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A Tale of Two Books
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There are two books that I am “reading” and they have an intriguing confluence. One is the Tale of Two Cities in audiobook format. This is Charles Dickens’ alternately brutal and romantic tale of the French Revolutionary Times – it might be thought of as one of the first thriller novels. This audiobook reading of …
Read More Humor Had a Good Year: April Fools 2011
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Maybe its the dire economic and political news, but this years April Fool jokes and spoofs on the Web appear to be vintage quality. And that is a high Testament to Foolishness because despite the Web’s seeming pervasiveness , only one Web-originated April Fools prank has cracked the the top 30 in the list of …
Read More Linux Takes the Desktop!?
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Okay, a slight exaggeration; but the announcement this last Thursday that Google Android [a Linux variant] has won the top spot among smartphone OS may be a precursor of what is to come. This Fall, a wave of Android slates, netbooks, pads and tablets are going to arrive on the scene – and change the …
Read More Wall Street Still Trumps Main Street
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Tea Party members are riled to the point of rabid protest by one simple fact – Wall Street still trumps Main Street. Wall Street bankers are a) bigger than ever and more likely to fail catastrophically than before; b)are bonusing and compensating themselves bigger than ever before while still being on the dole for Fed …
Read More “Dumb as We Wanna Be”
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The title of this post is also the title of a column by Tom Friedman in the NYTimes today. But it easily could also be the title of a column by Bob Herbert in the paper as well. Both columns chastise not just the media and politicians but the electorate for falling for yet another …
Read More “Farewell to the Chief” Is Only Half The Problem
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Gail Collins in the NYTimes says it succinctly – He’s Leaving. Really. But the problem is that President Bush and the GOP have done as yet immeasurable damage to the the US and the World economicall, politically and socially. What is most troubling is what George Bush has left behind. Not only a Washington whose …
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“Half of America Pays No Taxes, Zero”
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If Pastor Rick Warren can say “Half of America Pays no Taxes, Zero”- you better believe it! But Andrew Sullivan at the Daily Beast has helped to uncover some data that refutes this notion easily. The Pastor is beginning to sound like Senator John Kyl of Arizona who was caught damning Planned ParentHood(“90% of its services are abortions” …
Read More “He Was Right”
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In making the Cabinet Appointment of Retired General Eric Shinseki as Secretary for Veterans Affairs, President-Elect Obama emphatically did the right thing. First, it sent a clear signal to all of the complicitous Bush Administration officials, particularly ex-Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld who forced the general into retirement, that General Shinseki was right about a …
Read More “In bleak times, there is a boom in doom”
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This is not the headline, but the best line in a NYTimes story about Peak Oil Survivalists. What makes the story fascinating is that not a few times over the past 5 yaers I have contemplated some of the questions raised here. Facebook Twitter Google+ Pinterest LinkedIn Related posts: Seeing in Chinese Microsoft Chromed by …
Read More “The Mac is Dead, Long Live iPad and iOS4!” :Yeah, Right
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Our colleagues at Keep an Open Eye Eye Sir are declaring that the Apple Mac is dead … in the process of being replaced by the iPad and other iDevices with their iOS4 operating system. Here is the crux of the arguments: The past year has been a very, very good one for Apple – …
Read More “The Mac is Dead, Long Live iPad and iOS4!” :Yeah, Right Read More »
2 Disturbing Trends in the Mideast
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There are two trends in the Middle East that are very disturbing. First and always, the pot continues to boil under the Israel-Palestine standoff. And as the Economist points out the balance of power has shifted to Hezbollah in Lebanon with some estimates of rockets on the Lebanon border reaching 50,000 and their range and …
Read More 2 Huge Economic Developments under the Radar
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There have been two huge economic developments in the past few weeks that are still under the radar. By under the radar, one means that it is possible to Digg or Stumble posts about the stories and still be “the first discoverer”. Second, though some aspects of the stories are covered – there has not …
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2016 Presidential Election Thank You Notes
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In French, the results of the US Presidential election is expressed as C’est Domage – It is a great pity. In that spirit we present here some Thank You Notes in the Style of Jimmy Fallon on the Tonight Show. Thank You, Hillary Rodham Clinton, for trying to be filthy rich, a halfway progressive and the …
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3 Abominable Obama Policy Decisions
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The GOP Leadership is prepared to tell you that Barack Obama is the worst President in US History because they need a scapegoat for George W. Bush’s disastrous incumbency. Just consider the consequences of Bush decisions. Bush systematically ignored all the September 9/11 warning signs preventing his administration from ‘connecting the dots that blasted into the World trade …
Read More 3 OS Vendors Are All-in On Consumer Computing Sweepstakes
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With the announcement of Microsoft’s Surface, now all the major OS vendors have moved all-in in betting to take the Consumer Computing Crown. Microsoft Surface is more than a tablet – Surface Pro is a laptop PC No more side bets through proxy hardware or software vendors, Apple, Google and Microsoft are now building everything required for …
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3 Troubling Events
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There are three troubling events that are occurring and raise concerns about the ability of Body Commons that is the USA to “heal thyself”. The first is the Trayvon Martin case in Florida. A white shot a black youth in very questionable circumstances. It is the aftermath that is the concern. TheDailyBeast has been following …
Read More 4 Views on GOP Post Election
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Lest we forget who and how delusional the GOP Pundits were. This is remarkably close to what is happening in the GOP. Bart Simpson being punished for not getting permission from Karl Rove to concede Obama victory in Ohio. Very quick but caustically wry humor. But the best analysis is by a Republican in this Kindle Book …
Read More 5 Big Computing News Items
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It is already Fall in terms of the rush of new computing and technology news. Here are 5 stories that may have missed your attention in the wake of Google Instant Search and Apple’s Rescinding of the Law against Application Generators. TheRegister – Microsoft debating whether to embrace and extend HTML5 as IE9 Sep 15th …
Read More 5 Major Wicked Problems and US Election Politics
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The five major problems facing not just the US but almost all developed countries are the following: 1)Jobs are going to the developing countries with very favorable rates of exchange and wage level relative to prosperous developed countries. Wages in China, India, Vietnam, Brazil and others across the board are a fraction of the developed …
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5 Questions for Democrats: Clinton Email Disaster
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Why nominate a presidential candidate who used a private email server a)which was illegal according to the State Department and then used irresponsibly according to the FBI; b)so then she has had to continuously and profusely lie about its use; c)because she used it to avoid FOIA-Freedom Of Information Act requirements for disclosure by petitioning media and d)that …
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5 Questions for Democrats: Restoring Rule of Law and Financial Safety
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Rule of Law and Financial Safety are deeply intertwined through the nexus of unfettered campaign financing allowed by the Supreme Court’s Citizens United Decision. Justice Stevens dissenting opinion states the case succinctly – “the Court’s ruling threatens to undermine the integrity of elected institutions across the Nation….a democracy cannot function effectively when its constituent members believe laws are …
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5 Questions for Democrats:Why Give Hillary So Much Leeway
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Hillary Clinton has been the beneficiary of so much leeway by her party.First she has a former Campaign Manager as DNC Party Chair who instead of being neutral was actively working to give every advantage to Hillary throughout Primaries. Only because of WikiLeaks, has Debbie Wasserman Schulz been finally ousted from her post. Likewise early in the primaries …
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5 Questions for the Democratic Party: DNC Chair Rigged Primaries
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Here are five burning questions for the Democratic party and some of their key politicians prior to their Presidential convention. The first question is why was Debbie Wasserman Schulz retained as DNC party chair despite strife and ongoing problems with Ms Schulz starting in 2012 with Congressional, Obama, and other key leaders of the Democratic party parrying …
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5 Questions for the Democratic Party: Elizabeth Warrens Endorsement Ambiguity
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In our ongoing series of 5 questions of the Demoratic Party – here are 3 about Elizabeth Warren. Elizabeth Warren for the past 10 years has been a staunch advocate for Consumer Financial protection Reforms. This work has gained her open emnity from the Financial Community but also a legions of supports among Progressive from …
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5G WIFI Developments
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5 different view of when 5G WiFi arrives WhatIs tells us that “5G is the coming fifth-generation wireless broadband technology based on the IEEE802.11ac standard.” 5G will provide better speeds, latency response and density of coverage than the current 4G. 5G operates with a 5Ghz signal and is set to offer speeds of up to …
Read More 8 Years of Bush+GOP Madoffs
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This image by Barry Blitt tells the story of Frank Rich’s latest column in haunting elegance. The Bush Administration and the fully complicitous Republican party are doing more than Madoff – they are getting off Scott Free for major travesties to the laws and stature of the US Government. Yet the Obama team is reluctant …
Read More A Financial Parable
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During the past 5 days in Toronto I have been working in the big beautiful Metro library on a special web study. And I have seen a whole slew of people pounding the EliteBooks for the upcoming CFA 2009 exams in June. CFA is the Certified Financial Analyst designation that is vital to getting a …
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A Gagging Dose of Diana Furchtgott-Roth at MarketWatch
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The WSJ’s sibling website Marketwatch has a resident liberally bearish voice , Paul Farrell, who regularly rains hell and brimstone on the perpetual bull market, climate change consequences and his latest tirade, the Inequality Bubble Is Accelerating. To balance that blue point of view, Marketwatch needed an Ann Coulter-like bloody red flak attacks . Voila …
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A Peek at Wall Street
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The Wall Street Journal today gives a fascinating peek at what concerns the Street as the US budget deficit negotiations continue in Washington. Here is the WSJ video backdrop: As the country watches a game of Budget Chicken with far reaching implications, the Journal tells what it takes to own a private jet, whether their …
Read More A Reading Feast at theDailyBeast
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Over the past half year, I have become a huge fan of theDailyBeast. theDailyBeast is the other website for Newsweek – very provocative and opinionated articles, thus in the manner of Fox New not bound by rigorous no-bias paternalistic standards of Newsweek. The difference between the two is the spice that makes the two work well together. …
Read More A Stockquote Machine
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Here is a bit of widgetry available for free from Yahoo (caution they watch what you watch and record the selfsame Google-like.) For general stock quotes and weather I find the widgets innocuously helpful. Then again I may have to take a fifth on this recommendation. Facebook Twitter Google+ Pinterest LinkedIn Related posts: Global Harming …
Read More A Tale of Two Mobile Apps: Apple iPhone vs Palm Pre
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I have been absolutely astounded by the spectacular rise in the number of Apps for the iPhone. From 2008’s launch date’s 40 apps to 5000 apps three months later and now more than 50,000 apps as of the turn of Summer 2009. Last time I saw this type of programming support and take-off was with …
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A WTF Statement from President Obama?!
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Its been rare that one would expect to a hear a WTF statement from President Obama; but in the waning days of his Presidency Barack Obama served up just such a message to his good friend and campaign cohort, David Axlerod. We don’t even have to paraphrase it because its all caught on tape.About Hope …
Read More ABC’s This Week Misfires
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This Week with George Stephanopoulos — Newsmakers, Politics and Analysis – is how ABC News characterizes their Sunday morning news commentary show. I have been a devoted watch for over 10 years. But following WWE-Worldwide Wrestling Exhibition match between Democratic Party Chairman Kaine versus Republican Party Chairman Steele has me seriously looking for alternatives: I …
Read More About Privacy
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5 years ago, former Sun CEO Scott McNealy scoffed at the idea that there was any privacy left. And given not just the Web, Google, and Security breeches but also what is happening behind the scenes from government (for example, NSA scanning of mobile phone and Internet transmissions, etc); business (for example, increasing storage and …
Read More Adobe Flash Comeback
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Adobe’s Flash is making a comeback despite the petulance of Apple’s Steve Jobs. Adobe is rising because of AIR and Flash. Can you imagine such a turnaround? 9 months after being pilloried unmercifully [and unjustifiably] by Mr. America Innovates, Adobe’s Flash is staging a huge comeback. One can see it in the many design-wins in …
Read More Adobe Story? “I am sticking to it …”
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Adobe has a wonderful online text editor Acrobat Buzzword available here and see below: So why would it be introducing a second online editor, called Adobe Story? Story appears to have only one additional feature – the ability to share documents among editors while missing a lot of the features associated with Adobe and Buzzword …
Read More Adobe’s Apple Conundrum
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Adobe management has a major problem – the operating platform where 50% of its sales come from, Apple, has had top executives sabotaging Adobe’s products and market position. Worse, this abusive behavior has been going on for decades. True, the idea of development neutrality of Operating System vendors is at best only ethically binding [which …
Read More After Carney’s Curveball
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In a June 18th 2008 story, Heather Scoffield of the Toronto Globe and Mail is leading the charge on getting things wrong on the Canadian economy. And she is using supporters like Dale Orr at Global Insights, Patricia Croft at Phillips Hager North, and Derek Holt at Scotia Capital who is of the opinion that …
Read More After the Madoff Slam Dunk
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Judge Denny Chin certainly got the sentencing right – Madoff’s crimes and motives were certainly heinous – almost like a serial financial murderer of no remorse. But there are still notable problems. In the past 3 years, there have been other monumental Financial misdeeds – and most of the perpertrators have gotten away scott free …
Read More After The Midterm Elections
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The NYTimes is publishing two views of what happens after the elections from Paul Krugman, liberal and conservative David Brooks. Both are at least agreeing on the starting premise: The GOP will likely take the House and possibly the Senate in the upcoming elections. But they could not be more different on their assessment of …
Read More After the Sun Sets, What Now for IBM?
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After IBM, What Now for Sun? is the title of a good article at Business Week assessing the consequences of no merger between IBM and and Sun. But the better question is our title. Over the past 20 years and despite leading the US on patents, IBM has slowly but surely become the image of …
Read More After the VP Debate
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After the VP debate, it is becoming obvious that Barack Obama and Joe Biden are shaping up to win a landslide victory in the Presidential election. Despite doing much better than in the Katie Couric interviews, Governor Palin simply could not deflect (and almost every time switched the subject) on Joe Biden’s telling criticisms of …
Read More Al Gore’s Real Prize
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Al Gore won not just the Nobel Peace Prize this last week but also another perhaps more valuable award – king/queen maker for the Democratic presidential nomination. Of course Al is not going to enter the presidential race; but who he endorses among the Democratic candidates now has even greater coin. Al Gore is being …
Read More Al Jazeera for News
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Hillary Clinton is right – for real news about the Middle East, Al Jazeera is the goto website. After trying BBC, CNN, Fox News, NYTimes, and Time ye Editor finally tried Al Jazeera and found page after page of news of what is happening in the Mideast from Morocco to Pakistan. And based on some …
Read More Algae Flourish into Oil
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The references to algae as a climate changer is beginning to do the media’s exponential growth – and flourish like a dank warm pond covered with … uhh, algae. First, the July 25-31st issue of the New Scientists has a story about Geneticist Craig Venter and research he is doing with a bunch of big …
Read More Aljazeera Blinks in Syria: Update
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Update: April 22, 2011. After massive shootings of 70++ demonstrators today, Syria Live is back to being truly live on Aljazeera. Syrian PM Assad and the Syrian government warned that demonstrations would be subject to arms fire – and did it. This is a Rubicon crossing. Tribal influences may be coming into play – see …
Read More Allan Greenspan Gardening
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In landscape photography there are two terms for how photographers try to enhance a scene – one is called “sweeping” and the other is called “gardening” . Sweeping involves removing all the obvious defects from a scene that might well be done later in Photoshop-post processing. Remove that cup or other junk; crop down to …
Read More Amazon’s Sense of Fullfillment
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Take the 5th Amendment Jeff & fellow Amazonians, as repeat offenders you are way past “three strikes”. Facebook Twitter Google+ Pinterest LinkedIn Related posts: Supreme Court Unlimited Campaign Financing Debate Greedy Guts Itself: The Tag Team Match Flash Paper Saints Preserve US – US Senate Rescues Wall Street Gambling Dens! Its the Economy Stupid
Read More American SuperWealthy Wage War on America!
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Only in America could you see a headline like this – American SuperWealthy Wage War on Americans! Such an irony – the SuperWealthy who have risen to power and position by a combination of hard work, good fortune and stealth are finally throwing off the shackles of their dependence on the good will of the …
Read More An Approach to Open Source
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Open Source Software has , as any who are involved know, a dual edge to the sword. It delivers great range and depth to how problems , especially in programming can be solved. But on the other hand its money making model is down right monastic. Open Sourcers in programming for example can charge a …
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An Essay for the Coursera Class: Behavioral Economics
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In the Coursera class Behavioral Economics taught by Duke Professor Dan Ariely, all the students had to write a mid-term essay in which they described the ideas of Behavioral Economics and how the methods of the discipline could be used to solve an economic problem. Despite the fact, that most of the methods in the …
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Android/Linux as Major PC OS
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Android and therefore Linux is finally emerging as a major PC operating system. Tablets like Motorola Xoom, Motorola Atrix, Samsung Galaxy Tab and Samsung Galaxy 10.1 tablets already put Linux/Android in a more active role on tablets while Android has just taken top position in the smartphones market. But the clincher will be the emergence …
Read More Andy Roddick – Tragic Hero
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The Times of London Sports Editors Simon Barnes and Neil Harman got Sunday’s Wimbledon story right. Andy Roddick was not just the ragged warrior but also the hero of the match – unfortunately, the tragic hero. For no country is quite like the US in Sports. To finish second is equivalent to finishing thirtieth or …
Read More Another View: Moores Law Slowing
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Three weeks ago this blog presented Moores Law is Alive and Well. But reader reaction was mixed because the post emphasized growth in computing power rather than number of transistors per chip. But really Moores Law has two meanings in electronics. The strict original circuit design definition was that the number of transistors on a 2D integrated circuit chip would double …
Read More Apache License, Google and Meego Layers, Linux Triumphs
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It is worthwhile point out that Google’s Apache-licensed Android is seen both by Gartner and comScore as one of the fastest growing smartphone OS. And in case you are wondering there is a flood of new Android and Chrome OS based devices reaching the market this summer and fall. And Intel + Nokia with MeeGo …
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Apple Abandons Web Designers
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Two years ago, Takethe5th did a story on how Bill Gates, Steve Ballmer and the Microsoft Minions did a 20 year continuous shafting of Web Developers. Well, in the Web World times change at a Back-to-the-Future pace. Now Apple under CEO Tim Cook has taken over the shit-on-you toilet and is shafting all those Web Designers …
Read More Apple and China
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The NYTimes story last week on the iEconomy in China has raised again the issue of working conditions and notably practices in China. By Apple executives own admission this is a sensitive issue which could spoil the Apple Brand. Employees work excessive overtime, in some cases seven days a week, and live in crowded dorms. …
Read More Apple at the Crossroads: Leadership in Client Computing at Stake
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My brother Mark has done very well by his investment in Apple stock over the past decade. Given the recent, relatively substantial downturn in Apple stock PE ratio he received an investment advisory from ye Editor. Here is the jist of those remarks. I think Apple is at a crossroads– they could have become the major desktop PC …
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Apple Does A Nadal – Monfils Match
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In the US Open tennis tournament taking place in New York, Rafael Nadal and Gaels Monfils squared off in a match that had more action and superb rallies in the first two sets than I have seen in a longtime – and that includes the superb Federer – Roddick Wimbledon final. But the match lacked …
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Apple Good News Bad News
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The Good news for Apple is very Good indeed. Apple has a deal with China Mobile for selling Apple iPhones.Given that China Mobile has huge market share this should significantly impact Apple iPhone sales in China. However, the bottom line details are still a little murky depending on the contract. What is most remarkable is …
Read More Apple Has Mobile Monopoly Momentum
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If Gizmodo and Wired are to be believed, Apple is leading the way to a new computing paradigm – lite, bright, easy to setup and use, long battery lifed computing and communication devices. Call it the Mobile Lineup made up of iPod, iPad, and iPhone currently. But Apple has is taking a risky road because …
Read More Apple iPad’s $500 Price
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The price for the iPad at $500 starter may be a watershed. This is the target price that eReader and Smartphone vendors no longer can exceed. This is also the price that netbooks from Asus, Dell, Google, HP, and others have to beat. This becomes the Universal Mobile Working Computer top level price. This price …
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Apple iPhone 5: Me Too, Maybe
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Update 5 Days Later Five days after the iPhone announcement, NYTimes Nick Wingfield helped to confirm our verdict with this story – The iPhone 5 that Apple introduced last week with only incremental changes seemed to signal that the industry has entered an era of technological bunny hops. Faster chips, bigger screens and speedier wireless Internet …
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Apple Just Works ?
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In an interview with Charlie Rose, Apple CEO Tim Cook disclosed that the Apple advantage that they work intensively on in all their products is that “the fact is that they just work better”. Now being a long time worker in the IT and Web world, ye Editor cringed just a bit on hearing such a lofty …
Read More Apple Kid Gloves Microsoft
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Given that no love has supposedly been lost between them, it is passingly strange that Apple has been giving the “kid gloves treatment” to Microsoft. What? Can’ ye Editor see that Apple has been ringing Microsoft’s clock in the new multimedia portable devices, smartphone and tablets markets. iPod has laid waste to Zune and company; …
Read More Apple Leads Halfway to Display Only Computing
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With the iPad, Apple created the 1/2 of the DOC – Display Only Computer, a highly portable, light, full day of work device. The iPad is targeted for media play, gaming and Web surfing. The key innovation was no keyboard or mouse attached to this iBeauty – multi-touch and gestures would do thank you very …
Read More Apple Leaves Room
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Apple is leaving a lot of room to maneuver in the smartphone and tablets battle. Yes Apple has the advantages of both first-to-market and huge number of phone apps lead over its rivals. But here are three reports which suggest that there are openings for rivals. Basic unit cost mean huge margins for Apple but …
Read More Apple Magic Trackpad: UI Revolution ?
