Posted 6:12 PM by Gene

And now for our annual gallery of Yahoo! News Christmas trees, never to be removed (albeit with photos smaller than we can remember them, but checking back several years we see Yahoo! has always been stingy with wire service photos):



The Christmas tree at Rockefeller Center;



A Christmas tree in downtown Rome;



A Christmas tree with artificial snow (it says here) in Nice;



A Christmas tree at Brandenburg Gate in Berlin;



A floating Christmas tree in Rio de Janeiro;



A Christmas tree in Bogota's central square;



A Christmas tree of sorts at "the monument to St. George at the Freedom Square in the capital of Georgia, Tbilisi";



Another Christmas tree of sorts in Gimpo, South Korea, which supposedly will stay lit until January 8, angering the neighbors;



A Christmas tree in St. Petersburg;



A Christmas tree in Athens, before the Parliament;



A Christmas tree at a Catholic church in Peshawar, Pakistan;



A Christmas tree in Bangkok;



A Christmas tree in Istanbul;



A Christmas tree in Warsaw;



A Christmas tree at the Pennsylvania State Capitol in Harrisburg;



A Christmas tree "made of 5,480 recycled bottles", in Haifa;




A Christmas tree made of "29,000 mineral water bottles" in Jakarta;



A Christmas tree "made with 152 lobster traps, more than 125 lobster buoys, 480 feet of garland and 3,000 white lights, topped with a 5-foot fiberglass lobster, in Rockland, Maine";



A Christmas tree and a female Santa Claus in Hyderabad;



A Christmas tree on Waikiki Beach in Honolulu;



The Christmas tree at Manger Square in Bethlehem;



A Christmas tree in Krasnoyarsk, in Siberia;



A Christmas tree in Trafalgar Square, London;



And finally, a Christmas tree and a soldier of the "103rd Sustainment Command (Expeditionary)...at a military base in Balad, 80 km (50 miles) north of Baghdad."

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Posted 12:18 PM by Gene

CHRISTMAS EVE DASH CAPS BANNER SHOPPING SEASON!!!!!!!!!! [Banner overemphasis added]

The ASSPress does to retailing what PAUL DRECK does to the MOVEES!

Posted 12:03 PM by Gene

‘Raising Arizona,’ ‘Fargo,’ and ‘No Country for Old Men’ defy categorization—except as Coen brothers movies. So what happens when the quirky duo from Minnesota decide to remake a John Wayne Western?

RAVES from people who didn't take the multiple hints from JonBoy or Sid.

Posted 9:06 AM by Gene

House Republicans seek to reduce spending by replacing ‘PAYGO’ with ‘CUTGO’

Who wants to wager the GOP yells CUT!!!!!?

Posted 8:54 AM by Gene

Thankfully not everyone has taken today off: Mark Hulbert has found a stock-marketing Pollyanna who says THE U. S. HAS COMPLETELY RECOVERED FROM THE RECESSION!!!!!!!!!!

When were YOU last unemployed, Norm?

P. S. at 10:18 a.m. They're drinking the happy juice in the UK too!

Posted 8:41 AM by Gene

GOSHDARNIT, no Wall Street Casino dealing today. Now the croupiers will have to daydream even harder than usual.

Posted 8:38 AM by Gene

Between his tweets and his novel Wild and Crazy Guy may want to lay off the craziness for a while.

Posted 8:34 AM by Gene

The latest mea culpa from a business that seems to want to provide mea culpas but NOT entertainment:

THR: Looking back at the years you spent releasing albums on major labels, how would you describe Duran’s experience?

LeBon: We were part of the demise of the old-fashioned record industry. We witnessed it first-hand, and it was very interesting, but it wasn’t a great experience. To go from the days when people used to get grand pianos delivered to their doorstep to a time when label executives are being laid off left, right, and center is quite extreme.

TRANSLATION: However many zillions of fans and cri-TICS who raved of its GREATNESS here was just another tuneless act that led to a future of nothing BUT tuneless acts.

Posted 8:16 AM by Gene

Gosh, even the press agents for one of America's leading show-biz flack sheets admit the GENIUS of FILLUM may not be what it's cracked up to be.

Posted 12:52 AM by Gene

FINALLY MOON 'N' STARS IS ABANDONING THE GOLFING SEX MACHINE?!?!?

Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww SHUCKS. I guess it's because he hasn't won lately.

