essays & effluvia: March 2008

Friday, March 21, 2008

Sheetmetal Is Overshadowed by Economy

http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid452319854/bctid1465378537

Posted at 06:05 AM in Automobiles | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Thursday, March 20, 2008

Mr. Swashbuckling Capitalist

via Washington Post

Posted at 06:30 AM in Current Affairs, Finance | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Is this the real price?

SING TO THE TUNE OF 'BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY' BY QUEEN

Is this the real price?
Is this just fantasy?
Financial landslide
No escape from reality

Open your eyes
And look at your buys and see.
I'm now a poor boy (poor boy)
High-yielding casualty
Because I bought it high, watched it blow
Rating high, value low
Any way the Fed goes
Doesn't really matter to me, to me

Mama - just killed my fund
Quoted CDO's instead
Pulled the trigger, now it's dead
Mama - I had just begun
These CDO's have blown it all away
Mama - oooh-hoo-ooo
I still wanna buy
I sometimes wish I'd never left Goldman at all.

(guitar solo)

~~~

I see a little silhouette of a Fed
Bernanke! Bernanke! Can you save the whole market?
Monolines and munis - very very frightening me!
Super senior, super senior
Super senior CDO - magnifico

I'm long of subprime, nobody loves me
He's long of subprime CDO fantasy
Spare the margin call you monstrous PB!
Easy come easy go, will you let me go?
Peloton! No - we will not let you go - let him go
Peloton! We will not let you go
let him go
Peloton! We will not let you go - let me go
Will not let you go
let me go (never) Never let you go - let me go Never let me go – ooo
No, no, no, no, no, no, no, -
Oh mama mia, mama mia, mama mia let me go S&P had the devil put aside
for me
For me, for me, for me

~~~

So you think you can fund me and spit in my eye?
And then margin call me and leave me to die Oh PB - can't do this to me
Just gotta get out - just gotta get right outta here

Ooh yeah, ooh yeah
No price really matters
No liquidity
Nothing really matters - no price really matters to me
Any way the Fed goes.....

Penned by a Bear Stearns (BSC) guy.

Posted at 11:09 AM in Current Affairs, Finance, Humor | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Comedy Central on The Economy

The Daily Show on Bear Stearns:

Stephan Colbert on the Economy:

Aasif Mandvi reports on the Bear Stearns bailout while experiencing gravitational altitude correction:

I talked to guy about 300 feet ago . . .

Posted at 05:53 AM in Current Affairs, Finance, Humor | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Tuesday, March 18, 2008

Spitzer's Brain

Cover of NY Magazine this week is too too funny:

http://nymag.com/news/politics/powergrid/45107/

Posted at 09:06 PM in Humor, Media, Politics | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Bear on eBay

Via my pal Kevin DePew, comes this amusing photoshop work:

click to bid!

via Minyanville

Posted at 05:22 PM in Finance | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

FCC Explains Indecency

Dry humor at its finest:

FCC Okays Nudity On TV If It’s Alyson Hannigan

OnionNN vis SlateV

Posted at 06:00 AM in Humor, Television, Video | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Monday, March 17, 2008

$2 Bear

Dude, that's cold:

Source:
Bear fire sale sparks rout
Jack Reerink
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080317/bs_nm/bearstearns_fed_dc_27

Posted at 03:19 PM in Finance, Humor | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Sunday, March 16, 2008

The Beatles- Help! The Movie

Another fine flick, The Beatles- Help! The Movie, courtesy of Google Video:

Posted at 06:03 AM in Film, Music, The Beatles | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Friday, March 14, 2008

Top-Selling Albums of All Time

The Recording Industry Association of America's Top-Selling Albums of All Time*

28 Million
· Eagles Their Greatest Hits 19711975, Eagles (Elektra)

26 Million
· Thriller, Michael Jackson (Epic)

23 Million
· The Wall, Pink Floyd (Columbia)

22 Million
· Led Zeppelin IV, Led Zeppelin (Swan Song)

21 Million
· Greatest Hits Volumes I & II, Billy Joel (Columbia)

19 Million
· Rumours, Fleetwood Mac (Warner Bros.)
· Back in Black, AC/DC (Elektra)
· The Beatles, The Beatles (Capitol)
· Come On Over, Shania Twain (Mercury Nashville)

17 Million
· Boston, Boston (Epic)
· The Bodyguard (Soundtrack), Whitney Houston (Arista)

16 Million
· Cracked Rear View, Hootie & the Blowfish (Atlantic)
· Greatest Hits, Elton John (Rocket)
· Hotel California, Eagles (Elektra)
· The Beatles 1967-1970, The Beatles (Capitol)
· No Fences, Garth Brooks (Capitol Nashville)
· Jagged Little Pill, Alanis Morissette (Maverick)

