– The normally dull world of NPR executives has received a serious shake-up with the resignation of CEO Vivian Schiller. Schiller’s ouster comes a day after investigative cheese-and-nut roll James O’Keefe released an embarrassing video of NPR Foundation president Ron Schiller. (No relation. Wait, no relation? Really?) In the video, Ron Schiller is seen describing Tea Party Republicans as “racist.” Ron’s ill-advised insult may be a bitter reaction to Congressional Republicans’ effort to cut $430 million in public funding to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. As the Washington Post writes, “Vivian Schiller’s resignation marks the third high-level departure of top NPR managers in two months. In January, Schiller accepted the resignation of Ellen Weiss, NPR’s senior vice president of news, who was heavily criticized for her role in firing Juan Williams, the NPR and Fox News commentator who was dismissed from NPR in October for comments he made about flying with Muslims.” This is the wildest scandal at NPR since the early 1990s, when Dan Schorr borrowed an L.L. Bean turtleneck from Carl Kassel, and returned it with bits of mint chutney and pipe tobacco ash on the collar.
– As the NFL and its players union hurtle toward a lockout, the league is preparing to release more financial information to players than it shares with its owners, according to its attorney. As ESPN reports, the issue of financial transparency is one of the major sticking points to negotiations. Another issue, ESPN reports, is “what cut team owners should get up front to help cover costs such as stadium construction and improvement. Under the old deal, owners received more than $1 billion off the top. They entered these negotiations seeking to add another $1 billion to that amount, before other revenues are divided with players.” (Funny, living in Minnesota, I thought taxpayers paid to build and repair stadiums.) I don’t know. I read that whole story, I’ve read others, I don’t get it. It’s amazing to think that with six months before the NFL season starts, the negotiations are talked about like they’re at a crisis stage. I know there’s two sides to this, but you have a team of lawyers, hotel rooms, and coffee. Figure it out. Besides, if the NFL season is canceled, what will America do on Sunday? Church? Brunch? Talk to our families? Please. If I can’t watch Ben Roethilsberger chip away at his brain cells hit-by-hit, I can’t be the man I am.
– Authorities arrested nine Londoners and two, uh, Reyjkjavikers in connection to the collapse of an Icelandic bank. Among those arrested are the Tchenguiz brothers, a pair of tycoon moguls. Except for Bernie Madoff, whose crimes were unrelated to the banking crisis, America hasn’t really prosecuted any big-timers in a while, which is a shame because we’re deprived of the wonderful details of wealthy life. The Guardian provides this lovely illustrative paragraph: “The brothers had been expected to host a party on board a yacht in Cannes on Thursday evening, at the MIPIM property trade show. Vincent owns a 40-metre luxury yacht named Veni, Vidi, Vici, while his younger brother owns a 45-metre vessel called My Little Violet.” The bank in question, Kaputhing, loaned out 40 percent of its total worth to the Tchenguiz brothers and their associates. When the housing bubble collapsed in 2008, so did the bank. Efforts to prosecute in Icelandic court are beset by the fact that just announcing everyone’s name, and where they’re from, takes several minutes, because most Icelandic words have 65 letters, two of which are vowels. By the time the judge and all the attorneys are introduced, you break for lunch. Indeed, scientists now say that reactions to the 2010 eruption of the Icelandic volcano Eyjafjallajökull were delayed because it takes so damn long to say Eyjaf… oh, God, you get the point.
– The Atlantic has an exclusive story on the horror of rich life in America. Working from findings by the Boston College Center on Wealth and Philanthropy, the Atlantic covers a survey of 165 households, 120 of which have more than $25 million net worth. These are the richest of the rich — people who hire someone to clean their pool, then hire someone else to clean the person who cleans the pool. Turns out, they’re still not happy. Writes the Atlantic, “The respondents turn out to be a generally dissatisfied lot, whose money has contributed to deep anxieties involving love, work, and family. Indeed, they are frequently dissatisfied even with their sizable fortunes. Most of them still do not consider themselves financially secure; for that, they say, they would require on average one-quarter more wealth than they currently possess.” The instinct, of course, is to make fun of the grouchy rich. But I’ll just leave it at this: a lot of people remember the Beatles as peace-lovin’, love-lovin’ hippies, who sang “All you need is love,” and “Money can’t buy me love.” But they said that when they already had a bunch of money. Before that, when they were young, and just getting started, what was it they sang?
