Posted 6:51 PM by Gene

Paramount Pictures executives congratulated Steven Spielberg, David Geffen and Stacey Snider on having announced completion of their deal to leave the studio and form a new entertainment company — though no such announcement had yet been made.

The go-round followed a report on The Wall Street Journal’s Web site saying that the three DreamWorks executives had finally finished their long-anticipated deal to start a new company with backing from Reliance Big Entertainment of India.

Was SLIME showing someone up?

Posted 1:37 PM by Gene

An ADMISSION from the BIG C:

GE Expected to Be Added to SEC's No-Short List

HA!

I guess that means its stock CAN'T go down now.

Maybe no-shorting is a dumb idea, even if GEKKO KUDLOW says it.

Posted 11:40 AM by Gene

With all these economic plans out there now our superiors seem to be thinking too many cooks can't spoil a broth that's already spoiled.

Posted 9:38 AM by Gene

When in doubt -- socialize!

Posted 9:38 AM by Gene

The looneys are back on Wall Street. Now what?

Posted 5:21 PM by Gene

What's the difference between a selling PANIC and a buying PANIC?

Posted 1:39 PM by Gene

Elsewhere in the ad world, Steve BAWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWLMER clones the other Steve's spokesman and thinks it will sell.

Was XP ME involved in the production -- or strictly MACs?

Posted 1:33 PM by Gene

AdAge Nooz of the Day:

AIG Pulls Flight of National Corporate Ads
Campaign's Theme Was 'Strength to Be There'

...The advertising pullback, however, won't affect a direct-mail piece that is getting a lot of internet attention. The postcard that arrived in potential customers' mail early this week had a single sentence on the front: "If disaster strikes, will you have the protection you need?" It was sent from the AIG Private Client Group, which is one of the business units that will continue local advertising efforts. The question on the card was referring to earthquake insurance.

Posted 1:22 PM by Gene

McCain says he would fire SEC Chairman Chris Cox

Boobs finds a scapegoat!

Posted 11:41 AM by Gene

GOP senator: A 'stretch' to say Palin is qualified

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Nebraska Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel....

How stupid does the ASSPress think we are?

Posted 10:14 AM by Gene

Six of one:

Biden: Paying higher taxes patriotic for wealthy

Half-dozen of the other: GEKKO KUDLOW and every other con-SER-va-tive pundit screaming.

Posted 9:45 AM by Gene

BREAKING NEWS: White House says President Bush to speak about financial crisis at 10:15 a.m. ET

"Yepper, our economy's still going strong."

Posted 9:40 AM by Gene

KRAFT FOODS TO REPLACE AIG IN DOW JONES INDUSTRIAL AVERAGE

TRANSLATION: Junk foods to replace junk bonds!

Posted 5:57 PM by Gene

Our beloved guvnor boasts to PRNewswire again:

Governor Rendell Praises House Passage of Dog Law Reforms

Posted 5:50 PM by Gene

In Joysey City:

Even before this week's news from Lehman and Merrill, Jersey City businesses were feeling the effects of the credit crisis, said Johnny Leung, owner of Komegashi, a Japanese restaurant five blocks away from the cluster of office buildings that includes Goldman, Lehman and Merrill.

Groups of Goldman employees who used to spend as much as $500 to $600 at a time in Komegashi have trimmed bills to about $50, ordering the $11 ramen special instead of specialty sushi rolls that cost as much as $20 apiece, Leung said.

Black limousines idling curbside in the financial district, once a common sight in the evening, have become scarce. Leung, 44, said half of his lunchtime crowd consists of finance-sector workers, and deliveries to people working late nights have slowed drastically.

When the MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE start with their fantasies the little guy gets the ammo.

Posted 5:40 PM by Gene

The Former Wizard of Oz may be to blame for our financial house of cards even if Zeitgeist says so.

Posted 5:28 PM by Gene

Anyone for a third-rate Internet burglary?

We suspect there are a great many Nixonian liberals tonight.

(Via Swampland)

Posted 5:23 PM by Gene

How do you fake giving birth to sextuplets?

Posted 5:21 PM by Gene

What is with all these show-biz has-beens (or relatives thereto) getting arrested?

They must be looking for work.

Posted 5:19 PM by Gene

'60 Minutes' airing McCain, Obama interviews

Who gets the tougher questions?

