So Lee writes, again, about her tits, and again, she gets on the Front Page!!!!!!!!!!!!

Enough, Open Salon.  Reward those who do serious reportage and commentary.  Titulation, as if you showed us her tits, is getting a bit stale.

As I write, 3, count em 3, knuckleheads want us to read… Read full post »

We have "Animal Farm" (not "Animal House", you sot) to thank for the observation that all pigs are equal, but some pigs are more equal than others.  It has been the driving thesis of this endeavor that until we move toward a more equitable distribution of the nation's income and wealth,… Read full post »

One of my favorite database sites is simple-talk, where I've just posted a comment to an editorial.  The subject is more about economics and society than databases, so here is a slightly edited version.



I'm rather an admirer (and more than a little jealous that he got published, which makes it mo… Read full post »

The only useful purpose of a Free Press is to expose the crooks, liars, and hypocrites, whether they be public or private.  Given our country's historical allowance of secrecy to corporations, news gatherers most often find these folks in the public sphere.  It's much safer to leak about so… Read full post »

The kerfuffle over the Google/Verizon "deal" has moved me to leave my weekly lair to make one point.  It follows.

But, the 600 lb. gorilla still sits in the room:  how to apportion the highly disparate costs of 1) surfing pages to look at and buy stuff and 2) streaming audio/video content… Read full post »

For the next little while, I'm going to just keep notes during the week, and post on Friday; since this is Friday the 13th, and the stock market has been playing Vomit Comet, there's been just too much going on to have enough time to deal with it all.  I didn't… Read full post »

As the saying goes, "Pay back's a bitch".  The thrust of this endeavor has been the inexorable truth that the distribution of income and wealth for a stable, democratic society must be more level than slanted.  With slanted distributions, police states emerged as the necessary control of th… Read full post »

In today's NY Times is an article contrasting Mr. Optimist and Mr. Pessimist in the economists' dog fight.  

Here's a quote from the beginning of the article:
Instead, the [monthly employment] numbers will be a clue as to which of the two economists is right about where the American economy is hea… Read full post »

Some of you may have read my earlier posts, Dee Feat is in Dee Flation (since this is posted various places, I'm too lazy to have to maintain multiple links, check 19 May and 15 July on this site to refresh your memory).  Perhaps not.  Today's NY Times has two articles… Read full post »

It is my MO to avoid the Great Mass of Important Pundits, and to think and write as I see the world. I assiduously attempt to avoid becoming part of the Blogosphere Echo Chamber. I do read the news, of course, to know what's going on in the world… Read full post »

[UPDATE 15 July]
Well, the Producer Price Index was just released, and it's in the minus world.  Deflation is here.  How long it stays is anybody's guess, but if Obama caves to the Right Wingnut Fatmen, the Famine will last a long time.  Fatmen like it that way.

Despite the continuing br… Read full post »

There has been much ink spilled and breathless commentary spoken recently about how to expand the economy through the usual Right Wingnut means:  giving away more money to Haves while strangling the Have Nots.  Krugman deserves praise for devoting columns to outing such nonsense.  I'm… Read full post »

I'll begin with the admission that I have no use for LeBron James.  Certainly not as a basketball player, highly overrated.  Not much better as a human being, recent events determine.  But the piling on by the media and "fans" is utter hypocrisy.  

These same media and regular folk… Read full post »

I've mentioned, occasionally, that I was inveigled into cruising to Bermuda a few hurricane seasons ago.  I've been reading the Island's major paper, The Royal Gazette, ever since.  Both social unrest and water shortage have gotten worse since my visit.   The Leaders' response to… Read full post »

It was Warren Buffett who observed that there is a class war in progress, started by the rich, and the rich are winning.  So, it should come as no great surprise to read in today's NY Times a story about the plight of million dollar defaulters.  

The title of this post… Read full post »

I have, on one more than one occasion, pointed out that the Gummint (which polls assert the populace hate, well until the populace needs something, see Gulf Coast) which put us in this mess took some time to get us here.  I start counting with Reagan, although one might start with… Read full post »

May be that all that vaunted superiority of Toyota was just lies.  May be that Toyota was just better at playing the hide-it game than everybody else.  The recent stories, including yesterday's make it clear that this Emperor really does have no clothes.  May be they've forgotten all t… Read full post »

Well, we dodged the bullet.  Nonfarm payrolls were down overall, but private sector hires were positive, although not quite as many as hoped.  Due to the perversity of the calculations, unemployment is down .2%, to 9.5%; almost certainly (I haven't seen the detailed report; likely won't [UP… Read full post »

Well, that didn't take long.

A couple of days after the G-20 Monkeys asserted that their Best Plan was to repeat the stupidity of 1937, we get data which shows that 1937 is well on its way to returning; with a vengeance.  Kindly refer to my Fat Man in Famine post for… Read full post »

I have argued more than once in the course of this endeavor that the Chinese government's economic decisions have been counter-productive as economic policy, although plausibly effective as warfare sans guns.  Today's NY Times offers a double barrelled confirmation.  First, some reporting f… Read full post »

    This is the way the world ends
    This is the way the world ends
    This is the way the world ends
    Not with a bang but a whimper.

    T. S. Eliot, "The Hollow Men"


I've come to the conclusion that Obama has neither the b… Read full post »

Well, there is a very long article in today's NY Times, which anyone interested in knowing who did what with respect to BP should read.  And, not surprisingly, I was right:  the person who approved the well came in with Reagan.  Not only that, but Interior/MMS and the "industry" had st… Read full post »

I, along with billions of other humans I'd wager, was blissfully unaware of Foxconn until the number of suicides reached a level that even jingoist American press took notice.  Along the way, these articles provided background about Foxconn, its clients, and the products it makes.  Boy howd… Read full post »

The NY Times has two stories today (call them Mutt and Jeff ), which I find synchronistic.  The piece on leading indicators is so funny.  The one on the impoverished blogger, is ever so close to my heart.

The synchronisity arises from me.  I have been saying and writing and so recently… Read full post »

Another comment from someplace else.  This time it's a Seeking Alpha thread, a review of Roger Lowenstein's review of the Great Recession, "The End of Wall Street".  In the comments, is the assertion that the Great Recession was sparked by oil prices.  Not even close.  Oil, even w… Read full post »