Archive for the ‘Nugatorium’ Category

At the Carioto Produce and Seafood warehouse, shrimp from India and Vietnam stock the freezer, while a refrigerated aisle is stacked with bags of clams from Rhode Island, cockles from New Zealand, a fresh 5-pound fillet of lane snapper from Nicaragua and mahi-mahi from Ecuador.

The Gulf may be soiled with oil, but Al Hecker, Carioto’s seafood specialist, has had little trouble getting what he needs in a global market — even for Gulf staples like snapper and mahi-mahi.

“My supply hasn’t diminished, I’ve just stepped sideways,” says Hecker.

In other words, the disaster in the Gulf is probably saving him money. How much you want to bet he won’t buy Gulf seafood in the future, after it’s safe to eat seafood from the Gulf again?

It’s funny watching someone who has been completely negligent in his response to the oil spill call the company responsible as reckless.

Vowing to “make BP pay,” President Barack Obama accused the oil giant of “recklessness” in his first address to thenation from the Oval Office Tuesday night, eight weeks to the day after the catastrophic oil spill began destroying waterways, wildlife and a prized Gulf Coast way of life.

They have had to revise their estimates not once, not twice, but three times now.

Researchers studying the flow of oil from the blown-out well at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico said Thursday that as much as twice the amount of oil than previously thought may have been spewing into the sea since an oil rig exploded nearly two months ago.

It is the third — and perhaps not last — time the federal government has had to increase its estimate of how much oil is gushing.

Twice as much oil? That’s no ’slight miscalculation’ is it?

You can thank President Obama, Nancy Pelosi, and Harry Reid for this…

A record-low 41.9 percent of Americans’ personal income came from paychecks from private businesses in the first quarter of 2010, a new study by USA Today finds. Meanwhile, government benefits such as food stamps and unemployment insurance rose to a record-high 17.9 percent of Americans’ income.

Nanny State here we come.

A trio of former Washington Mutual officials and a trove of documents on Tuesday portrayed a pattern of breakneck loan-making and alleged fraud at the biggest U.S. bank ever to fail.

Former CEO Kerry Killinger defended WaMu’s actions at a Senate hearing and insisted the government should not have seized it at the height of the financial crisis in September 2008.

Killinger argued that WaMu had adequate capital and shouldn’t have been shut down and sold for a “bargain” price of $1.9 billion. The bank “should have been given a chance to work its way through the crisis,” he testified at a hearing by a Senate panel.

At the time they closed I had three “collectors” calling me, three times (each) per day, trying to tell me I owed three times as much as I really owed. Yeah, their math was bad. Since they closed, I have received one phone call, and that was a wrong number.

If their math was that bad with my account, I can’t imagine what they may have done with people’s mortgages.

Does anyone really believe that Kroger has more to offer than Wal-Mart? Seriously?

Kroger Co.’s CEO said Tuesday the grocer has more weapons than price to deploy in the fight for recession-pinched shoppers.

Retail giant Wal-Mart Stores Inc. has signaled it plans to cut more prices as it and other stores try to rebound from slow or falling grocery sales. In their search for lower prices, some shoppers have shifted to warehouse clubs and dollar stores, and Wal-Mart wants to woo them — along with shoppers from standard supermarkets.

Better assortment? Puh-leaze

Honda announced the recall of an estimated 412,000 vehicles in the United States because of problems with “soft” brakes, in the latest blow to the embattled Japanese auto industry.

Honda said the problem can result from air accumulating in a “vehicle stability assist modulator,” which causes the pedal to get closer to the floor than normal before the vehicle stops.

They just can’t stop, can they?

General Motors Corp said on Tuesday it reached a tentative deal to sell its Hummer brand to a privately held Chinese heavy machinery maker, part of an effort to drop four unprofitable vehicle lines and leave bankruptcy as a leaner company.

GM, a day after filing for bankruptcy, said in a statement that it reached a memorandum of understanding with Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machinery Co for the sale. Tengzhong said it will retain Hummer’s senior management and operational team.

Stupid.

The President yelled ‘JUMP’, GM and Chrysler asked ‘how high?’. Yesterday, Chrysler jumped as high as the Mr. Obama wanted them too.

Chrysler LLC has reached an agreement on a framework of a global alliance with Italian automaker Fiat SpA (FIA.MI) that has the support of the U.S. Treasury, Chrysler’s CEO Bob Nardelli said on Monday.

“We appreciate the willingness of the (autos) Task Force, along with industry and financial experts, to consult closely with us in order to achieve this significant step,” Nardelli said in a statement.

Chrysler, owned by private equity Cerberus Capital Management, was deemed by the task force to be not viable as a stand-alone company and was given 30 days to complete an alliance with Fiat or be cut off from U.S. government funding.

Sad, sad, sad. Almost as sad as the fact that the U.S. taxpayer is now paying for his/her own GM auto warranty.

Think about this for a moment. The government says it will help your company, but only if the CEo steps down. The government tells a private business how to operate, or else. And they flinch.

General Motors Corp Chief Executive Rick Wagoner will resign from the top job at the struggling automaker, a person familiar with the matter said on Sunday, just a day before the U.S. government makes a key announcement on whether it will extend more aid.

The person, who declined to be identified because the decision has not been made public yet, did not provide further detail.

You may as welcome socialism people, because you voted for it.