Clipmarks | Brian Wingfield's clips

Remember This Guy?

Fri, 10 Apr 2009 21:47:56 GMT

clipped by: Brian Wingfield
clipper's remarks: George W. Bush begins to define the next chapter in his life: ex-president.

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

Barely 80 days after turning the Oval Office over to President Obama, a tanned and rested Mr. Bush is emerging from seclusion to begin his postpresidency. He has started giving speeches, joined an off-road bicycle club, thrown out the first pitch at the Texas Rangers’ home opener and scheduled a trip to China to speak at an economic forum.

Tags: george w. bush

Bob Dylan Talks About Obama

Wed, 08 Apr 2009 21:43:36 GMT

clipped by: Brian Wingfield
clipper's remarks: From an interview on Dylan's website. Hat tip to Politico.com for digging this up.

Clip Source: www.bobdylan.com

You liked Barack Obama early on. Why was that?

I’d read his book and it intrigued me.

Audacity of Hope?

No it was called Dreams of My Father.

What struck you about him?

Well, a number of things. He’s got an interesting background. He’s like a fictional character, but he’s real. First off, his mother was a Kansas girl. Never lived in Kansas though, but with deep roots. You know, like Kansas bloody Kansas. John Brown the insurrectionist. Jesse James and Quantrill. Bushwhackers, Guerillas. Wizard of Oz Kansas. I think Barack has Jefferson Davis back there in his ancestry someplace. And then his father. An African intellectual. Bantu, Masai, Griot type heritage - cattle raiders, lion killers. I mean it’s just so incongruous that these two people would meet and fall in love. You kind of get past that though. And then you’re into his story. Like an odyssey except in reverse.

Tags: bob dylan, barack obama

Lambright's TARP

Tue, 07 Apr 2009 15:25:40 GMT

clipped by: Brian Wingfield
clipper's remarks: Good profile in the WSJ of the Treasury's chief dealmaker on TARP funds.

Clip Source: online.wsj.com

As the government continues to pour cash into the economy, Mr. Lambright, 38 years old, has become one of the most powerful men in American finance. Unknown to most outside the Treasury building, he's an embodiment of how power in the economy has shifted -- for good or ill -- to Washington.

The chief investment officer of the Troubled Asset Relief Program has engineered $350 billion in deals for the U.S. government since October, more than many investment banks would do in a good year. His team interviews candidates for company board seats. Top executives regularly call him and his team for advice.

Tags: lambright, treasury, paulson, tarp

Here's to Entrepreneurship

Mon, 06 Apr 2009 23:17:10 GMT

clipped by: Brian Wingfield
clipper's remarks: Horatio Alger tales for the tech crowd.

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

Last August, Ethan Nicholas and his wife, Nicole, were having trouble making their mortgage payments. Medical bills from the birth of their younger son were piling up. After learning that his employer, Sun Microsystems, was suspending employee bonuses for the year, Mr. Nicholas considered looking for a new job and putting their house in Wake Forest, N.C., on the market.

Then he remembered reading about the guy who had made a quarter-million dollars in a hurry by writing a video game called Trism for the iPhone. “I figured if I could even make a fraction of that, we’d be able to make ends meet,” he said.

Tags: apple, iphone

Images of the Recession

Thu, 02 Apr 2009 15:22:58 GMT

clipped by: Brian Wingfield
clipper's remarks: In the 1930's, the U.S. government sent photographer Walker Evans to rural areas, where he documented the Great Depression.

The NYT is taking a slightly different photographic twist on this downturn, asking readers the world over to send in their recession-themed photos.

It's an interesting use of new media, and a pretty good example of the fact that, as journalism evolves, readers (i.e. not just paid journalists) will become increasingly involved in the creation of the news.

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

Picturing the Recession

NYTimes.com readers are sending in their photos from around the world. How do you see the recession playing out in your community? What signs of hardship or resilience stand out? How are you or your family personally affected? Creative ways of documenting the changes around you are encouraged.

Tags: new york times, recession, walker evans

Tax Issues Continue To Plague Cabinet Picks

Tue, 31 Mar 2009 23:19:01 GMT

clipped by: Brian Wingfield
clipper's remarks: This time, it's Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius.

Clip Source: www.washingtonpost.com

Sebelius Corrects Tax Returns for 3 Years

WASHINGTON -- Health and Human Services nominee Kathleen Sebelius has corrected three years worth of tax returns after finding "unintentional errors."

Sebelius alerted senators to the changes in a letter dated Tuesday that was obtained by The Associated Press. She says the changes involved charitable contributions, the sale of a home and business expenses.

She and her husband paid a total of $7,040 in back taxes and $878 in interest from 2005-2007.

It's the latest tax issue to hit an Obama administration nominee. His first HHS nominee withdrew because of major tax problems.

Tags: sebelius, obama, cabinet

Bad News for Philip Morris

Tue, 31 Mar 2009 23:13:56 GMT

clipped by: Brian Wingfield

Clip Source: online.wsj.com

WASHINGTON -- Altria Group Inc.'s Philip Morris unit lost a final chance Tuesday in the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn a $79.5 million punitive-damages ruling over an Oregon smoker's death.

The high court dismissed the Philip Morris appeal without issuing an opinion, ending the third appeal the company had secured before the Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court's dismissal means no new legal precedent was set on punitive damages, which is likely to disappoint business groups that want the high court to set stricter damage guidelines. No justices dissented from the dismissal.

