The Useless Tree

Sam Crane

  • Happy Belated 2559th birthday

    Sunday was the birthday of Confucius.  I knew it was right around this time, but I missed it.  Something about the economic crisis and the insane presidential election distracted me.  Oh well.  Better late than never: Happy Birthday Confucius.  … Continue reading

  • McCain’s Pathetic Campaign Gimmick

    Here's a line (hat tip Western Confucian) from Guardian blogger Oliver Burkeman that pretty much sums up my first impression of McCain's call to suspend his campaign and postpone tomorrow's debate: this is actually the most absurd, impetuous and nakedly… Continue reading

  • The China Milk Crisis

    I have been distracted of late by US politics and the economic crisis.  Thus, I have not commented on the milk contamination scandal in China.  Bottom line: Chinese diary producers, as many as 22 companies, have been adding a toxic… Continue reading

  • George Bush, Taoist President

    Three years ago I joked that George W. Bush is a Taoist sage.  Well, events of the past week or so suggest that he is a Taoist president.  In the face of the greatest economic crisis since at least World… Continue reading

  • The Last Day of…

          Today is the last day of summer, but yesterday actually felt like it.  Something in the air, something about the time, made yesterday feel like a day of endings. The fact that it was the last day of the… Continue reading

  • Goodbye to Yankee Stadium

    At least I can say I took my daughter to the original…. Because I am a Taoist Yankee fan. Continue reading

  • Finance is Immoral

    Decades ago, “finance” was generally understood as financing something other than finance itself; that is, stocks and bonds and money were tied to the production and circulation of goods and services, which were for the most part tangible, or “real”… Continue reading

  • The Strategic Implications of the AIG Take Over

       As per my last post, I have been consumed, in the last 24 hours, with the dramatic moves in the US financial system.  The Fed's take over of AIG is simply stunning.  I think "take over" is a better… Continue reading

  • The Tao of Fed

    I lost a bet today.  In the craziness that followed yesterday's financial news, a couple of colleagues and I disagreed on what the Federal Reserve Board would do today.  I thought an interest rate increase was all but inevitable: the… Continue reading

  • Thoughts in the Midst of a Financial Crisis

    Well, it's been a busy weekend for the captains of American finance.  Not quite the way they want to spend a Saturday and Sunday.  With Lehman Brothers bankrupt and Merrill Lynch sold off and AIG teetering on the brink of… Continue reading