why do all the wrong banks go down?

as many of you know, i work for banks. investment banks. and big insurance companies too. big woolly mammoths of capitalism that have been feasting on the world forever. or at least since i can remember. as a further commentary on just how awful my luck is, all the wrong banks (i.e., the banks i don't work for) are shrinking, bankrupt-ing or being folded into others, while the right banks (i.e., the ones i do work for) are going to emerge from the smoke bigger, bolder and more in need of legal assistance than ever. egad! this further fuels my fears of a global conspiracy to keep me down. or grumpy. or working, anyway. it's just not fair: mooooooooooom, the world hates me!

incidentally, who doesn't want a bail-out? as my colleague s.b. points out, we'd totally be willing to low-ball ourselves. i would be happy with a scant $10 billion. i'd like to think that i'm "too big to fail" though not in a body-mass-index sort of way. i'm no financial commentator. rather, i sit at my desk and do chair exercises refreshing my inbox and hoping the phone doesn't ring.

new conspiracy theory: did the republican party create financial woes to deflect attention from sarah palin's appalling lack of experience. you know they'd do anything. another theory: is the refusal to bail out lehman anti-semitic? p.s. i am not serious about these theories. i just want you to hear them here first.

my heart does go out for employees of lehman and those who are indirectly working for lehman (and others on the street). on npr this morning there was an interview with a livery driver who was expressing concerns about his ability to pay his mortgage since lehman was one of his biggest clients and he expects all the other car services to descend like locusts to service the remaining banks. a smaller share of a dwindling pie. maybe someone is eating up a piece of humble pie.