Is it possible to top a year like 2008? We’ve encountered everything from scandal to accidental celebrity deaths. History was made in politics with the presidential election as well as in the NFL with the league’s first ever 0-16 team. Although the recession hit hard, the entertainment industry made a few strides with superhero movies like Iron Man and The Dark Knight. Here’s a recap of what 2009 is up against.

Government officials and celebrities showed their true colors throughout the year. The true criminals and scumbags captured the headlines. Before the Rod Blagojevich controversy, there was Eliot Spitzer and his prostitute (she then made a singing debut out of the exposure). Really though, who cares about “Client #9” and Ashley Alexandra Dupré? Apparently Time believes that was the number one scandal of the year and there was no mention of our governor within the top ten.

O.J. Simpson is finally getting the jail sentence many believe he deserved years ago. I guess what happens in Vegas doesn’t always stay in Vegas.

The good side of politics came with our new president-elect, Barack Obama. It shows that our nation has finally progressed past racial barriers, and it’s about time.

On a sad note, death was prevalent for the famous in ‘08. The most shocking death of the year came early with Heath Ledger. An accidental drug overdose took the life of an actor that redefined the role of the infamous Joker in The Dark Knight.

Here’s a short list of other celebrities no longer with us: Bettie Page, Isaac Hayes, Bernie Mac, Michael Crichton, Charlton Heston, and George Carlin.

History was made within the National Football League. The Patriots were near perfection at the beginning of the year, but the choked in the only game that mattered. At least we can rely on the Detroit Lions to pick us up and set the bar with an NFL record of zero wins and sixteen losses. We may never again see this feat.

Michael Phelps came in a distant second to Detroit with history-making performances. So he won 8 gold medals against the best of the best swimmers in the Olympics. The suit did all of the work anyway. I’m totally kidding, that was the single most impressive athletic accomplishment of the year. The next best athletic achievements came from Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt.

The Cubs blew it again…I guess that’s old news though.

Television was entertaining this year. The Office, How I Met Your Mother, and House are still three of the best shows on television. If you haven’t seen Steve Carell’s character Michael Scott on The Office, you’re missing out. Heroes took a fall this past season, but still a decent show if you’re a fan of superpowers and unrealistic twists. No matter how tacky It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia (with Danny DeVito) is, I can’t get enough of it. Finally, The Shield ended their reign this past year, and not a minute too soon. I enjoyed the show for a few seasons, but it was time to put that dog to rest.

The most important subject to mention of the entire year is the music. Some bands hit, like TV on the Radio and Coldplay, and one totally missed, Guns n’ Roses. Chinese Democracy started in the mid ‘90’s and should’ve stayed there. Go away Axl, you creepy, creepy looking man…thing. Coldplay is always golden in every aspect of their career. I’m looking to the start of 2009 with Tonight: Franz Ferdinand. A brilliant album I’m still listening to is from The Killers, Day & Age.

There were so many other stories out there, but everything is debatable and some of the stories are too depressing to think about. The one thing that did happen on the LAST day of 2008 was the arrest of Charles Barkley on a DUI suspicion, awesome (apparently a handgun and prostitute are involved, as well). We started 2009 with the Winter Classic between the Red Wings and Blackhawks at Wrigley Field. Nice transition from the old to the New Year. Kudos to you professional sports! Happy New Year, let’s hope for the same excitement this time around.

And what a week it was for the almighty dollar.

First, Lehman Brothers, an investment giant that managed to brave the Great Depression, threw in the towel when it announced that it would file for bankruptcy and liquidate its assets. On the same day, fellow Wall Street powerhouse Merrill Lynch, about to go belly up, agreed to sell itself to Bank of America. Insurance giant A.I.G., teetering on the edge of bankruptcy, was bailed out by the feds for a tune of roughly 85 billion simoleons. And with a $700 billion bailout of financial firms on the horizon, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley–the Biggie and Tupac of the investment banking world–agreed to play second fiddle to the government intervention that they have lobbied against for as long as they have been in business.

There are lots of reasons and million opinions on what exactly went wrong on Wall Street, but in essence (and I simplify) the “best financial minds” of our time fucked up.

They fucked up HUGE.

They got greedy. They loaned money to people who they should have known couldn’t pay it back. They invested in markets they shouldn’t have. They were stupid. They were greedy. They fucked up. Have you ever heard the expression, “If this place were a business, we’d be bankrupt?” Well, these were businesses, and they are bankrupt.

But, neither of the Lehman Brothers tossed themselves out a window and onto the Wall Street pavement. Why?

Because the federal government is bailing them out. The same uber rich executives who have railed against big government and higher taxes on the wealthy got their asses saved by the government who just handed them a whole lot of tax revenue.

These are the people who fell in love with “trickle down economics.” (You might know it as “supply side” or “Reagonomics.”) This is the idea that by cutting taxes and regulations for the wealthy (i.e. A.I.G. and Merril execs) they will soundly spend and invest their excess income and the higher demand for goods and services will “trickle down” to the lower classes, who will be paid to fill these needs. This would provide more expendable income for the lower classes, allowing them spend more, perpetuating the cycle and growing the economy for everyone.

What actually wound up happening was the lack of regulations allowed a bunch of rich dudes to invest irresponsibly and throw the market into a tailspin. Every middle class household with a modestly sized investment portfolio signed on to E-trade this week and realized that Timmy and Tina’s college fund just dried up, but their tax dollars are going to bail out the very people who just fucked them.

This is called “flood up economics.” Or, as I’ve been calling it lately, “there goes everyone’s student loans and Medicare economics.”

Is it better to bail out these Wall Street institutions than to let them fail? Yes. Letting them fail completely would be catastrophic. But, the next time someone tells you that just because they have a lot of money they know what to do with it, tell them it’s just like Biggie said:

“Mo’ money, mo’ problems.”

A.I.G. Execs

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/