August 8, 2011 – 12:07 pm
The President has pulled into the lead, ahead of a three-way tie among the Treasury secretary, “Other” (write-ins Ben Bernanke, Paul Volcker, Bill Clinton and “Someone who’s fluent in Chinese“) and “Oh, never mind!” What do you think? Not a political comment … just a little comic relief amid wild days in the markets.
We are now entering an era of sociopolitical influence, a framework for governments that influences and is influenced by its constituencies through real life interaction and now, new media. Some may say that this isn’t anything new. Certain governments over the years embraced the aspects of digital community in Web 1.0 and Web 2.0. Many [...]
December 17, 2010 – 2:38 pm
I’ve been holding my breath until Congress came to grips with not raising taxes – and I can exhale, now that “the Bush tax cuts” have been signed (once again) by a president. George W. Bush and Barack H. Obama – who’d have thought it? Three cheers for compromise, bipartisanship and not shooting our economy in the [...]
November 2, 2010 – 9:00 pm
Of the talking heads on the airwaves and op-ed pages, George Will is one of my favorites – for his insights and the way he offers opinions calmly, without shouting. I appreciate two things Will said on Sunday about the US midterm elections. Regarding GOP gains in Congress possibly causing gridlock in Washington, which many pundits greatly [...]
October 22, 2010 – 3:04 pm
Well, there it is, in the pages of the Harvard Business Review for November 2010: Finance prof David Yermack of NYU reports in “Vision Statement: How This First Lady Moves Markets” that Michelle Obama’s choice of outfits generates “abnormal returns” for stocks of publicly traded companies behind the fashion brands. Who’d have thought the First Lady [...]
Today President Obama signed into law the far-reaching expansion of federal regulation of US banking and capital markets. The overhaul has been brewing in Washington since the financial crisis in 2008 – and the 848-page heft of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (PDF here) may have something to do with the [...]
Going into Fourth of July weekend, a friend who has helped raise capital for privately owned businesses – and a couple of public companies – offered his theory about why capital isn’t flowing into enterprises that could reignite our economy. There’s “plenty of money” sitting in private equity funds and other investors’ stashes, this serial [...]
January 27, 2010 – 11:47 pm
The late economist John Maynard Keynes has been mentioned more than once in the news coverage of President Obama’s State of the Union speech.
For a little comic relief from all the analysis of Washington and our economy, here’s a fun video – OK, so maybe fun is in the eye of the beholder – let’s [...]
September 14, 2009 – 10:40 pm
President Obama commemorated today’s anniversary of the collapse of Lehman Brothers and the ensuing financial panic by going to the Wall Street playground and delivering a schoolmarm’s lecture to the boys who’ve been acting up. (News story here, text of speech here.)
Like many a grammar school teacher, Mr. O lectured all the kids without differentiating much between [...]
