Yesterday, I did a great cycling route starting at Cedar Lake in Minneapolis, down to Lake Harriet and Lake Calhoun, then east to Lake Nokomis, and straight across to the mighty Mississippi. It’s a rip-roaring downhill from the bike path down to Lock and Dam No. 1. I crossed the Mississippi into St. Paul, did [...]

Minnesota is a state where laws restrict most retailers from selling most beer, wine, and spirits for off-premises consumption, so there are all of these specialized “liquor stores” here. Forgive me, but I am used to Michigan, where liquor is sold in grocery stores, convenience stores, chain drugstores, and “party stores” (a Michigan term for [...]

For years I watched Peter Schiff appearing on the MSM, being ridiculed by the clowns who shot him down because he was just some gloomy guy who had a bummer outlook (a nasty “contrarian”) and wanted to throw a dash of stodgy common sense into the Bubblemania machine that was gripping America. Time after time [...]

The Denver Post on the Visible Hand.
What exactly is left of heroic capitalism?
“It’s fascism,” said Lew Rockwell of the free market think tank Mises Institute in Alabama. Rockwell said he was referring to some fascist systems where the government used overwhelming power to prop up major businesses at the expense of average citizens.
“It’s big government [...]

I write this from one of my favorite blogging holes – the Contented Cow, a British Pub in downtown Northfield, Minnesota. In Minnesota, autumn is especially wonderful this year. A local band is playing some Beatles covers (sounds nice!), and it’s very loud. A good, German, Oktoberfest beer is the staple tonight.
Though I am a [...]

But suspending the rules can be the solution.
A question about mark-to-market accounting, from a fellow Austrian, sparked me to put together a few thoughts on this topic.
SFAS (Statement of Financial Accounting Standard) 115 represents the rationale for fair value accounting. Note that a recent FASB (157) came out (2006), and this FASB contains some [...]

Today, the Wall Street Journal reports that the ban on short selling is “casting a very wide net.” I just downloaded, into a spreadsheet, the list of companies on the short-sale ban list. There are about 1,000 listings. Is anyone surprised that GM and Ford were added to the list this week? Since the SEC [...]

Stay on your toes.
Sept. 21 (Bloomberg) — The Bush administration sought unchecked power from Congress to buy $700 billion in bad mortgage investments from financial companies in what would be an unprecedented government intrusion into the markets.
Through his plan, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson aims to avert a credit freeze that would bring the financial [...]

Tonight I opened a split (375 ml or a half-bottle) of Belle Vallee 2005 Pinot Noir Port, a bottle straight from the Willamette Valley of Oregon. Perfectly chilled, it is one of the most unique wines I have ever tasted. It cost $35 for the split. The reason I love this wine so much is [...]

I love all anti-politician bumper stickers. I saw a great McCain bumper sticker on the way home today:
Just Say No to the Middle Class. Say McCain.