The Aftermath

Paul Krugman, via another blog, puts the effect of the bailout plan into fairly simplistic terms.

Historic Day

New York Magazine, as usual, put it so well.

I love Paul Krugman

I know, you're thinking, "three times in one day?"  Too important to not be writing about it:

Paul Krugman is a professor of economics at Princeton and Op-ed columnist for the New York Times.  His latest posting on his blog pretty much sums it up.

Bailout Fever Part 2

Ok - so I, along with many others were wrong.  No bailout.  I repeat, no bailout.  Capitalism is alive in America.

DealBreaker has had awesome coverage of this and as always, keeping it hilarious:

Jewish Holidays?

To see how your Representative voted, go here.  Please don't resort to violence but definitely feel free to write a nasty letter if their vote wasn't representative of you.

The market is not reacting well.  However, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE DON'T PANIC.  If there's anything we love in America, it's a comeback.  Not sure of the time line on this one though....

Bailout Fever

Go Hank!

The bailout.  Love it or hate it, it's likely going to happen my friends.  Ok, so now we live in a socialist country.  Washington, Adams, Jefferson, etc. probably didn't have this in mind but hey what did those guys know about sub-prime mortgages and credit default swaps?  

They also couldn't have possible predicted the over indulgent masses coveting the newest furniture scheme at Crate & Barrel or traveling to Europe on a Discover Card that has an interest rate that the most egregious loan shark wouldn't charge (Hey! But I get cash back!).  

So now, our duly elected representatives in DC have worked all weekend and hammered out a plan.  WHEW!  You know, in times of crisis it's good to know that these people, who failed to warn us about the impending doom, are more than happy to buy up a bunch of worthless assets to help these poor unfortunate banks.

Everybody talks how we need to turn the economy around.  Why?  So that people will continue spending money they don't have on things they don't really need?  That sounds like a great idea.  We've only got a handful of banks left.  Let's try and bring them down too.

Just a little follow up...

This helps with the AIG portion of the current chaos.  As you'll read, much more serious.

Crisis, Turmoil, Chaos, Whatever

I got a request to opine on the current madness that is currently happening on Wall St. and since I don't like to disappoint my few loyal readers, I thought I would indulge a little.  Granted there are an infinity of articles out there on this but I'll give you my non-journalistic, non-finance, non-economics background take on everything.  I'll also put in some links to help all of you navigate some of the best stuff on the web.

First, understanding why this is all happening is pretty crucial.  The best explanation I've found is here (second post).  I don't think I need to say too much more (if you read it) except maybe that too many people got caught up keeping up with the Joneses, Gonzalezes, Schwartzes, Mohammeds, Khans, Sopranos, Changs, whoever the hell they live next to and coveting their (seemingly) marginally superior lifestyle and consumption ability.

This all-too human behavior got the best of too many people and companies like Lehman Brothers, Bear Stearns, Merrill Lynch, hell, all of them decided to take advantage of this unprecedented wave of home buying and all the consumption (via plastic) that goes along with it.

The past is the past.  What about the present?  Well, things are bad.  Especially in New York, where this eliminates thousands of jobs and the trickle down effect is huge (e.g. street coffee man).  That's just the beginning.  The cab and limo drivers, service industry employees, etc.  A person I regularly talk to likens our situation as (I'm paraphrasing) Great Depression-esque.  I definitely see his point.  Hoovervilles aren't popping up in Central Park just yet but things are pretty grim.  The seemingly bullet-proof New York real estate market is softening, prices of everything are rising, and infrastructure is crumbling. 

Luckily, we live in an information-overload era and there are plenty of people putting a comedic spin on all this.  My favorite is DealBreaker, a self-described Wall St. Tabloid.  They take everything in stride and is a good outlet for those affected by the situation to vent a little about their incompetent, ego-maniacal bosses.  New York Magazine is also great, especially the blog Daily Intel.  They (DealBreaker, Daily Intel) have a tendency to poke fun at the big players: Hank Paulson, Dick Fuld, John Thain among others which is good because the typical "Big Business Bad!" (via the New York Times) vs. "Big Business Rules!" (via CNBC and Fox News) is, frankly, a little boring.

And, of course, the two guys running for President are talking a big game.  John McCain wants to appoint a "9/11 Commission" to figure out the problem (not a solution) and Barack Obama is going to raise taxes (not good for anybody).  The last two people that should be talking about the situation is these two guys.  

I hate to be the person to remind a few people of this, but the President of the United States has very little to do with the state of the economy.  There are going to be good times and bad times and if you're President you either bask in the glory (Clinton, Reagan) or take all the blame (Carter, either Bush).  Sorry, it comes with the job.

Now I suppose I could get into credit default swaps and mortgage backed securities and how they fit into all this but it's really pretty boring and complicated.  Hopefully this satisfies your Wall St. madness thirst.  Now go out there and get your Lehman Brothers swag on eBay!

At the Corner of Laziness and Ignorance

I came to the conclusion recently that people are lazy about the strangest things and I, for one, do not escape this conclusion.  There is strange intersection at Cortelyou Road and Coney Island Avenue in my neighborhood (the pizza at Palermo right at the corner is pretty good).

 As a person walks on Cortelyou Road (in either direction) towards Coney Island Avenue, you can see that the two streets do not intersect directly.  The Cortelyou Road on the south[1] side of Coney Island Ave. is further east than the north side of Coney Island Ave.  Cars turning left on to Coney Island from Cortelyou, in either direction, take up a good portion of the intersection when they have the green light.

 Pedestrians have two options to cross the street in cross walks but the vast majority of pedestrians choose to walk across Coney Island Ave. in the middle, right where both left-turning cars (regardless of who has the green light) have to drive.  There is even A SIGN that says “proceed to the cross walk”.  Most people ignore this and walk in front of these cars that technically have the right-of-way.  I mean if someone driving their car to that intersection is having a bad day and thus, driving angry, you may end up on NY1 that day.

 Now, why all these pedestrians (including myself) choose not to proceed to the cross walks (and thus, escape any negligence that would be thrown at a pedestrian by a road raging New Yorker) cannot be thoroughly determined.

I can tell you that, personally, I don’t proceed to either of the cross walks because, in the mornings, I want to walk in the shade which falls on the east[2] side in the pre-noon hours.  In the evenings, I'm probably just too tired to care and probably don't mind if I get hit by a car.  I will say that I have gone to great lengths to at least look if there are vehicles approaching the intersection and not walking in front of them without paying any mind.

A friend from the neighborhood and I had a chat recently about the intersection’s phenomena and we chalked it up to laziness.  A I really too lazy to walk back across Cortelyou to get to the subway station?  Am I really too lazy to walk the extra distance across Cortelyou to get to the cross walk in order to cross Coney Island?  

In short: probably.

Truly a strange thing to be lazy about but I’m sure most people that cross in between the crosswalks are doing for similar reason to me, and thus, are choosing to cross the street in this spot out of laziness.  Not necessarily a conscious decision, but nevertheless, still a choice.

So Americans are lazy.  That’s nothing new.  But this may raise the bar a bit higher.  I guess the bright side would be that these people are at least walking.

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[1] Not truly south

[2] Not truly east