 |
. |
| I also talked by phone in 2005 to Mr. Dan Matro of Bayh�s Washington staff. My thought was this: since my 1981 effort had been so very effective, perhaps the government would like to actually pay me to write a second analysis. I�d earlier called the White House to make that same pitch, but my call wasn�t returned. I'd also tried the Social Security Administration itself. A spokesman there had suggested I try my elected Indiana representatives. Thus it was that I�d found myself talking to Mr. Matro. Matro thought that there might very well be funding somewhere in the universe, and that I was, of course, perfectly welcome to look, but he was not much more specific. Mr. Matro did state that Sen. Bayh would just love to hear all my ideas about the Social Security problem. In my case, though, such sharing would simply be to invite another plagiarism incident. In my own mind was the idea of charging a fee, quite small by federal spending standards--perhaps several thousand dollars--to research and prepare another Social Security analysis. And it happened that Sen. Bayh was himself not actually impoverished. He reportedly had a net worth numbered in the millions. Why shouldn�t he either pay me for such a report himself--or else make a better effort to help me find a source of funding? If paying for the report himself would leave Sen. Bayh feeling deprived, I could allow him to take a modest equity position in my Indiana corporation (founded 1983) for the same purpose. I also called Sen. Richard Lugar�s office about the matter. A spokeswoman suggested that I submit whatever proposal I might have in writing by e-mail. I have done so and thus have made roughly the same suggestion to both Indiana senators. Perhaps, to cut costs, Senators Bayh and Lugar would like to chip in together, or else pass the hat among the members of their leisure-class senatorial club. Despite a second e-mail to Amy Burke of Lugar's staff and a letter from her extolling Lugar's record of reponding to consituent concerns, no substantive response was received from Lugar's office. Instead it seemed that Mr. John Snow of the Bush administration wanted me to contribute another social security analysis, again for free and without recognition--and in a way that would have enhanced Snow's position within the Bush administration. Below are excerpts from a letter dated May 25, 2006. It was addressed to Mr. Doug Tirmenstein and Tina Cox of the Trust Department of the National Bank of Indianapolis. I was then a beneficiary of a trust account at that bank. ". . . My understanding is that the National Bank of Indianapolis is under the authority of the Treasury Department, rather than the Federal Reserve. So I imagine that . . . might been a factor in the setting up of the trust at your bank. "'. . . while Mr. Greenspan has left the scene, I'm beginning to feel slightly 'snowed in.' "'Snow' isn't by any means a common name. But Mr. John Snow is Secretary of the Treasury, and Mr. Tony Snow has just been named President Bush's Press Secretary. Furthermore, the person who has moved in directly across the hall from me in my building also has the name 'Snow.' "From his or her position in my building, Citizen Snow can quite legally watch all my comings and goings--if he or she should desire to do so. "And I'm used to that kind of thing. Over the years assorted people, many of them quite famous, have taken a good deal of interest in my activities. "It's even true that another treasury secretary, Mr. William Simon, once took some interest in my humble situation. That was over a matter, which is still relevant today and has to do with global warming and energy supplies. ". . . This whole situation will perhaps explain why a local TV reporter once called me, 'the most dangerous man in America.' However, what he said was exaggerated and unfair--unfair because I'm not really responsible for serious problems that may be created by the unethical behavior of others." A copy of this letter was sent to Secretary Snow. My motive for writing had been that I feared that Bush administration officials might find a way to make the trust fund "disappear" or do something else that might have hurt my family. I don't think that fear could be considered paranoid given the level of hypocrisy, deceit, denial, intrigue, greed, and lust for power surrounding my situation. A very few days after the letter was sent, Secretary Snow resigned from the government. A number of months later, "Citizen Snow" ("Donna Snow, " a she, as it turned out) moved out of my building. That former treasury secretary became the CEO of a hedge fund, Cerberus, located in New York city. One of the things that might have dissuaded anyone thinking of putting any money in that fund was that Dan Quayle also worked there. Since Quayle is mentioned elsewhere on this site, I called the fund in 2007 to give both men a chance to comment, but none was