The treatment (31)

“Burritos going like hot cakes, huh?”
“Si.”
“Noemi has got this business going pretty good now. That’s Lupe behind the counter; she’s going to marry my nephew, Stet.”
“How beautiful she is.”
“Why’s Lupe here, Noemi?”
“Maria’s sick today.”
“Her sister, who helps with the dairy and the school at the church.”
“Dairy?”
“Yes; we got one not far down the road; they’re connected to all that business up in Anthony.”
“And you’re in this, I suppose.”
“Only as a sideline. These folks know what they’re doing.”
“They sure seem to.”
“They do. They’re the new Americans.”
“That they are.”
“And all we got is old gringo bullshit, ‘til the money runs out.”

The treatment (30)

“Here we are; it’s a hole in the wall, but Noemi has some tables out back and a nice little courtyard.”
“Nice to meet you, Ms Macon.”
“Nice to meet you, and your name is…?”
“Noemi.”
“How lovely. This is Mae, Noemi, and this is Melissa.”
“So happy to have you; I’ve fixed up some fresh salads for you to go with our normal menu.”
“You are so kind.”
“I heard that about the hole in the wall, Lalo.”
“I hope you heard my praising your courtyard.”
“Yes, I did, so you can have the last hour’s tamales.”
“My name is now changed to Perro Vagabundo.”
“Si.”
“As long as my dish is here. Sit Rascal.”
“Lalo.”
“Quiet down. You two get along better than I did with any of my husbands.”
“I think I’m going to like you, Ms Macon.”
“Kaylee.”

The treatment (29)

“It’s about ten miles up the road. Thought maybe you’d have trouble finding it, Mae.”
“Mae can find about anything she wants, Leland.”
“That right?”
“She was a Philadelphia detective before she came out here.”

The treatment (28)

“How long has Ms. Brothers worked for you; she’s not the mother of Cedric from out your way?”
“Yes, that is Mae’s son. He and I are almost like siblings. Mae came to us when I was about seven. Cedric was about six. He lived at the ranch back then, and we went to school together.”
“He was the reason you won state those two years.”
“Yes.”
“What’s he doing now?”
“He’s a musician with the New York Philharmonic.”
“Really.”
“Mae and I go up there all the time to see him and his little son; he was married, but his wife had her own career and left him and the boy.”
“What was she?”
“A dancer with Alvin Ailey.”
“Well, that’s a way’s from the ranch.”

The treatment (27)

“Is there a nice place for a late lunch around here, Leland.?”
“You’re asking for a lot. I can call my friend Noemi and see what’s left. She has a kind of steam table that she keeps fresh until about three.”
“I’ll call the rest of them.”
“We’re on. Let’s take the bank’s suburban. Mae can drive. That rig of yours will run her customers off.”
“My third husband bought that right before we split up. I let him have it, but he had to pay the note, so it came back to me. We weren’t married all that long; it’s about all he cost me. Most people just think it’s a Mercedes, and we do have those out here. It’s quite a fine machine.”
“No doubt. But we’ll put it in back so nobody is tempted to scratch it.”

The treatment (26)

“So we’re agreed, you’ll try to get on one of those system boards.”
“Yes, and I’ll take Melissa for moral support.”
“You’ll probably need it.”
“Yes.”
“Be a good idea. I’ll also give you Barb and Dave’s number, so she can fill you in on what was up as the clinic originally got started.”
“If they won’t let me on, I’ll go to the paper. The system does have my name on it.”
“Indeed.”

The treatment(25)

“How long have you worked for the Macons?”
“Better than 25 years.”

A break from the story for a moment. It's led to banking, Texas banking, only in a minimal way with men who just know business and "who's good for what" in their county.

Contrast that with this, cross-posted at the Agonist in Debt market issues:

http://agonist.org/comment/reply/37546/152344

Perhaps the business schools will create schools of psychofinance to forge a ground floor theory of trust.

March 17 – Financial Times (Gillian Tett): “In recent years, bankers have succumbed to the idea that the credit world was all about numbers and complex computer models. These days, however, this assumption looks ever more of a falsehood. For as anyone with a classical education knows, credit takes its root from the Latin word credere (“to trust”) And as the current credit turmoil now mutates into ever-more virulent forms, it is faith – or, rather, the lack of it – that has turned a subprime squall into a what is arguably the worst financial ­crisis in seven decades. Make no mistake: what we are witnessing right now is not just a collapse of faith in one single institution (namely Bear Stearns) or even an asset class (those dodgy subprime mortgage bonds). Instead, it stems from a loss of trust in the whole style of modern finance, with all its complex slicing and dicing of risk into ever-more opaque forms. And this trend is not just damaging the credibility of banks, but the aura of omnipotence that has enveloped institutions such as the US Federal Reserve in recent years.”

http://www.prudentbear.com/index.php/CreditBubbleBulletinHome

(Where did Bernanke get his education? Ans:Harvard, then MIT. The credibility of modeling as somehow foundational needs questioning and hence the universities that teach it.)


