They started employing more MBAs at Google? Seriously, any creative company that "grows up" and starts taking advice from bean counters/ entrail readers and sociopaths is doomed.
Microsoft's greatest strength was that its founders never lost control.. so even though their products were inferior (at least initially), their competitors took advice from MBAs and f**ked themselves up, leaving MS as the only survivor.
June 20 (Bloomberg) -- Steve Jobs, Apple Inc.’s chief executive officer, had a liver transplant in Tennessee about two months ago, the Wall Street Journal reported today, without saying where it got the information.
Bloomberg News reported on Jan. 16 that Jobs, 54, was considering the procedure after complications from treatment for an islet cell neuroendocrine tumor in 2004, according to people who were monitoring his illness.
June 20 (Bloomberg) -- General Motors Corp.’s planned sale drew objections from Chrysler Group LLC, the other U.S. automaker that filed for bankruptcy protection this year, as well as at least 10 states and union retirees.
Attorneys general from Connecticut, Kentucky, Missouri, Nebraska, Maryland, Vermont, Minnesota, North Dakota, Ohio and West Virginia objected to the sale, saying it would circumvent state laws that protect GM dealers’ contracts and consumers with product liability claims.
Moral: own your domain, so that if the underlying vendor fails, you can change vendors.
Fortunately CR acted on this a while back. But imagine the effect of a blogger shutdown 2 years ago, before CR moved to his own domain. The traffic loss would have been 100%, because Google owns CR's old domain.
This is true for your email as well. Own the domain name used for your own email. Set up dive_hike@calculatedriskblog.com (can do this for free at Google Apps), rather than the Yahoo address. Uncouple the address from the underlying service, so you can move email hosts in an emergency.
I maybe underestimating the issue but strange that its taking Google almpst a week to address a redirect problem? It's probably a question of priorities...
A power struggle developed between Jobs and new CEO John Sculley in 1985. Apple's board of directors sided with Sculley and Jobs was removed from his managerial duties. Jobs resigned from Apple and founded NeXT Inc. the same year.
It also helps that they understand their subject area.
The single biggest problem with MBAs is that they do not understand the technical aspects of the company they are managing. Each technical area has different problems, pitfalls, shortcuts and issues. There is no universal set of solutions.
//This doesn't directly solve any problems, but the technical staff does return to the fray refreshed and motivated anew.//
It's very hard to scale product-based tech firms and keep the mojo that made them successful in the first place, especially via acquisitions or employing 'professional managers' to operate the company.
It's hard to believe the great minds of Google can't solve something this simple. I'll bet it's a typo in the code.
This sort of thing used to happen all the time in the late 1990s. I remember once a major trunk line went down because some guy installed a new router and left it in test mode. They couldn't figure out what the problem was because the router tested fine.
Let's hope CR has embarrassed Google into action...
Yes.. that is how good companies die.. I think the problem is deeper though. It is about pretending to optimize gains.. the zero sum mentality.
//It's very hard to scale product-based tech firms and keep the mojo that made them successful in the first place, especially via acquisitions or employing 'professional managers' to operate the company.//
June 19 (Bloomberg) -- Ortenzio Matteucci points to towns down the wooded Nerina valley in Italy’s Umbria region and blames peer pressure for his decision to let Polino, population 290, buy a U.S.-inspired financial swap he didn’t understand.
A retired steelworker with wavy gray hair, Polino’s Mayor Matteucci says he agreed to the interest-rate swap because Milan, with more than 1 million residents, and local towns Arrone and Stroncone all bought derivatives to try to save money. Polino’s contract has cost the village 6,579.66 euros ($9,200) more than it has earned since the town made the deal in 2005.
Bob_in_MA, I'm just trying to get the word out - this mostly impacts readers that 1) don't use Firefox (at least they get a redirect warning), and 2) bookmarked the old URL (or are coming in on a link from another site with the old URL).
I know the Blogger guys are working on it - but I don't understand why it is taking so long.
I've emailed this post to a few people - and I tried to write it so it will get picked up in other places. The people that can read it here aren't having the problem!
dafox, it's not all free. The blogspot address is free ... but the custom URL isn't. Google search is "free" too, but I bet they'd notice if that went down.
And, you know, that "bing" search engine that Microsoft has created is pretty darn good. Still doesn't do real time quotes when you type stock symbols. But I prefer a lot of the other ways it works (how it handles video results). Microsoft is starting to get some things right.
The state of California is facing a multinotch downgrade of its debt if it fails to resolve its enormous budget woes, Moody’s Investors Service said Friday.
The warning follows a similar one from Standard & Poor’s, which put the state on a negative credit watch earlier this week because of its dismal financial condition.
“If the legislature does not take action quickly, the state’s cash situation will deteriorate to the point where the controller will have to delay most nonpriority payments in July,” Moody’s said in a statement. “Lack of action could result in a multinotch downgrade.”
June 19 (Bloomberg) -- Discover Financial Services Chief Executive Officer David Nelms said new U.S. safeguards for credit-card holders will mean higher interest rates, more fees and fewer loans industrywide.
“There are many consumers that actually will not benefit,” Nelms, 48, said yesterday in an interview after Riverwoods, Illinois-based Discover reported second-quarter results. “Some of the unintended consequences are going to be difficult for customers.”
