My local network stations now show infomercials! during the day on the weekends. The infomercials are willing to pay them more money than they can make off commercials net of the fees to show current and copyrighted content.
If the internet drops in price (and it should- jesus we are so far behind japan and other nations on cost and speed), then delivery costs drop. Likewise, servers are bone cheap.
If it doesn't cost a lot, you don't need a lot of ads to pay for it.
OTH, if they find a way to charge you 10 cents a song, then you are basically put out of business.
Which is the irony of the internet.
As long as no one is looking at your stuff, it's basically free to offer on line. You could easily have 50 users a month. Then someone popularizes it and it becomes too expensive to offer any more because ads don't cover the bandwidth costs which can ramp up really really fast.
If you are debating the meaning of "steal", then he didn't even steal a copy. He made a copy and offered to sell it to people when he had no legal right to do so.
Because about 20% of the voters are voting to slit their own throats because of the Abortion and Gay Marriage issue. As they start to lose everything they own- some-- a few percent actually voted against more "pro elite" (aka "my base"), "pro corporate" policies continuing under more republican leadership. They do this partially because the right finally got their crap together in the 80's and 90's and have a massive propaganda engine running that has people making $40k seriously believing some tax on people making $250k+ is going to affect them-- ever.
Basically, I'd rather be unemployed and give the wealth of my entire neighborhood to one person so I can shift the court towards overturning abortion and to put politicians in who will promote religion and fight gay marriage.
And it's a principled position so I can't knock it that much. I spoke to a democratic labor lawyer a couple years ago and he said the best thing for the democratic party would be to lose on the abortion issue- and I've felt the same way for quite a while.
I think it's a dumb position personally but I don't care either way about abortion or if a gay man and a gay woman want to get married.
And it's over 20% if you include people who have run out of benefits and people who used to make six figure incomes who "have a job" for a fraction of their former pay.
These are really historic times... the banks are refusing to take ownership of houses that should be foreclosed on. The banks are refusing to list houses they have foreclosed on to artificially pump prices. Cities are tearing down thousands of houses rather than let them sink to their true price (which may actually be zero anyway since without a job, you can't pay anything for a house).
One of the guys who predicted both the fall through late feb/mid march and the rally we have experienced using elliot waves seems to think that we fall off a cliff next december... as in new lows in all three markets. Something about a grand supercycle wave that is really coming out of 2000 that we haven't finished yet.
I have no clue myself... but I am saving just in case.
But why would you lay of 6,000 people and then give $100,000,000 to one person?
I'm sure $5,000,000 would have done just as well. Until the very late 1980's, $1,000,000 in today's dollars would have done just as well.
We are grossly overpaying people at the top.
---
However, I know at one company I used to work for, it made a profit every year-- it was bought and everyone was laid off. The larger company took the customer list-- and lost over 80% of the customers since there was reason most of them were not with the larger company to begin with.
It was a waste of the larger companies money, destroyed 260 people's lives (some had been there 20 years), destroyed a profitable venture (It made about a million dollars a year profit after all expenses for whoever owned it). I don't know but I bet the larger company CEO got a big fat bonus for making such a boneheaded move (they basically pissed away 23 million dollars for a 200,000 a year in net profits).
---
But yea, inefficient companies do have to go out of business. Non-productive workers do need to be laid off.
OTH, when a corporation is providing no net benefit to a population- why allow it to stay in business?
There was a lot of driving trips around the country. Overseas travel was limited- you might do it once or twice.
Of course in my life time, I've gone overseas... twice.
But the driving was insane. Every summer they might drive 1600 miles, there were stickers for every state they put on their cars, road travel was very common.
There were tons of moter hotels all over the country back then- many of which are now out of business. They were cheap compared to today's hotels.
I think in the 80's it was cheaper to travel- but I think today it is more expensive to travel than in the 1950's.
I admit the possibility that I need a tinfoil hat.