Posted 12:36 AM by Gene

An e-mail solicitation from TNR's new editor alerted me that PILLHEAD had thrown a tantrum over one of its articles. Sad to say, much as I disrespect PILLHEAD, he was on to something. Simply stated, the PILL thinks Democratic (or rather, DEMOCRAT) outreach to religious voters is a ruse -- and TNR's "reporter-researcher" more or less confirms that by honing in on the perennial horse race and saying, through the words of one anonymous "organizer", "I think religious voters want to hear there is a moral reason we need to save this economy and not just an economic one." Unfortunately we've heard this song before from "religious" Democrats far more exercised over the economy than about abortion, as the PILL notes in his blunderbuss way. TNR should know you don't send "reporter-researchers" out to battle PILLHEADS.

Posted 3:08 PM by Gene

How many times must we repeat: These guys are professionals. Many come from poor families. They're glorified indentured servants despite the glory. PAY them.

Posted 2:42 PM by Gene

Oil closes above $91 mark

NO! I WON'T do my DOW gag!

Posted 2:03 PM by Gene

Death is in store for one of the Fantastic Four

TRANSLATION: ESPNCORP is doing with Its comic-books unit what PEOPLE WARNER does, meaning...FURTHER TRANSLATION: ESPNCORP OVERPAID FOR MARVEL.

(Via I Want Media)

Posted 12:10 PM by Gene

SURPRISE: 1. Minor-league professional college football "bowls" cost money -- except for ESPNCORP. 2. Guess who covers the losses!

This year, 14 schools will play in a bowl game after finishing 6-6.

I've got an idea -- create bowl games for EVERYBODY!

Posted 11:25 AM by Gene

Hey Conrad! Do your best Tricky Dick impersonation -- as in, "I am not a crook!"

Posted 10:03 AM by Gene

Thanks to the usual AHTSJournal we've just come across Mr. Keillor's scathing review of Mark Twain's "memoirs", a book already condemned for its scholastic embalming job (subscription only, blast it). Rather than attack it for the source (who can be riotously unfunny himself) we see in it a rare justice in calling this master out. Twain was a great author ("the first two-thirds" of Huck Finn sounds about right, though we place it from between the time Huck escapes his Pa and the time Tom Sawyer wanders back in after a seven-year hiatus) and an extraordinarily self-indulgent one. We forget that most of his "humor" went into his innumerable short pieces, and the first volume of the Library of America's edition is profound testimony to his unfunny. Those who know the notorious names of Artemus Ward and Petroleum V. Nasby, Twain's contemporaries (and likewise pseudonymous), will know the bad. We fear the true nature of the man is revealed in a duality: the private printing of "1601", an inside schoolboy chortle as witless as it is scabrous, and after the death of this daughter Jean, when he attempted to express "the inexpressible" and descended to bathos. He stopped writing after that, after he'd already written too much. Let us revere Twain, but let's not prop the pedestal up too high lest the whole reverence come crashing down.

Posted 9:59 AM by Gene

We are deeply disappointed that LUKE SPIELBERG won't "rebrand" the Democrats. Either He realizes He has more power getting the turnips to see His cretinous tentpoles or He imagines He'll win His Dynamite Memorial "Peace" Prize some other way.

Posted 9:55 AM by Gene

If the Congress now ended was THE GREATEST IN WORLD HISTORY, what explains EZRA's bleat that it just defunded Obamacare and financial-services "reform"?

(Second link via WeeklyStandard.com)

Posted 3:21 PM by Gene

That hyperliberals can chant "USA! USA!" does not change our view on how both set-in-cement sides view their Godforsaken country.

Just one thing: What is the hyperliberals' equivalent of "Ah'M PRAAAYOUD t'BE a CAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYN! AmeriCAAAAAAAAAAAAYN!!!!!? Oh, they'll think of something. A [C]RAPPER, probably.

Posted 2:32 PM by Gene

One of America's great libe -- er, edu -- er, NEWSPAPER companies, KAPLAN, INC., engaged in RACIAL DISCRIMINATION?!?!?

NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(Via I Want Media)

Posted 9:55 AM by Gene

Does this mean He is now officially a GREAT president?

Posted 9:31 AM by Gene

The GUARDIAN...PRESENTS: (Insert Max Steiner Warners fanfare here)

1. Well who knew -- MICKEY D's thinks itself a COUNTRY!

2. THE LEAKS OF THE MILLENNIUM MUST be important -- Anna Nicole Smith's in them! TRANSLATION: Some of our diplomats waste their time. FURTHER TRANSLATION: So do Guardian readers.

