Michael's profileMy View From Las VegasPhotosBlogListsMore  |  Tools Help |
|
March 25 The weird animatronic charms of Disney’s Hollywood Studios.
The Mecca of the MouseBy Seth Stevenson
|
|
Courtesy of the Wood family
Army Sgt. Ryan M. Wood, 22, of Oklahoma. More Photos >
Courtesy of the Agami family
Pfc. Daniel J. Agami, left, with friends.
Courtesy of the Hill family
Left to right: Pfc. Ryan J. Hill, Pfc. Daniel Agami, Specialist Ruben Chavez and Specialist Stephen Breen in Baghdad in October 2006.
Courtesy of the Campos family
Staff Sgt. Juan Campos
Courtesy of the Gomez family
Specialist Daniel E. Gomez with his mother.
Courtesy of the King family
Army Specialist Jerry Ryen King, of Browersville, Ga. March 25, 2008
Six of the Fallen, in Words They Sent HomeBy LIZETTE ALVAREZ and ANDREW W. LEHREN
By the time Specialist Jerry Ryen King decided to write about his experiences in Iraq, the teen-age paratrooper had more to share than most other soldiers. In two operations to clear the outskirts of the village of Turki in the deadly Diyala Province, Specialist King and the rest of the Fifth Squadron faced days of firefights, grenade attacks and land mines. Well-trained insurgents had burrowed deep into muddy canals, a throwback to the trenches of World War I. As the fighting wore on, B-1 bombers and F-16s were called in to drop a series of powerful bombs. Once the area was clear of insurgents, the squadron, part of the 82nd Airborne Division, uncovered hidden caches with thousands of weapons. Two months later, Specialist King, a handsome former honors student and double-sport athlete from Georgia, sat down at his computer. In informal but powerful prose, he began a journal. After 232 long, desolate, morose, but somewhat days of tranquility into deployment, I’ve decided that I should start writing some of the things I experienced here in Iraq. I have to say that the events that I have encountered here have changed my outlook on life... The most recent mission started out as a 24-36 hour air-assault sniper mission in a known al-Qaida stronghold just north of Baghdad. We landed a few hours before daybreak and as soon as I got off the helicopter my night vision broke, I was surrounded by the sound of artillery rounds, people screaming in Arabic, automatic weapons, and the terrain didn’t look anything like what we were briefed. I knew it was going to be a bad day and a half. Jerry Ryen King, journal entry, March 7, 2007 A month later, Specialist King was sitting inside his combat outpost, an abandoned school in Sadah, when suicide bombers exploded two dump trucks just outside the building. The school collapsed, killing Specialist King on April 23, 2007, along with eight other soldiers, and making the blast one of the most lethal for Americans fighting in Iraq. In that instant, Specialist King became one of 4,000 service members and Defense Department civilians to die in the Iraq war — a milestone that was reached late Sunday, five years since the war began in March 2003. The last four members of that group, like the majority of the most recent 1,000 to die, were killed by an improvised explosive device. They died at 10 p.m. Sunday on a patrol in Baghdad, military officials said; their names have not yet been released. The next day we cleared an area that made me feel as if I were in Vietnam. Honestly, it was one of the scariest times of my life. At one point I was in water up to my waist and heard an AK fire in my direction. But all in all the day was going pretty good, no one was hurt, I got to shoot a few rounds, toss a grenade, and we were walking to where the helicopter was supposed to pick us up. Jerry Ryen King, journal entry, March 7, 2007 The year 2007 would prove to be especially hard on American service members; more of them died last year than in any other since the war began. Many of those deaths came in the midst of the 30,000-troop buildup known as "the surge," the linchpin of President Bush’s strategy to tamp down widespread violence between Islamic Sunnis and Shiites, much of it in the country’s capital, Baghdad. In April, May and June alone, 331 American service members died, making it the deadliest three-month period since the war began. But by fall, the strategy, bolstered by new alliances with Sunni tribal chiefs and a decision by the Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr to order his militia to stop fighting, appeared to be paying off as the country entered a period of relative calm. Military casualties and Iraqi civilian deaths fell, and the October-December period produced the fewest casualties of any three months of the war. The past month, though, has seen an uptick in killings and explosions, particularly suicide bombings. Much of the violence has traveled north to Mosul, where the group calling itself Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia remains strong. Everything changed in a matter of 15 minutes... About the time I was opening my MRE (meal ready to eat) I heard an explosion. Everyone started running towards the sound of the explosion. Apparently a suicide bomber had blown himself up killing four soldiers from my squadron and injuring another. Our 36 hour mission turned into another air- assault into a totally different city, the clearing of it, and 5 more days. We did find over 100 RPG’s, IED making materials, insurgents implacing IED’s, artillery rounds, a sniper rifle, and sort of like a terrorist training book and cd’s. Jerry Ryen King, journal entry, March 7, 2007 Unlike the soldiers of some previous wars, who were only occasionally able to send letters back home to loved ones, many of those who died left behind an extraordinary electronic testimony describing in detail the labor, the fears and the banality of serving in Iraq. In excerpts published here from journals, blogs and e-mail messages, six soldiers who died in the most recent group of 1,000 mostly skim the alarming particulars of combat, a kindness shown their relatives and close friends. Instead, they plunge readily into the mundane, but no less important rhythms of home. They fire off comments about holiday celebrations, impending weddings, credit card bills, school antics and the creeping anxiety of family members who are coping with one deployment too many. At other moments, the service members describe the humor of daily life down range, as they call it. Hurriedly, with little time to worry about spelling or grammar, they riff on the chaos around them and reveal moments of fear. As casualties climb and the violence intensifies, so does their urge to share their grief and foreboding.
