I'm watching the continued unfolding of stories about Geithner and his rescue plan as well as the current Somali thing, and as a private equity guy, I have to tell you that I would go long on a Somali Pirate Fund and short Geithner's Bailout Program.  There are numerous reasons for this position but below are the most salient from a money managment perspective:

1. The Pirates are better at being Pirates than Geithner is being a banker-  Look, the truth of all this is that Geithner just ran a big branch bank for the largest bank in the country, the Federal Reserve.  Putting him in charge of restructuring the finances of the country is like make the head of a small town Rotary club in charge of  Special Operations....or perhaps making Barack President.  Since both positions involve a sort of organized theft of wealth or "transfer" in the new vernacular, go with the people who are competent thieves....the Somali's.  The new movie should not be "BlackHawk Down" but "Blackguy Down...for Good".  Somalia is a cesspool of graft, corruption, drugs, and HIV/AIDS.  The sooner we help them turn the corner the better off we'll all be.  Or we should just leave them alone.

2. The Pirates have a better ROI than Geithner:  You can do a beginner's Pirate kit for under 2k in most developing countries:  You need a rubber raft (stolen or bought from a surplus house), some really bad firearms ( stolen or purchased through an arms dealer), some potted lunch meat (to eat on your captive vessel), and some kind of Nextel communications device..  So, the math is  simple:  $2k gets you $1m to $2m, free international publicity, and absolutely no threat of punishment.  No special diving or swim gear because if the kidnapping works well, you never have to get wet.  If it doesn't, you die, so no need for special attire.  Remember that capital equipment acquisition in the Pirate Business is simple unless you get the raft shot and sunk each time.

3. The Pirates have no Regulation to restrict them:  While the sophisticated and developed nations of the world are debating International Maritime Law and who has the authority to absolutely blow the pirates out of the water, the Pirates just say "screw it" and keep on stopping ships.  My vote is to follow Julius Caesar's example and crucify them when you get things back under control.  A global photo of an anorexic gap toothed Somalian hanging upside down from the bow of a tanker could be a deterrant.  To be fair and to have equal time, we could also show the pictures of the ones that got away in their crack palaces with dancing girls.  Think "The Lion King" with hookers.

Finally, and this is what's so important, we could take the surplus funds or returns and just buy Africa.  It's being bought daily and in pieces anyway.  We could turn it into the planet's ecological theme park, relocate the residents to Rio or Paris, and stop sending our government money to subsidize corruption on land as well as the sea.

We could do anything but invest millions of manpower and resources trying to resolve peacefully what needs to be resolved militarily.  The Pirates are savages.  Treat them that way.  It's not like they're robbing ships because it's the only entrepreneurial outlet.   It doesn't make us any worse and killing them makes the world better.  So, draw a line in the International Water Swamp that's out there and tell the Somali's that if they cross it on the way to hijack a ship, they get to meet Neptune on a personal basis.