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An immodest economic proposal: Smart streets
Some of the explanations for why the current economic downturn is more severe than other post-war recessions — and has so surprised the experts — may lie in the theories of long-dead Russian economist Nikolai Kondratieff.
Singing Wall Street’s new song
The times they certainly are a changin'. So tarnished is their reputation these days that Wall Streeters — from masters of the universe to back-office personnel — are loath to tell strangers where they work, if, of course, they're lucky enough to still be employed.
Advice for the class of ’09: Think Ponzi
Times are tough, kids. Wall Street is pretty much dead and corporate America is taking a chainsaw to its payroll. So you’ve got to go where the action is, and let me tell you, Ponzi schemes are smokin’.
Inside the mind of Bernie Madoff
How did a prominent Wall Street entrepreneur, known to all the powers that be in New York and Washington — including regulators — get away with what he says was a $50 billion Ponzi scheme?
Who wins at the new MSSB?
Here’s my prediction as to who will emerge as eventual winners in the Morgan Stanley Smith Barney joint venture: sign makers, business card printers and James Gorman, as well as a small circle of other top managers.
The ‘D’ word
Accuse me of being a scaremonger, an ignoramus, a member of the pinko-commie media or any other epithet that comes to mind.
Bold solutions for the new year
Who am I to address national problems? The same pundit who vented last week, which means you can take these ideas with less than a grain of salt, think they’re brilliant (as my parents invariably do) or mull them over and decide later.
Bah, humbug to the SEC, Paulson, Madoff …
I get Scrooge-like when I think of the powerful, incompetent and smug rich people who act as if they are my “betters.”
Madoff: The coolest guy in the room
What’s Bernie Madoff really like? Think of the coolest guy in high school — the one with a convertible, surrounded by cheerleaders.
Inflation or deflation?
What’s ahead for 2009 — a deflationary slump where consumers wait to buy because prices keep going down or an inflationary slump where business limps along and prices keep rising to offset the increasingly worthless dollar?
R-O-T-H spells opportunity
You’ve got to admit that 99.9% of the American population would consider an hour’s discussion of the intricacies of tax planning in retirement accounts about as exciting as watching cement dry. But if you’re like our adviser attendees — and there were more than a thousand of them — you find the subject fascinating.
Let’s still give thanks
One would have to be delusional not to recognize all the problems we face as we head into 2009. For the first time I can remember, talk of a depression is not limited to the lunatic fringe. Still, amid the gloom, this is the time of year to give thanks.
The Detroit solution
I’m old enough to remember the “forward look” and “extra care in engineering” themes of Chrysler in the halcyon 1950s, as well as its famed hemi-head V-8s. Now when I think of Chrysler, all that comes to mind is the transmission on our family’s 1996 Town & Country minivan that blew up after just 40,000 miles.
Riding the Kondratieff Wave
I’ve always had the feeling that I’d one day see the economic equivalent of the California Big One. So when I discovered the theories of Nikolai Kondratieff, I was convinced the long-dead gloomy Russian economist was onto something.
The Reserve Fund’s PR gaffe
The Reserve’s handling of its communications surrounding the financial problems, unfortunately, earn a grade of less than a gentleman’s “C.”
Wanted: A stock market guru
I’d like to help propel some willing guru-in-waiting into the limelight, so if you have nominations for Guru 2008 (think “American Idol”), tell me who and why.
Time to rethink financial planning
Let’s say you were a financial planner in 1926. Of course, there was no such discipline as financial planning in the Roaring ’20s.
Three cheers for humility
If you happened to watch Monday’s hearing of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, you saw a great example of what’s wrong with American leadership. In a word, it’s hubris.
Is 2008 the new 1929?
Sure, financial giants are in trouble, but many people are probably thinking, “good — those greedy #$%#!s deserve it.”
Lehman’s descent into the media vortex
I’ve seen this peculiar downward spiral take shape from the vantage point of a financial journalist and as a spokesman for New York-based Drexel Burnham Lambert during its last days.
