For the past couple of weeks, I’ve been focusing a lot of observations about the financial mess–the Paulson bailout for bankers, the AIG bailout, the "The Audacity of Timidity: Where Is The Challenge to Market Fundamentalism"–but, to start off today, I wanted to turn us back to some real voices. And this comes courtesy of our friends who have keeping after the Beast of Bentonville.

   Wal-Mart Watch has set up a website where you can actually hear and read about the actual workers who have to put up with the oppressive behavior of The Beast. This is part of the picture: the Great Robbery that we have all endured for a number of decades–wages not going up (even though productivity goes up), no health care, no pensions–plays out, day-to-day, in those aisles at Wal-Mart.

   And to mix in the day-to-day struggles of Wal-Mart workers, think about these related things:

   Iceland has gone bankrupt. I mean, this whole financial calamity has actually bankrupted an entire country.

   On the other hand, while people suffer from the aisles of Wal-Mart to the shores of Iceland because of the incredible greed and thrist for power exercised by a small elite, the elite is having a grand time, as The Wall Street Journal reveals (subscribers only) today:

The financial crisis has been scorching investors around the globe. But through it all, some of the world’s wealthiest financiers still have enough money to play in one of Wall Street’s most exclusive and secretive competitions: A fantasy football league where the total purse is $1 million.

The list of participants in the league, which has existed since at least 2002, includes Paul Tudor Jones, the legendary trader who helped build the hedge-fund industry; Raj Rajaratnam, the Sri Lanka native who founded Galleon Group, one of the world’s largest hedge funds; Chris James, the head of Partner Fund Management in San Francisco; Jim Pallotta, a former associate of Mr. Tudor’s who is part owner of the Boston Celtics; and Michael Novogratz, a former U.S. Army helicopter pilot who is president of Fortress Investment Group, the publicly traded firm that says it manages approximately $35 billion in assets.

   Now, I’m sure everyone here has the entry fee for that league, eh?

Side note: starting Monday, I’ll be on the road for two weeks working on writing a book due real soon. So, the daily posts may happen at more erratic times of the day…