NYTimes has a good article about Mitch’s Daniel’s Indiana and some of the heart rending tradeoffs Daniels has had to make in the face of recessionary winds: “People think great business climate, Indiana comes to mind. People think infrastructure, we’re exactly who they think of.”Because recessionary winds have not toppled Indiana’s house, this state is […]
Mitch Daniel’s Indiana – Facing National Decline Read More »
Only in America could you see a headline like this – American SuperWealthy Wage War on Americans! Such an irony – the SuperWealthy who have risen to power and position by a combination of hard work, good fortune and stealth are finally throwing off the shackles of their dependence on the good will of the
American SuperWealthy Wage War on America! Read More »
Israel’s worst friend by far is the US. The US allows the Israelis to live the lie that the Palestinians are second class people; their 2000 year right to Palestinian land and territory is legitimate. And so once again, the US was the lone veto in the UN Security Council today against a resolution condemning
Israels Worst Friend Read More »
Russia has done it again – moved to becoming a dysfunctional, failed state. In the 1900’s under the Czar Nicholas II, Russia made a belated charge towards modernization including dramatic political and economic development. But the there were so many disaffected groups within Russia and corruption was so rife that radicals and communists were able
Moodys, one of the big three American Bond rating agencies is cautioning about the US Debt. Here are some of the salient remarks. Moody’s Investors Service Inc. said in a report Thursday that the U.S. will need to reverse an upward trajectory in its debt ratios to support its Aaa rating.“We have become increasingly clear
Moody’s Caution about US Debt Read More »
In nuclear arms strategy, one winning gambit is to convince your opponents that you are an irrational and unstable player. This puts your opponents on the defensive because they can’t count on you to compute and think rationally. And so therefore in all the MAD [Mutually Assured Destruction] posturings one can never be sure that
G.O.P. – Irrational Like Foxes Read More »
The Press is calling it the Tragedy in Tucson, but what really took place in Tuscon Arizona with the machine gunning to death of a Federal Court Judge John Roll, five other innocents, 20 victims in total including the near-mortal wounding of US Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords is that Civility got shot to death. The hurting
Civility Gets Shot To Death Read More »
Java is now part of Oracle . This means that Java has a legal pitbull out to clawback Intellectual Property after Sun, with no-help from the Java community, gave away the keys to the store via Open Source. Specifically, Java was decimated on the client by Microsoft [with no help from big Java users like
Legal Hardball in Java Read More »
The BP disaster in the Gulf of Mexico is acting like a proof of concept on economic and financial regulation. BP has had the run of the mill on oil drilling with a cosy and inhouse relationship with its regulator for drilling the MMS-Mineral Management Services. Something that Wall Street has been attempting to establish
Dow Jones Marketwatch:Financial Reforms Maybe Too Weak Read More »
Felix Salmon showed the following graphic: Felix goes on to argue in effect that its because financial markets are so efficient that the Financial Industry has been able to dodge a big jobs decline. Need I say more ?
What Industry Has Escaped the Recession? Read More »
MarketWatch has just reported that the Senate has made it safe to bet big and naked on Wall Street. An amendment to the Finance Reform Bill that would have outlawed Naked CDS – Credit Default Swaps that are pure bets on what will happen on default positions taken by others. Now naked CDS are are
Breaking News: Still Good to Gamble on Wall Street Read More »
There is strong evidence that what has been suspected is true – the Big Banking Game is Fixed. And you thought the top US Banks had to fight to survive in one of the toughest and most coldly efficient banking markets. But diverse financial media players like China Post, Bloomberg, Iranian Financial Times, NYTimes, and
Is the Wall Street Banking Game Fixed ? Read More »
The pillory or public whipping post went out of fashion in England and Europe by the 1830’s but non-public whippings, usually in prisons, occurred until the 1960’s in various jurisdictions including the US[see wikipedia for back-ground reference here]. However, the US has not abandoned Verbal Whippings in Congress. Congress has used its Congressional Hearings mechanisms
The Public Whippings of Goldman Sachs Read More »
John Roberts promised a gradualist Supreme Court – “just calling the balls and strikes”. But in a rushed decision riddled with many questions and problems left un-answered, Roberts and company threw out 30 years of Supreme Court precedence and 100 years of moving to the individual not groups and corporates as the basic holder of
The John Roberts Supreme Court Read More »
Conservative pundit George Will is consistently arguing in favor the myth of markets being efficient and self-correcting. Greed is a good thing because those who are too greedy will “eventually” get their come-uppance in efficient, free markets – just like monopolists will finally fail if they don’t meet their customers needs. The only thing preventing
The Supremes Vote for a Bautocracy=Bought Political Power Read More »
‘Banksters’ is a term seen increasingly in the Blogosphere. It is used to describe the top executives at the “Too Big To Fail” banks and financial institutions. By alliteration, it suggests that these people are gangster-like. Let see if the shoe fits. 1)The Banksters are all in some form of financial business. 2)The Banksters are
Banksters – a Defintion Read More »
Today the first of the bonus and pay packets made by the major, “Too Big To Be Allowed To Fail” banks will go “on record”. The banksters are hoping the fury over this will tamp down in the next few weeks and go away. Here are some reports that say it will not: Christian Science
Banksters Pay Issue Not Going Away Read More »
I remember when we used to play a game in our jaunty youth – Scott Free. The idea was to get away with some thing downright bad – throw a snowball at a passing car or truck’s windshield, steal more than three apples from the market, scribble all over the North Alton Movie theater placards.
Thor Point 2: Scott Free from Financial Reform Read More »
There is a story in this month’s Wired , Uranium is So Last Century— Enter Thorium, the New Green Nuke. What is fascinating about this story is the backdrop. 1)The technology behind thorium as a replacement for uranium is American and starts in the late 1950’s with the publishing of the 978 page tome, Fluid
Thorium Point on Energy & Finance Read More »
Thomas Friedman picks up the argument in the NYTimes recently that a lot of others including this observer have noted – the spreading of an attack and smear mentality in the US which is like a H1N1-Harangue 1 Neuter 1 epidemic in the US political and policy making discourse. the spreading of an attack and
The Attack Mentality: American Brew? Read More »
The US Government may have been hamstrung and had foisted upon themselves some of their allies, but the following three win the Exlax Award for Smooth Movers. Not in any predictable order we start with: Afghanistan’s Hamid Karzai – writing on the newsprint wall has been at least 3 years old. NYTimes August 2006 – Doubts
Unbelievably Bad Mideast “Allies” Read More »
Pfizer really has put itself behind the eight ball in new drug development. Now Pfizer has added on coating of corruption as a settlement with the DOJ indicates appalling practices. When you read the indicting summary at WSJ’s Marketwatch – well “do no evil less than a weasel” and the Hypocritic Oath immediately come to mind:
Give Microsoft executives full credit – they are nothing if not consistent. Everything turns on Windows being the preferred platform for all their software and applications. And this has had dire consequences for Web applications, tools and their developers. In short, Microsoft is consistently shorting the Web: 1)Microsoft’s infamous five year freeze on improvements to
Microsoft Shorts the Web Read More »
An MBA buddy and I have been chatting a lot about the lessons to be learned from the Subprime Mortgage and Ensuing Financial Disaster. His latest posting came from the venerable Wall Street Journal where John Steele Gordon has a one-sided diatribe on Why Government Can’t Run a Business . The article counts 7 ways
Wall Street Journal’s Anti-goverment Diatribes Read More »
