The media is creating a circus around the Facebook IPO which will most certainly lead to a boom and bust in the short term after the IPO launches. The only critical question even being raised in the media about the IPO is about valuation. I have no idea whether Facebook is overvalued at $75 billion ...
If you believe all the stories about the Keystone XL Pipeline , you would think it is the standard battle between oil interests and environmentalists. It ignores the reality that there was substantial opposition in Nebraska, a Republican state because the pipeline would run through an aquifer and a spill would endanger drinking water and ...
The disparity in tax rates between earned income and investment income is making a lot of news these days due to Mitt Romney’s admission that his effective rate is around 15% with most of his money coming from investments and just the other day Jim Cramer’s twitter rant on “carried interest” which enables hedge fund ...
While the political media is making much hay about Bain Capital’s involvement in KB Toys because of Mitt Romney, though Romney had left the firm by then, I thought it might be much more interesting from a business perspective than a political perspective to ask why is Bain Capital or anyone else investing in toy ...
There is a lot of media attention on a near New Year’s Eve announcement by the Justice Department to reverse its opinion formed mostly in the administration of George W, Bush that the Wire Act of 1961 prohibits most forms of gambling over the internet. The Justice Department is now willing to accept what most ...
Obamacare is really a pejorative term (now, 10 years from now it might be considered an honor), but I will use it here for simplicity as it is easier than the full name of the actual bill and it is familiar to most Americans. There is so much misinformation about Obamacare out there, I thought ...
The political posturing about whether the payroll tax reduction should be extended two months or twelve obscures a more important policy issue, which is how to pay for it. The bill that passed the Senate pays for it by increasing the fee the GSEs (Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac) charge for backing mortgage loans. The ...
There is a theory being espoused now that the supercommittee has failed to do anything that Americans are going to make a clear choice in the 2012 elections in what directions they want to go. The implication is that divided government will end. That may happen, but it well may not. We do not use ...
There is a lot that can be said about the collapse of MF Global and I might have several things to write over the next week or so, but the most eye opening thing to me and I think to most Americans is just how much pure gambling is done in financial markets overseas particularly ...
The most talked about stock today is Netflix (NFLX) – which is down over 36% today and down over 75% from its peak in July. There are many media outlets and market pundits calling this historic in terms of the breadth of its spectacular rise and fall in the matter of months. Netflix went from ...