"Ellis does point out a fascinating quirk in tax law: wealthy political appointees who put their assets into blind trusts needn’t pay capital gains taxes on any sales. So public service isn’t always a low-paying sacrifice; it can also help outwit the tax man. Ellis estimates [Secretary of the Treasury] Paulson could have saved as much as $200 million this way."
". . . the Republican Party is schizophrenic: on the one hand, they are, as I say, for God, flag and family, but on the other, they are for the unbridled expansion of capitalism, and thereby leave out something that might still be important to you which is that Jesus, like Karl Marx, thought money leaches out all other values. Indeed, it does. If the whole country is going to pot, and it certainly is, I think you could graph the decline not only in morals, but in a sense of social éclat and social standards—I think you could plot the decline right next to the rise of the Dow Jones—the higher the Dow, the lower the standards. Money destroys all other values. I can even respect the right wing Republicans for holding to a few standards, as they do, but they never take on capitalism which, unbridled, is the worst scourge of human value that we have right now. There may have been a time when Communism was a worse scourge, but now we’re the leaders, and I suggest you consider living with the notion that the party of your choice is paralyzed in its moral centers. . . "
Written in a personal letter by Norman Mailer, 1999
This was a comment on the Time Blog's site and aside from some random weird capitalization, I think the writer pretty much nailed it:
"Just like in the 1890's and in 1929, the Robber Barons of unfettered Laissez Faire and deregulation have shown that they are incapable of self-regulation. Greed, Corruption and Ponzi schemes are the ultimate endgame of right-wing Conservatism. Like the Roosevelts said (both Teddy & FDR), only government oversight and regulation will keep these free market absolutist thieves from destroying the economy for their own enrichment." [Their Brand is Collapse - Swampland - TIME]
"Small service stations are running into a problem as gasoline marches toward $4 a gallon in the United States: Thousands of old-fashioned pumps can't register more than $3.99 on their spinning mechanical dials. The pumps, throwbacks to a bygone era on the American road, are difficult and expensive to upgrade, and replacing them is often out of the question for station owners who are still just scraping by. Many of the same pumps can only count up to $99.99 for the total sale, preventing owners of some sport utility vehicles, vans, trucks and other gas-guzzlers to fill their tanks all the way." [AP story at CNN.com]
I felt like I was inside a chapter of Thomas Friedman's book on globalization this morning. I had to place a phone call to find out how much interest was paid on a loan last year, for tax purposes. I was on hold for approximately ten minutes and then my call was answered by "Matt." Matt appeared, from his accent, to be a native of India and I could barely understand what he was saying to me. He had to put me on hold at least three times and finally after almost twenty-two minutes on the phone, I had what I needed.
"Two decades ago, we fretted that Japan was taking over America when Sony bought Columbia Pictures and Mitsubishi bought a chunk of Rockefeller Center. But they overpaid for everything.
Now, because of Wall Street’s overreaching, our economy depends on foreign oil and foreign loans to stay afloat.
China and Arab countries have a staggering amount of treasury securities. And the oil-rich countries are sitting on so many petrodollars that they are looking beyond prestige hotels and fashion labels and taking advantage of the fire sale to buy eye-popping stakes in our major financial institutions.
Like the president, Citigroup and Merrill Lynch came with tin cups to Middle Eastern, Asian and American investors last week, for a combined total of nearly $19.1 billion, after the subprime mortgage debacle blew up their books.
Citigroup, which raised $7.5 billion from Abu Dhabi in November, raised another $12.5 billion, including from Singapore, Kuwait and Saudi Prince Walid bin Talal. Merrill Lynch gave $6.6 billion in preferred stock to Kuwait, South Korea, a Japanese bank and others.
(While the great sage Bob Rubin was advising Hillary Clinton on sound fiscal policy, he seemed to be asleep at the Citigroup switch.)
As Warren Buffett has said, we are giving ourselves a party to feed our appetite for oil and imported goods and paying for it by selling off the furniture, our most precious assets." [New York Times; emphasis mine]
"School’s back in session, and with it come life-lessons in money management for students. But personal finance can be easy, even if you’re just starting out. You just have to know how it works. All of the following are concepts I wish I had known before heading to college." [Get Rich Slowly: 27 Money Tips for College Students]
A very good, well thought out, post with tidbits for everyone, not just college students.
"Entry-level wages for college and high school graduates fell by more than 4 percent from 2001 to 2005, after factoring in inflation, according to an analysis of Labor Department data by the Economic Policy Institute. In addition, the percentage of college graduates receiving health and pension benefits in their entry-level jobs has dropped sharply. Some labor experts say wage stagnation and the sharp increase in housing costs over the past decade have delayed workers ages 20 to 35 from buying their first homes. “People are getting married later, they’re having children later, and they’re buying houses later,” said Cecilia E. Rouse, an economist at Princeton University and a co-editor of a forthcoming book on the economics of early adulthood. “There’s been a lengthening of the transition to adulthood, and it is very possible that what has happened in the economy is leading to some of these changes.” [NY Times; emphasis mine]
