According to the Atlanta JC (can’t find the full name of the publication and can’t be bothered to spend more than a minute looking for it), sales of recliners has increased during these tough economic times.

In addition to an aging, widening population and the increasing popularity of giant televisions, analysts believe that the recession itself is partly responsible for the rise in recliner sales (emphasis mine):

Sales of reclining chairs are getting a lift from the growing popularity of high-tech TVs, home theater equipment and video games, as well as an aging population that is less active. Even the recession, which forced many Americans to cancel vacation plans, seemed to have help sales of the comfy lounge chairs.

I realize that Americans are vacationing at home rather than Disneyland these days, but part of me giggles at the idea that some Americans might be celebrating their unemployment by treating themselves to a Laz-E Boy.

I wonder what the folks over at MSNBC.com think about Wells Fargo?

(click for a bigger version)

Is it still just reporting when you scream a headline with 72 point font, or have you wandered into Editorial Land? Just curious.

…if nothing else, he’s always good for a chuckle or two.

From McClatchy:

No one in Latin America has been making more hay of Bush’s turnabout than Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez, a self-proclaimed socialist who is the U.S.’s biggest headache in the region.

“If the Venezuelan government, for example, approves a law to protect consumers, they say, ‘Take notice, Chavez is a tyrant!’” Chavez said in one of his recent weekly television shows.

“Or they say, ‘Chavez is regulating prices. He is violating the laws of the marketplace.’ How many times have they criticized me for nationalizing the phone company? They say, ‘The state shouldn’t get involved in that.’ But now they don’t criticize Bush for having nationalize . . . the biggest banks in the world. Comrade Bush, how are you?”

For a dictator, Chavez has a pretty good sense of humor.

I don’t condone violence of any type, but it’s hard not to appreciate the sentiment behind this:

Mr Fuld (CEO of Lehman Brothers), who has been testifying on the financial crisis before the US House Oversight Committee, was attacked on a Sunday shortly after it was announced that the banking giant was bankrupt.

Following rumours that the incident had occurred, Vicki Ward, a US journalist, said “two very senior sources - one incredibly senior source” had confirmed it to her. “He went to the gym after … Lehman was announced as going under,” she told CNBC. “He was on a treadmill with a heart monitor on. Someone was in the corner, pumping iron and he walked over and he knocked him out cold.

On September 22 - before the bankruptcy was announced but when it was widely predicted - Lehman set aside $2.5 billion in bonuses for its 10,000 New York employees.

I’m sure a few people in London would like to take a swipe at the guy, too. From a different article (emphasis mine):

Up to 10,000 staff at the New York office of the bankrupt investment bank Lehman Brothers will share a bonus pool set aside for them that is worth $2.5bn (£1.4bn), Barclays Bank, which is buying the business, confirmed last night.

The revelation sparked fury among the workers’ former colleagues, Lehman’s 5,000 staff based in London, who currently have no idea how long they will go on receiving even their basic salaries, let alone any bonus payments. It also prompted a renewed backlash over the compensation culture in global finance, with critics claiming that many bankers receive pay and rewards that bore no relation to the job they had done.

…

Barclays is paying $1.75bn for the US operation of Lehman and is keen to retain its best staff. It said it had made no promises to individual staff members about how much they will receive but that the bonus fund would be paid out. In addition to the $2.5bn cash pool, Barclays is also in negotiations with about 30 executives it considers to be Lehman’s best assets and plans to offer them contracts worth tens of millions of dollars. British employees of Lehman described the bonus payments as a “scandal” as they waited anxiously yesterday to see whether a deal could be struck with buyers circling the bank’s European operations.

Many of Lehman’s UK staff are particularly angry about the US payouts because it has emerged that in the days running up to the bankruptcy, some $8bn in cash was transferred out of the account of the bank’s European business into accounts at the New York head office.

Forget bread lines. How about punch lines?