Monday Reads
By Barry Ritholtz - February 8th, 2010, 3:30PM
Some reads to start the week:
• Alan Greenspan fights back (Fortune) Four years after leaving the Fed as the Greatest Central Banker Ever, the longest-serving chairman, the Maestro, Alan Greenspan is the designated goat.
• Dorfman: Buy Stock Now to Ride Second Stage of Bull Market (Bloomberg)
• The perils of economic populism (The New Yorker)
• What I Learned From Hank Paulson’s Book (Real Time Economics) I don’t know about Wessell, but I learned that when the going got tough, Paulson prays. A lot. Personally, I prefer rigorous analytical thinking to prayer, but that’s because I have a bias towards rationality in the public sphere.
• The State of the Internet (Focus)
What are you reading?
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February 8th, 2010 at 3:48 pm
10 Reasons Sherlock Holmes Is The Ideal VC
http://www.pehub.com/63025/10-reasons-sherlock-holmes-is-the-ideal-vc/
February 8th, 2010 at 4:10 pm
Feinberg Says He Spoke With Blankfein About Pay Plans (Bloomberg)
Kenneth Feinberg, the U.S. special master on executive compensation, said Goldman Sachs Group Inc. Chief Executive Officer Lloyd Blankfein consulted with him on the firm’s pay plans and adopted his “prescriptions.”
Feinberg and Blankfein spoke “about how Goldman as an institution should approach base salaries and compensation over time,” Feinberg said today in a Bloomberg Television interview. “To a large extent I think he has succeeded in adopting the prescriptions we laid out.”
Goldman Sachs, whose shares doubled last year as profit soared to an all-time high, awarded Blankfein, 55, an all-stock bonus for 2009, according to a Feb. 5 filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Blankfein’s payment of 58,381 restricted stock units, valued at $9 million at the Feb. 5 closing price of $154.16, falls short of the Wall Street record $67.9 million he received in 2007.
February 8th, 2010 at 4:11 pm
Here’s an article from the NYT on China’s soverign wealth fund buying stakes in U.S. publicly equities and index funds.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/09/business/global/09invest.html?ref=business
You have to wonder whether the Chinese know something we investors in the U.S. don’t (i.e., stocks in companies here in the U.S. are “undervalued” based on the dollar currency valuation peg with the yuan)?
And this NPR post from an AP article where Geithner once again proves himself to be a fool that is about to make American Treasury debt look “bad” in the eyes of other investors.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=123462617
February 8th, 2010 at 4:15 pm
Fed’s Yellen: U.S. Rates Too Hot for China (Real Time Economics)
A top Federal Reserve official said Monday U.S. monetary policy is too hot for China and Hong Kong and explained any trouble those nations ultimately face because of this situation arises from their own foreign exchange policies.
Yellen
“Because both the Chinese and Hong Kong economies are further along in their recovery phases than the U.S. economy, current U.S. monetary policy is likely to be excessively stimulatory for them,” Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco President Janet Yellen said. “However, as both Hong Kong and the mainland are currently pegging to the dollar, they are both to some extent stuck with the policy the Federal Reserve has chosen to promote recovery,” she wrote in a bank Economic Letter published Monday.
The central banker said that if China wants to prevent U.S. policies from overheating its economy and driving inflation, it will have to do something about its foreign exchange policy.
“Increased exchange rate flexibility could mitigate growing inflationary concerns, and also act toward easing global imbalances and encouraging the development of the household sector, a shift the Chinese government now officially says it wants,” Yellen said.
February 8th, 2010 at 4:17 pm
The Road to Recovery?
Click to View This chart is an offshoot of my Four Bad Bears. It shifts the point of alignment from the pre-bear highs to the bear bottom in the Oil Crisis and Tech Crash, the first major low in the 1929 Dow, and the March 9th closing low for our current Financial Crisis.
February 8th, 2010 at 4:18 pm
U.S.-China Friction: Why Neither Side Can Afford a Split
It hasn’t been a banner few weeks for U.S.-China relations. In mid-January, Google announced that it was contemplating pulling out of China because of repeated attacks on its network as well as censorship constraints. In the past week, the U.S. government authorized $6 billion in arms sales to Taiwan, and the White House announced that President Obama would meet with the Dalai Lama after having postponed that visit last fall on the eve of Obama’s trip to China.
