| Money Flows Out of Mutual Funds Wall Street Journal Long-term mutual funds fell by $5.52 billion in the latest week, as declines from equity and hybrid funds more than offset inflows to bond funds, according to the Investment Company Institute. Bond and hybrid funds have mostly recorded weekly net ... See all stories on this topic » | ||
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| Top 5 Best Performing Healthcare Mutual Funds Year to Date - Best Performing ... NASDAQ Mutual funds are the perfect choice for investors looking to enter this sector since they possess the advantages of wide diversification and analytical insight. Below we will share with you the 5 best performing healthcare mutual funds year to date. To ... See all stories on this topic » | ||
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| Compass EMP Funds Introduces 13 New Mutual Funds Sacramento Bee NASHVILLE, Tenn., Nov. 28, 2012 -- /PRNewswire/ -- Compass EMP Funds announced the launch of thirteen (13) new mutual funds increasing its fund family to sixteen total funds. These new funds and their ticker symbols are presented below within their ... See all stories on this topic » | ||
| Fancy Funds, Below Average Returns Moneylife Mutual funds have tried just about everything to lure investors and sell their schemes. They have tried foreign funds, contra funds, sector funds when a particular sector is doing well and many other tricks. Instead of coming up with innovative ways of ... See all stories on this topic » | ||
| Mutual fund dealer's books at issue TheChronicleHerald.ca A mutual fund dealer operating in Nova Scotia is being accused of improperly maintaining its books, causing a client's investment to be used in a manner she did not intend. According to a recently posted statement of allegations, Nova Scotia Securities ... See all stories on this topic » |
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Wednesday, 28 November 2012
Money Flows Out of Mutual Funds
Killing Them Softly is a hitman allegory about the Great Recession
Killing Them Softly, the new crime caper thriller from writer/Director Andrew Dominik (The Assassination of Jesse James By the Coward Robert Ford), is set in 2008, during the height of the panic over the U.S. financial collapse and the run-up to Barack Obama's election. I mention this because you might miss that crucial bit of subtext if you're not paying close attention to the excerpts from Obama's election-night speech that are included during the jaggedly edited opening sequence. Or during the centerpiece heist sequence. Or five minutes later when someone has the car radio on. Or pretty much every time anyone in this movie is listening to a radio or watching a television.
Because Andrew, buddy, pal, c'mon: We get it already. We understand that you're turning your adaptation of George V. Higgins' novel Cogan's Trade — full of low-lifes, hired killers, and an unseen corporatized criminal hierarchy — into some kind of a metaphor for the malfeasance that led up to the Great Recession, and the nature of the response to it. It's clear from the crime committed by Markie (Ray Liotta), who arranged to steal from the card game he runs. That in turn inspires a copycat crime by small-time crook Johnny (Vincent Curatola), who brings in an old acquaintance, Frankie (Scoot McNairy), to do the actual dirty work. It's clear from the interaction between Jackie (Brad Pitt), a no-nonsense hired killer, and the businesslike representative (Richard Jenkins) of the crime bosses by whom Jackie's been hired to deal with whoever stole from them. And man oh man is it clear from the incessant intrusion of the voices of George Bush, Barack Obama, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, etc. etc. etc.
The damned shame of it is that, for a while anyway, Killing Them Softly has the makings of a uniquely down-and-dirty spin on familiar underworld material. Yes, the off-the-cuff conversations might have you expecting the latest in a 20-year lineage of post-Tarantino chatty/witty thugs, particularly in the pre-heist banter between Frankie and his accomplice/prison buddy Russell (Ben Mendelsohn) about prison sex, among other things. McNairy's a terrifically effective weasel, though, and the actual card-room robbery is a study in minimalist tension built entirely into reasonable behavior.
It's even clear that Dominik had his story pointed in a direction that would have made a compelling thematic idea all on its own — the role of distance, whether physical or emotional, in being able to live with doing something terrible. Several solid dialogue sequences are built around this notion: a pair of goons fretting over beating up Markie because they don't want to deal with pleading; Jackie bringing in a second killer (James Gandolfini) to deal with a target that Jackie knows personally; Frankie trying to avoid direct involvement in pointing Jackie towards Johnny. The film's title is used as an almost absurdist suggestion that there's a right way to destroy someone's life — one that results in no stress on the conscience of the destroyer.
