“It may be necessary to temporarily nationalize some banks in order to facilitate a swift and orderly restructuring. I understand that once in a hundred years this is what you do.”
So sayeth Mr. laissez faire himself, Alan Greenspan as reported by Financial Times
By 11:59 pm on Tuesday, more than one-third of full-power broadcasters in the U.S. will no longer be transmitting an analog signal.
A total of 641 stations will go all-digital on Feb. 17, the original date of the digital transition. Congress then postponed the switch until June 12, fearing too many viewers weren’t prepared. Among the lawmakers’ reasons for the delay was the maxed-out budget of government’s converter-box coupon program.
Despite the delay, the FCC granted requests on a case-by-case basis to broadcasters who wanted to pull the plug sooner. …
“However, I think the Chrysler plan is a joke and my guess is a bankruptcy is imminent.”
His assessment of GM’s plan is that it is “a starting point for negotiations with Bloom, Summers, Geithner and the rest of the Obama auto team.”
One can see from this post I think, why The Pioneer Woman has been recognized by several surveys as one of the very best one-person sites on the web.
Another exciting day at the dog track.
The Dow closed at 7552.60 (down 3.8%), just higher than its bear market low close of 7552.29 on November 20.
The S&P 500 closed at 789.17 (down 4.6%), but still almost 5% above its November low of 752.44.
Here’s the Four Bad Bears chart brought up to date.
FRONTLINE investigates the causes of the worst economic crisis in 70 years and how the government responded. The film chronicles the inside stories of the Bear Stearns deal, Lehman Brothers’ collapse, the propping up of insurance giant AIG, and the $700 billion bailout. Inside the Meltdown examines what Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke didn’t see, couldn’t stop and haven’t been able to fix.
On PBS or online beginning tonight.
That’s what happens when a bird hits a jet engine — in this case a chicken and a wide-body engine.
Link via Bad Astronomy.
Today is the birthday
… of Jim Brown, 73. Brown was listed as the 4th greatest athlete of the 20th century by ESPN. (Which makes him the second greatest athlete born on this date.)
“For mercurial speed, airy nimbleness, and explosive violence in one package of undistilled evil, there is no other like Mr. Brown,” wrote Pulitzer Prize winning sports columnist Red Smith.
Read the entire ESPN essay on Jim Brown: Brown was hard to bring down.
… of Michael Jordan, 46 today.
Jordan was the ranked the top athlete of the 20th century by ESPN. Here’s what they had to say: Michael Jordan transcends hoops.
“What has made Michael Jordan the First Celebrity of the World is not merely his athletic talent,” Sports Illustrated wrote, “but also a unique confluence of artistry, dignity and history.”
… of Oscar-nominee Hal Holbrook, 84.
… of Rene Russo, 55.
… of Lou Diamond Phillips, 47.
… of Paris Hilton, 28 today. Age now surpassing apparent IQ. She’s a walking argument for keeping the inheritance tax.
H.L. Hunt was born on this date in 1889. Hunt was a Texas oil tycoon who, among other things, fathered 14 children with three women, including two that he was married to simultaneously.
The internets are pretty fascinating for just being a bunch of tubes.
Link via kottke.org.
“TIME makes its second annual list of the best blogs in the world, spanning politics, housekeeping, astronomy and everything in between”
NewMexiKen, no doubt, was 26th.
Steve Martin conducts a Q&A with Ron Howard. Interesting look at Howard, who began his career nearly 50 years ago.
Today’s example — A Life of Troubles Followed Estelle Bennett’s Burst of Fame. An excerpt:
For a few years in the mid-1960s Estelle Bennett lived a girl-group fairy tale, posing for magazine covers with her fellow Ronettes and dating the likes of George Harrison and Mick Jagger. Along with her sister and their cousin Nedra Talley, she helped redefine rock ’n’ roll femininity.
The Ronettes delivered their songs’ promises of eternal puppy love in the guise of tough vamps from the streets of New York. Their heavy mascara, slit skirts and piles of teased hair suggested both sex and danger, an association revived most recently by Amy Winehouse.
But Ms. Bennett’s death last week at 67 revealed a post-fame life of illness and squalor that was little known even to many of the Ronettes’ biggest fans.
