Interesting. I always love a good Kay Graham story. I also like his takes on scorecards and U2.

Quoted: “Buffett began to be seen out with [Washington Post Publisher Katharine] Graham more and more. She made it her job to try to give him more polish. … [He] became a regular guest at Graham’s famous dinners, which he called her ‘Kay Parties.’ He enjoyed his status as the hayseed who was flummoxed by a lobster.”

Ballmer talked about the BRIC countries in answering a question at the Churchill Club. I hadn't heard the term before (coined in 2001).

ReFaving @zzelinski. Almost everybody in the media is saying the nonapproval of the bailout is a disaster. Further, they argue that those who opposed the bill did so because of politics (e.g. the "Main Street" voters they represent want to punish "Wall Street") but are not giving more thoughtful analysis.

This is the first article I've read that gives some high quality reasons why a bailout might not be the right approach.

Quoted: Talk of Armageddon, however, is ridiculous scare-mongering. If financial institutions cannot make productive loans, a profit opportunity exists for someone else. This might not happen instantly, but it will happen.

Quoted: Further, the current credit freeze is likely due to Wall Street's hope of a bailout; bankers will not sell their lousy assets for 20 cents on the dollar if the government might pay 30, 50, or 80 cents.

Quoted: The obvious alternative to a bailout is letting troubled financial institutions declare bankruptcy. Bankruptcy means that shareholders typically get wiped out and the creditors own the company.
...
Bankruptcy punishes those who took excessive risks while preserving those aspects of a businesses that remain profitable.

Quoted: Along the way, they have cast aside the administration’s long-held views about regulation and government involvement in private business, even reversing decisions over the space of 24 hours and justifying them as practical solutions to dire threats.

There you have it, folks! But the American public needs to decide whether the economy is more important than how close the future VP's house is to Russia...

Quoted: If you're wondering why a formerly honorable man like John McCain would build his presidential campaign around issues that are simultaneously beside-the-point, trivial, and dishonest (sex education for kindergartners, lipstick on pigs), the numbers presented here may help to solve that mystery.

The right hand and the left hand holding equal measures of what is right and what is left may be what we need.

Quoted: Barack Obama is both more left-wing and more right-wing than many people realize. A 15-year debate among economics experts in the Democratic Party helps explain why.

Great piece from the NY Times about how economic liberalization could help India break free from the caste system.

Quoted: Chandra Bhan Prasad’s argues that India’s economic liberalization is about to destroy the caste system.

Quoted: While the election will set a course for the country on very fundamental issues of foreign policy—from Iraq to Iran to our approach to the ...

Discussing the will-do attitude of 'typical' Chinese.

There's a convincing allegory to be made here, comparing de Tocqueville's analysis of the effects of Jacksonian democracy in 19th-century America... minus the democracy.

Quoted: The Chinese are not “free”, but outside Tibet - and with a few other high-profile exceptions - they wear their oppression lightly. I detected no great clamour for democracy at this stage in the country's development. Security and prosperity come higher on most people's wish list.

http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/books/book_extracts/article2804923.ece
3 Messages:
scarcity, social proof, tit-for-tat gift-economy