Big Boys
I am still trying to puzzle out what happened with this Great Credit Meltdown of 2008, and have a long way to go. As this point I'm skeptical. There is a problem for me in that smaller, well-run banks here in the Midwest would be surviving without all the government intervention, and smaller, well-run companies seem to be doing OK - reducing headcount, yes, but meeting payroll with those who are left.
And we are going to provide over $100 billion to keep AIG intact.
What gives? I think there are just too many big institutions that are creditors of AIG, and they just don't want to lose big money. There was a commentator on the tube today saying that if AIG liquidated, it'd be a fire sale. Buyers would get AIG assets for 20 cents on the dollar.
A. So what?
B. 20 cents on what dollar? A dollar based on 2007 valuations?
I hate it when left-wing slogans turn out to be right. But man, as of today, it really looks to me like we are nationalizing losses. And the really big boys - AIG's creditors - can't face a true, market-clearing, bottom-finding liquidation.
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Monday, November 10, 2008
Thursday, November 06, 2008
Whew.
At last, it's over, and back to things that matter. Like listening to music, and playing it.
I'm listening to Chet Baker, even though I guess he's regarded as a lightweight and I found about him through a Starbuck's ad. Or maybe it was Volkwagen. Who cares - this ocean of media can toss off flotsam and if I pick some up and make it into, say, a coffee table - great.
I'm playing what I've always called blues runs. There may be a hipper term. They are the flourishes that blues pianists use to (a) show off and (b) fill in between melody lines, whether a singer's or player's. Makes them sound shallow, but they're not. They're cool.
This would be the perfect place to paste an example, but I don't want to slow down, and this is all for me anyway. (Good God, I hope I know what I'm referring to.) The vaguely interesting aspect of the project is how to get comfortable with these babies outside the key of C. I've been using C runs for years, even in tunes in G, but that's about it. Time to go to another level (to use an expression that is awfully current but nonetheless fits) and hence work on this standard run - trying to make it second nature in C, D, E, G, and A. I love F, but it and B don't work, they'd require completely different fingering.
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At last, it's over, and back to things that matter. Like listening to music, and playing it.
I'm listening to Chet Baker, even though I guess he's regarded as a lightweight and I found about him through a Starbuck's ad. Or maybe it was Volkwagen. Who cares - this ocean of media can toss off flotsam and if I pick some up and make it into, say, a coffee table - great.
I'm playing what I've always called blues runs. There may be a hipper term. They are the flourishes that blues pianists use to (a) show off and (b) fill in between melody lines, whether a singer's or player's. Makes them sound shallow, but they're not. They're cool.
This would be the perfect place to paste an example, but I don't want to slow down, and this is all for me anyway. (Good God, I hope I know what I'm referring to.) The vaguely interesting aspect of the project is how to get comfortable with these babies outside the key of C. I've been using C runs for years, even in tunes in G, but that's about it. Time to go to another level (to use an expression that is awfully current but nonetheless fits) and hence work on this standard run - trying to make it second nature in C, D, E, G, and A. I love F, but it and B don't work, they'd require completely different fingering.
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