I don’t follow basketball, but Isiah Thomas is one of those larger-than-sports figures who transcended the court into business and cultural prominence (hmm, kinda like O.J.). As the head coach and the president of the New York Knicks, he’s gained a respect and admiration in this town above and beyond that reserved for most former …
The musical explanation of the subprime crisis that you’ve been waiting for
From the Richter Scales, a San Francisco area a cappella group, to the tune of “It’s a Fine, Fine Line Between Love and a Waste of Time” from the musical Avenue Q (thanks for the tip, Julie). As Fed-related musical humor goes, it’s no “Every Breath You Take“, but it’s actually kind of nice to listen to:
Update: The video might take a …
Greenspan worship continues, although it’s got nothing on Rubin worship
Barbara Kiviat has a very entertaining piece up on Time.com about the visit she paid yesterday to a Greenspan book signing down at the Wall Street Borders. A highlight:
So, had they read the book, which had been selling since the day before? No. But the question prompted Oliver Young to remove his copy from the Borders bag he was holding
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Really dumb excuses when calling in sick
My husband Chris is a football freak. And by football I mean the game you play with your feet, the one Americans call soccer. So he calls me today to tell me about the eye-rolling saga of Manchester City midfielder Stephen Ireland, who called in sick to work–in his case, on the Republic of Ireland squad–with the plausible-sounding …
So maybe it wasn’t a bailout, after all
This morning’s inflation report–CPI down 0.1%, core CPI up just 0.2%–supports the case that maybe the Fed’s big rate cut yesterday was less a Wall Street bailout than plain old-fashioned monetary policy. One month of data isn’t what you could call conclusive evidence and it’s hard to look at the rising price of oil and the declining …
Worldwide nonexclusive: The Fed cuts rates!
In the most breathlessly anticipated move of Ben Bernanke’s young career as Fed chairman, the Federal Open Market Committee just announced that it’s cutting the Federal funds target rate by half a percentage point, to 4.75%.
What does that mean? It means that the traders at the Fed’s open market desk in New York will start buying up …
A business school professor explains how it all went wrong for business schools
Rakesh Khurana, the young Harvard Business School professor who made a splash five years ago with his book Searching for a Corporate Savior: The Irrational Quest for Charismatic CEOs, is back. This time, in an interesting choice for a guy who doesn’t have tenure yet, he is taking on his employer (and its ilk) with From Higher Aims to …
Public speaking do’s and dont’s
Monday’s lack of a WiP post was not an indication of WiP’s growing laziness. WiP in fact spent the day speaking to a couple of hundred undertakers at a convention in Atlantic City.
(WiP enjoys referring to herself by the name of her blog and infrequent magazine column. It makes her feel like a branded entity, not a sad and uncelebrated …
Why the Fed shouldn’t cut rates Tuesday
I had breakfast Friday morning with Lena Komileva, the Group G7 Economist at Tullett Prebon. To get all Lunch With the FT about it, it was at the London Hotel, I had the scrambled eggs with smoked salmon, and she had an omelet with herbs, which I remember because she pronounced the “h” (she’s English).
Yes, it was a breakfast with …
Greenspan: What I really meant with that ARM speech
The Greenspanmania will stop soon, I promise. But this, from an interview Fortune‘s Andy Serwer did with Greenspan, is really interesting:
Q: Now of course people are pointing fingers at you, Chairman Greenspan, in terms of the so-called housing bubble bursting and saying that you’re responsible or partly responsible. Look at what he
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Greenspan: Nostalgia for the Ford administration, plus a lack of self-awareness, made me do it
Upon opening my copy of The Age of Turbulence, the first thing I checked was the acknowledgments, to make sure my friend Peter Petre got some credit for, uh, ghostwriting the book. Sure enough:
Peter Petre has been my collaborator in the writing. He taught me the age-old art of narrating in the first person. I had always viewed myself as
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Worldwide photo exclusive: Greenspan’s “Age of Turbulence” does midtown Manhattan
After drinking my morning coffee, I went out to get a copy of the Greenspan book. I was initially flummoxed by the discovery that the Barnes & Noble closest to my office is becoming an Ann Taylor, but then found another B & N on 5th Ave. between 45th and 46th Streets.
The book was not prominently displayed–Bill Clinton’s Giving was …