Dog Sitter

Posted on November 8, 2008 by Heligypsy

My passenger was not barking anymore. He never liked it when I hovered down wind. Too much exhaust blowing into the cockpit through my open door. Long lining drill support equipment with my little Bell47T meant that I sometimes had to face down wind flying things like core sample boxes off the sides of the mountain.

Pilots like to avoid placing their tail in towards the rocks as they sling items off mountain sides. Back up a little too far and you can ruin your whole day. A little exhaust is a small price to pay but its not easy to explain to your passenger, especially when he is a Golden Retriever.

Besides slinging any manner of equipment on this drill job, I moved all manner of personnel. The Bell 47T was used primarily for its overrated slinging abilities and the other helicopters moved more people than I did, because they could. There are only two passenger seats in the Bell 47.

One day as I flew into the camp helipad to pick up the camps carpenter I noticed his dog running back and forth off to the side of the helipad. Could the dog come too, he asked as he leaned in to shout over the noise.

Sure. Why not. With Buddy sitting comfortably between me and the carpenter whose name I can’t remember we headed off to the mountain top helipad and the staging area. When we got to the helipad, Buddy took one look at where he was going to be going and decided he liked his new arrangement. Ok, then.

I hooked up my line with the controls frictioned and Buddy sitting patiently till I got back in and off we went. We spent the rest of the morning slinging equipment and core boxes. Buddy would hop out when I refueled, take a leak get a drink and hop back in. A week later the carpenter was done his shift and the camp boss told him that the dog was not welcome when he shifted back in. Too bad.

So, yes, it was not the most responsible thing to have done flying around with buddy. It was the eighties in the far frozen north and a whole different world. I don’t let dogs ride up front anymore.

Oh, and they are always on the leash.

Our friend and fellow traveler, Zoe.

zoey-traveling

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Lucky you

Posted on November 7, 2008 by Heligypsy

I am not complaining. I like to write and travel, but it is hard to do both. Oh, poor you, you may be thinking!

Or you may be thinking worse than that. I would not blame you but as with most things, you really have to take a walk in the other persons shoes to see how that person’s life would be for you. I really admire people who travel and write about their experiences and make the event of those travels so interesting. Its a simple fact that it is a much easier task to write of travel misadventure than of glorious times. We arm chair travelers prefer travel adversity and misadventure tales and so I write hesitantly my next lines.

It has been a great experience to study United States history by traveling in Pennsylvania, New York, Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland and Washington D.C. So, let me put my little plug in for a trip to D.C.  at a minimum. If you or any of your children have a chance to visit Washington D.C. and have a day or two to spend, it will be time well spent. A week in D.C. would be a very full week and allotting less time will work if you want to whet your appetite for later visits. No matter what your nationality, religion or beliefs there can be no better place to see how this greatest experiment in democracy began.

As a Canadian with undefined religious leanings I have studied and visited my own countries origins in places like Ottawa, Kingston, Montreal and Quebec city. Visits to Greece have been helpful in understanding the early concepts of democracy and I am happy to have had the time to tour Greece. History allowed the visionaries of their day in what was to become the United States to indeed form a more perfect union.

If you want to see where the history of the United States began and really develop an appreciation for the genius of the men and women who started this great nation and continue today then come here and learn.

If nothing else, as Americans, you will gain an appreciation of just how lucky you are to call this country home.

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History comes around

Posted on November 5, 2008 by Heligypsy

He was shot and died after a long agonizing fight for his life. What would this President of the United States have done for the country? We will never know. President James Garfield had been gunned down at the start of his Presidency while in the company of not only his two sons but friend and colleague Robert Todd Lincoln, who had lost his famous Father under similar circumstances.

Standing in front of Garfield’s statue near the Capitol Building in Washington D.C. we were completing a history tour that we had begun this Spring. Paula and I will spend the next few days in the Capitol. History and learning are never ending of course, and this tour was our way of making a physical connection to the early history of the United States.