You have to look at the facts and trading goes straight to the reptilian part of the brain so it is highly emotional.
When I roll 10 dice, there is a chance that I'll roll 55 or higher. It's just extremely unlikely.
What's been happening in the market and around GS is like rolling a 60 every day.
The government is giving them 0 interest money to loan. The government is letting them see both sides of the trades-- and they are cheating and they got caught when their program "with the potential to manipulate the market" was stolen.
It may take a couple years, but I'm hoping for long jail terms. This feels like Enron and Worldcom-- it stinks like last week's fish.
But, it's possible that they just had a lucky streak and it's all legit.
All I can do is recognize which TA has stopped working and that the fundamentals reported are mostly lies.
This basically leaves me with the option of taking my money to cash (which i mostly did at dow 12,800 on the way down) and wait until things stop being goofy.
I'm looking at non-taxable ways to save money such as solar power. Saved money isn't taxed- and it provides an inflation hedge. I expect much higher tax rates in 10 years than today.
It's going to be really hard for 78 million people to retire out of a population of 300ish million.
I do part of that-- living in a 1955 house that cost just over half of my annual salary.
But folks in the 1950's traveled a lot more than we do today. Lots of driving and even overseas trips.
I wasn't aware of the clothes thing-- it doesn't sound quite right-- I have more closet space than I do clothes. But I do know that folks in the early part of the century were very limited on clothes.
We have a lot more entertainment options today-- used to be folks got together socially for entertainment and there were a lot of people who sang and played musical instruments. I miss the getting together and singing thing because we used to have echos of it in my family before my grandparents died.
They also got out a lot and interacted with neighbors-- had beauty pageants for their kids, played sports in the local park (my university used to have 5 baseball fields from looking at the old photos).
They can sell before large sell orders. Then buy again after to avoid a loss. They can buy before large buy orders. Then sell right after to take a gain.
It's called front running and it's illegal.
But the government is not enforcing the law.
My theory is they are letting illegal activity go on to hold up the market prices.
I could be paranoid. But I've been in this thing for 28 years now and I've never seen such goofy market behavior and repeated evidence of price manipulation at market close on thin volume-- and yet there are no investigations.
Slashdot Mirror
Hehehe...
I feel like I got my share of old vegetables thrown today.
This is shocking.
I didn't see watt the problem was before.
But if we are attacked empusively, we will be exposed.
The problem centers around cost of delivery.
My local network stations now show infomercials! during the day on the weekends. The infomercials are willing to pay them more money than they can make off commercials net of the fees to show current and copyrighted content.
If the internet drops in price (and it should- jesus we are so far behind japan and other nations on cost and speed), then delivery costs drop. Likewise, servers are bone cheap.
If it doesn't cost a lot, you don't need a lot of ads to pay for it.
OTH, if they find a way to charge you 10 cents a song, then you are basically put out of business.
Which is the irony of the internet.
As long as no one is looking at your stuff, it's basically free to offer on line. You could easily have 50 users a month.
Then someone popularizes it and it becomes too expensive to offer any more because ads don't cover the bandwidth costs which can ramp up really really fast.
You have a key point that is often missed.
There are really only two newspapers. Everyone else reprints their articles and creates a tiny amount of add-on content.
There isn't support for a newspaper in every city if you are getting it off of the web.
Also, there is a massive glut of information.
It's not so much leaving a site that gives content "A" for a new site that gives content "A".
I have a choice to leave the site for sites that offer equally good content "B", "C", "D","E","F", "G".
In the real world, starting new businesses is a lot harder than maintaining an existing one.
You know "Brand" recognition, "Good will", and what not.
If you are debating the meaning of "steal", then he didn't even steal a copy. He made a copy and offered to sell it to people when he had no legal right to do so.
That's a problem.
