Wednesday Night Open Thread
By Barry Ritholtz - July 28th, 2010, 9:43PM
Okay, I threw a lot of heavy stuff at you today. And you kept the comments on all of these, for the most part, on topic.
This good deed must not go unpunished, so as a small recognition, its time to cut loose. Now is the time you can veer wildly off topic. Discuss GW, Fox News, lousy airports, insane forecasts. Perhaps you can chat up my new favorite blog, Things I Would Do to Bang Scarlett Johansson.
No topic is off limit
~~~
What Say Ye?
Tweet
Facebook
Reddit
Digg this!
July 28th, 2010 at 9:44 pm
Ahem: Links to criminally insane, blatantly racist or antisemitic outfits will be deleted . . .
July 28th, 2010 at 9:58 pm
NCBI ROFL: Does garlic protect against vampires? An experimental study.
“Vampires are feared everywhere, but the Balkan region has been especially haunted. Garlic has been regarded as an effective prophylactic against vampires. We wanted to explore this alleged effect experimentally. Owing to the lack of vampires, we used leeches instead. In strictly standardized research surroundings, the leeches were to attach themselves to either a hand smeared with garlic or to a clean hand. The garlic-smeared hand was preferred in two out of three cases (95% confidence interval 50.4% to 80.4%). When they preferred the garlic the leeches used only 14.9 seconds to attach themselves, compared with 44.9 seconds when going to the non-garlic hand (p < 0.05). The traditional belief that garlic has prophylactic properties is probably wrong. The reverse may in fact be true. This study indicates that garlic possibly attracts vampires. Therefore to avoid a Balkan-like development in Norway, restrictions on the use of garlic should be considered."
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/discoblog/2009/08/18/does-garlic-protect-against-vampires-an-experimental-study/
July 28th, 2010 at 10:01 pm
I recently flew into Hartsfield Airport and had me a little fun jubilee down in the Hertz rental car area.
It was 11pm and still over 90 degrees, and I stood in line until the Customer Love Technician gave me keys to my car. It was at the farthest end of the Hertz cars, and when I got there, another dude was getting into my car. So I went back to the Customer Is Number One Technician and said I needed another car.
They gave me another car, and even though it smelled like the water logged remains of a cigar stuck in a dead bull’s rectum, I was happy to get going. I still had a four hour drive ahead of me.
When I turned out of the stall, I immediately noticed something askew with the car’s handling. I got out of the car and checked the front left tire, and it was flat. Very flat. Road-kill flat.
So I went back to the Customers Rock Technician and told them of my plight, and they rewarded me with a car that actually worked. It was close to midnight at this point.
Now, this isn’t Hartsfield’s fault per se, but it seems that every trip to Hartsfield results in some kind of tomfoolery, whether it’s the hour wait for luggage, the never-ending construction or the endless security lines. All in a 90 degree heat that smells like the bottom of an ashtray. And then God Help You as you get out on the freeway and try to divine which variation of I75 or I85 will send you to where you need to go.
And I grew up in Georgia, so this isn’t me being some kind of erudite asshole. Hartsfield sucks.
July 28th, 2010 at 10:01 pm
Okay, BR…you got me.
I gotta post this one again because it meant much to me…..and figured some of your bloggers might not find it so interesting…but figured they might counter with more positive views.
So…Here I go again……Since it’s “OPEN TIME!”
———
The “News” just get’s worse and worse. This is an interesting read…maybe OTT? But, struck home with me.
Where Do We Go FROM HERE? Warning…it’s quite dark..Maybe some Upbeaters here can give counter arguments as to why this isn’t the reality of what we face here in America…
——–
“The Richest Few..Don’t Need the Rest of Us:
“Are the American People Obsolete? The richest few don’t need the rest of us ….”\\The richest few don’t need the rest of us as markets, soldiers or police anymore. Maybe we should all emigrate
By Michael Lind
Have the American people outlived their usefulness to the rich minority in the United States? A number of trends suggest that the answer may be yes.
