This makes my head hurt: First, how much do the bondholders and counter-parties of the bankrupt banks take a hit? This is one essential question since it’s really a zero sum between how much they lose versus how much tax payers pay. Second, during the period of government receivership, are the banks run in such [...]
Yesterday I was thinking about the radical difference between how two languages, German and English, encourage a person to express appreciation for a thing. The typical German phrasing, “das gefählt mir,” or “it gives me pleasure,” puts the thing front and center and gives it the power to please. The colloquial American phrasing, “I like it,” [...]
In film, the development of realistic fake blood may be as important a milestone as sound and color.
What were intersections like before traffic lights? Consider the paradox of thrift: everyone should save money but not all at once. The state could signal “You save this month and spend the next,” etc. Only it can’t. At least, not very effectively. Not yet.
As movie allusions go, Decade at Bernie’s is near-perfect: partying at a dead man’s house while literally propping him up so that everyone will think he’s still alive as a metaphor for the financial sector and its regulators over the least 10 years.
the best way to hide something is to leave it out in the open. It’s counter-intuitive but true, again and again. so it is that “fiscal conservatism” is an acceptable way of saying “liberalism is shit”. conservatives have supported running deficits when it suits their needs. but when it suits the needs of a welfare [...]
Dana Stevens: Provocative without being thoughtful, Towelhead is an exercise in button-pushing that seems unsure of what it wants to say (except to assert, correctly, that being a sexually abused biracial teenager in suburban Houston would really, really suck). The good guys, the bad guys, the victim, the perp: all are stereotypes. Ty Burr: Ball’s [...]
I often think about art as a social cipher. But all powerful art is, first, intensely personal: As the two men got to know each other better in subsequent meetings, their discussions would meander, as Cook sought to understand his onetime and perhaps future adversary. Hedging his bets, he used his company sniper team as [...]
Thanks to Israeli policy, the people of Gaza have run out of money, literally. Cash has been in short supply here since 2007. That’s when the Islamist group Hamas forcibly took control of Gaza. Israel then imposed a strict blockade that limits trucks taking cash from bank headquarters in the West Bank to branches in [...]
Many American homes only have mirrors in the bathroom. I know because of the profile photos on MySpace.
We don’t believe our own rhetoric: that free markets promote freedom.
The New Yorker has published an excellent report on the recent economic history of Iran. Unfortunately, only a summary is available online. Stories about money don’t titillate as easily – or as often – as those about outsized personalities. And, yet, money is what makes the world go round. The prosperity that allowed America to play dice [...]
other people have almost always written exactly what you want to say about a movie you’ve just seen. commenter “strawdawg” from nine days ago: I really liked Fat Girl up to the last scene. These were wonderful, complex characters that kept my attention throughout the film. The relationships between the family members were fantastic in [...]
Thanks to Netflix Instant Play we’ve been watching a lot of movies lately, sometimes two in a row. But because there’s not many choices for the impatient, most of these movies have been “OK” (a rating I wish Netflix allowed.) Most if not all of these movies could be much better with a simple change: [...]
All engineering is social engineering. Even hacks that are restricted to code are people interacting with each other across time and space through highly coded language.
Michael Idov via Jack Shedd A place that seats 25 will have to employ at least two people for every shift: someone to work the front and someone for the kitchen (assuming you find a guy who will both uncomplainingly wash dishes and reliably whip up pretty crepes; if you’ve found that guy, you’re already [...]
Josh Marshall: But there also shouldn’t be much question why Republicans are having such a field day spreading disinformation and simple nonsense about this bill. We’ve heard virtually nothing over the last couple weeks about the big issue, which is that the economy is in severe free-fall because of a once-in-a-century financial crisis. … This [...]
Fresh Air has produced a wonderful interview with the very smart Antony Hegarty of Antony and the Johnsons. That said, his constant vibrato reminds me of David Sedaris imitating Billie Holiday. I’m sorry.