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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Socialism Please

The wingnuts are crazy about not increasing taxes lest we become socialist, but have they ever wondered how stuff gets done. I happened upon this great site from Seattle Public Utilities. Public indeed:
Help Prevent Flooding and Improve Water Quality
Join over 150 volunteers who are maintaining storm drains, a critical part of our utility infrastructure. During [...]

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OMFG!

I don’t see any clicks on my stats for the article in the post below. Which is understandable. It’s a long article and quite an undertaking to read it. But let me just say that after reading it, I am as pale as a ghost.

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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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This is what we do in America

We demolish newly built homes that are bringing down the property prices of existing homes. What a waste. Think of how many people could have lived in that home were it being sold for a reasonably price. I much more like the idea of cities buying foreclosed homes and then offering them to low-income families. [...]

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Don’t listen to philosophers

No really, don’t. Remember Nietzsche, Marx? Not a good idea.

Besides, lack of government intervention is what got us in this mess.

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A sucker is born every minute

There is so much going on in this story; it’s hard to keep track. An art collector is suing Louis Vitton and the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art for selling him what he thought was original art, but was actually leftover material from LV handbags. If he knew that the $6,000 he paid for [...]

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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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Slumdog Millionaire kids

Last month, it was revealed that the child stars of “Slumdog Millionaire” were still living in “grinding poverty,” despite the enormous success of the film. The Daily Mail reports today Danny Boyle and Christian Colson, the director and producer, respectively of the Oscar-winning movie, are working with a Mumbai housing association to move the children [...]

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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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“Disappointment” over Peer

It seems that every female tennis player is “disappointed” that Shahar Peer was refused entry into the United Arab Emirates because she is from Israel. Well cry me a river over that disappointment. I have to say I am utterly disappointed in the character of all of these women for their refusal to stand up [...]

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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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How is that not welfare?

I’ve been trying to ignore this ridiculous story of one Nadya Suleman who has had 14 children through in vitro fertilization, but this exchange keeps gnawing at me:
In segments of the interview that ran on the TODAY show on Monday and Tuesday, Suleman had said that she does not get welfare despite the food stamps [...]

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What about Wesley Snipes?

Has anyone interviewed him for his opinion on the tax problems with three Obama nominees. I think he have some choice words right now. I did find this column in the San Jose Mercury News interesting:

“(T)here is a completely understandable, absolutely acceptable and rational explanation for what happened here.” No, that is not motorists explaining [...]

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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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Please help me choose a roomba

I have Christmas money to spend and I’ve decided to use it to buy a roomba. Only a quick search on Amazon shows quite a variety. Any reader reviews of roombas? Can anyone recommend a consumer web site for reviews on roombas?

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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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