Tuesday, December 7, 2010

People Making Money Online






  • Daily Intel
    State Senate’s Hothead-in-Chief Guilty of Misdemeanor


  • Vulture
    The Borgias Trailer: Or, When the Pope Was a Gangster


  • The Cut
    Tomorrow’s Events and Sales: Leifsdottir Sample Sale; Discounts at Natori


  • Grub Street New York
    Ivy Stark: ‘I Am Not Opening a Restaurant in Brooklyn’


  • Vulture
    Watch the Full-Length Trailer for I Am Number Four


  • Vulture
    Someone May Let Lee Daniels Adapt a Fellini Movie


  • Vulture
    Watch a Very Pregnant Christina Applegate Do Some Pole Dancing


  • The Cut
    Men in Fancy Pants, or None at All


  • Vulture
    Party Lines Slideshow: Samm Levine, Samuel L. Jackson, Howard Stern, and More at the Roast of Quentin Tarantino


  • The Sports Section
    Day Two of Winter Meetings: Yankees Ink Jeter, Mets Set Sights on Paulino


  • Grub Street New York
    First Look at Beauty & Essex, Opening This Weekend


  • Vulture
    Watch Tracy Morgan Explain, Sort of Reenact Star Wars


  • The Cut
    Serena Williams Decorated Her Injured Foot With Crystals


  • Daily Intel
    Please Enjoy This Moment With Donald Trump’s Hair


  • Vulture
    Nick Cave on Grinderman and Why He’s a Feminist


  • Grub Street New York
    Liquor Authority Says It Was a Very Good Year


  • The Cut
    Get Balmain for $2,000 Instead of $7,000 on the Outnet Today


  • Vulture
    Who Wants to Ghostwrite a Book for Randy and Evi Quaid?


  • Vulture
    Relive the Moment Justin Bieber Met John Waters


  • Daily Intel
    Texas GOP Leader Not Sure Jew Can Really Be a Good House Speaker


  • Vulture
    The Nine Worst Moms of Oscar Season


  • The Cut
    Glam Up for the Holidays With Our Latest Shop-A-Matic


  • Grub Street New York
    Motorino Man Becomes Bowery Boy


  • Daily Intel
    Susanne Bartsch and David Barton Split


  • Vulture
    See Gorillaz’ New Video, Starring Snoop Dogg in a Naval Uniform






Let me apologize in advance for the long wind-up on this one, but I want to justify being a bit of a glib asshole about our political system here.



I have a friend who says he knows Nate Silver from back in the day. According to him (I’m sure Nate Silver would deny this and I’m sure I’m getting details wrong too), Silver was playing a lot of online poker and making money at it, then the other players got good so he quit to do something where the people around him would be dumber, so he could make more of an impact. Sports statistics was a natural choice. Then all these smart people (Voros McCracken, etc.) started doing sports stats too, so he looked for a new backwater, and found political statistics, where he dominated and revolutionized many things.



I have some other friends who are in business that involves managing large groups of peoples. I’ve asked them what the most important thing is and they say it’s hiring capable people. I ask if there’s anything else and they say, yes, making sure the most capable people get promoted as high as possible. And that’s it, there’s really nothing else you can do, they say. It’s obvious stuff, they admit, but they say it’s harder to do than I would think and that it’s not done well in a lot of cases.



The politicos on tv don’t impress me. Ed Rollins and James Carville, don’t seem like idiots but they also don’t seem like people who would rise to the top of very many fields. Actual elected officials are more of a mixed bag, with more outright morons (James Inhofe, Sarah Palin) and also more genuinely impressive people (Bill Clinton, Obama). If I had to break it down by party, I’d say that the Republican political consultants seem slightly sharper than their Democratic counterparts (especially among the older ones) while the Democratic elected officials seem a good deal sharper than their Republican counterparts.



But all in all, it’s just not an impressive group of people.



The same is true of the pundits on tv. Other than Paul Krugman (who of course didn’t come from a journalistic background) and maybe Ron Brownstein, they just don’t come across as people’s whose opinions I’d be interested in on any topic. They don’t know anything about anything, they don’t speak especially well, and their insights are all either stale conventional wisdom or something I read on a blog months ago.



Maybe it’s time to admit that the people at the top of our political/media heap just aren’t very bright. Politics and media are both areas where there isn’t a lot of good accreditation and review of people (the way there is to some extent in law or medicine or academia), nor is there much opportunity for constructive entrepreneurship (you have to be at some large organization to get anywhere) nor is there anyway to get to the top by just beating other people, as there might be in something like sports (I realize there are elections to win, but they are mostly rigged via gerrymandering etc.). Most of it doesn’t pay very well at the beginning, with all these unpaid internships and so on.



It seems like a system that would discourage ambitious young people from joining and then promote the people who do join in a capricious way.



Maybe it’s pointless to speculate this, but I do think that it’s part of why our national political system is just a disaster: it’s run by losers. Don’t get me wrong, these people could be corrupt and self-dealing and all that, but that doesn’t mean they’re not also incompetent.








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Scripting <b>News</b>: My JSON River of <b>News</b>

My JSON River of News. By Dave Winer on Monday, December 06, 2010 at 9:45 PM. First a few preambles... Permanent link to this item in the archive. 1. I'm a big believer in the River of News style of feed reader. Reverse-chronologic. ...

Breaking <b>News</b>: Watch A Gigantic Looping Solar Prominence

The Solar Dynamics Observatory never fails to deliver absolutely stunning images from the Sun: as of 18:49 UT today, the above picture is what the Sun looked like in the ultraviolet spectrum. The prominence that you are seeing looping ...

Small Business <b>News</b>: The Small Business Samba

From the slow dance Republicans and Democrats have been doing in Washington the last few weeks over tax cuts and jobless benefit extensions approved earlier.



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Scripting <b>News</b>: My JSON River of <b>News</b>

My JSON River of News. By Dave Winer on Monday, December 06, 2010 at 9:45 PM. First a few preambles... Permanent link to this item in the archive. 1. I'm a big believer in the River of News style of feed reader. Reverse-chronologic. ...

Breaking <b>News</b>: Watch A Gigantic Looping Solar Prominence

The Solar Dynamics Observatory never fails to deliver absolutely stunning images from the Sun: as of 18:49 UT today, the above picture is what the Sun looked like in the ultraviolet spectrum. The prominence that you are seeing looping ...

Small Business <b>News</b>: The Small Business Samba

From the slow dance Republicans and Democrats have been doing in Washington the last few weeks over tax cuts and jobless benefit extensions approved earlier.



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Scripting <b>News</b>: My JSON River of <b>News</b>

My JSON River of News. By Dave Winer on Monday, December 06, 2010 at 9:45 PM. First a few preambles... Permanent link to this item in the archive. 1. I'm a big believer in the River of News style of feed reader. Reverse-chronologic. ...

Breaking <b>News</b>: Watch A Gigantic Looping Solar Prominence

The Solar Dynamics Observatory never fails to deliver absolutely stunning images from the Sun: as of 18:49 UT today, the above picture is what the Sun looked like in the ultraviolet spectrum. The prominence that you are seeing looping ...

Small Business <b>News</b>: The Small Business Samba

From the slow dance Republicans and Democrats have been doing in Washington the last few weeks over tax cuts and jobless benefit extensions approved earlier.



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Scripting <b>News</b>: My JSON River of <b>News</b>

My JSON River of News. By Dave Winer on Monday, December 06, 2010 at 9:45 PM. First a few preambles... Permanent link to this item in the archive. 1. I'm a big believer in the River of News style of feed reader. Reverse-chronologic. ...

Breaking <b>News</b>: Watch A Gigantic Looping Solar Prominence

The Solar Dynamics Observatory never fails to deliver absolutely stunning images from the Sun: as of 18:49 UT today, the above picture is what the Sun looked like in the ultraviolet spectrum. The prominence that you are seeing looping ...