A Last Goodbye
Hey beautiful well we were on blackout again, we lost yet some more soldiers. I cant wait to get out of this place and return to you where i belong. I dont know how much more of this place i can take. i try to be hard and brave for my guys but i dont know how long i can keep that up you know. its like everytime we go out, any little bump or sounds freaks me out. maybe im jus stressin is all. hopefully ill get over it.... you know, you never think that anything is or can happen to you, at first you feel invincible, but then little by little things start to wear on you... well im sure well be able to save a couple of bucks if you stay with your mom....and at the same time you can help her with some of the bills for the time being. it doesnt bother me. as long as you guys are content is all that matters. I love and miss you guys like crazy. I know i miss both of you too. at times id like to even just spend 1 minute out of this nightmare just to hold and kiss you guys to make it seem a little bit easier. im sure he will like whatever you get him for xmas, and i know that as he gets older he’ll understand how things work. well things here always seem to be......uhm whats the word.....interesting i guess you can say. you never know whats gonna happen and thats the worst part. do me a favor though, when you go to my sisters or moms or wherever you see my family let them know that i love them very much..ok? well i better get going, i have a lot of stuff to do. but hopefully ill get to hear from you pretty soon.*muah* and hugs. tell mijo im proud of him too! love always, When Staff Sgt. Juan Campos, 27, flew from Baghdad to Texas for two weeks last year, there was more on his mind than rest and relaxation. He visited his father’s grave, which he had never seen. He spent time with his grandparents and touched base with the rest of his rambling, extended family. The day he was scheduled to return to war, Sergeant Campos and his wife went out dancing and drinking all evening with friends. Calm and reserved by nature, Sergeant Campos could out-salsa and out-hip-hop most anyone on the dance floor. At the airport, his wife, Jamie Campos, who had grown used to the upheaval of deployment, surprised herself. "I cried and I have never ever cried before," said Mrs. Campos, 26, who has a 9-year-old son, Andre. "It was just really, really weird. He knew, and I kind of knew. It felt different." "We both felt that it was the last goodbye," she said. Tuesday, Oct. 3, 2006 I lost a good friend of mine just two days ago to an enemy sniper. The worst feeling in the world is having lost one of your own and not being able to fight back. The more I go on patrol, the more alert I tend to be, but regardless of the situation here in Iraq is that we are never safe. No matter the countermeasures we take to prevent any attacks. They seem to seep through the cracks. Every day a soldier is lost or wounded by enemy attacks. I for one would like to make it home to my family one day. Pray for us and keep us in your thoughts...for an infantryman’s life is never safe. Juan Campos, Myspace blog Sergeant Campos, a member of the First Battalion, 26th Infantry, Charlie Company out of Germany, was one of thousands of infantrymen assigned to stabilize Baghdad and the surrounding areas last year during the troop buildup. Troops were sent deep into insurgent neighborhoods, where they lived in small outposts, patrolled on foot, cleared houses, mingled with Iraqis and rebuilt the infrastructure. The extra 30,000 service members — 160,000 in all — were deployed to Iraq to help quell the runaway violence that threatened large-scale civil war. Most soldiers spent 15 months in Iraq, a length of time that military commanders have said is unsustainable. Many had fought in the war at least once. A few had been in Iraq multiple times. My only goals are to make it out of this place alive and return you guys and make you as happy as I can. Juan Campos, e-mail message to his wife, Dec. 15, 2006. But to Sergeant Campos and the rest of Charlie Company in Adhamiya, a north Baghdad stronghold for Sunni insurgents, the buildup seemed oddly invisible. The men patrolled almost every day, sometimes 16 to 18 hours a day for months, often in 120-degree weather. Exhaustion was too kind a word for their fatigue. More than 150 soldiers lived in a two-story house with portable toilets, no air-conditioning and temperamental showers. Sleep came only a few hours at a time. The fighting was vicious. Adhamiya was such a magnet for sectarian bloodletting that the military built a wall around it to contain the violence. "They walled us in and left us there," Staff Sgt. Robin Johnson, 28, said of the 110 men in Charlie Company. "We were a family. I would die for these guys before I die for my own blood brother." On patrol, sniper fire rang out so routinely that soldiers in Sergeant Campos’s platoon seldom stood still for more than four seconds. They scoured rooftops for Iraqi children who lobbed grenades at American soldiers for a handful of cash. Roadside bombs burst from inside drainage pipes, impossible to detect from the street. The bombs grew larger by the month. Last year, these powerful improvised explosive devices, known as I.E.D.s were responsible for a majority of American fatalities, a new milestone. The bombs also killed multiple soldiers more often than in the past, a testament to their potency. "It was the most horrible thing you could possibly imagine," Sergeant Johnson said. "As soon as you left the gate, you could die at any second. If you went out for a day and you weren’t attacked, it was confusing." Charlie Company soldiers found a steady stream of Iraqis killed by insurgents for money or revenge. Some had their faces wiped clean by acid. Others were missing their heads or limbs.
’It Could Have Been Me’
to tell the story of iraq is a hard one. Ryan Wood, Myspace blog. Sgt. Ryan M. Wood, 22, a gifted artist, prolific writer and a sly romantic from Oklahoma, was also one of the bluntest soldiers inside Charlie Company. it is fighting extreme boredom with the lingering thought in the forefront of your mind that any minute on this patrol could be my last endeavour, only highlighted by times of such extreme terror and an adrenaline rush that no drug can touch. what [expletive] circumstances thinking "that should’ve been me" or "it could’ve been me". wondering it that pile of trash will suddenly explode killing you or worse one of your beloved comrads..only backed by the past thoughts and experiences of really losing friends of yours and not feeling completely hopeless that it was all for nothing because all in all, you know the final outcome of this war. it is walking on that thin line between sanity and insanity. that feeling of total abandonment by a government and a country you used to love because politics are fighting this war......and its a losing battle....and we’re the ones ultimently paying the price. Ryan Wood, Myspace blog, Adhamiya For the soldiers in Iraq, reconciling Adhamiya with America was not always easy. One place was buried in garbage and gore and hopelessness. The other seemed unmoored from the war, fixated on the minutia of daily life and the hiccups of the famous. The