torsdag 30 december 2010

Ways of Making Money

Theory has it that Canadian banks are in far better shape than their US counterparts. If so, it's primarily because the Canadian Central Bank (Bank of Canada) has assumed nearly all the default risk on Canada's massive property bubble.

Is that supposed to make everyone stand up and salute the Loonie?

One key point that has recently come into the spotlight is Canadian citizens are not in better shape than their US counterparts. All those going "rah rah" over the Loonie, might be advised to consider some of the following articles.

Canadians warned to rein in borrowing on cheap money before it's too late


Bank of Canada governor Mark Carney issued a staunch warning to Canadians about the perils of cheap borrowing Monday, just as fresh data suggested household debt-to-income ratios have jumped to record highs.

"Household debt levels are at unprecedented levels relative to income — the level of vulnerability of households remains high," Carney told a news conference after a speech in Toronto.

Statistics Canada said Monday the ratio of debt to disposable income rose to 148.1 per cent in Canada in the third quarter — a close to five point jump — slightly ahead of the U.S. ratio of 147.2 per cent.

TD Bank chief economist Craig Alexander said it was natural that the government would explore ways to constrain borrowing, but said he also does not believe the situation has reached a crisis.


Apparently TD Bank chief economist Craig Alexander thinks it's best to wait until there is a crisis to do anything about it.

No doubt Alexander is a big believer in the Greenspan methodology of dealing with bubbles after they burst even though we have already seen the disastrous results of such complaisance.

Here's another good one from up North: Consumers warned: 'brutal reckoning' ahead


Bank of Canada governor Mark Carney issued another stern warning Monday on Canadians' appetite to take on record levels of household debt, which some analysts took as a signal he is set to raise interest rates as soon as the economy improves.

"Cheap money is not a long-term growth strategy," Carney said. "Low rates today do not necessarily mean low rates tomorrow. Risk reversals when they happen can be fierce: the greater the complacency, the more brutal the reckoning."

In Ottawa, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said his government could tighten mortgage eligibility rules for a third time, if required, to keep credit growth in check.

Based on conversations he's had with banking executives, "there is no reason for extreme concern right now," Flaherty said. "But there is a reason for concern. So if it is necessary, we will toughen up the mortgage rules some more."


What's with this "no reason for extreme concern right now" nonsense? The Canadian property bubble is of epic proportion.

Flaherty too, appears to be a proponent of the Greenspan theory that bubbles can only be recognized in hindsight.

Blue Ribbon Complacency Awards

The blue ribbon for complacency goes to the Bank of Montreal for Debt picture not so bleak


Statistics Canada released data Monday showing that Canadian household debt has risen to 148 per cent of disposable income. The eye-popping figure is all the more alarming considering it's the first time since the 1990s that Canada's ratio has been higher than that of the U.S.

Alarm bells rang everywhere from the Bank of Canada to the Finance Department on Monday, and Canadians were urged to tighten their belts and prepare for a time of austerity.

But a closer look at the numbers indicates the picture might not be so bleak.

"The continued laser-like focus on debt overshadows the other half of the balance sheet," BMO chief economist Doug Porter said Monday.

Namely, Canadians are borrowing. But they're also saving, and they're worth more than they used to be.


Balance Sheet Theory Madness

Porter's statements are exactly the same kind of silliness we heard in the US regarding the central belief "massive debt is OK because it's supported by rising asset prices".

It was bad enough that anyone believed such nonsense a few years ago before the US property bubble blew sky high. That such beliefs still have proponents at the highest level of Canadian banks now seems rather amazing.

It just goes to show just how firm the belief "It's different here" is in Canada.

When housing prices crash, and especially if the stock market goes with it, what's left of Porter's "Balance Sheet Theory" will look something like a moldy slice of 3-year-old Swiss cheese.

Banks Won' Lead The Way

Toronto-Dominion Bank chief executive officer Ed Clark says Banks won't lead way on fixing debt problem.


If policy makers want Canadians to stop borrowing too much, it’s up to Ottawa, not financial institutions, to force a change in behaviour, says one of Bay Street’s longest-serving senior bankers.

Toronto-Dominion Bank chief executive officer Ed Clark acknowledged Canadians’ alarming debt levels, but said the issue is a matter of public policy and would be best resolved by a tighter government rules on residential mortgages.

In an interview with The Globe and Mail, Mr. Clark said that no bank wants to be the first to impose stricter requirements on borrowers out of fear that it will suffer a major loss of customers to rivals. Personal banking “is a highly competitive industry,” Mr. Clark said. “If we said ‘Look, we’re going to be heroes and save Canada from itself, and we’ll impose a whole new [mortgage] regime on everyone else,’ the other four [large] banks would say ‘Let’s carve them up.’ ”

Mr. Clark said it is impossible to expect any bank to crack the whip on borrowers because “market share loss is perceived as a strategic loss, not just a numerical or dollar loss.”


Dance Until The Music Stops

Clark sounds like he's a big believer in the Chuck Price Music Theory best described in retrospect as "Keep dancing until you dance out the door".

Flashback July 10, 2007: Quotes of the Day / Top Call


Chuck Prince - Citigroup CEO

No End Soon to Buyout Boom: “When the music stops, in terms of liquidity, things will be complicated. But as long as the music is playing, you’ve got to get up and dance. We’re still dancing".


Mish reply.

If ever there was market arrogance, the statements by Chuck Prince says it all.



In an interview with the newspaper, Prince said the boom will eventually end, but will continue for now because markets have plenty of liquidity, despite turmoil in the U.S. subprime mortgage market. He denied Citigroup was pulling back, the newspaper said. "When the music stops, in terms of liquidity, things will be complicated," he said. "But as long as the music is playing, you've got to get up and dance. We're still dancing.

Prince added: "The depth of the pools of liquidity is so much larger than it used to be that a disruptive event now needs to be much more disruptive than it used to be. At some point, the disruptive event will be so significant that, instead of liquidity filling in, the liquidity will go the other way. I don't think we're at that point.


My comment at the time was "I leave it to you to decide whether or not this is the 'last dance'".

Flashback November 02, 2007: Music Stops for Chuck Prince


The party is over and the music has stopped for Chuck Prince. His last dance is a two-step out the door. Citi's Prince Plans to Resign.


Moral-Hazard Position of Bank of Canada

Toronto-Dominion's CEO does not give a damn about fundamentals, about acting on their clients' interests, or for that matter acting on shareholder interests. Clark's only concern is in not losing market share to the other Canadian banks until the whole mess blows sky high.

Canada's banks clearly don't care what happens as long as they can pass the trash to the Bank of Canada, the Canadian equivalent of Fannie Mae.

Clark's statements, as well as statements made by the chief economists of BMO and Toronto-Dominion, put a spotlight on the decidedly stupid moral-hazard mess the Bank of Canada has gotten itself into by backstopping mortgages of Canadian borrowers.

But hey, look on the bright side. The music is still playing. In memory of Chuck Prince, Keep on Dancin'

Addendum:

I said Bank of Canada in a couple of places where I should have said CMHC.

Here are a couple of corrections from Canadian readers.

"RP" Writes ....


Quick corrections here Mish. Mortgages in Canada are guaranteed by the CMHC, which is a crown corporation equivalent to Fannie Mae. Anything less than 20% down requires this insurance, so that's the source of the Canadian banks' "health". The loose lending standards were set by the current "Conservative" government, a few months after they came in office. We had 0 down, 40 year mortgages insured by the government for a couple of years. Now it's officially 5% down and 35 years, but every bank will lend you the downpayment. The government also insures mortgages for rental properties.