Isn't that a loaded one.

Posted 5:16 PM by Gene

Perhaps Scuzz did have help planting his anthrax, but we must remember, some of the greatest crimes in history needed no help.

Posted 5:12 PM by Gene

Supreme Court’s Global Influence Is Waning

Even now that we're dealing in "international law"?

The rise of new and sophisticated constitutional courts elsewhere is one reason for the Supreme Court’s fading influence, legal experts said. The new courts are, moreover, generally more liberal that the Rehnquist and Roberts courts and for that reason more inclined to cite one another.

You mean like the WaPo and The Paper of Re-CORD?

Posted 5:09 PM by Gene

BRILLIANT: An "inventor" has come up with a pilfer-proof lunch bag. Just two problems, though: it shouldn't be two hard to discern the green splotches are fake (especially now that USAOKAY!!!!!.com's told everybody about this); and at $5 to $7 for a pack of ten the purchaser's already been fleeced of his lunch money.

Posted 5:04 PM by Gene

Morgan Stanley talking merger with Wachovia...WaMu being "auctioned" ("Do I hear...one cent?") -- do these maniacs know what they're doing?

And who can say the resulting superfinanciers won't be just as rotten?

Posted 5:03 PM by Gene

That a hard-core Democratic fundraiser thinks the party has veered too far left should give even the screaming meemies pause, however slight.

Posted 2:03 PM by Gene

U.S. Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz took aim at retired generals working for defense contractors involved in the tanker dispute while also announcing a new career track for unmanned aerial vehicle pilots during his speech Sept. 16 at the Air Force Association's annual conference in Washington D.C.

"I'm speaking of the unfortunate deterioration of the relationship between the Air Force and industry that of late has manifested a hyperbole of insensitivity and a lack of proper communication," he said.

Shucks general, you didn't have to get that mad.

Posted 10:50 AM by Gene

If we didn't know better we'd say the whole world financial market's falling apart at once.

Way to go EINSTEINS!

Posted 9:36 PM by Gene

The loan, which is for 24 months, is expected to be repaid from the proceeds of the sale of the firm’s assets, the statement said. “The loan is collateralized by all the assets of A.I.G., and of its primary non-regulated subsidiaries, and of its primary non-regulated subsidiaries.”

The contagion seems to be spreading.

Posted 8:58 PM by Gene

AIG ISSUES STATEMENT TO ADDRESS POLICYHOLDER CONCERNS

...In particular, AIG noted its long tradition of service in Asian markets, which are key to AIG's future growth. Founded in Shanghai in 1919, Asia is home to some of AIG's oldest and most valued clients.

Well all right, it's no crime to be a teensy eensy bit nervous.

Posted 6:58 PM by Gene

(This version CORRECTS Corrects [SIC] lead to note comments on race don't accuse GOP of using code language; SUBS headlines.)

Here is why news hacks should go back to the old regime of never admitting to their mistakes: in practice they don't anyway.

Posted 6:12 PM by Gene

TRANSLATION: One Senator with a temper could stop THE CONSPIRACY from selling R movies to minors.

And Josh, we do not appreciate your cloying cutesy-pie writing style, which posits that some in your audience like me are THREE-YEAR-OLDS.

And why shouldn't I take such affronts personally? You hacks seem to take your readers as a personal affront.

P. S. TWO RED-BANDS HERE. NUF SAID, SAMMY GLICK...MAN.

Posted 5:38 PM by Gene

Brooksy cribs an MB2 column, some hack named Robinson vociferously agrees with it because SARAH!!!!! stinks because she's a conservative Republican, and....

Why must innocent clerks and administrators on Wall Street lose their jobs? Why can't these typing cretins?

(Via the usual Romy)

Posted 5:28 PM by Gene

For a time people naively believed falling oil prices would help our economy; but so many MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE did their duty nobody thinks that way anymore.

Posted 5:27 PM by Gene

And what, pray tell, is a "conservatorship"? Does that make AIG into the CONRAIL of INSURANCE?

ALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL ABOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOARD!!!!!