Small Business <b>News</b>: The Small Business Samba

From the slow dance Republicans and Democrats have been doing in Washington the last few weeks over tax cuts and jobless benefit extensions approved earlier.



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Scripting <b>News</b>: My JSON River of <b>News</b>

My JSON River of News. By Dave Winer on Monday, December 06, 2010 at 9:45 PM. First a few preambles... Permanent link to this item in the archive. 1. I'm a big believer in the River of News style of feed reader. Reverse-chronologic. ...

Breaking <b>News</b>: Watch A Gigantic Looping Solar Prominence

The Solar Dynamics Observatory never fails to deliver absolutely stunning images from the Sun: as of 18:49 UT today, the above picture is what the Sun looked like in the ultraviolet spectrum. The prominence that you are seeing looping ...

Small Business <b>News</b>: The Small Business Samba

From the slow dance Republicans and Democrats have been doing in Washington the last few weeks over tax cuts and jobless benefit extensions approved earlier.



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  • Daily Intel
    State Senate’s Hothead-in-Chief Guilty of Misdemeanor


  • Vulture
    The Borgias Trailer: Or, When the Pope Was a Gangster


  • The Cut
    Tomorrow’s Events and Sales: Leifsdottir Sample Sale; Discounts at Natori


  • Grub Street New York
    Ivy Stark: ‘I Am Not Opening a Restaurant in Brooklyn’


  • Vulture
    Watch the Full-Length Trailer for I Am Number Four


  • Vulture
    Someone May Let Lee Daniels Adapt a Fellini Movie


  • Vulture
    Watch a Very Pregnant Christina Applegate Do Some Pole Dancing


  • The Cut
    Men in Fancy Pants, or None at All


  • Vulture
    Party Lines Slideshow: Samm Levine, Samuel L. Jackson, Howard Stern, and More at the Roast of Quentin Tarantino


  • The Sports Section
    Day Two of Winter Meetings: Yankees Ink Jeter, Mets Set Sights on Paulino


  • Grub Street New York
    First Look at Beauty & Essex, Opening This Weekend


  • Vulture
    Watch Tracy Morgan Explain, Sort of Reenact Star Wars


  • The Cut
    Serena Williams Decorated Her Injured Foot With Crystals


  • Daily Intel
    Please Enjoy This Moment With Donald Trump’s Hair


  • Vulture
    Nick Cave on Grinderman and Why He’s a Feminist


  • Grub Street New York
    Liquor Authority Says It Was a Very Good Year


  • The Cut
    Get Balmain for $2,000 Instead of $7,000 on the Outnet Today


  • Vulture
    Who Wants to Ghostwrite a Book for Randy and Evi Quaid?


  • Vulture
    Relive the Moment Justin Bieber Met John Waters


  • Daily Intel
    Texas GOP Leader Not Sure Jew Can Really Be a Good House Speaker


  • Vulture
    The Nine Worst Moms of Oscar Season


  • The Cut
    Glam Up for the Holidays With Our Latest Shop-A-Matic


  • Grub Street New York
    Motorino Man Becomes Bowery Boy


  • Daily Intel
    Susanne Bartsch and David Barton Split


  • Vulture
    See Gorillaz’ New Video, Starring Snoop Dogg in a Naval Uniform






Let me apologize in advance for the long wind-up on this one, but I want to justify being a bit of a glib asshole about our political system here.



I have a friend who says he knows Nate Silver from back in the day. According to him (I’m sure Nate Silver would deny this and I’m sure I’m getting details wrong too), Silver was playing a lot of online poker and making money at it, then the other players got good so he quit to do something where the people around him would be dumber, so he could make more of an impact. Sports statistics was a natural choice. Then all these smart people (Voros McCracken, etc.) started doing sports stats too, so he looked for a new backwater, and found political statistics, where he dominated and revolutionized many things.



I have some other friends who are in business that involves managing large groups of peoples. I’ve asked them what the most important thing is and they say it’s hiring capable people. I ask if there’s anything else and they say, yes, making sure the most capable people get promoted as high as possible. And that’s it, there’s really nothing else you can do, they say. It’s obvious stuff, they admit, but they say it’s harder to do than I would think and that it’s not done well in a lot of cases.



The politicos on tv don’t impress me. Ed Rollins and James Carville, don’t seem like idiots but they also don’t seem like people who would rise to the top of very many fields. Actual elected officials are more of a mixed bag, with more outright morons (James Inhofe, Sarah Palin) and also more genuinely impressive people (Bill Clinton, Obama). If I had to break it down by party, I’d say that the Republican political consultants seem slightly sharper than their Democratic counterparts (especially among the older ones) while the Democratic elected officials seem a good deal sharper than their Republican counterparts.



But all in all, it’s just not an impressive group of people.



The same is true of the pundits on tv. Other than Paul Krugman (who of course didn’t come from a journalistic background) and maybe Ron Brownstein, they just don’t come across as people’s whose opinions I’d be interested in on any topic. They don’t know anything about anything, they don’t speak especially well, and their insights are all either stale conventional wisdom or something I read on a blog months ago.



Maybe it’s time to admit that the people at the top of our political/media heap just aren’t very bright. Politics and media are both areas where there isn’t a lot of good accreditation and review of people (the way there is to some extent in law or medicine or academia), nor is there much opportunity for constructive entrepreneurship (you have to be at some large organization to get anywhere) nor is there anyway to get to the top by just beating other people, as there might be in something like sports (I realize there are elections to win, but they are mostly rigged via gerrymandering etc.). Most of it doesn’t pay very well at the beginning, with all these unpaid internships and so on.



It seems like a system that would discourage ambitious young people from joining and then promote the people who do join in a capricious way.



Maybe it’s pointless to speculate this, but I do think that it’s part of why our national political system is just a disaster: it’s run by losers. Don’t get me wrong, these people could be corrupt and self-dealing and all that, but that doesn’t mean they’re not also incompetent.








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Scripting <b>News</b>: My JSON River of <b>News</b>

My JSON River of News. By Dave Winer on Monday, December 06, 2010 at 9:45 PM. First a few preambles... Permanent link to this item in the archive. 1. I'm a big believer in the River of News style of feed reader. Reverse-chronologic. ...

Breaking <b>News</b>: Watch A Gigantic Looping Solar Prominence

The Solar Dynamics Observatory never fails to deliver absolutely stunning images from the Sun: as of 18:49 UT today, the above picture is what the Sun looked like in the ultraviolet spectrum. The prominence that you are seeing looping ...

Small Business <b>News</b>: The Small Business Samba

From the slow dance Republicans and Democrats have been doing in Washington the last few weeks over tax cuts and jobless benefit extensions approved earlier.



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Scripting <b>News</b>: My JSON River of <b>News</b>

My JSON River of News. By Dave Winer on Monday, December 06, 2010 at 9:45 PM. First a few preambles... Permanent link to this item in the archive. 1. I'm a big believer in the River of News style of feed reader. Reverse-chronologic. ...

Breaking <b>News</b>: Watch A Gigantic Looping Solar Prominence

The Solar Dynamics Observatory never fails to deliver absolutely stunning images from the Sun: as of 18:49 UT today, the above picture is what the Sun looked like in the ultraviolet spectrum. The prominence that you are seeing looping ...

Small Business <b>News</b>: The Small Business Samba

From the slow dance Republicans and Democrats have been doing in Washington the last few weeks over tax cuts and jobless benefit extensions approved earlier.



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Scripting <b>News</b>: My JSON River of <b>News</b>

My JSON River of News. By Dave Winer on Monday, December 06, 2010 at 9:45 PM. First a few preambles... Permanent link to this item in the archive. 1. I'm a big believer in the River of News style of feed reader. Reverse-chronologic. ...