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Apple’s Magic trackpad is getting more coverage and print than a simple pointing device seemingly deserves. Takethe5th sees it as a delay in game penalty for Mac OS/X. Gizmodo sees the Magic Trackpad as a precursor to the displacement and end of Mac OS/X and the emergence of a new OS4-inspired OSMac operating environ with …
Read More Apple Media Tablet
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Despite denials from Steve Jobs and interim CEO Tim Cook, Apple appears to be working on a Netbook-like, so called Media Tablet. This appears to be a 10inch touchscreen tablet without a keyboard. The Seeking Alpha reviewers are raving and already talking $300 price for Apple stock. Now this blog has already written extensively on …
Read More Apple Parings
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Slashdot has a great posting which acts as an antidote to the domestic “Gosh iPhone is Wonderful” worship from many US Gadjeteers and IT pundits. I repeat the essence here: “With a high level of technical sophistication, critical customers, and high innovation rate, Japan is the toughest cell phone market in the world. So it’s …
Read More Apple Shorts Macs In Favor of iPad and iDevices
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Over the course of the 2010 one trend from Apple has become clear – Apple is short-changing its Mac line-up of desktops and laptops in favor of its iPad and ilk [aka iDevices]. The evidence is compelling – from the Adobe Flash attack to no touchscreen or multi-touch on the Mac lineup, Steve is asking …
Read More Apple Shorts Touch Screen for Mac Desktops and Laptops
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A few moments of conciliatory silence for the legion of Apple Mac Desktop and laptop users. They will have to wait maybe for Christmas or maybe the NewYear for their multi-touch screen computers. There was no touch+gestures in the MacMini announcements this past May . Ditto again for yesterday’s iMac announcements. Facebook Twitter Google+ Pinterest …
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Apple Snow Leopard : Second Take
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Apple is getting a stranglehold on the evolution of computing devices, particulary for consumers. iPod + iTunes dominates the media playing world. iPhone + iAppStore dominate the phone plus highly portable app and messaging world. But Apple missed the boat despite a huge technology leads on the PC desktop and laptop world back in the …
Read More Apple Stumbles over Google Voice
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Apple has built up an enviable reputation for innovation and excellence in its whole spectrum of computing/smart devices. And it has been rewarded with dominant market shares in iPod+iTunes, iPhone+Appstore, and MacOS in the Web 2.0 and Graphics world. It also has garnered app development by thousands of developers for its iPhone and iPod line-up of …
Read More Apple versus Adobe Feud
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Whats a waste! Apple’s Steve Job is getting awfully close to libelous scamming of Adobe Flash Player.Adobe has made the critical mistake of not putting enough resources into developing for Linux and Mac. And so Steve throws out HTML5 as a solution – and walks right into 3 big punches. First, HTML5 is far from …
Read More Apple vs Adobe: Take 5 … Who Cares? – Google!
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Steve Jobs has been dissing Adobe’s Flash for the past 2-3 years for reasons public but still fundamentally unknown. Since the launch of the iPhone in 2008 Flash has been programma non grata on Apple iPods and iPhones. Various reasons have been supplied including not fast enough, buggy, and drains power. The legitimacy of these …
Read More Apple vs Adobe: Take 6, Apple Graphics HW is SLOWWwwww
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Takethe5th has been following the Apple versus Adobe debate with a bit of a jaundiced eye – wondering how Flash video and all its broad range of applications can run so fast on Windows yet slow on Macs [and Linux too]. Adobe claims that the latest Flash player 10.1 has not been tuned quite yet …
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Apple vs Microsoft Blowout Quarters
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The Financial Press reported that both Apple and Microsoft had “blow out quarters” for their June 2011 end quarterly reports. The table below tells the tale: Comparison of AAPL-Apple and MSFT-Microsoft July 2011 Sales and Earnings Description AAPL Sales AAPL Profits MSFT Sales MSFT Profits Mar end 2011 $24.7B $6.0B $16.4B $5.2B Jun end 2011 …
Read More Apple, Google, Microsoft Now Dominate Computing
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The Big 3 in Consumer Computing for the next 3-8 years have declared themselves. With Microsoft and Google now committing to hardware as well as software they have joined Apple as all-in in Consumer Computing. In effect the Apple Model, compete in any and all hardware and software segments while holding the critical OS keys …
Read More Apple, Microsoft at Same Tipping Point
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See Apple’s latest moves on this Tipping Point here. Rapid developments in smartphones and the emergence of Netbooks would suggest that Apple-AAPL and Microsoft-MSFT are reaching tipping points in their respective industries. However, the probability of when and the nature of the Tip may be different. But first before considering anything else, lets take a …
Read More Apple: No Multi-touch Screens on Mac Desktops and Laptops
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Apple’s announcement today, the new Lion 10.7 Mac OS X with Multi-touch confirmed that as a politician Steve Jobs would be hopeless in the current political climate. Here was Steve Jobs telling his audience that they, Apple, have studied the problem and multi-touch just does not work on vertical screens – so Apple will not …
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Apple’s Brand of Do No Evil
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Apple is reserving the right to sue Kodak into oblivion is the headline at AllThings Digital. Once Steve Jobs opened the patent lawsuit “magic box” in Cupertino, Tim Cook seems not able or even remotely inclined to close the lid on the lawyers. This legal maneuvering will have real implications for the rate of innovation at …
Read More Apple’s iPad: 3 Viewpoints
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After much speculation, Apple’s iPad hit the Gadget Mindscape market with a thud. To say that the Gadgeterati did not like the iPad is, unfortunately for Apple, an understatement: Gizmodo – 8 things about the iPad that sucks – No Thanks Apple PCWorld – Apple’s iPad mistakes – so many Engadget – On the iPad, …
Read More Are PC’s in Danger of Becoming Redundant ?
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Progress on smartphones and tablets which are touch and gesture enabled are moving so rapidly that laptops and PCs are in danger of becoming redundant. Well if not redundant, consigned to specialized development tasks. What has happened is that woefully untapped need for touch-enabled computing has been explosively released first with the iPhone then Android …
Read More Arrayed Against Financial Reform
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This is the weekend when the Financial Reforms, just passed by the Senate, but now subject to reconciliation of the House and Senate versions, gets analyzed in the major business and news media. And its open hunting season among the Financial lobbyists. Read this story about the lobbying forces and money being marshaled for the …
Read More As Murdoch’s News Empire Crumbles: Rule of Law Implications
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News Corp International is the name of Rupert Murdoch’s media empire that stretches from his native Australia [owning many of the largest Australian newspapers] thru Europe with many interests based in England [including Harpers Collin Book Publishing, Sky Italia and other Sky TV networks, several newpapers including the Sunday Times and the just now defunct …
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As PC Market Fragments, Winners and Losers
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The PC market is seeing a profound split or forking in the road on how Computing is served to the public. It is creative versus utility usage. The result should see in the next 2-3 years a profound drop of 30-70% in classic PC sales [think desktop, laptops and most clamshell notebooks]. PCs will be …
Read More As the Season of Money Begins …
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There is an interesting article in the Sports section of the New York Times. As the Jets pack up for the Season having just failed to be the Arizona Cardinals of this season – the Times Reporters ask what will the team need to make it to the top next season. And the analysis is …
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At Last, Major Media Catch-up to the Windows 8 Convertible Advantage
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Now this reviewer does not like to gloat but it is always a nice to see how far ahead of the Major Media Pack one can be. First the NYTimes and now Marketwatch, more than a year late, have “seen the opportunity and lead” that Windows 8 has in 2-in-1 or convertible laptops/tablets and with …
Read More At Last, Major Media Catch-up to the Windows 8 Convertible Advantage Read More »
At the Root of the Financial Crisis: White Collar Crime Goes Scot-free Again
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Business Week is describing how the people who brought you the Financial Meltdown are now busy siphoning off Meltdown Bailout money. See here the old/new SubPrime Wolves. And this is not the only occurrence. The NYTimes cites how badly depleted the FBI has been to fight white collar crime – and despite warnings and requests …
Read More At the Root of the Financial Crisis: White Collar Crime Goes Scot-free Again Read More »
Avoiding the Windows Phone 7 Trainwreck
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Diverse IT pundits agree on one thing – Windows Phone 7 to be announced on Monday is going to be a train wreck. The only question is how big and how fast. First, eWeek establishes why Windows Phone 7 will be way behind the state of the smartphone art with this ten point presentation. Now …
Read More Back to the old Bottling
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For the past 2-3 months, ye Takethe5th editor had hoped to apply a new theme to Takethe5th which would allow for more of a magazine style story format. Unfortunately, the way browsers display the theme is quite mixed as a recent tour of different browsers and screen sizings revealed. Sometimes the stories were 2 columns …
Read More BAM: Apple at $45…
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BAM Investor has rattled Wall Street cages by releasing a prediction of a $45 Apple stock price as of 3rd quarter 2010, latest 1st quarter 2011. Ha! Poppycock and nonsense. Apple as of June 23 end of day is at $270 and the cash and equivalents alone is north of $27/share. Who do these BAM …
Read More Banana Republicanism
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Heaven and OpenSecrets.org know the Democrats have succumbed just as whole-souledly as the Republicans to the DarkSide of Money Lords, Campaign Funding and Special Interest Lobbying. For example, the just concluded Midterm elections cost $4B and saw outside spending by Liberal/Democratic groups increasing by 100% and Conservative Republican groups by 700% to a new high …
Read More Bank of America?
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Bank of America is buying Countrywide Financial – chief instigators of the subprime mess that is wracking the US and World Financial markets. Countrywide according to several reports was on the verge of bankruptcy. Why should Bank of America buy when it could get the same assets in bankruptcy court for pennies on the dollar …
Read More Bankers Did It Again – Fcuked You Ess Ehhh
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As the US hurtles towards mid-term elections in which Supreme Court blessed campaign financing has tripled relative to the 2006 midterms, the People discover once again that their Bankers have fcuked Fiduciary Trust, Rule of Law and the People once again by Fcuking Foreclosures with gross negligence and legal fraud. Paul Krugman at the NYTimes …
Read More Banks as Flak Catchers for Major Corporations
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Tom Wolfe’s book Radical Chic & Mau-Mauing the Flak Catchers is about PR and Spokespersons who seemingly can turn any criticism to the advantage of their client. But “flak catcher” had a second nuanced meaning – those who bore the brunt of public scorn diverting attention away from client and upon themselves. As well, attention …
Read More Banksters – a Defintion
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‘Banksters’ is a term seen increasingly in the Blogosphere. It is used to describe the top executives at the “Too Big To Fail” banks and financial institutions. By alliteration, it suggests that these people are gangster-like. Let see if the shoe fits. 1)The Banksters are all in some form of financial business. 2)The Banksters are …
Read More Banksters Pay Issue Not Going Away
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Today the first of the bonus and pay packets made by the major, “Too Big To Be Allowed To Fail” banks will go “on record”. The banksters are hoping the fury over this will tamp down in the next few weeks and go away. Here are some reports that say it will not: Christian Science …
Read More Barack Obama Election Strategy
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As Barack Obama reacts with his own website to counter the ever growing smear and innuendo attacks of Republican supporters, the question becomes what is the best pro-active approach he can take to deliver his message. One approach is already taken with a powerful website that delivers his message clearly and concisely. It also is …
Read More Barack Obama: the Unspoken Truths
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Barack Obama is miles ahead of his previous two predecessors, George W Bush and Bill Clinton in being frank and candid with the American people about the nature of the problems they face. For example, Barack Obama has been bluntly honest about the nature and depth of the economic problems caused by the Credit Crisis …
Read More Barry Blitt:NYTime Editorial Cartoonist/Commentator
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Illustration for Frank Rich’s Who Is to Blame for the Next Attack, a superb op-ed piece. This is just another example of how Barry Blitt has been producing some of the most trenchant illustrative comentary(=politcal cartoons??) today. They certainly carry clout and sly humor as below: Now what could this possibly be about? This is …
Read More Barry Blitt:NYTime Editorial Cartoonist/Commentator Read More »
BCE Bondholders
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The Canadian Supreme Court ruled against Bell Canada Enterprise-BCE bondholders last Friday. It was greeted in the Business Press as a case that would make “capital market rules clear for all stakeholders”. And the vote was not close, 9-0. So bondholders were told in no uncertain terms, if you have not provided in the bonds …
Read More Behind Why Google Gets AdMob
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If there is any doubt about the the challenging and thankless task of Economic and Financial Regulation just take a gander at the recent ruling by the FTC to approve Google’s acquisition of AdMob. The NYTimes catches much of the flavor of the decision in its reporting here. The basic problems in regulation are threefold. …
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Bernie Sanders Is The Real Deal
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Reading Salon, CNN, NPR, NYTimes, Washington Post, theDailyBeast, Politico and other popular political websites this Spring into Summer, one can see the transformation of Bernie Sanders as Democratic 2016 Presidential candidate with “no chance” thru “picking up steam” to “the real deal”. Will Bernie do an Obama on Hillary? Two months ago that would be …
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Bernie Sanders on Guns
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You know that Senator Bernie Sanders is making inroads on the Democratic Presidential Primary when you see the latest polls on Iowa and New Hampshire which show Sanders narrowing the gap with front runner Hillary Clinton. Also stories in liberal websites like TheDailyBeast.com have become more like Hillary attack ads such as the following graphic: The …
Read More Best Chart of US Federal Budget
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The NYTimes has done it again- produced the best online graphic of the US Budget available anywhere. And the Times did it one day after the release of the budget proposal by the White House. This graphic tells the story of the budget in 6 ways [click on screenshot to go directly to chart] : 1)The …
Read More Best Charts of 2012 : The Power of Good Graphics
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Is this the best Chart used in US Media for 2012? What is growing in popularity on news sites like cnn.com, The Christian Science Monitor, theDailyBeast, HuffingtonPost, NYTimes, The New Republic, and Time Magazine is the frequent use of charts [or infographics] to clearly describe a situation or better illustrate some analysis. If a picture is worth …
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Best Map of Global Warming
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Ye Editor has always wondered who does a good chart of the global weather patterns? Okay, not all the wind patterns, barometer readings, humidity – it is the temperature that is of interest. Yes, on a crude scale – tell me if the weather has been trending hotter over the world in the last few …
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Bibi Netanyahu : Duplicitous
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It appears that after the Israeli election that Palestinian Premier Mahmoud Abbas, President Barack Obama and other Western leaders will be safe in identifying Israel’s Bibi Netanyahu as two-faced, cheating, deceitful, dishonest, serpent-tongued, shady, and a two-timing double-dealer. Certainly BibI Netanyahu will not be accused of honesty and trustworthiness. The NYTimes and theGuardian list the most grievous electoral …
Read More Bibi’s Folly
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Benjamin Netanyahu [also known as Bibi] may have won a Pyrhhic victory in his well received address to the US Congress. But come September at the United Nations when a vote in the General Assembly may arise on admission of Palestine as a member country with borders adhering to the pre-1967 lines – the Ship …
Read More Bill “the Hitman” Clinton and TagTeam Friends
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BillClinton over the past 2-4 years had built up a stellar reputation for statesmanship and non-divisive politics. Item, Bill had worked not once but twice with President George Bush Sr on the Tsunami Aid Fund and then on the Katrina Aid campaign. Bill had even praised the relationship and decried on Charlie Rose’s TV program …
Read More Billary or Obama
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The Democrats have a tough choice coming up beyond Super Tuesday. Will it be Billary or Obama? Now I have deliberately taken this inflammatory designation of Hillary’s campaign for reasons discussed immediately below. But first some full disclosure. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are huge steps ahead of whatever comes out of the Republican Primary …
Read More BillnHill Tagged Out ?
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The results of the South Carolina primary seems to indicate that voters have repudiated BillnHill (or Billary, as NYTimes Frank Rich calls them). Barack Obama’s victory by 24 points with a huge turnout appears to be major tag against the BillnHill tagteam. Also key endorsements help Barack. But the two headed monster that is BillnHill …
Read More Bipartisanship: No Rule of Law for Wall Street
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US voters are clamoring for bipartisanship and for the Democrats and Republicans to work together to deliver much better governance. There are too many polls that tell Washington so. But leaders from both parties cite the stridence and shrill lack of civility that undoes all efforts at good bipartisan governance. Even the one arena, foreign affairs. …
Read More Birther Rights
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Birthers do not believe that Barack Obama was born in the USA. Despite the birth certificate and the notification of birth in several Honolulu newpapers. Over 50% of Republicans believe the Birther myth while only 33% of Republicans definitely acknowledge that Obama was born in the US. This is the topic of much analysis including the …
Read More Bitter Facts for USA
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Bitter facts are very hard to swallow. A colleague committed to company and work gets laid-off by that company depite warnings. A close relative gets a medical death warrant of short duration. An artist friend sees 2 years of work eviscerated in an unexpectedly caustic review. But these are all personal events and judgments. Broader …
Read More Blagojevich and Madoff: Boxing Day Gifts
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Public Trust, like the air we breathe, is a social commons. No one party can buy or control it. But it can be tainted, polluted, and otherwise damaged by individual and collective actions. Rod Blagojevich sits at the public service tip of the “Pay to Play” disease that is infecting all levels of US Politics …
Read More Blagojevich Humor Has Bite
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Governor Rod Blagojevich provided all the US political humorists a recharging since the end of the US Presidential campaign – the Jon Stewart Show, Steven Colbert Report, and even the Sunday Funnies on ABC’s This Week with George Stephanopoulos were crammed with “wise cracks”. But as David Letterman shows, the political humor virtually wrote itself.However, …
Read More Blankfein’s Sorry Apology
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Lloyd Blankfein is CEO of investment bank Goldman Sachs – and last Tuesday he did what few other CEOs in the banking and financial industry have even contemplated doing. He apologized for … what did he apologize for? ““We participated in things that were clearly wrong and have reason to regret,” “We apologize.” – NYTimes …
Read More Bo Takes and Gives
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Count on the Bo tale to take another twist – a small melodrama of days gone by but very telling. It has tinges of Mao Red and is told by a Chinese expatriate. Check it out for a keen insight into the veritable telo-roman that is Bo Xilai and company. After taking, Bo is now …
Read More Bo Xilai: A Mirror on US Politics
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Return of the Left in China. The story of Bo Xilai has an eerie mirror to US politics. The populist Chinese leader from the western and more impoverished province of Chongqing had ruled with tough sometimes brutal policing. But he had also catered to the Left movement in China that would see reforms on housing, food supply …
Read More Bob Herbert Leaves NYTimes
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Bob Herbert is leaving the NYTimes today – his last editorial post is quite good, Losing Our Way. Here is a sampling of what Bob has to say: So here we are pouring shiploads of cash into yet another war, this time in Libya, while simultaneously demolishing school budgets, closing libraries, laying off teachers and …
Read More Book’s in Battle
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Reading is getting to be a battleground. First there is the continuing bickering over Google Books and did Google spread enough green love among book publishers, libraries and magazine/newspapers? Now there also is shaping up to be pretty serious brawl for e-Book device of choice. WSJ Marketwatch’s Therese Poletti has supplied a fight card among …
Read More Boomsday as Faction
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Boomsday by Christopher Buckley is a purported satire on Washington DC and American elites – politicians, budding bureaucrats, lobbyists, PR spin doctors, Ivy league faculty, press-flak flunkees, business tycoons and the outlandish things they will say and do to get ahead – where “ahead” clusters somewhere between the power to humiliate without peer and wealth …
Read More Breaking News: Still Good to Gamble on Wall Street
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MarketWatch has just reported that the Senate has made it safe to bet big and naked on Wall Street. An amendment to the Finance Reform Bill that would have outlawed Naked CDS – Credit Default Swaps that are pure bets on what will happen on default positions taken by others. Now naked CDS are are …
Read More Breaking News: Still Good to Gamble on Wall Street Read More »
Brenda Says Hello
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Introduction Thank you for taking the trouble to look me up. You will know right away if I am who you think I am: certainly not the same person you knew maybe 30 years ago. If my ideas are of any use to you I hope you will spread them to others. This profile was …
Read More BRIC Throws the Brick that Doomed Climate Talks
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ABC – that is the Australian Broadcast Corporation has published a story in which BRIC – i.e. India, acting in concert with Brazil and China [no word on Russia], scuttled the Copenhagen Climate Talks. Now by “doomed” is meant that no target date, no target levels for emission reductions , and no financing mechanism were …
Read More Bringing Democracy to ….
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Everytime I hear George W. Bush say the words “bringing Democracy to the world” I am awestruck that he and his cohorts don’t just out and out puke. Unfortunately with the State of the Union and other policy speeches of late, the retching opportunties have been too replete. Perhaps George is bypassing opportunities at humor …
Read More Brokers Battle Against Fiduciary Trust
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There is a battle going on in the Senate over Financial Regulation – and one of the skirmishes divides the Financial community on Fiduciary Trust. It is a case of Brokers versus Financial advisors. Brokers-dealers [think Merrill Lynch, Charles Schwab, etc] are resisting fiercely having to adhere to the Fiduciary Trust standards that Financial and …
Read More Bud Selig: Baseball’s Decommissioner?
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Baseball is a sport of rhythms and routine; something that once you play it , it definitely stays in your veins. And if you watch Baseball enough, the rightstuff also seeps in to your bloodstream and consciousness. Out in Calgary Alberta, one of my favorite pastimes was to sneak out to Foothill’s Park right next …
Read More Business as Sharks
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Shark Week was last week and I am not talking about the GOP Convention. But Financial Shark Week is being resurrected this week in the Wall Street Journal and the NYTimes. It started with Andrew Ross Sorkin noting in the Dealbook section of the NYTimes, that Facebook’s IPO-Initial Public Offering of stock was priced too …
Read More Business Disruptions and Management
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If you have been in the airline, media or electronics business in the past 10 years you have experienced Business Disruption’s accelerated pace. Check the Business RIP notices at Wikipedia. But the following articles in Forbes about the impending and ongoing demise of Sony, Best Buy and Eastman Kodak in the face of the best …
Read More Business Week Financial Info
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This blog has already praised the NYTimes and Google for their excellent and free financial information services and tools. Recently while poking around the Business Exchange I found the following article that pointed me to this intro from 2007 of the Business Week Investing web services. Here is a first, quick look at what I …
Read More Business Week Slideshow on New Green
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Business Week has a slide show on 25 projects in the energy and green technology arena that reveals some very interesting developments. I had not expected so many projects so far down the new technology curve. Well worth looking through. Facebook Twitter Google+ Pinterest LinkedIn Related posts: Business Week’s Business Exchange Wavii Start Thinfilm Solar …
Read More Business Week’s Business Exchange
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As a Web surfer one can think of some of the social networking sites with some trepidation – sort of a popularity contest in the Cloud. Judge your Flickr friends by the quality of their comments more than the number of their image postings. Facebook – look for Friends that investigate whats up in your …
Read More Business Week’s Lost Generation
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The numbers and graphs tell the story on a Lost Generation. But I have a Japanese friend who lived during the 1990’s. The scene and situation are not pretty as the numbers and article fail to convey all of the the psychological impact. This is one of the best articles in an issue which has …
Read More Canadian Political Hosers, Eh
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The Canadian Government does not want to be outdone by the US Finance-dependent Feds who are treating most of its taxpayer and citizens [but sparing the “Too Big to Fail ” Top Bracket Few] as hoi polloi and hosers who can and will be taken to tax to the tune of $TRILLIONs. Its an ongoing yes-we-can …
Read More Capital Disaffection
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Given the report from the Wall Street Journal that the banks are bonusing themselves this year at $140 Billion more than 2007’s $130 Billion despite a)still being dependent on bailout money and deficit causing extremely low Fed funds interest rates; b)having lightened their staff employment by 10-30% surviving staff are getting monster bonuses; and c)yet …
Read More Cause of the Credit Crunch:Oligarchs or Stupid Fools?
