Pay Up, Friedman
“There are many reasons Apple has not spent its cash hoard, but I’ll bet anything that one of them is the uncertain economic and tax environment in this country.” —The Mustache of Understanding, proudly displaying his utter ignorance of Apple’s history of recovering from a near-bankruptcy, high profit margins from skyrocketing gadget sales, and famous practice of not spending that mushrooming cash hoard unless there’s a damn good reason. Oh, and that American manufacturing plant they’re planning to open this year. [NYT]
Yeah, remember all those decades when we had total certainty about the economic and tax environment out the yin yang.
So when will we mortals go ahead and promote Tom Friedman to World Economy Wizard? He sure seems to know what everybody else is doing wrong. I think it’s a miracle Apple scraped together their $137 billion in cash without Tom personally approving every move.
Saw a very interesting TED Talk posted this week titled Who Controls the World?. Kind of fun to see a diagram showing the ownership connections of the six hundred thousand multinationals and which very familiar corporations were at the core of the web.
Also just read another great Matt Tiabbi article (thanks BobCens) about the Justice Department’s punt on prosecutions for pretty much everything banks can think of to do. Laws? Regulations? Dr. Horrible laugh.
Today I saw Elizabeth Warren’s video in her first Banking Committee hearing. It’s bad enough to criticize the bankers, but she’s embarrassing their wholly owned regulators too. I hope she doesn’t meet with a tragic “accident”.
Money, and the lack thereof, can both be so depressing.
Now hold up here … seems we should give Mr. Friedman at least another six months to see if this prediction plays out.
BURR DEMING • Tom Lehrer, 1928-2025 Thank you for this, nojo. He was a wonderful talent and, by all accounts, a wonderful human…
NOJO • Tom Lehrer, 1928-2025 Oh, and there’s a Catholic church across the street. Maybe I can do a little dance for them!
NOJO • Tom Lehrer, 1928-2025 Now that I’m in NYC, plenty of pigeons to poison in his honor.
NOJO • All the Vice President's Men 2025 update: Nothing happened. And here we are!
MANCHUCANDIDATE • Weeping Angel Imagine going from hope to Fascism in less than two decades enabled by greedy ass (millionaire)…
NOJO • Nightmare at the Museum From the last time he threatened to bomb Iran, 2020. Remember that one? All a misty blur now.
NOJO • TRUMP TARIFFS UNLEASHING FURY OF CANADIANS - AND THEIR LEGENDARY SNIPERS! @ManchuCandidate: I have birthright citizenship in Cascadia, so I think I’m good.
MANCHUCANDIDATE • TRUMP TARIFFS UNLEASHING FURY OF CANADIANS - AND THEIR LEGENDARY SNIPERS! @nojo: Only the sane parts... like the West coast, New England (minus the Bruins and…
NOJO • TRUMP TARIFFS UNLEASHING FURY OF CANADIANS - AND THEIR LEGENDARY SNIPERS! @ManchuCandidate: So, can you guys annex us now?
MANCHUCANDIDATE • TRUMP TARIFFS UNLEASHING FURY OF CANADIANS - AND THEIR LEGENDARY SNIPERS! PP is done. 51st state, my ass.