In which I attempt to clean my palate - and my browser - of a chunk of post-vacation chunks, mainly of the financial or "Hollywood Minute" variety:
- My pal J in B pointed me towards this New York article about the wake up call to Wall Street's dynamos, and how they're adjusting to the new economic morality. Not well. Unwinding this stuff, though, is kind of fascinating to watch.
- Instead of reading the mistake-ridden cliches of the overvalued... for some real insight into the Freddie Mac CFO suicide, check out this unlikely source. (via Erick Erickson at Twitter).
- Ken Lewis (CEO, Bank of America) says Ben Bernanke and Hank Paulson made him keep quiet about problems with buying Merrill Lynch. Bernanke says... of course not, that would be wrong. I say... we won't have Ken Lewis at B of A by the end of the year.
- This week in Auto News: GM near bankruptcy, plans to close Pontiac. World is going to hell. Chrysler can't seem to figure out how to even go bankrupt successfully, and Fiat says we'll run it, if we get it for free. Fiat also says it will by Opel from GM... all while losing money. Ford also says it's losing money... but hey, that's the good news: it's $21 billion in hock, but it doesn't need a government bailout! whee!!!
- I have almost nothing to say about Jane Harman and the supposed phone call... except to point out that for all the talk about how tension between Harman and Nancy Pelosi "isn't a catfight", it's amazing how people still frame it as... well, a catfight. (For what it's worth, I think Harman - still - is pretty awesome; and I'm less than keen on Pelosi's leadership in the House. Bu either one is vast improvemen over your average white male Republican, if you ask me.)
- I don't have a lot to say about Susan Boyle; what older woman singer who fame passed by wouldn't be well suited to "I Dreamed A Dream"? Boyle's got a lovely voice, people make too many snap judgments off of appearances... yada, yada. The real dubious distinction, it seems to me, is these "[Nation's] Got Talent" TV shows that Simon Cowell's people have dreamed up, which mix in the occasional find like Boyle in with junk, and hope audiences are too stoned to notice. Don't believe me? Check out this bit from Sweden's Got Talent... if you can, since it's decidedly NSFW
- My boyfriend got to swim with Michael Phelps!
- Brian Williams does satire on 30 Rock... and right wing just doesn't get it.
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