Liberal Talk Radio

Look who just took himself out of the race in 2012.  Mitt Romney writes: Detroit needs a turnaround, not a check. Actually, the title of piece says it all – Let Detroit Go Bankrupt If this weren’t an op-ed, I might blame the editor for the attention-grabbing headline. But this must certainly be Mitt’s own [...]

Before the existential threat of Islamic fanaticism took up most of my ire, I was most pissed about ATM fees. Guess what’s back: Citigroup is not the only bank grappling with tremendous losses. Many financial institutions are hiking customer fees at record levels. It may be quick and easy, but that ATM convenience is going [...]

This essay by Andrew Lahde is so good, I just had to link to it again. Lahde — a former hedge fund manager — announces his intention to retire from the business of managing other people’s money.  He rips into the supposedly “smart” MBAs from top schools who rode American capitalism into the ground like [...]

Ron Suskind’s “telling lessons” illustrate the genesis of the 2003 Dividend Tax Cut and Sarbanes-Oxley, which is to say, the Administration acted quickly to address structural flaws in the financial system: The Federal Reserve chairman and senior economic officials of the Bush administration solemnly filed into the large conference room of the Treasury Department. There [...]

And here I thought my Master’s thesis in banking policy would sit, dusty, on a shelf in perpetuity.  (Hey, any ray of light during this crisis, right?) The Fed effectively killed Glass-Steagull today by allowing the last two remaining investment banks — Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley — to convert themselves into Bank Holding Companies.  [...]

You know you’re on to something when even Republican hacks like Kristol agree with you: Everyone seems to agree on the need for a big and comprehensive plan, and that the markets have to have some confidence that help is on the way. Funds need to be supplied, trading markets need to be stabilized, solvent [...]

I know we’re in rough economic times (but not a recession dammit) and trying to cut costs is part of doing business, but it seems to me that once you’ve booked record orders for your industry-leading airliner design, the last thing you should do is drive your chief union of manufacturing employees to strike.

Forget KBR, Halliburton, the CIA or even the Jews — it’s obviously Aramark who was behind 9/11: Travelers using Kennedy International Airport who have not flown in a while may be surprised by the stores and restaurants they see on the way to their flights. The retailing mix in the airport is changing, with more [...]

. . . this should succeed: High beer prices are on tap, and global warming could be to blame. The environmental crisis has hit suds-lovers where it hurts most — at the bar and in the wallet — as prices of grains and hops soar, activists said yesterday. “When we’re trying to deal with young [...]

The P-I Editorial Board wonders why Detroit won’t sell Americans the awesome small cars they’re selling in Europe and Asia. I wonder the same thing. Detroit often claims that they can’t make money selling small cars. They make huge profits on trucks, but often lose money selling small cars. Ford loses $3,000 on every Focus [...]