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

Re-publishing STR from 2007

A Vicious Cycle Ohio and Michigan are falling apart. In the case of Michigan, it is literal. Pieces of bridge deck are falling onto cars on I-94. Infrastructure maintenance is that far behind. To put this into perspective, the two states lost more manufacturing jobs since the start of the 2000-2001 recession than total jobs […]

ataxingmatter Linda Beale asks the neglected question of the day

cross posted from ataxingmatter Madoff’s ponzi scheme tax losses and union workers’ home losses Wall Street has not had a good year (and of course, the taxpayers have borne the brunt of the resulting chaos). Credit default swaps, for several years the darlings of the industry, have become a giant albatross around taxpayers’ necks, especially […]

Ignorant Decision Makers

by cactus Ignorant Decision Makers in the Public Sector, Ignorant Decision Makers in the Private Sector I once had a rant about attorneys. I noted: I remember something my father, a physicist, once said about Bill Richardson when Richardson was Secretary of Energy. My father doubted that Richardson could come up with a reasonable definition […]

Lots of work to game the system

rdan Wallet Pop points to a game at the Economist that takes work to put together from pdfs. Update: The picture is from the Economist and is as big as it is going to get.Update 2: Go to the bottom of the Economist page for two pdf links for an enlarged picture and printout

David Rose has an important article in Vanity Fair about Torture

lifted from Robert’s Stochastic thoughts: David Rose has an important article in Vanity Fair about Torture He argues, at very convincing length with extensive specific evidence, that statements extracted by torture are completely unreliable — what the tortured person thinks the torturers want to hear. He definitely claims that José Padilla’s alleged dirty bomb plot […]

A reminder of basics

rdan Not forgotten, but set aside as a national concern. And many still do not know how the water gets to their faucet (for real, not a generic idea), and selling water rights goes on. We will be ‘surprised’ and ‘no one saw it coming’ comments will fill our ears. Loss of water comes in […]

The Bailout Explained

sent by David Zetland The Bailout Explained Young Chuck in Montana bought a horse from a farmer for $100. The farmer agreed to deliver the horse the next day. The next day he drove up and said, “Sorry son, but I have some bad news, the horse died.” Chuck replied, “Well, then just give me […]

Bonuses paid in mortgage backed securities

rdan(h/t reader mcwop) Clusterstock points a how to handle bonuses in an interesting way. We’re shocked that nobody has suggested this before, but on its face this looks like a great idea… Credit Suisse announced today that bonuses for its top executives would be made in illiquid, mortgage-backed securities. Seeing as these guys are responsible […]