tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35987274701726373582024-03-08T08:10:26.582-08:00Sam DelPresto BlogSam DelPrestohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00865707495496360133noreply@blogger.comBlogger33125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3598727470172637358.post-89462226876062754002011-09-13T14:26:00.000-07:002011-09-13T14:27:17.430-07:00The Economy<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <o:documentproperties> <o:template>Normal.dotm</o:Template> <o:revision>0</o:Revision> <o:totaltime>0</o:TotalTime> <o:pages>1</o:Pages> <o:words>140</o:Words> <o:characters>800</o:Characters> <o:company>REVsolutions LLC</o:Company> <o:lines>6</o:Lines> <o:paragraphs>1</o:Paragraphs> <o:characterswithspaces>982</o:CharactersWithSpaces> <o:version>12.0</o:Version> </o:DocumentProperties> <o:officedocumentsettings> <o:allowpng/> </o:OfficeDocumentSettings> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:trackmoves>false</w:TrackMoves> <w:trackformatting/> <w:punctuationkerning/> <w:drawinggridhorizontalspacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridHorizontalSpacing> <w:drawinggridverticalspacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridVerticalSpacing> <w:displayhorizontaldrawinggridevery>0</w:DisplayHorizontalDrawingGridEvery> <w:displayverticaldrawinggridevery>0</w:DisplayVerticalDrawingGridEvery> <w:validateagainstschemas/> <w:saveifxmlinvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:ignoremixedcontent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:alwaysshowplaceholdertext>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:compatibility> <w:breakwrappedtables/> <w:dontgrowautofit/> <w:dontautofitconstrainedtables/> <w:dontvertalignintxbx/> </w:Compatibility> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:latentstyles deflockedstate="false" latentstylecount="276"> </w:LatentStyles> </xml><![endif]--> <!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0in; mso-para-margin-right:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0in; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;} </style> <![endif]--> <!--StartFragment--> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt;line-height:17.6pt">We grasp at straws to mine some good economic news these days. Today we learn that “The number of banks on the government’s list of institutions most at risk for failure fell in the second quarter, the first drop since before the financial crisis began.” <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/24/business/first">www.nytimes.com/2011/08/24/business/first</a> You can’t walk ten feet without hearing someone complaining about the economy, with blame spread around fairly equally between the President, Congress, Bernanke, Geitner, big banks and just about anyone else within our sights. People speak about “fixing the economy” as if it was a ship that needs to be steered through treacherous waters.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The economy is not a ship, it is the ocean itself, with thousands of currents constantly changing and constantly pushing and pulling. We just keep grasping at snippets of good news like they were life savers trying to keep afloat until the waters calm. <a name="_GoBack"></a><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt;line-height:17.6pt"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt;line-height:17.6pt"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes">By Sam DelPresto</span></p> <!--EndFragment-->Sam DelPrestohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00865707495496360133noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3598727470172637358.post-15732249456001375542011-08-03T11:57:00.000-07:002011-08-03T11:58:54.572-07:00We Need a Break!<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <o:documentproperties> <o:template>Normal.dotm</o:Template> <o:revision>0</o:Revision> <o:totaltime>0</o:TotalTime> <o:pages>1</o:Pages> <o:words>126</o:Words> <o:characters>719</o:Characters> <o:company>REVsolutions LLC</o:Company> <o:lines>5</o:Lines> <o:paragraphs>1</o:Paragraphs> <o:characterswithspaces>882</o:CharactersWithSpaces> <o:version>12.0</o:Version> </o:DocumentProperties> <o:officedocumentsettings> <o:allowpng/> </o:OfficeDocumentSettings> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:trackmoves>false</w:TrackMoves> <w:trackformatting/> <w:punctuationkerning/> <w:drawinggridhorizontalspacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridHorizontalSpacing> <w:drawinggridverticalspacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridVerticalSpacing> <w:displayhorizontaldrawinggridevery>0</w:DisplayHorizontalDrawingGridEvery> <w:displayverticaldrawinggridevery>0</w:DisplayVerticalDrawingGridEvery> <w:validateagainstschemas/> <w:saveifxmlinvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:ignoremixedcontent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:alwaysshowplaceholdertext>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:compatibility> <w:breakwrappedtables/> <w:dontgrowautofit/> <w:dontautofitconstrainedtables/> <w:dontvertalignintxbx/> </w:Compatibility> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:latentstyles deflockedstate="false" latentstylecount="276"> </w:LatentStyles> </xml><![endif]--> <!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0in; mso-para-margin-right:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0in; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;} </style> <![endif]--> <!--StartFragment--> <p class="MsoNormal">Major news stories this year have gone by with the speed of semis on a pre-dawn thruway. The debt ceiling debates, the dust storms in the west, tornadoes in the south and mid-west, the near default of Greece, the end of NASA’s shuttle program, the killing of Bin Laden and famines and droughts both here and in Africa are all stories less than a month old.