Bailout Math – Now I Get It

Is that Henry P. in this clip?

Where’d that $350 million go, anyway?

Paul

Pasadena Chamber of Commerce Blog

Hey all, or maybe hey you, considering the diminutive size of my loyal readership.

We’ve started a blog for the Pasadena Chamber of Commerce. You can find it at pasadenachamber.wordpress.com. Click here and check it out.

Paul

Chamber’s Grow Your Community, Shop Local aims to benefit local economy and businesses

JOIN IN AND DO YOUR PART

Informational media campaign designed by Art Center students with goal of encouraging patronage of Pasadena stores, restaurants, entertainment venues and services

Pasadena, CA — Supporting our local businesses is very important to the ongoing economic vitality of the Pasadena area. The prosperity of everyone in Pasadena is dependent on the financial health of our business community as a whole. One clear way everyone who lives, works or does business in Pasadena can aid in the recovery of our local economy is to spend money in the city where they live, work and do business. The shops, restaurants and services that create local jobs and provide the financial bedrock for Pasadena are dependent on local patrons for their livlihood and ongoing vitality.

To encourage local residents and workers to shop in Pasadena, the City of Pasadena and the Pasadena Chamber of Commerce are partnering with The Agency, a student-run advertising cooperative at Art Center College of Design, to create an informational marketing campaign to promote the importance of spending money with Pasadena businesses. Sponsored by the Chamber and the City, with significant support from Pasadena Volkswagen, THE Magazine, CBS Outdoor, Pasadena Outlook , Pasadena NOW, the San Marino Tribune and Pasadena Weekly, the promotional and informational campaign is intended to encourage those who live and work in Pasadena to also spend their money here.

Pasadena Volkswagen contributed significantly to support the campaign, which was conceived funded by a joint effort of the Chamber and City of Pasadena. Grow Your Community, Shop Local will appear on bus shelters throughout Pasadena. In addition, THE magazine, Pasadena Weekly and Pasadena Outlook have generously provided advertising space in each publication. CBS Outdoor is also generously supporting the campaign.

The promotional campaign was implemented completely by Art Center students working with Mikio Osaki and The Agency @ Art Center. Student project leader Dave Stone and colleagues Elaine Ng, Kerry Hyatt, Clement Jolin, Jaclyn Markle, Scott Meyers, Amy Fleisher and Enrique Barrios conceived three approaches, two of which were chosen to implement the Grow Your Community, Shop Local campaign. Students were responsible for everything from the conception and design to delivery of final elements for production.

“Sales tax dollars, business license fees, property taxes and other assessments paid by business return money to Pasadena to pay for essential services such as police and fire protection and also support our local public schools, parks and PCC,” said Chamber CEO Paul Little. “Spending in Pasadena preserves local jobs, maintains local businesses and saves travel time and gas. We encourage everyone to think local when buying.”

While the Grow Your Community, Shop Local campaign is not affiliated with other local or national efforts to encourage patronage of local enterprises, the Chamber of Commerce and the City of Pasadena support and encourage those efforts. “It is in everyone’s best interest to promote the vitality of our local businesses and encourage those who appreciate and benefit from the excellent quality of life in Pasadena to support it by shopping locally and patronizing those businesses, large and small, that pay a dividend to our community,” Mr. Little said.

The Pasadena Chamber of Commerce and Civic Association is a professional business organization. Since the earliest days of Pasadena, the Chamber has played a major role in the development of this internationally renowned city. Since 1888, when the organization was founded as the Board of Trade, the Chamber’s primary purpose has been the enhancement of both the business climate and the quality of life in Pasadena. The Pasadena Chamber of Commerce serves 1500 members.

I’m not saying anything, just watch this

This is pretty funny.  Watch it a second time and read the crawl along the bottom.

Paul

Maybe I’m Amazed – a bit anyway

I honestly really never thought I would see it in my lifetime.

The promise that’s always been the bedrock of America, that everyone can grow up to be president, hung out there as true for one segment of our population, is really true for most of us. Obama proved the promise of America can be the reality of America.  We will vote for someone based things other than how that person looks.

We’re not perfect.  As my son said, in California we give animals a bit more breathing room before we chop off their heads but deny two people who love each other the right to marry.

But, we were able to put aside suspicions, generations of distrust and vote for the black guy, in large numbers.

Pretty amazing, I think.

Paul

p.s. Now Barack Obama inherits a world that distrusts America and Americans, an economy that’s mercurial and maybe incendiary, and a country that’s bewildered.  It will take serious leadership skills, significant smarts and some luck to see us through this.  I think Mr. Obama has a good shot at helping us out of this mess we find our selves in.

Studs Terkel goes, too

At age 96, chronicler of the working man and ebullient voice of Chicago, Studs Terkel passed away.

What a legacy to leave behind.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/01/books/01terkel.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=terkel&st=cse&oref=slogin

Studs Terkel, Listener to Americans, Dies at 96

By WILLIAM GRIMES

Published: October 31, 2008

Sara Krulwich/The New York Times

The author Studs Terkel at the Algonquin Hotel on May 20, 1997, around the release of his book “My American Century.”

CBS, courtesy of Jeff Kisseloff

The actress Beverly Younger and Mr. Terkel on the Chicago set of his television variety show, “Studs’ Place,” around 1950.