As we noted this problem of foundational modeling with Heidegger, early in the blog(in 2006), we note that finance has succumbed to a similar folly. And now it does not know "who's good for what."

The treatment(24)

“You kin to Mr. Street, somehow.”
“You might say. Grew up with him.”
“But not blood kin?”
“We have some blood in common. It’s complicated.”
“You got that right.”

The treatment(23)

“And you they call Hick.”
“Yes. And you are a fine interrogator.”
“Got to protect my girls.”
“Hmm.”
“So, in that vein, I don’t know you; what’s your role in all this?”
“My role?”
“Yes. You here for a reason.”
“Well, I own the bank with Leland and the other shareholders.”
“So you a Texas banker.”
“Well, this is not a big operation; I don’t see myself as a banker. The only suit I own barely fits.”
“What you been eatin’?”
“Heh. We put this thing together to help a few folks out here. We know everybody out here and pretty much who’s good for what.”
“That’s all I’m trying to find out.”
“I can see that.”

The treatment(22)

“And Kaylee. You knew her through Dr. Barbara.”
“Yes.”
“Well, I drove her in sometimes.”
”Right.”
“And she saw my boy, too.”
“Memory must be going.”
“S'your name Sonny?”
“Yes’m.”

The treatment(21)

“Miz Brothers, I did not realize you were a driver, as well as cook.”
“You knew Melissa as a child, right?”
“Yes.”
“Did not date her?”
“No, she was a couple of years older.”
“Did not have a notion? She was a pretty girl, I hear.”
“Yes, she was indeed. Why are you asking?”
“Oh…just trying to get an understanding of all you folks.”

The treatment (20)

“Ms. Macon, Leland Street.”
“Pleased to meet you, sir. Heard a lot about your Aunt Dixie from my grandmother. She was a kind of folk-hero around our place.”
“She is here, too.”
“And she bought some stock from us.”
“She did, indeed. I guess we’re family in some way.”
“Heh. May I introduce my dear friends?”
“Yes.”
“This is Mae Brothers, my cook and chauffeur. She goes with me everywhere. And this is Melissa Comstock, who is my invaluable secretary and administrator.”
“And this?”
“That’s Rascal.”
“Good man, Rascal, sit here for me, laddie.”
“A man you can rely on.”
“So I see. Pleased to meet all of you.”
“Let’s visit in your office.”
“Come on in, Melissa, if you need to make a note. You’re welcome, too, Miz Brothers.”
“I’ll stay here with these gentlemen, thank you.”

The treatment( 19)

“Damn, Sonny, who is this drivin’ up?”
“Must be Kaylee.”
“What is that damn thing?”
“It’s a Maybach.”
“A what? Out here?”
“Yup.”
“And who’s the black lady chauffeur?”
“Beats the shit out of me.”
“These women have gone to expensive dogs.”

The treatment( 18)

“Leland?”
“Yeah, Sonny.”
“Kaylee is on her way out and wants to visit. Her lawyer said for her to bring us the papers.”
“Now? How long’s it been? Couple months, at least.”
“She’s pretty impulsive when she puts her mind to it.”
“So much for her fragility.”
“She does not sound fragile today.”
“Yeah, she can come.”
“Well, she is coming.”
“Yeah, I got it. Someone needs to teach her some manners.”
“Maybe that’s where her husbands failed.”
“Husbands were probably doomed from the get-go. I’ll be out in about thirty minutes.”

The treatment (17)

“Hick, he’s already taken some production and thrown it into Breaker Brothers.”
“That’s a little faster than you thought.”
“Sure is. There has to be a wrinkle in this somewhere.”
“He probably did not put the ones he can waterflood into the deal.”
“He’ll save those for later, you think?”
“Yeah, for himself.”
“Meantime, what is Breaker Brothers?”
“It’s an oil and gas operation, but it’s private equity, sort of like Pickens. There’re two guys named Sam and Walt Breaker out of Dallas. They got positions in that Fort Worth gas, among other things, and they’re putting together an outfit to spin stuff off to the street.”
“Jesus, Leland, he may not be going to go broke. He may make a bunch of money for the trust in the stock market and put it on solid ground.”
“Yeah, but he is still giving up minerals; we don’t tend to do that out here.”
“New way, Leland.”
“Maybe.”