This Recession Is A Boon For Lobbyists

Mon, 30 Mar 2009 13:11:54 GMT

clipped by: Brian Wingfield
clipper's remarks: New policies=more legal work.

Clip Source: www.washingtonpost.com

Put another way, Main Street's gloom has been K Street's boon.

The $787 billion stimulus package -- along with an ambitious new federal budget, bank bailouts and the beginning of a regulatory overhaul -- has succeeded in stimulating the economy along Washington's avenue of influence. In the months since the November election, more than 2,000 cities, companies and associations have hired lobbyists to help them push their agendas on Capitol Hill and at the White House, easily outpacing such numbers after the previous two elections, according to disclosure records.

Nearly every industry and every corner of the country has an issue, especially with so much money at stake.

Announcement on Autos Likely Monday

Thu, 26 Mar 2009 13:26:03 GMT

clipped by: Brian Wingfield

Clip Source: www.politico.com

The White House plans to take a tough line with U.S. carmakers, forcing painful restructuring before releasing more bailout funds, according to industry sources.

The Presidential Task Force on the Auto Industry had planned to announce its recommendations Friday, but that may be pushed back to Monday. President Obama is announcing his strategy for Afghanistan in a speech at the White House on Friday morning, and aides don’t want the two events to conflict.

Tags: gm, chrysler, obama, auto task force

Prelude to the Auto Deadline

Thu, 26 Mar 2009 13:14:07 GMT

clipped by: Brian Wingfield
clipper's remarks: From the Journal, a good overview on the state of the auto bailout, as the March 31 viability plan deadline looms for GM and Chrysler.

Clip Source: online.wsj.com

President Barack Obama last month handed his auto-industry team a seemingly impossible task: to engineer the most complicated industrial restructuring ever attempted by the federal government, and to do it fast.

With almost no experience in the car business, the team's dozen core members have undergone a crash course in the myriad woes plaguing the U.S. auto industry. Within days, just over a month after setting to work, they'll begin announcing decisions.

The government is prepared to lend the companies more money. The two companies have requested $22 billion more -- including $9 billion for the second quarter. But the task force may not disburse new aid immediately, choosing instead to preserve that as leverage.

Tags: general motors, chrysler

Who's Leading the Charge for Reform from Wall St.?

Thu, 26 Mar 2009 13:08:55 GMT

clipped by: Brian Wingfield
clipper's remarks: So far, JP Morgan Chase's Jamie Dimon is the front runner.

Clip Source: dealbook.blogs.nytimes.com

There is an enormous opportunity for a C.E.O. to come forward with a plan to reform the financial system and pledge a change from business as usual. Jamie Dimon, JPMorgan Chase’s chief executive, has been the most outspoken of his peers during the crisis — and has done an admirable job addressing the issues — but he has been more focused on helping instill confidence in the economy and the health of his own firm. John Mack, the chief executive of Morgan Stanley, has shown glimpses of public leadership, at one point apologizing for the crisis by saying, “We are sorry for it.”

Tags: jp morgan chase, jamie dimon

Abrogating AIG's Bonus Contracts

Wed, 18 Mar 2009 17:47:56 GMT

clipped by: Brian Wingfield
clipper's remarks: Very interesting post by Rutgers law professor Anna Gelpern on whether AIG's bonus contracts can be abrogated. In short, the answer is yes. But it's a slippery slope that shouldn't be used "early and often." Check out her analysis.

Clip Source: www.rgemonitor.com

The tussle over AIG bonuses brings back a familiar crisis meme: the sanctity of contracts. It is a red herring – sort of.

Any financial collapse worth its salt runs into contracts that might have been a good idea in good times, but now look disastrous because they threaten either widespread economic distress (mortgage and securitization contracts), or gross political embarrassment (bonus commitments). Every government fighting a crisis thus faces a choice whether to enforce such contracts. Enforcing contracts where private parties have no money means either suffering default and firm failure, or using public funds to pay up on the parties’ behalf. The alternative is using government power to rewrite the contracts.

Where contracts turn into social suicide pacts, the cost of abrogation seems small by comparison. But abrogating early and often risks wasting a good tool and dragging some law down with it.

Tags: aig, bonuses, contracts

Document the Depression

Tue, 17 Mar 2009 15:15:48 GMT

clipped by: Brian Wingfield
clipper's remarks: This is a very interesting blend of new media, "citizen" journalism, and amateur documentary filmmaking.

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

Interview relatives or friends who remember the Great Depression and ask them how that crisis relates to the current recession. Upload your video.

In Defense of AIG Bonuses

Tue, 17 Mar 2009 15:13:34 GMT

clipped by: Brian Wingfield
clipper's remarks: From the NYT...

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

The Case for Paying Out Bonuses at A.I.G.

Do we really have to foot the bill for those bonuses at the American International Group?

It sure does sting. A staggering $165 million — for employees of a company that nearly took down the financial system. And heck, we, the taxpayers, own nearly 80 percent of A.I.G.

It doesn’t seem fair.

So here is a sobering thought: Maybe we have to swallow hard and pay up, partly for our own good. I can hear the howls already, so let me explain.

Tags: aig, executive compensation

Remembering the Depression

Tue, 17 Mar 2009 15:07:36 GMT

clipped by: Brian Wingfield
clipper's remarks: Interesting video from a 96-year-old biz professor who tells of his experiences in the Great Depression.

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

Video: The New Hard Times

Ernest Kurnow, a 96-year-old business school professor, finished his own schooling during the Great Depression. Now his students are looking for jobs in finance.

Tags: great depression