• 2 Billionaire Brothers’ Insider Buying At Colfax by Zack Miller – “[In] the Danaher Business System… management believes its found a demonstrable, repeatable recipe for success, and it drives both culture and process at the company and its acquisitions. DBS is a form of Japanese kaizen, comprising 4 components: 1) People 2) Plans 3) Processes 4) Performance” [I own Danaher and have it in my 12 stocks for 10 year portfolio - John, my management blog focuses on such management systems]
• Apple’s Impossibly Good Quarter by John Hunter – “You can’t grow quarterly sales from $26.7 billion to $46.3 billion. $26 million to $46 million, fine that is possible, billions however – not possible. Except Apple did. You can’t grow a $6 billion quarterly profit to $13 billion in 1 year. Except Apple did. You can’t generate a cash flow of $17.5 billion in a quarter. Except Apple did. You can’t have a stockpile of $100 billion in cash. Except Apple does. These figures would not have been seen as unlikely just 3 years ago. They were impossible. But Apple achieved them.”
• How to Save the Euro by George Soros – “the cuts in government expenditures that Germany wants to impose on other countries will push Europe into a deflationary debt trap. Reducing budget deficits will put both wages and profits under downward pressure, the economies will contract, and tax revenues will fall. So the debt burden, which is a ratio of the accumulated debt to the GDP, will actually rise, requiring further budget cuts, setting in motion a vicious circle.”
• Japan’s Trade Figures: Some Perspective by Eamonn Fingleton – “In a typical maneuver, goods might be shipped to China via Hong Kong. The goods are exported from Japan at heavily discounted prices and a Hong Kong subsidiary takes a huge profit in selling to China. Such profits constitute hidden export revenues that are not caught in the visible trade numbers. The maneuver makes sense because Japan’s corporate tax rate is one of the world’s highest.” [This is one, of many things, that make economic data difficult to rely on - you have to pay close attention to the details - John]
• Krugman Take on $12 Trillion Question Rings True – “Japan’s toxic mix of too much debt, too little growth, too many old people and too few babies will end badly if Tokyo doesn’t get its act together. It’s important, though, to highlight where Fingleton is right. Japan is pretty close to a model society. It is an incredibly safe, clean, efficient, predictable…”
• Wall Street’s Achilles’ Heel – Efficient Market Hypothesis Doesn’t Always Work by Shailesh Kumar – “Market inefficiencies create undervaluation that an investor can buy into. In some other cases, it can also create overvaluation that an investor can sell into or avoid. It is beneficial for a self managed investor to be alert for these situations as the difference in performance between a value biased portfolio and a market neutral portfolio can be very significant over the life of the portfolio.”
• These Three Jobs Are a Great Way for a Teen to Earn Money and Learn Something About Life at the Same Time – “My opinion is that one of the best ways for a teenager to learn about making and saving money is to get a summer-job, or work part-time. These are absolutely amazing ways to gain valuable experience in helping others and learn about responsibility, endurance, and teamwork, and earn money in the process”
• USA Spends $7,960 Compared to $3,800 for Other Rich Countries on Health Care with No Better Health Results by John Hunter – “It is possible to argue the USA provides mediocre results, which is consistent with most global health care performance measures. Unless you directly benefit from the current USA system it is hard to see how you can argue it is not the worst system of any rich country: costing twice as much and achieving middling performance.”

• Recovering Adam Smith’s ethical economics – “He justified commercial society for its tremendous contribution to the prosperity, justice, and freedom of its members, and most particularly for the poor and powerless in society.” [This post covers a topic I think is very important and have written about several times - John]
• A Man. A Van. A Surprising Business Plan. by Zoe Chace – “Adam had tricked out the van to be a mobile solution to Chinese bureaucracy. There are a couple of Mac laptops and a printer, plus an old couch, Christmas lights and bamboo mats. It’s as cozy as a dorm room. And confused visa applicants line up outside.” [wonderful - John]
• Chart of Manufacturing Output from 2000 to 2010 by Country by John Hunter – “Europe has 4 countries in this list (if you exclude Russia) and they do not appear likely to do particularly well in the next decade, in my opinion. I would certainly expect Brazil, India, Korea and Indonesia to out produce Italy, France, UK and Spain in 2020. In 2010 the total was $976 billion by the European 4 to $961 billion by the non-European 4. In 2000 it was $718 billion for the European 4 to $343 billion (remember all the data is in 2010 USD).”
• Ultimate Sustainable Dividend Portfolio – “I would expect the Ultimate Sustainable to do better in difficult times and worse in great times. Why? The USDP is a more stable portfolio that will fluctuate less over time…”
• 
  The Renminbi is the Love Child of the Baht and the Króna – “When crisis hit Thailand in 1996 and Iceland in 2008, the baht lost half of its value against the U.S. dollar, and the króna lost over 60% against the euro. The growth in the money supply leading up to the crisis in both currencies is the same trend we see occurring with the Renminbi now.”
• Making It in America by Adam Davidson, the Atlantic – “manufacturing output continues to grow strongly; in the past decade alone, output from American factories, adjusted for inflation, has risen by a third. Yet the success of American manufacturers has come at a cost. Factories have replaced millions of workers with machines.”
• Why I Am Switching Career Tracks – “My plan is to expand my online efforts to the point that it replaces day job. Once this happens, I plan to work on creating truly passive income streams that can be managed in less than 3 days each week. I plan to incorporate real estate and dividend stocks to complement my online business.”

