In the News

Here is some stuff in the news today...

A year ago, I mentioned the story of Carmen Segarra, formerly a senior examiner with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, who was fired from her job after she was asked, and refused, to falsify her findings that Goldman Sachs' conflict of interest policy was insufficient. At ProPublica, Jake Bernstein has an important piece following up on Segarra's story: "Inside the New York Fed: Secret Recordings and a Culture Clash."

Relatedly, Senator Elizabeth Warren has called for hearings "into 'disturbing' issues raised by secretly taped conversations between Federal Reserve supervisors and officials at Goldman Sachs Group Inc (GS.N), a bank the Fed was tasked with policing. ...The tapes appear to show an unwillingness among some Fed supervisors to both demand specific information from Goldman about a transaction with Banco Santander and to strongly criticize what Segarra concluded was the lack of an appropriate conflict-of-interest policy at Goldman."

[CN: Shooting] Demonstrations in Ferguson have resumed in the wake of the burning of a community-made Michael Brown memorial and the paltry and overdue apology from the Ferguson Police Chief, and, over the weekend, two police officers were shot at. Neither incident was related to the protests, but there are understandable fears that the incidents will be used to reintroduce increased militarized policing of protesters.

[CN: Police brutality] Speaking of protests: "A wave of protest in Hong Kong extended into the working week on Monday as thousands of residents defied a government call to abandon street blockades across the city, students boycotted classes, and the city's influential bar association added to condemnation of a police crackdown on protesters a day earlier. The continued public resistance underscored the difficulties that the Hong Kong government faces in defusing widespread anger that erupted on Sunday, after the police used tear gas, pepper spray and batons to break up a three-day sit-in by students and other residents demanding democratic elections in the semiautonomous Chinese territory."

[CN: Classism; class warfare] Paul Krugman on Our Invisible Rich: "[T]he truly rich are so removed from ordinary people's lives that we never see what they have. We may notice, and feel aggrieved about, college kids driving luxury cars; but we don't see private equity managers commuting by helicopter to their immense mansions in the Hamptons. The commanding heights of our economy are invisible because they're lost in the clouds."

Chelsea Clinton had a daughter, Charlotte, Friday night, so cue nine million obnoxious news stories about how becoming a grandmother will influence Hillary Clinton's decision to run for president and/or her campaign. Anyway. Congratulations to the family!

Do you want to see some pictures from the 10th international London tattoo convention? Well, if you do, here you go!

Here is just a delightful video of Kristen Wiig and Bill Hader taking the piss out of an interviewer who clearly did not see the movie they are promoting, which he reveals by asking Wiig about being nude in the movie, which she is not. Oof this guy.

[CN: Animal abuse and animal attack, but with a happy ending] This is a truly amazing story about a woman who was attacked by a pit bull and a pit bull who was attacked by a human finding each other and becoming a team who help "other humans that are survivors of traumatic events learn to trust, and let go of their fears." Blub.