Washington: Totally Disconnected From Main Street

Don McNay, 11.23.2009

Award-winning financial columnist, author, commentator and personal finance guru.

    Can you hear me calling you?   -Mike and The Mechanics     Mark Twain said that when he died he wanted to be in Kentuck...

More Pain For You And Me: The Economy's About To Stumble

Andrew Reinbach, 11.23.2009

Journalist

Since the likelihood of more federal stimulus packages is low -- unless they're called something like a "jobs bill" -- this will mean more pain and an even slower economy.

How to Live On $0 a Day: Saving a Cherished American Holiday

Lesley Stern, 11.23.2009

Writer, counselor to the nouveau poor

Ask your neighbors over for a potluck Thanksgiving feast, just like the Pilgrims invited the Native Americans. Once you've enjoyed their delicious offerings, kill them and steal their possessions and property.

Warren Buffett, Stop Using My Credit Card!

Janet Tavakoli, 11.23.2009

President, Tavakoli Structured Finance, Inc.

We must stop subsidizing speculators with cheap funding and tax breaks. We have to hold people accountable for malfeasance, break up large financial institutions, and allow them to fail.

Why is Obama Championing Bush's Financial Wrecking Crew?

William K. Black, 11.23.2009

Assoc. Professor, Univ. of Missouri, Kansas City; Sr. regulator during S&L debacle

Obama promoted the architects of the financial disaster and demands that we hail them as heroes because they, and Wall Street, only wrecked the economy -- they haven't (yet) utterly destroyed it.

Navigating The Economy

Alan Schram, 11.23.2009

Managing Partner of Wellcap Partners, a hedge fund based in Los Angeles

The business cycle is not dead. America has many coping mechanisms to deal with the current hangover. As it has before, this country will unleash the innovative, hard working and productive side of its citizens.

Congressman Grayson: SIGTARP Report Illustrates Danger of Secret Bailouts

Damien Hoffman, 11.23.2009

Editor-in-Chief, Wall St. Cheat Sheet

On Monday night we posted Tyler Durden's breakdown of the SIGTARP audit of the AIG bailout. Will this report resurrect the Fed Audit movement now that...

2010 Could Wreak Havoc Again

Dan Dorfman, 11.22.2009

Financial Columnist, Market Commentator.

With less than seven weeks to go before we're in 2010, you'll soon be bombarded with Wall Street's annual new year's forecasts. You can be sure the predictions from the brokerage community will be decidedly rosy.

Why Not Just "Ethical Businesses" Must Truly Be Ethical

Vivian Norris de Montaigu, 11.22.2009

Based in Paris and holds a PhD in Cinema Studies

Some so-called "ethical" businesses are not only not operating ethically, they are playing on the entire "ethical/social/free trade" branding, using it for personal profit-making and benefit while empowering no one but themselves.

Where Palin and Beck Supporters Are Right And Why Obama Better Listen

Lee Stranahan, 11.22.2009

Filmmaker, Writer, Photographer

Lots of people on the right and left agree about the problems with the bailouts and the White House has no answers for them. How do you think that will play at the polls?

Economists: Wrong Again

Michael J. Panzner, 11.22.2009

Author of When Giants Fall and Financial Armageddon

Many economists are advocating aggressive spend-and-borrow policies to revive the financial crisis-hit U.S. economy that reflect an astonishing degree of naïveté and ivory tower hubris.

Integrating the Best Ideas from Left and Right

Linda Buzzell, 11.21.2009

Psychotherapist, co-editor "Ecotherapy: Healing with Nature in Mind"

As a psychotherapist I've done my share of counseling squabbling couples and have learned to looking for common ground. Lately I've begun to apply this method to politics, with some fascinating results.

If It Were Me, I'd Be Embarrassed

David Vines, 11.22.2009

Last Wednesday, a media firestorm erupted after a seventeen-year-old girl named Jackie was interviewed by MSNBC's Norah O'Donnell while standing in line during Sarah Palin's Michigan book signing.

Demonizing Goldman Leaves Wall Street Off the Hook

Georges Ugeux, 11.20.2009

Chairman and CEO, Galileo Global Advisors

This week's favorite game was attacking Goldman Sachs for its outrageous compensation system, including expectations that the total bonus package f...

Where Are The Shareholders?

Norman Goldman, 11.20.2009

Attorney, Syndicated radio show host, 'The Norman Goldman Show'

We need corporate reform by way of requiring all shareholders to approve all pay of all executives at all publicly traded corporations. Only then will this looting insanity end.

Goldman Sachs' $500 Million Mea Culpa

Joseph A. Palermo, 11.20.2009

Author/Associate Professor of History

It's truly touching that Goldman Sachs' CEO Lloyd Blankfein, who recently said that his too-big-to-fail, Fed-backed holding company is doing "God's wo...

Teabaggers and Boomers Don't Matter

Mike Papantonio, 11.20.2009

Senior partner of Levin, Papantonio, Thomas, Mitchell, Echsner & Proctor

The next time you see a picture of a tea party protest, look closely and try to identify anyone in that crowd under the age of 30. If you identify as...

The Key Question No One Asked About Goldman's Role In The AIG Bailout

Raymond J. Learsy, 11.21.2009

Scholar and author, "Over a Barrel: Breaking Oil’s Grip on Our Future"

Did Goldman and the other banks know for certain that the bankruptcy of AIG was no longer a risk for them? That the Fed and Treasury were now irrevocably committed to saving AIG?

Better Start Learning Chinese

Shawn Amos, 11.20.2009

Pop Culture Pundit and Host of 'Retro Minute'

I was watching Obama speak to those Shanghai students during his big Asia trip, and suddenly I remembered my '80s high school Spanish class. My teache...

Congress Rocks

Jim Jaffe, 11.19.2009

Washington observer

Congress is moving at a pace that can fairly be characterized as astonishingly fast to slash the number of Americans who lack health insurance by more than half.

The War of the Sweeteners

Dan Dorfman, 11.19.2009

Financial Columnist, Market Commentator.

Michael McCarthy, a former linebacker, and current chief executive of NXT Nutritional Holdings is used to taking hits. But now he is trying his luck in a much riskier arena: Wall Street.