” The United States must engineer a new transparent, non-partisan, “systemic-centric,” economy-oriented regulatory apparatus that facilitates innovation in capital formation, product efficacy, public protection and open, fair and equal market access.”

President-Elect Barack Obama headed to Capitol Hill yesterday (Monday) to meet with House and Senate leaders to push for quick action on his broad economic stimulus package that could cost as much as $775 billion. 

Anyone who has been in the military knows what SNAFU means. For those who weren’t in any of the armed services, the polite version is, Situation Normal, All Fouled Up. That seems to sum up perfectly the year 2008. It doesn’t get any worse than what we have just been through.

Who can honestly say he isn’t enjoying this financial crisis? It has unhorsed cavalier fund managers …it has turned the masters of the universe into servile waiters…it has made Nobel Prize winners look like morons. The rich…the proud… the pompous…the vain…the incompetent…Wall Street – surely there is a God…an ‘invisible hand’…giving them all a whack on the head!

President-elect Barack Obama is expected to name Mary L. Schapiro – a strong proponent of protections for individual investors – to head the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission when his administration takes office next month, according to news media reports that began circulating last night (Wednesday).

I remember back when I was learning attack planning and tactics during Navy flight school.  One of the key concepts was “time on target.” That is, when there were going to be a whole lot of airplanes coming in to deliver payload, you had to get the timing down just right.

Friday FY08 Week 49: Quote of the week: Every tree and plant in the meadow seemed to be dancing, those which average eyes would see as fixed and still. – Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Rūmi

Here are four thoughts to trip over as we round yet another sharp corner on the path to economic recovery.

One way for the US economy to escape its doldrums will be for the country to expand its exports. Everyone’s great American hero, President Ronald Reagan, knew that.

The worse news, from the standpoint of a whole cornucopia of governments and taxing authorities that have sprung into being over the last 40 years, is that these kinds of ‘fails to deliver’ things are losses, and losses are deductible against taxable gains…

As the economic crisis continues to unfold, recently a sense of uncertainty has begun to pervade the market. Even dyed-in-the-wool risk takers admit that they don’t know what to think anymore. Inflation, deflation, recession or depression – there are so many vagaries that it appears to be anyone’s guess what will happen next.