If I recall correctly, John Snow was chairman of underperforming CSX Corporation before he entered government service. Mr. Quayle's intellectual capacity or lack thereof is well-known to anyone who can remember his tenure as vice-president.
I read the novels too.... I didn't cry over the chessboard scene; I just put the book down and walked away for a few months....
Personally, I think all these ex-government officials are studying poverty. How to create it among the erstwhile middle-class, for example. There is nothing like being Robin Hood removing money from the pockets of the retirees and spreading it around in High Places where it will really do some good....
Yields on 10-year Treasuries broke through 5% like a knife through butter, stirring all kinds of nightmarish visions of a world bereft of cheap money: the most ominous, perhaps, the taming of the private-equity funds, for which borrowing is breathing, and its inevitable dire consequences -- the demise of the leveraged-buyout boom and, with it, the stock market's most powerful stimulant.
What higher interest rates (read: higher mortgage rates) would do to an already reeling housing industry is too gruesome to contemplate aloud in a family magazine. And it would spell misery for a consumer deeply in hock and the many companies that have been piling on debt to further such worthy undertakings as stock buybacks to goose the price of their equities and make both their shareholders and their options happy.
danh, I suspect most people do read them that way the first time. I rather wish I had.
Having been trained as an official card carrying literary critic, I read them slowly enough the first time that the dread had been growing on me for so long--all those chess metaphors, all that troubador business with the Poets of Love--that I wasn't so much stunned by then as just helpless.
I thought the Niccolo novels got a touch fruitcakey toward the end--too much magic--but by then I preferred fruitcake to The Abyss.
Tanta;When he joined government, he was going to sell the GS stock at a sweetheart tax deal, then put his investments in a blind trust. Guess he's too busy to get after that.
Makes sense. Paris was too busy to remember that her license was suspended and Scooter was too busy to remember who he lied to yesterday. The entire subprime mortgage industry does not remember making any of those loans.
Graham Nash, on the other hand, has never been too busy to fail to admit he was just shitfaced.
What higher interest rates (read: higher mortgage rates) would do to an already reeling housing industry is too gruesome to contemplate aloud in a family magazine.
Thank heavens we're just a blog.
I think I can remember spewing my coffee over an Alan Abelson column during the last major RE bust. How long has he been writing for Barron's? Did I imagine this?
Dan Quayle brings something to the table?! Tanta, this is your best yet. No shit, I had to pick myself up from the floor after reading this one.
Hey, I'm now convinced that whatever chances remained for the real economy will be shot to hell by these guys. It's time for marshmallows, graham crackers, and Glenlivet to wash it down.
More Mortgage-Industry Firms Subpoenaed as Probe Expands
By Chad Bray
New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo's probe into whether mortgage brokers pressured appraisers to inflate property values as housing prices increased in recent years continues to expand.
Mr. Cuomo said that "many, many more" subpoenas have been issued by his office than the four that have been reported publicly so far.
Vanderbilt Appraisal Co. LLC confirmed that it was the latest appraiser to be subpoenaed in ...
"Our Treasury secretary owns over 3 million shares of Goldman Sachs stock."
Wasn't he required to divest his entire position before taking the job? IIRC, a provision in the tax code exempted him from capital gain tax on the transaction.
I used to have a Graham Nash album called "Wild Tales" (I think). I really liked it, but had forgotten about it until today. I wonder if it is still in circulation?
I used to wear pantyhose with open-toed shoes, while playing in a darts league, while carrying a tiny handbag that had nothing in it but some cash, my keys, and a big bottle of aspirin!
Don't tease us like that, Tanta.
Seriously - that was the fashion at my daughters graduation (private hoity toity eastern enginerring school). I guess it is the 'mother of the engineer' answer to pocket protectors.
All I needed to see was big hair big glasses and I'd been in 70s heaven. Flashback central.
dryfly, you think I'm kidding? I only found out like three months ago that it is no longer acceptable to wear hose with open-toed shoes. (I gather it's just no longer acceptable to wear hose. Or any other undergarments. Possibly the connection to the shoes is coincidental.)
"Mother of the Engineer" just about sums it up. I promise to steal that line.
If you need me, I'll be off in the corner boring the children to death with tales about how in my youth we had to walk to school in the snow uphill both ways wearing underpants.
I just got a 1% rate / 7.598% APR offer on a $200,000 mortgage. $643.28 monthly payment to start and only $1677.92 after 50th month...what a deal! Oh, and "Yes, there is an early payment penalty, but one of our loan consultants can help you understand the details so you know whether this loan is right for you." If I have a 680+ credit score and CLTV of 70% how could it not be?? The only way to get upside down faster is to hit the monkey bars at the playground.
