Cats, Squirrels and Speculators

Our daughter and her family, who live in Potomac, Maryland, have two cats who like to roam in their spacious home. They are the same age and play constantly with one another. These are young house cats, in good shape, and not declawed.

The kitchen eating area is situated in a spot near window walls which look out upon a ground-level deck, facing a lawn which runs up to a line of trees and a woodpile further out in back. The deck sits near double-pane glass doors which form the window wall.

One Friday morning, at breakfast, my wife and I watched two squirrels who like to hop on the deck in search of bird seed fallen from the feeder. The two active cats like to watch them as well. The cats run along the perimeter of the glass, looking for a way to get at those squirrels.

The squirrels have come to know that the glass barrier protects them. They are very audacious, having lost all fear as they run alongside the outer perimeter of the glass doors, taunting the cats. Indeed, one Friday morning, my wife spotted one of those squirrels which came right up to the bottom of a glass door, stood on its haunches, and defiantly began scratching the glass, a mere half-inch away from Lightning, the male cat on the opposite side.

The following Saturday evening my wife and I, just after retiring, heard a ruckus outside the bedroom door. Early the next morning, I discovered the source: Lightning the cat had found an unwelcome intruder -- a mouse. I don’t know how it entered the house, but it would not be leaving intact. Unlike the audacious squirrel of the previous day, the mouse did not enjoy the protection of a glass wall.

Investment bankers and their minions who ginned up the sub-prime debacle threatening the economy (hedge fund executives of Bear Stearns are a few that come to mind) might have thought they were like that squirrel on the opposite side of the glass. They teased the ‘cat’ incessantly, thinking that they could get away without penalty, gorging on ‘free seed.’ Like those Potomac squirrels, investment bankers believed they were safely beyond reach of the regulatory ‘cat.'

What they discovered is that the protective window wall of financial speculation was a mirage and that, for some of them, their fate would become that of the mouse.


Note: For recent articles about proposed regulation of the nation's financial services industry, including securities firms, mortgage brokers and insurance companies, see www.washingtonpost.com/