(First link via NEWSER!)

Posted 9:04 PM by Gene

Person of the Year Runners-Up: The Chilean Miners

Why does Can-Anyone-Here-Edit-This-Rag Stengel keep issuing mea culpas for MARK!!!!!?

Posted 1:32 PM by Gene

1:26 PM Fitch places Greece's BBB- debt on review for possible downgrade - next stop, junk status.

Next stop: DOW 800 GIGAHYPERMEGAHEXA...oh, you know the drill.

Posted 1:28 PM by Gene

Israel to press Obama to free Israeli spy Pollard

NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO. Granted, he spied for you. He also SPIED AGAINST US.

Posted 1:17 PM by Gene

Speaking of con-SER-va-tives, they have another VILLAIN in Gov.-elect Cuomo. Look, we know what YOU did when it came to financial fraud by the big boys -- NOTHING. THAT'S why we nearly had a rerun of the GREAT DEPRESSION -- which may YET play out, despite the finger-in-dyke denials of the Wall Street Casino.

Posted 1:11 PM by Gene

Haley said somethin' stupid, and you shouldn't have to be a con-SER-va-tive blogger to know. Look, we don't get excited because pols say somethin' stupid; it's their obligation. What we'd say is Haley should not be president because he looks like the friend of every CEO and lobbyist and hyperrich guy to come down the pike -- and if the sad case of SNIDELY WHIPLASH said anything it's that you CAN tell a politician by his looks. Think TRICKY DICK.

Or to put it another way:



HONEST ABE LINCOLN!

Posted 1:03 PM by Gene

I've said before the death penalty should be limited to cases of mass murder, assassination and treason. Here we have a very strong case against it. So why do I have the willies? Because it appears in PEOPLE WARNER NEWSRAG -- a bastion of CW thinking. In even the best cases the stale, skunky odor of news hack dogma can overwhelm the fresh breath of truth.

Posted 9:18 AM by Gene

That celebratory bonfire at the Wall Street Casino is investors burning their money on dubious Chinese stocks! YipPEE!!!!!

Why not? They've burned in on everything else.

Posted 8:34 AM by Gene

No! NO!! Now in addition to CRITICALLY-ACCLAIMED syndrome, and A-LIST syndrome, we have COMIC-CON SYNDROME!

Posted 8:25 AM by Gene

"This is not taxpayers' money. In a recession, we actually have a lot of people employed...."

Doctors, nurses, ambulance drivers -- yep, you employ a lot of people, Julie.

(Via the usual AHTSJournal)

Posted 7:56 PM by Gene

Last year, 63 percent of the 3M’s $23.1 billion in revenue came from outside the U.S. Non-U.S. sales could account for as much as 80 percent by 2015, Thulin said in the interview.

Does this mean we should now call the maker of Post-It notes an INTERNATIONAL company?

Posted 2:20 PM by Gene

Having just triumphed with a CGI of a 52-year-old cartoon show, Jeff Bew-KES seems to be getting into the mea culpa biz in a big way, as well He should. Question is, Jeff, how many of these "sequels we don't need" are You producing?

Kate hails from Durham, North Carolina—the land of Jesse Helms and Lucky Strike tobacco, neither of which she likes.

Haven't you heard, Kate? Your state's gone BLUE!!!!!

(Via NEWSER!)

Posted 11:57 AM by Gene

Washington's resilience pays off

Wouldn't "chutzpah" be a better word?

Posted 9:15 AM by Gene

Afghan war accounted for 4% of news coverage this year

Yes, we can imagine. But does THE ORIGINAL TV NEWSER!!!!! really have to tell us the network denture-adhesive pushers stink?

(The usual Romy link)

Posted 9:00 AM by Gene

TRANSLATION: His Incompetence could redeem Himself yet -- but we still say He will win in 2012 by Republican default.

Posted 8:53 AM by Gene

As you may know our favorite free "news" tabloid -- you know, the one that makes toilet paper blush -- prints in Philadelphia and New York. We can imagine the front page here:

A TRIUMPH FOR THE AGES!!!!!!!!!!

...and in New York...

CHOKE!!!!! CHOKE!!!!!

Any "news" organization that can put forth two such bald-faced frauds falls into the latter category.

It also prints in Boston, meaning it can preen there too.

Posted 8:49 AM by Gene

Since neither story mentions the would-be British bombers' creed we can safely assume atheists were behind it.

Posted 8:44 AM by Gene

The one good thing about our not making TVs anymore is that other countries can now lose money on them.