Broker Fiduciary Plan Favors Investors, Roper Says (Update3) Bloomberg.com
By Alexis Leondis and Elizabeth Hester
June 19 (Bloomberg) -- President Barack Obama’s proposal to require brokers recommending investments to put clients’ interests ahead of their firm’s is long overdue, according to Barbara Roper, a consumer advocate.
The proposal aims to help individual investors who are “confused” about the obligations of broker-dealers, according to the administration’s plan for financial regulatory overhaul released June 17. Brokers currently must meet a legal “suitability standard” while most investment advisers and financial planners have a fiduciary duty to their clients.
Steve Jobs, Apple Inc.’s chief executive officer, had a liver transplant in Tennessee about two months ago, the Wall Street Journal reported today, without saying where it got the information.
Failure to disclose a material event on a timely basis. Opens the door wide to insider trading.
I predict a v-shaped recovery for CR's site traffic. This is the only v-shaped recovery I see.
In other news, I'm escaping from the desert! RhodesianGreenback is headed to Washington, DC.
The apartment market there is tight as a drum (granted I was looking only at places near Metro stops). My rent is doubling and a lot of the places that allowed dogs were almost maxed to full occupancy. Ouch!
June 20 (Bloomberg) -- Chancellor Angela Merkel said the slumping German economy has nearly hit bottom and will unlikely recover quickly, the AP reported, citing a speech she made in Berlin.
The chart of the German economy may look more like a “bathtub” than a “V” as output stagnates before recovering, she said, according to the news agency. “I hope it is a children’s bathtub and not a bathtub for people with particularly long legs,” Merkel is quoted as saying by the AP.
I thnk it looks more like my spa. Down to the seating area, then to the bottom. Then slowly across the floor to a long climb up to the seating level. Not enough energy to climb back to what most people think is out of the tub.
..But if your preventive strategy is medical, if it involves us, if it consists of screening, finding medical conditions early, shaking the bushes for high cholesterols, or abnormal EKGs, markers for prostate cancer such as PSA, then more often than not you don’t save anything and you might generate more medical costs. Prevention is a good thing to do, but why equate it with saving money when it won’t? Think about this: discovering high cholesterol in a person who is feeling well, is really just discovering a risk factor and not a disease; it predicts that you have a greater chance of having a heart attack than someone with a normal cholesterol. Now you can reduce the probability of a heart attack by swallowing a statin, and it will make good sense for you personally, especially if you have other risk factors (male sex, smoking etc).. But if you are treating a population, keep in mind that you may have to treat several hundred people to prevent one heart attack. Using a statin costs about $150,000 for every year of life it saves in men, and even more in women (since their heart-attack risk is lower)—I don’t see the savings there....
Chancellor Angela Merkel said the slumping German economy has nearly hit bottom and will unlikely recover quickly
Given the export oriented nature of the German economy, Merkel is likely to be correct.
At least some politic ans tell it like it is, instead of constantly worrying about the market reaction to their words.
Contrast this with Rubin's memoir "In an Uncertain World"
Rubin recalls a hearing at the U.S. Senate he and Summers attended: When Senator Frank Murkowski asked me about the possibility of U.S. intervention to support the yen, I said that intervention was "a temporary tool, not a permanent solution." Weakness in Japan's currency, I said, reflected the underlying weakness in Japan's economy. In order to raise the value of the yen, the Japanese would have to address their fundamental economic problems.
That was all correct, but in focusing on Japan I mistakenly intervention in an intellectually serious way. Larry, who was sitting next to me, passed me a note that read, "Bob - Yen moved to 143.20 in last 15 minutes. I think we need more saber rattling." In other words, the foreign exchange markets were interpreting my remarks to suggest I had made the possibility of intervention to suppor tthe yen less likely
That's Summers' trademark politicking with the constant look back at the market reaction and pushing confidence in the "right" direction.
My husband and I invested the bulk of our savings with Bernard Madoff for more than 20 years. Because of my [previously] healthy income in retirement, I paid the maximum amount for Medicare Part B benefits. Now that my income has been wiped out, I have tried to get that amount reduced. Medicare and Social Security say that they won't consider any adjustment until, at the earliest, 2010. I must continue paying at the same rate even though I have no income. Is there any help or advice you can offer?
—Helen Greiff, Tamarac, Fla.
You're in luck. As of June 9, Medicare beneficiaries who are alleged victims of Bernard Madoff's Ponzi fraud may be able to get their Part B premiums reduced, according to Mark Lassiter, a spokesman for the Social Security Administration in Baltimore.
Just a thought: Why not put up a permanent redirect on the Blogger site?
Then once someone hits it, they will get redirected and their browser will remember the new address.
Also might want to switch to a real hosting company. Google only does hosting as an incidental side-effect of their search advertising business.
If the traffic is not more than a couple of mb/sec, it would not be that expensive.
Failure to disclose a material event on a timely basis. Opens the door wide to insider trading.
Would be covered under his medical leave of absence, so not material because of the prior point and that he techinically isn't working for the company.
Cut n paste on iPhone rocks, but not auto correct.
Now that we're seeing the Iranian government being overthrown by Twitter, the architects of the budding new dictatorship here in the US are starting to take the threat the Internet poses seriously and are acting preemptively to do something about it.
Large scale printing and the 18th century revolutions. Basically every new form of communication has caused or aided a series of revolutions..