The treatment (16)

“Leland. I’m out at the yard. And I’m on a hard line.”
“Ok.”
“Let me tell you what I found out so far.”
“Shoot.”
“The trust put the moves on Kaylee through Williams and Rose.”
“Hmm.”
“They advised her to go into Breaker Brothers. They wanted her to contribute her royalty interest in return for shares in the firm.”
“Hmm.”
“She said no.”
“Oh shit; it sounds like the hospital’s wells are already transferred.”
“Yes, it does.”
“If we can find her a new oil and gas lawyer, she’ll send him all the paper work and permission for us to see it with him.”
“My friend Ray may know somebody in Houston. We can probably do it all by phone. Let me get on it.”
“Ok, well, I’ll be out for good in a day or two. I just put my letter in mail to him.”
“So where are you staying?”
“At the yard. Gene and I have a few modifications to make to my truck, just in case someone tries to run me off the road.”

The treatment (15)

“Hick, this here is Sonny Winchell; he’s going to be our new man at the bank. Keep it under your hat.”
“Nice to meet you, Sonny.”

The treatment (14)

“What is the mood at the bank?”
“I haven’t done a thing to arouse any suspicion and now that Barb and Dave are gone, Van is ablaze in glory. He thinks he’s won. They’re watching me, but I haven’t done anything to make ‘em nervous.”
“Well, be very cautious.”
“I will. I’ll come out in about six weeks, dressed for a hunting trip and I’ll move into Dave’s trailer.”
“What about your house?”
“It’s paid for, and my sister and Gene will see after it.”
“Gene?”
“Yeah. Gene Ayers with the wrecking yard. He bought it from me and then married my sister.”
“Well, hoo hah.”
“Yeah, he got a hell of a deal.”

The treatment (13)

“Well, Sonny, it looks to me like we can’t begin to figure out what is going on with that Macon oil unless we can find out from Kaylee what she’s getting. Then we can benchmark the rest of it.”
“Yeah, that’s the easiest way I can think of.”
“Will she talk to you?”
“Maybe.”
“I’ve got to keep you a safe ways out of this.”
“I’ll be careful.”
“If you quit First National, what will Van think?”
“If I come out here?”
“Yeah.”
“Might get dicey. But if I come out here, after I talk to Kaylee, we might get the jump on him before he figures out what to do. I want to do this. I just want to keep my distance from Van.”
“He’ll have to come down the ranch road by me to get to Dave’s place, and then he’s got to go another six hundred yards over the hill. And we can put some sensors out there if you get nervous.”
“Ok. But hold on that last one for the time being. Once I’m here, I’m here. The cat will be out of the bag, if it isn’t already. Too many people will start putting 2 & 2 together, you being first ‘2’ and me being second ‘2’.”
“So the big guns will be trained on me.”
“Yeah. Put ‘em out for you, if you want to.”
“Well, they did do some shootin’ in the old days, so I heard tell.”
“So’d I.”

The treatment (12)

“How?”
“She’s about my age, two grades older, maybe. Her little sister used to play volleyball with mine. Used to see her at games. She’s not what you might think. Went to Tech. She was married and her kids are grown. Her husband started running around on her. He was a steel buyer for Rickman-McKay.”
“He must have made a pile.”
“He did, and she took half of it.”
“Heh.”
“When Kaylee went through that last divorce, she was going through hers and they became friends. I think they met at the lawyer’s office. Then she moved to the ranch.”

The treatment (11)

“What do you know about Kaylee Macon?”
“I don’t know her very well, apart from Barb. She lives alone in the old house with a housekeeper and a cook.”
“Do they still run any cattle?”
“No. Raise a few quarterhorses and some blueticks.”
“Blueticks.”
“Yes.”
“I’ll be damned.”
“She’s a loner, after those worthless husbands. Housekeeper does the shopping in town and they travel some.”
“Hmm.”
“I know her.”
“Housekeeper?”
“Yeah.”

The treatment (10)

“Heard she’s sick.”
“Sounds like it.”
“Will he stay with her?”
“Yeah, I believe he will.”
“Good.”

The treatment (9)

“Barb was the smart one. Just wanted to please her. She was too clean for that yard.”
“Made you sell it?”
“No. I just wanted to do something professional after I saw her go through school.”
“You put her through?”
“Yes.”
“So what happened, if you don’t mind my asking?”
“It’s okay. She could not have any kids; had two miscarriages and we grew apart. I went to the bottle. She buried herself in medicine. Built the clinic with those other guys.”
“Jesus.”
“Yeah. But we get along. I don’t have any regrets that I was with her. I’ll do anything she needs. Just don’t want to bring her down.”
“So you went to work for First National.”
“Yes, but the bottle kind of got between me and advancement. They keep me on, because I have it sort of under control now. But I’m strictly operations at this point.”
“So how much do you drink a day?”
“I’ve got so I can make it until five or so. Then I get the need. Usually I drink a pint plus or minus and hit the bed.”
“Hmm.”
“But if I’m working, I don’t need it. Maybe I could work til seven or so, or later even.”
“Might could.”