Barack, Nancy and Harry’s “No Stimulus” Plan
There were three earth-shaking events in the year 1776: The American Revolution, the publication of Wealth of Nations and the invention of the “cocktail.” The latter was invented by my great-great-great-grandmother (originally from a small village in Denmark) who owned a New York tavern catering to Revolutionary soldiers and decided to decorate her alcoholic concoctions [...]
The 1970’s Most Underrated Songwriter
Sometime in 1971, I got home from work and found a case of expensive wine from someone named Bill Parsons at my front door. Well, the only Bill Parsons I had ever met was the guy who supposedly had written and sung the country/rock crossover hit All American Boy over ten years earlier. But, I [...]
Equity Risk Premiums Still too High
If the equity risk-premium (versus Treasuries) were to return to its historic average of 4.5%, the S&P would be 50% higher than it is today. Now, I don’t know when or if that will happen, but my numbers are based on real facts: the historic spread between corporate bonds and Governments, the least-squares regression of historic [...]
Music of the 1960’s: What Was It???
In the four decades that followed the First World War, each calendar decade had only a couple types of music that were really popular, and usually one of those was so predominant that it defined the decade. But, by the time the 1960’s rolled around, there were so many genres of popular music, none became [...]
The Liberals Are Still Whining
When the Republicans controlled the legislative, judicial and executive branches of our government, the conservatives always pointed out how the liberals were “whining” about everything. Now the Democrats are in charge and the liberals are still whining. But, this time the whining is coming from the top. Congress moaned about having to work on Christmas [...]
The Greatest Old-time Rock and Roll Songwriter
If we define (as I always do) “old-time” rock & roll as the period from the mid-1950’s to the “British Invasion” of the mid- 1960’s, then there is no doubt that the partnership of Jerry Lieber and Mike Stoller was most influential in terms of their proliferation of songs written and their contribution to the [...]
What Are Liberals Saying Now?
Do you remember the Liberals’ biggest complaints about George W. Bush? They were: 1) Bush spent too much of our tax money. Well, HELLO? Obama has increased the federal budget deficit and debt way beyond anything previously imaginable. 2) Bush had too many troops in harm’s way in the Middle-east. Well, HELLO? Obama not only [...]
The Greatest Old-time Rock and Roll Guitar Player
No single person invented Rock-and-Roll, although Little Richard Penniman and Bill Haley, early on, had the right idea of how to combine the chord pattern of Rhythm & Blues (that used the chords of the earlier Blues) with the melody notes that came more from Country or Swing than from Blues, along with a rhythm [...]
The Greatest Old-time Rock and Roll Duet
In the early days of Rock and Roll, there were dozens upon dozens of top hits sung by duets. In many cases, the duos were mediocre artists who simply recorded catchy tunes; and in some cases the duos were quite talented. But, there is no duet in the history of rock and roll that had [...]
My Stimulus Plan
1) Obama’s Energy Policy/Program – TRASH IT! Every recent President or Congress has had an energy policy that didn’t work. During the 1970’s when energy prices first went to the moon, we initiated a Windfall Profits Tax on the oil companies thereby taking funds away from the very entities we needed to find more reserves. [...]