Similarly, "MS" writes ....


Hey Mish,

One inaccuracy that should be corrected. It's the CMHC (Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation) that serves as the equivalent to Fannie and Freddie, not the BoC. The CMHC insures mortgages for below market rates, and the major banks pass along their loans to them.

The Conservative government ordered the CMHC (a crown corporation) to insure some $300 Billion in additional mortgages during the crisis - nearly double their previous holdings. It is this that has buoyed the Canadian R/E market since then. Banks don't worry about credit worthiness, because the CMHC will take it anyway in order to meet their quota.


"Moi" Writes ....


Mish you are one of the few Americans that seem to "Get It". So many of the other US financial writers talk glowingly about how sound Canada is financially and how the Canadian banks did not take part in the risky lending practices that the US banks have taken part in. This is complete and utter BS!! The Canadian banks are doing the same sort of zero down or variable rate mortgages it's just they have none of the risk to worry about. 600 Billion dollars worth of that mortgage risk is held by the government of Canada thanks to the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC). There are cash back mortgages every where in this country. In other words come up with your measly 5% down payment and the bank will give you 5% back. So here in Canada we proudly brag about how we do not have zero down mortgages, we just call them by a different name. Also, if you do not have 5% to put down no problem. All of the banks will loan you money to by an RRSP (IRA), you can than cash that RRSP to be paid back later and use that as your 5% down payment. Voila, zero down mortgages.

The Canadian Association of Accredited Mortgage Professionals came out last month with their "Good News" annual report last month. Just like the Real Estate Industry, all news is good news. Take a look at the numbers. At these absolutely rock bottom interest rates:

100,000 mortgage holders would be in trouble with any rate move.
350,000 mortgage holders would be in trouble if rates only go up less than 1 percent.
250,000 mortgage holders would be in trouble if rates went up between 1 and 1.5 percent.

So, if interest rates which are at Century lows went up a measly 1.5 percent, 700,000 mortgage holders in Canada would be in trouble. What if they went up 2 or 3%? It would be mortgage Armageddon in Canada. This is how precarious our housing market. The following link gives you just one tiny example of why Canadian housing is a house of cards that could topple at the slightest touch.
http://whispersfromtheedgeoftherainforest.blogspot.com/2010/05/pardon.html

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/canadian-mortgage-debt-tops-1-trillion-for-first-time/article1789172/

5% or more cash back mortgage:

http://www.tdcanadatrust.com/mortgages/5_cashback.jsp
http://www.rbcroyalbank.com/products/mortgages/cash-back-mortgage.html


Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com
Click Here To Scroll Thru My Recent Post List



"Being good in business is the most fascinating kind of art," Andy Warhol famously said. "Making money is art and working is art and good business is the best art." Having gotten his start as an immensely successful commercial artist selling product illustrations to advertisers and department stores, Warhol bent the American consumerist system to artistic ends throughout his career -- embracing capitalism at a time when many in the creative sphere viewed it skeptically, if not with outright hostility. Now a new exhibition at the Indianapolis Museum of Art called "Andy Warhol Enterprises" has seized upon a recent resurgence of interest in the artist's work to closely examine just how Warhol treated business, commerce, and, above all, money in his art and life.



At an economic moment when the art market is booming -- with a Warhol painting selling for $63.4 million at Phillips de Pury last month -- as the rest of the country struggles through a grueling recession, wealthy businessmen have been demonstrating extraordinary confidence in art as a liquid financial asset. Warhol, it could be said, took the opposite approach -- he saw business as a dependable artistic asset. To discuss the ways in which the Pop artist approached this sweeping subject, ARTINFO executive editor Andrew M. Goldstein spoke to the exhibition's co-curator Sarah Urist Green, who organized the show with art critic Allison Unruh.




Andy Warhol for Sony Beta cassette tapes, 1981 / © The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc.




One of the interesting things about your exhibition is that it is sponsored by PNC Bank, which is in itself a commentary of a kind on the relationship between business and art.



When I got a call from Max Anderson, our director, asking if I would be interested in curating a show in conjunction with PNC bank and the Warhol Museum, my first reaction was a little bit hesitant. But I thought, "Warhol certainly wouldn't mind having a show sponsored by a bank. He would probably have really liked it." And I love the fact that Warhol had the corporation Andy Warhol Enterprises -- it has always stood out to me as a really fine example of Warhol as an entrepreneur -- and Andy loved money. So I though lets do a show about Andy loving money, but in a critical, engaged way.



Did they have any part in coming up with the show's conceit?



No, this is something that we pitched to them. And they loved it. I especially thought it was hilarious that for once we would be able to even flaunt a sponsor's name and logo in conjunction with the exhibition. Whenever we were creating collateral for the show I was able to say "don't forget the logo" and "make the logo bigger."



The exhibition catalogue shows Warhol as a shameless self-promoter, even appearing on Japanese film ads like the cliché of Bill Murray's character going to sell Japanese whiskey in "Lost in Translation."



That's perfect, right? But he was doing that from the beginning. Something we didn't have an image of in the catalogue but that was always in my mind in developing the show was the classified ad he put in the Village Voice in 1966 that said, "I will endorse with my name any of the following" and then it was just a list of all of the things he was happy to endorse, which included "anything." So he was a bit of a whore, as it were, from the beginning. One of the ideas that we have really tried to work against in this exhibition is that there was a turning point in Warhol's career -- this idea that before he was shot there was a certain integrity to his work and after a turning point it all dissipated and he became a servant to celebrities and society members. I don't believe that that is true. He even said later in his career, "I was always a commercial artist."



That is so interesting because that recent biography of him, Pop: The Genius of Andy Warhol, ends when he was shot in 1968, essentially condensing the last two decades of his career into a few paragraphs, largely dismissing it as commercial work.



I know. It's a great book, it's excellently researched, has great material, but it just ends! He was shot in 1968 but he didn't die until 1987. It is really incredible that that perception persists -- I mean, it is really prevalent, especially, of that generation. This exhibition is one of several in the past few years that is re-examining his later work including the "Last Decade" show and "Pop Life." These other exhibitions are looking at his later work in a fresh light. But I feel sometimes that the members of Warhol's own generation, or the people who were there, were sometimes clouded in their judgment and unable to see the irony of his later work.



I think it is so interesting your catalogue opens with a picture of Warhol sitting behind a desk. I can't think of another artist, like that, sitting behind a desk. Even Jeff Koons or Damien Hirst wouldn't take that picture.



Oh, no. You have seen pictures of them at their desk in their studios, maybe sitting with desks or papers or tables behind them, or maybe at a computer, but not this -- in such an officious role! I love that photo. It hasn't been published very much, and it was really important to us to include it. There is actually another version of this photo that is backed up a little more and it shows that, to the right of the telephone, there is a TV facing him.



The essays in the catalogue present Warhol as this businessman sitting behind a desk, running Warhol Enterprises, concocting a new moneymaking scheme every day, wearing a tie, and flying by Concorde. And it certainly worked: the final valuation of his estate was $228 million.



That's correct, though I'm not sure exactly how the Warhol Museum came to that figure. I am pretty sure that it is the valuation of his work at the time of his death plus all of the other art work he collected, because he had quite a collection of decorative art and some work by other artists, as well. Also, it includes his real estate holdings.



So, just like any other CEO.



Exactly. In the exhibition we have a portfolio that says "Andrew Warhol Enterprises Inc." on the front and it sort of goes through the value of his estate in 1965, and lists artworks that he owned -- some small Rauschenberg works and other items. But he did amass quite a bit of wealth in his days. Even in the 50s, in the first decade of his career, he did amazingly well as a commercial artist. So he was very well off even before he became famous.