In the Spring we had visited Gettysburg, Jamestown, Williamsburg, Richmond, Monticello and Washington D.C. I have always been a more tactile learner and seeing a place and walking the same paths and buildings of the people I am interested in works better for me.

Today’s touring took us through the Capitol building and The Library of Congress. We were supposed to be here today. Election day, November 4th 2008. My friend Ali believes this and I have to say that the more experiences I have of this nature the more I agree with his philosophy.

Ali believes that we are where we are supposed to be and that people and events come into our lives for a reason. This belief, while not unique to any one religion or culture has been demonstrated to me on numerous occasions and was again today.

Three things happened.

Our lives which run on the very loosest of schedules found us walking around inside the U.S. Capitol Building on election day. We had tried on two previous occasions to get in the building this year but time and circumstances denied us access. Today the building was quiet and we walked the hallways alone in many places. It allowed us a view we would have not enjoyed had we came on any  other day.

In the Library of Congress Jefferson building, I walked an under ground hallway and stood in front of a picture of some World War II pilots. Front and center in the photo was a WAC (Women’s Army Corp) whose name I recognized. Her son, a helicopter pilot and old friend had been on my mind the day before and I had told a story just a few days prior of Barry flying his Mom in my helicopter. She had been a WAC and flown the B-26 bomber.  Barry had flown his Mom in the Jet Ranger to meet a up with a B-26 and its crew down the coast from us in southern California. Barry and especially his Mom were given the royal treatment which included a flight and some stick time for Mom. There she was, smiling back at me as a young determined woman of twenty something in the photo. I have to call Barry.

This Spring after returning from Guatemala, Belize and Mexico we visited Monticello. Monticello is the restored home of one of the greatest men of U.S. history Thomas Jefferson. It was my second visit to Monticello and I lingered in Jefferson’s office looking at native American artifacts and some of his books.

Jefferson’s interest ran the full gambit but he was definitely keenly interested in the Native American cultures of past and current day. Some of Jefferson’s prized memorabilia were Native American articles brought back by Lewis and Clark.

There were two main exhibits in the Library of Congress. The first was a reconstructed version of Jefferson’s original library as he had organized it in his office at Monticello. Computers allowed you to peruse many of Jefferson’s books in a virtual format. Very cool.

Paula asked me if I had seen the other main exhibit? We walked past the Great Hall to the other exhibit and stepped inside. The early America’s exhibit. The same Mayan culture we had been studying and touring all last winter and this Spring in Guatemala, Belize and Mexico. Mayan artifacts from many of the cities and temples we had visited in Central America. Here they were, right across the hall from Jefferson’s Library.

All my lifes a circle

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Close Call

Posted on October 30, 2008 by Heligypsy

Part of our management team visited our Heli-base in Albenga Italy awhile back. One of the many positive changes the company has begun includes a near miss report. To pilots, near misses are generally followed by a sharp intake of air and an adrenaline surge. The near miss reports the company has created will hopefully not include many reports of that nature. Our new reports will encompass all work situations and involve everyone on our crew. The purpose is to identify anything from an inadequate step ladder to a flight that could have gone bad. My experience has shown that a reporting system like this is only as effective as the follow up action taken after the report. If a person sends in a near miss report and fails to hear afterward in the form of a call, email or letter apathy sets in quickly.

I have lost count how many times I have heard someone say, “I have been telling them about such and such and nothing happens”

I feel confident that with our company, it is not business as usual. We are making great progress towards operating more safely and effectively. When I was a Chief Pilot, or General Manager of a couple of different helicopter companies the biggest mistake I made concerning employee input was that I often neglected to follow up on good input. Very often an employee’s idea or concern was acted upon or a given all due consideration and discussed at management level. As a manager I did what I thought should be done with the information given but often forgot to update the employee on what was happening with the employee’s concern. To the employee it appeared that nothing was happening. The bigger the company the slower they seem to move. Our company is moving quickly and correctly in my opinion.

