Be Careful What You Type

Vincent P. McCrudden ain’t quite Vincent K. McMahon but his story is not unlike a WWE storyline, complete with faces, heels and kayfabe. In case you don’t know who or what I am talking about, Mr. McCrudden is the Wall Street villain who threatened to kill about 50 different members of the government and has been paying for it ever since.

Apparently, even though the government refuses to adequately police actual financial crooks it is more than willing to bang the hammer on guys who set off blood fueds and commit “transmissions of threat to injure”. In all fairness to the Feds, I would kick his ass too if he put my name on a website death list. This is why Vinnie plead guilty a few days back.

What makes McCrudden’s case so interesting to me is that for perhaps the first time we have the two true underlying causes of our financial system’s dwindle, pitted face-to-face.

We are quick to point out and extol the failures of government regulators, legislators and pencil pushers. Fannie and Freddie should go down in infamy as the ultimate domestic terrorists, long and hard at work in destroying America from within under the pretenses of populist rhetoric.

There is, however, the other side of the nickel. The side we do not really like to discuss. The side representing the greed and avarice of the upper echelons of the financial community. The side which gambled away billions of investor assets under the pretense of we know what it is best for you. McCrudden himself was not a major player in the financial collapse, but his brazen attitude is quite indicative of the contempt many Wall Street overlords hold for the government and their regulatory tactics.

As I am a frequent critic of regulators, myself I can certainly feel McCrudden’s anger. At the same time, it is pretty tough to post death threats on your company web site and get away with it. To me, it is a lot less of an issue of whether he did it or not. I am wondering about whether he had a right to do it or not.

Freedom of speech is a wonderful thing, but not when it delves into calls for mass murder.

It is, however, very poignant that the government is dragging this ridiculously expensive farce out for over a decade against a guy who is far from the shadiest fish in the ocean. In fact, by most standards Mr. McCrudden is a guppy amongst hedge fund managers. Certainly not someone worth making an example of… or is he?

As I have said before, I like to stay away from conspiracy theories. If the financial system really is teetering on collapse, however, I can perfectly see the need for a whipping boy and the timing of this story.

Still I would like to hear what you guys think about this turn of events. We all vent against the fly-on-the-wall nuisance of government intrusion into markets, so did McCrudden really go too far? I can’t imagine that worst things weren’t said during Ken Lewis’ pantsing in Washington or during the infamous LTCM negotiations.

There seems to be something deeper beneath the surface here, I just can’t figure out what it is…