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Obama Policies Will Bankrupt USA Tsarkon Reports

Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek, whose country currently holds the EU presidency, told the European Parliament that President Barack Obama's massive stimulus package and banking bailout "will undermine the stability of the global financial market." Calls Us policy a "way to hell"

Yuan Forwards Show China May Buy Fewer Treasuries, UBS Says
Anemic Treasury auction effects felt beyond bonds
The Sherminator Kicks Some Wall Street Ass

China Angry That Fed Is Deliberately Destroying The Dollar

China suggests switch from dollar as reserve currency

What are the reserve currencies?

Anatomy of a taxpayer giveaway to investors

Geithner rescue package 'robbery of the American people'

Geithner just put only the rich in Titanics lifeboats

Geithner Plan Will Rob US Taxpayers

A False Choice

Bargain-hunting house buyers wearing on sellers ajc.com

Time to Take the Steering Wheel out of Geithner's Hands

Socialising and Privatising

Fannie, Freddie to pay out bonuses

Fitch Raises Prime Jumbo Loan Loss Estimates Sharply

Chinas central bank on Monday proposed replacing the US dollar as the international reserve currency with a new global system controlled by the International Monetary Fund

- Russia too: It is necessary to work out and adopt internationally recognized standards for macroeconomic and budget policy, which are binding for the leading world economies, including the countries issuing reserve currencies - the Kremlin proposals read.

- President Barak "The Teleprompter" Obama is deeply connected to corruption, Rahm Emanuel (Radical authoritarian Statist whose father was part of the Murderous Civilian Killing Israeli Terrorist Organization known as IRGUN), Connected to Rod Blagojevich (Rahm inherited Rod's federal-congress seat), Connected to Ayers, a man who promotes the concept that civilian collateral damage is ok in a war against freedom, Preacher Jeremiah Wright, who is himself a black-elitist who wants all the people who largely "pay the freight" to suffer, 31 million on food stamps, more blacks are in prison and on food-stamps per capita than anyone else. The problem with Wright is simply this: the facts are "racist."
- Obama: Racist, AIPAC-bootlicker, Corrupted to the bone Chicago style and a Traitor to t

Obama Policies Will Bankrupt USA Tsarkon Reports

Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek, whose country currently holds the EU presidency, told the European Parliament that President Barack Obama's massive stimulus package and banking bailout "will undermine the stability of the global financial market." Calls Us policy a "way to hell"

Yuan Forwards Show China May Buy Fewer Treasuries, UBS Says
Anemic Treasury auction effects felt beyond bonds
The Sherminator Kicks Some Wall Street Ass

China Angry That Fed Is Deliberately Destroying The Dollar

China suggests switch from dollar as reserve currency

What are the reserve currencies?

Anatomy of a taxpayer giveaway to investors

Geithner rescue package 'robbery of the American people'

Geithner just put only the rich in Titanics lifeboats

Geithner Plan Will Rob US Taxpayers

A False Choice

Bargain-hunting house buyers wearing on sellers ajc.com

Time to Take the Steering Wheel out of Geithner's Hands

Socialising and Privatising

Fannie, Freddie to pay out bonuses

Fitch Raises Prime Jumbo Loan Loss Estimates Sharply

Chinas central bank on Monday proposed replacing the US dollar as the international reserve currency with a new global system controlled by the International Monetary Fund

- Russia too: It is necessary to work out and adopt internationally recognized standards for macroeconomic and budget policy, which are binding for the leading world economies, including the countries issuing reserve currencies - the Kremlin proposals read.

- President Barak "The Teleprompter" Obama is deeply connected to corruption, Rahm Emanuel (Radical authoritarian Statist whose father was part of the Murderous Civilian Killing Israeli Terrorist Organization known as IRGUN), Connected to Rod Blagojevich (Rahm inherited Rod's federal-congress seat), Connected to Ayers, a man who promotes the concept that civilian collateral damage is ok in a war against freedom, Preacher Jeremiah Wright, who is himself a black-elitist who wants all the people who largely "pay the freight" to suffer, 31 million on food stamps, more blacks are in prison and on food-stamps per capita than anyone else. The problem with Wright is simply this: the facts are "racist."
- Obama: Racist, AIPAC-bootlicker, Corrupted to the bone Chicago style and a Traitor to t

Obama Policies Will Bankrupt USA Tsarkon Reports

Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek, whose country currently holds the EU presidency, told the European Parliament that President Barack Obama's massive stimulus package and banking bailout "will undermine the stability of the global financial market." Calls Us policy a "way to hell"

Yuan Forwards Show China May Buy Fewer Treasuries, UBS Says
Anemic Treasury auction effects felt beyond bonds
The Sherminator Kicks Some Wall Street Ass

China Angry That Fed Is Deliberately Destroying The Dollar

China suggests switch from dollar as reserve currency

What are the reserve currencies?