//ow that we're seeing the Iranian government being overthrown by Twitter, the architects of the budding new dictatorship here in the US are starting to take the threat the Internet poses seriously and are acting preemptively to do something about it.//
The chart of the German economy may look more like a “bathtub” than a “V” as output stagnates before recovering, she said, according to the news agency.
Massive debt binge piled on top of a stagnant economy simply means that at the end of that bathtub there's a big old drain that leads straight into the sewer.
BTW, I just saw this quote from Obama over on ZeroHedge. If he really means it and isn't just saying it, then maybe there's some hope for him afterall:
"The Iranian government must understand that the world is watching. We mourn each and every innocent life that is lost. We call on the Iranian government to stop all violent and unjust actions against its own people. The universal rights to assembly and free speech must be respected, and the United States stands with all who seek to exercise those rights.
As I said in Cairo, suppressing ideas never succeeds in making them go away. The Iranian people will ultimately judge the actions of their own government. If the Iranian government seeks the respect of the international community, it must respect the dignity of its own people and govern through consent, not coercion.
Martin Luther King once said - “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” I believe that. The international community believes that. And right now, we are bearing witness to the Iranian peoples’ belief in that truth, and we will continue to bear witness."
The blogger "team" is notoriously unresponsive. I've been having a problem with posts disappearing on reload in FF and Chrome, but not in IE. No reply or acknowledgment in over a week.
Since the service is free, I guess you get what you pay for. In the past, entire blogs have been deleted by "accident."
is the commodity rise secular, or just the latest bubble?
China is replentishing stocks, free money had to go somewhere, yet commodity currencies are nowhere near last years highs. Still demand destruction environment, pricing pressure for produce is soley based on weather producing shortfalls.
I honestly wish they would start charging, just so they could support it better. Even gmail would be better if they charged a nominal sum but gave service/data availability guarantees. Google could flip a switch tomorrow and all our data would be gone.
I think what Hillary said about Obama during the primaries is probably true. "he makes good speeches". I don't believe a single thing that comes out of his mouth. He combines the worst double speak of a lawyer and politician. I can imagine him singing " anything Bill can do I can do better" and that applies to the "slick Willie" title. I say this not as some rabid Republican yahoo but as former Obama supporter- voted for , campaigned for and donated to him.
BOSTON (MarketWatch) -- If things weren't bleak before, they certainly are now. Men and women retiring today will need truckloads of money to pay for health-care expenses over the course of their retirement, according to a new study.
And that was the case long before we learned that President Barack Obama plans to cut $313 billion in Medicare and Medicaid spending and reform this nation's health-care system. It's anybody's guess what retirees might need if those reform plans become a reality.
For the time being, at least, the reality is this: Men retiring at age 65 in 2009 will need from $68,000 to $173,000 in savings to cover health-insurance premiums and out-of-pocket expenses in retirement if they want a 50/50 chance of being able to have enough money, and $134,000 to $378,000 if they prefer a 90% chance, according to a study published last week by the Employee Benefits Research Institute.
"Google could flip a switch tomorrow and all our data would be gone."
I have never understood why people would use a free email service. The early ones were really horrible service-wise (Hotmail) Gmail scans all of your mail for their marketing databases. Yahoo and other insert advertising into your mail.
I hesitate to send anything important to a gmail address, knowing that the mail will be scanned (by what is an advertising company) in transit.
Worst of all, you do not own your email address unless you own the domain that it is part of.
It reminds me of the old mortgage sales line: "People are Smart".
Not.
"Is it our right to dictate culture to the world?"
I think you might have misunderstood what I said about free speech applying everywhere. Free speech is a universal good, I believe, no matter what the culture. OTOH, political systems will defend themselves when they perceive themselves to be in danger. We understand that.
In our own context, God bless the First Amendment.
I think the law in DC and other jurisdictions is a good model: Verbal assault, that is, threatening speech, is in law the same as physical assault. Otherwise, speech should not be constrained by law.
Hmm.. Free mail services are popular because most "paid" services are even more unreliable and flaky.
Short of running your own webserver with multiple backups, the free ones are more reliable than many "paid" ones.
PS- You can always save important e-mails or entire accounts to your own hard and flash drives.
It takes me a few minutes to copy the entire text content of gmail accounts to my hard drive.
//I have never understood why people would use a free email service. The early ones were really horrible service-wise (Hotmail) Gmail scans all of your mail for their marketing databases. Yahoo and other insert advertising into your mail.//
BUDAPEST (MarketWatch) -- It was a busy night at the trendy restaurant Menza. The youthful and the hip sipped cocktails and savored paprika-infused goulash. Those at the outside tables enjoyed a view of Franz Liszt Square, surrounded by restaurants and bars similarly packed with carefree revelers.
On the surface, it looked like a weekend evening in any European city, but the fun-filled atmosphere that night was in sharp contrast to the country's economic plight.
Hungary, home to one of Eastern Europe's smallest and most open economies, is suffering through a deep recession and political upheaval brought about by excessive borrowing and unsustainable government spending. After years of living large, it is time for Hungary to pay the tab.
Hungary has been hurt by a fall in demand for its exports, which include cars, machinery and equipment. Its largest trading partner, Germany, is also mired in recession. But even before the global crisis, too much borrowing in both the public and private sectors had put Hungary in a vulnerable position. To make matters worse, many individuals and companies took out loans denominated in foreign currencies, so when the domestic unit, the forint, depreciated sharply, those borrowers were hit hard.
