http://peteware.com Tech, Politics, and NYC Sun, 21 Feb 2010 01:35:13 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Talking Points Memo says that the FBI is closing the case about the Anthrax mailing and blaming Dr. Ivins for the attacks. I'd mentioned earlier that I was skeptical about his guilt. I'm still a little skeptical. Authorities said that in the days before the mailings, Ivins had logged unusual hours ... http://peteware.com/2010/02/the-fbi-is-closing-the-anthrax-case/ From Matthew Yglesias » Will Greece Get a Bailout?: If the Greece moral hazard play winds up not working, then investors will start demanding higher interest payments from Ireland. And if they go down, you could have the equivalent of a bank runs start to endanger medium-sized countries like Spain and ... http://peteware.com/2010/02/will-greece-get-a-bailout/ From Dana Milbank - Senate Republicans seem to have one answer for Democrats: No - washingtonpost.com: The Senate took a vote on extending the federal debt ceiling -- without which the United States would go into default. All 40 Republicans voted no. The Senate took a vote on requiring Congress not to ... http://peteware.com/2010/02/republicans-all-talk-no-action-on-debt-reduction/ Sun Microsystems used to be one of my favorite tech companies. Here's the SEC filing delisting them now that Oracle owns it: NOTIFICATION OF REMOVAL FROM LISTING AND/OR REGISTRATION UNDER SECTION 12(b) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934. Issuer: SUN MICROSYSTEMS, INC. Exchange: NASDAQ ... http://peteware.com/2010/01/bye-bye-sun/ Here's an interesting, interactive, graphic that shows Netflix rental frequency per neighborhood, per movie. http://peteware.com/2010/01/a-peek-into-netflix-queues-nytimes-com/ Matthew Yglesias points out at that the Citizens United decision may have some pretty painful consequences to our politics: Bank of America, for example, dedicates $2.3 billion to marketing in 2008 so it’s clear that they’ve got the budget to mount a $100 million series of scathing attacks on a Senator ... http://peteware.com/2010/01/supreme-court-ruling-on-campaign-finance/ The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has a report on Federal Estate and Gift Taxes. One of the interesting things is only 0.7% or 17,400 of estates are actually affected by the estate tax. In 2000, before EGTRRA was enacted, 51,200 estates were taxable, representing 2.2 percent of adult deaths in ... http://peteware.com/2010/01/federal-estate-and-gift-taxes/ A cool mockup/rumour guide about the alledged Apple Tablet: http://peteware.com/2010/01/rumour-roundup-the-apple-tablet/ The top five executives at Bear Stearns and the top five at Lehman made $2.4 billion from 2000-2008. The popular imagining was they suffered financially with the collapse of their firms. The reality is they'd already cashed in huge amounts of stock before the collapse. From Barry Ritholtz: http://peteware.com/2010/01/top-10-bear-stearns-lehman-execs-made-2-4-billion/ So if you lost your firm billions of dollars, laid off tens of thousands and indirectly caused millions to lose their jobs and drove the unemployment rate to 10.3% well, the good news is it didn't cost you your job! 92% of management in TARP funds recipients still have ... http://peteware.com/2010/01/unemployment-not-if-you-caused-the-crisis/