Not A Mystery
Thoughts
Children Should Be Taxed And Not Heard
As far as I’m concerned, all babies look like Winston Churchill. I’ve never thought of babies as contributing members of society. But now that’s changed. Parents aren’t just raising adorable kids. They are also producing little human capital units that are likely to grow up, get jobs, pay taxes and raise little human capital units … Continue reading
Crazy Uncles And Red-Headed Stepchildren
So here, free of charge, is my suggestion to lower the temperature of our political debates. Replace the metaphor for our clash of ideas, which is currently WAR, with something else. And since the Democrats and Republicans can’t yet agree on anything, I will offer up a custom metaphor for each side. The Repubs will henceforth … Continue reading
Investors Seek A Perfect “Co-Owner” Before The Music Stops
The world needs a new Country and Western song updated for today’s investor, along the lines of Mickey Gilley’s “Don’t The Girls All Get Prettier At Closing Time“ Our song might go platinum, all because there’s a new wrinkle (sic) on the menu of get-rich quick schemes. Billions of dollars in corporate bonds sold to retail … Continue reading
Time To Get Those Heads Out Of The Doggy Bag
Republicans might want to start thinking about who leads their parade. Our enemy is now clearly defined. We know who they are: Anybody with a D beside their name. There’s no moderate Democrat or pro-life Democrat. There’s no Blue Dog, lap dog, hot dog, back dog Democrat. If it’s a D, they are the enemy, … Continue reading
Planted In Front Of The TV
Here’s a provocative thought, and certainly one that hadn’t occurred to me, So if your children are supposedly vegetating in front of the television when they watch it for hours, what happens when you show television to vegetables? Jon Keats, a self-described experimental philosopher, has set up an exhibition in NYC purporting to explore just that question. He’s filmed … Continue reading
Serfs, Slaves And The Health Care Debate
I wasn’t always a fan of Paul Krugman, but that was when I still thought El Rushbo spoke only the truth. F2U Rio Linda: he doesn’t. In any event, the New Yorker magazine just published a great profile of Krugman the person, which also sheds light on Krugman the (Nobel Prize winning) economist. And buried in that article … Continue reading
A Modest Prediction: “What’s Next After Google Street View?”
Last week it was reported that Google is now working on something called Store View. …they took pictures of the inside of the store, every 6 feet, in all directions. They also took pictures of products. Google Store View will allow people to … click on the door to enter it, all on Google Maps. Then … Continue reading
Health Care Debate Is Not A Pretty Picture, Yet
One problem with our continuing health care debate is a lack of pretty graphs to explain complicated issues. Where is Ross Perot when you need him? Say what you want about the European model of heath care, but you have to concede that they are way ahead of us when it comes to pretty pictures. Take this … Continue reading
Strategic Defaults And Altruism Can Only Take You So Far
Normally what would make an interesting blog post is the connection of two seemingly unrelated events. But that’s not happening today. Instead we have two non-intuitive findings that remain just that … non-intuitive. Our first discovery is a conundrum. Why don’t more people who are ‘underwater’ on their mortgages, and can’t get their lender to negotiate … Continue reading
Celebrities, Roles, Tony and Warren (Not Buffett)
I’m late to this party and probably over my head but that’s never stopped me before. Let’s talk about Art and Celebrity. What got my attention the other day was reading the lyrics to a Nora Jones song. I can’t remember which particular song, but it doesn’t matter. The point was that the words themselves … Continue reading
Yes Mr. Galassi, There WAS More To Publishing Than Met The Eye
I try not to beat dead horses. But in this case I will make an exception. Once again we have a book publisher railing against the rising tide of electronic editions. Yesterday’s Op-Ed page in the NY Times featured a column by Jonathan Galassi titled “There’s More to Publishing Than Meets the Screen” in which … Continue reading
