9:15 AM me: So this morning I heard the VP of Lehman Bros talking about his new book, A Colossal Failure of Common Sense.
What b.s.
Manny: protect the eye!
9:16 AM me: That's right
We're supposed to believe that these guys had no idea that the way they were making their fortunes might cause problems for the rest of us?
Manny: have you read liars poker?
9:17 AM me: Don't be mad at us, we had a failure of common sense!
no
I've been meaning to get it from you for a while
Manny: the worst insult you could call someone at Solomon Bros in the 80s was "customer"
9:18 AM and they were trading TREASURY bonds
me: right, those are the suckers
the costumers
even when they're buying pieces of their own government!
Manny: CDOs are like the dirty stepchildren of real bonds
9:21 AM me: explain?
Manny: treasuries are securee
the U.S. will pay you back someday
9:22 AM CDOs are like treasuries' dirty uncle, at the party with their shirt unbuttoned and gold chains on
labeled secure
9:23 AM so if the people who trade treasuries are sketch
the people who trade non-treasuries, or ``innovative financial products" are just dog track gamblers
me: right
9:24 AM got it
9:25 AM Manny: structured finance
my tushy
me: "free for all grabbing" might be a better descriptor
9:28 AM
Manny: My buddy K. made an elaborate analogy that Obama is Isiah Thomas and Goldman Sachs is Stephon Marbury
9:31 AM me: Isiah thomas is one of the most incompetent people in the history of sports. I hope that analogy doesn't stand
9:32 AM Isiah hated stephan and benched him, what has obama done to goldman?
Manny: I think he really meant jimmy dolan
but isiah is... ahem... you know
9:33 AM me: black?
9:36 AM Manny: you said it
racist
9:37 AM me: ha
9:39 AM Manny: incidentally: post-racial America
me: I still, however, don't understand the analogy. If marbury is goldman, they should be getting punished and made to sit on the bench for a year before they're allowed to come back, but only to help out on a champion, not to really play
Manny: He means earlier
me: I heard!
Manny: when they wrote him a giant check
and said he was gonna save the franchise
me: ah
Manny: he's saying that's what the nation is doing now
9:40 AM me: got it
but goldman will be a punk and play only for itself
Manny: we're knicks fans, and the govt is dolan, writing a big check to someone who is all rep and all self-interested
yes
me: got it
9:41 AM as for the arrest of Dr. Gates in HIS OWN HOME, it's amazing.
Manny: I would like to point everyone to this article
Note the paper
9:42 AM I used to work with that guy
he loves to ask questions: is racism dead?
no, keith
it's not
duh
either he's stupid, or he thinks readers are
9:43 AM me: basically, his piece is rush limbaugh's dream, because it allows ignorant and stupid people to say, hey, even the boston globe thinks racism is dead!
9:44 AM Manny: it also exposes an embarrassing lack of familiarity with the history of Boston
me: seriously. On NPR this morning, they basically framed it as probably racist, but also because Gates was tired and fussy after a long trip so he yelled at the cops
it was racist, but he sort of deserved it
9:45 AM Manny: it was IN HIS HOUSE
9:46 AM me: Sure it was in his house, but he was totally being black in there dude
how was the cop supposed to know that he was a harvard professor and not just a regular black guy?
9:47 AM Manny: you mean, aside from the fact that he's famous?
9:50 AM me: he's only famous to educated people
9:52 AM Manny: and Larry Summers, bitch
Larry Summers now recognizes
don't mess with Skip Gates
9:53 AM me: ?
9:57 AM Manny: One of the first things summers did when he got to harvard was pick a fight with gates
me: really? I must have missed that
9:59 AM Also Cornell West
mostly Cornell West
10:00 AM AMY GOODMAN: can you tell us what happened and how you feel about that, and where the African American studies department at Harvard stands now. I was recently with Cornell West in Santa Fe, new Mexico and asked him about his run-in with the former treasury secretary and now Harvard University president, Lawrence Summers. Didn’t like what he called extracurricular activities like getting involved with—not clear, if he didn’t like his Nader endorsements or his hip-hop endeavors?
HENRY LOUIS GATES: Cornell is a brilliant scholar and a person of tremendous pride and dignity, and he felt deeply insulted after a conversation with the new president, Summers. I think the president regrets that conversation. I think that Cornell feels that he had no choice but to leave to preserve his dignity, as a strong, proud black man. It broke my heart, unfortunately. But he had to go. I support his decision. I miss him terribly. We’re still very, very—very dear friends. I admire Cornell. There’s no one in the academy that I admire more than Cornell West. You talk about a Martin Luther king figure and W.E.B. DuBois figure all rolled into one. That’s Cornell West. That’s why I dedicated the book to him.
10:01 AM me: West is so feisty
10:11 AM me: crazy. It makes me extra proud of the part where I helped appoint an awesome black woman as president of Brown
10:27 AM Manny: Yeah
Suck on this, preppies
10:29 AM me: ha ha ha