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It is curious how two article on the Credit Crunch raise more clearly the issue of financial oligarchs controling more of the political economic scene in the US. Here are the two article. One is by David Brooks at the NYTimes – Greed and Stupidity and other, cited also by Brooks, is Simon Johnson’s the …
Read More Cause of the Credit Crunch:Oligarchs or Stupid Fools? Read More »
CES 2010 Nugget: Sierra Wireless/Sprint Overdrive
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CES 2010 – the Consumer Electronics Show which has replaced COMDEX [R.I.P.] as the Las Vegas IT place to be for the electronic gadget Hosers Test. It is so big, well attended by the suppliers plus reviewers, and there is so much to see and absorb across the hottest arena in IT, mobile electronic devices …
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CES 2010 Nuggets: Amazon Kindle has lots of Competition++
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If you are like me, just pining for an eReader that is robust, light, strong, with huge storage, great + economical Wifi connections, and is not linked to Amazon only for books and other media resources – then thank CES 2010 for just hosting a pan full of promising eReader nuggets. In fact, the missing …
Read More CES 2010 Nuggets: Amazon Kindle has lots of Competition++ Read More »
Champions League Final: FIFA Fails Again
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I just abandoned watching the Champions League Final at the half between Liverpool and Real Madrid + The Referee. The Referee was bad enough ignoring Real Madrid dives, tripping and gouging. But then a crushing judo-like tackle by Sergio Ramos on Liverpool’s star, 44 goal star Mohammed Salah was the tipping point – this was …
Read More Changing of the Guard
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Here is a story ostensibly about something else but really that indicates there will be a changing of the guard in the Financial World. One of many. Facebook Twitter Google+ Pinterest LinkedIn No related posts.
Read More Chatting with Apple Fanboys
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Looking for commentary on the current ugly Apple versus Adobe confrontation on the banning of Flash from the Apple Mobile Lite lineup of products [currently, iPod, Ipad, iPhone] I Stumbled on the Cult of Mac website. Cult of Mac had the returning shot across the bow by Adobe Flash Product Evangelist Lee Brimelow after Apple’s …
Read More Chief Justice John Roberts: Another Litmus Test
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The Supreme Court and Chief Justice Roberts have a mixed reputation on its rulings of late. After promising gradualism, in his confirmation hearings, Chief Justice Roberts promised respect for precedent and a gradualist approach. But in the Fall of last year, the Chief Justice was instrumental in broadening the scope of the Citizens United case …
Read More China as a World Reliable State
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China is trying to portray itself as being a reliable economic and political player on a world scale – that the US and the G20 don’t have to act as the World’s economic engine or political fair players/referees. And the Chinese can point to strong verbal support for Euro Bonds as a sign of financial …
Read More China As Responsible Partner
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The NYTimes has an article today on getting China to act more responsibly in World diplomacy. The US has been the World’s traffic cop for the past 100 years starting with its reluctant role in World War I and continuing to this day with its primary role in the very asymmetrical War on Terror. The …
Read More China Hacks
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The impressive rise of China as a major economic and political power has started to garner attention – number one country in numbers of new car sales, fastest growing major economy among developed countries, threatening both Germany and Japan as largest exporting county, etc. But one title that China has recently taken – second in …
Read More China Losing Low Cost Wage Advantage
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China is starting to lose its low cost wage advantage. And it is not due to the revaluation of the yuan but rather, increasing inflation within the country. Here are three report that detail the situation: American Machinist – Survey says China is losing its manufacturing edge east2point6billion.com – Will China lose its cost advantage …
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China Supports North Korean Domestic Atrocities
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Why China continues to support North Korea and its crimes against its own people. Chinese officials on Tuesday despite being criticized a United Nations report [this is a must read] that served notice to Kim Jong-un, the North Korean leader, that he might be personally held liable in court for crimes against humanity committed by state …
Read More China View I:
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China has become the 2nd largest economy in the World today; and will become the largest if the government and people maintain there pact -“authoritarian one party rule in exchange for rapid economic development”. Takethe5th will link to articles that illuminate the progress China is making towards achieving that end. This first article originates with …
Read More China vs Google – the Cyber Attacks
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As predicted by this blog the China vs Google issue has escalated dramatically and the Chinese government is rejecting any suggestions that it was behind the concerted set of cyber attacks against Google and at least 20 other US firms and agencies: ”Any accusation that the Chinese government participated in cyber attacks, either in an explicit …
Read More China vs Google III
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Here is the latest on the fast evolving China vs Google story as it takes some interesting turns and starts to reveal some of its underlying causes: CNET Reports: “After warnings of strained U.S.-China relations, China’s government has issued statements denying any state involvement in the cyberattacks on Google and defending its online censorship.” This …
Read More China vs Google IV : Bill Gates View
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The Guardian and Financial Times in England have been covering the China vs Google story much more closely than US media. So when the Guardian published a story about Bill Gates reactions to the conflict , curious, I took a look: After pouring billions of dollars into the global fight against malaria and rebranding Microsoft …
Read More China vs Google: the Denouement
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UPDATE2: Washington Post calls decision a watershed, Android is delayed on China Mobile, etc. UPDATE: Google moved its search site to HongKong where it can deliver uncensored searches.What is uncertain is how China will react. China already blocks YouTube will it do the same for Google Maps, Apps, and Voice? What happens with Google Android …
Read More China: Blatant Piracy
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This is a Fake Apple Store in China There is a story circulating in the business press about a new case of blatant piracy in China – fake Apple Stores are cropping up all over China. For the past ten years since China was admitted into the WTO and obtained most favored nation status for …
Read More China’s Manufacturing Luster Diminishes
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One of the fundamental problems confronting the new Obama administration is that the flat world is working against American manufacturing jobs. For example, the Obama team is picking up the crescendo of calls for a US lead Green Revolution in technology and manufacturing not just in Energy and Cars but throughout all industries. But the …
Read More China’s Massive Internet Security Turmoil:Updated
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Update:Penn-Olsen, a Chinese Tech watching website is reporting that Chinese Hackers say release of massive amounts of data was just a joke. The data released on the internet last week was already widely available in hacking circles, according to Wan Tao, the founder of a popular hacking online community. Wan told the Dongfang Daily that …
Read More China’s Massive Internet Security Turmoil:Updated Read More »
Christmas 2011 Smartphone Showdown
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PCWorld has a very revealing table on the top smartphones for this Christmas: Color coding of the best versus the lowest ratings is more revealing as Motorola’ s RAZR unexpectedly stands out with better weight and size dimensions and a key feature, MicroSD card which already allows adding of 64GB of storage for all those full …
Read More Christmas on Wall Street
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Christmas on Wall Street was another Tiger Woods story. The New York Times articles title says it all – Banks Bundled Bad Debt, Bet Against It and Won. Let me paraphrase. Banks like Goldman Sachs, Deutsche Bank, JPMorgan and others created and sold derivative intruments that made them money and then took the counter position …
Read More Civility Gets Shot To Death
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The Press is calling it the Tragedy in Tucson, but what really took place in Tuscon Arizona with the machine gunning to death of a Federal Court Judge John Roll, five other innocents, 20 victims in total including the near-mortal wounding of US Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords is that Civility got shot to death. The hurting …
Read More Classic Political Paralysis
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In the Business section of the Toronto Star of October 6th 2007, there is coverage of the Ontario Provincial Election by Michael Babad that really sets the case for why our political processes are way out of kilter. Michael shows in straightforward terms how the rise of the Canadian dollar and the continuing effects of …
Read More Colbert Comedy – High Satire
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Stephen Colbert’s comedy show won the Emmy award this past week for writing. And this edition of the show underlines why. You will have to endure a movie commercial – but endure at least to The Word = “Future Perfect” – this is satire at its very best!Kudos to the writers and ongrats to Stephen …
Read More Computings Big 3: Apple Google Microsoft
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The Emergence of Computing’s New Big 3 Apple, Google and Microsoft have become the dominating Big 3 in the Computing Industry “For the past 30 years Computing has been Consumer-driven” – Ben Acelman In case you have not noticed, there is a new Computing Reality – Apple, Google, and Microsoft have become the BIG 3 …
Read More Confabulation
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Strangely, the DailyBeast gave ink to Michael Medved and his spouting of the GOP propaganda meme that all politicians are liars but President Obama is the worst one. This is a vital Big Lie for the Republicans. Hence concentrating on scandals like the Benghazi scandal and the Obama apology tour – are all birds of …
Read More Consumed and Tortured
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Currently Washington is being consumed and tortured by the controversy over President George Bush and his adminstration’s many declarations that “We don’t torture” and the revelation that indeed the US did. And such torture occurred before, during and after the infamy of “We don’t torture”. The Obama administration appears to agree with Republican pundit Peggy …
Read More Consumer Financial Protection Agency as Humor
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The idea of a independent Consumer Financial Protection Agency is gaining traction again as seen in this Huffington Post . Could the following LOL comic skit be contributing to the momentum? The problem for the GOP opposition is that they do not want to be on the opposite side of popular and Tea Party sentiment …
Read More Coursera and Group vs Individual Decisionmaking
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I have been taking Coursera’s Irrational Behaviour taught by Duke Professor Dan Ariely. The course concentrates on individual decision making and how decision methods depart from traditional rational and economic utility models. There are compelling experimental and neuroscience proofs that a)individuals use different model or methods of decision making depending on circumstances[ the Kahneman and Tversky fast …
Read More Coursera University Courses II
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Update: Breaking on July 17. 2012 the NYTimes finally recognizes the profound impact Coursera and other free online university offerings are having on undergraduate education. Read it here or follow Takethe5th.com and get the story 3 months earlier and with live experience nuances. This blog has been an enthusiastic supporter of the Coursera University Courses …
Read More Cracks in the GOP’s Base
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Image from Streetlog For the past five years, the GOP has been able to marshall block votes against most Democratic critical legislation in Congress. Given the continued exploitation of the filibuster rule in the Senate where a 60-40 vote is required to pass any legislation that Republican Senate Leader Mitch McConnell cares to oppose. Because …
Read More Creative Cloud – Adobe Solving its Apple and Pricing Problems
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Adobe has not yet completely solved the problem of Steve Jobs and Apple. Steve unjustifiably killed Adobe’s Flash brand with his libelous accusations on the performance of Flash. See here for the all the details on how nefarious and self-serving Steve’s rants about Flash were but how NO-Flash presents problems for Apple. However, NO …
Read More Creative Cloud – Adobe Solving its Apple and Pricing Problems Read More »
Cyber Warfare Moves to PrimeTime
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There is a posting at Aljazeera about cyberwarfare that reads like a Clive Cussler Techno-thriller novel [try Polar Shift]. There is the intrigue and secrecy associated with hacking and the security defying exploits of hackers that make your taming of Microsoft Word’s formating ribbon look like what it is – tedious child’s play. But cyber-warfare has now …
Read More Daily Fact: GOP Presidents have worst record for Stock Market Performance
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No less an authority than the Economist shows that under Democratic Presidents the stock market has outperformed by a wide margin what was accomplished by Republican Presidents. And this GOP poor economic and stock market performance goes back 80 years. The fundamental problem is that Republican Presidents have had poor economic policy and tolerated …
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Daily Facts: How the US Has Voted for Past 100 Years
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Source: Salon.com What is fascinating to watch is how the Deep South changes and the Left Coast. South Dakota appears to be true Republican redfor the longest span while Also watch Indiana and Ohio change allegiances like a chameleon with indigestion. Facebook Twitter Google+ Pinterest LinkedIn Related posts: Walmart: “1 Terabyte Drive for $100” Bitter …
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Daily Facts: Total Taxes Paid As % of Income USA 2011
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Given Mitt Romney’s disdain for 47% of Americans as tax moochers and the GOP mysterious “how are they going to pay for it in the proposed Ryan budget”, today’s daily facts looks at who and how much various income groups pay in total US taxes. But not just the total taxes paid by income group …
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Daily Facts: Trust in US Financial Institutions
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Each quarter the Kellogg School of Northwestern University and the University of Chicago Booth School of Business do a survey of more than 1,000 American households examining the trust in US Financial institutions. The latest results for June 2012 are labelled Too Big To Trust. The Stock Market has the lowest confidence level at 15% …
Read More Daily Facts: World Consumption of OIL
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In an article on World oil usage, Dump the Pump, in the NewScientist, page 36, is the source of the following very interesting data: World wide use of oil now averages 90 million barrels per day, Road usage consumes 50% of that total Heat and power usage take the next 18% Non-fuel chemical usage take …
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David Brooks Lamentation: The GOP Is Rotting
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David Brooks has had a thankless task since 2000. He has had to defend the policies of the Republican Party first under George W. Bush and 9/11 and the Iraq War and then Wall Street Housing Collapse. This was quickly followed in 2008 to 2016 by the Newt Gingerich+Mitch McConnell Scorched Earth NO DEAL policy …
Read More David Brooks: On Defection
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One of the most dysfunctional aspects of the current GOP is its rigid PartyThink. Some credit Ronald Reagan for the 11th commandment – thou shalt not speak ill of a GOP candidate or policy. There is a mighty uniform GOP messaging operation on all policy matters . And it is remarkable how uniformly that PartyThink=PartySpeak …
Read More Dawning on America
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There is a coming Awakening or Dawning on America that its 100-150 year reign as the premier economic and politic power is coming to an end. With technology and economic trends ripping like torrents throughout the World, what is to prevent the USA from becoming the next Blockbuster or Lehman Brothers – rapidly going out …
Read More Deal or No Deal: The Arguments Against Any Meaningful Financial Reforms
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The Deal.com has a story about the Nature of Financial Reform in view of the World Credit Crisis which basically argues that reform in the US is hopeless because a)the regulators become captured by the very financial markets they are supposed to control and b) competitiveness of US financial firms will be jeopardized by regulations …
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Debate Question for Obama: Why has Bipartisanship Failed?
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One of the key campaign policies of then Senator Obama in the 2008 was a commitmment to Bipartisanship and Unity. 4 Years later and Bipartisanship is a failure and a skit on SNL. What happened and why? Here are three views on what happened. New York Magazine – Why Did Obama’s Bipartisanship Fail? The Guardian – Bipartisanship …
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Debate Question for Romney: Really, Why Are Tax Cuts Necessary?
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Given that US Banks have more money that they know what to do with [Wall Street Journal]; US Business Businesses are sitting on $5trillion hoard in cash[TheAtlantic] yet corporate taxes are not just declining but at their lowest levels in 60 years[Takethe5th]; and the very wealthy top 20% of Americans now command a growing wealth and …
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Defining the Post-PC Era
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Steve Jobs and Apple are getting headline stories about the declaration of the Post PC Era; but the reality is that Post PC era started at least 10 years ago. The catalyst has been the fact that Microsoft with its ironclad monopoly wiped out a creative ecosystem around the PC [just look at the software …
Read More Deliberately Irrational
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Being deliberately irrational has become the modus operandi for the GOP as the party of Political Conservatives. However, in recent months, the conservative norms have taken ever more extreme forms including the deliberately irrational or mendacious. Take the latter and Republican Senator John Kyl of Arizona who declared in the Senate that 90% of Planned …
Read More Delivery of Opportunity
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I recently had an experience with Fedex Ground service that emphasizes the still large opportunities available in the Business of Delivery. I had been waiting for a package for four months along with my ever patient editor. It finally shipped – and the notice of its attempted delivery was delivered to my offices (I could …
Read More Democracy “Fever”
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The ill-fated Iraq incursion and subsequent fiasco may be the source of more widespread problems than instability in the Mid East. Remember the neoconservatives (take a look here for a caustic appraisal of US neoconservatives)were promising that preventitive incursions like Iraq would not only root out malicious regimes but also present the opportunity to “create …
Read More Derivative Caution: Greedy Guts Not Alone
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In my Greedy Guts Itself series of articles here I have been arguing that today’s quant driven derivative instruments (poorly understood and very hard to measure) plus the automatic computer-driven trading systems are one of the major factors (but not the only ones) driving the current sub-prime fiasco and the general malaise in the financial …
Read More Detroit Fumbles
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I am a hopeless Detroit Lions football fan. This tortured allegiance goes way back to before Barry Sanders and even the Bobby Layne eras. So in time it twinkles back to the high-fin Detroit cars of the 1950’s. Now any of you who know football, know that I have chosen the-patience-of-Job challenging loyalty. The Lions …
Read More Dirty Rotten LIBOR Prediction
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The following is a rotten prediction based on the LIBOR Scandal. It is “rotten” becuase it has huge implications not just for the US Presidential elections but also for worldwide governance. And the situation is not pretty. First take a look at the LIBOR Scandal here: The whole problem is this. If banks and Financial …
Read More Discontent in America
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The Economist has in its July 26th issue, the first of two articles on Discontent in America. The polls are in alignment. Gallup shows a strong rise in discontent in America. When asked “How do you feel about the way things are going in America ? “, close to 85% of American register Dissatisfied versus …
Read More Distinguished Humor: George W. Bush
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“You can fool some of the people all of the time and those are the ones you want to concentrate on” just a joke from a Gridiron Dinner in 2001. Facebook Twitter Google+ Pinterest LinkedIn Related posts: George Will: The Markets Aint Misbehavin’ Now that Bush Is Gone … 8 Years of Bush+GOP Madoffs Humor …
Read More Do It Yourself Investing: Google Finance
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As one can well imagine throughout the Financial Fiasco, letting the Financial community handle your investments has become both financially risky and intellectually stressing. So I am now doing do-it-yourself investing. Thus I am responsible for tuning and diversifying the portfolio with returns and risks managed to longer term goals. And being a Web developer …
Read More Do It Yourself Investing: Morningstar Stock Screener
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This is the second tutorial on free financial investment tools which have proved to be very useful in doing financial analysis and portfolio tuning or rebalancings. One of the most important tasks these days is to constantly assess your portfolio for what may be better replacement investments. In order to do this investors must screen …
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Do It Yourself Investing: ValueCruncher
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This tool, ValueCruncher, is a personal favorite because from business school days I have always liked to do simple what-if analysis based on my best assumptions for the growth in earnings and revenues for a company. I know – this is like NPV-Net Present Value analysis – subject to highly variable assumptions. But that is …
Read More Doing More than Blowing Financial Bubbles
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In his NYTimes article, the Joy of Sachs, Paul Krugman underlines one of the fundamental business problems confronting the US. Is the US Government going to continue to “invest” in the Financial Industry by not making any meaningful regulations? Is the US going to allow crowding out of other industries by not controlling Financial compensation …
Read More Doing the Right Thing in Ontario
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Here is a searing example of how divisive religion has become in the politics of the day, especially in North America. Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty announced this week that he was considering alternating other major faith’s prayers with the Lord’s Prayer that opens each session of parliament. The Premier argued that because Ontario and Canada …
Read More Doing the Troops Wrong
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The following is a must read column by Bob Herbert of the New York Times. Here is the jist: “At the top of the list of no-brainers in Washington should be Senator Jim Webb€™s proposed expansion of education benefits for the men and women who have served in the armed forces since Sept. 11, 2001. …
Read More Doing the Troops Wrong II
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In our previous post, Doing the Troops Wrong, I pointedout how “born-again fiscal conservative only in his last year in office” George Bush had found a way to sell his troopers short once again by refusing to pass an education GI Bill for all Iraq War veterans. This Bill has several benefits including a)honoring the …
Read More DOJ To Get Tough with Big Banks: Principle at Stake
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NYTimes Dealbook has a story today that the DOJ-Department of Justice is finally going to get tough with the Big Banks. “Getting tough” means no more “largest financial fine history but no admission of guilt by the financial institution – i.e. off the criminal action hook. Unfortunately, 5years into the financial crisis this is a …
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Dow Jones Marketwatch:Financial Reforms Maybe Too Weak
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The BP disaster in the Gulf of Mexico is acting like a proof of concept on economic and financial regulation. BP has had the run of the mill on oil drilling with a cosy and inhouse relationship with its regulator for drilling the MMS-Mineral Management Services. Something that Wall Street has been attempting to establish …
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Dualing Election Dashboards
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I have been looking for some good Presidential Primary Election dashboards. At first I gave the NYTimes the nod especially for its subsidiary Financing and Where the Cadidates have been graphis. But now my allegiance may have changed to Yahoo because it gives more details, including the crucial voter turnout numbers. Not as easy to …
Read More Echo Trips in Russia and the USA
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The NYTimes has a stunning travel story, The Russia Left Behind, open free to the public. It is a journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow not by plane or high-speed train; but by motor car – sort of like a Route 66 trip in the USA. The Times tells us at the journey’s outset: On …
Read More Economic and Political Revolutions
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One would hardly know based on the coverage in the Press and on TV – Economic and Political Revolutions are taking place right before the pundits eyes and they have scarcely acknowledged them. 1)The Web as a shaper of direct governance rose significantly. The Web through blogs and business webstes a)carried the latest news of …
Read More Economic Populism References
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Globalization and widening income inequality/disparity in the US appear to be driving events in the US Presidential election. Lest the debate get lost in shades of gray or deliberate ambiguities let me offer a list of helpful and clear writing on the nature of the events. Globalization: IMF – the strategic view UofFlorida Globalization Booklist …
Read More Egypt in America
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America has fallen just like Egypt into the grips of ruthless despots. These despots have a rule of law unto themselves[see Frank Rich]. They have accrued huge wealth and unlimited risk insurance from taxpayers; yet the themselves barely pay taxes[see Bob Herbert]. They have accrued $trillions in no small part due to US Federal largesse …
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Elegy on Apple and Macs
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Why I’ve all but given up on Apple and MacOS. As a photographer and graphic artist, these are words I never thought I would write. After more than two decades of being a dedicated graphics power user, someone who over that time has polished and finished tens of thousands of images and video clips while …
Read More Eliot Spitzer I : Privacy Canary
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There was extensive coverage of the Eliot Spitzer case on CBC Newsworld today. Nancy Wilson asked an online expert how the government could be so sure of the case against Spitzer. Three things were cited – first, the banks have to report any transaction over $10,000 to the Federal government. Second, large cash transactions in …
Read More Eliot Spitzer II : Vendetta
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Vendetta: 1. A feud between two families or clans that arises out of a slaying and is perpetuated by retaliatory acts of revenge; a blood feud. 2. A bitter, destructive feud. Ex-governor Eliot Spitzer has been an unbelievable sucker to become the victim of a vendetta. He should have known that he had acquired highly …
Read More Eliot Spitzer III : The Andy Rooney Effect
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Andy Rooney has just done a tongue and cheek 60 Minutes piece on why anyone would want to be President. Given Eliot Spitzers demise, one could easily extend that to a much wider range of political offices. There is a paucity of legal pay for dancing on the head of an increasingly fragile legal and …
Read More Eliot Spitzer IV : David Letterman on Whoring
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Last night on David Letterman Tonight Show David crossed the line. Apparently if you intimate going out with hookers or hint of whoring around then it may be okay to do it. But certainly such “nudge, nudge, wink, winking” appears to allow you to be judge, jury and executioner on others who may do it. …
Read More Eliot Spitzer Six : Sex in the City
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The NYTimes which broke the Eliot Spitzer story is doing wrap up coverage here. What is notable about what the NYTimes deems “fit to print” are the following: 1) The prosecution of the Prostitution Ring and four of its owners is going forward; 2)The other “Johns” appear to have dodged the indictment bullet so far; …
Read More Eliot Spitzer V: Five Ramifications
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From the Eliot Spitzer case there are five other major ramifications: 1)The NYTimes certainly cannot be accused of treating Democrats with kid gloves. 2)The vice-presidential choices of the two presidential contenders will be watched with much greater interest. 3)The US is certainly not European in its sexual morality. 4)The news media are certainly moving along …
Read More Eliot Spitzer: The Case of the Johns
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Now that New York has replaced one wife cheating governor with another, the prosecution of the johns in the Emperor’s Club case takes on new dimensions. How can the attorneys who have taken the liberty to reveal Spitzer as a John then leave at least 50 other johns unrevealed and unprosecuted ? Well one answer …
Read More Elmore Leonard’s Westerns
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The Complete Western Stories of Elmore Leonard is a small jewel, like a remembered line of dialogue from one of Leonard’s stories. Now this reader chooses his Western’s carefully being more a Mark Twain fan than Louis Lamour. Give me the edginess and contradictions of the grasping opportunism that was Western expansion. And that is at …
Read More Emergency, Emergency
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The comment here is that recent presidents are crying wolf over “Emergency situations” in order to accrue power and support for near unilateral policy making. The two debaters are saying that both Barack Obama and George Bush have been engaging in a Ponzi scheme for power instead of money based on National Emergency Cry Wolf. …
Read More Enabling Web Encryption Easily
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One of the major security problems is that data on the web often runs naked. This is due to two reasons – 1)the HTTPS protocol can be more difficult and costly to implement and 2)there is a notable performance hit to be taken in most situations. Network World is reporting work done at Stanford University …
Read More Energy Innovation
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Even T.Boone Pickens, oilman and financier of the Swiftboats Smear campaign against Presidential candidate John Kerry, has recognized that there is a global contest for Energy Innovation going on right now that will determine which countries will be economically prosperous – and which countries will be playing catch up. Because the countries that perfect renewable …
Read More Energy Innovation: A Nuclear Parable
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Nuclear Power has a strong lure to policymakers. It is “clean”, does not dent oil reserves, and its operating costs can be close to cost competitive as long as uranium prices don’t spike. But there are some real downside problems; and the Canadian and Ontario Governments are learning this lesson in spades. The Canadian government …
Read More Energy Probe Ontario
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I was just investigating the Ontario governments decision to go Nuclear to the tune of $26B over 6 years starting construction in 2012 and start-up set for 2018. So I immediately considered looking at the Energy Probe position, since they had advised in the 1980’s against nuclear expansion and had proved providential – a $4B …
Read More Evangelicals Misbehaving
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The following stories catch various Evangelicals and other Christian groups misbehaving: NYTimes – The Evangelical Rejection of Reason YouTube – When Christians Misbehave Guardian – Attacks on Mitt Romney for Mormon faith heightens Republican rivalry. ChristianPost – Can Christians escape the “Hate” label in Gay marriage debate? Wikipedia – Anti-abortion violence, Christian terrorism This raises …
Read More Even Dogs Can Sense Fair Play
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Given our previous post it is instructive to consider that even dogs can sense fair play. Facebook Twitter Google+ Pinterest LinkedIn Related posts: Listening to America The Marks of Class Warfare China vs Google: the Denouement Jane Austen on PBS
Read More Executive Pay
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I have been arguing in this column that Executive pay has no correlation with the real risks taken. And measured against the real life or death decisions made by doctors, service men, captains of ships both air and nautical – CEO’s pay vis a vis their performance seems to be great outliers – almost ridiculous …
Read More Extending Bush TaxCuts : No Help for the Middle Class
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The Senate Republicans by invoking filibuster struck down a bill that would extend the Bush Tax Cuts to the middle class but not the wealthy. All the Republicans needed was less than 60 votes for closing the filibuster and Taxcuts for the Middle Class were killed. This matches the Republicans earlier killing of extending unemployment …
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Exxon Invest $31 Billion in Shale Gas
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The NYTimes story tells the tale – When Exxon Mobil invests in shale gas to the tune of $31billion then you know the articles in Technology Review and NYTimes on shale gas prospects are not far off the mark. The amounts of shale gas available are estimated at between 40 and 80 year supply. Given …
Read More Fearless World Cup Semi-final Forecasts
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Forecasting as Larry Summers and the other members of the US Economic team have learned is a very risky business. Eight percent unemployment rate by this time with TARP fund assistance. No worry about a double dip recession. So fearless and without further to-do, here are Takethe5th’s World Cup forecasts for the Semifinals: Netherlands 2 …
Read More Felix Salmon : Prolific at Portfolio
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Portfolio Magazine has been following the financial swanfall with some salient reporting. One of the best is the blog of Felix Salmon. He has at least 3-4 very interesting posts per day. Take this one on how the Hedge Fund Model has broken down: It’s becoming increasingly clear that the standard hedge fund incentive model …
Read More Finally, Whats in $73/hour?