In every industrial democracy since the end of World War II, there has been a social contract between the few and the many. In return for receiving a disproportionate amount of the gains from economic growth in a capitalist economy, the rich paid a disproportionate percentage of the taxes needed for public goods and a safety net for the majority.
In North America and Europe, the economic elite agreed to this bargain because they needed ordinary people as consumers and soldiers. Without mass consumption, the factories in which the rich invested would grind to a halt. Without universal conscription in the world wars, and selective conscription during the Cold War, the U.S. and its allies might have failed to defeat totalitarian empires that would have created a world order hostile to a market economy.
Globalization has eliminated the first reason for the rich to continue supporting this bargain at the nation-state level, while the privatization of the military threatens the other rationale.
The offshoring of industrial production means that many American investors and corporate managers no longer need an American workforce in order to prosper. They can enjoy their stream of profits from factories in China while shutting down factories in the U.S. And if Chinese workers have the impertinence to demand higher wages, American corporations can find low-wage labor in other countries.
This marks a historic change in the relationship between capital and labor in the U.S. The robber barons of the late 19th century generally lived near the American working class and could be threatened by strikes and frightened by the prospect of revolution. But rioting Chinese workers are not going to burn down New York City or march on the Hamptons.
What about markets? Many U.S. multinationals that have transferred production to other countries continue to depend on an American mass market. But that, too, may be changing. American consumers are tapped out, and as long as they are paying down their debts from the bubble years, private household demand for goods and services will grow slowly at best in the United States. In the long run, the fastest-growing consumer markets, like the fastest-growing labor markets, may be found in China, India and other developing countries.
This, too, marks a dramatic change. As bad as they were, the robber barons depended on the continental U.S. market for their incomes. The financier J.P. Morgan was not so much an international banker as a kind of industrial capitalist, organizing American industrial corporations that depended on predominantly domestic markets. He didn’t make most of his money from investing in other countries.
In contrast, many of the highest-paid individuals on Wall Street have grown rich through activities that have little or no connection with the American economy. They can flourish even if the U.S. declines, as long as they can tap into growth in other regions of the world.
Thanks to deindustrialization, which is caused both by productivity growth and by corporate offshoring, the overwhelming majority of Americans now work in the non-traded domestic service sector. The jobs that have the greatest growth in numbers are concentrated in sectors like medical care and childcare.
Even here, the rich have options other than hiring American citizens. Wealthy liberals and wealthy conservatives agree on one thing: the need for more unskilled immigration to the U.S. This is hardly surprising, as the rich are far more dependent on immigrant servants than middle-class and working-class Americans are.
MORE AT…Current Link:
http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2010/07/27/american_people_obsolete/index.html
July 28th, 2010 at 10:08 pm
Add another flavor to the fruitcake-mix that is the Tea Party. They’re called the “Thirteenthers:” crazies who argue that there was a “lost amendment” to the Constitution that stripped citizenship/the right to hold elected office from anyone who accepted a foreign title or award. Thus, Obama’s not really the President because he accepted the Nobel Prize!
Oh, and these Thirteenthers also argue that the term “Esquire” that most lawyers take is a foreign title that comes from the International Bar Assn. So lawyers aren’t American citizens anymore either! Yay!
http://www.newsweek.com/2010/07/27/why-some-republicans-want-to-restore-the-13th-amendment.html
July 28th, 2010 at 10:10 pm
LOL Barry. The things people spend a considerable amount of time on. Amazing.
July 28th, 2010 at 10:17 pm
LOL…
July 28th, 2010 at 10:22 pm
re Fed judge’s injunction on Arizona’s immigration law…I find it hypocritical that Federal law currently requires all green card holders in the US to carry their ID on them at all times…ie a legal immigrant who has run the INS (now homeland security) gauntlet and done it by the book and paid for the app process needs ID……but according to the Fed judge who ruled on the Arizona immigration law today…illegal immigrants in the country are not required to carry any ID or proof of citizenship…..at any time….what’s with that?…your legally here? u are required by law to carry ID/green card…..u are here illegally? u don’t…what a joke!!!….what say u BR?