Because about 20% of the voters are voting to slit their own throats because of the Abortion and Gay Marriage issue. As they start to lose everything they own- some-- a few percent actually voted against more "pro elite" (aka "my base"), "pro corporate" policies continuing under more republican leadership. They do this partially because the right finally got their crap together in the 80's and 90's and have a massive propaganda engine running that has people making $40k seriously believing some tax on people making $250k+ is going to affect them-- ever.
Basically, I'd rather be unemployed and give the wealth of my entire neighborhood to one person so I can shift the court towards overturning abortion and to put politicians in who will promote religion and fight gay marriage.
And it's a principled position so I can't knock it that much. I spoke to a democratic labor lawyer a couple years ago and he said the best thing for the democratic party would be to lose on the abortion issue- and I've felt the same way for quite a while.
I think it's a dumb position personally but I don't care either way about abortion or if a gay man and a gay woman want to get married.
In retrospect, the right lost their integrity when they voted in Reagan for a second term.
They wanted to win so bad that they allowed him to put the country into enormous debt when they should have had their foots on the brake.
Guns... AND Butter... AND cut taxes.... == National suicide.
It's a bit under 10% as measured the new way created under clinton.
It's over 16% the way they measured it until then.
http://www.shadowstats.com/alternate_data
And it's over 20% if you include people who have run out of benefits and people who used to make six figure incomes who "have a job" for a fraction of their former pay.
These are really historic times... the banks are refusing to take ownership of houses that should be foreclosed on. The banks are refusing to list houses they have foreclosed on to artificially pump prices. Cities are tearing down thousands of houses rather than let them sink to their true price (which may actually be zero anyway since without a job, you can't pay anything for a house).
One of the guys who predicted both the fall through late feb/mid march and the rally we have experienced using elliot waves seems to think that we fall off a cliff next december... as in new lows in all three markets. Something about a grand supercycle wave that is really coming out of 2000 that we haven't finished yet.
I have no clue myself... but I am saving just in case.
That's a fair point.
But why would you lay of 6,000 people and then give $100,000,000 to one person?
I'm sure $5,000,000 would have done just as well. Until the very late 1980's, $1,000,000 in today's dollars would have done just as well.
We are grossly overpaying people at the top.
---
However, I know at one company I used to work for, it made a profit every year-- it was bought and everyone was laid off.
The larger company took the customer list-- and lost over 80% of the customers since there was reason most of them were not with the larger company to begin with.
It was a waste of the larger companies money, destroyed 260 people's lives (some had been there 20 years), destroyed a profitable venture (It made about a million dollars a year profit after all expenses for whoever owned it). I don't know but I bet the larger company CEO got a big fat bonus for making such a boneheaded move (they basically pissed away 23 million dollars for a 200,000 a year in net profits).
---
But yea, inefficient companies do have to go out of business. Non-productive workers do need to be laid off.
OTH, when a corporation is providing no net benefit to a population- why allow it to stay in business?
Amen to that brother.
What they did is going to make it happen again within the next 20 years instead of the next 60 years.
There was a lot of driving trips around the country. Overseas travel was limited- you might do it once or twice.
Of course in my life time, I've gone overseas... twice.
But the driving was insane. Every summer they might drive 1600 miles, there were stickers for every state they put on their cars, road travel was very common.
There were tons of moter hotels all over the country back then- many of which are now out of business. They were cheap compared to today's hotels.
I think in the 80's it was cheaper to travel- but I think today it is more expensive to travel than in the 1950's.
I admit the possibility that I need a tinfoil hat.
You have to look at the facts and trading goes straight to the reptilian part of the brain so it is highly emotional.
When I roll 10 dice, there is a chance that I'll roll 55 or higher. It's just extremely unlikely.
What's been happening in the market and around GS is like rolling a 60 every day.
The government is giving them 0 interest money to loan.
The government is letting them see both sides of the trades-- and they are cheating and they got caught when their program "with the potential to manipulate the market" was stolen.
