The Real Pirate Posse

Wall Street bankers, hedge fund traders, short sellers, and the like are sometimes accused of being pirates.

When it comes to real pirates, however, it turns out that some parts of their businesses are indeed very similar. For one thing, cash is now king.

Pirates who seized a Ukrainian cargo ship filled with weapons off the coast of Somalia last week say they are just in it for the money. "We don't use any other system than cash," one of the pirates told Jeffrey Gettleman of the New York Times via satellite phone today.

The pirates are asking for $20 million but said that they would negotiate.

"That's deal making," said the spokesman for the pirates. "Common sense says human beings can make deals." (They were obviously not in Washington on Monday.)

The pirates are also practitioners of a crude version of corporate spin. They are not really pirates, you see, seizures of ships at gunpoint, notwithstanding.

"We consider sea bandits those who illegally fish in our seas and dump waste in our seas and carry weapons in our seas. We are simply patrolling our seas. Think of us like a coast guard."

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