June 20 (Bloomberg) -- Drugmakers may spend as much as $40 billion to help the elderly afford medicines and provide lawmakers a way to cut the cost of their proposed health-care overhaul under a deal with the Obama administration, a person involved in the discussions said.
If we don't stand up for free speech, equal rights, and secular government, who will? As far as the consumer culture that goes along with it, well, there you may have a point.
Drug Companies. White House Reach $80B Prescription Drug Deal
WASHINGTON — The pharmaceutical industry agreed Saturday to spend $80 billion over the next decade improving drug benefits for seniors on Medicare and defraying the cost of President Barack Obama's health care legislation, capping secretive negotiations with the White House and key lawmakers.
......
"While none of the changes in the prescription drug program would directly lower government costs, the industry also agreed to additional measures that would give the Treasury more money under federal health programs. In particular, officials said drug companies would likely wind up paying pay higher rebates for certain drugs under Medicaid, the program that provides health care for the poor.
Those funds would be used to help pay for legislation expanding health insurance for millions who now lack it.
One official said the deal was agreed to late Friday night when Billy Tauzin, head of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), called Baucus."
~~~~~
The Public wasn't even told about this happy horseshit ....
And look who is involved, Billy Taauzin, The House Rep who threatened the SEC with cutting off funds !
This problem has been on-going for 5 days now. I'm sorry but Google is the largest tech company in the world...a simple redirection problem would not stump their teams of expert technicians for nearly this long. This is either a hacking attack, or for whatever reason, it is intentional.
Now that we're seeing the Iranian government being overthrown by Twitter, the architects of the budding new dictatorship here in the US are starting to take the threat the Internet poses seriously and are acting preemptively to do something about it.
AC - I would have said to take off your tinfoil hat 5 years ago. However, you may easily be onto something. You tube, Twitter and Facebook, and the good ole cell phone camera is changing how governments can and can't control the propaganda flow.
Also, I was using Firefox and got the redirect. I gave up on IE a few years ago. Just use the cleanup tool or AdAware to see the difference in the trash that comes in on IE. Try Firefox or another option and see of you like the difference.
They started employing more MBAs at Google? Seriously, any creative company that "grows up" and starts taking advice from bean counters/ entrail readers and sociopaths is doomed.
Microsoft's greatest strength was that its founders never lost control.. so even though their products were inferior (at least initially), their competitors took advice from MBAs and f**ked themselves up, leaving MS as the only survivor.
This kind of problem costs popular bloggers money. Hopefully they will sort it out soon.
Hey all, I'm just trying to get the word out - somehow - to the old time readers who bookmarked the blogspot address.
thanks to all
From an Apple fan?
Apple’s Jobs Had Liver Transplant, Journal Reports (Update1)
Apple’s Jobs Had Liver Transplant, Journal Reports (Update1) - Bloomberg.com
By Tim Culpan
June 20 (Bloomberg) -- Steve Jobs, Apple Inc.’s chief executive officer, had a liver transplant in Tennessee about two months ago, the Wall Street Journal reported today, without saying where it got the information.
Bloomberg News reported on Jan. 16 that Jobs, 54, was considering the procedure after complications from treatment for an islet cell neuroendocrine tumor in 2004, according to people who were monitoring his illness.
"They started employing MBAs at google? Seriously, any creative company that "grows up" and starts taking advice from bean counters is doomed."
Sounds very familiar
Commodore back in the late 80's is a nice example.
What new plan?
GM’s Sale Opposed by 10 States, Union Retirees and Chrysler
GM’s Sale Opposed by 10 States, Union Retirees and Chrysler - Bloomberg.com
By Christopher Scinta and Linda Sandler
June 20 (Bloomberg) -- General Motors Corp.’s planned sale drew objections from Chrysler Group LLC, the other U.S. automaker that filed for bankruptcy protection this year, as well as at least 10 states and union retirees.
Attorneys general from Connecticut, Kentucky, Missouri, Nebraska, Maryland, Vermont, Minnesota, North Dakota, Ohio and West Virginia objected to the sale, saying it would circumvent state laws that protect GM dealers’ contracts and consumers with product liability claims.
timmyone,
Or even apple... remember the ex-pepsi CEO who fired steve jobs?
//Sounds very familiar Commodore back in the late 80's is a nice example//
Moral: own your domain, so that if the underlying vendor fails, you can change vendors.
Fortunately CR acted on this a while back. But imagine the effect of a blogger shutdown 2 years ago, before CR moved to his own domain. The traffic loss would have been 100%, because Google owns CR's old domain.
This is true for your email as well. Own the domain name used for your own email. Set up dive_hike@calculatedriskblog.com (can do this for free at Google Apps), rather than the Yahoo address. Uncouple the address from the underlying service, so you can move email hosts in an emergency.
I maybe underestimating the issue but strange that its taking Google almpst a week to address a redirect problem? It's probably a question of priorities...
A power struggle developed between Jobs and new CEO John Sculley in 1985. Apple's board of directors sided with Sculley and Jobs was removed from his managerial duties. Jobs resigned from Apple and founded NeXT Inc. the same year.
Apple Inc. - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Or managers running the show?
