The new "cool" thing

In the 80's it was "cool" thing to have a plastic charm necklace or play atari all night to have the highest score in space invaders or play pacman on the CRT monitor to pass all levels. If you are from the 90's it was considered cool to have a fake id, wear wide baggy leg pants, have a mullet,vhs taps and listen to spice gals, boyzone,Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Vanilla ice. ....The list goes on. You get the idea.

These days people think having a "twitter" account or the new iphone is "cool" . Think again. The politicians and bureaucrats have their own trend "political scandal's" a.k.a extra martial affair. And surprisingly its getting them lot of millage. Its considered cool to have an extra maratial affair. Its almost like a highlight on the political resume.

Since the biggest scandal of all times broke in 1998 (you remember the Bill Clinton- Monical Lewinsky saga) there is never a shortage of politicians come up on the big stage and denouncing.


(source:http://www.overthehillcarpeople.com/Monica%20Lewinsky.jpg)

It seems the bureaucrats are talking amongst themselves "Oh you haven't admitted you have an extra martial affair...oh come on all the cool politicians are doing it, you gotta have a press conference and announce you were married for zillion years but you had a girl friend for trillion years"

The latest to join South Carolina Governor Mark Stanford, who admitted affair with a Argentine woman. Way to go. You top the list not only coz you are the most recent but you went international. Kudos my friend.

According to Wikipedia (almost official book keeper of scandals) there have been 35 recorded instances of "coolness" between 2000-2009. Versus 10 between 1900-1999. Way to go 21st century. We are way ahead of the 90's. So i thought i'd honor some of the noteable scandals of the last decade. (Oscar style)

The newest-kid-on-the-block award goes to
Mark Sanford Governor (R-SC) admitted during a press conference on June 24, 2009, that he had traveled to Argentina to have an extra-marital affair with an Argentinean woman. He then resigned as head of the Southern Governors Association.(2009)

The Hypocrisy-in-scandals award goes to
John Ensign Senator (R-NV) resigned his position on June 16, 2009 after admitting he had an affair with Cynthia Hampton the wife of a close friend, both of whom were working on his campaign. In 1998 Senator Ensign had called for President Clinton (D) to resign after admitting to sexual acts with Monica Lewinsky. (2009)

The Motor-city-award goes to
Kwame Kilpatrick (D) Detroit Mayor, accused of extramarital affair with his Chief-of-Staff, Christine Beatty. Racy text messages between them uncovered by the press contradicted their sworn denials of an affair. Also alleged to have stayed at the Grove Park Inn in Asheville, NC with a woman named Carmen Slowsky, who was not his wife (2008)

The Big-Apple-award goes to
Eliot Spitzer (D) Governor of New York used the Emperors Club VIP prostitution service to meet $1000/ night escorts. No charges were filed since no public funds were used, though he resigned anyway. (2008)

The Bathroom award goes to
Larry Craig (R-ID) - pled guilty to disorderly conduct in a Minneapolis airport men's room in June, after having been arrested on a charge of lewd conduct (2007)

The Broke-back-mountain award goes to
Jim McGreevey (D) Governor of New Jersey, married man ....admitted that he had an extramarital affair with the man he appointed as homeland security advisor.

The Grandfather-of-all-scandals
Bill Clinton President (D-AR) .....I don't think i need to write anything.

All-in-da-family aka affair with staff member award(s)
Marc Dann (D) Attorney General of Ohio, after sexual harassment charges were brought against staffers Leo Jennings and Anthony Gutierrez, Dann admitted he too had an affair with a staff member. Resigned May 14, 2008
Gavin Newsom (D) Mayor of San Francisco, California, extramarital affair with wife of campaign manager and former deputy chief-of-staff Alex Tourk (2007)
Steven C. LaTourette (R-OH) accused of an affair with staffer Jennifer Laptook, whom he subsequently married.(2003)

Some honorable mentions
John Edwards Senator (D-NC) Ran for the presidential nomination against Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton positioning himself as an honest, family values candidate. This position was seriously undercut when he admitted to an affair with Rielle Hunter. (2008)
(Source:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_scandals_of_the_United_States#Sex_scandals)

To see the whole list click here

Luck or Skill... You decide

Taste of India

Dont we Indians love our food. Check out the fav food distribution in India
(Thanks Jigs for the pic)

The worst prediction of 2008 (revisited)

Sometime in early 2008 BW published the "The Worst Predictions About 2008". (Don't know how i missed it).
Anyways, so i thought i will revisit it. So here it goes...

