foreclosure auctions

As we've been saying, there are two different worlds from the perspective of the economy, and here's a look at the two different worlds from the eyes of the media.  - Ilene

Tinsel Tuesday – Market Decorations Make Us Merry

Courtesy of Phil of Phil's Stock World

I figured out how to get bullish!

Just read the Wall Street Journal.  On the front page we have "Nuclear Pact Adds Backers" above the fold along with a fluff piece on the weather in Europe. There are 3 other featured articles on the front page of the World’s most widely-read financial paper and one is a fluff piece on the Jimmy Stewart museum, one is on the obscure concept of betting people are going to die (very fun and interesting but "The World’s biggest financial paper"?) and the last is on the SEC looking into Mark Hurd’s exit from HP.  On the left is "What’s News" with about 30 summaries of articles in the paper so one would think you could look this over and have a really good idea of what’s going on in the World.

I see that "Spain said its regional governments are on track to meet their budget targets" and Dow component Boeing (who fell off yesterday) announced a "$1 Billion commercial satellite deal with the Mexican Government" and Blackstone is starting a $15Bn fund and TD is buying Chrysler Financial for $6.3Bn and (and this is a real XMas gift to Wall Street) "A Senate deal to fund the federal government until early March doesn’t include money to enact the health-care overhaul or stepped up regulation of Wall Street" and also that North Korea held their fire during a South Korean artillery drill.  Wow!  All seems right with the World, doesn’t it?

If I just read the WSJ, I find no reason to be bearish at all.  Certainly there is no mention of Spanish Bond Yields rising 37% in a month to 5.5% at today’s $4Bn bond auction. There is no mention of China’s Vice Chairman of National Development saying that China "needs to prepare for a long- term fight against inflation" or that oil imports into China are expected to fall off next year as their economy cools down. You would think the fact that BAC, JPM and four other lenders facing a suspension of foreclosure activity under court order in New Jersey would be a news story or perhaps some mention of the 29-year high in sugar prices would be of interest to investors along with the limit-up trading in cotton to record highs for no particular reason other than the fact that it’s a commodity and speculators will buy pretty much anything in the current frenzy. 

Gold is up for the third consecutive day, China’s money-market rates jumped to a 2-year high as banks raised their reserve ratios (this one didn’t even make the WSJ’s on-line Asia section, but you can real all about the World’s most expensive noodles!). Pimco said "Untenable Policies Will Lead to Eurozone Break-Up" according to the London Telegraph with Andrew Bosomworth stating: "Greece, Ireland and Portugal cannot get back on their feet without either their own currency or large transfer payments. The euro crisis is not over by a long shot. Market tensions will continue into 2011. The mechanism comes far too late."

Of course that’s nothing compared to Meredith Whitney’s dire warning of a financial meltdown driven by the collapse of US municipal bond auctions – a topic we discussed last Wednesday.  And Meredith is just full of holiday cheer compared to David Rosenberg, who puts a fair value on the S&P at no more than 1,120 and makes many excellent points that the market is now 10% overvalued and gives "10 Signs that the Holiday Retail Season is Going Worse Than People Realize" or John Hussman, who has certainly channeled his inner Phil with "Things I Believe" too!  

We are, then, getting to the root of my problem – I read too much! I wake up early every morning and read my various papers and web sites and, from that, I formulate a short-term and long-term investing premise. Perhaps I have forgotten what the Great Emancipator once said:

 

""A total of 78,955 U.S. properties received default notices (NOD, LIS) in November, a 21 percent decrease from the previous month and a 31 percent decrease from November 2009 — the 10th straight annual decrease in default notices. November’s default notices total was the lowest since July 2007. ""

 

DEFAULT NOTICES,  administrative 3 months mandatory paper trail, properly 'served' to meet stage one Legal Requirements...

 

November 2010 lowest since July 2007 thats 3 years and 5 months = 41 months 

so finally exhausted the continued monthly supply of about 80,000 defaulting type house buyers, 3.28 million defaulters

 

SINCE THE TAIL END CHARLIES finally 'evicted' is/has been at 95,000 / month...(why MORE..hum) ANYWAY, FOR SURE ALL 100% OF THE DEFAULTERS SEEM TO BE CONTINUING TO NOT PAY..remaining rent free during the judicial cycle from default to final eviction...

