Andrew Sabl

Mitt Romney is going around saying that he made all his money himself, aside from a loan from his dad to buy his first house. Journalists who buy that have short memories. I was living in Massachusetts when Romney first ran for the Senate, and remembered this interview with Ann Romney in the Boston Globe […]

Having just seen the movie Young Adult (perhaps better described as a virtuoso Charlize Theron acting class pretending to be a movie) I’ve looked up some reviews and found this one by Roger Ebert. It’s a good review and rightly says that people will fail to get the film if they don’t realize it’s about […]

Clyde Haberman’s “What to Expect in New York in 2012″ contains what I realize is a throwaway line. But I can’t let it go because the sentiment it reflects is both pervasive and pernicious. The local economy may feel the effects of layoffs in financial services this past year. Even hard-core haters of the 1 […]

Today’s New York Times has a story about how European banks are selling assets (including in the U.S.) to build up their threadbare capital cushions, and how U.S. banks and private equity firms are buying. I wonder who the audience is for this kind of story. If you’re Citibank or KKR you presumably already know […]

Public Policy Polling’s latest survey of Mississippi included a hypothetical presidential election between Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis. The result? Lincoln would win out 55-28. That’s largely because of Lincoln’s overwhelming support from Democrats, 76-10. He only narrowly edges Davis with Republicans, 45-36, and the match up is actually a tie with independents at 44 […]

Once in a while I have an objection to a common argument that seems so obvious that I think my logic circuits must be misfiring. This is one of those times. It’s become quite popular in libertarian and conservative circles to call the Affordable Care Act, and the individual mandate in particular, totalitarian. (I must […]

It’s no secret that I have my problems with Occupy Wall Street (as well as an honest admiration for what it’s accomplished). But this from its blog is just delicious and I can’t resist quoting it in full: NYPD Occupying Liberty Square; Demands Unclear New York, NY — The NYPD have been occupying Liberty Square […]

I’ve been reading a lot about Occupy Wall Street. Last Saturday, I visited Zuccotti Park and took a look for myself. I think it’s time we recognized a clear but complex set of truths. The demands of Occupy Wall Street are both valid and popular; Democrats and Progressives of all tendencies should endorse them. The […]

I fly a lot. I’m writing this (thanks to in-flight Wi-Fi) on a plane soon to land at LAX. Yet I agree with Robert Poole at Reason’s blog: the gun that tumbled out of a checked bag at LAX is no threat to me.* How could it be? Yes, it should have been packed unloaded […]

A “longtime money manager” quoted in Saturday’s New York Times: “Who do you think pays the taxes?…Financial services are one of the last things we do in this country and do it well. Let’s embrace it. If you want to keep having jobs outsourced, keep attacking financial services. This is just disgruntled people.” He added […]