Huh?
 

The Fastows sold the home they were building in River Oaks prior to any of the plea deals (I'm sure their house in Southampton is quite nice, anyway). I doubt they're really worried about money, anyway - she comes from a wealthy family. By the way, Lea was doing time at the maximum security fortress in downtown Houston, hardly a country club, and I doubt the threadcount on her sheets were much higher than Hank's IQ.

et: fix tense.

Huh?
 

maybe, but sheets equated to Hank best be percale, bitch.

Breaking economic principles down to a level so basic that they are meaningless.
 

Well, that'll never be cured. Other than providing an inheritancce for their kids, deep down inside, most folks ain't thinking too far beyond their own lifetimes. We're kind of wired that way.

Huh?
 

Why if you already have a stack of cash would you risk your life stealing to get more? If I get $5mil, I'm gone. Out. I'll march straight to City Hall, naked, and renounce my law degree on the desk of the closest sitting judge. I may even take a dump in the courtroom like that drunk on the airplane a few years back... Then off to pick a modest vacation home and pull a serious godamned JD Salinger. I'd appears solely in wild, rambling editorial letters to magazines and national newspapers. The rest of my time would be devoted to making documentaries making fun of just every sacred cow of American culture. Oh, I have a list...

Oh, and orgies of course.

Breaking economic principles down to a level so basic that they are meaningless.
 

This is basically a "no, because they disagree with me."

In other words, those damn Founders didn't know squat compared to what Milty and the Chicago boys knew when they were running Chile.

Huh?
 

Has the Mrs. signed off on this?

Huh?
 

Poll (because why should the FB have all the fun and it changes the subject):

What is your personal "I am so outa here" figure?

What will you do if you get it (excluding ways to spend it)?

Me: $10 mil (though, honestly, if I got $5 mil I'd probably throw in the towel). I'd dye my hair International Klein Blue and wear my Motorhead T-shirt when I came into the office to quit (and retain our T&E guy). Then I would take up (bad) painting.

Huh?
 

You know the real answer, right? I mean, I haven't been following this entire discussion, but the answer in the case of the Fastows is that the govt wanted that plea deal with Andy. Someone somewhere decided that despite the clearly out-of-control crooked things he did either Lay or Skilling or both would be the top prize for the DA, so they worked with Fastow to get his dirt on the others. They must have decided that Lea was small potatoes and that helping her cut a deal that allowed one of them to be out at all times was worth it in the long-run to get the guys in control.

Or, put another way, just go watch the movie. Somehow so far Lay and Skilling have managed to avoid a lot of the public scorn that headed Andy "Scapegoat" Fastow's* way, but I tend to trust the assessment of the DA's office that pulling in one or both of them would be a coup.



*This is not to say that he wasn't committing fraud, I'm just saying that Lay/Skilling did an amazing job spinning it into a story about an out-of-control CFO and there was really a lot more going on than just that.

Huh?
 

To quit my job today and go on hiatus with the realization that someday I might have to work again? $2 million. I place quite a premium on having fun while you are still young enough to enjoy it though, so I might mortgage my future to live a little today.

To retire forever and live off of investments? $5 million, but I have very little required overhead. Other than vacations and dining out.

Huh?
 

I doubt I'd dye my hair blue, but $10m is a good magnitude. That would safely spin off $100-200k/year in interest.

The problem is, even with that I'd a) be worried it wouldn't last and b) still want to do something intellectual.

Huh?
 

(a) 2

(b) Yeah, but who cares? I could wear away/satisfy that ambition through golf, crappy painting and writing piece-of-shit unpublished novels.

Huh?
 

Perhaps I could too, but I'm not sure. I'd more likely want to take up expensive avocations. Retirement isn't cheap, unless you want it to be boring. I mean, a beach house and a yacht don't come cheap.

Huh?
 

Boring, boring, and more boring. I would lose my mind.

Huh?
 

Don't worry, strip club visits are interspersed between crappy painting sessions. It inspires the art.

Huh?
 

This is how I know I'm not a workoholic. I would not miss it. Not for a minute. If I were independently wealthy, I could walk away from the rat-in-a-maze routine without a single glance back. And I'm pretty sure I could find interesting and fun ways to spend my time for at least 2 years before it even became challenging. I have a few friends who have spent hiatuses from their careers (after collecting a bronze parachute or just saving up and ditching it all for a while) having the best time of their lives. Scuba diving in Costa Rico, exploring New Zealand, etc. Oh, how I'd miss the intellectual pursuits. Yeah, right.

Holy shit. I'm the female Sebby.