Last year I had a near miss of the first kind which I discussed with one of our managers before and quite a bit after the event. The safety manager I talked to the other day listened to my story and correctly analyzed that there was not much more that we could have done to mitigate or eliminate the risk.

I had called in to the office one night last year to identify a dangerous situation that was about to occur on a fire we were working in Kalamata Greece. SKED, our controlling Greek agency had accepted the help of several helicopters from the German and Swiss Air Force. The Germans had Ch-53’s and the Swiss were flying Super Pumas. At first glance they might have appeared to blend well with our SkyCrane, but I thought otherwise.

The fire was in very steep mountainous terrain that would not allow more than one helicopter to operate in the smoky conditions with any degree of safety. The idea of 6 other helicopters being operated on one frequency with three languages being spoken and the occasional English transmission was risky enough. Add to that the fact that what I had seen so far from the out of country helicopters indicated a lack of experience on fires for most of the pilots. One or two of the Swiss pilots seemed to understand the fire game but that still left 4 or 5 others who did not.

Our customer SKED had decided that we would lead 2 or 3 helicopters into the fire showing them where to drop in a daisy chain. The idea was ridiculous and  dangerous under the existing conditions. Fortunately our management backed any decision we would make to provide a safer working environment.

We decided to let the other helicopters work the fire at the ridge tops in the relatively clear air while we would work solo in the canyons to keep the fire from running down hill to the nearby village. Our water source was on the opposite side of the mountain from the other helicopters and we would remain below the ridges in the smoke and keep to ourselves. It was as safe a circumstance as we could fashion and listening to the other helicopters and ground crew conversing in four different languages made us glad to be on our own down in the canyons.

I had told the rest of the flight crew of my intentions for the next drop as we descended down the left flank of the fire into the clear air air of the canyon and our water source. About half way down the flank on the drop we heard the sound of engines and a rotor system. I won’t say what the other pilot said in response to what must have been a very close call. We had not seen the helicopter that must have passed very close over our heads. We considered stopping operations, but instead got on frequency and made a call into the blind making it clear that we were down canyon on our own and did not want to have anymore intruders.

Back at the airport shut down and refueling both of us were discussing what had likely happened when a German BO-105 hover taxied past our helicopter. That was definitely the helicopter we had heard. I made my way over to the  BO- 105 crew as they got out of the helicopter. They went from fluent English speaking to not comprehending when my questions became obvious as to their location on the fire. They had no valid reason to be on the fire other than to photograph their Ch-53’s in action and had ventured down canyon in the smoke to almost no good end.

My safety manager listened to the (albeit late) recounting of the event and mentioned the fact that there was not much more that could have been done to prevent this close call other than refusing to fly on the fire.

He was right. We had provided what we thought was a safe buffer between us and the other less experienced flight crews. You can never account for all the risks and someones unreasonable behavior. It was a close call that we almost never got to report. How close? I don’t want to know.

Posted in Flying Stories, helicopter firefighting, Helicopter Pilot, Random rantings, World Travel | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Going Back

Posted on October 27, 2008 by Heligypsy

Would we find my little cabin/ cottage home of 50 some years ago ? It was an old place when I lived there as a child so I could not be sure it would be still standing.The GPS on the truck had allowed us to take the old highway across from Highway 11 to Dwight. Beautiful lake country with old cottages and newer homes, boat houses and small islands just the way I had remembered them.

In the little four corners of Dwight we stopped at the old Grocery store and asked the lady if she had perhaps known the people whose place I had lived at so many years ago ? Charlie and Dorothy Thompson had owned the farm we lived on and I hoped that lady in the store may have known them. Sorry ,she said but that was before her time. There was a road called Charlie Thompson road though, would we like directions?

I got the directions and frankly they were the same as the directions my Mother had given me some hours earlier without mentioning the obvious. The road was named after the man I had called Uncle Charlie.

