What would happen if CBS, NBC, ABC and Fox decided they could do just as well as cable networks (just as well meaning, make just as much money). At some point this will happen.
Are the local TV channels (the network affiliates) planning for this?
Or are they like the newspapers, about to be leapfrogged by changing technology without a clue?
When are we going to get a “do not send” list to prevent junk mail?
I’d be willing to bet, for example, that I’ve averaged at least one piece of mail a week for 10 years from Max Sanchez a local realtor.
Max, Max, cut it out. Please. I will never, ever list with you. One more piece of mail will not change my mind.
There’s two or three pieces a week for hearing aids — because my father’s mail was forwarded here after he died.
Then there’s the stupid flyer that comes every Tuesday. I never go out to get the mail on Tuesday.
Let’s say you pay $1,000 a year in federal income taxes.
How much of that goes for earmarks?
This fiscal year (2009) about $5. Next year, probably even less.
Who cares? Our house is on fire and the morons are clamoring about how much we spend on garden hose.
Elsewhere, The Wall Street Journal reports on who’s getting the money we’ve given to support A.I.G.
Among those institutions are Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Germany’s Deutsche Bank AG, each of which received roughly $6 billion in payments between mid-September and December 2008, according to a confidential document and people familiar with the matter.
Other banks that received large payouts from AIG late last year include Merrill Lynch, now part of Bank of America Corp., and French bank Société Générale SA.
More than a dozen firms with smaller exposures to AIG also received payouts, including Morgan Stanley, Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC and HSBC Holdings PLC, according to the confidential document.
I’m guessing these same folks will get more from the new tranche of money we gave A.I.G. Monday.
Next question, where does it go from there — that is, who do Goldman Sachs and Deutsche Bank and Bank of America and Société Générale give the money to?
They’re probably investing it in U.S. Government T-Bills.
You know, if we still had pitchforks this would be a good time to march down the street with them.
The first Major League spring training games are tomorrow.
NewMexiKen broke out the shorts today. Man, I’d forgotten how hot the laptop can get on bare legs.
They’re going to nationalize the big banks — the choice is being made by the reality of the situation. The Administration is in denial because letting on that it’s about to happen will drive the stock prices of the banks to zero. (So it will happen on a weekend.)
My question. All my investments are in cash. Where should I put the cash?
I realize FDIC protects my deposit accounts, but this is going to be messy and unprecedented and go on for who knows how long. And I need to worry about something else now that Sweetie Reid is over his virus.
So this Stanford ponzi financial institution allegedly had lots of Mexican drug cartel cash among its deposits. Now it’s all lost.
What was he thinking?
Compared to what Stanford faces if caught by the bad guys, Zed was given bon bons by Marcellus Wallace’s medievalists.
$75 billion to save home ownership for 9 million Americans.
That’s $8,333 each.
How will that do it?
Update: Oh, there’s another $200 billion for Freddie and Fannie.
Interesting how the news media reports that retail sales were up in January, one percent over the previous month. Good news, I’m sure.
But what they aren’t taking particular note of is that January was DOWN 9.7% from last January.
The Secretary of the Treasury’s name is Timothy Geithner.
I am no doubt overlooking a number of people, but I am having a difficult time thinking of another “famous” person with the name Timothy or Tim.
I mean other than the mouse in Dumbo.
Oh, and Tiny Tim.
Did you ever think that life is just like American Idol and you’re Paula Abdul?
P.S. All you need to remember about American Idol in two words — Jennifer Hudson.
[She came in seventh in the third season. Since she has won an Academy Award, a Golden Globe, a Grammy (tonight), and sang the National Anthem at the Super Bowl.]
What exactly does the phrase “’tis of thee” mean? You know, as in “my country ’tis of thee.” I never have understood it.
The Library of Congress, by the way, has a page about the song. The music is from the national anthem of the United Kingdom, “God Save the Queen” (or King as might be), published as early as 1745.
Here’s Aretha.
Yesterday driving around we saw two pickup trucks together, each flying a large Confederate flag above the truck bed.
What do you think that was about?
Not to joke too much1 about something that could have been an enormous tragedy, but how much do you suppose passengers on board U.S. Air Flight 1549 will receive in compensation for their landing in the Hudson River?
From what I’ve read it sounds as if the pilot is a genuine hero. Good thing the marine who ejected over San Diego last month wasn’t flying this plane.
Update: Can the Passengers of Flight 1549 Sue for Emotional Distress?
Update Two: In case you were wondering, about that airplane in the Hudson. Interesting assessment.
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1 Howard Stern reportedly was once fired from his radio job in D.C. for inquiring on the air in 1982 after a plane crashed into the 14th Street Bridge, how much the fare was from National Airport to the 14th Street Bridge.
NewMexiKen always felt and said that buying stuff from Circuit City was too much like buying it out of the back of a truck — annoying, snide, self-important jerks1 — but now the truck has gone.
Circuit City Will Be Liquidated, Sources Say – CNBC.com
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1 Not all 35,000 employees of Circuit City, of course, nor perhaps all 567 stores. I do feel badly for their personal loss.
Is it two-thousand-and-nine or twenty-oh-nine?
If Yellowstone does blow up, is there any way we can blame Bush?
How am I going to get MY Christmas shopping done with all these procrastinators in the way?!
Talk of an all-electric car is all the rage. Is an all-electric airliner technologically feasible?
Word (at this writing) is that the Government is going to take a $100 billion stake in Citicorp tomorrow.
Meanwhile, f*** you General Motors!
Why are financial institutions who produce nothing more important than manufacturers?
Surely no one thinks the banks are better managed than GM and that they don’t deserve to go down the drain just as fast.
And please tell me it isn’t anything as venal as Treasury officials work at financial institutions — and the current crop of Treasury officials will be returning there on January 21st — but none of them ever worked for General Motors.
Cheney resigns.
Bush nominates Obama to replace Cheney.
Senate confirms.
Obama becomes vice president.
Bush resigns.
I’m suggesting this take place Friday morning.
Anyone have a problem with that?
I don’t know about you, but I’d feel so much better if I knew McCain and Palin and Phil Gramm were going to be managing the economic crisis soon.
Two months until Inauguration Day.
Way too long.
Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano is said to be President-elect Obama’s choice to direct the Department of Homeland Security.
Governor Napolitano graduated from Albuquerque’s Sandia High School in 1975. According to her Wikipedia entry, she was voted Most Likely to Succeed.
I don’t care if Obama puts Kim Jong-il in his cabinet if we get healthcare reform and a forward-looking energy and climate program.
AIG, a friggin’ insurance company, has gotten over $100 billion in federal (our) money.
What’s the problem exactly with aiding the auto companies?