RTFA: http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hHhxB87PnN_KTu7…

The Yellowstone Club, an exclusive mountain retreat for the ultra-rich, said it filed for bankruptcy Monday after failing to secure new financing – underscoring that even the elite can’t escape the country’s current economic troubles.

Spokesman Bill Keegan said the club filed for Chapter 11 protection in federal bankruptcy court in Montana. The move came just two months after the club announced an ambitious expansion plan through a partnership with the Arizona-based Discovery Land Company.

The gated, millionaires-only club on 13,400 acres in Montana’s Gallatin Mountains boasts a private ski hill and golf course. Opened in 1999, it counts former Vice President Dan Quayle and Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates among its 340 members.

In a statement to The Associated Press, the club said it had been unable to secure financing arrangements with its creditors and bondholders. It plans to reorganize its finances and emerge from bankruptcy “as soon as possible,” the statement said.

…not sure what to make of this one, but I don’t think this is as it seems.

RTFA: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qq8Uc5BFogE

Its been eight long years since the boys said wassup to each other. Even with the effects of a down economy and imminent change in the White House, the boys are still able to come together and stay true to what really matters.

I had a feeling the “Wassup” meme was bound to make a comeback, and let me tell you folks, it’s good to be right. Man, is it good!

…although this one is kindof tricky – watch it and see what I mean. The Germans have a word for it: “schadenfreude,” although that’s not the precise sense of the term, which typically involves laughing at the tragedy of others. This video demonstrates a sort of self-deprecating, uniquely American experience, made by Americans. Maybe a more appropriate term is simply bittersweet, with a strong emphasis on the “bitter.”

Props, once again, to John Taplin for the pointer.

RTFA: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/24/business/economy…

Although he defended the use of derivatives in general, Mr. Greenspan, who left office in 2006, told members of the House Committee of Government Oversight and Reform that he was “partially” wrong in not having tried to regulate the market for credit-default swaps.

But in a tense exchange with Representative Henry A. Waxman, the California Democrat who is chairman of the committee, Mr. Greenspan conceded a more serious flaw in his own philosophy that unfettered free markets sit at the root of a superior economy.

“I made a mistake in presuming that the self-interests of organizations, specifically banks and others, were such as that they were best capable of protecting their own shareholders and their equity in the firms,” Mr. Greenspan said.

Referring to his free-market ideology, Mr. Greenspan added: “I have found a flaw. I don’t know how significant or permanent it is. But I have been very distressed by that fact.”

Mr. Waxman pressed the former Fed chair to clarify his words. “In other words, you found that your view of the world, your ideology, was not right, it was not working,” Mr. Waxman said.

“Absolutely, precisely,” Mr. Greenspan replied. “You know, that’s precisely the reason I was shocked, because I have been going for 40 years or more with very considerable evidence that it was working exceptionally well.”

Here we go… Greenspan steps up to the plate and takes a tongue-lashing; how misguided he was, etc.

RTFA: http://finance.google.com/finance?cid=983582

…not to fan the flames or anything, but the DOW has returned to September 11, 2001 levels. Really, that’s not such a bad thing, given how overvalued everything became during the deregulation of the last 8 years. …but in 52 weeks, the volume of the DOW has been cut in half, and that level of shock is going to … reverberate.

Here’s the upside: there is still actual value in the US economy. Yes, we’re the collective victims of massive pump-and-dump fraud, but it’s hardy like “we” aren’t producing anything. In other words, the market needs to bottom out at some value above zero. That will happen when people start to believe that things are undervalued, so it will make sense to invest again. This very process can be hindered if there is no effective monetary system that functions as a medium for the transmission of value, and that just might happen if the dollar fails.

Why, dear reader, might the dollar fail? Get ready for Bretton Woods III.

RTFA: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7297093.stm

The meltdown in the US mortgage market has led to record foreclosures and forced thousands from their homes. In few places is it worse than southern California, where the BBC’s Rajesh Mirchandani reports on an extreme consequence of the downturn, but one that some observers fear could grow.

The population of Tent City has grown rapidly in less than a year

Forty miles east of Los Angeles, on a patch of waste ground, is the place they call Tent City.

WTF.