Economy
November 5 at 10:21AM
Al Gore was all over the TV last night. The dude was just impossible to avoid. He sat down with Jon Stewart on The Daily Show, he debated the economic effects of climate change with Stephen Colbert on The Colbert Report, and, perhaps most notably, he could be seen on Fox's broadcast of The World Series, cheering on the Yankees in his startlingly effective Kate Hudson costume. Here's the extended version of Gore's Daily Show appearance.
The interview continues below, followed by Gore's appearance on The Colbert Report.
The Daily Show and Colbert Report air Monday through Thursday starting at 11pm / 10c.
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October 27 at 9:15AM
First Rep. Alan Grayson, Democrat of Florida, offended Republicans by becoming that "die quickly" guy. Then, in the midst of his apology for this remark, Rep. Grayson offended Jewish groups by referring to the health care crisis as a "holocaust in America." Rep. Grayson was last seen offending just about everyone else with this website.
Which brings us to yesterday, when somebody reached deep into the bowels of the internet and discovered Rep. Grayson's appearance on a radio program last month. Somehow the conversation shifted to Linda Robertson, a senior adviser at the Federal Reserve, and that's when things got out of control…
"This lobbyist, this K Street whore, is trying to teach me about economics," Mr. Grayson fumed in a segment for a radio program hosted by Alex Jones on the Genesis Communications Network.
"This K Street whore is trying to teach me about economics," Mr. Jones repeated back to the congressman. "Who was that particular K Street whore?"
"I don't remember her name," Mr. Grayson, who once worked as an economist and conveyed he did not feel Ms. Robertson was qualified to lecture Congress on financial matters, said.
Ms. Robertson has yet to respond, but she's probably quite offended. As far as I know she's the only K Street whore working for the Fed, so you'd think Rep. Grayson could remember her name on air.
October 23 at 1:35PM
…And that number is on your paycheck, and it's gonna make you cry like babies! Um, or not. This week Kenneth Feinberg, the president's pay czar/comp cop/earnings eagle put his foot down with new rules about executive compensation at bailed-out companies — well, for some people, at some companies, at least…
[T]he new measure may have more bark than bite, especially if the rules call for the executives' total compensation to fall by an average of 50 percent: the actual pay cuts for the top 25 earners at Citigroup and Bank of America could be skewed because their chief executives have already agreed to enormous reductions.
If their pay cuts are factored into the equation [...], that might give the affected companies more leeway to pay multimillion-dollar bonuses to the other 24 executives included.
And assuming the affected executives still work at these companies, which many of them do not…
At Bank of America, for instance, only 14 of the 25 highly paid executives remained by the time Feinberg announced his decision.
At American International Group, only 13 people of the top 25 were still on hand for Feinberg's decision.
On the bright side: Every minute Wall Street spends giggling at Ken Feinberg is a minute they're not developing a system for turning cat poop into tradable securities, so maybe some good will come from this after all.
October 22 at 11:03AM
If you want to be something really scary this Halloween, why not dress as Neil Barofsky*, inspector general of the Troubled Asset Relief Program? Neil's job involves emerging from his cave every few months, terrifying the country with his terrifying numbers, and then slinking back into the darkness. Nobody knows what he eats to stay alive, or if he eats at all.
It's that time of year again, and Mr. Barofsky's latest report to Congress is spine-tingling per usual…
[Barofsky's report said that] "although several TARP recipients have repaid funds for what has widely been reported as a 17 percent profit, it is extremely unlikely that the taxpayers will see a full return on their TARP investments."
His report said some 50 billion dollars used to help avoid foreclosures "will yield no direct return." As for the investments in insurance giant AIG and auto giants General Motors and Chrysler, "full recovery is far from certain."
"The firms that were 'too big to fail' last October are in many cases bigger still," it added.
Also, the public no longer trusts the government to do things with money. That's not news, of course, but Neil Barofsky does not have cable in his lair.
*The ladies' version of this costume would be "sexy Neil Barofsky."
October 15 at 3:12PM
Here's a lesson for the Associated Press: Try as you might to lower yourself into the lowest recess of gutter sludge, but all your efforts will be thwarted. Because the Fox News has taken up permanent residence there…
The opening segment of yesterday’s Your World (10/15/09) focused on the Dow reaching 10,000. Neil Cavuto asked, "What was once the Bush recession is now the Bush recovery? Or is it a bit of a stretch? Jim Lacamp says give credit where it's due." Not surprisingly, he thought credit was due to George W. Bush.
First of all, hahahahahahahahahahaha! Ha! Neil Cavuto and everyone else over at News Corp. think they're people. They still haven't figured out that they're cartoons. Amazing.
Second of all, that speculation is just flat out preposterous. Everyone knows that this is the Nixon Recovery. (Finally, that guy's getting a little vindication.)
September 15 at 5:14PM

Crack open your finest can of beans, America, it's time to celebrate! According to Federal Reserve Chairbeard Ben Bernanke, the recession that's been going on for the past year and three-quarters is OVAH. Dunzo. Finito. Down for the count.
Final tally? America: 1. Econopocalypse: 0!
"From a technical perspective, the recession is very likely over at this point," Bernanke said in responding to questions at the Brookings Institution. "It's still going to feel like a very weak economy for some time because many people will still find that their job security and their employment status is not what they wish it was."
The recession, which started in December 2007, has claimed a net total of 6.9 million jobs.
Okay, okay. America: 1, Econopocalypse 0 + 6.9 million.
But who's counting? If you get all technical with the technical economic data, it spoils the fun.
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