At one point, Times reporters published a detailed analysis of government methods of searching out rogue atomic weapons, a story that was no doubt read with interest at points north of Lahore, and one that we may all end up paying for years down the line. The fact that Bush was able to curtail any further attacks while the media as a whole was working to undermine his efforts is little less than miraculous.
And isn’t it ironic, they ask, that Bachelet will dedicate a book fair in which thousands of books — including many by Chilean writers, like Jorge Edwards — are banned?
From Is Obama factor behind flurry of Cuba trips?
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See Cincuenta años sin libertad de prensa
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It argued that state control of all media guarantees freedom of the press
Regulators Probed at Least 8 Times Over 16 Years; Congress Starts Review of SEC Today
Mr. Madoff was interviewed at least twice by the SEC. But regulators never came close to uncovering the alleged $50 billion Ponzi scheme that investigators now believe began in the 1970s.
For years, Mr. Madoff told regulators he wasn’t running an investment-advisory business. By saying he instead managed accounts for hedge funds, Mr. Madoff was able to avoid regular reviews of his advisory business.
In 2005 … “The staff found no evidence of fraud,” according to the SEC case memo.
Finra’s full-scale examination in 2007 indicated that parts of Mr. Madoff’s firm had no customers.
From Madoff Chasers Dug for Years, to No Avail
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la revolución atrae a muchos admiradores, como lo evidencian las agencias canadienses que anuncian viajes “para celebrar cinco décadas de resistencia”.
Sin embargo, los cadáveres hablan de un legado diferente. Aquí en el sur de Florida, donde se han asentado aproximadamente 850,000 cubanos con el transcurrir de los años, oleadas repetidas de exilio doloroso y separaciones de familias definen la era de Castro. La revolución nunca cumplió sus expectativas esperanzadoras, la isla que aman se ha deslizado a la decadencia, y, para muchos, el aniversario dorado no es más que una evocación de traumas, viejos y nuevos.
From Doloroso legado de los cincuenta años de la revolución cubana
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I know somebody who put all his money in Freddie Macs and Fannie Maes. After the fact he said he knew the government would bail them out if anything happened. Lucky or smart? He’s a retired securities attorney. I should have followed his lead, but what did I know?”
“Capitalism does not run on trust. It runs on self-interest. Milton Friedman would remind us of the passage early in the “Wealth of Nations” which says that it is not from the benevolence of the butcher that we expect our dinner, but from the butcher’s own interest.”
“In capitalism, trust is no substitute for diligence.”
““Capitalism runs on trust.” You should know better. Capitalism runs on private property rights, the rule of law, and the informed assumption of risk.”
“While Ponzi schemes cannot exist without dishonest, or at least profoundly self-deluded sponsors like Mr. Madoff, there is an equally important second side to the story: unreasonably greedy “investors.” Every Ponzi scheme known to man requires a cadre of avaricious self-absorbed volunteer victims.”
From Letters in response to “Madoff and Markets”
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You couldn’t watch these shows without concluding that you must be an idiot and a loser if you lived in a house you could actually afford.
From “Blame Television for the (Housing) Bubble”
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The real mystery in the Madoff story is not how naïve individual investors such as myself would think the investment safe, but how the risks and warning signs could have been ignored by so many financially knowledgeable people, including the highly compensated executives who ran the various feeder funds that kept the Madoff ship afloat. The partial answer is that Madoff’s investment algorithm (along with other aspects of his organization) was a closely guarded secret that was difficult to penetrate, and it’s also likely (as in all cases of gullibility) that strong affective and self-deception processes were at work. In other words, they had too good a thing going to entertain the idea that it might all be about to crumble.
I know somebody who put all his money in Freddie Macs and Fannie Maes. After the fact he said he knew the government would bail them out if anything happened. Lucky or smart? He’s a retired securities attorney. I should have followed his lead, but what did I know?”
“When the Bush Treasury decided to bail out Detroit, GM and Chrysler quickly said yes to the taxpayer cash, but Ford Motor Co. said it didn’t need the money and declined. Ford’s reward for this show of self-reliance? Treasury is now helping GM again by giving it a credit pricing advantage against Ford in the marketplace.”
“This is always what happens when politicians decide to muck around in private industry. Even when made with the best intentions, their policy decisions have unintended consequences that help some companies at the expense of others.”
” … the agitation for “diversity in philanthropy” isn’t about donating to causes that help minorities. It’s a jobs program for college-educated minorities who want to work in nonprofits.”
From “The Philanthropy Shakedown”
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“”American Creed,” and of its erosion among the elites. Its key elements — the English language, Christianity, religious commitment, English concepts of the rule of law, the responsibility of rulers, and the rights of individuals — he said are derived from the “distinct Anglo-Protestant culture of the founding settlers of America in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.”"
Huntington observed that his was an “argument for the importance of Anglo-Protestant culture, not for the importance of Anglo-Protestant people.”
“The 20th-century conflict between liberal democracy and Marxist-Leninism is only a fleeting and superficial historical phenomenon compared to the continuing and deeply conflictual relation between Islam and Christianity.”
From “Samuel Huntington’s Warning”
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