It’s Friday and it’s time for our weekly shoot-the-shit. So, in keeping with all applicable rules, I’ve decide to use a bit of profanity; this approach is consistent with Louise Goodbread’s philosophy that describes profanity as a crutch for conversational cripples but also recognizes that an occasional “colorful” imprecation does a better job communicating certain conditions.

No, it’s not the 24 x 7 coverage of the Papal visit!

Having said that, what the fuck has happened to our banking system?

This week, I’ve been busier than a one legged man in an ass kicking contest – a condition that will undoubtedly persist through the weekend. With the conclusion of the DoD panel at the Global Identity Summit, I left the Tampa Convention Center and decided to stay in town to get a couple of things done. Rather than fuss around with driving, I decided to take mass transit to have a little lunch in town and pick up a couple of cigars for a friend. I look in my wallet and noticed there were no singles. I spotted a branch of a local bank and holding a ten dollar bill in my hand walked up to an open teller and  asked if she could break the ten for me. She looked at me like I was some sort of miscreant and informed me that she could not break the ten  because she needed to check my account and I was not a customer. I was seriously going to unload a verbal barrage on her, but realized that she was simply following rules. Here is the bank’s lost opportunity…

“ Yes sir, I’d be very happy to do that for you and I hope you’ll consider us for any future banking needs.”

Fucking elegant, and what an opportunity to show that the management team has an I.Q. – of any positive value.  I wasn’t asking them to cash a “not on us check” I simply wanted to break my ten spot.

Those of you that travel already know that there is not a bank in the EU, or for that matter anywhere on the planet, that would deny a request for change; including foreign currency exchange. Not a fucking one!

So here’s what I’d like our readers to do next time a bank of any size needs a taxpayer bailout.

1. Tell your elected officials to hold high a middle finger while raising their arm.
2. Insist that senior bank executives be disgorged of bonuses and exit packages.

As always, feel free to share your thoughts!

Have a great weekend be safe and enjoy some quality time with your buds and family !