3 Ring Binder

Let’s briefly compare the Wall St. financial crisis to the BP oil disaster: Both occurred within HIGHLY regulated industries.  Both industries are an essential part of our economy and an indispensible part of our standard of living.   It is certain that individuals in both industries miscalculated the outcomes of their actions or inactions and that some individuals make an extraordinary living in these particular industries.   A stunning increase in regulatory oversight has been called for in both cases as part of the solution. While this and the past administration sought to bolster failing financial companies through current and future taxpayer funds, BP, we are told, will be held responsible for its own mess.   This is, of course, as it should be, and should have been with the financial companies. But, tied to our President’s strongly worded claims that BP will pay for the damage caused by the oil spill accident, is the bait-and-switch solution that the...

This weekend my daughters and I went to see some turn-of-the-century summer cottages of some industrialist millionaires. The three homes we toured, The Breakers , The Elms , and The Marble House , were all incredibly impressive in their size and opulence, but we all agreed we'd do some things a little differently (like not emulate any of the King Louis' styles) and some things the same (open courtyards, loggias, huge bedrooms for the ladies, annunciator boxes to call the servants, gorgeous gardens, and lawn all the way to the ocean) if we owned these cottages. Some cottage industry notes: The Breakers, the summer cottage of Cornelius Vanderbilt II who ran the New York Central Railroad, and whose grandfather, Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt made his money by developing that railroad, occupies an acre in footprint, some of the wall panels are painted on platinum ; The Elms, built by Edward Berwind who made his money in the Pennsylvannia coal industry, unlike the other two mansions...