Last night, Stephen Colbert had a cute bit about Fat Bear Week in Alaska.
In this 2007 recording I made in New York, Colbert said he really does have a bear phobia.
Category: Politics, Religion & Money
Readerslip
I remember before Internet broadband took off, the total paid circulation for The Boston Sunday Globe was about 625,000 copies. The Sunday want ads were essential, as was the real estate section. The first section of the paper featured full-page display ads for department stores. Every car dealership had ads in the auto section, and every retailer had a slick flyer insert. Print circulation is now less than one quarter of what I remember, and there are only about 250,000 digital subscriptions.
Buddy, Gonna Shut You Down
I was inconvenienced during the last federal government shut down, when the accountant I hired for my late parents’ Trust couldn’t file the taxes electronically. Everything was mailed to me and I had to take care of signing and sending it all in myself. The Registered Mail card confirming receipt was never returned by the IRS.
My application for Social Security benefits is currently being processed. If the U.S. gov’t. shuts down after 12:01 AM on Friday, the validation will be put on hold for the duration, and undoubtedly delayed further after that. Grrr…
Warren Warring With Powell
Elizabeth Warren raised questions yesterday about some banking regulatory changes that I wasn’t aware had been made. Fed chairman Jerome Powell’s answers dealt only with technicalities surrounding the relevant cases.
Given the largely hidden return to banking deregulation, Warren isn’t the only one with concerns about what could happen when the next financial crisis arrives.
Fed Zeppelin
A couple of Fed members are stepping down, including the president of the Federal Reserve Bank here in Boston. There are questions about Fed members having possible conflicts of interest in their investments.
A Fed-eral Case
Wall Street has become an economy unto itself. The Fed has helped to inflate the stock market, by holding interest rates so low for so long.
The only thing learned from the 2008 financial crisis is that the Federal Reserve and Treasury will always do everything possible to help Wall Street. For some at the Fed, their actions have apparently been helping themselves.
(Editor’s note [from CNBC]: This story has been updated to reflect new information. Fed Chair Powell owned the municipal bonds in question in a joint account over which he had control. Due to incorrect information provided by the Federal Reserve, CNBC reported initially that Powell owned the munis in a family trust over which he had no control.)
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/09/17/fed-officials-owned-securities-it-was-buying-during-pandemic-raising-more-questions-about-conflicts.html