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This is just the kind of news that doesn’t bode well for the state of democracy in America: New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg shelled out $102 million of his own money in his recent successful (albeit close) run for re-election. That shakes out to about $183 per vote, and the final tally may still rise. —KA The New York Times’ “City Room”: Mr. Bloomberg, the wealthiest man in New York City, shattered his own previous records: he poured $85 million into his campaign in 2005, and $74 million on his first bid for office in 2001. And the $102 million tab is likely to rise: the mayor has not yet doled out his storied bonuses to campaign workers, which can top $100,000 a person. That spending will not be reported until after his inauguration. He has now officially spent more of his own money in the pursuit of public office than any other individual in United States history. Read more READ THE WHOLE ITEM
Perhaps it’s possible to draw larger sociological conclusions about why it is that, over the politically and economically tumultuous 2003-09 period, gaming giant Activision’s first-person shooter series “Call of Duty” raked in a staggering $3 billion in global sales. But we’ll leave the heavy theorizing to the communication and sociology scholars. To help ground that $3 billion figure in a more familiar entertainment context ... (continued) READ THE WHOLE ITEM
There are two basic truths about Dubai which, predictably, have not found their way into market speculation or newspaper analysis. The first is that Dubai may soon find itself a satellite not of its Abu Dhabi capital but of India. READ THE WHOLE ITEM
Dubai’s debt issues caused trouble in other parts of the world Friday. Stock markets from Europe to Asia to the U.S. registered the effects of the city-state’s announcement that it would need to put off paying back $60 billion in debt incurred from investments, according to The Wall Street Journal. —KA The Wall Street Journal: The Dow Jones Industrial Average was off 233 points at its morning low and ended the shortened post-Thanksgiving session with a 154.48-point decline, off 1.5%, at 10309.92, hurt by declines in all 30 components. The Dow, which entered Friday’s session at a 13-month high, ended the week down 0.1%, snapping a three-week winning streak. Traders and money managers drew some comfort from the U.S. market’s recovery from its intraday lows Friday. Many point out that Dubai’s main creditors are European banks, not Wall Street firms. But that could still lead to gyrations next week and beyond if investors with exposure to Dubai’s troubles continue to unload ...
On this Black Friday edition of “Left, Right & Center,” regulars Robert Scheer, Tony Blankley, Matt Miller and Arianna Huffington get philosophical, trotting out the likes of Karl Marx and Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel to get a read on the timely and fundamental question of whether it’s truly possible to govern the people of the United States under the “of, by and for” setup. READ THE WHOLE ITEM
