Month: September 2008
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Something for Nothing
As I have been thinking and reading about the credit crisis my mind has been chewing on the idea that there are two very different kinds of investing. One is the kind of investing where you put in an initial outlay of resources and follow that with efforts to improve the investment (whether that is…
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Amateur vs Professional
The financial amateurs in Congress have given us the 110 page text of their bailout plan which they will probably vote on today. It’s pretty much like the 102 page draft I wrote about on Saturday. They added the option to insure troubled assets in addition to the option to buy such assets. They also…
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A First Glance at the Bailout Bill
I don’t claim to have read the full 102 page text of the bailout draft proposal yet, but I wanted to share my first reactions after jumping around to some of the sections that caught my interest. Section 110 – Executive compensation (p. 29) I like the idea of controls on executive compensation for participating…
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Put in the Effort
Maybe I’m just reacting to the tone of the article suggesting that Twitter is taking the place of blogging among elected officials in Utah (and elsewhere) but this quote by Ric Cantrell says it all: ”Maybe this is a sign of the times, but blogging got to be too tedious,” said Ric Cantrell, chief deputy…
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Write In “No Confidence”
Somewhere in the news yesterday I heard that voters are beginning to like Sarah Palin less as they get to know more about her. I thought that was interesting since I heard basically the same thing said about Barack Obama back in June or July. My own experience is that I am liking both Obama…
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Economics 101 (Bush Edition)
Wasn’t it so nice for our president to give the country a lesson in economics. He worked hard to reinforce the image of Washington knows best. Unfortunately his lesson left out a few details that are less than flattering for Washington. Let’s review the text of his speech. I’ll skip all the real fluff and…
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Curbing Innovation
When talking about a $700 Billion intervention it only makes sense that taxpayers and members of Congress would want that money to go where it’s needed rather than to propping up salaries of $50 Million/year to executives of failing companies. But Wall Street, its lobbyists and trade groups are waging a feverish lobbying campaign to…
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Everyone Should Read This
I’m not one to link and run, but sometimes there is really nothing to add. I think that everyone should read what Obi wan has to say about the bailout situation.
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We Must Do Better
There has been no shortage of opposition to the hastily proposed $700 Billion Gift Card (Chris Suellentrop provides a nice rundown) – unfortunately little of the real opposition comes from members of Congress. Our own Senator Bennett has flipped from being wary to being supportive because, as every elected official knows, foolish action is better…
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A Managed Economy
I try not to focus on political or economic issues on Sunday, but I had a hard time when I noticed the figure "$700 Billion" yesterday. I was particularly worried by this statement: . . . it would allow Treasury to act unilaterally: Its decisions could not be reviewed by any court or administrative body…