Final Word from Thursday, October 11, 2018

One sure-fire sign of the end of an era is when words take on nearly the opposite meaning. A new U.S. Supreme Court justice can be a "rapist," although no one has claimed, much less proven, that sexual intercourse of any kind ever occurred. Even in the CR, "rape" can occur while both parties remain fully clothed and no penetration of anything transpires. Yet when someone strips a bank or other financial entity down to its birthday suit and has his way with it, one of the onlookers can even get a state funeral when he passes into hero's heaven. Without using the word rape, Jan Macháček of Andrej Babiš's IPPS think tank wrote in LN today that Kč 12bn disappeared from Kreditní banka while it was controlled by PPF in the 1990s. Now Petr Kellner is stalking Moneta Money Bank and wants to be paid Kč 6.75bn to swap Home Credit CZ/SK and Air Bank for 24.5% of a merged entity. The potential victim isn't crying rape at all. It's welcoming the oncoming physical assault. [ Czech Republic United States merger takeover ]