Beijing’s response has been increasingly unfriendly, even hostile. A senior Communist Party official announced that any meeting between the President and Tibet’s spiritual leader would “seriously undermine the political foundation of Sino-U.S. relations” and would lead to “corresponding action” — a phrase made more ominous by its utter vagueness. Then, in response to the proposed Taiwan arms sales, the Chinese threatened sanctions against U.S. defense companies, which include conglomerates doing substantial nonmilitary business in China such as United Technologies, which has seen booming demand for its Otis elevators in Chinese skyscrapers, and Boeing, which has staked its future growth in part on demand from China’s air carriers. Most recently, on Feb. 5, China’s Commerce Ministry accused the U.S. of dumping chicken on the China market. (See the worst business deals of 2009.)
February 8th, 2010 at 4:21 pm
Not reading much of anything related to money or finance….market is dead for a while. Allowing my aching back to recover from shoveling “tons” of snow…
Getting ready for the next 2 feet of white stuff
Here’s great OT subject for anyone interested:
..trying to come up with a business model that can work for small farmers in the Northeast, who usually compete on farms with 50 to 300 cows against factory farms out West with thousands of cows.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/08/nyregion/08towns.html?scp=4&sq=milk&st=cse
February 8th, 2010 at 4:42 pm
BR: Nice favicon…about time.
~~~
BR: I had one at the old Typepad site — forgot all about it until recebntly, when someone asked “What happened to that Favicon?”
February 8th, 2010 at 4:51 pm
why doesn’t DORFMAN just tell people to buy DORFX, I mean THUNX?
February 8th, 2010 at 4:54 pm
The Progressive Tantrum
http://econlog.econlib.org/archives/2010/02/progressives_vs.html
“Everyone agrees that the Republicans are just throwing sand in the gears of good government and not offering any ideas. What that means is that they are not offering ideas to enlarge government. Congressman Paul Ryan’s ideas do not count, because those would cut back on government, particularly Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.”
“The important point is that Progressives are never wrong. Top-down reform is the only way to fix the health care system. Anthropogenic global warming is scientifically proven, and its solution requires strenuous exercise of political control over individual behavior. Deficit spending is necessary and sufficient to create jobs. Technocrats can make banks too regulated to fail. Markets without technocratic control are like adolescents without adult supervision. Individual happiness can be improved by political authorities using scientific knowledge. Concentrated political power is the wave of the future, and it is good.”
“I am not a populist. I fear the mob. But how can I fear the Progressives any less?”
February 8th, 2010 at 4:56 pm
All I can say is short US Treasuries. Buy gold, silver and palladium on dips. There is no real US strategy in place and the rest of the world is a hodge podge of yesterday’s ideas mixed in with today’s doubts and financed by tomorrow’s fears.
February 8th, 2010 at 5:02 pm
http://www.thebaffler.com/viewArticle/131/0/1/
Amsuing, slightly different take on the growing body of literature (including BR’s book) about the financial crisis.
February 8th, 2010 at 5:04 pm
Dow under 10K…sovereign and US state debt imploding, should send dollar soaring…the scheme to prop up bad credit by taking on public debt is no longer working. Stocks valued near 1929 levels… treasuries, at best will be flat…at worst could see yields soar to attract capital. Massive mortgage resets coming this year. I could go on, but why bother.
Result: VERY BAD FOR BULLS. I repeat…you will be lucky to avoid a massive market crash in 2010.
February 8th, 2010 at 5:06 pm
Why is the Dorfman link there? Does he have some special prescience, or unparalleled track record? Did he call the market turn in later 2007? Or the other one last March?
Or is it statements like this:
“I don’t think the year will divide, like a concerto, into three distinct movements: up, down, up.
Rather, I think the market will move in saw-tooth fashion, up and down all year, but with more ups than downs.”
Well, I think it will be shaped like a bunny rabbit.
Apparently, Dorfman sees an expanding economy, despite the continuing shrinkage of the work force, the ongoing stress in the mortgage markets (both residential and commercial), the death by credit strangulation of small businesses, and oh yes, trillion-dollar-deficits as far as the eye can see.
Funny, how in Dorfman’s exposition of how various stocks are under-valued, and all the indicators on the trail are pointing to an upward-trending market, he misses completely the potential for some excitement similar to the 2008 Bear Stearns-Lehman fiasco, except with EU nations playing the parts of Bear and Lehman.