(Via Seeking Alpha)

Posted 8:42 AM by Gene

For an ac-TOR to apologize for a TENTPOLE is like Mickey D apologizing for the Big Mac.

And we dare say Big Macs are better.

Which reminds us: given this kind of genius maybe every movee should lead off with an apology.

Posted 4:53 PM by Gene

And as a continuing public service to media-savvy Web surfers on the instigation of one our favorite movie-news sources we introduce a few of the members of THE DETROIT FILM CRITICS SOCIETY:

John Serba is the full-time film critic for The Grand Rapids Press. He has a B.A.in [SIC] English from Aquinas College, and has written about music, pop culture and film for the Press since 1996. It's highly unlikely that anyone will ever be able to convince him that there are better films than "The Empire Strikes Back," "Pulp Fiction," "Apocalypse Now," "Annie Hall," "Notorious," "Unforgiven," "A Clockwork Orange," "Raising Arizona," "Fitzcarraldo" and "Fight Club."

When he's not working, John spends his time practicing free thought [SIC!], and obsessing about the Detroit Red Wings, heavy metal, "The Simpsons," the newspaper comics page and his dog and cats.

Read his film reviews here: http://www.mlive.com/movies/
Read his blog, Project Mayhem, here: http://blog.mlive.com/projectmayhem/about.html
Contact: jserba@grpress.com

Perry Seibert fell in love with movies at the tender age of 7 when Indiana Jones ran away from the giant boulder. Lucky to come of age at the same time as the VHS boom, he spent his teen years gorging on the best of American seventies cinema acquiring a taste for Martin Scorsese, Jonathan Demme, and Woody Allen. After overdosing on foreign films and classic Hollywood during his college years at the University of Michigan, Perry found work as an editor at the All Movie Guide where he remains gainfully employed.

Perry’s Desert Island 10 – not necessarily the 10 best, just the 10 I can watch anytime, anywhere and still get something from:

1. Taxi Driver
2. Rules of the Game
3. The Godfather
4. Miller’s Crossing
5. Singin’ in the Rain
6. Blue Velvet
7. Something Wild
8. A Hard Day’s Night
9. Do the Right Thing
10. Before Sunset

He can be contacted at pseibert@macrovision.com, can be read regularly at http://www.allmovie.com/, and his favorite seat in any theater is the center of the third row.

Chris Williams is a reporter and film critic with the Advisor and Source Newspapers in Shelby Township and freelance writer with Suite101.com. He grew up in the Warren area, attended Warren Mott Senior High School and graduated with a Bachelor's in journalism from Wayne State University in 2001 with a minor in film studies.

Chris has been writing for the Advisor and Source since June 2005, covering news and features in Shelby Township and Utica, along with coverage of Utica Community Schools. During that time he also started writing the film reviews for the paper, a hobby that turned into a weekly responsibility.

Chris can be contacted at Chris.Williams@advisorsource.com. His reviews can be found online at sourcenewspapers.com, suite101.com and on his blog at http://shadowsandthelight.blogspot.com/.

James Sanford, I [SIC] was born in Columbus, Ohio, but have lived in Michigan for the past 30 years. I started out reviewing movies for the long-gone Connections section of the Grand Rapids Press when I was a "teen reporter" (that was the actual designation on my work ID badge) in high school. I continued to do reviews throughout college when I wrote for the Western Herald at Western Michigan University. After graduation, I was the film critic for Music Revue magazine in west Michigan before moving over to On the Town magazine. I have been with the Kalamazoo Gazette for 11 years now and, in addition to my writing, I also discuss movies each week in a podcast at MLive and every Friday morning on WKFR-FM (103.3). I also host the "3-Day Weekend" segment on WWMT-3 every Thursday during the 5:30 p.m. newscast and I'm one of the correspondents for the PBS series "Kalamazoo Lively Arts," which airs in west Michigan on WGVU-35. In my spare time, I perform with the improvisational comedy group Crawlspace Eviction (our feature film "Comic Evangelists" was showcased at the 2006 American Film Institute Festival in Hollywood) and appear in a variety of shows in the Kalamazoo area. My recent credits include "Dinner with Friends" at the Knockabout Theatre, "Class Reunion" at the Kalamazoo Civic Theatre and "Psycho Beach Party," "Die! Mommy! Die!," "Said and Meant," "Bug," 'Bart the Temp," "Swindling Jehovah" and "Hair" at the Whole Art Theatre.
Website blog: http://blog.mlive.com/james_sanford/

Jason Buchanan has been obsessed with movies ever since the day he was playing with matchbox cars on the living room floor while his father was watching A Clockwork Orange on television - mistakenly assuming that the cinematically-smitten toddler wasn't intrigued by the extreme oddities that were unfolding on the screen just a few feet away. Though his parents would subsequently attempt to restrict his movie viewing habits after fumbling over some particularly difficult questions regarding that audacious Stanley Kubrick classic, the damage had already been done and Jason's lifelong quest to seek out the strangest films ever produced had been set into motion.