What was he like as a boss?



[Laughs] As a boss? Well, we interviewed Vincent Fremont in the catalog and that is one account of many accounts, but at a certain point in my research it became unhelpful to read the accounts of everyone who worked for him. The people who were very close to him seemed to love him, like Pat Hackett [Warhol's secretary]. While they had not an uncomplicated relationship with Warhol, they certainly had extreme fondness for him. But then you read accounts like Bob Colacello's "Holy Terror" and you see a different side but one that is cited often, the flip side of Andy Warhol, where while he could be incredibly encouraging to other people, to other employees, other artists, he was also pretty cruel in certain regards as well.



What fascinates me is that while he presents this image as a business man -- "the business artist" -- his own management of his affairs was much more like an artist. He hardly paid anyone except with drugs, or parties, or the occasional lunch money.



Part of Warhol's brilliance at an early age was getting people to help him for free. In the 50s he would have these coloring parties where he would invite his friends to Serendipity 3 to help him hand-color his blotted line drawings, and he had his mother help him as well. He certainly had paid assistants, too. All of his films made it look like people in the factory were just sitting around, but he was certainly very good at getting people to work for him for free, and I'm sure it was mutually beneficial. It turned from the "Factory" into the "Office", and his staff members grew as his life progressed. But he certainly did know how to run a business and get the most out of his employees.



Did they have health care? Or anything like that?



I don't know, but there is a great Warhol quote: "Employees made the best dates. You don't have to pick them up and they are always tax deductible."



It is funny to think about how much of a chaotic mess his workplace was.



Well, you see the time capsules, and you get a small glimpse of his business life because the time capsules were basically his sweeping off his desk every so often and putting it in a box. And if you go to the Warhol Museum archives and you take a peek in those time capsules, it is really astounding the amount of stuff that almost anyone would throw away that Warhol kept.



What stands out in your memory?



Ticket stubs, taxi receipts, small notes about his finances. If you look in his diaries, you will see that the "Andy Warhol Diaries" actually originated because his accountant wanted him to track his daily expenses, and then it expanded from there. But it will say "taxi, 3 dollars" and so on. That is in the "Andy Warhol Diaries" that Pat edited. He would call her in the mornings and she would transcribe his day-to-day activities for many years. And some of them... I mean, it's funny, but pretty tedious at a certain point. He will say who he went out with the night before, who was at Studio 54, et cetera. They also found in the time capsules over a thousand dollars in cash that he just stuck in one of the boxes. I tried to get that for the show, actually, but I think they gave it to the Warhol Foundation.



Continued...



--



Visit "The Business Artist: How Andy Warhol Turned a Love of Money Into a $228 Million Art Career" on ARTINFO for the rest of Andrew Goldstein's interview with IMA curator Sarah Urist Green about the themes in her probing exhibition, including a discussion of Warhol's role as Factory foreman, his money paintings, and his vulgarity, and to see a slide show of Andy Warhol's most famous money-making works.



--



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Visit ARTINFO to see some of Andy Warhol's most famous money-making works.







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<b>News</b>.me, Betaworks &amp; NYT&#39;s Stealthy Social <b>News</b> Project, Starts <b>...</b>

News.me, the stealthy social news project being developed by Betaworks in conjunction with The New York Times, has just started accepting invite requests. As part of the partnership deal, ...

Police: Fox <b>News</b> Flubbed &#39;Granny Terrorist&#39; Story | TPMMuckraker

Law enforcement officials says Fox News' report of a probe into a Indiana grandmother for alleged terrorist ties was taken out of context and that the reporter based her report of an investigation off her own tip.

Stubborn Joblessness Among Vets Darkens US Economy - AOL <b>News</b>

The newly reported drop in jobless claims belies continued rough going for America's Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans, who are experiencing 10 percent unemployment.


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tisdag 28 december 2010

Making Money Working



"Being good in business is the most fascinating kind of art," Andy Warhol famously said. "Making money is art and working is art and good business is the best art." Having gotten his start as an immensely successful commercial artist selling product illustrations to advertisers and department stores, Warhol bent the American consumerist system to artistic ends throughout his career -- embracing capitalism at a time when many in the creative sphere viewed it skeptically, if not with outright hostility. Now a new exhibition at the Indianapolis Museum of Art called "Andy Warhol Enterprises" has seized upon a recent resurgence of interest in the artist's work to closely examine just how Warhol treated business, commerce, and, above all, money in his art and life.



At an economic moment when the art market is booming -- with a Warhol painting selling for $63.4 million at Phillips de Pury last month -- as the rest of the country struggles through a grueling recession, wealthy businessmen have been demonstrating extraordinary confidence in art as a liquid financial asset. Warhol, it could be said, took the opposite approach -- he saw business as a dependable artistic asset. To discuss the ways in which the Pop artist approached this sweeping subject, ARTINFO executive editor Andrew M. Goldstein spoke to the exhibition's co-curator Sarah Urist Green, who organized the show with art critic Allison Unruh.




Andy Warhol for Sony Beta cassette tapes, 1981 / © The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc.




One of the interesting things about your exhibition is that it is sponsored by PNC Bank, which is in itself a commentary of a kind on the relationship between business and art.



When I got a call from Max Anderson, our director, asking if I would be interested in curating a show in conjunction with PNC bank and the Warhol Museum, my first reaction was a little bit hesitant. But I thought, "Warhol certainly wouldn't mind having a show sponsored by a bank. He would probably have really liked it." And I love the fact that Warhol had the corporation Andy Warhol Enterprises -- it has always stood out to me as a really fine example of Warhol as an entrepreneur -- and Andy loved money. So I though lets do a show about Andy loving money, but in a critical, engaged way.



Did they have any part in coming up with the show's conceit?



No, this is something that we pitched to them. And they loved it. I especially thought it was hilarious that for once we would be able to even flaunt a sponsor's name and logo in conjunction with the exhibition. Whenever we were creating collateral for the show I was able to say "don't forget the logo" and "make the logo bigger."



The exhibition catalogue shows Warhol as a shameless self-promoter, even appearing on Japanese film ads like the cliché of Bill Murray's character going to sell Japanese whiskey in "Lost in Translation."



That's perfect, right? But he was doing that from the beginning. Something we didn't have an image of in the catalogue but that was always in my mind in developing the show was the classified ad he put in the Village Voice in 1966 that said, "I will endorse with my name any of the following" and then it was just a list of all of the things he was happy to endorse, which included "anything." So he was a bit of a whore, as it were, from the beginning. One of the ideas that we have really tried to work against in this exhibition is that there was a turning point in Warhol's career -- this idea that before he was shot there was a certain integrity to his work and after a turning point it all dissipated and he became a servant to celebrities and society members. I don't believe that that is true. He even said later in his career, "I was always a commercial artist."



That is so interesting because that recent biography of him, Pop: The Genius of Andy Warhol, ends when he was shot in 1968, essentially condensing the last two decades of his career into a few paragraphs, largely dismissing it as commercial work.



I know. It's a great book, it's excellently researched, has great material, but it just ends! He was shot in 1968 but he didn't die until 1987. It is really incredible that that perception persists -- I mean, it is really prevalent, especially, of that generation. This exhibition is one of several in the past few years that is re-examining his later work including the "Last Decade" show and "Pop Life." These other exhibitions are looking at his later work in a fresh light. But I feel sometimes that the members of Warhol's own generation, or the people who were there, were sometimes clouded in their judgment and unable to see the irony of his later work.



