Cheat Sheet

A 34-year-old employee inside a Long Island Walmart was trampled to death this morning by a mob of shoppers clamoring at the doors of the Valley Stream stores at 5 a.m. When the store opened, says a coworker, the employee “was bum-rushed by 200 people…and killed in front of me.” Customers knocked the doors off the hinges and also knocked down a pregnant woman who was rushed to the hospital with a possible miscarriage. “They’re savages,” said one customer.

Once, if you wanted to make money, "you learned to read balance sheets," writes Charles Krauthammer. “Today, you learn to read political tea leaves." The stock market fluctuations in response to Henry Paulson's statements or Barack Obama's appointments show "we have gone from a market-driven economy to a politically driven economy." This has two main ramifications for President-elect Obama: "The vastly increased importance of lobbying and the massive market inefficiencies that political directives will introduce." The bailouts in Washington, while necessary, will also invite "the most intense, most frenzied lobbying in American history." This, in turn, will risk continuing the politically driven economy rather than returning us to a market-driven one. "The banks will knuckle under to the commissars of Capitol Hill. They control the purse. Prudence will yield to politics."

A new biography of Rupert Murdoch by Vanity Fair’s Michael Wolff says the Fox tycoon’s will does not provide a way for the four children from his first two marriages to make a clear decision about who should run the company if they are split two and two. Wolff also suggests that Murdoch still hopes to provide the daughters from his third marriage with shares equal to those of his first four children, contrary to a deal he made with his second wife, Anna, and his elder children. A Murdoch family “friend” confirmed the story to the Financial Times, saying, ““This is not a family that believes it needs legal deadlock provisions. They have always been very happy to rely on old-fashioned talking, arguing, shouting, threatening and ultimately compromise to reach consensus.”

The New Yorker's seasonal “Food Issue” includes a delightful Burkhard Bilger report about the rise of artisinal beer breweries in America, a return to the flowery, experimental brews of ancient times (apparently, Egyptians liked their ale with saffron and honey). Bilger profiles Sam Calagione, the male model-turned-rogue-beerman and owner of Dogfish Head Brewery in Delaware, a madcap chemistry lab of hops experimentation. For his “Palo Santo Marron” brew, Sam imported the rare Palo Santo wood from Paraguay for an aging cask—it is one of the most fragrant and impenetrable woods on the planet (a gun can’t even break through the bark) and nearly impossible to find. “Extreme beer,” Bilger writes, is again on the rise—with over 1,500 craft breweries in the States, chocolate stouts and pumpkin ales may have a chance against classic Bud.

With the release of Australia, the sprawling, big-budget Baz Luhrmann offering about the history of the land down under, the LA Times take the opportunity to explore the history of the “epic film” in America. Filmmaker Edward Zwick (who unveils his World War II drama, Defiance, in a few weeks) argues that studios have replaced their investments in sweeping epics with “visceral thrill-ride experiences” and that old-fashioned mega-stories like Lawrence of Arabia or Fitzcarraldo don’t get greenlighted as much. Still, author Susan King writes, Australia may revive audience’s interests in long, multi-generational films. Because if you’re going to spend $12 these days, you might as well get a three-hour, Herculean film out of the deal.

Yesterday, Iraq's Parliament passed a pact that will see the withdrawal of all American troops from the country by the end of 2011. The measure won the support of 149 of the 198 members who voted and was backed by the main voting blocs of the Sunni and Kurdish minorities. In negotiations, Sunnis won political reforms from the government and a public referendum on the deal to be held no later than July 30. In 11 months of negotiations with America, Iraq won several concessions, including the hard timetable for withdrawal, the right to try American troops for crimes committed in Iraq, the need for American forces to have Iraqi permission before undertaking operations, and the handing over of detainees in American custody.

Since it began in 2002, collectors, including wealthy bankers and hedge fund managers, have come to the Miami Beach off-shoot of the Switzerland’s "Art Basel" to snatch the most expensive artworks from one another. Many stalls were sold out after only an hour. This year, however, things may be different. Even Marc Spiegler, one of the two heads of "Art Basel", lets ominous comments slip like, "Most galleries will probably not break any records this year," "Prices have gotten more realistic again," and, "The time for speculators has passed." As Der Spiegel reports, “The champagne years are over.” Prices at auction have dropped by 30 percent. American art museums are trimming their budgets. Sponsors like Deutche Bank don't want to book the prestigious German Pavillon at the Venice Biennale.

A cyber-attack on computers this week at U.S. Central Command, which oversees American operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, was so severe that both President Bush and Defense Secretary Robert Gates were briefed on it. The attack affected computers in combat zones and, according to the Los Angeles Times, "also penetrated at least one highly protected classified network." It spread via flash drives, which the military has temporarily banned. The attack is believed to have originated in Russia, though military experts cannot yet say whether it was the work of an individual hacker or the Russian government.

Andreas Liveras, 73, went to the Taj for dinner and a drink, but found himself caught up in the terror. The British-Cypriot owner of a yacht company, who had a fortune of about £315 million ($400 million), phoned the BBC when trapped in a room in the Taj Mahal as outside terrorists fired AK47 rifles and exploded grenades. “The hotel is shaking every time a bomb goes off,” he told them. “Everybody is just living on their nerves.” Then the phone call ceased. When Liveras’s body was found, he had been shot multiple times.

The Taliban are carefully manipulating the opium trade in Afghanistan to maintain high prices that funds their terrorist activities. They are so efficient at growing poppies and making the drug – the UN estimates they made $300 million from the opium trade last year, the third year in a row of bumper crops – that they have produced a surplus of 11,000 tons, far outstripping demand. To manipulate prices, that have dropped 20 percent, the Taliban is ordering a reduction in poppy planting and stockpiling raw opium until the price recovers. “The international community has undervalued the role of narcotics in creating the conditions for insurgency in Afghanistan,” said Antonio Maria Costa, an Italian diplomat at the UN’s Office on Drugs and Crime.

Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz is commissioning new buildings in Mecca to treble the number of Muslims who attend the annual pilgrimage known as the Haj. British architect Norman Foster has been invited to tender plans for the northern expansion of the al-Haram complex and Brit Zaha Hadid and six other architects have been charged with re-envisioning the al-Haram mosque itself. In all, 18 architects have been approached about redesigning Islam's holiest city. The result will be a building with the largest occupancy in the world.