The Week Unpeeled
Headlines dealt us lots of news, events and confessions last week, with much of the recent focus on Martin Luther King Day and the inauguration Monday. President Obama’s official second-term White House photo was unveiled, with him looking a little more relaxed with a big grin, completely unmatched to his rhetoric to Congress and House Republicans all week on fiscal matters. (The debt ceiling increase was passed for the next three months.) Elsewhere:
- Transcripts from Fed meetings during the financial meltdown were released, revealing a central bank that “failed to grasp dangers” (FTWeekend headline) of 2007 crisis;
- Lance (“One Big Lie”) Armstrong confessed but the bigger story it seemed was not many tuned in to watch it on Oprah (only 3.2 million viewers), suggesting no one cares (my vote) and Oprah and big networks are kinda out of touch of what news counts (my other vote);
- Likewise in the few-care-but-I-can’t-stop-reading-this-ghost story, Manti Te’o. (WSJ poll found 1 percent “don’t care” about it.) Enuf said;
- Facebook dived into the search business with a tool called “graph search” (Google it for details);
- Banks reported mixed results, with Goldman strong and JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon taking a whale of a pay cut (actually reports differed from 30 percent to 50 percent reductions);
- Dell in talks to go private;
- The Dow ended at a five-year high at 13,649;
- Swatch bought Harry Winston (priceless and timeless!);
- Daniel Edelman, PR giant, and Dear Abby (also priceless and timeless!) died; and
- The First Lady got bangs.