1. "A very powerful and durable rally is in the works. But it may need another couple of days to lift off. Hold the fort and keep the faith!" —Richard Band, editor, Profitable Investing Letter, Mar. 27, 2008

At the time of the prediction, the Dow Jones industrial average was at 12,300. By late December it was at 8,500

Huh. Actually he was right. The rally was in works....It just was heading downwards...Don't beat yourself buddy, you had the right idea. The direction was just off.


2. AIG (AIG) "could have huge gains in the second quarter." —Bijan Moazami, analyst, Friedman, Billings, Ramsey, May 9, 2008

AIG..We all know what happened. Besides hes right AIG had HUGE gains. It got $150 billion worth TARP money. Hurray.

3. "I think this is a case where Freddie Mac (FRE) and Fannie Mae (FNM) are fundamentally sound. They're not in danger of going under…I think they are in good shape going forward." —Barney Frank (D-Mass.), House Financial Services Committee chairman, July 14, 2008

lol. Really. "fundamentally sound" . Wow. Around July 2008 FRE was $17.90 and FNM was 19.78. Right now they both are around $0.70. Do the math

4. "I'm not an economist but I do believe that we're growing." —President George W. Bush, in a July 15, 2008 press conference

Nope. Gross domestic product shrank at a 0.5% annual rate in the July-September quarter

I think what he meant was we are growing our debt. We are close to trillion dollars. See dint we grow from trillion to billion

5. “I think Bob Steel’s the one guy I trust to turn this bank around, which is why I’ve told you on weakness to buy Wachovia.” —Jim Cramer, CNBC commentator, Mar. 11, 2008

Two weeks later, Wachovia came within hours of failure as depositors fled. Steel eventually agreed to a takeover by Wells Fargo. Wachovia shares lost half their value from Sept. 15 to Dec. 29.

After the Bear Stearns call, Mr.Cramer you have left a lot of us speechless. Here is Bear Sterns re-re-re-visited

6. "Existing-Home Sales to Trend Up in 2008" —Headline of a National Association of Realtors press release, Dec. 9, 2007

On Dec. 23, 2008, the group said November sales were running at an annual rate of 4.5 million—down 11% from a year earlier—in the worst housing slump since the Depression

The best way to describe the above is when i was reading this morning the headline on CNN "Even Tim Geithner Can't Sell His Own Home" ...Really Timmy G. The Treasury Secretary...LOL

7. "I think you'll see [oil prices at] $150 a barrel by the end of the year" —T. Boone Pickens, June 20, 2008

Oil was then around $135 a barrel. By late December it was below $40.

This is actually the first prediction i like. $60 gas. Not bad.

8. "I expect there will be some failures. … I don't anticipate any serious problems of that sort among the large internationally active banks that make up a very substantial part of our banking system." —Ben Bernanke, Federal Reserve chairman, Feb. 28, 2008

In September, Washington Mutual became the largest financial institution in U.S. history to fail. Citigroup (C) needed an even bigger rescue in November.

Well the term "some" is loosely attached. Apart from GM and Lehman, Here is a list of banks below that failed is also called as "some"

9. "In today's regulatory environment, it's virtually impossible to violate rules." —Bernard Madoff, money manager, Oct. 20, 2007

About a year later, Madoff—who once headed the Nasdaq Stock Market—told investigators he had cost his investors $50 billion in an alleged Ponzi scheme.

10. "There's growing evidence that parts of the debt markets…are coming back to life." —Peter Coy and Mara Der Hovanesian, BusinessWeek, Oct. 1, 2007.