It’s gotten so darn hard to find a foreign flunky to front U.S. policies in countries that for various incredibly stupid reasons we invaded and ended up getting stuck. That was true in Vietnam, in Iraq, and now in Afghanistan Continue reading
History never repeats itself exactly. There are nonetheless lessons to be learned from the past which if ignored lead to repeating past mistakes. And so we come to today’s Syria. It’s a country suffering through a complex and murderous civil Continue reading
In yesterday’s New York Times Paul Krugman wrote an interesting column. Titled “Sympathy for the Luddies,” it noted that technology in our own time is not only increasing the income gap between the well- and the less-educated, a trend that Continue reading
Some people are ticked off about the National Security Agency’s surveillance of everyone and everything. They see it as a dangerous invasion of privacy. But that’s silly. Why should it bother anyone if the government does this? We’ve already sold Continue reading
(When Mr. B. enters the Goldman Sachs washroom for his regular morning visit, he finds washroom attendant Selig Cartwright waiting expectantly…) What is it, Selig? You look pensive. Is there something you want to tell me? No, sir. Something I Continue reading
Many people are confused about why the stock market keeps rising. The economy, after all, is in lousy shape. So why does the stock market keep going up and up? A single headline that appeared the other day on the Continue reading
In post-Citizens United America, political wisdom says the country has become a mammonocracy, that a candidate with the most money wins, or only loses when the other candidate has almost as much money. Is this true? Maybe now it is. Continue reading
Conservatives want to reduce taxes on the rich in order the shrink the size of government. Liberals want to increase taxes on the rich in order to increase the size of government. Both conservative and liberals use convoluted arguments that Continue reading
In business circles they know that what gets measured gets done. It’s the numbers that accountants provide and managers use to set company policies that determine what these policies are, what gets priorities, what doesn’t. The same is true, of Continue reading
I got up this morning and checked some financial news websites. A report on the economy’s leading economic indicators (LEIs) was due out at 10 o’clock. I then got off-line and went to breakfast with Kay, my life associate. Over Continue reading