Fun while the banking system collapses

11:30 Sep 19, 2008 99

I was going to upload that "How the Subprime Crisis Really Works' Powerpoint file that's been viralling around, but someone's done the helpful thing and stuck it up on Google Docs so it can be viewed in a browser. It does contain strong language, but maybe strong language is required in times such as these.

Vodafone finally got its DRM-free MP3 downloads up -- well, $1.99 singles anyway, with $17.99 albums apparently to follow soon. I downloaded Dub Asylum's 'Smash Through' (LAME-encoded 256k MP3, no cover art) and Bloc Party's Mercury (256k MP3, cover art). I might even spring for duplicate downloads from iTunes to make the MP3-AAC comparison. The only way to pay for the downloads is to have a Vodafone account, but it's very slick if you do.

But hey! Amplifier has Dub Asylum's extremely choice cut of funk, 'My Sneaker Collection Weighs a Ton' as a free download this week. And it’s a 320k MP3 with cover art. Go get!

Meanwhile, you don't seem to be able to buy it anywhere, so here's the MP3 of that Soulwax mix of MGMT's 'Kids'. If defines Big, Dumb Fun. Acrtic Monkey's Amy Winehouse cover doesn't actually suck either.

New Jenny Lewis album, Acid Tongue, out next week -- it's produced by Elvis Costello. There's a promo clip of the title track, and another one of her playing it live in LA last week. I love it already.

Peter Cox, the writer/creator of The Pretender, alerts us to the website of Future New Zealand, the party of the series' leader character, Dennis Plant. The new series launches (just in time for the real election campaign) at 10pm on Sunday evening on TV One, and new video will be added to the website as it goes along.

And because we need more videos of cats, Leo recommends Ninja cat comes closer while not moving, which is awesome.

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Oh, and I finally got around to working out the winners of our Stories" the Internet prizes. They are as follows:

Givanni Tiso for a nice account of how the net conquers the tyranny of distance.

Danielle on meeting The One on the Elvis Costello listserv.

Kyle Matthews for a story of an internet liaison that didn't go so well.

PaulM for a story of medical empowerment.

Nic Wise for an account (one of several) of the old days at Iconz.

Please contact me with your details, folks, and I'll arrange for you to be sent a kilo of Eden Coffee (please specify: beans, medium or espresso grind) and a copy of Keith Newman's New Zealand internet history, Connecting the Clouds. And the top prize -- a Nokia 6121 phone suitable for using on Vodafone's dollar-a-day mobile internet service -- goes to PaulM. Get in touch …

99 responses to this post

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Idiot Savant, 11:42 Sep 19, 2008

I'm looking forward tot he return of The Pretender. It was the best comedy onNZ TV last election; hopefully it'll be as good this time.

Palmerston North • Since Nov 2006 • 1717 posts Report
giovanni tiso, 11:56 Sep 19, 2008

I was going to upload that "How the Subprime Crisis Really Works' Powerpoint file that's been viralling around, but someone's done the helpful thing and stuck it up on Google Docs so it can be viewed in a browser.
It's the best explanation I've seen of this whole mess, and I've read quite a few in the MSM. Thanks Russ. Oh, and for the coffee too. It had been already a couple of weeks since I received that book from David S., and then before that it was the free beer and before then the subscription to Rip It Up (which fast-forwarded my musical taste by a good couple of centuries)... I think I'll give up my day job and rely entirely to bartering and PA freebies from now on.

Wellington • Since Jun 2007 • 7473 posts Report
Michael Stevens, 12:59 Sep 19, 2008

Thanks for linking to the Subprime show Russell. As giovanni says, the best explanation yet. I'm going to flick it on to my students.

Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 230 posts Report
Russell Brown, 13:01 Sep 19, 2008

Oh, wow. Without wishing to obsess about the crisis ... you may have wondered where the Federal Reserve is getting all this bailout money -- $600 billion so far.
Well, the Fed is about to start raising its own debt ...

Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report
giovanni tiso, 13:17 Sep 19, 2008

Well, the Fed is about to start raising its own debt ...
Guys, I think the time has come to buy chooks.