Anatomy of a taxpayer giveaway to investors

Geithner rescue package 'robbery of the American people'

Geithner just put only the rich in Titanics lifeboats

Geithner Plan Will Rob US Taxpayers

A False Choice

Bargain-hunting house buyers wearing on sellers ajc.com

Time to Take the Steering Wheel out of Geithner's Hands

Socialising and Privatising

Fannie, Freddie to pay out bonuses

Fitch Raises Prime Jumbo Loan Loss Estimates Sharply

Chinas central bank on Monday proposed replacing the US dollar as the international reserve currency with a new global system controlled by the International Monetary Fund

- Russia too: It is necessary to work out and adopt internationally recognized standards for macroeconomic and budget policy, which are binding for the leading world economies, including the countries issuing reserve currencies - the Kremlin proposals read.

- President Barak "The Teleprompter" Obama is deeply connected to corruption, Rahm Emanuel (Radical authoritarian Statist whose father was part of the Murderous Civilian Killing Israeli Terrorist Organization known as IRGUN), Connected to Rod Blagojevich (Rahm inherited Rod's federal-congress seat), Connected to Ayers, a man who promotes the concept that civilian collateral damage is ok in a war against freedom, Preacher Jeremiah Wright, who is himself a black-elitist who wants all the people who largely "pay the freight" to suffer, 31 million on food stamps, more blacks are in prison and on food-stamps per capita than anyone else. The problem with Wright is simply this: the facts are "racist."
- Obama: Racist, AIPAC-bootlicker, Corrupted to the bone Chicago style and a Traitor to t

Obama Policies Will Bankrupt USA Tsarkon Reports

Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek, whose country currently holds the EU presidency, told the European Parliament that President Barack Obama's massive stimulus package and banking bailout "will undermine the stability of the global financial market." Calls Us policy a "way to hell"

Yuan Forwards Show China May Buy Fewer Treasuries, UBS Says
Anemic Treasury auction effects felt beyond bonds
The Sherminator Kicks Some Wall Street Ass

China Angry That Fed Is Deliberately Destroying The Dollar

China suggests switch from dollar as reserve currency

What are the reserve currencies?

Anatomy of a taxpayer giveaway to investors

Geithner rescue package 'robbery of the American people'

Geithner just put only the rich in Titanics lifeboats

Geithner Plan Will Rob US Taxpayers

A False Choice

Bargain-hunting house buyers wearing on sellers ajc.com

Time to Take the Steering Wheel out of Geithner's Hands

Socialising and Privatising

Fannie, Freddie to pay out bonuses

Fitch Raises Prime Jumbo Loan Loss Estimates Sharply

Chinas central bank on Monday proposed replacing the US dollar as the international reserve currency with a new global system controlled by the International Monetary Fund

- Russia too: It is necessary to work out and adopt internationally recognized standards for macroeconomic and budget policy, which are binding for the leading world economies, including the countries issuing reserve currencies - the Kremlin proposals read.

- President Barak "The Teleprompter" Obama is deeply connected to corruption, Rahm Emanuel (Radical authoritarian Statist whose father was part of the Murderous Civilian Killing Israeli Terrorist Organization known as IRGUN), Connected to Rod Blagojevich (Rahm inherited Rod's federal-congress seat), Connected to Ayers, a man who promotes the concept that civilian collateral damage is ok in a war against freedom, Preacher Jeremiah Wright, who is himself a black-elitist who wants all the people who largely "pay the freight" to suffer, 31 million on food stamps, more blacks are in prison and on food-stamps per capita than anyone else. The problem with Wright is simply this: the facts are "racist."
- Obama: Racist, AIPAC-bootlicker, Corrupted to the bone Chicago style and a Traitor to t

One word to disprove your post: Sumo

Not quite:

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=aTcgvBD7ty.0&refer=home

One sumo wrestler found another way to melt off the pounds. Konishiki, whom fans call ``the Dump Truck'' and who was the all- time heaviest competitor at more than 600 pounds, underwent gastric bypass surgery last month.

There at least some public debate about the 700 billion.

How about the 9.7 trillion? 9.7 trillion is a lot bigger than 700 billion.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&refer=home&sid=aGq2B3XeGKok

Only the stimulus bill to be approved this week, the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program passed four months ago and $168 billion in tax cuts and rebates enacted in 2008 have been voted on by lawmakers. The remaining $8 trillion is in lending programs and guarantees, almost all under the Fed and FDIC. Recipients' names have not been disclosed.

Here everyone, look at the wookie's little friend. Oh you'd rather look at the wookie? That's OK too!

What to do with the waste?

