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http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000080&si d=aAyXEXQ8IaDo&refer=asia

Don't fight it. It is unstoppable.

According to that article yesterday, Nintendo is selling more than twice as many units as PS3 or Xbox360. So I doubt this is really a case of "artificial" shortage, although obviously the Nintendo marketing guys will spin it to their best advantage.

Made $8.52M in fiscal 2006.

Maybe it's time to find a cheaper replacement.

"The infringed patents cover a method for translating calls between an Internet network and the standard telephone network, call-waiting features and wireless fidelity, or Wi-Fi, handsets. Vonage was cleared of infringing two patents related to billing systems designed to prevent fraud."

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&si d=anDrCRkj4nn0&refer=home

Inflation is essentially a tax on net worth. And governments are the sole cause of inflation in their fiat currencies.

I prefer Bloomberg for my financial news. Straight down the middle.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&si d=arfY.lBSosN4&refer=news

Sorry I have to disagree with the inflation claim. If you lookup inflation on Wikipedia and follow some inflation calculators you will see that we have been in the ~3% range for the last 6-years.

3% / year X 6 years = 18%

That's very good. As a comparison, Venezuela's annual inflation rose to 18.4% last month.

JOhn

No amount of money or engineering time will fix the problem.

More info here

"Alcatel-Lucent's victory also may clear the way for legal actions against hundreds of companies that rely on MP3"

Now hold on a damn second. The FCC already said no just a few weeks ago when these rumors started. So what's changed? (read: who got paid?)

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?id=conewsstory& refer=conews&tkr=SIRI:US&sid=alWomkStRxIg

Alaska's pork should be reduced in 2007 for two reasons:

1. Uncle Ted Stevens is a Republican, and the Dems have the majority in the Senate (49+1+1=51 vs. 49). Therefore, Uncle Ted isn't in the majority, and he can't use his majority status to ram things through appropriations.

2. The Senate has "eliminated" pork, known as earmarks, for this budget cycle (source). I'm sure it won't be a 100% freeze, but given that the amount of earmarked appropriations skyrocketed under the GOP-led Congress (60% increase in the past five years), it's reasonable to expect that it will be reduced dramatically -- especially to states with two Republican Senators and a Republican Representative, such as Alaska.

So, with Uncle Ted presumably bringing in less pork for the foreseeable future, will Alaskans react by electing a Dem, or will they re-elect Uncle Ted in the hopes that the GOP recapture the senate and Stevens' seniority becomes valuable locally again?

Please have a look at a presentation I gave in the EP to interested assistants and MEPs about this. Although it may not be that clear without the accompanying commentary, I hope it still can clarify some of the important points.

Basically, the problem is that it does not only apply to commercial scale copyright piracy and trademark counterfeiting, but also criminalises

• Alleged trademark confusion, e.g. Burger King v. Wholebake, or L'oreal SA & Ors v Bellure NV & Ors

• Infringements on database rights. As you may know, database rights only apply in case a "substantial investment" occurred, but how is a competitor supposed to know this in advance? Further, case law on this new "right" is still very much in development (slides 14-15 of the presentation, e.g. a case about a company selling an electronic version of a phone directory )

• Non-piracy related copyright infringements: e.g. Deutsche Bahn (the German national railway corporation) has been convicted for copyright infringement, because it altered the plans of the architect which designed their new Berlin railway station in a way which the architect considered to be infringing on his copyright. Another very nice on: a museum which is being sued for repairing an artwork which consisted of a urinal, because that person who destroyed it considered the "destroyed urinal" as a work of art in itself.

• Then there are also registered and unregistered design rights, which like database rights are not examined at all for validity. If you start threatening criminal prosecution for infringing on "right" which may not be valid in the first place, you get really chilling effects in the market place.

If you have time to read only one background paper on this completely idiotic and misguided directive, have a look at the position paper of the Chartered Institute of Patent Attorneys. But those of the Law Society of England and Wales and Max Planck Institute for Intellectual Property, Competition and Tax Law are also very good. You can find a lot more position papers on FFII's IPRED2 workgroup page under "External opinions"

Unlike the software patents directive, this is not a case of big companies vs small ones. Pretty much everyone except for the IFPI (music publishing industry) are trashing this directive like there's no tomorrow. And if you want to know why it is nevertheless being pushed through by the Commission, read my ENDitorial in the previous EDRI-gram.

