I…agree…with…Justice Thomas. I will now light myself on fire.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/16/business/16bizcourt.html
Archive for December 15th, 2008
Opposite Day
Posted in Supreme Court on December 15, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
More Madoff
Posted in Corruption on December 15, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Hard to tell who the bad guys are in this story. Not sure the guy realizes that his wife’s family – the folks who think they lost $30mm – are the persons who gained from the scam. The “entire family had been in the fund for decades and lived well off the returns” – those were other people’s “investments” that funded the lifestyle. And, ultimately, Robert’s:
http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1866398,00.html?xid=feed-yahoo-biztech
You Fight Like a Woman
Posted in George W. Bush, Middle East on December 15, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Two thoughts on the Iraqi shoe sideshow
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OM3Z_Kskl_U
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/12/15/news/ML-Bush-Arab-Anger-Analysis.php
1) If Bush had said “who throws a shoe…” and gone into the Austin Powers routine, my laughter would likely have made me forget the disaster of the last eight years. It would have been that easy for Dubya. Luckily, he said something about the shoe being a size ten and I can carry on hating him.
2) This is yet another example of the complete incompetence of the Secret Service. You fly the President into a war zone. Everyone is waiting for something to happen. Al Qaeda killed Ahmad Shah Massoud by pretending to be a camera crew and setting off a bomb. The room is tiny. A guy stands up and moves toward the president while screaming. This would be a good time for someone to at least get in the guy’s line to the President. He throws what seems to be a shoe at the President. All right, guns drawn, we’re after him, right? What, you let him throw another shoe? At this point, three full seconds have passed, surely…wait, the first guy to make contact with him is another reporter (seated, in leather jacket)? NFL quarterbacks act more quickly. Well, except Kurt Warner…but seriously, that is some slow-ass reaction time.
Cuba
Posted in Cuba on December 15, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
In a country full of incoherent and inexplicable policies, our approach to Cuba has to be among our nuttiest.
Economy
Posted in Finance, Housing Policy, Meltdown on December 15, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Reasonably serious economic perspective, if more bearish than most:
http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2008/12/deflation-has-become-inevitable.html
Nutty guy, but probably right on this:
http://www.reuters.com/article/InvestmentOutlook09/idUSTRE4BA5CO20081211
I missed this at the time, but if it stands, it would be terrifying: essentially MA is looking to nullify some subprime loans. Barring the loans going forward could be a reasonable decision, but retroactively voiding them seems to miss the point that the borrower got a house. I would have expected better from a blue state. Pray this gets overturned before CA/FL/NV governments begin thinking about the votes to be had.
http://www.bostonherald.com/business/general/view/2008_12_10_High_court_hits_subprime_lenders/srvc=business&position=recent_bullet