forthcomming. As fate would have it, after Donna Snow moved out of my building, I was accidently sent proof that she had lived in there. That came in the form of a New York Times renewal notice which was put in my mail box by mistake. Her number had been #37, while mine was #36, but the New York Times thought her's was #36, so I got the renewal notice. Perhaps the mistake came about as a result of some intended misdirection on the part of Donna or John Snow. A scanned version of that NYT document may be viewed by clicking left. And the treasury department continued to be interested in me, as I later found out by accident. In October 2008, after a loud disturbance, I discovered that a woman had been abducted from in front of my apartment door. Being a complelte coward, I'd come out only after the storm of emotion was spent. Two windows had been borken. A woman's purse, with her Indiana ID card, and her coat were left on the floor. An ID card is hard to replace. She'd been dragged off, it seemed, by someone stronger. The woman had been keeping company with a black gentleman who'd moved into the same apartment formerly occupied by Donna Snow. When I investigated further, by using the information on the ID card, I found that a Mr. Brian Paulson was part of this interesting, egalitarian social circle. Paulson isn't a common name. Mr. Henry Paulson was Secretary of the Treasury. The odds against two coincidences, involving the same apartment,and both producing the name of the current secretary of the treasury, were quite high. Mr. Snow and Mr. Paulson had both been in charge of large budgets. Neither wanted to hire me to do anything, although they could have done so for a very modest sum. Instead, two secretaries, each, it seemed, suffering from a similar mental derangement, had been stalking me. Why was that? Could it be something caused by toxic fumes eminating from green ink in paper money? Or should we be calling this phenomonon "the Greenspan syndrome?" I offered to write a paper on how to evaluate sub-prime mortgage or other assets. My proposed fee: $7,000, with half paid in advance. My offer was made in late November 2008. It was sent to the human resources department at the Dept. of the Treasury. You see, with just a slightly higher level of mathematical sophistication, it would be possible to evaluate those assets. As of December 22, there'd been no response from the Treasury Dept., so I sent the same offer to Citigroup which had recently received a bailout and which had a toxic asset problem. It seemed to me at that time that no real reforms were being made and that throwing huge sums of money around in a confused manner would only make the situation worse. In 2008 Alan Greenspan was connected to something called "Greenspan Associates." Apparently the great financial wizard/lizard was needing money, friends, excitement, or something. Through e-mails and phone calls to Greenspan Associates, I gave him several chances to defend his reputation, but he hasn't cared to do so. (Anyone else in the media wanting to try may phone Greenspan Associates at 202 457 8250.) I also suggested that perhaps he'd like to contribute in some way to resolving the baby boomer retirement funding problem. There was no response to that either. I also tried leaving a message at NBC for that towering figure of journalistic integrity, the legendary Andrea Mitchell. I didn't have much luck. Reaching someone as important as Andrea, especially someone who works for a company as important as NBC, is often not easy. At any rate, the baby boomer retirement crisis didn't seem to be anywhere on the agenda of Greenspan Associates, at least as of early 2008. Greenspan's site may be viewed by seen by clicking left. It did seem that Alan was reading what I was writing about him, however. An earlier version of this article had mentioned that he was often photographed in public with something resembling a snarl. (That statement is still in this article, fairly near the beginning.) In 2007, however, Greenspan appeared on the cover of Newsweek wearing an enormous smile. He looked like some sort of predatory sea creature exposing a lot of pink digestive surfaces just before folding up to engulf its prey. But from that rather striking presentation I inferred that he was aware of what I'd written about him. Meanwhile, other members of the Greenspan clan were meddling in my affairs and trying to marginalize and discredit me. They included a woman possibly named "Laura Gruen" or "Laura Greenspan" and Mr. Rick Greenspan. For more about that, see their names in the index at the bottom of Screen A of this site. As they used to say on Catholic radio: "The family that preys together stays together." Alan, Andrea, or any other member of the Greenspan mini-mob, who should happen to read this revised material, might perhaps benefit from the cartoon at left. CONTINUE |
 |
| Doth the man protest too much? |