Let's send the nuclear waste to the White House since the current occupant closed the (other) waste storage facility.

"IBM Offers To Move Laid Off Workers To India" and "Everyone in Indian cities is at risk of consuming human feces, if they're not already, the Ministry of Urban Development concluded in September.

In fact, I'm going to contact my Congressmen today to recommend this stipulation. Please do the same if you love America.

Once again, if those who filed frivolous lawsuits were forced to pay if they lost, medical costs would plummet. Socialized medicine is a failure when it comes to standards of care as well as quality of care, go look at the medical review board in Britain and how it does cost benefit analysis on every procedure to setup guidelines.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601039&refer=columnist_mccaughey&sid=aLzfDxfbwhzs

In 2006, a U.K. health board decreed that elderly patients with macular degeneration had to wait until they went blind in one eye before they could get a costly new drug to save the other eye.

GO GO SOCIALIZED MEDICINE!

They just hired legal advice for bankruptcy filings. Not exactly the hallmark of a healthy business, despite any transitory profit growth recently.

Blockbuster Said to Hire Firm for Bankruptcy Advice

What we need to do is build a bridge between the two camps.

Which is now dead---or at least in a persistent vegetative state.

</irony>

Of course, the reason we don't have big countries constantly harassing us, or pushing their harassment further to actual military violance certainly has nothing to do with the deterent effect of our nuclear arsenal. I'm sure if we simply decomissioned our weapons, the Chinese and Russians would do the same, and we could all go somewhere and hold hands together. And we should -- after all, we haven't had to use our weapons in years, and the current global climate says we don't today, so why hold that threat over tomorrow?

because the oceans wont protect us from an impending calamity were it to strike earth

More like "because we've already turned them into a huge sewer."

There's 10 million square miles of trash just in the Pacific.

The first thing to consider is is Google a monopoly?
Both the Computerworld article and Bloomberg's mention Google's online advertizing but neither says that both Microsoft and Yahoo! also has online advertizing. According to CNN Google's market share in online advertising is 75%, MS's is 5%, and Yahoo's is 20%.

Next they both talk about Google being in cloud computing, however they don't say Google faces competition there too, from Amazon, IBM, Microsoft, Salesforce, and other businesses.

The third to consider, actually it should be the first, is is being a monopoly illegal? And the answer is no. What is illegal is using a monopoly position to stifle competition in another business. And Google hasn't even been accused of that.

Falcon

However, thinking that they need antitrust actions seems just foolish to me. Sure, they may be a monopoly, but they have yet to actually abuse this monopoly.

Um yeah, but I don't see where she actually said that anti-trust is required now.

BTW, here's a link to the original bloomberg article that this blog entry quotes from.

She says she thinks Google acquired their monopoly legally, but is concerned about what happens when cloud computing takes off. Okay, she uses an unqualified future tense when she says "there will be companies that will begin to allege that Google is discriminating", but that still sounds more like a prediction to me than a promise of action. If that happens, anti-trust investigation may in fact be warranted, and I see no indication that she's saying she would pursue anti-trust against Google anyway if it doesn't.

Seriously, what's the issue with having an anti-trust chief who is aware of and intends to keep an eye on potential future problems? If regulators had been keeping a closer eye on Microsoft, then maybe U.S. vs Microsoft would have happened early enough to actually make a difference.

Oh, my bad. Since there exists a company that got a loan, apparently the financial sector is rolling along smoothly. Silly me.

My father is the CEO of one of the US's largest oil refiners. My uncle is a VP of Rolls Royce. I've listened to both talk on end about what a nightmare it is trying to secure the large amounts of capital financing they need to survive in this current environment. Of course, simple lending statistics could have told you as much. One of my favorite stats is the near complete obliteration of the Baltic Dry Index. Companies have been leaving goods rotting on the docks because they haven't been able to get the loans to ship them. It's not just business financing that's in a miserable state; a good chunk of the collapse of the car market, just to pick a random example is due to how much harder it is to get financing these days. Just to make the scale of the car market collapse, here's just part of England's share. Start panning.

"I can't overstate (blank)" is such a cliche, but in the case of the severity of our current economic crisis, it really is a challenge to do so.

Although commodities are *priced* in USD, their trade does not *only* involve USD. What you're saying would be true if USD were the *only* currency in the world.

The world is *not* Zimbabwe, because all the central banks in the world are NOT inflating their currencies at the printing press.

For you analogy to be comparable:

the *U.S.* is Zimbabwe,
the Fed is Mugabe,
U.S. citizens are "the rest of Zimbabwe",
the rest of the world is the rest of the world.

You're rational, but it's clear that there is some kind of misunderstanding of how international trade and finance operate.

