American Madness

Intelligent Criticism in the Service of a Better Nation

Cash for gamblers: Government bankrolls hedge fund bets

The Wall Street Journal reports today that large banks have resumed lending money to hedge funds and other institutional investors. A closer look at this at this development reveals painful conflicts and new depths of fraud perpetrated against taxpayers.
The Wall Street lending machine, also known as the prime brokerage business, exists because commercial banks that [...]

Responding to the Terror Threat!

We must respond actively to those countries which support terrorism.  I suggest the following steps to reduce our economic reliance upon countries which threaten our very existence.
1.    Eliminate all commercial relations and/or trade of any kind with the following countries: Cuba, Iran, Sudan, Syria,  Afghanistan, Algeria, Lebanon, Libya, Iraq, Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Somalia and [...]

How can anyone oppose regulating the Markets?

From the NY Times today we read of a new Bill to regulate the Markets.Today the House of Representatives passed legislation aimed at curbing the worst excesses of Wall Street.  The bill would “…create a new consumer financial-protection agency to squelch unfair and abusive practices; and for the first time, regulate over-the-counter derivatives markets. The [...]

Nothing focuses management quite like ownership

Letter to HBS prof William Sahlman regarding this excellent paper:
“Management and the Financial Crisis (We Have Met the Enemy and He is Us”…)
This is a brilliant exposition on the management failures. I only take issue with the notion that the dot com crash had a smaller effect on the domestic economy, or that the dot [...]

Solving New York State’s Fiscal Crisis

The Governor is going to propose once again reducing the expenses of education and cutting medicaid spending. It seems that the engine that ran the State, Wall Street, is no longer paying what it once did. Since we long ago got rid of manufacturing in New York, we now have nothing to replace [...]

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