Up 2.9% in tonight’s session, slowly but surely creeping higher.
Comments »Monthly Archives: January 2012
FLASH: TEBOW WINS AGAIN
Tim Tebow threw for an 80 yard td against the Steelers, in overtime, on the first play in OT.
Gods loves Tebow time.
Comments »Report: Jay Z and Beyonce Reserve Entire Floor at Lennox Hill Hospital for Birth Delivery
It was a girl and it cost a cool $1.3 million for the entire floor.
Comments »A Modern Day Twilight Zone
Um…WTF?! White House Threw Secret ‘Alice in Wonderland’ Bash During Recession
It was the tea party the Obamas just couldn’t resist.
A White House “Alice in Wonderland” costume ball — put on by Johnny Depp and Hollywood director Tim Burton — proved to be a Mad-as-a-Hatter idea that was never made public for fear of a political backlash during hard economic times, according to a new tell-all.
“The Obamas,” by New York Times correspondent Jodi Kantor, tells of the first Halloween party the first couple feted at the White House in 2009. It was so over the top that “Star Wars” creator George Lucas sent the original Chewbacca to mingle with invited guests.
The book reveals how any official announcement of the glittering affair — coming at a time when Tea Party activists and voters furious over the lagging economy, 10-percent unemployment rate, bank bailouts and Obama’s health-care plan were staging protests — quickly vanished down the rabbit hole.
“White House officials were so nervous about how a splashy, Hollywood-esque party would look to jobless Americans — or their representatives in Congress, who would soon vote on health care — that the event was not discussed publicly and Burton’s and Depp’s contributions went unacknowledged,” the book says.
However, the White House made certain that more humble Halloween festivities earlier that day — for thousands of Washington-area schoolkids — were well reported by the press corps.
Then the Obamas went inside, where an invitation-only affair for children of military personnel and White House administrators unfolded in the East Room.
Unbeknownst to reporters, the State Dining Room had also been transformed into a secretive White House Wonderland.
Tim Burton decorated it “in his signature creepy-comic style. His film version was about to be released, and he had turned the room into the Mad Hatter’s tea party, with a long table set with antique-looking linens, enormous stuffed animals in chairs, and tiered serving plates with treats like bone-shaped meringue cookies,” reports the book, which The Post purchased at a Manhattan bookstore.
“Fruit punch was served in blood vials at the bar. Burton’s own Mad Hatter, the actor Johnny Depp, presided over the scene in full costume, standing up on a table to welcome everyone in character.”
The Obamas’ daughters, Malia and Sasha, then 11 and 8 respectively, “sat at the table, surrounded by a gaggle of their friends, and then proceeded to the next delight, a magic show in the East Room.”
Kantor’s book details more personal aspects of the Obama White House, serving up glimpses of the first couple’s marriage, parenting, sometimes tense handling of staff issues and even the president’s sly sense of humor when it comes to race.
One morning during his Senate campaign, Obama didn’t show up to a meeting with donors. “After a frantic search, a white staffer named Peter Coffey called Obama’s barbershop to find that, yes, he was there.”
The president confronted Coffey about the call later that day.
“ ‘The relationship between a black man and his barber is sacred,’ Obama bellowed . . . ‘For failing to understand this truth, your punishment is to watch the movie “Barbershop.” And for further punishment, you will then watch the sequel, “Barbershop 2.” ’ ”
Often White House staffers found themselves in the middle of husband-and-wife quarrels.
“The advisors could feel hopelessly caught between husband and wife,” Kantor writes. “The Obama marriage was awkward for everyone: for the aides, for the president . . . and for the first lady.”
POST PHOTO COMPOSITE
TEA PARTY! Johnny Depp played host, as the Mad Hatter, at a 2009 White House bash, but a new book says it was kept quiet from the press for fear of backlash amid the recession.
Read more: http://trade.cc/wog#ixzz1isybd2Tk
Comments »A Look at Credit Unions
Can they really replace traditional banking and finance ? I’ve had good experiences with credit unions, but I’m sporting and 820+
Comments »State of the Nation: Upward Mobility is Up in Smoke
Jack Frost Has Gone on Holiday
Moody’s Picks Up a 50% Stake in Copal Partners
A Consistent 15 Year Cycle Suggests More Pain to Come ( S&P Chart Porn )
[youtube://http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CDod1HUdL6E 450 300]
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Not So Fun Times in PA
America’s Working age Population to Grow Until 2050
The Fear Trade in Oil Will Likely Progress
Brystol Myers To Buy Inhibitex for $2.5 Billion
HUGE PREMIUM: Bristol-Myers Squibb To Buy Inhibitex For About $2.5 Bln – Update
Biopharmaceutical firm Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. (BMY: News ) Sunday said it will acquire hepatitis C drug developer Inhibitex Inc. (INHX: News ) for $26.00 per share in cash pursuant to a cash tender offer and second step merger. The boards of directors of both companies have approved the deal, valued at about $2.5 billion. The lead HCV asset of Inhibitex is INX-189, an oral nucleotide polymerase or NS5B inhibitor in Phase II development that has exhibited potent antiviral activity.
The acquisition is expected to be dilutive to Bristol-Myers Squibb’s earnings through 2016, with an expected impact on earnings per share of about $0.04 in 2012 and around $0.05 in 2013. Inhibitex’s board agreed to recommend that its shareholders tender their shares in the offer. In addition, shareholders with beneficial ownership of about 17% of Inhibitex’s common stock reached agreements with Bristol-Myers to support the transaction and to tender their shares in the tender offer.
