WallStreetJackass

miscellany

what a moron

best party ever

120 and counting

real debate involves smoke bombs

don't count your chickens

urinal etiquette

tattoo fail

9 deadly words used by women

1. Fine

This is the word women use to end an arguement when they are right and you need to shut up.

2. Five minutes

If she is getting dressed, this means a half an hour. "Five minutes" is only five minutes if you have just been given five more minutes to watch the game before helping around the house.

3. Nothing

This is the calm before the storm. This means something, and you should be on your toes. Arguments that begin with "nothing" usually end in "fine."

4. Go ahead

This is a dare, not permission. Don't do it!

5. Loud Sigh

This is actually a word, but is a non-verbal statement often misunderstood by men. A loud sigh means she thinks you are an idiot and wonders why she is wasting her time standing here and arguing with you about nothing. (Refer back to number 3 for the meaning of "nothing.")

6. That's Okay

This is one of the most dangerous statements a women can make to a man. That's okay means she wants to think long and hard before deciding how and when you will pay for your mistake.

7. Thanks

If a woman is thanking you, do not question, or faint. Just say you're welcome. (I want to add in a clause here -- this is true, unless she says "Thanks a lot" -- that is pure sarcasm and she is not thanking you at all. DO NOT say "you're welcome" -- that will bring on a "whatever").

8. Whatever

This is a woman's way of saying "Fuck you!"

9. Don't worry about it, I got it

Another dangerous statement that refers to something that a woman has told a man to do several times, but is now doing herself. This will later result in a man asking, "What's wrong?" For the woman's response, refer to number 3.

we duel at dawn

if Jack Nicholson worked at Goldman

Your want the truth?  You can’t handle the truth.  Son, we live in a country with an investment gap.  And that gap needs to be filled by men with money.  Who’s gonna do it?  You?  You, Middle Class Consumer?  Goldman Sachs has a greater responsibility than you can possibly fathom.  You weep for Lehman and you curse derivatives.  You have that luxury.  You have the luxury of not knowing what we know: that Lehman’s death, while tragic, probably saved the financial system.  And that Goldman’s existence, while grotesque and incomprehensible to you , saves pension funds.  You don’t want the truth.  Because deep down, in places you don’t talk about at parties, you want us to fill that investment gap.  You need us to fill that gap.

We use words like credit default swaps, collateralized debt obligation, and securitization.  We use these words as the backbone of a life spent investing in something.  You use them as a punchline.  We have neither the time nor the inclination to explain ourselves to a commoner who rises and sleeps under the blanket of the very credit we provide, and then questions the manner in which we provide it!  We’d rather you just said thank you and paid your taxes on time.  Otherwise, we suggest you get an account and start trading.  Either way, we don’t give a damn what you think you’re entitled to.

miscellany

Goldman's CFO's house

Goldman hearings' drinking game

never assume malice when stupidity will suffice

this is a fairly good summary of the entire financial debacle I think. 

Reading these e-mails with the benefit of hindsight, there is little suggestion that rating officials were engaged in any deliberate malfeasance. Many appear conscientious and hard-working. But by 2007 they, like the bankers, had become tiny cogs in a machine that was spinning out of control. Their world was also in a strange, geeky silo, into which few non-bankers ever peered. […]

There are two important lessons. One is that what went wrong in finance was fundamentally structural, as an entire system spun out of control It might seem tempting to lash out at a few colourful traders but that is a sideshow: what is needed is systemic reform that removes conflicts of interest.

The second lesson is that the whole murky credit business must be taken out of the shadows. So few people spotted that finance was spinning out of control because the financial system was so separated into silos that its practitioners lost any common sense.

I, for one, welcome the publication of these e-mails. It might help produce more scrutiny, and common sense, in a world that has been in the shadows for too long. In the meantime, keep braced for the next instalment. I suspect that US regulators and politicians have not finished publishing all those damning e-mails yet.

miscellany

why we drink

all things Lost

break open the popcorn

the boobquake

MoMa

went to see this at the Museum of Modern Art, also caught the Picasso exhibit and some "performance art" which was basically nude women immobilized to the walls. very odd.

dawg

can't get enough of this

courtesy Wired