http://bbfin.com Prudent Personal Finance and the Global Economy Sun, 29 Aug 2010 03:28:09 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en "Justice, sir, is the great interest of man on earth.  It is the ligament which holds civilized beings and civilized nations together." - Daniel Webster   July 15th was a big day in case you didn't notice.  Most important by a mile, British Petroleum reported that "no oil was leaking into the ... http://bbfin.com/?p=49 "With the strengthening of the administration, the rescheduling of debt and a broad package of social and economic measures.  Dutch island governance should restart in a stronger position.  Because public finance is of crucial importance for residents and visitors alike, greater financial supervision is being implemented."  - Els Croon   As you ... http://bbfin.com/?p=48 "Complex societies are focused on a center, which may not be located physically where it is literally implied, but which is a symbolic source of the framework of society.  It is not only the location of legal and governmental institutions, but is the source of order and the symbol of ... http://bbfin.com/?p=47 "Tragedy is thus a representation of an action that is worth serious attention, complete in itself and of some amplitude E' by means of pity and fear bringing about the purgation of such emotions."  - Aristotle   ...in the news that is - and it isn't good.  It seems that Greece has ... http://bbfin.com/?p=46 "For if the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself to the battle?"  - 1 Corinthians 14:8   There are still many that believe the U.S. Government should have allowed the big banks along with Fannie and Freddie and AIG to go under.  I recall one colleague explaining to me that ... http://bbfin.com/?p=45 "After the pact, the Royal Navy was required to scrap the Grand Fleet's backbone.  The Admiralty pledged itself never to build a naval base in Hong Kong.  England's absolute command of the seas, so vital to the Empire, was over.  Britannia no longer ruled the waves, not because world opinion ... http://bbfin.com/?p=44 "Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life.  It turns what we have into enough, and more.  It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity.  It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend.  Gratitude makes sense of our past, ... http://bbfin.com/?p=43 "We are business partners who share material interests rather than common values.  Obama wants us to become strategic partners or friends but we aren't either of those." - Yan Xuetong   I am not convinced anyone really knows what China is up to - maybe not even China.  Is China now suddenly a peaceful giant ... http://bbfin.com/?p=42 "Lehman's fall over a nerve-racking weekend a year ago pushed the financial crisis, which had begun months earlier with the subprime mortgage meltdown and the rescue of Bear Stearns Cos., to a terrifying new level.  Lehman's bankruptcy, the largest in U.S. history, shocked investors who had expected the federal government ... http://bbfin.com/?p=41 "When [unpopular governments] appear in other countries, there are movements in which people express their anger and demand change.  But this doesn't happen in Japan because the LDP has held power for so long that the people have abandoned the possibility of standing up."  - Yukio Hatoyama, 2001   I just spent ... http://bbfin.com/?p=40