Breaking <b>News</b>: Watch A Gigantic Looping Solar Prominence

The Solar Dynamics Observatory never fails to deliver absolutely stunning images from the Sun: as of 18:49 UT today, the above picture is what the Sun looked like in the ultraviolet spectrum. The prominence that you are seeing looping ...

Small Business <b>News</b>: The Small Business Samba

From the slow dance Republicans and Democrats have been doing in Washington the last few weeks over tax cuts and jobless benefit extensions approved earlier.



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Scripting <b>News</b>: My JSON River of <b>News</b>

My JSON River of News. By Dave Winer on Monday, December 06, 2010 at 9:45 PM. First a few preambles... Permanent link to this item in the archive. 1. I'm a big believer in the River of News style of feed reader. Reverse-chronologic. ...

Breaking <b>News</b>: Watch A Gigantic Looping Solar Prominence

The Solar Dynamics Observatory never fails to deliver absolutely stunning images from the Sun: as of 18:49 UT today, the above picture is what the Sun looked like in the ultraviolet spectrum. The prominence that you are seeing looping ...

Small Business <b>News</b>: The Small Business Samba

From the slow dance Republicans and Democrats have been doing in Washington the last few weeks over tax cuts and jobless benefit extensions approved earlier.



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Scripting <b>News</b>: My JSON River of <b>News</b>

My JSON River of News. By Dave Winer on Monday, December 06, 2010 at 9:45 PM. First a few preambles... Permanent link to this item in the archive. 1. I'm a big believer in the River of News style of feed reader. Reverse-chronologic. ...

Breaking <b>News</b>: Watch A Gigantic Looping Solar Prominence

The Solar Dynamics Observatory never fails to deliver absolutely stunning images from the Sun: as of 18:49 UT today, the above picture is what the Sun looked like in the ultraviolet spectrum. The prominence that you are seeing looping ...

Small Business <b>News</b>: The Small Business Samba

From the slow dance Republicans and Democrats have been doing in Washington the last few weeks over tax cuts and jobless benefit extensions approved earlier.



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Scripting <b>News</b>: My JSON River of <b>News</b>

My JSON River of News. By Dave Winer on Monday, December 06, 2010 at 9:45 PM. First a few preambles... Permanent link to this item in the archive. 1. I'm a big believer in the River of News style of feed reader. Reverse-chronologic. ...

Breaking <b>News</b>: Watch A Gigantic Looping Solar Prominence

The Solar Dynamics Observatory never fails to deliver absolutely stunning images from the Sun: as of 18:49 UT today, the above picture is what the Sun looked like in the ultraviolet spectrum. The prominence that you are seeing looping ...

Small Business <b>News</b>: The Small Business Samba

From the slow dance Republicans and Democrats have been doing in Washington the last few weeks over tax cuts and jobless benefit extensions approved earlier.



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  • Daily Intel
    State Senate’s Hothead-in-Chief Guilty of Misdemeanor


  • Vulture
    The Borgias Trailer: Or, When the Pope Was a Gangster


  • The Cut
    Tomorrow’s Events and Sales: Leifsdottir Sample Sale; Discounts at Natori


  • Grub Street New York
    Ivy Stark: ‘I Am Not Opening a Restaurant in Brooklyn’


  • Vulture
    Watch the Full-Length Trailer for I Am Number Four


  • Vulture
    Someone May Let Lee Daniels Adapt a Fellini Movie


  • Vulture
    Watch a Very Pregnant Christina Applegate Do Some Pole Dancing


  • The Cut
    Men in Fancy Pants, or None at All


  • Vulture
    Party Lines Slideshow: Samm Levine, Samuel L. Jackson, Howard Stern, and More at the Roast of Quentin Tarantino


  • The Sports Section
    Day Two of Winter Meetings: Yankees Ink Jeter, Mets Set Sights on Paulino


  • Grub Street New York
    First Look at Beauty & Essex, Opening This Weekend


  • Vulture
    Watch Tracy Morgan Explain, Sort of Reenact Star Wars


  • The Cut
    Serena Williams Decorated Her Injured Foot With Crystals


  • Daily Intel
    Please Enjoy This Moment With Donald Trump’s Hair


  • Vulture
    Nick Cave on Grinderman and Why He’s a Feminist


  • Grub Street New York
    Liquor Authority Says It Was a Very Good Year


  • The Cut
    Get Balmain for $2,000 Instead of $7,000 on the Outnet Today


  • Vulture
    Who Wants to Ghostwrite a Book for Randy and Evi Quaid?


  • Vulture
    Relive the Moment Justin Bieber Met John Waters


  • Daily Intel
    Texas GOP Leader Not Sure Jew Can Really Be a Good House Speaker


  • Vulture
    The Nine Worst Moms of Oscar Season


  • The Cut
    Glam Up for the Holidays With Our Latest Shop-A-Matic


  • Grub Street New York
    Motorino Man Becomes Bowery Boy


  • Daily Intel
    Susanne Bartsch and David Barton Split


  • Vulture
    See Gorillaz’ New Video, Starring Snoop Dogg in a Naval Uniform






Let me apologize in advance for the long wind-up on this one, but I want to justify being a bit of a glib asshole about our political system here.



I have a friend who says he knows Nate Silver from back in the day. According to him (I’m sure Nate Silver would deny this and I’m sure I’m getting details wrong too), Silver was playing a lot of online poker and making money at it, then the other players got good so he quit to do something where the people around him would be dumber, so he could make more of an impact. Sports statistics was a natural choice. Then all these smart people (Voros McCracken, etc.) started doing sports stats too, so he looked for a new backwater, and found political statistics, where he dominated and revolutionized many things.



I have some other friends who are in business that involves managing large groups of peoples. I’ve asked them what the most important thing is and they say it’s hiring capable people. I ask if there’s anything else and they say, yes, making sure the most capable people get promoted as high as possible. And that’s it, there’s really nothing else you can do, they say. It’s obvious stuff, they admit, but they say it’s harder to do than I would think and that it’s not done well in a lot of cases.



The politicos on tv don’t impress me. Ed Rollins and James Carville, don’t seem like idiots but they also don’t seem like people who would rise to the top of very many fields. Actual elected officials are more of a mixed bag, with more outright morons (James Inhofe, Sarah Palin) and also more genuinely impressive people (Bill Clinton, Obama). If I had to break it down by party, I’d say that the Republican political consultants seem slightly sharper than their Democratic counterparts (especially among the older ones) while the Democratic elected officials seem a good deal sharper than their Republican counterparts.



But all in all, it’s just not an impressive group of people.



The same is true of the pundits on tv. Other than Paul Krugman (who of course didn’t come from a journalistic background) and maybe Ron Brownstein, they just don’t come across as people’s whose opinions I’d be interested in on any topic. They don’t know anything about anything, they don’t speak especially well, and their insights are all either stale conventional wisdom or something I read on a blog months ago.



Maybe it’s time to admit that the people at the top of our political/media heap just aren’t very bright. Politics and media are both areas where there isn’t a lot of good accreditation and review of people (the way there is to some extent in law or medicine or academia), nor is there much opportunity for constructive entrepreneurship (you have to be at some large organization to get anywhere) nor is there anyway to get to the top by just beating other people, as there might be in something like sports (I realize there are elections to win, but they are mostly rigged via gerrymandering etc.). Most of it doesn’t pay very well at the beginning, with all these unpaid internships and so on.



It seems like a system that would discourage ambitious young people from joining and then promote the people who do join in a capricious way.



Maybe it’s pointless to speculate this, but I do think that it’s part of why our national political system is just a disaster: it’s run by losers. Don’t get me wrong, these people could be corrupt and self-dealing and all that, but that doesn’t mean they’re not also incompetent.








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Scripting <b>News</b>: My JSON River of <b>News</b>

My JSON River of News. By Dave Winer on Monday, December 06, 2010 at 9:45 PM. First a few preambles... Permanent link to this item in the archive. 1. I'm a big believer in the River of News style of feed reader. Reverse-chronologic. ...

