For years to come, municipal bond traders and other industry followers will tell their children and grandchildren the harrowing tale of The Day Treasury Yields Turned Negative.
Four-week notes traded at a yield of zero while three-month notes went for 99 cents on the dollar. For you non-finance types, that means that investors bought billions of dollars of bonds today that were guaranteed to lose them money. As the NYTimes puts it:
The news sends a sobering signal: in this environment, losing only a small amount of money on an investment is tantamount to coming out ahead.
09 December 2008
Hello, Tuesday afternoon
Well I haven't posted in a while (four days, that's a long time for me). Basically it's because nothing interesting is happening. Please note that the below things do not interest me:
- Riots in Greece
- Illinois governor in corruption scandal
- Auto bailout approved
- 9/11 terrorists plead guilty
- Dow up above 9k
- Julian Schnabel on 60 Minutes (okay I did watch this, but I didn't feel the need to post about it since I assumed everyone already knew)
However! Today I discovered that some real news has in fact been happening, and it's been going on right under my nose (or, rather, under some really good lighting and ampere waists)! Oprah is fat again!
In the [January issue of "O"] magazine, out Tuesday, the talk-show queen says she now weighs 200 pounds and has fallen off the wagon when it comes to healthy living.
This weight gives Oprah a BMI of 31.8, making her technically obese. That's what you get for discontinuing "O at Home"!! Karma's a bitch, baby!!
- Riots in Greece
- Illinois governor in corruption scandal
- Auto bailout approved
- 9/11 terrorists plead guilty
- Dow up above 9k
- Julian Schnabel on 60 Minutes (okay I did watch this, but I didn't feel the need to post about it since I assumed everyone already knew)
However! Today I discovered that some real news has in fact been happening, and it's been going on right under my nose (or, rather, under some really good lighting and ampere waists)! Oprah is fat again!
In the [January issue of "O"] magazine, out Tuesday, the talk-show queen says she now weighs 200 pounds and has fallen off the wagon when it comes to healthy living.
This weight gives Oprah a BMI of 31.8, making her technically obese. That's what you get for discontinuing "O at Home"!! Karma's a bitch, baby!!
05 December 2008
Back to the future
Flashback alert! It's 1995 again and O.J.'s back, but this time with a twist:
A Las Vegas judge sentenced fallen gridiron great O.J. Simpson to at least 15 years in prison for leading an armed confrontation last year at a Las Vegas hotel room over sports memorabilia.
Simpson could become eligible for parole in about nine years. Grimacing, Simpson was escorted from the courtroom in shackles.
Judge Jackie Glass gave Simpson a tongue-lashing before passing sentence.
"Earlier in this case, at a bail hearing, I said to Mr. Simpson I didn't know if he was arrogant, ignorant or both," Glass said. "During the trial and through this proceeding I got the answer, and it was both."
She stressed that the sentence was not "payback for anything else," apparently referring to Simpson's acquittal 13 years ago in the slayings of his former wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend, Ron Goldman.
Snap, Judge Jackie Glass. He's already been convicted and sentenced to at leaset 15 years jail, but why don't you just rub it in a little? I've always thought it was funny how judges get to just dis on the defendant like that for no reason. If I ever wanted to become a judge, that would definitely be the reason why.
A Las Vegas judge sentenced fallen gridiron great O.J. Simpson to at least 15 years in prison for leading an armed confrontation last year at a Las Vegas hotel room over sports memorabilia.
Simpson could become eligible for parole in about nine years. Grimacing, Simpson was escorted from the courtroom in shackles.
Judge Jackie Glass gave Simpson a tongue-lashing before passing sentence.
"Earlier in this case, at a bail hearing, I said to Mr. Simpson I didn't know if he was arrogant, ignorant or both," Glass said. "During the trial and through this proceeding I got the answer, and it was both."
She stressed that the sentence was not "payback for anything else," apparently referring to Simpson's acquittal 13 years ago in the slayings of his former wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend, Ron Goldman.
Snap, Judge Jackie Glass. He's already been convicted and sentenced to at leaset 15 years jail, but why don't you just rub it in a little? I've always thought it was funny how judges get to just dis on the defendant like that for no reason. If I ever wanted to become a judge, that would definitely be the reason why.
03 December 2008
Brace yourself for a great blog post!