~~~
BR: No opinion . . . haven’t followed the issue closely, I am uninformed, and therefor have nothing intelligent to say about it.
July 28th, 2010 at 10:25 pm
What’s the best (free) way to turn a web page into a pdf file on an XP machine?
July 28th, 2010 at 10:26 pm
TBP’s been awfully quiet RE: BP/GOM oil spill of late. Wait, you mean the world isn’t ending? http://news.yahoo.com/s/ynews_excl/ynews_excl_sc3270
July 28th, 2010 at 10:28 pm
blueoysterjoe:
Your experience indicates why Hertz is a candidate for bankruptcy.
You got off easy. My daughter’s boss had to go to Boston for some depositions Friday before last. There was a connection in Atlanta, but the connecting flight was cancelled. The couldn’t put him on another flight but they wouldn’t get him a hotel room because the airport hotel was booked up. He spent the night in the airport. My daughter couldn’t find him another flight, which I found sort of amazing considering how big and busy Hartzfield is alleged to be.
Next morning his cell phone is running out. I told my daughter most big airports had pay chargers with lots of connectors. My wife checked the Hartzfield website and it said there were free chargers. So he went and asked about them and Delta said they were taken out because “they were burning up peoples’ cell phones. He tried buying a charger that claimed to support his phone. Didn’t work. He finally got out of there about 5pm that Saturday afternoon.
July 28th, 2010 at 10:29 pm
Just read this in Bloomberg and it makes me want to puke:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-07-28/fallen-soldiers-families-denied-cash-payout-as-life-insurers-boost-profit.html
July 28th, 2010 at 10:31 pm
And if you want something to make you really mad at the money men, there’s this:
Fallen Soldiers’ Families Denied Cash as Insurers Profit
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-07-28/fallen-soldiers-families-denied-cash-payout-as-life-insurers-boost-profit.html
Let us hope the executives of large financial corporations are first against the wall when the revolution comes.
July 28th, 2010 at 10:38 pm
Niskyboy: There are some freebie programs that will do that. The names escape me at the moment. They are like cut rate versions of Adobe Acrobat.
July 28th, 2010 at 10:38 pm
@niskyboy
Print options>Print to.pdf
July 28th, 2010 at 10:41 pm
@Mike: They’ll be a long line but me-thinks they’ll be at the front.
July 28th, 2010 at 10:42 pm
Scarlet Johansson, as in things I would do.
Gentlemen prefer blondes, certainly BR does. But it must be true that blondes are better, after all, how many brunettes do you see with blonde roots?
She reminds me of a Faux anchor!
July 28th, 2010 at 10:57 pm
http://www.go2pdf.com/product.html
http://www.foxitsoftware.com/pdf/creator/
Ask an IT guy for a copy of Adobe Pro, they will hook you up, if they like you.
July 28th, 2010 at 11:06 pm
About ten to 15 minutes from where I live is going to turn into a nightmare this weekend with Chelsea Clinton’s wedding. These are all windy back roads around here. Best bet might be to get out of Dodge. Interesting piece in local paper with weekenders saying they would sell their weekend spots if Tiffany’s ever came to Main St. Rhinebeck. I guess they like to pretend that they have something in common with the “regular folk” around here. What a joke.
July 28th, 2010 at 11:10 pm
I have started flying private planes again. Looking a few years out, my US $ savings will have so much less buying power in the coming stagflation (not to mention the restrictive regulatory environment / and social unrest targeting evil white male middle class consumption), I might as well enjoy life now.
