If a bank mistakenly deposited funds that you knew didn’t belong to you, would you take the money and run or would you bring it to the attention of bank officials?  Even if it was a small dollar figure, say $50.00, would you keep it?   What if you were guaranteed to not get caught; would you keep it then?

By now, word of a New Zealand couple who chose to run with the money has spread across the globe.  It’s not said how much of the $6 + million dollars they escaped with (although many say they were able to get around $4 million of it withdrawn), but apparently it was enough to take them deep into hiding.  The bank that made the error is pursuing ‘vigorous criminal and civil action’ in its efforts to get the money back.  It’s a crime in New Zealand to knowingly spend money that was deposited into one’s bank account in error.  This certainly puts a new spin on bank robbery.  

Although the bank made the initial error and has declared it as “human error”, the couple who are now globetrotting became criminals the moment they withdrew the money.  Leo Gao, who is from Korea and seems to have nothing but bad luck in all things financial, along with his girlfriend, Cara Young, had initially applied for a $6,000 line of credit for use as overdraft protection in their business checking account.   The bank clerk simply added too many zeroes to the ledger after the loan was approved.  The couple owned a gas station that was failing and were hoping the overdraft protection would prevent them from closing their doors.  With their unanticipated windfall, they decided keeping the doors open to their small business wasn’t so important after all.  I imagine he’s thinking to himself that he deserves this money since it’s always been his goal to get rich fast. 

Along with the couple, the girlfriend’s daughter and Gao’s mother have also gone amiss.  They are most likely somewhere in China. 

Whether it’s the legal system or karma that catches up with the thieves, one thing’s for sure: they can’t build their happiness on someone else’s misery, especially when it’s stolen happiness.

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It seems a Russian professor is convinced the United States will collapse within the next eighteen months.  In fact, he predicts the U.S. will break into six regions courtesy of a combination of continued economic problems, moral degradation and mass immigration.  A civil war beginning in the Fall of 2009 will be the trigger.  One of the benefits, for Russia at least, will be that Alaska will fall back to Russian control. 

Before we dismiss him as a quack who has no concept of American economics, we should keep in mind Igor Panarin is an expert on America-Russia relations.  He’s a former KGB agent and has worked for the FAPSI, which is similar to our National Security Agency, and has worked for former Russian president Boris Yelstin.  He appears to be an incredibly intelligent man, even with his dire predictions, of America’s failure, or more accurately, “the end of the U.S”.  He’s quoted as saying, “There’s a 55-45 percent chance right now that disintegration will occur.”  Among other changes he’s predicted along with Alaska’s change, he’s convinced California will fall under China’s rule, Texas will become the “Texas Republic” and will go to Mexico while D.C. and New York will become part of what he calls “Atlantic America” and will join the European Union.  Canada gains a few states while Hawaii becomes part of either Japan or China.  He then further reiterates the reasonableness of Russia claiming Alaska, since it was part of the Russian Empire for “a long time”.   He shows his faith in President-elect Obama by declaring he hopes he can work miracles, but by Spring, we’ll all see there are no miracles.  I doubt that.

I think he’s underestimated us, though.  It’s kind of like motherhood: mischief kids can get their hands popped by mom, but if someone else tries to discipline them, look out, a world of hurt is coming the way of the misfortunate soul who took that liberty.  History tells us we don’t take too kindly to others determining our collective fate.  And regardless of what happens within our own borders, the thought of any other country stepping in is just silly. Still, he’s become quite the invited guest among Russian media outlets and the Wall Street Journal is reporting he’s conducting interviews on average twice a day.  Add to this the fact the Kremlin looks to the U.S. as the one source for everything that’s wrong on the planet, and his eager audience just can’t seem to get enough. 

Professor Panarin is wise in one of his acknowledgements.  He admits Russia would suffer if the U.S. does indeed collapse simply because his country depends on the U.S. dollar as well as the trade markets between the two countries. 

My money’s on the U.S. and the only danger this man presents is the fact he has so many marching to the beat of his drum.  That’s the problem with folks who make such across the board statements: it never occurs to them that when the “magical date” comes and goes, with no indication of any of their predictions coming full circle, then tend to go down as “has-beens” that really never were.