Studs Terkel, a Pulitzer Prize-winning author whose searching interviews with ordinary Americans helped establish oral history as a serious genre, and who for decades was the voluble host of a popular radio show in Chicago, died Friday at his home there. He was 96.

His death was confirmed by Lois Baum, a friend and longtime colleague at the radio station WFMT.

In his oral histories, which he called guerrilla journalism, Mr. Terkel relied on his enthusiastic but gentle interviewing style to elicit, in rich detail, the experiences and thoughts of his fellow citizens. Over the decades, he developed a continuous narrative of great historic moments sounded by an American chorus in the native vernacular.

“Division Street: America” (1966), his first best seller and the first in a triptych of tape- recorded works, explored the urban conflicts of the 1960s. Its success led to “Hard Times: An Oral History of the Great Depression” (1970) and “Working: People Talk About What They Do All Day and How They Feel About What They Do” (1974).

Tony Hillerman RIP

This morning’s LA Times reports the death of mystery writer Tony Hillerman. For the uninitiated, Hillerman wrote about Navajo Tribal Police and the Navajo culture in a way that was enlightening, interesting and sympathetic. Good mysteries that were tied to the culture and land of the Navajo people.

Some writers can take genre material and make it relevant, enaging, insightful and amazing.  Hillerman was one of those.  Even if you aren’t a mystery fan, his books are worth the time. Really extraordinary writer.

http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-hillerman28-2008oct28,0,5303995.story

Tony Hillerman, 83, dies; bestselling mystery author provided insight into the native people and culture of the Southwest

By Dennis McLellan
October 28, 2008

Bestselling author Tony Hillerman began writing his contemporary mystery novels set in the Navajo region of the Southwest, in part, he once said, because “they have a fascinating religious philosophy and a lot of good values.”

And, he told Newsweek magazine in 1989, “they’re the very bottom of the pecking order among Indian tribes out here. They’re the country bumpkins. And I’ve always identified with that.”

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The critically acclaimed author, whose mysteries featured two Navajo tribal policemen and were known for providing insight into the native people and culture of the Southwest, died Sunday. He was 83.

It’s Clear to me Now

The regulators, watchdogs, media, everyone but ordinary consumers and British comedians were watching the people in white shirts passing balls.

I really can’t find a better explanation.

Paul

Okay. The Brits ARE smarter than we are

Here’s proof.

Their comedians read financial markets better than our multi-million dollar stock brokers.

This is from more than a year ago:

http://www.brasschecktv.com/page/187.html/

But we didn’t see this coming?

Paul

Not wooden arrows, but something shot through Wall St.

The Dow posted a record one-day jump after European governments talked about their own bail-outs.

But we’re not out of the woods yet.

We’re only just getting the first inkling of what the Fed’s going to do to shore up the economy.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/14/business/economy/14treasury.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

U.S. Investing $250 Billion in Banks

By MARK LANDLER

Published: October 13, 2008

WASHINGTON — The Treasury Department, in its boldest move yet, is expected to announce a plan on Tuesday to invest up to $250 billion in banks, according to officials. The United States is also expected to guarantee new debt issued by banks for three years — a measure meant to encourage the banks to resume lending to one another and to customers, officials said.

Pablo Martinez Monsivais/Associated Press

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, left, talking with Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. after a dinner at the White House Monday.

Brendan Smialowski for The New York Times

John A. Thain, chairman of Merrill Lynch, leaving the Treasury Department on Monday.

And the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation will offer an unlimited guarantee on bank deposits in accounts that do not bear interest — typically those of businesses — bringing the United States in line with several European countries, which have adopted such blanket guarantees.

The Dow Jones industrial average gained 936 points, or 11 percent, the largest single-day gain in the American stock market since the 1930s. The surge stretched around the globe: in Paris and Frankfurt, stocks had their biggest one-day gains ever, responding to news of similar multibillion-dollar rescue packages by the French and German governments.

In London, they’re almost gleeful something has been done and seems to be working, at least for today.

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/banking_and_finance/article4938229.ece

October 14, 2008

Markets soar as the world acts to rescue banks

Suzy Jagger in New York, Francis Elliott and Gráinne Gilmore

Stock markets soared yesterday after governments committed trillions of dollars in an unprecedented attempt to prevent the collapse of the international financial system.

World shares made their biggest one-day advance for 19 years as countries across four continents detailed the extraordinary lengths to which they will go to bail out stricken banks.

France, Spain, Italy, Germany, Austria, Finland, Sweden, Australia, New Zealand, Indonesia, India, South Korea, Japan and Qatar all took measures to guarantee deposits or improve bank liquidity.

In America Hank Paulson, the Treasury Secretary, moved to implement British-style plans for the Administration to take a stake in ailing US banks. President Bush is expected to unveil firm plans today to use $250 billion of taxpayer funds to seize stakes in nine of America’s biggest banks as part of a move to stabilise the country’s banking system.

The co-ordinated international moves sparked the biggest single-day rally since the rebound after the Black Monday crash of October 1987. On Wall Street, the Dow Jones rose 936 points, or 11 per cent, its biggest one-day point gain and the biggest percentage rise since 1933. In London, the FTSE 100 closed up more than 8 per cent, its second-biggest daily percentage rise.

Hope some of the $250 billion gets to the people who are struggling to keep their shops open and their employees paid.

Paul