Breaking <b>News</b>: Watch A Gigantic Looping Solar Prominence

The Solar Dynamics Observatory never fails to deliver absolutely stunning images from the Sun: as of 18:49 UT today, the above picture is what the Sun looked like in the ultraviolet spectrum. The prominence that you are seeing looping ...

Small Business <b>News</b>: The Small Business Samba

From the slow dance Republicans and Democrats have been doing in Washington the last few weeks over tax cuts and jobless benefit extensions approved earlier.



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Scripting <b>News</b>: My JSON River of <b>News</b>

My JSON River of News. By Dave Winer on Monday, December 06, 2010 at 9:45 PM. First a few preambles... Permanent link to this item in the archive. 1. I'm a big believer in the River of News style of feed reader. Reverse-chronologic. ...

Breaking <b>News</b>: Watch A Gigantic Looping Solar Prominence

The Solar Dynamics Observatory never fails to deliver absolutely stunning images from the Sun: as of 18:49 UT today, the above picture is what the Sun looked like in the ultraviolet spectrum. The prominence that you are seeing looping ...

Small Business <b>News</b>: The Small Business Samba

From the slow dance Republicans and Democrats have been doing in Washington the last few weeks over tax cuts and jobless benefit extensions approved earlier.



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Scripting <b>News</b>: My JSON River of <b>News</b>

My JSON River of News. By Dave Winer on Monday, December 06, 2010 at 9:45 PM. First a few preambles... Permanent link to this item in the archive. 1. I'm a big believer in the River of News style of feed reader. Reverse-chronologic. ...

Breaking <b>News</b>: Watch A Gigantic Looping Solar Prominence

The Solar Dynamics Observatory never fails to deliver absolutely stunning images from the Sun: as of 18:49 UT today, the above picture is what the Sun looked like in the ultraviolet spectrum. The prominence that you are seeing looping ...

Small Business <b>News</b>: The Small Business Samba

From the slow dance Republicans and Democrats have been doing in Washington the last few weeks over tax cuts and jobless benefit extensions approved earlier.



Monday, December 6, 2010

Moms Making Money


From Claire Berlinski in City Journal:



You see, about a month ago, I asked my mother to bail me out. I knew she’d do it. She’s done it before. She sent me money she’s been saving toward my retirement. I resolved to stop spending money on stupid things. (There was really no excuse for that lamp, Mom, I know. Sorry! In my defense, I was sure there was a genie in it.)


With my mom paying my rent, I’ve been able to charge less for what I write and stay in the black. VoilĂ , I’m selling a cheaper product (for now) than Reuters and AP. That will teach them where to stuff their “good investment decisions” and their “economies of scale.” I fired the guy who does my odd jobs—it was painful, but it had to be done. So, congratulations to me! I’m making it in this tough business climate, with a little help from Mom. America’s back! And if I’m broke again in a year, I’ll hit her up again. (Don’t forget, Mom, that you really have no choice: no matter what you do, I’m still going to be a huge financial drag on you. If I fail, I’ll end up coming home with all my cats. You don’t want me sleeping on your couch, do you? And you sure don’t want to see what my cats would do to that couch. Antique, I believe it is?)


All of this is, alas, a perfectly accurate description of my financial life. The reader may wonder about my mom’s wisdom in going along with this plan. That’s between me and her—she loves me, and it’s her money, not yours. The money that went to GM was yours, however. And I suppose you must love GM as if it’s your profligate kid, because surely you could not be so credulous as to believe these reports about the spectacular success of the bailout.



There was a rush to buy GM shares last Thursday, when the company, which emerged from bankruptcy restructuring last summer, held an IPO. The company has been drowned in taxpayer cash. It’s going to be fine in the short term. No one should be surprised by this. Anyone—and any company—can get back in the black in the short term if someone gives it a ton of money. And who wouldn’t want to invest in a company that everyone knows won’t be allowed to go down? All the merchants in my neighborhood would lend me money, too, if I asked, confident that their loan would be repaid. A “generous American mom” sounds pretty good to them.


Of course, GM is paying back its new loans, though this doesn’t help investors who hold old GM stock; that’s worthless. By the way, I’m also considering stiffing my creditors. The GM example proves that it will result in an immediate improvement of my balance sheet. GM’s production numbers have been increasing, and mine have, too: it’s a lot easier to write when you’ve got peace of mind. Whether anyone will buy the stuff I’m writing, God knows, but my word count is definitely up, and that, apparently, is the number that matters.


Note that GM is still producing those gas-guzzling pickups and SUVs that no one seemed to want before. Great news for me: I’ll just keep writing about the arcana of Turkish constitutional politics. It’s what the market should want. Turkish politics are fascinating. I don’t know what’s wrong with Americans. If they understood what was good for them, they’d want to be better informed about Turkey. (They’d want that Volt electric car, too. I hear it’s much better for the environment.)


Naturally, I’ll pay my mother back. Here’s how: I’m going to have her put a small percentage of all the money she’s given me in an escrow account, which I’ll call a “working capital” account. Then I’ll transfer the rest of my assets to her. (Good news, Mom: you own seven cats and seven litter boxes.) Then I’m going to use the money from that escrow account to pay her back at an interest rate no one but my own mother would give me. As soon as I empty the escrow account, I’ll declare the loans repaid. What do you mean, that makes no sense? That’s just what the U.S. governmentdid for GM, and no one finds that problematic, do they? Never mind that the cash part of the loan has been repaid from TARP, or that this in fact represents only about 15 percent of the total bailout, or that the rest remains tied up in the automotive equivalent of cats and litter boxes. By the way, I’m thinking of bundling all my liabilities into a separate company, just like GM. I’ll call the company “Some other Claire who can deal with the creditors, never heard of that Claire.”


Read the whole thing here.




The other day I blogged with a funny Santa photo of my daughter, which I made into our holiday card that year. Even though my little one still has some fears of Santa, the vast majority of kids find him fun and fascinating. As you may have read in Lisa Sikora’s blog post last week, Windows and Southwest Airlines are partnering to bring you Holiday Photos on the Fly. This is a great opportunity to have your photo taken with Santa for free. Once your photo is taken, you’ll get a printed copy and later you can logon to www.freeholidayphotos.com to retrieve and share your photo. Southwest and Windows are offering this great opportunity in 26 airports, as well as kiosks located at Bryant Park in NYC and Skyline Park in Denver. If you can, make sure you take advantage of this great opportunity – who can beat free!

Now that covers fun with Santa, but I personally also strive for that great family photo to share out and I commonly face the familiar crisis I’m sure many parents also go through: It’s December 1st and I need a nice family photo for our holiday cards! Thankfully, this task has been made much easier with a few great inventions.

First, Windows Live Photo Gallery now provides a special touch of magic, enabling you to very quickly fix nearly any photo and create perfection. This includes the tool Photo Fuse, which allows you take several photos of the same group shot and merge them together to create the photo YOU want – you may have seen this in recent “To the Cloud” TV advertising and it seriously is that easy! Essentially, you can now have that perfect group or family photo without every person having to smile at the same time. I told you…just like magic. For any parent, taking that perfect picture can be very daunting. Photo Fuse has saved me time and money, as I now don’t have to pay for a professional photographer to capture everyone in the right pose. Once you have taken your group photos, simply open Photo Gallery, highlight the set of photos you want to fuse together and click Photos Fuse (under the create tab) and presto! For in depth tips and steps on how to do this, see my previous blog post on photo editing in Windows Live, which will show you how to use Retouch, Auto Adjust and Photo Fuse.

Second, there are a plethora of tools available to help you create fun holiday cards, whether you want to send yours electronically or pay for a professional service print and mail cards out for you. Additionally, advancements in photo printers have made it easier than ever to print your own photo cards at home. I like the Epson Artison 725 All In One printer, which is not only very affordable at just under $200, but also gives you hi-definition prints and is the world’s fastest 4” x 6” photo printer. Since I’m usually in a rush to get my cards and invitations out the door, I like to use online software to create my own masterpiece and then print them up myself at home, which guarantees I’ll get my cards out to friends and family before the New Year.

