The Future of Weight Loss Product Pitches: Halloween Edition

Melt-Off: the weight loss product that will have you SCREAMING for more! My teevee tells me that weight loss products are all the rage—a man can’t watch an enjoyable hour’s worth of terrible daytime television without hearing at least one snake oil sales pitch. Each commercial is as interchangeable as the last, but despite the [...]

The Casino Economy: Pay Cut E-mail Compilation

My last post was a short riff on Matt Taibbi’s diligent one-man mission to expose the failures of financial oversight. His reporting has been one of the few salves for my disgust over the unchecked power of financial institutions that have accepted taxpayer money, and his tenacity has helpfully reminded everyone who forgot just how [...]

The Casino Economy, Matt Taibbi, and Naked Short-Selling

“Oh, stop worrying, Jean! This is taxpayer money we’re playing with!” To paraphrase an old Same Cooke jam, I don’t know much about history, biology, science books or the French I took, but I do know that the economy is pretty fucked up right now. Troubling bits of economic news have crested and crashed like [...]

Good and Evil: The Trouble with Capitalism, Michael Moore Edition

Michael Moore shares his latest assault on America’s rich cultural tapestry in his recently released film, Capitalism: A Love Story. But how can one man expect the country to turn on what amounts to the defining pillar of American pride and glory? Would he, in the span of two hours, deftly deconstruct all of our misconceptions and crumple the mythology that has long told us of capitalism’s inherent good? Would he instantaneously destroy our country’s corporate architecture with an explosion of insight and carefully selected edits? And would Mr. Moore make Capitalism: A Love Story the kind of catalyst that would suddenly bring light to so many of us in the dark? Spoiler Alert! He does not achieve the impossible. But he does raise important questions.