Relevant and even prescient commentary on news, politics and the economy.

In Defense of Sarah Palin

by cactus In Defense of Sarah Palin I don’t know what Sara Palin’s plans are, nor do I know precisely why she resigned. If I had to guess, there’s a scandal waiting to erupt. Perhaps not – she isn’t leaving her job for several more weeks, and if a scandal is about to erupt, she […]

Goldman Sach’s doubles bonuses?

rdan After looking at Spencer’s charts on job loss for the month, and the decrease in hours worked in a week I felt bad. However,the WSJ announces that: Business is back on Wall Street. If the good times continue to roll, lofty pay packages may be set for a comeback as well. Based on analysts’ […]

Embassy building is big bucks in ME

rdan Pentagon’s list shows 865 military bases worldwide, plus bases in Iraq and Afghanistan. There is current funding to build a giant fortress in Islamabad, Pakistan on the order of the ’embassy’ in Iraq to the tune of 785 million USD (corrected number..rdan) (cost overuns excluded but guanteed so perhaps about 1 billion USD). The […]

An imaginary conversation with my family doctor

by reader Denis(lots of links) Me: $1.2 million is the average income for top 1 percentile households (2006 figure). You must have made at least a couple of million last year, right? I mean you are a doctor – and you are with Columbia Presbyterian hospital. Doctor Levine: “[Laughs].” Me: You mean that the 15% […]

A different sort of crowding out

rdan Money Central presents a dilemma for shareholders in goods and services: The old notion that profitable companies with good growth prospects should have rising share prices — and that failures like GM should be gone, or at least trading in the pennies — is history. Today, a hedge fund investing billions using a quantitative […]

Federal pre-emption of bank regs curtailed by Supreme Court

rdan Seeking Alpha notes a Supreme Court ruling on federal pre-emption of state regulation of banks. Google on Angry Bear OCC for posts on the issue. In a surprising 5-4 vote, the Supreme Court ruled that national banks are still subject to the laws of the states they operate in. What made the ruling unusual […]