bfwebster on December 9th, 2009

Companies are born, live, thrive, dwindle, and then often die or are absorbed by other firms. Being 56 years old, I’ve seen a lot of that first-hand and have worked for several firms that no longer exist. Over at 24/7 Wall Street, Jon Ogg and Douglas McIntyre have picked ten brands that they think will [...]

Continue reading about Capitalism red in tooth and claw

bfwebster on October 20th, 2009

Big Government offers this chart of unemployment trends in post-WW II recessions.  Nice to see that the massive deficit spending on ’stimulus’ has paid off so well.  ..bruce w..

Continue reading about How bad is the US job market?

bfwebster on October 14th, 2009

It’s about to move into commercial real estate (emphasis mine):
Investors who bought into the deal were confident that real-estate manager Tishman Speyer would be able to greatly boost profits by raising rents in Manhattan’s sizzling apartment market. But today, the 56-building, 11,000-apartment property is suffering from a slowing New York economy, a lawsuit that has [...]

Continue reading about The real estate collapse isn’t over yet

bfwebster on September 30th, 2009

Hat tip on the video to Matt Yuen, a long-time friend and fellow PMS Commando (that writeup in from world-famous author (and budding politician) Dan Gookin, another one of the Commandos). You jump out of the same plane together, and you definitely are friends for life . . . however brief that may end up [...]

Continue reading about Is it Wednesday yet/already?

Bruce Henderson on July 14th, 2009

In interesting and complex story is unfolding, centered on Goldman Sachs, the large and highly profitable company that we all worked so hard to fund with bail out dollars. The story started as a small, throw-away technical story about a former Goldman employee named Sergey Aleynikov, who left the firm and was accused of [...]

Continue reading about What Did Sergey Aleynikov Really Do At Goldman?

Bruce Henderson on July 8th, 2009

Scientific minds will note that there are some interesting things going on at the intersection of climate science and economics. With an ongoing global recession, industrial production and output is down between 5% and 15% across the developed and industrialized world. For example
United States: -6.3%
Canada: -5.4%
Russia: -7.9%
Germany: -3.8%
United Kingdom: -4.9%
China: +6.1%
India: -6.1%
That is a lot [...]

Continue reading about Global Recession – CO2 Reduction?

bfwebster on June 20th, 2009

Hope at last!
US To Trade Gold Reserves For Cash Through Cash4Gold.com
Makes as much sense as any of the financial plans coming out of Congress and the Administration these days. ..bruce w..

Continue reading about A solution to the financial crisis

Bruce Henderson on May 14th, 2009

I honestly don’t blame the administration for talking up the economy over the past few months. I am sure they wanted to see if they could nudge Americans into coming out of the bunkers and buying again. It worked for George Bush after 9-11, maybe they can give it one more go?
Sadly, Sally and [...]

Continue reading about Global Economic Indicators Still Cold

bfwebster on April 29th, 2009

MORNING LINKS
ITEM: Speaking of swine flu hysteria, this may be a good time to invest in pork belly futures – there may be a shortage soon.
ITEM: Yet another way in which Western Europeans are looking for the US to help them financially.
ITEM: Here’s a slideshow of items from the Michael Jackson Neverland Ranch auction. Some [...]

Continue reading about Wednesday’s a snooze day

bfwebster on April 10th, 2009

MORNING LINKS
[Welcome to AoS readers, and thanks to Genghis for the links and the kind words! Feel free to bookmark ASIP! Also, my Saturday links are posted here, my Monday links are here, my Tuesday links are here, and my Wednesday links are here.]
ITEM: Remember me quoting Machiavelli (“It is better to be feared than [...]

Continue reading about Friday spawns