Search this site
Matching entries from Houston's Clear Thinkers
Amazingly bad decision-making
One fringe benefit of economic downturns is that local public officials generally defer their financial decisions, which tend to be uniformly bad even during good economic times. Except apparently in Houston. Over the past few days, Houstonians have been...
A big risk of health care finance reform
In addressing issues relating to health care and health care finance reform over the years, I've tried to be careful to differentiate America's Byzantine and inefficient health care finance system from the quality of America's health care, which remains very...
Rationing health care
One of the common complaints heard regarding government-controlled, single payor health care finance systems is that they ration care in a manner that often results in long delays for even routine procedures. However, as this MedPage blog post points...
The Price of Progress
As noted here last fall, one of the key dynamics that is delaying the recovery of financial markets is the resistance of many societal forces to allow the markets to allocate the risk of loss among the various investors in...
Lessons of LTCM
Marginal Revolution's Tyler Cowen makes a similar point in this NY Times op-ed about the 1998 federal bailout of the Long-Term Capital Management hedge fund that this earlier post made about Enron and the current Treasury bailout: At the...
Getting to 120/80
Jane Brody, the NY Times' excellent reporter on health and fitness issues, provides this good overview of the current treatment options for high blood pressure, including this summary of the current drugs that are most commonly prescribed. My late...
The "leadership" of Bill White
Let me see if I've got this straight. On one hand, private businessmen invest millions in buying a run-down property and following the city's existing laws and regulations in preparing to build the Ashby high-rise, a large-scale residential redevelopment...
Are they finally getting serious?
The Wall Street Journal ($) reported yesterday afternoon that Houston-based Continental Airlines seemingly perpetual merger negotiations (see also here) with Chicago-based United Airlines are accelerating for a variety of reasons. A Continental-United deal is contingent on Northwest Airlines' ongoing merger...
Markets in foreclosure desperation?
I swear, you can't make this stuff up. A Dallas area couple who were in default on their home mortgage filed a bankruptcy case in an effort to avoid a foreclosure sale of their home. However, they ultimately were unable...
Stros 2007 Review, Part Ten: Season Recap and Report Card
It’s been a week now since the Craig Biggio Farewell Tour drew to a close during the final eighth of the Stros’ disappointing 2007 season. With the end of the season, the tremendously successful Biggio-Bagwell era in the history of...
In Dr. Pou's words
Dr. Anna Pou (previous posts here), the former faculty member of the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, performed heroically in the horrific aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. For her heroism, she became the main subject of one of the...
Landry's goes nuclear
As noted earlier here and here, the crunch in the credit markets has Houston-based Landry's Restaurants Inc scrambling to refinance about $400 million in bond debt this week. Well, that scramble took an interesting turn on Wednesday of this week...
Speedy treatment of heart attacks
This Gina Kolada/NY Times article examines one of the most underappreciated aspects of treating heart attack victims -- the importance of speedy treatment: Studies reveal, for example, that people have only about an hour to get their arteries open during...
Has the BOP forgotten about Jamie Olis?
Earlier this week, Michael Kopper, one of the few true crooks in the Enron affair, traipsed off to a federal prison in west Texas to begin serving the 37 month sentence that he received in return for his testimony that...
New Orleans may still be a mess, but at least fraud is under control
This Christopher Cooper/Wall Street Journal ($) article on the inability of the federal, state and local governments to administer the vast amounts of aid appropriated to rebuild New Orleans and the Gulf Coast region was published over this past weekend,...
Westar Energy convictions are overturned
In this scathing 43-page decision, the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals set aside the convictions of former Westar Energy executives David Wittig and Douglas Lake on every count and ruled that most of the counts could not be retried....
The indiscriminate Hammer
Ben Witherington is a noted New Testament scholar at Asbury Theological Institute in Wilmore, Kentucky near Lexington, which is not the typical place that former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay would normally have been trolling for money during his heyday...
Air France competitors, listen up!