media was content to indulge. WHAT THE HELL AMERICA?? "What the hell happened?" any intelligent American might ask themselves throughout their day. While the ignorant, dragging themselves to thier closed off cubicle, contemplate the simple things in life such as "fast food tonight?" or "I wonder what motivated Brittany Spears to shave her unsightly, mishaped domepiece?" To the simpleton, this news might appear "devastating." I assume not everyone thinks this way, but from my little corner of the earth, Iraq, a spot in the world a majority of Americans could’nt point out on the map, it certainly appears so. This little piece of truly, heart-breaking news captured headlines and apparently American imaginations as FOX news did a two hour, truly enlightening piece of breaking news history. American veiwers watched intently, and impatiently as the pretty colors flashed and the media exposed the inner workings of Brittany’s obviously, deep character. I was amazed, truly dumbfounded wondering how we as Americans have sank so low. To all Americans I have but one phrase that helps me throughout my day of constant dangers and ever present death around the corner, "WHO THE [expletive] CARES!" Wow America, we have truly become a nation of self-absorbed retards. ... This world has serious problems and it’s time for America to start addressing them. Ryan Wood, Myspace blog, May 26, 2007 The somberness of the job was hard to shake off. But, day to day, there was no more reliable antidote than Pfc. Daniel J. Agami, a South Floridian with biceps the size of cantaloupes, and Pfc. Ryan J. Hill, a self-described hellion who loved his "momma" and hailed from what he called the "felony flats" of Oregon. Funny men in the best sense of the word, the two provided a valuable and essential commodity in a war zone. Their mother jokes — the kind that begin, "your mother is so..." — were legendary, culminating in a Myspace joke-off. It ended abruptly after an enough-is-enough phone call from Private Hill’s mother, who ranked No. 1 on his list of heroes in Myspace. Private Agami proclaimed victory. About a month later...I went to my room and my mattress was missing and all my close were being worn by other people. I couldn’t figure it out so I knew right off the bat to go to Hill. I saw him walking down the hall wearing five of my winter jackets. He sold half my wardrobe right off his back to people in our company and my mattress was in someone else’s room. So then I had go to around and buy all my stuff back. (Now I think he won). Daniel J. Agami, Charlie Company. Eulogy sent via e-mail message to his mother, Jan. 29, 2007 To keep their spirits up, combat soldiers learned to appreciate the incongruities of war in Iraq. Jokes scrawled inside a Port-o-Potty quickly made the rounds. Situational humor, from goofy to macabre, proved plentiful. A really girly guy who was a cheerleader in high school, got knocked down and nearly hurt by the wind of the helicopter. Listening to Dickson recite what was in every single MRE was pretty funny. A cow charged and nearly trampled one of my friends when we were raiding a compound. And lastly, I thought that it was pretty comical that I shot at a guy a long ways out but missed and later after taking his house and using it as a patrol base he offered me Chai and rice. Jerry Ryen King, Diyala Province Even a trip to the dentist, with its fringe benefits, is cause for amusement in a war zone. Last Sat. I had two of my wisdom teeth pulled. After taking double the prescribe percocot and morphine pills that the doctor gave me for the pain I decided to catch a flight back to my FOB (forward operation base). It was the coolest Blackhawk ride I’ve had, I was absolutely ripped and I talked the pilots into leaving the doors open. We had four more guys die a couple days ago. They hit an IED, it killed everyone in the humvee.. It’s starting to get a little scary. We made it our first six months with just two deaths and that was plenty. But now just in the past two and a half weeks we’ve had nine more guys get killed, and over 50 wounded. I’m just hoping that I can make it the 75 more days or so that we have left of combat operations before we start packing. Jerry Ryen King, journal entry, April 11, 2007 Among the guys in Charlie Company, Private Agami, 25, was one of the boldest and most resilient. He was the kind of guy who joined an endurance ski contest on a whim. He came in fourth. He had never skied in his life. Private Agami had time for everyone, and everyone had time for him. Affectionately called GI Jew, he held his religion up to the light. He used it to build tolerance among the troops and shatter stereotypes; few in his unit had ever met a Jew. He flew the Israeli flag over his cot in Adhamiya. He painted the words Hebrew Hammer onto his rifle. He even managed to keep kosher, a feat that required a steady diet of protein shakes and cereal. Commander Mom, I cant wait to come home and when I do, dont worry ill have allot to say to the congregation. Dont worry about my mental stage either, we all receive counseling and help from doctors when something like this happens. I am a strong individual physically and mentally and if there is one thing the army teaches you, it is how to deal with death. Everyday that passes it gets easier and easier. I miss you guys very much and I love you! Daniel Agami, e-mail message to his mother, Oct. 28, 2006 It did not get easier. I try not to cry. I have never cried this much my entire life. two great men got taken from us way too soon. i wonder why it was them in not me. I sit here right now wondering why did they go to the gates of heaven n not me. I try everynight count my blessing that I made it another day but why are we in this hell over here? why? i cant stop askin why? Ryan Hill, Myspace blog, Nov. 1, 2006 Private Hill was riding in a Humvee on Jan. 20, 2007 when an I.E.D. buried in the middle of the road detonated under his seat, killing him instantly. Sergeant Campos was riding in a Humvee on May 14, 2007, two weeks after returning from Texas, when it hit an I.E.D. The bomb lifted the Humvee five feet off the ground and engulfed it in flames. "That’s when we just left hope at the door," Sergeant. Johnson said. Severely burned over 80 percent of his body, Sergeant Campos lived two weeks. He died June 1. Another soldier, Pfc. Nicholas S. Hartge, 20, of Indiana, died in the same attack. Private Agami was driving a Bradley fighting vehicle on June 21, 2007 when it hit an I.E.D. The explosion flipped the 30-ton vehicle, which also carried Sergeant Wood. Both men were killed, along with three other soldiers and an Iraqi interpreter. "Obviously, it came to a point, you didn’t care anymore if it got better," said Staff Sgt. Jeremy S. Rausch, 31, one of Sergeant Campos’s best friends in Charlie Company. "You didn’t care about the people because they didn’t care about themselves. We had already lost enough people that we just thought, you know, ’why?’ " During their time in Adhamiya, the soldiers of Charlie Company caught more than two dozen high-value targets, found nearly 50 weapons caches, detained innumerable insurgents and won countless combat awards. They lost 14 men. Their mission was hailed a success.
