Before the beginning of the silly season (better known as the Summer Releases), I predicted the impending demise of the big budget tent pole movie. But gee whiz, gosh golly, gee bang oh molly, with the whopping big opening weekend of Transformers: Revenge of the...
I was a nice guy until I became a landlord. I smiled a lot and said "Good morning" and "How you doing?" and patted the dog occasionally and my wife more frequently. Then I became responsible for the lives of tenants and it all changed....
A review of Contagion: The Financial Epidemic That Is Sweeping the Global Economy…And How To Protect Yourself From It, by John R. Talbott John Talbott has established a well-deserved reputation as a financial soothsayer, enjoying an incredible run of spot-on predictions. He called the imminent bust...
"If everybody is playing by the same set of rules, whether you are talking about loan origination or securitization, then it becomes very hard to game the system. The lack of definitions is a huge problem… If the Congress, the SEC and the FASB, and...
The great thing about the internet is the widespread availability of information. Lots and lots of little strings of information, all floating in the free-fall zone of the Web. So much information that people rarely have time to contrast and compare -- and we all...
A reporter recently got me to play the voice of doom for the summer releases. The role comes naturally, since I favor black in my personal attire, so I spent a few minutes expounding upon the likely demise of the big-budget movies that are now...
There are several major kinds of secrets in life. There are the secrets that everybody knows but is not suppose to talk about (e.g., the bunker underneath the vice president's mansion). Then there's the stuff people won't tell you about because they expect you to learn...
General George S. Patton once opined that Americans can't stand a loser. He may have been right. Too bad. Sometimes failure is the perfect path toward learning. Certainly it is part of life's learning curve. In some ways, losing is what the entire film industry is...
The YouTube movie is coming, sort of. Actually, the YouTube movie is already here, with the most recent proof coming in August. The impending release of District 9 by Neill Blomkamp is, in part, a tribute to the increasingly pivotal role played by online media...
Yes, it's official. This summer, everyone is a winner. Wolverine has clawed his way to the top. Star Trek has blasted into orbit. Angels and Demons soared into heaven. According to the major news media, the engines of fantasy are running full throttle and business...