Wow, I write a blog about Oswald Gruebel, the CEO of UBS, and two days later he’s gone. That opens up a world of possibilities. “In other news, Perry, Bachmann and Palin sailed into a hurricane off the coast of Florida……”
Gruber “resigned”, after calling his board out and saying they had to “back me or sack me.” Apparently the board deliberated all of a day (“Well, if those are our choices….”) and the man who flew into Singapore in the front of the plane departed the next day pulling a long oar in steerage. The official statement by UBS Prez Kaspar Villiger praised Gruebel for feeling it was “his duty to assume responsibility for the recent unauthorized trading incident.” Whaaaaaaaa??????? Just last Thursday Gruebel said publicly he didn’t think he bore any responsibility in the matter. Oh….I see. It was the PR team putting words in his mouth. Villiger went on to say that he did not see any reason to “doubt the future of Carsten Kengeter (chief of UBS’ investment bank).”
Carsten, put your resume out NOW!
The odds of getting konked on the noggin by a piece of falling space junk — in this case a “dead” NASA satellite weighing 6 tons — are, per the Post, 3,200 to one. Is it seriously Okay just to shoot this stuff up there and then, 20 years later, shrug and wash your hands of it? If it hits me, I can guarantee you, Lorraine is going to sue NASA for big dollars.
Nota Bene: Does NASA still have a budget?
Meanwhile, the mess in the Eurozone continues. Greece says may as well default, didn’t seem to hurt Argentina any, while the U.S. tells Europe to get its act together, and Europe tells the U.S., who are you to tell US to get our act together, etc, etc. But the most interesting message of all came from the Chinese delegation to this week’s IMF meeting: They think we should do away with our democracies, since it’s much easier to make decisions in dictatorships, like they have. They also criticized our work ethic and culture, saying that we had to change “your way of living and your way of spending.” The nerve! Okay, how about this: We won’t spend anymore money on imports from China.
Rupert