As Always, Tom Sowell weighs in on the probablity that the goverment will arrive, idealy  like the cavalry in the Western,  in time to do anything but muck things up. Couple this thought with the last article making the point that if one does not have a job skill one is not likely to find…

Charles Wheelan makes the point that politicians cannot create jobs unless workers have some job skills. While he falls back on the ladder of more education, I would argue that there are lots of college degrees that can only saddle one with debt while not improving job prospects. If the degree does not involve an…

Not surprisingly the most over built condo states California, Florida, and Nevada lead in foreclosures.  The fourth state is Michigan which has the weakest economy in the USA. While foreclosures are up 79% over last year, one tracking organization sees most of the sub prime mess written off by this summer.

Risk Magazine named Societe General  as a great risk manager. In the light of their $7.2 B loss maybe they want to reconsider.  If this can happen in a highly regulated institution like a bank, what could happen in an unregulated industry like hedge funds?  One never knows who is doing what and this is…

Eddie Lampert’s Sears Holdings SHLD, a combo of the remainder of K Mart and Sears is looking for a new CEO.   After being toasted as the new Warren Buffet, SHLD jumped to about $180, today it is about $100 and market share is going nowhere. Predictably Lampert has announced a re shuffling of the…

1/23/08, The Rose Garden Press Conference President Bush -And so my Fellow Americans we stand united for the common purpose of engaging our task, keeping the American Economy on a continued track to prosperity for all. Today we head for the Cabinet Room to Make the Tough Decisions that will keep us the economic envy…

In today’s DMN Scott Burns details the latest Florida condo and home bust.  This helps explain why the Recession will not be quickly solved by all of us rushing to Home depot with $600. But there is nothing new in all of this. Every boom hatches derivative boomlets that are even more destined to fail…

Larry Kudlow takes a look at captialists like Bill Gates and Soros that doubt their own engine of success. No question there are gross excesses that anger me, like Lee Raymond at XOM getting $400 M for preiding over an oil company when the price of oil was going up, how tough is that?  Tell…

Wall Street would like you to believe they know what they are doing.  A glance at bank and brokerage stock prices suggests otherwise. Since I started following the industry in 1973 it has always been so.  Wall Street piles on workers on the way up only to discard them as prices fall.  The oil industry…

I can’t say that I am a fan of Jim Cramer (thestreet.com), his out of the park sceaming style does not appeal to me, where is Lu Rukeysar when I want him?  But Cramer suggets a solution to the housing debacle in this piece.  I can see at least two big problems with his solution,…