For more information on the Epson Artison 725 printer, my colleague Brandon will be doing a review of it on the Windows Experience Blog in the coming weeks.


bench craft company rip off

Lujiazui Breakfast: <b>News</b> &amp; Views About China Stocks (Dec. 6 <b>...</b>

Investors and traders in China's main financial district are talking about the following before the start of trade today: With expectations about inflation and monetary policy becoming clearer, investors are taking cues from overseas ...

Movie <b>News</b> Quick Hits: Emma Stone&#39;s &#39;Spider-Man&#39; Look, Annie Nods <b>...</b>

Posted Dec 6th 2010 3:05PM. Filed under: Trailers and Clips, Movie News, Sundance Film Festival, Cinematical. Email This. -- Emma Stone debuted her Spider-Man look for the first time at Trevor Live in Hollywood over the weekend. ...

<b>News</b> Alert: Big Growth for Internet Ads Through 2014: Tech <b>News</b> «

eMarketer, a New York-based research firm estimates spending on US internet advertisements, will grow 13.9 percent to $25.8 billion for the full year. It expects a 10.5 percent increase in US online ad spending in 2011, ...


bench craft company rip off

Lujiazui Breakfast: <b>News</b> &amp; Views About China Stocks (Dec. 6 <b>...</b>

Investors and traders in China's main financial district are talking about the following before the start of trade today: With expectations about inflation and monetary policy becoming clearer, investors are taking cues from overseas ...

Movie <b>News</b> Quick Hits: Emma Stone&#39;s &#39;Spider-Man&#39; Look, Annie Nods <b>...</b>

Posted Dec 6th 2010 3:05PM. Filed under: Trailers and Clips, Movie News, Sundance Film Festival, Cinematical. Email This. -- Emma Stone debuted her Spider-Man look for the first time at Trevor Live in Hollywood over the weekend. ...

<b>News</b> Alert: Big Growth for Internet Ads Through 2014: Tech <b>News</b> «

eMarketer, a New York-based research firm estimates spending on US internet advertisements, will grow 13.9 percent to $25.8 billion for the full year. It expects a 10.5 percent increase in US online ad spending in 2011, ...


bench craft company rip off

Lujiazui Breakfast: <b>News</b> &amp; Views About China Stocks (Dec. 6 <b>...</b>

Investors and traders in China's main financial district are talking about the following before the start of trade today: With expectations about inflation and monetary policy becoming clearer, investors are taking cues from overseas ...

Movie <b>News</b> Quick Hits: Emma Stone&#39;s &#39;Spider-Man&#39; Look, Annie Nods <b>...</b>

Posted Dec 6th 2010 3:05PM. Filed under: Trailers and Clips, Movie News, Sundance Film Festival, Cinematical. Email This. -- Emma Stone debuted her Spider-Man look for the first time at Trevor Live in Hollywood over the weekend. ...

<b>News</b> Alert: Big Growth for Internet Ads Through 2014: Tech <b>News</b> «

eMarketer, a New York-based research firm estimates spending on US internet advertisements, will grow 13.9 percent to $25.8 billion for the full year. It expects a 10.5 percent increase in US online ad spending in 2011, ...


bench craft company rip off
Desayuno Lujiazui: <b> Noticias </ b> &amp; puntos de vista sobre las existencias de China (06 de diciembre <b> ...</ b> Inversores y comerciantes en el principal distrito financiero de China se trata de lo siguiente antes de el inicio de hoy el comercio: Con las expectativas sobre la inflación y la política monetaria cada vez más claro, los inversores están tomando las señales desde el extranjero ...

PelĂ­cula <b> Noticias </ b> Quick Hits: Emma Stone &#39; s & # 39; Mira Spider-Man &#39;, Annie Asiente <b> ...</ b> Publicado el 06 de diciembre 2010 15:05 Archivado en: Trailers y clips, Noticias de Cine, Festival de Cine Sundance, Cinematical correo electrĂłnico.. . Este - Emma Stone estrenĂł su look de Spider-Man por primera vez a Trevor vivo en Hollywood el fin de semana ...

<b> Noticias </ b> Alerta: gran crecimiento para los anuncios de Internet a travĂ©s de 2014: TecnologĂ­a. <b> Noticias </ b> «eMarketer, una firma de investigaciĂłn de Nueva York, estima el gasto en anuncios de Internet en EE.UU., crecerá un 13,9 por ciento a 25,8 mil millones dĂłlares para todo el año. Se espera un aumento del 10,5 por ciento en el gasto de publicidad online en EE.UU. 2011, ...


bench craft company rip off

Lujiazui Breakfast: <b>News</b> &amp; Views About China Stocks (Dec. 6 <b>...</b>

Investors and traders in China's main financial district are talking about the following before the start of trade today: With expectations about inflation and monetary policy becoming clearer, investors are taking cues from overseas ...

Movie <b>News</b> Quick Hits: Emma Stone&#39;s &#39;Spider-Man&#39; Look, Annie Nods <b>...</b>

Posted Dec 6th 2010 3:05PM. Filed under: Trailers and Clips, Movie News, Sundance Film Festival, Cinematical. Email This. -- Emma Stone debuted her Spider-Man look for the first time at Trevor Live in Hollywood over the weekend. ...

<b>News</b> Alert: Big Growth for Internet Ads Through 2014: Tech <b>News</b> «

eMarketer, a New York-based research firm estimates spending on US internet advertisements, will grow 13.9 percent to $25.8 billion for the full year. It expects a 10.5 percent increase in US online ad spending in 2011, ...


bench craft company rip off

From Claire Berlinski in City Journal:



You see, about a month ago, I asked my mother to bail me out. I knew she’d do it. She’s done it before. She sent me money she’s been saving toward my retirement. I resolved to stop spending money on stupid things. (There was really no excuse for that lamp, Mom, I know. Sorry! In my defense, I was sure there was a genie in it.)


With my mom paying my rent, I’ve been able to charge less for what I write and stay in the black. VoilĂ , I’m selling a cheaper product (for now) than Reuters and AP. That will teach them where to stuff their “good investment decisions” and their “economies of scale.” I fired the guy who does my odd jobs—it was painful, but it had to be done. So, congratulations to me! I’m making it in this tough business climate, with a little help from Mom. America’s back! And if I’m broke again in a year, I’ll hit her up again. (Don’t forget, Mom, that you really have no choice: no matter what you do, I’m still going to be a huge financial drag on you. If I fail, I’ll end up coming home with all my cats. You don’t want me sleeping on your couch, do you? And you sure don’t want to see what my cats would do to that couch. Antique, I believe it is?)


All of this is, alas, a perfectly accurate description of my financial life. The reader may wonder about my mom’s wisdom in going along with this plan. That’s between me and her—she loves me, and it’s her money, not yours. The money that went to GM was yours, however. And I suppose you must love GM as if it’s your profligate kid, because surely you could not be so credulous as to believe these reports about the spectacular success of the bailout.



There was a rush to buy GM shares last Thursday, when the company, which emerged from bankruptcy restructuring last summer, held an IPO. The company has been drowned in taxpayer cash. It’s going to be fine in the short term. No one should be surprised by this. Anyone—and any company—can get back in the black in the short term if someone gives it a ton of money. And who wouldn’t want to invest in a company that everyone knows won’t be allowed to go down? All the merchants in my neighborhood would lend me money, too, if I asked, confident that their loan would be repaid. A “generous American mom” sounds pretty good to them.


