In 2001, I visited Ron Ziegler  in his high-rise condo on Coronado Beach outside of San Diego.  Looking out over the Pacific, we talked of many things . . . but NOT what he said on April 17, 1973, when he was the youngest-ever (age 29) Presidential Press Secretary, working for Richard Nixon.

Reversing course on the endless questions about Watergate, reporters questioned him closely about earlier comments on the infamous break-in, when he famously said “This is the operative statement.  The others are inoperative.”  What does that mean?  Reporters hollered at him – Were you lying before or lying now?

I thought about that when I read that the accountants of former President Trump announced that the financial statements they had prepared over the last ten years should no longer be relied upon.  What does that mean?  Did that mean the accountants lied or committed fraud?  What can you do if you relied on those financial statements to make or underwrite loans?  Conceivably, the Trump Organization or family could even have been induced to over-borrow, based on the accountants unreliable financial statements.  Big Mess!!

If you can’t trust words or numbers, what can you trust?  People?  “The Law”?  Don’t be silly!

Intuition can be more useful than we care to admit . . .