 

How Long on average ? 12-24 months per house rent-free? pure guess.. another guess is therrefore HOW MUCH 'TAKE HOME ADDITIONAL SPENDING MONEY IS IT @ 24 months and say $1500/month (very modest estimate, low end). and 3.28 million 'beneficiaries' over the 41 months thus far...

 

Well, a NICE SOLID $36,100 per household ....11.75 x 10 (6+4)  =>  11.75 tens of billions..=>.$117.50 BILLION boost to the USA economy, spread over 41 months, very very good...

 

Another pure guess is IF the US IRS will make an Administrative Final Decision regards the tax status of the UNPAIDFORGIVEN DEBTS on those mortgages...

 

You see, of course, that for every Bank Tax deduction for 'written off mortgage-debt', that same EQUAL amount of "DEBT FORGIVEN MUST BE TAXED", against the 'beneficiary...shall it be 'short term' or 'long term' windfall income?,

 

and under what special payment terms shall the IRS allow the money-due to be paid...probably the short term mode = 35% average for blue collar workers, spread over 2 years of the estimated $36,100 / household finally evicted, about $12,600 'back taxes due'

 

and for non-citizens, non-payment could result in deportation/refusals to renew VISAs and all THAT...right?

 

 

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Small Business <b>News</b>: Small Biz Tech Primer

Technology is vastly changing the scope and reach of small business not only in the world of marketing but in all aspects of operating your venture. From tech.

Stubborn Joblessness Among Vets Darkens US Economy - AOL <b>News</b>

The newly reported drop in jobless claims belies continued rough going for America's Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans, who are experiencing 10 percent unemployment.

Keith Olbermann: &#39;Fox <b>News</b> Is 100% Bullshit&#39;

Keith Olbermann is anything but hesitant when it comes to a battle with Fox News, and the MSNBC anchor took to Twitter Wednesday to share his views on the TV network he probably wouldn't even call a rival. "Fox News is 100% bullshit," ...

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Making Money on Internet

Ok Go Explains There Are Lots Of Ways To Make Money If You Can Get Fans

from the everything's-possible dept

Over the last few years, we've covered many of the moves by the band Ok Go -- to build up a fanbase often with the help of amazingly viral videos, ditch their major record label (EMI), and explore new business model opportunities. In the last few days, two different members of Ok Go explained a bit more of the band's thinking in two separate places, and both are worth reading. First up, we have Tim Nordwind, who did an interview with Hypebot, where he explained the band's general view on file sharing:

Obviously we'd love for anyone who has our music to buy a copy. But again, we're realistic enough to know that most music can be found online for free. And trying to block people's access to it isn't good for bands or music. If music is going to be free, then musicians will simply have to find alternative methods to make a living in the music business. People are spending money on music, but it's on the technology to play it. They spend hundreds of dollars on Ipods, but then fill it with 80 gigs of free music. That's ok, but it's just a different world now, and bands must learn to adjust.

Elsewhere in the interview, he talks about the importance of making fans happy and how the band realizes that there are lots of different ways to make money, rather than just selling music directly:

Our videos have opened up many more opportunities for us to make the things we want to make, and to chase our best and wildest ideas. Yes, we need to figure out how to make a living in a world where people don't buy music anymore. But really, we've been doing that for the last ten years. Things like licensing, touring, merch, and also now making videos through corporate sponsorship have all allowed us to keep the lights on and continue making music.

Separately, last Friday, Damian Kulash wrote a nice writeup in the Wall Street Journal all about how bands can, should and will make money going forward. In many ways the piece reminds me a bit of my future of music business models post from earlier this year -- and Kulash even uses many of the same examples in his article (Corey Smith, Amanda Palmer, Josh Freese, etc.). It's a really worthwhile read as well. He starts by pointing out that for a little over half a century, the record labels had the world convinced that the "music" industry really was just the "recorded music" industry:

For a decade, analysts have been hyperventilating about the demise of the music industry. But music isn't going away. We're just moving out of the brief period--a flash in history's pan--when an artist could expect to make a living selling records alone. Music is as old as humanity itself, and just as difficult to define. It's an ephemeral, temporal and subjective experience.