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The tsunami, earthquake and nuclear disaster in Japan seems like ancient history, though barely three months gone. <a href="http://www.abcnews.go.com/">www.abcnews.go.com/</a><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>It gets a bit overwhelming sometimes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Thank God there is sports to occasionally t<a name="_GoBack"></a>ake our minds off the relentless talk of financial and natural disasters….or thank God there may be sports to take our minds off the news for a few minutes if both sides of two of the three major US sports can settle their differences. </p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal">By Sam DelPresto</p> <!--EndFragment-->Sam DelPrestohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00865707495496360133noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3598727470172637358.post-79741879057704080892011-06-23T14:11:00.000-07:002011-06-23T14:12:13.822-07:00Big Banks<!--StartFragment--> <p class="MsoNormal">The outrage over the behavior of the big banks leading up to and following the “Great Recession” is amusing, at least to those with at least a modest background in the history of finance. Beginning with the Rothschild’s stranglehold on European history in the 19<sup>th</sup> century to JP Morgan financing the Second World War, history is much more clearly understood when looked at from the point of view of what the big bankers were doing. Nathan Rothschild’s famous “Give me control of a country’s financing and I could care less who governs” captures the spirit and the reality of the whole thing. It puts the scurrying around of senators and kings in a new perspective and makes almost laughable the attempts by governments for the past two hundred years (at least) to control them. As people call for new regulation, one is reminded of the famous New Yorker cartoon<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span><a href="http://www.newyorker.com/">www.newyorker.com/</a> which shows two bankers sitting at a desk with the caption “These new regulations are going to fundamentally change the way we get around them.”</p><p class="MsoNormal"><a name="_GoBack"></a></p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal">By Sam DelPresto</p> <!--EndFragment-->Sam DelPrestohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00865707495496360133noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3598727470172637358.post-79119288673580218402011-05-20T17:01:00.001-07:002011-05-20T17:01:54.806-07:00Oil Subsidies<!--StartFragment--> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Georgia">Oil companies are presenting their case to congress that they need to maintain the current tax subsidies. </span><span style="font-family:Georgia;mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-latin;color:black">"Given profits of $35 billion in just the first quarter alone, it's hard to find evidence that repealing these subsidies would cut domestic production or cause layoffs," </span><a href="http://www.latimes.com/topic/politics/max-baucus-PEPLT000333.topic" title="Max Baucus"><span style="font-family:Georgia;mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-latin;color:#666666;text-decoration:none;text-underline: none">Sen. Max Baucus</span></a><span style="font-family:Georgia;mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-latin;color:black"> (D-Mont.), chairman of the committee, argued against the oil companies claims.</span><span style="mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri;mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-latin"> </span><a href="http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-pn-oil-executives-tax-hearing-"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri;mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-latin">www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-pn-oil-executives-tax-hearing-</span></a><span style="font-family:Georgia;mso-bidi-font-family:Helvetica;color:black"> Congress is looking at cutting $2 billion a year, which would go towards paying down the deficit. That number represents less than two percent of the expected annual profits of the oil companies. I’m surprised the oilmen actually show up to plead their dubious case, and not only because i<a name="_GoBack"></a>t seems unlikely that Congress will agree on anything.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Oil companies spent $145 million dollars and used 798 lobbyists last year to make certain their point of view was heard.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>There are 435 members of the House and 100 Senators. Do the math – that’s nearly two lobbyists and over a quarter of a million dollars for each and every person in the Legislative branch of government. What?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Oilmen have to take time out of their busy schedules to parade in front of Congress?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Haven’t they done enough already?</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Georgia;mso-bidi-font-family:Helvetica;color:black"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Georgia;mso-bidi-font-family:Helvetica;color:black">By Sam DelPresto</span></p> <!--EndFragment-->Sam DelPrestohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00865707495496360133noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3598727470172637358.post-61250242659485144902011-04-15T13:03:00.000-07:002011-04-15T13:04:43.383-07:00Oh No! Not the Parks<!