Just in Case
Texan to the core, enamored of the military, Specialist Daniel E. Gomez, 21, an Army combat medic in the division’s Alpha Company, relied on his books, his iPod and an Xbox to distract him from the swirl. strange but this place where we are at is unreal almost. I hope I come back mentally in shape. lol. Daniel Gomez, Myspace blog, Sept. 9, 2006 He took pride in being the guy who tended to wounded soldiers under fire, patching them up to help them survive. He did not hesitate to do the same for Iraqis. this iraqi national who I have to say was extremely lucky that he escaped with only sharpnel wounds (metal fragments that fly away from a bomb) when he was standin near a car bomb that was aimed at Iraqi police patrol. Turns out it blow up just when we were passin by soo we had to stop and help. He really was not that lucky though...He had sharpnel to the ankle (it was also broken), to the calf and in the stomach. And he lost his 2 sons in the blast. this [expletive] happens everyday here. [Expletive] insurgents. Anyhow there are more pictures. Daniel Gomez, e-mail message to friends and family, Sept. 15, 2006 As the violence intensified, Specialist Gomez set aside thoughts of a free Iraq or a safer America and, like generations of soldiers before him, simply started fighting for the soldier next to him. A few days ago I realized why I am here in Baghdad dealing with all the gunfire, the rocket attacks, the IEDs, the car bombs, the death. I have only been here going on a month and a half. Already I have seen what war really is... but officially its called "full spectrum operations." No I don’t down Bush, he is my CinC, and I think he is doing an good job with what Clinton left him. I don’t debate why we are involved in Iraq. I just know why I am here. It is not for the smiling Iraqi kids, or the even the feeling of wearing the uniform ( it feels damn good though :) . I am here for the soldier on patrol with me. But why are you there in the states. Why are you having that nice dinner, watching TV, going out on dates... Daniel Gomez, e-mail to friends and family. Sept. 27, 2006 And then Specialist Gomez fell in love. An e-mail flirtation with Katy Broom, his sister’s close friend, gradually led to a cyber exchange of guarded promises about the future. Headed home for a rest break in May, the tentativeness lifted and they began to rely on each other to get through the day. The two joked about "the best sex we never had." ...this R&R there is someone new in my life. Exactly what she is too me, and what I am to her is uncertain, but its not really important at the moment. Just the thought that I could spent a second of my life with her, before I have to come back here makes everything worth it. Daniel Gomez, Myspace blog, May 9, 2007 Rest and relaxation in Georgia went better than expected. He fell in love with the love of his life all over again, this time in person. The couple shared one kiss during his leave. "He was everything I expected and more," said Ms. Broom, 20, who spent one week and two days with him. "It was kind of surreal when we met. It’s almost like a perfect love and war story." Not many soldiers leave behind a just-in-case letter. Specialist Gomez did. He handed Ms. Broom an envelope at the airport with the words, "Don’t read unless something happens to me." On July 18, 2007, two months after his leave, Specialist Gomez died in Adhamiya when the Bradley fighting vehicle he was in struck a roadside bomb. The explosion and flames also killed three other soldiers. Ms. Broom waited three days after she got word to open the letter. She sat alone in the couple’s favorite spot, her apartment balcony. "I was very thankful that he wrote it," she said of the letter. "I have opened and closed it so many times, I’m surprised it hasn’t fallen apart." R+R 2007 Hey baby. If you’re reading this, then something has happen to me and I am sorry. I promised you I would come back to you, but I guess it was a promise I could not keep. You know I never believe in writing "death letters." I knew if I left one for my folks it would scare them. Then I met you. We were supposed to meet, darling. I needed someone to make me smile, someone that was an old romantic like I was. I was going through a very rough time in Iraq and I was startin to doubt my mental state. Then one day after a patrol, I go to my facebook and there you were... I can’t stop crying while I writing this letter, but I have to talk to you one last time, because maybe the last time I heard your voice I did not know it would be the last time I heard your voice.... I Love You. Go be happy, go raise a family. Teach your kids right from wrong, and have faith, darling. I think I knew I loved you even before I met. I love you, Katy. * Kiss * Goodbye
|
Behind the Deal, the Hand of the Fed
|
|
Brendan Smialowski/Getty Images
The Federal Reserve, and its chairman, Ben S. Bernanke, approved JPMorgan’s $10-a-share offer to acquire Bear Stearns March 25, 2008
Dealbook
Behind the Deal, the Hand of the FedAdam Smith’s invisible hand has a puppeteer: the Federal Reserve. In case there is any confusion about who was pulling the strings behind the scenes of JPMorgan Chase’s acquisition of Bear Stearns, the curtain was lifted Monday. By raising its bid — with the grudging approval of the Fed — to $10 a share, from $2, JPMorgan exposed what had long been whispered about but no one dared to say aloud: the Fed is officially in the deal-making business. There’s been a lot of debate about the price that JPMorgan originally offered for Bear — a price that even Jamie Dimon, JPMorgan’s chief executive, suggested on Monday was unfairly low. That, of course, was after he told Bear employees only days earlier, "I feel terrible sometimes when people think we took advantage." So where did the guidance for that price come from? You guessed it. Ben S. Bernanke, the Fed chairman, and his teammate, Henry M. Paulson Jr., Treasury secretary, were calling the audibles in the boardroom. Timothy F. Geithner, the president of the Federal Reserve of New York, also was calling some last-minute plays. Christopher Whalen, managing director of Institutional Risk Analytics, put it bluntly: "Even at $10 per share, the JPM buyout stinks to high heaven because of the conflicted role played by the Fed." The Fed continues to maintain that it did not set the original $2-a-share price that JPMorgan was to pay for Bear. Fed officials said they didn’t care what the price was; that’s not their business, they said. At the same time, the Fed felt that Bear was headed toward imminent bankruptcy, in which shareholders would be wiped out. Any bailout needed to be for the overall system, and not for Bear shareholders — the "moral hazard" issue writ large. One official close to the Fed said that Bear executives themselves did not seem to realize that they had no choice other than a bankruptcy filing. Part of the shock over the price, he said, "was that so many people hadn’t figured out the reality." And the Fed is in the business of saving the financial system from evil, not saving fat cats from having to sell their wine collections, as one Bear executive apparently did last week. Perhaps the Fed never set the exact price, but the notion that it didn’t press JPMorgan to pay as close to zero as possible doesn’t square with reality. One clue came after the $2-a-share deal was announced, when Mr. Paulson told Matt Lauer of "The Today Show" on NBC: "Let me say that the Bear Stearns situation has been very painful for the Bear Stearns shareholders" — as if to suggest that Bear’s shareholders still were losing their shirts and that was a good thing. The bailout was for the American people. Mr. Paulson was desperate to demonstrate to Main Street that he wouldn’t rescue Wall Street on the government’s dime, even though that’s exactly what he did, by providing a $30 billion backstop to the deal. (And he may have been right to do so.) But the night that Bear signed the original bid, the Fed opened what’s known as the discount window to companies like Goldman Sachs and Lehman Brothers — oh, yes, and to Bear, too. Except that the Fed didn’t tell Bear that it planned to open the window when it was signing its deal with JPMorgan. Had Bear known it might have access to the discount window — a crucial source of liquidity — it might have been able to hold out for a couple more days or at least had enough leverage to seek a higher bid. But the Fed clearly preferred the original bid. Inside Bear, jaws dropped at what many considered a broad deception by the Fed. Alan D. Schwartz, Bear’s chief executive, was furious, as was the board and its team of advisers. Several JPMorgan executives even offered their apologies about the way the deal "went down." Of course, shareholders were even more irate, describing the deal in unprintable terms. In effect, they revolted against the terms of the deal — and both JPMorgan and the Fed wound up having to mollify them by raising the price. Had the deal died, Bear would once again be risking bankruptcy, and the market would once again be risking turmoil. (Bear shareholders seem to think they still might have another chance, though, bidding its shares on Monday up to $11.26 a share.) Still, the Fed almost derailed the $10-a-share agreement. Just as JPMorgan and Bear were about to consummate the deal on Sunday night, the Fed started raising questions about the price, people involved in the discussions said. The deal makers were forced to delay announcing the deal until Monday morning while the Fed hashed through "the optics" of the deal, as one participant described it. The truth is, the Fed preferred the $2 price because of the obvious message it sent to the rest of the market, but in the end it went along with the new agreement, in part because it worried that failure of the deal might overwhelm the markets. And they got a giveback — JPMorgan is on the hook for the first $1 billion in losses. Even then, the Fed’s fingerprints were all over the new pact. In an action almost unprecedented in takeover history, JPMorgan bought 39.5 percent of Bear on the spot to ensure that it would have close to a majority of the votes to approve the deal. That agreement completely disregards New York Stock Exchange’s rules that prevent anyone from buying more than 20 percent of company without a shareholder vote. Other parts of the new agreement either stretch the rules or disregard years of precedent in Delaware, where both banks are incorporated. Of course, all this rule-bending was done with the tacit, if not outright, approval of the federal government. If that’s not deal-making, Fed style, what is? The latest news on mergers and acquisitions can be found at nytimes.com/dealbook.