Posted 5:24 PM by Gene

Self-Serving BIGMEDIA Mea-Culpa Alert:

Meanness Appears to Rub Off on Viewers

Well, that's what happens when you have TWO NO-SPIN ZONES RIGHT AND LEFT on the screen, among other pestilences. Happily, we've been fighting back -- by being MEANER toward our BIGMEDIA superiors.

Posted 5:23 PM by Gene

"We do not take, and I don't take, lightly ever putting the taxpayer on the line to support an institution...."

TRANSLATION: Time to put UNCLE SUCKER on the line -- and for HANK to help HANK!

Posted 5:13 PM by Gene

McCain adviser Fiorina says no contender, including McCain, could run a company

Neither could you, CARLY.

Posted 5:11 PM by Gene

Obama Out to Regain Momentum

Financial crisis presents candidate with chance to recover what was lost in excitement over Palin.

Is this a signal that we can help some more, huh guys?

Posted 5:08 PM by Gene

Speaking of the Cute Little Pink Paper, and speaking of dying rags, it would be nice if Esquire stuck what it seems to do best now -- put flashing lights on its cover.

Posted 5:04 PM by Gene

I'm glad the ASSPress had time enough to report on this important story, and I'm gladder Yahoo! had the foresight to put it on its home page, but recognizing the retards must be appeased aren't there slightly more important stories to cover, ASS?

Posted 5:02 PM by Gene

Present and former LALATimes workers sue Col. for -- what? Buying a decrepit media company in the teeth of a media recession? Issuing billions in increasingly worthless debt to do so? Expressing frustration with his own stupidity by blasting the help?

Good shot you have there, guys.

Posted 5:00 PM by Gene

Who wants to bet Dubya SPINNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNS on a dime and bails out Hank?

Posted 4:52 PM by Gene

Cholly will never step aside; corruption is only something that happens with the opposition. And if Jeff wins his House seat count on Speaker Babs to flash the R card.

Is anyone in public life trustworthy? And why is Congress trying for an approval rating of ZERO?

P. S. We thought we heard that Babs was hint-hinting in PRIVATE. Which will it be, Babs: donkey or ass?

Posted 7:53 PM by Gene

Of course the Emmys have to summon "ghosts" from the past. Who watches Mad Men?

Posted 7:40 PM by Gene

If we want to start a panic let's repeat this 50,000 times:

That "run" could accelerate as people realize the FDIC fund has about $50 billion to "insure" about $1 trillion in assets at the nation's financial institutions, says Roubini.

Aren't we in enough of a mess as is?

Posted 7:29 PM by Gene

I had not heard of Richard Wright before today. (To be sure, I'd heard of another Richard Wright, however.) An instant excuse may be I didn't have to. That won't wash because if rock were the fount of genius its defenders insist it is we should know of its songwriters, the way pop culture did when the Broadway musical was in vogue. I am a little less likely to be patient when his group was the bees knees to the same sort of anal retentives who think The It's a Wonderful Life of the Nineties the direct successor to Shakespeare. Rock became no fun when it put on airs, and that was about the time of Pink Floyd, and it hasn't been any good since.

Posted 7:20 PM by Gene

Here we think The Sun deserves to survive and some AH-CHI-TEC-TYUH cri-TIC has an orgasm over some Lego condo design from the people who brought China the White Elephant in the Bird's Nest. If that outfit keeps running such drool I will start campaigning for it to fold.

Posted 7:16 PM by Gene

Blowing Lehman to smithereens with idiot investing and assisting Damien in his supposed records are two sides of the same loathsome coin.

We suspect too that most at Lehman and Merrill who will have lost their jobs are blameless clerical and administrative types -- certainly not the MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE who got their employers in trouble in the first place.

And how many Wall Streeters are burning their money at the auction? It can't be near the money of OURS they've burned. MALEFACTORS OF GREAT WEALTH!

Posted 11:39 AM by Gene

I am not a crook! I am merely a Congressman.

PINSTRIPE CHOLLY has finally proved you can serve in Congress too long. With his largess you wonder why his office isn't gold-plated.

Posted 9:47 PM by Gene

The con-CERT HALL joins in the o-pe-RA gag, this time with an LBJ Oratorio, or Tonkin Gulf Concerto, or whatever it's called, and no doubt it was written against DUBYA'S WAR, or for whatever the reason was, and our Paper of Re-CORD writer unintentionally tells us what it's no-doubt like:

The Dallas work serves as a reminder of both the pitfalls and the value of such ventures. Too much relevance can lead to political schlock, like bad Prokofiev, or cornball (if sometimes endearing) hagiography, like Copland’s “Lincoln Portrait.”