If you need me, I'll be off in the corner boring the children to death with tales about how in my youth we had to walk to school in the snow uphill both ways wearing underpants.
Underpants stories are NEVER boring. In fact, there's BIG money in underpants.
The Underpants Gnomes have a three-phase business plan, consisting of:
1. Collect Underpants 2. ??? 3. Profit!
Time to go to work. Work all night. Search for underpants, hey. We won't stop until we have underpants. Yum tum yummy tum tay!
Further, walking to school in the winter can also make for potentially amusing stories.
Economics Professor: Why are you late for class?
Student: The sidewalk was icy. Each time I took a step I fell back two.
Economics Professor: At that rate, you'd clearly NEVER be here.
Student: That's exactly what I was thinking so I turned around to go home.
Captain Underpants... child's play. I bought my two nieces (3&5) a 10 lbm chocolate bar for Christmas... to share. "But it's dark chocolate, it's good for you". Now that's wicked.
Our Treasury secretary owns over 3 million shares of Goldman Sachs stock.
Yeah, but, cf, government has to hire from business. Only business has the expertise government needs.
Business, on the other hand, has to hire from government. Because, um, for some reason.
I know! Let's just give everyone 3MM shares of GS! Then we're back to equal-opportunity to become a public servant.
Dorothy Dunnett was a great author - loved all her books....
If I recall correctly, John Snow was chairman of underperforming CSX Corporation before he entered government service. Mr. Quayle's intellectual capacity or lack thereof is well-known to anyone who can remember his tenure as vice-president.
So, Anonymous, how long did you cry over the human chessboard scene? I think that's the usual measure of a real Dunnett fan.
(Everyone else: no spoilers!)
I read the novels too.... I didn't cry over the chessboard scene; I just put the book down and walked away for a few months....
Personally, I think all these ex-government officials are studying poverty. How to create it among the erstwhile middle-class, for example. There is nothing like being Robin Hood removing money from the pockets of the retirees and spreading it around in High Places where it will really do some good....
I didn't notice the 'name' feature so no longer 'Anonymous'...
Regarding the chessboard scene - no tears, I was just stunned...
I need to read that series again soon, I raced through so many parts because of the excitement of the mystery and missed so many details as a result.
I like this Abelson guy:
Yields on 10-year Treasuries broke through 5% like a knife through butter, stirring all kinds of nightmarish visions of a world bereft of cheap money: the most ominous, perhaps, the taming of the private-equity funds, for which borrowing is breathing, and its inevitable dire consequences -- the demise of the leveraged-buyout boom and, with it, the stock market's most powerful stimulant.
What higher interest rates (read: higher mortgage rates) would do to an already reeling housing industry is too gruesome to contemplate aloud in a family magazine. And it would spell misery for a consumer deeply in hock and the many companies that have been piling on debt to further such worthy undertakings as stock buybacks to goose the price of their equities and make both their shareholders and their options happy.
danh, I suspect most people do read them that way the first time. I rather wish I had.
Having been trained as an official card carrying literary critic, I read them slowly enough the first time that the dread had been growing on me for so long--all those chess metaphors, all that troubador business with the Poets of Love--that I wasn't so much stunned by then as just helpless.
I thought the Niccolo novels got a touch fruitcakey toward the end--too much magic--but by then I preferred fruitcake to The Abyss.
Tanta;When he joined government, he was going to sell the GS stock at a sweetheart tax deal, then put his investments in a blind trust. Guess he's too busy to get after that.
Guess he's too busy to get after that.
Makes sense. Paris was too busy to remember that her license was suspended and Scooter was too busy to remember who he lied to yesterday. The entire subprime mortgage industry does not remember making any of those loans.
Graham Nash, on the other hand, has never been too busy to fail to admit he was just shitfaced.
Rock on.
What higher interest rates (read: higher mortgage rates) would do to an already reeling housing industry is too gruesome to contemplate aloud in a family magazine.
Thank heavens we're just a blog.
I think I can remember spewing my coffee over an Alan Abelson column during the last major RE bust. How long has he been writing for Barron's? Did I imagine this?
Now Goldman can run even bigger risks as the SEC's new improved net capital rule takes the net and capital out of the rule.
Wall Street Gets Lift From SEC That May Boost Profit (Update1) - Bloomberg.com
Dan Quayle brings something to the table?! Tanta, this is your best yet. No shit, I had to pick myself up from the floor after reading this one.