--StartFragment--> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:9.0pt;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:9.0pt; margin-left:0in;background:white"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">It is always fascinating to me which portion of a news story is reported in the network coverage. With the threat of a government shutdown imminent, NBC is reporting that “</span></span><span style="line-height: 115%; color: black; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">The looming shutdown of the federal government includes the National Parks Service, which could mean events commemorating the start of the Civil War with a Confederate attack on Fort Sumter may have to happen without the fort itself.” </span></span></span><a href="http://www.nbc-2.com/story/14400275/federal-shutdown"><span style="line-height: 115%; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">www.nbc-2.com/story/14400275/federal-shutdown</span></span></span></a><span style="line-height: 115%; color: black; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">. Is that really in the top one hundred eventualities that Americans should be concerned about if the government shuts down? The top five hundred? Oh, by the way, NBC (might as well) report, in the Route 95 seven car accident, with multiple fatalities, one of the victims lost their wallet. The 20</span></span><sup><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">th</span></span></sup><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> Century English writer, Rebecca West was apparently correct when she asserted, “Journalism is the ability to meet the challenge of filling space.”</span></span></span><a name="_GoBack"></a></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:9.0pt;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:9.0pt; margin-left:0in;background:white"><span style="line-height: 115%; color: black; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:9.0pt;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:9.0pt; margin-left:0in;background:white"><span style="line-height: 115%; color: black; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">By Sam DelPresto</span></span></span></p> <!--EndFragment-->Sam DelPrestohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00865707495496360133noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3598727470172637358.post-89069424926687707482011-03-13T12:58:00.001-07:002011-03-13T12:58:34.483-07:00Weather<!--StartFragment--> <p style="background:white">Oscar Wilde said “Conversation about the weather is the last refuge of the unimaginative”. Normally, I am inclined to agree.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>A “sure is hot/cold out there” (take your pick) makes the speaker seem, at worst, simple minded and, at best, like one prone to state the obvious. But as the 21<sup>st</sup> century roars forward, I might have to re-think my position.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Floods, earthquakes, tsunamis et al are forcing themselves into the forefront of many of our lives. For people living in stricken areas, there’s no topic more important to talk about. The recent massive earthquake in Japan that unleashed the latest tsunami appears to have moved the main island of Japan by eight feet and shifted the earth on its axis. <a href="http://www.articles.cnn.com/2011-03-12/world/japan.earthquake.tsunami.earth">www.articles.cnn.com/2011-03-12/world/japan.earthquake.tsunami.earth</a><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I’m beginning to look forward to a time when a simple “sure is hot out there” is the only mention of the weather.</p><p style="background:white"><br /></p><p style="background:white">By Sam DelPresto</p><p style="background:white"><a name="_GoBack"></a></p> <!--EndFragment-->Sam DelPrestohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00865707495496360133noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3598727470172637358.post-60151747352898074432011-02-14T10:36:00.000-08:002011-02-14T10:37:02.576-08:00Revolution<!--StartFragment--> <p class="MsoNormal">The resignation of Egypt’s President Hosni Mubarak was truly revolutionary.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Not the part where a dictator is overthrown; that happens from time to time. The world-shattering part is that the revolution was achieved with an almost total absence of gunfire.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The weapon of choice was the internet. (<a href="http://www.cnn.com/2011/TECH/social.media/02/11/egyptian.president">www.cnn.com/2011/TECH/social.media/02/11/egyptian.president</a>.)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The revolution began, at least in part, on Facebook. If the unlikely election of Barack Obama in 2001 did not signal the end of business as usual (his war chest was almost completely funded by small contributors through the internet) then certainly this change of government does.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The Egyptian people’s overthrow of Mubarak is a gigantic boulder thrown into a pond with ripples of influence that are so far unimagined, both positive and negative.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>This form of public oversight sounds radically like a government “of the people, by the people.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes">By Sam DelPresto</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><a name="_GoBack"></a></p> <!--EndFragment-->Sam DelPrestohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00865707495496360133noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3598727470172637358.post-62103020909521209732011-02-01T18:07:00.000-08:002011-02-01T18:08:53.130-08:00He Saw This Coming<!--StartFragment--> <p class="MsoNormal">The Tucson, Arizona shooting of Gabrielle Giffords and other defenseless victims has stimulated a lot of debate about the civility or lack thereof in media and in politics in general.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The very suggestion that a connection exists between the two has generated much rancorous dialogue.