First Looks category archive

The U.S. economy was weakening further in January, and a gradual recovery wasn’t likely until the second half of the year, members of the Federal Open Market Committee agreed, according to minutes of the Jan. 27 and 28 meeting released Wednesday.

All together now,

Down, down, down in the gloom, gloom, gloom.

Distilled by Skippy.

Off to drink liberally.

A picture book by Bill Watterson.

Via Gene Weingarten.

A rose by any other name . . . . (might be a turnip, but that’s a different issue).

You’re out of work or your company is teetering on Chapter 11.

You work for a bank and nobody likes you anymore.

You still have a job but the folks on either side of you? Oh. Well.

What else is there to do? Good friends, good food, good times.

Triumph Brewing Company, 1 1/2 blocks from Front on Chestnut, Philadelphia, Pa., 6 p., every Tuesday.

Nothing in the weather forecast about “wintry mixes” or car crashes all over the highways.

If my cold doesn’t come back on me tomorrow, I might actually make it for the first time in what seems like a month of Sundays.

’nuff said:

Because of the increasing demand on unemployment benefits, the (Nevada–ed.) state’s unemployment call center will be open from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m Monday, Feb. 16, although it is Presidents Day, a federal holiday.

This is in addition to the center’s recently expanded Saturday hours, also open 8 a.m. to 1 p.m.

DougJ’s post at Balloon Juice considers the implications.

It includes part of a lengthy email from a senior manager at a hedge fund. That itself is worth your while.

Not for this guy. He dug his own hole.

The Army Corps of Engineers:

The Army Corps of Engineers that constructed a new river levee system through Alamosa (Colo.) a decade ago is now telling the City of Alamosa the levee may be flawed – and the city might have to pay to fix it.

Alamosa City Manager Nathan Cherpeski brought the situation to the city council’s attention during his weekly Friday update and commented further about it on Monday. He said although the Corps designed the current levee, and it was built according to the Corps’ design, the Corps is now telling the city the levee was constructed incorrectly.

The big problem with the levee is the tree growth on the land side of the levee, Cherpeski said. He pointed out that the Corps left many large trees in place when it constructed the new levee in 1997 but is now apparently blaming the city for the potential structural problems the trees could cause to the levee.

You remember the Corps. That’s the outfit that built the levees in New Orleans.

Yeah, those levees. The ones that fell over.

Via Harry Shearer.

Does anyone actually read Maureen Dowd? I can never get past the headlines.

The fish don’t seem to see the wider world around them. Or, if they do, it is distorted by the water.

Atrios poses the question.

(Aside: Many Washington insiders, like some of my friends, seem to think that today’s Republican Party bears some resemblance to the Republican Party that they grew up with 40 or 50 years ago, a party that included good, decent, sensible persons, such as President Jerry Ford, persons with whom one could disagree, yet still respect.

It does not.)

Transcrupt here.

“They’re in fundamental denial about their insolvency . . . . The financial sector wants to get as much for itself as it can.”

Translation: The banks are lying to themselves and to us. And we’re screwed.

They are not “too big to fail.” They have already failed.

Proposal: Nationalize them, liquidate them, and dress their executives in orange jumpsuits and have them pick up litter along the highways.

If they miss Greenwich and the Hamptons, let them pick up litter in Greenwich and the Hamptons.

Video via TPM.

Muzak goes Chapter 11. I don’t know whether they are responsible for the sound track in my local super market, but, if they are, good riddance.

Muzak Holdings, the maker of background music heard in elevators, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Tuesday.

Via Skippy the Bush Kangaroo, where there’s an interesting capsule history of the firm.

Time nominates the 25 persons most responsible for the crash. (They include the “American Consumer” as one, rather than as 300 million. Guess that would have messed up their “top 25” thing.)

Via the Huffington Post.

See here.

TerranceDC takes a stab at figuring out what’s wrong with Wall Street.

Brendan makes a phone call.

Temperature in the high 50 Fahrenheits, mostly sunny, 45 mph wind gusts.