Hope you bought your last pack of flavored cigarettes by midnight on Sept. 21…or else you’re out of luck. Thank the newly enacted Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act.
I’m OK with state-by-state action. In fact, I couldn’t have bought the last pack of cloves in Maryland at 11:55 p.m. ...read more
Tom and the Terror Alert Code: The Test of Our Rainbow
Sep 2nd, 2009 | By Samantha Buker | Category: Featured, Morning Whiskey
When the terror alert system changes from yellow to orange, what do you do differently?
If you’re the average citizen, absolutely nothing changes… except maybe how you vote.
Prior to 2004 election, the terror alert code did just that. Yellow, or “Elevated” for “significant risk of terrorist attack” was upped to Orange ...read more
Who Killed 21 Georgia Banks?
Aug 21st, 2009 | By Samantha Buker | Category: Featured, Macro Economics
“It does gall you. Just because we're a little bitty county doesn't mean we don't need a bank. It wasn't our fault."
-- Hazel Bedingfield, 79, who now travels 24 miles for her Social Security payment at her new bank
You deposit your paycheck on Friday and can’t get money out on ...read more
Cap and Trade Shenanigans with the Chicago Climate Exchange
Jul 8th, 2009 | By Samantha Buker | Category: Energy, Featured
To put an end to this cap-and-trade fiasco, the only option is probably to cap all the “revolving door” stooges and trade them out for oil and coal execs. But unfortunately, Shooters, that won’t be the fate of cap and trade. Not if the U.S. Climate Action Partnership (USCAP) can ...read more
Field Trip to Maiden Lane: Home at Last on the Fed’s Balance Sheet
Apr 28th, 2009 | By Samantha Buker | Category: Featured, Macro Economics
Welcome to Maiden Lane, where the tripe vendors of Wall Street hawk their wares.
Maiden Lane runs right past the foot of the N.Y. Fed, and this address hosts the most poisonous assets on its balance sheet.
As any anti-Fed Reservist among you will agree, the Reserve’s balance sheet is nothing but ...read more
Why Tea Won’t Work This Time
Apr 21st, 2009 | By Samantha Buker | Category: Featured, Politics
Not only was this populist tea fest diffuse, it was also as much a same-old “pay no attention to the man behind the curtain” game. Everyone was attacking Obama either explicitly or implicitly, when the whole boondoggle -- and the thing you’re paying $42k for -- and seeing 25 cent ...read more
Tax Day Tea Parties, Unite
Apr 20th, 2009 | By Samantha Buker | Category: Featured, Politics
“We were merry, in an undertone, at the idea of making so large a cup of tea for the fishes but we used not more words than absolutely necessary. I never worked harder in my life. While we were unloading, the people collected in great numbers about the wharf to ...read more
Tomorrow Mark-to-Model Returns with a Vengeance
Apr 1st, 2009 | By Samantha Buker | Category: Featured, Macro Economics, Politics
The heat is on in Norwalk, Conn., this week.
The Financial Accounting Standards Board’s headquarters quakes down to its foundation as Congress bullies it toward sweeping rule changes. Those changes govern the balance sheet values of those very pesky loans and derivatives that started us on this road to crisis in ...read more
Meet the Regulators of Team USA Economy
Mar 23rd, 2009 | By Samantha Buker | Category: Featured, Macro Economics, Politics
Just back from a week in LA, where I scoped out UCLA's Center for Social Theory and Comparative History lecture on Economic Meltdown: Causes and Consequences. Call it a History Dept. vs. Economics Dept. smackdown. (More on that in a future Shot).
I'd have gotten you some student attendee commentary -- ...read more

