Money Matters
The Value of Uncertainty
The stock market hates uncertainty. This helps explain the wild gyrations of the markets, unable to “decide” whether we are headed for a double-dip recession or whether the trillions in corporate profits are a reflection of the good times ahead. Is it the millions of North Americans looking for work or standing in line to buy the latest iPhone that are the true indicator of our collective economic shape? The fact that the news of both groups is...
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Income Disparity
One must be “thankful” when the news coming out of Israel is the high price of cottage cheese. As is so often the case, it is a relatively minor event that sparks major repercussions, often with unintended consequences. This is true not only in national or international relations but in our personal lives as well. Modern technology enables issues that may have taken decades to surface in the past to do so in weeks, days or even hours. Yet...
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RiM Woes
As we have often noted, economic decisions reflect moral choices. As the world economy slowly recovers from near-catastrophe, another potential disaster looms in the horizon: that of the United States government defaulting on its debt. While families understand that they cannot live beyond their means, governments worldwide seem oblivious to this fact; after all, they can just print money as needed.Decisions that would lead to personal...
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Moral Bailouts
The sight of the CEO's of GM, Ford and Chrysler asking the Untied States Congress for 25 Billion dollars in aid as they flew to Washington on their private corporate jets highlighted the moral crisis which continues to wreak so much financial havoc. The never ending stream of recipients of big fat bonuses, whose ingenuity in creating new financial products is at the root of our predicament, begging for handouts while the hard working labourer...
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A Tribute to a Mentor
Regardless of their personal piety (or lack thereof), Jewish law affirms that an almost superhuman level of respect be shown to our parents. What is less well known is that, in theory at least, one must display even greater honor to our teachers, “for our parents bring us into this world, and our teachers bring us into the World to Come”. Jewish law even records a practice that requires students to observe many of the practices of ...
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