Air France is right on the law in this recent Fifth Circuit decision (written by Judge Fortunato P. Benavides), but woefully wrong on the public relations front. In not settling the case, Air France has given an enterprising advertising firm...
"Could adversely effect public safety?"
The legal and political maneuvering in regard to former Houston Congressman and House Majority Leader Tom DeLay is hard to keep up with, so I rely on Kuff and others to keep me informed of what's going on in that...
In a split decision, the winner is the Texas GOP. For now.
The Supreme Court issued its long-awaited decision yesterday (earlier posts here) ordering congressional districts in south Texas redrawn because a 2003 redistricting map orchestrated by former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay was designed to disenfranchise Hispanic voters so that vulnerable...
The storms of Katrina
With hurricane season officially starting tomorrow, this NY Times article about the research that has been done over the past year into Hurricane Katrina provides some interesting information, including the stages of the storm on the New Orleans metro area:...
An inside perspective on DeLay's fall
This Sunday Washington Post op-ed by John Feehery, Tom DeLay's former Communications Director, provides an interesting perspective on DeLay's fall -- that DeLay's strength of being willing to delegate was offset by his attraction to those who were willing to...
Former Westar executives sentenced
Although overshadowed by the Lay-Skilling trial, former Westar Energy, Inc. CEO David Wittig and his corporate right hand man Douglas Lake were sentenced yesterday to 18 and 15 years in prison after being convicted last year of looting the utility...
DeLay is done
This NY Times article and this WaPo article are reporting that Houston Congressman and former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay will announce today that he is leaving Congress and pulling out of his ongoing re-election bid. Earlier posts on DeLay's...
More on criminalizing those unpopular shorts and hedgies
This earlier post noted the dust-up over the SEC's dubious issuance of subpoenas to financial journalists over Overstock.com's accusation that a hedge fund and a stock-research firm manipulated the media and the market to drive down the price of Overstock.com's...
What? A business scandal in The Woodlands?
The Woodlands is a dynamic suburban community on Houston's far northside, but it's not the type of place that one normally associates with business scandals. However, late last week, it appears that The Woodlands had its own real business scandal....
SCOTUS agrees to consider Texas redistricting cases
The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to review the controversial 2003 redrawing of Texas congressional districts that Democratic Party officials claim was unconstitutional because it disenfranchised Democratic voters and was improperly designed primarily to ensure the Republican Party's control of...
Duke traders acquitted on most counts
In another stunning loss for federal prosecutors in the post-Enron prosecutions of persons involved in the energy trading industry, a federal jury in Houston federal court yesterday acquitted former Duke Energy trader Todd Reid on all counts of conspiracy, fraud...
Disassembling the case against DeLay
This earlier post noted the weak nature of the indictment against former House Speaker Tom DeLay, although the Republican outrage over the indictment rings somewhat hollow. But following up on the thought about the dubious basis of the indictment, former...
Rationalizing a bad system
Being independent politically, I tend to look for political issues where the right position is so clear that advocacy of the opposing view is an indication of a politician who is interested in something other than improving government. This Chronicle...
More on criminalizing risk-taking
Robert Weisberg is Edwin E. Huddleson, Jr. Professor of Law and director of the Criminal Justice Center at Stanford University, where he teaches a course on white collar crime with David Mills, who is a senior lecturer there. In this...
The real Republican deficit
Following on a theme addressed in this earlier post from last fall, this timely OpinionJournal op-ed points out that the real problem to the Republican Party represented by Tom DeLay is not his dubious ethics, but that he is devoid...
The hypocrisy of Republican outrage over the DeLay prosecution
In reading the various Republican statements (see here and here) alleging that Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle is engaging in an outlandish abuse of power in regard to his decision to indict House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, a thought...
The Hammer's indictment
In one of the least surprising developments in Texas politics over the past couple of years, a Travis County (Austin area) grand jury on Wednesday charged Houston Congressman and House Majority Leader Tom DeLay and two political associates -- John...
More trouble for DeLay friend?
