Monthly Archives: December 2011

Happy New Year

At the stroke of midnight tonight most of us will yell “Happy New Year!” to someone  (except for me, who will be in the shower).  Wishing someone a happy New Year may not have any practical effect on their well-being, … Continue reading

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Oh, Wow

It has been widely reported, but bears repeating.   Steve Jobs died in bed surrounded by loved ones.  Just before he died, he looked past his visitors and quietly said, “OH, WOW!  OH, WOW!  OH, WOW!”  Those were his last … Continue reading

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The Meaning of Liquidity

Gold’s recent slide smacks more of profit-taking than a fundamental reversal. It has been an easy place to cull profits. Its steepest slippages—from Sept. 20 to 26, and over December’s first two weeks—came just before each quarter ended, when hedge … Continue reading

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Taxing the Rich and Hauser’s Law

We hear a lot in the news of various ways to increase tax revenues that the government sorely needs.  Most of the heated discussions are about how much to tax the rich since most of us are not rich.  “Don’t … Continue reading

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Face-Peeling Hyperinflation

The weekly Barron’s magazine is the one financial publication I read religiously.  For each issue, I even electronically copy important statements and past them into a Word document.  I then edit them down to about half of their original length … Continue reading

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Search For the Higgs Boson

In a post way back on September 14, 2008 (Mr. Higgs and His Amazing Boson),  I wrote of celebrating the firing up of the Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland, the largest, most expensive scientific instrument ever built.  The Collider was … Continue reading

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Cemeteries

“A Massacre in Jamaica,” Mattathais Schwartz, The New Yorker, 12/12/2011 Most cemeteries replace the illusion of life’s permanence with another illusion: the permanence of a name carved in stone. RWalck@Verizon.net

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Scollay Square

In 1960, I was living near Boston where Scollay Square was the well-known tenderloin district, sort of like the lower Arch and Race Street area was in Philadelphia.  Of course, I wanted to see it.  Just the name alone sounded … Continue reading

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Springfield Reservoir

I see on a map what my high school cohort knew as Springfield Reservoir is actually Springton Reservoir.  Was the name changed, or, more likely, we mistook the name?  I do not remember seeing it written anywhere—”Springfield Reservoir” was just … Continue reading

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