Guy Berger

In general I think the article contained a mishmash of good and bad points. To correct one common misconception - the stock market crash of 1929 was a key catalyst of the recession which evolved into the Great Depression, but it was not a cause in the fundamental sense. If it hadn't been for the Fed's foolish adherence to the gold standard and a series of catastrophic banking panics during 1930-33, it might have been simply a harsh but brief recession. Guy

While there was a conflict of interest which may on the margin have caused some assets to be rated better than they should have been, I think the problems with asset ratings were much, much more fundamental. They used assumptions that in retrospect were clearly absurd, but that plenty of knowledgeable people that should have known better never questioned at the time. Guy

Stock brokers and car salesmen are chump change compared to what the article describes, though cut from the same cloth. Good article though I think K Marx would say the CDO is just a symptom, not the disease. (The disease being a toxic combination of human nature, global imbalances and the principal/agent problem. Maybe throw general stupidity in there.) Guy

Neither of these have made my collection yet so now is probably the time if at all. I'm a Jackie fan, should I be without either of these? You want both. Right Now is essential, among the best Jackie I've heard. I would put Jacknife in the second tier of JM recordings, but it's still very good. Guy

My recollection of CS, which I haven't listened to in a while, was that the first tune was awesome and the rest was somewhat unremarkable relative to benchmark JM recordings. Guy

Yes, definitely. Also on Cannonball's "Domination" - not my fave Cannonball, but for someone who is inherently (perhaps unfairly) wary of Oliver Nelson arrangements from the mid 60s, I was very pleasantly surprised. Also, "Experience in E" is definitely worth hearing for those fond of early jazz rock. Not entirely successful but a fun listen. Guy

I like it. A little sloppy if that bothers you, but the music itself is enjoyable. Would have been interesting if it had featured an A-list saxophonist. Guy

You're wrong in relating the lowering of tariffs and barriers to the increasing inequality in Britain and the US. You can have one without the other. And having increasing inequality is no reason to have trade barriers. My view as well. Globalization is giving us a bigger pie, we are just doing a terrible job of slicing it in an equitable way. Unfortunately, many of the people who've been pushing for a larger pie don't really seem to care about that second half of the equation, so we're risking a return to small-pie policies. Guy

In the midst of reading: "Manias, Panics and Crashes: A History of Financial Crises" (by Charles P. Kindleberger) - highly recommended. I only wish I had read this 18, 12 or even 3 months ago. "Essays on the Great Depression" (by Ben Bernanke) - Only started, but it's quite interesting. Probably too dry and academic for casual readers, but those with a solid grounding in economics may find it useful. I'd be interested in any recommendations for a more generalist but economically-literate history book on the Great Depression. "War and Peace" - about 2/3 of the way through.

Dan, there is lots of other interesting discussion on this thread, but John L's sentence is 99% sufficient to answer your question. Guy

Two doublers who haven't been mentioned are Charles Lloyd and Yusef Lateef. I enjoy flute work by both. But my favorites are Dolphy and James Newton. Guy

From a liberal who doesn't object to spendiing gov't money but does object to wasting it - The best policy would be to give current Big 3 employees a guarantee for their current salary up to $60K over the next 2-3 years, regardless of whatever happens to the company. In addition, offer $15K a year for retraining, education, whatever. After that, the salary payment goes down by $20K a year. I'd rather have these guys sitting idle collecting a paycheck rather than wasting valuable resources producing cr@ppy products. Screw shareholders, bondholders, executives. Unfortunately that is not on the table... Second-best would be to subsidize companies that actually turn a profit to hire the laid off workers, with workers paid to relocate out of their current location if necessary. And unfortunately that is not on the table either. Guy

And Woody Allen was the best Bond villain. (For that matter, I saw a TV edit of Austin Powers that changed Ms. fffagina's name to Alotta Cleavahgeh. As far as this thread - can't be bothered to think this much about an action movie. Craig is an excellent bond, but this movie was so-so. CR, on the other hand, was superb. I liked Strawberry Fields better than the Russian. Guy

This one is a classic. A good follow-up is Autechre's "Tri Repetae". As far as old-school electronic, Tangerine Dream is indeed great though I don't like what I've heard post-Rubycon. Guy

I agree that it isn't their best album, but I do think it's a great album. Plenty of extremely enjoyable music on there, and if nothing else you have "A Day in the Life" which does deserve serious consideration as "most successful experiment". Guy

I think they were way ahead of people like the Stones and their blues based peers. They recorded the proto-techno "Tomorrow Never Knows" April of 1966 and look what was in pop music afterwards. You really want to appreciate how far ahead of their time the Beatles were in Pop Music? Play some of the other stuff that was being released in, say, late 1966. When you've heard Frank Sinatra's "Strangers in the Night" (Billboard #2 June 25, 1966), The Happenings' "See You In September" (#4 Sept. 10 1966), Johnny Rivers' "Poor Side of Town" (#3 Nov. 5, 1966), The New Vaudeville Band's "Winchester Cathedral" (#1 Dec. 3 1966), and countless others a few times, and then you listen to, say, "Strawberry Fields Forever" (recorded in late '66, released February 13, 1967), you realize you're dealing with a group in another talent-dimension altogether. You're setting up a straw man there. Plenty of forward-looking pop/rock music in 1966 by the Beatles' contemporaries (including several "blues-based" bands that you malign). Certainly the Beatles were among the most important contributors to the rapid evolution of the style during that period, but they had plenty of contemporaries. Guy

It's difficult for me to imagine the music of the Stones, Cream or Led Zeppelin without the Beatles' influence. I do agree that the "blues" part of "blues rock" came from somewhere else. Guy

Happy birthday, Paul! Guy

Some good prices. Is tower.com reliable? A while back someone here said they got a used CD sent to them when they were expecting a new one. Guy

It could be ugly... I am inclined to think that unless you absolutely need to tap into your savings in the next decade, it's best just to grit your teeth and sit tight with a well-diversified portfolio. The worst thing to do at this point is to engage in some panic selling. Of course, I am just an economist, not an investment expert. Guy Maybe you're not, but it's pretty obvious that the only reason to sell at this point is to lock in your losses. On the other hand, if you are feeling frisky, you can go short in Yen and invest the proceeds in a basket of Rand, Lira, and Real and Kiwi Dollar. Guy

Except those who teach in universities and colleges in this country. Depends on the field. Quite a few academics are extremely well-paid. Guy

Not correct. Ireland for one is much more exposed. I would guess Switzerland is heavily exposed as are some of the Benelux countries. It's not good to be a small country with huge banks. Guy

A nice album, but IMHO the bands with Shorter were better. I'd reach for at least a dozen Blakey albums before this one. Guy

These are both great concerts, though some of the stuff from the European tour in the fall is even better. The band ventured further into free jazz by that point. Guy

It could be ugly... I am inclined to think that unless you absolutely need to tap into your savings in the next decade, it's best just to grit your teeth and sit tight with a well-diversified portfolio. The worst thing to do at this point is to engage in some panic selling. Of course, I am just an economist, not an investment expert. Guy