// It's probably a question of priorities...//
Asian tech firms seem to hold their sht together. Maybe they beat the crp out of their beancounters once in a while
timmyone,
Hyundai became a respectable car company after they fired their old managers and put their engineers in charge.
In many asian cultures, failure is seen as a failure of leadership. In north america, it is worker's problem..
Even in a country like china, leaders take great pains to be competent or hire competent underlings.
//Asian tech firms seem to hold their sh*t together. //
This doesn't directly solve any problems, but the technical staff does return to the fray refreshed and motivated anew...
It also helps that they understand their subject area.
The single biggest problem with MBAs is that they do not understand the technical aspects of the company they are managing. Each technical area has different problems, pitfalls, shortcuts and issues. There is no universal set of solutions.
//This doesn't directly solve any problems, but the technical staff does return to the fray refreshed and motivated anew.//
It's very hard to scale product-based tech firms and keep the mojo that made them successful in the first place, especially via acquisitions or employing 'professional managers' to operate the company.
Sculley is precisely the reason why, in 1987, I stopped buying Apple computers for my business.
Sculley is a marketing genius. Don't take my word for it, ask him.
It's hard to believe the great minds of Google can't solve something this simple. I'll bet it's a typo in the code.
This sort of thing used to happen all the time in the late 1990s. I remember once a major trunk line went down because some guy installed a new router and left it in test mode. They couldn't figure out what the problem was because the router tested fine.
Let's hope CR has embarrassed Google into action...
Yes.. that is how good companies die.. I think the problem is deeper though. It is about pretending to optimize gains.. the zero sum mentality.
//It's very hard to scale product-based tech firms and keep the mojo that made them successful in the first place, especially via acquisitions or employing 'professional managers' to operate the company.//
you get what you pay for? I was under the impression all blogspot addresses were free..
Peer pressure.. in the old days peer pressure only made to you smoke, drink and do drugs.. Now it makes you buy interest rate swaps
‘Impossible to Understand’ Swap Burns 290-Person Italian Hamlet
‘Impossible to Understand’ Swap Burns 290-Person Italian Hamlet - Bloomberg.com
By Alan Katz, Lorenzo Totaro and Elisa Martinuzzi
June 19 (Bloomberg) -- Ortenzio Matteucci points to towns down the wooded Nerina valley in Italy’s Umbria region and blames peer pressure for his decision to let Polino, population 290, buy a U.S.-inspired financial swap he didn’t understand.
A retired steelworker with wavy gray hair, Polino’s Mayor Matteucci says he agreed to the interest-rate swap because Milan, with more than 1 million residents, and local towns Arrone and Stroncone all bought derivatives to try to save money. Polino’s contract has cost the village 6,579.66 euros ($9,200) more than it has earned since the town made the deal in 2005.
Bob_in_MA, I'm just trying to get the word out - this mostly impacts readers that 1) don't use Firefox (at least they get a redirect warning), and 2) bookmarked the old URL (or are coming in on a link from another site with the old URL).
I know the Blogger guys are working on it - but I don't understand why it is taking so long.
I've emailed this post to a few people - and I tried to write it so it will get picked up in other places. The people that can read it here aren't having the problem!
dafox, it's not all free. The blogspot address is free ... but the custom URL isn't. Google search is "free" too, but I bet they'd notice if that went down.
best to all.
And, you know, that "bing" search engine that Microsoft has created is pretty darn good. Still doesn't do real time quotes when you type stock symbols. But I prefer a lot of the other ways it works (how it handles video results). Microsoft is starting to get some things right.
What about the infamous group of 19.. the financial institutions (not the hijackers)
Moody’s Joins S.& P. in Warning on California Debt
Moody’s Joins S.& P. in Warning on California Debt - DealBook Blog - NYTimes.com
The state of California is facing a multinotch downgrade of its debt if it fails to resolve its enormous budget woes, Moody’s Investors Service said Friday.
The warning follows a similar one from Standard & Poor’s, which put the state on a negative credit watch earlier this week because of its dismal financial condition.
“If the legislature does not take action quickly, the state’s cash situation will deteriorate to the point where the controller will have to delay most nonpriority payments in July,” Moody’s said in a statement. “Lack of action could result in a multinotch downgrade.”
cr i changed old url for new one havent had any problems. or if i do havent notice them using ie8
Dream on..
Discover CEO Says Card Reform Raises Fees, Cuts Perks (Update2)
Bloomberg.com
By Peter Eichenbaum
June 19 (Bloomberg) -- Discover Financial Services Chief Executive Officer David Nelms said new U.S. safeguards for credit-card holders will mean higher interest rates, more fees and fewer loans industrywide.
“There are many consumers that actually will not benefit,” Nelms, 48, said yesterday in an interview after Riverwoods, Illinois-based Discover reported second-quarter results. “Some of the unintended consequences are going to be difficult for customers.”
So they admitting that they were running a fraud?
Broker Fiduciary Plan Favors Investors, Roper Says (Update3)
Bloomberg.com
By Alexis Leondis and Elizabeth Hester
June 19 (Bloomberg) -- President Barack Obama’s proposal to require brokers recommending investments to put clients’ interests ahead of their firm’s is long overdue, according to Barbara Roper, a consumer advocate.
The proposal aims to help individual investors who are “confused” about the obligations of broker-dealers, according to the administration’s plan for financial regulatory overhaul released June 17. Brokers currently must meet a legal “suitability standard” while most investment advisers and financial planners have a fiduciary duty to their clients.
