Category Archives: Armageddon

In Greece: The gray economy extends to the education system, where many Greek students pay on the side to fill in holes left by lackluster teaching. Katerina Karamatsiou, a young Athenian, recalls her high-school physics teacher telling the class: “What’s … Continue reading →

In Greece: The government admits it doesn’t know exactly how many people work for it. That’s partly due to a history of haphazard hiring by politicians who have traditionally rewarded supporters with public-service jobs. A hiring spree in the month … Continue reading →

Yesterday was a typical winter’s day in our neck of the San Francisco Bay Area — a chilly 50 degrees most of the day, 60 in the sun. Of course we had a stout fire going all day to keep … Continue reading →

It isn’t just that he wants to give Khalid Sheik Mohammad and his pals a stage in Manhattan, Attorney General Holder and President Obama want to give the media a reason to bag on proponents of the war during the … Continue reading →

If you’re in Washington’s Auburn/Kent valley, it may be because they’re very wet. The Army Corps of Engineers have finally released a series of maps showing the areas that will be effected by the possible collapse of the Howard Hanson … Continue reading →

One of our sales reps (Mexican immigrant, natch) was twiddling a twenty-peso note between his fingers just now. I gave him two bucks for it; I figure that’s a good investment. — Comment I left at Tam’s place. Incidentally, even … Continue reading →

We’ve got our first storm of the season here in the Bay Area, and of course everyone’s driving off the roads (150+ CHP traffic incident hazards during commute hours this morning, for example) because a few inches of rain and … Continue reading →

Aug. 13 (Bloomberg) — It’s amazing what a little sunshine can accomplish. Check out the footnotes to Regions Financial Corp.’s latest quarterly report, and you’ll see a remarkable disclosure. There, in an easy-to-read chart, the company divulged that the loans … Continue reading →

Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain! Hurray! the recent 7-year bond auction was “successful,” keeping confidence high in the markets. Why, it was so successful, in fact, that gosh, the Federal Reserve decided a week later to … Continue reading →