For several decades, though, from about World War II until sometime in the last 10 years, the recording industry managed to successfully and profitably pin it down to a stable, if circular, definition: Music was recordings of music. Records not only made it possible for musicians to connect with listeners anywhere, at any time, but offered a discrete package for commoditization. It was the perfect bottling of lightning: A powerful experience could be packaged in plastic and then bought and sold like any other commercial product.

But, he notes, that time is now gone, thanks in large part to the internet. But that doesn't mean the music business is in trouble. Just the business of selling recorded music. But there's lots of things musicians can sell. He highlights Corey Smith and Smith's ability to make millions by giving away his music for free, and then touring. But he also points out that touring isn't for everyone. He covers how corporate licensing has become a bigger and bigger opportunity for bands that are getting popular. While he doesn't highlight the specific economics of it, what he's really talking about is that if your band is big, you can sell your fan's attention -- which is something Ok Go has done successfully by getting corporate sponsorship of their videos. As he notes, the sponsors provide more money than the record labels with many fewer strings:

These days, money coming from a record label often comes with more embedded creative restrictions than the marketing dollars of other industries. A record label typically measures success in number of records sold. Outside sponsors, by contrast, tend to take a broader view of success. The measuring stick could be mentions in the press, traffic to a website, email addresses collected or views of online videos. Artists have meaningful, direct, and emotional access to our fans, and at a time when capturing the public's attention is increasingly difficult for the army of competing marketers, that access is a big asset.



...



Now when we need funding for a large project, we look for a sponsor. A couple weeks ago, my band held an eight-mile musical street parade through Los Angeles, courtesy of Range Rover. They brought no cars, signage or branding; they just asked that we credit them in the documentation of it. A few weeks earlier, we released a music video made in partnership with Samsung, and in February, one was underwritten by State Farm.



We had complete creative control in the productions. At the end of each clip we thanked the company involved, and genuinely, because we truly are thankful. We got the money we needed to make what we want, our fans enjoyed our videos for free, and our corporate Medicis got what their marketing departments were after: millions of eyes and goodwill from our fans. While most bands struggle to wrestle modest video budgets from labels that see videos as loss leaders, ours wind up making us a profit.

Of course, that only works if you have a big enough fanbase, but that doesn't mean there aren't things that less well known bands can use to make money as well. He talks about an up-and-coming band in LA that doesn't even have a manager that was able make money:

The unsigned and unmanaged Los Angeles band Killola toured last summer and offered deluxe USB packages that included full albums, live recordings and access to two future private online concerts for $40 per piece. Killola grossed $18,000 and wound up in the black for their tour. Mr. Donnelly says, "I can't imagine they'll be ordering their yacht anytime soon, but traditionally bands at that point in their careers aren't even breaking even on tour."

The point, Kulash, notes, is that there's a lot of things a band can sell, focusing on "selling themselves." And, the thing he doesn't mention is that, when you're focusing on selling the overall experience that is "you" as a musician or a band, it's something that can't be freely copied. People can copy the music all they want, but they can't copy you. "You" are a scarce good that can't be "pirated." That's exactly what more and more musicians are figuring out these days, and it's helping to make many more artists profitable. And, no, it doesn't mean that any artist can make money. But it certainly looks like any artist that understands this can do a hell of a lot better than they would have otherwise, if they just relied on the old way of making money in the music business.

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John Fund is very, very upset over the FCC's weaksauce Net Neutrality declarations and he's aiming at 'wealthy left-wing' organizations as the culprits. This makes me happy. When a winger can only squirm over something so weak and toothless as to be useless, it's a good day. But look at who he aims at! Paranoid, much?

Free Press and allied groups such as MoveOn.org quickly got funding. Of the eight major foundations that provided the vast bulk of money for campaign-finance reform, six became major funders of the media-reform movement. (They are the Pew Charitable Trusts, Bill Moyers's Schumann Center for Media and Democracy, the Joyce Foundation, George Soros's Open Society Institute, the Ford Foundation, and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.) Free Press today has 40 staffers and an annual budget of $4 million.

