Links of the Day

NBS Birth of Dr. Manhattan - A sweet viral video for Watchmen that re-creates the set, reporting, everything of a 1970 news report about the 10th Anniversary of Dr. Manhattan, a god-like character in the movie. I was more interested in how little network broadcasting has changed over the years.


71,400 Jobs Cut Today - Its been a bad day for the job market as Home Depot announced its closing it's EXPO stores resulting in the layoffs of 7000 employees. Pfizer, after a 50 billion merge with Wyeth is tossing out about 26,000. Sprint, getting its rear kicked by other communications due to poor customer service and a worse reputation is losing 8000. That isn't even all of them for the day. What should be scary though is now the layoffs are hitting mostly healthy companies in large doses where before it was mostly weak companies made even weaker by the recession. All this before the retail starts their cuts and closings which are probably coming very soon.

Weekend Box Office - With the economy so bad, I guess people want something to laugh at. That is the only reason I can think have on why Paul Blart: Mall Cop had another stellar weekend taking in $21.5M. Underworld: Rise of the Lycans debuts at number two with $20.7 million which makes me doubt the future of the franchise. Gran Torino grabs $16M, Hotel for Dogs gets $12.3, and Slumdog Millionaire grabs $10.5 helped by all those awards its winning. Sadly Inkheart, despite being an entertaining movie, is probably going to fade quickly with $7.7M.

More Evidence that Republicans are Bad for Economy - Its strange to me how much Wall Street loves Republicans even though consistently its proven that they are bad for the economy. If check the numbers over the years in GDP, Employment growth, and S&P, Democrats consistently lead over greater growth then their Republican counter parts. Its real simple, if you invest and want money, vote Democrat. At least their goal is to prove government works while Republicans just want to prove it doesn't and don't care who or what they hurt in the effort.

Citigroup Buys $50 Million Plane - Normally a bank buying a plane to ferret their overpayed CEO's wouldn't be a big deal. But then normally a bank isn't being subsidized with a $45 billion infusion of tax payer money. If you want proof about how unbalanced things are, here is a plane being bought in France (so doesn't help US workers) while at the same time banks are refusing to explain where the money is going. The car companies get all these rules, restrictions and oversight. The banks on the other hand were given a blank check. Irony is I bet Citibank will ask for more before it is all said and done.