I&#039;m in Spokane on the last leg of a book tour.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I would like to write something cheery. &nbsp;I am not feeling cheery. &nbsp;Last year, a big chunk of our retirement funds went away, stolen by a guy who was running a Ponzi scheme that he managed to walk right by our (former) financial advisors. &nbsp;Thanks guys! &nbsp;He pleaded guilty to fraud this past week, but I&#039;m under no illusion that he&#039;ll get the 18 year sentence that he&#039;s supposedly eligible to receive. &nbsp;And sending him to prison isn&#039;t going to help any of his many victims regain the funds we lost. &nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Since I write murder mysteries, it&#039;s entirely possible that I have an overly active imagination, but I suspect that he has some of MY money stashed in an &quot;undisclosed location,&quot; and that he&#039;ll be living high on the hog as soon as he sheds his jail jumpsuit.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;And now the Dow has taken a dive, taking big chunk of our remaining retirement funds with it!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Obviously we&#039;re not alone in this very leaky boat. &nbsp;But knowing that doesn&#039;t seem to help.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The good news for my fans? &nbsp;I&#039;ll be writing murder mysteries for a very long time. &nbsp;I have my health. &nbsp;I have my mind and a set of typing fingers. &nbsp;I&#039;m lucky. &nbsp;I can just keep working.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;But there are others who can&#039;t go back to work because there aren&#039;t any jobs for them to do. &nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Mark me down as one of those who thinks this country is heading in the WRONG direction.&lt;br /&gt;