the greatest depression

Dow Closes Below 7000, Paul Rudd Opens His Shirt to Reveal Taut, Masculine Chest

The Dow fell sharply again today, plunging us further into economic ruin. But the good news is, it can’t be all bad if people are still talking about and thinking about fun, superficial stuff. After the jump, our index of today’s good and bad news.

The Bad News: The Dow fell below 7000 for the first time since 1997. Standard & Poors fell 4.7 percent, to 700.82. The Nasdaq ended 54.99 points lower at 1322.85.
The Good News: Movie attendance is way up, which means Hollywood is continuing to make money, which means hopefully we’ll get to see a lot more of Paul Rudd shirtless.

The Bad News:Economists expect to see a loss of 675,000 jobs in February, in the Labor Department’s unemployment report due out this Friday, following a decline of 598,000 in January. The unemployment rate is expected to rise to 8 percent, from 7.6 percent. [NYT]
The Good News: Bazaar editor-in-chief Glenda Bailey, former Vogue editor Polly Mellen, and Bonnie Fuller came out in brave defense of Michelle Obama’s “right to bare arms.” [HuffPo]

The Bad News: Europe is not holding it together. The E.U.’s decision not to bail out Eastern Europe could cause a “new Iron Curtain” to fall between Eastern and Western Europe, the Hungarian prime minister said. “The E.U. again has proven it is unable to manage a coordinated response to the crisis,” Commerzbank analysts wrote in a note Monday. [NYT, WSJ]
The Good News: Internet celebrity and party girl Cory Kennedy has made it to age 19. [Guest of a Guest]

Dow Closes Below 7000, Paul Rudd Opens His Shirt to Reveal Taut, Masculine Chest