These wealthy funders pay for more than publicity and conferences. In 2009, Free Press commissioned a poll, released by the Harmony Institute, on net neutrality. Harmony reported that "more than 50% of the public argued that, as a private resource, the Internet should not be regulated by the federal government." The poll went on to say that since "currently the public likes the way the Internet works . . . messaging should target supporters by asking them to act vigilantly" to prevent a "centrally controlled Internet."

To that end, Free Press and other groups helped manufacture "research" on net neutrality. In 2009, for example, the FCC commissioned Harvard University's Berkman Center for Internet and Society to conduct an "independent review of existing information" for the agency in order to "lay the foundation for enlightened, data-driven decision making."

Considering how openly activist the Berkman Center has been on these issues, it was an odd decision for the FCC to delegate its broadband research to this outfit. Unless, of course, the FCC already knew the answer it wanted to get.

Wow. Openly activist? The Berkman Center? Here's the Berkman Center's Berkman@10 page, with some of their research projects and discussions posted online. Such terribly activist things. Open innovation, The Dilemma of Games, The Musician and the Scientist, and yes, Network Neutrality (not Internet Neutrality, by the way), as well as one called The Battle for the Web. Hardly activist.

Current projects include a Law Library wiki, a discussion of money in politics, and a paper about online political organizing. Again, not activist. Wonky. Educational. But not activist. I confess to zooming in on Fund's remarks about Berkman because I am a huge fan and avid reader of Doc Searls, who has been a Berkman Fellow for the past 4 years.

Berkman aside, the issue of Net Neutrality has always been about a democratic internet, one where everyone has equal access to content and pipes. The organizations Fund villifies in his post are organizations dedicated to the preservation of freedom of speech and free flows of information, so I'm struggling to reconcile the conservative maxim of constitutional freedoms above all with his abuse of organizations who strive to protect it.

I didn't have to struggle too long. A closer reading of his rant reveals a corporate agenda which trumps any speech rights.

The net neutrality vision for government regulation of the Internet began with the work of Robert McChesney, a University of Illinois communications professor who founded the liberal lobby Free Press in 2002. Mr. McChesney's agenda? "At the moment, the battle over network neutrality is not to completely eliminate the telephone and cable companies," he told the website SocialistProject in 2009. "But the ultimate goal is to get rid of the media capitalists in the phone and cable companies and to divest them from control."

A year earlier, Mr. McChesney wrote in the Marxist journal Monthly Review that "any serious effort to reform the media system would have to necessarily be part of a revolutionary program to overthrow the capitalist system itself." Mr. McChesney told me in an interview that some of his comments have been "taken out of context." He acknowledged that he is a socialist and said he was "hesitant to say I'm not a Marxist."

I am neither a socialist nor a Marxist, but I believe that the Internet should be preserved as something everyone can access equally, and am frustrated on a near-daily basis by the stranglehold providers have on that access. Fund's suggestion that net neutrality and regulatory authority over access somehow stifles innovation is to believe that the sole innovators are cable and telephone companies. In fact, the opposite is true. The true innovation has come from many different sources, including inhabitants of the Internet itself.

Facebook, Twitter, Google and blogs were not the invention of AT&T, after all.

The real threat to innovation is handing the keys to all of the Internet gates to the likes of Comcast, AT&T and Verizon. And yet, that is exactly what the FCC did with their weird ruling yesterday.

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Making Money Fast

Here's the problem with funding 2011's government using 2010's budget: When the 2010 budget passed, neither financial regulation nor health-care reform had passed. And so the 2010 budget didn't include the new funds necessary to support their implementation. We're not talking about a lot of money here, of course, but certainly some. And for the health of these bills, it's important money.

But after the collapse of the omnibus spending bill, the Democrats have moved to funding the government using a resolution that simply continues 2010's funding levels. And that means starving some of their signature accomplishments of implementation funds. This hasn't been lost on Republicans, of course: Mitch McConnell's key argument for turning GOP senators who'd pledged to vote for the omnibus was that it included funds for health-care reform. The Democrats, however, seemed less attuned to this dimension of the funding fight. And even those who do see the problem aren't making much noise about it: Though there was lots of tough talk in recent months about how Democrays would risk a government shutdown rather than seeing their accomplishments defunded, that didn't prove true, at least this time.

