“Hurry, Bank of America, This Offer Expires Soon!” 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 Why can’t a [debt restructuring process] be put in place to help the millions of American homeowners who for whatever personal reasons ” usually no...Read More
Just Call it “The Little Dig” Here’s a thought on how to tackle the Twin Cities’ largest remaining traffic bottleneck, now that the Crosstown – 35W project is done. That would be the Interstate 394 – 94 connection just southwest of downtown Minneapolis, where the eastbound 394 narrows to one lane, and curves around Parade Stadium...Read More
Price Taker or Price Maker (& Fixer, Stealer, etc.)? The devil theory of Goldman Sachs, at bottom, rests on the premise that Goldman knows the future better than its customers or the rest of us. –Holman Jenkins, “‘Defining the Facebook Deal“; The Wall Street Journal (Jan. 15-16, 2011) THAT’S “the devil theory of Goldman Sachs??” Really?...Read More
Minnesota Too Nice Stay at a hotel in Manhattan, and various local taxes and surcharges will add more than 50% to your bill. The same phenomenon applies to car rentals, restaurants, and alcohol sales: namely, local tax authorities — especially in high-demand destinations frequented by tourists — disproportionately soak outsiders to fund their budgets. So,...Read More
2011 Hennepin County Property Taxes Every time I think I’m a Democrat, they do something stupid. Every time I think I’m a Republican, they do something greedy. –Jay Leno What do you call proposing to steeply raise property taxes against a backdrop of weak home prices and an economy just emerging, maybe, from recession? How...Read More
See . . This . . Movie Calling Charles Ferguson’s “Inside Job” a documentary is like calling The Gettysburg Address a speech. Bar none, it is the clearest, most succinct explanation of the Wall Street-engineered financial crash — whose aftermath we are still very much dealing with — that I have seen. More than a...Read More