July 28th, 2010 at 11:18 pm
@niskyboy
Print options>Print to.pdf
Oops, forgot to say I used Cute PDF writer, which is free and registers into Print options , so then, as above. Foxit reader is IMHO preferable to Adobe because it uses far less resources. Sorry for the earlier omission.
July 28th, 2010 at 11:26 pm
Lariat1: Was discouraging to see she’s marrying an investment banker. I thought she was raised better than that.
July 28th, 2010 at 11:46 pm
I am all for rebalancing our regressive tax system.
But the corporate tax thing has been something of a fraud for a long, long time.
FWIW, the average American would be better off with a 0% corporate and a 35% tax on all personal income.
Do the numbers. Cut out the corporate tax havens.
Oh, the execs are going to move off-shore, or declare residency else where? Go for it. Just don’t make any political contributions.
(posted below but moved up)
It’s getting kind of hard to get inspired to make a contribution, when every time we turn around our corps and politicos kick us in the nuts again.
July 28th, 2010 at 11:48 pm
35% as a max level. Keep the lower brackets as they are.
July 28th, 2010 at 11:49 pm
Hey, they have know each other since college, and it’s great to be in love when you are in your twenties. Maybe they are idealistic and i wish them well. Hopefully she doesn’t have a daddy complex with men ,or is she going to be for trouble!!!
July 29th, 2010 at 12:09 am
Barney Frank’s Finance committee just passed an internet poker regulation bill. I think that it is about time that American companies can operate online poker to serve American customers. Right now, all of the operators are overseas.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/29/us/politics/29gamble.html
http://theppa.org/press-releases/2010/07/28/press-release-ppa-praises-passage-of-h-r-2267-internet-gambling-regulation-bill-072810/
July 29th, 2010 at 12:12 am
View on Economy after Southeast Resort Vacation…
We just got back from our Family Reunion Vacation on a popular Resort Island on the SC Coast. back Barry’s post awhile back about his family experience in the Hamptons and what he observed about the economy there. I commented here that, I would post about my observations on my upcoming vacation in a Resort Golf/Tennis/Beach area of the Southeast when I got back… if BR ever gave an opportunity for a post about it. So, here I go on this “Open Thread.”
Economically speaking:
What I observed is pretty much what “BR” observed when he was in the Hamptons on vacation. Those who HAVE IT…are still spending some Money to some extent…but on Dining Out/Enetertainment. In the very Exclusive Resort are of the Island, High End Restaurants were filled with lines out the door. But, in the same area, many super ex pensive Up- Scale retail ladies store and High End gift shops were closed.
We were drawn to that part of the Island by flyers advertising a delightful “Beach Music Concert” at the Plaza, with some great MoTown/Beach Music songs and found a very mixed crowd of folks from Oldies to Grandkids and even Teens all dancing and “groovin’” to the music. My impression was this well known vocal group was there to bring crowds into the areA to help offset the closed High End Stores in the Shopping Area and help fill the restaurants and the few stores that were still in business.
What was interesting is that what seemed to be the High End Middle Class of the Island seemed to still be doing well with very few empty stores . Expensive Women’s/Men’s/Sport Clothing/ Accessories Stores still open, but with few customers and, interestingly, some of those same stores had also had a second store in the High End Resort area of the Island which were closed with the Name of the Store still up on the door. Leading me to believe that having two high end retail stores in a Beach Resort Community was just too much in these times…so they closed the store in the High End Area…and left open the one in the Upper to Middle Class Area. (Was that Wise?…I don’t know)
Anyway, Art/Craft Galleries with nice stuff were still open…but not many people walking through. The “Community Theater” which was showing “Tommy” by the “Who” (what a depressing show for a Summer Crowd, though) was packed every night and sold out. There was a Jazz Performance Restaurant (that we made reservations for because it was selling out every night) which had incredible Gourmet Food to die for…. and, where we heard a top notch Jazz Pianist and Vocalists who were good enough to perform in NYC… It was an anniversary celebration for one in our family gathering and it worked out real well for us to chip in and do it.