I think it is so interesting your catalogue opens with a picture of Warhol sitting behind a desk. I can't think of another artist, like that, sitting behind a desk. Even Jeff Koons or Damien Hirst wouldn't take that picture.



Oh, no. You have seen pictures of them at their desk in their studios, maybe sitting with desks or papers or tables behind them, or maybe at a computer, but not this -- in such an officious role! I love that photo. It hasn't been published very much, and it was really important to us to include it. There is actually another version of this photo that is backed up a little more and it shows that, to the right of the telephone, there is a TV facing him.



The essays in the catalogue present Warhol as this businessman sitting behind a desk, running Warhol Enterprises, concocting a new moneymaking scheme every day, wearing a tie, and flying by Concorde. And it certainly worked: the final valuation of his estate was $228 million.



That's correct, though I'm not sure exactly how the Warhol Museum came to that figure. I am pretty sure that it is the valuation of his work at the time of his death plus all of the other art work he collected, because he had quite a collection of decorative art and some work by other artists, as well. Also, it includes his real estate holdings.



So, just like any other CEO.



Exactly. In the exhibition we have a portfolio that says "Andrew Warhol Enterprises Inc." on the front and it sort of goes through the value of his estate in 1965, and lists artworks that he owned -- some small Rauschenberg works and other items. But he did amass quite a bit of wealth in his days. Even in the 50s, in the first decade of his career, he did amazingly well as a commercial artist. So he was very well off even before he became famous.



What was he like as a boss?



As a boss? Well, we interviewed Vincent Fremont in the catalog and that is one account of many accounts, but at a certain point in my research it became unhelpful to read the accounts of everyone who worked for him. The people who were very close to him seemed to love him, like Pat Hackett [Warhol's secretary]. While they had not an uncomplicated relationship with Warhol, they certainly had extreme fondness for him. But then you read accounts like Bob Colacello's "Holy Terror" and you see a different side but one that is cited often, the flip side of Andy Warhol, where while he could be incredibly encouraging to other people, to other employees, other artists, he was also pretty cruel in certain regards as well.



What fascinates me is that while he presents this image as a business man -- "the business artist" -- his own management of his affairs was much more like an artist. He hardly paid anyone except with drugs, or parties, or the occasional lunch money.



Part of Warhol's brilliance at an early age was getting people to help him for free. In the 50s he would have these coloring parties where he would invite his friends to Serendipity 3 to help him hand-color his blotted line drawings, and he had his mother help him as well. He certainly had paid assistants, too. All of his films made it look like people in the factory were just sitting around, but he was certainly very good at getting people to work for him for free, and I'm sure it was mutually beneficial. It turned from the "Factory" into the "Office", and his staff members grew as his life progressed. But he certainly did know how to run a business and get the most out of his employees.



Did they have health care? Or anything like that?



I don't know, but there is a great Warhol quote: "Employees made the best dates. You don't have to pick them up and they are always tax deductible."



It is funny to think about how much of a chaotic mess his workplace was.



Well, you see the time capsules, and you get a small glimpse of his business life because the time capsules were basically his sweeping off his desk every so often and putting it in a box. And if you go to the Warhol Museum archives and you take a peek in those time capsules, it is really astounding the amount of stuff that almost anyone would throw away that Warhol kept.



What stands out in your memory?



Ticket stubs, taxi receipts, small notes about his finances. If you look in his diaries, you will see that the "Andy Warhol Diaries" actually originated because his accountant wanted him to track his daily expenses, and then it expanded from there. But it will say "taxi, 3 dollars" and so on. That is in the "Andy Warhol Diaries" that Pat edited. He would call her in the mornings and she would transcribe his day-to-day activities for many years. And some of them... I mean, it's funny, but pretty tedious at a certain point. He will say who he went out with the night before, who was at Studio 54, et cetera. They also found in the time capsules over a thousand dollars in cash that he just stuck in one of the boxes. I tried to get that for the show, actually, but I think they gave it to the Warhol Foundation.



Continued...



--



Visit "The Business Artist: How Andy Warhol Turned a Love of Money Into a $228 Million Art Career" on ARTINFO for the rest of Andrew Goldstein's interview with IMA curator Sarah Urist Green about the themes in her probing exhibition, including a discussion of Warhol's role as Factory foreman, his money paintings, and his vulgarity, and to see a slide show of Andy Warhol's most famous money-making works.



--



Sign up for ARTINFO's Daily Arts Digest: http://www.artinfo.com/newsletter/



Follow ARTINFO on Tumblr: http://3rdofmay.tumblr.com/



Follow ARTINFO on Foursquare: http://foursquare.com/artinfo/



Visit ARTINFO to see some of Andy Warhol's most famous money-making works.







The President predicted that his tax plan would pass Congress, saying specifically that “nobody — Democrat or Republican — wants to see people’s paychecks smaller on Jan. 1 because Congress didn’t act.”


But if Congress does act, people’s paychecks will get smaller – a substantial amount, actually. And it will be a particular subset of people – the working poor, people who make under $20,000 a year, or families under $40,000.


The issue concerns the difference between the Making Work Pay tax credit, which was a flat rate of $400 per worker, and the payroll tax cut of 2%. Because of this, people who make less than $20,000 will get less than $400, and will see their tax bill rise.


“I think it’s an unintended consequence,” said a charitable Michael Linden of the Center for American Progress. “But that will have the effect of raising taxes on people making less than $20,000.” Linden says that there are advantages to the payroll tax cut. For one, it’s bigger – twice the size of Making Work Pay on an annual basis. “If what we should worry about is job creation, a bigger stimulus is better,” said Linden. “But on a micro level, I’m disappointed families will have to pay more.


The working poor will still benefit from the refundable tax credits like the expansion of the Earned Income Tax Credit. But those are in place now, and so it won’t make up for the fact that this bill puts in place a lower-class tax hike while saving millionaires $139,000 per person.


The maximum amount of money that taxes will increase for the working poor, given the federal minimum wage, is $270. But that’s about 4% of total income for those families. “I don’t want to lose 4% of income,” said Linden. And this isn’t a small subset: 25 million Americans would be affected by this tax change. “Conservatives spent the past year saying that nobody should face a tax increase. Under this deal 25 million people do,” Linden concluded.


This could be fixed with a relatively small amount of money. You could come up with a separate refundable tax credit making up the difference between the tax cut in the payroll tax for the working poor and the $400 from Making Work Pay. It would cost less than $7 billion dollars, to help out 25 million people. That’s less than 1% of the total cost of the bill. But it’s not in the Senate version of the bill which was released today.


This doesn’t even get into the concerns that the payroll tax cut could be extended, undermining the dedicated revenue for Social Security.


By the way, Larry Summers admitted that the payroll tax cut, as opposed to a larger Making Work Pay tax credit, was a Republican idea:



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Chupacabra Watch: Kentucky Livestock Killer Could Be Hairless Coyote

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Chupacabra Watch: Kentucky Livestock Killer Could Be Hairless Coyote

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Chupacabra Watch: Kentucky Livestock Killer Could Be Hairless Coyote

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Chupacabra Watch: Kentucky Livestock Killer Could Be Hairless Coyote

Weird News From Our Partners. Fark � Many people spend money they don't have during the holidays. One way you can avoid extra fees is to pay your bills on time. It's not fiscal responsibility, it's Ric Romero's consumer tips ...

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torsdag 23 december 2010

bank foreclosure


KABOOM! BofA, GMAC, Chase, Wells, Citi, Onewest Face N.J. Foreclosure Freeze

This is coming in from multiple fronts...


