(Back in June, while I was in Washington, “Green Hell” author Steve Milloy graciously agreed to sit down for an interview. You can find my review of “Green Hell” here.) Q: At what point did you realize that you had accumulated enough material for a book? A: Having run JunkScience.com for 13 years now, I started to realize that on this issue someone really needed | Read More »
You might have noticed that Al Gore has recently been saying some very immodest things about anyone who dares to disagree with his views. Of course, when someone like Mr. Gore says things like that, it tells us more about his views than about those of his opponents. And what is the real agenda of Mr. Gore and his fellow-traveling greenshirts? If you want to | Read More »
One of the great mysteries of contemporary society is how so many people have been able to sail into middle-age (or even senior-status) without ever having had any contact or interaction with, well, basically realities of how the world works. Abstract dorm-room-bull-session debates among sophomore undergraduates are bad enough – but one would think that time and exposure to reality would impose a solid degree | Read More »
Earlier this morning, I was reading through a recent short analysis (*) of the state of the building materials industry while having my morning tea; the following paragraph jumped out: “Investors appeared to be disappointed that of the $787 billion spending bill passed by Congress, a meager $27 billion will go directly to fund construction projects. Too, much of those outlays will likely be pushed | Read More »
You’ve probably noticed that I’ve been banging-on for some time (as have others) about the increasingly-poor competitive position of the U.S. tax system when compared with other jurisdictions. Noting that this has been a prime driver for the “outsourcing” that the tax-lovers are always screeching about, I’ve been wondering if the gap will get so bad that we’ll start to see entire firms – and | Read More »
A couple weeks back, your humble correspondent was on a conference call organized by Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA). One of his guests that day was Rep. Mark Kirk (R-IL). The most fascinating part of the discussion was Rep. Kirk’s description of his visit to the Bureau of the Public Debt to watch a debt auction…. and his discussion with folks there about the implications that | Read More »
There’s an old Vermont proverb: “When you’re getting the shaft, it’s best to leave and say why.” That’s basically what’s been done by a (now former) executive at AIG:
A couple of days ago, I pounded out a late-evening diatribe, complaining about the oddities in how U.S. tax law handles the repatriation (or lack thereof) of profits earned outside the country by U.S.-based corporations – and how these odd policies are hobbling U.S-based corporations…. and how the effort to make this mess even worse would increase the problems even further. There were no problems | Read More »
Some years back, there was a winter mountaineering disaster in New Hampshire. The post mortem (literally) summary of why this happened was nicely encapsulated in the phrase, “A plan of breathtaking stupidity.” I was reminded of that today as details continue to emerge of what seems to almost be an overt Obama-Geithner plan to drive as many corporations as possible from the U.S. and to | Read More »
<!– /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:””; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-fareast-font-family:”Times New Roman”;} h1 {mso-style-next:Normal; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; page-break-after:avoid; mso-outline-level:1; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-font-kerning:0pt;} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} –> Well, 2009 is nearly upon us. I’m not one for predictions, and I won’t play that game. But since I | Read More »
This is supposed to be Blackie’s job, but what the heck. Just so that this doesn’t get lost in the political news, in a flash look at this morning’s current news…. o Crude is trading around $108/barrel – down over $7/bbl just this morning. o The dollar is up sharply – now at $0.69, $1.07, and $0.56 against (respectively) the Euro, the Canadian “dollar,” and | Read More »
Just so no one misses it, the dollar is rallying enormously, not-coincidentally the price of crude is tanking (should we stop speculators when they drive the price DOWN?), and the DJIA and NASDAQ are rallying smartly. Today’s good news….
![[RS]](/t/img/logo-footer.jpg){kind=logo}