On the 200th anniversary of the birthday of Charles Darwin and the 150th anniversary of the publication of his book, The Origin of Species, I’ve read a plethora of articles from all different directions. As you can imagine, George Will of the Washington Post Writers Group has his own particular approach which is always, erudite [...]

Russ Bredholt, Jr. of Bredholt & Co. sent me some bulleted Book Notes he had produced on a book “The Black Swan” by Nassim Taleb. In light of its relevance in today’s economic reality, I thought it might be of interest to pass along. I’m calling this a simple “Black Swan” in history. Take a [...]

I’m sure we are all, at this point, reading everything we can on the upcoming Stimulus Bill. This review, in Monday’s Wall Street Journal, was an insightful evaluation of the potential net effect, in economic terms, of government spending of that magnitude. Take a look. Original writing date: January 26, 2009 Article writing date: January [...]

I was interested in this article by Tom Friedman of the New York Times. He uses the concept of “the thing itself,” actually taken from what Emmanuel Kant a century ago called “the thing in itself” to represent the inherent truth behind the phenomena. These days, it’s the noise, clutter and what I call, from [...]

This briefing was in the November 28th issue of The Week. It is probably one of the clearest explanations for how recessions occur and, most specifically, how they end. In the meantime, it tracks a number of specific recessions and how we got out of them. Specifically, note the supply demand access not only for [...]

Note this article from the Wall Street Journal, November 19th. It identifies what many in the financial community have ascertained. When the money is made on the origination and sale of a credit instrument, such as a loan, the looser the secondary market, the more flawed the process becomes. If the originator is required to [...]

So many of us have had thoughts about president-elect Obama’s ability to reinvigorate America’s reputation abroad. I came across this article in The Week magazine, November 14th, I wanted to share with you. It best illustrates, in my mind, how that election has inspired a new view of America. The U.S. and E.U. flags wave [...]

I don’t know if you’ve had a chance to read a recent column written by David Broder from the Washington Post Writer’s Group on President-Elect Obama’s start. However, the process of taking a look at how he assembles his cabinet and chief advisors is turning out to be a reflection of how he handles his [...]

You have got to read this article from Nature magazine. Many of you may not know Nature magazine, although I suspect some of you do. It is a fantastic magazine that covers the broad spectrum of the sciences. I’ve come across it, as I’m sure most of you have, based on the fact most newspapers [...]

This article is from the Times online and is written by Gerard Baker. It is one of the more seminal articles representative of some of the rubbish I personally heard with respect to the implications of the bailout in historical terms. Yes, while it’s true we are in a mess, it’s also true that we [...]