Chink in the Armor


The State Supreme Court of NJ has ordered a halt to all foreclosure in the state of NJ.


This is most excellent news for the reason you may not realize:


NJ is owned by the Wall St. Bankers.  Remember the movie Copland about a town in NJ owned and run by a bunch of NYC cops?


Guess
who used to be Governor of NJ?  Corzine.  Guess what his job was before
he became Governor?  Head of Goldman Sachs.  If you are a banker of
certain levels,  you live in one of three places, Manhattan,  Long
Island,  or NJ (what exit?).  NJ is owned and operated by the large NY
banking firms so for the Supreme Court to turn on them is stupendous
news.


V

www.chinkinthearmor.net


Matt Weidner


Apparently
the practices in foreclosure courts in New Jersey have gotten so out
of hand that the court has initiated an inquiry into the questionable
nature and inaccuracies of documents submitted in courts across the
entire state.


The
attached Order is filled with all sorts of crazy language like,
“Protecting the integrity of the judicial foreclosure process” and the
“need to restore integrity to the foreclosure process” and “due
process”.


Apparently
there were six “foreclosure Plaintiffs with a public record of
questionable practices” which the court felt compelled to address in
its supervisory capacity.


What in God’s name is going on up there in New Jersey?


Things
are just fine down here in Florida…..no problems with integrity or due
process or robo signing…no sir-ee, things are just fine thank y’all
very kindly.


Them banks ain’t run us over down here….no sir-ee, things are just fine thank y’all very kindly.


The integrity of our real property system is not in run…..no sir-ee, things are just fine thank y’all very kindly.


Us dumb
yokels down here in Florida cain’t hardly read all them fancy
newspapers and we ain’t heard ‘nuthin ’bout ‘nuthin going on in
Congress.


So you go on with yer investergatin…we’s jus fine down here in Sunnie Floreeduh!


Bloomberg

BofA, Lenders Face Possible N.J. Foreclosure Freeze



Bank of America Corp., JPMorgan Chase & Co.
and four other mortgage lenders and loan servicers face a possible
suspension of home foreclosures in New Jersey by Jan. 19 under a judge’s
order.


The action, announced today by New Jersey Supreme Court Chief Justice Stuart Rabner, also covers Citigroup Inc.’s mortgage unit, Ally Financial Inc.’s GMAC mortgage unit, OneWest Bank and Wells Fargo & Co.
The lenders were implicated in “robo-signing,” the submission of
hundreds or thousands of foreclosure claims that falsely swore to
personal knowledge of their contents, Rabner said.


The six
companies must “show cause why the processing of uncontested residential
foreclosure matters they have filed should not be suspended,” under an
order by Judge Mary C. Jacobson in state court in Trenton.


“It’s
important that the judiciary ensures that judges are not rubber-stamping
documents of questionable reliability,” Rabner said today in a
conference call with reporters.


Another
24 lenders and loan servicers with more than 200 residential foreclosure
actions each in 2010 must “demonstrate affirmatively that there are no
irregularities in their handling of foreclosure proceedings,” according
to an order by Judge Glenn A. Grant, administrative director of the
courts.


First U.S. State


Rabner
said New Jersey is the first U.S. state to take such an action. The
state’s courts received 21,752 new foreclosures in 2006 and have gotten
65,222 this year, according to Grant’s order. Only 6 percent of cases
were contested this year, meaning 94 percent lacked “any meaningful
adversarial proceeding,” according to the order.


Lawyers
in foreclosure cases must also certify that they have communicated to
employees at the mortgage companies that they have personally reviewed
all documents and that they are accurate, Rabner said.


Bank of
America, Wells Fargo and JPMorgan are the three biggest U.S. home-loan
servicers, handling payment collections, debt modifications and
foreclosures on almost 50 percent of the $10.7 trillion of outstanding
mortgages, according to newsletter Inside Mortgage Finance.


Attorneys
general from all 50 states in October started probing mortgage
servicers after revelations that they may have acted illegally in having
employees sign affidavits that they didn’t review. GMAC Mortgage,
JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America were among companies that temporarily
halted foreclosures amid claims that the legal documents were
mishandled.


Suspended Forclosures


Thomas Kelly,
a JPMorgan spokesman, declined to comment on the New Jersey order.
Since September, the New York-based bank has suspended foreclosures in
40 states, including New Jersey, he said. It resumed foreclosures in
some of those states, he said.


Jumana Bauwens,
a spokeswoman for Charlotte, North Carolina-based Bank of America, said
the bank is reviewing the judge’s order and can’t comment at this time.


Gina Proia, a spokeswoman for Detroit-based Ally Financial, declined to comment.


New York-based Citigroup “will review the Justice’s order and will ensure that we meet the new requirements,” spokesman Mark Rodgers said in an e-mail.


Foreclosure Review


“Citi
has been continuously reviewing its foreclosure processes with respect
to its U.S. mortgage portfolios,” Rodgers said. “Last year, we took a
series of steps to strengthen our processes and added additional
resources to ensure foreclosures were being processed correctly.”


Diane Henry,
a spokeswoman for Pasadena, California-based OneWest, declined to
comment. OneWest was formed in the aftermath of IndyMac Bancorp’s
failure.


Jason Menke,
a spokeswoman for San Francisco-based Wells Fargo, said in an e-mail:
“We recognize and respect the need to ensure we always comply with
respective state laws. With our outside counsel, we intend to comply
with the New Jersey court’s order and demonstrate why the foreclosures
scheduled in New Jersey should move forward.”


U.S. bank regulators investigating foreclosure problems could impose fines or seek criminal penalties as soon as January, said Julie L. Williams, chief counsel of the Office of Comptroller of the Currency, said at a congressional hearing Dec. 2.


The
order is In the Matter of Residential Mortgage Foreclosure Pleading and
Document Irregularities, Administrative Order 01-2010.


To contact the reporters on this story: David Voreacos in Newark, New Jersey, at dvoreacos@bloomberg.net; Jody Shenn in New York at jshenn@bloomberg.net.


Order with supporting docs below...

4closureFraud.org



Order to Show Cause Issued by Judge Mary Jacobson - Residential Mortgage Foreclosures - Robosigning



Order to Show Cause Issued by Judge Mary Jacobson - Residential Mortgage Foreclosures - Robosigning


Administrative
Order Directing Submission of Information from Residential Mortgage
Foreclosure Plaintiffs Concerning Their Document Execution Practices to a
Special Master




Administrative Order Directing Submission of Information From Residential Mortgage Foreclosure Plaintiffs C... Notice and Order - Emergent Amendments to Rules 1:5-6, 4:64-1, and 4:64-2 - Residential Mortgage Foreclosures


Notice and Order - Emergent Amendments to Rules 1 5-6, 4 64-1, And 4 64-2 - Residential Mortgage Foreclosures


As much as a whole bunch of bank executives and securitization industry types have given Congressional testimony in which they maintained that they were duly concerned about “technical” errors like robo signing and would clean up their act, it appears that follow-through has been less than stellar.


New York State responded relatively promptly and imposed new requirments. On October 20, it issued a new rule requiring attorneys in foreclosure actions to certify that they have taken reasonable steps to verify the accuracy of documents they submit to the court. Although that might sound a tad redundant (aren’t they supposed to be doing that now?), the preamble to the new requirement discussed some of the practices that were cause for concern:


N.B.: During and after August 2010, numerous and widespread insufficiencies in foreclosure filings in various courts around the nation were reported by major mortgage lenders and other authorities. These insufficiencies include: failure of plaintiffs and their counsel to review documents and files to establish standing and other foreclosure requisites; filing of notarized affidavits which falsely attest to such review and to other critical facts in the foreclosure process; and “robosignature” of documents by parties and counsel. The wrongful filing and prosecution of foreclosure proceedings which are discovered to suffer from these defects may be cause for disciplinary and other sanctions upon participating counsel.