If you would like to be considered for guest hosting a future edition of the carnival please make a comment including a link to your blog. I will be selective in what blogs I have guest host. My management blog has been hosting a carnival for years now.

Related: 2011 annual management blog roundup

The new year starts with markets still highly uncertain due to the after affects of the too-big to fail credit crisis and the Euro-zone crisis. Job markets leave many people’s personal finances is trouble and those that are in good shape have a much greater challenge determining what are optimal personal financial strategies.

And markets embody the uncertainty. Investing strategies are also made more difficult by the current uncertainties. Continuing with long held strategies seems wise, but less comforting in these troubled times.

• 32 Best Dividend Stocks for 2012 by Shailesh Kumar – “The following table lists the best dividend stocks for 2012 based on dividend yields, dividend growth rate and dividend sustainability. All the stocks in this list have a P/E ratio of 15 or below.”
• How I Switched to Long Term Thinking – “I started spending some time each day thinking about the decisions I made that day, particularly ones I would often see myself repeating. Outside of the moment, I’d look at the short term benefits of my options as well as the long term benefits and I’d decide independently what the best long-term choice was.”
• A Country In Denial About Its Fiscal Future by Robert Samuelson – “Political leaders assume that financial markets won’t ever choke on U.S. debt and force higher interest rates, stiff spending cuts and tax increases. At best, this is wishful thinking. At worst, it’s playing Russian roulette with the country’s future.”
• 

  Top 10 Countries for Manufacturing Production in 2010: China, USA, Japan, Germany… by John Hunter. China took over first place from the USA in manufacturing output in 2010. From 1980 to 2010 China increased output 1345%. The total top 10 group of countries increased output 302%. From 1995 to 2010 China increased output 543%. The group increased 64%.

• The Year In 4 Charts – The anomaly was the decade after the euro was introduced, when lenders treated Greece and the rest of the euro zone as identical to Germany.
• How my blog earned $10,000 this year – Gross income 2009: $4,760 – 2010: $5,693 – 2011: $10,044 “Recently, I shopped my blog around to see if I could find a buyer… Alas. I cannot. This blog is worth more to me than it is to a buyer.”
• Why Is There a “Zero Lower Bound” on Interest Rates? by Todd Keister – “the potential for negative interest rates to disrupt financial markets limits the extent to which policymakers can stimulate economic activity by lowering interest rates. This limit is known as the zero lower bound.”
• Double-digit unemployment? These firms can’t find workers by Arezou Rezvani – “Part of the problem stems from the fact that few Americans are trained in sewing skills. That has left factories dependent on immigrants who learned the trade in their home countries. When sewing jobs began to dry up a decade ago, many talented workers left as well.”

• Why Financial Literacy Fails (and What to Do About It) by JD Roth – “‘For years, I struggled with money,’ I told my interviewer today. ‘I knew the math, but I still couldn’t seem to defeat debt. It wasn’t until I started applying psychology to the situation that I was able to make changes.’”
• Get ready for the three big financial crises of 2012 by Jim Jubak – “So in 2012 Ireland—and Greece and Portugal—are going to face a huge choice. They can either try to grind out more austerity in the midst of a EuroZone recession or they can try to renegotiate some of that debt. If you remember, the battle over Greek bank debt almost scuttled the euro this year. Well, we’re going to see the same problem again in 2012…”
• How Long Would It Take To Build A $5000/Year Dividend Cash Flow? – John is able to investing $1000 per month in a portfolio now yielding 2.86% and dividends increasing 9% a year (under historical level for the stocks included)… a bit over 7 years…

• Mark Cuban, invest in yourself. Keep your cash – wait to get a bargin based on the cash your have which allows you to take advantage of market opportunities.