Failure to disclose a material event on a timely basis. Opens the door wide to insider trading.
It is a crime only if your caught.. or black.
Otherwise, the victim gets a "the world is not fair" speech.
//Failure to disclose a material event on a timely basis. Opens the door wide to insider trading.//
FWIW, I'm running Safari 4.x and I get the redirect page....
I predict a v-shaped recovery for CR's site traffic. This is the only v-shaped recovery I see.
In other news, I'm escaping from the desert! RhodesianGreenback is headed to Washington, DC.
The apartment market there is tight as a drum (granted I was looking only at places near Metro stops). My rent is doubling and a lot of the places that allowed dogs were almost maxed to full occupancy. Ouch!
Interesting analogy
Chancellor Merkel Sees German Economy Near Bottom, AP Reports
Chancellor Merkel Sees German Economy Near Bottom, AP Reports - Bloomberg.com
By Chris Reiter
June 20 (Bloomberg) -- Chancellor Angela Merkel said the slumping German economy has nearly hit bottom and will unlikely recover quickly, the AP reported, citing a speech she made in Berlin.
The chart of the German economy may look more like a “bathtub” than a “V” as output stagnates before recovering, she said, according to the news agency. “I hope it is a children’s bathtub and not a bathtub for people with particularly long legs,” Merkel is quoted as saying by the AP.
You dirty little economy. You need a bath.
The V looks like a bath tub. Great visual.
I thnk it looks more like my spa. Down to the seating area, then to the bottom. Then slowly across the floor to a long climb up to the seating level. Not enough energy to climb back to what most people think is out of the tub.
I think of Nolan Bushnell every time Jobs is mentioned.
Jobs used to work for Bushnell at Atari when they were located in the old Amphenol plant on Winchester Blvd in Los Gatos.
Bushnell saw himself as a real ladies man.
Another trip down memory lane.
CR- I didnt know the custom URL was paid. in that case, yea google better get with it.
She is talking about a wide U shaped recession..
//The V looks like a bath tub. Great visual.//
The people that can read it here aren't having the problem!
CR, even under trying conditions, you remain the master of understatement.
Good one..
The Myth of Prevention: A doctor explains why it doesn’t pay to stay well.
A Doctor’s View of Obama’s Healthcare Plans - WSJ.com
By ABRAHAM VERGHESE
..But if your preventive strategy is medical, if it involves us, if it consists of screening, finding medical conditions early, shaking the bushes for high cholesterols, or abnormal EKGs, markers for prostate cancer such as PSA, then more often than not you don’t save anything and you might generate more medical costs. Prevention is a good thing to do, but why equate it with saving money when it won’t? Think about this: discovering high cholesterol in a person who is feeling well, is really just discovering a risk factor and not a disease; it predicts that you have a greater chance of having a heart attack than someone with a normal cholesterol. Now you can reduce the probability of a heart attack by swallowing a statin, and it will make good sense for you personally, especially if you have other risk factors (male sex, smoking etc).. But if you are treating a population, keep in mind that you may have to treat several hundred people to prevent one heart attack. Using a statin costs about $150,000 for every year of life it saves in men, and even more in women (since their heart-attack risk is lower)—I don’t see the savings there....
Chancellor Angela Merkel said the slumping German economy has nearly hit bottom and will unlikely recover quickly
Given the export oriented nature of the German economy, Merkel is likely to be correct.
At least some politic ans tell it like it is, instead of constantly worrying about the market reaction to their words.
Contrast this with Rubin's memoir "In an Uncertain World"
Rubin recalls a hearing at the U.S. Senate he and Summers attended:
When Senator Frank Murkowski asked me about the possibility of U.S. intervention to support the yen, I said that intervention was "a temporary tool, not a permanent solution." Weakness in Japan's currency, I said, reflected the underlying weakness in Japan's economy. In order to raise the value of the yen, the Japanese would have to address their fundamental economic problems.
That was all correct, but in focusing on Japan I mistakenly intervention in an intellectually serious way. Larry, who was sitting next to me, passed me a note that read, "Bob - Yen moved to 143.20 in last 15 minutes. I think we need more saber rattling." In other words, the foreign exchange markets were interpreting my remarks to suggest I had made the possibility of intervention to suppor tthe yen less likely
That's Summers' trademark politicking with the constant look back at the market reaction and pushing confidence in the "right" direction.
Will they still quote Ayn Rand and blame poor people for being lazy?
Madoff Victims Can Get Medicare Premium Relief
Madoff Victims Can Get Medicare Relief - WSJ.com
By KELLY GREENE
My husband and I invested the bulk of our savings with Bernard Madoff for more than 20 years. Because of my [previously] healthy income in retirement, I paid the maximum amount for Medicare Part B benefits. Now that my income has been wiped out, I have tried to get that amount reduced. Medicare and Social Security say that they won't consider any adjustment until, at the earliest, 2010. I must continue paying at the same rate even though I have no income. Is there any help or advice you can offer?
—Helen Greiff, Tamarac, Fla.
You're in luck. As of June 9, Medicare beneficiaries who are alleged victims of Bernard Madoff's Ponzi fraud may be able to get their Part B premiums reduced, according to Mark Lassiter, a spokesman for the Social Security Administration in Baltimore.
Just a thought: Why not put up a permanent redirect on the Blogger site?
