If the Federal Reserve and U.S. Treasury were coordinating the response to the cruise ship disaster off the coast of Italy, here’s what they would be doing: –the Captain and senior officers would all be given multi-million dollar bonuses (actually, their regular, annual multi-million dollar bonuses). –Carnival Cruises, the ship’s owner, would transfer title to the...Read More
Safety in Numbers? If you owe the bank $100, that’s your problem. If you owe the bank $100 million, that’s the bank’s problem. –John Paul Getty If a small investor gets ripped off by Wall Street, they’re SOL. But if a whole lot of investors get ripped off by Wall Street, there’s at least the...Read More
Inspiring a Sense of “Wonder” — But the Wrong Kind It’s never a good sign if — instead of being engrossed in the movie you’re watching — you’re daydreaming about other things. Or, in my case watching “Hugo,” Martin Scorsese’s beautiful but slow-moving homage to French filmmaker George Melies, wondering whether that was Borat (comedian Sacha Baron Cohen)...Read More
7 Reasons* Why Numbered Lists are a Waste of Time While there’s supposedly nothing new under the sun, I have noticed a change in the inevitable onslaught of New Year’s Lists this year. Namely, they’re longer. So now, instead of a nice, round 10 (God knew what he was doing), the lists have 14 items, or 27...Read More
My Favorite Post of the Year (So Far) Those who talk, don’t know. And those who know . . . don’t talk. –Lao Tzu Better to keep your mouth shut, and let people think you’re an idiot, then open it and remove all doubt. –Mark Twain What’s going to happen in 2012? Hell if I...Read More
New Old Year’s Resolutions My cheeky 9 year-old, who’s been on a sugar binge basically since Halloween, has promised to swear off sweets “for the rest of the year.” Starting at 10 p.m. tomorrow night. Nice one, Gabriel . . .Read More