Top Stories

The Census Bureau will announce which states gained and lost House seats today, reports Charles Babington: "The 2010 census report coming out Tuesday will include a boatload of good political news for Republicans and grim data for Democrats hoping to re-elect President Barack Obama and rebound from last month's devastating elections. The population continues to shift from Democratic-leaning Rust Belt states to Republican-leaning Sun Belt states, a trend the Census Bureau will detail in its once-a-decade report to the president. Political clout shifts, too, because the nation must reapportion the 435 House districts to make them roughly equal in population, based on the latest census figures. The biggest gainer will be Texas, a GOP-dominated state expected to gain up to four new House seats."

The federal funding resolution Congress is considering doesn't include money for the implementation of health-care reform, report Jessica Holzer and Josh Mitchell: "Democrats last week sought $1 billion to expand federal agencies to cope with health-care demands as part of a proposed $1.1 trillion spending bill. That measure died after Senate Republicans closed ranks against it under pressure from conservative activists...Congressional Republicans have said they will try to defund enactment of the health-care law's least popular provisions, particularly Internal Revenue Service efforts to enforce the requirement that most Americans carry health insurance."

Nor for FinReg, reports Pat Garofalo: "The resolution does not include funding for the implementation of the Dodd-Frank financial reform law. Under the omnibus, the Securities and Exchange Commission would have seen its budget increase to $1.3 billion from $1.1 billion, and the CFTC would have gone from $169 million to $286 million. Already, the SEC has halted implementation of a variety of measures under the law as it waits for funding."

The FCC is set to enact "net neutrality" rules, reports Cecilia Kang: "Federal regulators are poised to enact controversial new rules affecting Internet access, marking the government's strongest move yet to ensure that Facebook updates, Google searches and Skype calls reach consumers' homes unimpeded. Under the regulations, companies that carry the Internet into American homes would not be allowed to block Web sites that offer rival services, nor would they be permitted to play favorites by dividing delivery of Internet content into fast and slow lanes. The rules are set to win passage in a vote Tuesday by the Federal Communications Commission, after a majority of the panel's five members said they planned to vote in favor of the measure."

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Surf-rock interlude: Surfer Blood plays "Twin Peaks".

Still to come: Regulators are taking aim at executive pay; Mark Warner and Saxby Chambliss will push a deficit-reduction package; Bill Gates and Randi Weingarten talk education reform; and an infant learns to drive.

Economy

Sens. Mark Warner (D-Va.) and Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.) will introduce a debt reduction package in the next Congress, reports Heidi Przybyla: "Senators Mark Warner and Saxby Chambliss will seek to put the U.S. debt atop the agenda early in next year's Congress by proposing legislation to slash government spending, reduce popular tax breaks and trim entitlement programs. Warner, a Virginia Democrat, and Chambliss, a Georgia Republican, have been working over the past six months to court a group of 25 senators from both sides of the political aisle in hopes of gathering support for their bill, Warner said today in an interview. The legislation is based on a plan by the co-chairs of President Barack Obama's debt-reduction panel that earlier this month failed to get enough support for its recommendations to be sent to Congress."

The US is considering a crackdown on Wall Street executive pay, report Aaron Lucchetti and Sara Schaefer Munoz: "U.S. regulators are considering whether to require large financial firms to hold onto a chunk of executive pay to discourage the excessive risk-taking that contributed to the financial crisis, according to people familiar with the situation...The discussions by the Federal Reserve, Securities and Exchange Commission and other federal banking agencies are the result of a provision in the Dodd-Frank financial-overhaul law that instructs regulators to prohibit any bonus plan that "encourages inappropriate risks" at financial firms with more than $1 billion in assets."

