Saturday, February 25, 2017

The era of The First Daughter

On February 19, Chelsea Clinton took to Twitter to mock Donald Trump.
What happened in Sweden Friday night? Did they catch the Bowling Green Massacre perpetrators? 
She was responding to Trump's assertion that a terrorist event had taken place in Sweden the prior evening.

The following day, Ivanka Trump herself took to Twitter, responding to a different issue before the American people, the recent rise of anti-Semitism in the U.S.  
America is a nation built on the principle of religious tolerance. We must protect our houses of worship & religious centers. #JCC
Ivanka Trump converted to Judaism upon getting married.

In January, Malia Obama left a Caribbean vacation early to join the Standing Rock protest at the Sundance Film Festival.

And Barbara Pierce Bush, daughter of George W. Bush, will be the keynote speaker at the upcoming Planned Parenthood of Greater Texas luncheon.

With the defeat of Hillary Clinton last November, and the almost complete absence of Melania Trump from the national stage, it is a positive step and a refreshing one to have these capable women using their positions of prominence to cajole a political dialog that is sensible, progressive and sensitive to the complex issues facing our country.

These four acts tell us we are living in the era of The First Daughter. 

Thursday, February 23, 2017

Harvard's Top Ten Common Stocks, 1966


  1. I.B.M. -- 87,634 -- $30,716,000
  2. Texaco -- 375,326 -- $26,414,000
  3. General Motors -- 284,089 -- $22,869,000
  4. Gulf Oil -- 341,884 -- $17,094,000
  5. Standard Oil (N.J.) -- 223,523 -- $15,367,000
  6. Eastman Kodak -- 117,756 -- $15,132,000
  7. Middle South Utilities -- 542,114 -- $13,621,000
  8. Ford Motor -- 293,076 -- $13,298,000
  9. AT&T -- 210,688 -- $11,588,000
  10. Standard Oil (Cal.) -- 170,279 -- $10,898,000
(Source, Harvard Crimson, April 22, 1967)

These are the top ten common stocks held in Harvard's portfolio in 1966 as reported by the Harvard Crimson in 1967. It's worth noting that four of the ten positions are in petroleum (Texaco, Gulf, Standard Oil N.J. and Cal.) and two others are in automotive (General Motors and Ford). That is sixty percent of Harvard's most popular holdings had to do with the automobile or powering it. No wonder we've gotten where we are today on environmental issues if 50 years ago, the car was so undeniably king.


Friday, February 3, 2017

Friday Grab Bag: Photos from last weekend's anti-Trump protest

Donald Trump is lighting the world on fire with his incendiary rhetoric and his very short fuse of a temper.

Last weekend, people took to the streets of Boston once again to protest Trump and his Trumpisms. This time it was his travel ban barring people from seven nations with large Muslim majorities from entering this country, so I grabbed my camera and went down to Copley Plaza to take some pictures.

Here are some of the faces I saw ...