WallStreetJackass

off for Thanksgiving

some holiday advice from GM

the new apple store on 67th Street

I'm all about AAPL stuff (apple tv is awesome), but that 24-hour sign burns the back of my retinas at 2am.

this is not Times Square

miscellany

ouch

Wall Street welfare queens to be taxed?

the Japs can get away with (almost) murder on TV

funniest SNL skit yet

great website

HCwDB of the year

5 secrets to a perfect relationship

1. It’s important to have a woman who helps at home, cooks, cleans & has a job.

2. It’s important to have a woman who can make you laugh.

3. It’s important to have a woman who you can trust & doesn't lie.

4. It’s important to have a woman who is good in bed & likes being with you.

5. It’s very, very important that these four women don't know each other

all this and she also got to eat bum-dung

my favorite 'People of Wal-Mart'

Ghandi Poppins

Gandhi, as you know, walked barefoot most of the time, which produced an impressive set of calluses on his feet. He also ate very little, which made him rather frail and, with his odd diet, he suffered from bad breath. This made him a super calloused fragile mystic hexed by halitosis.

tax bank bonuses

some good points here I thought;

First, all the institutions making exceptional profits do so because they are beneficiaries of unlimited state insurance for themselves and their counterparties. As Andrew Haldane of the Bank of England argues, the state has “become the last resort financier of the banks”. In the UK, total support amounted to a staggering 74 per cent of gross domestic product. These must be the largest business subsidies ever.

Second, the profits being made today are in large part the fruit of the free money provided by the central bank, an arm of the state. The state is giving the surviving banks a licence to print money.

Third, the case for generous subventions is to restore the financial system – and so the economy – to health. It is not to enrich bankers, particularly not those engaged in the sorts of trading activities that destroyed the financial system in the first place.

Fourth, ordinary people can accept that risk takers receive huge rewards. But such rewards for those who have been rescued by the state and bear substantial responsibility for the crisis are surely intolerable. What makes them yet more so is that the crisis has devastated the prospects of tens, if not hundreds, of millions of innocents all over the globe. The public finances will be devastated for decades: taxes will be higher and public spending lower. Meanwhile, bankers are about to reap huge rewards. This damages the legitimacy of the market economy.

Fifth, it is hard to argue in favour of exceptional interventions to bail out the financial sector at times of crisis, and also against exceptional interventions to recoup costs when the crisis is past. “Windfall” support should be matched by windfall taxes.

Finally, these are genuine windfalls. They are, as George Soros has said, “hidden gifts” from the state. What the state gives, the state is entitled to take back, if it is not used for the state’s purposes.

miscellany

lunch with M.

1.7 million in the drink

100 greatest Wire quotes

revisiting the drunkest guy ever

devil's advocate on gold

I'm generally bullish on gold as the one currency your government can't debase, but thought these were relevant quotes now that even the New York Post is a gold bug...

A mine is a hole in the ground with a liar standing next to it. - unattributed.

Gold gets dug out of the ground in Africa, or someplace. Then we melt it down, dig another hole, bury it again and pay people to stand around guarding it. It has no utility. Anyone watching from Mars would be scratching their head. - Warren Buffett

miscellany

wow

quick note on NYC real estate

an end to Chimerica?

on the move

miscellany

products I need

whatever it takes I guess

a bit melodramatic, but good article on NYC problems

bankers vs consultants

Joisey reality show

evolution didn't see that one coming

this is hypnotic

be the Fed

life is speeding up

and this is a year old...

The Lloyd's Prayer

Our Chairman,
Who Art At Goldman,
Blankfein Be Thy Name.
The Rally's Come. God's Work Be Done
On Earth As There's No Fear Of Correction.
Give Us This Day Our Daily Gains,
And Bankrupt Our Competitors
As You Taught Lehman and Bear Their Lessons.
And Bring Us Not Under Indictment.
For Thine Is The Treasury,
The House And The Senate
Forever and Ever.
Goldman.

[h/t Mike P]

today's WTF moment

I should've brought my .45 instead of the camera

miscellany

just missing out on her Darwin Award

is it wrong that this turns me on Part 2

Hosed

peak oil conspiracy theorists will love this

a prayer for daddy

"Dear God, this year please send clothes for all those poor ladies  in Daddy's computer,
Amen."