Bailouts Bailouts Bailouts! The federal government agreed Sunday night to rescue Citigroup Inc. by helping to absorb potentially hundreds of billions of dollars in losses on toxic assets and injecting some fresh capital. I am not sure exactly how these things work, but some how the government is going to invest more than the company is worth and still not actually own it. The other key part of this story is that President Bush emphasized how he and President-Elect Obama worked closely on this plan. As I said, I don’t know whether this is a good idea or not but I tend to defer to Paul Krugman in matters like this (what with his Nobel prize and all):
A bailout was necessary — but this bailout is an outrage: a lousy deal for the taxpayers, no accountability for management, and just to make things perfect, quite possibly inadequate, so that Citi will be back for more.
Meanwhile, GM remains in a lot of trouble and is considering bankruptcy if they don’t get a federal bailout. The New York Times has a great article which includes interviews with several bankruptcy specialists about what bankruptcy proceedings would look like for GM and what they could accomplish. If that sounds a little dense for a Monday, then the money quote says it all: “Bankruptcy sucks as a way to achieve real business resolution.”
Twilight, a movie I probably won’t see based on a series of popular books that I have never heard of was the #1 film at the box office this weekend. James Bond took the #2 spot with Disney super-dog epic Bolt coming in third.
SuperbloggerKanye West’s new album drops this week and while we will have a longer review later in the week, the initial reports are that like all of West’s albums he succeeded somewhat in spite of himself.
What’s that? Oh nothing, just the President-elect’s first YOUTUBE VIDEO!! Though the weekly radio address has been a Presidential standard for years, Barack Obama has added a weekly Youtube address. Though it seems like this is a leap forward in Presidential accessibility, it is worth noting that comments on that video have been turned off. That is probably for the best, it really wouldn’t do to have some schmuck tell the President-elect “GEEZ KILL YO’SELF.”
Iraq’s cabinet on Sunday overwhelmingly approved a proposed security agreement that calls for a full withdrawal of American forces from the country by the end of 2011. The overwhelming nature of the vote bodes well for the agreements full vote in Parliament because it is likely all of the political parties will support it. So the war is over - maybe?
President-elect Obama and Senator John McCain are meeting today in Chicago to attempt a reconciliation after a bitter campaign. Here is an interesting debate to have in your office: What role will John McCain play in the upcoming years? Will he lead the Republican opposition and through his mastery of the ins and outs of the Senate change or kill President Obama’s proposals? Or, will he give a big F.U. to the Republican base and lead the moderate Republicans to compromise with the Democratic majority. I don’t know, but I feel like having to suck up to Joe the Plumber may have been the last straw.
Finally, a note of major concern to 2.0somethings, Total Request Live ended last night after a ten-year run as the anchor property of MTV. The show launched the careers of artists like Britney Spears, the Backstreet Boys, ‘N Sync, Eminem and Christina Aguilera, so it would be easy to joke that the world would have been better off without it. But for a lot of people our age, TRL was was the first exposure we had to the communal experience that is pop culture. I am going to celebrate by heading over to MTVmusic.com and throwing on some videos of LFO, The Bare Naked Ladies, 98 degrees, Limp Bizkit, Korn, Sugar Ray or whoever, closing my eyes and for a brief second, pretending that I just got home from school.
A lame duck congress is when Congress gavels back into session after the November elections but before the new Congress is sworn in in January. The majority of the Congress and Senate live pretty far from Washington and like to go home for the holidays, so they don’t tend to call these sessions unless there is something pretty important going on. Like, say, the collapse of the US Economy.
Democratic Congressional leaders way that they want to pass emergency legislation to aid the imperiled auto industry during the lame-duck session that begins next week. President Bush, predictably, has said that he doesn’t favor tapping the $700 billion bail out fund to help automakers. Don’t these factory workers understand that there are employees at Goldman Sachs who need to sell their second houses in the Hamptons? Thank god we have a President who looks out for the little guy.
GM plant employees are not the only one’s looking at the prospect of unemployment checks. The nation’s top two intelligence officers are not to happy about the indication that they are going to shown the door by President-elect Obama. Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell and CIA Director Michael V. Hayden today clearly leaked to the Washington Post that they want to remain in their current posts and that they feel early departures could be seen as politicizing their offices and keeping them could help stabilize the intelligence community. These are good points, but Hayden was in charge of the White House’s warrentless wiretapping program and both of them have publicly defended torture. Guys, don’t let the door hit you on the way out.
Unemployed autoworkers and senior intelligence officers will both but unable to afford prescription drugs. Monthly premiums for Medicare’s prescription drug coverage will increase on average 43% next year. So, uhh, don’t get sick.
You know who has had it for too easy for too long? Whales. You know, the big lazy fuckers just swimming around out there, getting in the way of our submarines, eating our krill. Thank God the Supreme Court is here to put them in their place.
Apparently no one in the Treasury Department has any friends who are habitual gamblers or drug users. If a friend asks you for money, they ALWAYS need more then they ask for and they ALWAYS end up coming back for more. Fannie Mae and AIG, both of whom received massive government loans in September, have reported billions more in losses and have requested more support to the tune of $150 billion from the Federal Government. If you give a mismanaged and hemorrhaging company a glass of milk…
Apparently, President Bush and President Elect Obama did more than just measure the drapes yesterday. The two discussed the financial crisis and Obama pressed the President to provide emergency aid to the auto industry. Hard to say where to come down on this one and you can make your own arguments. Automakers are failing now because of their own lack of foresight. However, something like one in 12 people in this country is employed by the auto industry.
NASA has officially ended a six-month mission at Mars’ north pole after they lost contact for more than a week with the Phoenix Lander. The mission was a resounding success; the lander discovered water and soil that could support life. More whimsically, Phoenix’s weather relay also discovered that it snows on Mars. The lander became famous when a NASA communications staffer set it up with a twitter account which was shot around the internet. The tweets were fun and informative (that is where NASA broke the news of water on Mars) but as the lander has powered down they just started bumming me out.
Now that the election is over, newspapers can empty out the stories that they have had on the back burner for the past few months. So what has that crazy President been up to while we have been distracted? Apparently, since 2004, The United States military has used broad, secret authority to carry out nearly a dozen previously undisclosed attacks against Al Qaeda and other militants in Syria, Pakistan and elsewhere. Stories like this used to fill me with outrage, but now I just turn the page and read stories like: “Obama Weighs Quick Undoing of Bush Policy.”
President Elect Obama’s transition team is deciding which of the approximately 100 billion executive orders issued by Bush they are going to reverse as soon as he takes office. On the top of the list are limits on stem cell research and the expansion of oil and gas drilling. While they are doing that, Obama is busy measuring the drapes.
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