I see dead people.

So, beause today’s Friday and because I closed a good opportunity that had been in the pipeline for quite a while, I was of course, kinda happy and walking on cloud nine. The kid inside of me felt like celebrating so I started spinning myself around and around in my chair, getting delieriously drunk on the dizzyness until … I fell outta my chair. All 170 pounds of me came tumbling onto the floor, limbs splayed out, and then I was clutching my head with both hands, moaning and trying to get up off the floor.

I tried but fell over again.

A colleague several cubicles away, was walking by and stopped, sipping on a drink with one hand and the other hand stuffed in his pocket. I heard him sarcastically quip about calling 9-1-1, and then he nonchalantly walked off. Then a minute later another colleague thought to extract his face away from his monitor and looked over at me and asked in a distant voice “oh did you just fall outta yer chair?” and then promptly went back to laughing at whatever stuff was on his screen.

…. annnnd, that was it. Everyone was either cold and heartless and didn’t give a jack about anyone else because they’re all scared of getting sued for being nice and helpful. Or, they’re thought I was well within my standard parameters of normal behavior.

But, hey! Social experimentation is cool!

Filed under: Ghetto, Laced, Miscellany

Sins of the Father

While I strongly believe that the son should not pay for the sins of the father, it is noteworthy that Rahm Emanuel has stepped up to the plate regarding his father’s recent racist remarks, and in doing so has certainly upset some stereotypes about himself as well as set what may be a precedent-setting first amongst US Administrations.

We are cautiously optimistic that such a commitment to fairness and equality will continue throughout the Obama administration :

NEW YORK TIMES

November 13, 2008

Emanuel Apologizes for Father’s ‘Arab’ Comments

By Sarah Wheaton

Representative Rahm Emanuel, President-elect Barack Obama’s chief of staff, called the president of an Arab-American group today to apologize for comments his father made to an Israeli newspaper.

In the remarks, Benjamin Emanuel discussed the potential impact of his son’s new position on U.S.-Israeli relations.

“Obviously he’ll influence the president to be pro-Israel. Why wouldn’t he? What is he, an Arab? He’s not going to be mopping floors at the White House,” the elder Mr. Emanuel told the Israeli daily Ma’ariv, according to English-language reports in The Jerusalem Post and The Jewish Telegraphic Agency.

Calling the comment an “unacceptable smear,” the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee had sent the younger Emanuel a letter (copied to Mr. Obama) calling on him to “disavow and repudiate these remarks publicly.”

“All we ask is to be treated in the same way as any other ethnic, racial or minority group,” said Kareem Shora, the A.D.C.’s executive director. “We’re not treating it as simply an Arab-American issue, we’re trying to treat it as an American issue.”

That led to Rahm Emanuel’s apology today.

“Today, Representative Emanuel called Mary Rose Oakar, president of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, apologized on behalf of his family and offered to meet with representatives of the Arab-American community at an appropriate time in the future,” said Nick Papas, a spokesman for the congressman.

Before Mr. Emanuel made his apology, Mr. Shora said the structure of the elder Mr. Emanuel’s remarks made their meaning clear. “The sequence of the statement was very important,” he said, adding that the ‘Arab’ line “was not separated in any way” from the ‘mopping’ line. He said there would be public outcry if “Arab” had been replaced with the name of any other ethnic group.

Benjamin Emanuel is not yet available for comment, according to an associate at the office of Ari Emanuel, a Hollywood agent and the congressman’s brother, to whom a message on the father’s answering machine referred press calls. Mr. Obama’s campaign declined to address the issue.

[source]

Filed under: Uncategorized

Street Cents

A collection of noteworthy comments from the world of business and finance.

 

“Someone please tell me why any company or investor would want to do business with an insurance company that can’t assess risk?”

- Comment left on a Businessweek article about insurance giant AIG and its $170 billion bailout from the US government.

Filed under: Current Affairs, Quotable Quotes

Hedge Fund Manager’s Parting Shot: Screw You.

EAT SH*T AND DIE!!!

An absolute, unrepentant missive of in-your-face smash and burn, BABY!!!! ahahahahaha

(background update – Andrew Lahde is a former hedge fund manager who, along with ONLY four or five other people like J. Paulson, made maverick contrarian calls in the finance world against the subprime mess, going against the grain, and thus he ended up making bucketloads of money while all the other bankers were losing their hair or committing suicide)

—————– start of article ————————–

——————

Andrew Lahde, manager of a small California hedge fund, Lahde Capital, burst into the spotlight last year after his one-year-old fund returned 866 percent betting against the subprime collapse.

Last month, he did the unthinkable — he shut things down, claiming dealing with his bank counterparties had become too risky. Today, Lahde passed along his “goodbye” letter, a rollicking missive on everything from greed to economic philosophy. Enjoy.

…

Filed under: Current Affairs, Exhaust

Gallows Humor from the Finance World

Here’s one thing there’s still a wealth of: Jokes

09:14 EST Monday, Oct 20, 2008
Globe & Mail

The financial crisis may ruin some banks and throw thousands of people out of work, but it has generated a wealth of jokes spawned by gallows humour. Here is a sample:

Q: What’s the definition of optimism?
A: An investment banker who irons five shirts on a Sunday evening.

***

An investment banker said he was going to concentrate on the big issues from now on. He sold me one in the street yesterday.

***

A man went to his bank manager and said: ‘I’d like to start a small business. How do I go about it?’ ‘Simple,’ said the bank manager. ‘Buy a big one and wait.’

***

The credit crunch is getting bad, isn’t it? I mean, I let my brother borrow a tenner a couple of weeks back, it turns out I’m now Britain’s fourth biggest lender.

***

Q: What is the difference between an investment banker and a pigeon?
A: A pigeon can still make a deposit on a BMW.

***

Q: What is the difference between an investment banker and a large pizza?
A; The pizza can still feed a family of four.

***

Q: What does a hedge fund manager with no fund to manage say?
A: Would you like fries with that sir?

***

Q: What is the capital of Iceland?
A: About $3.50

***

I tried to get cash from the ATM today but it said “insufficient funds.” I don’t know if that meant them or me.

***

Mark Twain was ahead of the curve: “October. This is one of the peculiarly dangerous months to speculate in stocks in. The others are July, January, September, April, November, May, March, June, December, August and February.”

Filed under: Uncategorized

sorry

I was away from my blog for a very long time for a lot of reasons, and all are true:

1) I forgot how to log-in to my WordPress blog. Really. I just couldn’t remember the link.
2) I had so little time.
3) My mind was going through a creative meltdown, in lockstep with the financial markets. People were screaming at me to paint some awesome Graffiti masterpiece on their Facebook walls and I just felt gray and dead inside, like the brain juice just wasn’t flowing. And that meant when it came to posting here, things were also on hold.

ahh oui m’sieur … c’est la vie.

Filed under: Miscellany