But then it’s a difference of opinion that makes horse races … and paupers.
February 8th, 2010 at 5:23 pm
@Steve Barry — while I agree with your sentiments, I think the timing of the Greater Crash could be (and will be) pushed out further, as it is in Obama’s and a whole lotta senators’ and congressperps’ best interest for it to not happen before the 2012 elections, and they will move heaven and earth to kick the can at least that far down the road. I dunno if they will achieve that goal, but I know that they will use every trick in the book (plus a few that have not yet been invented) to make it so. While I think they will fail, and we will be things come apart in a cataclysmic manner before the 2012 elections, I also think that kicking the can past 2010 is certainly doable (barring accidents). We might have a lesser selloff (again, resolving nothing, just as the selloff from 2008-Mar 2009 resolved nothing) after the fall 2010 elections, a head fake to the sheeple, indicating that THIS time the “recession” is really over.
Just look how far — and long — the rally from 1933 persisted, with no underlying economic justification, all the while with businesses struggling to survive. 4 years. And 4 years from 2009 would be … 2013.
February 8th, 2010 at 5:24 pm
I’m sorry — I came across as one of those parallels with past historical patterns types, and I really did not intend to, merely to point out the possibility. This is the future unfolding, and anything can happen.
February 8th, 2010 at 5:25 pm
Tom Petruno’s excellent article on why deficits don’t matter:
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-petruno6-2010feb06,0,611604.column
February 8th, 2010 at 5:27 pm
That article about the “miracle machine” creating water out of air is amazing! Thanks for sharing.
February 8th, 2010 at 5:46 pm
This caught my eye, but it’s probably similar to the New Yorker piece.
Down With the People
Blame the childish, ignorant American public—not politicians—for our political and economic crisis.
By Jacob Weisberg
http://www.slate.com/id/2243797/
February 8th, 2010 at 5:50 pm
@franklin411
A decade from now (maybe less) people like Barry will be writing about how misguided fools like Auerback drove the U.S. economy off the cliff. For these hyper-Keynesians, every recession looks like a nail and they have the perfect tool in their back pocket.
In 1848 Fredric Bastiat wrote:
“There is only one difference between a bad economist and a good one: the bad economist confines himself to the visible effect; the good economist takes into account both the effect that can be seen and those effects that must be foreseen.”
“Yet this difference is tremendous; for it almost always happens that when the immediate consequence is favorable, the later consequences are disastrous, and vice versa. Whence it follows that the bad economist pursues a small present good that will be followed by a great evil to come, while the good economist pursues a great good to come, at the risk of a small present evil.”
The Keynesians fail to see that companies don’t create jobs or take risks in an environment where government views profits as something to be shared with people who didn’t earn them. They, unlike Auerback, can see all this government spending will eventually mean much higher taxes and higher interest rates. They know that once voters are hooked on the crack of increased government spending, withdrawal is not an option.
February 8th, 2010 at 6:03 pm
Public-sector unions bleed taxpayers
By: MICHAEL BARONE
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/politics/Public-sector-unions-bleed-taxpayers-to-help-Dems-83652517.html
“One-third of last year’s $787 billion stimulus package was aid to state and local governments — an obvious attempt to bolster public-sector unions. And a successful one: While the private sector has lost 7 million jobs, the number of public-sector jobs has risen. The number of federal government jobs has been increasing by 10,000 a month, and the percentage of federal employees earning over $100,000 has jumped to 19 percent during the recession.”
“Obama and his party are acting in collusion with unions that contributed something like $400,000,000 to Democrats in the 2008 campaign cycle. Public-sector unionism tends to be a self-perpetuating machine that extracts money from taxpayers and then puts it on a conveyor belt to the Democratic party.”
This is the way it works people. Once the recessions is over, who thinks Obama or the Democrats are going to trim the public labor force?
Keynesian economics doesn’t work precisely because it’s politically impossible to cut spending even after a economy is in recovery. You just bought a slew of voters. Are you really going to fire them?
February 8th, 2010 at 6:11 pm
WASHINGTON–The FBI is pressing Internet service providers to record which Web sites customers visit and retain those logs for two years, a requirement that law enforcement believes could help it in investigations of child pornography and other serious crimes.
FBI Director Robert Mueller supports storing Internet users’ “origin and destination information,” a bureau attorney said at a federal task force meeting on Thursday.
