With ongoing grateful thanks to the Wall Street Journal for kindly providing such a neat summary, and so – for Saturday February 28th 2009 – here’s what what’s what was hot during the past week, and what……wasn’t;
From the monthly archives:
February 2009
With ongoing grateful thanks to the Wall Street Journal for kindly providing such a neat summary, and so – for Saturday Febraury 21st 2009 – here’s what what’s what was hot during the past week, and what……wasn’t;
I’d like to draw your attention to a new advertising campaign by fast food chain Burger King (NYSE:BKC) featuring an “angry whopper,” and “angry onions,” even “angry sauce.”
From the Burger King press release: “In conjunction with the new burger, BKC will also launch www.angry-gram.com, a humorous Web site that allows visitors to use the burger to deliver Angry-Gram e-mails to those who may be getting on their last nerve.”
This will not be the last manifestation of social discord and anger we see in the months ahead. At least this is humorous -- but think about what it reflects.
Athens riots anyone? Grab your burgers and follow me. It’s time for some serious protesting. At least we bought our lunch before heading to the barricades.
From Deal Book via Reuters – and from the; “This-is-utterly-ridiculous” department;
Goldman Sachs denied a CNBC television report on Thursday that it had convened an “emergency” meeting of top investors earlier this week, prompted by worries that Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner’s bank rescue plan was not viable.
A Goldman spokesman told Reuters that the bank invited 30 private equity and hedge fund firms to a dinner Tuesday, a routine gathering for investment banking clients. The event, hosted by the veteran investment banker Milton Berlinski and Goldman’s co-president, Gary Cohn, was scheduled three weeks ago.
Attendees also heard a presentation by Jim O’Neill, the bank’s chief economist.
“There was no secret, emergency meeting to discuss the Geithner plan,” a Goldman spokesman, Lucas van Praag, told Reuters. “We clearly could not have called a meeting. We’d need to be psychic.”
If there was, if there wasn’t…who cares? Goldman personnel can meet (if they wish) until they’re blue in the face. Their concerns over the shape of any possible deal had no doubt already been communicated to Treasury – and quite likely personally communicated to Timmy himself – so after that, all else is moot.
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Sometime this year, taxpayers will receive an Economic Stimulus Payment. This is a very exciting new program that I will explain using the Q &A format:
Q. What is an Economic Stimulus Payment?
A. It is money that the federal government will send to taxpayers.
Q. Where will the government get this money?
A. From taxpayers.
Q. So the government is giving me back my own money?
A. No, they are borrowing it from China. Your children are expected to repay the Chinese.
Q. What is the purpose of this payment?
A. The plan is that you will use the money to purchase a high-definition TV set, thus stimulating the economy.
Q. But isn’t that stimulating the economy of China ?
A. Shut up.
Q. This is confusing, how do I know where to spend my money? ………
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With ongoing grateful thanks to the Wall Street Journal for kindly providing such a neat summary, and so – for Saturday February 14th 2009 – here’s what what’s what was hot during the past week, and what……wasn’t;
Apparently I emitted sufficient (admittedly angry) psychic energy in my rant of yesterday concerning former VP Dick Cheney, that Senator Patrick Leahy picked up the vibrations.
According to the Washington Post:
The chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee yesterday called for a “truth commission” to investigate controversial actions of the Bush administration, including the politically inspired firings of U.S. attorneys, the treatment and torture of terrorism suspects and the authorization of warrantless wiretapping.
Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.) said his proposal is meant to launch a fact-finding inquiry into key decisions of George W. Bush’s presidency, including intelligence matters before and during the Iraq war and scandals at the Department of Justice. He said such a commission would not seek to prosecute former administration officials but would have the power to subpoena them to testify.
“Rather than vengeance, we need a fair-minded pursuit of what actually happened,” Leahy said as he outlined his proposal during a speech at Georgetown University. “Sometimes the best way to move forward is getting to the truth, finding out what happened, so we can make sure it does not happen again.”
There are minefields contained within this idea – a lot of ‘em. If it’s done, it needs to be structured with almost surgical care……
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Honestly, there just are no words. I have no clue how to characterize this in any way. Over to you dear readers, perhaps it ought to be a caption competition…..
