Joyful Alternative

Gloom and Doom Returns to the Markets

Your Wolfgang Munchau link doesn't work, too many s. So after I fixed the URL, it took me to Tyler Burden guest posting at Naked Capitalism. Where did you want to direct us?

But I do agree with you. Anyone who believed the too-big-to-fail banks were suddenly turned around and profitable in January, and bought their stock as a bargain, needs a conservator.

Poor Performance Often Linked to Excessive Executive Pay

Winger, there's a lot to be said for returning taxes to the levels of the Eisenhower level.

Welcome to the Google Economy

jonbob, I got a mortgage earlier this year, and 3 months later, the same bank solicited me for a HELOC! There's been way too much credit floating around.

Welcome to the Google Economy

For a Googy car company based on utility, try Philly CarShare. Parking lots all over the city and suburbs, with various sorts of cars for members to rent by the hour; no need to own or store your own car, and a nice well-maintained car always available nearby for grocery shopping or a trip to Grandmas.

And then there's the whole category of social/professional networking. I like LinkedIn, but there are many, depending on what you're looking for.

The People's Republic of America?

Couldn't the government buy the big 3 automakers for less than $50 billion? Maybe they could be fixed and then IPOed for a profit. If not, well, we'd have lost the $50 billion on the loan anyway.

I just think handing over a huge pile of money to the overpaid executives who haven't done much of anything right for decades is foolish. Maybe I'm a creative destructionist.

(Probably an easier way to prop up Detroit until it has the chance to electrify would be to initiate single-payer health insurance promptly. Worldwide no other carmaker has to shoulder the Big 3's bennie burden.)

Long-Term Ugliness

They posted the article to get us to comment, and we did.

GM's big mistake was not to push for single-payer universal health insurance long ago, say, maybe the Nixon era. They've been burdened by heavy costs for employee, employee family, and retiree health insurance that foreign car makers were spared; they've been competing with one arm (and maybe a foot, too) tied behind their back for a long time. Then again, they're kind of ponderous, and they might very well have screwed up and still found themselves the world's foremost provider of SUVs nobody wants. We'll never know.

As far as Pfizer, I agree with the commenter above. They've got a lot of cash and a fat dividend, and I bought some last week. They may turn around and go places with something in the pipeline or a purchase; if not, I'll get a better return than my bank offers for the foreseeable future.

I'm staying away from the whole banking, insurance, financial sector until it shakes out to my satisfaction, if ever.

Are Subsistence Wages Killing the US?

Speaking of giant parasites, the health insurance industry has got to go. Medicare for all would bring a great relief to all the decent employers, including automakers, trying to provide health insurance benefits, and it would free all the frustrated entrepreneurs chained to jobs with health insurance.

Industries to Avoid, Industries to Buy

Entrepreneurial activity will blossom beyond any libertarian's dreams if only this country somehow manages to establish single-payer health insurance.