Monday, September 08, 2008

Our Overlords


are overcaffinated mooks.

Some people thought the 80s were over. That the days of jittery, ridiculously powerful, coked-to-the-optic-nerve idiots freaking out at tricks of the light and making the stock market jump and buck like a bronco getting its nuts tasered were long behind us.

Those people were apparently mistaken.

From Forbes (emphasis added):

How A Botched Web Story Wiped Out UAL's Shares

James Abels and Tom Van Riper 09.08.08

Shares of United Airlines parent UAL were nearly wiped out late Monday when a six-year-old Chicago Tribune story on the company's prior bankruptcy apparently resurfaced as new news, sparking a run on the stock.

UAL stock was trading at a penny a share at 11:30 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time Monday, after closing at $12.30 per share Friday. Trading in the shares was halted until 12:30 p.m. "It's not true," said UAL a spokeswoman of the bankruptcy report. She declined to elaborate further.

Sun Sentinel Online Editor Joe Schwerdt pulled the story off the site shortly before noon Monday. The Sun Sentinel is owned by Tribune.

"I literally just got word a couple minutes ago that there was problem," says Schwerdt. He says he did not know how the old story was posted as new and was unsure if any other Tribune papers ran it. He declined to discuss details about how his paper publishes stories on weekends.

In a statement, United demanded a retraction from the Sun Sentinel and is launching an investigation.

...
United filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in December 2002. It emerged from bankruptcy in 2006. Despite its struggles, the company has given no indication it plans another bankruptcy filing.
...


So, Freddy Mac and Fannie Mae mismanaged into a cherry-on-top deregulation catastrophe the price tag of which may dwarf the S&L bailouts of the last Bush Administration.

And now United Air Lines' stocks crash through the floorboards due to what I would be willing to wager will amount to something like a date-stamp glitch embedded in some server software patch.

Quite a day for the markets my friends.

Just remember that this is the craps game where Republicans want to bet your Mom's social security check.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Driftglass wrote ...

Just remember that this is the craps game where Republicans want to bet your Mom's social security check.

Yup. Yup. Yup. (In the Out Country Patois of Alaska and Hitler Youth C*nt Sarah Palin.)

Sock Puppet W. is still licking his tiny bruised balls over being denied total access to the Social Security Trust Fund at the end of 2003.

Let the Free Market Handle It is the motto of all selfish f*cktards.

Anonymous said...

Just remember that this is the craps game where Republicans want to bet your Mom's social security check.

Same as it ever was.

Same as it ever was.
~

Anonymous said...

Sounds like it might be a clever scam actually. Put the story out, buy the stock after the panic destroys its value, then watch your money increase 1000 fold in value when the truth gets out.

Anonymous said...

"Just remember that this is the craps game where Republicans want to bet your Mom's social security check."

Fail Safe now comes in many forms. Just a leeettle glitch . . . . and kaBOOM!

Yer on it. As always.

Fly Trans Love Airways . . *G* If you HAVE to fly.

Anonymous said...

12th monkey. Google "economic hitman"

Cirze said...

I'm not buying it, Dg.

Yes, it could be a glitch arising from a software patch, but why now? Same exact moment in time when the Fannie/Freddie news is publicized and a few odd facts are finally released about who benefitted (if you read the right sources)? Remind you at all of 9/11?

I no longer believe in coincidences or happenstance (if I ever did - the rulers of Murrica having convinced me otherwise).

I guess Cheney/Rove's pick of Palin (who is unexpectedly stealing ignorant white women's affections for the Know-Nothing ticket with her brand of trash talking) just a little while before this was also just coincidence? And the fact that having a pregnant, unmarried daughter and Down-syndrome new baby (with a perfect figure), may preclude her from being interrogated by the Press isn't tip off enough?

How much luck do we let them by with?

Wake up world!!!

No way this is meaningless. I'm thinking that we are going to be hit with coincidental revelations every few days right up to election day - and most people will enter the Diebold-controlled voting booth with mouths agape at the power (and many taking some pride in the brass) of the Rethuglicans.

And they're not betting your mom's social security check. They're betting your life.

Suzan

(What DO you think Rover was doing when he disappeared from the scene for all that time?

Angel Of Mercy said...

I fear you are 100% right about this, Suzan, although I REALLY don't want you to be...

Distributorcap said...

suzan is nailing it..

and watch the pitbull lipstick with the mooseshit on her shoes (and in her brain) go right for that trust fund

Anonymous said...

Anyone think we're getting the truth about the economy? Believing ANYTHING coming out of the government or the korporate media is simply insanity.