More Off Topic Commentary

The changes of note that I saw today are more political than financial.  I mentioned the recent exchange with my conservative friend in Chicago.  It seems this was part of a much large narrative.  Here’s The Big Picture’s take on those who are trying to pin our current mess on Obama.  Here’s Reich’s spin.  And here is John Stuart’s spin on the idiots at CNBC.

Note: I have equal disdain for both major political parties as well as all the idiots on the financial news networks.  The financial pundits are as criminal with their unintelligent and misleading commentary as the heads of the Wall Street have been in their stewardship of our common financial system.

Partisan Bickering

I would characterize myself as a political moderate.  My conservative friends ridicule me a liberal and my liberal friends think I’m a conservative.  Frankly, I have equal contempt for both parties.

I’ve been having a long email conversation with one of my conservative friends.  He was a Mitt Romney supporter and has hated Obama from the beginning (this friend lives in Chicago).  I have defended Obama, primarily because he’s the president and I want to give him a chance.  We’re all in this together and I’d rather hope that his administration will work until proven otherwise.

This friend sent a link to a WSJ editorial that I thought was completely unfair to Obama.  Here is a copy of my email response.

Criminal?

The drumbeat of global economic woes continues: layoffs at giants like Microsoft, IBM, and Intel, more losses at bellwethers like Sony and Nokia, stagnation in the U.K. as the pound collapses, worst home construction year in decades, jobs disappearing in Asia as exports collapse, etc.  Add to that continued bad behavior on the part of Wall Street – it was reported today that top Merrill Lynch management gave themselves large bonuses just days before the forced sale to BofA.

I am starting to become numb to the continued avalanche of bad news.

So, here’s something different.  Today the Chinese courts have sentenced two men to death and a third to life in prison for their role in the tainted milk scandal.  I certainly don’t believe that the Chinese legal system offers a model for us, but the idea of dealing harshly with white collar crime is one that we should consider.

As it stands, we don’t even require slaps on the wrist.  I don’t think that it’s too much of a stretch to equate the severity of delivering tainted milk and collapsing an entire economy.  Willful actions were taken in both cases with an understanding of the potential impacts of those actions.

Off-Topic: Pandora Internet Radio

Like many I really enjoy listening to music and have a fairly eclectic ear.  I can’t remember how long ago I first came across Pandora.com but it was too early.  I recently re-discovered Pandora, and, wow, what a fabulous music site.

I’ve never really been able to describe my favorite “type” of music, sometimes the label “Americana” is applied, sometimes “singer-songwriter”.  Regardless, Pandora knows how to find the songs I like.

It works like this: you create a “radio station” by typing in the name of a song or an artist that you like and Pandora finds music like that.  I typed in the name of 2 artists – Greg Brown and Cowboy Junkies – and for the past 3 days I have heard songs from artists I know well and from ones I’ve never heard of.  Consistently good to great stuff without any commercials or breaks.  Amazing.  Check it out.