The Dream Team isn’t just filled with overrated miscreants on the field. The accountants they signed in the offseason haven’t really panned out well either. The New York City Finance Department just released a list of the top 100 city debtors and among those listed are Heineken USA, Lehman Brothers, the Rev. Al Sharpton, and the Philadelphia Eagles. A motley crew of debtors they are. In Philadelphia, it’s not customary to pay the debts you owe but this is New York. If the Dream Team doesn’t pay their $15,263.69 in back business taxes soon, you better believe that Mayor Bloomberg is sending Justin Tuck and JPP down the Turnpike to collect. Seriously, how pathetic is that organization? Not only have they had one of the most disappointing seasons in recent memory, but they owe taxes to the city of one of their main rivals. Looks like they shouldn’t have given Dogkiller Vick that $100 million extension. At least they could always bring in Juan Castillo to balance the books.
Moneyball author Michael Lewis wrote a great piece in Vanity Fair about a scary problem in America: the growing inability of municipalities to pay for basic services like firemen, schools, and public works. He examines it at its worse in California, where the people want more and more, except they don’t want to pay for it. While the causes are numerous, the big one is actually the greediness of the public workers, who take all they can in salary, benefits, and pension without regard for the long-term. It’s almost as bad as what people are doing on Wall St. Maybe worse, since you’d expect it out of bankers, not policemen. The result is cities that are bankrupt. It’s only going to get worse. This is a must-read.
I wrote about Occupy Wall Street last week but I’m ineloquent and profane. Matt Taibbi did a much better job in Rolling Stone. Read his article and pretend I wrote it.
Are you fresh out of college and struggling with your life? Do you come home from your 12 hour-a-day job to unwind with a bread sandwich and expired Trader Joe’s wine? Are student loan bills getting higher than your self-esteem? Welcome to the club! It looks like our generation may have the bleakest future of any in the past 80 years. New York Magazine took a peak at the problem in this article. It’s a interesting read, but sometimes it’s good to know that you’re not alone.
“I don’t know what to do about the depression, inflation, and the Russians, and the crime in the street. All I know is first, you’ve got to get mad. You’ve got to say, ‘I’m a human being, god dammit. My life has value.'”
I stopped by the Occupy Wall Street protest in Washington Square Park the other day. It was pretty chaotic. Lots of angry hippie-looking people shouting and holding signs. Some of them seemed to be enjoying themselves. I’m just beginning to wonder if it’s worth it. Will they enact change or even make people look at the world a little differently? It’s been hard to get a unified message out of the Occupiers but then again, America is so fucked up it’s hard to pick just one thing to rail against.
The difference between Occupy Wall Street and other protests is that the protesters are the majority. This isn’t women fighting for their right to vote or African-Americans fighting segregation, this is 99% of the population fighting against the 1% who are taking advantage of them. The protesters have a right to be angry. America is a capitalist country but it is also a country built on compassion and brotherhood.
People with innovative ideas and strong work ethics no doubt deserve to be compensated more than the rest of us, but not at our expense. America is not going to evolve if only a select few are able to live comfortably while the masses struggle to survive. We are only as good as the people around us. What good is having money if others are so hungry that they’re willing to steal it? That’s no way to be as a country.
I’m not complaining about the price of Yankee tickets, an HDTV, or a pair of jeans from Express. It’s the basic things. People shouldn’t have to take out a loan to afford medical care. Just because you can charge more for a appendectomy, doesn’t mean you should. Kids are going massively in debt to go to average schools and then are met by an empty job market. Just as bad is the janitor making $150,000 in “overtime.” Spread the wealth.
There are people that are buying homes and cars while school funding is being cut. Companies angle for tax cuts to help their bottom line so that stockholders (and especially executives with stock options) can cash in when senior care centers are closing. Why is executive pay increasing exponentially when employees are getting laid off? Is a $4 million salary really that much better than $3 million when that difference can pay for 20 employees that may be currently unemployed? It’s not a bad thing if profits go down because you hire extra workers.
Somewhere along the way, greed became acceptable in this country, and not just amongst the upper class. The sales for luxury brands like Gucci and Prada keep rising while the economy stays stagnant. I have friends that complain about being broke but still go out and buy $200 sunglasses. Sure, everybody deserves to splurge every once in a while but this culture of spending and consuming is out of control. Everybody wants more, so prices go up, first on jewelry, then on gas, then on milk. People can’t afford to feed their kids while some punk banker is buying $600 bottles of vodka at 1oak. That’s not fair.
That brings us back to Wall St. The reason it’s being targeted by the Occupiers is because the irresponsible bets made by the banks are the major cause of our current economic situation. At the same time, there was minimal accountability for those who were in charge and salaries and bonuses are still high even as the banks suffered massive losses and ordinary people lost their homes and life savings.
How about if a bank loses $1 billion, then its employees lose $1 billion worth of salary? Let’s see how many bros stay in finance. There are so many smart people that do nothing but push paper and money back and forth working for these banks. It’s a shame they choose to work there instead of making advances in medicine and technology or solving important problems like global warming. Why are people only considered successful when they can afford cars and boats and not when they actually accomplish something?