|
Failure of Strap Is Suspected in Crane Collapse
A ragged nylon strap was hanging from the topmost of the crane’s three collars on Saturday. More Photos >
Failure of Strap Is Suspected in Crane Collapse
A prime suspect in Saturday’s East Side crane collapse — a spectacular disaster across two Manhattan blocks that has now claimed seven lives and is expected to cost untold millions — is a $50 piece of nylon webbing that investigators suspect may have broken while hoisting a six-ton piece of steel.
A photograph taken at the site shows the yellow nylon sling ragged at the end like a child’s broken shoelace, indicating, according to experts, the immense force that may have torn it apart.
The investigation into the accident continued on Monday as workers recovered three more bodies from the rubble of a four-story town house on East 50th Street that was demolished when a section of the toppling crane slammed into it. That brought the death toll from the collapse to seven, making it one of the deadliest construction accidents in New York City in recent memory.
Also on Monday, workers finished dismantling a long section of the base of the crane’s tower, which had been leaning against a 19-story apartment house on 51st Street opposite the condominium building where the 200-foot crane had been in operation.
And Patricia Lancaster, the buildings commissioner, said she would begin a sweep of new inspections on the approximately 250 cranes in operation at construction sites around the city.
Investigators believe the accident occurred as workers were trying to install a massive square steel collar around the crane’s tower, at the 18th floor of the construction site. They were using a series of manual winches that appeared to have been hung from nylon slings attached to a higher portion of the tower. The collar was to have been attached to the building by steel struts to give the tower added stability.
But the collar broke free and — along with the winches and slings — plummeted down the outside of the shaft, smashing into a second collar at the ninth floor and shearing it from the building before coming to rest on top of a third collar near the base. That destabilized the tower, and the weight of the crane’s cab pulled the tower down onto the buildings to the south, damaging several on 51st and 50th Streets and completely demolishing the town house where the bodies were recovered on Monday.
For investigators who arrived at the site after the accident, the ragged, broken slings immediately raised alarms, according to people involved in the recovery. Construction safety experts said the slings typically cost about $50 and, depending on their size, can lift moderate loads or loads of several tons. But they warned that if the slings are worn or damaged, their strength may be greatly reduced.
Photographs supplied by a person who visited the scene shortly after the accident show the south side of the crane tower’s base, with the three steel collars pancaked together. From the top collar, the one the laborers had been installing, hang two manual winches attached to two yellow nylon slings. The slings are ripped off and ragged at the ends.
"That’s what it looks like when you tear these things apart," said Bradley D. Closson, president of Craft Forensic Services in Bonita, Calif., which investigates accidents involving cranes and other types of hoists. After examining the photographs, he said it appeared that one of the slings had torn and the other had pulled apart, possibly after weight shifted onto it as the first gave way.
"One of them goes then the other one goes," Mr. Closson said. "Something has to be the weak link."
Paul S. Zorich, the chairman of the committee on crane and sling safety standards of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers and the owner of RZP International, a crane consulting company based in West Virginia, said that the photograph suggested the sling may have been "grossly overloaded."
"It looks from the way that it failed that it virtually exploded," Mr. Zorich said.
Officials in New York said that it was much too early to determine the cause of the accident or say why the slings broke. It was also not clear from the photographs if similar winches and slings had been attached on the north side of the collar.
Steven R. Dewey, president of All-Lifts, a company in Albany that manufactures construction slings, said that slings generally fail only when they are cut or damaged.
"What makes them fail?" Mr. Dewey said. "Overloading, cutting, sharp edges. It could be nine times out of 10 that I’ve done an accident investigation or looked at slings where there has been a failure, it has been caused by the previous lift." He said that workers are instructed to inspect the slings before each use.
Mr. Dewey said that as a general rule, if a heavy weight is lifted using four slings, the load should be rigged so that if two of the slings fail, the remaining slings will be strong enough to hold the load in place.
He said slings come from the manufacturer rated to hold a maximum weight, but the slings are made to withstand loads up to five times that amount. Mr. Dewey said that the way slings are attached and used can also affect their ability hold up, and that if a load shifts suddenly, it can greatly increase the stress on the slings.
Buildings Department officials said they were continuing to look into the history of the companies involved in the accident. The company in charge of the crane work was Joy Contractors, a concrete company based in Elizabeth, N.J.
Joy hired William Rapetti as the master rigger to supervise the work being done on the crane on Saturday. That included adding sections to the tower to raise the crane’s height and installing the new collar and support struts, which connected it to the building. It was not clear whether Mr. Rapetti or another master rigger had supervised earlier work on the crane, including installing the lower two collars on the tower.
The Buildings Department said that the collar weighed about 12,000 pounds, a weight that several people with expertise in cranes said was unusually high.
