That's dowry in Chinese. However, while we in the West think of dowry as being paid by the bride's family, that is not necessarily the case in China. Since China's population policy favors few children with boys being the desired sex, there is now a surplus - a fairly large surplus - of men of marriageable age. Therefore, dowries are usually paid by the groom's family.

I made the mistake of reading this article by Jeremy Scahill just after dinner. It's tough reading, not because it is poorly written but because of the subject. The point of the article is that Americans are still exhibiting vicious, inhuman behavior at Guantanamo.

The 19 largest banks only need $75 billion to survive even nastier times than today. And, of course, the definition of those nastier times is spot on; we'll never see 10% unemployment. The fact that one of the banks, BofA, needs almost half that amount ($34 billion) doesn't worry me.

Today's rumor is that Chelsea Clinton will be getting married in August at Ted Danson's house in Chilmark. More details in today's Boston Globe

http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/2009/05/vineyarders_say.h...

Will the Obama family be invited? Will Monica be invited?

That's the world of high finance. Today's example is Edward Liddy, the fellow serving as CEO of AIG for a mere $1 a year. It so happens that Mr. Liddy resigned from the Goldman Sachs board upon being nominated by Paulson, former head of Goldman, to head AIG. At the time Liddy owned 27,000 shares of Goldman. He still owns the stock which is worth today over $3,000,000.