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I find it fascinating that this type of connection was predicted by the 2oth century communications guru, Marshall McCluhan<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>years before the invention of the internet. Forty years before it was even possible, McCluhan warned in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">The Gutenberg Galaxy </i>that a medium defined by “participation and a multiplicity of inputs” might have dire consequences.( <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/09/books/review/Carr-t.html?scp">www.nytimes.com/2011/01/09/books/review/Carr-t.html?scp</a>)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>“When people get closer together, they get more and more savage, impatient with one another”, McCluhan wrote before his death in 1980<a name="_GoBack"></a>.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">What? You don’t believe me?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>What are you some kind of a liberal, neo-conservative #%/$*?</p><p class="MsoNormal">By Sam DelPresto</p> <!--EndFragment-->Sam DelPrestohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00865707495496360133noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3598727470172637358.post-22474277254033628872011-01-05T08:35:00.000-08:002011-01-05T08:36:21.098-08:00Good News<!--StartFragment--> <p style="line-height:18.75pt">As the year ends, new jobless claims are down, housing sales are up, retail spending exceeded expectations and the stock market remains strong. <span lang="EN" style="color:#333333;mso-ansi-language: EN"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>“There's no denying that the economy is improving," said Wayne Kaufman, chief market analyst at John Thomas in New York. </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>It has been at least two and a half years since any of these things could have been said. (<a href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/40850565/ns/business-eye_on_the_economy/">www.msnbc.msn.com/id/40850565/ns/business-eye_on_the_economy/</a>)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Optimism anybody?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Oscar Wilde once said that “the basis for optimism is sheer terror”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>There’s no denying that the past few years have brought their share of terrifying developments. After the past two or three years of doom and gloom, however, the newest reports, if not a signal that the worst is behind us, are in the very least, a welcomed respite.<a name="_GoBack"></a><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></p><p style="line-height:18.75pt"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"><br /></span></p><p style="line-height:18.75pt"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes">By Sam DelPresto</span></p> <!--EndFragment-->Sam DelPrestohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00865707495496360133noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3598727470172637358.post-49529043747756491092010-12-20T16:20:00.000-08:002010-12-20T16:21:39.762-08:00Who?<!--StartFragment--> <p class="MsoNormal">If you Google Joseph A. Smith Jr., you will find scant mention of the North Carolina Commissioner on Banks, which is ironic because he has been appointed by the Obama Administration to help decide what to do about the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac crises beginning in January.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"></span><a href="http://www.communityinvestmentnetwork.org/nc/single-news-item-states/">www.communityinvestmentnetwork.org/nc/single-news-item-states/</a></p><p class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://www.communityinvestmentnetwork.org/nc/single-news-item-states/"></a>While the media ponders such noble questions like whether the Republican Majority leader cries publicly too much or not, Mr. Smith will be tackling a problem of such magnitude that it is foolish to think his decisions will not affect our children and grandchildren.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The government mortgage guarantee system has been in place one way or another since Franklin Roosevelt.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Both Presidents Eisenhower and Johnson made changes to the system that still ripple down to us fifty years later. The overhaul of this system, one could argue, has more far reaching consequences in the everyday lives of Americans than the war now going on, but try to prove that based on media coverage!</p><p class="MsoNormal">By Sam DelPresto</p><p class="MsoNormal"><a name="_GoBack"></a></p> <!--EndFragment-->Sam DelPrestohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00865707495496360133noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3598727470172637358.post-67488723965858655752010-11-10T13:11:00.000-08:002010-11-10T13:12:03.148-08:00The Internets<!--StartFragment--> <p class="MsoNormal">This is why the internet was invented, isn’t it?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>According to The Belfast Telegraph, an Irishman has found a clip in Charlie Chaplin’s 1928 black and white movie, “The Circus”, that pretty clearly shows a woman passing in the background of a scene talking on a cell phone. <a href="http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/entertainment/film-tv/news/">www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/entertainment/film-tv/news/</a><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The obvious and immediate conclusion drawn from this piece of film is that she is, in fact, some sort of time traveler. While that was not my first reaction to the film, I admit that to the modern viewer, the woman could be doing little else. The fact that within a few hours, the “hypothesis” had been refuted, will have little to do with the “legs” of the story.