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I have been waiting for Barrons, Business Week, Forbes, and Fortune to clarify the issue – what do the Big 3 carmakers pay their workers and what effect does this have on the overall cost of the car. The New York Times business section claims to have done it. The average is around $56/hour + …
Read More Finance Self Regulation
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The World Finance industry and especially the Wall Street Branch has been able to fend off most monitoring and regulation under the guise that a)financial institutions and markets are Darwinian effective – as long as they remain unfettered by regulations, financial markets will be transparent and efficient at reaching very risk balanced valuations of any …
Read More Financial Crisis Was Avoidable
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The engine of inquiry often rolls along slowly – this appears to be especially true in the case of the financial meltdown. The commission of ten appointed by President Obama with the usual accommodation for polical leanings has finally produced its report and the verdict is: Financial Crisis Was Avoidable. Despite the 6:4 Democrat versus Republican split on the conclusions …
Read More Financial Markets: A Theologic View
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PBS has two distinguished and uniquely great news sources that the major networks simply cannot equal . First, there is Newsline which takes on topics and in a bold fashion that major networks have failed to match for the past 10-15 years. And Bill Moyers Journal is a source contemporary, distinguished and varied American expertise …
Read More Financial Oligarchs
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David Brooks of the NYTimes has said the notion of Financial Oligarchs is nonsense; rather the financial upheaval of the past two years and its consequent debilitating recession can be attributed to …. “stupidity”. I would like to quote some dissenting opinions. First, from the Atlantic there is : “The crash has laid bare many …
Read More Financial Reform to Front-Burner
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The Atlantic Wire points to some solid, high national impact breaking stories. The latest is on the nature of US Financial Reforms. In a fit of modesty, I would like to point out that this storyline was predicted and highlighted here nearly 3 weeks ago. Back -pat, pat. Facebook Twitter Google+ Pinterest LinkedIn Related posts: …
Read More Financial Reform: CFAs Strike Back
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CFA-Chartered Financial Analyst members have taken it on the chin for the past 3-4 years as the markets have tumbled and now gyrate with great volatility.CFA advisors and counsellors, subject to legally binding Fiduciary Trust Limits may well have been some of the babies tossed out with the bad financial waters in the latest down …
Read More Financial Reform: The International Factor
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Financial Reform in the US faces formidable pitfalls domestically with a Nope-A-Dope Republican Senate invigorated by the Supreme Court “no holds barred to campaign funding” decision. Despite being in a minority position, the Republicans can stall and effectively defeat any financial reforms that don’t meet their requirements – and those are still aligned pretty closely …
Read More Financial Reforms List: Comparison NYTimes vs Takethe5th
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The NewYork Times in an editorial today has published its bottom-line financial reforms. This past week Takethe5th also listed the financial reforms and prosecutions that had to be implemented to dispel the notion that Congress had been bought out by Wall Street. After all, Financial Industry lobbying and campaign contributions have exceeded $110 million for …
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Financial Regulation: War of Attrition
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During the Financial crisis, a consistent complaint has been that the Federal Financial regulators have proved to be no match for Wall Street Manipulators. The two primary cases cited are the Madoff scandal missed by the SEC despite 3-4 clear advisories from whistle blowers and the Mortgage Meltdown ignored by many of the 17 Federal …
Read More Fire Ready Aim from the Right
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In a significant political opinion, NYTimes columnist David Brooks acknowledges what was manifest – Sarah Palin is not ready to become President: “But a few commentators, like George Will, Charles Krauthammer, David Frum and Ross Douthat demur, suggesting in different ways that she is unready….I would have more sympathy for this view [that Sarah’s ready] …
Read More Firefly Financial Parable
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Last week there was the Brawl Street confrontation between Daily Show’s John Stewart and CNBC’s Jim Cramer. It was interesting to see a review of the Brawl on the NYTimes Web Front Page. But even more distressive was the fact that the big Sunday Morning news shows like NBC’s Meet the Press, ABC’s This Week, …
Read More Firefox 3: The Best Browser by Far
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I would like to tell you that the new Firefox 3 web browser is blazingly fast, full of new GUI features yet with great ease of use. And FireFox 3 has one of the best set of add-ons, themes and extensions. It leaves even the upcoming IE8(early next year likely) in the dust. But I …
Read More First Skirmish: Once and Current Kings of Software
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The first big skirmish between the once King of Software, Microsoft, and the Current TitleHolder, Google, was just announced for October 22nd 2009. On that day Microsoft will launch Windows 7 including a Starter Edition of Windows 7 for Netbooks. By that time there should be several Google Android powered Netbooks available on the market. …
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Flash Paper
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Flash Paper is technology by Adobe by way of Macromedia, it puts eBooks to shame. It comes free with Adobe Contribute product and it has the virtue of being so easy to use – you just print to Flash Paper instead of some printer – and bang your done. Here is an example (do pull …
Read More For $499 Steve Jobs Tries to Make Amends
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Back in 2005 when Steve Jobs announced the transition from IBM Power PC chips to Intel PC chip [yep same one that were and are used in Windows-based PCs], the Mac community was flabbergasted. Many raised the question how were Macs going to distinguish themselves from Windows PCs now that nearly everything was the same …
Read More Forbes Magazine: GOP’s Fox News Affiliate
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The following is a list of related stories at the Forbes.com website Monday Morning July 25, 2011 – the day after story about how the Debt Ceiling negotiations broke down and the Forbes’ commentary was on the repercussions of a default on the markets and the economy. But the related stories were the highlight for …
Read More Ford Electrics
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What makes this story/slideshow about Ford’s new Electric vehicles so fascinating is where it appeared. No, not in Car and Driver or Popular Mechanics. No not Forbes or Business Week – but in eWeek, a leading Corporate IT trade press source. Figure that one out as you get a great look see at what Ford’s …
Read More Found in NYC: SNL Last Skit Before Presidential Election
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Look what turned up outside 30 Rockefeller Center on Tuesday after Sandy. A script remarkably intact given the hurricane’s drenching: ‘ SNL FinalFinal Presidential Election 2012 Skit – L.Micheals eyes only MYTH ROMNEY – Change You Better Believe In! Players: Myth Romney played by Jason Sudeikis sporting a spray tan that brings Myth about one shade darker …
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Fox is the News, Again
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Time Magazine and Jon Stewart have taken up a cause that I think is long overdue. Calling out Fox News for its blatant lies and deceptions occurring ever more frequently. Fox News with its motto of “Fair and Balanced” is yet again engaging in self-deception about how the Fox News Network is run. Time and …
Read More Fox News Lying Again: The Reaction
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On Reddit, a popular Web Post Sightings Site, there was an interesting set of responses to Fox News blatantly manipulating the “News” again. Briefly, Jon Stewart showed how Sean Hannity had video remarks by President Obama edited so the wrong impression/conclusion was drawn. Ever since Andrew Brietbart got a black HUD official fired by also …
Read More FOX NEWS-edit-FOX IS THE NEWS, Sadly, Again
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Time Magazine and Jon Stewart have taken up a cause that I think is long overdue. Calling out Fox News for its blatant lies and self-deceptions about how the Fox News Network itself deliberately lies and deceives the public all too often on its news broadcasts. News media cannot afford such muddying the truth and …
Read More Frank Rich Gets Obama Right
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In his NYTimes column today Frank Rich gets The Problem with Obama’s Administration dead on. Here are some excerpts: His most conspicuous flaw is his unshakeable confidence in the collective management brilliance of the best and the brightest he selected for his White House team — “his abiding faith in the judgment of experts,” as …
Read More Free Online College Courses: Deep Impact
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The free online courses available from Coursera [Stanford, Princeton, University of California at Berkley, University of Michigan, University of Pennsylvannia] have broken the ice on online college courses. Now MIT has had a program for the past 5 years called OpenCourseWare which made course materials from more than 2,000 classes available free online. Typical MIT …
Read More Fundamental Problem in US Health Care:The Course
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There is a superb free course available from Coursera and the University of Pennsylvania on Health Policy and the Affordable Care Act. Dr Ezekiel Emanuel who is an Onclogist is a great speaker in this free Coursera program and he starts off by providing a clear chart of the fundamental problem facing healthcare in the United …
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Future Job Markets in the Good Old USA
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The New York Times is sponsoring on its website a very interesting, challenging and hoefully helpful blog, Room for Debate.The idea is to have 4 experts in the field address a serious contemporary issue/question and use that base to constitute the forum for debate by readers and commentators. Yes it is risky business because online …
Read More G.O.P. – Irrational Like Foxes
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In nuclear arms strategy, one winning gambit is to convince your opponents that you are an irrational and unstable player. This puts your opponents on the defensive because they can’t count on you to compute and think rationally. And so therefore in all the MAD [Mutually Assured Destruction] posturings one can never be sure that …
Read More Gaza Casualty: Goodwill for Israel
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I have been arguing here that Israel, in its Election-Eve War against Hamas, has abandoned the very group that could bring about a lasting peace and reconciliation – the Palestinian people. The Israeli population and leaders have allowed Hamas and their Iranian sponsors to snooker them into a another Pyrrhic Battle while planting more than …
Read More Geithner Speaks to Wall Street via WSJ on Financial Reform
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Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner speaks to Wall Street about the fact that financial reforms are needed because countries like China, Russia and the European Union are demanding changes. He outlines their nature and timing in a series of talks here at the Wall Street Journal. Facebook Twitter Google+ Pinterest LinkedIn Related posts: Wall Street Nearly …
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George Will: The Markets Aint Misbehavin’
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George Will is chief political columnist at Newsweek, ABC TV’s This Week commentator, and a deeply convinced and convicted conservative. It was at George Will’s place in Washington, that newly inagurated President Barack Obama came for dinner and a frank conversation among the elite conservative thinkers in the US. I share George Will’s love of …
Read More George Wills Law
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On the March 30th ABC Sunday news program This Week with George Stephanopoulos I saw a coming together of political minds that was quite unexpected, almost stupify. Here were Newsweek’s George Will, NTime’s Paul Krugman and economic author Robert Reich all agreeing on George Will’s Law. A little background. The show was doings it usual, …
Read More Germany Goes Non-Nuclear
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In all the turmoil associated with the Euro debt crisis in Greece, Ireland, Portugal and now Italy, a major movement in energy policy has taken place. Germany has voted to re-align their energy development to replace their previous commitment to nuclear power with renewables- solar, wind and even geothermal. This is groundbreaking because this is …
Read More Global Climate Change: Canadian Picture
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The following is the picture for Climate Change in Canada this past winter – December 2009 through February 2010. Note the great swaths of the the North in Canada that are seeing temperatures well above normal – as much as 7.5 degrees Celsius. Now context is everything because what is not shown is the temperatures …
Read More Global Harming
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Global Warming is unpopular because it says that humans at 6.9 billion and counting are responsible for global weather processes. Global Warming occurs primarily due to the release of CO2 and other gases into the upper atmosphere to levels that gradually raise the temperature around the world and lead to more radical and disruptive weather …
Read More GM’s Middle Managers Plight: Ruined Brands
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If the article at the New York Times about GM’s shaky future is right, the company faces almost the same fate whether it takes the bailout or bankruptcy root – massive restructuring as GM dwindles in size and employment to a diminished image of itself. Many of GM’s VPs and middle managers are already without …
Read More Going Bananas
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Nicholas Christoff argues in today’s NYTimes that the US has become a Banana Republic. This appears to update our posting Going Bananas on Sept 27th 2010[see below]. You, dear reader, say “what is this monkey business about the US being a Banana Republic”? So lets go to the Wikipedia definition of a Banana Republic: Banana …
Read More Going Green Shorted in the Ideas Market
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The New York Times Business section has a review of the book Green Gone Wrong in which the reviewer finds the book partially on target. Much like Bill Maher’s If You Drive Alone, You Drive With Bin-Laden, the major complaint with Green Gone Wrong is that it does not level with the reading public on …
Read More Goldman Sachs on Ethics
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There is a a fascinating post on Goldman Sach’s committment to Ethics at the Financial News: Goldman Sachs, which publishes an ethics code on its website that emphasizes its “integrity and honesty”, adds a rider that reads: “From time to time, the firm may waive certain provisions of this Code.” Yes indeed, the sound of …
Read More Google Adds Online Photo Editor to Picasa
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Picnik is one of the best online photo editors – it is now a part of Google’s Picasa line of free online photo albums. The good news is that Picnik is fast and has some of the best online photo edit features plus context-sensitive help & hints. The system seems to be a bit slower …
Read More Google Ads
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Be honest now, how many times have you seen an ad for a Google product – magazine, newspaper, web banner – any and all media accepted?? Okay, 10 years ago there were the ads for the Google Search appliance, a server box loaded up with Google search goodies that could be plugged into your network.But …
Read More Google Books: When the Dust Settles
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Google Books efforts to scan “all the books fit to print” has had a stormy history. The book publishers sued and the settlement took 3 years to work out. But now that all parties seemed satisfied it seems that all parties are NOT satisfied. But what could be better than a little intellectual fisticuffs in …
Read More Google Finance: New Stock Screener
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Google has been putting together some fine tools for manipulating and displaying stock results. Taketh5th readers were alerted to the quality of the Google Finance Stock display and associated stock data at the beggining of this year. Now Google Finance has added a Stock Screener that is the cats meow. The only limitation is the …
Read More Google Gets Binged – Markets Are Working
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Google is out again with much more Bing-like Search Results Since November 2009 Google has from time to time been changing its interface for Search results – and clearly what I have experienced is now out in the wild again according to SearchEngineLand. And the new interface is very nice indeed – it brings Advanced …
Read More Google iPhone ?
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What is happening in the rest of the World outside Wall Street ? Well judging from the features and Apps Google’s new Android mobile phone may be more competition to iPhone then anticipated. Information Week gives the phone a solid thumbs up while eWeek spotlights some of the phones features. In sum, Google has a …
Read More Google Manufacturing
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Our sister publication, theOpenSourcery.com, did a story on the day the Google buy out of Mototrola was announced. Unlike the markets which punished Google stock with a 3% drop that day, theOpensourcery was much more positive about Google’s buy of giving the following five reasons: 1)Google is going to operate the company as is and …
Read More Google Misses on Chromebook
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In the past year, ye Editor has found himself disagreeing with MarketWatch’s John Dvorak on a number of his editorials. But on his recent disapproval of Google’s Chromebook as lacking a compelling combination of features, operational modes, and pricing – ye Editor has to say right on John. Here is the most telling arguments I’m …
Read More Google Missing in Action
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More often than not I am getting the following notice while using Google on Google’s own Chrome browser: Now the problem is I have so many tabs open that it is not easy to just restart like now. However, I can say that google.com is working just fine in other browsers which give no such …
Read More Google Plus Best Software of 2011
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Declaring Google+ the Best Software of 2011 may appear a bit premature. Google Plus/Google+ has provoked a lot reactions on the Net. There has been a lot of positive reviews but also some notable nays. Nonetheless, there are at least 7 very compelling reasons why Google + is the best software introduction of 2011. However, …
Read More Google Responds to Microsoft Bing
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For the last 10 years, Google’s display of search results has seen a slow, gradual [some would say glacial] movement. Yes there have been improvements – the display of search results with similar and then cached options allowing for different views of the search results. Or users could resort to Advanced Search – but Advanced …
Read More Google Shakes the Web Again: Sidewiki
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Google is up to its innovation tricks, proving once again that it is master of Web 2.0 Interface Innovations with Sidewiki – a post-a-comment on any Web page system [and its a Wiki no less]. Google once again is proving that it is taking Facebook, Microsoft, Yahoo, Twitter and the Web 2.0 horde seriously. Facebook …
Read More Google Translations
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Google is making its Translation Service available for free as part of its Google API. See for example the Google Translation in upper left sidebar to switch to your language. Meanwhile the API is versatile because it auto-detects the language and then translates it for you: Paris Le Monde newspaper Hamburg’s Die Zeit newspaper Buenos …
Read More Google Wave: Social Networking Invasion
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The following is the details about Google Wave, Google’s very ambitious (open source?)effort to takehold of the social networking movement– it is derived from the fairly ample information (but no accessible demos except by permisso) on the Google Wave API pages plus a Business Week overview. Here is the schematic: The key idea with Google …
Read More Google Waves Goodbye
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Google waves goodbye to Google Wave – a technical note on the Official Google Blog by Urs Hölzle, Senior Vice President, Operations & Google Fellow officially declares Google Wave as uhhh … not dead … just discontinued. …. despite these wins, and numerous loyal fans, Wave has not seen the user adoption we would have …
Read More Google: Made In USA
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Google is making its new Nexus Q Media Streamer in the USA. Its a medium sized commitment and it could go wrong because the price is on the high end for media devices despite some of the new features – see a review here. But the significance is not small as noted in the NYTimes and …
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Google+ Postings: GOP Cognitive Dissonance
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Seen on Google+ is first the image and then the comment: This is the underlying Cognitive Dissonance of the GOP. They are schizo and they know it. First, incurring huge deficits under Reagan and the Bushes – but now declaring all spending by government as wasteful while taking those farm subsidies, oil and business tax …
Read More GOP Wheels Coming Off; Bad For USA Too
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Our article, The Wheels Are Coming Off the GOP Base, has had some very interesting confirmation in the Press in the past few days. The NYTimes in an editorial says “Don’t stop the debates. The purpose of debates is to get candidates and their ideas before voters. In the Republicans’ case, that includes exposing the failed …
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GOP Bought Out by NRA, NBD
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The New York Times has done the leg work to show how the GOP lawmakers have been bought by the NRA in both Houses of Congress. The list is of the top ten beneficiaries of NRA money first in the Senate and then in the House of Representatives. The layout is telling. First is a …
Read More GOP Financial Reform Idea That Works!