The Fed is limiting its purchases of Treasury assets: http://bit.ly/ep64hK

The tax compromise provides a preview of new OMB director Jack Lew's style, reports Jackie Calmes: "While the deal drew fire from both parties, liberal Democrats were especially enraged by a two-year extension of Bush-era tax cuts for high incomes and wealthy estates and a reduction in payroll taxes for Social Security. In private caucuses, some turned their anger at the White House on Mr. Lew. 'This is not a package we could have supported if it didn’t take care of the workers who are most vulnerable,' Mr. Lew said in an interview, echoing the pitch he made to Democrats in private...With both Mr. Obama and Republicans vowing to bring down annual deficits swelling the nation’s debt -- in very different ways -- Mr. Lew becomes an even more crucial figure in the cabinet than budget directors typically are."

Public respect for government workers is on the wane, report Karen Tumulty and Ed O'Keefe: "Three-quarters of those who were surveyed in an October Washington Post poll said they believe federal workers get better pay and benefits than people doing similar jobs outside the government, and 52 percent said government employees are overpaid. When the NBC/Wall Street Journal poll this month sampled public opinion on the major proposals that were put forward by the president's deficit and debt reduction commission, the most popular by far - and the only one deemed 'totally acceptable' by a majority of respondents - was freezing the salaries of federal employees and members of Congress for three years."

The St. Louis Fed president calls quantitative easing "moderately successful" so far: http://on.wsj.com/fBbxaE

The spending package's March expiration date won't make raising the debt ceiling easier, writes Stan Collender: "Because the existing debt ceiling currently is assumed to be reached close to the same date the the CR will expire, won't the two issues be combined into a single piece of legislation?...Combining the two issues would certainly be possible and perhaps even likely in a rational world where efficiency is the goal. But in the hyper political and partisan world that will exist in Washington next year, will it really make any sense for the GOP voluntarily to give up one of what it will believe will be its two major points of leverage over the White House? Even if the two need to be dealt with at close to the same time, why would the GOP not use both opportunities to exert influence that it otherwise won't have?"

Tom Coburn's "Wastebook" is misleading, writes Brad Plumer: http://bit.ly/en6ujQ

Adorable infant acquiring life skills interlude: A Russian baby learns to drive.

Health Care

Sen. Tom Coburn is blocking a bill to provide health care to 9/11 first responders: http://politi.co/eFpn6x

The Justice Department is suing Blue Cross Blue Shield on antitrust grounds, reports Reed Abelson: "When the Justice Department filed an antitrust lawsuit against Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan in October, the unusual action was widely seen as a warning shot to dominant health insurance carriers in many other states...The case is viewed as a test for the Obama administration’s introduction of the federal health care law, which is aimed at spurring competition and driving down costs. About half the states in the country, including Alabama, Rhode Island and Iowa, share circumstances similar to Michigan’s, in their relationships with a big single insurance carrier."

Domestic Policy

The spending bill Congress is considering will implement a federal pay freeze, reports Stephen Ohlemacher: "Federal workers would face a two-year pay freeze under a spending bill Congress will take up this week to keep the government operating through March 4. The bill would protect student Pell grants, veteran's benefits and a program that helps low-income families pay their heating bills. A small business loan program would be extended...Three weeks ago, President Barack Obama proposed a two-year salary freeze for some 2 million federal workers, seizing on an initiative popular among Republicans. Public employee unions are lobbying lawmakers to reject the pay freeze."

State attorneys general are going to war with Google over privacy concerns, reports Tony Romm: "More legal wrangling could be in store for Google now that it has refused to turn over to state investigators the e-mails and other data it accidentally collected while mapping neighborhoods. The Mountain View, Calif.-based company declined to deliver that trove of information to Connecticut Attorney General and soon-to-be senator Richard Blumenthal by his Friday deadline. That could set up a legal showdown between the two less than a month before Blumenthal is set to become his state’s newest Democratic senator."

Bill Gates and Randi Weingarten discuss school reform: http://bit.ly/fj40lh

The tax compromise will not affect the Social Security trust fund, writes Allan Sloan: "Next year, as you probably know, workers subject to Social Security taxes will pay only 4.2 percent of their "covered wages" -wages up to $106,800 - rather than the normal 6.2 percent. This will reduce Social Security's cash proceeds by $112 billion, according to Congress' Joint Committee on Taxation. What impact will this cash shortfall have on the Social Security trust fund? None. Zero. Zip. How can a $112 billion cut in Social Security revenues not affect the trust fund? Because Treasury will give the trust fund the same amount of bonds it would have gotten had the two-percentage-point tax holiday didn't exist."

