* Ritholtz believes the total bailout cost now stands at $8.5 trillion. Here’s his math.
* The world is screaming for a FuckedCompany revival (rather than all these imitators), but Pud doesn’t seem so inclined: “I’ve been working on other things, and I don’t think I could make Fuckedcompany as funny/mean as I used to, because I live in the Silicon Valley area now and know too many of the people involved. When I was running FC in 2000, I was living in NYC and didn’t know anyone.”
* Meredith Whitney: Banks are beginning to pull consumer credit lines, which will keep hammering consumer spending well into 2009.
* Morning call: U.S. futures head higher, FTSE up at mid-day, rest of Europe flat, Nikkei and Hong Kong both tumble.
* The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Financial Idiocy.
* Evan Newmark: How Congress will kill Detroit. Apparently he hasn’t considered the possibility that Congress will generate immediate liquidity by selling all of Michigan to Canada, and perhaps throw in a sliver of Alaska or North Dakota.
* Larry Kudlow in December 2007, which is now known as when the U.S. recession technically began: “The prophets of recessionary doom, such as former Fed chair Alan Greenspan, Republican advisor Martin Feldstein, ex-Democratic Treasury secretary Lawrence Summers, and bond-maven Bill Gross have been proven wrong once again.”
* Buyout-backed Bust: Hawaiian Telcom
* Is Pete Peterson, former U.S. Commerce Secretary and current Blackstone Group senior chairman, worried about the economy? Here’s his answer:
If you do not receive this within five minutes, please try and sign in again. If the problem persists, please
email: subscriptions@peimedia.com.