Stupid Economist Tricks

Some times I feel like I spend a lot of time reading entrails or the lay of chicken bones.  I pour over numbers, announcements, and signs of momentum much like Marie Laveaux–that great voodoo priestess buried not all that far from my own house–would check for auspicious signs.  In academic terms, I’m analyzing the fundamentals for signs [...]

Una Voz Dulce

I picked this off Jack Tapper’s blog because I found this woman’s voice to be authentic and touching.  Just thought I’d share it with you.
 Oct 28, 2008 2:32:38 PM

Hello to all Americans, my name is Gabriel and I live in Honduras, Central America. An Obama Presidency for me is very scary.

Ever since FDR every [...]

The Truth that Dare Not Speak its Name

This is a suggestion posted in an earlier thread here and I think it’s a good one.  It also poses a great question.  Do you want to live in America where every one is afraid to speak their mind?
Perhaps people should conspire to run an ad about this chill. It could begin, “This election, why are so [...]

Being a Democrat and a Puma: What does it Mean?

Several articles I’ve read recently have me questioning what being a Democrat means to me and why I have aligned myself with the party.  This election has me questioning if the party has left me or I should leave the party. I am still voting democrat from Senator on down.  To me, this says something about [...]

Alexander Cockburn: Obama, the first-rate Republican

Is there anything the front-runner will not say to become President? No progressive cause would have a chance with him in charge
Sunday, 26 October 2008

As a left-winger I might be expected to be supporting Barack Obama. And indeed, in these last days I’ve been scraping around, trying to muster a single positive reason to encourage a [...]

The Mini Ice Age AND the Dust Bowl?

I thought I’d try to give you some information on the mixed signals coming from the markets.  First, we have the credit markets where people borrow and lend things like commercial paper, loans, and bonds.  All of the money thrown into this market by the world’s governments appear to be having some impact.
How do we [...]

The Last Journalist Standing May Well be Tavis Smiley

I’ve written in my blog about the difficulties many African Americans have had for not supporting Obama or seemingly not supporting him enough.  Many black supporters of Hillary were subjected to some fairly outrageous charges during the primary and some were bullied into changing their candidate choice. 
One of the folks that I mentioned in an [...]

The Bailout: More Oversight or More Overlook?

More bailout news today as the Fed pledges $540 billion to shore up mutual funds.  The New York Times outlined the proposed plan to help provide short term debt that many money market mutual funds use to finance their investments.  When the Treasury refused to bail out Lehman brothers, shares of its Reserve Fund fell [...]

So Long and Thanks for All the Fish!

I was reminded of that quote from Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy when I read this article in the UK’s Guardian.  Yes, I’m an anglophile and delight in all things British from Willy S down to Monty Python.  A similar goodbye came from a 37 year old retiring hedge fund manager.  If you ever needed a really good clue [...]

Still not voting for Obama

I’d like to draw your attention to these posts from people that are still not voting for Obama.  There are still plenty of us out there with unanswered questions and are not bowing to pressure to vote for him … I listed my reasons yesterday and if you go to the Confluence here, you’ll read [...]