Modest proposal interlude: Craig Rowin would like someone to give him $1 million.

Energy

Republicans may actually defend spending on renewable energy, reports Sharon Begley: "This region--Texas, Oklahoma, and on up to the Dakotas--is to wind power what Nebraska is to corn. The investment tax credit for building wind and other renewable installations expires Dec. 31. Once it does, those projects will come to a halt, and thousands of people who are employed in building them will be out of work. Those workers, of course, are the constituents of newly elected officials, the companies behind the projects are crucial economic engines in the districts and states of those legislators, and both are going to give their reps an earful if the projects don’t resume."

The EPA is touting the success of cap and trade in fighting acid rain: http://bit.ly/hM57vU

Closing credits: Wonkbook is compiled and produced with help from Dylan Matthews, Mike Shepard, and Michelle Williams.

well i don't have much thought provoking opinion in regards to any of those 5 subjects. except Øbomba is a liar and has no balls. now i am very confused what to think about JA. i just read a long article this morning on NYT about the accusations these swedish woman made in regards to him and having sex with him. i think they sound like tiger's dumb doo girls. they wanted it so bad from this julian man, probably secretly wanted to get pregnant. then twist the whole story and condemn him. i am just sick of all this shit being news anyway.

yeah, let's just all be really merry around here like WB7 is every day. winky faces galore and so happy holidays. jeeze get real, it ain't so happy for 99% of people on this earth. why are you pretending to be so above this blight of criminals, destroying every piece of earth, wildlife, ocean beings and people's lives and future, happy holly dazing. america showing all this fake shit like lights and cutting down evergreen trees and putting stupid fake ornaments and lights in each window. it is a BIG waste of energy, that gets EXCEL energy wealthy and those MOFO ceo's billions. christ someone here in boulder put up a HUGE light bulb star on flagstaff mt. it looks hideous. stars don't look like this, nor made of fake stupid incandescent light bulbs.

i don't celebrate christMASS, i get through it.

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foreclosure statistics

Washington (CNN) – It is not enough to say the economy is "struggling," "hurting," "sluggish" or "slow."

In this week's American Sauce, we nail down the specifics on our economic health: income, spending, GDP and jobs (now and future). And we look at a core problem, still: housing. We'll introduce you to a woman who's part of the next large group to face foreclosure (conventional loans on moderate homes). She personally demonstrates that all that talk of loan modifications has led to a tangled system of obstacles.

Click here to listen, or keep reading for a quick, bulleted list.



American Sauce's economic check-up:

* Personal bankruptcies: 1.5 million individuals applied for bankruptcy in the year between Sept. 2009 and Sept. 2010. That was a nearly 14 percent increase from the year before.

* Business bankruptcies: 58,322 businesses applied for bankruptcy in that time. Notably, that was a slight decrease of less than 1 percent from the year before.

* Bankruptcy stats: Look through them for yourself at http://www.uscourts.gov/Statistics/BankruptcyStatistics.aspx

* Unemployment rate: 9.8 percent in November, up from 9.6 percent in October.

* Those on unemployment rolls: 15.1 million people.

* Those not counted in unemployment rate: Up to 5 million. That includes as many as 3.5 million who have maxed out unemployment benefits and 1.3 million workers who have stopped filing paperwork for unemployment benefits, saying they do not believe they can find a job and have given up.

NOTE: there are no reliable figures on how many "99'ers" exist. From the Labor Department, we know 3.5 million people have fallen off the unemployment rolls but we do not know how many of them have found a job and how many are still unemployed.

* Unemployment Stats: Here are the latest – http://bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.htm

* Personal income: Went up slightly in November, rising 0.5 percent in November.

* Personal spending: Also increased last month, going up 0.4 percent.

* Income/spending stats can be found here from the Bureau of Economic Advisors: http://www.bea.gov/newsreleases/national/pi/pinewsrelease.htm

* New home sales: Dropped another 8.1 percent in October. It was a drop of 28.5 percent from a year before and a plummet of 80 percent from the height of the housing boom.

* New home prices: Average sales price was $194,900 in October, 13.9 percent lower than in September.

