a case of malaise

here's how much farther this thing could drop.

oil's in freefall. for now.

dollar holding ground.

i wonder why david bowie doesn't get the respect he deserves here in america. while albums like ziggy stardust and low are reconized as trend-setting albums, one of my favorites is aladdin sane. like most stylistically amorphous albums, i didn't like it at first. it was sandwiched between the ziggy days and the low days and it wasn't poppy like hunky dory. so i buried it. but i put it on my mp3 player a year ago and let it play. i was amazed at the change in styles of each song. they were vocally strong, musically radical and not at all campy like ziggy, except the awful cover of the rolling stones "let's spend the night together." it's a truly great album, and for bowie, that makes hundy dory, ziggy, aladdin sane, low and heroes. lodger is even growing on me.

do yourself a favor and go listen to some bowie. we all need a little bowie in our lives.

living in america

i've got a lot of work to do today, so here are the lyrics to "living in america" by james brown:

"Yeah, uh! Get up, now! Ow! Knock out this!
Super highways, coast to coast, easy to get anywhere
On the transcontinental overload, just slide behind the wheel
How does it feel?
When there's no destination - that's too far
And somewhere on the way,you might find out who you are
Living in America - eye to eye, station to station
Living in America - hand to hand, across the nation
Living in America - got to have a celebration
Rock my soul
Smokestack, fatback, many miles of railroad track
All night radio, keep on runnin'through your rock 'n' roll soul
All night diners keep you awake, hey, on black coffee and a hard roll
You might have to walk the fine line, you might take the hard line
But everybody's working overtime
Living in America - eye to eye, station to station
Living in America - hand to hand, across the nation
Living in America - got to have a celebration
I live in America, help me out, but I live in America, wait a minute
You might not be looking for the promised land, but you might find it anyway
Under one of those old familiar names
Like New Orleans (New Orleans),Detroit City (Detroit City), Dallas (Dallas)Pittsburg P.A. (Pittsburg P.A.),New York City (New York City)Kansas City (Kansas City),Atlanta (Atlanta), Chicago and L.A.
Living in America - hit me
Living in America - yeah, I walk in and out
Living in America
I live in America - state lines, gonna make the prime, thatI live in America - hey, I know what it means,
Living in America - Eddie Murphy, eat your heart out
Living in America - hit me, I said now, eye to eye, station to station
Living in America - so nice, with your bare self
Living in America - I feel good!"

don't get high on what you create

bankers and financial gurus got high on what they created. it wasn't real. none of it was real. the stock market is telling us so. it was a shadow banking system alongside the real banking system. and i'm afraid the real one was seduced by the dark side. it all comes back to "star wars," doesn't it?

anyway, here's a good article on the history of u.s. banking.

iceland trip anyone?

iceland could be the first national bankruptcy.

another icelandic bank fails.

here is the libor in pictures.

what kurt wagner of lambchop is listening to right now.

got a copy of blitzen trapper from my buddy tanner. wow. good stuff.

goodnight

in meinem Kopf habe ich bereits überwunden

new avett brothers video. go here.

new avett brothers video. go here.

drunk pumpkin por la esposa

donde esta la playa

"it's back to the battle today
but i wouldn't have it any other way"

-the walkmen

the fed, in coordination with the other feds, has enacted an emergency interest rate cut.

did anyone watch the debate last night? i couldn't help but yell at the television every time mr. mccain referred to himself having a "cool hand at the tiller." mccain and cool hand should never be put in the same sentence and obama ran with it at one point, as he should have. they've got one more debate. don't you wish the v.p.s had one more? and katie couric could moderate it? and we could ask sarah palin what books she's read besides "aerial wolf gunning for dummies."

three bank stocks to choose from? maybe.

nobel prize goes to three chemists.

"we're a body poked too many times by interns."

wow. iceland's krona is freefalling and we could have gotten a tremendous deal. we were only four months too early. oh well. let's go back. icelandair has some great deals going.

bear stearn's models apparently had no mention of default risk. that probably should have been considered.

here's stephen colbert with cnbc's jim cramer.

i wonder if john mccain is going to get all "mavericky" and be the real maverick that he is. i wonder if he'll willingly discuss his role in the keating 5 scandal or why he is a pale image of the man who ran for office in 2000. we'll find out tonight. get your popcorn ready.

go here to see sarah palin's 2006 and 2007 tax returns.

go here to see magritte.

is that rain outside?

well i was 3 for 4. the angels still can't get past the red sox. now, for the championship series:

tampa bay rays vs. boston red sox: they were one and two all year. i've got two opinions rumbling around with the apple i had for breakfast. the first says the red sox are battle tested and will squeek by the rookie rays. the other says the rays won the division and took it to the red sox several times this year. so i'm going with the latter. rays in 7.

los angeles dodgers vs. philadelphia phillies: the phillies took on a weary pitching staff with milwaukee. the dodgers took on a cubs team that looked mildly confused for three games. i think the dodgers will respond better to a more competitive nature. the phillies staff, besides cole hamels, will not be able to keep manny and company in check. the dodgers pitching staff will pound the phillies and they'll get to brad lidge too. dodgers in 6.

if my prediction holds up, we'll have a tampa bay-los angeles world series. who the hell would have thought that in april?

looks like the fed is going to start buying commercial paper.

when we were in reykjavik, we took a tour into the interior of the island. on the way, our driver informed us of the massive amount of debt icelanders had accumulated within the past decade. looks like he knew what he was talking about. the krona is in freefall.

solar gets a kick.

oregon's floating wind farm.

mark to market and other tidbits

the accounting rule that ravaged garbage assets.

lehman's slide did not hurt executive bonus pay.

the arrested development star who can't be stopped.

seatbelts please

okay,

oil is down.

the dollar is up.

stocks are down.

and somehow byron allen still has a show. how is this possible? it comes on at like 3:48 a.m. it's not even scheduled on the half hour. they just throw it in when there's nothing else to air. it's amazing. it's the longest running career of an absolute invisible nature i have ever come across.

the world on the edge.

emerging markets decline.

if you're reading this, you're probably getting a sense of how real this situation is. i'm not sure our congress gets it and i know our president doesn't get it. do our two candidates get it? we'll see in the upcoming debate.

i have to wonder how soon people will be unable to justify spending over $200 on sports tickets. it hasn't happened yet, but this credit crunch is coming for each of us who has deluded ourselves into thinking we can live beyond our means and no one will notice.

subprime flowchart from the deal

101 years and counting

it's called karma cubs fan. you took an astros team on the run from a hurricane, made them play in milwaukee and humiliated them. you threw a no-hitter at their expense in the first game after the hurricane. your fans came in droves and booed the "home" team in milwaukee. you swept the astros and moved on.

now you got swept. now you're at home again wondering how it is possible to have a team so inept as to go 101 years without a world series. i'll tell you how. when you take away all the curses and goats and bartmans, you have a poorly run franchise, with inadequate players and a bunch of arrogant, pompous fans who feel they have a divine right to win the world series. you don't. and until you realize that, you never will win.

so enjoy your no-hitter against the astros. i hope it was enough to get you through another long, losing, cold winter.