Another night we ate at a local island famous Marsh-View Seafood Restaurant that was packed and the menu was very expensive but it seemed that the place was catering to big family gatherings where Dad or Grandpa was footing the bill …and they were just happy to pay for the kids to have a good time. Our party was celebrating a Birthday for one in our family…so we felt the splurge was worthwhile thing for the view and seafood. The place was packed with lines out the door and into the parking lot.
The rest of the time we just ate or grazed in our condo getting food from our local “Fresh Market” food store (popular in some ares of the South) which has fresh fruit and all kinds of wonderful take out salads plus rotisserie Chickens, Pork Loins, Ribs and other stuff we could get for take out. We hit a local Farmer’s Market for fresh veggies and we all cooked up a storm when we felt like it but could also just eat the salads and stuff we picked up when we just wanted to coast and lie around. Mostly we were all glad to just eat in and then go down to the beach and walk it off after eating a light dinner. We were in a heat wave with warnings that Temps with Humidity Index were 105 to 110 every day, so we only could ride our rental bikes very early in the morning and hit the beach after 6 p.m until 9 when the sun went down. Sometimes we stayed until dark and used our flashlight to find our way back to the car.
Economically, my observation was that if you have good food or something for entertainment folks want to see or do on vacation you were filled up and folks would pay money. High End Shopping…was okay but not doing as well as I’ve seen it in the past..and the store closings were not a good sign for the future. Given the unusual high heat every day in the high 90′s or over a hundred…many of the sports activities like Kayaking, Nature Walks through Preserves, Island Exploring in Zodiacs and the rest….were not able to be filled. So the folks who depend on income from those activities were probably hurting because of the terrible HEAT WAVE rather than the economy…but then I don’t know that for sure. I did notice that the golf course where we were was filled all day long but folks looked pretty hot and worn out as they got to the last holes.
Real Estate View:
I was surprised that the freebie “Real Estate for Sale” books weren’t as thick as they were during the bubble. But, there was a New Flyer (almost a booklet) listing Foreclosures. I counted about 200 foreclosures listed but that didn’t seem to be much considering the high amount of Homes, Villas, Condo’s and Gated Communities on the Island.
Since we’ve been going to this same place for about six years (before and during the RE Bubble) I have a good idea of what things were selling for before during and now.
I’d say that the Expensive homes ML and Up seem to be advertising but many of them don’t seem worth the price looking at them in the listings for sq footage and location. Those prices will have to drop. Villas in the Gated Communities with prime 3BR and Golf, Beach or Lagoon Views (who have rental income potential) have dropped from the $450,000 range down to $400,000 or some anxious sellers going into the high $300′s. More seem to be listed than when we were there last year.
The rental agencies I checked out were pretty booked until Mid-August. Our family requires pet-friendly place so we have to book way ahead with our Agent who thankfully has very nice rentals for folks who have a dog or two but we always have a family member who comes in at the last minute and we have to scramble to find some place for them to stay…so have to check other agencies and that’s how I keep tab on the non-pet friendly rentals on the island.
All in All…I’d agree with Barry in his view of the Hamptons. Those who have it still have it and spend it (Lots of great looking boats and yachts in the Marina) and high end restaurants and entertainment filled. The rest of us were much happy with two high end nights out and to get take out from the local market and veggies from the farm stand and not bother with eating out the rest of the time. In other years we have eaten out more…but given the heat and our frugal times we were happy with what we did splitting the costs and vegging. Actually we found what we did a lot of fun even with the terrible heat. We spent more time together rather than running around everywhere like we usually do.
As an afterthought, there are some Gated Golf Communities that are very High End that were built in the 2007-08 Time Frame at the upper end of the island that have opened up their “private” Golf Courses to the Public. (Toll Brothers is one of the Big Developers) And, there doesn’t seem to be much traffic in and out of their gates when we’ve ridden by. Yet, I didn’t see a lot of listings in the freebie real estate books for houses for sale or even rent in these newer Bubble Communities.