Then once someone hits it, they will get redirected and their browser will remember the new address.
Also might want to switch to a real hosting company. Google only does hosting as an incidental side-effect of their search advertising business.
If the traffic is not more than a couple of mb/sec, it would not be that expensive.
The blogger problem is playing hell with caching proxies.
Juvenal..
//The blogger problem is playing hell with caching proxies.//
Failure to disclose a material event on a timely basis. Opens the door wide to insider trading.
Would be covered under his medical leave of absence, so not material because of the prior point and that he techinically isn't working for the company.
Cut n paste on iPhone rocks, but not auto correct.
Now that we're seeing the Iranian government being overthrown by Twitter, the architects of the budding new dictatorship here in the US are starting to take the threat the Internet poses seriously and are acting preemptively to do something about it.
Tehran is not Iran.
Show me the twitters of the Azeri regions flooding the streets with protestors and we'll talk.
Large scale printing and the 18th century revolutions. Basically every new form of communication has caused or aided a series of revolutions..
//ow that we're seeing the Iranian government being overthrown by Twitter, the architects of the budding new dictatorship here in the US are starting to take the threat the Internet poses seriously and are acting preemptively to do something about it.//
The chart of the German economy may look more like a “bathtub” than a “V” as output stagnates before recovering, she said, according to the news agency.
Massive debt binge piled on top of a stagnant economy simply means that at the end of that bathtub there's a big old drain that leads straight into the sewer.
I am not sure about that..
They have a young majority that lives in the present, and an older minority which lives in the past.
This is intergenerational warfare.
//Tehran is not Iran.//
BTW, I just saw this quote from Obama over on ZeroHedge. If he really means it and isn't just saying it, then maybe there's some hope for him afterall:
"The Iranian government must understand that the world is watching. We mourn each and every innocent life that is lost. We call on the Iranian government to stop all violent and unjust actions against its own people. The universal rights to assembly and free speech must be respected, and the United States stands with all who seek to exercise those rights.
As I said in Cairo, suppressing ideas never succeeds in making them go away. The Iranian people will ultimately judge the actions of their own government. If the Iranian government seeks the respect of the international community, it must respect the dignity of its own people and govern through consent, not coercion.
Martin Luther King once said - “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” I believe that. The international community believes that. And right now, we are bearing witness to the Iranian peoples’ belief in that truth, and we will continue to bear witness."
The blogger "team" is notoriously unresponsive. I've been having a problem with posts disappearing on reload in FF and Chrome, but not in IE. No reply or acknowledgment in over a week.
Since the service is free, I guess you get what you pay for.
In the past, entire blogs have been deleted by "accident."
I switched to Wordpress a couple of months ago. It seems pretty clear that the blogging tool is low priority for Google.
Question for rich:
is the commodity rise secular, or just the latest bubble?
China is replentishing stocks, free money had to go somewhere, yet commodity currencies are nowhere near last years highs. Still demand destruction environment, pricing pressure for produce is soley based on weather producing shortfalls.
"The universal rights to assembly and free speech must be respected, and the United States stands with all who seek to exercise those rights."
It applies everywhere, not just in Iran, no?
It applies everywhere, not just in Iran, no?
Is it our right to dictate culture to the world?
Somebody needs to start a fee-based plan.
I switched to Wordpress a couple of months ago.
I honestly wish they would start charging, just so they could support it better. Even gmail would be better if they charged a nominal sum but gave service/data availability guarantees. Google could flip a switch tomorrow and all our data would be gone.
We rely on free services way too much.
I switched to Wordpress a couple of months ago.
I'm also on Wordpress, and have had very few issues.
I think what Hillary said about Obama during the primaries is probably true. "he makes good speeches". I don't believe a single thing that comes out of his mouth. He combines the worst double speak of a lawyer and politician. I can imagine him singing " anything Bill can do I can do better" and that applies to the "slick Willie" title. I say this not as some rabid Republican yahoo but as former Obama supporter- voted for , campaigned for and donated to him.
Why does he not come out and say the obvious.. that this cannot go on and he has no clue about replacing the current scam masquerading as a system.
Retirees may well worry about health-care reform: Retirement health-care costs are steep -- are you prepared?
Retirees may well worry about health reform - MarketWatch
By Robert Powell, MarketWatch
BOSTON (MarketWatch) -- If things weren't bleak before, they certainly are now. Men and women retiring today will need truckloads of money to pay for health-care expenses over the course of their retirement, according to a new study.
And that was the case long before we learned that President Barack Obama plans to cut $313 billion in Medicare and Medicaid spending and reform this nation's health-care system. It's anybody's guess what retirees might need if those reform plans become a reality.
For the time being, at least, the reality is this: Men retiring at age 65 in 2009 will need from $68,000 to $173,000 in savings to cover health-insurance premiums and out-of-pocket expenses in retirement if they want a 50/50 chance of being able to have enough money, and $134,000 to $378,000 if they prefer a 90% chance, according to a study published last week by the Employee Benefits Research Institute.
"Google could flip a switch tomorrow and all our data would be gone."
I have never understood why people would use a free email service. The early ones were really horrible service-wise (Hotmail) Gmail scans all of your mail for their marketing databases. Yahoo and other insert advertising into your mail.
I hesitate to send anything important to a gmail address, knowing that the mail will be scanned (by what is an advertising company) in transit.
