Greenspan's Body Count: Parima Parineh

Today's episode of Greenspan's Body Count comes from the uber-rich Bay Area community of Woodside. When I say uber-rich, I mean sick uber-rich. We're talking billionaires. I think Charles Schwab and Ken Fisher live there. Probably Larry Ellison too. It's down the peninsula from San Francisco, so convenient for both Frisco banksters and Silicon Valley CEOs.

But garden-variety eight-figure multi-millionaires live there too. And it is on one of these lesser rich that the wrath of Alan Greenspan descended:

A Woodside man on the brink of financial ruin shot his artist wife twice in the head and staged the bloody bedroom of their mansion to look like a suicide to make good on more than $30 million in life insurance policies that wiped away his debt, according to jurors who found him guilty of first-degree murder for financial gain.

And check out this earlier attempt:

After she survived overdosing on pills in March 2010, Parima Parineh reportedly expressed surprise her husband was still alive, which Finigan said showed she thought the couple had a suicide pact. Peter Parineh later told his son he “missed out” on $30 million dollars. On the stand, Parineh said the comment was meant as sarcasm.

"Hey, honey! Let's both kill ourselves. Tell you what, you go first!"

The financial troubles:

The Parineh family had five properties in foreclosure, a commercial building that had been taken over for lack of payment and its estate once worth tens of millions of dollars had all but disappeared.

Greenspan's Body Count stands at 245.

P.S. If you're going to try to make it look like a suicide, don't shoot her twice in the head.

Even Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez gets it: the Fed creates wealth inequality

It's gratifying when even the dullest tool in the shed catches on.

From Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez's (D- Orange County, CA) question to Ben Bernanke (Sorry about the caps, that's the way the transcript came. Bold is mine):

THANK YOU, MR. CHAIRMAN. THANK YOU FOR BEING BEFORE US. WE HAVE HAD MANY CHIP -- WE HAVE HAD MANY YEARS WHEN YOU'RE THE PRESIDENT ECONOMICS ADVISOR AND NOW FED CHAIRMAN.
I HAVE QUESTIONS ABOUT YOUR -- ABOUT THE ECONOMY. I REMEMBER WHEN CHAIRMAN GREENSPAN WAS BEFORE US. I SPOKE TO WHAT I THOUGHT AT THE TIME WERE HOUSING MARKETS. OF COURSE, SINCE HAVING LEFT, I COMPLETELY MISSED WHAT WAS GOING ON. I WANT TO GO BACK TO HOUSING BECAUSE I THINK IT IS SUCH AN INCREDIBLE HE'S OF THE AMERICAN FAMILY'S BUDGET. THEIR SENSE OF WEALTH CREATION. IN MANY WAYS, IT IS THE FIRST STEP. IT IS WITH GREAT VIEWS TO PUT KIDS THROUGH COLLEGE, ETC. AROUND THE NATION, AND A LOT OF MARKETS, IN PARTICULAR IN CALIFORNIA, HOUSING PRICES ARE GOING UP. EVERYBODY IS CHEERING, AND EVERYTHING. WHAT I SEE IS FOREIGN MONEY COMING IN. MONEY BEING BOUGHT AS INVESTMENTS. BANKS ARE FLUFFING OFF LARGE AMOUNTS OF HOMES AND PUTTING THEM INTO HEDGE FUNDS. THESE FUNDS HOLDING ONTO THESE AND RENTING THEM OUT, ANTICIPATING AT SOME POINT, I AM SURE, FIVE OR 10 YEARS DOWN THE ROAD, TO GET APPRECIATION OUT OF THOSE ASSETS. RENTAL MARKETS TIGHTENING THEIR BID RENTS GOING THROUGH THE ROOF. YOUR AVERAGE WORKING FAMILY, AT LEAST WHERE I LIVE, IS NOT ABLE TO BUY A HOME BECAUSE OF THESE, IF YOU WILL, HOUSE -- IF YOU WILL, HAVES, WHO HAVE THE MONEY TO BUY THE HOME, [...] BUT ACTUALLY HOLD IT [...] FOR RENT TO THE FAMILIES WHO NOW ARE BECOMING, UNLESS WE CHANGE SOMETHING, PERMANENT RENTERS. HOUSING MARKET GETTING BETTER, BUT NOT FOR THE MIDDLE CLASS OR THE HIGHER-LOWER INCOME CLASS. ALMOST CHANGING THEM, I WOULD SAY, INTO THE INABILITY TO FIND THEIR WAY TO HOMEOWNERSHIP. DO YOU SEE THAT GOING ON? DO YOUR PEOPLE SEE THAT GOING ON IN THE MARKETS? WHAT CAN THE CONGRESS DO TO ENSURE, NOT THE OTHER WAY, WHERE WE WENT WRONG, THAT TOO MANY PEOPLE THAT SHOULD NOT HAVE GOT IN, BUT THAT WHAT WE WOULD NORMALLY CALL THE MIDDLE CLASS AND PEOPLE WHO SHOULD BE ATTEMPTING TO BUY HOMES, NOT GET CAUGHT IN THIS CYCLE OF, I DID NOT GET IN AND I DID NOT GET A HOME.

Ms. Sanchez should read Government-sponsored income inequality.

HT: T-Dub

Your ObamaNation Food Stamps at work

Purchase of three able-bodied twenty-somethings whose other cargo was a 12-pack of Shock Top beer.

Supplemental "Nutrition" Assistance Program indeed.

Kevin Williamson for the win

Longtime hero of the W.C. Varones Blog Kevin Williamson does what we've all wanted to do in a theater (no, not the Fred Willard thing; the standing up to cell phone jerks thing).

Saving for retirement in the 21st century

Is the lottery really your best shot at avoiding Alpo in your old age?

Apparently so. 57% of workers surveyed had less than $25,000 in total savings and investments.

Investment strategies for the Zimbabwe Ben era

1) Buy any asset that is not yet in a bubble, because it soon will be.

Is Janet Yellen just like Ben Bernanke except not a complete moron?

That's the impression you get from this Hilsenrath Wall Street Journal tribute:

Later, as president of the San Francisco Fed, Ms. Yellen sounded early warnings about the danger of a U.S. housing bust. "I still feel the presence of a 600-pound gorilla in the room, and that is the housing sector," she said at a June 2007 policy meeting, according to Fed transcripts. "The risk for further significant deterioration in the housing market, with house prices falling and mortgage delinquencies rising further, causes me appreciable angst."

Three months later, she foresaw a dangerous economic cascade.

"A big worry is that a significant drop in house prices might occur in the context of job losses, and this could lead to a vicious spiral of foreclosures, further weakness in housing markets, and further reductions in consumer spending," she said, at a September 2007 meeting. "The potential effects of the developing credit crunch could be substantial."

Contrast that to what Bozo the Bernanke was saying at the time: