Opening Bell: 2.18.08

Posted by Joe Weisenthal, Feb 18, 2008, 7:06am

northernrockcrowds.jpgNorthern Rock Takeover Marks Risky Bet for U.K. (WSJ) Who's in charge over there... Hugo Chavez? No, in all seriousness, the UK has just decided to up and nationalize Northern Rock, the troubled bank, which has drawn only partial nibbles from the private sector, following its subprime-driven turmoil. Shares will be deslited immediately, though the government has called it a "temporary" solution. Among the private money backers that had been interested were Richard Branson and JC Flowers.

Beef recall is largest in history (Tribune)
This is the kind of stuff that will make even the most omnivorous omnivore feel a little bit concerned about the provenance of their food. The USDA has initiated a record 135 million lb beef recall, following reports of bad practices at a certain abattoire, such as killing cattle that was so sick it couldn't stand. Guess they weren't feeding them enough antibiotics.

Ambac in Talks to Split Itself Up (WSJ)
After FGIC made similar noises, word is that Ambac is considering halving itself, hiving off its healthy (for now, so we believe) muni bond unit, while letting its derivatives insurance unit go naked. Not surprisingly, it's complex work, and it's still not clear to us how it's supposed to play out. But theoretically it can be done and Ambac is exploring it.

In a Hotel Deal, Showtime Fights HBO’s Dominance (NYT)
We always feel a twinge of nostalgia for a time we never quite knew, when driving through small town America, where little hotels and motels still announced proudly "Air Conditioning. HBO." Never seemed that impressive to us, but then again, maybe if we had been born 20 years earlier. Anyway, maybe the signs will get their first makeover in 20 years to "Air Conditioning. HBO. Showtime.", as the L Word and Dexter channel will soon announce a deal to make it available in Sheraton's 74,000 hotel rooms. First Sheraton, next, the world.

Sony's Mr Blu-ray finally gets to forget Betamax (Reuters)
In case you didn't hear, the mult-year format wars appear to have come to an official end, following a string of presumptive obits. Wal-Mart announced it would go Blu-ray only on Friday and word is that Toshiba, the very company behind HD-DVD, is set to wave the white flag. All of this is good news for Sony, and as the article implies, redemptive, given its backing of the failed and much-maligned Betamax. Had it lost again, it would have brought an intense amount of shame --- probably more than it could handle. But by winning, the shackles of history are unhooked

1Recommend this! 17Comments

Comments

Posted by guest, Feb 18, 2008 11:46AM

Bark Bark Bark. Ah-roo!

Bitches.

-Uno the beagle

Posted by guest, Feb 18, 2008 11:56AM

Do unto others, as they would screw unto you:

http://consumerist.com/357220/study-says-payday-lenders-more-prevalent-in-areas-of-high-christian-conservative-power

Posted by guest, Feb 18, 2008 1:01PM

After watching this week's episode of WSW, I just gotta ask - did Gary Dell'Abate's father ever visit Canada?

Hedge this Brett:

http://www.superiorpics.com/updates/20070105/Delabonte_JS0104.html

Ba-ba-booey! Eh?

Posted by Inquisitor, Feb 18, 2008 2:52PM

Thank goodness the Blu-Ray/HD-DVD war is over... what a silly battle. Digital is the way of the future anyway. Although who knows, this may help Sony in its fierce battle against the Wii..

Posted by Anal_yst, Feb 18, 2008 4:43PM

glad to see someone came to play today Joe.

A theory re: the payday lender study linked to by 1:01 - psycho right wing christians have a fantastic ability to avoid logic and reason. Coincidence payday shops abound in these areas?

Posted by guest, Feb 18, 2008 4:56PM

In yet another attempt to provide *something* interesting:

http://jezebel.com/357725/in-2008-baking-is-still-for-girls-air-guitar-is-for-boys

At :17, yes kids, you too can look like you're jerking off in public. Can't wait to see this at a McDonald's playland...Ewww.

Posted by guest, Feb 18, 2008 5:20PM

Cody Willard interviewd a dog last week, http://www.foxbusiness.com/video/index.html?playerId=videolandingpage&streamingFormat=FLASH&referralObject=607ebfd6-5856-44f6-a54e-63bc8b6e8e91&referralPlaylistId=d32f8efb2e2191f1d5f5d70aea0389f63d798cdd

Cody kept asking the dog questions. He didn't realize dogs can't talk.

Posted by guest, Feb 18, 2008 6:16PM

Nice Uno video. Jackass video alert: Tomorrow Cody will have Timmay on. Anyway, all that's left for today is for someone to post a hot babe video. I'll keep it a G rated Hooters video in order to keep up the "quality" (none) of this site.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FUK5kZXeAX4&feature=related

Posted by Anal_yst, Feb 18, 2008 6:35PM

@ 5:20

I've never seen Happy Hour, but after about 2mins of that clip I want to slit my throat with a blunt rusty shiv, no wonder FBN has such great ratings...

Posted by guest, Feb 18, 2008 6:52PM

Anal_yst, I would be more willing to trust investment advice from Uno than I would from the Happy Hour hosts.

Posted by guest, Feb 18, 2008 6:56PM

Anal_yst did you see the video in the comments on the last post in which Gasparino loses it on CNBC and starts screaming incoherently. By the standards of a Cramer blowup it was calm but it was still crazy by the standards of how news anchors usually don't start screaming at their guests and calling them jerks.

Posted by Anal_yst, Feb 18, 2008 9:19PM

@ 6:56

I gotta go check it out, but Gasparino is clearly losing his mind, apparently his internecine struggle with Bess is driving him batshit insane, oh, the humanity, etc, etc

Posted by guest, Feb 18, 2008 10:18PM

Can Douche Beaker please get their web flunkies to google "finite state machine" and "formal verification" and read up on the subjects? It's possible to get your login password reset (which is good) but you can't login if you haven't received the initial verification email (which is bad). This material is too academic, please just have them TEST THE FUCKING WEBSITE BEFORE RELEASING IT TO THE PUBLIC.

--Calgary Schmooze, who is probably a bit harsh but who has worked in environments where people can die if you don't check your work so his critical eye is especially razor-sharp.

Posted by guest, Feb 18, 2008 11:08PM

I second the comments above. I am still waiting for a verification email. Emailed staff, but no response yet.

I am sure they are working on it. Sort of.

Posted by tree3k, Feb 19, 2008 12:54AM

If you have an aggressive spam filter, your verification email could be in your spam folder.

If not, please email someone at DB again and he or she will help you. I promise.

Posted by Anal_yst, Feb 19, 2008 1:08AM

@ Calgary

I don't think the vast majority of people on here come from an engineering background, so finite state machine is prolly a foreign term (at least prior to googling it, although possibly still so afterward)

Posted by guest, Feb 19, 2008 1:41AM

I wouldn't expect the readers on this site to be conversant, save for the heavily quantitative crowd, but I would expect someone developing websites and web apps to be.

Actually, I lie. Just about anyone who has a formal education in business has taken at least the rudimentary basics of logic design... you have to understand these things if you want to put together even a basic biz process. Then again, it would seem that a lot of the exotic bond offerings didn't test their models for various conditions until they were "released" for public "beta testing" for "alpha generation". So much for financial "engineering". :-)

As for spam filters, that isn't it. I tried with two accounts on Thursday to two separate email addresses, albeit to the same domain. It would seem that the event-driven mail-out didn't event-drive in either case late last week.

Post Your Comment