Word: hanks
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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There are still sitcoms that just aspire to be sitcoms. The highest-rated comedy on TV, Two and a Half Men, is devoutly of the guys-wisecracking-on-a-couch school, and this fall brings plenty of weak, high-concept sitcoms like Hank, which features Kelsey Grammer as a downsized CEO. Even some more-inventive sitcoms are familiar types: FX's It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, which is like a raucous, lowlife Seinfeld, and ABC's Better Off Ted, a workplace satire with a weird but sincere heart. But one look at Seinfeld's old home, NBC's Thursday...
...married women fare no better than the minorities. These are retro, sitcom-style wives, bland and humorless. Ronnie frets about kitchen tiles. Lucy lusts after the Fabio-type yoga instructor (Carlos Ponce, ripping off Hank Azaria's shtick). Cynthia lives to please her controlling husband. At least two of them seem to have shackles to throw off, but in the movie, the only things they free themselves from are their clothes, so we can see how they each measure up to those most demanding of standards of director Peter Billingsley: the ability to rock a bra and panties...
...a.k.a. risk. A year ago, officials at the Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve didn't think letting Lehman go bankrupt would be a disaster. Those same officials have since argued that the law gave them no choice. But it's also clear that the authorities--then Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson, in particular--didn't want to intervene. The Fed and Treasury had taken a lot of flak for their earlier bailouts of Bear Stearns, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. It was time to let the market work...
...contrasts with 1930s are stark. Ironic, too. By following their belief that financial markets should work out their own problems, Andrew Mellon and his kindred spirits at the Fed triggered a financial collapse that more or less ensured major, permanent government participation in the financial sector. By intervening aggressively, Hank Paulson and his kindred spirits at the Fed haven't quite ensured a continuation of the status quo - some reforms will come, and banks and their regulators will tread more gingerly for at least a few years - but they do seem to have headed off a re-enactment...
...after the departure of John Thain - Blankfein's rival to lead the firm - who left to become CEO of the New York Stock Exchange. By then, Blankfein had impressed Goldman's board of directors and especially Paulson, then the CEO, with his tenacity, ambition and hands-on management style. "Hank became increasingly concerned about whether [John] Thornton or Thain" - the co-presidents of Goldman before Blankfein - "would assume responsibility for the business units and show they could run things," says a former Goldman partner. "Lloyd showed a willingness to assume responsibility." Paulson and Blankfein became an effective team, with Paulson...