15 Million
· Born in the U.S.A., Bruce Springsteen (Columbia)
· Physical Graffiti, Led Zeppelin (Swan Song)
· Dark Side of the Moon, Pink Floyd (Capitol)
· Saturday Night Fever (Soundtrack), Bee Gees (Polydor/Atlas)
· The Beatles 1962-1966, The Beatles (Capitol)
· Appetite for Destruction, Guns 'N Roses (Geffen)
· Double Live, Garth Brooks (Capitol Nashville)

14 Million
· Supernatural, Santana (Arista)
· Backstreet Boys, Backstreet Boys (Jive)
· Ropin' the Wind, Garth Brooks (Capitol Nashville)
· Bat Out of Hell, Meat Loaf (Epic)

13 Million
· Purple Rain (Soundtrack), Prince and the Revolution (Warner Bros.)
· Whitney Houston, Whitney Houston (Arista)
· Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band Live 19751985 (box set), Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band (Columbia)
· Greatest Hits 1974-1978, Steve Miller Band (Capitol)
· Millennium, Backstreet Boys (Jive)
· Baby One More Time, Britney Spears (Jive)
· Simon & Garfunkel's Greatest Hits, Simon & Garfunkel (Columbia)
· Metallica, Metallica (Elektra)

12 Million
· Wide Open Spaces, Dixie Chicks (Monument)
· Yourself or Someone Like You, Matchbox Twenty (Atlantic)
· No Jacket Required, Phil Collins (Atlantic)
· Hysteria, Def Leppard (Mercury)
· Slippery When Wet, Bon Jovi (Mercury)
· II, Boyz II Men (Motown)
· Abbey Road, The Beatles (Capitol)
· Ten, Pearl Jam (Epic)
· Led Zeppelin II, Led Zeppelin (Atlantic)
· Breathless, Kenny G (Arista)
· Forrest Gump (Soundtrack) (Epic)
· Kenny Rogers' Greatest Hits, Kenny Rogers (Capitol Nashville)
· Hot Rocks, The Rolling Stones (abkco)
· The Woman in Me, Shania Twain (Mercury Nashville)

11 Million
· James Taylor's Greatest Hits, James Taylor (Warner Bros.)
· CrazySexyCool, TLC (LaFace)
· Falling into You, Celine Dion (550 Music)
· Dirty Dancing (Soundtrack) (RCA)
· Houses of the Holy, Led Zeppelin (Atlantic)
· Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, The Beatles (Capitol)
· Eagles Greatest Hits, Vol. II, Eagles (Elektra)
· Pieces of You, Jewel (Atlantic)
· Titanic (Soundtrack) (Sony Classical)
· Candle in the Wind 1997/Something About the Way You Look Tonight (Single), Elton John (Rocket)
· Devil Without a Cause, Kid Rock (Lava)
· No Strings Attached, 'N Sync (Jive)

10 Million
· Fly, Dixie Chicks (Monument)
· Human Clay, Creed (Wind-Up Records)
· 'N Sync, 'N Sync (RCA)
· Let's Talk About Love, Celine Dion (550 Music/Epic)
· Tragic Kingdom, No Doubt (Trauma/Interscope)
· Life After Death, Notorious B.I.G. (Bad Boy/Arista)
· Best of the Doobies, Doobie Brothers (Warner Bros.)
· Dookie, Green Day (Reprise)
· The Stranger, Billy Joel (Columbia)
· Aerosmith's Greatest Hits, Aerosmith (Columbia)
· The Hits, Garth Brooks (Capitol Nashville)
· Music Box, Mariah Carey (Columbia)
· Unplugged, Eric Clapton (Reprise)
· Tapestry, Carole King (Ode)
· Greatest Hits, Journey (Capitol)
· Led Zeppelin, Led Zeppelin (Atlantic)
· The Immaculate Collection, Madonna (Warner Bros.)
· Like a Virgin, Madonna (Sire)
· Legend, Bob Marley & the Wailers (Island)
· Faith, George Michael (Columbia)
· Greatest Hits, Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers (MCA)
· Nevermind, Nirvana (DGC)
· The Lion King (Soundtrack) (Walt Disney)
· Can't Slow Down, Lionel Richie (Motown)
· Please Hammer Don't Hurt 'Em, Hammer (Capitol)
· Daydream, Mariah Carey (Columbia)
· Van Halen, Van Halen (Warner Bros.)
· Eliminator, ZZ Top (Warner Bros.)
· The Joshua Tree, U2 (Island)
· 1984 (MCMLXXXIV), Van Halen (Warner Bros.)