Wellington • Since Jun 2007 • 7473 posts Report
Tim Michie, 13:17 Sep 19, 2008

The subprime crisis was the ninja cat that came closer without moving. Only without the ability to make me laugh...

Auckward • Since Nov 2006 • 614 posts Report
Just Milly, 13:28 Sep 19, 2008

Thanks for the powerpoint it really helps in making sense of all this.
I don't really get where the money for the bailout is coming from? Like some of the respondents on americablog.com I am perplexed, well they seem more outraged, but I can't get to outrage cause I am stuck at perplexed! And, now they are talking creating the Resolution Trust Corporation, wtf?
Aren't they just going down to the basement and printing off more money? I mean, really?
Sorry, I need an explanation, I got it up to this point but now it completely confuses me.

Since Jul 2008 • 17 posts Report
Paul Litterick, 13:31 Sep 19, 2008

Well, the Fed is about to start raising its own debt ...
And when John Key gets to be Prime Minister, he is going to borrow money to finance tax cuts...
...or maybe that plan has been shelved in view of the current crisis.

Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 1000 posts Report
Danielle, 13:33 Sep 19, 2008

Guys, I think the time has come to buy chooks.
Pfffft. I don't need anything but my Kilo of Coffee For Being a Huge Nerd to survive this crisis!
(Thanks Russell.)
That Powerpoint explained everything very clearly and yet I still don't really understand, because complex financial things freak me out. Was it all just a big pyramid scheme? Or...?

Charo World. Cuchi-cuchi!… • Since Nov 2006 • 3828 posts Report
Robert Fox, 13:33 Sep 19, 2008

This would be hilarious if it wasn’t so effing serious. With the Freddie and Fannie bailout the worlds largest home owning democracy has effectively placed millions of mortgagees in state housing by proxy and with the AIG bailout they’ve just instituted national insurance. Did someone forget to tell the Bush administration that socialism was dead cos they've obviously become late converts?
How ironic that while citadels of global capitalism are toppling like ninepins, NZ is going vote in to power an 80’s yuppie intent on going to the flaky international money markets to borrow for tax cuts and sell ACC to anyone Merrill Lynch can find interested. Or should that be Merrill who?

Since Nov 2006 • 114 posts Report
Lucy Stewart, 13:42 Sep 19, 2008

This would be hilarious if it wasn’t so effing serious. With the Freddie and Fannie bailout the worlds largest home owning democracy has effectively placed millions of mortgagees in state housing by proxy and with the AIG bailout they’ve just instituted national insurance. Did someone forget to tell the Bush administration that socialism was dead cos they've obviously become late converts?
And yet at the political forum on health the UCSA ran yesterday, the ACT candidate still found it appropriate to ramble on about the glories of the free market solving everything, even when questioned directly about AIG.

Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 2105 posts Report
barnaclebarnes, 13:42 Sep 19, 2008

I still find this video by John Bird and John Fortune the best explanation of the sub-prime crisis.

Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 90 posts Report
Geoff Lealand, 13:48 Sep 19, 2008

This would be hilarious if it wasn’t so effing serious.
There is a kind of perverse pleasure, though, in observing the savage irony of all those non-state interventionists and free market zealots now rushing to the Federal Reserve with their hands out..As Gareth Morgan (who I don't often agree with) said on MR today, it all dates back to the 1987 crash, when financial institutions were bailed out too rapidly and never really learnt a lesson. But you do feel for those people who will lose their jobs--it won't be those on the top salaries, obviously.
On more worldly matters: go the Warriors tonight! And maybe even Waikato will prevail over HB.

Screen & Media Studies, U… • Since Oct 2007 • 2562 posts Report
Idiot Savant, 13:53 Sep 19, 2008

..or maybe that plan has been shelved in view of the current crisis.
Yeah, right.
National's meta-policy is all about looting the state for the benefit of their donors and cronies. tax cuts for the rich are an important part of this. And if they get to saddle government with debt and cripple its ability to engage in equality-promoting social spending in the future, then all the better as far as they're concerned.