• Fix Your Finances and Quit Your Day Job by Miranda Marquit – “Take a look at your finances. Are you in a position where the loss of your income would impact the family’s cash flow? Does your partner have a job that could make up some of the difference? How much are you earning on the side right now?”
• Year End Tax Tips by Ryan Guina – “Harvest your losses. You can sell losing investments and offset up to $3,000 of other income per year. Any additional losses can be carried forward to future years.”
• The Value of Earning a Side Income – “Let’s assume you can generate $25,000 a year in extra income during retirement. Now you only need $75,000 in income from your retirement funds. And that means your magic number is $1.875 million ($75,000 / 4%). That’s still a lot of money, of course, but a lot less than $2.5 million.”
• Relocating to Another Country by John Hunter – “There is an increasing trend to move from the USA to another country to work and live… Recently this has picked up quite a bit; I am surprised by the velocity at which this interest in moving (I figured it would be a long term mega trend but not so drastic, so quickly). Economic changes are often quite surprising in how rapidly they move forward.”

Related: Curious Cat Management Blog Carnival

• The Unemployment Plan – “I just found out that I’m being “downsized” at the end of the year. While I have a small emergency fund, I do have a mortgage and a bit of credit card debt. I also have three kids at home. My wife will continue to work, but she has only a part-time job with minimal benefits. I am receiving a pretty good severance package, though.
  Rather than panicking, I’m trying to be calm and rational about figuring out what’s next…”
• Choosing Between An Annuity And A Dividend Portfolio – “Personally, I consider the choice between an annuity or a dividend portfolio to be a no-brainer. I think a systematic, sustainable and disciplined approach to dividend investing will outperform in almost all cases and while it will require a bigger time investment, that is a small price to get more flexibility, better returns and a much stronger growth potential.”
• From the webcast (see above) with Jim Rodgers. He sees a difficult period worldwide the next 2 years. He is short many shares everywhere (including emerging market). He also owns some shares. But overall he sees a difficult few years for stock markets.
  He says China has a price bubble in real estate and many bankruptcies will take place. But it is not as bad as the USA problems where there was a credit bubble (you have to have a job to get real estate loans, while in the USA and UK you didn’t have too). Chinese banks are is less bad shape than the USA and Europe.
• Manufacturing Employment Data: USA, Japan, Germany, UK… 1990-2009 by John Hunter – “Compensation in the countries currency is remarkably consistent across all countries from 1990-2009. Japan shows the only significant divergence in the period of 2002 – 2009 actually decreasing pay in real terms (a small amount – from 100 to 98) while the average increases to about 110.”
• Economist on the Euro Crisis – “The crisis in the euro area is turning into a panic and dragging the zone into recession. The risk that the currency disintegrates within weeks is alarmingly high.”
• Retirement age across countries: The role of occupations by Philip Sauré and Hosny Zoabi – “In Mexico, the average male worker retires at 75. In Bulgaria, he does so at 58. This column argues that an economy’s composition of occupations matters for its average effective retirement age as the nature of different occupations leads workers to retire at different ages. It suggests the differences in occupational composition explain up to 40% of the observed cross-country variation in retirement age.”
• Buy Western Gas Partners by Jim Jubak – “units of Western Gas Partners pay a dividend of 4.4%. I think the units also offer good potential for capital appreciation. As more wells in the areas served by Western Gas Partners plants and pipelines go into production, the partnership will see rising volumes through its system and increasing cash flow.”
• Europe’s Financial Crisis, in Plain English – “The Germans are also wary of the widespread calls for the European Central Bank to buoy Spain and Italy by buying their bonds. If they know the E.C.B. will bail them out, what will be their incentive to act responsibly in the future? Worse, Germans argue, printing money to pay off government debt (which is what the E.C.B. would essentially be doing) is the first step to hyperinflation.”