It may take a couple years, but I'm hoping for long jail terms. This feels like Enron and Worldcom-- it stinks like last week's fish.
But, it's possible that they just had a lucky streak and it's all legit.
All I can do is recognize which TA has stopped working and that the fundamentals reported are mostly lies.
This basically leaves me with the option of taking my money to cash (which i mostly did at dow 12,800 on the way down) and wait until things stop being goofy.
I'm looking at non-taxable ways to save money such as solar power. Saved money isn't taxed- and it provides an inflation hedge. I expect much higher tax rates in 10 years than today.
It's going to be really hard for 78 million people to retire out of a population of 300ish million.
This is one people should read.
I do part of that-- living in a 1955 house that cost just over half of my annual salary.
But folks in the 1950's traveled a lot more than we do today. Lots of driving and even overseas trips.
I wasn't aware of the clothes thing-- it doesn't sound quite right-- I have more closet space than I do clothes. But I do know that folks in the early part of the century were very limited on clothes.
We have a lot more entertainment options today-- used to be folks got together socially for entertainment and there were a lot of people who sang and played musical instruments. I miss the getting together and singing thing because we used to have echos of it in my family before my grandparents died.
They also got out a lot and interacted with neighbors-- had beauty pageants for their kids, played sports in the local park (my university used to have 5 baseball fields from looking at the old photos).
A lot of medical conditions, you just died from.
Cars were a lot simpler (and so a lot cheaper).
But we now have clear evidence that the real cost to society of these behaviors is not in billions but in trillions of dollars.
It's like ignoring the price of having the U.S. Army all over the world protecting oil interests in the real price of oil.
The average bonus on WS less than a year after these companies were going bankrupt was over half a million dollars.
Corporations have been hijacked by the executive class for their own benefit- not societies benefit.
Lay 6,000 people off and get a 100,000,000 dollar bonus. But you can only buy 5 or 6 tv's and 3 or 4 cars. So overall demand for product is reduced.
I now have 4 friends laid off and three who are on the edge of being laid off. These are college educated folks with 10 year's experience.
When are we going to stop all this behavior by 2% of the population which is hurting the other 98%?
GS sees both the buy order and the sell order.
They can sell before large sell orders. Then buy again after to avoid a loss.
They can buy before large buy orders. Then sell right after to take a gain.
It's called front running and it's illegal.
But the government is not enforcing the law.
My theory is they are letting illegal activity go on to hold up the market prices.
I could be paranoid. But I've been in this thing for 28 years now and I've never seen such goofy market behavior and repeated evidence of price manipulation at market close on thin volume-- and yet there are no investigations.
There you go... no charge.
It's true... what's more making shit up is great for your ego and hence for your sex drive.
Which was very helpful when I happened to run into Ms. Kruppa at the star bucks last week.
It was by Ralph Bakshi of Fritz the Cat fame.
It was the only movie I've ever fallen asleep in.
The problem wasn't the animation- it was the editing and pace and lack of a decent score.
That's because there would be NO ONE to screw if not for artificially long copyright periods.
The man is dead. He's been dead since 1973. You know... 36 years. The last book was published in 1955. 54 years.
Copyrights are not going to incent him to write any more books.
Copyrights as currently implemented primarily benefit corporations. Not human beings who are dead long before the copyrights run out.
Also be careful not to mention it to the other Jurors.
Jury Nullification was a concept of the founders of the country and widely practiced until the late 1800's. Then judges started to swing against it.
A lawyer who asks if you believe in jury nullification does not deserve an honest answer.
Just remember-- "I just don't think he/she is guilty beyond a reasonable doubt".
I can't see the "Bat" one as anything except a bat since I've seen it in batman comic books; saw how he saw it as a bat.
So what is "freetard"-- some kind of wimpy insult that microsoft made up?
Do you think throwing it around supports your argument in the slightest?
It just makes you look like an unreasonable idiot whose a bit brainwashed by microsoft-- or possibly even a shill.