But that's not good enough for Dominik, who churns out the background-noise references to the meltdown pretty much any time there's a moment of dead air, leading up to a climactic speech by Pitt that turns into something more pointed in its contemporary-relevance-message-delivering than anything that's been similarly criticized in Lincoln. The ham-handedness extends to Dominik's visual choices, including an extended bit from the heroin-addled Russell's point of view, and a slow-motion killing that — even if intended as a juxtaposition with a couple of messier, less balletic murder sequences still to come — cries look-at-me without justifying itself. And when it feels as though the filmmaker isn't completely in control of his material, the discursive bits, like a flashback to a failed attempt to burn a stolen car, wind up seeming completely pointless.
Killing Them Softly winds and pirouettes around a dozen different notions in a way that makes it clear that Dominik had something richly cynical at the core of his film. But he doesn't trust the audience to put the pieces together, leaving a frustrating tale that, just in case you missed it, is set in 2008 when everyone was greedy.
| Consumer confidence hits post-recession peak MarketWatch WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — Consumer confidence rose in November to its best reading in more than four years, according to data released Tuesday, as growing hopes for the jobs market buoys sentiment. The Conference Board said its consumer ... See all stories on this topic » | ||
| RV industry's recovery gains speed in 2012 Businessweek (AP) — The RV industry's recovery from the Great Recession has picked up speed. Recreational Vehicle makers are churning out higher numbers of travel trailers bound for dealers' lots and, ultimately, campgrounds. Overall shipments from manufacturers ... See all stories on this topic » | ||
| OECD fears another world recession as UAE remains rare bright spot [National ... Equities.com REUTERS / Sergio Perez. Sean Cronin. The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development yesterday cut global growth forecasts and warned that the world could plunge back intorecession without decisive action in the United States and Europe. See all stories on this topic » | ||
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| Will Housing Drag Economy Back Into Recession? Fox Business There is new evidence that the housing market is on the -- the Case Shiller Index showing home prices rising 3% in September from the year before but even with a string of upbeat stopped -- upbeat news -- for sale next guest is concerned about what's ... See all stories on this topic » | ||
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| UPDATE 2-Portugal parliament approves austerity budget Reuters LISBON Nov 27 (Reuters) - Portugal's parliament gave final approval on Tuesday to a 2013 budget which promises a third year of recession and the biggest tax hikes in modern history to ensure international bailout terms are met. Lawmakers from the ... See all stories on this topic » | ||
| Is The Decline In Core Capital Expenditures Growth A Worrisome Recession ... Business Insider This morning the Census Bureau released the October Durable Goods report for data through October. The CAPEX referenced by Rosenberg is the Manufacturers' New Orders: Nondefense Capital Goods Excluding Aircraft data series, which is conveniently ... See all stories on this topic » | ||
| Connecticut seen rebounding slowly from recession San Francisco Chronicle HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — The slow pace of Connecticut's recovery from the recession is taking a toll on state revenues, leading to expected deep spending cuts next fiscal year, according to Gov. Dannel P. Malloy's budget director. Ben Barnes, secretary ... See all stories on this topic » |
Longtime Castro Valley veterinarian dies in plane crash
| Small plane crashes in eastern Iowa, 1 dead Seattle Post Intelligencer CLUTIER, Iowa (AP) — The pleasure flight two friends took Wednesday morning ended tragically when the small plane crashed into an eastern Iowa field and caught fire, killing one person and injuring the other, authorities said. The single-engine plane ... See all stories on this topic » | |
| Feds probe airplane crash Albany Democrat Herald (blog) The plane crash that killed Jeff “Tebo” Kropf of Halsey left his family staggering with grief and shock, too overcome to have a memorial plan yet, brother-in-law Alvie Shrock said Tuesday. Federal authorities are investigating a Monday plane crash that ... See all stories on this topic » | |
| Texas plane crash kills Broken Arrow man Tulsa World Steeper reportedly was killed when the plane crashed and exploded on impact during a thunderstorm west of Wells, Texas, the Lufkin News reported. Air traffic controllers lost radar and radio contact with the plane as it was maneuvering to avoid the bad ... See all stories on this topic » | |
| All 29 onboard survive Indian Ocean plane crash USA TODAY 1:38PM EST November 28. 2012 - All 29 people on board a passenger plane survived a crash into the Indian Ocean shortly after it took off from the Comoros Islands Tuesday night. The plane, an Embraer-E120ER Brasilia turboprop, was performing a charter ... See all stories on this topic » | |
| Plane crash near Yuma, one person dead KSWT-TV BARRY M GOLDWATER BOMBING RANGE, AZ- The Yuma County Sheriffs Office is reporting a deadly plane crash in the Barry M Goldwater Bombing Range west of the Mohawk Mountains. One person is confirmed dead. The plane crash happened ... See all stories on this topic » | |
| Longtime Castro Valley veterinarian dies in plane crash Inside Bay Area On Saturday, he was at the controls of that aircraft when it crashed on a hillside in Calaveras County. Hackler, 68, who lived in Danville, was killed. News of the longtime Castro Valley veterinarian's death prompted scores of online comments, as ... See all stories on this topic » | |
| Local pilot dies in plane crash Lebanon Express Jeff “Tebo” Kropf, 45, of Halsey, and Timothy Dean Carter, 46, of Portland were killed in a plane crash on Highway 226 and Brewster Road on Nov. 26. Kropf is known to many in Lebanon and throughout the mid-valley for the Young Eagles flights he gave ... See all stories on this topic » | |
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Captain Jeff “Tebo” Kropf, 45, of Halsey, and Timothy Dean Carter, 46, of Portland were killed in a Vans RV-6 Single Engine Airplane, crash on Highway 226 and Brewster Road on Nov. 26.
