Most companies traditionally add to their offerings at this time of year. the assumption being that buyers want as much choice as possible. But recent evidence suggests the paradigm may be shifting.
Not since the $700 billion raid of taxpayer dollars have Washington regulators scurried so quickly to ferret out evidence of collusion between the feds and the nation's major banks. All because of WikiLeaks.
Wealthy Americans who wish to create generation-skipping trusts for grandchildren have a unique opportunity which may never be available again, to make gifts in 2010 without incurring any generation skipping tax.
Like vampires, America's banks are creatures who were brought back from the dead through the public's generosity. Now they're feasting on the rest of us again, while politicians work to rob us of the few tools we can use to defend ourselves.
Who wouldn't agree that our society is capitalistic, based on competition and selfishness? As it happens, however, huge areas of our lives are also based on gift economies, barter, mutual aid, and giving without hope of return.
The daily news may be filled with stories about scarcity. But the one thing we are definitely not running out of, at least not any time soon, is feeling, thinking people.
We should strive to give a bit more attention to these and other promising policies in the months ahead. This is an issue that deserves a much larger profile in 2011 than it has received in 2010.
The recently released base case from the EIA paints a future of cheap energy for the economy. But its underlying assumptions are no more credible than those that underpinned the optimistic forecasts released by the International Energy Agency.
The things our government does for us have been cut back so far. Working people's wages have been stagnant for so long. But the blame right now is directed at we, the people.
Only in the fever-swamps of the left could anyone believe that the Republicans on the FCIC sought to "ban" the words "Wall Street," "shadow banking," "interconnection," and "deregulation" from the commission's report.
The New Start treaty is a big and important victory for the Obama administration, as is the end of the ban on openly gay soldiers in the military. But neither signals a new start to cleaning up Washington and turning this economy around.
The perennial issue regarding private military security contractors is the degree to which they are subject to effective oversight. In that regard there is only one item in today's news worth looking at.
What WikiLeaks has is a mystery, but we already know a lot about Bank of America practices that are hurting Americans and prolonging the economic crisis. Here are the eleven biggest issues.
While the market gets creative with new ways to justify higher valuations, as a company's size increases, growth becomes more difficult.
In the compromised state of our political system, individuals like Larry Summers and Lee Sachs are ascendant and corporations secure legislation on the strength of powerful friends and bottomless pockets.
To date the president has barely dealt with the oil price malignancy threatening to destabilize the feeble economic recovery he has sponsored to date. It's time for him to act on his campaign promise in this regard.
You would think if anyone could run an actively managed total return fund, it would be Mr. Gross. I assume that was precisely the thinking that made PIMCO's Total Return Fund so successful in attracting assets. So, what happened?
With far too little is being done to help the millions of Americans who have had their homes foreclosed this year, it seems like an Ebenezer Scrooge Christmas. But it doesn't have to be this way.
Your relationship with your money compares to a dieters relationship to food.
David Isenberg, 2010.12.23
Dov Seidman, 2010.12.23