Worst of all, you do not own your email address unless you own the domain that it is part of.
It reminds me of the old mortgage sales line: "People are Smart".
Not.
It applies everywhere, not just in Iran, no?
"Is it our right to dictate culture to the world?"
I think you might have misunderstood what I said about free speech applying everywhere. Free speech is a universal good, I believe, no matter what the culture. OTOH, political systems will defend themselves when they perceive themselves to be in danger. We understand that.
In our own context, God bless the First Amendment.
I think the law in DC and other jurisdictions is a good model: Verbal assault, that is, threatening speech, is in law the same as physical assault. Otherwise, speech should not be constrained by law.
I think you might have misunderstood what I said about free speech
Do we have a right to replace all the world's cultures with "American" culture?
Is so, do we want to spend our time and resources on that?
Hmm.. Free mail services are popular because most "paid" services are even more unreliable and flaky.
Short of running your own webserver with multiple backups, the free ones are more reliable than many "paid" ones.
PS- You can always save important e-mails or entire accounts to your own hard and flash drives.
It takes me a few minutes to copy the entire text content of gmail accounts to my hard drive.
//I have never understood why people would use a free email service. The early ones were really horrible service-wise (Hotmail) Gmail scans all of your mail for their marketing databases. Yahoo and other insert advertising into your mail.//
govern through consent, not coercion
Tell that to people that got shafted in the Chrysler BK.
Blogger sites almost invariably have Google Adsense ads sprinkled throughout them. Google very much has an interest in keeping the blog sites active.
It is almost comical to see the west do exactly what it frowns upon.. What does the UK make.. anyway?
Mired in recession, Hungary looks for a way out: Burdened by debt, Hungary has received aid, but may need more
Mired in recession, Hungary looks for a way out - MarketWatch
By Polya Lesova, MarketWatch
BUDAPEST (MarketWatch) -- It was a busy night at the trendy restaurant Menza. The youthful and the hip sipped cocktails and savored paprika-infused goulash. Those at the outside tables enjoyed a view of Franz Liszt Square, surrounded by restaurants and bars similarly packed with carefree revelers.
On the surface, it looked like a weekend evening in any European city, but the fun-filled atmosphere that night was in sharp contrast to the country's economic plight.
Hungary, home to one of Eastern Europe's smallest and most open economies, is suffering through a deep recession and political upheaval brought about by excessive borrowing and unsustainable government spending. After years of living large, it is time for Hungary to pay the tab.
Hungary has been hurt by a fall in demand for its exports, which include cars, machinery and equipment. Its largest trading partner, Germany, is also mired in recession. But even before the global crisis, too much borrowing in both the public and private sectors had put Hungary in a vulnerable position. To make matters worse, many individuals and companies took out loans denominated in foreign currencies, so when the domestic unit, the forint, depreciated sharply, those borrowers were hit hard.
Bless their benevolent souls..
Drugmakers May Help Elderly Pay ‘Doughnut Hole’ Cost for Medicines
Obama Health Plan Gets Booster With Drugmaker Pledge (Update1) - Bloomberg.com
By Edwin Chen and Lisa Rapaport
June 20 (Bloomberg) -- Drugmakers may spend as much as $40 billion to help the elderly afford medicines and provide lawmakers a way to cut the cost of their proposed health-care overhaul under a deal with the Obama administration, a person involved in the discussions said.
Is it our right to dictate culture to the world?
If we don't stand up for free speech, equal rights, and secular government, who will? As far as the consumer culture that goes along with it, well, there you may have a point.
Drug Companies. White House Reach $80B Prescription Drug Deal
WASHINGTON — The pharmaceutical industry agreed Saturday to spend $80 billion over the next decade improving drug benefits for seniors on Medicare and defraying the cost of President Barack Obama's health care legislation, capping secretive negotiations with the White House and key lawmakers.
......
"While none of the changes in the prescription drug program would directly lower government costs, the industry also agreed to additional measures that would give the Treasury more money under federal health programs. In particular, officials said drug companies would likely wind up paying pay higher rebates for certain drugs under Medicaid, the program that provides health care for the poor.
Those funds would be used to help pay for legislation expanding health insurance for millions who now lack it.
One official said the deal was agreed to late Friday night when Billy Tauzin, head of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), called Baucus."
~~~~~
The Public wasn't even told about this happy horseshit ....
And look who is involved, Billy Taauzin, The House Rep who threatened the SEC with cutting off funds !
This problem has been on-going for 5 days now. I'm sorry but Google is the largest tech company in the world...a simple redirection problem would not stump their teams of expert technicians for nearly this long. This is either a hacking attack, or for whatever reason, it is intentional.
Now that we're seeing the Iranian government being overthrown by Twitter, the architects of the budding new dictatorship here in the US are starting to take the threat the Internet poses seriously and are acting preemptively to do something about it.
AC - I would have said to take off your tinfoil hat 5 years ago. However, you may easily be onto something. You tube, Twitter and Facebook, and the good ole cell phone camera is changing how governments can and can't control the propaganda flow.
Google should have had this fixed.
Paranoid? I think not.
Also, I was using Firefox and got the redirect. I gave up on IE a few years ago. Just use the cleanup tool or AdAware to see the difference in the trash that comes in on IE. Try Firefox or another option and see of you like the difference.
I am going to be changing over to Mac shortly.