Of course, GM is paying back its new loans, though this doesn’t help investors who hold old GM stock; that’s worthless. By the way, I’m also considering stiffing my creditors. The GM example proves that it will result in an immediate improvement of my balance sheet. GM’s production numbers have been increasing, and mine have, too: it’s a lot easier to write when you’ve got peace of mind. Whether anyone will buy the stuff I’m writing, God knows, but my word count is definitely up, and that, apparently, is the number that matters.


Note that GM is still producing those gas-guzzling pickups and SUVs that no one seemed to want before. Great news for me: I’ll just keep writing about the arcana of Turkish constitutional politics. It’s what the market should want. Turkish politics are fascinating. I don’t know what’s wrong with Americans. If they understood what was good for them, they’d want to be better informed about Turkey. (They’d want that Volt electric car, too. I hear it’s much better for the environment.)


Naturally, I’ll pay my mother back. Here’s how: I’m going to have her put a small percentage of all the money she’s given me in an escrow account, which I’ll call a “working capital” account. Then I’ll transfer the rest of my assets to her. (Good news, Mom: you own seven cats and seven litter boxes.) Then I’m going to use the money from that escrow account to pay her back at an interest rate no one but my own mother would give me. As soon as I empty the escrow account, I’ll declare the loans repaid. What do you mean, that makes no sense? That’s just what the U.S. governmentdid for GM, and no one finds that problematic, do they? Never mind that the cash part of the loan has been repaid from TARP, or that this in fact represents only about 15 percent of the total bailout, or that the rest remains tied up in the automotive equivalent of cats and litter boxes. By the way, I’m thinking of bundling all my liabilities into a separate company, just like GM. I’ll call the company “Some other Claire who can deal with the creditors, never heard of that Claire.”


Read the whole thing here.




The other day I blogged with a funny Santa photo of my daughter, which I made into our holiday card that year. Even though my little one still has some fears of Santa, the vast majority of kids find him fun and fascinating. As you may have read in Lisa Sikora’s blog post last week, Windows and Southwest Airlines are partnering to bring you Holiday Photos on the Fly. This is a great opportunity to have your photo taken with Santa for free. Once your photo is taken, you’ll get a printed copy and later you can logon to www.freeholidayphotos.com to retrieve and share your photo. Southwest and Windows are offering this great opportunity in 26 airports, as well as kiosks located at Bryant Park in NYC and Skyline Park in Denver. If you can, make sure you take advantage of this great opportunity – who can beat free!

Now that covers fun with Santa, but I personally also strive for that great family photo to share out and I commonly face the familiar crisis I’m sure many parents also go through: It’s December 1st and I need a nice family photo for our holiday cards! Thankfully, this task has been made much easier with a few great inventions.

First, Windows Live Photo Gallery now provides a special touch of magic, enabling you to very quickly fix nearly any photo and create perfection. This includes the tool Photo Fuse, which allows you take several photos of the same group shot and merge them together to create the photo YOU want – you may have seen this in recent “To the Cloud” TV advertising and it seriously is that easy! Essentially, you can now have that perfect group or family photo without every person having to smile at the same time. I told you…just like magic. For any parent, taking that perfect picture can be very daunting. Photo Fuse has saved me time and money, as I now don’t have to pay for a professional photographer to capture everyone in the right pose. Once you have taken your group photos, simply open Photo Gallery, highlight the set of photos you want to fuse together and click Photos Fuse (under the create tab) and presto! For in depth tips and steps on how to do this, see my previous blog post on photo editing in Windows Live, which will show you how to use Retouch, Auto Adjust and Photo Fuse.

Second, there are a plethora of tools available to help you create fun holiday cards, whether you want to send yours electronically or pay for a professional service print and mail cards out for you. Additionally, advancements in photo printers have made it easier than ever to print your own photo cards at home. I like the Epson Artison 725 All In One printer, which is not only very affordable at just under $200, but also gives you hi-definition prints and is the world’s fastest 4” x 6” photo printer. Since I’m usually in a rush to get my cards and invitations out the door, I like to use online software to create my own masterpiece and then print them up myself at home, which guarantees I’ll get my cards out to friends and family before the New Year.

For more information on the Epson Artison 725 printer, my colleague Brandon will be doing a review of it on the Windows Experience Blog in the coming weeks.


bench craft company rip off

Lujiazui Breakfast: <b>News</b> &amp; Views About China Stocks (Dec. 6 <b>...</b>

Investors and traders in China's main financial district are talking about the following before the start of trade today: With expectations about inflation and monetary policy becoming clearer, investors are taking cues from overseas ...

Movie <b>News</b> Quick Hits: Emma Stone&#39;s &#39;Spider-Man&#39; Look, Annie Nods <b>...</b>

Posted Dec 6th 2010 3:05PM. Filed under: Trailers and Clips, Movie News, Sundance Film Festival, Cinematical. Email This. -- Emma Stone debuted her Spider-Man look for the first time at Trevor Live in Hollywood over the weekend. ...

<b>News</b> Alert: Big Growth for Internet Ads Through 2014: Tech <b>News</b> «

eMarketer, a New York-based research firm estimates spending on US internet advertisements, will grow 13.9 percent to $25.8 billion for the full year. It expects a 10.5 percent increase in US online ad spending in 2011, ...


bench craft company rip off

Lujiazui Breakfast: <b>News</b> &amp; Views About China Stocks (Dec. 6 <b>...</b>

Investors and traders in China's main financial district are talking about the following before the start of trade today: With expectations about inflation and monetary policy becoming clearer, investors are taking cues from overseas ...

Movie <b>News</b> Quick Hits: Emma Stone&#39;s &#39;Spider-Man&#39; Look, Annie Nods <b>...</b>

Posted Dec 6th 2010 3:05PM. Filed under: Trailers and Clips, Movie News, Sundance Film Festival, Cinematical. Email This. -- Emma Stone debuted her Spider-Man look for the first time at Trevor Live in Hollywood over the weekend. ...

<b>News</b> Alert: Big Growth for Internet Ads Through 2014: Tech <b>News</b> «

eMarketer, a New York-based research firm estimates spending on US internet advertisements, will grow 13.9 percent to $25.8 billion for the full year. It expects a 10.5 percent increase in US online ad spending in 2011, ...


bench craft company rip off

Lujiazui Breakfast: <b>News</b> &amp; Views About China Stocks (Dec. 6 <b>...</b>

Investors and traders in China's main financial district are talking about the following before the start of trade today: With expectations about inflation and monetary policy becoming clearer, investors are taking cues from overseas ...

Movie <b>News</b> Quick Hits: Emma Stone&#39;s &#39;Spider-Man&#39; Look, Annie Nods <b>...</b>

Posted Dec 6th 2010 3:05PM. Filed under: Trailers and Clips, Movie News, Sundance Film Festival, Cinematical. Email This. -- Emma Stone debuted her Spider-Man look for the first time at Trevor Live in Hollywood over the weekend. ...

<b>News</b> Alert: Big Growth for Internet Ads Through 2014: Tech <b>News</b> «

eMarketer, a New York-based research firm estimates spending on US internet advertisements, will grow 13.9 percent to $25.8 billion for the full year. It expects a 10.5 percent increase in US online ad spending in 2011, ...


bench craft company rip off

Lujiazui Breakfast: <b>News</b> &amp; Views About China Stocks (Dec. 6 <b>...</b>

Investors and traders in China's main financial district are talking about the following before the start of trade today: With expectations about inflation and monetary policy becoming clearer, investors are taking cues from overseas ...

Movie <b>News</b> Quick Hits: Emma Stone&#39;s &#39;Spider-Man&#39; Look, Annie Nods <b>...</b>

Posted Dec 6th 2010 3:05PM. Filed under: Trailers and Clips, Movie News, Sundance Film Festival, Cinematical. Email This. -- Emma Stone debuted her Spider-Man look for the first time at Trevor Live in Hollywood over the weekend. ...

