Good News From the Credit Crunch
Considering the crap coming out of Hollywood, I’ll put this in the Good News category: The credit crunch has hit home in Hollywood after Paramount Pictures, which has released a string of hit movies this year, was forced to suspend plans for a $450m film financing. The studio has been working with Deutsche Bank on .. read more
More From Bunning
Here’s the entire statement from Jim Bunning today: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I know we have a lot of ground to cover today, but I want to say a few things on the topic of this hearing and of the next. First, on monetary policy, I am deeply concerned about what the Fed has done .. read more
Is Bernanke a Gnome?
My wife pointed out the resemblance of Bernanke to a gnome. Put a pointy hat on him….
Bunning’s Comments
For those of you who don’t want to watch the entire video of Jim Bunning below, here are some excerpts (via TMTGM): I’m deeply concerned about what the Fed has done in the last year and in the last decade. Chairman Greenspan’s easy money in the late 90s and then following the tech bust inflated .. read more
Bunning Strikes Out Bernanke
As the only Senator to vote against the nomination of Ben Bernanke as Fed Chairman, Jim Bunning is the only Senator who can honestly say he saw this mess coming. He spent years criticizing Greenspan, so he’s not new at this. Today, he threw nothing but strikes (Bunning spent 17 years as a major league .. read more
Retail Sales
Despite the help of Uncle Sam and his $50 billion in rebate checks thus far, retail sales managed only a 0.1% gain for the month of June, well below expectations. Excluding automobile purchases, sales were up 0.8%, the slowest in three months. Excluding autos and gas purchases, and that number falls to 0.2%. Economists were .. read more
Economic Truth from the Onion
The Onion has a classic satire about the economic situation: WASHINGTON—A panel of top business leaders testified before Congress about the worsening recession Monday, demanding the government provide Americans with a new irresponsible and largely illusory economic bubble in which to invest. “What America needs right now is not more talk and long-term strategy, but .. read more
Dionne Bashes Capitalism
E.J. Dionne says that capitalism is ailing: WASHINGTON — The biggest political story of 2008 is getting little coverage. It involves the collapse of assumptions that have dominated our economic debate for three decades. Since the Reagan years, free market cliches have passed for sophisticated economic analysis. But in the current crisis, these ideas are .. read more