- Devaluation of USD is *not* fine because although they are *priced* in USD they are produced and sold by foreigners who want to be paid in their *own currency*. This means the Japanese take the USD they received on the sale of their cars and Nintendo Wii's and sell them to take home Yen. The Koreans take the USD they received on the sale of their cell phones and LCD tv's and sell them to take home Won. The Vietnamese sell the USD they receive from the sale of their rice to take home Dong.

Although commodities are *priced* in USD, the trade ends with somebody selling their USD for their own native currency.

- World currencies do not inflate when USD inflates. Inflation of a currency is *directly* caused by the over-supply of that *particular* currency. If the USD inflates by the printing press, Thailand's Baht will rise in relation to USD, because the supply of Baht will be lower than USD on a relative scale.

- The world is not like Zimbabwe, because supply of world currencies are not being inflated by the printing press, as is being planned in the U.S. at the moment.

For a comprehensive peek at what China is actually thinking and saying *right now*:

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601080&sid=a_dsDz145J_A&refer=asia

Pay special attention to the second half of the article.

Also, google "fiscal policy", "monetary policy", and "bond pricing"... and learn how a bond's fair market value changes with interest rate increases and decreases.

For an even better source, one that clearly outlines and explains the links between currencies, government debt, international trade, government bonds, the Fed, interest rates, and commodity prices... buy a used copy of the Economics portion of the CFA Level 1 series of texts (no older than 2007) off ebay or craigslist. I think a guy like you will absorb the material in no time flat and gain a new level of understanding of how international trade and finance operates.

How about this, http://www.fdrlibrary.marist.edu/unempl71.html.

At the height of the Depression in 1933, 24.9% of the total work force or 11,385,000 people, were unemployed. Although farmers themselves technically were not unemployed, drastic drops in farm commodity prices resulted in farmers losing their lands and homes to foreclosure.

My math may be off, but I believe that 1982 occurred between now and the 1930's. According to Bloomberg, that recession was worse than this recession.

The economy will shrink at a 3.5 percent annual rate in the fourth quarter and at a 2 percent pace in the first quarter of 2009, nearly twice prior estimates, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. economists led by Jan Hatzius wrote yesterday in a note. That would be the biggest back-to-back contraction since 1982.

Only drama-queen democrats are insisting that this is the worst recession we've had since the 30's.

Your sources are diverse and correct! Everyone knows Open standards for medical documents is a one way road to Socialism. Just ask anyone on slashdot what open standards does to a buisiness! It's evil, don't touch it! You don't have to read deep into Torvaldis' Das Penguinal to see that communism follows.

Sarcasm isn't really a rebuttal. But then you knew that, right?

You could try reading Betsy McCaughey's op-ed about the piece, or better yet, go read the actual bill in question yourself. And note that that web site is GPO (Government Printing Office), not GOP - I'm sure some dyslexic will misread it and accuse me of being a shill for the Republicans.

Point of fact: nowhere in the bill is an "open" standard for medical records referenced or called for.

Point of fact: In this bill, the government is appointing itself as the entity to ensure that everybody (yes, everybody - there don't appear to be any provisions for people who wish to opt out) has electronic medical records by 2014. The government has also tasked this bureaucracy with developing infrastructure to facilitate the exchange of those medical records.

When any agency (government or private) nominates itself as the caretaker of extensive private information about you, it's wise to have privacy concerns. I don't mean tin-foil hat conspiracy theories, I mean, there should be full & accurate disclosure as to what privacy controls are in place, so that the public can understand & offer feedback on the proposal.

The GP's last 2 sentences are actually spot-on. An economic stimulus bill is NOT the place for a tacked-on afterthought which creates a sweeping change to the country's medical landscape. There are legitimate privacy questions & concerns in the creation of electronic medical records, and to just stuff them into this bill stifles open & constructive debate on exactly what safeguards should be put in place.

Slashdot readers fumed over the PATRIOT act's potential for violating their privacy; this provision could have equally far-reaching impact on your private, personal medical records. So bottom line, I'm asking you to answer this one question:

WHY is the fact that the government wants to take full or partial control of your medical records NOT a cause for concern for you?

Please answer in a complete sentence that doesn't begin with either of these two phrases:
1) "Because President Obama says..."
2) "Well it's not like it's President Bush..."

Nice timing, considering just yesterday Coca-Cola announced that they are dropping the label "classic".

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=aqSV_EEN_hrk&refer=us

Quick question - why am *I*, as a taxpayer, paying for this?

Because you forgot option F: Through no fault of their own, a homeowner is now hosed by the economy falling on its face. Home prices don't exist in a vacuum; the fact that Person A might be able to make their mortgage doesn't mean their home magically retains its value and only Person B, who can't make the mortgage, suffers from their bad decisions. Nor, frankly, does it mean the home was overpriced to begin with. Given the housing bubble it probably was, but inflation and deflation happen all the time.

