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July 2009 Archives

Back to school

My weekly podcast, After the Bell, is now available. Oh, sure, you heard all about President Obama’s “teachable moment,” but there were plenty of other, let’s say, educational opportunities in business and the economy this week. Musical assistance from Pink Floyd, Tom Paxton and .38 Special. In-house help from Phyllis Owens, Fiona Ng and Ravi Carman. If you’d like After the Bell to download automatically each week, click here.

Make something good

Since we’re on the subject of bribing people to buy things (cars, I mean), how about this for something completely different? A Brooklyn pizzeria has increased its price to $5 for a slice of cheese pizza. How can a business do that in this recession? Because it makes freaking awesome pizza.

Continue reading Make something good

A clunker of an idea?

Today, the House voted to spend another $2 billion on the Cash for Clunkers program. You know, trade in your old gas guzzler, and the government gives you a $4,500 rebate on a new, better MPG model. It seems like a no-brainer if you’re in the market for a car, but unfortunately, the program might also be missing some brains.

Continue reading A clunker of an idea?

Morning Reading

The economy sagged less than expected last quarter. But AIG might be in much bigger trouble than we thought. Plus, an argument for getting rid of job-based health care… in today’s edition of Morning Reading:

Continue reading Morning Reading

An obit for reform, just in case

It’s been a common practice in broadcast news to have an “obit shelf.” Reporters prepare obituary segments for famous people who might die soon. That way, when they do die, presto!, a touching look back at their life is on the evening news, even if they died 5 seconds before air. In that vein, I just want to be prepared in case health care reform gets run over by a bus.

Continue reading An obit for reform, just in case

Bad loans still make money

A group of former Countrywide people launched an IPO today with their new company, PennyMac. Take one guess at what they’re doing. And while we’re at it, let’s talk about why the government’s loan modification program isn’t working.

Continue reading Bad loans still make money

A patent on podcasting

Somebody had to invent podcasting, right? Or is getting a patent on it now, at today’s tech speed, kind of like Al Gore claiming he invented the Internet? You decide. A company called Volomedia has been awarded a patent for a “method for providing episodic media content.” Or, as the company puts it, Volomedia now owns the “US patent for podcasting.”

Continue reading A patent on podcasting

No more GS, please

If you’re tired of reading about Goldman Sachs, well, I don’t blame you. But I have to recommend one more article. So, here are some excerpts from “Will Everyone Please Shut Up About Goldman Sachs?”

Continue reading No more GS, please

Morning Reading

This morning, oh, the hubris. Plus, the reason real health care reform (noted in my last post) won’t pass. And Yahoo may’ve just swallowed Microsoft cyanide.

Continue reading Morning Reading

A dollar a day 'til the end of time

A friend forwarded me an email from the Democrat National Committee which asks people to donate a dollar a day on their credit cards until Congress passes real health care reform. That, of course, prompted the question: what if Congress never passes real health care reform?

Continue reading A dollar a day 'til the end of time

Yahoo and the giant pen

When companies partner with each other, I generally find it difficult to stop my gag reflex. There are usually more buzzwords tossed around and more awkward camera moments than I can stand. Today’s Yahoo-Microsoft search and advertising agreement is no exception.

Continue reading Yahoo and the giant pen

Micro and macro beer-nomics

As you probably know, President Obama has invited Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Cambridge police Sergeant James Crowley to the White House for beers and hopefully, a reconciliation. The president has many tough decisions to make, but none may be tougher than this: what kind of beer should the White House serve?

Continue reading Micro and macro beer-nomics

Morning Report

This morning, moving to Norway sounds like a fine idea. So does a package of blue M&M’s. So does… well, just read on:

Continue reading Morning Report

The US and China are secretly in love

I know, it’s crazy, right? But I have hard evidence, direct from a new study on spending habits that the US and China are destined to walk down the aisle together.

Continue reading The US and China are secretly in love

Life, the movie

The line between what is real and what is not is getting smudged like an autograph in the rain. Take, for example, an inspired high school graduation speech here in California a few weeks ago.

Continue reading Life, the movie

Rich Utilitarians

A group called Wealth for the Common Good has launched a campaign to repeal the Bush tax cuts immediately, instead of waiting for them to expire in 2011. But this isn’t a grassroots organization of low-paid activists. These people are rich, and they want to pay more taxes.

Continue reading Rich Utilitarians

Finder's keepers?

