Thursday, October 23, 2008

Egad. Greenspan backtracks on free market philosophy

Facing a firing line of questions from Washington lawmakers, Alan Greenspan, the former Federal Reserve chairman once considered the infallible maestro of the financial system, admitted on Thursday that he “made a mistake” in trusting that free markets could regulate themselves without government oversight.

“I made a mistake in presuming that the self-interests of organizations, specifically banks and others, were such as that they were best capable of protecting their own shareholders and their equity in the firms,” Mr. Greenspan said.

from today NY Times.

Straight talk if there ever was any

Well's Fargo's Kovacevich
We just didn't make some of the mistakes that others did. We still made some mistakes, and that's very unfortunate. In some cases, we should have known better. In general—and I don't know if I take much pride in this—we're probably the least ugly of the ugly ducks because we did not participate in some of the excesses, particularly related to subprime borrowers and [collateralized debt obligations] and highly leveraged loans.

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

It's so pretty.

It's so pretty. It's so pretty. It's so pretty. It's so pretty. It's so pretty. It's so pretty.
Apple's new 24in LED display

Monday, October 13, 2008

Sometimes people are insane in a good way.

Jay Walker creates a fantastic private library. via Wired.

My only comment would be to add rolling book ladders.