It isn't an abstract problem, and it isn't a problem you can shuffle away under the rug. 20% of homeowners now owe more money than their home is worth, and that number will only keep rising as the economy keeps tanking. These people are instantly in debt, and their only way out is to hope to hell they can tread water long enough that their home value rises, then they can cut and run. No matter how good their credit, these people suddenly have no credit because they owe too much money, and the banks are scared out of their minds to lend it anyway.

Why are you footing the bill? Because it will cost you far more to have empty homes start popping up in your neighborhoods than it will to help these people out. Because every person treading that water (or failing to tread it any longer) means one more person who has no money to spend, which means one more item goes unsold, one more company goes under, hundreds more people unemployed. Which means more people treading water, who can't spend, who can't buy.

Aside from it being the right thing to do, do you really want to wait and declare they deserve what they get, all the while hoping you don't get hit yourself? Do you think your circumstances are immune? Don't you think they did too?

"When your neighbor's house is on fire, you don't haggle over the price of the hose." There's plenty to discuss about what went wrong and how to prevent it from happening again, and more than enough blame to go around -- but now's not the time. Let's put out the fire first and worry about our water bill later.

Obama is blocking almost every policy matter still pending from Bush. This is just one of many issues being blocked until the Obama administration can get caught up and take an official stance on it. He may well "side with Bush", but he hasn't really done so yet.

RTFA: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=af4Bdn_Wfx7g&refer=home :

"A patient getting a liver transplant for a neuroendocrine tumor that has spread from the pancreas might get a partial organ, Brower said. Complete organs that come from cadavers are in short supply, and are generally reserved for patients with liver failure, cirrhosis or certain kinds of liver cancer, he said."

Cancer - that's actively spreading to the liver - seems to be a very active kind of cancer doncha think? You know what also causes cirrhosis? Chemo. Granted that's speculation - just in the same way I'd speculate a large splat on the ground with human remains next to a tall building was probably the result of someone falling out of the building. But that'd just be speculation. Here's some speculation - why doesn't Apple and Jobs STFU with the memos and let his private life be private? Oh right - the stock might be affected like that splat mark. Better get another memo ready that reads as accurately as one from the Soviets denying health problems for Andropov, Brezhnev and Chernenko aka: the ABC's of dead Russian leaders.

Hey I know - call Gawker liars again - that's always fun. PR apologists need more fun in their lives. Go nuts.

Corrected link from Bloomberg.com home page :

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=agNhSm8SjcbM&refer=home

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aDL78iMCdOzk
I for one, would like Apple to go down together with Steve Jobs just to prove a DRM-and-FOSS related point with one of my former classmates.

Here: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=af4Bdn_Wfx7g&refer=home

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aDL78iMCdOzk

(its a question mark, not a quote mark...)

copy the url, look at it, does it look 'right' to you? ;) usually its a question mark as the first delim char before the parms.

I am a junior doctor and an old time contributor to Slashdot. I want to comment on this press release but I'm not interested in any trouble my guesswork may cause me.

Steve Jobs had pancreaticoduodenectomy (Whipple's Procedure) for pancreatic neuroendocrine cancer a while ago. His press release is very cryptic and makes little sense because he's using the layman's definition of terms he's using instead of precise medical terms. I'll do my best to decipher it.

First of all, Jobs is losing weight. Is this malnutrition or cancer-related cachexia? The former simply has to do with the body not receiving enough nurishment. The latter is an inflammatory condition related to abnormalities in inflammatory cytokines. Both cause similar outward effects but the underlying processes are very different. If we are to believe the press release then Jobs doesn't have a resurgence of his cancer. A Bloomberg article today commented that "Neuroendocrine islet cell tumors can cause overproduction of either one, or other powerful hormones such as somatostatin or gastrin, which are involved in digestion." While this is true, we are assuming Jobs had his tumor completely reseted so this isn't very likely. Therefore he probably has some form of malnutrition (more on this later).

"Nutrition Management of the Cancer Patient" By Abby S. Bloch states on page 89:

"Surgical resection as a treatment modality for pancreatic cancer creates several nutrition challenges: malabsorption caused by inadequate or absent exocrine pancreatic secretions or obstruction of the common bile duct (or both), diabetes mellitus resulting from resection of endocrine pancreatic cells, and protein-calorie malnutrition, which develops secondary to malabsorption."

If we are to believe the press release, then chances are it could be any of these issues. The only issues that fall under a "nutritional problem [that] is relatively simple and straightforward" are or absent exocrine pancreatic secretions, diabetes mellitus, and protein-calorie malnutrition secondary to malabsorption.