Here’s my scruples question of the day: You find a lottery ticket on the floor of a supermarket. It turns out to be a winner — for tens of thousands of dollars. Do you cash it in?

Continue reading Finder's keepers?

Morning Reading

Bank of America is no longer expanding from sea to shining sea. It seems to be medium-izing itself. Nothing wrong with that. But they might have to change the name to Bank of Most of America.

Continue reading Morning Reading

Charlie Hustle

We’re coming up on the 20th anniversary of Pete Rose’s lifetime ban from baseball. Because of the ban, the guy who has the most hits, games played and at-bats in the history of the sport can’t get into the Hall of Fame. Is it time to pardon Rose for his gambling sins?

Continue reading Charlie Hustle

He dared to do the math

A week ago, the TARP inspector general, Neil Barofsky, added up all the potential taxpayer costs for saving the financial system, and the figure came to $23.7 trillion. It’s highly unlikely that will be the bill, but when you read this, you’ll see that’s not the point:

Continue reading He dared to do the math

Promoting the stimulus

I was in the Midwest over the weekend, and I saw a couple of signs that looked like this:

recovery-3.jpg

A friend of mine pointed to one and asked, how much do you think those signs cost? Good question.

Continue reading Promoting the stimulus

Morning Reading

Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke is really putting himself out there these days. It could be something of a campaign to keep his job, but there’s also usefulness is having him answer the questions we’ve all been dying to ask him.

Continue reading Morning Reading

Strong medicine

jab.jpg Our weekly podcast, After the Bell, is now available. This week, Bob Moon examines the healthcare debate raging on Capitol Hill. He also looks at the symptoms ailing CIT, which is giving small businesses a serious case of indigestion, and he goes bedside with Ben Bernanke, surgeon-in-charge of economic resuscitation. How will the good doctor go about closing up the patient now that he’s stabilized?

Phyllis Owens produced the podcast, with assistance from Fiona Ng and Charlton Thorp.

If you’d like After the Bell to download automatically each week, click here.

The cat that got the cream

bern.jpg Fed Chair Ben Bernanke said today that about 25 financial companies are “systemically important.” Too big to fail, in other words.

What? 25?

Continue reading The cat that got the cream

Made in China

The Alliance for American Manufacturing sent us this chart today, noting that aside from oil imports, the U.S. trade deficit is dominated by imports of Chinese manufactured goods.

china.jpg

Looks like Secretaries Clinton and Geithner have their work cut out at the U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue (S&ED) next week.

Continue reading Made in China

Come on ye Reds!

anfield.jpg Fans of Liverpool Football Club are gripping the edges of their seats today, but not because it’s two-all in the last seconds of overtime. The club’s owners owe Royal Bank of Scotland and Wachovia 350 million quid ($578 million), and the loan is due to expire today.

Talks over a refinancing could be extended beyond the end of the day, the Daily Telegraph reports.

Continue reading Come on ye Reds!

Morning reading

cox.jpg Last year, then Chairman of the SEC, Christopher Cox, banned naked short selling of shares for a period. Discussion of nakedness in the markets swiftly moved from equities to credit default swaps, the so-called financial weapons of mass destruction, which can also be traded naked. Now there’s a move on Capitol Hill to ban naked trading of CDS. Opponents of a ban make their case in a Bloomberg story today.

Most people weren’t aware of the concept of nakedness in the trading world before Cox told the shorts to button up. As soon as he did, everyone wanted details, maybe because saying “naked shorts” makes some people giggle like six-year-olds.

Continue reading Morning reading

Zandi: the Great Recession ... is coming to an end

With the Dow up 188 points and finishing in the 9000s, Marketplace’s Jeremy Hobson did a quick-and-dirty straw poll of economists.

Continue reading Zandi: the Great Recession ... is coming to an end

Subprime myths

foreclosure.jpgYuliya Demyanyk has published an intriguing piece on the Cleveland Fed website. Ten Myths about Subprime Mortgages, it’s called.

Demyanyk is a senior research economist in the Research Department at the Cleveland Fed.

My first thought on reading this - what? I can’t blame greedy buy-to-let vultures or deadbeat homeowners or people who used their houses like ATMs anymore?

Continue reading Subprime myths

What do lawmakers really know?

Manuel Quinones of Capital News Connection quizzed some Tennessee representatives about the financial crisis - well, about derivatives, anyway - and garnered some illuminating responses.