We drove the road and although it is a paved road now it looked familiar as we climbed the hill towards the lake. And there it was. Charlie and Dorothy’s cabin the barns and our little place sitting there looking exactly the same as it had when I lived there 51 years ago.The new road goes closer to our little house and the apple orhard is gone but everything else is the same.The old barn looks as sound as the day it was built and the number 1897 above its door attest to its vintage. It appears nobody lives in our little cottage now and peering inside I could not believe how small a place it had been. Just right for a young family of three in 1957.

So many memories here. Paula took photos as I walked around the property. I couldn’t find the spring and water trough and the out house is gone and likely not missed but really not much has changed. I know Charlie passed away years ago but what about Dorothy? She would be in her nineties if she is still alive and there should be relatives. It will be Monday tomorrow and I’ll do some checking. We drove from Dwight to Huntsville to check on my other old house on Fairy Ave. Not the most macho address in the world but the street climbs a small hill and descends to the shore of Fairy Lake. Pretty little street with an old restored brick house at the bottom, FOR SALE, hmmm?

Thompson Real Estate.I am thinking that there may be a connection here.

We drove past what I think was my other old house but I am not sure. In town we searched and found a nice Motel for the night. I was humming an old Harry Chapin song as we walked to dinner later that evening.

“All my life’s a circle”.  Yes it is.

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Driving east

Posted on October 25, 2008 by Heligypsy

Waking in the night, I slid out of bed and stepped into the chair,throwing me off balance and bouncing off the wall that should not have been there. I stood still and oriented myself to this nights Motel room. One of the hazards of a different Motel every night, is that you often wake not knowing or remembering where you are.

Last night we had been in Ellensburg WA., staying at the Inn at Goose Creek. We had seen the Inn on previous visits but traveling with the dog sometimes limits our options. Tonight we were dogless and the owner Gary asked if we wanted to see a few of the 10 theme rooms of the Inn.Since it was our first night back together after 5 weeks apart,  we chose the Rodeo Room  🙂

The next day we picked up the  new truck and headed east dropping the rental car at the FBO Hertz location in Moses Lake. Paula had the GPS program installed and running in the new truck in no time and we rocked along listening to the Sirius radio and learning all the truck features as we enjoyed the Fall colors.

It will be a 2500 mile trip that will retrace our Spring road trip east up till Billings Montana. At Billings we will stay in the north country and cruise south of Superior crossing at the twin cities of Sault Ste. Marie Michigan and Ontario. Should be a nice road trip and from Billings on,its all new to Paula. I’m hoping to swing buy the little log cabin that I started out my life , near Dwight Ontario and get a photo of me in front of it 50 some years later. I’ll check in with my Mom to see if the cabin is still standing and get some directions to the old place. I have not seen the old cabin since I was about 14 so directions may be needed.

I might have to ask the locals around Dwight if they know the cabin. Some one will surely know.

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The Fall colors are good, at least

Posted on October 17, 2008 by Heligypsy

I have been working with my insurance carrier for the past few days. I even hesitate to use the word with, because the process has been less than a cooperative effort. Insurance companies and mine is State Farm, get mixed reviews from everyone who has ever had to make a claim.

Unfortunately for me, this is my second claim in as many months. If you follow my blogs, you may recall the tree on truck incident.

My truck had been repaired and returned to me for about 6 weeks when I called to tell State Farm that my repaired truck had been stolen.

I had dropped the truck in long term parking at Montreal’s, Dorval airport on Sept. 16th and according to records the truck was removed that same evening.

