Why not just call it Wall Street’s Petty Cash fund?

Ever worked for one of those places that has a petty cash fund that management just can’t seem to keep it’s fingers out of?  You know, the one that’s supposed to buy a few various sundries like postage stamps and turns into a sushi and martini account?  Well, check this out out the Financial Times.  [...]

Enforce the Sherman Anti-trust Act and Regulate the Shadow Banks

I’ve said this before, but it bears repeating.  Monopoly power and rent-seeking behavior are anathema to market systems. Politics should stay out of economic decisions and government should provide the framework that makes the market honest, transparent, and open to all interests.  Republican and Democratic pols need to go back to Principles of Microeconomics classes [...]

On the other hand … or is it Hoof?

In what is undoubtedly good news, the US Bureau of Economic Analysis (Dept. of Commerce) has announced that  REAL GDP grew by approximately 3.5% in the third quarter of 2009.  That is up from the second quarter growth of .7%.  It appears that the economy may be rebounding from the so-called “Great Recession”.  However, as [...]

Banking is supposed to Boring

There really isn’t much to being a banker.  It’s boring and not too difficult.  Basically, you take in deposits and safekeep them for a saver.  You keep a portion to cover any possible withdrawals.  The rest you lend out to some one at a reasonable rate of interest.   That rate needs to cover the [...]

Who Holds Wall Street Accountable?

If your answer included any of number regulators or congress with its oversight duties or the traditional media with its watchdog of the public duties sorta answer, that would be a wrong answer. There were so many articles today about past and present Wall Street tomfoolery that I almost forgot [...]

Common Sense and the sensus communis: anatomy of an American pressure cooker

Gay-Lussac
The pressure of a fixed mass and fixed volume of a gas is directly proportional to the gas’s temperature.
This relationship is known as the Gay-Lussac’s Law and a pressure cooker is an example of the law in practice. Cooking under pressure creates the possibility of cooking with high temperature liquids because the boiling point of [...]

Support your new Alphabet Soup Agency

A central component of the Obama administration’s Wall Street reform policy is creation of the Consumer Financial Protection Agency (CFPA).    He mentioned it earlier this week in his speech as well as today in his radio address.  The banks are not happy about the agency.  I thought I’d spend some time on what is being [...]

Revenge of the Beta Males

There’s only a few places in the real world where Beta Males get to whoop it up and extract their revenge on the Alphas that shoved them around during their model-building, star wars loving, well-spent but unhappy youths.  Those places would be on Wall Street, what passes for journalism these days, and Washington D.C..  It’s [...]

The Bear Whisperer

Bless his little heart.  He called for “common sense” rules for Wall Street.  He had sharp words of warning for those who didn’t learn the lessons from  Lehman Brothers and the global financial crisis. Isn’t that nice?   We no longer have to  “speak softly and carry a big stick”?  I guess those were different [...]

Speechification Alert

Well, it’s my turn to listen to a Obama Speech.  Those speeches usually have the same dizzying effect on me that tennis matches do.  Instead of watching balls go back and forth  rhythmically while lulling me to sleep, I get to watch the head of the President.  Teleprompter Right, 1,2,3 to Teleprompter left, 2, 3 [...]