Continue reading What do lawmakers really know?

Bustin' out

dow9k.jpgThe Dow pumped up about 9000 this morning, thanks to a bunch of good earnings numbers. Ford, AT&T and EBay all look better than expected. Throw in some good home resales data and an apparently encouraging weekly jobs figure and the corks are popping all over Wall Street. Well, all over CNBC, anyhow.

Continue reading Bustin' out

Morning Reading

IMG_0822.JPG

Earnings are likely to move the markets today, and they’re swamping the headlines this morning, but there is some more color out there.

Reuters reports that Warren Buffett has cut his stake in the ratings agency Moody’s. That should certainly provoke a reaction (and, in fact, already has in after-hours trading).

The CIT story continues to run. News today from the New York Times’ Dealbook that the company could opt for bankruptcy after all. Not all that surprising given the terms of the loan provided CIT by its bondholders.

Continue reading Morning Reading

No money, no worries?

If you’re financially stressed, you could always do what Nick Suelo’s doing. He’s been living without any money whatsoever for nine years.

Continue reading No money, no worries?

New and old ghost towns

The guy who runs unemploymentality.com has been on the road recently, traveling from San Francisco to upstate New York. Along the way, he’s been documenting “Recession Lessons.” Lesson #4 — ghost towns.

Continue reading New and old ghost towns

Giant leap or maybe not so much...

This is pretty amusing (or depressing). As I was writing about the space program yesterday, I was thinking, I wonder what the media coverage would be like for the moon landing if it happened today? And then I found this:

Continue reading Giant leap or maybe not so much...

Hope for health care?

President Obama speaks to the nation tonight, and of course, one of the main topics will be health care. I’ve been reading, watching and listening — and trying to have hope for effective health care reform. But it’s difficult.

Continue reading Hope for health care?

Morning Reading

Among this morning’s reads: What’s in a word? A lot when it comes to the health care debate. Maybe one of your ancestors fought in medieval times. Now, you can look them up online. And Britain’s losing dozens of pubs a week!

Continue reading Morning Reading

Intentional scarcity

Giving away free food in a recession sounds like a winning idea, but I have my doubts. This morning, Starbucks offered free pastries, but one of the Starbucks we went to had already run out of them and another was about to. Remember KFC a couple months ago?

Continue reading Intentional scarcity

Martians or moonbeams?

The space program is obviously getting a lot of attention this week with the anniversary of the moon landing. It’s a good time to ask, where should we be spending our money when it comes to space travel?

Continue reading Martians or moonbeams?

Morning Reading

Among this morning’s items: explaining that $23 trillion figure I mentioned yesterday… Helicopter Ben says his choppers move quickly and smoothly… an argument for taxing the rich immediately… and was Walter Cronkite a Jon Stewart fan?

Continue reading Morning Reading

Breaking the calculator

The inspector general of TARP, Neil Barofsky, will tell Congress tomorrow what he figures the financial system rescue could cost taxpayers in the end. His report was released today, and you’re not going to like it. The bill might come to $23,700,000,000,000.

Continue reading Breaking the calculator

www.blog.jagow?

The agency in charge of Internet domain names, ICANN, wants to start selling top-level domains to anyone who wants them. So, instead of just .com, .net or .gov, there could be .pepsi or .ebay or .hamburgers. I seriously doubt there will be a .jagow because just to apply for these domains, ICANN is asking $185,000.

Continue reading www.blog.jagow?

Housing hot potatoes

I thought one of the items from Morning Reading deserved a little more attention. You know how there was talk of homeowners just walking away from their mortgages, and then getting foreclosed upon? Well, apparently, banks are now walking away from the foreclosures.

Continue reading Housing hot potatoes

Morning Reading

Bank “walkaways” from foreclosed homes are infuriating city leaders. Overconfidence is a deadly pill. So is drinking waaay too much with business colleagues at a karaoke bar. Those are some of the stories in today’s edition of Morning Reading:

Continue reading Morning Reading

Paint ball

My weekly podcast, After the Bell, is now available. This week, there seemed to be a lot of washing and painting and making things look one way, when it reality they might be another. Musical help this week from Bright Eyes (one of my favs), Atmosphere and Kira Willey. In-house assistance from Fiona Ng, Hunter Ochs and Phyllis Owens. If you’d like After the Bell to download automatically each week, click here.

A rounding error?