I reported the truck stolen to State Farm on my return on Oct.10th. It seems that there is a 21 day waiting period before my claim is paid. State Farm offers a car rental stipend or contract which pays 25 bucks a day. It’s not enough and initially I was told by my agent that I would have to pay for my own car rental. It turns out; that was not true and a big thanks to my buddy Scott for telling me that they were lying to me. When I questioned the adjuster on this she told me that State Farm could arrange a discounted rate but that it was still not likely going to be as much as the rental would cost. What she didn’t bother to tell me was that rental car company would direct bill State Farm rather than just give me a discounted rate. I found this out by calling and quizzing the rental car company directly. In fact, the rental company said that State Farm typically pays up to $900 max and $35/day.

My adjuster had given me just enough information to make it sound like I would be just as far ahead to keep the rental car I now had and bill State Farm or be reimbursed at the $25/ day rate later.

This does not portend well for the rest of my claim process. It appears that some of the items I purchased for my truck and installed can be claimed. My air ride hitch, the roll top cover, mp3 radio, G.P.S. and that’s all.

Claiming I had them is one thing, but proving it is quite another. If you are like me and kept all your vehicle receipts, registration and insurance in your glove compartment you may now be considering an alternative plan.

At the very least make copies. I have never kept my drivers license in the glove box and had I done that I would not be complaining about the rental car deal. No license; no rental car. Also no registration for our 5th wheel trailer,(yes it was in the glove box), means no proof that we own the trailer.

No worries ,get a new registration, right? It takes two weeks minimum after the DMV gets your affidavit of “lost” registration to get another.

It is a good time now, to thank my buddy Chad who is in car sales and who walked down to the DMV and got me a replacement in 5 minutes. The new registration will be here by courier today.

The 21 day delay is pissing me off. The vehicle has been gone for 30 days now but the 21 days goes from the day of the report. I have a better chance of winning the lottery than I have of ever seeing that truck again and I don’t have a lottery ticket. Face it, my luck has not been that spectacular of late, so I’ll save my money and not buy any lottery ticket, ever!

My money will be better spent buying a new truck. I will get paid out, some day.

Will I get fair market value for my truck as equipped? Well, remember that these are the same people who tried to let the $900 rental slip by me…so I am thinking that my $55,000 truck, now valued at $36,000 a whole 2 ½ years later will be very fortunate to see a payout of even that amount.

In the mean time, I have my 5th wheel trailer sitting in an RV park that closes for the season today. I am not leaving. Even if the park wanted to move me out, there are no rigs available to move me. Believe me I have checked! All the haulers are swamped moving boats on trailers. It’s the season end to the boating year. There are no RV parks to move me to anyhow. Not that anyone would care. Its end of the season for most everything except snowmobiles and ice fishing here in the North country. I can park the trailer at friends and relatives if I can get it moved but no water, no sewer and a 15 amp. electrical service makes life a challenge when the temperature dips below freezing.

So, I’ll just have to buy another truck. Except that the bit of money I have is making interest,(not much) and so I’ll finance, right?

Not so easy to do these days, but after a day of negotiating I have a deal. Except that my trailer hitch is back ordered. (7 to 10 days).

A truck without a 5th wheel hitch will be just an expensive lawn ornament parked beside my not welcome trailer.

So, this is how I am spending my time off. Paula is on the other side of the country in California and heading this way on the 21st after her school reunion. She will be flying into Washington D.C. where we plan to park our truck and 5th wheel at a nice RV park we had reserved.

Perhaps you have noticed a slight “hitch”, (sorry) in that plan.

Oh well, I am still in good health and employed as far as I know. I’ll write the happy ending to all this in a few days I’m sure.

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The trip home

Posted on October 12, 2008 by Heligypsy

Some of you may know this part of the story. The two previous blogs start with my trip from Genoa Italy to home. Home this summer has been mostly in Gananoque Ontario Canada. Gateway to the Thousand Islands.

The adventure  of any trip is often not the destination but the trip itself. Not all trips are happy little tours and nobody wants to read that stuff anyways. In my opinion, people like adversity and misadventure over smooth sailing and endless scenic vistas.If thats the case, you may like the three blogs of which this is the last if the three.The first blog is called itinerary change.