• How the Plummeting Price of Cocaine Fueled the Nationwide Drop in Violent Crime – “But it’s not only a growing supply of product that led to the collapse of the cocaine market. Newfound competition in the form of locally-produced methamphetamines and prescription narcotics would continue to drive business away from cocaine… At a certain point the decision matrix for entering a life of drug-related crime collapses for all but those with no other alternate financial sources or for those with a personal interest in the craft.”
• Eight Reasons to be Bullish on the US Dollar by Steen Jakobsen and Michael Shedlock – “58% of the US dollar index is the Euro, and the Euro is a basket case. European banks are in worse shape than their US counterparts, and a breakup of the Eurozone that I expect will certainly exacerbate the problem.”
• 
  Video: Bogle says Market are About Fairly Valued Today
• Investing in an Engineering Degree Provides a Lifetime Advantage of $1,090,000 by John Hunter – “the lifetime advantage ranges from $1,090,000 for Engineering majors to $241,000 for Education majors”
• How To Optimize Your Apartment Hunt by Sarah Davis – “Right now, it’s a landlord’s market. There’s a surge of renters who have either gone through foreclosure or are simply waiting out the sleepy housing market. That means at best it will be hard to negotiate a lower rent and at worst you may be competing with other prospective tenants to land the apartment you want.”
• France starts to show the early symptoms of the Greek disease by Jim Jubak – “The problem is one that we should be familiar with from Greece and Italy. No sooner does a government—in this case that of President Nicolas Sarkozy—put an austerity package in place in order to reduce the budget deficit than falling economic growth blows a hole in that budget and creates the need for another austerity package.”
• How Much is too much in your 401(k)? – “So while I still advise maxing out any tax-deferred savings accounts like the 401k, you’ll also need to invest elsewhere simultaneously. My own strategy was in Vanguard index funds, a paid-off house, and some rental properties, but you will surely find other places depending on your own interests.”
• Surge in Rich Chinese Who ‘Invest’ in U.S. Citizenship by Robert Frank – “Under the program, foreign investors must finance commercial projects in the U.S. by investing either $500,000 or $1 million and create at least 10 full-time jobs… In 2011, 2,969 Chinese citizens applied for the program and 934 were approved… a huge increase from previous years. In 2007, only 270 Chinese citizens applied and only 161 were approved”

• How I live on $7,000 per year by Jacob Lund Fisker – “If I had to venture a guess, I’d say I’m more frugal (the way your grandparents were frugal—in fact what I do wouldn’t be considered very extreme by your grandparents or great grandparents—I’d probably be average from their perspective) and I adhere more to a do-it-your-self ethics.”
• Invest in Communities to Advance Capitalism by Howard Schultz (CEO of Starbucks) – “It is no longer enough to serve customers, employees, and shareholders. As corporate citizens of the world, it is our responsibility — our duty — to serve the communities where we do business by helping to improve, for example, the quality of citizens’ education, employment, health care, safety, and overall daily life, plus future prospects.” [similar to Dr. Deming ideas from decades ago on the purpose of organizations, which I share - John].
• My dad taught me cashflow with a soda machine by Rob Fitzpatrick – “The vending machine didn’t magically make me want to be an entrepreneur. I wanted to be a video game designer, then an engineer, then a video game designer again, and then an academic. I get the impression kids are a bit slippery in that regard.
  But when I stumbled into the startup world two decades later, the dots began to connect. Cashflow wasn’t a new concept.”


Forest Glen Preserve, Illinois, Illinois by John Hunter

• Disability Insurance is Very Important by John Hunter – “When I would have had gaps in coverage from work, I have purchased disability insurance myself. I am all in favor of saving money. About the only 2 things I don’t believe in saving money being very important are health and disability insurance.”
• What Other Dividend Lists Exist Besides the Dividend Aristocrats? – “companies that have increased their annual regular dividends for at least the past 10 consecutive years and have met specific liquidity screening criteria… The members of the Dividend Champions List include, those stocks (not limited to the S&P 500) that have increased their dividend for the past 25 years.”
• Buying a New Home and Converting Your Current Home Into a Rental Property by Philip Taylor – “By refinancing our mortgage, we reduced our mortgage payment by enough to allow us to rent out the property by at least a hundred more per month than all of our expenses: mortgage, property taxes, insurance, home owners association dues, repairs, and property management fees.”
• The perils of near monopoly by Joshua Gans – “Had Qantas had market shares akin to airlines in more competitive markets, the shut down would not have had the external spillovers, publicity and also the ability to shield Qantas — both managers and workers — from personal long-term consequences of such brinkmanship.”
• Is a Costco Membership Worth The Cost? – “Comparing the $401 Costco bill to a potential $690 Safeway bill means that I am saving 41% over the lowest prices I could find at Safeway – and this is over a huge swath of groceries. After subtracting the membership cost, I probably still save close to $1000 per year.”
• Anti-Market Policies from Our Talking Heads and Politicians – “When we allow them to discredit free market capitalism by equating anti-market policies as being free market capitalism we risk losing a great benefit to society… When people get the message that collusion, anti-competitive markets, political special interest driven policies… are what free market capitalism is we risk losing even more of the benefits free markets provide (than we are losing now).
• 3 Robot Stocks That Could Make You Rich – “Robotics are no longer science fiction. There are plenty of publicly traded companies that specialize in futuristic gadgetry improving industries today. Intuitive Surgical (ISRG) is the company behind the da Vinci robotic arm that is transforming the way surgical incisions are done in some procedures.

