Check out this video of North Koreans bereaving the loss of Kim Jong Il. (HT to Business Insider) Yes, it is unbelievable. When you get to 1:20 of the video, watch the kids in the background look around as if it say – “I guess we should do what everyone else is doing.” Throughout the video,… [Read more…]
May 19, 2011
The Economist.com gets this one wrong. The education bubble isn’t about a student “selling” their degree in the open market. Here’s why there’s an education bubble: Student loans are securitized and resold in the same way as residential mortgages. And the numbers are staggering. Know that whole Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac thing going on right now… [Read more…]
October 27, 2010
Pragmatic Capitalism asked the question – “Is this 1937-38 all over again?” 1937 is important because after experiencing economic growth for a couple of years, the US economy fell sharply into a great recession. (It’s a topic of debate as to whether the 1937 slowdown was a new recession or an extension of the Great… [Read more…]
October 26, 2010
A Bloomberg article today reports the view that Greece will assuredly default on their sovereign debt within three years. Serendipitously, from my reading of “This Time is Different” by Carmen Reinhart and Kenneth Rogoff: In the modern era, however, the idea of using gunboat diplomacy to collect debts seems far-fetched (in most cases). The cost-benefit… [Read more…]
October 24, 2010
Who knew my Sunday morning coffee with the week’s recordings of The Charlie Rose Show would include culinary genius Robert Reich, former Labor Secretary under Bill Clinton? Reich just published his book “After Shock.” While I typically don’t agree with Reich on policy, he made several excellent arguments and one-liners about economic decisions ahead: The… [Read more…]
October 19, 2010
Found the book via Megan McArdle’s recent post – “Should We Just Call a ‘Do-Over’ on the Mortgage Market?“. (The answer is a resounding “no” BTW… There are other more painful, but more effective ways to solve the problem.) Benjamin Roth was a lawyer in Youngstown, OH through the Great Depression and kept a running… [Read more…]
September 27, 2010
About a year ago, I picked up a copy of Andrew Ross Sorkin’s “Too Big to Fail” and wrote about it here. Sorkin was back on the Charlie Rose show a couple weeks ago discussing more concepts on debt, but how it applies to public debt – are countries too big too fail? Given the… [Read more…]
June 27, 2009
The current climate change bill prompted me to write to the Mike Thompson, my local Congressman here in California. I urged him to vote against the current form of the bill, as it is clear from published reports that the House of Representatives failed to spend the appropriate time reviewing the bill and its implications… [Read more…]
May 4, 2009
The vote originally scheduled for April 21 to enact the Berkeley Climate Action Plan has been pushed to Tuesday, May 5. Click here for a link to the new agenda item.
May 4, 2009
Warren Buffet is an ardent supporter of the Obama Administration, which seems puzzling given his penchant for the free market and capitalism throughout his life. (Check out Roger Lowenstein’s “Buffett: The Making of an American Capitalist” – definintely a good read…) On the other hand, he’s been extremely charitable throughout his life, giving away most… [Read more…]
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December 19, 2011
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