Awww, there she is! We wondered where crazy-pants Republican blond Ann Coulter was during the election. We figured she had felt upstaged in stupidity by Sarah Palin so decided to give it a rest. And then her jaw was wired shut in November, so that gave us an extra month to forget about the If Democrats Had Any Brains, They'd Be Republicans author.
But now the bitch is back, talking shop about a subject she knows a lot about: the economy (wait…what?). Coulter is tickled pink that magazines are failing, because it means free market capitalism is doing it's job: the people have spoken, and they want less magazines! Um, right…or it could be that our economy is in such shambles now that the ad market has all but dried up, so even if circulation has gone up and costs have gone down, there is still no way to finance even successful magazines anymore.
At the very least, kudos to Coulter, for taking the unfavorable position of Alan Greenspan three years ago and telling us that our free market structure is still da bomb.
(Via Wonkette)
Ex-chairman of the Federal Reserve, Alan Greenspan, made comments today alluding to his total lack of foresight when it came to current economic implosion. Addressing a Congressional panel today of the House Oversight Committee, Greenspan warned that things might get worse before they get better re: foreclosure and the roller-coaster Dow.
Well thanks, Alan. Could you have managed to use that incredible vision when you actually could have helped? Like raising interest rates or something?
CONTINUED »
We like Andrea Mitchell when she's practicing the fine art of journalism. We don't like Andrea Mitchell when she tries anchoring more than 30 seconds of MSNBC programming or bigfoots her colleagues for special treatment. So, we have a sort of wishy-washy feeling toward her. But our feelings aside, she's an ace reporter; a veteran NBC News foreign affairs correspondent, she's earned her keep.
So it makes sense that she'd have a hand in reporting on the news that's affecting every American and, thus, every human being on earth: the collapse of the U.S. economy.
But the struggling financial markets aren't the only angle to this beat — there's also the political angle, because Bush, Obama, McCain, Biden, and Palin are all weighing in on how many billions of dollars we're going to lend to who, and how many trillions of dollars our deficit will end up with. And that's really Mitchell's main territory.
But then there's one small eentsy-weentsy tiny infinitesimal issue: Mitchell's husband is a man named Alan Greenspan. You might know him as the ex-chairman of the Federal Reserve, which he led until 2006 and, some might argue, laid the groundwork to get us into this mess. So might that conflict of interest preclude Mitchell from reporting on, well, anything right now? CONTINUED »
The Economist has lost its appeal to get theeconomist.com website. The domain is owned by a random guy in Maryland and is dedicated to Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan. The magazine tried to buy it off of him for $500 last August. The proprietor refused to sell. Instead of offering more capital, the magazine spent their money on lawyers and take the case to World Intellectual Property Organization. The WIPO rejected their case.
Maybe The Economist never took Economics, but when there’s a high demand for a limited supply, $500 won’t buy you anything.
Former Prime Minister of Britain Tony Blair has reportedly received something in the neighborhood of a $9 million advance from Random House on his upcoming memoirs.
That astounding figure places the polished Englishman just above former Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan, who received $8.5 million for his bathtub inspired tome, and just beneath his old friend William Jefferson Clinton, who received $10 million (or, roughly, $1 million for each 100 pages) and will likely help to ease the pain of seeing a long, brilliant legacy irreparably tarnished by an ill-advised alliance with President George W. Bush.
Not only is Fidel Castro not dead, he's apparently schilling for Alan Greenspan. [HuffPo]
…Why ex-Federal Reserve chairman (and current retiree) Alan Greenspan reportedly drives like a little old lady and wrote the bulk of his upcoming book, The Age of Turbulence: Adventures in a New World, while "in the bathtub." [BusinessWeek via TVNewser]
You guys remember that day earlier this week, when all those Wall Street Guys collectively screamed profanities and got completely blitzed (i.e. more so than usual) at an after-work boozefest? It was probably because the Dow took a nose-dive, hitting its lowest numbers since September 11th, and inspiring amazing headlines such as "Giant Dow-Ner Socks Stocks."
But what caused this phenomenon?
Some say it was fedora-wearing Matt Drudge, and his annoying (albeit extremely attention-grabbing) news siren. Others have more boring explanations, involving terms like "capital gains tax" and "falling durable orders." But we're not interested in that sort of stuff, so we're sticking with the far sexier Drudge conspiracy theory.
Anyhow, here's a moderately biased recap of what happened on Tuesday (courtesy of ABC News) for those of you not-so-financially minded:
• First, former Federal Reserve chief, Alan Greenspan, says something fairly self-evident—and not at all incendiary about the U.S. economy.**
• Then…it turns out nobody cares. At all. Except for the Associated Press, who yawns, and makes a half-hearted effort to cover the story.
• Two days later, Drudge links to the story with a scary "Recession Is Now" themed headline, accompanied by that alarmist news siren.
• Suddenly, (Ka-DOW!) The stock market's in shambles, and our financy boyfriend's "not in the mood."
• The New York Times is set to expand its understanding of the online and financial world — not to mention giving Elizabeth Spiers a run for her money. [Mediaweek]
• Bloggers printing press releases word for word? We've never heard of such a thing. [NYT]
• If only Alan Greenspan had made it with an intern, maybe his book could've sold for $12 million, too. [NYP]
• Revolver joins the music mag trend of heading west [Fishbowl NY]
• Christopher Keyes will jump inside Outside beginning in April. [Mediaweek]