There are several articles which discuss these issues both in chronic pancreatitis and in patients status-post pancreatic resection and intestinal bypass. The one curious omission in the press release is the onset of symptoms. Mr. Jobs sounds like he was surprised by his weight loss and his doctors were confused. In Pancreatic Exocrine Insufficiency patients often have statorrhea which is a white-colored and foul smelling fat rich stool. Did he not notice this or was this detail to vulgar for Apple's shareholders and fanbase? It's wholly possible that he didn't have statorrhea which could have caused his doctors to run more tests to check for the worst-case scenarios such as his cancer reappearing. I think its fairly safe to take Mr. Jobs at his word. If his symptoms don't change by Spring then we can revisit this topic.

Anyway, "Pancreatic Cancer" By Douglas Brian Evans, Peter W. T. Pisters, James L. Abbruzzese is a wonderful resource that spends a great deal of time discussing Whipple's Procedure and I would suggest reading Part III from pages 123 to 232. Another great research paper is: "Management of complications following pancreaticoduodenectomy" by CJ Yeo.

Lastly I'd like to say this is all guesswork without having Mr. Jobs' and his test results in front of me so I welcome other doctors, experts, and researchers to comment on this press release. We can all benefit by collaboration. Remember, chaos is the score upon which reality is written but collaboration can swiftly bring some order.

According to Heather Bellini, of UBS AB and the top-ranked software analyst by Institutional Investor magazine all five M$ divisions were behind expectations and most are losers.

every one of Microsoft's five divisions may miss the company's and analysts' sales forecasts. The world's biggest software maker won't be able to cut enough costs to meet profit goals

Things have only gotten worse, which is why Oppenheimer & Co's analyst Brad Reback advises 10% cuts and others as much as 17%. None of that can save Vista, Zune, IE and other failures.

--------

Muni Bond Sales Drying Up as States Face $42 Billion Shortfall ``The combination of the worst financial crisis since World War II and the collapse of the $330 billion auction-rate debt market will leave 41 states and the District of Columbia with shortfalls just as financing sources diminish.''

Now that many papers have an online presence they should have more, not less advertisers available. The customer/reader is accessing them via the internet the customer/reader can purchase goods via the internet as well. In the physical paper it makes less sense for a product sold online to be advertised, so that market is probably nil.

My local paper does advertise brick and mortar local shops on their website, meanwhile Amazon.com reports its best-ever holiday season. I see zero, non-local advertisements on my local papers website.

it doesn't matter if you've got insurance because its perfectly OK for your insurer to say "whoops, we cant actually cover that"...
As opposed to the FDIC?

The FDIC receives no Congressional appropriations - it is funded by premiums that banks and thrift institutions pay for deposit insurance coverage and from earnings on investments in U.S. Treasury securities. With an insurance fund totaling more than $45 billion, the FDIC insures more than $5 trillion of deposits in U.S. banks and thrifts - deposits in virtually every bank and thrift in the country.

So, FDIC insurance is wonderful, unless there's an actual bank crash. To put things in perspective, Wachovia had 420 billion in deposits. A bank run would make the FDIC fairly meaningless, very quickly.

I'd much prefer private insurance - they aren't very efficient, but at least they aren't government. They also tend to spread the risk around a bit more.

shhhh. You'll pop their bubble. Ooops. Too late.

the linked article includes links to Bloomberg noting that Microsoft is failing to make its numbers

One link to one Bloomberg article that says nothing of the sort.

Feel free to quote the part that does, if I've missed it.

Don't worry, I'm sure Congress will audit the Federal Reserve and we'll get to the bottom of this mess!

The Federal Reserve recently refused to disclose $2 trillion in loans requested by a FOIA request citing "trade secret" clauses.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=aGvwttDayiiM

In response to Bloomberg's request, the Fed said the U.S. is facing "an unprecedented crisis" in which "loss in confidence in and between financial institutions can occur with lightning speed and devastating effects."

In other words, we'll tell you when we're ready to finally destroy the economy!

No wonder Congressman David Scott said we've "been bamboozled!"

The real number of the bailout is actually $8.5 trillion (as of two weeks ago and is probably closer to $10 trillion now.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/object/article?f=/c/a/2008/11/26/MNVN14C8QR.DTL

What's wrong? Mostly that every week or so someone comes up with another article claiming cold fusion or gas made from dirty sweat socks or some such. The article seemed a bit thin to me so I did some googling and found an Edmunds article claiming the car would be out next year. But that article came out last year. See any cars around yet? Then I cam across this one that says the car won't be available around here until 2011. And then there's a Bloomberg article that claims that, "The government may subsidize hybrid cars to cut costs for consumers." So is the $22k price tag with or without the subsidy?