Today, StopForeclosure.com published that a single judge, Peter Cohalan, had denied 127 foreclosures under this new provision. Although the site did not offer any commentary, it appeared to regard this development as positive.


I see it as the reverse. Despite some jurisdictions taking a tougher stand and banks piously saying that they had cleaned up their “procedural” problems, it appears relatively little has changed on the ground. Rather than file the required certifications, the lawyers on these cases apparently figured they’d proceed as usual, which puts the onus on the judge to enforce. Or perhaps they are simply playing the odds, and assuming this issue will come up only on contested foreclosures, and those are few enough in number that the cost of delays in those cases is more than offset by the savings on the ones that are rubber stamped by the court.


ForeclosureFraud gives another New York sighting of a failure to provide the needed certification, this time before the famously tart Judge Schack. The bank lawyer’s explanation that it was his client’s, meaning Citigroup’s fault, did not go over very well:


In this foreclosure action, plaintiff, CITMORTGAGE, INC. (CITI), moved for summary judgment and an order of reference for the premises located at 38 Norwood Avenue, Brooklyn, New York (Block 3905, Lot 28, County of Kings). On October 25, 2010, the case was on my motion calendar for oral arguments. The matter was adjourned, pursuant to a short form order, on consent to today. Plaintiff CITI’s counsel agreed to file the affirmation required by the Chief Administrative Judge for foreclosure cases, as per the October 20, 2010 Administrative Order. Plaintiff’s counsel informed the Court, today, that he did not have the affirmation because CITI did not have in place, prior to November 8, 2010, procedures to comply with the Administrative Order of Chief Administrative Judge Ann T. Pfau. The Court does not work for CITI and cannot wait for CITI, a multi-billion dollar financial behemoth to get its “act” together. [*2]


Therefore, to prevent the waste of judicial resources, the instant foreclosure action is dismissed without prejudice.


While New York is providing a window on whether foreclosure mills are really changing behavior, sightings in other jurisdictions suggest not as much as bank PR would lead one to believe. For instance, in Florida, Default Law Group filed a “Motion to Ratify Summary Judgment“, which evidently is novel from a procedural standpoint, and included an argument that the previous affidavit was not a fraud on the court. But the law firm then canceled the hearing on that motion (maybe they realized it might not be too smart to have the judge turn down the motion, since it might be construed to be a ruling on the matter of the affidavits being an abuse). Another judge also questioned the validity of “ratifying” a motion for summary judgment. (Note that Florida plans to raise the summary judgment bar as of January 3 by requiring plaintiffs in foreclosures to attach copies of payment records to summary judgment filings).


Admittedly, we are only in the early stages of the post robo signing adaptation by banks and servicers, so the situation bears monitoring.


This testimony before the House Judiciary Committee by Thomas Cox, the attorney who brought GMACs’ robo signing to national attention, explains why these “procedural” matters are crucial:




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onsdag 8 december 2010

Kids Making Money


Earlier today, my friend Oli emailed me to say he’d noticed that one of my sites was showing a 404 message.


Specifically, he was emailing to congratulate me. According to the site in question - ispauldrinkingagain.com – it has been 404 days since I last drank alcohol. And, for reasons I’ll explain in a moment, I owe a large amount of credit for that to the power of social media.


Making that admission is slightly awkward, given that on Tuesday you’ll be able to watch me take part in a CNNMoney / Webbies debate with Gary Vaynerchuk where I argue in favour of the motion that “social media is overrated”. And yet my reason for supporting the motion is simple: despite how much I owe it, social media is overrated.


It’s overrated when it comes to politics: the fanciful claim that it can win elections (any more than can offering immobile voters a ride to a polling station or any other kind of grass-roots initiative) is completely unproven. It’s overrated when it comes to foreign policy: despite a million green avatars and an appeal to Twitter by the state department to postpone scheduled maintenance, Ahmadinejad remains in power – as powerful and bat-shit insane as ever.


Most harmfully of all, I’d argue, it’s overrated when it comes to charity: for every idea like Twestival – where Twitter was used successfully to encourage donations from people who previously might not have given – there are a thousand Facebook groups and “please RT” campaigns perpetuating the lie that clicking a button and thus “raising awareness” of an issue is the same as volunteering or donating money or – you know – doing anything even slightly meaningful.


It’s hard to tire of Malcolm Gladwell’s stat (in the New Yorker) that, from the millions of people who joined the “Save Darfur” Facebook group, the average donation was nine cents. “That’s better than nothing!” cry the social media fans – an argument that assumes none of those people had a charitable bone in their body before Facebook came along. Far more likely is that many of those people wanted to do something charitable and where previously that would have required them to write a check – for far more than nine cents - they can now satisfy their conscience with a simple click. To those people, Pete Cashmore’s trite maxim that “attention is the new currency” is as smugly satisfying as the old miserly idiom “charity begins at home”. Sadly, as any economist will affirm, the new currency is currency.


And yet, and yet… there is one area where I concede that social media is – as the kids might say – a “game changer” where it can, as those same kids might say, “do us all a solid”. And that’s in situations where a single person needs a small amount of – usually selfish – help from a relatively large number of people. Some people (say, those who want to sell books) might call it “crowd sourcing”; to my mind it’s closer to group therapy.


Gladwell concedes this point too – referring to Clay Shirky’s story of a New York man who used social media to track down – and shame – the kid who stole his cellphone. Good for him! Gladwell also points to the slightly more heartwarming case of Sameer Bhatia who used Facebook to encourage people to join a bone-marrow registry in order that he might find a donor to aid his treatment for myelogenous leukemia.


A little over 400 days ago, the selfish assistance I needed from a large number of people was in helping me give up drinking. And, as with most effective social media campaigns, what I needed those people to do was virtually nothing.


Anyone who has read my previous book – or most other things I wrote before October of 2009 – will know the reasons why I had to quit drinking. Anyone else probably won’t care. All you need to know is that there came a point where I decided I absolutely, definitely had to stop. The problem was I’d found myself trapped in a ridiculous cycle where my livelihood – and more importantly, my ego – was built on a reputation for drinking to excess and then writing about the resulting adventures, for fun and profit.


In order to end the cycle, I realised I would have to use that same ego to the opposite effect. And so I decided to announce – on my blog, on Twitter and on a variety of other social networks – that henceforth I would never be seen with another drink in my hand.


Once I’d made that declaration, sheer force of ego demanded that I stick to it. I had no way of knowing who had read about my decision, but based on my (then) Twitter follower count, the number of retweets and the traffic stats to the relevant post on my site, I knew that within the first couple of months they numbered just shy of a quarter of a million. No matter where I was in the world, if one of those people spotted me with a drink in my hand, they would know I’d failed; something my ego simply wouldn’t allow. (When I decided to quit social media, I registered ispauldrinkingagain.com to keep the pressure on, but also to cut down the number of emails I receive asking me if I’m back on the sauce.)


Of course, I’m lucky to have other platforms that I could have used to similar effect – this TechCrunch column, for example. But there’s something about the immediacy, faux-intimacy and reciprocity offered by social media that makes it by far the most effective way to solicit help from strangers, and to be accountable to those strangers afterwards.