… no more Pontiacs.
It had been a GM brand since 1926; and before that as part of Oakland since 1906.
No more GM Hummers, Saturns or Saabs either.
8-question Presidential Health Quiz.
The federal holiday today — the reason there is no mail delivery — is Washington’s Birthday.*
If there had been a calendar on the wall the day George Washington was born, it would have read February 11, 1731. In 1752, Britain and her colonies converted from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar, the calendar we use today. The change added 11 days and designated January rather than March as the beginning of the year. Accordingly, Washington’s birthday became February 22, 1732.
The federal holiday was celebrated on February 22 from its approval in 1879** until legislation in 1968 designated the third Monday of February the official day to celebrate Washington’s birthday. In 1971, when the 1968 Act went into effect, President Nixon proclaimed the holiday Presidents’ Day, to commemorate all past presidents, not just Washington and Lincoln. This was never intended or authorized by Congress; even so, it gained a strong hold on the public consciousness.
The states are not obliged to adopt federal holidays, which only affect federal offices and agencies. While most states have adopted Washington’s Birthday, a dozen of them officially celebrate Presidents’ Day. A number of the states that celebrate Washington’s Birthday also recognize Lincoln’s Birthday as a separate legal holiday.
The New Yorker’s Hendrik Hertzberg has more and there is a history of the making of the holiday in By George, IT IS Washington’s Birthday!.
14 weeks until the next holiday.
** Washington’s Birthday was the fifth federal holiday. Only New Year’s Day, Independence Day, Thanksgiving and Christmas Day preceded it.
… of Richard Ford. The Pulitzer-winning novelist is 65.
When asked what his advice is for aspiring writers, Ford said, “Try to talk yourself out of it. As a life, it’s much too solitary, it makes you obsessive, the rewards seem to be much too inward for most people, and too much rides on luck. Other than that, it’s great.”
The Writer’s Almanac (2007)
Among my favorites lines from Ford, from Independence Day:
“Though finally the worst thing about regret is that it makes you duck the chance of suffering new regret just as you get a glimmer that nothing’s worth doing unless it has the potential to fuck up your whole life.”
… of LeVar Burton. Kunta Kinte is 52.
… of Ice-T. Detective Odafin “Fin” Tutuola is 51. His real name is Tracy Marrow and his son is Tracy Marrow Jr., not Ice-T Jr.
… of John McEnroe. The tennis hall-of-famer is 50.
… of Jerome Bettis. “The Bus” is 37.
“There’s just one little problem with this story, which reappears every so often in conservative discourse on the environment. Specifically, it’s a crock of shit.”
Nate Silver, FiveThirtyEight.com speaking specifically of George Will, but with broader implications.
Michael Lewis takes a look at basketball in the form of Shane Battier. This is an excellent and truly insightful piece. Highly recommended.
We believe that everyone should be able to understand how the financial crisis came about, what it means for all of us, and what our options are for getting out of it. Unfortunately, the vast majority of all writing about the crisis – including this blog – assumes some familiarity with the world of mortgage-backed securities, collateralized debt obligations, credit default swaps, and so on. You’ve probably heard dozens of journalists use these terms without explaining what they means. If you’re confused, this page is for you.
“Timed for Presidents Day 2009, C-SPAN today releases the results of its second Historians Survey of Presidential Leadership, in which a cross-section of 65 presidential historians ranked the 42 former occupants of the White House on ten attributes of leadership.”
From Lincoln to Buchanan.
C-SPAN Survey of Presidential Leadership
You-know-who is 36th of 42.
The Harper’s Index is 25 years old and “[a]ll 12,058 lines of the Index are free for searching and browsing.”
How about this look for browsing the on line New York Times?
… was born Hyman Arluck in Buffalo, New York, on this date in 1905.
A short list from the more than 400 tunes written by Harold Arlen:
Arlen worked with many lyricists through the years, most notably Ira Gershwin, Yip Harburg, Johnny Mercer and even Truman Capote. Harburg, for example, wrote the lyrics for the Wizard of Oz songs. Though it’s the lyrics we most remember, it’s the melody that makes a song memorable. That was Arlen.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.
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