You can see that the stress of all the debris is having a bad effect on astronauts already.

RonB

That may have been true with respect to Mutually Assured Destruction, but I think that this is aimed more at modern asymmetrical warfare. These days the US doesn't really fear massive barrages from the Soviet Union or China as much as it fears a single missile from North Korea or Iran with a nuclear warhead. Something which can inflict tens of thousands of casualties.

The U.S. is pretty much afraid of everything and everyone right now: illegally incarcerated suicides, completely innocent Canadian software engineers and of course, Mexicans. All societies go through periodic bouts of xenophobia, and this happens to be America's turn. It'll all pass in a few years, but in the meantime it is doing great damage to America's security.

The problem is that unless America becomes a police state, there is no practical way to secure the borders against anything, be it illegal immigrants or one-off nuclear attacks. Getting a single nuclear weapon into the U.S. is incredibly easy--so easy that I wake up each morning deeply thankful that no one has done it yet. When (not if) it is done, it will be done either by domestic transportation (imagine what one nuclear bomb set up to trigger at 3000 m might look like flying into O'Hare or LAX...) or by smuggling it in (canonically, hidden inside a bale of marjuana.)

ABM systems actually made a little sense (if they had worked and the "successful" tests hadn't all been faked) against the threat of massive attacks back in the Cold War. Today, against people who only need to get one bomb in after years of planning, they make no sense at all. They are the most wasteful kind of security theatre around.

Here's to the first post to snipe at the editors and (hopefully) get modded way up :)

If you read some of the original PNAC docments, gaining access to the oil and a central permanent base in the middle east in the center of all the oil *was* the primary purpose of the war. Well, that and making the area safer for Israel, but that's a side issue. Unless you are still living in denial that the documents exist and all the top leadership in the original bush admin are PNAC (and AIPAC) members. I still see that occasionaly, funny how it gets ignored by some. Anyway, here is a quick reference about what is to become of the oil, from today:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070107/bs_afp/iraqoi l_070107160241

It's all about gaining access to infrastructure and resources, from oil in the middle east to water in south america to mines in africa to even selling off domestic US infrastructure,roads to waterworks to prisons to ports to airports to minerals in the ground on public lands to whatever and etc. Governments now are tools of the multinationals, where their hardest push is to privatize function of governments into their private sector hands and make profit from it.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601039&si d=aFOJc1vWmTRo&refer=home

http://online.wsj.com/google_login.html?url=http%3 A%2F%2Fonline.wsj.com%2Farticle%2FSB11677762055326 5272.html%3Fmod%3Dgooglenews_wsj

You want more it is out there, those were extremely easy to find

government by corporation = fascism, no two ways about it. Concocting lies then changing them as they become untenable to another version of some lie is how the bush administration operates. So, yes, they are indeed swapping lives for oil, and for selling more hummvees and helicopters and bombs and rebuilding what was blown up. Later rinse repeat. It also serves as a good excuse to have perpetual boogiemen to use to further get rid of born-with rights to be replaced with government/corporate granted priveleges all at the point of a gun.

More products, services, and a stock split for Google. I was right about the first bits but that's like predicting sunset will come. The split didn't happen because I never realized how much cash Google was going to generate -- far more than they can even spend. So the item is wrong.

C'mon Cringely. Google won't split.

In a true free market, you are right. America would not suffer. But that is not to be the case.
A number of countries are moving away from dollars. The most important ones are OPEC's. In fact, the middle east is trying to create their own gold coinage, or just a simply burse. That will bring great pressures to bear on the dollars. There would be no issue. Basically, the dollar would fall, our exports would rise, so would the dollar.

The problem is that China is waging a war on America. They have tied their yen to our dollar. Even though their value will sink and the 100 billions of dollars that they have will go down as well, they will stay tied to us. The reason? Because they will deny us the export capabilities until they are in control of the world economy. And combined with a rapidly growing military, they will do what they say is right. BTW, not only will the go after Taiwain, but I would guess that very large land to the north of them loaded with resources and having very few ppl (relatively speaking) will be reclaimed as theirs.

In the latest study published a few weeks ago http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&si d=a6tRoyQugAAo&refer=us/)estimates around 62 million people would die from a pandemic outbreak and 95% of them would be from third-world countires.

The people who would NOT recieve this vaccine would not be the most poor, the people with the highest risk of dying.

