Fifty Shades of Meh

I read a few pages of the chick-porn book 50 Shades of Grey. It was the worst ten minutes of my life.

I didn't think the movie adaptation could get any worse, but it looks like it does.

How much you wanna bet these Keynesian clowns don't mention excessive debt as the primary reason?

Yup. The word "debt" appears exactly once in the article, and only as a reference to the difficulty of paying it off without economic growth, not as a cause of weak growth.

I'm waiting for the Santorum Cream Stout

Microsoft to cut 18,000 jobs

Chicago Tribune:

Microsoft Corp. said on Thursday it would cut up to 18,000 jobs, or about 14 percent of its workforce, as it halves the size of its recent Nokia acquisition and trims down other operations.

The company said it would take a pre-tax charge of $1.1 billion to $1.6 billion for the costs of the layoffs during the next four quarters.

The restructuring will be the biggest in Microsoft history, topping the 5,800 jobs cut in 2009.

Microsoft shares were up nearly 3 percent in premarket trading, to $45.37 a share.

Another data point for Rise of the Machines.