He should have been a senator

A Harvard-trained physician was sentenced Friday to five years in prison for evading $30 million in investment losses by obtaining inside information from a fellow doctor.

Joseph "Chip" Skowron III apologized to his wife and friends in a packed Manhattan courtroom before U.S. District Judge Denise Cote announced the sentence.

Turning around to look at his wife in the first row of spectators, Skowron said she was the most harmed by his insider trading venture, which helped him avoid millions of dollars in losses.

"I am not what she expected when she married a young doctor 15 years ago," he said.

The 42-year-old Greenwich, Conn., resident pleaded guilty in August to conspiring to commit securities fraud and obstructing justice.

He called the last year "devastating" and "incredible" with glimpses of the best parts of humanity emerging from the most unexpected of circumstances.

"I was not aware of the changes that were happening in me that blurred the line between right and wrong," he said. "I allowed myself to slip into the world of relativism where the ends justified the means."

Skowron admitted gaining an advantage in his work as a hedge fund analyst in 2007 and 2008 by using tips gained through meetings and conversations with a French doctor who knew inside information about clinical drug trials.

More.....

When EF Senator talks, you better listen

I always say, I'm not the smartest guy in the room but I try to imitate what the smart guys are doing.

So if you want some insider trading tips.... don't follow Martha Stewart.... follow your local senator........

Why isn’t congressional members required to put their holdings into a blind trust?

Why can’t we ban insider trading by Congress members be banned?

How cant these elected officials do “the people’s business” when they are too busy running around trading on the votes they are about to cast?

How one earth can we ever get fair outcomes of issues involving finance, healthcare, or energy when the members so personally have a monetary stake in an outcome they may or may not be in the public interest?

