Your cheatin' heart will tell on you

(Elvis rarity: outtake of "Your Cheatin' Heart")

A few days ago, "entrepreneur" and Dallas Maverick's owner Mark Cuban criticized Barack Obama at HuffPost for not consulting "entrepreneurs" as economic advisors:

Notice anything missing?

Not a single entrepreneur. Yes Warren Buffett started a business, but he will be the first to tell you that he "doesn't do start ups". Which means there isn't a single person advising PE Obama that we know of that knows what it's like to start and run a business in this or any economic climate. That's a huge problem.

If we are going to solve our current economic problems, our president needs to get first hand information on the impact his proposed policies will have on real Joe the Plumbers. People who are 1-person companies living job to job, hoping they get paid on time. We need to know what the impact of his policies will be on the individually owned Chrysler Dealership in Iowa. The bodega in Manhattan. The mobile phone software startup out of Carnegie Mellon. The event planner in Dallas. The barbershop in L.A. The restaurant in Boston.

Entrepreneurs that start and run small businesses will be the propellant in this economy. PE Obama needs to have the counsel of those who will take the real risk inherent in creating companies and jobs. Those who put their money and lives on the line with their business.

Well, today we find out more about Cuban's personal experience as an "entrepreneur":

The Securities and Exchange Commission filed insider-trading charges against Mark Cuban, the outspoken owner of the Dallas Mavericks basketball team, over his sale of shares in Internet company Mamma.com after he learned it was raising money through a private financing.

The SEC alleges Mr. Cuban sold his entire 6% ownership stake on June 28, 2004, immediately after learning that Mamma.com was raising money through a private investment in private entity, or PIPE. The next day, after the markets closed, the company announced the PIPE financing. When the markets opened the morning of June 30, shares of the company dropped by 9%. By selling his stake, Mr. Cuban avoided more than $750,000 in losses, the SEC alleges. (Read the full text of the complaint.)

I'm pretty sure the Obama team won't be calling you anytime soon for economic or financial advice.

On the other hand, you might find some Republicans willing to listen to you.

Bastard.

there was one thing we weren't really thinking of and that's money

Thanks to all who emailed and left such nice comments about my Mom. But we now resume normal blogging, whatever the hell that means.

Is this just wicked funny, or is it an actual tutorial in right-wing economics? You decide:

But your love won't pay my bills

In the news today:

Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan and the government of President George W. Bush were to blame for the U.S. financial crisis, Nobel laureate economist Joseph Stiglitz said in a magazine interview.

"This man (Greenspan) has unfortunately made a lot of mistakes," said former World Bank chief economist Stiglitz, according to a preview of the interview to be published on Monday in profil magazine.

"His first one was to support all the tax cuts which were introduced under Bush -- they didn't stimulate the economy very much ... This task was then transferred more towards monetary policy, though then (Greenspan) created a flood of credits with low interest rates," Stiglitz was quoted as saying.

That Greenspan is a tool, totally in the pocket of big money and the corporatocracy, is hardly new. Only a mindless supply-sider could defend cuts in taxes for corporations and the über-wealthy as benefiting the whole of America.

But thegood news is, oh wait, there isn't any good news:

Stiglitz said Bush's government was also to blame.

"I reproach them, that the economy was not as resilient as it could have been due to the ongoing tax cuts and the huge costs incurred by the war in Iraq," he was quoted as saying.

He said it was a myth that Europe could decouple itself from the United States.

"Especially the weak dollar will continue to hit the European economy hard, because it will make it much harder to export," he said.

Greenspan: bastard.