CNN, you slay me. Where do you find this shit, seriously? Today we learn of high school teacher Tom Farber, who has begun selling ads on his calculus exams in an effort to raise extra cash for school expenses. An example:
You'd think Mr. Farber would get a lot of flack for diluting the purity of the educational process, bargaining his students' future for a buck, etc. etc., but parents and school officials have actually been very supportive. Personally, my ire lies not with Farber but with Stephen P. Henry D.M.D. "Brace yourself"? Could you be any lamer???
Detroit sucks so bad even Detroit thinks so
Yesterday the Big Three automakers returned to Congress to plead their cases once again for federal aid. In case you didn't already realize how much they suck:
GM said it needs an immediate injection of $4 billion to stay afloat until the end of the year, a fact it hadn't before disclosed. In total, the company said it needs $18 billion in loans -- $6 billion more than it said it would need just two weeks ago...
In a conference call with reporters, GM President Frederick "Fritz" Henderson said bankruptcy is not a viable option and the company is focusing solely on securing help from Washington. "There is not a Plan B," he said.
So, basically, the company needs $4 billion just to survive a single month. That must be some sort of record. And if for some crazy reason the government decides to put that money to better use, like say, by burning it, then GM's brilliant management team is out of ideas.
So what do regular ole Detroiters think of this plan? Apparently, they think it sucks, too:
John Raterink, a tool and machine maker who works at a small shop in Grand Rapids that supplies parts to the auto industry, opposes a bailout even though his livelihood is tethered to the car makers. Mr. Raterink, 46, points a finger at the Big Three for a lot of economic misery: "If I have to pull myself up by my own bootstraps, I hope G.M. faces that same reality."
In all fairness that dude is probably in the minority, but still. When even you think that you suck, it's time to move on.
GM said it needs an immediate injection of $4 billion to stay afloat until the end of the year, a fact it hadn't before disclosed. In total, the company said it needs $18 billion in loans -- $6 billion more than it said it would need just two weeks ago...
In a conference call with reporters, GM President Frederick "Fritz" Henderson said bankruptcy is not a viable option and the company is focusing solely on securing help from Washington. "There is not a Plan B," he said.
So, basically, the company needs $4 billion just to survive a single month. That must be some sort of record. And if for some crazy reason the government decides to put that money to better use, like say, by burning it, then GM's brilliant management team is out of ideas.
So what do regular ole Detroiters think of this plan? Apparently, they think it sucks, too:
John Raterink, a tool and machine maker who works at a small shop in Grand Rapids that supplies parts to the auto industry, opposes a bailout even though his livelihood is tethered to the car makers. Mr. Raterink, 46, points a finger at the Big Three for a lot of economic misery: "If I have to pull myself up by my own bootstraps, I hope G.M. faces that same reality."
In all fairness that dude is probably in the minority, but still. When even you think that you suck, it's time to move on.
02 December 2008
Tina Fey in Vanity Fair
I don't get Vanity Fair, because I don't pay for stuff, but I do read blogs that occassionally give me snippets of its content. Tina Fey is the subject of this month's cover story, which includes an interview with her husband and an explanation of that scar on her left cheek:
[A] stranger slashed Fey's face when she was 5 years old...the incident occurred in the front yard of her house.
She said it felt like someone marking her face with a pen. That's one tough-ass five-year-old, I tell you what.
[A] stranger slashed Fey's face when she was 5 years old...the incident occurred in the front yard of her house.
She said it felt like someone marking her face with a pen. That's one tough-ass five-year-old, I tell you what.
01 December 2008
Save Venice
Venice is totally fucked. Sorry, guys, but look at it:
That is the Piazza San Marco, a tourist- and pigeon-favorite, covered in knee-high (disgusting) seawater. The tide peaked at 61 inches (over 5 feet!), the fourth highest on record. They couldn't even put out those little walkways because the water was so high they would have floated away. Well, Venetians, you better start praying that all this global warming is followed by another Ice Age. Free skating, woooo!!!
That is the Piazza San Marco, a tourist- and pigeon-favorite, covered in knee-high (disgusting) seawater. The tide peaked at 61 inches (over 5 feet!), the fourth highest on record. They couldn't even put out those little walkways because the water was so high they would have floated away. Well, Venetians, you better start praying that all this global warming is followed by another Ice Age. Free skating, woooo!!!
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