Posts Tagged ‘Bailout’

Book news: Enough

Thursday, October 9th, 2008

John Bogle, the founder and former CEO of the Vanguard Group Inc., one of the most respected mutual fund companies in the world, has a new book with a prescient title coming out next month: Enough: True Measures of Money, Business and Life.

In his book, he writes about the dangers of overleveraged and overspeculative banking, the kind of stuff that has led to the global financial meltdown happening today (As of 10 a.m. Eastern Daylight Saving time, the world markets have bounced back a bit today, the Dow is up about 50 points).

Philadelphia Inquirer columnist Michael Smerconish writes: “Bogle is a rarity - a true captain of industry who speaks about complex economic issues in a language comprehensible to the layperson.”

The title comes from a conversation among a couple of well-known authors at a swanky cocktail party. Again, from Smerconish’s column, quoting the book:

The title comes from a conversation between writers Kurt Vonnegut and Joseph Heller during a billionaire’s party on Shelter Island. At one point, Bogle told me, Vonnegut pointed to the host and asked Heller: “Joe, how does it make you feel to know that our host only yesterday may have made more money than your novel Catch-22 has earned in its entire history?”

“Yes,” Heller responded, “but I have something he will never have: Enough.”

To read more, CLICK HERE.

To see related blog entry, CLICK HERE.

The Blog: Let the bailout begin

Friday, October 3rd, 2008

Well, the House just passed its version of the Wall Street rescue bill on the second try, days after the Senate passed its sweetened bill (Who knew pork was so sweet???). This time the bill passed pretty easily. I just felt my wallet get a little thinner. Ouch.

I guess I’m like a lot of other people: Not really sure if this is a good thing or a bad thing, given the dismal performance of government when it comes to minding the hen house. I can’t help suspect that some sorry SOB is going to get rich(er) off this, and that really irks me.

We shall see.

Our Daily Red is a blog by DelMio’s Grand Poobah of editorial content, Dave Wilson. Dave moonlights as chief cook and bottle washer and captain of the mop brigade. He can be reached at Dave.Wilson@delmio.com. Or you can post a reply to this posting.