"And finally, in our progress towards a resumption of work, we require two safeguards against a return of the evils of the old order.
There must be a strict supervision of all banking and credits and investments. There must be an end to speculation with other people's money."
Franklin Delano Roosevelt, First Inaugural Address, 4 March 1933
"All political thinking for years past has been vitiated in the same way. People can foresee the future only when it coincides with their own wishes, and the most grossly obvious facts can be ignored when they are unwelcome."
George Orwell, 'December Letter,' Partisan Review, Winter 1945
Today was another boring day in the Homeland.
There were no deliveries at The Bucket Shop yesterday.
The usual dribbles of bullion went in and out of the warehouses.
Gold and silver prices generally oscillated around their current price levels.
Both precious metals are utterly oversold.
Below the charts is a classic song from Peggy Lee. It became a hit in 1942 with Benny Goodman and was included in the movie Stage Door Canteen. It sold a million copies and brought her to national recognition. It is shown as the second video below.
She cut the more mellow version, the first video below, with her husband and guitarist Dave Barbour in 1947. The video is from 1950. Her vocalization is much more personal and confident, and helps to support Barbour's ice-cold licks on the guitar.
It is not her most famous recording of course, as she is always associated with Fever.
I'll bet you did not know that this song was originally recorded as 'The Weed Smoker's Dream' by the Harlem Hamfats in 1936. I did not. I found it fascinating that the Harlem Hamfats are really a Chicago jazz group, and the recording featured below was purchased from a British musical instruments, sheet music and apparently record dealer, Saville Pianos on Holloway Road N7 London. The Vocalian Origins of Jazz collection is a 78 RPM series of records issued in 1951 by an American company.
The song was rewritten and released as 'Why Don't You Do Right' by Lil Green in 1941 with Big Bill Broonzy. As you can hear, it has a distinctive rhythm and blues lilt that sounds more like the 1947 cut by Peggy Lee than the big swing band version by Benny Goodman.
Many others have also recorded this song, including one of my favorite singers Julie London. You may have seen a version of it in 'Who Killed Roger Rabbit.' But Peggy Lee's rendition still sounds the best of them all to me.
The lyrics sound like something the Banks will say when the next crisis brings them around asking for your money in another bail-out or bail-in.
You had plenty money, 1922
You let other women make a fool of you
Why don't you do right, like some other men do
Get out of here and get me some money too
You're sittin' down and wonderin' what it's all about
You ain't got no money, they will put you out
Why don't you do right, like some other men do?
Get out of here and get me some money too
If you had prepared twenty years ago
You wouldn't be a-wanderin' now from door to door
Why don't you do right, like some other men do?
Get out of here and get me some money too
I fell for your jivin' and I took you in
Now all you got to offer me's a drink of gin
Why don't you do right, like some other men do
Get out of here and get me some money too
No, you don't think so? You do not think that they would dare propose a 'bail-in' to save Wall Street again?
The Banks own more politicians and judges than Don Vito Corleone.
Have a pleasant evening.
