America's High Priests:

Daphne Merkin examines America's worshipful attitude of wealth and those who create it, even if they did so by scamming us, in today's New York Times. Most of her op-ed focuses on Bernie Madoff and the easy time he had in duping his victims, but the following reflection about George Soros is telling:

I remember attending a small dinner party where George Soros was one of the guests; it made sense to me that he held the floor when he discussed matters he was expert on, but I couldn’t figure out why all of his opinions, on whatever subject — be it interior design or the value of single-sex schools — were treated as equally valid. And then it occurred to me: he was much wealthier than the other dinner guests, which meant that everything he said was ipso facto of sovereign interest.

What America Needs Is a Good 5 Cent Cup of Joe:

Remember Starbucks? There for a while the company name seemed like it was going to become synonymous with coffee the way Kleenex became synonymous with tissue. Now that we're all worried about AIG executives running off to foreign shores and Swiss banks with the national treasury, what happened to America's premiere coffee company? Dan Mitchell takes a look in today's Washington Post. Have you tried their new instant brand?

And yes I am old enough to remember when you could get a bottomless cup of joe for a nickel. Of course you couldn't drink more than three cups of it or you'd end up in the emergency room. Maybe that wasn't such a bad thing.