As I’ve never been someone who drinks alone, the watchful eyes of those thousands of strangers – along with a decent amount of willpower and the support of some amazing friends – have kept me sober for 404 days. For that reason – in spite of my cynicism, and my continued insistence that it’s massively overrated – I owe social media a debt of gratitude.




Moving on after divorce doesn't happen in neatly defined stages. It's an imperceptible process that happens while you're doing other things. It's halting--two steps forward one step back--one day you think you've moved on and then you regress--over and over again. The most important thing to remember is to keep forgiving yourself at each stage. If you regress and do dumb things, like sleeping with your ex (it happens) badmouthing him to the kids or making a scene at a family event, pick yourself up, brush yourself off and start all over again. Remember to tell yourself it's ok, you've been through hell and you deserve to screw up-- once, twice or a zillion times --until you're ready to stop screwing up.



One day you look up and realize you haven't thought about your ex or your marriage for a whole hour, then a whole day, a whole week, and so on. You get involved with other things; you catch yourself thinking about the project you're working on, or the guy you're involved with, what to invest your money in, how to help a friend, how your kids or grandkids are doing, redecorating your living room, buying a new house, a trip you've always wanted to take. Life, in all its complexity, just takes over. Your marriage recedes into the past, seeming almost as though it happened to someone else. You realize that you're doing things you never would have done when you were married and you congratulate yourself. The pain gets smaller and smaller, taking up less room in your consciousness.



This doesn't mean you will never again feel the pain and rage you initially felt. Triggers will come up and you'll be right back there. In a divorce support group I went to immediately after my husband left, when I was totally consumed with my own anguish and desperate for some relief, I was horrified while listening to a woman who had been divorced twenty years ago. She talked about all the old, bad post-divorce feelings coming up recently because her ex- husband had died. However, when I expressed my dismay that she still had those feelings, she reassured me that she had long ago moved on, it was just that her husband's death had brought up a lot of unfinished business and bad memories that she needed to process. I was greatly relieved but still uneasy. I couldn't imagine then how you could actually move on and be back at square one twenty years later at the same time. Now I understand since I'm in both places regularly. It's like grief for a loved one. You mourn, you move on, but when something reminds you of that person a pang of grief still grips your heart.



Abigail Trafford, author of Crazy Time says that after a long marriage it takes at least five years to truly move on. She's right on the money. It's been more than five years for me and I think I've moved on as much as possible considering that I have to interact regularly with my ex on co-parenting issues. I expect that when my daughter gets older it will get easier still. Most of the time my mind is on other things--my writing, my friends, my house, my health, my finances or lack thereof (don't get me started on that subject) not him. Every once in a while though, when he does something to really piss me off, I'm right back in that place where I feel helpless, hopeless and homicidal. Thank goodness we have finally reached a truce of sorts, where we avoid email flame wars and communicate mainly through my daughter's therapist.



You may also sink into feelings from the past when you run into him at those unavoidable family functions such as weddings, graduations etc--especially if he's with a woman twenty years his junior--but those feelings will pass quickly. When I listen to the excruciating pain of recent divorcees, I realize how far I've come. I totally empathize, but am so grateful not to be there anymore.



Erica Manfred is the author of He's History You're Not: Surviving Divorce After Forty.















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AMERICAblog <b>News</b>: Did Wikileaks supporters just hack ABC <b>News</b>?

News and opinion about US politics from a liberal perspective.

In <b>News</b> Conferences, Obama Shoots at the Buzzer - NYTimes.com

President Obama, as usual, saved his most powerful words for the end of his press conference on taxes and economic policy.

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AMERICAblog <b>News</b>: Did Wikileaks supporters just hack ABC <b>News</b>?

News and opinion about US politics from a liberal perspective.

In <b>News</b> Conferences, Obama Shoots at the Buzzer - NYTimes.com

President Obama, as usual, saved his most powerful words for the end of his press conference on taxes and economic policy.

Pryor to support ending &#39;&#39;Don&#39;t Ask, Don&#39;t Tell&#39; | Arkansas <b>News</b>

By Peter Urban Stephens Washington Bureau. WASHINGTON – Arkansas Sen. Mark Pryor today said he has reversed his position and will now support repeal of the Pentagon's “Don't Ask, Don't Tell” policy that has kept gays and lesbians from ...


bench craft company scam

AMERICAblog <b>News</b>: Did Wikileaks supporters just hack ABC <b>News</b>?

News and opinion about US politics from a liberal perspective.

In <b>News</b> Conferences, Obama Shoots at the Buzzer - NYTimes.com

President Obama, as usual, saved his most powerful words for the end of his press conference on taxes and economic policy.

Pryor to support ending &#39;&#39;Don&#39;t Ask, Don&#39;t Tell&#39; | Arkansas <b>News</b>

By Peter Urban Stephens Washington Bureau. WASHINGTON – Arkansas Sen. Mark Pryor today said he has reversed his position and will now support repeal of the Pentagon's “Don't Ask, Don't Tell” policy that has kept gays and lesbians from ...


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AMERICAblog <b>News</b>: Did Wikileaks supporters just hack ABC <b>News</b>?

News and opinion about US politics from a liberal perspective.

In <b>News</b> Conferences, Obama Shoots at the Buzzer - NYTimes.com

President Obama, as usual, saved his most powerful words for the end of his press conference on taxes and economic policy.

Pryor to support ending &#39;&#39;Don&#39;t Ask, Don&#39;t Tell&#39; | Arkansas <b>News</b>

By Peter Urban Stephens Washington Bureau. WASHINGTON – Arkansas Sen. Mark Pryor today said he has reversed his position and will now support repeal of the Pentagon's “Don't Ask, Don't Tell” policy that has kept gays and lesbians from ...


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AMERICAblog <b>News</b>: Did Wikileaks supporters just hack ABC <b>News</b>?

News and opinion about US politics from a liberal perspective.

In <b>News</b> Conferences, Obama Shoots at the Buzzer - NYTimes.com

President Obama, as usual, saved his most powerful words for the end of his press conference on taxes and economic policy.

Pryor to support ending &#39;&#39;Don&#39;t Ask, Don&#39;t Tell&#39; | Arkansas <b>News</b>

By Peter Urban Stephens Washington Bureau. WASHINGTON – Arkansas Sen. Mark Pryor today said he has reversed his position and will now support repeal of the Pentagon's “Don't Ask, Don't Tell” policy that has kept gays and lesbians from ...


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AMERICAblog <b>News</b>: Did Wikileaks supporters just hack ABC <b>News</b>?

News and opinion about US politics from a liberal perspective.

In <b>News</b> Conferences, Obama Shoots at the Buzzer - NYTimes.com

President Obama, as usual, saved his most powerful words for the end of his press conference on taxes and economic policy.

Pryor to support ending &#39;&#39;Don&#39;t Ask, Don&#39;t Tell&#39; | Arkansas <b>News</b>

By Peter Urban Stephens Washington Bureau. WASHINGTON – Arkansas Sen. Mark Pryor today said he has reversed his position and will now support repeal of the Pentagon's “Don't Ask, Don't Tell” policy that has kept gays and lesbians from ...


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AMERICAblog <b>News</b>: Did Wikileaks supporters just hack ABC <b>News</b>?

News and opinion about US politics from a liberal perspective.

In <b>News</b> Conferences, Obama Shoots at the Buzzer - NYTimes.com

President Obama, as usual, saved his most powerful words for the end of his press conference on taxes and economic policy.