It’s hard to figure out how to make a change. That’s why Occupy Wall Street exists. They don’t know what they want; they just know that things need to change. When a bully picks on you, there are two choices: do nothing or stand up to him. Judging from their new members and monetary and emotional support they’ve gotten from around the country, more than just the Occupiers are starting to do the latter.
The trick is to convince the general public that the movement isn’t just filled with crazy people which is kinda hard considering that most of them look like they are. Some people think they’re just jealous or angry about being unemployed, and publicity stunts can only work so much before people tire of them. A few intelligent, coherent, and attractive (hey, it helps) leaders need to step up to give this movement a real voice with smart ideas. Occupy Wall Street is not going to overhaul the system, but really now a push in the right direction would be a big help. This is America, people! We have to be good to one another. A buck isn’t worth putting in your pocket if it hurts another person.
Several news outlets reported that the Devils missed a September 1 deadline to pay bank lenders $100 million and may be forced into bankruptcy. The team vehemently denies this but for fun’s sake, let’s pretend that the Post actually got a story right for once. This isn’t the first time there’s been financial problems in New Jersey.
The owners of the Devils are probably too busy buying hair gel and doing their laundry to pay back their debts. They built this fancy new arena in glamorous downtown Newark thinking they would get all the grenades they could ever want, but they forgot that nobody cares about the Devils. Even worse, the NBA is locked out and the Nets are moving to Brooklyn next year anyway. It’s a good thing they signed Ilya Kovalchuk to a 10-year contract because anytime you can lock up a guy for a decade who can lead your team to an 11th place finish, YOU HAVE TO DO IT! Who thought it was a good idea to build a hockey-only arena in New Jersey anyway?
It looked like the Wilpons had all their financial matters settled when they reached a tentative agreement to sell a minority portion of the team to David Einhorn, but the deal fell apart and the reason is unclear. We’ll probably never get a definitive answer from this he-said, she-said catfight that has developed, however, it looks like problems arose when somebody (*COUGH* the Wilpons *COUGH*) tried to change the terms of a potential future ownership change at the last second. The family will now likely sell off smaller parts of the team to several investors.
The Mets can’t even accept $200 million the right way. Einhorn was loaning them straight cash for the right to be called an owner of the team. He wasn’t going to have any decision-making power at all. The Wilpons were literally selling Einhorn $200 million worth of paper and would only transfer a minority stake in the team to him if they couldn’t repay the money.
If you can’t make money owning a baseball team in New York, then you are a failure at life. Einhorn is a smart guy. Just him being around the Mets would have been a good thing for the organization. If I was a Mets fan, you gotta believe I’d be pissed.
Standard & Poor’s downgraded United States long-term debt on Friday from its highest rating, AAA, to AA+. This basically tells investors that if you invest in treasury bonds the chance of receiving the money owed to you is only very good instead of nearly infallible. You can’t deny that the economy is a mess and a lot of people are responsible.
The government has spent more money than we have and politicians can’t agree on how to fix it, if there even is a viable solution. Rich people don’t want to be taxed more even at the expense of programs that help the less fortunate.
Even ordinary Americans would rather buy that new Louis Vuitton bag or pair of Oakley shades than save their money. In short, everything is screwed because we only think for themselves instead of others and the good of the country.
Everything culminated in Standard & Poor’s decision to downgrade. Interest rates will go up and 401(k) plans will go down. My question is: where was S&P in 2008? They totally missed the mortgage-security crisis.
When everything was as worthless as a Miami Heat 2011 NBA Champions t-shirt, S&P kept ratings high. Now they decide to downgrade? Like we should really trust them now. How about helping the people that invested in junk when S&P said it was a sure thing?
S&P, baby, welcome to the party. The economy isn’t doing well. I’m glad you finally figured it out. You should be renamed the Capt. Obvious Corporation. Do you think Charlie Sheen might have a drug problem? Maybe we should have paid you off like all those mortgage companies did. Why are you being such a vigilant watchdog asshole now? If anything, you’re just going to make it harder for the U.S. to dig out of its hole.
America is the greatest country in the world and for that reason our debt should always be AAAAA+++++. How can anyone bet against the good old U.S. of A.? We beat the British when nobody believed in us, and dammit, we’re going to beat this deficit. All of us are Americans and we all need to look out for one another. As Hulk Hogan as my witness, I personally guarantee all American debt and a Keith Stone guarantee is ironclad. Now, mothafucker, raise that rating. Until then, you’re a jabroni, brother.
Here’s an interesting piece in Slate about what has happened to ticket prices with ticket resellers like StubHub taking control of the market and the economy hitting hard. It doesn’t look good, unless your team sucks. Good news for you, Seattle! Read it here.
It’s no secret that the Jets’ Bart Scott is insane. Exhibit A:
Incredibly, that wasn’t the silliest thing Scott did during the winter. The linebacker trademarked the phrase “Can’t Wait” after that crazy postgame interview with Sal Paolantonio. Apparently, he never heard the phrase used before during his frequent conversations with the Ultimate Warrior. Despite having an econ degree from Southern Illinois (Clyde Frazier FTW), Scott likely didn’t take any marketing classes and he has made no money off the phrase, presumably because people use it millions of times a day. Also, maybe Scott forgot that the Jets didn’t make the Super Bowl. I have been told, however, that his brother, Michael Scott, is very impressed by his business savvy.
Rainman Suite 
