Back in 1981, the ever brilliant Bill Gates profoundly announced that "640K ought to be enough for anybody." Yes, the prophet had laid the RAM upon the altar and the word of the Almighty was delivered to the multitude. However, Gates was wrong (as usual), and...
Business bloger Yael Bizouati interviewed R&R's Sylvain Raynes about former Moody's analyst Eric Kolchinsky's testimony on ratings-firm reform before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. Raynes says Moody's should be "put out of its misery" for its "pattern of fraud," and describes a...
The Hollywood filmmaker Joe Dante once said that the hardest part about directing was having to get up before 10:00 every morning. Obviously, Dante has a gift for cooking his schedule. But the wake-up time is the least of a director's worries. Directing is one of...
"Sylvain Raynes is a principal with R&R Consulting, which values structured security deals. He says if the agencies don't change their ratings often, it'll be a sign something funny is happening. 'If you see the ratings are not moving at all and yet you, by...
The Los Angeles Times quotes R&R Consulting's Sylvain Raynes on the lessons learned -- or not-- in the financial industry one year after the collapse of Lehman Brothers. "[Raynes] became an early critic of the excesses in the so-called structured-finance market. Now, instead of creating the...
The screenwriter is one of the most important figures in the creative process. Any screenwriter will tell you this tidbit. They are also treated as the most disposable member of the production team. Any experienced screenwriter will also admit this. Without the script, there would be...
The sight of New Yorkers sunning themselves on lawn chairs in the middle of Broadway almost made me swallow my cigar. I could not believe that hundreds of pedestrians, swarming among each other like killer bees, were lounging in the middle of a street famous...
Like the first falling leaves, the summer figures are still rolling in (as well as the seasonal metaphors). And thanks to a solid overview from Peter Knegt at IndieWIRE, we have the list of the most successful low-budget movies of the summer. The good news is...
The recession is over. All the wise guys who didn't see it coming in the first place are now insisting that the economy is in the clear. Gee, I bet we all feel relieved. At least those of us who still have jobs, savings accounts,...
You know it's the end of summer when the air turns a little chilly, the leaves begin to change their colors, and Quentin Tarantino slithers out from under a rock somewhere and begins insisting that he's still hip after all these years. Yep, woolen jacket...