• How to Create a Million-Dollar Business This Weekend (Examples: AppSumo, Mint, Chihuahuas) by Tim Ferriss – “Don’t get me wrong–I’m not opposed to you trying to build a world-changing product that requires months of fine-tuning. All I’m going to suggest is that you start with a much simpler essence of your product over the course of a weekend, rather than wasting time building something for weeks… only to discover no one wants it.”


Penang, Malyasia by John Hunter

• The True Cost of Commuting – “In other words, a logical person should be willing to pay about $15,900 more for a house that is one mile closer to work, and $477,000 more for a house that is 30 miles closer to work. For a double-commuting couple, these numbers are $31,800 and $954,000.”
• Looking for Dividend Stocks in the Current Extremely Low Interest Rate Environment by John Hunter – “A huge advantage of dividends stocks is they often increase the dividend over time. And this is one of the keys to evaluate when selected these stock investments. So you can buy a stock that pays a 4% yield today and 5 years down the road you might be getting 5.5% yield (based on increased dividend payouts and your original purchase price).”
• I Stand With the Protesters by Lee Adler – “Stop the fraud, return to the rule of law, prosecute the bankers, punish the guilty, figure out what our assets are really worth and pay us a fair return, and most importantly, return basic standards of fairness and ethical behavior, something that many in society must relearn.”
• The Depression: If Only Things Were That Good by David Leonhardt – “In the short term, finance, health care and housing provide jobs, as their lobbyists are quick to point out. But it is hard to see how the jobs of the future will spring from unnecessary back surgery and garden-variety arbitrage. They differ from the growth engines of the past, which delivered fundamental value — faster transportation or new knowledge — and let other industries then build off those advances.”
• Banks Have a Right to Make a Profit; Customers Have the Right of Choice by Ryan Guina – “I encourage you to explore your options and find the bank which meets your needs, and won’t nickel or dime you with fees. I use USAA, which is an incredible bank. And there are a variety of fee free online savings accounts, free checking accounts, and hundreds of credit unions which don’t charge as many fees as some of the larger banks.”
• Remember when rare earth stocks were hotter than magma? Well, they’re 50% cheaper now by Jim Jubak – “The growing demand for rare earths from new technologies plus China’s moves had two immediate effects. First, prices for rare earth minerals, especially the rarer heavy rare earth elements soared with prices for some rare earth elements climbing ten times from 2009 into 2011. Second, the scramble was on for alternative sources of supply. Suddenly there was plenty of capital available to restart mines that had closed because of low prices and stricter environmental regulation outside of China.”
• Fighting Civil Forfeiture Abuse – “The net effect of these three factors [profit motive, standard of proof, innocent owner burden] is to increase the use of forfeiture by law enforcement agencies by incentivizing forfeiture through making it profitable for the agencies that engage in it, by making it easier to keep seized property (by lowering the standard of proof) and by making it more expensive and difficult for owners to challenge the action (by shifting the burden of proof to the innocent owner).”

