Posts Tagged ‘Wall Street’
There is a fifth dimension beyond that which is known to (the non-Wall Street) man. It is a dimension as vast as space (within a banker’s penthouse) and as timeless as infinity. It is the middle ground between light and shadow, between science (i.e. economics) and superstition (i.e. economics), and it lies between the pit of man’s (investment) fears and the summit of his (financial) knowledge. This is the dimension of (greedy) imagination. It is an area which we call the (legal) Twilight Zone.
Lucky for you, USDemocrazy is ready to dive into the murky world of high finance to try and figure out what’s going on.
Last Friday, April 16, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed a civil suit against Goldman Sachs for fraud.
Thanks to Wikicommons.
Question: Do you remember that recent financial crisis that was going to (play scary music) DESTROY THE WORLD AS WE KNOW IT!?! (in case you don’t… crawl out from under your rock and check out US Democrazy’s past coverage).
Fortunately for us, politicians everywhere agreed to do everything possible to ensure that such a crisis did not happen again.
Unfortunately, these politicians cannot seem to agree on… what exactly “everything possible” means…
Like everything in Washington these days, reform of the financial and banking industry (which helped create the almighty mess we are stuck in) is in a partisan deadlock.
There was some progress made in 2009 when the House of Representatives passed a financial reform bill last December.
Since then, that bill has languished in the clutches of the US Senate (an organization about as fast as molasses up hill in January).
But HARK! (play triumphant music) all that is about to change! A Senate version of the bill may be emerging! …read more.
If we at USDemocrazy want to see a good cat fight, we turn on Animal Planet.
Last Sunday, we saw TV cat fights involving lions, tigers and even President Obama!
That’s right, on Sunday President Obama had his catty claws out. In an interview he referred to America’s Wall Street bankers as a bunch of “fat cats”.
To make the name calling worse, it was only a day before Mr. Obama was scheduled to meet with these very same top bankers.
What was this meeting about (clearly not another friendly beer summit)? …read more.
Pixar animation studios and Walt Disney Pictures
We at USDemocrazy enjoy a good summer blockbuster movie. We also enjoy seeing movies of great quality and craftsmanship. So we were amazed to see this week a summer blockbuster movie with great quality and craftsmanship (now there is a rarity).
“UP” is the newest film from the Jedi masters of animation at Pixar. After nearly four years of production “UP” burst into the cinemas with great fanfare. It was the opening film at his year’s Cannes film festival (first for an animated cartoon). It is currently no 1 in North American box office sales with $68.2 million in ticket sales earned in its first weekend.
There is much to admire in the film… great characters, brilliant artistry, clever humor. We at USDemocrazy want to salute Pixar for one particular element of the film… its pursuit of excellence.
Not long ago Wall street and Toy retailers were “UP” in arms about Pixar’s new film. They sensed that Pixar was not showing enough business savvy by featuring a film that starred a 78 year old codger with a PG rating (a first for Pixar).
Pixar for its part, shrugged off the remarks. Peter Doctor the director for “UP” recently said the film’s commercial prospects never crossed his mind.
“We make these films for ourselves,” he said. “We’re kind of selfish that way.”
John Lasseter a co-founder of Pixar claims the studio doesn’t consider marketability in the projects it chooses.
“Quality is the best business plan”
And a very successful business plan that is! Pixar films have generated a combined $2.65 billion at North American alone!
Just a thought… maybe other major companies (Say, like GM) should regard Quality as the best business plan.
We at USDemocrazy want to thank Pixar for proving to Hollywood, Wall Street and all others that the best road to success is not down market but “UP” market.
Check out the movie and give us your thoughts!