I got the feeling that the Island Real Estate Consortium is trying not to look like they are hurting. Sort, of a Contrarian attitude by the RE Folks when folks are down there expecting to see Fire Sales on Villas and Homes and so they don’t really list all the inventory they have. They do that kind of think in the South. Or, it could be ….maybe things in our economy are really not as bad as this “Bear” thinks it is and they are managing to coast along with folks able to hold onto Second Homes because they have enough money and steady jobs they can wait for the Real Estate Market to come back. Maybe all those Boomers really are going to retire down there and folks who bought during Boom times are betting on that.
Anyway…just the view from down here…
July 29th, 2010 at 12:19 am
Niskyboy asked:
“What’s the best (free) way to turn a web page into a pdf file on an XP machine?”
Answer; Turn your sucky XP machine into a free stable fast Linux PC that will print to PDF out of the box. Give Ubuntu a try.
Since this is an open thread I’ll just voice once more my contempt for the majority of Microsoft users out there, that complain to me, and demand that I FIX their problems, while they continue to utilize an inferior product. They don’t want to try, or even consider switching O.S.
Nothing personal, Niskyboy, I just had a though half week but I’m finally on vacations for 10 days. I hope you will give Linux a try. Best money you’ll ever not spend since it’s free.
July 29th, 2010 at 12:20 am
Buddy of a Bud of mine is a co-best man. Giving the speech to that crowd must be like walking a fine line with dire consequences on both sides. Should send in Colbert and just go for it. Best of luck to him!
July 29th, 2010 at 12:39 am
Best man speeches are usually where everyone is holding their breath and just wanting it to be over before it turns bad somehow. To TakBak04: we will be heading out on vacation for last 3 weeks in August, we go somewhere different every year, last year was out west, lots of National Parks and if it wasn’t for the Europeans and the Asians, the places would have been not crowded at all. Will be heading up to Atlantic Provinces, see what peoples opinions are there. And don’t even get me going on Toll Brothers !!!
July 29th, 2010 at 12:56 am
I think I have Scarlett fever…and the only thing that’ll cure it is “more cowbell!”
July 29th, 2010 at 12:58 am
Obscure airport I know, but Kansas City is terrible. I flew through on Vanguard now Hooters Air. Don’t ask me why I was there. But KC is not good. Plus, any airport in Caribbean / central / south america. They help generally don’t care.
Ok nothing on Fox News, but I watch Cramer every day. Like watching a Train Wreck. Today on CNBC, he single handedly, said this, in regards to “women’s and minorities underepresentation on wall street”, “leave it to the gov’t to create inefficiencies” and then later he followed that up with “I was living out of a car and had Jaundice” on Mad Money. He might as well continued with “living in a van down by the river.” I like him and his enthusiasm, but really? I am paraphrasing here, the best I can do without the printed script, but I think you get the picture.
Love the blog. One thing I have been looking for is a leading indicator for the employment numbers. I found shrm.org, ok, also wantedanalytics.com has an ok indicator (which shows job postings for recruiters which matches up nicely to the employment graphs you have posted on your blog). Would love to know what else might be out there.
The Johansson blog is hilarious. Thought I might leave you with this:
http://www.imagesjournal.com/issue06/reviews/horse4.htm
Nice work. Keep it up. Triple H.
July 29th, 2010 at 1:13 am
I really like Scarlett Johannson A LOT. She is at the top of the list…..
July 29th, 2010 at 1:15 am
TakBak04,
In order to create a consuming population, such as the US, in developing countries you would need a mighty effort and many years.
Mentally, I don’t think Chinese workers are ready to shop till they drop, they probably have a little more sense than that after years of hardship, so do Indians.
Do you think the Chinese government would now accept a legion of foreign corporations making huge profits by selling to the Chinese population?