This NY Times article reports that the Justice Department's inspector general and the F.B.I. are looking into the November, 2002 demotion of Frederick A. Black, a veteran federal prosecutor whose reassignment shut down a criminal investigation that he had been...
Tom DeLay said what?
This Washington Times article refers to House Majority Leager Tom DeLay's recent comments regarding the Bush Administration's record on government spending: House Majority Leader Tom DeLay said yesterday that Republicans have done so well in cutting spending that he declared...
Bush nominates Roberts for Chief Justice
Showing my usual lack of prognostication ability with regard to Supreme Court appointments, President Bush this morning nominated the late Chief Justice William Rehnquist's former clerk John Roberts to replace Mr. Rehnquist as the Chief Justice of the United States...
Evaluating Katrina's damage to oil and gas production facilities
Officials of oil and gas companies and refineries with facilities in the path of Hurricane Katrina were scurrying around yesterday somewhat helplessly attempting to evaluate the extent of the storm's damage on key oil and natural-gas production facilities that rattled...
More on criminalizing risk taking
Vic Fleischer over at the Conglemerate blog continues his campaign to increase the business of the white collar criminal defense bar with a couple of posts (here and here) in which he suggests that "financial engineering" of the type that...
Abramoff indicted
Jack Abramoff, a lobbyist who is a top Republican fund-raiser and political ally of Houston congressman and House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, was indicted yesterday in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida on charges of defrauding two lenders in his purchase of a...
United Airlines continues to flounder in chapter 11
In a move that almost certainly means that its bankruptcy case filed in December, 2002 will extend well into 2006, United Airlines parent UAL Corp. announced Tuesday that it was delaying the filing its plan of reorganization with the U.S....
More on AIG's Enronesque experience
American International Group Inc. released its long-delayed annual report yesterday and, as expected, reported a 2.7% hit to the company's net worth along with cautionary notes about the longer-term cost that AIG is confronting as it deals with multiple governmental...
The Chronicle makes a point about DeLay that it failed to make about Enron
A good, old-fashioned snit between Texas political opponents gave the Houston Chronicle an opportunity this week to make a good point about the rule of law and the integrity of governmental investigations. But in so doing, the Chronicle highlighted its...
Ron Chernow on the independent judiciary
Ron Chernow -- the author of The House of Morgan (1990), The Warburgs (1994), Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller, Sr. (1998), and last year's marvelous Alexander Hamilton (2004) -- writes this interesting NY Times op-ed in which he...
"The D.A. and Tom DeLay"
That's the name of a segment on "60 Minutes" this evening, according to this Washington Post article, which examines the ongoing criminal investigation in Austin over House Majority Leader Tom DeLay's involvement in various campaign finance violations. Here are the...
New ethics complaint involving DeLay?
Gosh, this is getting monotonous. This Raw Story article reports that the National Journal is prepared to report that prominent lawyer and former lobbyist Jack Abramoff, who federal authorities are investigating for his lobbying efforts on behalf of an Indian...
Updating the Yukos case -- Yukos narrows its bank lawsuit
Wounded Russian oil company but American debtor-in-possession OAO Yukos has dismissed five banks from its tortious interference lawsuit that it has brought in federal court in Houston in connection with its pending chapter 11 case. Here are the previous posts...
Hammering the Hammer
Earlier this week, House Republicans reversed course and rejected dubious Ethics rules changes that were proposed late last year that would have allowed members indicted by state grand juries to remain in a leadership post. Earlier posts on the rules...
The mismanagement of the Houston Rockets
Although I have followed basketball most of my life, I find it difficult to generate any enthusiasm for the Houston Rockets. It has not always been that way. I moved to Houston in 1972 at about the same time as...
Mistrial declared in trial of former Westar CEO
Although overshadowed by the Enron-related criminal cases, the business fraud criminal trial of former Westar Energy, Inc. CEO David Wittig and his right hand man has been making quite a bit of news over the past few months in Kansas....