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Here is something I did not expect to print here – Republican Senator Corker from Tennessee is offering a Financial Reform idea that has real bite: Corker said on “This Week” that he plans to introduce a “claw-back” provision which would take away the personal earnings for the past five years of the corporate officers …
Read More GOP Put on Notice
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Bob Hebert has written an article, An Absence of Class, that officially puts the GOP on notice for being the most dysfunctional party in the USA. The Republican Party is clinging to a strategy of divisiveness, intolerance, and calculated fear-mongering with little recourse to moderation nor providing substantive alternative policy. Here are some of the …
Read More GOP Smells Blood, Targets Obama
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If you thought the S&P downgrading of the US debt would persuade Washington to call off its bitter “unforced errors” of grisly partisan politics – wrong, Wrong, WRONG. The belligerents are still at it and the GOP are the alpha attack dogs because disgracing and defeating President Obama is the only thing that unites the …
Read More GOP Unanimity in NO
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It is very puzzling how the Republican Party can maintain so much party discipline and consistently obtain so many unanimous all no votes in both Houses of Congress. Perhaps the recent dismissal of Republican Analysts David Frum from the AEI-American Enterprise Institute may shed some light on this incredible solidarity in GOP voting. One current …
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GOP Vindictive Obstruction – 4 More Years
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How the Republican Party staves off Disintegration The Republican party has become petty and vindictive as it clings to a fracturing voter Base It is a two-faced union of the Business Establishment attached to self-identified victim groups like Evangelicals, National Debtors [where were they when George Bush rang up a massive $5trillion in debt with unpaid …
Read More GOP: Too Much Government Regulation
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One of the oft repeated GOP reasons for the economy and the country not taking off is not their complete obstruction of helpful legislation in Congress but rather the Democrats efforts to over-regulate. The GOP insist that regulations are handicapping the country everywhere. So with this anathema against regulations why are the GOP responsible for …
Read More GOP: We are the Super Dupers
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The most interesting item heard on NBC’s Meet the Press and ABC’s This Week was the fact that both parties were working towards a 4PM Sunday deal so that the Asian stock markets which are at 9AM Monday time did not spike downwards because of the continued US Debt Ceiling Gridlock . It shows where …
Read More GOP’s Disdain for Workers
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There is a great contrast today in the NYTimes Opinion Section. n one hand David Brooks speaks of the need for the audacious, Ayn Randian Job Creators championed by the Republican Party. In contrast, Paul Krugman argues that Republican policies are designed for the almost exclusive benefit of the wealthy with lower taxes on corporate …
Read More Government Data
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Most government financial and economic data is free; but that is the last of the good news. I thought when the Obama administration took over that some of its Web 2.0 savvy and great UI presentation would be carried over to the delivery of public data Unfortunately, no sign of improvements. Here is the table …
Read More Governor Romney’s Massachusetts Business Record
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His Massachusetts Business Record is a constant theme that Governor Romney is citing as his job creating expertise and how he is going to turn manufacturing and the economy in the country around. The Democrates have a different point of view. Manufacturing Jobs under Romney in Massachusetts Romney`s Manufacturing jobs record in Massachusetts Governor Romney`s overall …
Read More Governor Scott Walker: Koch Whore vs Shock Doctrine
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Two views of Governor Scott Walker of Wisconsin have appeared in the news lately – you decide which is more illuminating. The blog Buffalo Beast, did a beastly thing, impersonating Billionaire David Koch making a call to Governor Walker. David Koch is behind Americans for Prosperity lobby group that have been financing Walker’s cuts and …
Read More Governor Scott Walker: Koch Whore vs Shock Doctrine Read More »
Governor Scott Walker: What He Campaigned On
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Ye Editor has been patiently waiting for one of the larger news media like the NYTimes, Washington Post or the Milwaukee Sentinel to describe what issues Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker campaigned on – this might shed light on the current controversy in the state capital over Walker induced budget short fall and efforts to remove …
Read More Grading the Economist’s Superfast Broadband Webinar
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The Economists’s Intelligence Unit sponsored today a free webinar on Superfast Broadband with telecom equipment provider Huawei. The instant grade for the webinar is Mushy and not because of the delivery. On 3Mbs Rogers Cable in Canada, the reception was on the whole quite good – maybe 4-6 dropouts, but to my surprise no loss …
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Greedy Continues to Gut US
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This article in the NYTimes shows that Greed is still running rampant on Wall Street and the Financial markets: “Since the almost overnight collapse of Bear Stearns earlier this year, top-level Wall Street executives have been pleading with regulators to investigate what they see as efforts by short sellers to plant false information and profit …
Read More Greedy Guts Bring Down Citibank ….
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There is a New York Times article – no, post mortem, on Citibank that is symptomatic for what has been going on on Wall Street for the past 5 -10 years and underlies the deepness of the malaise that afflicts the US Financial System. Here is an excerpt: “Today, Citigroup, once the nation€™s largest and …
Read More Greedy Guts Itself
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In modern life we pay a lot of premiums almost automatically for the convenience of faster commerce, more security, trust and peace of mind in our social and economic lives. Brand names like Microsoft software, Maytag appliances, or State Farm home insurance imply top of the line products or services with implicit warranties of good …
Read More Greedy Guts Itself: III, Casualties(Updated again)
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The depth of Greedy Gutting Itself is beginning to emerge. Paul Krugman at the NYTIMES has this estimate of the depth and breadth of the problem . If you do the math on homes averaging $250,000 in value one has between$3-5 trillion on the line. And Allan Greenspan is calling it Turbulent Times – its …
Read More Greedy Guts Itself: III, Casualties(Updated again) Read More »
Greedy Guts Itself: The Fallout Update
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Greedy Guts Itself has had widespread consequences – collateral damage that was either not anticipated or, more likely, simply ignored by the round-up of Usual Suspects like an Anthony Mozilo, the Quants and every Big US Bank and its CEO that has foreign Sovereign Funds as new large shareholders. This section will track the spread …
Read More Greedy Guts Itself: The Tag Team Match
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Well Greed Guts are now into round 4 of the debacle – the Tag Team Match known as the Blame Game: See You in Court. It will not be pretty if the New York Times and/or The Economist are right on Denmark . Take a 5th of your favorite hooch if you are a spectator …
Read More Greedy Guts Itself:2
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In our initial Greedy article, I have argued that Financial Institutions have largely put aside Fiduciary Trust – and now have a new primary goal – their own wealth with perhaps some coincident client gains but only for a carefully selected class. In this article by Steven Pearlstein at the Washington Post – you see …
Read More Greedy Guts Us
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Our continuing series on the credit crunch gripping US financial markets in which key Financial Players in the mortgage and security creation and evaluation businesses (think Moody’s and Standard and Poors in the latter case) did an Eliot Spitzer – failed to deliver on the fiduciary trust and monetary integrity for which they are paid …
Read More Greedy Guts US – More Fallout
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Success Breeds Failure is the title of Paul Krugman column in the NYTimes. It is chillingly accurate. Forces are marshalling against any Wall Street Reform after the mortgage and investment banking crisis of this past year which a)had the Fed rescuing again investment bankers, hedge funders and private equity firms who say to the companies …
Read More Greedy Guts Us : Moral Hazard
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All through the debacle on Wall Street, the issue of Moral Hazard has been lingering. Moral Hazard says that people with insurance may take greater risks than those without such insurance. In the current stock market, hedge fund and other investment bankers have been dealing with very high risk transactions and extremely high leverage – …
Read More Greedy Guts Us 2
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The depth of the injury that Wall Street Greed has done to the US Economy is stunning. But now it is being made worse by the major financial institutions working for their own ends primarily at the risk of the whole economy. Yet the cost to taxpayers through their Moral Hazard Insurance Agents(think US Treasury …
Read More Greedy Guts US: Readings
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As proof that the notions that Private Equity, Hedge Funds and the Investment Banks are out of fiduciary trust limits and without control I will offer various articles by respected journals. Here are some sources: Business Week – huge debt levels smack against the Wall of Debt calls Barrons – December 24, 2007 Cover Story …
Read More Greedy Guts vs Moral Hazard
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Up until recently, the Financial Community has been spurning participating in a solution to the financial problems plaguing capital markets due to the leverage, derivative and sub-prime fiascoes. But now the Adminsitartion is supposedly reading the riot act to the big banks and financial houses regarding the fall of Lehman Brothers. See here. Now, this …
Read More Greedy Parable
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The NYTimes has a story on the Bernard Madoff $50Billion Ponzi scheme that has wreaked havoc among the wealthy in New York this Christmas. Fittingly the story title is : For Investors, Trust Lost, and Money Too Maddof’s doing to his posh investors is but a reflection of what US Finance and Wall Street has …
Read More Guards! Guards!
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Terry Pratchett’s Guards! Guards! by Harper Collins I was driving down the highway and made the mistake of slipping in the audio disk for Terry Pratchett’s Guards! Guards! I could have been arrested on the spot for driving under the influence of intense laughter. Truly I had to pull off the road at the nearest …
Read More Guest Blog: The Republican Shakedown
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From time to time Taketh5th finds posts that coincide or underline arguments made here. Such is the case with The Republican Shakedown by Robert Reich which supports our American SuperWealthy Wage War on America!. The core idea is that SuperWealthy are using their expanding wealth to defend themselves from encroachment by government taxation and regulation. What is not …
Read More Gun Control Is Dead – BanG!
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Takethe5th’s prognosis on Gun Control in the wake of the Aurora Massacre, Hey USA You’re in NRA’s Power Bang Killer Lottery Like It Or Not, has proven to be woefully accurate. There has been a chorus of no gun control across all of the media. NYTimes describes clearly the abdication of our political leadership.Now comes the clean …
Read More Gun Control Is NOT Dead
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As soon as I hear the words “Gun control” I cringe. This is because the opponents of Gun Control have been able redefine it as denial of any gun bearing rights whatsever, So the NRA advance the thinking that if you cede any control or regulation of firearms – that will be the thin edge …
Read More Har, Har, Har to Tom-Boy
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In the battle of the quarterbacks in the AFC Championship Game , Baltimore Ravens, Coach John Harbaugh, and quarterback Joe Flacco have the last laugh. Narrowly defeated in the AFC Championship game last year on a missed Ravens field goal attempt, this year’s victory was no fluke but rather a 28-13 pasting of the Patriots and their quarterback …
Read More Has Too Much of the Financial Community Gone Over to the Dark Side ?
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The question confronting the Obama administration, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, and its financial regulators is whether too much of the Financial Community has gone over to the Dark Side. This notion has two possible interpretations. Information Dark Side – The first idea posits that financial institutions have now become dependent on having corners on the …
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Having a Failed State on Your Border
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What is a Failed State? Wikipedia has a good starting definition which is worth repeating here: “Common characteristics of a failing state include a central government so weak or ineffective that it has little practical control over much of its territory; non-provision of public services; widespread corruption and criminality; refugees and involuntary movement of populations; …
Read More Health Care Reform
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Paul Krugman at the New York Times is putting out some of the best policy reviews available on the new Obama administration. And they are not limited to economic policy – although there is always that element as a strong slant. His latest foray into the Health Care Reforms really underlines the bottom line – …
Read More Health Care: Pre-existing Conditions and Cross State Insurance
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The US Health Care debate has turned on a curious combination of compexity and obscurity. But the bitter reality is that current health rules of the road are quite complex, the resulting care quite variabl[this is a must read link] and the costs keep escalating. Kaiser, one of the major players in health care provision, …
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Health Insurance Study Exercise
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Health Insurance rates are rising by double digits. The Insurers and the Obama administration both say its not due to the Healthcare Reform laws – most of the provisions do not start until 2012 or later. So what is the reason for the price increases – non-shared sacrifice? Well a Google query may have the …
Read More Healthcare Costs Exposed
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In a Coursera class Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel detailed how medical service cost growth was driving the greatest increases in Healthcare costs in US History. This was a superb course that exposed the real drivers in health care costs in the US. Bottom line. Dr. Emanuel revealed that USA Healthcare is a set of markets that …
Read More Hedge Fund Redemptions
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The question that gets asked everyday and of every Tom, Dick, and Henry Blodget Financial commentator is “when will the bottom be reached “in the current rollercoastering yet consistently swooning stock markets. And without fail, the Financial commentators fill the airwaves with incredible financial mumbo jumbo that even a voodo witch doctor would not lay …
Read More Hedge Fund StuporHeroes
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Frank Partnoy at the Daily Beast has written an encomium( meaning lavish praise of a person or thing) to the Five Hedge Funders that each a)had to appear before Congress this past week and b)had to bear the burden of earning at least $1billion this past year for which they paid capital gains taxes at …
Read More Hell, More QE – Quantitative Easing
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Well Wall Street has spoken and they are demanding and betting big time as seen in the 3% rise in the DJIA today that Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke will be “printing money”. He did it last year just before the midterm elections with an annnoucement at Jackson Hole Wyoming financial conference in August trying …
Read More Henry Paulson
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The Bush Administration seems bound and determined to prove its incompetence right to the very end of its term. Every commentator says that President-Elect Obama has huge problems on his plate, and the Bush Team in its waning days is just adding to the shipload. Take Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson(soon please, rather than later). Here is some commentary …
Read More Henry Paulson II
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No time is a good time for incompetence but it appears even under Obama incompetence in the position of US Treasury Secretary has won out again. For Tim Geithner appears to be Henry Paulson II. Now I should immediately qualify the word “incompetence” and replace it with deliberate deviance. This deliberate deviance is sort of like Mr.Geithner’s …
Read More Hero Used, Humbled
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It is stark and unrelenting. Call it collateral damage. Greek tragedy. Yet like Confessions of an Economic Hitman, it is vulgar. I speak of the humbling of Colin Powell whose reputation has been wholly tarnished by himself and by the “Commander” he served. Read not so much the article but the following commentary on this story of who …
Read More Hey USA You’re In NRA’s Killer Lottery
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“Good morning, shooters. Happy Friday! Weekend Plans?” was the tweet posted on the NRA’s American Rifleman account this morning 7 hours after the horrific mass killings in Aurora Colorado. But NRAman could have just as easily tweeted“Hey USA, you are in the NRA Power Bang Killer Lottery whether you like it or not”. Quickly after …
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Hiding In Plain Sight Behind Barack Obama
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Frank Bruni at the NYTimes raised 5 questions about telling issues in the Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders debate in Brooklyn last night. As the GOP is hacking itself apart in a grisly dismemberment over who controls the perverse loyalties of its Base, Bruni notes that the Democrats face fundamental schisms of their own. Specifically, Bruni cites the major …
Read More Hillary: Slipsliding on the Banana of SideStepping
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For the past 7-8 months Hillary Clinton has been running a masterful presidential campaign and it shows in the polls – she is leading by 15-20 points except in Iowa and NewHampshire against all her Democratic rivals. But for the first time she has made a series of gaffes – and so she came out …
Read More Hillary: Slipsliding on the Banana of SideStepping Read More »
Hillary’s Romney Moment
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Hillary Clinton just had her Mitt Romney moment and here is one of a flood of GOP reactive remarks: https://youtu.be/LOOOfUFtPHA Never marginalize your opponent’s supporters. Cardinal mistake. So the interesting question is why did the Democratic Party, 32% of the US Population, However, an earlier 2013 Gallup survey found that 42% of Americans identified as …
Read More Historic Financial Penalty = Feds Cave Again
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I dread reading the following headlines in the NYTimes or the Wall Street Journal – Gargantuan Fines Imposed on Wall Street Institution or Record Breaking Damages Inflicted on Bank. It might as well read => Hugest Biggest Historically Supercalifragilisticexpealidocious Compensatory Damages Imposed on Piteous Bank because of course it means the opposite. The Federal Government …
Read More How Steve Jobs Has Scr#wed Himself
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Apple’s Steve Jobs appears to have a)granted Adobe’s Lee Brimelow’s wish and scr#wed himself and b)has Amazon, Dell, Google, Microsoft, Nokia, Palm and a bevy of other mobile players wishing for many more happy returns by the Cupertino Czar to such faux pas plays in an unforgivably fast evolving Mobile Lite Device market. Lets handle …
Read More How + Why Samsung Leads Innovation in Electronic Devices
By admin |
Samsung leads the Smartphone Market in the US taking over from Apple. But Samsung has leading or near leading positions in the appliances, TV, compact camera, and other electronic device markets. They, not GE nor Phillips nor Sony are currently the first innovators in bring the Moores Law powered electronic chip revolution to consumer products. …
Read More How + Why Samsung Leads Innovation in Electronic Devices Read More »
How and Why the Occupy Wall Street Camps Were Shutdown
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Is it a tenor of the Times that only an American writing for a British paper, the Guardian, could produce a plausible story of why the Occupy Movements, predominately peaceful, non-violent protests, were shutdown? Naomi Wolf writing for the Guardian,has produced a story that shows that Federal Homeland Security officials worked in co-ordination with 18 …
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How are the US Job Creators Doing?
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The US Job Creators are doing critical things very right by many Business standards. First and foremost, US Job Creators are making big , yes record profits. As seen in this chart for 2012. US Job Creators profits reached a new record level as a 11.3% of the total output of the economy: US Corporate …
Read More How do you Rebuke and Reprimand a President ?
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This is a relevant question given the following books that bear witness and testament to the incompetence and deliberate deceit of President George W. Bush. Can the US risk another MidEast, I-am the-Commander-in-Chief fiasco ? Can the country withstand 8 more months of dismantling hard-earned constitutional and practical political controls on power? Can the US …
Read More How Do You Recover From a Badly Flawed Supreme Court Decision?
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The US is having major problems in its national governance – voting in the Senate now requires not just a simple majority but a super majority of 60 votes. The Republican Party is playing a dangerous game of governance chicken by upping the ante on what bills will be filibustered – where they hold up …
Read More How Do You Recover From a Badly Flawed Supreme Court Decision? Read More »
How Google Lost Computing Credibility
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“Do No Evil” Google has in the past 3 years lost a lot of its technical lustre and credibility as Google+ has been killed. Google was once the goto computing innovator among scandal ridden monopolistic players like Apple, IBM and Microsoft. But now Google is crashing in technical and business stature. And It all seems to …
Read More How I Know Apple Dominates Microsoft
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One could look at the financial numbers and quickly proclaim Apple is at the top of Computing Computing’s Big 3 Companies Company Annual Revenues Market Value Quarterly Dividend Apple $109B $622B $2.65 Google $38B $220B $0.00 Microsoft $74B $256B $0.20 IBM $107B $226B $0.85 Oracle $37B $156B $31B Source: Google Finance Apple dominates Microsoft in every …
Read More How the Obama Economic Policy Team Came to Shambles
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One could see it in the economic policy – so disjointed and just plainly off target – so much help for the banks and financial sector; too little for creating jobs and a business climate of recovery. Now, the NYTimes has done a major story on the people behind it – and one can see …
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How the Web Went from Benign to Malvolent & GDPR
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The Web has been transformed from benignly hopeful just 25 years ago to an increasingly dangerous place. There are key players silently vying for control of Web Space – the Nation-State cyber warriors almost all have been armed primarily by an incompetently vulnerable NSA and CIA.The Cyber Criminals trolling for vast amounts of easy money pickings …
Read More How the Web Went from Benign to Malvolent & GDPR Read More »
How To Do Timely Technology Predictions
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Henry McCracken at Time magazine has shown how to do computer technology predictions – although McCracken adamantly denies they are predictions. But actually they are deliciously witty, cleverly written yet clasically correct statistical forecasts. For under the guise of writing a)what we can assume will happen – the median value, b)what I hope will happen …
Read More How to Pay for Information
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The old adage “you get what you pay for” is getting a real workout as two philosophical viewpoints on the Internet vie for dominance in the Web marketplace. First, there is the journalistic community which is arguing it cannot rely on the current payment model which now uses primarily advertising and a few special services …
Read More How To Ruin A Brand: NFL, GOP, US Business
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Branding is a symbol – a symbol of ownership in the case of an animal brand, a symbol of who made this in the case of a trademark or insignia on a product. But branding goes well beyond marks of ownership or manufacture. Brands are codes in the complex worlds of ownership or market exchange …
Read More How To Ruin Your Brand: The Samsung Galaxy S4 Unpacking Event
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Samsung Galaxy S4 – announcement at NYC Radio City Music Hall The GOP has done it, the major Banks, and now Samsung with its Galaxy S4 announcement – all have tarnished if not badly their Brands. And done so almost in a blink of an eye given the months and years of assiduous work it …
Read More How To Ruin Your Brand: The Samsung Galaxy S4 Unpacking Event Read More »
How Wall Street Ate the Economy
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This is the Cover story at Business Week this July end – one year after Bear Sterns shot itself and the US Economy in the foot, being the first of many Hedge Funds and Investment banks, to gag on its own Derivative Mortgage Greed. Now I don’t want to say that I told you so …
Read More HP Way Gone Astray
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For the past few years admirers of Hewlett Packard as envisioned by the two founders, William Hewlett And David Packard, have had to endure so much unseemly tumult at the top. This is definitely not the founder’s enlightened HP Way. The following Dilbert cartoon catches the madness: But the humor is truly black. Is the …
Read More I Have Seen Gladiators
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Its rare that you get to see a real contest of wills, the sheer ebb and flow of best blows taken for minute advantage only to be repulsed, and the sheer extravagance of seeing pounding shot after shot taken that you know to be, from your own dallying in the game, of a sublime nature. …
Read More IBD Editorials: Jekyll and Hyde
By admin |
IBD-Investors Business Daily is the chamber of commerce of business daily newspapers. It caters to small and upcoming businesses – the Russell 2000 companies. This is not a bad marketplace to be in today as the need to change and grow new companies becomes the norm in the business world. Also the IBD offers some …
Read More IBD-Investors Busines Daily
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“WE SAY IT LIKE IT IS” No smal motto for a 2008 Pulitzer prize-winning business newspaper – this appears to be the last bastion for newspapers in the US as the Web Ubeerall phenomenon picks up steam in the Economic meltdown. So I thought it would be good to do some Jay Leno-like Street walking …
Read More IBM Misses the Thumpers
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In Frank Herberts great science fiction novel, Dune, the Fremen had the advantage that they could live anywhere including the many desert regions of the planet. There secret was Thumpers that allowed them to not only detect but also summon the dangerously huge SandWorms. This ability allowed the Fremen to track and control the most …
Read More iDevices – the new Face of Personal Computing
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Peering into ongoing innovation is like looking at a prism. One can see images of what is emerging but the various shapes of an evolving idea in the market are like the facets of the prism – each one sees different forms, strategy and structure. iDevices presents just such a kaleidoscope image as a mix …
Read More iDevices II : Rapid Evolution
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The first post on iDevices argued that the currently breaking wave of new iPhones, smartphones, iPads and tablets represent a major new face to personal computing. The common denominator among these iDevices is high portability, Web and WiFi connections, touch+gesture powered ease of operations, plus small but dense screens that are visible in most lighting …
Read More If This Be Treason
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Of late the Republican Party is fond of wrapping itself up in true constitutionality and the spirit of the Founding Fathers. And thus one must ask in the spirit of Patrick Henry, if this be treason.. then fear not to say it is so. The “it” is the Republican “Starve the Beast” policy starting with Ronald Reagan …
Read More Ignoring John Q. Public
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The balance of power in US Politics has reached a tipping point – John Q. Public can be effectively ignored and bypassed in policy making. The recent article in the NYTimes, Flat Taxes and Angry Voters, is just one of many proofs. The article points out how the GOP Presidential candidates are ignoring many polls …
Read More Ike Was Right
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In a 1960 address to the nation, President Dwight D. Eisenhower, 5 star general and Supreme Commander of the World War II invasion of Europe, warned against the military-industrial complex. This is the co-ordinated lobbying of defense contractors allied with military supporters in both political parties that would get their way on the size and …
Read More Imperfect Financial Markets
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The NewScientist in its July 25,2009 issue has an essay by Dr. Terence Kealey, Falling out of love with market myths. The essay advances the argument that conservative Economic theories are derelict. These theories were barely tenable originally, have dwindled in efficacy with the emergence of huge secret/shadow and non-transparent financial markets from derivatives through …
Read More In A Two Party System – Running With Only One
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The US has the problem that in a 2 party system the US is only running with 1. This NYTimes article by Paul Krugman catches the essence of the argument made increasingly in this blog here and here: Mr. Romney is seeking the Republican presidential nomination, and whatever his personal beliefs may really be — …
Read More In Praise of SOX
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One of the reasons that the current Financial Implosion was not bigger and more horrific than it could have been, can be credited to the much maligned SOX. No, not the Baseball’s Red Sox or White Sox but rather the Sarbanes Oxley law. This fairly simple legislation cuts off plausible deniability and other financial accounting …
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Incoming Jobs Tsunami: WTF! Economy
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In the past week, Takethe5th has been describing the incoming Jobs Tsunami in which AI and massive processing capabilities now take over a large chunk of white collar as well as blue collar jobs. Well here is a conference by Silicon Valley Guru Tim O’Reilly called the Next Economy which confirms the pervasive nature of …
Read More Innovation Investments Trickling Down …
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I have been arguing here that there is a Capital Investment Crisis in the US because organizations and especially private equity firms are routing investments to self-aggrandizing, sure-thing takeovers which add nothing new to the economy except old line companies stripped of personnel, debt capacity, and no financial ability to adapt a long term innovation …
Read More Innovation Markets Failing
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One my greatest fears is that the North American Innovation Machine may be badly broken. In a previous post, Chevrolet Volt and LED Lights, I raised the issue of premature adoption of new technologies that are going to be needed in the green and “less is more” revolutions that will be adopted or, later, imposed …
Read More Intel’s PC Comeback
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The writing on the PC Wall is ugly with not just a 14% decline in year over year sales in 1Q2013 but 4 straight quarters of sales declines as well. This trend has hit Intel as the primary PC chipmaker doubly hard because Intel has failed to break into the mobile chip market where smartphone …
Read More IP-Intellectual Property and the Web
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IP-Intellectual Property and the Web is becoming ever more entangled. The China vs Google confrontation is not just about censorship of the Web but rather two other and more important factors: i)continued almost total disregard for IP and Copyrights in China despite ritual Chinese government promises to police and curb blatant copying and hacking[one **(see …
Read More Iran and Sanctions
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Here is a “Nudge, Nudge, Wink, Wink, Know what I mean, Know what I mean” story from the New York Times that one has to take with a big dash of ironic humor. Facebook Twitter Google+ Pinterest LinkedIn Related posts: Eliot Spitzer IV : David Letterman on Whoring Brokers Battle Against Fiduciary Trust 3 Troubling …
Read More Iran To Execute $Billion Bank Fraudsters
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NYTimes headline – Iran Sentences Four to Death Over $2.6 Billion Bank Fraud. Hmmmmm – Sharia or Islamic Law has more bite on white collar crime than in the US. This is the number one festering financial problem in the World. The top ranks of the Financial community in the US,and all the developed world, appear to …
Read More Is the Code-Writing on the Wall for Microsoft?