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>In our modern age, it is the story that matters, not whether the story is true or not. Trying to find out what is happening in the world using the internet, however, is like trying to find out what time it is by watching the second hand on a clock.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal">By Sam DelPresto</p> <!--EndFragment-->Sam DelPrestohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00865707495496360133noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3598727470172637358.post-45280773527594375712010-10-18T18:32:00.000-07:002010-10-18T18:33:06.461-07:00Nobel Peace Prize<!--StartFragment--> <p class="MsoNormal">It seems to me that the best thing the Nobel Peace Prize can do is to promote peace.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>That sounds simplistic, I’m sure, but the recent award to Liu Xiaobo, the Chinese dissident, fills that criteria.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>By shining a light on the imprisonment of this fifty-four year old dissident who has made it his life’s work to promote personal freedoms in China, the Nobel committee has drawn much needed attention to his plight. In a statement that reeks of walking-on-eggs diplomacy, President Obama called for more personal freedom in China where reforms have not kept pace with its economic growth. <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/09/world/09nobel.html">www.nytimes.com/2010/10/09/world/09nobel.html</a><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>China, for its part, has implored the world to look at them as the leaders who have lifted millions from poverty – the absence of personal freedoms a trifling by-product. Time will tell if the prize helps or hurts Xiaobo’s personal plight. It is unlikely that he even knows he won the prize, and his wife has been made “unavailable for comment”. But, I think the Nobel committee was right on with this one. </p> <!--EndFragment-->Sam DelPrestohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00865707495496360133noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3598727470172637358.post-5406077001701349642010-10-01T13:49:00.000-07:002010-10-01T13:50:46.291-07:00Aiming for the Center<!--StartFragment--> <p class="MsoNormal">I applaud New York’s Mayor Bloomberg for the announcement of his intention to help bolster the political center. <a href="http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/297779">www.digitaljournal.com/article/297779</a> With the angry and divisive tea party and Sarah Palin garnering so much media attention, it is refreshing to see someone of Bloomberg’s stature trying to be a voice of sanity and moderation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The mayor’s announcement coincides with former President Bill Clinton’s statement that “the Republican party is far enough right to make George W Bush appear liberal.” It is a time of perilously antagonistic politics. I like that Bloomberg is openly supporting both Republicans and Democrats. That type of position can only get the focus back on the issues and not just the ideology.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I would really like to think that Bloomberg’s motivation is purely altruistic, and not, as his detractors say, merely a ploy to position himself for a run at the presidency in the next election. But for the time being, at least, he has my support. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes">By Sam DelPresto</span></p> <!--EndFragment-->Sam DelPrestohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00865707495496360133noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3598727470172637358.post-23850835431738023092010-09-20T11:59:00.000-07:002010-09-20T12:00:49.052-07:00Prohibition<!--StartFragment--> <p class="MsoNormal">Prepare yourself for the second coming of Prohibition.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Not the actual feeble government attempt of the 1920’s, but an onslaught of shows and books about it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>On top of the list is the recently released “Last Call,The Rise and Fall of Prohibition” by Daniel Okrent,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>. <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Last-Call-Rise-Fall-Prohibition/dp">www.amazon.com/Last-Call-Rise-Fall-Prohibition/dp </a>This book is the basis for much of the forthcoming Ken Burns’s PBS series on Prohibition. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The book is a fascinating read about not just the criminal response to Prohibition that has become so much a part of the American historical tapestry, but also of the well intentioned people who managed to get a constitutional amendment passed in the first place to initiate it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>For those who love politics for the sake of politics, it is a must read. Just as a teaser, let me tell you Carl Rove did not invent anything new. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>And if you can’t get enough of the “lore,” HBO will present a new series, “Boardwalk Empire” that will be digging in once again to that fertile narrative source. For whatever reason, Hollywood can’t get enough of this stuff, and apparently, neither can we. </p><p class="MsoNormal">By Sam DelPresto</p> <!--EndFragment-->Sam DelPrestohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00865707495496360133noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3598727470172637358.post-63011326573291856732010-08-08T15:11:00.000-07:002010-08-08T15:12:47.887-07:00Strange Bedfellows<!--StartFragment--> <p class="MsoNormal">Here in New Jersey, the governor has announced his intention of taking over the Atlantic City casino and entertainment district. <a href="http://www.nj.com/star-ledger/2010/07/christie">www.