One day in April 2002, the managing editor of what was about to become The New York Sun, Ira Stoll, sat down with a reporter for the paper, Ben Smith, for an interview with New York's new mayor. When conversation turned to the proposed Second Avenue subway line, Mr. Stoll inquired whether the city might sell the subways to a private entrepreneur. The mayor, Michael Bloomberg, responded with the question, "What are you smoking?"
...Mr. Bloomberg had been skeptical at the start, but in 2004, he stopped by the offices of the Sun to proclaim April 16 "New York Sun Day" in New York City. Yesterday, he greeted the news of the paper's decision to cease publication with a statement that called the paper's writers "smart, thoughtful, provocative — and sometimes even courageous." Said the mayor: "In a City saturated with news coverage and commentary, The Sun shone brightly, though too briefly."
(The Saloon wishes the best of luck to the staff of the New York Sun. You will be missed -Roland)
The House's failure to pass a $700 billion bailout package Monday not only held back billions for Wall Street, but also was a major blow to Sen. John McCain's presidential campaign.
The Republican presidential nominee raised the stakes for himself last week when he suspended his campaign and returned to Washington for negotiations over a solution to the financial crisis.
A number of Republican House members and staff, along with others who are plugged in, are telling me that Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats will come back with a new bill that includes all the left-wing stuff that was scrubbed from the bill that was defeated today in the House.
As this scenario goes, the House Democrats need 218 votes, and they have to pick up a number of black and Hispanic House members who jumped ship because the Wall Street provisions, in their view, were too benign. So things like the bankruptcy judges setting mortgage terms and rates, the ACORN slush-fund spending, the union proxy for corporate boards, stricter limits on executive compensation, and much larger equity ownership of selling banks through warrants will all find itself back in the new bill. Of course, this scenario will lose more Republican votes. But insiders tell me President Bush will take Secretary Paulson’s advice and sign that kind of legislation.
While many of the talking heads and pundits on TV have been providing calming words of reassurance about proposed federal intervention in the financial system, analyst Peter Schiff of Euro Pacific Capital has been accurately warning for years about a financial meltdown and says that the worst, if Congress eventually passes the “bailout” bill, is yet to come.
Many commentators, Schiff said, are telling people that if the bailout doesn’t go forward, there will be an economic crisis. However, “if we do it, there will be a bigger crisis,” he predicts...“The politicians want to make believe we can avoid paying the piper if we pass these bailouts,” he said. “It’s just not true. It’s going to collapse the currency. It’s going to make a worse economic crisis because the money they’re printing is not going to buy anything.”
You know the economy has definitely reached crisis level when Playboy billionaire Hugh Hefner is being told to tighten his purse strings or face bankruptcy.
"Despite her acting being the subject of much criticism, Natalie Wood still managed to star in many high profile movies – West Side Story and Rebel Without A Cause to name a couple. Wood also received Oscar, Bafta, and Golden Globe nominations during her movie career. But alas, it was to be cut short when she died of accidental drowning at the age of 43 in 1981 whilst doing location work for Brainstorm. The film was released two years after Wood’s death, with a missing scene as it was incomplete. Critics liked it, but the film failed at the box office."
Kenneth Branagh is negotiating to direct "Thor," the next Marvel Comics property that will be turned into a live-action film by Marvel Studios. Pic will be released in 2010.
Marvel Studios chief Kevin Feige's choice of Branagh is surprising, as Branagh hasn't really directed an action-heavy film since his debut on "Henry V," a bloody telling of the British king's conquest of France.
Whether it was murder or suicide is beside the point: Wall Street as it has operated for the past 75 years has been obliterated in a matter of weeks. And witnessing this violent death in broad daylight has traumatized investors everywhere.
The Wall Street domino has toppled just about everything in sight: U.S. stocks large and small, within the financial industry and outside of it; foreign stocks; oil and other commodities; real-estate investment trusts; formerly booming emerging markets like India and China. Even gold, although it has inched up lately, has lost 10% from its highs earlier this year. Not even cash seems entirely safe, as money-market funds barely averted a "run on the bank."
Of all the dominos that have tipped over, the most psychologically damaging collapse was the last: the very notion of diversification itself.
FTA-"The credit crisis is dominating headlines and hammering financial stocks, causing once seemingly invincible Wall Street investment houses to quake and major money center banks to quiver. But is the problem really filtering down to Main Street and the countless small businesses that provide the jobs that fuel the economy?
The nation's top economic leaders repeatedly raised the specter of a Main Street meltdown on Capitol Hill this week to justify a $700 billion bailout for major financial institutions. But the message is pretty much ringing hollow on Main Street, where rising prices and the economic slowdown outweigh credit concerns, according to the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB)."
The credit Markets are fine. Bush and Pelosi's pals on Wall Street are not- screw their bailout package.-Riley
British candy maker Cadbury said Monday it is recalling 11 types of Chinese-made chocolates after tests found they contained the industrial chemical melamine...Four infants have died and some 54,000 have developed kidney stones or other illnesses after drinking baby formula contaminated with the substance, which is used to make plastics.
A man who police said broke into a home with the intention of sexually assault a 17-year-old girl in her bedroom died early Sunday morning after a struggle with the girl's father...Officers said they found Robert McNally, 64, on the floor with his arm around the neck of Meyers, struggling to hold him down.
Indianapolis police Sgt. Matt Mount said Meyers had come into the home naked, except for a mask and latex gloves..."He had rope, had a knife, had condoms, had a gag,"
Convicted political fixer Antoin ''Tony'' Rezko has been quietly visiting Chicago's federal courthouse, setting off speculation that he may be spilling secrets to prosecutors in return for a lenient sentence...Two attorneys said Monday they and other lawyers have been contacted by prosecutors seeking to check information that only Rezko could have told them. Both attorneys spoke only on condition of anonymity, saying prosecutors have sought to keep such matters secret as part of the grand jury investigation
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