Palmerston North • Since Nov 2006 • 1717 posts Report
Robert Fox, 14:01 Sep 19, 2008

But you do feel for those people who will lose their jobs--it won't be those on the top salaries, obviously.
Indeed my Schadenfreude is tempered by the fact that its the punters who were fed the big fat lie about free money who've got the most to loose in this.
the ACT candidate still found it appropriate to ramble on about the glories of the free market solving everything
To coin an inappropriate, appropriate phrase, these guys will never learn that you cant put lipstick on a pig.

Since Nov 2006 • 114 posts Report
matthewbuchanan, 14:08 Sep 19, 2008

Completely unrelated, but a good watch on a Friday afternoon. Random strangers in New Orleans all asked one simple question:

Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 163 posts Report
Robyn Gallagher, 14:14 Sep 19, 2008

There's an hour-long special on NPR's All Thing's Considered radio show which explains the subprime crisis in simply, entertainingly yet thoroughly.
This American Life producer Alex Blumberg teams up with NPR's Adam Davidson for the entire hour to tell the story—the surprisingly entertaining story—of how the U.S. got itself into a housing crisis. They talk to people who were actually working in the housing, banking, finance and mortgage industries, about what they thought during the boom times, and why the bust happened. And they explain that a lot of it has to do with the giant global pool of money.
There's a transcript too if you want to read it.
Before I heard this, I had a vague idea of what had gone on. But now not only do I understand what happened, I also feel outraged (outraged!) but it all.

Since Nov 2006 • 1946 posts Report
Paul Litterick, 14:15 Sep 19, 2008

As Gareth Morgan (who I don't often agree with) said on MR today...
After his piece (which was really good) Morning Report had an item about pet bereavement counselling. Some people obviously still have more money than sense.
So when people say things like "this would be hilarious if it wasn’t so effing serious" they should bear in mind that seriousness has not been at a premium in the twenty-five years. Our global economy is essentially trivial.

Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 1000 posts Report
peter mclennan, 14:28 Sep 19, 2008

re Jenny Lewis...
Kanye West now goes up to strangers in airport lounges and tests out his new songs on them... "We missed our flight and had to wait a couple of hours in the lounge," says Jenny Lewis.... "I noticed Kanye West was waiting for the same flight. He looked over and said, 'Excuse me, would you mind listening to my new track?' And so he put his headphones on my head and I listened to two of his new songs. He had no idea who I was. I guess he was doing research."
read about the Kanye Famous Test here...
http://idolator.com/5051072/kanye-west-apparently-not-that-big-of-a-rilo-kiley-fan

AK Central • Since Nov 2006 • 159 posts Report
Danielle, 14:57 Sep 19, 2008

There's a transcript too if you want to read it.
I'm at page 14 and I've understood it all so far! Thanks Robyn.

Charo World. Cuchi-cuchi!… • Since Nov 2006 • 3828 posts Report
Just Milly, 15:02 Sep 19, 2008

I'm at page 14 and I've understood it all so far! Thanks Robyn.
Yeah me too, and the outrage is building!

Since Jul 2008 • 17 posts Report
giovanni tiso, 15:21 Sep 19, 2008

A FAQ on the events of the last few days via a guest post on Freakonomics.

Wellington • Since Jun 2007 • 7473 posts Report
Peter Darlington, 15:42 Sep 19, 2008

But hey! Amplifier has Dub Asylum's extremely choice cut of funk, 'My Sneaker Collection Weighs a Ton' as a free download this week. And it's a 320k MP3 with cover art. Go get!
It's pretty good alright. Good on Mr Asylum and Amplifier for making it available.

Nelson • Since Nov 2006 • 949 posts Report
Lucy Stewart, 16:08 Sep 19, 2008

Yeah me too, and the outrage is building!
I remember listening to a BBC podcast, oh, six months ago now, talking about the subprime crisis. They interviewed one real estate guy in California who said that they were having a huge mosquito problem for the first time in decades because there were so many empty houses with swimming pools that weren't being cleaned, due to foreclosures. And I remember thinking, my god, this is huge, why hasn't anyone noticed? How did this happen?
It just seems to have taken most of the world six months to realise exactly how much of a problem there was.

Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 2105 posts Report
Don Christie, 16:40 Sep 19, 2008

Well, the Fed is about to start raising its own debt ...
Borrowing for infrastructure, nowt wrong wi' tha'.

Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 1645 posts Report