Category: Money
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Stimulate This
An axiom of economic downturns; companies that a) produce things people actually need, and b) manage themselves fairly well, often thrive during hard times. With this in mind, note that TCF Bank, our locally owned bank chain, wants nothing to do with the bailout: TCF Financial Corp. plans to return more than $361 million it…
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The Big Two, In Black And White
General Motors expresses doubts that it’s going to hold on: General Motors Corp said on Thursday that substantial doubt existed about the ability of company to continue as a going concern. The story is mostly culled from statements on various annual reports and SEC filings. In one statement, the company notes the need for a…
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For The Layperson
Leave aside the ofay, twee incidental music (for which the show is famous); even moreso, leave try to ignore Ira Glass’ intro to the podcast, which just makes him sound, curiously, very dim and incurious; this week’s This American Life has one of the better, more balanced explanations of the banking crisis I’ve seen anywhere.
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Democrats Are To Economics As Dogs Are To Opera
Dave Mindeman at mnpACTed has the vapors over TCF Bank’s planned shell-move to South Dakota: TCF Bank announced that they are moving their headquarters to South Dakota. Now before we get all that bogus high corporate tax nonsense, here is the reason:TCF National Bank will move its headquarters from Minnesota to Sioux Falls, S.D. in…
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I Mean, Good Luck With That And All…
…but isn’t it possible that the time to demonstrate to save your Starbucks would be before it is slated for closing? Customer movements to “save our Starbucks” have sprung up in cities large and small since last July, when the Seattle-based chain began closing hundreds of its stores. While online petition drives and phone calls…
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Jim Cramer: A Stream of Uncalibrated Opinion
I have faith that the average reader of this blog is discerning enough to know where not to gather thine financial advice. The ilk that is The Motley, Suze, and Jim Cramer is categorized by many financial advisers as “Financial Pornography.” In a not-so-shocking analysis of one of the most-watched TV investment advisers, author Eric…
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The Panic That Never Ends
Sanden Totten at MPR’s “LoopHole” blog writes about the “phenomenon” of ‘Survival Panic’: In the coming months, mental health experts expect a rise in theft, depression, drug use, anxiety and even violence as consumers confront a harsh new reality and must live within diminished means.”People start seeing their economic situation change, and it stimulates a…
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President-Defect Obama: Create 5 million green jobs.
As long as we are “lowering” expectations for his disciples, here’s another Hopey-Changey campaign promise that needs to be broken. Let’s be clear on how wealth and jobs are created because a politician that says “we (the government) will create jobs” is either unaware of how capitalism works, or is (once again) just plain lying…
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If You’re Ugly And You Know It Honk Your Horn
Hybrid automobiles are ugly. The Honda insight, which will presumably be successful, is no exception. Uhhh-gly. The Honda insight is a mirror image of the Toyota Prius and equally hard on the eyes. By design. People don’t buy Hybrids for the energy savings; at least those that can do math. Relative to comparably-sized cars, you…
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Six Weeks
According to David Brauer, the Strib’s management is counting down to bankruptcy – or at least that’s what they’re telling their unions: Publisher Chris Harte, who sent what I’m now calling the “six weeks to bankruptcy” memo Tuesday afternoon, wasn’t at a meeting Royce and other Guild leaders shortly before the communication was released. Instead,…
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It Was Just A Matter Of Time
“Black Friday” stampede on Long Island kills a store worker: A worker died after being trampled and a woman miscarried when hundreds of shoppers smashed through the doors of a Long Island Wal-Mart Friday morning, witnesses said. The unidentified worker, employed as an overnight stock clerk, tried to hold back the unruly crowds just after…
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The Matrix Is On Line Two
Last week in the process of renewing a business credit line, my bank checked my credit as a matter of course. The next day, “Jeff” with “American Equity” or something along those lines left me a message. He was “verifying” a recent transaction and was calling “…to assure me that the terms of my loan…
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Why Triumph, Aston Martin and Leyland Are So Powerful These Days
Dems push for the fed gobbling up a stake in the Big Three automakers: Congressional Democrats are pushing legislation to send $25 billion in emergency loans to the beleaguered auto industry in exchange for a government ownership stake in the Big Three car companies. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid,…
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Social Security: The Sequel
There are a lot of movies whose sequels should not have been made. The first installment sucked bad enough. The pay-as-you-go Social Security system is another such performance for which a sequel would be inadvisable to say the least. A lot of Conservatives are concerned that a Democratic Trifecta may lead to a level of…
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Save Yourselves
Mitch and Ed are talking about despondent conservatives on the radio on my credenza as I type. Many of us have resigned ourselves to the fact that we are likely to have a Democratic President, House and Senate and may even have lost filibuster protection in Congress. In a sick example of double jeopardy, Al…
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Fingerhutted
I never had anything to do with Tom Petters. I’ve certainly never met the guy. But I don’t think I’d have liked him much. When you meet a person in a bar, or on a date, or wherever, you can usually get a pretty fair sense of what that person’s about via all sorts of…
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Risk
Chris Dodd, lefty demigogue extraordinaire, has been out front attacking the big bad capitalists and the “appetite for risk” that he holds put us in this jam. Naturally, he not only benefitted handsomely from that same risk – he benefitted from my loathsome mortage paper-holder and one of the key offenders, Countrywide. Former Countrywide Financial…
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“Now It Is Safe”
The blast walls that criscrossed Baghdad to contain car bombs and other terrorist acts are starting to come down: “They protected against car bombs and drive-by attacks,” said Adnan, 39, a vegetable seller in the once violent neighborhood of Dora, who argues that the walls now block the markets and the commerce that Baghdad needs…
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Dissent
John Kline has been, for a couple of terms now, the Minnesota Second District rep in Congress. He’s a reliable and solid conservative, and therefore I support him unabashedly and without reservation. While I believe that “endorsing” a candidate would make me sound like a pretentious fop (I’m a blogger, not an institution of any…
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It Wouldn’t Be A Crisis…
…without the Minnesoros “Independent” sending ace reporter Molly “Is It White In Here” Priesmeyer – AKA “The Margaret Grebe of the 21st Century” – out to the nightclubs to show how the Sturm and Drang of the Zeitgeist was causing Angst among people who are…er, hanging around in bars on a weeknight: The cover photo…
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The Net Over The Abyss
Once upon a time, someone asked Winston Churchill what he believed about government welfare. This was, of course, at a time when most of the world’s nattering classes believed that socialism and the welfare state were not only the best possible idea, but in fact inevitable. Churchill, a conservative, responded “I propose not to level…
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Guess who else doesn’t know how to use email?
Pelosi urges Bush to take action in letter House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is sending a letter to President Bush pressuring him to offer a “comprehensive and effective systemic response to ongoing market turmoil.” Ooooh. Nancy. The mumbo. The jumbo. I love it when you use multiple syllables. “We need to hear from you about a comprehensive…
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Joe Biden Opens His Mouth
…and removes all doubt. …and is utterly, completely underwhelming. Biden waffles on AIG bailout “The truth is I don’t know what the bailout is yet,” Biden said Wednesday afternoon in Maysfield, Ohio. “It looks like they’re lending them a little bit of money. I don’t know what they’ve done, I haven’t had a brief on it.…