Ledes & Limericks. Friday December 29 2017

"Every journalist who is not too stupid or too full of himself
to notice what is going on knows that what he does is morally
indefensible. He is a kind of confidence man, preying on people's
vanity, ignorance, or loneliness, gaining their trust and betraying
them without remorse.”   Janet Malcolm.

From Forbes.

Reporters’ anomalous role

In baring another man’s soul

May lead to great awe --

But I never saw

One that I would touch with barge pole.

In the long run, Goldman will likely be a winner under the new tax system.
Banks are relatively high tax payers, so they stand to benefit a great deal
from a reduction in the headline corporate rate from 35% to 21%.
Goldman has averaged a 30% tax rate over the past three years.
 From the Wall Street Journal

I say we cannot do enough

To make banking bizness too rough.

A commie I’m not

But banks are a blot,

And ought to be taxed to the buff.

Bookstore Chains, Long in Decline,

Are Undergoing a Final Shakeout    

 from the NYTimes

The book stores where I lulled away

My youthful angst from day to day

Are gone like gravy from my plate --

All licked away by cyber fate.

Where half price tomes once beckoned me,

With dull remainders almost free,

And clerks with glasses read on stools,

There’s now a Zales with chintzy jewels.

Ecommerce, you’re a villain sure --

Closing bookeries demure.

Without book havens made of bricks

I’ll just stay home and watch Netflix.

Want to be happy? Think like an old person.

The secret to happy old age

Is not thinking it is a cage --

But scaffolding which

Allows me to snitch

a spotlight once more on the stage.