Reflecting on the demise of Lehman Brothers and on Bank of America’s purchase of Merrill Lynch, I revisited an article by recent US presidential candidate Ron Paul, posted on mises.org: Capitalism should not be condemned, since we haven’t had capitalism. A system of capitalism presumes sound money, not fiat money […]
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Comment on business today: see also www.ambrielconsulting.com
ft.com: “Wall Street in turmoil”
According to the FT: Wall Street was in turmoil on Monday as Merrill Lynch found shelter in a $50bn takeover by Bank of America and Lehman Brothers said it would file for bankruptcy protection. Now we get to find out what happens when the public is not forced to support a major financial institution. And what […]
Read MoreInvestor Jim Rogers: US is “More Communist than China”
Investor Jim Rogers, CEO of Rogers Holdings, incredibly, told CNBC Europe on Monday that the nationalization of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac shows that: America is more communist than China is right now. You can see that this is welfare of the rich, it is socialism for the rich… it’s […]
Read MoreFT.com / World – US economy surprises with 3.3% growth
Good economic news at last: The US economy grew at an annualised rate of 3.3 per cent in the second quarter – faster than previously estimated by the government and a stronger upward revision compared with economists’ forecasts. read more | digg story
Read MoreThe modern-day Malthusian: resources vs simple arithmetic
Bumped up from first posting on 17 Dec 2007, as I reflect again on sustainability. See also Wikipedia for an introduction, Jancovici for a summary of a classic treatise, and Friedman for an alternative, if now old, perspective. Albert Bartlett: The greatest shortcoming of the human race is our inability […]
Read MoreOops! Bank customer data sold on eBay
A computer containing a million bank customers’ personal data has reportedly been sold on an internet auction site. RBS says an archiving firm told it the PC had apparently been “inappropriately sold on via a third party”. It said historical information relating to credit card applications for their bank and […]
Read MoreSharp US money supply contraction
An unprecedented fall in broad money growth in the USA makes for an unhappy set of economic indicators. read more | digg story
Read MoreiFund – $100,000,000 to develop iPhone applications
KPCB have set up the iFund to “fund market-changing ideas and products that extend the revolutionary new iPhone and iPod touch platform. The iFund™ is agnostic to size and stage of investment and will invest in companies building applications, services and components. Focus areas include location based services, social networking, […]
Read MoreSuffocation for business innovation
There is the potential for a long post here, but for the moment, I’ll stick to “Innovation grants”. A small client worked for weeks, hiring consultants, to obtain an innovation grant for part of one R&D effort. They won a grant, and then spent the duration of the project accounting […]
Read MorePetrol prices!
Today, I filled up with BP Ultimate at 110.9p a litre! At least it was only a bike…
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