“Despite the unending failures of statist economies from the Soviet Union to Eastern Europe, to North Korea, to Cuba, and so on, liberals hold on to the belief that intellectual elites with good intentions can direct human activities better than
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“Not everyone in the industry is bad, and not all members of the industry will be supporting efforts to roll back reform. After two and a half decades in Washington, I have learned that those who are most active in
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One factor that undoubtedly influenced the rating agencies was the way they were compensated. For years, the agencies had charged the buyers of the bonds for rating the bonds, a system encouraged by S&P, Moody’s, and Fitch and that led
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In a couple of postings I have written on what seemed to be a bifurcated economy: publicly traded large firms and large private firms seem to be doing OK, but smaller privately held firms are not. In my narrow window
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While the Democrats claim to protect the personal liberties of Americans they are less protective of our economic liberties. By economic liberties I mean the right to own and manage wealth producing assets with minimal interference from the government. This interference may come in the
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From the Wall Street Journal, ‘You Didn’t Build That’, 7/17/12: Speaking in Roanoke, Virginia, Mr. Obama delivered another paean to the virtues of higher taxes on the people he believes deserve to pay even more to the government. “There are
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Nicole Gelinas writes in Investor’s Business Daily The Four Lessons Of Dodd-Frank We Need To Learn 3/26/12. Excerpt: Regulators should require financial firms — banks or not — to hold a consistent amount of capital behind their investments. It’s not
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Chris Berg writes an interesting perspective on the anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic in The Real Reason for the Tragedy of the Titanic, The Wall Street Journal, 4/12/12. Excerpt: In the Board of Trade’s post-accident inquiry, Carlisle was
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Henry Nothhaft writes A Labor Day Message for President Obama in the Wall Street Journal 9/2/11 excerpt: When it comes to job creation, Washington is afflicted with a totally bipartisan cluelessness. For every Democratic Congress that passes a health-reform bill
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The implications of complexity in financial markets are more pointed than for most other industries: In the financial markets, some participants have a self- interest in gaming the system. Traders do not act as uninvolved parties. They are ready to
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The Transportation security Administration gave flight attendant Cathy Bossi a pat-down search at Charlotte-Douglas International Airport. When one of the screeners felt up her right breast, the agent asked, “What is this?” Bossi explained that she had a breast removed
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After Ithaca College asked incoming freshmen to read Henry David Thoreau’s Walden, a group of students in the Departmemnt of Environmetnal Studies and Sciences got the idea to build a replica of Thoreau’s famous cabin. The local code enforecment officer
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The very astute Nassim Taleb: Regulations alone will not protect us. The regulators gave the banks the rope to hang themselves. The smaller the error rate, the more likely it is to be grossly underestimated. No bonus without malice. Cancel
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Does the rising stock market and improving unemployment numbers support Obama’s economic solutions? It may appear so, but I remain skeptical for several reasons. The stock market is rebounding off of the low of a year ago, which was largely
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The unemployment numbers show 290,000 new jobs yet the unemployment rate went up from 9.7 to 9.9%. How can this be? 800,000 new workers entered the workforce that were therefore not included in the unemployment numbers previously Some say this
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I use a money management firm, Banyan Capital Management , owned and run by Gary Watkins. Douglas Ott, II is a portfolio manager for Banyan, and like Gary is a real student of the market. I have been very satisfied
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Companies and investors hardly need more bureaucrats looking over their shoulders trying to guess what they are doing right or wrong. They need room to maneuver so they can adjust or change their strategies as quickly as possible whenever there
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