Turns out that Merrill Lynch lost half a billion more than Bank of America (Merrill’s new owner) estimated just one month ago. $15.84 billion in the 4th quarter of last year.
From, well … The San Francisco Chronicle …
The Hearst Corp. today announced an effort to reverse the deepening operating losses of its San Francisco Chronicle by seeking near-term cost savings that would include “significant” cuts to both union and non-union staff.
In a posted statement, Hearst said if the savings cannot be accomplished “quickly” the company will seek a buyer, and if none comes forward, it will close the Chronicle. The Chronicle lost more than $50 million in 2008 and is on a pace to lose more than that this year, Hearst said.
The answer: Bob Ney.
Our longtime Abramoff junkies will remember the special shout-out in the Congressional Record that then-Rep. Bob Ney (R-OH) gave to Jack Abramoff’s casino buddy, Adam Kidan, and their ill-fated SunCruz venture in Florida. The Kidan shout-out was one of the “official acts” that the feds charged Abramoff with securing from Ney in return for campaign contributions. Both men wound up in jail. (Ney has since served his sentence and been released.)
Well, it turns out a few years later, on 2005, Ney gave a similar shout-out in the Congressional Record to Allen Stanford. And wouldn’t you know that the campaign contributions to Ney from Stanford picked up markedly soon after. Hmmm …
The Reality Coalition — formed by environmental groups to debunk the notion of “clean coal” — just aired this ad on CNN that I hadn’t seen before. It’s titled “Smudge,” and it’s a pretty good effort:
Join Matt Cooper over at TPMDC for real-time discussion and commentary during Obama’s speech, which is just about to get underway. Matt just got the conversation going. The more the merrier …
9:09 PM … tiptiptip: Hey, is this thing on?
9:10 PM … I think Brian Williams just said Rahm Emanuel is a veteran of the IDF. I’m pretty sure that’s not true. He did some sort of civilian volunteer thing during the Gulf War. (ed.note: — he just corrected at 10:17 PM)
9:11 PM … Huh, what happened to that Bush guy?
9:16 PM … Hey, maybe it wasn’t Roberts’ fault!
9:18 PM … Here’s the text of the speech itself.
9:19 PM … It just occurred to me that the tempo and dynamics of a congressional address are very, very different from those Obama is best known for. You never really get more than a few sentences to get warmed up before you need to stop for more applause.
9:22 PM … Reminds me: Why did Bush destroy the country?
9:30 PM … That was a very open-ended statement on the fate of the biggest banks and what may happen to them if they can’t manage on their own. The key points were about support and continuity of institutions that can provide a banking function.
Here’s the quote: “We will act with the full force of the federal government to ensure that the major banks that Americans depend on have enough confidence and enough money to lend even in more difficult times. And when we learn that a major bank has serious problems, we will hold accountable those responsible, force the necessary adjustments, provide the support to clean up their balance sheets, and assure the continuity of a strong, viable institution that can serve our people and our economy.”
9:40 PM … Simon Johnson has more on that passage on the banks in the speech.
9:56 PM … Speech seems a bit more disjointed in these last minutes.
9:56 PM … This point about honest budget accounting sounds very wonky. And it is in a lot of ways. But the Obama people are very big on it. It’s actually amazing how much stuff was not included in the Bush era budgeting. Cost of Iraq and Afghanistan for the next 6 or 7 years? Hard to say. So just don’t count it, etc.
10:00 PM … Did I get my sections mixed up or did most of the GOP legislators hop to their feet when Obama said “We do not torture”? That’s a major policy switch.
10:11 PM … Lieberman bags a hug!