http://danbartlett.net/blog I Pinch. Tue, 23 Jun 2009 17:01:34 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en It has been 4 months since my last post.  Whew, I've been busy...but have accomplished remarkably little. From a CNN.com article on Bernie Madoff: "Thus far, federal investigators have identified 1,341 investors in Madoff's firm, with losses exceeding $13 billion."  Hmm... $13B between 1341 people.  That's $969,000+ each.  Ouch. http://danbartlett.net/blog/2009/06/23/numbers-3/ CNN.com had an article about who would and would not be bailed out by Obama's give-away to people disinclined to pay their mortgages.  In the piece Joe Martinez, who is part of what is wrong with our country at the moment, proclaims that "there's just no point to stay here," ... http://danbartlett.net/blog/2009/02/20/more-short-sighted-homeowners/ Chuck Schumer says that Americans don't care if the government wastes money as long as they get their cut.  He's right, but that's probably because forty-something percent don't pay any taxes so they don't have any skin in the game. "A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist ... http://danbartlett.net/blog/2009/02/13/something-for-the-chattering-class/ President Obama spoke tonight about how the spending bill currently circling the bowl in the Senate would save us all from certain doom.  He repeatedly claimed that the bill would "save or create" 4 million jobs.  As it turns out there is no need to spend $800 billion. Just today I ... http://danbartlett.net/blog/2009/02/09/saving-jobs/ When I was in graduate school at the University of Illinois, I worked in a lab with three other guys -- one Israeli, one Chinese, and one Korean.  The gentleman from Korea, "Sam", was a terrible driver; in the 18 months or so that we worked together he wrecked his ... http://danbartlett.net/blog/2009/02/06/driven/ Peter Schiff says that the result of the "stimulus" being debated by the Senate will be an "Unmitigated Disaster".  I'd say that just about sums it up. http://danbartlett.net/blog/2009/02/06/unmitigated-disaster/ Today I found a NY Times article from 1988 extolling the virtues of the secondary mortgage market and how it allows banks to lend more money with less risk. Another good one from the WSJ in 2000 about government mandated lending in China -- you only need to read the first ... http://danbartlett.net/blog/2009/01/20/interesting/ So if you have to put together a government stimulus plan (and there really never is a good reason to), how would you do it?  The president elect has indicated that he is interested in providing a payroll tax reduction of something like $40 every two weeks for taxpayers with ... http://danbartlett.net/blog/2009/01/08/stimulating/ Fannie Mae is holding up the sale of IndyMac, demanding that they pay $1billion for bad loans they sold Fannie.  Interesting considering that they are both run by the feds.  I'd personally like IndyMac to be sold, but that's mostly because I bought several shares this summer at a price ... http://danbartlett.net/blog/2009/01/01/ironic/ Drew Peterson is alleged to be engaged to be married to another 23 year old woman.  She is a roommate to OJ Simpson's girlfriend in a cave where there is no news from the outside world. http://danbartlett.net/blog/2008/12/17/try-try-again/