It's time to put an end to the legalized theft that is Wall Street, says a long piece in Rolling Stone (Oct. 15). The article starts with an example of an investor who has never been tracked down but must have benefited from inside information in a big bet against Bear Stearns just before its collapse. The article is over the top at times, but so were the abuses and lapses in regulation that allowed the meltdown of the financial system. The article offers some disturbing examples of the "securities" that were allowed to be traded and says the unscrupulous, having run out of things to steal from the middle class, simply started feeding on one another.
Get smart
The idea of a smart grid has become like Sara Lee -- nobody doesn't like it. But as The Economist (Oct. 15) says, the definition is rather broad, from careful, comprehensive metering to transmission lines that allow excess home-generated power to feed back into the grid. The piece concludes that all this technology sounds great and could be used to good ends but wouldn't have to be. Thus technology is just that, technology, and no substitute for energy policy that discourages pollution and encourages sustainable generation.
| Greg Hack, ghack@kcstar.com
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