I Just got back from an extended tour in Albenga Italy. Maybe the last for a while but time will tell. Paula is in Bishop for her school reunion that ends Oct.20. I am in Gananoque Ontario where my Mother and brother and two sisters also live. We will be celebrating Canuck Thanksgiving on Columbus Day if that makes sense.
Had a nightmare trip from Italy to Montreal. Several diverts and missed connections that had me in two different towns in Germany and concluded in Dulles where I missed my flight to Montreal. Montreal was where my truck was sitting in long term parking.
I got up to Montreal at 14:00 the next day which was the same time I would have arrived had I just left the next day from Genoa. I could have hung around the Genoa boat show for the day if I had only known.
Oh well, I made it to Montreal on Canadian Thanksgiving weekend and pushed through the crowds to the parking lot with my bags and could not load them in my truck.
There was no truck to load my bags in. After cruising the parking lot with two different security officers and much later a Montreal cop we managed to confirm what I knew 2 hours previously. My truck had been stolen.
No rental cars anywhere on a holiday weekend and no room at the Inn,or Motel or Hotel or well, you get it…
Managed to get the last seat on the train out of town to a town near where I had my trailer. The train broke down and we were finally on our way about 3 hours late. My sister Sherryl picked me up after midnight,bless her heart and after dropping my sister at her house I drove to my fifth wheel trailer.(with her truck) Thank you,thank you !
I fully expected that the thieves would have driven down to my trailer and hooked on with my truck and drove off at this point but my sister had been watching over the trailer in my absence and it was there.
So, here i am shopping online for another truck.The fancy hitch that I forked out 3500 dollars for; not insured,the roll top cover I added;not insured;the GPS in the truck;friggin ditto. What will my truck value at these days? Well, not what it would have a year ago before,diesel prices and the economy got ugly. I could calculate how much all this will cost me but why bother? Oh, and it was very entertaining calling my insurance agent. A couple of months previous I had the misfortune to have a tree fall on my now departed truck. Insurance forked out 9,000 for repairs. I paid the deductible and the cost get the tree off the truck. The RV park who I had prepaid for my stay would not cough up the money to have their tree removed from my truck. I will now be extending my stay at the RV park since I lack a suitable vehicle to tow my trailer away with. The RV park just may not see any further payment for the extra time of my over stay.
So , I called my insurance agent who naturally inquired if I was happy with the repairs to my truck, well, yes I had been, but..you can imagine how the rest of the conversation went.
You can always check on my latest misadventures and stories on my blog @ http://www.heligypsy.wordpress.com
If nothing else, reading about my life may make you feel better about your own.LOL !
So Thanksgiving in a couple of days. I have a lot to be thankful for and will celebrate the same with my family.

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Itinerary Change

Posted on October 9, 2008 by Heligypsy

My Italy tour is over and I am on my way home,sort of. My firefighting tour was supposed to be two weeks long ,but the day I was supposed to go home the Chief Pilot called and confirmed what I already expected. I would stay for another 3 davs. Ok, well make it an even week I said. No sense having somebody relieve for 4 days so that two of us get extended stays.

I would like to write a bit about my next tour but the fact is I do not know and what little I do know, falls under the heading of propietery info, not to be shared. Frankly, there is nothing to share so no beans spilled here.

So, as I said in my opening sentence,I am heading home. Eventually. I checked into my Hotel at The Genoa Sheraton last night. The International Boat Show is in town and Genoa Hotels have jacked their prices. My usual 90e room was now 280e but like the smiling desk clerk said,”we have a free wine sampling tonight”.

I looked over at the yacht crowd sipping their vino,wearing their “Armani suits and Valentino gowns ” and tried to visualize my uniform shirt and Khaki pants mingling in that crowd. Not happening.

