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 →
When I started learning about the underpinnings of the present financial debacle, I kept wondering how they could they have been so stupid. There was a lot of stupidity to go around, but the “they” in this case were not … Continue reading →
The other night I watched this PBS program on the Crash of ’29. It was made four years ago, so there were no tie-ins to the present crisis. But the mind can create them easily enough. Each downturn was preceded … Continue reading →
Another blast from the Obama past has been dropped, a bombshell interview from last January with the San Francisco Chronicle in which Obama said that the environmental policies he proposes would cause builders of new coal plants to go bankrupt. … Continue reading →
I haven’t yet read Manias, Panics, and Crashes, published in 2000. But I came across a recommendation in the comments section of some blog the other day and found the title and the Amazon description rather intriguing: “[Manias, Panics, and … Continue reading →
CNBC has gotten to the point where the events it relates resemble a horror movie of the economic variety. Financial markets around the world reel, countries like Iceland are going bankrupt. Nobody seems to know what’s what, what’s next, or … Continue reading →