For comparison purposes, I've been following the saga of the Chevy Volt and I think the BYD offering falls into the too-good-to-be-true category. The best guess seems to be the Volt will cost around $35k to $40k, mostly because of the expensive lithium-ion batteries, and the all-electric range is about 40 miles. But the BYD says they're using the same batteries and selling around $22k with a 62 mile all-electric range. And while the Chinese model is allegedly "here" you and I won't get to see or touch one until at least 2011. Until I see better specs or more detailed plans I can't get excited about this.

Mind you, I think plug-in hybrids are the way to go, but cars like the Volt and Tesla never recover the extra cost of the vehicle in fuel savings. I suspect the answer is to ditch the fancy batteries and stick with cheap lead-acid packs and a limited all-electric range of about 20 miles for a basic two adult and two kid car. It still means that half the forty mile range will be all electric. The last piece of the puzzle will fall into place when parking spots (malls, office complexes, parking structures) offer recharging for a fee. How many people drive to work, then park for eight hours? Until then you're in a chicken-and-egg trade off. The rechargers won't be put in until people are buying plug-ins, but not many will buy plug-ins without the rechargers.

Ah, through the "wisdom" of the US Congress, the SSC (Superconducting Super Collider) was killed over a mere $12 Billion cost savings (which was well under construction just south of Dallas, TX). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superconducting_Super_Collider
Some say it was largely due to infighting with 'higher educational interests' back East and in the Chicago area, - but really the answer most likely due to nothing more than Greed and Money.

TO think that The US Federal Government will give taxpayer money to banks et al to the tune of $2 Trillion with NIL oversight and NIL public disclosure is extremely dangerous and shortsighted. ( http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20670001&refer=home&sid=aXNaCKxb.oIs )

We (in the US) could have had something MORE POWERFUL than the LHC here in the US. (As I try not to think about the high-energy physicist brain-drain to France/Switzerland)...
Once upon a time, the US took pride in having the best and coolest toys the world over... (/sigh)

Just to clarify my remark about printing money. You don't have to actually print money to create money.

Say I'm the Federal Reserve. All I need to do is just suddenly lend people USD 2 trillion, and voila 2 trillion is created.

Yes in theory they're supposed to pay it back, but the last I checked the Federal Reserve has been rather secretive about who got that 2 trillion, and what collateral they got for it ( http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aatlky_cH.tY&refer=worldwide ).

I don't see that drying stuff up. China et all are still buying US bonds, they're doing their part in helping to prop the whole thing up - I guess it's "Mutually Assured Financial Destruction" at the moment.

Another example:

Say I have just USD1.00. I buy something from you, and write an IOU that says I'll pay USD2.00 for it in 30 years time. You accept it.

I take the stuff I bought from you, "add value" and sell it for USD2.50.

You take that IOU and you sell it for USD1.10.

Voila, money is being created :).

Yet another example:

Say I am a bank only allowed to lend up to 50% of deposits. You deposit USD1.
I lend USD0.50 to someone.
Say that someone deposits USD0.25 later on.
I lend USD0.12 to someone else.
And so on... Add up the money circulating and it's more than before.

Then the Gov suddenly tells me I can lend more than 50% of deposits. Voila more money created :).

Halo 3 not on your system of choice? Tons of other FPSes available.

Not when Konami is using patents to sue its competitors out of existence. See Konami v. Roxor and Konami v. Viacom.

Sorry for the late reply, but here you go: Somali Pirates Thrive After U.S. Helped Oust Their Islamic Foes

Posted by Bloomberg on Dec 4. Guess /. scooped 'em this time. ;)

If you just put a pile of money out in the street, sure, nothing will change, but your analogies are just that. History and reality are better barometers of effective policy.

If the government employs people to improve infrastructure, it lowers the cost of doing business and benefits the whole economy, while evening out the down cycle when other businesses are cutting back. The biggest reasons western countries do well as economies are their workers and their infrastructure and their reliance on government technology and protectionism. While America unfortunately does not see the benefit of having a well educated populace, it does see the benefit of having a reliable power grid, sewage system, telecommunications network, etc. Some societies see single payer health care as part of infrastructure, which is the main reason it's cheaper to build a car in Canada than it is in Detroit.

(Here's an article that discusses two facts unknown to most Americans: our car companies employ more people in Ontario than Michigan, and they do it because of their more efficient health care system and the canadian dollar.)

In fact, the computer you're typing on and the internet it travels over are all due to government research. Do you imagine we would be less prosperous if China had been the ones who were licensing technology for us to manufacture instead of the other way around? Government is capable of doing good things, but not in the hands of those who attend to the needs of corporations instead of people.

Bloomberg is saying $7.7 trillion and $24,000 from every man, woman, and child in U.S.

