Way Too Big to Save
Big banks have a funding advantage -- the implicit government guarantee makes it easier for them to raise capital and cheaper for them to borrow money. They will always only become larger.
 |
||
Undercover Boss, the new CBS reality show in which corporate CEOs don disguises and spend a few days experiencing what it's like to be a low-level worker at their companies, is the kind of popular entertainment that can start out as one thing -- a fun, high concept reality show -- but morph into something that affects the zeitgeist by turning a spotlight on just how out of touch America's corporate chiefs are. And their cluelessness is not just about the jobs their workers do -- it's about the lives their workers lead. Maybe if our elected representatives went undercover for a little while and experienced the reality of the millions of American families that are measurably worse off because of Washington's actions and inactions, we might get some real change.
Big banks have a funding advantage -- the implicit government guarantee makes it easier for them to raise capital and cheaper for them to borrow money. They will always only become larger.
Sarah Palin's recent statement that, presumably during her childhood, she and her family used to cross the border to take advantage of Canada's health care system is not so much a gaffe as an interesting insight into a politician.
The Financial Times just devoted a special section of the paper to "individuals and companies who have displayed courage and vision" following the financial crash. For the most part, I agree with their picks.
Student lending reform could have passed the Senate long ago, but because it had to wait on health care, the lobbyists have had plenty of time to chip away at the Senate. But colleges across the country can't wait another year for relief.
What remains of a writer's life? What is worth preserving? At the very end or, even before that, at mid-life, when the end looms into view, what should be kept for the record?
Having inflicted enormous damage on tens of millions of families who have lost their jobs, their homes and/or their life's savings, it would be nice if Rubin could have the decency to fade from the public scene.
More than 70 years ago the Consumers Union called for affordable, reliable health care for all Americans. Now, after decades of failed proposals, broken promises, and political rancor, reform is in reach.
What bugged me most about the awards season is how so many pundits tried to turn James Cameron into the big male bully and Bigelow into some helpless female victim of his oppression.
Whitman hates the comparison with Schwarzenegger, even though obvious, as both she and Schwarzenegger are Republicans, both are super-rich, and neither had any experience in elected office before running.
A UN study has found that the cost of environmental damage by the 3,000 largest publicly held corporations in the world is $2.2 trillion, more than one-third of their profits if they were held financially accountable.
"We doubled the number of Best Picture nominees this year, and look what that did for our ratings," said a spokesman for the Academy. "Doubling the number of dead people should blow the roof off this thing."
This Thursday, the noted physicist Lisa Randall, the composer Hector Parra and myself are going to try and present the Randall/Sundrum model, or five-dimensional warped geometry, as an opera.
Just how many remarkably talented people work in the movie business was never more vivid to me than last night while hosting the show. Here are some of the things I will remember about last night's Oscars.
The fact that Wal-Mart is carrying this movie is proof that Corporate America is so secure in its position as the ruler of our country that they can sell a movie that attacks them because it poses absolutely no threat to them.
The parents of children with autism aren't crazy. We're recovering our kids. We're trying to help other parents do the same, and we hope new parents can avoid our fate.
The new liberalism will have to prove that it can say no as well as yes by terminating ineffective and obsolete programs, as well as instituting promising new ones.
Sharing stories of women's achievements today is an amazing way to honor and pay tribute to the incredible women who have inspired us to be the people we are.
Economists have determined that empowering women in their own right is key to economic growth. We cannot build a stable, global economy if we fail to leverage our human capital.
The stakes are undeniably high: Just listen to the stories of people in your own communities who were denied coverage by their insurers. Tomorrow, a hundred of us are willing to go to jail over the issue.
Tim Berners-Lee, who invented the World Wide Web, called for "raw data now" -- for governments, scientists and institutions to make their data openly available on the Web.
Social justice is an essential part of Catholic teaching. It's part of being a Catholic. So Glenn Beck is, in essence, saying "Leave the Catholic church."
Eric Massa Groped Male Staffers, Complaint Alleges