Kropf is known to many in Lebanon and throughout the mid-valley for the
Young Eagles flights he gave out of LebanAir Aviation.
“I know he was a good, safe Pilot,” said Ernie Kropf of his brother.
“One of his favorite things to do was give free Young Eagles flights.”
Jeff Kropf had set a goal to give 200 Young Eagle flights this year.
Larry Knox of LebanAir Aviation said Kropf was just three short of that
goal before the crash.
Kropf was the passenger, Knox said, in the plane that went down at about
3:40 p.m.
Dawn McUne witnessed the plane going down while travelling north on
Brewster Road to take her children to 4-H.
“It made a spiral down and crashed into the field,” McUne said.
She said she and other drivers had pulled over after seeing the accident.
“One gentleman quickly jumped over the fence (to help),” McUne said.
She called her husband Russ McUne first because the plane went down close
to their home, then called 911.
“Our house is just right there and I knew he would get there a lot quicker,”
Dawn McUne said.
Russ McUne, an emergency room doctor at Samaritan Albany General Hospital,
was at home working in the barn, he said.
He had his headphones on and didn’t hear the crash, he said.
“I drove up there pretty fast,” Russ McUne said. “There were a couple of
people already out there. I asked if there was anyone in there. It was clear
there were fatalities.”
McUne identified himself as a physician to authorities when they arrived,
and stayed on scene for about an hour.
“It was definitely clear it was
instant, (they were) killed on impact,” Russ McUne said.
“It was very sad,” he added. “Especially to find out who they were. The
guy who does all these flights with children, I’m glad there wasn’t a kid
on board.”
Knox said LebanAir Aviation proudly footed the bill for the Young Eagle
flights.
“We got him through his commercial license earlier in the year,” Knox said.
“We wanted him to be there because he could teach young people what aviation
was all about and how wonderful it is.”
Kropf’s death is a loss to those who knew him and to the aviation community,
Knox said.
“His love of life on this earth was flying,” Knox said. “He did it with
wonderful finesse. His whole world was teaching youngsters.”
Knox said Kropf was like a son to him.
“There’s never been a young man that’s ever brought the light into life with more class,” he said.
The accident
Carter was the owner the Vans RV-6 single engine airplane, Linn County
Undersheriff Bruce Riley said. He had a private pilot license.
Riley said it has not been confirmed Carter was piloting the plane.
“Carter landed the plane when he arrived at the Lebanon airport,” Riley said. “We do not know for sure who was piloting the plane when it crashed.”
The plane has dual controls, so either person could have been piloting the plane, Riley said.
It may take months for the National Transportation Safety Board to come up with a probable cause of the accident, said Allen Kenitzer, communications manager for the Federal Aviation Administration.
While the FAA and NTSB are investigating this accident, the NTSB is the lead investigative agency, Kenitzer said.
Kenitzer said private small planes generally do not have black boxes on them.