You can argue there’s plenty of fishy math going on at the banks, but can you imagine if you clicked on your bank account and saw this number:

Continue reading A rounding error?

The Fed as a Temple

William Greider gets my vote for most thought-provoking column of the day. Greider wrote a book called Secrets of the Temple about the Federal Reserve. In the latest issue of The Nation, he says it may be time to dismantle the Temple.

Continue reading The Fed as a Temple

Morning Reading

Oooh, some good stuff out there this morning. Economically, it’s better to be cold than hot. Jon Stewart goes off on GS. The Wall Street Journal says something actually worked this week without government intervention. And the Times of London says leave those bankers alone. Read on:

Continue reading Morning Reading

The money machine

CNBC host David Faber will be a guest on Marketplace tonight. I was just listening to the raw interview, and something he said got me going.

Continue reading The money machine

Being green and quiet about it

I need ear plugs to go to the store these days, so I won’t hear all the companies shouting at me about how good they are to the environment. Wal-Mart’s bellowing voice is growing even louder — as you probably know - it’s planning to label products with green ratings.

Continue reading Being green and quiet about it

Morning Reading

A Florida real estate agent/blogger declares victory over Goldman Sachs. The bank has decided not to go after Mike Morgan because of his website, GoldmanSachs666. I’m pretty sure Goldman enjoys being despised. More:

Continue reading Morning Reading

Let's go Retro

I’m feeling like 1979 today. What prompted it, I suppose, was I read that Cheap Trick is releasing its new album on 8-track. Funny thing, the CD is $12.99, and the 8-Track is $30. Anyway, I started digging around and found a brilliant display of tech creativity: what would today’s gadgets look like if they came out in 1979?

walkman1.jpg

Continue reading Let's go Retro

Taking the ratings agencies to court

This is getting good. The country’s biggest public pension fund, Calpers, is suing ratings agencies for giving perfect grades to investments that turned out to be a heaping pile of garbage. I can’t wait to see what the courts say about this one.

Continue reading Taking the ratings agencies to court

Morning Reading

Congress has suddenly realized the banks might have a problem with toxic assets. Plus, some feisty debates over Goldman Sachs profits and the health care bill. That and more in this edition of Morning Reading:

Continue reading Morning Reading

Good economy, bad economy

I keep reading such wildly divergent predictions about where the economy is headed, I honestly don’t know what to think. Let me give you some examples.

Continue reading Good economy, bad economy

GM's new, old marketing guy

I think it’ll be fascinating to see what GM does under its new head of marketing. There isn’t much “new” about Bob Lutz. He’s worked for all three Detroit automakers over a four-decade career. In a time of viral marketing, Twitter and all that other new media stuff, GM has just hired a 77-year-old to run its campaign.

Continue reading GM's new, old marketing guy

From the mouths of babes

Morgan Stanley has turned its research division over to a 15-year-old kid. Okay, not exactly, but the company did just issue a research report written by a teenager.

Continue reading From the mouths of babes

Eating cheap, but fancy

Perhaps this should fall under the category of recession art. I’d say turning a Happy Meal or a Taco Bell burrito into haute-looking cuisine qualifies as art.

Continue reading Eating cheap, but fancy

Morning Reading

President Obama’s car guy is out. Goldman Sachs is rich again. A woman Tweets through a bank robbery. And you can buy Businessweek for a dollar. I don’t mean one issue. I mean the entire company:

Continue reading Morning Reading

Publishing from the grave

Like every industry, the publishing business is having a tough time. But lately, coming to its rescue, are some of the biggest names in literature. I guess they’re bored with being dead.

Continue reading Publishing from the grave

Test case for TBTF

If you believe what lender CIT is saying, the bank is another Lehman Brothers. It’s Too Big To Fail, and it’s in deep trouble. But this time, the government seems to be looking the other way.

Continue reading Test case for TBTF

Wal-Mart, the good guy?

The gloves are off in the debate over health care. In one corner, you have Wal-Mart. In the other corner, just about every other retailer in America. Wal-Mart supports a requirement that all employers must provide health care. The National Retail Federation is vehemently opposed.

Continue reading Wal-Mart, the good guy?

Morning Reading

One bank is back to printing money. Another is trying to get out of paying the taxpayers back. And another is suing itself. Just another Monday morning at the Scratch Pad.