Born in Ann Arbor and raised in nearby Saline, Jason spent an inordinate amount of time perusing the shelves at his local video store during his youth - much to the contempt of anyone who happened to be with him at the time he was attempting to pick out a movie. After graduating from Saline High School, Jason enrolled in the Telecommunications and Film program at Eastern Michigan University - minoring in Journalism - and turned to the emerging internet "Grey Market" as a means of finally seeing the controversial and elusive foreign films he had been reading about for years: "El Topo," "Meet the Feebles," and "Four Flies on Grey Velvet" just to name a few. It was during this period that Jason supported himself with a job at one of the area's last "mom and pop" video stores, a place where fifth-generation copies of "Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story" and "Duck, You Sucker" purchased from Video Search of Miami sat on the shelves right next to legitimately distributed copies of the latest Hollywood blockbusters. Jason is a writer who firmly believes that every film critic should have a good bit of experience behind the camera before sitting down to judge the cinematic works of others, and since college he's been involved in the production of a number of independent features and shorts.

Favorite Filmmakers: Alex de la Iglesia, Alejandro Jodorowski, Dario Argento, Mario Bava, Jim Van Bebber, Jaume Balaguero, Michele Soavi, Michel Gondry, George A. Romero, Peter Jackson, Werner Herzog, Chan-wook Park, Tsui Hark, Herman Yau, John Woo, Takashi Miike, Sergio Corbucci, Lucio Fulci, Guillermo Del Toro, Katsuhito Ishii.

Favorite Films: Suspiria, Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story, Super Fuzz, Manson Family, Day of the Beast, Dawn of the Dead, The Great Silence, Dellamorte Dellamore, Santa Sangre, Jacob's Ladder, Nosferatu, Coffy, Black Belt Jones, The Devil's Backbone, Visitor Q, True Romance, Black Sunday, Uzumaki.
Website: http://blog.allmovie.com/author/jasbuc/

Jim Fordyce is a nationally known award winning Entertainment Reporter. [Sic!] His previews, reviews and entertainment news are featured on the Jack Ebling show on 1320 WILS radio in Lansing, Michigan and he is the man who brings you http://mientertainment.biz/content/author/jimfordyce [SIC] the popular web site devoted to Michigan entertainment news.
He has been in the media since 1972 and he has interviewed a countless number of talented people who entertain and inspire us . Among his favorite interviews: Frankie Avalon, Robert Goulet, Will Ferrell and Linda Evans
Jim [SIC] lives in Lansing in his 100 year old historic house, so look for him in the home improvement store when he is not in the audience reviewing plays and movies.
He proudly serves on the Boards for the YMCA, Burcham Hills Foundation, Sunsets with Shakespeare Theater Company and he is a member of the Detroit Movie Critics Guild.

Stephanie Webb is the Reporter and Co-Host on "Take 5 Grand Rapids". http://www.wzzm13.com/life/programming/local/take_five/about_take_five.aspx [SIC]
Stephanie got her start in television at the FOX television affiliate here in Grand Rapids ? [SIC] as a sales account representative. On a whim, she started doing voicework which lead to an on-air "Entertainment Host" position at the station. She also has experience as a media-buyer and in public relations planning.When not at work, Stephanie enjoys catching up with "US Weekly", "In Touch", "Star", "InStyle" and other celebrity magazines; she also enjoys cooking, landscaping, yoga, and watching Mafia movies. Stephanie and her husband, Jack, have two young daughters.You can email Stephanie at stephaniewebb@wzzm13.com

Oh and did we mention? Debbie Schlussel's a member too! She knows at least as much about movies as CHARLES JOHNSON did before he reformed! Pffffffffffffffffft!!!!!

And NOW, as THE WRAP mentions them, here are the members of THE HOUSTON FILM CRITICS SOCIETY:



Ooooooooooooops! Dead link!

