Here I thought I was fed up with the Empty Suit in the White House: What it says to me is all that matters is Obama’s reelection (see, for example, the pivot to deficit reduction) — when the timing’s right for that, things will happen — but don’t keep your fingers crossed otherwise. If you […]

I’m still in catch-up mode, but I keep coming back to this presentation (PDF)—four times now. It’s a speech by BoJ member Masaaki Shirakawa in Tokyo on the 22nd of December last year to the Board of Councillors of Nippon Keidanren (Japan Business Federation), entitled “Globalization and population aging – challenges facing Japan.” Go through […]

I go away for a week and the world collapses. While most of you probably noticed that Russell Brand is available again, the other Major Separation was at Capital Gains and Games, which is now exclusively Stan Collender’s as “principal writer and managing editor.” It is also rebranded “Stan Collender’s Capital Gains and Games.” (The […]

Dr. Black has already embedded one of the few worthwhile modern Xmas songs.* And I usually leave re-posting this story to Brad DeLong, but he appears to have gone all-in for Latin and skipped it this year. So, without further ado, Mark Evanier: I arrived, headed for my favorite barbecue stand and, en route, noticed […]

Dan Crawford Mike Kimel Steve Roth Rebecca WilderLinda Beale Dan Becker Holly Nelson Bruce WebbKen Houghton Tom BozzoSpencer EnglandMaggie MaharRobert WaldmannBeverly Mann and the rest of The AB Community

A couple of days ago, James Bianco, chez Ritholtz, noted a WSJ article entitled “Dividend Stocks Become the Heroes”: This year, the 100 stocks in the Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index with the highest dividend yields are up an average of 3.7% before dividend payouts, according to Birinyi Associates. The 100 lowest-yielding stocks are down […]

My Economics Professor in MBA School, Peter Klein, lectured fondly of the Indian (as in subcontinent, not AmerInd) “entrepreneurs” who risked life and limb going through rubbish heaps looking for scrap metal and other items that could be sold. Despite the risk—I’m not writing metaphorically when I say “risked life and limb”—it was the best […]

In the midst of an essay on Louis C.K., Bob Lefsetz (chez Ritholtz) explains what the Lemieuxes and (now, sadly) Mannions of the world keep ignoring: One of the reasons artists have lost power is they no longer lead.It’s kind of like our President. He’s so busy appeasing people thateven his natural constituency is turned […]

Note: I wasn’t going to post this, but after all the flack Willard Romney is receiving about offering to bet his fellow millionaires $10,000, I find myself in the unusual position of being sympathetic to him.  Therefore, the story of the day in early November of 1992 on which I offered to bet $10,000: UPDATE: […]

The Obama Administration Is Making It Really Hard for Its Base to Mobilize. Actually, the Obama Administration has been making it Really Effing Easy for Its Base to Mobilize since around the time Tim Geithner was appointed. That mobilization is just away from the voting booth and onto the streets. Give You a Hint, Barry: […]