Although this may appear callious, 62 million extra deaths in a year or so could do wonders for the environment. Also, think of the economic impact. With tens of millions of poor people dead, we can focus on the people left alive and improve society for all.

While there is still innovation in socialized democracies, it truly pales in comparison to the free market of the US of A.

Where's the innovation in non-healthcare-related industries in the US?
R&D dollars are flooding out of traditionally US-dominated industries (like the auto industry) to Pharmaceutical and Insurance industry profits. The Auto industry in the US has not innovated in something like 20 years. Chrysler was already bought out. Ford and GM are moving manufacturing to countries like Canada where they can get skilled workers, and don't have to pay for their health insurance. (or rather, the indirect cost of healthcare is far less than the US's extremely inefficient system).

Eventually, this is going to catch up with Big Pharma, the HMO's and the Hospital chains - and all that "innovation" is going to come to a screeching halt, as these companies move operations to more profitable countries (like China or India);

The other large cost is Malpractice Get Rich schemes by parasite lawyers.

This canard has been debunked. Cash awards were shown to be less than 1% of healthcare cost increases in a 2004 study. States that instituted caps in malpractice suits had cost increases higher than the national average.

Don't socialize my medicine, because I don't want the resulting crappy service that people from socialize countries are fleeing from. There is a reason why people from Canada come to the US for major problems (Heart, Cancer etc), and that is because they can't wait for 8 months while the bureaucracy grinds forward.

People in America are fleeing to India for major problems. And that is because one can get a new heart valve for $7000 in India, where it costs $200,000 in the US.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=nifea&&sid= a8vosisrgmd0

Sad to say - this is probably the future of the American Healthcare industry.

I realize that most socialists, it is just implicit and assumed that government is good, everything else is bad, and so the question answers itself.

What complete and utter bullshit.
This is the contrapositive of the same generalization about Capitalists (that it's implicit and assumed that government is bad, and only the Free Market can solve problems).

Socialism addresses the FACT that not all problems can be solved by Market Economies. Not all human needs are met by Market Economies. This fact became evident when the Mesopotamians got together some thousands of years ago to do something about the impact of seasonal flooding on their agriculture. They thrived as a civilization where nomadic cultures that lived in that region for the previous thousands of years failed.

There is a point to civilization. And that point is to collectively solve problems and meet needs. Leaving everything to "natural forces of the market" is akin to leaving your crops to deal with the tender mercies of natural floods. Can the farmer prosper if he is then forced to give all his food away (which was the case, in ancient Mesopotamia)? Of course not. That's why (one reason) Mesopotamia fell to Persian invasion, and why the Soviet Union failed.

A civilization that succeeds, empowers individuals, but individuals still need to work together for mutual benefit in order to survive.

no one can tell me why I should be so excited to give government so much damn power over my life.

It would be nice, if humans were just naturally compelled to care about their fellow humans. But by nature, humans are selfish, and distrustful. In any case - in America - pursuing this Libertarian ideal, at least for the past 10 years or so, has meant giving your vote over to the Republican Party, who damn well does want to give the government a lot of control over your life - to their perverse Theocratic Socialism. And now; Corporate Socialism (which is exactly what a patent is).

Personally, I think that what is broken with our US Healthcare system could (in theory - probably not in practice) could be fixed if much of the regulatory mess that is our patent system, and the influence of the AMA, could be radically reformed, and more strict limits on healthcare corporate consolidation enforced. Absent those reforms, a single-payer system looks very attractive. On the other hand - given the corruption in our current system, lobbyists, and politicians, (especially very clearly illustrated by Medicare Part-D) I have no confidence that a single-payer, or any other form of socialized medicine, could possibly be executed in good faith, in the US.

I fully expect the situation in the US to continue on for some time, perhaps as long as 10 years, in a continually downwardly spiraling fashion, until enough wealth has been transferred out of the country, that we will have effectively no domestic healthcare for the vast majority of our population.

Here's what I think will happen:
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=nifea&&sid= a8vosisrgmd0

The individuals who will not be served by this system, will be in no position to effectively fix it (as is the case today).

The real minimum wage is zero [slavery], but I don't see a whole lot of pro-capitalist economists going around explaining how to stop that from happening.

OK then, good luck with that, capitalism hasn't even solved slavery yet.

It's depressing how many people demand the benefits of civilization, without accepting any of its tradeoffs.

