By MICHAEL GRAY

Despite what Ben Bernanke may say about the recession coming to a close, recent events say differently to me.

When three murders/suicides occur in one week to well-connected money men, things may be more rotten in Denmark than the statement by King Ben.

Finn M.W. Caspersen, 67, former chief executive of the financial services firm Beneficial Corp. and James S. McDonald, 56, the CEO of money-management firm Rockefeller & Co., both committed suicide this past week in lower New England.

Add to this the death of California hedge-fund manager Danny Pang and I am starting to see a trend.

Now I’m not comparing Pang to the first two gentleman mentioned. Pang had a shady history — not only in investment circles  for running a Ponzi scheme — but with law enforcement over the mysterious death of his wife, where he evoked 5th amendment privileges.

Caspersen and McDonald were lions in the financial industry with plenty of board seats between them. For these two men to take their lives seems to belie something more sinister than poor mental health.

No apparent link appears in my first look into the two men except that they both share seperate board seats with Alan S MacDonald, Vice Chairman of Citibank.  But these men ran in the same powerbroker pack, with tenicles on Wall St, Washington and Albany and Trenton.

Check back for more details as they become available.

More to come.

For more on Wall and Washington and the economy see: http://mgray12.wordpress.com