Quote for the day

You find out the most interesting things in articles detailing the fall of financial institutions. I found out this about failed bank Washington Mutual (WaMu):
“Someone in Florida had made a second-mortgage loan to O.J. Simpson, and I just about blew my top, because there was this huge judgment against him from his wife’s parents,” she [...]

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Founder Visas

Here’s another interesting article on Slate talking about a proposal to create an immigration classification for entrepreneurs.
He wants the government to create a new immigration class for founders of new firms. Every year, Graham’s “Founder Visa” program would let in 10,000 immigrants who’ve shown a plan for starting a new company. These people would be [...]

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The Great American Bubble

I haven’t read this myself yet, but Jake highly recommends this Rolling Stone article on the Goldman Sachs influence in various bubbles in the U.S. economy.

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A solution for accomodating large passengers on a plane

With United Airlines announcing they will charge extra-wide passengers with an extra seat (if it’s available), William Saletan comes up with a pretty good solution.
Two days ago, I spent seven hours on a United flight to London. The passenger in front of me was reclining the whole way. To stretch my legs, I had to [...]

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Madoff investors want fabricated money

The agency liquidating Bernard Madoff’s brokerage says the $2.6 billion it has on hand is enough to satisfy all legitimate claims by victims of the money manager’s $65 billion Ponzi scheme.
This is good news, right? I was flabbergasted by the following:
Some Madoff investors are up in arms about SIPC’s decision, announced by Picard at a [...]

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A truly fascinating peek into the Madoff’s office

How does such a large Ponzi scheme work without attracting attention? For insight into the inner workings of a highly functional yet dysfunctional office, this article is an amazing read detailing the Bernard Madoff scandal. I’ve worked in an office with an eccentric CEO, and I know Jake has too. What if all the weirdnesses [...]

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The GFM

Over the weekend I was having a lot of conversations about the “Global Financial Crisis.” I thought the Global Financial Crisis is much like Weapons of Mass Destruction — a mouthful of a phrase that surely could be shortened like WMD. The obvious answer would be GFC, but GFM was suggested with the M standing [...]

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Of jobs, layoffs and H1B visas

Layoffs
This week several people were laid off at my work. I was spared. While I would like to think that it is because I am a good skilled worker and that my company would be unable to do without me, I know that that is not entirely true. There was to be certain an element [...]

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Of Switzerland

In light of UBS’s decision to pass on data about secret Swiss bank accounts, I thought I’d post this excerpt from Jamaica Kincaid’s A Small Place, a book about Antigua. I always think of this passage when I think of Switzerland. Cuckoo clocks be damned.
(These offshore banks are popular in the West Indies. Only tourism [...]

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Impressive

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Countries with stimulus packages

Germany, Britain, China, and India, Spain, South Korea.

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Chinese rejecting American fast food

It’s always a surprise when I travel to see American fast food restaurants in places like France and Germany. Perhaps it is even more of a surprise to find them in Asia, a place with plenty of cheap food available that is superior in taste.
I love the Asian food bar. A place where you can [...]

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Ultra-Pasteurization

Since we started to make cheese and butter, we pay more attention to whether the dairy products we buy are pasteurized or ultra-pasteurized. In Seattle, the organic brands tend to be pasteurized while everything else is ultra-pasteurized. This excludes Horizon Organic, a dubious organic brand in the first place, which unsurprisingly ultra-pasteurizes their product. So [...]

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Bullshit

Still spinning.

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Zsa Zsa a victim of Madoff

Is it bad to enjoy this?
Fraudulent investor Bernie Madoff may have made his worst enemy of all when he stiffed screen legend Zsa Zsa Gabor in his $50 billion ‘Ponzi’ scam.
The National Enquirer is reporting in its new issue that the 91 year-old Gabor and her husband, 65 year-old Prince Frederic Von Anhalt, have lost [...]

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Pure Ponzi?

This article at the Boston Globe is absolutely unbelievable. I recommend reading it in full. The two points it seems to be making are:
1. Bernard Madoff wasn’t trading.
As investigators try to untangle the scheme that Bernard L. Madoff hid from investors and regulators for a decade or more, one basic fact is emerging: He may [...]

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The Edukators

A statue of Bernard Madoff’s was stolen and left elsewhere with this note from the Edukators. No mention from CNN of who the Edukators are? Not very hip, guys.
Here’s a link to the film The Edukators on IMDB. It’s a really great film about three anarchists who break into rich people’s homes in order to [...]

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The Voysey Inheritance

When the story about Bernard Madoff first broke, I immediately thought of the Nineteenth Century Playwright Harley Granville Barker. His play The Voysey Inheritance begins with a son finding out from his father that the family business is no more than a Ponzi scheme. The son is asked by the father to inherit the business [...]

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Ever wonder who Ponzi was?

I want to say two words to you. Just two words. Are you listening? Postal Coupons.
Ponzi eventually found his way to get rich quick using a vagary of the postal system. At the time, it was common for letters abroad to include an international reply coupon — a voucher that could be exchanged for minimum [...]

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How Madoff did it

This BBC article tells how a man like Madoff defrauded people in what amounts to a Ponzi scheme.
What made Mr Madoff unusual was the manner in which he recruited his investors.
For that he relied on a powerful but elementary piece of human psychology: the more someone tells you that you cannot have something, the more [...]

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The Simpsons: Mapple

We can all relate.

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Iceland in trouble

An interesting post from Matt Yglesias full of gems like this:
And Iceland is a very small country with an economy that revolves more-or-less exclusively around fish, tourism, Bjork, and banking so a banking collapse amidst a global economic slowdown leaves them in bad shape and facing national bankruptcy.
A Canadian solution?
But David Hayes in a letter [...]

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Job interview advice for Palin and Biden

We are conducting interviews at work for a position that I used to hold. Sitting through a question and answer session for three different people has given me some interview tips that have a lot of crossover with the Vice Presidential candidates’ ability to answer questions.
1. Be specific. Interviewers often ask for specific examples of [...]

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Quote for the day

Sometimes you read something that you just can’t believe.
The real estate industry expects more weak news Wednesday, when the National Association of Realtors releases existing home sales for August.
The housing agency’s director, James Lockhart, suggested Tuesday that mortgage finance companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac could loosen lending standards to help more home buyers qualify [...]

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The Bailout Plan

I’ve been reading Jon Taplin’s blog about the proposed 700 billion bailout plan. One of his commenters asked, and I’m totally paraphrasing here, given the the complexity of the situation on Wall Street and the fact that the administration allowed our markets to get into the state they are currently in, why should we believe [...]

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