And how much of this is because companies don't talk about the tradeoffs? Which makes the company more money: telling people that for each shiny trinket they make the company has to club a baby seal, or making shiny trinkets and clubbing baby seals and just forgetting to mention that to potential customers? How much money would companies make if they slapped a "Made with 100% Authentic Slave Labor" label on their goods?

I've never heard anyone suggest 6-12mo mandatory military training, with only volunteer military enlistment. Like mandatory ROTC. It's a very interesting idea.

There's about 1.2M highschool graduates this year, and supposedly 7.5M US citizens enrolled in the ROTC (though that seems high, and is uncited). It seems that the ROTC is already serving the right scale of enrollees. I'd favor replacing mandatory HS gym classes with ROTC for at least a year or two, required for HS graduation. Perhaps even mandatory service - but what do you do with AWOL HS dropouts, jail them? Force them into the program? In separate units?

The problem I have is that militarizing the youth rebalances America's existing warmonger culture more towards the military mindset. Actual military experience can go a long way to disabusing the notion of blind authority obedience, but does a year of ROTC? Or does it just present the best face of the military: integration, opportunity, discipline, expensive toys, mayhem, fraternity (& sorority), a bad influence on American voters?

I probably totally disagree with you about the necessity of obstacles to citizens getting guns, regardless of their "good character". But we'd probably agree that teaching everyone how to handle a gun would make those who get one for private use a lot more safe. And possibly make criminals expect more of their targets to not only have one, but to be able to use one, and to actually use it in an emergency.

This is a compelling idea. Did you think of it, or did you hear it somewhere? Is anyone else talking about it?

It's at its lowest value in 20 months against the Euro, and the lowest in 14 YEARS against Sterling. http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601101&si d=a1VgRGm8R6Hc&refer=japan The only reason it's not yet too bad is that the Yen has also been falling.

Any fears that teachers might cook the books to score a typical $5,000 payoff? Not to worry, says Chicago's school chief, there are statistical analyses in place that spot testing irregularities, presumably better at catching Cheaters than those used in the past.

<sarcasm>
Yes, I'm sure their system will catch this stuff, too. How? Magic, maybe.
</sarcasm>

Of course it dropped at the news that the Democrats have taken the House.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&si d=alV51nRAKeqU&refer=home

Did anyone really believe that Democrat control would be positive for the economy?

Futures indicating a drop; the fortune tellers are trying to fit different narratives on it; the surprise in the size of the upset victory, the recounts adding "a climate of uncertainty," legislative gridlock, etc.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&si d=ahcGD2TgdAds&refer=home

Even if that BS story *had* been true, did a few stray bullets stop the Berlin airlift? The Saigon evacuation? Hopefully, you get the picture by now.

That story was cover and an excuse for letting people die on the ground.

I also think that al-Qaida would vote G.W.Bush: Never ever have the recruiting possibilities have be better, never ever have the arguments of al-Qaida being existant better. Never ever have the means and possibilities of getting money from the Arab world being better due to high income on oil and an general feeling of being waged an undeclared war against from the U.S..

It was brilliant the way Al Qaeda tricked the US into occupying all of its nicely equipped and well supplied training bases in Afghanistan, not to mention the way it bogged the US down with all of its supplies, mountains of documents, large numbers of prisoners, and weapons. And the physical training they are getting by running away will no doubt always be useful. And I can't help but think of all the US Treasury officials who gave up weekends because they were forced to freeze the accounts of Al Qaeda members, suppliers, and sympathizers. They also cleverly got around the problem of Afghanistan's government only being recognized by 2 countries, the funny looks you might get with an Afghani passport, by tricking the US into removing the Taliban government. Of course that did create a problem with finding enough ballots for all of the Afghans to vote.

They are being fiendishly clever in Iraq as well, forcing us to use up precious bullets, killing at least 4,000 foreign fighters in the process. And just because Bin Laden claims that the war in Iraq is "greatest battle of Islam in this era" doesn't mean it has to be important to the US. After all, with the Iraqi Army almost up to full strength, and growing more proficient, day by day, you have to wonder about the hatred of the US when Muslim soldiers are killing Islamist extremist terrorist who are killing Iraqi Muslims who used to be killed by the thousands by Saddam, but not any more, so I guess its fault of the US that fewer Muslims are being killed... and voting.... I think that is supposed to be bad.