Obviously this isn't cornball (if sometimes endearing) hagiography; we're still celebrating over having ended the most unjust war in HISTORY. So we'll call it bad Prokofiev and leave it at that.

By the way, have you heard Steve Reich's Daniel Variations? We haven't, but we can imagine: a half hour of dissonant violins at extremely high pitch, rather like five hundred fingernails on blackboards. We need commissions to imagine that?

And here is why classical music is a thing of the past: the great composers looked to the future. Beethoven foresaw a day of liberty; Wagner a day of supermen. All your modern-day composer can look to is the past (and hope he isn't aping it too much), or to foundation grants. This isn't looking anywhere but navelward.

(Name of Steve Reich work corrected 9/15. According to Amazon.com it's approximately 30 minutes -- I got that right without knowing the work! It may not be violins screeching but I'd be surprised if anyone's performing it 200 years from now -- unlike Beethoven and Wagner.)

Posted 9:03 PM by Gene

For all his boldness, Mr. Einhorn is aware of the havoc that bank failures can create. “We would not win if Lehman went down and took the whole financial system with it,” Mr. Einhorn said in an interview in June. “An actual collapse of Lehman — that would not be a good thing.”

So why were you in on it?

Posted 8:57 PM by Gene

"It could be a powerful fit," said Rick Meckler, chief investment officer at LibertyView Capital Management in New York.

A square peg in a round hole can be a powerful fit too.

By the way, what's the "new" company's name? BAM?

Posted 7:33 PM by Gene

Surely this wasn't a joke -- er, was it, Lehman?

Posted 6:59 PM by Gene

At best text messaging causes young people to write stupidly. At its worst it causes accidents. Despite the controversy over what caused the Metrolink catastrophe texting seems altogether too plausible. One minute after pressing send a person may still be preoccupied with texting, and in piloting a train one minute is surely too little time to recover from that.

It also emerges that one reason for the single-trackage on that line is it goes through a tunnel. Why not drill a second tunnel?

Posted 6:57 PM by Gene

We are about to have an experiment on what happens when an investment banker goes bankrupt without government intervention.

And this wasn't the first time Lehman went kerflooey.

P. S.

Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said the financial crisis that began with the collapse of the subprime-mortgage market last year ``is probably a once in a century event'' that will lead to the failure of more firms.

Take a bow, Wizard!

Posted 6:37 PM by Gene

Have the TWXSTERS unnecessarily redesigned the Website of their putative flagship to give less exposure to Anonymous?

Posted 5:59 PM by Gene

Will these "healthy" bankers buying these sick assets make the sick assets any healthier? Or will they make the "healthy" bankers sick?

Posted 1:20 PM by Gene

It is obvious news hacks have never heard of reverse psychology; their cheerleading for The Lord and their booing and hissing over Sarah may be a reason THE EEEEEEEEEEEEVIL REPUBLICANS have made this a race.

Posted 12:53 PM by Gene

The only advantage to a big hurricane is that for several days it stopped people from talking about the runaway day-care center called the presidential election. That officially ends tomorrow.

Posted 12:43 PM by Gene

NASA's Star Is Fading, Its Chief Says

I'd say it turned into a black hole when it hitched its jalopy to the Orbiting Jalopy.

Posted 12:34 PM by Gene

Reviewing a book about The Grapes of Wrath Jonathan Yardley (who has discussed the topic before with some irritation) says an "important" novel may not be a good one. It's especially timely given the ghastly suicide of David Foster Wallace, who wrote one famous book (and whom The Paper of Re-CORD tellingly identifies in the hed as a "postmodern writer", not by his name), and from what we can gather it was a modern-day Tristram Shandy with footnotes, and we've discussed the topic before with some irritation. We have also said before that no judge is as stern as posterity, and when books go unread, or read only for their academic value, it may be unjust, but more likely there may be a reason.

Posted 12:17 PM by Gene

John le Carré: I nearly left the West

Then a still small voice in him said, hmmm, maybe these awfully nice Soviet people won't let me back out after all.