Economists, some anyway, love models (not the willowy kind in chiffon).  Most of the Right Wingnuts always call up the US of 1776 as a model of how the contemporary economic world should be shaped.  They also tend to want the laws of the land to revert to what existed then. … Read full post »

An essay has been festering in the bottom of my brain stem for some time now.  I am finally compelled to put pen to paper by the first pages of Andrew Ross Sorkin's Too Big To Fail, in which he chronicles the Great Recession.  Two points in these early pages are… Read full post »

I've been saying all along that The Cloud is a Crock.  Well, here's the latest in the saga.  You should go and read the story; I won't cut-n-paste it here.  I will gloat, however.  Imagine what's going to happen when the BigMegaCorp leaves its data in the hands of MicroSoft? … Read full post »

I was just over at the Yahoo! STEC message board, attempting to bring some sense to those folks.  A heavy burden, but someone has to do it.  There was a thread from August, which got restarted, which tried to find justification for SSD, STEC's in particular, in cloud computing.

I disabused t… Read full post »

Short and to the point:  how many tax cheats is a paedophile worth? 

You won't color me surprised when the IRS backs off the Swiss banks, now that they've tried to hand over Polanski, who even his victim says, leave him alone.

There is cynicism, and then there is moral corruption. … Read full post »

There was an article in yesterday's NYT talking about Adair Turner, who heads the Financial Services Authority (I've no idea what if anything that corresponds to here).  Mr. Turner's thesis, which has crossed my mind on occasion and which I've also read elsewhere, boils down to this:  the p… Read full post »

One of the good things about Sunday is the NYT, and the Sunday Business section.  Lots of articles/columns/opinions, and not always a clear cut edge amongst them.  

Today, I'll pick on Steve Lohr.  Not because what he says is especially egregious, only because it is the latest in the co… Read full post »

For all of you out there who've been saying that Larry wants Sun for java or Solaris or MySql, here's what he said yesterday in the Wall Street Journal:

          We're in it to win it.
IBM, we're looking forward to competing
  with you in the hardware b… Read full post »

Paul Krugman does it again.  His story in today's Times Magazine brings joy to my heart.  Finally, a full-blown bullshit whistle against the Right Wingnut economists.  But with all due respect, he does miss out on one point.  And it's a very important point, why the behaviour of a… Read full post »

There exists, still, the myth of infinite bandwidth.  The myth exists in support of the notion that "web" applications can and should be just like desktop applications.  But there is a problem:  what is a desktop application?  In the beginning, 1982, the IBM PC provided a standalo… Read full post »

This is really simple.   And a really short piece.

Japan means that the US of A is the *last* fascist modern industrialized country on the planet.  We spiral further into the morass of India, China, and Russia.  Don't bray that India is a democracy.  I wasn't born yesterday.… Read full post »

Well, mangled Paul Simon a bit there, but this tid bit (via O'Reilly) from one Carl Hewitt set off the "The Thought Leaders Have Finally Figured Out the Obvious" bell:

As Jim Gray noted in "Distributed Computing Economics" (MSR-TR-2003-24) there is a growing imbalance between the computation power of… Read full post »

>>  can an economy survive with such minimal manufacturing in the portfolio?

Not in the manner of the middle class revolution, post World War II.  I am a Keynesian (my real blog is DrKeynesWasRight), and the reason boils down to:  the level of income inequality from previous types… Read full post »

The next cliff is on or about the Ides of October.  The 2nd quarter "beat expectations" reports that keep being printed are based on draconian firings, not improved revenues.  The reduction in first time unemployment is the canary in the coal mine.  It is not a bright omen, it is Regan… Read full post »

There are many spewings from the Right WingNuts that are irritating.  Among the most such is the claim that a Single Payer health system will "put the government between you and your doctor" or "some government accountant will decide what care you get".  Neither is true, of course.  Wh… Read full post »

[I have another blog, which deals with computer stuff.  This is the first post I've crossed over.  I may do it again.  You have been warned.]

As (what now turns out to be) Part 1 began:
Well, the other shoe dropped.  Oracle has bid for Sun.  In my tracking of speculation,… Read full post »

By now most folks should know that the Red/South states come in last in terms of education, jobs, income, and smarts by any measure.  Now, we find out what that means.

It means that not only ain't they Dumb, Fat, and Happy, they are Dumb, Fat, Poor, Old..... and Sick.  While being… Read full post »

5-4, of course, but the Supremes have just made de facto discrimination legal again.

What a country.

That old saying, "figures don't lie, but liars figure" sound familiar?

When the news appeared that the number of people on unemployment had dropped, and that this was a sign of better things happening in the economy, I had to avoid an upchuck.  Phooey, I told anybody who would listen.  All t… Read full post »

A few small bites today.

Notice that China is feverishly stimulating its domestic consumption?  They have admitted, albeit with loud rectitude, that export (read: labor exploitative) based economies quickly collapse.  They are admitting the truth:  capitalists and consumers are co-depen… Read full post »

The web-bloids are carrying the story, and AT&T sort of confirms, that Kute Kris got most of Arkansas to vote with special phones.

While I couldn't care less who wins "Idol", I've never watched, the implication for any electronic voting process is easily hacked.

Think about it, citizens.  "R… Read full post »

I don't know (or care right now) what the accepted practice is with regard to linking outside of OS.  I have written on occasion that Financial Services is basically evil.  I never got around to doing lots of literature research.  But I found an article that has.  A very good read… Read full post »

Guess what happened when none of us (humble self ignominiously included) weren't looking?  Tiny Timmy Geithner took that TARP money and created some (I don't know how many, only that I am not among them) millionaires.  I am pretty certain that there aren't many NEW millionaires in the flock… Read full post »

Hitachi posted its largest ever loss.  So what else is new?  The disturbing part of the article, and reflected by the company's statements, is the assumption that a "recovery" is in the cards; albeit next year, or next quarter, or next whatever.

In no case to these predictions explain where… Read full post »

We all know about the phrase, unintended consequences, yes?  Give a hand up to a struggling capitalist, and he lays off half of his employees in order to maximize profit.  What, you didn't make him promise in writing that he would use the hand up to hire more employees and not… Read full post »