Tag Archives: money

A Get Rich Quick Scheme Using Religion That Actually Works

The basic formula. How might you make big bucks in the religion racket? Try using the following formula on people: God is mad at you, pray this prayer, God won’t be mad at you. It’s that simple. Selling this psychologically … Continue reading

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Televangelist Paul Crouch Dies at 79; Leaves Behind Two Mansions in Newport Beach

The news. Paul Crouch died yesterday. He had quite the racket going, laughing all the way to the bank. This is over now. Here’s a quote from The New York Times obituary on him this morning (written by Emma G. Fitzsimmons): … Continue reading

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Stalin and Mao, BFF

Stalin and Mao on currency, 1950: __________ I post the above currency image because I’ve been thinking about how images function to make the individual viewer feel like Dorothy before the Wizard of Oz (small and weak before The Great … Continue reading

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Is This Mitt Romney’s Way of Flipping the Bird at the Losers He Conned and Fired?

There’s something deeply tribal about the below image of Mitt Romney with his buddies at Bain Capital in 1984. It’s more than just an expression of joy at making money: it’s the glee of spiking a football before the losers … Continue reading

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Finger Tutting: From Dorm Room Horsing Around to the Corporate Big Time

In Western culture, Egypt seems to be the best place to trace lithe, high glamour, iconic posing, and so it seems fitting that a certain style of freeze frame dancing would be dubbed as “tutting” (as in “King Tut” or … Continue reading

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Max Keiser on the “Blind Cult of America”

Max Keiser’s money program is uneven in quality and alarmist catnip for gold bugs, but this recent episode is mildly entertaining (though I don’t like his anti-intellectual populist posturing against Nobel Prize winning economist Paul Krugman). Max Keiser presents himself as a truth-teller bravely … Continue reading

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Community Colleges, the Enrollment Bottleneck, and a Dirty Little Secret

On April 8, 2011, the New York Times ran a piece on students making: . . . a strategic financial decision to attend community college first as a cost saving measure. The cost savings can be large (perhaps somewhere in the … Continue reading

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Agnosticism and Marketing

At Marginal Revolution today, economist Tyler Cowen was asked about whether there are some especially good economic ideas out there that are hard to popularize, and his answer led to a brief digression on complexity and agnosticism: [I]t is hard to popularize … Continue reading

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Life, liberty, and the pursuit of $60,000 a year?

It appears that if your goal in life is to experience a pretty consistent sense of present “happiness,” then you should try to work your way into the top 20% of income earners in the United States and make $60,000 … Continue reading

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T. Boone Pickens: Peak Oil is Here and Our Middle East Oil Dependency Needs to End

Texas oil man—and now octogenarian wind power activist—T. Boone Pickens, in an interview with Amanda Little posted at Mother Earth News, says that the world has already reached peak oil and that the U.S. better end its Middle East energy dependency pronto:   Pickens doesn’t believe that … Continue reading

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As a Political Statement, after this New Year’s Weekend, My Wife and I are Moving Our Money from Our Current Big Bank to a Small Bank

Here’s a video that explains what we’re doing, and why: Join us? Other than the inconvenience of the shift, if you move your money to a credit union or small community bank, your accounts are still FDIC insured. Visit this website … Continue reading

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The Economy: Happy Days are Here Again?

The New York Times today says the recession may be over: The index of leading indicators, which signals turning points in the economy, is rising at a rate that has accurately indicated the end of every recession since the index began … Continue reading

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$134 Billion Dollars—in One Suitcase!—Seized at the Italian-Swiss Border! I Smell a Movie Brewing!

According to Spiegel today, Italian customs officials stopped two people carrying, in one suitcase, $134 BILLION DOLLARS worth of bonds: The two men, reported to be more than 50 years old, were traveling by train from Italy to Switzerland on June … Continue reading

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“Multi-year economic stagnation”: Nouriel Roubini Says the Economy Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet

Nouriel Roubini, the widely respected economist dubbed “Dr. Doom,” was profiled in the Times of London Sunday. Roubini is predicting further global economic turmoil—and he doesn’t think that markets have hit bottom yet. Money quote from the article: “Every time there has been … Continue reading

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Laughing All the Way to Neiman Marcus: Is Sarah Palin’s $150,000 Dollar Campaign Financed Spending Spree on Clothes in Accord with a Serious VP Candidate?

Sarah Palin’s spending spree on clothes is a gross abuse of the trust of McCain-Palin donors. And it makes her talk about being a serious person and a “Christian” seem ridiculous. Here’s Politico today on Sarah Palin laughing all the way … Continue reading

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From “Up On the Roof” to “Through the Roof”: Kurzweil AI.net Says Solar Industry to Grow to 100 Billion Dollars by 2013

Money quote: Solar is poised for continued impressive growth, with new installations primed to increase nearly five-fold from 2008 to 2013. Starting in 2009, however, supply will exceed demand, leading to price decreases. According to the new report from Lux … Continue reading

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