I just arrived home after a week in Hong Kong. Two unrelated events happened while I was there. The start of the Olympics and the Asian markets patting themselves on the back for not being in the top 20 bank list of sub-prime losers.

It seems to me that by touting to the world that you're not the biggest loser in the world in connection to this market fiasco plays down to both the market and to your own organization.  

Which brings me back to the first event, the Olympics.  Yes, it's true that just competing in the games is an accomplishment in itself but you never see anyone screaming out with pride that "I didn't come in last place" nor are these people likely to find a picture of themselves on the box of any supermarket products.

We strive to be the best that we can be in the olympic arena. Why don't we strive to be the best when it comes to the financial markets? What we need is an olympic games for the financial world. Contests in STP, Risk Management, Customer Satisfaction Rates and so forth. And the gold medal goes to...