DeLay delivers for NASA
This Washington Post article reports on how Houston congressman and House Majority Leader Tom DeLay secured NASA's $16.2 billion portion of the $388 federal omnibus spending bill that Congress passed on November 20: NASA was identified as a major sticking...
GOP Doublespeak
Professor Bainbridge continues to do a good job of criticizing the Republican Party for its rather shameless lack of leadership in its indulgence of House Minority Leader Tom DeLay that was the subject of this earlier post. What is most...
More on playing both sides off against the middle in Washington
This Washington Post article follows up on this earlier post regarding Congressional hearings over Washington lobbyist Jack Abramoff and public relations consultant Michael Scanlon's shenanigans in 2002 involving the Tigua Indian Tribe's casino in El Paso. Playing both sides off...
Cancer in the House
Jamie Malanowski, a New York-based writer, pens this Washington Monthly op-ed on Houston congressman Tom DeLay and provides the following overview to a discussion of the various ethics complaints and criminal investigations that are currently dogging Mr. DeLay: Tom DeLay...
Scandal in the House of Representatives
This Washington Post editorial examines the scandal that is the self-perpetuating nature of the House of Representatives: Out of 435 House races, incumbents lost only seven -- an even more impressive survival rate than that of two years ago, when...
DeLay's bid to buy the Texas Legislature
Lou Dubose -- co-author of The Hammer: Tom DeLay, God, Money, and the Rise of the Republican Congress (Public Affairs 2004) and Shrub: The Short but Happy Political Life of George W. Bush (Vintage 2000) -- pens this LA Weekly...
Three DeLay aides indicted in Austin
A Travis County, Texas grand jury indicted three people closely linked to Houston-based U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay Tuesday along on charges of illegally using corporate money to help Republican Texas House candidates during the 2002. The indictments focused...
US Air tanks
As expected, US Airways Group Inc. filed its chapter 22 case (i.e., chapter 11 for the second time) in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Alexandria, Virginia. US Air's previous case concluded a little over two years ago. Like its larger...
Father of HSA's condemns Kerrycare
John C. Goodman is a health care finance expert who was one of the leading advocates of Health Savings Accounts (explained here), which is one of the only positive pieces of health care finance legislation that has been enacted in...
Stros slop past Mets
Light-hitting Brad Ausmus' RBI single in the 10th inning was the difference as the Stros went on to a 5-4 win over the Mets on a strange and sloppy Wednesday evening at Shea Stadium in Queens, New York. The teams...
UT team develops ambidextrous computer chip
This Wall Street Journal ($) article reports on the development of an experimental computer chip at the University of Texas that is like a chameleon in that its able to change its function according to the task at hand. Steve...
Breaking news - Texas Supreme Court Chief Justice Tom Phillips to step down
Chief Justice Thomas R. Phillips announced Thursday that he will resign on September 3, 2004. Chief Justice Phillips, the 29th chief justice of the Texas Supreme Court, will have served almost 17 years by the time he leaves the Court....
Stros beat Brew Crew again; 1st "down on the farm" report
The Rocket picked up his third win of the young season as the 'Stros cruised by the Milwaukee Brewers for the third straight day, 6-1. Clemens spaced four hits over seven innings, walked one, struck out seven, and even knocked...
DeLay records subpoenaed
As noted in earlier posts here and here, a political action committee — Texans for a Republican Majority — that House majority leader Tom DeLay of Houston created is the subject of a grand jury investigation in Austin. Yesterday, the...
Austin grand jury subpoenas House speaker's campaign contribution records
As noted in an earlier post, a political action committee — Texans for a Republican Majority — that House majority leader Tom DeLay of Houston created is the subject of a grand jury investigation in Austin. Yesterday, the Chronicle and...
DeLay created PAC under investigation
The NY Times reports that a political action committee — Texans for a Republican Majority — that House majority leader Tom DeLay of Houston created is the subject of a grand jury investigation in Austin. The investigation follows a complaint...
Feed Subscription
If you use an RSS reader, you can subscribe to a feed of all future entries matching 'Tom DeLay'. [What is this?]
