links for 2010-02-19

• Inside the Apocalyptic Soviet Doomsday Machine
  Valery Yarynich glances nervously over his shoulder. Clad in a brown leather jacket, the 72-year-old former Soviet colonel is hunkered in the back of the dimly lit Iron Gate restaurant in Washington, DC. It's March 2009—the Berlin Wall came down two decades ago—but the lean and fit Yarynich is as jumpy as an informant dodging the KGB. He begins to whisper, quietly but firmly.
  (tags: soviet russia nuclear war cold_war politics reagan gorbachev to_read)
• Wall Street’s Elder Statesmen Favor a Return to Tighter Regulation – NYTimes.com
  While the younger generation, very visibly led by Lloyd C. Blankfein, chief executive of Goldman Sachs, lobbies Congress against such regulation, their spiritual elders support the reform proposed by Paul A. Volcker and, surprisingly, even more restrictions. “I am a believer that the system has gone badly awry and needs massive reform,” said Mr. Bogle, the 80-year-old founder and for many years chief executive of the Vanguard Group, the huge mutual fund company.
  (tags: volcker soros bogle finance regulation banking investment crisis government trading wall_street greed)

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