</a><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Verdana"><a href="http://www.nj.com/star-ledger/2010/07/christie">nj.com/star-ledger/2010/07/christie</a></span><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Verdana;color:#444E5C"> </span><span style="color:#444E5C">Not since the end of Prohibition has a government eyed more greedily income from sources they once considered unsavory. I’m skeptical that the state government can do a better job than the pros., and it just doesn’t sit well with me. It’s too close on the heels of the revelations that exposed many on Wall Street as little more than gamblers who bet on derivatives using other people’s money. It brings to mind an Ambrose Bierce quote, “The gambling known as business looks with austere disfavor up</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(68, 78, 92); ">on the business known as gambling.”</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#444E5C"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#444E5C">By Sam DelPresto</span></p> <!--EndFragment-->Sam DelPrestohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00865707495496360133noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3598727470172637358.post-67276214193295606962010-07-19T19:49:00.000-07:002010-07-19T19:50:53.845-07:00LeBron<!--StartFragment--> <p class="MsoNormal">It’s over.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Lebron has signed with the Miami Heat.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span><a href="http://www.lebronjames.com">www.lebronjames.com</a> I tried a self imposed media blackout to see how long it would take before the news reached me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>My sources tell me that Lebron was instrumental in capping the gushing BP oil well in the gulf coast. Also, according to a source that must remain nameless, <span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>the Palestinian terrorist group, Hamas,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>has announced that it will resume talks with Israel now that the uncertainty of Lebron’s free agency is over. With his trusty sidekicks, Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade, he is on his way to Pakistan to calm the rebel leaders before heading over to Afghanistan to meet with Taliban officials suddenly eager for peace now that the NBA situation is more stable. So, I can understand all the hype.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">I can only hope that Bret Farvre can lend a hand. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes">By Sam DelPresto</span></p> <!--EndFragment-->Sam DelPrestohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00865707495496360133noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3598727470172637358.post-34157033326169982662010-06-30T17:38:00.000-07:002010-06-30T17:42:02.791-07:00Minorities<!--StartFragment--> <p class="MsoNormal">As a white male of European descent, it is not often that I find myself in the minority anywhere I might wander.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>But I did this past weekend.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Oddly enough, it was not in a place I expected to be a minority. Many of you are picturing a lot of stereotypical situations where I might have strayed. But it was not where you think. I was at a college graduation at a highly regarded university on the east coast of the United States. The disparity between us “whites” and the Asian and Middle Eastern “majority” was more pronounced during the portion of the Commencement where they conferred post graduate degrees.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>There was about a three to one ratio of “non-whites” to whites in both the Masters degree and Doctorate degree portions of the program. The undergraduate mix was a little more even. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>This apparently, was not an aberration <a href="http://www.bsos.umd.edu/socy/vanneman/socy441/trends/collrace.html">www.bsos.umd.edu/socy/vanneman/socy441/trends/collrace.html</a> To paraphrase an old quote, “I have seen the future, baby, and the future is now.” </p> <!--EndFragment-->Sam DelPrestohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00865707495496360133noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3598727470172637358.post-78883504675727043372010-05-17T20:57:00.001-07:002010-05-17T20:57:45.044-07:00Vultures<!--StartFragment--> <p class="MsoNormal">It is an inarguable fact that someone, somewhere makes money on every disaster. But the story in a recent New York Times article about the windfall profits being made by bankruptcy attorneys is setting new heights (or depths depending on your point of view) to test this adage. <a href="http://www.dealbook.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/05/03/who-knew-bankruptcy">www.dealbook.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/05/03/who-knew-bankruptcy</a><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>According to that article, “The lawyers, accountants and restructuring experts have already racked up $730 million in fees and expenses, with no end in sight.” for the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy alone. Fees include hotel fees, as much as $864 a night, $364 dry cleaning bills, and $500 a day limo fees for the people called in to “rescue” these assets. There seems to be no limits to fees and expenses that can be charged against the carcass of this or any other major company in bankruptcy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>If there was anything left at Lehman, the cure is certain to eat it alive.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal">By Sam DelPresto</p> <!