Posted 4:48 PM by Gene

We'd vaguely heard of this and just now had to get it full bore:

Survey: More Fox News, more climate doubts

Which could just as easily read:

Survey: More New York Times, fewer climate doubts

Which could just as easily read:

Survey: More Fox News, more conservative

Which could just as easily read:

Survey: More New York Times, more liberal

SO WHAT?

Posted 4:24 PM by Gene

Now that we will hear idiot words like HEROISM, I would turn my two readers' eyes to this essay to remind them of what true heroism is. Despite the NFL's blazing virtue I don't think anyone there lately has taken a bullet to the chest, nor has he had to haul a dying comrade through enemy fire.

And we are sorry we didn't mention Sgt. Giunta when this made news. We should have.

(Second link via Contentions)

Posted 3:10 PM by Gene

Hey guys, what are you ashamed of? From mile-high empty office buildings to air conditioned open-air soccer stadiums (they hope) the Gulf's all about idiot excess. Wallow in it!

Posted 3:05 PM by Gene

Okay hacks, time to get out another impartial unbiased disinterested code word: Islamophobe.

Posted 2:33 PM by Gene

Does anybody here remember Ben Wattenberg -- you know, that annoyingly avuncular pundit who used to be on teevee everywhere saying how America was a living breathing embodiment of the holy truths of It's a Wonderful Life? Well, it seems he had a SON, and if HE doesn't gas as much as his DAD did! Look Dan, I don't think "Eleanor Rigby" happy or sad or whatever, and under dreadful circumstances "Happy Birthday" could be a very sad song. Really you ask a question most people would never ask because most people don't need the answer. I'd rather hear the answer to the question, "What makes the Wattenbergs gas?"

(Via the especially irritating Ahts & Letters Daily)

Posted 2:23 PM by Gene

Uh, BillyBob, so long as you're making movies that may be bad without YOUR knowing it, and so long as you do publicity campaigns for your own presumably not-bad stuff, we don't think you should get on your high Shetland pony about the biz, even though it be true out of someone else's mouth.

(Via the frequently irritating AHTSJournal)

Posted 2:05 PM by Gene

Now that the Bill Kellers and other such highly ethical arbiters of the world have gotten bored with ITS breathtaking gut-wrenching cables, the world is forced to pay more attention to IT.

Posted 1:57 PM by Gene

At times I feel like the only man on earth, and our cultural manias make the feeling worse. I don't own a cell phone, I don't text, I'm don't engage in social networking, I don't watch every last masterpiece recommended by newspaper ad-blurbists, and I don't play fantasy football. It won't do to explain that craze away as the mahjongg or bridge of our time, which surely isn't right, for socializing is only an incidental part of the obsession; more likely is that the NFL has drawn fans as our genius network entertainments have deflected them. Most people would rather slit their throats than go a whole day without television, and with most TV shows being so brilliantly predictable there's only a handful of choices, never mind that most NFL games are as unpredictable (and as exciting) as watching paint dry.

Posted 1:40 PM by Gene

Prince Harry pays tribute to Berlin Wall victims

I wonder -- would His Incompetence do the same?

Posted 1:38 PM by Gene

CONGRESS RECOGNIZES A CULTURAL SHIFT!!!!!!!!!! (Shifty overemphasis added)

Or maybe Democrats still run the government.

Posted 1:37 PM by Gene

Although highly volatile, durable-goods orders can give a sense of whether businesses are investing in machinery.

Orders for durable-goods fell a sharp 3.4% in October with widespread declines across sectors.

JPMorgan Chase economist Mike Feroli said analysts will want to see whether the weakness in October was an aberration.

“Everything else is clicking, we wouldn’t want to see business spending roll over,” Feroli said.

Who's to say this whole "recovery" isn't an aberration?

Posted 1:31 PM by Gene

Who can explain the worldwide mania for real-estate, in the end a worldwide mania for bankruptcy?

(Also via Seeking Alpha)

Posted 1:21 PM by Gene

“When investors—individual and institutional alike—engage in far more trading—inevitably with one another—than is necessary for market efficiency and ample liquidity, they become, collectively, their own worst enemies. While the owners of business enjoy the dividend yields and earnings growth that our capitalistic system creates, those who play in the financial markets capture those investment gains only after the costs of financial intermediation are deducted. Thus, while investing in American business is a winner’s game, beating the stock market—for all of us as a group—is a zero-sum game before those costs are deducted. After intermediation costs are deducted, beating the market becomes, by definition, a loser’s game.”

TRANSLATION: In the Wall Street Casino, only the house wins.