I think not, corporations are welcome in China because they employ Chinese workers, not because they can make cheap shit for the Chinese to buy with credit cards. (they get paid peanuts and China is a dictatorship)
So if this is the grand old dream of the super rich, they are way off the mark, they cannot sustain their lavish lifestyles with a world of peasantry, geographically, economically and culturally.
And I would crawl on broken glass for Monica Bellucci.
July 29th, 2010 at 1:21 am
“Jesus vs Hitler” wrestling … so wrong, it’s funny:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01USG9xpnhE
July 29th, 2010 at 1:23 am
It is clear that the current tax system isn’t working by taxing income, esp when the gov’t has a champagne appetite on a beer budget.
Moving to a consumption tax (www.fairtax.org) would have so many benefits. There would be an incentive to save, remove the incentive to get into debt. There are provisions for the low income and poor with pre-bates. It would be a progressive tax such that the more you spend the more you are taxed (would be hard for folks like John Kerry to evade taxes on the boat and mooring). We all have the natural desire to spend, so the taxes would be collected. No more complicated tax structure, replace with a much simpler system (could redirect all those IRS folks to more valuable roles).
***
Just musing — I found that the US has 8133 tonnes of gold, about an ounce for every man, woman and child in america — http://www.wealthdaily.com/articles/who-owns-worlds-gold/2491
which amounts to $270B, yes only $270B which would only pay the interest on the debt (at current low rates) – mice nuts in the scheme of things, argh….. time for a beer.
Maybe we (the US) should go out to the creditor nations and negotiate a debt repayment; Look Japan, France, Germany and pan Europe and say we spent $$$ rebuilding your countries and economies, using a modest 2-3% inflation number calculate the future value of money on those funds and cancel the debt they hold.
Then go to the US citizens and say, we are going to implement a one time wealth tax, since you were able to live and thrive in this capitalistic utopia for the last 65 years without the threat of global threat — collect some progressive % of net worth, a one time tax holiday from income tax so there would be no double tax. Engineer the debt cancellation and one time wealth tax to pay off the national debt. Then implement the consumption tax, with a balanced budget mandate for the fed budget. It is all ugly, but condemning our children, grand children, great grand children to a virtual debtors prison is worse.
July 29th, 2010 at 1:28 am
Andy, getting a ladies name wrong won’t get her randy. There’s a reason for the ss in her last name, historically patronymically derived. Though Danish (-sen) the last name clearly indicates Swedish origin and that’s probably why you all want to bang her.
July 29th, 2010 at 8:10 am
My favorite contrarian indicator is to follow what the truly stupid money does, M&A. It’s better than a news magazine cover story.
July 29th, 2010 at 8:48 am
I had time to sleep on the Glenn Beck post from yesterday, and got some clarity.
When I first started reading this blog, I was reminded and informed by you that CNBC is television, and television is entertainment. If we look back in the archives from last year, it’s there as a theme. You ranted and raved about how television is first and foremost entertainment. And then said that ANYONE who gets their information and investments decisions from TV deserves to lose all their money.
I guess this is why I couldn’t get square with the post from yesterday. It seems to fly in the face of earlier opinions by the host of this blog.
July 29th, 2010 at 8:50 am
Wired Exclusive: Google, CIA Invest in ‘Future’ of Web Monitoring
Exclusive – Google, CIA Invest in ‘Future’ of Web Monitoring, By Noah Shachtman, July 28, 2010: “The investment arms of the CIA and Google are both backing a company that monitors the web in real time — and says it uses that information to predict the future. The company is called Recorded Future, and it scours tens of thousands of websites, blogs and Twitter accounts to find the relationships between people, organizations, actions and incidents — both present and still-to-come. In a white paper, the company says its temporal analytics engine “goes beyond search” by “looking at the ‘invisible links’ between documents that talk about the same, or related, entities and events.” The idea is to figure out for each incident who was involved, where it happened and when it might go down. Recorded Future then plots that chatter, showing online “momentum” for any given event.”