<b>News</b> Alert: Big Growth for Internet Ads Through 2014: Tech <b>News</b> «

eMarketer, a New York-based research firm estimates spending on US internet advertisements, will grow 13.9 percent to $25.8 billion for the full year. It expects a 10.5 percent increase in US online ad spending in 2011, ...


bench craft company rip off

Lujiazui Breakfast: <b>News</b> &amp; Views About China Stocks (Dec. 6 <b>...</b>

Investors and traders in China's main financial district are talking about the following before the start of trade today: With expectations about inflation and monetary policy becoming clearer, investors are taking cues from overseas ...

Movie <b>News</b> Quick Hits: Emma Stone&#39;s &#39;Spider-Man&#39; Look, Annie Nods <b>...</b>

Posted Dec 6th 2010 3:05PM. Filed under: Trailers and Clips, Movie News, Sundance Film Festival, Cinematical. Email This. -- Emma Stone debuted her Spider-Man look for the first time at Trevor Live in Hollywood over the weekend. ...

<b>News</b> Alert: Big Growth for Internet Ads Through 2014: Tech <b>News</b> «

eMarketer, a New York-based research firm estimates spending on US internet advertisements, will grow 13.9 percent to $25.8 billion for the full year. It expects a 10.5 percent increase in US online ad spending in 2011, ...


bench craft company rip off

Lujiazui Breakfast: <b>News</b> &amp; Views About China Stocks (Dec. 6 <b>...</b>

Investors and traders in China's main financial district are talking about the following before the start of trade today: With expectations about inflation and monetary policy becoming clearer, investors are taking cues from overseas ...

Movie <b>News</b> Quick Hits: Emma Stone&#39;s &#39;Spider-Man&#39; Look, Annie Nods <b>...</b>

Posted Dec 6th 2010 3:05PM. Filed under: Trailers and Clips, Movie News, Sundance Film Festival, Cinematical. Email This. -- Emma Stone debuted her Spider-Man look for the first time at Trevor Live in Hollywood over the weekend. ...

<b>News</b> Alert: Big Growth for Internet Ads Through 2014: Tech <b>News</b> «

eMarketer, a New York-based research firm estimates spending on US internet advertisements, will grow 13.9 percent to $25.8 billion for the full year. It expects a 10.5 percent increase in US online ad spending in 2011, ...


bench craft company rip off

From Claire Berlinski in City Journal:



You see, about a month ago, I asked my mother to bail me out. I knew she’d do it. She’s done it before. She sent me money she’s been saving toward my retirement. I resolved to stop spending money on stupid things. (There was really no excuse for that lamp, Mom, I know. Sorry! In my defense, I was sure there was a genie in it.)


With my mom paying my rent, I’ve been able to charge less for what I write and stay in the black. VoilĂ , I’m selling a cheaper product (for now) than Reuters and AP. That will teach them where to stuff their “good investment decisions” and their “economies of scale.” I fired the guy who does my odd jobs—it was painful, but it had to be done. So, congratulations to me! I’m making it in this tough business climate, with a little help from Mom. America’s back! And if I’m broke again in a year, I’ll hit her up again. (Don’t forget, Mom, that you really have no choice: no matter what you do, I’m still going to be a huge financial drag on you. If I fail, I’ll end up coming home with all my cats. You don’t want me sleeping on your couch, do you? And you sure don’t want to see what my cats would do to that couch. Antique, I believe it is?)


All of this is, alas, a perfectly accurate description of my financial life. The reader may wonder about my mom’s wisdom in going along with this plan. That’s between me and her—she loves me, and it’s her money, not yours. The money that went to GM was yours, however. And I suppose you must love GM as if it’s your profligate kid, because surely you could not be so credulous as to believe these reports about the spectacular success of the bailout.



There was a rush to buy GM shares last Thursday, when the company, which emerged from bankruptcy restructuring last summer, held an IPO. The company has been drowned in taxpayer cash. It’s going to be fine in the short term. No one should be surprised by this. Anyone—and any company—can get back in the black in the short term if someone gives it a ton of money. And who wouldn’t want to invest in a company that everyone knows won’t be allowed to go down? All the merchants in my neighborhood would lend me money, too, if I asked, confident that their loan would be repaid. A “generous American mom” sounds pretty good to them.


Of course, GM is paying back its new loans, though this doesn’t help investors who hold old GM stock; that’s worthless. By the way, I’m also considering stiffing my creditors. The GM example proves that it will result in an immediate improvement of my balance sheet. GM’s production numbers have been increasing, and mine have, too: it’s a lot easier to write when you’ve got peace of mind. Whether anyone will buy the stuff I’m writing, God knows, but my word count is definitely up, and that, apparently, is the number that matters.


Note that GM is still producing those gas-guzzling pickups and SUVs that no one seemed to want before. Great news for me: I’ll just keep writing about the arcana of Turkish constitutional politics. It’s what the market should want. Turkish politics are fascinating. I don’t know what’s wrong with Americans. If they understood what was good for them, they’d want to be better informed about Turkey. (They’d want that Volt electric car, too. I hear it’s much better for the environment.)


Naturally, I’ll pay my mother back. Here’s how: I’m going to have her put a small percentage of all the money she’s given me in an escrow account, which I’ll call a “working capital” account. Then I’ll transfer the rest of my assets to her. (Good news, Mom: you own seven cats and seven litter boxes.) Then I’m going to use the money from that escrow account to pay her back at an interest rate no one but my own mother would give me. As soon as I empty the escrow account, I’ll declare the loans repaid. What do you mean, that makes no sense? That’s just what the U.S. governmentdid for GM, and no one finds that problematic, do they? Never mind that the cash part of the loan has been repaid from TARP, or that this in fact represents only about 15 percent of the total bailout, or that the rest remains tied up in the automotive equivalent of cats and litter boxes. By the way, I’m thinking of bundling all my liabilities into a separate company, just like GM. I’ll call the company “Some other Claire who can deal with the creditors, never heard of that Claire.”


Read the whole thing here.




The other day I blogged with a funny Santa photo of my daughter, which I made into our holiday card that year. Even though my little one still has some fears of Santa, the vast majority of kids find him fun and fascinating. As you may have read in Lisa Sikora’s blog post last week, Windows and Southwest Airlines are partnering to bring you Holiday Photos on the Fly. This is a great opportunity to have your photo taken with Santa for free. Once your photo is taken, you’ll get a printed copy and later you can logon to www.freeholidayphotos.com to retrieve and share your photo. Southwest and Windows are offering this great opportunity in 26 airports, as well as kiosks located at Bryant Park in NYC and Skyline Park in Denver. If you can, make sure you take advantage of this great opportunity – who can beat free!

Now that covers fun with Santa, but I personally also strive for that great family photo to share out and I commonly face the familiar crisis I’m sure many parents also go through: It’s December 1st and I need a nice family photo for our holiday cards! Thankfully, this task has been made much easier with a few great inventions.

First, Windows Live Photo Gallery now provides a special touch of magic, enabling you to very quickly fix nearly any photo and create perfection. This includes the tool Photo Fuse, which allows you take several photos of the same group shot and merge them together to create the photo YOU want – you may have seen this in recent “To the Cloud” TV advertising and it seriously is that easy! Essentially, you can now have that perfect group or family photo without every person having to smile at the same time. I told you…just like magic. For any parent, taking that perfect picture can be very daunting. Photo Fuse has saved me time and money, as I now don’t have to pay for a professional photographer to capture everyone in the right pose. Once you have taken your group photos, simply open Photo Gallery, highlight the set of photos you want to fuse together and click Photos Fuse (under the create tab) and presto! For in depth tips and steps on how to do this, see my previous blog post on photo editing in Windows Live, which will show you how to use Retouch, Auto Adjust and Photo Fuse.

