2009 archive
This Week’s Dustbiters 0
Not getting no more toasters from these folks. They’ve been nationalized and given to someone else.
You can bank on it.
Beats Selling Plasma 3
The days of the little match girl appear to have succumbed to invitro fertilization.
Now it’s big match girls:
“Masters of the Universe” 0
’nuff said:
The grim results compared to a $575 million profit during the fourth quarter of 2007.
Meanwhile,
GDP fell at a 6.2% seasonally adjusted annualized pace in the final three months of 2008, revised from the initial estimate of a 3.8% drop, the Commerce Department reported. It was the worst decline in GDP since a 6.4% decrease in the first quarter of 1982.
Hilzoy has a thought (Via Andrew Sullivan).
BogusBonus worthy.
Jindal Bells 3
Well, that was quick.
“Ask not for whom the bell tolls. It tolls for thee.”
With apologies to John Donne.
Via TPM.
“First Nationalized Bank” 1
I ask again, should I just make my next mortgage payment payable to the United States Treasury:
The chief executive, Vikram S. Pandit, will remain, but Citigroup will shake up its board so that it has a majority of independent directors, a move that federal regulators had already been pursuing. The moves come as the bank announced that its 2008 loss had spiraled to $27.7 billion, among the largest in corporate history.
And I still want the bozos that ran Citi into the ground to top out at a GS-15 pay rate (under “pay for performance,” they wouldn’t qualify for GS-5).
Stray Thought 0
“Reality television” is to today as dance marathons were to the 1930s.
Something to Which To Look Forward 0
Friday evening is when the FDIC eats banks.
News Lead of the Day 0
I double-dog dare you to find a better lead to a news story than this:
Aside: The drug charges are for having prescription-strength Ibuprofen, for heaven’s sake, for use in his allegely phony vet practice. The DA or whatever they call ’em in New Jersey is guilty of piling on.
I Need a Drink (Updated) 0
Some Republican CPAC attendee was on Marconi’s Magic Box talking about “intellectual honesty.”
Oxy Moron.
Addendum, 11:49:
The Booman and Steve have the crazy.
Un-Be-Gideon-Lievable. 0
Who woulda thunk?
“Whoa-Whoa-Whoa-Whoa-Those Wildwood Days” 0
Those wild-wild-wild-Wildwood Days:
Ashley Fuhrmeister, 21, a business major at Atlantic Cape Community College and Miss North Wildwood 2007, was arrested Friday along with her mother, Kelly A. Nowacky, 44, on charges of forgery and possession of forgery devices.
Via Philly Blunt.
R2D2 USPS 0
Over at Cpaphil Vintage Postcards.
Social Networking and Facebook 0
Yesterday’s Radio Times included a discussion on social networking websites and on Facebook in particular. From the website:
Follow the link above to visit the website and search for February 25, 2009, or listen here (MP3).
(I really have to write them a letter about how lame it is that you can’t link the particular episodes at the site.)
Dumb in the City 1
A pedestrian mall. How 1970s.
The plan will provide amenities for outdoorsy types, including cafe tables and benches.
Every city that I know that has turned part of downtown into a pedestrian mall has subsequently ripped out the pedestrian mall and replaced it with streets.
The High Price of Low Regulation 0
‘Twasn’t the fly. Nor was it Senator Schumer who killed Cock Robin. It was the failure-to-regulatory agency:
“The thrift’s high-risk business strategy warranted more careful and much earlier attention” from regulators, according to the report distributed by the Treasury’s Office of the Inspector General.
IndyMac’s “nontraditional” loans and “insufficient underwriting” helped lead to its seizure by regulators in July, according to the audit. The FDIC estimated last month that IndyMac’s failure would cost the insurance fund $8.5 billion to $9.4 billion, up from its prediction in July of $4 billion to $8 billion.
Moral: You don’t just need cops. You cops who actually walk there beat.