Pryor to support ending &#39;&#39;Don&#39;t Ask, Don&#39;t Tell&#39; | Arkansas <b>News</b>

By Peter Urban Stephens Washington Bureau. WASHINGTON – Arkansas Sen. Mark Pryor today said he has reversed his position and will now support repeal of the Pentagon's “Don't Ask, Don't Tell” policy that has kept gays and lesbians from ...


bench craft company scam

AMERICAblog <b>News</b>: Did Wikileaks supporters just hack ABC <b>News</b>?

News and opinion about US politics from a liberal perspective.

In <b>News</b> Conferences, Obama Shoots at the Buzzer - NYTimes.com

President Obama, as usual, saved his most powerful words for the end of his press conference on taxes and economic policy.

Pryor to support ending &#39;&#39;Don&#39;t Ask, Don&#39;t Tell&#39; | Arkansas <b>News</b>

By Peter Urban Stephens Washington Bureau. WASHINGTON – Arkansas Sen. Mark Pryor today said he has reversed his position and will now support repeal of the Pentagon's “Don't Ask, Don't Tell” policy that has kept gays and lesbians from ...


bench craft company scam

AMERICAblog <b>News</b>: Did Wikileaks supporters just hack ABC <b>News</b>?

News and opinion about US politics from a liberal perspective.

In <b>News</b> Conferences, Obama Shoots at the Buzzer - NYTimes.com

President Obama, as usual, saved his most powerful words for the end of his press conference on taxes and economic policy.

Pryor to support ending &#39;&#39;Don&#39;t Ask, Don&#39;t Tell&#39; | Arkansas <b>News</b>

By Peter Urban Stephens Washington Bureau. WASHINGTON – Arkansas Sen. Mark Pryor today said he has reversed his position and will now support repeal of the Pentagon's “Don't Ask, Don't Tell” policy that has kept gays and lesbians from ...


bench craft company scam

AMERICAblog <b>News</b>: Did Wikileaks supporters just hack ABC <b>News</b>?

News and opinion about US politics from a liberal perspective.

In <b>News</b> Conferences, Obama Shoots at the Buzzer - NYTimes.com

President Obama, as usual, saved his most powerful words for the end of his press conference on taxes and economic policy.

Pryor to support ending &#39;&#39;Don&#39;t Ask, Don&#39;t Tell&#39; | Arkansas <b>News</b>

By Peter Urban Stephens Washington Bureau. WASHINGTON – Arkansas Sen. Mark Pryor today said he has reversed his position and will now support repeal of the Pentagon's “Don't Ask, Don't Tell” policy that has kept gays and lesbians from ...


bench craft company scam

AMERICAblog <b>News</b>: Did Wikileaks supporters just hack ABC <b>News</b>?

News and opinion about US politics from a liberal perspective.

In <b>News</b> Conferences, Obama Shoots at the Buzzer - NYTimes.com

President Obama, as usual, saved his most powerful words for the end of his press conference on taxes and economic policy.

Pryor to support ending &#39;&#39;Don&#39;t Ask, Don&#39;t Tell&#39; | Arkansas <b>News</b>

By Peter Urban Stephens Washington Bureau. WASHINGTON – Arkansas Sen. Mark Pryor today said he has reversed his position and will now support repeal of the Pentagon's “Don't Ask, Don't Tell” policy that has kept gays and lesbians from ...


bench craft company scam

AMERICAblog <b>News</b>: Did Wikileaks supporters just hack ABC <b>News</b>?

News and opinion about US politics from a liberal perspective.

In <b>News</b> Conferences, Obama Shoots at the Buzzer - NYTimes.com

President Obama, as usual, saved his most powerful words for the end of his press conference on taxes and economic policy.

Pryor to support ending &#39;&#39;Don&#39;t Ask, Don&#39;t Tell&#39; | Arkansas <b>News</b>

By Peter Urban Stephens Washington Bureau. WASHINGTON – Arkansas Sen. Mark Pryor today said he has reversed his position and will now support repeal of the Pentagon's “Don't Ask, Don't Tell” policy that has kept gays and lesbians from ...


bench craft company scam

AMERICAblog <b>News</b>: Did Wikileaks supporters just hack ABC <b>News</b>?

News and opinion about US politics from a liberal perspective.

In <b>News</b> Conferences, Obama Shoots at the Buzzer - NYTimes.com

President Obama, as usual, saved his most powerful words for the end of his press conference on taxes and economic policy.

Pryor to support ending &#39;&#39;Don&#39;t Ask, Don&#39;t Tell&#39; | Arkansas <b>News</b>

By Peter Urban Stephens Washington Bureau. WASHINGTON – Arkansas Sen. Mark Pryor today said he has reversed his position and will now support repeal of the Pentagon's “Don't Ask, Don't Tell” policy that has kept gays and lesbians from ...


bench craft company scam

AMERICAblog <b>News</b>: Did Wikileaks supporters just hack ABC <b>News</b>?

News and opinion about US politics from a liberal perspective.

In <b>News</b> Conferences, Obama Shoots at the Buzzer - NYTimes.com

President Obama, as usual, saved his most powerful words for the end of his press conference on taxes and economic policy.

Pryor to support ending &#39;&#39;Don&#39;t Ask, Don&#39;t Tell&#39; | Arkansas <b>News</b>

By Peter Urban Stephens Washington Bureau. WASHINGTON – Arkansas Sen. Mark Pryor today said he has reversed his position and will now support repeal of the Pentagon's “Don't Ask, Don't Tell” policy that has kept gays and lesbians from ...


bench craft company scam

AMERICAblog <b>News</b>: Did Wikileaks supporters just hack ABC <b>News</b>?

News and opinion about US politics from a liberal perspective.

In <b>News</b> Conferences, Obama Shoots at the Buzzer - NYTimes.com

President Obama, as usual, saved his most powerful words for the end of his press conference on taxes and economic policy.

Pryor to support ending &#39;&#39;Don&#39;t Ask, Don&#39;t Tell&#39; | Arkansas <b>News</b>

By Peter Urban Stephens Washington Bureau. WASHINGTON – Arkansas Sen. Mark Pryor today said he has reversed his position and will now support repeal of the Pentagon's “Don't Ask, Don't Tell” policy that has kept gays and lesbians from ...


bench craft company scam

AMERICAblog <b>News</b>: Did Wikileaks supporters just hack ABC <b>News</b>?

News and opinion about US politics from a liberal perspective.

In <b>News</b> Conferences, Obama Shoots at the Buzzer - NYTimes.com

President Obama, as usual, saved his most powerful words for the end of his press conference on taxes and economic policy.

Pryor to support ending &#39;&#39;Don&#39;t Ask, Don&#39;t Tell&#39; | Arkansas <b>News</b>

By Peter Urban Stephens Washington Bureau. WASHINGTON – Arkansas Sen. Mark Pryor today said he has reversed his position and will now support repeal of the Pentagon's “Don't Ask, Don't Tell” policy that has kept gays and lesbians from ...


bench craft company scam

AMERICAblog <b>News</b>: Did Wikileaks supporters just hack ABC <b>News</b>?

News and opinion about US politics from a liberal perspective.

In <b>News</b> Conferences, Obama Shoots at the Buzzer - NYTimes.com

President Obama, as usual, saved his most powerful words for the end of his press conference on taxes and economic policy.

Pryor to support ending &#39;&#39;Don&#39;t Ask, Don&#39;t Tell&#39; | Arkansas <b>News</b>

By Peter Urban Stephens Washington Bureau. WASHINGTON – Arkansas Sen. Mark Pryor today said he has reversed his position and will now support repeal of the Pentagon's “Don't Ask, Don't Tell” policy that has kept gays and lesbians from ...