Sailing the Last Voyage with Newton and Pascal
He may not think of himself in this way, but... Iowa Sen. Charles Grassley suggested that AIG executives should take a Japanese approach toward accepting responsibility for the collapse of the insurance giant by resigning or killing themselves. The Republican lawmaker's harsh comments came during an interview with Cedar Rapids, Iowa, radio station WMT on …
Continue reading "The Pagan Charles Grassley: From Victory at Sea to Defeat in Manhattan"
This, under the Roman Emperor Gelarius: But that which gave rise to public and universal calamity, was the tax imposed at once on each province and city. Surveyors having been spread abroad, and occupied in a general and severe scrutiny, horrible scenes were exhibited, like the outrages of victorious enemies, and the wretched state of …
He's right, but... Rep. Barney Frank charged Monday that a decision by financially strapped insurance giant AIG to pay millions in executive bonuses amounts to "rewarding incompetence." Echoing outrage expressed on both sides of the political aisle in the wake of revelations that American International Group will pay roughly $165 million in bonuses, Frank said …
Continue reading "Rewarding Incompetence: Not Only in the Private Sector"
The Chinese are worried about the status of the enormous sum the U.S. owes them: China's premier expressed concern Friday about its massive holdings of Treasuries and other U.S. debt, appealing to Washington to safeguard their value, and said Beijing is ready to expand its stimulus if the economy worsens. Premier Wen Jiabao noted that …
Continue reading "What We Owe the Chinese: A Debt to Equity Conversion?"
We're at loggerheads with the rest of the G20 over economic recovery: A simmering row about the whole point of the G20 meeting on April 2 burst into the open when Larry Summers, chief economic adviser to President Obama, called on other countries to follow America's lead in pumping even more money into stimulus plans …
They're screaming bloody murder these days: Among those shocked by President Obama's 2010 budget, the most surprising are the true-blue liberals who run most of America's nonprofits, universities and charities. How dare he limit tax deductions for charitable giving! They're afraid they'll get fewer donations, but they should be more concerned that Mr. Obama's policies …
Continue reading "Liberal Charities: Avoiding Being Victims of Obama’s Taxes"
I think our President is reading my blog: In a 35-minute conversation with The New York Times aboard Air Force One on Friday, Mr. Obama reviewed the challenges to his young administration. The president said he could not assure Americans the economy would begin growing again this year. But he pledged that he would “get …
Continue reading "Go Ahead. Stuff the Money in the Mattress. Just Like the French Do."
There's no other explanation for it: Hillary Clinton raised eyebrows on her first visit to Europe as secretary of state when she mispronounced her EU counterparts' names and claimed U.S. democracy was older than Europe's... A veteran politician, Clinton compared the complex European political environment to that of the two-party U.S. system, before adding: "I …
One of those things that you run into in religious dialogue is the subject of reincarnation or, to use the fancy term, transmigration of souls. There were even those who thought that that John the Baptist was Elijah reincarnated: “When the Jews sent some Priests and Levites to John from Jerusalem, to ask--“Who are you?”, …
Continue reading "Is Barack Obama William Beveridge Reincarnated?"
...bailing out countries: TUMBLING exchange rates, gaping current-account deficits, fearsome foreign-currency borrowings and nasty recessions: these sound like the ingredients of a distant third-world-debt crisis from the 1980s and 1990s. Yet in Europe the mess has been cooked up closer to home, in east European countries, many of them now members of the European Union. …
Continue reading "Americans Gripe About Bailing Out Mortgage Holders, But Europeans Gripe About…"
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