Pirates Get Daring and Attack an Oil Tanker

With all the jitters in today's oil market (tremendous demand from China and India, tight supplies, little spare capacity), the last thing anyone wants is for pirates to start attacking oil tankers and create havoc and uncertainty in the marketplace.

Remember how that mortgage/credit crisis that broke a few weeks ago was turned into a Bear Stearns-destroying catastrophe because the deadly beast of uncertainty was let loose in the marketplace? Now imagine what would happen if ships carrying oil started getting attacked on a regular basis. Not hard to see what kind of devastating impact that would have on global oil markets.

As the villain in my book so aptly stated, while contemplating the very kind of attack that took place yesterday: "Today’s global oil market has very few reserves and little capacity to absorb supply disruptions. Even the threat of a shortage is enough to terrify the commodity traders. Panic buying will send the price of oil shooting through the roof and lay the groundwork for the economic devastation that will follow soon after.”

There's No Corruption Like New Jersey Corruption

Sharpe James, the larger-than-life figure who reigned over Newark, New Jersey for 36 years - 20 as mayor (1986-2006) and 16 on the Municipal Council - was convicted on five counts of fraud and conspiracy last week in a case that centered on James steering city-owned properties to his mistress, who then sold them for a profit of more than $600,000. He faces at least 8 years in prison, and as many as twenty, when he is sentenced in July.

He serves as the latest in a line of Newark mayors who have run afoul of the law. His immediate predecessor, Kenneth A. Gibson (1970-1986), pled guilty to tax fraud in 2002 but did not go to prison. Gibson's predecessor, Hugh J. Addonzio (1962-1970), was convicted in a scheme to take $1.4 million in kickbacks from city contractors and served five years in a federal prison.

James was featured in the unforgettable, 2005 Oscar-nominated documentary, Street Fight - a film that redefined the notion of urban corruption and bare-knuckle machine politics, depicting James as a man who would stoop to anything to retain his power. Mandatory viewing for anyone with even a passing interest in big-city politics.

Just When You Thought It Was Safe To Go Back In The Water

A French triple-masted, 288-foot yacht (picture above) is the latest victim of piracy off the lawless coast of Somalia. Pirates captured the ship, with its crew of 30, in the Gulf of Aden. While I'm tempted to make some joke about hoping the pirates are having fun, given that they now control a four-deck luxury cruise ship in sun-drenched waters, this is clearly no laughing matter. This hostage drama could end peacefully, or in a hail of gunfire with people getting killed.

This hijacking at sea continues the trend I mentioned earlier of increasing levels of piracy attacks off the coast of Somalia.