Also, the deal provides for both the parties to effect a merger to be completed following the tender offer closure, which would result in all shares not tendered in the tender offer being converted into the right to receive $26.00 per share cash, Bristol-Myers added.
Lamberto Andreotti, chief executive, Bristol-Myers Squibb stated, “The acquisition of Inhibitex builds on Bristol-Myers Squibb’s long history of discovering, developing and delivering innovative new medicines in virology and enriches our portfolio of investigational medicines for hepatitis C.” Commenting on the transaction, Russell Plumb, President and Chief Executive of Inhibitex said, “Bristol-Myers Squibb’s expertise in antiviral drug development, and its existing complementary portfolio, will assure that the potential of INX-189 is realized as part of future oral combination therapies for millions of patients in need around the world.”
The companies anticipate that the tender offer would close around 30 days after commencement of the tender offer. Citi is serving as financial advisor to Bristol-Myers Squibb in relation with the purchase and Kirkland & Ellis LLP is its legal advisor.
BMY ended Friday’s trading session at $34.22 on a volume of 7.91 million shares on the NYSE, while INHX closed at $9.87 on a volume of 2.99 million shares on the Nasdaq.
Comments »What to Expect Next Week: Alcoa Starts Off the Earnings Season
“SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — Investors are expected to increasingly focus on corporate news next week as U.S. companies enter the earnings-reporting season. But Europe won’t be far from their minds as the continent’s sovereign debt woes show little sign of abating.
“Attention is certain to turn to earnings next week. Investors will attempt to quantify the extent of earnings damage from the economic turmoil in Europe,” said Bill Stone, chief investment strategist of PNC Asset Management Group.”
Comments »Proceed With Caution
Caution is better than at your own risk or not at all. The recent U.S. economic data has been strong lately, but some caution to wait and see if the recent uptick was a holiday binge or if it is the start of better things to come.
Comments »China’s Lending Grew by 13.9% in December
“BEIJING (Reuters) – China’s banks ratcheted up lending in the last month of 2011 on the back of stronger money supply, reinforcing perceptions that the central bank is gently easing policy to cushion the impact of the global economic slowdown.
Chinese banks extended 640.5 billion yuan ($101.51 billion) in new loans in December, up from 562.2 billion yuan in November, data from the People’s Bank of China showed on Sunday.
Annual growth in China’s broad M2 money supply accelerated to 13.6 percent in December from November’s 12.7 percent.
“The policy easing signal is becoming clearer,” said Wang Hu, an economist at Guotai Junan Securities in Shanghai.
“We think the central bank will continue to loosen credit in the coming months.”
The surge in bank lending and money supply exceeded market expectations. Analysts had expected 600 billion yuan in new loans for December and annual M2 growth of 12.7 percent in December.”
China Pledges more entrepreneurial loans
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The Fed’s Bullard: Strong Data May Mean The Fed is Done Buying Bonds
Done buying bonds for now. It will be a wait and see approach as we are certainly not normal and back on our feet. Never the less good data will be cheered!
Comments »Study: Is Fox News Too Balanced?
By Paul Bedard
It’s not easy being Fox News in today’s highly politicized media environment. When it says it’s “fair and balanced,” the mainstream media sneer disbelief. When the cable news ratings leader reveals figures proving its coverage is balanced on a specific hot-button issue, it gets slapped for pandering to conservative dogma.
That’s a conclusion one might reach from a first-of-its-kind study in the authoritative International Journal of Press/Politics of how Fox, CNN, and MSNBC cover the issue of global warming. The bottom line: Being balanced and providing supportive and critical views of global warming is actually biased because it gives critics a louder voice. Worse: Fox covers global warming about twice as much as CNN and MSNBC combined, meaning those critics get much more airtime, another sign of bias.
“Although Fox discussed climate change most often, the tone of its coverage was disproportionately dismissive,” says the study by four professors, two from George Mason University, the others from Yale and American University. They wrote, “Fox broadcasts were more likely to include statements that challenged the scientific agreement on climate change, undermined the reality of climate change, and questioned its human causes.”
The new study looked at global warming stories on the three networks in 2007-08, the peak of coverage of the issue. Of 269 stories, 182 were on Fox, 66 on CNN, and 21 on MSNBC. About 60 percent of the Fox stories had a “dismissive” tone, while less than 20 percent were “accepting” of global warming. Over 70 percent of those on CNN and MSNBC accepted the global warming argument, which the study authors also endorse. There were no “dismissive” stories on MSNBC, and just 7 percent on CNN, a proper balance, the study suggests.
The authors also looked at the opinions of guests. Here Fox again out-balanced the competition. Of Fox’s 149 guests, 59 believed in global warming, 69 didn’t, with the rest someplace in the middle. Of CNN’s 53 story guests, 41 were “climate change believers” and nine were “doubters.” On MSNBC, 11 of 20 guests were believers.
The study acknowledges that Fox was the most balanced from the numbers perspective, but the network still gets an F. The reason, it says, is because viewers are influenced by what they see, and seeing more critics of global warming makes more viewers critics. “The more often people watched Fox News, the less accepting they were of global warming. Conversely, frequent CNN and MSNBC viewing was associated with greater acceptance of global warming,” the study concludes.
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