with 5% of the 800+B going towards actual infrastructure, the truth is revealed about promises made. The ones that matter are the long standing ones made to supporters early in the process, years ago, behind closed doors. Private promises made by public faces. If you wanted a real stimulous for the economy you would remember […]
Tag: stock market
The right way to get out of debt from Bridgewater Associates
says it nicely in few words: not harsh, or only as harsh as capitalism itself, from Bridgewater Associates: “There is no easy way out of a debt restructuring. Someone will have to bear the cost of prior bad decisions. The people who should bear the cost are those who made the bad decisions to make […]
Market reflections January 24, 2009
1. The teaching is good in our new state-of-the-art college building at Fort Leavenworth. Everyday as I walk to the new building I go past the old building which is being demolished. I’ve been watching the wrecking ball taking apart beautiful building and I can’t help but noticing how quickly the heavy ball takes apart […]
Edge.org: this should be interesting and challenging
Sigh: because i dont have enough on my plate to keep my attention fully engaged. Still, they have some powerful info from one of my heroes, Daniel Kahneman whose intellect spans the whole globe. “To arrive at the edge of the world’s knowledge, seek out the most complex and sophisticated minds, put them […]
The difference a year makes
borrowing from the Fed this year dwarfs all other years. That’s not quite true. It renders all other borrowing combined to irrelevancy
Who owns your country?
Reflecting on unbridled competition: a relic from the Pleistocene?
One of my fellow students posed the following question to me after reviewing some comments I made in the chapter we are co-editting re: socialism and unbridled competition: Ken, Your argument on unbridled competition looks solid, but some may disagree that it is THE cause for disharmony and mutual survival. I not sure if you […]
Interesting twist to prop up markets
Congress and President Bush signed legislation that suspends the rule requiring retirees over 70 ½ to take withdrawals (RMDs) from tax-deferred retirement accounts, such as traditional IRAs and 401(k)s. This suspension currently lasts for one year, 2009. The intention is to give retirement accounts time to rebound from the difficult economy/market conditions. Please note that you […]
Almost 1T in state pension shortfalls
Observed earlier that 5 large states were requesting 1T from Obama for combined medicare and pension shortfalls; Its now up to almost 1T just for the state employee pension funds alone, to say nothing of the medicare costs of an aging population determined to give voice to its feelings of entitlements. I can almost hear […]
Borrow more to get out of debt: all it lacks is an 800 number and an infomercial
In a sequence of CSPAN broadcasts, Washington insiders expressed their shock—Shock! at the state of the budget disaster in Congress. Senator Conrad, has suddenly discovered just how deep the debt hole that Congressional spending, aided and abetted by an unprincipled administration, has put our children in. Because its our children thathave inherited the mess these […]