News Commentary

Media Seeks Answers To General Solicitation

"The SEC, on the same day it issued the final rules on general solicitation that become effective September 23, issued proposed rules that would substantially complicate the general solicitation process. We don’t know when and if the proposed rules will go into effect, but if they are adopted in the form in which they were proposed, they will substantially change the landscape in an unfavorable way for companies that want to generally solicit. In other words, the proposed rules are a take away, a retrenching of the statutory work that Congress did in the JOBS Act." Continue reading →

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Just Say the Magic Word

"When your government starts arbitrarily seizing skyscrapers, the time to start thinking about and devising an internationalization strategy was yesterday. If you have not already started, I'd suggest that it is high time to get going. This goes double for libertarians and anyone else who could one day become the government's next enemy du jour. All the government has to do is say the magic T-word, and poof: your rights, your assets, and even your life can be taken from you in an instant, without due process, and the vast majority of people will approve of it." Continue reading →

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Arab Spring’s Final Post Mortem

"Any suggestion that the US and its allies long had a finger in that pie was met with harsh recrimination and accusations of attraction to conspiracy theory. As US involvement in training the young Arab Springers became too obvious to deny shortly after the Egypt uprising, it was claimed that the 'Arab Spring' was authentic but after it caught the US by surprise the State Department and NED and its various tentacles quickly rushed in to manage the events. This was also blatantly untrue, as US government funding authorization requests for training the Arab Springers had been requested and granted for years before the actual event." Continue reading →

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Lindsey Graham Should Have Visited Iran

"Has Senator Graham examined the continuing tragedy of Fallujah and its people in order to understand what one of his previous wars has wrought? Or he is an ignorant man? Or has he turned a blind eye? Or doesn’t he care? Or is he so full of himself, so distant from common people, and so taken up with abstractions of power that he is living in another world? If he’d visit Iran, he’d find that its people are going about their business much as in America. Their degree of 'control' over Iran is not much different from what an American can claim is his control over America. Here are some establishments selling confections in Iran." Continue reading →

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How Heartless, How Cold Is Lindsey Graham?

"Does Senator Graham understand what the war on Iraq did to that country and its people? Does he even care? This site has some before and after photos. How can a man propose the destruction of Iran? I’ve written about him at length before. I consider him an ignorant, sadistic, religious and political wacko, lacking in any feeling for the peoples he is destroying. Quite possibly he hates them or has some problem that manifests itself in his callousness toward these particular peoples. His unswerving support of Israel is simply astonishing, but he shares that with a number of other U.S. politicians, at least in their public personae. I doubt very much they feel that way in private." Continue reading →

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Lindsey’s Plan for War on Iran

"By equating Iran’s 'nuclear program' with a 'nuclear bomb' program, Graham reveals that his bottom line is not Obama’s bottom line, but Benjamin Netanyahu’s. Obama has said only that Iran must not be allowed to build a bomb. Bibi says Iran must not have a nuclear program. Yet, make no mistake. The goal of Graham, the neocons, Israel and Saudi Arabia is not a negotiated solution permitting a peaceful nuclear program in Iran. The goal is a U.S. war to smash Iran. On Nov. 10, 2010, Graham let it all out: 'Instead of a surgical strike on their nuclear infrastructure, I think we’re to the point now that you have to really neuter the regime’s ability to wage war against us and our allies.'" Continue reading →

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Eric Margolis: US Struggle With Iran’s Peace Offensive

"Iran is now making a major push to convince the world it has no nuclear weapons ambitions, starting with its spiritual leader, Ayatollah Khomenei who has issued a fatwa condemning all nuclear weapons. The logical course for the United States to follow is to welcome Iran’s overtures and restore normal relations between the two powers. An Iran aligned to the outside world is less likely to be troublesome than the angry, frightened, besieged Iran of today. Furthermore, Washington has at some point got to accept that Iran is an influential regional power with its own legitimate interests." Continue reading →

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The Smartphone Wars: Nokia gives it up for Microsoft

"If Elop was a mole, what were his instructions? 'Elop. Go forth. Destroy Nokia so we can buy things we already effectively control for huge amounts of money.' I’m put in mind of the wave of mergers in the 1980s among mainframe computer manufacturers, what we called at the time 'dinosaurs mating'. Those didn’t make any sense either; when you merge two huge, doomed, inefficient thunder-lizards together you don’t tend to get a mammal. Meanwhile – and of course – Android continues to stomp its competition flat. Even the post-Jobs Apple can’t stem the tide; it’s pretty close to the 10% niche market share I predicted back in 2009 already, with no sign that trend will or can be reversed." Continue reading →

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When Dominance Leads to Incompetence and Catastrophe

"It's rather staggering to list Microsoft's failures over the past decade. The strategy that worked in the 1990s--copy rivals and add more features to the copycat products and services--is no longer working. Dominance in any space breeds complacency and enables the luxuries of political squabbling, sclerosis and loss of focus. Competence becomes incompetence, and the infrastructure that fosters creativity and flexibility--that is, a keen appreciation of risk and spontaneity--is slowly dismantled. That applies not just to corporations but to governments, nations and empires." Continue reading →

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Bill Bonner: Larry Summers Was a Lousy Choice Anyway

"Yes, Summers is smarter than we are. Yes, he has a better academic record. Yes, he is a real economist. Yes, he has widespread political support and a winning personality. But beyond those things, studies find that people with lower IQs make better truck drivers than people with high IQs. Which puts the critical question right out in the open: What kind of thing is running a central bank? And how smart do you have to be to be a successful central banker?" Continue reading →

Continue ReadingBill Bonner: Larry Summers Was a Lousy Choice Anyway