Earlier in the week I did start thinking about staying over an extra day in Genoa and checking out our next potential bad investment at the Genoa Boat Show. Paying the ticket change fee,coupled with the slightly higher room rate was not an option so Ì will just have to wait till we get down to Fort Lauderdale to look at Catamarans.

My flight was delayed this morning and left 45 minutes late from Genoa. Turns out I could have gone back to my Hotel and had breakfast for no extra charge. Breakfast included for only about 400 U.S. a night! The thought of hauling my bag past the friggin imbeciles at security would have had me projectile vomiting my expensive breakfast so I decided to pass. Security, again questioned me at length about my flight helmet that I carried on board,or wanted to?

They had a problem with me carrying a flight helmet. Yes, I am a professional pilot and no, your baggage handlers will not be testing its structural integrity and breaking the visor. Not happening.

You could use the helmet to fly the plane the security guard suggested. Well, I countered, I suspect the Captain and First Officer would have some objection to that I responded. Besides if I was somehow in control of the flight would I not simply use the Captains headset? Its probably lighter than my brain bucket and fancier too!

My sarcasm was bordering on  risky and the result was that I handed the helmet to the ground handlers personally and asked them to please be careful.

I got the helmet back in one piece in Stuttgart,which was a surprise to me because we were going to Munich.

Fog at Munich forced a reroute to somewhere else and fog at that place forced a divert to Stuttgart. so, here I am in Stuttgart some 4 hours later and I finally have an new itinerary. Instead of Munich to Montreal where I would; at this moment be over the financially strapped Iceland ,I will be boarding my new flight shortly.

My route today and today is already been going for ten hours will be Stuttgart, Frankfurt, Dulles (Washington D.C.) and then Montreal .It looks like about 9.5 hours of flying and with the stops I will be enjoying another twelve to thirteen hours of travel. All in all about a 26 hour trip that ends with a nice leisurely drive from Montreal to Gananoque after midnight.

I could have over nighted in Stuttgart for another 100e and done a much shorter trip in the a.m. but fog covers most of Germany and it may have been worse tomorrow.Not a pretty picture and besides I would have lost out on all the extra airline miles I am going to accrue.

See you later,much later.

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“It could be worse”, he said

Posted on October 7, 2008 by Heligypsy

And sure enough it got worse. I have been watching and listening with great interest and a sort of dark amusement to all the worlds politicians and their financial spokespeople. One country after another has jumped on the, “Blame the U.S. banking system” band wagon.

These same governments while criticizing the U.S. have been quick to assure their own countrymen that while there will be some down turn in the local economy it will be nothing like the problems in the U.S.A.

A few days later with Euro Banks being bailed out and bought out by these same governments, the tone has changed dramatically. It would seem that no country is immune to the financial disease that has infected the world economies.

So a new rallying cry has come forth from all governments. “We must restore confidence in the banking industry “! Yes, we all agree, but watching these same governments conduct themselves of late is not restoring  confidence at any level . With the exception of Great Britain every European country has come forth to state how solid their financial institutions and lenders were ,only to later admit that several are now ruined and looking for a bailout or buyout. No politician wants to say recession or depression out loud but in a recent U.S. poll more than 75% of those polled believed we are in a recession and heading for a depression.

I have a simple suggestion for the political leaders. If you want to restore confidence in the banking industry, shut up. As one saying goes, “It is better to stay quiet and have people think you don’t know what you are talking about than to speak and confirm that fact”

You want to restore confidence in the banking industry and the rest of us? Tell us that you are listening to and following the advice of men like Warren Buffet. We can believe in someone who has demonstrated great financial abilities for all these years.

Politicians need to realize that there are some very smart people out there and they are not just the financial whiz kids and economists. The people are smart.Give us the bad news,so that we know that you know and we will all get back to work and expect you to do the same. It is the reason we have trial by jury in serious matters. Take twelve people from diverse backgrounds and cultures with only one goal and they will come up with the correct decision 99 times out of a hundred. Show me an economist with that track record .

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