James H. Simons

James H. Simons, a former math professor who has made billions year after year for the hedge fund Renaissance Technologies, earned $2.5 billion running computer-driven trading strategies. John A. Paulson, who rode to riches by betting against the housing market, came in second with reported gains of $2 billion. And George Soros, also a perennial name on the rich list of secretive moneymakers, pulled in $1.1 billion.

Of course, their earnings were not unscathed by the extensive shakeout in the markets. In a year when losses were recorded at two of every three hedge funds, pay for many of these managers was down by several million, and the overall pool of earnings was about half the $22.5 billion the top 25 earned in 2007.

Government scrutiny, over Wall Street pay and the role all kinds of institutions play in the financial markets, is also mounting. Hedge funds are facing proposals for new taxes on their gains, and on Tuesday, Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner said he would seek greater power to regulate hedge funds.

Peter Schiff

Peter Schiff was Right has been going around for a while, but it just finally made it’s way to me - thanks Calin! I first heard of Peter a few months back when I read his book Bull Moves in a Bear Market which I really enjoyed. I can’t say that I am on board 100% with everything he says, but he seems to be a very common sense guy in the midst of foolishness.

Well anyway, in the video, it shows clips of Peter being interviewed on a bunch of business news stations and giving his predictions on the US economy and him being laughed at by just about everyone back in 2006-2007. While I wish he would have been wrong, he had some foresight about what debt, greed, and hype would inevitably do to our economy and we have and are continuing to watch it come to pass.

We all know that our economy is facing a bit of a credit crisis right now among other challenges and I don’t care to dwell on it, but it is such a sweet feeling watching the video and seeing how they mocked him as he patiently stood his ground. Tim Geithner is pulling every lever possible to "restart lending" and recreate the securitization market - now backstopped by the government.

NCAA Sweet Sixteen 2009

NCAA Sweet Sixteen 2009 boasts of the best ever lineup since 1979, when the seeding system was first implemented. All the top three seeds in each NCAA bracket have reached the Sweet Sixteen and the added number of the seeds is the lowest ever: 49. It became very clear that the NCAA Sweet Sixteen 2009 will be hard-fought when all the four top seeds, Louisville, Connecticut, Pittsburgh and North Carolina went in and all the four second and third seeds followed them.

The only double digit seeded team is No.12 Arizona who beat Cleveland State 71-57 in America Airlines Arena on Sunday. They will now face No.1 overall Louisville in the Midwest Regional semi-finals on Friday. The semi-final will surely be interesting as Louisville is coached by super-coach Rick Pitino, who lost the NCAA title to Arizona in 1997, as the coach of Kentucky and will be glad to block them this time around.

Meanwhile, freshman Kim English played the match-winner when he threw in both his free throws to help Missouri win their school-record 30th game after beating Marquette 83-79. English scored 17 points, including a six-minute run of 15 points which gave the Tigers the much-needed boost in the first half. Interestingly, he was playing as J.T. Tiller had injured himself.