Tuesday, May 7, 2024
Scouting America for new victims
Tuesday, November 7, 2023
WeWork, which once pretended to be worth $47 billion, files for bankruptcy protection
From the story here:
WeWork has struggled in a commercial real estate market that has been rocked by the rising cost of borrowing money, as well as a shifting dynamic for millions of office workers now checking into their offices remotely.
Saturday, September 23, 2023
Bankruptcy estate of FTX sues Barbara Fried, Stanford Law ethics expert, for encouraging son to skirt disclosure rules
Very amusing.
We’re law experts, see. This is how you get around the law.
From the story,
The filing characterizes the correspondence as Bankman lobbying his son to “massively increase his own salary.” Within two weeks, the suit claims that Bankman-Fried had collectively gifted his parents $10 million in funds coming from Alameda, and within three months, the couple was deeded the $16.4 million property in The Bahamas.
According to the partially-redacted filing, Bankman-Fried’s parents also “pushed for tens of millions of dollars in political and charitable contributions, including to Stanford University, which were seemingly designed to boost Bankman’s and Fried’s professional and social status.” Fried is also accused of encouraging her son and others within the company to avoid, if not violate, federal campaign finance disclosure rules by “engaging in straw donations or otherwise concealing the FTX Group as the source of the contributions.”
Bankman-Fried’s parents are legal scholars who taught at Stanford Law School. His mother is an expert on ethics, while his father specializes in taxes.
Wednesday, May 3, 2023
Besides their bad character, what do Trump and Obama have in common in 2009 and 2020?
Trump and Obama signed off on the two most fiscally irresponsible periods in post-war history, and Biden two years in looks set to join them.
The Executive is supposed to be a check on irresponsible spending. But both Trump and Obama went right along with it instead of vetoing the outrageous spending of the periods.
What else do they have in common?
Two crises, both of which plunged the country into hysteria.
The Great Financial Crisis did not begin to end until March 2009 when the FASB signaled its intent to suspend mark-to-market rules. The stock market bottomed almost immediately, but as with all cases of mass hysteria it took time for the panic to pass as other sectors recovered "one by one".
The Pandemic Crisis gripped the country in March 2020, sending millions home from work, stocks plunging, toilet paper into shortage, businesses into bankruptcy, and on and on. With just about everyone vaccinated who was going to be by the end of 2021, the country gradually started to come out of it in 2022, eschewing jabs, masks, and social distancing as it became clear that the Omicron variant was infecting tens of millions despite all those measures.
2020 was the single most fiscally irresponsible year in the post-war since 1953. Federal expenditures, bloated by panicked bailouts, outpaced tax revenues by a whopping 216%.
Only 2009 comes close, at 210%, the second worst year on record.
Third, not shown, was 2010 at 196%, and fourth, not shown, was 2021 at 176%, each a part of the respective crisis periods.
Do you know what else those two years share in common?
Spending bills must originate in the House of Representatives.
In 2009 and 2020 its Speaker just happened to be the same person, as she was in 2010 and 2021.
Nancy Pelosi owns the four most fiscally irresponsible years in the entire history of the post-war. Her two speakerships literally busted out all over.
Sunday, October 23, 2022
Sunday morning comedy from CNBC
Friday, September 23, 2022
Adam Tooze: Central bankers' hands were forced in 2010, the poor dears, they aren't the lords of easy money, no, they're its slaves, just like us
Here, for The New York Times:
Thursday, July 7, 2022
Thursday, April 9, 2020
Has anyone on the right discussed how Trump and his Fed chair are destroying free market capitalism?
Wednesday, December 19, 2018
Wednesday, May 4, 2016
Rush Limbaugh caller "New Jersey George" explains how Ted Cruz picked a fight with midwest common sense in Indiana and lost
From the Rush Limbaugh transcript, here: