R.I.P. Millvina Dean

News Item-- Millvina Dean, the last survivor of 1912 sinking of the RMS Titanic, has died at 97.

Poetic is it not, that the demise of Millvina Dean coincides with the demise of yet another example of Titanic human folly, Government Motors. This shortly following the slow motion catastrophe that has befallen yet another Titanic folly, the Financial Services Juggernaut lead by the good ship AIG.

What were the lessons learned from the sinking of the original Titanic and how have they been ignored?

* The radio operators aboard the Titanic ignored the 'Californian's' (and other ships) warnings about icebergs in the area. The Titanic's speed was far too high despite several warnings for icebergs.

Well the automotive industry and the financial services industry both ignored adequate warning signals of peril and sped onward to eventual disaster.

* The Titanic's crew should have slowed down her speed at least during the night.

Perhaps the derivative hotrodded financial services industry should have done so as well. Big Auto would have been better served slowing down its octane consumption and increasing CAFE performance.

* The lookouts in the crows nest did not have binoculars.

Big Auto and Wall Street had big binoculars but chose to ignore ominous sightings.

* The outer British regulation required ships over 10,000 tons to have lifeboats for 962 people. The Titanic exceeded this regulation by carrying enough lifeboats for 1,178 people, however this was not enough for her 2,228 people aboard.

How many bankers, FS and UAW employees have been thrown overboard to date?

* Religiously... People shouldn't have said things such as "Not even GOD Himself could sink the Titanic."

There was plenty of hubris to go around bailout America was there not?

* When the Titanic hit the iceberg, Captain Smith and the crew waited for a long time, to start preparing the lifeboats and giving life jackets to the passengers.

How long has it taken the Banking Industry to offload or write down its toxic cargo? Big Auto never really tried to right itself until it was too late.

* Some passengers didn't believe that the Titanic was sinking.

Well this is certainly the case in the financial services industry as of this writing.

* The crew had the Third-Class passengers ("Steerage") trapped, until all the women and children of First-Class and Second-Class left in the lifeboats.

Same here, only upper management get to parachute first.

So what is the difference between the Titanic disaster, the sinking of GM and the prolonged wreck that has befallen the US financial services industry? Easy, Uncle Sam was not there to bail the Titanic at its dire hour and certainly could not have even if he wanted to.

R.I.P. Millvina Dean

Credit: See http://www.euronet.nl/users/keesree/mistakes.htm