Lately, watching Washington DC politicians makes me feel like I’m in Alice’s Wonderland. Congressional representatives are not behaving and speaking like intelligent, rational people. They’re all running around like the cast of characters in Wonderland, irrationally jumping at any idea to make it appear that they actually know what is going on and [...]
Entries from March 2009
March 16, 2009
Small business help announced…again. (It was missed the first time around.)
This morning CNN, MSNBC, and CNBC financial reporters were all agog over President Obama’s plan to help small businesses. Funny thing, though, the ideas announced today were announced in the President’s budget a month ago. But nobody took notice then.
Sometimes I wonder if the TV media is really is smart as [...]
March 12, 2009
FT: What will Capitalism look like in the future?
If you didn’t see CSPAN’s Washington Journal this morning, you may not know of the terrific series being run in The Financial Times. For the next couple of weeks, FT will be printing articles and commentary on “The Future of Capitalism.”
Under discussion worldwide is the form which capitalism will take – and [...]
March 11, 2009
Historic old Gold Country town in decline because of recession
A little more than a week ago, I moved from San Francisco to Colfax, CA, to be closer to family. Colfax is a small town, nestled in the Sierra Mountains, about 50 miles north of Sacramento and 60 miles south of Lake Tahoe. Everyone driving up Highway 50 to Tahoe passes Colfax. [...]
March 10, 2009
Economist Roubini says mortgage contracts should be broken.
In speaking to CNBC today while attending the CBOE Risk Management conference, Roubini stated
…that the housing market, like a company restructuring in bankruptcy, needs to have “face value reduction of the debt.” Rather than go through mortgages one by one, he says reduction has to be “across the board…break every mortgage contract.”
The man who predicted [...]
March 5, 2009
Congressional Earmarks
Despite Senators McCain and Coburn’s best efforts to strip the current Congressional spending of earmarks, Congress refused.
The catch-all spending bill currently on the Senate floor has $7.7 billion in earmarks, and there are another $6.6 billion in the funding bills approved in September. Critics say these spending provisions, often included at the request of [...]