But what's a few hundred billion here or there? Could be rounding errors or just the cost of doing business with the big boys>

Yup, Bloomberg also says $24,000 per man, woman, and child in U.S.

The money thatâ(TM)s been pledged is equivalent to $24,000 for every man, woman and child in the country. Itâ(TM)s nine times what the U.S. has spent so far on wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to Congressional Budget Office figures. It could pay off more than half the countryâ(TM)s mortgages.

âoeItâ(TM)s unprecedented,â said Bob Eisenbeis, chief monetary economist at Vineland, New Jersey-based Cumberland Advisors Inc. and an economist for the Atlanta Fed for 10 years until January. âoeThe backlash has begun already. Congress is taking a lot of hits from their constituents because they got snookered on the TARP big time. Thereâ(TM)s a lot of supposedly smart people who look to be totally incompetent and itâ(TM)s all going to fall on the taxpayer.â

A long-standing rule of thumb for "recession" is that it is defined as contraction in the GDP for at least two consecutive quarters (six months).

More info.

By that long-accepted definition of recession, the US is not even yet in a recession. The US GDP decreased for the first time in recent history only in the third (most recent) quarter, by 0.3%. In the second quarter -- earlier this year -- real GDP increased 2.8%.

But how long has the media been ceaselessly hammering it into our heads that we're in a recession, tolling the bells of doom and gloom? How many times have we heard the phrase, "In these tough economic times" inserted into nearly everything we see or hear? How long has the drumbeat of the "recession" been played, when we had nothing but positive growth reports, even in the midst of the sub-prime crisis?

Worse still, many people actually believe that whatever recession we'll end up having is exclusively the fault of only the current President, and can't look back to anything before the year 2000 for any blame whatsoever. The egregious irresponsibility of the sub-prime lending has a long and sordid history.

It is this kind of partisan willful ignorance on the part of many that has enabled the political agenda among some to drive the notion that the US is in a severe recession caused by the ineptness and reckless irresponsibility of the Bush administration, when the US had nothing but growth in the GDP until only a month ago. If you asked most people how long they thought the economy had been shrinking for negative, they'd probably say things like, "A year? Two years?"

Wrong.

Last quarter. And we just found out about it.

So we've heard talk, day after day, night after night, an incessant drilling into our heads that we're in a deep and severe recession -- one that may even now rival the Great Depression! -- creating panic and fear, causing people to pull investments and hold onto their wallets, change purchasing plans, in turn creating bleak forecasts for manufacturers and other business, which causes job loss, and then -- voilà!:

Is it any surprise we're going to have a recession on our hands?

Capitalistic systems only work when the participants have faith in the system -- when that faith collapses, for whatever reason, you get a recession. And that's a normal and accepted part of the cycle.

700 billion is a bit off on the low side :).

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aatlky_cH.tY&refer=worldwide

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/11/26/MNVN14C8QR.DTL

The ultimate free market would be where the authorities can be bought ;).

Regulation is often necessary. The problem is when the ones to be regulated convince the regulators write the rules to benefit them instead of the public.

Nov. 24 2008 (Bloomberg) -- Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Europe's largest oil company, is examining possible oilfield projects in Iraq as the nation prepares to issue exploration permits next year, Chief Executive Officer Jeroen van der Veer said today. Iraq expects to award contracts by June in its first oil-licensing round since the U.S. invasion in 2003, Oil Minister Hussain al- Shahristani said last month. http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601102&sid=av8p.fV7hUFw&refer=uk

Patience, my friend.....

I can't help but notice the parallels between America's situation and Rome during its final centuries. Rome eventually degraded as barbaric pressures from the outside world overwhelmed their ability to control them.

Rome's problem was that it reduced its money supply by 90% towards the end and debased its existing currency until it was nearly worthless. As a result, commoners lost their land and homes and refused to support the government which was then able to be easily toppled from without.

We'd never do something so foolish, right?

How come Wall Street doesn't have the biggest cluster? It's talking about robbing $7.4 TRILLION in booty from Americans now, with no end in sight.

Worthless? Are you mad? Have you see the US Tbill prices lately? hint: they are sky high, which makes the yield ridiculously low. If they were "worthless", as you state, they would have a LOW price and a high yield. Your claim doesn't even pass the smell test. (ps: Here's a whole thread about it.)

The fact is, they "own" nothing but US Govt paper and currency. The Fed no more answers to them as it does to me. The Fed's job, as you have stated, is to manage Monetary policy. And that's exactly what they do - they manage the money supply with coordination from the US Treasury and Commercial Banks.

They "own" the US like Iceland "owns" the UK. IOW, it doesn't. Any claim to the contrary is disingenuous at best. You are confused in your understanding of how the system works and who the players are.