Subsuming Ideological Conviction for Constituent Service (They Say) “If you can’t take their money, drink their whiskey, screw their women, and vote against “em anyway, you don’t belong in the Legislature.”** –Jesse Unruh, California politician in the 1950’s and 1960’s. [Editor’s Note: The views expressed here are solely those of Ross Kaplan, and do not...Read More
Seceding Separating From Wall Street Texas Governor Rick Perry was a bust in the Republican Presidential primaries, but I credit him — sort of — for coming up with the best (and possibly last) solution to this country’s “Wall Street problem.” Namely, what to do about an out-of-control, parasitic, havoc-wreaking, corrupt (and corrupting) segment of the economy and...Read More
The “RoboCop Solution” to the Financial Crisis When it comes to holding the citizenry hostage, owners of pro baseball and football franchises have nothing on Wall Street. The former, of course, have refined to an art form the practice of extorting tax dollars from cities and counties to build ever more expensive (and grandiose) sports palaces. The pitch?...Read More
Opting for Swedish over Japanese Tired of my rants against Wall Street? Consider this “guest” rant instead, which IMHO is pitch-perfect (minus a few #!%#!, perhaps): After 40 years of pain avoidance, can we just rip off the f**kin’ band-aid already? Enough with the asset price protection, it is the root cause of everything bad about...Read More
Prescription: ‘Take 2 4 Aspirin’ Seeing as how the current approach doesn’t seem to be working out so well, I hereby propose a “do-over” in dealing with the aftermath of The Crash of ’08. Exactly what do I have in mind? Instead of: -Rewarding the perpetrators with bailouts; –Punishing savers with the double-barreled whammy of...Read More
“Nice . . . uh, Gig?!?” In 1998, I was gleaning the want ads and found a position for a Private Chef for a family…. I am presently one of 9 employees who work at their house. The place is huge and it is just the 2 of them. I cook dinner only 6 days...Read More
