“They were hunters. They stayed here during the Ice Age, probably hunting reindeer,” said the archaeologist in charge of the site. “But who were they?”

“They were Cro-Magnon…they were like us…human. They wore jewelry. They drew pictures. They cooked meat. And they used this cave over a period of 30,000 years…”

Yesterday afternoon, we drove up the valley to a limestone cave owned by friends. There, a group of 20 scientists, archeologists and volunteer workers are digging down through 30,000 years of history, about 20 feet worth of dirt, rock and sediment, 5 centimeters at a time.

We’ll come back to the pre-historic world in a minute. First, let’s catch up on what is going on in the world of finance, right now.

Yesterday, most of the news and commentaries concerned either the death of Edward Kennedy or the life of Ben Bernanke. We do not speak ill of dead, not here at The