Second, there are a plethora of tools available to help you create fun holiday cards, whether you want to send yours electronically or pay for a professional service print and mail cards out for you. Additionally, advancements in photo printers have made it easier than ever to print your own photo cards at home. I like the Epson Artison 725 All In One printer, which is not only very affordable at just under $200, but also gives you hi-definition prints and is the world’s fastest 4” x 6” photo printer. Since I’m usually in a rush to get my cards and invitations out the door, I like to use online software to create my own masterpiece and then print them up myself at home, which guarantees I’ll get my cards out to friends and family before the New Year.

For more information on the Epson Artison 725 printer, my colleague Brandon will be doing a review of it on the Windows Experience Blog in the coming weeks.


bench craft company rip off

Lujiazui Breakfast: <b>News</b> &amp; Views About China Stocks (Dec. 6 <b>...</b>

Investors and traders in China's main financial district are talking about the following before the start of trade today: With expectations about inflation and monetary policy becoming clearer, investors are taking cues from overseas ...

Movie <b>News</b> Quick Hits: Emma Stone&#39;s &#39;Spider-Man&#39; Look, Annie Nods <b>...</b>

Posted Dec 6th 2010 3:05PM. Filed under: Trailers and Clips, Movie News, Sundance Film Festival, Cinematical. Email This. -- Emma Stone debuted her Spider-Man look for the first time at Trevor Live in Hollywood over the weekend. ...

<b>News</b> Alert: Big Growth for Internet Ads Through 2014: Tech <b>News</b> «

eMarketer, a New York-based research firm estimates spending on US internet advertisements, will grow 13.9 percent to $25.8 billion for the full year. It expects a 10.5 percent increase in US online ad spending in 2011, ...


bench craft company rip off

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Wednesday, December 1, 2010

personal finance budgets


A survey released today by Javelin Strategy & Research, which serves financial institutions, found in August that nearly one in five Americans doesn't monitor or manage their personal finances. That rate is double what it was just a year ago. Despite the fact the recession has made it more important than ever to carefully track our money, when it comes to personal finances, 19% of Americans stuck their head in the sand. A year before, another survey had the figure at just 8%.



More anxiety-induced news: The percentage of Americans who say they sometimes log onto their checking account balances with their banks' websites dropped to 46%, down 13 points from 59% a year ago. Even those who track their money by pen and paper dropped, from 50% to 46%.





"It's a natural human reaction to stress: 'Maybe if I don't look at it, it will go away.'" explains the study's co-author, senior analyst Mark Schwanhausser. "I think you have fewer people checking their finances online because they don't like what they're seeing. 'I'm going to be a financial sleepwalker. I'm not going to look.'"



Schwanhausser's prescription for the problem involves convincing America's major financial institutions that they're doing a lousy job helping make it easier and less stressful for their customers to track their money. "It's not enough to tell you how to fix the toilet," he says. "You've got to have the wrench."



Yet despite the fact that most Americans' money resides at a bank, few banks are interested in furnishing financial planning tools. Right now, Schwanhausser argues, most people are required to log into a wide variety of websites to track their money. For example, 75% of Americans who have a credit card get it from somewhere other than their primary bank, meaning their finances are scattered across many websites, unreconciled.



When people do turn to their bank's websites, he argues, the financial planning tools are nearly non-existent despite the fact our society increasingly demands greater personal control through technology. "Today's online banking is like having avocado green appliances from the 1970s. It just doesn't cut it," says Schwanhausser.



Schwanhausser is using the survey to convince banks that it will actually endear customers to them if they put personal finance tools front and center on their sites, helping customers paint a clear picture of their own financial habits. He's pressing them to develop systems, both on the Web and through mobile apps, that can draw in customers' information from other sites, such as credit cards and mortgage lenders, so financial care-taking can be a one-stop process.



So far, banks and lenders have been slow to use existing technology to make money management a less daunting chore. Part of the issue is that many banks don't want to acknowledge competitors by drawing in account balances from elsewhere. Banks also stand to make money off poor financial planning through penalties and fees. Like a doctor who makes money off treating disease, promoting financial good health does not on the surface appear to be in a bank's best interest.



"You can't manage what you don't measure," says Schwanhausser. "And if the bank's not going to provide it for you, you have to go get it in other places."



He recommends existing aggregators such as Mint.com, which pulls your data from multiple sources and lays it out in spreadsheets and in spending plans, as a model for what all the banks should be doing for their customers.



He also notes that Bank of America's "My Portfolio" and Wells Fargo's "My Savings Plan" are two fledgling, if little-known, bank-created features that are slowly reaching toward the sort of comprehensive personal finance planning features he advocates.



As long as it remains difficult or scary, though, when it comes to their finances, Americans will remain more likely to use the Ostrich Method.
I've mentioned this piece a number of times now, from Roger Altman and Richard Haass, "The Consequences of Fiscal Irresponsibility." The introduction provides the background to America's massive fiscal overhang, and then this:
It is important to understand the impact of all this debt. As it grows, interest rates inevitably rise. As they do, the U.S. government's annual interest expense -- the cost of borrowing money -- will rise from one percent of GDP to four percent or more. At that point, interest expense would rival defense expenditures. And it would exceed all domestic discretionary spending, a category that includes spending on infrastructure, education, energy, and agriculture -- in effect, anything other than entitlements and national security. The U.S. Treasury would need to borrow a staggering $5 trillion every single year, both to finance deficits and to refinance maturing debt.

Yet the real outlook for deficits and debt is much worse than these forecasts. For one thing, the debt that the United States effectively guarantees but that is not included in official totals is almost equal to the Treasury Department's stated $9 trillion total. In particular, the debt of government-sponsored enterprises is another $8 trillion. The biggest of these are the essentially bankrupt housing finance agencies, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. They have been placed into federal conservatorship, and for all practical purposes, their debt is equivalent to U.S. Treasury debt. The American taxpayer stands fully behind it.

State and local governments also owe huge amounts, on the order of $3 trillion. And again, Washington indirectly stands behind much or all of it. This sector is deeply distressed, with the largest state, California, recently issuing IOUs. Moreover, many state and municipal pension systems use an antiquated pay-as-you-go funding approach, which has left them underfunded by another $1 trillion.

The post-2020 fiscal outlook is downright apocalyptic, for two reasons. First, the aging of the U.S. population will drive sharp increases in health care costs (and at the same time, more Americans will be retired). Second, federal interest expense will rise exponentially, as the Treasury's borrowing costs grow with the debt. The Congressional Budget Office projects that official federal debt (excluding government-sponsored enterprises) could hit 110 percent of GDP by 2025 and 180 percent by 2035. Adjusting these forecasts for the inevitably slower growth that would accompany such quickly rising debt levels means hitting those stratospheric ratios sooner.

Why is this scenario so dangerous? One reason is that a large amount of federal borrowing would eat up the stock of private capital that is available to finance investment. A higher and higher percentage of personal savings would be diverted to purchasing government debt and away from productivity-enhancing investments in equipment and technology. This would shrink the base of productive capital and flatten GDP and family incomes. As more and more debt piled up, growth would slow and Americans' standard of living would fall.

In addition, interest expense would become so large as to crowd out whole categories of federal spending. Budgets for research, education, and infrastructure, to name but three examples, would inevitably decline in inflation-adjusted terms. Washington's capacity to respond to domestic crises, such as the recent recession, would also fade. All of this would further undermine families' incomes.
More at the link.

My problem with this piece is that it's way too pessimistic, even for a problem of this magnitude. There's no discussion of how tax receipts rise dramatically during periods of robust economic growth. So should the administration agree to the extention of the Bush tax cuts from 2003, it's possible that a surge in GDP --- with a boom in individual and corporate profits --- could send a significant windfall of revenue to the treasury. This was indeed happening by the last couple of years of the Bush administration, and it's likely to happen over the next few years, now that the GOP has retaken the House. See the commentary at Wall Street Journal, "
Liberal Tax Revolt."

And refer to my bullish comments from Saturday on the international aspects of coming growth domestically: "
The World in China's Orbit?"


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