with lotion or even petroleum jelly.   Locals call the midnight master the Butt Bandit.

The bandit struck the local Methodist Church first, leaving a cheeky imprint on the windows in the summer of 2007.  Then, through the following weeks, the bandit struck business after business, leaving behind his unique signature.  The police have no leads.  Apparently, there is no CSI-type technology to solve this base crime.  The investigation continues.

Aside from commentators on CNBC and the Journal, I don't get a sense that what happened yesterday, September 14, 2008, has hit home.  In my opinion, yesterday we witnessed the single most significant event on Wall Street since the Great Crash of 1929.  It's amazing that two companies of the caliber of Merrill Lynch and Lehman Brothers should, for want of a better term, disappear.  I am reeling at the announcement of the Federal Reserve that they have relaxed their standards for collateral.  However, what is just stunning is not only would someone actually ask the Federal Reserve for a bridge loan--and to add insult to injury, an entity that is outside of the regulatory purview of the Board--but that the request was not only consider, but is now being acted upon.

Aside from commentators on CNBC and the Journal, I don't get a sense that what happened yesterday, September 14, 2008, has hit home.  In my opinion, yesterday we witnessed the single most significant event on Wall Street since the Great Crash of 1929.  It's stunning that two companies of the caliber of Merrill Lynch and Lehman Brothers should, for want of a better term, disappear.  I am reeling at the announcement of the Federal Reserve that they have relaxed their standards for collateral.  However, what is just stunning is not only would someone actually ask the Federal Reserve for a bridge loan--and to add insult to injury, an entity that is outside of the regulatory purview of the Board--but that the request was not only consider, but is now being acted upon.

Here's a simply stunning statement from the Federal Reserve Board