Welcome! This is an unapologetic, agenda-free zone. Just commentaries on current events that’ll move you to think, laugh, rage, and even cry.
Got that, New York? I was in the vanguard of progressives decrying the fact that none of the bankers on Wall Street – whose shenanigans caused the global financial crisis of 2008 – were ever prosecuted. Everybody knows that rank criminality and dishonesty among (predominantly white) casino croupiers masquerading as investment bankers – much of it having… Read more.
I’m on record lamenting that law enforcement officials were no more interested in stopping illegal gambling on Wall Street than Captain Renault was in stopping it in Casablanca. Which is why I greeted this damning admission with indignant indifference: A trial attorney from the Securities and Exchange Commission said his bosses were too ‘tentative and… Read more.
Have you ever noticed that financial analysts talking about markets often sound like anxious mothers talking about kids? They seem to have more reasons for markets behaving badly than mothers have for two-year olds throwing temper tantrums. How often, for example, have you heard analysts trying to explain market volatility by citing the never-ending conflict… Read more.
The schadenfreude is palpable among those who think [the 2008 financial crisis] heralds the belated comeuppance of rich investment bankers who have been living easy on Wall Street for far too long—primarily by ‘racking up big profits and then sticking it to the taxpayer when things go sour’. And even though some glee over their… Read more.
Last week there were record gains on Wall Street; this week there are record losses. But trying to get even the savviest market analyst to provide a rational explanation for this is rather like trying to get a monkey to do algebra. In fact, major markets around the world continue to rise and fall based… Read more.
Judging from the title to this commentary, you might expect me to join the chorus of Wall Street Cassandras now predicting Armageddon for the U.S. (if not the global) economy. But this is not the case. Instead, I merely feel compelled to reinforce my admonition that the “the only thing we have to fear, is fear… Read more.
One of the more ironic features of President Obama’s one-month-old presidency is that his critics are accusing him – whose presidential campaign was predicated on hope – of not inspiring enough hope that the U.S. will weather this ongoing financial crisis. And it does not matter to them that Obama is merely honoring his promise to… Read more.
If the banking crisis has not convinced you that Wall Street is populated by a bunch of arrogant, greedy and amoral shysters, then the Ponzi scheme now unfolding should. After all, reports are that Bernie Madoff, the erstwhile “pillar of Wall Street”, swindled $50 billion from a motley crew of rich folks, from Hollywood director Steven… Read more.
Frankly, if nothing else, this latest bailout should finally destroy the myth that the US is running a capitalist, free market economy. After all, this (and the other government bailouts cited above, which effectively privatized shareholder gains and nationalized losses), coupled with longstanding corporate subsidies, is indistinguishable from the way China runs its socialist, centrally planned economy. [Chickens come… Read more.
At this hour, even rabidly partisan forces in Washington are conspiring to find a bi-partisan way to rescue the bailout bill they torpedoed on Monday. But all they’re doing is framing it as a bailout for Main Street, proclaiming that they’re acting now to prevent the meltdown on Wall Street from burning folks on Main Street. Specifically, their concern is no longer about this bailout providing golden parachutes for fat cats on… Read more.
