The demise of Lehman Brothers and Bear Stearns hurts, but the demise of AIG could be devastating to the world’s financial structure. While AIG provides traditional insurance products, such as life insurance through American General Life, it is active in many non-traditional areas that have far-reaching effects throughout the economy. AIG has been active in […]

The world’s largest insurance company is on the ropes. Blue chip investment firms are closing shop. Banks are lying in financial ruin. The world is on the brink of a global depression. There is bad news everywhere, and not a lot of light in this tunnel. This is beginning to look like a stock market […]

I know that I have been going a little hard on Wall Street lately. With trillions of dollars of wealth being lost, it is easy to lose sight of the important function that Wall Street, and the investment community provide. Without our investment community, we would not be a strong and prosperous nation. It is […]

Yesterday, Lehman Brothers declared bankruptcy. If you haven’t been in the securities business, it will be hard for you to understand the significance of this action. Lehman, along with just a few other investment banking firms, has ruled Wall Street for decades. Lehman has always been seen as a blue blood, filled with more intellectual […]

Every four years we get to witness, first hand, how politics shapes personal morality. Americans from both political parties take each candidate’s words and actions and shape them into the proper mold as friend or foe, good or bad, right or wrong. As this year’s political wind rages stronger than hurricane Ike, I feel compelled […]

Last year at this time I voiced my grave concern for the U.S. economy. At the time, the stock market was climbing to all time highs. Optimism ruled Wall Street and “experts” everywhere touted the great global economy. Financial crooks and buffoons were making off with hundreds of billions, while our most sophisticated financial institutions […]

Do you ever feel like there is a deep chasm between the reality that you experience and the one that you see on the news? I do. When I read the news on paper or on the Web, or watch the nightly news, or peruse white papers on the state of world affairs I see […]

Greg Norman: One for the Aged Don’t know if you caught the British Open this month, but it certainly was one for the ages (and aged). The “ancient” Greg Norman (53) battled men twenty and thirty years younger through driving rain, and persistent winds gusting over forty miles per hour. He showed the same grit […]

As I was driving the other day I came upon a police speed trap. Out of reflex I looked down to my speedometer, silently saying “Oh, *#+*.” Strangely, I saw that I was actually driving UNDER the speed limit. How did this happen? Did I suddenly grow old? You know what I mean. We spend […]

Ready For The Financial Hangover? I wish I had better news. But the economy shows no signs of getting better, and the worst pain is yet to come. This is the last time I am going to write about his for a while, because it is so damn depressing! However, since I am working on […]