Never ever have allies of the U.S. being more alienated from the U.S., making "divide et impera" the most easiest ever. Never ever was the danger of the own population being in favor of U.S. so minimal.

Your point about US allies is well taken. If it wasn't for the 34 or so countries that have had forces in Iraq as part of the coalition, the fact that NATO is running the Afghanistan operation these days, including commanding US troops in addition to 36 other countries, or that the US is part of the Six Party talks over North Korea, or that the US is coordinating with European powers over Iran, it is hard to say when the US would ever talk to any other country.

If only the world hadn't turned against the US before 9/11.

Oddly enough, Bush seems to want to tie Church and State back together, with his 'faith based initiatives', his Justice Department giving an amicus brief in support of displays of the 10 commandments in courthouses ( http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000103&si d=aVq7CjVw_3Zc&refer=us ), etc. So, given the religious overtones of Bush and his supporters, I can understand why people use the same tones to attack him.

AOL just cut 1400 jobs in Arizona and New Mexico. Not only that, but in another interesting story -

Internet service provider AOL's sales may shrink for the next two years as it gives away services to win more users and attract advertising, its chief executive said in an interview published on Saturday.

"Maybe another two years, you are right there," Jonathan Miller said when asked by German newspaper Die Welt whether sales would continue to fall. "But it's about profitability for us in this phase." ...

In recent weeks, AOL has sold its Internet access units in Germany, France and Britain for a total of almost US$2 billion as it reshapes itself into a free Web portal where popular email and entertainment services are supported by advertising.

The only, ONLY thing holding AOL still together are people who are less internet savvy and those who cling to AOL email addresses for their lives (certain professionals, businesspeople, et al). Creating a successful and large advertising group sounds like it'd be tricky in such a large market. Most people think of AOL the ISP or the portal than the advertising giant.

Finally, it should be noted that AOL spokesman John Buckley said "Time Warner ``is not considering a sale or demerger,'"

Ansari: I think where he really crossed the line where the domestic audience is concerned is when he said a green aura was coming out of his head during his speech to the United Nations. This conversation got filmed, and people can watch it on DVD. Ahmadinejad came home from his speech and told an ayatollah that everyone at the General Assembly -- all these world leaders -- didn't even blink for thirty minutes (out of awe). Lots of people have seen this in Iran, and it makes him seem a bit too superstitious.

Speaking of letting the facts get in the way of idiocy, lets see what those commie tree-huggers at Bloomberg (certainly not as reputable as "Sibbyonline.blogs.com", I know) have to say.

Between 2001 and 2004, Abramoff gave more than $127,000 to Republican candidates and committees and nothing to Democrats, federal records show. At the same time, his Indian clients were the only ones among the top 10 tribal donors in the U.S. to donate more money to Republicans than Democrats.

Bush's comment about Abramoff in a Dec. 14 Fox News interview was aimed at countering Democratic accusations that Republicans have brought a ``culture of corruption'' to Washington. Even so, the numbers show that ``Abramoff's big connections were with the Republicans,'' said Larry Noble, the former top lawyer for the Federal Election Commission, who directs the Washington-based Center for Responsive Politics.

``It is somewhat unusual in that most lobbyists try to work with both Republicans and Democrats, but we're already seeing that Jack Abramoff doesn't seem to be a usual lobbyist,'' Noble said.

I don't think so. http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&si d=ahFEYrwJFdbg&refer=worldwide_news "The main, main liability we have in Europe is progress in labor productivity, which is significantly inferior to the present level in the U.S., said Trichet at a panel discussion today organized by the Bertelsmann Foundation in Berlin.

One theory is that Woodward had to do something to get back in the good graces of his peers. Myself, I'm not sure what to make of him.

It's not like I read his books.

Just in case you want to have another side from which to view this debate, here is a review of the Discovery Channel's special on global warming (it might be the show you saw). [The special, by the way, featured James Hansen from NASA, who is the author of the theory that started this thread.] The review mentions two prominent scientists, MIT's Richard S. Lindzen and William Gray, the "world's foremost expert on hurricanes", who disagree with global warming. Here's an essay written by Gray for laymen on the subject of global warming. From his essay:

"This small warming [over the last 100 yrs] is likely a result of the natural alterations in global ocean currents which are driven by ocean salinity variations. Ocean circulation variations are as yet little understood."