Hey, I'm now convinced that whatever chances remained for the real economy will be shot to hell by these guys. It's time for marshmallows, graham crackers, and Glenlivet to wash it down.
"...and make both their shareholders and their options happy."
How on earth do you make options happy? Good piece of writing there...
More Mortgage-Industry Firms Subpoenaed as Probe Expands
By Chad Bray
New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo's probe into whether mortgage brokers pressured appraisers to inflate property values as housing prices increased in recent years continues to expand.
Mr. Cuomo said that "many, many more" subpoenas have been issued by his office than the four that have been reported publicly so far.
Vanderbilt Appraisal Co. LLC confirmed that it was the latest appraiser to be subpoenaed in ...
gab, if you can have Happy Meals, you can have Happy Options. Each one comes with a toy inside, I understand.
mp, Dan Qayle brings something to the Tabel. Or possibly the taybul. In any case, yes, I think the only place for the rest of us is under it.
Somewhere in some drawer or other I have a button from the '88 election season that has a picture of Quayle on it and the words "Don't Forget to Vot."
"Our Treasury secretary owns over 3 million shares of Goldman Sachs stock."
Wasn't he required to divest his entire position before taking the job? IIRC, a provision in the tax code exempted him from capital gain tax on the transaction.
I used to have a Graham Nash album called "Wild Tales" (I think). I really liked it, but had forgotten about it until today. I wonder if it is still in circulation?
Yes, Snow gamed the system. He paid no cap gains taxes on his sale of stock.
Damn, I forgot. Dan Quayle does bring something to the table. His wife's money.
I used to wear pantyhose with open-toed shoes, while playing in a darts league, while carrying a tiny handbag that had nothing in it but some cash, my keys, and a big bottle of aspirin!
Don't tease us like that, Tanta.
Seriously - that was the fashion at my daughters graduation (private hoity toity eastern enginerring school). I guess it is the 'mother of the engineer' answer to pocket protectors.
All I needed to see was big hair big glasses and I'd been in 70s heaven. Flashback central.
dryfly, you think I'm kidding? I only found out like three months ago that it is no longer acceptable to wear hose with open-toed shoes. (I gather it's just no longer acceptable to wear hose. Or any other undergarments. Possibly the connection to the shoes is coincidental.)
"Mother of the Engineer" just about sums it up. I promise to steal that line.
If you need me, I'll be off in the corner boring the children to death with tales about how in my youth we had to walk to school in the snow uphill both ways wearing underpants.
I just got a 1% rate / 7.598% APR offer on a $200,000 mortgage. $643.28 monthly payment to start and only $1677.92 after 50th month...what a deal! Oh, and "Yes, there is an early payment penalty, but one of our loan consultants can help you understand the details so you know whether this loan is right for you." If I have a 680+ credit score and CLTV of 70% how could it not be?? The only way to get upside down faster is to hit the monkey bars at the playground.
peace, love, and bacon.
Quayle didn't need his wife's money; his family pulls it in hand-over-fist.
Dorothy Dunnett is dead?
Yes, Ken, Lady Dunnett died in 2001.
But apparently we've still got Keith Richards.
Tanta,
If you need me, I'll be off in the corner boring the children to death with tales about how in my youth we had to walk to school in the snow uphill both ways wearing underpants.
Underpants stories are NEVER boring. In fact, there's BIG money in underpants.
The Underpants Gnomes
have a three-phase business plan, consisting of:
1. Collect Underpants
2. ???
3. Profit!
Time to go to work. Work all night.
Search for underpants, hey.
We won't stop until we have underpants.
Yum tum yummy tum tay!
Further, walking to school in the winter can also make for potentially amusing stories.
Economics Professor: Why are you late for class?
Student: The sidewalk was icy. Each time I took a step I fell back two.
Economics Professor: At that rate, you'd clearly NEVER be here.
Student: That's exactly what I was thinking so I turned around to go home.
I hope you are familiar with this literary classic?
I bought them for my nephew when he was in fourth grade and got into major trouble with the kid's parents. Heh.
Captain Underpants and "Major Trouble" probably go hand in hand, lol.
I bought them for my nephew when he was in fourth grade and got into major trouble with the kid's parents. Heh.
Being an aunt is such fun (wicked cackle)!
Tanta, Captain Underpants is a thread killer.
Captain Underpants... child's play. I bought my two nieces (3&5) a 10 lbm chocolate bar for Christmas... to share. "But it's dark chocolate, it's good for you". Now that's wicked.