TokyoTalisman: 03/01/2011

Amazing.
And the fact that he will not be prosecuted for insider trading is even more amazing.

Buffett Heir Sokol Resigns After Lubrizol Share Purchase - WSJ.com

And the defense makes no sense.

Strange ideas: You money is no good here | The Economist: "Increasingly, it seems as though the default Republican position on monetary policy is a set of thoroughly discredited fringe beliefs that would prove economically disastrous if adopted. That's a problem!"

Much of the problems in our school system are related to how we treat the bottom third of the class. One option is to learn from Singapore.

A special report on the future of the state: Go East, young bureaucrat | The Economist

"Offer valid only if it's a relatively easy military mission and we have a lot of allies and we only share a limited amount of the burden. Then we'll get in the fight for a bit and hope for the best."

Obama's Libya speech: How the president's grand talk about American interests conflicts with his military strategy. - By John Dickerson - Slate Magazine:

" The lesson seems to be if you steal from Goldman you go to the hoosegow for nearly a decade, while if you steal for Goldman you get a government bailout and a hefty bonus."

Monday Mailbag: Financial Reform? How About Criminal Prosecutions? Plus: Bonus Ozzy Osbourne | Rolling Stone Politics | Taibblog | Matt Taibbi on Politics and the Economy:

A list of US interventions since WWII.

This is US. We have done all of this. | Angry Bear

The poverty rate in the US has been at just below 15% despite rapid increases in technology.

Technology Is Not the Answer - James Fallows - Technology - The Atlantic

The US Chamber would be clambering for a tax cut in the wake of a similar strategy.

Japan business lobby gives OK to scrap corporate tax cut | Reuters

A discussion on Complexity in the financial system. Much of it is devised to deceive clients and enhance profits.

Complexity and War or How Financial Firms Wreck Economies for Fun and Profit � naked capitalism

Higher valuations and possibly a bigger bubble. Less harm to public investors because they cannot invest. Protecting stock markets from themselves.

New Tech Bubble? | The Big Picture

Convenient Arguments � The Baseline Scenario: "“I like paying taxes. With them I buy civilization.”"

Tsunami Caught Japan's Nuclear Industry Off Guard - NYTimes.com:

Normal accidents.

"Tsuneo Futami, a former Tokyo Electric nuclear engineer who was the director of Fukushima Daiichi in the late 1990s. “When I headed the plant, the thought of a tsunami never crossed my mind.”"

And the Onion chimes in:

Nuclear Energy Advocates Insist U.S. Reactors Completely Safe Unless Something Bad Happens

If we want to intervene in a country and save thousands of lives, we should be dropping bed nets from the F-35s

Foreign aid: Anti-malaria bed nets v F-35s | The Economist

GE: All Profit, No Taxes | The Big Picture: "they are ungrateful bastards as well."

What's Your Biggest Regret? - NYTimes.com: "We idealize the road not taken, imagining only the good things that would have resulted from our taking it, conveniently leaving out the bad that accompanies almost every choice,"

College education is not automatic route to success. The employment to population ratio among 20-24 year olds has dropped by 10 percent in the last 10 years.

Educating College Graduates So They Can be Unemployed � New Deal 2.0

A rebound in sight for US manufacturing? I would not bet on it.

FT.com / Industrials - US groups weigh Asia exit as costs rise

We have enough money for military action in Libya, but not for job creation?

Economist's View: Revealed Preference

Money, success, being part of something bigger than yourself does not bring happiness nor satisfaction.

FT.com / Columnists / Lunch with the FT - Lunch with the FT: Howard Schultz: "“Let me try to answer. I think my whole life, because of where I came from, I had a fear of failure. Sitting in front of you now at the age of 57, and having achieved what most people might think is the American Dream, I still have it. That’s what drives me. I can’t answer the question intellectually, I just feel it.” He grins as if mystified by his own nature. “But it’s honest.”"

Yglesias � The Best Line on Economics and Science: "“Economics is most like a science when people do not care about the outcome of the argument.”"

Economics as a science: sometimes so sometimes not.

The Bellows � Economic Science

“The human toll here,” he declared, “looks to be much worse than the economic toll and we can be grateful for that.”

Larry Kudlow Devalues Human Life With Japan Earthquake Freudian Slip | VF Daily | Vanity Fair

'They have learned nothing and forgotten nothing,'"

The neocons are trying to talk us into war -- again - War Room - Salon.com: "

Good quick summary of the US-China relationship.

FT.com / Markets - US-China affair is likely to result in mutual pain

Crony capitalism at its best.

"A former official at Goldman Sachs – which the SEC sued a year ago for misleading investors in a CDO deal — now is in charge of investor protection at the SEC."

5 Signs Goldman Sachs is Out of the Government Dog House - Deal Journal - WSJ: