Monday Breakfast Links

Posted by Jeff Carter
on January 9th, 2012

Remember all the hullaballoo about the unions in Wisconsin last summer? You aren’t hearing how teachers weren’t laid off and that budget deficits started decreasing because of Gov. Scott Walker’s plan. The unions are still going after him because the money isn’t going to their favored groups of people.

Turning 30? Decades are a good time to reflect. My daughter turns 21 this year. I turn 50.

What do you do with Klout?

CNBC ($GE)has done some stuff on the slave trade in America, here is another article. We ought to figure out a way to legalize drugs without harming children. The drug trade is a big part of the slave trade.

New info on MF Global. $CME may have known. Now, are they liable? Might be liable to shareholders too since the stock cratered after the news was public. I doubt that they lose their self regulatory function, but as the next linked article shows, it might change.
CME Group Stock Chart

CME Group Stock Chart by YCharts

And right on time, the CFTC is looking at new futures rules.

“If I had a world of my own, everything would be nonsense. Nothing would be what it is because everything would be what it isn’t. And contrary-wise; what it is it wouldn’t be, and what it wouldn’t be, it would. You see?”-Alice in Wonderland

Will 2012 be the year you start a business? Might as well.

Luigi Zingales spells it out. The Chicago Boys are writing again. That’s a good thing.

If you do, you will do a business plan. Top ten mistakes. Biggest mistakes I see. Moving too slow, trying to get everything perfect and overvaluing the business.

Wolves move into Eastern Oregon. Wolves and cattle don’t go together very well. Cattle being killed by wolves leads to higher costs of insurance, and higher costs of beef ($LE_F). I am as romantic as anyone about wolves, but hunting them is probably the only way to control their population effectively.

Congratulations to my friend Robert Edsel. His book Monuments Men is being made into a movie starring George Clooney.

Jon Huntsman is becoming the Rudy Guiliani of the 2012 Campaign. He is unfocused.

Explaining the latest Fed Minutes.

In New Orleans, they will hold the BCS title game tonight. LSU vs Alabama. Who do you like? I like this little jazz piece.

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