The review of the Discovery Channel's global warming special: Brokaw Warns of Melting Glaciers, Greenhouse Gases: TV Review

And in other news, welcome to the start of the housing bubble bust. Maxed out on credit with their "home ATMs" drained and adjustable rate mortgages rising, McMansionland isn't going to be amassing new tech purchases any time soon. They need to save what they have for the foreclosure attorneys.

There are only 2 (two) ways to be arrested by a foreign country: (1) visiting that country or (2) being in a country that will extradite you for the crime.

I found this:

Songs and music videos will be available through downloading and theft protection is built into the content, New York-based SpiralFrog said today in a press release distributed by PR Newswire. Non-intrusive, targeted ads will pay for the service.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601085&si d=a.YLRkBqES74

It does sound a bit ridiculous, doesn't it? :)

On the other hand, by the time we know how to build the reactor, and a workable direct conversion system, the odds are very good that we'll also have better autonomous operations software, better tele-operations technology, etc. We may even have a space elevator (which probably says more about the speed of fusion power development than anything else).

I just don't see how we ever arrive at really cheap power without at least D-He3, and possibly He3-He3. The US, at least, is going to need that cheap power. Given that our current energy policy to shovel money into the coffers of countries that hate us (and do it forever), perhaps we *could* afford it. Look what we're already paying:

Oil price shocks and price manipulation by the OPEC cartel from 1979 to 1991 cost the U.S. economy about $4 trillion, almost as much as we spent on national defense over the same time period and more than the interest payments on the national debt (www.fueleconomy.gov).

U.S. spending on imported crude oil soared to $143.7 billion in the first 10 months of 2005, $37.2 billion more than during the same period in 2004, as the price rose 32 percent, according to the Commerce Department. The U.S. imports more than half of the 21 million barrels of oil it consumes daily. http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000103&si d=awqXjt10PSAE&refer=us

49% of my federal taxes are military-related. I'd like to see us avoid interactions with those countries which hate us so much. I mean *really* avoid. Don't buy their oil. Don't allow their citizens into the US, save for diplomatic travel involving the UN. If they want to buy from the US, fine. But no large corporate presences there. They hate us enough that for the people in the street to not miss us, and some of the locals governments wouldn't be able to make so much hay with, "Death to America." If they want to tyranize each other, hold shitty little religious wars, conduct the odd barbarism (beheading, mutilation, or whatever), then fine. Their problem, and an entirely internal matter that we need not concern ourselves about. I'd be willing to bet that we'd be able to get by with a much smaller military, and we'd see a lot fewer of our sons and daughters killed.

There are some other numbers out there, related to the true cost of the war in Iraq, which are truly horrifying.

Gee, maybe it's just me, but it looks as if we can afford nearly *anything*, rather than simply carry on as we have before.

Of course the whole lunar He3 is a chain of ifs. If we can build the fusion plant. If the He3 is even present in viable concentrations. If we can get even automated physical plant to it. I'm not insane enough to not realize that three big ifs probably equals one serious pipedream. But this is Slashdot, speculation is fun, and the US certainly has a huge problem it needs to solve.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&si d=aIUBO99o5fTw&refer=home

On the open market. What part of the word "subsidies" don't you understand? The "profit" you're getting a cut of is welfare. It's handed to you still warm from the taxpayers wallet.

Zero-risk interest rates in the U.S. are around 5% and inflation is about 4%. European rates are somewhat lower and inflation is about 2%. Canadian rates are more in line with European than American, although out unemployment rate is more in line with the U.S. (i.e., low) and our public finances are unique (that is, in surplus federally and near balanced provincially.)

So most of us aren't quite in the cheap-money days of the late '90's, although the U.S. is coming close.

According the Bloomberg, it was backdating. And when the Reuters article mentioned a "stock options scandal," there is little question as to what it refers. Taking a step back and viewing the original article as an investor, it seems certain that options backdating was implied. That's the only "scandal" going on right now.

Backdating options is illegal, but it could have been an honest mistake. A delayed executive approval can effectively backdate an options grant, but whether that happened at Apple is unknown at this point.

While the linked article makes no mention of backdating options, Apple is investigating whether it has occurred. See Bloomberg article. It remains unknown whether or not backdating actually occurred.

You are also correct that it is an internal inquiry right now, but Bloomberg seems to cast doubt on it remaining entirely internal.

And yes, that line about Steve Jobs is complete FUD crap. The submitter sucks.