Author: staff
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Doing business with criminals can be very profitable. According to a Wall Street Journal article on November 27, 2024, Morgan Stanley did just that. Wealth management represents almost half of the firm’s total revenues. Apparently, many of these clients were thieves, money launderers, and terrorists. When I was a correspondent banker in Canada I had […]
Imagine you have a timeshare condo in Tahoe. You’re getting older and you and your kids no longer need it. Then someone calls you up and offers to buy your share for a good price. They are from Worry Free Vacations and give you the name of a Mexican buyer. You google Worry Free and […]
In 1960 about 4% of wives earned more than their husbands. In 2023 it was 16%. My wife earns much more than me, but it doesn’t bother me at all. For many years, when I was a banker, it was the opposite. Now I’m a starving writer and she’s a tenured academic. My parents would […]
What is the ultimate betrayal of confidence that a writer can commit? It’s hard to think of anything worse than what Alice Munro did. The Nobel-prize winner ignored that her long-time partner had sexually abused her own daughter. She then created a version of it in a story for The New Yorker. Munro died in […]
I read a disturbing but not surprising article in the Wall Street Journal. Junior investment bankers routinely work 100 hours a week. An all-nighter followed by a plane flight or customer presentation in the morning is common. They often lose track of what day it is because they never rest on the weekends. After one […]
A Memory of Per- by Carl Vonderau. More than forty years ago I set out across Latin America, a trip that would lead me into the rest of my life. A train, then two long bus trips lifted me up the Andes to Cusco. A doctor there wanted to practice his English and bought me […]
We Have Met the Drug Smuggler – by Carl Vonderau. More than 200K people travel from Mexico into San Diego each day. In 2023, 27K pounds of Fentanyl were seized at the border crossing. We hear that Mexican cartels are the ones flooding us with these drugs. But that’s not true. In reality, drug-trafficking crimes […]
Politicians and Conmen – by Carl Vonderau. In an age where American politics have become performance-based, who are the best performers to have on your side? The answer might be conmen. They can read an audience and manipulate emotions better than most people. Is it any wonder why some of the best conmen have been […]
I Got Scammed Too – by Carl Vonderau. Scammers play with your doubts and use your best intentions. I learned that in a movie written by David Mamet called “House of Games.” In that film a psychiatrist helps a compulsive gambler, and is led into a world of scams. I was working with a Canadian […]
Gina Champion-Cain is in the News Again – by Carl Vonderau. You remember her, don’t you? Gina Champion-Cain was convicted of a massive fraud in San Diego that stole from 300 investors—many of them longtime friends. Before she was arrested she was on the cover of magazines, served on influential boards, and involved in all […]