“Better Late Than Never” Dept. “Congress, Come Home: Faxes Can Do the Talking on Capitol Hill”** –Ross Kaplan, Star Tribune Op-Ed page (1993). OK, so I got the part about faxes wrong: today’s technology, including Zoom, FaceTime, and streaming video, positively blows away fax machines. And, I didn’t anticipate the health and safety reason (i.e.,...Read More
Quantitative Easing for Stocks [Note to Readers: The views expressed here are solely those of Ross Kaplan, and do not represent Edina Realty, Berkshire Hathaway (“Berkshire”), or any other entity referenced. Edina Realty is a subsidiary of Berkshire.] With the Dow in free fall, investors are looking to the cavalry (the Fed) to once again...Read More
“Thou shalt not speak ill of any fellow Republican.” –Ronald Reagan’s so-called “Eleventh Commandment.” Why do Realtors nationally suffer from abysmal approval ratings, roughly on a par with used car salesmen and Congress? Personally, I doubt it’s because the industry is full of hucksters and charlatans. On the contrary, after 15+ years selling real estate...Read More
Porous, Virtual Political Borders + Tsunami of Outside Money People who decry the outsized influence wielded by sparsely-populated states in the electoral college (think, North & South Dakota, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho and Rhode Island) are missing a key point: thanks to porous borders — and lax campaign finance laws — many of the elections in those states are...Read More
“Mamas, Don’t Let Your Boys Grow Up to Be Cowboys Congressmen” “Mamas, don’t let your babies grow up to be cowboys. Don’t let ’em pick guitars or drive them old trucks. Let ’em be doctors and lawyers and such. Mamas don’t let your babies grow up to be cowboys. ‘Cos they’ll never stay home and...Read More
Second Time the Charm? The last time the public was this disgusted with Congress, term limits got a serious hearing. Then — as best I can recall — Bill Clinton got elected President, the economy picked up . . . and the issue just sort of faded away. Fast forward 20 years or so. Reading...Read More
