The Chantastic Blog

Actual quote from a CNBC anchor today: “1.6 trillion of volume today, a decent amount given that it’s a Jewish holiday.”

Further to the post below, the politicians don’t know anything about what’s going on either. You know why I know that? Because of the first video clip on this page. Go to the 5:40 mark where Karen Finerman asks the Congressman (who voted against the bill) about the flaw in his mark-to-market argument. Now, I’m not going to pretend like I know the intricacies of how mark-to-market works, but apparently that’s not going to stop this House Representative. Starting at 5:40 when Karen asks her question, just look at the guy’s reaction as Karen talks. He’s nodding his head and saying, “Right” the entire time while not understanding a damn thing she’s saying. You know why I know he knows nothing? Because I’ve done the exact same nod while saying, “Right” for something I don’t know either, and I’m sure many of you have. You just pretend like you know what the other person is talking about when you really don’t know jack. Then watch his response - it is the most generic answer you could hear, and he never actually addresses her point because…he has no clue what her point is since he doesn’t understand the inherent issue. And these, my friends, are the people in charge of saving the American economy. Also, take a look at the other traders at the desk as he makes his non-sensical answer - they are not impressed because they also know he has no idea what he’s talking about.

P.S. Karen’s final trade of the day is a Chan-ism!

In a nutshell, the stupidity of the general American public might lead them straight into a deep recession. Here’s why the House rejected the $700 billion bailout plan (which really isn’t a bailout, but Americans need a single simple catchphrase that describes what’s happening, so they go with it, even if it’s inaccurate).
The American people do not understand that this bill will ultimately affect them - they think it just affects Wall Street. Similar to the need for a catchphrase like ‘bailout’ to describe everything, most Americans cannot grasp that the economy is dynamic, and there is no simple cookie-cutter cause and effect. They do not understand that this will ultimately affect them in a much harsher way than it affects Wall Street. Try getting a loan to buy a car in a few months if things stay as is. Their anger at Wall Street isn’t misguided - I absolutely agree with it - but it’s completely overshadowing the effect this has on the economy.
So Americans are angry - rightfully so - and they phone up their local Congressman. Hey, guess who has to protect their job in an election in less than two months? So out of fear for their job, they vote against the deal, even if they feel a deal needs to be done.

Here’s my favorite part - if you really consider what happened today, not only does the average American apparently think that they know more than a guy with an MBA from Harvard, they also apparently think that they know more about the economy than a guy with an undergraduate Economics degree from Harvard and a PhD from M.I.T. If that’s the case, why not just hire some guy off the street to run the Federal Reserve? I bet you he’d be a lot cheaper.

I’m a huge fan of orange juice. Specifically, orange juice without pulp. I figure if I wanted pulp in my orange juice, I’d just eat an orange.
So a week ago, I was running low on orange juice and went across the street to the local Dominion store to buy some. There was a sale on a new type of jug that Tropicana is using - instead of a screw-on lid, it’s a flip lid that clicks when you snap it down and it locks. But all the OJ without pulp was sold out that day, so I had to buy some with pulp.
Today, I was going to eat something and wanted some orange juice to go with it. I was going to just drink it, but then remembered that I had to shake the jug because of the stupid pulp inside. I shook it once, and then decided I should probably shake it again.

Big mistake.

I just spent the last hour de-juicing my entire apartment. Why does this crap only happen to me?

And to all you pulp-lovers out there, I say this - JUST EAT A FRICKIN’ ORANGE IF YOU WANT PULP.

Things seem to have been going downhill for Heather Locklear ever since she split from Richie Sambora. I’m not sure that that was the best picture to put up for the article either. Seems like it was a bit cold in LA that day.

It’s not a stretch to say that men all over the world are now wildly jealous of Ryan Reynolds. I look forward to Alanis Morissette’s take on this announcement.

After going to the Jays’ season finale on Thursday night, I was running a bit late Friday morning. All of the first-year students have heard stories about how some profs lock the door so that stragglers can’t get into class. Well, when I get to class at 8:35, guess what I find? Yep, a locked door.
Three more of my fellow students show up - all of whom I knew pretty well - so we strategize over how we can get into the room. We figure that at worst, we can wait until the break at 9:30 and get in then. One of the other students stuck outside with me is brave enough to knock gently to get someone sitting by the door to let us in, but there’s no response when we do that. We then send an e-mail to a couple of friends in the class to get them to open the door. As students in other sections walk by (other sections start at different times), they ask what we’re doing, and we tell them how we’re locked out. One of them replies, “What do you mean? The door for the front of your classroom is open. I just walked past it.” Yeah, I guess we all forgot there was two doors to the classroom.

So we then have to decide if all four of us are going to walk into front of the class - where everyone can see us - at 8:50, and decide to go for it. As all four of us walk in 20 minutes late, the prof asks, “Is everything alright? I’m assuming this is some sort of TTC problem.”
One of the guys who walked in with me quickly replies, “Everything’s fine, I’m OK.”

Ten minutes later, one of the people we sent the e-mail to and the girl beside her start laughing while looking at us as they read the e-mail. My e-mail reply to them?
“Why are you guys laughing? TTC trouble isn’t funny…”