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Maybe not the writing, but the following graphics will create no great cheer in Redmond. Look at the Trends for Microsoft languages based on the Tiobe Index First, Apple’s Objective C is surging in popularity. But of greater concern is the peaking of C# and Visual Basic. Python is now more popular than VB. But …
Read More Is the Wall Street Banking Game Fixed ?
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There is strong evidence that what has been suspected is true – the Big Banking Game is Fixed. And you thought the top US Banks had to fight to survive in one of the toughest and most coldly efficient banking markets. But diverse financial media players like China Post, Bloomberg, Iranian Financial Times, NYTimes, and …
Read More Islamic Finance
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There is a compelling article in the Telegraph on Islamic Finance. The problem is Sharia Law and its restrictions on loans and charging interest with its consequent implications for Islamic financing. The problem is that in Kuwait the Islamic financial firms are trying to work around the loans and interest restrictions in Sharia Law. it …
Read More Israel – Palestines Hundred Years War
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Here is the must read on the Israel and Palestine Hundred Years Conflict . Remarkably it comes from the British who with the Balfour document and its post-haste retreat/deserting the scene in 1947-48 under the duress of Israeli terrorist assasinations, sniper shootings and carnage bombings – left Palestine as a steaming cauldron of mutually unsatisfied …
Read More Israel Missteps Grossly
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Update: NYTimes reports that Prime Minister Netanyahu Offers Apology, but No Shift in Policy This blog has mixed no metaphors in saying that the Jewish Settlement Policy on the West Bank and in Jerusalem has been one of the greatest detriments to US Foreign Policy in the important Islamic World. The current map of Israeli …
Read More Israel’s Toden Tanz
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UPDATE: Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, is not the Mensch the US seeks. Netanyahu declares that Israel would not stop Jewish settlements around Jerusalem. Yet again the New York Times reports of this macabre dance in Israel: Israeli Troops Kill Two Palestinians in West Bank This is the same damned dance of death that …
Read More Israeli Appartheid
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Israel is not the only one into an end game of Appartheid. I have heard bandied words of not a two state solution between Israel and Palestine, but a single state solution. Here is the proposal from no less than Libya’s Muommar Ghaddafi for Isratine. Like Ghaddafi, Israel would say to the World – enough of …
Read More Israeli BlunderPlus
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According to a Jerusalem Post Survey the mission of the Israelis in its Gaza air strikes and coming ground operations is no less than toppling Hamas and routing them out of the Gaza strip. Now Hamas as the Israelis and others will quickly point out can be just as thuggish as their opposition in achieving their …
Read More Israeli Credibility
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Israel’s Government is currently using the argument that Hamas in Gaza are entrenched and unrelenting terrorists while their government has been the “good” players in Gaza surrendering the Gaza Strip territory in 2005 including the forced removal of nearly 8,000 illegal Jewish settlers in 2005. “Our reward for this good deed” – constant suicide bombers …
Read More Israeli Diaspora
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Settlers against a settlement is the title of the article in the Economist October 18th 2008 issue page 56. Here is a map of those settlements: Here is the population trends: Jewish population 1948 1966 1972 1983 1993 2004 2006 West Bank (excluding Jerusalem) 480 0 1,182 22,800 111,600 234,487 282,400 Gaza Strip 30 0 …
Read More Israeli Regime Change
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I hate to pat myself on the back … but 5 days after I called the shot, the NYTimes is naming the “Gaza Action” for what it really is – Regime Change on the order of magnitude and risk of George W. Bush’s Iraq Regime Change. So this means that Israel can have deaths and …
Read More Israeli-Iranian Intransigent Ideologies
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Roger Cohen has a perceptive piece in the NYTimes which explores how two different ideologies have become locked into intransigence. Iran is using nuclear power and the threat of making nuclear bombs and a delivery system to become the pre-eminent Muslim and Shiite state. Israel is using the Iran thrust to nuclear power to …
Read More Israelis All In
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Daunting task.That is the consensus on what faces Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Mideast Envoy George Mitchell. And this report from the Wall Stree Journal confirms it. The Israeli people, already moving to the right, now appear poised to go all in on inflicting a Diasporac expelling of Palestinian citizens of Israel – there are …
Read More Israels Worst Friend
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Israel’s worst friend by far is the US. The US allows the Israelis to live the lie that the Palestinians are second class people; their 2000 year right to Palestinian land and territory is legitimate. And so once again, the US was the lone veto in the UN Security Council today against a resolution condemning …
Read More Its All in the Assists
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Like all sports football craves more goals and bigger scores in its games. At the recent 2007 Womens World Cup, FIFA made a big show of awarding the Golden shoe to Brazil’s Marta for 14 goals in the Final Game ceremonies. But I think FIFA has it all wrong, they should be awarding the Golden …
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Its The Economy By The Stupidly Greedy
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Make America Great Again has a half-life of about 1-2 years at most. Then disastrous economic decision making will have the Political Fiddler on the Roof calling the End Tune. And nowhere has this become more obvious in the cobbled together, greed and revenge ridden “GOP Tax Plan”. The “Plan” is in quotes because it …
Read More Its the Economy Stupid
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The upcoming US election has been predicated on two major issues: the Iraq War and the dissipation of American power and influence over the past seven years. The recent assassination of Benazir Bhutto has apparently escalated this issue back to the top of the Primary Elections agenda including the various world entanglements the US has …
Read More Jane Austen on PBS
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PBS is featuring on Masterpiece Theater every Sunday a series of Jane Austen productions. If you have any love of true romance these are stories not to be missed. No, they are not flawless – Persuasion on January 13th and Mansfield park at 1 1/2 hours were just too short for the underlying stories. Much …
Read More Jane’s Walk 2010
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Jane’s Walk is one of those best-ideas-since-Peanut-Butter events. Very simply people go for a walk on the weekend of May 1-2 in 25 cities in the US or 35 cities in Canada or 2 cities [so far] in Europe. Yes, a walk – a free guided tour telling the history of an urban area including …
Read More Jennifer Rubin Makes A Righteous Fool of Herself
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Almost as if on cue, Jennifer Rubin makes a righteous fool of herself in an Opinion Piece at the Washington Post about the Aurora Massacre Shootings. It is the same old. same old “Gun Controls would not work” which is music to NRA ears and a GOP which has gone draconian on any regulation. No …
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Jobs, Health Care Costs, then maybe Deficits
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In an article in today’s NYTimes, Paul Krugman raises the problem of how Washington policy manipulators … uhh makers have downgraded the issue of Jobs from number 1 to an also ran against “cutting the deficit”. Yet just 4 months before Paul Krugman was a guest commentator on ABC TV Sunday news program, This Week, …
Read More Jobs, Jobs, Jobs
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In a previous posting, we have said that now more than ever before, durable, well paying jobs are now the Gold Standard for government’s in bolstering their economies. The problems, especially for developed countries like the US and Europe are threefold: 1)Manufacturing (the best durable and well paying jobs) has been exported overseas, primarily to …
Read More Joe Wilson’s “You Lie” to President Obama
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One of the benefits of President George Washington’s 110 Rules of Civility and Decent Behavior is that it likely set a standard for behavior in Congress that has so far stood the test of time. Having seen firsthand and by video episodes some of the rancor and outright riot in the British House of Commons, …
Read More John Edwards Endorsement
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The Democratic party over the weekend discovered that the Clinton’s a) have no chance to win the delegate count; b)will continue to wage an increasingly destructive and internecine campaign that will inflict increasingly serious damage on the part; and c)Bill Clinton is willing to trade being Presidential to being a Peerles Campaigner” any time, day …
Read More John McCain
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Since the likliehood of the US electorate being hoodwinked a third time in Presidential elections is a dead-heat possibility , I have to look at John McCain and Sarah Palin and see if there is sustainng substance that will make their possible election something more than a repeat of George Bush. The going is very …
Read More Jon Stewart as the Best TV News Anchor
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Jon Stewart of the Daily Show is making a case for being the best National News anchor. It shows how rotten the TV news has gotten when the Host with The Best F#@king News Team Ever and with the most baudy language, cheapshot headlines, and kiddies bathroom humor rises to the top of the TV …
Read More Jon Stewart’s the Daily Show: Humor Crossing Back Into Education/Informing
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John Stewart’s the Daily Show along with the Colbert Report and Real Time with Bill Maher are crossing the News-Infotainment Divide in the opposite direction – going from infotainment and humor to educating their audiences on some rather subtle aspects of current political events[also note the balance here, Democrats get their fair share of criticism …
Read More Jon Stewart’s the Daily Show: Humor Crossing Back Into Education/Informing Read More »
JPMorgan Threatens Small Depositors II
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Ye 5th’s Editor admits plagiarism. I have stolen the above headline from a report by Reuter’s Felix Salmon who has some of the best commentary on whats going on Wall Street. And the plagiarism is blatant. Except for the “II” , the above headline is an exact copy of the title Felix uses in his …
Read More Junk Bonds Signal Revival of Credit
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“Junk Bonds Signal Revival of Credit” is the headline story in the Report on Business – Globe and Mail in its Friday April 17th 2009 edition. This comes after 6 weeks and 4 weeks of rallies on the Toronto Stock Exchange and New York Stock Exchanges respectively. And if the banks are into issuing and …
Read More Just in Time Journalism: the GOP News
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The Republican Presidential campaign has been a dramatic example of Just in Time Journalism. Each time a new candidate has reached the top of the Media Hype Heap a simple fact-checking pin prick does in the new Pseudo Presidential front-runner. And there have been 7 pretenders – Sarah Palin, Donald Trump, Rick Perry, Hermann Cane, …
Read More Justice in the Media
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There is a growing Moral Vacuum in the US . It is about institutional interests that are able to shape and transcend Justice first internally and then in the broader public realm. Institution’s ability to delay and outwit Justice is an eternal gambit; however the stakes have become ever greater for 3 reasons: 1)Because the …
Read More Karzai like Netanyahu?
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Tom Friedman at the NYTimes has an absolutely great post on the toxic nature of the leadership in Afghanistan by Hamid Karzai. It appears the Obama Administration has gotten themselves tied to two “leaders” of very dubious value in MidEast and Terrorist politics[think Karzai and Netanyahu]. The key questions the Obama Administration has to answer …
Read More Kentucky, West Virginia and Barack Obama
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How can Barack Obama a)lose in Kentucky and West Virginia by about 30% points to Hillary Clinton and b)afford to lose in Kentucky and West Virginia by about 30%. Lets examine the first point. In state after state in the Democratic primary, the turnout for the primaries has been record breaking. The news media have …
Read More Large Rise in Sales of Concealed HandGuns due to Out of State Licensing Loophole
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Florida, NRA, and Grover Norquist[ he who brought you Starve the Beast Deficit spending by Republicans and then flipped flopped and now wants No Deficits now that GOP Presidents have added 60% to the national debt] are up to national mischief again. Sales of concealed handuns in the US have suddenly spiked since 2006. Map …
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Legal Hardball in Java
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Java is now part of Oracle . This means that Java has a legal pitbull out to clawback Intellectual Property after Sun, with no-help from the Java community, gave away the keys to the store via Open Source. Specifically, Java was decimated on the client by Microsoft [with no help from big Java users like …
Read More Lessons for World Leaders from the World Cup
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The World Cup is providing great TV, Press and Internet coverage and there-in lies the lessons for World Leaders. Great coverage means bad plays as well as good ones get big coverage. Take the tic-tac-toe passing of the top clubs like Germany, Spain and the Netherlands – all 3 teams are semi-finalists. But bad play …
Read More Leverage on Israeli Defiance on Settlements
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UPDATE: Netanyahu Nyets any Accommodation/Freeze on Israeli Settlements on Palestinian Lands The US and UN will have to look at Plan B to rein in Israeli Intransigence Despite warnings from the US and Rebuke from Britain, Israel continues to increase Jewish-only settlements in disputed territories in Palestine/Israel. Despite several warnings from various US leaders the …
Read More LIBOR = Continuing Corruption in Banking and Finance and Governance
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When you think of the English, Justice and “Doing the Right Thing” they are almost synonymous. One has to think that near-failure of the Royal Bank of Scotland and Northern Rock during the 2007-2009 Financial Crisis was just an anomaly. Just a whiff of the Wall Street Flu. The British run Wimbledon, the Olympics and …
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Limits to Growth: Back on the Table?
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The April issue of Scientific American is crammed with good articles this month. There are the 8 Wonders of the Solar System and a superior article on how the many deep problems of psychology and psychiatry can now be traced to improper wiring, relative to the norm, of various brain areas. Thus such problems as …
Read More Linux Last PC Opportunity Courtesy of Microsoft
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The DOJ-Department of Justice when it won its Antitrust case against Microsoft also lost it at that moment because the officials involved had not agreed on a remedy for controling Microsoft. In the end it was $3 billion in fines and kid glove supervision by the Bush DOJ for 5 years. However, one remedy which …
Read More Listening to America
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US Congressmen are fanning out across the USA to listen to their constituents. Bill Maher has a column about this at the Huffington Post. What Bill Maher does in this column is tell us what a harrowing process talking to Americans can be. The title of the column, New Rule: Smart President != Smart Country …
Read More Lobbyists “Free Speech”
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David Brooks at the NYTimes has said about unlimited campaign funding and lobbying allowed by the Supreme Court in January 2010 – “What?, Me, Worry?” [ye Editor paraphrases only slightly]. But in describing the gridlock over climate change and broader legislation, Felix Salmon at Reuters describes the consequences of the Supreme Court’s sheer blundering judicial …
Read More Lost: The Ability To Decide Well
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Paul Krugman’s post about The Ignorance Caucus is most relevant. Krugman’s essential argument is that the Republican party routinely spurns compelling evidence and now actively opposes gathering evidence when it might call into question its own policies and/or lobbyist supporters. This Deliberate Denial Disorder underlines the great fear that 1/2 of the US political dialogue …
Read More Mac Team To Steve Jobs: We Couldda Been A Contendah
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In the movie On the Waterfront, the story turns on Mickey’s lament – “I couldda been a contendah”. In the bowels of Apple’s Cupertino development center, the same lament could be made by Apple’s Mac development team. Last year, Mac sales grew by 28% despite having to heft a 100% price premium against PCs for …
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Made in China: Prices Going Up
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For the past few weeks, a Labor revolt has been occurring in China … with hardly a peep about it in the TV media. First, there were the string of suicides at the Foxconn plant in Shenzhen which employs nearly 500,000 workers alone and manufactures almost all of Apple and Dell electronics and a big …
Read More Made in China: Rising Costs
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The other shoe has fallen –China announced today that its currency would be priced based on a basket of currencies rather than exclusively on the US dollar. The net result is that Chinese goods should become more expensive. But this broader pegging announcement has been heard before and the Chinese manage to wriggle free of …
Read More Madoff, QED
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In mathematics QED Quod Est Demonstrandum is used at the end of a proof. It means that which was required to be proved has now been provided for all to see. I have been arguing for the past two years that the US Financial System has gone off the rails because unmitigated greed (I have …
Read More Madoff, QED
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In mathematics QED Quod Est Demonstrandum is used at the end of a proof. It means that which was required to be proved has now been provided for all to see. I have been arguing for the last two years that the US Financial System has gone off the rails because of unmitigated greed (I …
Read More Major League Cover-up
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“baseball” is doing a major cover-up on its doping problems. On Friday, baseball and its players union came to an “agreement” to whitewash all its doping problems – and the major trade press that covers the sport seemed to agree. Lets do nothing , sweep it under the rug, and gosh golly isn’t Bud Selig, …
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Malaise in the Investment Community
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The following post from John Mauldin Economics hit my inbox by way of an MBA buddy. The almost palpable angst and uneasiness of the post is worth examining in more detail. Here is a capsule summary of the article which can be seen in its entirety here. Central Banks and the Rise of Extremism John Mauldin …
Read More Manufacturing Jobs, Manufacturing Jobs, Manufacturing Jobs
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Manufacturing Jobs, Manufacturing Jobs, Manufacturing Jobs is finally emerging, 3 years after the great financial debacle, as the number 1, number 2, and number 3 economic and social problems facing not just the US but most developed countries in the World. And its not easy – just ask the Japanese who had to suffer the …
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Marines in Helmand
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The Financial Times of July 3 2009, has a most interesting article about the added Marine forces of approximately 4000 men in Helmand province. This is the biggest operation by the Marines since the Fallujah offensive in Iraq. But the approach they are taking is quite different: “As Marine units arrive in their designated towns …
Read More Marketwatch Speaks the Truth
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It is amazing that the Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones allows the Opinions on Marketwatch to swing so far to the left. Or perhaps it is a sop to compensate for the rigid conservatism of the WSJ editorial page. Whatever, the case, Al Lewis today is right on Denmark with his note about the …
Read More MarketWatch: Going Beyond the Instant Financial News?