Continue reading Morning Reading

Numbers, numbers, numbers

My weekly podcast, After the Bell, is now available. As I looked through the stories of the week, my head was spinning with numbers. Let’s try to make some sense of them. Musical assistance from Violent Femmes, Feist and Aimee Mann. In-house help from Phyllis Owens, Fiona Ng and Hunter Ochs. If you’d like the podcast to download automatically each Friday, here’s the link.

Interviews, 50 cents

This has nothing to do with a rapper or the decline of Western journalism. It’s the name of the latest project from NPR’s Alex Chadwick. The tagline is: “Interviews come along all the time. All you have to do is wait.”

Continue reading Interviews, 50 cents

Will no-doc loans be back?

One of the most controversial loans of the mortgage boom was the no-documentation, or stated income loan. Just like the name suggests, borrowers didn’t have to provide proof of their income.
They were also known as “liar loans” because many people told outrageous stories about how much they made so they could qualify for homes they couldn’t afford on paper.

Continue reading Will no-doc loans be back?

Morning Reading

The new GM was born today, and at a press conference (live-blogged at NPR), CEO Fritz Henderson said the company’s priorities will be customers, cars and culture:

Continue reading Morning Reading

No privacy, get over it?

This phone-tapping scandal in Britain raises many questions, not only about British tabloids and the way some of them might operate, but larger questions about whether the gene for boundaries is disappearing from the human race.

Continue reading No privacy, get over it?

It's like Willy Loman, in reverse

Tonight, the Discovery Channel channel airs a Tribute to Billy Mays to say goodbye to the infomercial king. But honestly, Mays still has a long TV life ahead. As Marketplace editor Betsy Streisand put it this morning, it’s the “un-death of a salesman.”

Continue reading It's like Willy Loman, in reverse

Bing vs Google

Microsoft’s new search engine, Bing, has been around for about a month now, and well, I’ll be. It actually seems to be doing well.

Continue reading Bing vs Google

Smashing a perfectly good guitar

I have a physical reaction when I see a broken guitar. I live by the code of songwriter John Hiatt: “There oughta to be a law, with no bail, smash a guitar and you go to jail.” I’m sure Canadian musician Dave Carroll agrees. United Airlines smashed his $3,500 Taylor, and they refused to fix it. So, he wrote a song about it.

Continue reading Smashing a perfectly good guitar

Morning Reading

A strange collection of items this morning. Among them: a well-known investor compares the stimulus package to a cocktail of Viagra and candy… one celebrated economist is paranoid, another is talking about brown manure instead of green shoots… and for just pennies a month, you can help save the life of a poor… journalist. Read on:

Continue reading Morning Reading

Recession + time = speed

Instead of driving, people seem to be running. The Wall Street Journal reports that the unemployed are using their free time to sign up for marathons, triathlons and road races. Those races are filling up in record time. And the runners, with all the extra time to train, are getting faster.

Continue reading Recession + time = speed

Recession = less traffic

One thing I’ve noticed lately is that traffic seems lighter. I keep thinking it’s my imagination, since I live in LA, but the other day, I actually arrived somewhere a few minutes early. That just doesn’t happen here. A new study suggests traffic has been declining.

Continue reading Recession = less traffic

Google and evil

Kai Ryssdal recently spent some time at the Aspen Ideas Festival, and specifically, he spent an hour interviewing Google CEO Eric Schmidt. There was a small portion on Marketplace yesterday, but there’s much more to the interview.

Continue reading Google and evil

Inside China

I spent part of the morning in a Marketplace editorial meeting where the guest speaker was our very own Shanghai correspondent Scott Tong. He’s here in LA for a bit. He shared some fascinating insights about China.

Continue reading Inside China

Morning Reading

Among the things I’ve read this morning — looking back on people looking forward to Google’s operating system, an editorial by two of the world’s most powerful leaders, our wishful thinking about health care and the story of a North Korean beer commercial. It’s good for you.

Continue reading Morning Reading

Jury rules against AIG

You might remember about a month ago, I posted something on a federal court case involving AIG. AIG was trying to seize funds from a charitable foundation because it said that money was originally intended for compensating AIG employees, and the company deserved it back. The jury didn’t agree.

Continue reading Jury rules against AIG

Guessing your Social

No, this isn’t a new game at the county fair. Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University say they’ve figured out a way to predict Social Security numbers — in some cases, with frightening accuracy.

