Georgia (the ex-Soviet union kind)

Well I was reading the Wall Street Journal's section on the Georgian conflict and I got this shot in the arm that motivated me to blog again. So as I'm sure people know there is a conflict in Georgia that involves Russia. It's being told in this manner: Russia and its seperatists in South Ossetia cause a fuss again about seperating/annexing. Georgia attacks. Russia retaliates in a much bigger magnitude than expected, taking over the area. Georgia retreats saying it wants peace. Now they're in a big hullabaloo and Georgia wants help. Russia is testing how far they can go and are bringing up old grudges about genocide from Georgia.

So what are the implications of this? Is this the start of a new cold war? Georgia is a staunch U.S. ally and its president Sakashvili has brought along Western ideals. He is spinning it as a anti-democratic move and we should all be alarmed.

My thoughts:

Did this come at this time for a reason? The Olympics has brought the worlds attention to international relations. Georgia should know that it can't hope to hold a candle to the power of Russia, so it seems that they are leveraging the attack now to garner attention from the World.

What should the next president do about it and what are Barack's and John's stances on it? John McCain already strongly denounced Russia. He has had a few very anti-Putin quotes. Barack has been playing the fence a little bit but later put a little blame on Russia. Ok...Russia wants its old Soviet Union back and its ability to fight for it is only going to INCREASE in the future as it gets filthy rich off of oil and other commodities. I haven't done much research on it but why not? Give them a spot on the table. I really think that trying to intimidate Russia is not going to happen. As Russia gets richer they are less likely to listen to anyone.

On this issue I think I would rather have Obama who doesn't have any pre-disposed feelings towards Russia.

I just want to iterate I have not chosen a candidate and don't hope to until election time. Hopefully this blog will help me make a decision.

Someone get J.P. Morgan to bail me out of my Honors project!

Well I'm back! I am about to graduate in April and I have yet to finish my honors project! Honestly, I've barely started and I have about three weeks to get it done. So that means I'll be coming across a few interesting things that have to do with investing, stocks, economics, credit crunches, credit crisis, subprime messes, and maybe even about life (ooooh!).

Anyways, I just found this on the web. Someone is making Trader of the Year Awards and this is one of them:

The Iron Balls McGinty Award: Angelo’s Ashes

Say what you will about Countrywide Finan­cial CEO Angelo Mozilo. Sure, he’s terrify­ingly tan — and, as the helmsman of Amer­ica’s biggest subprime-mortgage lender, he more or less abetted a situation that might plunge the country into a steep recession or worse. But give him this much: The guy’s got some set of stones. Countrywide got torched in 2007, its shares dropping 80 percent amid massive write-downs. What was Mozilo doing? Selling hundreds of millions’ worth of shares at pre-meltdown prices. With his company going up in smoke, Mozilo’s trading yielded him an ­estimated $200 million profit. Two weeks before the entire mortgage market began to fall apart, the controversial executive dumped $10 million worth of stock at $28 per share. As of press time, it languished at $5. Insider selling at its most brazen.Sleep tight, Angie.