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One can hardly expect MarketWatch, being in the Dow Jones stable of financial news powerhouses like the Wall Street Journal and Barrons to be the most impressive. But Marketwatch is making a superb case for itself with a)its independence of point of view and b)its willingness to take on major issues and not tow the …
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Mass Self Customization
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For a long time futurist have been predicting the transition from Mass Production to Mass Custom Production. And if one looks over the past 50 year or so products have gone well beyond Henry Ford’s “any color you want so long as it is black”. Now many products have an array of add-on features. And …
Read More Massachussetts Wake-up Call
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The Obama administration just got its wake up call. All this past weekend the various news programs were grading Obama over the past year’s presidency. If you were Democratic the grades were close to Barack’s own, a B+ average. If you were Republican, the grades were draconian – D or worse. If you were Rush, …
Read More Massive Income and Wealth Inequality in the United States
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Income and Wealth Inequality is about deserving and fairness. In a democratic society, income and accumulated wealth have to be unequal because effort and captured good fortune are not equally distributed. So by definition income and consequent wealth will not be even – call this expected inequality of earnings and consequent wealth. However this expected …
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Mayor Bloomberg for Republican Presidential Candidate
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Mayor Bloomberg has done the Dance of Denial at least twice on David Letterman – so no way you say. Besides the Mayor’s embracing of many issues such gay rights, immigration reform and stricter gun control would appear to be the kiss of death for any ascendancy in the G.O.P. But hold on a second. …
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McCain Takes Charge
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John McCain in the Republican corridors of power is like Rodney Dangerfield, he doesn’t get any respect. He has become the RNC-reformed maverick as seen here on the Jon Stewart’s The Daily Show. In brief summary, John McCain has been forced to reverse himeself by Republican elites on many critical positions. This includes on the role …
Read More Media as Attention Directors
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In an article about how important the Bubble Economy has become for US Industry, Eric Janszen argues that the Media has become at best bystanders and more often cheerleaders for “the next big thing”. He notes that Media had failed to signal the problems with the last two economic bubbles – the Internet Boom ending …
Read More Media as Biased
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The Media appear to be working overtime to earn the hated “liberal” or “recklessly biased” epithets. In the latter case, Fox News Hannity and Colmes program is lately acting as a RNC-Republican National Committee cable channel conduit for strictly RNC viewpoints despite trumpeting that “the fair and balanced debate is only on ‘Hannity and Colmes’ …
Read More Media Muddle
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In a week the US media devoted to every nuance of the commercial and human tragedy that is Charlie Sheen, the following was said: “Viewership of Al Jazeera is going up in the United States because it’s real news,” … “You may not agree with it, but you feel like you’re getting real news around …
Read More Media’s Achilles Heel: CBC Example
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CBC News likes to cultivate the image of “telling it like it is”. “Just the facts mam, just the facts” is what you will purportedly get from the CBC. And then you get the interview today on CBC NewsWorld on why Prime Minister Stephen Harper, having opposed Senate appointments, is making 18 of his own. …
Read More Meet the Pressed
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The new anchor, David Gregory at Meet the Press, is interviewing Secretary of State Condeleeza Rice. Apparently the mission is to get “a frank assessment of President Bush” from Condi. And as is typical of recent US Military tactics -a full frontal assault with a barrage of embarrassing questions is being attempted. And of course …
Read More Meltdown Financial History
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Good and True History is important so that past mistakes are not repeated – or false excuses for what was done are exposed for frauds and appropriate parties discredited if not prosecuted. Nowhere is good history more important than in the case of the just past financial meltdown of 2007-2009. Hopefully it does not linger …
Read More Memo to: B. Obama – Paul Krugman Was Awfully Right Thrice
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Memo to: President Barack Obama Subject: NYTimes/Princeton’s Paul Krugman was right three times Dear Mr. President We regret to inform you that Paul Krugman was right three times. First he was right about the size and targeting of the stimulus funds. JedReport, June 2010 – Stimulus Spending: Paul Krugman was right – it was not nearly enough …
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Men, Who Needs Them
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Greg Hampkian has written a grocery-store checkout counter piece for ther NYTimes – entiled Men, Who Needs Them. Rather than exploring the motivation around the piece it is worth doing some PolitiFact-like check of truthiness in the arguments. So lets start out with the premise and first argument. The central behaviors of mammals revolve around …
Read More Mexican Drugs Wars: A Failed State?
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The movies Taken and International hint at raw and unchecked violence spinning out of control and like Friday the 13th, one says “it is only a movie”, “its only a movie”. Well, the real thing is happening in Mexico along the border – and the murders and violence in the drug wars is starting to suggest that …
Read More Mexico’s Drug Wars : The Rest of the Story
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Paul Harvey just passed away earlier this year, and that is a pity because he was famous for supplying “the rest of the story” for a lot of hyper-infotainment highlighted news stories. For example, the headline at the venerable NYTimes is “In Drug War, Mexico Fights Cartel and Itself”. Now the Times is doing a …
Read More MF Global:Wall Street Reforms Fail: Update
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Three new reports on MF Global’s Bankruptcy and its Impact on Financial Policy are worth noting: NYTimes – Gretchen Morgenstern, who has been instrumental in exposed recent Financial Follies, describes the damage to the credibility of current financial regulatory reforms and how the current European financial crisis impacts American banks and financial institutions as a consequence. Marketwatch …
Read More Microsoft and China
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Vendor Operating System Rate Microsoft Windows XP 86.38% Windows 7 10.78% Windows Vista 1.62% Windows 2003 0.43% Windows 2000 0.09% Other 0.01% Apple Mac OS 0.52% Linux Linux 0.17% Source: Baidu.com With the upcoming Windows 8, Microsoft should see a huge increase in revenues from China. Consider that aging and no longer supported Windows XP …
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Microsoft and the Web
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Definitely see the 1 year later 2014 update to this report. This Google+ Post is a picture that captures the essence of the continuing story about Microsoft and the Web. This slide is very telling because it reveals once again and summarizes neatly Redmond’s attitude to the Web for nearly 20 years. Remember Bill Gates …
Read More Microsoft at the Tipping Point ?
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The reaction to Google’s Chrome Frame has been most interesting. Often the IT trade press is very circumspect about commenting on Microsoft because Microsoft may be a major advertiser. But the commentary has been very wide about the implications of Google’s Chrome Frame on Redmonds software development [especially Web programs]. It reminds this reviewer of …
Read More Microsoft Bing’s Advantage
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The following NYTimes story shows the impact that Microsoft’s newly re-relaunched search engine, Bing, is having in the search engine wars. Instead of being a hapless me-too, Bing brings real innovation and a competitive advantage in search results display to BING over Google. Here is the writing on the wall:Google’s frugal search result display under …
Read More Microsoft Chromed by Google
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Update: Google is chroming Microsoft once again. IE9 is not out yet with its many HTML5 enhancements. But Microsoft is going to do nothing for the legion of IE8, IE7, and IE6 users. So Google has created the Google CanvasExplorer, a JavaScript that enables HTML5 on all those soon-to-be older versions of IE. But they …
Read More Microsoft Ketchup: Internet Explorer Fails Catastrophically, Again
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One of the key enablers in the recent Chinese cyberattack on Google and about 20 other US companies and corporates was a zero day hole in Internet Explorer. As Read Write Web notes this Microsoft security vulnerability has broad implications: Microsoft has acknowledged this vulnerability and is currently working on a patch. Every machine running …
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Microsoft Kin: A Throw Away
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Microsoft Kin is a throw-away – that is the jist of the conclusion one derives from the Engadget Opinion piece by Ross Rubin: Kin Dread Spirit. In the article, Ross describes how Microsoft top brass including Steve Ballmer and Peter Bache found fault with Google last December for entering the mobile market at the expense …
Read More Microsoft Misplays at CES 2010
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CES – Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas is devoted to gadgets and entertainment. Yes, PCs and computers are accepted – but the lighter and the redder they are the better. So Redmond’s PR top command should have been able to supply CEO Steve Ballmer with plenty of eye catching material about XBox, Project Natal’s …
Read More Microsoft Shorts the Web
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Give Microsoft executives full credit – they are nothing if not consistent. Everything turns on Windows being the preferred platform for all their software and applications. And this has had dire consequences for Web applications, tools and their developers. In short, Microsoft is consistently shorting the Web: 1)Microsoft’s infamous five year freeze on improvements to …
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Microsoft, Apple and the Web
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Almost a year ago, Takethe5th featured this story about Microsoft’s support for HTML5: This Google+ Post is a picture that captures the essence of the continuing story about Microsoft and the Web. This slide is very telling because it reveals once again and summarizes neatly Redmond’s attitude to the Web for nearly 20 years. Remember …
Read More Microsoft’s Perfect Storm of Problems
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Steve Ballmer’s Microsoft is playing serious catchup in 4 big markets. Google search is the obvious one and despite Bing Search it is going to be a long, tough row to hoe. But the other 3 problems all have common themes. First, they involve UI innovations as a major factor. Second, they involve Microsoft coming …
Read More Mideast Ground Zero – Tom Friedman’s Look at Gaza
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Tom Friedman has written 3 good books on the MidEast and has a command of whats happening in socio-economic trends throughout the Worldas evidenced in his 2 books the World is Flat and Hot, Crowded and Flat. So his commentary on the Gaza incursion is required reading. Unfortunately it must be takien against a backdrop …
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Mitch Daniel’s Indiana – Facing National Decline
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NYTimes has a good article about Mitch’s Daniel’s Indiana and some of the heart rending tradeoffs Daniels has had to make in the face of recessionary winds: “People think great business climate, Indiana comes to mind. People think infrastructure, we’re exactly who they think of.”Because recessionary winds have not toppled Indiana’s house, this state is …
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Mitt Romney:”I Know Business”
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Mitt Romney now appears to be the leader to beat in the polls for the next 3 primary votes – New Hampshire, South Carolina and Florida. In the Saturday ABC Debate debates the consensus is that Romney escaped unscathed as none of his rivals attacked him even with comparison statements. The result is that the …
Read More Monday’s Reads
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The weekend produced the usual crop of great reads. Here are 4 that captured our attention: NYTimes, Paul Krugman – Why Elect Mitt, We Already Have a Failing Republican Economy Salon, Horowitz and Wakefield – “All We have to FEAR” looks candidly at the 20 fold rise in Anxiety disorders in modern life. TheNewYorker, Amy …
Read More Money is Speech and a Corporations is equivalent to an Individual
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Slate has some excellent commentary and investigation on how the Supreme Court reached the concepts of Money being equal to Speech and a Corporation is equivalent to an individual. These two concepts are the critical flaws in the Supreme Courts granting unlimited campaign funding rights to Corporations and any other special interest group. Here is …
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Money Talks Disproportionately
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Just in case Messieurs Roberts, Alito, Kennedy, Thomas , and ” LaScalia” need a reminder, here is telling evidence that Money Talks Disproportionately [oh and another reminder, 5% of the US population of have 67% of its Wealth]. James Pethokoukis describes in Agents of Influence on BreakingViews, how successful the Too-Big- Too-Fail-Banks lobbying has been …
Read More Moody’s Caution about US Debt
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Moodys, one of the big three American Bond rating agencies is cautioning about the US Debt. Here are some of the salient remarks. Moody’s Investors Service Inc. said in a report Thursday that the U.S. will need to reverse an upward trajectory in its debt ratios to support its Aaa rating.“We have become increasingly clear …
Read More Moores Law is Alive and Well
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Logan and Parker are the names of the next generation mobile CPU/GPU chips coming from Nvidia. This party has wondered if Moores Law which see a doubling of CPU chip performance for the same cost roughly every two years can be sustained. This is important because Moores Law which drives electronics but is stretched to …
Read More Moral Amnesia on the National Debt
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Watching Meet the Press on NBC the last two Sundays, I found the Moral Amnesia of guests Representative Paul Ryan and Senator Mike Lee, both Tea party members, so astonishing and morally vacuous. Here are two champions of Deficit Cutting who speak with almost complete amnesia about how the deficits were amassed – they are …
Read More Moral Hazard II
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It appeared that with the refusal of FedAid to Lehman and the shotgun wedding of Merrill to Bank of Captain America, Treasury Secretary Paulson had closed the Moral Hazard Insurance window for your friendly Investment Bankers-only service. But I demurred here. And sure enough, two days later, the Moral Hazard Insurance window is open again …
Read More Moral Hazard III
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The deal is not done yet, but Bernanke and Paulson (SEC Chairman Cox seems to have no credibility) appear to have sold Congress on the idea that the total US Financial System was in the throes of completely freezing up. Now taxpayers as Moral Hazard Insurance providers are on the hook for probably a sweet …
Read More Moral Hazard IV
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The day after assesments of the Wall Street Fix are not sanguine. The essence of the argument is that the government has still not done the right thing because all the derivative based bad debt has: 1)Not been identified and reported completely to the SEC+Fed by the investment banks and other bad funds holders; 2)the …
Read More Moral Hazard V – Blank Cheque Bailout ?
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Thanks heavens that Congress, Democratic Senator Chris Dowd and Republican SenatorRichard Shelby, have taken a whoa, wait a minute view on this bailout measure. Under the guise of an emergency, the Bush Administration is doing a Financial Iraq – let us in with no controls or otherwise the system will meltdown and there will be …
Read More Moral Hazard:Fed to the Rescue Again
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The Fed is to the rescue again of supposedly the economy in general but some would argue Fed Chairman Bernanke and company are rescuing the Greedy-Guts-Itself US Financial Industry. And there is strong evidence from the Federal Reserve Board itself that is actually what is going on. The Chicago FRB in its February 2008 Outlook …
Read More Moral Vacuum: Jerry Sandusky and the LIBOR Scandal
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What possible connection can one make with convicted child molester, Penn State Assistant Football coach Jerry Sandusky, and the LIBOR interest rates set in London by a select list of 18 banks lead by Barclays Bank? Another bit of trash journalism or is there a possible connection? Jerry Sandusky, convicted child molester This last week, the …
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More Bo Info
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Bo Xilai is the displaced Chinese Communist leader who keeps giving. And in an indirect way he may be opening up China in ways that will be hard for the Communist Party to completely shutdown as 500 million bloggers and the Chinese equivalents of Twitter and Facebook plus the thousands of microsblogs continue to make …
Read More More on Windows Phone 7
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In Taketh5th’s coverage of the Summer IT Soap Opera, one of the most commented and controversial stories was the status of Windows Phone 7. The tech reviewers were all over the place on the July 2010 revealed developer editions of Windows Phone 7 on a Samsung smartphone. Here is the must reads to date: Gizmodo …
Read More More Reddit Censorship
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The latest trend in popular Reddit censorship is automatically spam filter generated. Who ever writes the Spam Filter code must have 1984ish roots. See the latest choice for censorship: A Chicago man, following the Republican playbook, is threatening to destroy rare papers unless Harvard offers a better price. Truly a Tea Party Schooled knave! …
Read More More Than Medicine Under Siege
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Medicine is under siege in the US. 1)Over 40 million Americans do not have Health Insurance. 2)The number of uninsured is growing. 3)The costs of health care are increasing at 6.7% faster than rate of inflation. 4)Healthcare costs are 15% of GDP in 2007 and are expected to be almost 20% by 2017. 5)There is …
Read More Motley Fool Asks – Is Microsoft IE Browser Doomed?
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Motley Fool asks the question here and the evidence is compelling that IE is on a downtrend. Here is what Tim Beyer, The Foolish writer has to say: StatCounter, an analytics firm, says that Firefox’s share of the browser market now stands at 32.06%, up almost seven percentage points from last November. Internet Explorer’s share …
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Move to Windows 8 Despite Love/Hate
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This move to Windows 8 is major decision. It is taken after 3 years of work on a combination of Fedora Linux and Windows 7. In addition for the last half year I have been working extensively with Android Jelly Bean on a Nexus 7 tablet. I have had Windows 8 for slightly longer than …
Read More Mumbai Attacks: Religious World Warfare
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The following story in the NYTimes illustrates in detail how stubbornly infectious and poisoning the Wahabi Sunni Terrorist War against the West really is and how perilously taut are relations between nuclear-armed Pakistan and nuclear-armed India. This Religious War of Terror is being lead by Osama Bin-laden and Al Man El Zawahari and other religious …
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Murder She Wrote
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Hillary Rodham Clinton just got away with murdering Rule of Law, As a lawyer Hillary is pledged to uphold Rule of law; but she has quietly eviscerated Rule of Law with her privileged Elite Escape from Criminal Prosecution without any indictable offense on the use of her email server..Clearly it was not a mere convenience …
Read More Must See Political TV
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Forget the MSNBC commercial at the beginning, here is President Obama speaking with the House Republicans for 1 very full hour. This is must see TV. The discussion is pointed, frank but polite – none of the Fox News Fair-and-Balanced stridency nor MSNBC name calling. The number of good ideas that get exchanged here is …
Read More My Kids Will Not Be Able to Do As Well As I Have
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According to Pugh Research, the belief that your kids will not be able to do as well or prosper as one`s own success, has reached new highs. And there is distinct writing on the wall as to why this is true. First and foremost, 1% of the US population now controls 25% of the wealth …
Read More My Kids Will Not Be Able to Do As Well As I Have Read More »
Myth Romney and the GOP Extremes
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In a superb and thoughtful article in Salon, Steve Kornacki describes why a Romney victory would be a blow to America not just because of Romney’s policies but more notably because of the great injury Romney and the GOP have done to American Democracy and its principles in the US. This is a gradual [ …
Read More New Morgan Stanley CEO “Not a Slimeball”
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Slate’s Big Money blog has a curiously titled story partly via the NYTimes – apparently the new CEO of Morgan Stanley is “definitely not a slimeball”. Now given that Morgan Stanley is a member of the exclusive “Too Big To Fail” club of financheevil institutions [uhh, financial institutions, since “banksters” does not seem completely satisfying, …
Read More News Coverage on TV
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As noted here news coverage in the US TV media has been faltering badly, with Fox News being allowed to employ blatant lies and distortions while defiantly proclaiming itself as a source of “fair and balanced coverage”. But other networks, seeing Fox anomalous ratings success [the more you prolong and comfort public misconceptions the better …
Read More News Media: Succumbing to Lower Standards
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Brett Arends has a very interesting post on MarketWatch – Why the NewsMedia is Worse Than You Think. He states his case succinctly: There have been the high profile goofs — by CNN, in its coverage of the Boston bombings, and by Howard Kurtz, the famous media “critic,” in a blog post about gay athlete …
Read More Newspapers Salvation ?
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A few years ago with Craigslist.org gutting every city newspaper’s classified ad section with its free ads, the writing was on the wall for newsprint: down and out in “know” time. Everybody knew that Web Triumphant would prevail. Well not so fast: This the latest of about 3-5 rejections per week I get from the …
Read More Newt Romney I
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The best lines at the ABCTV-sponsored debate this past weekend was Michelle Bachmann’s “Newt Romney”, AKA Newt Gingerich and Mitt Romney. Michelle could show the two not only flip flopping together but also abandoning conservative principles at the drop of a hat. The Daily Beast has been following the two since the debate and the marriage …
Read More Next on Obama’s Agenda: Financial Reforms
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Barry Blitt and Frank Rich have a great commentary today on what is next on the Obama agenda – Financial Reforms. And Frank implies in his editorial that given the public mood Obama has a decided advantage in making these reforms – the almost unanimously opposing Republicans will be sealing their status as the Party …
Read More NHL NULL
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Its beginning to dawn on Hockey commentators in Canada that the league has done a great disservice to the game in recent months. Take a look at Stephen Brunt’s recent columns in the Toronto Globe and Mail. In essence Stephen is saying that for Hockey Loving cities the times are good. Elsewhere hockey times are …
Read More No More USA As Automatic Top Dog
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NYTimes Conseravative columnist, David Brooks forecast President Obama’s critical theme message in the the State of the Union Address. Brooks said the crucial idea is that “In the 21st century, the U.S. will no longer be the Big Dog”. And at the top of his address, President echoed the idea in muted form. The US …
Read More No1 Issue: Fear of National Decline
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Ye Editor has been following Republican intellectuals like George Will, Charles Krauthammer, and David Brooks wondering how could they tolerate the extraordinary flip-flops and utter political nonsense emanating from the Republican Party for the last decade. Start with the Republican’s treasonous “Starve the Beast” policy and the takeover of Republican messaging by the extreme right …
Read More Nortel Giveaway
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Nortel was once the biggest tech employer in Canada. It has benefited from billions of dollars in tax breaks and special funding from the Canadian government. It has fallen on hard times – and was seeking a bailout from the Canadian government. The Canadian governement said no deal. At about the same time, Chrysler and …
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North Korea: China’s Protected Pitbull Terror
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This Truthdig cartoon by Dutch illustrator Tom Janssen encapsulates the true position of China as economic and political protector of the rabid rogue state of North Korea. Despite Chinese many protestations to the contrary, the aspiring new Responsible Nation in Asia is using North Korea as a military suzerain or puppet state to keep its …
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North Korea: Trumps First Big Success?
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After a disastrous last 2 weeks domestically, President Trump may be securing an improbable success in foreign policy with his changes in strategy for dealing with China over North Korea. In the past year with its nuclear detonations and ballistic missile trials, North Korea has become an ever more dangerous player in East Asia.The chances of a …
Read More North Korean “Art”
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The New York Times has an intriguing story about an major art exhibition in Vienna of over 200 pieces from the North Korea Art Gallery Pyongyang. “North Korea you say … what art do they have ? -Its is all propaganda.” And you would be right as this slideshow demonstrates – the picture above is …
Read More Note to Wall Street Investors and President Obama
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The number 1,2,3 problems in the US Economy are as of September 14,2008: 1)All the banks are not working and not willing to lend at all. 2)Both consumers and governments are not paying for what they consume. 3)Jobs are in rapid decline. The number 1,2,3, problems in the US Economy are as of October 2009: …
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Now Boiling Frogs
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The situation is so dire on World Climate Control, the old adage about Boiling Frogs is being trotted out all over the place. You know the one – put a frog in boiling ater and hew will immediately jump out – but slow cook him by gradually raising the temperature – eh voila, delicious frogs …
Read More Now that Bush Is Gone …
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Many a friend has expressed the sentiment that now that Bush is gone things can finally be made better and whole again. Its Pipe Dreams. Its taking much more than a fifth of Jim Beam. Its poppycock. The problem is that the Republicans and their benefactors who aided and abated and profited mightily from the …
Read More Nuit Blanche in TO:Picked to become a Pan
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Toronto served up Nuit Blanche on the last weekend in September 2007. This was the second year of an event that got started in 2007. The premise is simple – sponsor artshows and happenings throughout downtown Toronto at various museums, galleries, and public venues. Generate carriage trade. Scotiabank was again the sponsor this year And …
Read More NYTimes Ahead of the Media Pack
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The NYTimes, just like in its coverage of the Japanese Earthquake and Tsunami, show that it is ahead of the print and Web media pack with its coverage of Hurricane Irene with its interactive storm track. This Google Map powered animation shows the relevant timeline and trail of Hurricane Irene, its precise direction, wind power, etc. As …
Read More NYTimes Continues To Lead
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This blog cited the NYTimes as being the outstanding source of information on all aspects of the Japanese Earthquake, Tsunami and now Nuclear Disaster. But there was some concern that this was just a weekend affair and the NYTimes would be hard pressed to continue the excellence of its coverage. Let the following excerpts be …
Read More NYTimes David Brooks as a Sap
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NYTimes David Brooks is taking a bruising for saying in his column he was a sap to believe in Obamaism and the “myth of hope”. Look at the reaction: Rolling Stone – Why David Brooks Is A Sap The premise of the piece was that he, Brooks, was a “sap” for believing Barack Obama when …
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NYTimes Defines the Web Magazine
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NYTimes is in the process of defining the Magazine format for the Web. Yes, Newsweek and others [please add your favorites in the comments below] have done some superb full-page, Magazine-like stories but the NYTimes is taking it to a new media level of excellence: As China in our century become as aggressive as Japan …
Read More NYTimes Editorial: Journalistically Compromised?
