Greece Sunday Deadline, “Jared” Investigated
Wednesday, July 8, 2015
Vol. 4, No. 189
Drachma Drama: Greece’s new finance minister showed up at a meeting with European finance ministers with no new proposal to solve his country’s debt crisis. The Euro zone gave Greece until Sunday to come to an agreement. The alternative is what’s now nicknamed “Grexit” — Greece’s exit from the Euro zone.
The NY Times’ Eduardo Porter points out that while Germany is taking the hardest line demanding austerity and debt repayment, West Germany was the beneficiary of a 50 percent debt write-down after World War II. The Germans quickly became an economic power with less debt on their backs. “Major debt overhangs are only solved after deep write-downs of the debt’s face value,” Porter writes. “The longer it takes for the debt to be cut, the bigger the necessary write-down will turn out to be.”
Nation: The Indiana home of Subway sandwich pitchman Jared Fogle was raided yesterday by FBI agents investigating child pornography. They took computer drives and electronics, but the 37-year-old Fogle, who has a wife and two kids, was not arrested.
Subway suspended its relationship with Fogel only hours later.
In April, the executive director of Fogle’s Jared Foundation, was busted on child porn charges. Investigators have not said whether the two investigations are related. Fogel became the “Subway Guy” and the central character in the company’s advertising after he lost 245 pounds eating nothing but Subway.
>An Air Force F-16 collided with a Cessna 150 aircraft about 11 miles north of Charleston, South Carolina yesterday, sending both planes crashing to the ground. Two people in the Cessna were killed. Airplane parts were scattered over a wide area with a jet engine falling right next to a trailer home. The F-16 pilot was taken to his base for observation.
East is Red: The Shanghai stock market lost six percent of its value today as the hemorrhaging continues for Chinese stockholders. The Chinese market has lost a third of its value, roughly $3.2 trillion, since June 12. Nearly half the companies listed on Chinese exchanges have stopped trading.
This happened because the Chinese middle class suddenly decided to invest in stocks, nearly doubling the market’s value in the past year while defying the fundamentals of actual value. Investors nearly as suddenly lost confidence in June, and the run began.
Smokeout: The CVS Pharmacy chain has quit the US Chamber of Commerce because the organization plans a worldwide campaign against anti-smoking laws. CVS stopped selling tobacco because it’s counter to their image as a health company. The Chamber and its foreign affiliates are fighting restrictions on public smoking, advertising restrictions, tax increases, and graphic warning labels required in some countries.
I Heart NY: New York’s Gov. Andrew Cuomo yesterday signed a law requiring all state colleges and universities to adopt a mandatory “yes means yes” rule for all sexual activity on college campuses. Maybe the kids should be issued rights cards. “You have the right to remain a virgin ….”
Down Time: Sales of the Apple watch have dropped 90 percent since April when they were first sold, according to a market research survey. The numbers are down to 20,000 watches a day and on some days just $10,000, according to the research company Slice Intelligence. It’s slow business for a company accustomed to sales in the millions of gadgets. The watch is Apple’s first new gizmo since the death of founder Steve Jobs and failure would sour Wall Street’s estimate of the company’s future.
Political Corrections: Disney has removed its statue of Bill Cosby from Hollywood Studios; Paula Deen fired her social media manager after the posting of a picture of her son Bobby in “brownface” makeup from an old episode of Deen’s cooking show; The PGA has pulled its October tournament from Donald Trump’s Trump National Golf Course in Los Angeles.
All’s right with the world now.
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