The wacky winter weather we’ve been having lately has led to the phenomenon of ice storms and resultant power failures in places such as Arkansas and Texas that seldom see them. As readers of this blog are aware, I had … Continue reading →
Bernie Madoff ran quite the little family business. Back in the happier, headier days of 2000, son Mark is quoted as saying: All of his family members grew up with this being our lives. When it is a family operated … Continue reading →
Barack Obama is unfortunate to have inherited the worst financial climate in many decades. But in other ways he’s a very lucky man. One huge piece of good luck for Obama is that the bad news about the economy was … Continue reading →
You might ask: who cares about Mrs. Madoff? After all, it’s her husband who’s the culprit. There’s little doubt that this is true. But a rather intriguing article appeared in today’s NY Times on the subject of the involvement (or … Continue reading →
Are these guys correct, and is the worst of the recession behind us? I certainly don’t know—but neither does anyone else. It would, however, be a wonderful thing to have the answer, because we are being asked to act in … Continue reading →
I came across this the other day: a description of an archaic eighteenth/nineteenth century British substitute for the income tax, which was considered an invasion of privacy and intrusion on liberty. Still is, I’d wager. The window tax was a … Continue reading →
Well, Amazon’s happy. It posted its best holiday sales ever. This is no surprise, because the terrible weather that combined with the terrible economy to cause nearly everyone else to have a bad sales season would favor internet shopping such … Continue reading →
We don’t want to experience runaway inflation. But beware its opposite, deflation, which now threatens (see also this). What’s so bad about lowered prices? Plenty, at least potentially. Too broad a decline can lead to lessened salaries that then become … Continue reading →
The so-called “independent auditor” of Madoff’s Ponzi scheme seems to have been something of a storefront operation. Unbelievable that this didn’t raise red flags. Oh, wait. Apparently, it did, according to the article. But the red flags didn’t raise any … Continue reading →
Or perhaps it’s just a sign that people have gone stark raving mad. What am I talking about? Back in mid-September, when the economy was already rather iffy, the “artist” (I use that word advisedly) Damien Hurst had a monster … Continue reading →
Peter Schiff is an interesting case of prognostication. Take a look at this video (or any number of others), and you will find him describing the financial crisis-to-be with a fair amount of detail and specificity before it happened: So, … Continue reading →
Here’s an exceedingly sobering article by Michael Lewis on the roots of the financial crisis, and a few of the prognosticators who saw it coming. These people had a couple of characteristics in common: a finely-honed BS detector; a willingness … Continue reading →