Wall Street Journal: ‘Blame the Regulators’ Chutz-pah′: killing your parents, then throwing yourself on the mercy of the court because you’re an orphan. So, according to The Wall Street Journal, who’s to blame for the still-missing $1 billion of client funds at now-bankrupt MF Global? Not the company’s senior management, led by CEO Jon Corzine,...Read More
Not So Subtle Product Service Placement One of the unquestioned highlights of this year’s Thanksgiving — at least for my family — was seeing Dorsey & Whitney’s exquisite production of The Wizard of Oz at the Minneapolis Children’s Theatre. Or was that The Children’s Theater’s production of The Wizard of Oz? Actually, I thought The...Read More
Favorite Post-Thanksgiving Chores No, this isn’t a post about needed Wall Street reform. Search “Goldman Sachs” in the upper right corner of this page if you want my thoughts on that subject. This post is literally about washing windows. In Minnesota. In winter (yes, it’s already arrived in this part of the country). Odd Timing?...Read More
A November to Remember, or “Weather Hubris” OK, so San Diego didn’t get 3 inches of snow last week. And bragging about the Twin Cities’ (otherwise) memorably balmy November is the height of “weather hubris” — the repercussions of which, in short order, are typically a record-setting blizzard and/or bone-numbing windchill. However . . ....Read More
“Occupy Wall Street” Conundrum: What to Occupy One of my favorite political cartoons — from the 1970’s no less — shows a self-satisfied oil executive sitting behind a big desk, his feet up, smoking a cigar (I said it was from the ’70’s). “You want oil?,” he practically cackles (to no one in particular). “We own the wells.”...Read More
Synonyms for “Receive”: “Charge,” “Levy,” “Assess,” “Subtract,” “Deduct,” “Reduce” “TFLIC receives an asset charge of 1.18% from the assets of the separate account.” –Prospectus On the list of really annoying things about a great many mutual funds and how they disclose their (too-high) fees, add this one: a bond fund sponsored by Transamerica Financial Life Insurance (“TFLIC”)...Read More
