Shifting Gears, or What Happens When the Poles Fail
The Earth’s geomagnetic field, which governs everything from the size of animals to the efficacy of electrical grids, may be in for a big change.
How to Murder a CEO
I couldn’t resist the violent title. A mob of fired workers in India killed the local CEO of Italian Manufacturer Graziano Transmissioni. Now, I am totally against death as punishment in any circumstance, and this event will likely hurt the willingness of foreign companies to locate manufacturing in India, but the punishment is ironic given…
Make Your Vote Count: Vote Before Election Day!
Photo: Brenda Anderson, Creative Commons, Flickr If you want your vote to count, dont vote on Election Day. Why? The Moon.
Where Does the Financial Bailout Money Come From?
Photo: KRISnFRED, Creative Commons, Flickr I have the following response to a reader question: Where does the $700 Billion that the government is spending to rescue financial institutions come from? Is it printed and will it cause inflation?
ExxonMobil (XOM) is Hoarding Cash and Stockholders are Paying the Price
Bloomberg reports that XOM’s cash stockpile is contributing to share price drop.
Manhattan Real Estate Prices and The Euro
A reader comment asks: The dollar still seems low enough that Russians and other non-US buyers may help with your predicted real-estate collapse … thoughts?
How the Lehman Collapse Made Me Thankful
Jeane Roberts writes a frustrated account of the fall of AIG and points out the amount of public money going the rescue of various financial institutions (except Lehman Brothers). Personally, and for my net worth, I’m disappointed that Lehman (LEH, LEHPQ – $0.30) didn’t get rescued. As an ex-employee and shareholder I would have liked…
The Real Message Behind the Bailouts
Photo: wallyg, Creative Commons, Flickr There’s a message behind the recent bailouts, but it isn’t what you think.
The Thomas L. Friedman Energy Revolution Infomercial
To see Thomas Friedman speak, as I did at The 92nd Street Y on Sunday night, is to witness a live infomercial. His product? The ET (Energy Technology) Revolution.
Mouseland: A Tribute to Tommy Douglas and Social Consciousness
Few people are aware of the Clare Gillis political allegory, Mouseland, first disseminated in 1944 by Tommy Douglas, a Scots-born Canadian social democrat who introduced public healthcare as part of a greater package of social reforms aimed at enhancing the quality of life for Canadian citizens.
Book Review: How the Rich Are Destroying the Earth
“It isn’t necessary to exaggerate,” writes French author Hervé Kempf, describing his previous attitude as an environmental journalist. “…the facts, presented with tenacious attention, are sufficient to speak to our intellect.”
Will We Lose Our “Stocks for the Long Run” Religion?
Despite all the doom and gloom seen over the last year, the S&P 500 index is still looking expensive. At Friday’s close the benchmark index traded at a Price to Earnings (P/E) ratio of 24.30, much higher than the 17.17 ratio seen a year ago when the downturn started. FYI – the long term average…
Sex for Oil at the US Government’s Royalty-in-Kind Program
We also discovered a culture of abuse and promiscuity in the RIK program. Several staff admitted to illegal drug use as well as illicit sexual encounters. Alcohol abuse appears to have been a problem when RIK staff socialized with industry. Sexual relationships with prohibited sources cannot, by definition, be arms-length.
Chevron (CVX) Continues Its Deal with Saudi Arabia
Saudi allows CVX to continue its operations in the kingdom on behalf of the government.
Has Life Changed that Much in the Last 150 years?
Photo: djprybyl, Creative Commons, Flickr If we go back in time to pre-Civil War era United States, we would see a country that is a 180 degrees different than the United States in 2008. The powerful, upper crust of society was dominated by the large plantation owners and slavery was a legal and accepted practice.…
Freddie and Fannie Bailout: The $5.4 Trillion Contradiction
Photo: z_everson, Creative Commons, Flickr "Housing finance in the U.S. has long depended on the GSEs Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac," writes Stephanie H. Giroux, TD Ameritrade’s Chief Investment Strategist. "These mortgage lending giants were created by Congress in 1938 and 1970 to support the housing market, and currently hold $5.4 trillion of the roughly…
Wake Up Larry Kudlow! Lehman is the Biggest News Yet
Even though he is a right wing cheerleader who is always eager to politicize every stock market jitter, while wearing his pinstripe suit and pinkie ring, I have to take my hat off to CNBC’s Larry Kudlow. He has always had the guts to take a contrarian stance. Lately though, he seems to have lost…
Sarah Palin and Alternative Energy
Is Sarah Palin really that serious about renewable energy?
Nuts to You, Say Almond Growers Filing Federal Suit
Mark Kastel, my good buddy over at The Cornucopia Institute, send me a red alert on Wednesday.
Cloning: Making the Geico Caveman Real
Last month, Science Daily reported the successful sequencing of a complete mitochondrial genome from a Neanderthal bone.
Cattails: A Good Idea to Combat Global Warming and Ocean Rise
In California, where cutting-edge technologies meet practical applications, a marsh of cattails risings across the road from a field of corn offers the next best hope for rising seas attributed to global warming.
Book Review: Finding the Sweet Spot
Finding the Sweet Spot By Dave Pollard Chelsea Green Publishing 208 pages $17.95
True to Form, Wall Street Hides Behind Complexity
Photo: Jamais Cascio, Creative Commons, Flickr Wall Street hides behind complexity, casing too many suckers to buy complex assets that they don’t understand. The sub-prime fiasco offers an excellent example: Very few people understood the instruments they were trading, but no one wanted to look stupid while the good times kept rolling. Now they do…
Politically Correct Beer: How Do the Major Players Rate?
InBev NV (INBVF:US), the world’s largest brewing company by sales, is buying Anheuser-Busch Companies Inc. (NYSE: BUD), the brewer that owns the best-selling beer in America. Anheuser-Busch had a 1.8 percent increase in profit in the second quarter of 2008. People are drinking a lot, even though (or because) they are making less money or…
Teenagers: Our Last Great Hope?
In every generation teenagers have gotten a bad rap.