Here we go again, with yet another negative outcome from interest rates being held too low for too long, since the financial crisis of 2008.
A negative outcome for Wall St. Week is the presumed departure of its regular contributor, Larry Summers.
Category: Politics, Religion & Money
Too Much and Not Enough
We are now in the Second Gilded Age, once again dominated by billionaires and scandals involving teenage girls.
True story, Word of Honor:
Joseph Heller, an important and funny writer now dead, and I were at a party given by a billionaire on Shelter Island.
I said, “Joe, how does it make you feel to know that our host only yesterday may have made more money than your novel ‘Catch-22’ has earned in its entire history?”
And Joe said, “I’ve got something he can never have.”
And I said, “What on earth could that be, Joe?”
And Joe said, “The knowledge that I’ve got enough.”
Not bad! Rest in peace!”
— Kurt Vonnegut in The New Yorker, 2005
Frontline has updated their “Born Poor” series.
Not Fade Away
Lubbock Will Remove Buddy Holly-Themed Crosswalk After Federal Crackdown
Whatever they are, the streetbound specs are now verboten, a casualty of the Trump administration’s crackdown on artistic displays on the nation’s roadways.
Funny Money
More than almost anything else, I fear Trump taking over the Federal Reserve and declaring cryptocurrency to be legitimate coin of the realm. Because it’s anything but legitimate. Regular folks should go nowhere near crypto, but some see it as a get rich quick scheme opportunity, and the suckers will take the bait.
So far, 60 Minutes journalism does not appear to be compromised. As seen in this crypto-related story.
The Human Torches
This is a rare occasion when I’m using something I first saw on Mark Evanier’s News from ME. It’s the Comic Book Burnings Project. You can scroll through the entire site within this embedded window.
Political Medicine
On the Media has a series that, “explores what has unfolded at Harvard University since Donald Trump’s inauguration.” Part 2 covers the medical angle. This is of interest to me because, thanks to Harvard Medical School, I no longer have atrial fibrillation.
Jay Bhattacharya, an M.D. with a PhD in Economics, lost his intellectual way, and with it his credibility. He’s now NIH Director.
Bhattacharya opposed the Covid lockdown. His view was, “there wasn’t enough evidence of the virus’s lethality to justify stay at home orders.” The illogic of this highly educated man is appalling. Whenever has ignorance of a new disease been a good reason to not take preventive measures, until more is known about it?