California has always fostered a kind of insane optimism that strikes outsiders as absurd and delusional and actually kind of sick. My favorite symbol of this, when I lived there, was Rent A Wheel, where you could "rent to own" chrome rims for your tires, your job is your credit etc. etc., for an eminently reasonable…
In a matter of minutes (or anyway, units of time) the Senate is expected to vote on a bailout package. Much like the bailout package that just got voted down the other day and sent all your stocks back in time to September 11. So what's changed since then? We've been sorta paying attention. Here's a comprehensive…
Back from 2001 downturn, it's the "comfort food during a recession" trend piece! Hey, writers, if you're assigned this topic, here's a peg: an "exclusive all night diner" is to open in dazed, freakoutnomic Manhattan: "Socialista mastermind Armin Amiri has decided to open an all-night diner—with a guest list from 11…
"Not once did we consider asking Washington to bail out the Sun," proclaimed the conservative New York newspaper in a deathbed editorial this morning that cited the importance of adhering to its highminded free-market "principles." But it turns out that they did almost precisely that kind of! See, some of the Sun's…
Apparently there's some meme that 12 Republicans were ready to vote for the bailout package but Democrats' "bedside manner" or something put them off. (UPDATE: Oh Christ, this?) Anyway, House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank took a question about this at the Bailout Fail press conference just now and…
Last night at a poetry reading marking the release of the 2008 Best American Poetry anthology the distinguished poet and Finding Forrester star Charles Bernstein delivered a stirring plea for swift intervention to stave off the subprime poetry crisis. "As we know, lax composition practices since the advent of…
It is a stunning reversal of fortune of the sort his old investment bank just narrowly averted thanks to Warren Buffet and the government to which he to which he does not have to pay any of those "tax dollars" he is throwing around to save his old neighborhood! But yes, sources are now informing us Billionairish bald…
We're not even officially in a recession, and already the culture czars over at New York have dubbed the economic crisis precipitated by our financial system's collapse The Greatest Depression! Such hyperbole, I know! So what makes the tag feel so goddamn right? Other than the fact that I think it is really great I…
From the Mailbag: "Here’s a tip for you: I was just down on 27th Street for a meeting and thought you might like to know… [strip club] Scores West is reopening (tomorrow or Thursday) as a 'juice bar' because they still can’t get a liquor license. There’s a sign up outside the door right now." That means they can…
The "suicide index" is still very low compared to 1929 and with those farmers in India. Maybe money does buy diminishing marginal happiness? [Slate]
Last week Nick hated on the media for being too alarmist in its coverage of the collapse of Wall Street; Ryan pointed out this morning that the problem is that they weren't alarmist enough. So we ran the numbers: with some blips the media has been dropping the R-bomb as well as the D-bomb pretty steadily since the CDO…
The collapse of capitalism is actually too damn overwhelming for most journalists — much less their readers — to grasp. So how to approach? With a tried-and-true socio-anthropological take on What It Really Means In America As Told To Some Narrow Niche Of Society. Let's start with strippers!
