Carl Bloice

It’s not clear whether or how long the Republicans can maintain this pretense. Stretching this stage-managed ABC-TV “interview” over four episodes will not hide the fact that the Republican Vice-Presidential candidate is best kept away from microphones and tough questions about government policy. Still, one never knows – the way the major U.S. mass media…

The opening line of Kevin Phillip’s new book says the “most worrisome thing” about the present economic situation in the U.S. is “the extent of official understatement and misstatements – the preference for minimizing how many problems there are and how interconnected they are.” In the preface to “Bad Money: Reckless Finance, Failed Politics, and…

He caught me by the elevator. “Do you know how much peanut butter costs at Safeway now as compared to two months ago?” John asked. I didn’t but I had been aware of the recent cost of berries, which were rising out of sight. Joe wanted to know if I had, as requested, written to…

One of them is on the lam having apparently crudely faked his suicide. Thus, Samuel Israel III has, as of this writing, avoided being part of the perp walk dramas of last week. His woman friend however, was arrested and charged with helping him arrange the ruse. That same day in Brooklyn, hedge fund executives…

There was once a train that ran straight from downtown Los Angeles to Santa Monica on the coast. I think it was painted red – memory being what it is and being that is was when I was a kid. My family would leave home in South Central and be at the amusement pier or…

The news that Spam (the kind you eat) sales were on the rise should have been enough of a tip-off, but with sales at Starbucks slackening you knew things were getting bad. The number of people applying for food stamps – by people who would never have been expected to before recently – is soaring,…

Don’t take it from me. The august Financial Times said it last Saturday: “It is not just the credit crisis. Popular fears of globalization, discontent with high oil and food prices, rising income inequality within nations – all have contributed to an uncertain time for capitalism. The capitalists have certainly not helped.” The paper’s editors…