British View of U.S. Events

Dear Stan,

Here is Melanie Phillips' typically cogent view of the US election fray: (I'm going to post this on my own site, Bill. Her summary is very cogent and to the point.) See HERE.

http://www.melaniephillips.com/articles-new/?p=618

Further to the financial meltdown: the headlines in one paper yesterday described our boss Sir Fred Goodwin, chief executive of the Royal Bank of Scotland, as falling on his sword. Falling on several sackfulls of money, more like. He has quit his job after RBS was forced to accept a £20 billion ($35 billion) bailout from the Government (i.e. the ever-luckless taxpayer), but will be consoled by a £580,000 ($1 million) a year pension. Also it's nice to see that someone's doing well out of the Lehmann Brothers debacle....the lawyers of course. It will cost $350 million in legal fees to sort out the mess. At $950 an hour, some lawyers are going to have a very Merry Christmas.

I loved the explanation of one American legal firm whose hourly rates were at the top of the table for US lawyers. Their rates were inflated because they had two partners in London who were billing at British rates. With the currency conversion rates at the time, they outstripped the most expensive US lawyers. Of course Shakespeare said it all in Henry VI: "The first thing we do is kill all the lawyers..."