Our National Ponzi Scheme

Doctor Doom, Nourielle Roubini, an economist and professor at NYU, always manages to turn an interesting phrase when making his trademark pessimistic forecasts. He’s really done it this week in Forbes.
I wrote about the Federal deficit last week and covered the major points of why we are on an unsustainable path for our taxes [...]

Too Much Optimistic = Damned Lies!

Are we beginning to see the omnipresent reification of the Obama hope/change theme recognized for what it is? All of the memes on superior judgment have been an abstract campaign mantra with no basis in reality. Who but a few among us have recognized this? Are we seeing the [...]

An Economic Exercise in Wishful Thinking

In today’s NY Times, David Leonhardt is very clear about the role of hope and wishful thinking among the Obama economics team. They got the unemployment numbers very, very wrong and as a result, we got a stimulus package that was underdesigned and oversold. If you read me or for that matter, Paul [...]

In Remembrance of an Angel

Farrah Fawcett (February 2, 1947 – June 25, 2009)
Some how, every generation of woman has their own girl next door with which to compete and identify.  Just like the iconic picture of Betty Grable’s legs during World War 2 and Marilyn Monroe’s restless white dress during the 1960s, those of us who went to [...]

Obama and the Enhanced Status Quo

We were promised changed. What we are getting is perpetuation of the status quo. Let’s try this headline at the Guardian on for size “Goldman Sachs to make record bonus payout”.
Staff at Goldman Sachs staff can look forward to the biggest bonus payouts in the firm’s 140-year history after a spectacular first half [...]

“The Public Option is not your Enemy”

Finally, if we are to win the battle that is now going on around the world between freedom and tyranny, the dramatic achievements in space which occurred in recent weeks should have made clear to us all, as did the Sputnik in 1957, the impact of this adventure on the minds of men everywhere, who [...]

Dead Bank Walking

The Treasury just gave ten big banks the okay to repay their Tarp Funds.  The gang of ten includes J.P Morgan, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, American Express, Bank of New York Mellon, US Bancorp, Capital One Financial Corp, and Northern Trust.  This basically gives positive identification to our zombie banks.  The three most worrisome [...]

One Person One Vote Died a Year Ago today

In an important landmark case Reynolds v. Sims, 377 U.S. 533 (1964), the Supreme Court established one of the most significant voting rights rulings impacting our Republic since the enfranchisement of woman and the election of U.S. senators by popular vote. Both of these occurred earlier in the century.  Basically, Reynolds v Sims established the [...]

The Wrong Right Wing Stuff

I inadvertently stepped on a right wing meme back last September when I implied that Fannie and Freddie did their share in contributing to the current financial meltdown. I used figures to show that the problems in the mortgage market were occurring equally in the subprime as well as the prime market. What happened is [...]

Heaven has Fjords

When ever I hear folks rant and rave on the evils of European Social Democracies and how horrid they are, I always ask them to name the country that comes up consistently with the highest literacy rates in the world, lowest infant mortality, and much higher the the USA GDP per capita, and at the [...]