In Richistan, I wrote about a new political divide emerging among the wealthy. While most Lower Richistani’s ($1 million to $10 million in net worth) were voting Republican, most Middle-and Upper Richistanis (those worth $10 million plus and $100 million plus) were voting Democrat.

Lower Richistanis tended to vote almost exclusively based on taxes. But Upper Richistanis placed a higher priority on longer-term societal issues like health care, the environment and education, which are traditional Democrat issues. Some say Upper Richistanis can afford to minimize taxes, since they have plenty of money even after the government takes its share. Others say the ultra-rich have better tax attorneys so they don’t care as much about tax rates. Read more »

A roundup of economic news from around the Web.

Economist Debate: The Economist is hosting a debate on how best to re-regulate the system after the credit crisis. The participants are Myron Scholes advocating a light touch, and Joseph Stiglitz arguing for stronger regulation. Scholes writes: There is now a rising chorus among regulators, politicians and academics claiming that the freedom to innovate in the financial domain should be curtailed.” Stiglitz writes: “The current crisis is caused, in part, by inadequate regulation. Unless we have an adequate regulatory system—regulations and a regulatory structure that ensures their implementation—we are bound to have another crisis.”

Read more »

It is not all that long ago that the big credit crunch banks were being lambasted in some quarters for their plans to invest heavily in Chinese banks, and that at least one pundit was predicting “The Coming Collapse of China”. How things change! Now it is the titans of Wall Street and the City that have faced collapse, and western government intervention that has saved (we hope!) the financial system. Today’s Telegraph carries a nice quote from Martin Sorrell, Chief Executive of WPP:

“This [rescue] is a form of state directed capitalism which is more akin to the Chinese model than it is to our own.”

Indeed, it was never in much doubt that the Chinese would bail out their own banking system in the event of a crisis – and they did when faced with triangular debts (the model for our own, latest crash?) and non-performing loans (NPLs) via the set up of the asset management companies (AMCs) and Central Huijin. Read more »

With markets continuing to swoon, the next shoe to drop is likely to be hedge funds. That means tough times for hedge-fund filled Greenwich, Conn. (As Nick Paumgarten wrote in the New Yorker magazine recently, “If New York City is the heart of the marketplace, Greenwich is the liver, where toxins are processed and rich bits collect.”)

Greenwich collected so many rich bits in recent years that its small population of about 60,000 contributed nearly $600 million in state income taxes in 2006. In other words, Greenwich pays 13% of all state income taxes in Connecticut with only 1.8% of the population. Read more »

The Inklings was an informal literary discussion group associated with the University of Oxford, England, for nearly two decades between the early 1930s and late 1949.

Two of its most famous members were C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien.

Readings and discussions of the members’ unfinished works were the principal purposes of meetings. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, Lewis’s Out of the Silent Planet, and Williams’s All Hallows’ Eve were among the novels first read to the Inklings. [Wikipedia]

As Oxford teachers, scholars, men of faith and fiction writers, they were not shy about expressing his views about knowledge, truth and education. Read more »

Top marks to Jim Coen at Franchise Perfection for bringing up a very important topic.

He posted a great article called Franchise Statistics Debunked Again! on his Let’s Talk Franchising blog and Blue MauMau.

I could not agree with him more: I get really, REALLY irritated when self=serving numbers are thrown around. The unsubstantiated drivel that comes out of the United Kingdom is especially horrendous.

Jim:

These misrepresentations just bug the hell out of me. I first wrote about it back in 2006

Those bogus statistics seemed to go away after that article. Well they are back in full force all over broker websites:

I have never been able to substantiate any of the statistics below or find the study where they came from.

Thanks for Michael for picking it up on his weblog under False Franchising Numbers. It reflects very badly on the listed websites and consumers should vote with their feet.

• A professional does not knowlingly misrepresent facts. Only deal with pros like Jim and Michael.

The American public’s mood is among the darkest in the past 40 years as voters remain pessimistic about their personal financial state and blame everyone within range for the financial crisis.

The latest Journal/NBC News poll shows voters’ economic worries boosting Sen. Barack Obama as he widens his lead over Sen. John McCain, 49% to 43%. (Click here for the full story).

More than three- quarters of those surveyed say the country is on the wrong track. That’s one of the highest marks in four decades — decades that have spanned two impeachments, several major wars and multiple recessions.

The economy topped the list of voters’ concerns, with six in 10 saying that issues like job losses and home foreclosures were more important than foreign policy, social and domestic concerns.

In regards to their personal economic situations, only 35% of those polled said they were confident and optimistic, while 56% said they were worried or uncertain.

Read more »