--EndFragment-->Sam DelPrestohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00865707495496360133noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3598727470172637358.post-23651654488929981272010-03-17T13:38:00.000-07:002010-03-17T13:39:51.566-07:00The Joys of Travel<!--StartFragment--> <p class="MsoNormal">I don’t travel as much as I’d like to, but that doesn’t mean I don’t like to keep up with what is hot in travel. So I was delighted to find a Hilary Travel website (<a href="http://www.hilary.com/travel/hip-60thompson.html">www.hilary.com/travel/hip-60thompson.html</a>) devoted to just that. Apparently Hilary is a woman’s magazine, but finding its web site seems to negate the queasiness I might normally have intruding on travel secrets from “the other side”.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Hilary covers the important issues of our times. Who doesn’t need to know where to go to find a snowmobile valet? (The Fairmount Hotel at the Fairmont Le Manor Richelieu in Quebec). And how many times have you found yourself wondering which vacation spot to bring your dog for the best gourmet pet food. (The Grove Isle Club in Miami.)<span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:7.5pt;"> </span>These are not issues I need to tackle when I’m home!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I’m in a better mood already, and I’m not even going anywhere. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal">By Sam DelPresto</p> <!--EndFragment-->Sam DelPrestohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00865707495496360133noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3598727470172637358.post-61363653070423770142010-02-22T14:44:00.000-08:002010-02-22T14:45:58.783-08:00Olympics<!--StartFragment--> <p class="MsoNormal"> The Winter Olympic games began in Vancouver . <a href="http://(www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/11/">(www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/11/</a>) It is hard to remember an Olympics with less buzz going in.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Perhaps it was the lateness of the Super Bowl this year, perhaps it is just that Americans have never warmed up to many of the winter sports.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Other than figure skating and hockey, NBC scrambles to create interest in many of the other cold weather sports.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I heard an interesting theory as to why the Olympics don’t capture the imagination as they once did.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>It was said that the Olympic broadcasts, unless the viewer is an aficionado of a particular sport, are in effect, reality TV, a collection of unscripted, human interest stories; “up close and personal” in the words of the late Howard Cosell. And the one thing Americans do not need more of is reality TV. </p><p class="MsoNormal">By Sam DelPresto</p> <!--EndFragment-->Sam DelPrestohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00865707495496360133noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3598727470172637358.post-8856216007008928432010-01-15T13:14:00.001-08:002010-01-15T13:14:59.646-08:00Better to be Small<!--StartFragment--> <p class="MsoNormal">President Barack Obama’s proposal to tax bonuses given by banks who received government bailout money may have an unintended bonus. The proposal would have huge popular support in the midst of all the anger being targeted toward Wall Street (<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/15/us/15tax.html">www.nytimes.com/2010/01/15/us/15tax.html</a>)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The proposed tax would apply to bank, thrift and insurance companies with more than $50 billion in assets. It would not apply to certain holdings, like customers’ insured savings, but to assets in risk-taking operations. The silver lining in all this may be found as the banks attempt to circumvent the tax, which of course, they certainly will.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>One solution to avoiding this tax would be to keep assets under the threshold of $50 billion. Companies could splinter off “subsidiaries” in a reversal of the way they consolidated during the late stages of the 20<sup>th</sup> century.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The result would be fewer companies “too big to fail”. </p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal">By Sam DelPresto</p> <!--EndFragment-->Sam DelPrestohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00865707495496360133noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3598727470172637358.post-88834064191252073792010-01-06T11:05:00.000-08:002010-01-06T11:06:12.033-08:00Bah Humbug<!--StartFragment--> <p class="MsoNormal">I recently heard about the Spanish Christmas lottery, El Gordo, or “The Fat One, that takes place later this week.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>It is the oldest lottery in the world, dating back to 1812, and also the largest. <a href="http://gospain.about.com/od/christmasinspain/f/play_el_gordo.htm">http://gospain.about.com/od/christmasinspain/f/play_el_gordo.htm</a> Last year’s prize was nearly two billion euros.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Tickets are expensive, 200 euros each, but you can buy “pieces” of a ticket for twenty euros. People often give tickets as Christmas gifts.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-tab-count:1"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>As for me, I’ll never buy a lottery ticket as a gift for someone. If they won, I’d be sick about it. I might even have to consider suicide.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Imagine buying a winning lottery ticket for once in your life and handing it over to someone who you don’t care enough about to buy them a real gift.