Money talks for Anheuser-Busch investors?

Money talks. And on the far coast of these United States, I can almost be sympathetic.

Andrew Ross Sorkin and Michael J. de La Merced bring us the latest on InBev’s bid for Anheuser-Busch:

In a reversal of its previous hostility to the idea, Anheuser-Busch is in active talks to sell itself to the Belgian brewer InBev in a friendly deal, people briefed on the matter said.

InBev has raised its offer to $70 a share, more than the $65 it had originally offered, a person close to the talks said on Friday.

An announcement of the deal could come as early as Monday, though people briefed on the talks cautioned that they might still break down ….

…. Helping to drive the deal talks was the indication that some of Anheuser’s largest shareholders, including Warren E. Buffett, were leaning toward backing a deal with InBev.

The turnabout comes only days after Anheuser-Busch, said to be weakly positioned to fight the takeover bid, filed a desperate lawsuit, hoping to stave off the transnational corporation’s attempt by accusing it of “a litany of sins, from rumor-mongering to lying to trying to violate the United States’s trade embargo with Cuba”.

Quote of the Week — Obama on the economy

Barack Obama on remarks by former Texas Senator Phil Gramm that the nation’s economic woes are a “mental recession” and that Americans are “a nation of whiners”:

“This comes after Senator McCain recently admitted his energy proposal for the gas-tax holiday will have mainly ‘psychological benefits’ …. Now I want all of you to know that America already has one Dr. Phil, we don’t need another. When it comes to the economy, we need somebody who can actually solve the economy.”

Via Michael D. Shear and Jonathan Weisman at the Washington Post.

Some ado about … well, nothing

Something about this Danziger cartoon pinged my liberal radar, and when I asked some associates about it, one of them immediately picked up on the point. But I decided to leave it alone in that sense. After all, Danziger is a bright mind and a gifted cartoonist.

Jeff Danziger, June 30, 2008

Nonetheless, a question still nags at me. Five points to anyone who can spot the issue, and another five (and much gratitude) to anyone who can explain the point to me. I suppose I could write Mr. Danziger and ask, but it’s more fun this way. What am I missing?