Pilots union angry over First Air job cuts
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| Lehigh Valley's airport cuts workers, services Allentown Morning Call Bowing to debt and dwindling passengers, Lehigh Valley International Airport officials acted Tuesday to eliminate a dozen jobs and cut services such as valet parking and the airport parking shuttle. The $19.6 million 2013 budget will mean ... See all stories on this topic » |
Open-source cloud Eucalyptus gets visual with 'toughened' version 3.2
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| Open-source cloud Eucalyptus gets visual with 'toughened' version 3.2 ZDNet Open-source cloud Eucalyptus gets visual with 'toughened' version 3.2. Summary: Eucalyptus Systems' new Eucalyptus 3.2 cloud computing software includes new management and storage capabilities, and a new graphical user interface. Sam Shead ... See all stories on this topic » | ||
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| Researchers identify ways to exploit 'cloud browsers' for large-scale ... Phys.Org "Think of a cloud browser as being just like the browser on your desktop computer, but working entirely in the cloud and providing only the resulting image to your screen," says Dr. William Enck, an assistant professor of computer science at NC State ... See all stories on this topic » | ||
| Will Cloud Computing Become a Regulated Industry? Backup Technology The use of cloud services is becoming more and more common in businesses of all types and sizes. However, there are still many businesses who are reluctant to commit to cloud computing because of concerns, primarily over reliability and security. See all stories on this topic » | ||
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| Raining On The Cloud Computing Stocks Forex Pros Tuesday afternoon, many of the leading cloud computing stocks traded lower on the session. One of the leading cloud computing stocks is Salesforce.com Inc (CRM). CRM stock traded lower by $3.22 to $157.00 a share. This 2.0 percent decline in CRM stock ... See all stories on this topic » | ||
| Develop now for the Dragon's Den SMB cloud - CWDN ComputerWeekly.com (blog) Logically we saw the initial birth of the cloud computing model of service-based IT delivery focus on the enterprise big business space. Big advances in operational flexibility with application and data storage changeability and agility, plus of course ... See all stories on this topic » | ||
| Review: Rackspace Cloud keeps IaaS simple InfoWorld Rackspace was one of the first players in the cloud arena. The company recognized early that enterprises wanted faster, simpler ways to spin up and spin down servers. If the bosses are going to be fickle and impulsive, there will always be a market for ... See all stories on this topic » | ||
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Manitoba plane crash cause not clear, say investigators
| Wells plane crash eye witness: 'There was nothing left; it's just burnt' KTRE They were first on the scene at the plane crash near Wells Monday night that resulted in the death of an Oklahoma man and still can't believe what they saw. Sarah Benton was one of the first people on the scene. "We went through the fence with a cell ... See all stories on this topic » | ||
| Linn County plane crash kills men from Halsey, Portland Statesman Journal (blog) Linn County Undersheriff Bruce Riley reports deputies have learned that two people died as a result of a plane crash that occurred earlier today (refer to the original press release below). The victims have been identified as Timothy Dean Carter, 46 ... See all stories on this topic » | ||
| Feds investigate Calaveras plane crash Union Democrat The Federal Aviation Administration visited San Andreas on Monday to examine the wreckage from Friday's plane crash that killed the 68-year-old pilot. The FAA and National Transportation Safety Board are in the preliminary stages of their investigation ... See all stories on this topic » | ||
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| Memorial service held for Antioch student and father killed in plane crash Chicago Tribune Todd Parfitt, who just turned 50, and his daughter, Nicole Parfitt, 14, were killed when their plane crashed as it approached a small airport just north of the Wisconsin-Illinois border, according to police and relatives. (handout, Family photo). More ... See all stories on this topic » | ||
| Truck driver involved in plane crash told investigator he wasn't sure what ... Lewiston Sun Journal OWLS HEAD, Maine — The driver of a pickup truck that collided with an airplane shortly before itcrashed on Nov. 16 at the Knox County Regional Airport, killing three young men, told police that the incident occurred so fast that he is not sure what ... See all stories on this topic » | ||
| UMaine plans service for 3 killed in plane crash Boston.com Your article has been sent. ORONO, Maine (AP) — A memorial service for the three University of Maine fraternity brothers killed in a plane crash in Owls Head this month is planned for the school's Orono campus. The service scheduled for Tuesday night ... See all stories on this topic » | ||
| Passengers survive after plane ditches in Indian Ocean CNN International (CNN) -- A passenger plane crashed into the Indian Ocean shortly after takeoff Tuesday from an airport in Moroni, Comoros Islands, a government official said. All 29 people on board the Inter-Iles Air flight survived the crash and were helped back to ... See all stories on this topic » | ||
| Sunday plane crash rattles CSUN students Daily Sundial A day after a single-engine Cessna plane crashed into CSUN's East Field near Zelzah Avenue and Plummer Street, students and local emergency personnel continued to react to the scene. “I didn't think it was real, it was a shock,'” said Erick Rodriguez, ... See all stories on this topic » | ||
| More than 500 at UMaine mourn fraternity brothers killed in plane crash Bangor Daily News Hundreds of students and faculty gathered for a memorial service for the three fraternity brothers who were killed in a plane crash on Nov. 16, 2012. The three Lambda Chi Alpha members were David Cheney, Marcelo Rugini and William "BJ" Hannigan. See all stories on this topic » |
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