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The NYTimes published an editorial on Sunday April 3 2011, urging the rejection of a pipeline from Canada and the Northern US States to the US Midwest and Gulf Coast. Of all things, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will have the final say on this pipeline approval because the pipeline crosses the border between the …
Read More NYTimes Editorial: Journalistically Compromised? Read More »
NYTimes Gives Google a Real Run for the Money 1 – Market Overview
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Taketh5th has been featuring articles about the high caliber of Google’s free stock and financial information services. Well almost stealthily the NYTimes has really polished its equivalent stock and financial services such that All the News Fit to print appears to be giving Google a real run for its money. Go to the NYTimes Markets …
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NYTimes Gives Google a Real Run for the Money 2 – Stock Charts + Fundamentals
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Our previous review of the NYTimes Markets found it to be well ahead of the competition [including Google, Microsoft Money, Reuters, SEC’s Edgar and others] in providing broad [and free] Markets data in a comprehensive yet concise essential summaries. But this is only the broad Markets data. This review will look at the fundamental stock …
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NYTimes Gives Google a Real Run for the Money 3 – Stock Screeners
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The NYTimes Financial Market information services is proof that the old lady can hiphop with the best in the Web 2.0 world including Google. In our two previous postings, the NYTimes showed how novel use of the Tabs , Charts and Thumbnail widgets could a)provide a novel and Google-beating Markets Overview and b) some of …
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NYTimes Hits The Quinfecta
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In a week that saw the Washington Post bought out for a tenth of its value ten years ago, the NYTimes put on a quiet but virtuoso display of journalism in Sunday’s “paper”. Not one or two “must read” stories but five. Now below is a discussion of why hitting this Quinfecta is important. Meantime, …
Read More NYTimes Japan Quake Coverage: A Web Triumph
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If there was any doubt before, Japan’s earthquake and tsunami removed any lingering ones and revealed the NYTimes as the world leading masters of Web interactive graphics and coverage.Our sister blog, Bookraft, has already pointed out some of the leading technologies used by the NYTimes for last year’s Winter Olympios. But covering the Japnese Earthquake …
Read More NYTimes Looks at Mozilla Firefox
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The NYTimes has done a 3 page story on Mozilla and its most important product, the Firefox browser. This story is notable for 5 reasons. First, it is about browsers and the role that browsers are playing in not just the PC but also smartphone and the broader Cloud Computing marketplaces. It also is …
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NYTimes Magazine Makes A Scene, Literally
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NYTimes Magazine online edition has been the subject of lavish praise from this reviewer of late[see the fulsome accolades for NYTimes Magazine story on a Philippines outpost against the Chinese land grab here]. But the Magazine can be too indulgent as appears to be the case in its extravagant Making a Scene production – 11 …
Read More NYTimes Takes Friendly Fire From Own Writer
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I have been spending no small amount of time praising the NYTimes for adapting quickly to the digital onslaught. The Times currently leads the US major news media with very intelligent use of JavaScript and other components/ mashables in its online edition. As well the company has produced what I expect to be a fixture …
Read More Obama Abandons Elizabeth Warren
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How far has President Obama moved to the right? During the course of the Debt Ceiling debatehe slip streamed in not Elizabeth Warren but Richard Cordray as head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. True, he let Elizabeth do all the ground work setting up the agency almost to the very last week; but on …
Read More Obama as the Web 2.0 Great Communicator
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Barack Obama is given tops marks for his ability to write and deliver a stirring speech. It is no small part of his political prowess. He has been compared to another Illinois native son – Abraham Lincoln for being a superb communicator. But Barack Obama may be taking this ability to listen, define and communicate …
Read More Obama Contrarian 2: Going It Alone
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Kobe did it alone – brought the NBA Championship to LA as the lone and prime star of the Lakers[apologies to Fisher, Arizia, Pau Gasol, etc]. But that is the exception, not the rule. Pittsburg Penguins won Ice Hockey’s Stanley Cup with three stars – Sidney Crosby, Mark Andre Fleury, and Evgenii Malkin. The year …
Read More Obama Contrarian: Financial Kid Glove Treatment
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President Obama is being touted for a)eliciting opinions from all players in the policy room and b)allowing (if not encouraging) contrarian opinions in policy debates. This is what the Obama Contrarian series of postings will be about. This first posting is about the kid glove treatment the Financial Community appears to be getting from the …
Read More Obama Economics and Governance
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It has been said here before but now that Marketwatch’s Darrell Delamaide agrees – it bears repeating. The Achilles Heal for President Obama appears to be his nominal interest in, flawed understanding of and/or declining excellence of his advisors in Economics and Governance. Darrell argues that it will not be the GOP but the Herbert …
Read More Obama gets No Credit: Even from President of Rescued Firm
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Bloomberg has an interesting story of how political credit works => you get no credit for preventing something bad from going to worse. Case in point, Michigan auto-supplier E&E would have gone belly up – now it is doing $75million/year; up from $30 million and going under until Obama’s auto company rescue plan was passed. …
Read More Obama gets No Credit: Even from President of Rescued Firm Read More »
Obama Hitting the Wall?
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There are two stories in todays news that fit together like Yin and Yang. One is a tale of courage by a top ranked high school cross country runner as she hits the wall in the state championship meet in California. The other is about the President faltering at the wall of fierce, ‘destroy him’ …
Read More Obama in the Allstar Booth
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I was pleasant surprised by Baseball’s AllStar game this year. First, the dedication to Service in the Country with its honoring of volunteers in the various baseball cities across the country was carried off very well. Second, President Obama proved once again that he is as close to a Natural Born hitter than anyone around …
Read More Obama Speaks
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Barack Obama’s major impact on the change in power and the US Presidency is not that he is extremely well briefed and knowledgeable about a wide range of issues. Nor is that he can speak eloquently and with purpose on the topics and problems he is confronted with. No the outstanding qualities that are coming …
Read More Obama Watch
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I have friends both very pro and con Obama who have expressed tinges of buyers regret. It goes something like this. PRO Obama : I am beginning to worry about Obama – look he is having a Gay-bashing Preacher give the blessing at the Inauguration. Or look he is wavering on removing the Bush tax …
Read More Obama Wins North Carolina
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The NYTimes has a story today that Barack Obama has finally been declared the winner in North Carolina. It hardly seems to matter since Obama already has well over the needed 270 electoral votes as well as an 8 million popular vote plurality. But there is something satisfying about Obama winning in North Carolina – …
Read More Obama’s Failing Financial Reform Grades
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It is hard to understand, let alone cope with, the kid glove treatment that the Financial community is getting from the Obama Financial team. Consider now that the population not just of the United State but the Whole World is suffering one of the worst recessions since the Great Depression. Also an even worse Depression …
Read More Obama’s Inaugural Speech II
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Because Obama’s Inaugural Speech didn’t have the uplifting rhetoric of his 2004 Democratic Convention Keynote Speech, many have said it was a klunker. Some say the real Inauguration Speech of Grandeur was delivered at the Lincoln Memorial on Martin Luther King Day – just 24 hours earlier. But on second view people are finding more …
Read More Obamas Political Tells
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President Obama has been as disconcerting for Democrats as he has been judged as outrageous by Republicans. Look at major events over the past 2 years: 1)No Justice Department investigations of the Republican Administration for broad malfeasance particularly in the areas of abuse of power in the lead up to, pursuit of the Iraq War and handling …
Read More Observations on Obama’s Inaugural Address
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As a “foreign” observer I was struck by two things in the inaugural address: First, the direct repudiation of the former President and VicePresident to their faces on the shortfall of “ends justifies the means” arguments regarding dispensing with rule of law in wartime(read “torture” in Iraq, Quantanamo Bay, Iraq’a Abu Ghraib, Rendition flights, etc) …
Read More Occupy the Wall Street Journal: FoxNews-like Messaging and Reporting
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The Congressional Budget Office’s recent report on National Income trends for the past 30 years finds that the top 20% of earners have gained at least twice as much in income while all other other groups have fallen behind. The Wall Street Journal felt compelled to respond with the interview below in its Opinions section. From the …
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Occupy Wall Street Message: Update
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The respected and non-partisan CBO-Congressional Budget Office in a just released report has confirmed the basic chart and message posted below. Indeed the rich have gotten a lot richer while all other major income groups have lost income in the past 30 years. And in the hard battles to “lower our cost structure substantially” = …
Read More Occupy Wall Street Moves to TV?
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Harry’s Law, in yesterday’s episode called Head Games, takes up the Occupy Wall Street Message in full form.The episode deals with a woman whose home is foreclosed; so in desperation she goes and robs one of the bank’s branches. The team’s defense for the woman is the so called Outrageous Government Misconduct defense. In the …
Read More Occupy Wall Street: Bautocracy Brought Into Focus
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Takethe5th has been advancing the idea that the US, in a major departure from its democratic roots, has been in the process of becoming a Bautocracy. This is the process of the very wealthiest replacing one-man-one-vote with bought political access and therefore power. This buying of influence has been accomplished through unprecedented political access and power …
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Occupy Wall Street’s Enduring Message
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Nicholas Kristoff at the NYTimes, has a very telling piece about the Bankers who brought about the 2007-2008 Financial meltdown. Recent disclosures by Bloomberg and others have made it clear that the $0.70 Trillion TARP bailout was just the tip of the iceberg as 10 time the TARP, or $7.0trillion has been spent to bailout …
Read More OECD’s Premium Statistics
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The OECD-Organization of Economic Co-operation and Development is the Economic In-club. The economic place you want to be beyond WTO-World Trade Organization and the G8. And part of that reason is because the OECD plays a scorekeeping function, mesauring how its members are doing on a number of economic,political and social measures. Sort of a …
Read More Oil Speculation: Proof Again Major Markets Can Be Played
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The Financial Times of Friday, July 3 2009 has a story about how a”rogue oil broker” triggered a price spike in Oil Prices. A single trader for PVM Oil Associates in London bought 8m barrels of oil in “unauthorized trading” causing the price at $71 to spike to $73.50. That position later had to be …
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On Being A Republican Intellectual
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Being a Republican Intellectual has the furious sound and ironic meaning of an oxymoron. Looking at the Republican record for intellectual analysis let alone free speech is shuddering: 1)the GOP must answer to such idol-savants as Rush Limbaugh, Glen Beck, Bill OReilly with an acrid chorus of Ann Coulter, Sarah Palin, and Michelle Bachmann among …
Read More On Financial Meltdown Prosecutions
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Matt Taibbi at Rolling Stone is noted for his investigations of the Financial Community particulary since the Financial Meltdown of 2007 to 2009. In an article in Rolling Stone for February 2011 Matt asked the question Why Isn’t Wall Street in Jail?. he concluded that it was two major factors – The Obama administration and …
Read More On Google Plus: Austerity vs Keynesian Economic Policy
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Geoff Brandt asked the following question on Google Plus: I was having a discussion with an acquaintance of mine who is somewhat more conservative than I am. He was railing against most gov’t spending (perpetrated of course by “those Liberals in Washington”) and insisted our nation’s top priority other than defense should be to pay …
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On Google Plus: There Are No Jobs
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On Google Plus, one can find circles and communities where it is possible to have civil discussions. Here is an example. The card to the left was posted and got 10 +clicks and 3 repostings. One of the comments was notable. I am ambiguous about this notion – and it is fundamental. Are there enough …
Read More One More Time: How Goes Executive Pay?
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The NYTimes had a recent story, The Infinite Pool of Executive Pay. It is a little hit and miss. The report comes down on the increase of 18.7% percent in corporate perks. But then we also learn that overall median pay for the top 100 CEOs increased by just 2.8%. However, I had a devil …
Read More Only in America: Mortgage Machinations
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You gotta read this story about PennyMac from the people who brought you the Mortgage meltdown – the graduates of CountryWide Financial. The business model is quite simple – “goes to a demolished bank or the FDIC and buys up delinquent mortgages at, say, 20 cents on the dollar. Kurland’s people then call the delinquent …
Read More OpEd Flogging
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There is no doubt in my mind that Maureen Dowd, OpEd columnist for the New York Times, would have made an exquisite torcheress during the Spanish Inquisition. Take a look at her latest flogging of Sarah Palin. But the problem with torturers is they don’t know ‘enough’. Flogging Sarah Palin is counter-productive because it just …
Read More Openness: 4 Principles and a Deviant
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This Ted talk by Don Tapscott on the fundamental attributes of Openness is illuminating: Don waxes highly hopeful about an Open Future. But there are stark counter-examples right now. Spain,much of Southern Europe and the MidEast have 40% or much higher youth unemployment. The crux of the problem is also covered in the lecture. Note …
Read More Operating Systems as Natural Monopolies: Think Apple iOS
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A computer operating system is very close to a natural monopoly. Controlling the dysfunctional effects of such monpolies has proven very difficult. A simple monopoly occurs when one supplier provides 60% or more of the product in a marketplace. Monopolies do not have to be dysfunctional. However, in profit maximizing markets there is a strong …
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Opportunity Loss: IT is NOT JUST Consolidating
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In our observation on Top Management Awry we have posited that IT-Information Technology is simply being hopelessly mismanaged with a finger pointing towards CEO’s and Boards of Directors. They are treating a vital, strategic, and rapidly evolving IT assets (people, software and hardware) as cost centers to be bean-counter minimized. CEOs will cite Harvard Business …
Read More Our Generals Almost Cost Us Iraq
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Mackubin Thomas Owens in the September 24th 2008 issue on the Opinions page in the Wall Street Journal raises the issue that the US Generals in command in Iraq acted out of hand when the decision was made to have a Surge. These remarks are made based on his reading of Bob Woodward’s book The …
Read More Palin Really for President
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In a daring but also partisan fear-laden column, Frank Rich advances the notion that Sarah Palin is doing a Dick Cheney to the McCain-Palin campaign. She and her handlers are providing the more energetic thrusts and are now, de facto, steering the McCain campaign. And the Republican elites, who are on notice from the Maverick …
Read More Partisan Decision Paralysis
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The NYTimes has one of those small, but seminal stories on the National Scene today – strong evidence of Partisan Decision Paralysis. The US is in a transition like Britain was 150 years ago – Britain from Empire to merely an influential European player; the US from Economic and Military World Power to whatever the …
Read More Paul Farrell: Crash Cassandra
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I think Dow Jones MarketWatch indulges columnist Paul Farrell as the titular Cassandra – proof that Dow Jones takes in all perspectives just in case if markets and the world’s economies go terribly wrong, Dow Jones can point to their Cassandra and say “we told you so”. Here is a Whitman Sampler of Farrell’s forebodings …
Read More Paul Gigot: Republican Intellectual Distemper
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Having praised Republican Intellectuals for their leadership in defining the the number 1 issue in the upcoming Presidential Election [in case you missed it -High Anxiety over the widespread National Decline and Washington’s incapacity at addressing the underlying issues], ye Editor expected that some Republican intellectual gaffe or three to inevitably follow. After all this …
Read More Paul Krugman – Political Whitewash Man
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It is ironic that Paul Krugman having just finished one of the better and succinct analyses of the GOPTrump symbiotic relationships, turns on a dime and becomes such a whitewashing shill for Hillary Clinton one wonders what Cabinet Post the Professor is Chris Christie-ing for? The fallacies, omissions, blatant truthiness and ad hominem attacks on …
Read More Paul Krugman’s Republican Insight
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I rarely agree with Paul Krugman’s economic policy; but his placement of the center of ideas from the current Republican party is right on Denmark. Krugmaan says the Republican’s who once prided themselves as being the party of ideas – is now clinging to the notion that appeals to the simple, brute force approach to …
Read More Pay to Get Rid of Poverty: An American Tragedy
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Here is an idea that is being adopted around the World, but would never take root currently in America because of divisive partisanship – Pay to Get Rid of Poverty. The city of Rio de Janeiro is infamous for the fact that one can look out from a precarious shack on a hill in a …
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Payback on the Front Burner
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Worldwide Inequality Becomes More Pronounced Both Wealth and Income continue to skew in favor of privileged 1% as seen in these reports and charts: First there is the trend of income inequlity shows three disturbing trends: First, the top 10% of the population continues to increase its disproportionate percentage of National Income giving substance to …
Read More Payscale’s Economic Widget
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[js] Cost of Living Calculator Salary Calculator [/js] Payscale offers a number of economic and employment savvy widgets for inclusion on your website. The following is an example; just fill in the data with fictitious values to see how it works. Be prepared for an ugly surprise; like a Bankster offering you a low, low …
Read More PC Renaissance
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The world of computing has been turned topsy turvy by mobile devices – light, mobile, long-battery life and most important – touch screen operable. Smartphones and tablets from Apple have lead the way; but now the Wintel Empire Strikes Back with ultrabooks , convertibles and 2-in-one PCs. But what may shape this latest twist in …
Read More Penn State Abuse: National Mirror
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The Penn State Abuse case seems at first glance to be too dramatic and perhaps media lead. So a football coach was caught molesting a ten year old in the showers at Penn State. Shameful but not outside the bounds of experience [see US Swim team].So the football coach that obeserved it did not stop …
Read More Pension Funds and Bondholders Revolt
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The Toronto Star’s Saturday January 26th, 2008 Business section (page B3) has a couple of very interesting stories on litigation ensuing from recent major financial transactions. Both suits will be tests on the extent of legal liabilities in various recent financial “transactions”. The first story is about the exposue of 3 large Canadian banks to …
Read More Perception of Numbers And Irrationality
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You have probably guessed it – you have a gut instinct for numbers. Sometimes the exact number of things up to 7-9. But also large collections of things such that distinguishing quickly which are most numerous is of survival import – are there more women then men at a party or more black pieces than …
Read More Pfizer Pfizzles
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Pfizer really has put itself behind the eight ball in new drug development. Now Pfizer has added on coating of corruption as a settlement with the DOJ indicates appalling practices. When you read the indicting summary at WSJ’s Marketwatch – well “do no evil less than a weasel” and the Hypocritic Oath immediately come to mind: …
Read More Photography : The Futures
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Nowhere is the disruptive waves of change emanating from rapid developments in electronics more evident than in photography markets. 150 years of chemical films came to a close in the late 1990’s and early 2000’s with the rise of digital cameras[just ask Eastman Kodak]. Now separate video and still cameras are merging as both compact …
Read More Political Cartoons Make A Comeback
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Political cartoons are making a comeback with the help of turbulent times and dimwitted politicians. Nowhere is that on better display than in in the cartoons by Washington Post caricature draftsman extraordinaire – Toles: This is the first in a slideshow of fun fun fun… The really great jests are down in the righthand corner, …
Read More Political Corruption
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The US is beginning to see the consequences of having a Failed State or 5 on its border with Mexico as the drug trade problems spiral out of control. Interestingly, the idea that anything can be bought is the driving force behind the drug terror in Mexico. The same attitude has come lurching on the …
Read More Political Levity
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Time magazine adds a little levity to an otherwise shrill political scene with its weekly political cartoons. See them all here. Facebook Twitter Google+ Pinterest LinkedIn Related posts: Paul Krugman’s Republican Insight TV’s Serial Killers
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Political Protection Money Thrives on the Street
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Protection money is everywhere in society – but nowhere greater than in the relationship of Wall Street and Washington. And it all has to do with “asymmetrical payments”. For Wall Street bankers and investment houses, being able to dictate the Rule of Financial Law is priceless. Thus, just six large Wall Street banks are willing …
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Political Satire Junkies: Need a Humor Fix?
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Are you tired of having to wait up to all hours of the night for a little dab of political humor or satire from Bill Maher or Jon Stewart or Stephen Colbert? Are Jay, David, and Jimmy too lame or inane? Do you like unbiased black humor? Let me recommend the Borowitz Report, available on …
Read More Powerful Infographic on Gun Control
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The DailyBeast has helped create and promote the following Gun Control infographic on a website called ThisIsYourRepOnGuns: Every Senator and member of the House of Representatives is listed. Their own words on gun control are available – and what voting actions and financial support they have taken on the issue. There are ratings of the …
Read More Predators Ball II
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The Financial Investment community should be reasonably careful about its image of late – after all these gals and primarily guys have been responsible for triggering a recession (and maybe a particularly nasty one) plus incurring large losses in their various investment offerings. So you would think caution no celebration would be the operative style. …
Read More President Neville Chamberlain Obama
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This posting is not about Nazis but rather appeasement – abject, complete, and uncompromising appeasement. Now the US knows what its like to live under a leader who may be well-intentioned but as spineless as Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain of England just before World War II. Look at the facts: Republican Presidents have been responsible …
Read More President Obama – Attacks from the Left
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I thought my recent posting on the dithering by President Obama was a zinger – its gotten the least hits of all my recent posts. It appears that the Republican Screeching against the President has now made any criticism or doubts as PI-Politically Incorrect.So imagine the response that Bill Maher is getting for his Huffington …
Read More Presidential Election Hypotheses
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In our piece in this blog on Billary or Obama , I advance the notion which may very well be treated as a scientific hypotheses: The winner of the Democratic nomination will be the winner of the Presidential election. Here is my empirical proof: Primary Election Turnout in 2008 StatePrimary Democrats Republicans Alabama – D=48.9% …
Read More Presidential Race: Its Over
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NYTimes/CBS Poll Results in crucial swing states point to a comfortable Obama/Biden lead Huffington Post does the electoral vote count The US Presidential Election is over.The numbers above at the end of September tell the story – in all the swing states Obama/Biden own a commanding lead The Huffington Post election widget shows the projected …
Read More Presidents Choice Financial – Endemic Financial Disservice
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What did PC Financial Insurance do ? Not really much in the general financial sweep of things these days. It discontinued its Auto Insurance business. However, PC Financial did not inform its customers of the fact. No calls, no emails, no contact whatsoever. The only way I discovered the fact was because I wrote a …
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Press Suicide?
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Frank Rich at the NewYork Times has written a caustic yet timely piece on why the Press, many popular newspapers and magazines, find themselves on code-blue death watch. And these are not small fry – Boston Globe, LATimes, Newsweek, Chicago Tribune, Infoworld just to name a scattering few. And Frank is frank – he cites …
Read More Private Equity Reincarnations
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The NYTimes has an excellent story on the change that is coming to Wall Street, Private Equity and the Masters of the Universe dwelling there. What makes this story cogent is that these guys (primarily) are busy trying to remake themselves as smart bond/debt holders – now that easy credit for stocks and buyouts has …
Read More Problems of Made in USA
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Paul Krugman of the NYTimes gives the almost sordid history of manufacturing jobs in the US over the past decade. Making Things In America, manufacturing, used to be one of the strengths of America. Here are the current trends: The story so far: In the 1990s, U.S. manufacturing employment was more or less steady. After …
Read More Progressive Disillusionment
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Progressive disillusionment are the bon mots used today to describe the state of Obama supporters and liberal/progressives in general. It is not pretty as there is great discord and apathy among Democrats and Progressives as seen in the quotes below. This, despite the fact that the President and Party have managed to pass major Health …