• A 401k With Employer Matching is More Liquid Than You Think by Kevin McKee – “If your employer offers 401k matching, it’s simple: max it out. The one thing you’ll want to check is when the money is vested. All 401k money is immediately vested at my company, so once the match is in the account, it’s yours.”
• Potential Euro Collapse & Rapid Redistribution Of Personal Wealth – “When we look at these two situations, what we can plainly see is that there is a massive redistribution of wealth that goes on when we have monetary crises. Millions of innocent people who’ve been playing by the rules and responsibly saving and investing are financially devastated. Other millions of people are enjoying lucrative profits and tax-advantaged surges in their personal net worth.”
• 3 Dividend Growth Stocks selected by Gordon Model by Norman Tweed – “What this tells you is that constant future dividend growth is additional yield. Gordon speaks about earnings growth also in the paper. However, this is a highly conservative usage, leaving out pure growth stocks and concentrating on yield only. It is most applicable for utilities and slow growth rate stocks.”
• 6 Online Retirement Planning Tools You Need to Know by Ryan Guina – “if your situation is more complicated, then it may be worth looking into a tool such as Maximize My Social Security, which costs $40 annually. This tool can help you determine the best strategy for maximizing your social security benefit. This tool can be especially helpful when you may need to decide when to collect retiree, spousal, survivor, divorcee, parent, or child benefits.”
• Public debt in the Eurozone, Japan, and the US by Charles Wyplosz – “Europe’s public debt outlook has deteriorated because of its ageing population and the global economic and financial crisis. Absent corrective action, public debts are projected to rise from 59% to 128% GDP by 2035 – and much more for some countries. In addition to the usual national common-pool problem, the Eurozone suffers from an international common-pool problem whereby individual countries may be led to expect support from others, including through bailouts as is currently the case.”
• Eight Little-Known Facts about the Roth IRA by Jeff Rose – “Since 2010, there are new conversion rules that apply to the transferring of funds from a traditional IRA or 401(k) to a Roth IRA. When you convert from a tax-deferred retirement account to a tax-free retirement account, you’ll potentially see many benefits long term. It’s important to remember that the IRS isn’t going to forget about the taxation of this money. Whatever amount you transfer to the Roth IRA will be tacked on to your earned income (and taxed at your current rate) for the year of the conversion.”
• Chart of Largest Petroleum Consuming Countries from 1980 to 2010 by John Hunter – “The USA remains, by a huge margin, the largest consumer of petroleum products using 22% of the total (with about 4.5% of the population). From 1980 to 2010 the global consumption increased 38% to 87 million barrels a day.”

• The Economy is Weak and Prospects May be Grim, But Many Companies Have Rosy Prospects by John Hunter – “the prospects in emerging markets look incredibly good to me. Yes they will slow their growth a bit if the large economies stall, but I think it is foolish to avoid investments in China, Singapore, Brazil, Korea, India, Ghana, Malaysia, Indonesia. In fact that is where companies like Google, Tesco, Apple, Toyota and Amazon are going to be making lots of money. Emerging markets are volatile and the companies in them are too. This will continue.”
• Extreme Early Retirement in Practice: How Two People Did It by Robert Brokamp – “We recently spent three months in Guatemala nestled between three volcanoes, on the shores of beautiful Lake Atitlan, and our average spending was $40 per day for the two of us, which equates to $14,600 per year. Our hotel price included daily cleaning, wi-fi, room service, cable TV, and a view.”
• Are stocks cheap yet? Not if the economy is slowing, these numbers say by James Jubak – “A 20% drop in forecast earnings—the rough equivalent of an economic slowdown instead of a recession—would put the price-to-earnings ratio of the S&P 500 at 13. That’s below the average of 15 but not really very cheap given the degree of economic risk that an investor is taking on right now.”
• Private Pensions: Another Gradual Catastrophe by Evan Tarte – “Despite the arguably noble intent of defined benefit plans and the PBGC, these plans demand crippling contributions from employers and inevitably the taxpayer, and make little sense in today’s market environment. PBGC’s current deficit stands at $22 billion”
• Emergency Savings: is 6 Months Still Enough? by GE Miller – “with the average unemployment duration at 40.4 weeks, 6 months (or 26 weeks) is no longer enough, particularly when you take into account the possibility of medical emergency, pet operations, or other unforeseen circumstances. What is a good length these days? 1 year, at a minimum.”
• Forget TARP: Wall St Borrowed $1.2 Trillion from Fed by Barry Ritholtz – “An honest broker of the situation would have: 1. Fire the senior management of the banks 2. Banned all lobbying activity as a condition of any aid 3. Forced a Swedish style prepackaged bankruptcy”
• Bernanke Impoverishing Grandmothers to Benefit Wall Street Bankers by James Quinn – “The widow that was able to generate a risk free $6,000 only four years ago has only been able to generate less than $500 per year for the last three years.”
• Traveling Back to the Future on Intercity Buses by Mark Perry – “Private bus operators have effectively taken a 100-year-old technology, the bus, and adapted it seamlessly to the 21st century. Compare high-speed rail. It is tethered to enormous stations that must be built or refurbished and limited to particular routes that, once the rails are laid down, cannot be changed except at prohibitive expense.”