January 20, 2010 – 11:59 am
During the holidays Clark called me and said, “Ed, you’re lookin’ like a fool with your pants on the ground.” And I said, “What?!?” And he said, “Oh, nevermind, it’s just something I’ve been working on with a client. It probably won’t go anywhere. “The real reason I’m calling is this….” He went on to […]
November 18, 2009 – 11:09 pm
In a speech Tuesday night, Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein reportedly apologized for his company’s role in the financial markets crisis, saying, “We participated in things that were clearly wrong and have reason to regret.” Apologies are always tricky business for people or organizations under siege in the media. Sometimes they can be helpful. When […]
November 10, 2009 – 11:21 am
Does Goldman Sachs have a God problem? A God complex? An ungodly headache? Goldman, once a venerable institution known for keeping close counsel, is now a lightning rod for populist criticism of the financial sector. And its latest public relations efforts don’t seem to be helping. The bank’s very success – turning a profit in […]
August 25, 2009 – 11:27 am
It’s a tough time for financial services firms to hold their ground in favor of free market economics. Given their lack of popularity and their IV drip of government funds, most money companies don’t have any leeway to resist government overreach. Which is why it’s refreshing to see Chuck Schwab make a run at America’s […]
I’m glad Vinca broke the profanity barrier on Podium Pundits yesterday – and did it with such humor and class. I agree that “judicious” use of profanity can have “a positive, constructive effect” on a tense situation. For instance, when driving through Washington at rush hour, or when WordPress screws up all your formatting just […]
I find polls interesting not so much for the top-line issue they seek to illuminate, but for the quirky results that often lie underneath. Like, who are those 3 percent of respondents who can’t even identify the name Dick Cheney? Another example in today’s Playbook, as Mike Allen calls our attention to a Rasmussen poll […]
Washington Post columnist Robert Samuelson today asks a question vexing conservatives: “Has any recent president basked in so much favorable media coverage [as President Obama has]?” His answer: no – and that’s not healthy. Samuelson points to a new Pew study that attaches some numbers to the sense of coziness between the Administration and the […]
In the headline, “binging” should be read to rhyme with “ringing,” not “cringing” – as in, making use of Microsoft’s new competitor to Google. It debuts next Wednesday (for some reason). Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer told the Wall Street Journal that Bing was chosen as the name for the new search engine because it “works globally […]
You may recall that President Obama recently referred to certain Chrysler creditors as “speculators” because they expected more for their investment in the troubled automaker than the 29 cents on the dollar the Administration was offering. Most of those creditors have since given up their legitimate claims, rather than face continued tongue-lashings from the president. […]
Editor’s Note: Today’s guest post is by Philip Murphy, a corporate communications executive at a Fortune 100 company. Good news for English majors. Richard Anderson, chief executive of Delta Air Lines, gave an interview for the New York Times’ Corner Office column recently and said what most of us have felt deep inside – the […]
Maybe Veridian Dynamics was right after all. Last week President Obama verbally spanked Chrysler creditors who didn’t want to take the government’s offer of 29 cents for each dollar of debt they held. “Speculators,” the president called them, insisting that they were holding out for “an unjustified taxpayer-funded bailout.” Despite the presidential tongue-lashing, the creditors initially […]
Yesterday’s auto announcement from the White House highlights why it’s imperative that private-sector companies doing business with government-backed enterprises employ a well-calibrated public message strategy. In announcing that Chrysler would enter Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, President Obama praised various stakeholders – unions, management, creditors, etc. – for making “sacrifices” to keep the company out of court. […]
April 10, 2009 – 12:38 am
Ben Affleck, often considered the moon to Matt Damon’s sun, is out with a new movie, State of Play, in which he portrays a congressman. In this interview with the Wall Street Journal, he demonstrates a more sober analysis of the banking mess confronting Wall Street and Washington than 93.7 percent of Congress: WSJ: Do […]
