Tag Archives: wall street

James Holmes: Disturbed Christian or an Occupy Black Bloc Activist?

In terms of James Holmes’ motive for his Batman movie shooting spree, there are a number of disturbing possibilities. One is that he’s a very troubled Christian or ex-Christian. As reported, for example, by the Christian Post, he seems to … Continue reading

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Occupy Wall Street: The Left’s Answer to the Tea Party?

My guess is that the “occupiers” of Wall Street are on the cusp of an activist movement that will rival the Tea Party in influence: the right has its contemporary movement for underground men and the left now has its equivalent. … Continue reading

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Larry Summers on the Debt Ceiling Debate

I’m not a fan of Larry Summers. He’s part of the reason the banking crisis turned out as bad as it did. He supported, for example, deregulation of the banking industry throughout the Clinton and Bush years, and, when he had the … Continue reading

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“Inside Job” documentary: a must see

If you haven’t seen Inside Job yet, it’s a must see. I’ve watched it on DVD three times over the past week. It’s one of the most powerful documentaries I’ve ever encountered (and I’m a longtime follower of documentaries). Liberal or conservative, … Continue reading

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Peak Oil?

The Guardian today appears to have a big news scoop: The world is much closer to running out of oil than official estimates admit, according to a whistleblower at the International Energy Agency who claims it has been deliberately underplaying a … Continue reading

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H1N1 Vaccine: Bankers and Bailout Recipients First

This is the way the world works (in case you just got here). This today at the Huffington Post: Building on a story that BusinessWeek broke, NBC reports that employees at the New York Stock Exchange, bankers at Goldman Sachs … Continue reading

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Great News

If you’re a Democrat hoping to hold off the Republicans from retaking one (or both) of the houses of Congress in 2010. This today at Politico: The nation’s gross domestic product grew at a seasonally adjusted rate of 3.5 percent for July through … Continue reading

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Sunshine?

Walter Russell Mead, a very smart Council on Foreign Relations foreign affairs analyst, sees some blue patches in the otherwise cloudy global economic and foreign policy skies: Economically, the better-than-expected unemployment numbers are part of a global trend. Financial markets … Continue reading

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Things Are Looking Up?

President Barack Obama has got to be pleased about this. The New York Times today: “Six months ago, when the president took office, we were talking about whether recession would become depression,” Lawrence H. Summers, the White House’s top economic … Continue reading

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Hieronymus Bosch Christ Killers, Larry Summers, and Andrew Sullivan: Michael Weiss, of New Criterion, Calls Out Andrew Sullivan for Reinforcing an Anti-Semitic Caricature

After my own posting on Andrew Sullivan comparing Larry Summers to a Jewish Christ-killer caricature in a Bosch painting, I noticed that Michael Weiss, at New Criterion, also saw what I did, and laid in on Andrew Sullivan for it: “See if … Continue reading

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From Liberty Bonds to Bailout Bonds?

The NY Times says that Barack Obama is contemplating letting small individual investors in on the bank bailout—wedding Main Street to Wall Street. Like a mutual or bond fund, you would buy shares, perhaps for as little as a few … Continue reading

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Unregulated Capitalism Doesn’t Work? Is This the Lesson We Should Take from the Current Financial Debacle?

A reader at Andrew Sullivan’s The Daily Dish makes an interesting observation: One of the most powerful lessons of history was certainly played out in the 43 year period between the end of Word War II and 1988. By the … Continue reading

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Are Global Markets on the Mend?

According to the New York Times today, some economists and market analysts are moving into the realm of the cautiously optimistic: Garry Evans, Asia strategist at HSBC in Hong Kong, in a note last week said that “history shows that … Continue reading

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Don’t Question or Mock Authority? Jeff Zucker Responds to Jon Stewart by Sounding Like the Pope

Speak truth to power. NBC’s Chief Executive, Jeff Zucker, is pissed at Jon Stewart for mocking CNBC “authority” on matters of business. So reports Reuters: “Just because someone who mocks authority says something doesn’t make it so,” Zucker said, describing the … Continue reading

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Fareed Zakaria’s GPS is the Best Political Talk Show on Television

I’m blown away by the consistently high quality of Fareed Zakaria’s CNN Sunday show, “Fareed Zakaria’s GPS.” He always seems to find, for his show, the super smart among the super smart, and they always seem to have a thought provoking, … Continue reading

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The God Delusion—and the Bush Delusion?

At Salon.com is a great cartoon that captures the delusionary nature (akin to religious delusion) of the Bush years. See it here.

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Jon Stewart Takes Down Jim Cramer and Other Fatuous CNBC Business Show Prognosticators

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Are We Living in Apocalyptic Economic and Foreign Policy Times? And Where There Are HAPPY FACES Is This Disjuncture Part of the Horror?

David Sirota of Salon.com thinks so: It’s not just the economic turbulence or the corruption that evokes this new darkness — both have been around for a while. It’s the “I feel fine” obliviousness of R.E.M.’s cataclysmic ballad — the … Continue reading

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“I’m Still Falling”: A Russian Joke and the Global Economy

There is a Russian joke that I like, and that bears upon the global economy. It goes like this: Ivan sees his friend, Dmitri, fall into an old well. Ivan runs up to the rim of the well and calls down, “Oh my God, … Continue reading

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Don’t Buy Yet?: Yale Economist Robert Shiller Thinks the Housing Market is Only Halfway to Its Bottom

Yale economist, Robert Shiller, thinks we are only halfway to the bottom of the housing market, and, in consequence, that the economy’s general recovery is still 3-5 years off. See a five minute interview with Shiller, and a chart that he … Continue reading

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