Learning to think...

A very interesting piece by Nicholas Kristoff in the NY Times: Here

Just awesome....

Bigger image available here.

Madoff Parody...

Sick and twisted but oddly funny...

Ritholtz gets it right...again...

In his February 17th post, Hope is a Four Letter Word, Barry Ritholtz concisely explains the danger of being a market sheep...

Flexing financial muscle and why we are in deep sh*t...

In the mid 20th century we the people, through our elected officials, managed through what is historically referred to as the Suez Crisis.  In July of 1956 Eqypt, in response to the withdrawal of an offer by the US and Britian to build the Aswan Dam, decided to nationalize the Suez Canal, which had been built with French and Egyptian funds.

For a variety of reasons, which can explored at a different time in a different post, Britian, France, and Israel attacked Egypt in response to the nationalization of the Canal.  The military operation was a sterling success and a political disaster, specifically for the US.  So why are we talking about this and what does it have to do with debt?  Simple, the US felt that the hositilites needed to end quickly for political reasons.  The strongest weapon we had at our disposal was our economic strength.  So...

The United States also put financial pressure on Great Britain to end the invasion. President Eisenhower warned the British that unless they withdrew, he would order the sale of the United States' currency reserves of British Pounds and Sterling Bonds; thereby precipitating a collapse of the British currencies' exchange rate. Eisenhower in fact ordered his Secretary of the Treasury, George M. Humphrey to prepare to sell part of the US Government's Sterling Bond holdings.

The above is an excerpt from a great Wikipedia article on the Suez Crisis for thos interested.  I would also suggest this posting on Greenewable's Blog for some additional perspecitve.  

Bottom line, economics matters to national security.  In a very big way.  Don't kid yourself or let elected officials convince you otherwise.   The stimilus package currently under debate in Congress needs to be done but lets not lose sight of the potential long term ramifications.

From the state that brought you Huey Long...

According to this CNN article Stormy Daniels, yes the porn star, is seriously considering running for political office.  Specifically the US Senate. Given the, shall we call it, rich history, of politics in Louisiana, this isn't exactly a shocker.  The draft Stormy website states:

"Our grass-roots movement spans the political spectrum and champions Stormy's philosophy of personal responsibility and the promotion of individual enterprise. We eschew partisanship and labels, instead judging our leaders on their integrity, character and effectiveness." 

Could she really be any worse than the current cast of characters?

I can't help it...I love Amazon...

The new Kindle 2 from Amazon looks awesome!  I know I am a sucker for Amazon but you have to admit this thing rocks....

If you are interested check out this Wired blog to see how Kindle 2 stacks up against the newest Sony Reader.  Happy reading...

Gotta Love Duff, Guns & Finance...

Kudos to The Credit Crunch Times for bringing this to my attention.  It appears that according to a recent NY Post article Duff McKagan, former Guns N' Roses bassist, is now authoring a finance column for Playboy.

 McKagan admits, however, he doesn't understand all the technical ins and outs of high finance, but says TV's talking heads don't, either.

"Those boneheads on TV just want to make themselves come off as smart . . . I hope to shed some no-nonsense light on day-to-day money issues," he wrote, closing his salty commentary with a promise: "I will do my best to expose frauds and criminals, one at a time." 

Seriously, how much worse could he do then the current cast of characters...maybe we should give him a quick shot at a TARP suggestion...

Free Congressional Research Service Reports...

As pointed out by the Angry Bear Blog Today Congressional Research Service (CSR) reports are now available for free online thanks to Wikileaks.  The Congressional Research service is a division of the US Library of Congress.

For the full text of the Wikileaks posting click here.

Credit where credit is due...

Tim Ferris's book The 4-Hour Workweek has garnered quite a bit of interest and a hell of a lot of press recently.  In fact, Tim Ferris won a prize from Wired magazine last year for being the "greatest self promoter" of all time."

My guess is that it is true, that he is possibly the greatest self promoter out there.  In fact his website, wildly popular in some circles, is one gigantic self promotion.  

My point about this is, so what?  Who cares.  Give the dude some credit.  He has made some fantastic points.  Yes, the book reeks of self-help jargon in some cases but he also goes a step beyond and gives people real insights into how to impelement his lifestyle and is he completely transparent in that he knows he is operating at the extremes.  

Ferris's thinking and approach to life is unconventional and that, in itself, will draw out the critics.  Unconventional thought though is the only way to lead an unconventional life.  So I say read the damn book (it's a very quick read anyway).  Implement what you like and leave the rest but just like a great conversation with any opinionated person don't dismiss it because it is littered with some self promotion and cliché self help.  Just the tips on limiting email use are likely worth the price of admission alone. The guy wrote a well thought out book with real details about how he accomplished his goals.  He deserves the credit he is getting, even is he is a shameless self promoter.