Archive for October, 2008
Saturday, October 4th, 2008
One result of the extended bailout debate has been to make me pretty sick-and-tired of metaphorical invocations of “Main Street.” This isn't 1908. Normally in the present-day United States, I see a traditional Main Street being the center of activity when I'm in a picturesque vacation spot for rich people. ...
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Saturday, October 4th, 2008
NEW YORK (Reuters) - American International Group Inc , crippled by losses on bad mortgage bets, said on Friday it will focus on its main insurance operations and put the rest of its businesses up for sale to repay up to $85 billion borrowed from the U.S. government.
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Saturday, October 4th, 2008
Charles Krauthammer thinks Barack Obama is going to win the election. More interestingly, he uses a revealing metaphor: “Krauthammer's Hail Mary Rule: You get only two per game. John McCain, unfortunately, has already thrown three. The first was his bet on the surge, a deep pass to David Petraeus who ...
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Saturday, October 4th, 2008
NEW YORK (Reuters) -Wall Street ended its worst week in seven years with another tumble on Friday on fears that the $700 billion financial rescue package may not unblock credit markets and stave off a U.S. recession.
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Saturday, October 4th, 2008
Pat Garofalo takes a look at the debt-to-GDP ratio:
As you can see, there are basically two kinds of situations in which this ratio skyrockets — either World War II breaks out, or else you put representatives of the modern conservative movement in the White House.
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Saturday, October 4th, 2008
Reader W.S. calls my attention to this Pitchfork item noting that it was a bit odd of Meghan McCain to choose Stereolab's “Ping Pong” as her September 29, 2008 “song of the day.” The video:
Here's some lyrics:
It's alright right ‘cos the historical pattern has shown
How the economical cycle tends to ...
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Saturday, October 4th, 2008
This is yesterday's news, but I have to say that I was so surprised by the announcement that the McCain campaign is abandoning Michigan that I was initially inclined to believe it was some kind of fake-out. But it seems to be real enough. As a strategy, though, it's a ...
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Saturday, October 4th, 2008
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Wells Fargo & Co said on Friday it would buy Wachovia Corp for about $16 billion, apparently besting a government-backed Citigroup Inc bid for some of the bank's assets, in a deal that would catapult Wells Fargo into the ranks of the leading national consumer banks.
...
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Saturday, October 4th, 2008
Paul Krugman takes a look at the broadest measure of unemployment:
Obviously, the President has only a limited influence over the course of the economy, but it's not no influence.
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Saturday, October 4th, 2008
NEW YORK/LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Wal-Mart Stores Inc launches a handful of convenience-sized grocery stores this weekend to stake its claim in an industry experimenting with smaller store formats.
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