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Notes Photo March 18, 2009

(For An Instant) Pink Is The New Green

For my money (heh, heh), Liddy's instinct to reach out to and dignify the Code Pink protesters was an off-note exposing how this guy has been calibrated to an absolutely stratospheric level of damage control.

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Mad Ave's Guide To Wall Street — With Free Snacks

How much is Jet Blue's clever attack on CEO's a clever play by Madison Avenue to co-opt public anger toward Wall Street?

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Notes Photo March 17, 2009

Viva!

Probing the backstory surrounding the AIG – Administration bonus war, Josh Marshall offered some visual commentary on AIG executive Gerry Pasciucco based on an outfit the executive assembled for a 40’s Havana- theme society benefit in Fairfield County last June. Pasciucco (third from the right left) is a former...

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Notes Photo March 14, 2009

Promises From A Distance

I came across this old, but undated AIG ad -- which seems to still leave John Q. Public at water's edge.

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Notes Photo March 13, 2009

Making Dough

I wonder what the chances are that Jim Cramer will actually clean up his act given that he spent the morning of his Jon Stewart interview making dough with perhaps America's most famous and unrepentant insider-trading convicts.

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Slaughtering The Peacock

I'm glad James Burrows actually likened Jon Stewart to Edward R. Murrow last night because all I could think of, while watching Jon Stewart pluck out Jim Cramer's feathers in bunches, was "Frost - Nixon," "Frost Nixon."

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Your Turn: Off To The Joint

Bernie's new digs, a A 7 1/2-by-8 foot cell.

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Notes Photo March 5, 2009

Geithner OMG

Given his role as the combined Mr. Fixit and Communicator-in-Chief of the economic meltdown, Tim Geither doesn't come off assertive, personable or even relatable. This photo by Ben Lowy, taken as the Administration was settling in, leads off a slide show at Fortune titled "Inside Obama's economic war room."

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Notes Photo March 3, 2009

Outside The Box

For me, what's poignant about the stripped Circuit City is how it emblemizes how FUBAR the country is now as a result of rampant consumption.

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Notes Photo March 1, 2009

The Joker’s On Us?

Far from making Madoff into a monster, New York Magazine's Joker take-off turns him into a clown. With the economy in meltdown and Wall Street still running amok, it's just on more act of media denial we don't need.  

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Notes Photo February 23, 2009

Bernie Between The Lines

The photo on the cover of the March Portfolio is from a cache of Madoff portraits just discovered from a ten-year-old photo shoot. I had several strong and immediate associations to this image.

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Notes Photo February 20, 2009

Automotive Wreckage And Crash's Law

Although the crash explodes in an instant, it was developing well before: when people weren’t paying attention, when merely adequate brakes were installed, or barely adequate regulations enacted.... Emily Dickinson said it best: Ruin is formal — Devil’s work Consecutive and slow – Fail in an instant, no man...

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Notes Photo February 12, 2009

Like A Locked Vault

A look at the smooth performance of bank CEO's before Congress yesterday.

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Notes Photo February 10, 2009

The Mortgage Meltdown: We Missed It Completely… Because We Knew It All Along!

In contrast to all those scratching their heads right now over how they could have predicted this banking meltdown, it was common wisdom two years ago -- as this Economist cover and BNN write-up reveals -- that this market was going to crash.

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Your Turn: The Light On Tim

  This is a particularly strange image the NYT chose to insert in its lead article about Tim Geithner's unveling of the Administration's banking bailout plan.

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Notes Photo February 8, 2009

Back In The Day

The most distinctive thing about this financial meltdown image might be the fact it's already four-and-a-half months old.

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Notes Photo February 1, 2009

Pfizer/Viagra's Handy CEO

This BAGnewsNotes slideshow, featuring the images of Getty photographer Mario Tama, looks at CEOs, especially as they come under new scrutiny from the administration and the press. The images were captured at press conference last week featuring Pfizer CEO Jeffrey B. Kindler and Bernard Poussot, CEO of Wyeth. Pfizer...

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Notes Photo January 31, 2009

For Shame

The most significant image of the week involved Obama calling the media into the Oval Office to intentionally shame Wall Street.

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