Topic(s): Privacy, E-Government, Knowledge Management, Search Engines
http://www.bespacific.com/
July 28, 2010
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2010/07/exclusive-google-cia/
July 29th, 2010 at 9:26 am
In response to the Michael Lind piece posted by Takbak04, I think an important factor is being left out of the rationale for the wealthy approving of illegal immigration. And that is that the US is becoming an agricultural economy in place of an industrial economy. Our biggest export now I read someplace, NY Times I think, is soy beans to China.
We have huge latifundias, called agribusinesses, that use cheap helpless labor.
In addition, we have huge food processing divisions of the latifundias, that use illegal labor to cut up chicken, pork, and beef.
Also, there is the hard, back-breaking physical labor that is being done by cheap helpless immigrants. In my part of the country all the sweat work that used to by done by black labor back in the 60s is now being done by brown labor.
I think it is more than the desire for cheap house servants.
BTW, anti-immigrant laws do not prevent immigration. Instead these laws make immigrants even more helpless. It is remarkable that only a specialty kosher packing plant was strongly punished under these laws, while Smithfield and Tyson were let off with slaps.
July 29th, 2010 at 9:50 am
Have you read the latest Borowitz Report? Headline, “BP Replaces Tony Hayward with Startled Deer.”
http://www.borowitzreport.com/
I realize this thread should be about fun stuff, but here’s the bullsh*t on my mind these days: my spouse lost his job last month b/c he spoke out to management because of a safety issue on a piece of equipment that his firm was responsible for. Turns out, the dudes at the top of the food chain were more interested in meeting 2Q10 profits on that equipment than it was the safety of some refinery workers.
Then, we went to a party earlier this week and came across a CPA who got fired from the investment firm she worked for because she pointed out ethical issues to management.
Feels like the tools of the world keep winning more battles than the intelligent, give-a-damn people.
July 29th, 2010 at 10:00 am
I’m wondering if anyone here has ever paid to hear Clinton or Bush speak ?
~~~
BR: I never paid for either, but I saw Clinton at the SALT Conference, and Bush at some event in 1998.
July 29th, 2010 at 10:34 am
As long as you have opened this to anything, I thought you were going to take care of those annoying ads that float in front of the blog entries (ESPECIALLY THAT OVER THE TOP GE GARBAGE) and don’t have a way of blowing them away, the way most ads do. I know they pay the bills, but there must be some way to leave the focus of the blog open to readers/contributors.
July 29th, 2010 at 11:03 am
I like chocolate cake. Mmmmm, chocolate.
July 29th, 2010 at 11:10 am
Thanks for the advice on pdfs.
July 29th, 2010 at 11:56 am
@niskyboy:
“PDF My URL” http://pdfmyurl.com/
online, no install, works from your browser.
July 29th, 2010 at 12:48 pm
@troubled times
Trust me, we pay any and every time a politician opens their mouth.
July 29th, 2010 at 5:13 pm
I finally have a chance to go completely nuts, and of course I can’t think of anything to say.
I guess I will just comment by saying “American Airlines, WTF??!!”.
July 29th, 2010 at 8:43 pm
How many people have a cat that looks like Hitler?
http://www.catsthatlooklikehitler.com/cgi-bin/seigbest.pl
July 29th, 2010 at 10:04 pm
If an hour doubled over on the floor qualifies me as an ignoramous, then that is what I am, along with crass, immature and any other qualifier you can think of. I’ll do my best to make that blog viral and quit trying to talk about econ.
July 30th, 2010 at 8:57 am
Definitely a traditional look. I’m not particularly fond of her stage name! I’m glad to see the tradition continues on especially during a time of war.
I’ll bet she would be a big hit in Afghanistan! Do you think the current administration would allow her to visit through the traditional venues of the USO?
Of course Bob Hope can’t be there in person, but I’m sure we could find a replacement for him too.