Here’s something interesting I just learned from the Social Security Administration’s website: There are 70 women aged 25 or younger in this country who are earning Social Security benefits as the spouses of retired workers. To qualify, they must be married to men 62 or older and have children 16 or younger, or older children who receive …
The “Peak 2007” crisis
I feel remiss amiss for not having addressed this important subject before. But I guess I’ll just leave it to Mr. Juggles at Long or Short Capital:
Time and time again, people say we are running out of 2007. These cries began as early as January; by July, some were even claiming that there was less 2007 remaining than the amount of 2007
…
Even before the Internet, news was pretty close to free
LA Times business columnist David Lazarus argues this week that newspapers are crazy to be giving away all that valuable information they produce (via Romenesko):
Newspapers, including this one, give away the store online, all the while wringing their hands about declining revenue and circulation. Everyone says the Net represents the
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The well-hedged wisdom of sometime socialist and Wall Street titan Alfred Winslow “Ribbie” Jones
As part of what I guess is now a continuing series of excerpts from ancient alumni publications, here’s some stuff from Alfred Winslow Jones, the man generally credited with inventing the hedge fund. He didn’t, really: In the 1920s, Benjamin Graham ran a limited investment partnership that bought some stocks and sold others short–the …
And now for Working Mom of the Year
TIME just unveiled its Person of the Year. I know, I know; you’re thinking, who what huh? Putin? As my brother-in-law said, “What—next year it’ll be Castro?”
I can give you only a tiny behind-the-scenes peek at the process that resulted in his selection because even within TIME, POY (as we call it) is heavily guarded. A few months …
The horrors of 1918 China, where the gin was too strong for highballs
Like I said, I’m working on cleaning up my book manuscript this week. While doublechecking something in my notes on Alfred Cowles III, a Chicago Tribune heir and major figure in the rise of the efficient market hypothesis, I came across a paragraph I had written down from the Dec. 1918 issue of The Eavesdropper, the Yale Class of 1913 …
When a black reporter turns white
Print and radio reporters toil unseen behind desks, at crime sites, on the campaign tour. Our work is judged for the most part by, well, our work. But for those who work in front of the camera, their appearance is part of the package. I might watch a driving report on subway fares by a local TV reporter and think, Whoa, take a look at …
What’s wrong with Hillary’s wardrobe?
I suppose it shouldn’t surprise me that the only female candidate for president is subjected to scrutiny that wouldn’t befall her male competitors—that is, of her appearance. Sure, Huckabee lost half his weight. Yep, Giuliani ditched the comb-over. Do we harp …
Recycled post: An attempt to explain supply-side economics
Since I’m on a work slowdown and people are having so much fun commenting on my most recent post on tax cuts and government revenues, I thought I’d recycle a something I wrote in October 2006 when this blog was over at CNNMoney.com and hardly any of you folks were reading it:
I got an e-mail a couple of weeks ago from Ben Etheridge, a …
In praise of slacking
As a card-carrying member of Generation X, I have long resigned myself to being labeled a no-good slacker. I don’t really care; caring takes energy, and I’m too busy lying prone on my La-Z-Boy and watching another Simpsons rerun. Could someone pass the Duff Beer?
Seriously, now that I think about it, I haven’t heard my generation accused …
Bill Cosby eats shoots and leaves
You all know I’d rather eat cilantro than read and review a book. But a book jacket? Bring it on. So: just noticed this on The Slot, the terrific blog for and by copy editors:
Just who are these Come On People? Do they hail from the land of lewd solicitations? Is it a secret race of pick-up artists?
What Cosby means, of course, is …
Seasonal (and authorial) slowdown
I’ve got no column in the current Time, and I won’t be in the next issue either (Person of the Year). Then we’re taking a week off from magazine making before returning with an issue the first week of January. I’ve been using the time to yes, yet again, try to make my book manuscript a part of my past. In the interest of speeding that …