American Madness

This evening a quick thunderstorm rolled over Wall Street. As the grey skies broke apart, a rainbow appeared. Is there a pot of gold to be found at the end?

Wall Street Rainbow

In a victory for the much embattled congress, a Federal Judge ruled Thursday that executive privilege does not preclude Bush advisors Harriet Miers and Josh Bolten from appearing in conjunction with congressional subpoenas.

In his ruling, U.S. District Judge John Bates said there’s no legal basis for Bush’s argument and that his former legal counsel, Harriet Miers, must appear before Congress. If she wants to refuse to testify, he said, she must do so in person. The committee also has sought to force testimony from White House chief of staff Joshua Bolten. MSNBC Story

Although only Bolten and Miers were mentioned in Congress’ petition, they are hoping that this victory will also allow them to enforce the subpoena that they have issued to close Bush adviser Karl Rove.

(Writer’s Commentary: Unfortunately, Bush will probably appeal this ruling to the Supreme Court, which is no longer balanced, but more in his favor as a result of the two appointments he made during his presidency.* Hopefully this doesn’t get to the Supreme Court and we can actually see these advisors in front of Congress to see them defend their involvement.  And they will probably invoke executive privilege once they get there, but at least they will be complying with the subpoenas.  Freedom of information will yet again get screwed in favor of secrecy and cronyism.  What makes this more ironic is the subpoenas are in reference to dirty dealings in the hirings and firings in the Justice Department.)

* Disregard first sentence of writer’s commentary.  Edited to remove my biased, and wrong partisan views.  I’m nothing if not willing to admit my mistakes.

The next time you forget a face at a party, the new boss’s name or your wife’s birthday, you may want to consider sleeping more, Swiss research suggests.

Do you ever feel poor? Like you are just scraping together enough money each month to barely make it by?

Well, now you can see where you rank in terms of world salaries or as they put it on the GlobalRichList:

Every year we gaze enviously at the lists of the richest people in world.
Wondering what it would be like to have that sort of cash. But where
would you sit on one of those lists? Here’s your chance to find out.

Just plug in your salary (it even adjusts for Yen, Pounds, US Dollars, Canadian Dollars and Euros) and they will tell you where you where your slary falls in terms of others in the world.

Little tidbits like “Did you know MIcrosfot CEO Bill Gates has more wealth than the bottom 45 percent of American Households combined.”

Once you see where you sit on the Global Rich List you may be inclined to make a donation to a charity to help those less fortunate (and trust me, there are probably a few people less fortunate than you)
and they have it all set up for you to do so right on the website. Pretty convenient.

I spent much of Saturday watching Mad Men. Had not seen it before. Wonderfully well written and acted and, thankfully, being renewed for a second season which will begin on Sunday, July 27 at 10pm on AMC.

Some parts of the show are pretty obviously overblown. There were women in creative advertising jobs (it wasn’t quite so rare as the show would have you believe), but I’ll allow that there were also some dramatic differences in culture worthy of hyperbolic reenactment. Just seeing the way older women and men interact is enough to convince me of the basic validity of the show’s depiction of 60’s gender roles.

I asked my friend Kent, who worked in that industry in the 50’s/60’s (and onward), whether he found it to be accurate. His take:

Saw the entire series, and watched a couple of reruns. Not too true to what I knew of the Ad biz in the 50s, but some of it was: the new biz pitches, the overweening creative boss, the infidelity, the suck-up young guy, the weird owner, etc. But, nonetheless, I love the series and am glad they’re dishing out more.

There has been some great analysis of the show’s sets and props. The New York Times, in a somewhat goofy review, spent much more time talking about the apparent Neuroses (and neurotic genius) of show founder Matthew Weiner. Thank goodness he’s so neurotic or the show wouldn’t be nearly as compelling.

***

For some real advertising history, the New York Public Library is now putting a show, The Real Men and Women of Madison Avenue: Their Impact on American Culture.
From June 24, 2008 through September 26, 2008

Science, Industry and Business Library
Healy Hall
188 Madison Avenue
Mon, Fri & Sat: 11 to 6;
Tues, Wed & Thurs: 10 to 8

FinAlternatives reports:

A hedge fund dedicated to investing in the adult entertainment industry has struck a deal for iPorn, a mobile and SMS pornography provider in the works.

Beverly Hills, Calif.-based AdultVest, which claims its “online marketplace” now exceeds $7 billion in capital available for varied smutty investments, announced that its Priapus Investment Fund acquired iPorn yesterday.

I’ve no idea what the site really does (I’m not about the check it out from work!), but I’m wondering if Apple won’t sue. Wasn’t Apple planning to release the iPorn soon? I think they have it in development but have been stalled trying to get the “touch” screen to work.

(Some racy iPod gags if you search for iPorn in Google images.)

Yesterday’s Senate hearing on commodities (Real Player).

From today’s New York Times:

The gross domestic product grew at a 0.6 percent annual rate in the first quarter, the Commerce Department said on Wednesday, holding steady from the last three months of 2007.

The expansion, however slim, came as something of a relief to Wall Street, which had been bracing for a contraction. Many analysts have labeled the current downturn a recession, but the economy appears so far to have avoided the informal definition of two consecutive quarters of contraction.

No matter how much the FT and the Economist think they can editorially will this nation into recession, the numbers betray slowing growth, not a recession. At this point, given the 0.6% growth in GDP in the first quarter, the earliest the U.S. economy could actually hit “recession” would be September 30, 2008.

What would you do if your hamster killed your husband?

You would of course sue the pet store.

A Rhode Island woman filed a federal lawsuit last week after her husband died following a liver transplant. The death was attributed to the contraction of a virus apparently originating in the adoption of a hamster at a PetSmart store in Rhode Island.

The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court, said a pathology report on the autopsy lists the cause of death as lymphocytic choriomeningitis, a viral infection of the membranes surrounding the brain and spinal cord. According to the AP report, “In May 2005, the Rhode Island Health Department confirmed that three people died after receiving organ transplants that were infected with the rodent virus.” (more…)