As far back as a 2006 speech, Mueller had called for data retention on the part of Internet providers, and emphasized the point two years later when explicitly asking Congress to enact a law making it mandatory. But it had not been clear before that the FBI was asking companies to begin to keep logs of what Web sites are visited, which few if any currently do.
The FBI is not alone in renewing its push for data retention. As CNET reported earlier this week, a survey of state computer crime investigators found them to be nearly unanimous in supporting the idea. Matt Dunn, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent in the Department of Homeland Security, also expressed support for the idea during the task force meeting.
Greg Motta, the chief of the FBI’s digital evidence section, said that the bureau was trying to preserve its existing ability to conduct criminal investigations. Federal regulations in place since at least 1986 require phone companies that offer toll service to “retain for a period of 18 months” records including “the name, address, and telephone number of the caller, telephone number called, date, time and length of the call.”…
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-10448060-38.html?tag=newsLeadStoriesArea.1
~~
“…On his international missions, Rajendra Pachauri, the chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), called for radical action to stave off environmental disaster.
He urged people to eat less meat, pay aviation taxes and even ban giving iced water in restaurants. But in order to get his message across, the former railway engineer, who lives in Delhi, created an enormous carbon footprint of his own.
Dr Pachauri has been the chairman of the panel since 2002. Documents available on its website showed that in one 19-month period, he clocked up more than half a million miles in the air as he travelled the world on official business.
Between January 2007 and July 2008, he took more than 120 long-haul flights and 43 short-haul trips, taking in countries such as New Zealand, America and Fiji.
Dr Pachauri’s trips would have produced 121.1 tons of carbon dioxide, according to calculations by ClimateCare, a carbon offset provider.
It is estimated that the average Briton produces around 8.6 tons of carbon dioxide a year, while the average Indian produces just over one ton.
Dr Pachauri has been the chairman of the panel since 2002. Documents available on its website showed that in one 19-month period, he clocked up more than half a million miles in the air as he travelled the world on official business.
Between January 2007 and July 2008, he took more than 120 long-haul flights and 43 short-haul trips, taking in countries such as New Zealand, America and Fiji.
Dr Pachauri’s trips would have produced 121.1 tons of carbon dioxide, according to calculations by ClimateCare, a carbon offset provider.
It is estimated that the average Briton produces around 8.6 tons of carbon dioxide a year, while the average Indian produces just over one ton…”
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/earthnews/7165816/Rajendra-Pachauri-head-of-UN-climate-change-panel-clocks-up-half-a-million-miles-of-air-travel.html
February 8th, 2010 at 6:25 pm
“”Global warming is a crock of s*%t!”
When Bob Lutz, vice-chairman of General Motors, said this in February 2008, it immediately became the most widely distributed quote regarding global warming on the Internet…
Lutz’s comments that day were far more balanced and thoughtful than anyone who heard that particular quote might believe. And therein lies the problem with the current discussions on global warming: The media have taken the position that the science is complete and settled. A unanimous agreement that global warming not only exists but is man-made—and we’re almost past the point where we can still save the planet from it. Moreover, anyone who questions those absolute statements is quickly labeled a “Climate Change Denier.” This label is intended to shame and discredit doubters, much like 500 years ago when church officials prosecuted anyone who preached the earth was not the center of the universe.
However, labeling to discredit someone by calling them a “denier” is a distorted and completely unjust position to take on such an important subject. In fact, virtually no one believes the earth has not gone through a period of unexplained warming. Therefore, the term “denier” is not just inaccurate, it’s a complete and intentional mischaracterization of those wanting more open and honest scientific studies on the subject.
As for the position that the science is settled and there is no dissent, as Bob Lutz might say, “that’s a crock of s*%t!”
Science Totally Not Settled
On Dec. 8, 2009, during the Copenhagen Climate Challenge, an open letter was sent to the U.N. Secretary General signed by close to 150 scientists involved in physics, climatology, meteorology, and geophysics. The opening two sentences say it all: “Climate change science is in a period of ‘negative discovery’; the more we learn about this exceptionally complex and rapidly evolving field, the more we realize how little we know. Truly, the science is NOT settled.”…”
http://www.businessweek.com/lifestyle/content/jan2010/bw20100128_152091.htm
~~
“Undersecretary for management at the State Department, Patrick F. Kennedy, told Congress that the State Department wanted to keep crotch bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab out of the U.S., but that intelligence agencies insisted that Abdulmutallab be let into the country.