Continue reading Guessing your Social

The battle over union votes

In news publications all over the country, I’ve noticed a lot of copy devoted to the Employee Free Choice Act, which is back on the table after being killed a couple years ago. Congress has a great deal on its plate between energy, health care and financial regulation, but this union organizing issue may not take a back seat.

Continue reading The battle over union votes

Morning Reading

The entire media world seems to be focused on Michael Jackson’s funeral. CNN’s headline this morning — Michael Jackson will be at Staples Center. But there are other things to read:

Continue reading Morning Reading

A French lesson

The US has chided European countries for not doing enough to stimulate their economies. But the French have a retort: You’re the one that’s behind. We’re doing stimulus the right way, quickly and beautifully.

Continue reading A French lesson

The Chop-O-Matic bankruptcy

Barring something unforeseen, GM will be out of Chapter 11 by the end of this week. The new GM, that is. The old GM will stay in bankruptcy, existing as a separate company called (seriously) Motors Liquidation Co. It’s basically the rotting carcass part of GM. As for the new GM, do you believe in reincarnation?

Continue reading The Chop-O-Matic bankruptcy

Stand up and fly

The Irish budget airline, Ryanair, is known for pitching controversial proposals, such as installing pay toilets on planes and charging a “fat tax” on people who take up too much room. The company’s latest money-making idea is to offer “vertical” seating. Yes, that means standing up.

Continue reading Stand up and fly

Oil is irrational

The price of oil fell about 3 bucks today to $64 a barrel. Oil started the year in the $30 range. It’s been above $70 lately. Last year, you’ll remember, it hit $146 a barrel. Oil has rarely been this volatile, and it’s not good for the economy.

Continue reading Oil is irrational

Morning Reading

The debate over whether the economy needs a second stimulus package continues. But I found something this morning that makes that debate moot.

Continue reading Morning Reading

The (short) week that was

I hope you have tomorrow off. I do. So, my weekly podcast, After the Bell, is available now. Yesterday marked the start of the fiscal year for many states, and it wasn’t a good beginning. On this week’s podcast, I find out more about trading IOUs in California and what sneaky things banks might be up to behind the scenes. Musical assistance from Creedence Clearwater Revival, Elliott Smith and Ray Charles. In-house help from Phyllis Owens, Fiona Ng and Hunter Ochs. You can listen to the podcast below, but if you’d like it to download automatically each week, here’s the link for that. Happy 4th!

Don't try this at home

There’s a British guy who set out this year to build a toaster from scratch. Think about that for a second. He started by mining for the raw materials using a hair dryer.

Continue reading Don't try this at home

A must-read on AIG

If you want to know what happened at AIG, a new Vanity Fair article gets as deep as anyone’s been so far. The author - not surprisingly - is Michael Lewis, the guy who wrote Liar’s Poker. He knocks this stuff out the park. The title of the article is The Man Who Crashed the World.

Continue reading A must-read on AIG

Morning Reading

The job numbers are discouraging, although the unemployment rate only ticked up .1% in June. I think the worst statistic is how long people are going without a job — a median of four months. That’s twice as long as December of 2007. The number of people unemployed for 7 months has tripled to 4.4 millilon. But hey, Wall Street employees may have little to worry about.

Continue reading Morning Reading

I'd stop trading our stock if I were you

How often does a public company issue a press release telling investors not to buy their stock? GM did it today. It’s actually the second time in a month that GM has warned people — proceed at your own risk.

Continue reading I'd stop trading our stock if I were you

I owe you

California is on the fast track to a financial train wreck. The state legislature and the governor can’t agree on how to solve a $24 billion budget deficit, and the new budget year has started. So, beginning tomorrow, the state will have to hand out IOU’s to people, including contractors, college students and welfare recipients. This ought to be interesting.

Continue reading I owe you

Dumbest business moments

This is pretty entertaining/revealing. Fortune has a list of the dumbest moves in business for 2009. There’ve been a lot of them, and the year’s only half-over.

Continue reading Dumbest business moments

Out of the burbs, into the city

Looks like the recession is having a profound effect on where people are living. Census numbers out today show that the population in older cities, like New York and LA, is gaining or holding steady. But the Sun Belt boomtowns aren’t booming anymore.

Continue reading Out of the burbs, into the city

Morning Reading

Debating trickle-down theories, a high school classmate remembers Bernie, a financial column that’s actually a chain email(?) and a by-the-mile driving tax gets more serious consideration. Those are among the items that grabbed my attention this morning:

Continue reading Morning Reading


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