Season of Closings- Page 3

[Yero my Hero]

Posted: 11/24/08 at 1:11pm

THE STORY OF MY LIFE is confirmed for the Booth. You forgot the Belasco, however, which is now dark.

[ACL2006]

Posted: 11/24/08 at 2:15pm

Thanks!! I updated my list!! I wonder if "reasons to be pretty" will now take the Belasco??

[uncageg]

Posted: 11/24/08 at 2:46pm

I posted this link to the Theater Talk program where they discuss the economic downturn on Broadway. My friend is a concierge in NYC and he said that requests for theater tickets is extremely low. Now it is possible that a lot of people are taking advantage of discounts but the low request for tickets is a sign that people aren't spending the money they were on shows. My thought is that even with all of the new shows opening, it doesn't mean they will be successful. I also have a feeling that we will hear that Spiderman may be "postponed". Just seems like a really big risk in this economic climate. And we haven't seen the worst of it yet.

This is a good and informative program. Runs about 30 minutes.

http://www.cuny.tv/series/theatertalk/listen.lasso?-database=CUNYPROG&-response=detail2.lasso&-table=webprogdetail2&-sortField=TapeDate&-sortOrder=descending&-op=eq&SeriesTitle=Theater%20Talk&-op=neq&Real_av=%3d%3d&-op=lte&TapeDate=12%2f31%2f2008&-op=gte&TapeDate=1%2f1%2f2008&-maxRecords=1&-skipRecords=2&-search

[whatever2]

Posted: 11/24/08 at 3:09pm

> but pretty much anyone with any educated perspective on this current crisis (and I dont necessarily consider myself an expert) would tell you that this crisis is based on the bursting of a housing market, that was inflated to a ridiculous degree by Clinton and Greenspan.

that statement simply is incorrect. the current crisis was precipitated by an explosion in the market for a largely unregulated, completely intransparent, and entirely misunderstood hybrid security that included derivatives tied to high-risk mortgages.

the trend you cite in the housing market certainly existed, but it did not create the melt-down of the financial services industry. big old bundles of sh*t called "CMOs bundled with credit default swaps" did.

these instruments were marketed with no government oversight under george bush's watch; his toothless SEC has been asleep at the helm for eight years while pigs got fat and, inevitably, hogs got slaughtered.

and greenspan went from hero to dog not because of over-inflated housing prices, but because he went before congress last month and basically said, "yeah, i guess my faith in the market to regulate itself was misplaced."

irrational inflation in home values didn't cause this ... too many people defaulting on risky mortgages didn't even cause this ... financial services firms trading in exotic hybrid securities whose components they neither understood nor adequately disclosed caused this.

and REAL regulation (which we simply have not received from bush's SEC) is the only way to prevent it from happening again.