Bollinger Blew It

Bollinger had a tough challenge and he did not handle it well.

Columbia University has a lot of rich and generous Jewish alumni. Columbia University also has a huge appetite for gifts.

So, Bollinger had a serious problem. A loudmouthed, notorious anti-Semite had been invited to speak.

How did Bollinger handle conflicting objectives of appearing to favor freedom of speech and pleasing his Jewish benefactors?

Badly.

Some Mutual Funds

See FWRLX (Wireless), PRASX (Asia, excluding Japan), FSEAX (Southeast Asia). Use Bloomberg or other financial information website.

Note: The above is not a recommendation to buy, sell or hold a security. It is only a suggestion for educational and informative purposes.

Americans Are Becoming Morbidly Obese

See the interactive feature on CNN website .

The red states average a Body Mass Index of 30 or higher. This level of obesity has been found to affect health and life adversely.

Perhaps it is useful to think of obesity as carrying a long-term supply of food on one's body full-time. Making some assumptions, a sedentary adult needs about 60,000 calories to live one month. For an obese person, this translates to 17 pounds of body fat. So, if someone has a body-mass index of 30 and is 34 pounds overweight, that person is carrying an unneeded two-month food supply full time. One hundred pounds overweight translates to 6 month food supply.

Considering the wide availability of food, what's the point of carrying all that excess food supply on one's body and risking illness and death?

Oops! The HBS Made Two Mistakes

The Harvard Business School admitted and graduated George W. Bush, the worst President in the history of the United States.

The Harvard Business School rejected Warren Buffet, who became a multi-billionaire. Buffet says they did him a favor by rejecting him. See article in the NYTimes.

Calling All Bush Lovers

When George W. Bush started out gold was $273 and ounce, today it's over $700, oil was $22 a barrel, today it's hitting $81 per barrel, and the you could by a Euro for 85 cents, today a Euro costs a $1.47.

Bush lovers, sing us a song about how wonderful Bush is.

Greenspan: Iraq War About Oil, All the Time

News Flash:

"However, it is his (Greenspan's) view on the motive for the 2003 Iraq invasion that is likely to provoke the most controversy. 'I am saddened that it is politically inconvenient to acknowledge what everyone knows: the Iraq war is largely about oil,' Greenspan says in his book." This is from Fox News, quoting the London Times.

BFD! I said the same thing in this blog on November 26, 2005 (almost 2 years ago). And it wasn't oil for us. It was oil for Bush's family and friends.

And you know what? Bush is already is 20% toward achieving his goal. The Kurds have signed a deal with Hunt Oil of Texas to develop and produce oil in Kurdistan. This will generate mega-billions for Hunt. Mr. Hunt, big boss at Hunt Oil is a close buddy of George W. Bush and sits on Bush's committee on energy. Talk about using public resources for private gain.

The frequently repeated story that Bush is holding on, so he can turn the Iraq war to his successor, so Bush can avoid taking responsibility for the death, destruction and waste of Treasury funds, is a fake-out. Bush is holding to the war so his oil industry friends and family can grab more oil contracts. And the SOB may well succeed!

Breaking Up Iraq Is Not A Solution

Some talking heads are advocating breaking up Iraq into three parts: Kurds, Sunni Arabs and Shiite Arabs. That would supposedly stop the fighting and the Americans could go home.

The only problem is that it would not work because the Sunni Arabs, who have no oil (and used to control everything under Saddam Hussein) will never accept a breakup that leaves them destitute. They will fight until they subjugate the Shiites and can grab the oil again.

In the meantime, if the US leaves, China may decide to step in. With millions of soldiers, China could pacify Iraq, develop the oil fields and proceed to move in on Iran.

China, to keep the U.S. diverted, could dump a few hundred billion of Treasury bonds and precipitate a financial meltdown in the US. The US Dollar would become truly worthless.

Some party Bushie started.

We’re wasting our future in Iraq. China is not.

See Friedman's column in the NYTimes at:

http://select.nytimes.com/2007/09/12/opinion/12friedman.html

Hydroelectric Plants Are Major Air Polluters

See article in New Scientist.

Entrepreneurship Wanted, Desperately

Inhabitants of the Indian state of Kerala enjoy: high literacy, good health and longevity, comparable in all three respects with the best of the Western world. See article in yesterday's NYTimes.

How do they accomplish this? By state supported education and health care and very importantly, remittances from Keralans working abroad. Many men go to Arabian Gulf nations to work, with infrequent visits home to wives and children.

The best educated ones go to the United States and Western Europe and work as college professors.

Obviously, what is lacking in Kerala is the kind of entrepreneurship that would create enough good jobs in Kerala.