Specifically, on January 27th, Kennedy told the House Committee on Homeland Security that intelligence agencies blocked revocation of Abdulmutallab’s visa because it would have foiled a “larger investigation” into Al Qaeda.
As noted by The Detroit News:
The State Department didn’t revoke the visa of foiled terrorism suspect Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab because federal counterterrorism officials had begged off revocation, a top State Department official revealed Wednesday.
Patrick F. Kennedy, an undersecretary for management at the State Department, said Abdulmutallab’s visa wasn’t taken away because intelligence officials asked his agency not to deny a visa to the suspected terrorist over concerns that a denial would’ve foiled a larger investigation into al-Qaida threats against the United States.
“Revocation action would’ve disclosed what they were doing,” Kennedy said in testimony before the House Committee on Homeland Security. Allowing Adbulmutallab to keep the visa increased chances federal investigators would be able to get closer to apprehending the terror network he is accused of working with, “rather than simply knocking out one solider in that effort.” …”
http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2010/02/us-counterterrorism-officials-insisted.html
February 8th, 2010 at 7:58 pm
The Death of an American Community–My Country is Dying as I Ride By
by johndamos | February 6, 2010
My county is dying. As I ride to Spartan Express gas station to get my 5 gallons of gas for my pickup, I notice that the readout on the Citgo gas pump has been vandalized, and the pumps are bent and beat up. A few years ago, the Hugo Chavez-Venezuela gas station and its pumps were kept in pristine condition.
I gas up and drive to Biscuit King, a locally owned restaurant where a senior like me can buy one egg on toast and cup of decaf for $3.87. As I leave, I note the large factory that used to produce fine quality Henry Link furniture sitting empty with vines growing through its massive rusting roof. There is one old beat up pickup sitting in the parking lot behind a chain link fence…security guard. I drive past a couple of houses, and stop at a new pawn shop that has just opened on this side of town. I walked in the other day and discovered a vintage 1966 Fender Musicmaster guitar for $55.00. These things are super collectable and this one was in beautiful shape.
I leave the Pawn Shop and head to the Goodwill Store. We have a rather good situation for bargain shoppers with lots of quality used merchandise, but few people with much money to buy…so it’s a buyer’s market right now, but that will change real soon as the quality merchandise is sold off and worn out. Right now, there are lots of consumer shoppers doing the same thing I’m doing for my family…hoarding for a time when there will be no more available at a price I can afford.
I move through the furniture and appliances first, scoping out things…looking for antiques or needed or unusual high quality things I don’t have already. A couple of months ago, I found a beautiful oak and walnut Victorian table in mint condition for $20. There are quite a few beautiful, new-looking Singer and other brand sewing machines available, but my wife or nobody I know sews anymore except the Mexican immigrant ladies who grab up the good machines quickly and take them home, or send them to families in Mexico and South America.
I go to the clothing racks. Wife and daughter have given me a card with their sizes so I shop for high quality items that don’t show much wear. I recently bought two Agner purses for $5.00 for each of them and both of my ladies have closets full of brand name clothing. I’m presently looking for a Prada purse for wife because she loves the movie, “Devil Wears Prada.” Some of the rich ladies change $300 to $1000 purses and clothing as often as they go shopping, and they donate their used stuff to charities for hubby’s tax writeoffs. As I leave Goodwill, I note the Mid-State-Tile plant that is closed…overgrown lawns and rusting roofs…went to Mexico first and then on to China…once employed over 1000 workers and paid good wages and benefits.
-snip-
The chain restaurants are still flourishing where the interstate crosses, but the uptown privately owned restaurants are already closed or have scaled back until they close at 7:00 in the evening because of a lack of business. A few Mexican shops that specialize in ethnic foods or goods have opened, but these are limited. Everywhere, empty factories and buildings sit idle…factories that once kept this place alive and employed directly or contributed to the employment of at least 10,000 people in our county.
more at…
http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/26614
February 8th, 2010 at 8:43 pm
@Darmah: I’ve been thinking a lot about this issue and think it’s just about right. I really do think that our political leaders do indeed represent us as a whole, whether we want to admit it or not. The cultural rot runs deep, and it starts with each of us who look in the mirror each day.