Several buildings were damaged in the accident, and residents in about 300 apartments in 17 buildings were evacuated. Andrew Troisi, a spokesman for the city’s Office of Emergency Management, said that it was not yet clear when some residents from some of those buildings would be allowed to return.
He said that four of the buildings have been reoccupied, and that the remaining residents would be allowed back "as quickly as safety allows."
He also said that water, which had been shut off after the crane fell, was expected to be restored late Monday to 50th Street between First and Second Avenues.
Meanwhile, a pair of construction industry groups said a safety consultant would be hired to evaluate crane installation procedures to see if they need to be improved in the wake of the accident. The groups, the Building Trades Employers’ Association, which represents contractors, and the Building and Construction Trades Council, which represents labor unions, said they would also have all construction projects using cranes inspected for possible problems.
Crane Collapses on Manhattan’s East Side, Killing 4
A construction accident on the East Side of Manhattan killed four and injured a dozen others.
Crane Collapses on Manhattan’s East Side, Killing 4
Correction Appended
A crane towering over a high-rise construction site on the East Side of Manhattan collapsed in a roar of rending steel Saturday afternoon, raining death and destruction across a city block as it slashed down on an apartment building, broke into sections, crushed a town house and cut away a tenement facade.
At least four people were killed and more than a dozen others were injured, and damage was expected to run into the millions of dollars in what the authorities called one of the city’s worst accidents — a calamity that turned a neighborhood near the United Nations into a zone of panic, pulverized buildings, wailing sirens, evacuations, searches in the rubble and covered bodies in the streets.
Many residents of the neighborhood around the site of the collapse — 51st Street between Second and First Avenues — said they had been worried for months about the possibility of a collapse, calling the crane, looming higher each week, a menace, particularly because so many residential buildings were being put up in the area with remarkable speed: several floors a week at times.
Christopher Bianchi, 40, of Manhattan, owner of Crave Ceviche Bar on Second Avenue, said he saw three bodies on stretchers in the street. "Their heads were covered," he said. "One of the police was giving last rites."
Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg arrived at the scene hours later, surrounded by an army of police officers, firefighters, city officials and reporters. "It’s a sad day," he said, as the lights of scores of emergency vehicles revolved and flashed. "Our thoughts go out to those who were killed, and we pray that those who were injured will recover."
As people were evacuated from a half-dozen buildings and rescue workers using dogs, listening devices and thermal imaging cameras searched the rubble for victims — taking care to cause no further collapses — the mayor said the four known dead were believed to be construction workers on or near the crane. The injured included at least three civilians taken to hospitals in critical condition.
One man was pulled from the debris nearly four hours after the collapse.
The dead, all believed to be members of Local 15 of the Operating Engineers Union, were identified as Brad Cohen, Aaron Stephens, Anthony Mazza and Wayne Bleidner.
The cause of the accident on a sunny, windless day was unclear and under investigation by city, state and federal agencies. But Stephen Kaplan, an owner of the Reliance Construction Group working at the site, told The Associated Press that a piece of steel had fallen and sheared off one of the girders holding the crane to the building.
A construction worker on the 15th floor, Ismael Garcia, said he saw something fall and strike one or more of the girder ties, weakening or breaking the connections. "Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a piece falling," he said, and then the crane pulled away.
The collapse occurred, the mayor said, as workers attempted to jack up the crane, raising its height to enable work to continue above the 19th floor of a planned 43-story building. Builders had city permission to raise the crane, and the crane had been inspected on Friday, with no violations found.
The collapse occurred at 2:22 p.m. as the crane, about 22 stories tall and attached by girders to the apartment tower under construction at 303 East 51st Street, east of Second Avenue, broke away from its anchors and toppled south, across the block between 51st and 50th Streets, as workers at the site and people in high-rises for blocks around looked on, stupefied.
Witnesses told of a rising, thundering roar and clouds of smoke and dust as the crane — a vertical latticed boom for its base, topped by a cab and jib, the swinging arm that lifts building materials — fell across 51st Street and onto a 19-story apartment building at No. 300, demolishing a penthouse and shaking the building with the force of an earthquake.
Mike Shatzkin, a resident of the 17th floor, said he was talking on the phone when it hit. "All of a sudden, I felt a very violent shake, and stuff fell off the walls, and my wife said a bomb went off." After discovering that their building had been struck by the crane from across the street, he said, "We worried about this crane every day."
The upper reaches of the crane — including the cab and the extended swinging arm — broke away from the boom, which was left leaning against the facade, and hurtled southward across the block toward 50th Street, tumbling in the air, some witnesses said.
The crane’s blue cab and white jib, itself a latticework of steel, made a direct hit on a four-story town house at 305 East 50th Street, a modern stucco structure with apartments upstairs and a bar called Fubar on the ground floor. The building, on the north side of 50th Street, was demolished.
The bar was not open, and the owner, John P. LaGreco, who had been the proprietor for a decade, said that Juan Perez, 38, a Queens resident and the father of three children, was in Fubar at the time, preparing to open about 4 p.m.
Mayor Bloomberg said one or two people were in the building at the time. The fire commissioner, Nicholas Scoppetta, said that a man, apparently referring to Mr. Perez, was taken alive out of the collapsed town house shortly before 6 p.m. He said there had also been reports of a woman in the building, and search efforts continued late into Saturday night.
In addition to the collapsed town house, the toppling crane jib sheared away the side of a six-story gray tenement building at 301 East 50th, just to the west, exposing tiers of apartments and haunting images of shattered homes: a pink suitcase dangling from the sixth floor, a mattress, a rack of shoes, broken bookshelves.
Debris also damaged buildings on the south side of 50th Street, and bricks demolished parked cars — a dark blue BMW flattened, a Mini Cooper battered with debris.
In the immediate aftermath of the collapse, stunned people rushed into the streets from restaurants and shops, from apartment buildings in the surrounding blocks, many of them unaware of what had happened and fearing the worst.
Within minutes, an armada of fire engines, police cars, ambulances and other emergency vehicles converged on the scene. Water from broken mains was gushing into the street, and an odor of gas was in the air. City and Consolidated Edison workers quickly moved in to cap the leaks and prevent explosions. Throughout the afternoon and evening, traffic was blocked off for blocks around the site.
Some residents of the area saw or heard the collapse from their apartments. Bruce Silberblatt, a retired building contractor who lives at 860 United Nations Plaza, said: "I heard this big double bang. Bang! Then, bang! The first bang must have been the crane hitting the first building, then the second must have been everything else going into the street."