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>No thanks. I don’t need that kind of aggravation in my life. If I’m looking for a little gift in the one dollar range, I’ll stick to a McDonald’s gift card. Bah humbug!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>In the words of Ogden Nash, “Merry Christmas to almost everyone.” </p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal">By Sam DelPresto</p> <!--EndFragment-->Sam DelPrestohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00865707495496360133noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3598727470172637358.post-57388948030373750872010-01-06T10:06:00.000-08:002010-01-06T10:19:53.287-08:00Ratings<!--StartFragment--> <p class="MsoNormal">Sports television ratings are through the roof. All sports. All networks.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The NBA on TNT is up 25% to the highest levels in 26 years.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>NFL ratings are hitting 20 year highs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The MLB Game 1 of the World Series hit five a year high. </p> <p class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://www.blogmaverick.com/2009/10/29/sports-ratings-records-">www.blogmaverick.com/2009/10/29/sports-ratings-records-</a> I can safely predict, with little trepidation that Tiger Wood’s next TV tournament will set new records for golf viewership, if not for sports ratings in general. We are either in the midst of or coming out of, depending on who you read, the second worst financial recession of the past 100 years.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>You don’t need a PHD in anthropology to see the connection. Escape, baby, escape.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>In a decade where the evening news has become an assault weapon, sports remain one of the great, inexpensive escapes. Unlike the war in Afghanistan or medical insurance reform, the intricacies of NFL playoffs can be mastered in a few short hours. Whether or not this is healthy for our society or not, I could not say.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Or certainly I couldn’t say with the NFL about to kick off. </p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal">By Sam DelPresto</p> <!--EndFragment-->Sam DelPrestohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00865707495496360133noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3598727470172637358.post-48531220416184328942009-12-07T13:29:00.000-08:002009-12-07T13:30:40.422-08:00Tiger Woods<!--StartFragment--> <p class="MsoNormal">Oscar Wilde once said<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>“Scandal is gossip made tedious by morality.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Never was that more true than this past week. As both a golfer and an admirer of Tiger Woods, I have this to say about Tiger’s admitted “transgressions,” It’s none of my business.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Steve Stricker, his friend and fellow golf professional put it best: “<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language:EN">I don't think it's really any of our business to get inside his private life. But it all drives us to want to learn more, I guess, and I don't know if that's right or wrong. But I respect what he's doing. You know, he's trying to make it as private as he can, and it's just hard because everybody is trying to get a piece of information on really what happened. But we may never know, and I really don't care. I don't really want to know. It's too bad that it happened and that it happened at this time.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language:EN"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes">By Sam DelPresto </span></span></p> <!--EndFragment-->Sam DelPrestohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00865707495496360133noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3598727470172637358.post-26285113792118120802009-11-05T15:16:00.001-08:002009-11-05T15:16:43.289-08:00What is Going On Here<!--StartFragment--> <p class="MsoNormal">According to the book “Connected” by Christakis and Fowler , every month over eleven million people around the world play a game on the internet called “World of Warcraft.” <a href="http://www.barnesandnoble.com/Connected/Nicholas-A-Christakis">www.barnesandnoble.com/Connected/Nicholas-A-Christakis</a><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>“If the people who play this game every month were their own country, they would be bigger than Greece, Belgium, Sweden and nearly 150 other nations.” according to the book’s authors. Millions of people are playing this game as you read this. (This is not by any means the thrust of “Connected”, it was merely used as an illustration of a different point.)</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Eleven million playing an internet game is shocking on at least two fronts.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>First, how could I never have heard of something that eleven million people do every month, and second, what does that say about them or us as a society? Although it is almost impossible to find out how many books are being sold, individually or collectively, it has long been accepted that there are surprisingly few when compared to any other medium.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>A best seller might have a readership in the hundreds of thousands, rarely into the millions. Or put another way, more people watch infomercials on TV than read most books. And yet, eleven million people are playing something you probably never heard of. I hate a story that indicates that I am more out of touch than my own daughters, but eleven million people are hard to ignore.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal">By Sam DelPresto</p> <!--EndFragment-->Sam DelPrestohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00865707495496360133noreply@blogger.com0