Happy New Year

I have been very remiss about blogging lately, but I have been doing alot of reading and here are a few bits I think you will find worthwhile.

The End of the Financial World as We Know It - NYT

By MICHAEL LEWIS and DAVID EINHORN

Published: January 3, 2009

Fighting Off Depression -NYT

By PAUL KRUGMAN

Published: January 4, 2009

Pointless Peace Proposals -SlateThe Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a war, and it won't be over until someone wins.

By Anne ApplebaumPosted Monday, Jan. 5, 2009, at 7:55 PM ET

The Man in the Rockefeller Suit

By snatching his seven-year-old daughter from her mother’s custody, after a bitter divorce, the man calling himself Clark Rockefeller blew the lid off a lifelong con game which had culminated with his posing as a scion of the famous dynasty. The 47-year-old impostor charmed his way into exclusive communities, clubs, and financial institutions—marrying a Harvard M.B.A.; working at Kidder, Peabody; and showing off an extraordinary art collection—until his arrest brought him face-to-face with his past and with questions regarding skeletal remains dug up in a California backyard.

by MARK SEALJanuary 2009

Wall Street Lays Another Egg

Not so long ago, the dollar stood for a sum of gold, and bankers knew the people they lent to. The author charts the emergence of an abstract, even absurd world—call it Planet Finance—where mathematical models ignored both history and human nature, and value had no meaning.

by NIALL FERGUSONDecember 2008