Scores of evacuated residents from at least a half-dozen damaged or imperiled buildings were offered shelter at the High School of Art and Design, at 228 East 57th Street, the mayor said.
A Fire Department spokesman said that 13 people were injured and taken to area hospitals. Three had critical injuries and two were listed in serious condition, while the rest, including five firefighters, had minor injuries. Four other people were treated at the scene, the spokesman said.
Mayor Bloomberg identified the site’s principal developer as James P. Kennelly, a former firefighter, and the construction company as RCG, an apparent acronym for Reliance Construction Group. He said the crane owner was the New York Crane & Equipment Corporation. The manufacturer, he said, was an Australian company known as Favco, which makes a tower crane with an eight-ton lifting capacity.
"There are no words to describe the level of devastation we feel today as a result of this tragic event," Mr. Kennelly said in a statement. While the mayor and other city officials said that there had been a relatively small number of violations issued against the construction site in the more than two years since work began, many residents questioned the safety record at the building site.
"We had been very unhappy with the way he was doing his work," said Mr. Silberblatt, a member of the Turtle Bay Association, a civic group. He cited debris in the streets, a lack of a sidewalk bridge, and other faults.
According to records from the New York City Department of Buildings, the agency has issued 14 violations against contractors doing work at the site, 10 of them against RCG. The citations were issued between Jan. 17, 2006, and Feb. 8 of this year. The violations included failure to safeguard the public and property and failure to provide roof protection on adjacent property.
A Buildings Department spokeswoman, Kate Lindquist, said that of the 14 violations, 13 remained "open" — meaning that a court date is pending or the company did not appear at a scheduled court hearing and the violations are in default status.
Ms. Lindquist said that Buildings Department inspectors performed an inspection of the site Saturday morning in preparation for predicted high winds. Upon inspection, she said, a partial stop-work order was issued to halt all concrete operations at the site. The order was issued because inspectors found material stored too close to the building’s edge on several floors. The order did not apply to the extending of the crane, which was under way at the time of the accident, she said.
The last major crane collapse at a construction site in New York occurred in September 1999, when a 383-foot crane fell at 24th Street and the Avenue of the Americas, crushing a carpenter and injuring three other people.
Reporting for these articles was contributed by Al Baker, Sushil Cheema, John Eligon, Jason Grant, Christine Hauser, Serge F. Kovaleski, Colin Moynihan, Anthony Ramirez, Warren St. John and Tanzina Vega.
This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:
Correction: March 18, 2008
An article in some editions on Sunday about the deadly collapse of a construction crane on the East Side of Manhattan included an erroneous spelling from city officials in some copies for the surname of one victim. He was Wayne Bleidner, not Binder.
The Rise of American Incompetence
We used to be the world’s most skillful entrepreneurs and managers. Now we’re laughingstocks. What happened?
By Daniel Gross
Posted Saturday, March 15, 2008, at 7:12 A.M. E.T.
The dollar plunged to new lows against foreign currencies this week. There are plenty of reasons for its plunge, but at the most basic level, the dollar’s weakness reflects the world’s collective, two-thumbs-down verdict about the ability of the United States—businesses, individuals, the government, the Federal Reserve—to manage the global financial system and the world’s largest economy. Countries that outsourced their monetary policy by pegging domestic currencies to the dollar are having second thoughts. Kuwait last year detached the dinar from the dollar, and Qatar government officials last week said they were considering doing the same with their currency. International financiers are unnerved by the toxic combination of "misplaced assumptions about housing, a lack of necessary regulation and irresponsible use of debt with sophisticated financial instruments," said Ashraf Laidi, currency strategist at CMC Markets.
Dissing American financial management is an affront to national pride tantamount to standing in Rome and asking, loudly, if Italians are able to make pasta. The United States invented the concept and practice of running large, complex systems. Along with baseball and deep-frying, management is one of our great national pastimes. The world’s first MBAs were awarded by pioneering yuppie factories such as the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. (Wharton’s founding in 1881 was quickly followed by the world’s first time-share summer houses in the Hamptons.) Henry Ford’s revolutionary assembly line was the gold standard in global manufacturing for decades. Contemporary American institutions stand for excellence in managing everything from supply chains (Wal-Mart) to delivery services (Federal Express and UPS).
Americans’ ability to manage complex systems has been the ultimate competitive advantage. It has allowed the United States to enjoy high growth and low inflation—a record we haven’t hesitated to lord over our foreign friends. The shelves in the business section of a bookstore in a mall in Johannesburg, South Africa, are stocked with the same volumes you’ll find in a Barnes & Noble in Pittsburgh, Pa.: memoirs by cornfed paragons of capitalism like Jack Welch, wealth-building advice from American money managers, large tomes on how Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller built global businesses from scratch.
But now, thanks to widespread incompetence, American management is on its way to becoming an international laughingstock. Faith in American financial sobriety has been widely undermined by the subprime mess. The very mention of the strong-dollar policy now elicits raucous bouts of knee-slapping in even the most sober Swiss banks. (How do you say schadenfreude in German?) Earlier this month, as oil hovered near $100 a barrel, President Bush complained to OPEC about high oil prices. OPEC President Chakib Khelil responded acidly that crude’s remarkable run had nothing to do with the reluctance of Persian Gulf nations to pump oil, and everything to do with the "mismanagement of the U.S. economy." Since Bush’s plea, oil has gushed to $110 per barrel. (How do you say schadenfreude in Arabic?)
Americans abroad are constantly taunted by perceived failings of American management. America’s aviation system is now the butt of jokes because 9-year-olds have become accustomed to removing their Heelys before boarding a plane. As my family and I passed through the snaking security line in Cancún, Mexico’s airport last month, we were harangued by a security guard who encouraged tourists to sing along with him: "Please. Do not. Remove. Your shoes."
The concern extends beyond airlines to America’s industrial complex. Doubtful of the ability of provincial American executives, with their limited language skills, to negotiate today’s global business environment, the boards of massive U.S. firms like Coca-Cola, Pepsi-Cola, Alcoa, and insurer AIG have hired foreign-born CEOs. Carl Icahn, the 1980s corporate raider, has reinvented himself as a borscht-belt comedian/activist investor, who delights conferences and reporters with jokes at CEOs’ expense. On a recent 60 Minutes, Icahn complained to Lesley Stahl about the incompetence of American management. "I see our country going off a cliff, and I feel bad about it."
