The gross domestic product jumped 3.5% last quarter—the first increase in more than a year—sparking a stock rally and talk of the end of the Great Recession. No, no one has any jobs yet, but stop complaining!

Sarah Palin received at least $1.25 million to write her chapter book, Goin' Rogue, Also: An American Tail. If that is it, it is much less than Tina Fey got, which is amusing.

Damn, the economy's getting to everyone these days. Even the lord and savior of a bunch of people, Jesus Christ (33), who apparently endorsed Riverview Community Bank only to see it shut down, reports Minneapolis' Citypages. Holy shit, holy bummer.

Are you watching Shark Tank? You should be. Ever had an idea for a business you wish someone would throw suitcases full of money at? These folks do. Let's watch together as they sink or find themselves swimming in cash.

Google—Sauron of the internet, world, and soon: Middle Earth's tech scene—will soon have your life on file, especially with the advent of Google Wave, which is still in the invite-stage. People are now paying for invites.

Mint.com, way to promote your product! The free online money management program put together a wonderful, well-designed chart to show you how well they design things like charts. Their morbidly glee-tinted topic: the death of newspapers.

Sarah Palin gave a speech in Hong Kong. Despite what you may read in "news" "articles," the content of the speech was unimportant. No one thinks she knows anything about economics or China. What matters is how it played!

The NYT Business section did a nice little Where Are They Now on some fallen banker komrades from Lehman Brothers. Are they destitute? Are they happier? Are they better than they were before? And: should we feel bad for them?

Vanity Fair contributing editor and Graydon Carter pal Fran Lebowitz has some words of advice for a certain similarly named colleague. Annie Leibovitz, your ears are burning.

The SEC's inspector general finally released the full 477-page internal audit on Bernie Madoff's misdeeds and how the SEC completely missed the mark on catching them. How badly did they completely screw the pooch on this one?

Chris Brown has words for Oprah, Susan Boyle's songs are beating Whitney and Russell Crowe wants to beat a gossip columnist. Oh, yes, it's your Friday morning Gossip Roundup.

Two lucky souls hit the Mega Millions jackpot last night: one of them lived in the South Bronx, and the other one in San Gabriel, California. Looks like the West Coast winner (update: isn't) an Alt-Porn goddess named Annaliese Nielsen.

The South Bronx, the South South Bronx is where one of two winning Mega Millions tickets were sold. The other one was in San Gabriel, California. Each winner receives $166.5M, and neither will invest in a Josh Harris startup. [NYT]

The new chairman of the New York Fed is not a banker or financier! It is Denis Hughes, the president of the New York State AFL-CIO. And the deputy chairman is Columbia University President Lee Bollinger! Crazy! [WP]

How did Annie Leibovitz end up $24 million in the hole? New York magazine's Andrew Goldman has cataloged her wildly ill-advised spending flourishes. Oh, and the money behind her glorified pawnshop loan came from none other than Goldman Sachs.

How does the other-other half live? You know, the families who are now forced to "squeak by" on $300K a year? Leave it to the Washington Post to not only find out, but to attempt to elicit empathy!

As we learned during the Bush administration, the only legitimate role the federal government can play in stimulating the economy is sending everyone in America a check. That's always fiscally responsible, too. So why do Democrats hate simple economics?

Ardent defender of their words and content, the Associated Press is now taking their talk to the streets! Where are their photo editors are trolling for pictures of today's crash these days?

You know the Times' Styles section was eventually going to pitch in on the fiscal trials and tribulations of Annie Leibovitz. They delivered, filing a quote-happy roundup on the matter, starring Tina Brown and Graydon Carter, defending their friend.

And also they are breaking journalism, and America. That is what finance blogger Felix Salmon has concluded.