Why aren’t these people in jail?

~~~

1. General Electric (GE)

Members invested: 75
Total value of holdings (max.): $11.41 million
Total value of holdings (min.): $3.58 million

Top Congressional Investors
Darrell Issa (R.-Calif.) – $1 million to $5 million
John Kerry (D.-Mass.) – $616,004 to $1.315 million
Michael McCaul (R.-Texas) – $400,003 to $850,000

2. Procter & Gamble (PG)

Members invested: 62
Total value of holdings (max.): $39.42 million
Total value of holdings (min.): $8.72 million

Top Congressional Investors
Rodney Frelinghuysen (R.-N.J.) – $7.07 million to $35.15 million
Michael McCaul (R.-Texas) – $200,002 to $500,000
James B. Renacci (R.-Ohio) – $180,485 to$222,482

3. Bank of America (BAC)

Members invested: 57
Total value of holdings (max.): $5.41 million
Total value of holdings (min.): $2.83 million

Top Congressional Investors
Rodney Frelinghuysen (R.-N.J.) – $1.02 million to $1.08 million
John M. Spratt Jr. (D.-S.C.) – $500,001 to $1 million
Dianne Feinstein (D.-Calif.) – $500,001 to $1 million

4. Microsoft (MSFT)

Members invested: 56
Total value of holdings (max.): $6.43 million
Total value of holdings (min.): $3.22 million

Top Congressional Investors
John Kerry (D.-Mass.) – $1.77 million to $2.55 million
Michael McCaul (R.-Texas) – $515,003 to $1.05 million
Jane Harman (D.-Calif.) – $130,003 to $350,000

Thanks reader Tim


Read the rest..........

Life in "Progress" City- Detroit

What says progress more than a city that is 90% democratic?

With Detroit Mayor Dave Bing preparing to explain the city's fiscal crisis tonight in a rare televised address, Council President Pro Tem Gary Brown says the situation is even worse than anyone has let on.

Bing is expected to discuss a confidential Ernst & Young report obtained by the Detroit Free Press that suggests Detroit could run out of cash by April without steep cuts to staff and public services.

That's a grim prognosis, but according to Brown, the city actually could be unable to make payroll "as early as December."

"I know the report says April, but there are certain risk assumptions that when you take those into consideration, worst case scenario you could run out (of cash) in December," Brown said this morning on WJR-AM 760.

In his speech tonight, Bing is expected to propose privatizing the city's public bus system and lighting departments, both of which have have been failing residents but reportedly cost them $100 million a year in subsidies.

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"....fundamentally right wing"

As part of the solidarity with OWS, Harvard students (some of the 99% don't you know) are boycotting Greg Mankiw's basic Econ class...........

Students believe that several problems with the class itself contributed to that conservative bias. Some, including Sandalow-Ash, said that the class is “not mathematically rigorous” and presents a simplified view of the economic models. According to MIT economics Professor Jonathan H. Gruber ’87, MIT’s introductory economics courses, 14.01 and 14.02, differ from Harvard’s because they use more advanced mathematical models.

The other specific problem raised with the class is a lack of primary source material. “We just read his textbook. … We would rather read Adam Smith or studies by other economists rather than [Mankiw’s] interpretation of them,” said Sandalow-Ash.

Some question whether the walkout was the most effective way to discuss a problem with the course and to support the Occupy movement. Gruber, who teaches 14.01 this fall, said that “the Occupy movement has a good, strong message and I don’t want them to muddy it up … [by] protesting economics.”

When asked why the students chose a walkout approach instead of talking privately with Mankiw, Sandalow-Ash responded that “he’s not very accessible” and that they wanted to draw attention to their cause. According to an article published in the Harvard Political Review, Mankiw has only given three lectures this semester, while the rest of the material was presented in sections and by guest lecturers. Mankiw declined to comment for this article.

There is room for debate about whether or not Economics 10 has a conservative bias. According to Gruber, “basic economics is fundamentally right wing. … It’s not about bias; it’s how the free market works.” When it comes to teaching economics without bias, you have to “acknowledge [that fact] and … approach things even-handedly,” Gruber said.

"Basic economics is fundamentally right wing"? Seriously?

Why might that be? Because it actually makes sense? Because, unlike global warming, you can actually prove things like the Law of Supply and Demand?  Because maybe, it's the conservative view point that's actually supported by "science"?

More.......

McCaskill Outlines Plan To Solve $15 Trillion Debt

Kind of like proper inflation of tires will solve our energy demands.

Obama thinks Hawaii is in Asia

Since when did Sarah Palin become a black man?

CTU President Karen Lewis Uncensored - NSFW

And this is the quality of person molding our youth?

Afterburner with Bill Whittle: Three and a Half Days

Tea Party Filth

For some reason, I've grown fond of old westerns I couldn't stand when I was a kid. Probably because every other show was either Bonanza, Gunsmoke, or Big Valley.

So imagine you are a cowboy on the trail and you come across this sight; syringes, feces, broken bongs,  stench from BO.

I can hear Marshall Dillon now "Festus, I think those tea partiers are only a couple of hours a head of us, it looks like they're following the trail to a local country club".

Thanks reader Jeremy for the link.

The question no one will ask

I saw this article on the front page of a USA today this morning...........

Medical authorities are witnessing explosive growth in the number of newborn babies hooked on prescription painkillers, innocent victims of their mothers' addictions.

The trend reflects how deeply rooted abuse of powerful narcotics, such as OxyContin and Vicodin, has become. Prescription drug abuse is the nation's fastest-growing drug problem, classified as an epidemic by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

"I'm scared to death this will become the crack-baby epidemic," says Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi. Last month, she asked the state Legislature to establish a task force to compile data on drug-exposed babies and develop prevention strategies.

National statistics on the number of babies who go through withdrawal are not available, and states with the worst problems have only begun to collect data. Scattered reports show the number of addicted newborns has doubled, tripled or more over the past decade. In Florida, the epicenter of the illicit prescription drug trade, the number of babies with withdrawal syndrome soared from 354 in 2006 to 1,374 in 2010, according to the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration.

Here's what I want to know. How many of these babies are being carried by moms on public assistance?

No where in the article is a mention of welfare but I'd bet my life savings that the majority of these moms are sucking off the government tit for their high and getting knocked up in the process.

But instead, we'll dance around the issue and talk about education and lack of economic opportunity and the issue will just get worse.

Who did she vote for?

I think it's so unfair that people are able to climb the corporate ladder faster than I can.

A democrat on an escalator

VP Biden says he called Jon Corzine for advice

I agree with Obama for a change

Even a broken clock is right twice a day.

I agree with Obama, we were damn lazy to check this guy out to ensure he wasn't a job killing socialist before electing him.

To Catch a Journalist: New Jersey Star-Ledger

Who did she vote for? #10018

Meet unnamed fat ass.

Out of curiosity, has she ever counted her carbon footprint for all the excess calories she inhales?



None the less, did this whaler vote for McCain or Obama in the last presidential election.

Thanks reader Jeremy for the link.