Icahn is moping all the way to the bank. The market’s recognition of management failures gives him the opportunities to acquire companies on the cheap. But those of us who aren’t billionaire corporate raiders—which is to say pretty much all of us—must manage through this management crisis on our own.Daniel Gross is the Moneybox columnist for Slate and the business columnist for Newsweek. You can e-mail him at moneybox@slate.com. He is the author of Pop! Why Bubbles Are Great for the Economy.
Today’s Papers
|
|
Knocking on Lehman’s DoorBy Daniel Politi Financial news continues to get top billing as all the papers try to digest the latest news from the Federal Reserve and the markets to figure out how far the current crisis will spread. The New York Times’ lead story notes that although the stock market didn’t plunge as was widely expected, there were several ups and downs as uncertainty ruled the day on Wall Street. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed Monday with a 0.2 percent increase, largely because of the strength of J.P. Morgan, which rose because of the widely held belief that it was able to acquire Bear Stearns at a veritable bargain. The Washington Post leads locally, but off-leads news that shares of many of the largest banks and investment firms plummeted yesterday. The Los Angeles Times leads with a look at how many are wondering whether the Fed is taking on too much risk and for how long it can keep pumping money into the economy in its attempt to save the country from a deep recession without hurting the nation’s overall finances. Over the past few days, many economists have said that the key question now is not whether the country will enter into a recession, but rather how long it will last. Ordinary Americans seem to agree. USA Today leads with a poll that shows 76 percent of Americans think the country is in a recession. In addition, 79 percent said they’re worried about the possibility of a depression that could last several years. The Wall Street Journal leads its world-wide newsbox with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao saying at a news conference that the Dalai Lama is to blame for the recent violence that has broken out in Tibet. As the protests spread to other parts of China, Jiabao accused the Dalai Lama of trying to get publicity and gain influence in the run-up to the Olympics. Both the NYT and the WSJ, which devotes a separate Page One story to the subject, point out that as investors desperately tried to figure out which company could be the next to follow in Bear Stearns’ footsteps they seem to have agreed on a likely candidate: Lehman Brothers. Investors see similarities between the two companies since they’re smaller than their main rivals and highly dependent on the mortgage business. But, as the WSJ reports in detail, Lehman isn’t willing to go quietly into the night, and its executives are desperately carrying out an offensive operation to quickly dispel any rumors that might crop up about the company’s financial situation. How much that will help is anyone’s guess, particularly considering that it was less than a week ago that the chief executive of Bear Stearns was on CNBC talking about how the company’s "balance sheet has not weakened at all." Even if what Lehman’s executives say is true and the company’s finances are solid, there’s good reason for them to worry if there are persistent rumors that the firm is in trouble. The WP notes that if there’s one central lesson from the fall of Bear Stearns it’s that "investment firms live and die on confidence." And as confidence in the markets continues to decrease, the LAT notes there are many who fear that the Fed’s latest moves could turn the central bank into "the nation’s chief financier, a role that it was not designed to play and its leaders dearly hope to avoid." Everyone points out the Fed is likely to cut its benchmark short-term interest rate today by as much as one percentage point to 2 percent. But the WSJ says the cut may actually be smaller because of persistent inflation concerns. Meanwhile, talk on Wall Street yesterday centered around the demise of Bear Stearns and the way the Fed put its own money forward to facilitate the acquisition by JP Morgan. Some expressed concern that the Fed has set a dangerous precedent and wonder whether the central bank will continue to offer up public money in order to save private institutions. In fact, as both the WP and WSJ note, it’s actually possible that the Fed will be able to make money out of selling the $30 billion worth of assets from Bear Stearns, but that all depends on the markets. The LAT also points out that although many are wondering how much money the Fed has available, the truth is that it "has the capacity to create a near-infinite amount of credit," and even in the worst case scenario "taxpayers should not get stuck with the bill." Under the headline "The Week That Shook Wall Street," the WSJ fronts an interesting and extremely detailed account of the events that led to the fall of Bear Stearns. But if you’re still scratching your head over the latest financial news and why it’s important, USAT has a good Q&A that starts with the very basic before getting into the details: "What is an investment bank, and why should I care what happens to one?" The LAT notes that President Bush tried to express some optimism on the economy but was immediately criticized for words that "struck many as discordant and disengaged" when he thanked Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson "for working over the weekend." Many said that by focusing on Paulson’s schedule, he immediately revealed that he "has no idea what’s going on," as Rep. Barney Frank put it. Meanwhile, many Democrats were also quick to point out that the administration seems perfectly willing to back the bailout of a big investment bank while it ignores the plight of regular people who are being kicked out of their homes. "Never do I want to hear again from my conservative friends about how brilliant capitalists are, how much they deserve their seven-figure salaries and how government should keep its hands off the private economy," writes the Post’s E.J. Dionne Jr. As could be expected, the topic quickly spilled into the presidential campaign, which, as the NYT points out, shows how much the economy has taken over as the main issue of the day, even as the fifth anniversary of the war in Iraq draws near. The Democratic candidates were quick to criticize the Bush administration for failing to do more to prevent the crisis from unraveling, but the LAT points out that "none of the candidates offered specific economic policy proposals beyond their past statements addressing the months-old housing mortgage crunch." Even their schedules illustrate how the contenders have been caught off-guard by the situation. Sen. Hillary Clinton was supposed to focus on Iraq this week, and Sen. Barack Obama will give what is being billed as a major speech on race today. In the WP’s op-ed page, Eugene Robinson writes that criticizing Bush is "not the same as charting a path out of this mess" and implores the candidates to start paying attention to the crisis in the economy. In other campaign news, everyone notes that Florida Democrats appear to have given up on plans to redo the state’s presidential primary. This means the decision on whether to seat the state’s delegates at the convention once again falls on the Democratic National Committee. Meanwhile, officials in Michigan continued to debate whether to hold a new vote. Worst career move ever? The WP, like many of the other papers, goes to the Bear Stearns headquarters in Manhattan—where someone taped a $2 bill to one of the building’s doors—to do the requisite story about how the firm’s employees are worried about their future. "Would you believe I’ve been here five days?" asked one employee who was outside smoking a cigarette. "Do you know where I came from? J.P. Morgan."Daniel Politi writes "Today’s Papers" for Slate. He can be reached at todayspapers@slate.com. |
|
|