February 8th, 2010 at 8:58 pm
MEH, it’s one thing for you to dispute the AGW science. Dispute it all you want. But, what do you expect heads of NGO’s with global ties to do? Stay at home and blog?
I think you’re making an ad hominem attack here.
February 8th, 2010 at 9:02 pm
disagree, mannwich……………people i know work hard, help people, do good things, pay there taxes, culturally they’ve been told, do your job, keep nose to grindstone and all will be good, when things did not make sense we questioned it, and were told, we just didn’t understand, when we did it a second time, we were told, it is too complex too understand…………………in the end, you don’t ship your good jobs, which is a path for the middle class all over the world, it never made sense, seemed smart, efficiency at work………lah de dah de dah……….
Too Lead One Must Understand
Without Trust The Best You Can Do Is Compromise
the public wholly feels comprimised in many ways
February 8th, 2010 at 9:16 pm
@torrie-amos: “People you know”? Same with me, for the most part, but neither group can be a very large sample size relative to the country as a whole. Read the article. It’s well written. Hard to disagree with much of it. Time for America to grow the fuck up.
February 8th, 2010 at 9:17 pm
And I don’t disagree with some of your points, but the point is, if citizens paid attention more, then maybe these things wouldn’t have happened? People didn’t pay attention (and still don’t), but choose to instead focus on “other priorities”.
February 9th, 2010 at 4:48 am
wunsa-
note his ‘message’, then, note the frequency of his ‘travel’..
that’s the disconnect that struck me..
and, to your Q: yes, maybe, these ‘leaders’ should lead by example..you know, there’s a Crisis, afterall..
February 9th, 2010 at 5:15 am
I learned enough from Hank Paulson to never read his book, any more than I’d take notes from Satan . His next job starting now should be traffic cop or sheriff in Hell, tagging all the really bad guys.
February 9th, 2010 at 5:26 am
Well, Hose me Mubarek!!
Senator Shelby up to his ankles in pig slop in the DC sausage factory once illustrated by Hieronymus Bosch in The Garden of Earthly Delights.
from search page 1, number 1
http://nwitimes.com/app/blog/news/?p=3978
The key issue is that Shelby wants the Air Force to tweak an RFP for refueling tankers so that Airbus (partnered with Northrup Grumman) would win the bid again over Boeing. The contract had been awarded in 2008, but the GAO found that the Air Force had erred in calculating the award. After the Air Force wrote a new RFP in preparation to rebid the contract, Airbus calculated that it would not win the new bid, and started complaining. Now, Airbus is threatening to withdraw from the competition unless the specs in the RFP are revised.
Essentially, then, Shelby’s threat is primarily about gaming this bidding process to make sure Airbus–and not Boeing–wins the contract (there’s a smaller program he’s complaining about, too, but this is the truly huge potential bounty for his state).
So Shelby is holding Obama’s nominees hostage because Airbus, a foreign company with a Mobile, Ala., plant, isn’t getting the government’s business. The company that won the bid, Boeing, is headquartered in Chicago. And its corporate fleet flies out of the Gary airport, so there is some benefit to the region with the bid going to Boeing instead of Airbus.
February 9th, 2010 at 5:30 am
Not an article but something I thought you might enjoy:
“Fear the Bust and Boom” a Hayek vs. Keynes rap anthem
~~~
BR: I’ve received so many similar emails about this, I assume some idiot PR firm is behind this.
Especially considering that I published this last month:
“Fear the Boom and Bust” a Hayek vs. Keynes Rap Anthem http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2010/01/fear-the-boom-and-bust-a-hayek-vs-keynes-rap-anthem/
February 9th, 2010 at 6:50 am
manwhich, we probably agree on more than disagree, imho, it’s more of a habit issue, and there will always be other priorities, imho, the internet is changing that, passions usually trump all, now we have political wonks who are passionate about government communicating all kinds of stuff to help folks like me get a clearer picture………..i’m saddeneded like most we have to go thru this, yet, issa optimist long term
February 9th, 2010 at 7:16 am
listen to this:
http://www.financialarmageddon.com/2010/02/the-single-most-drastic-error-in-policy-in-modern-history.html
February 9th, 2010 at 10:21 am
Oil, Oil Imports and Where to now???????
http://www.businessinsider.com/the-oil-export-crisis-has-arrived-2010-2