* Existing home sales: Slid 2.2 percent in October.

* Existing home prices: Averaged $170,000 in October.

* More on new home numbers from CNNMoney: http://money.cnn.com/2010/11/24/real_estate/new_home_sales/index.htm

* More on existing homes from CNNMoney: http://money.cnn.com/2010/11/23/real_estate/home_sales_slow/index.htm

For more stats, including the latest figure on Gross Domestic Product, click here for this week's American Sauce podcast:

It is hard to not laugh out loud at the amazing stupidity of those who say "It's Different Here".

Please consider 'Low-doc' home borrowers hit by rising rates

A new report shows a sharp increase in the number of 'low-doc' borrowers struggling to keep up with their mortgage repayments as interest rates rise.

Adjusted for loans that passed from being in arrears to being settled because the property was sold, the percentage of prime loans more than 90 days in arrears increased from 1.33 per cent in the June quarter to 1.37 per cent in the three months to the end of September.

However, Fitch says self-employed borrowers have been hit hard, which has pushed arrears among prime low documentation loans to a record 3.97 per cent - slightly higher than the previous peak of mortgage delinquencies in this segment reached during the peak of the financial crisis in the December quarter of 2008.

The associate director in Fitch's structured finance team James Zanesi says higher mortgage repayments appear to be hitting the self-employed sector much harder than employees.

"The three consecutive cash rate hikes ending in May 2010 modestly affected Australian prime mortgage performance in the third quarter of 2010. Households have demonstrated some stability in spite of the higher mortgage payments," he said.

The very worst performance in the September quarter continued to be amongst the closest equivalent Australia has to subprime loans - 'low-doc, non-conforming' borrowers.

The arrears rate amongst this group was 18.94 per cent, although it makes up a relatively tiny proportion of Australian mortgages.

Progression of Rot

Australia is starting to get hit hard but the important word in this sentence is starting. Rot starts at the edges and the outside periphery (subprime and low-doc), then spreads to the core.

The party is now over as I mentioned in Partied Out: A Recap of Australia's Now Imploding Housing Bubble; Property Bull Offers Jeremy Grantham $100m Housing bet, Party is Not Over

US Graphs, Statistics

Here is a nice set of US stats and graphs from the LPS Mortgage Monitor: October 2010 “Dashboard” that depicts where Australia will eventually head.

Total Delinquencies



Delinquencies remain about 2.7 times historical average, foreclosure inventories are 7.4 times and rising.



October Month-End Data: Conclusions

• Foreclosure inventories continue to grow, the rise in delinquencies remains subdued as a result.
• Accelerated foreclosure activity has led to a rapid decline in agency delinquencies. Foreclosure inventories have risen dramatically as a result.
• Most western states have experienced a decline in the total 30 day and foreclosure inventory over the last six months.
• The issue of current loans going delinquent remains, however more and more sixty day defaults are repeats.
• Modification dominated seriously delinquent cures have declined over the last several months but still remain elevated.
• More six and 12 month delinquent loans are moving to foreclosure, but the extremely delinquent category continues to grow.
• Foreclosure sales dropped sharply, down 35 percent nationwide. Impact was across all investor categories.
• Origination activity continues to accelerate with the government percentage declining. High quality lending is yielding the best vintage performance in years.

The housing rot in OZ has just started and it's a long way to the core. But it will get there. Australia can look forward to similar stats in years to come.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com
Click Here To Scroll Thru My Recent Post List

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Making Money With a Website

Politico reports:

“Huffington has styled herself as a ‘new media’ maven and an expert on the effective deployment of news and celebrity on the Internet in the service of political ends,” says the complaint. “As will be shown at trial, Huffington’s and Lerer’s image with respect to the Huffington Post is founded on false impressions and inaccuracies: They presented the ‘new media’ ideas and plans of Peter Daou and James Boyce as their own in order to raise money for the website and enhance their image, and breached their promises to work with Peter and James to develop the site together."...



Democrats need “to develop a dominant position within the Internet,” Daou said during an early meeting about the site, according to the complaint. “It is a system pushing the message, not just for fundraising,” he allegedly said.



Huffington called the charge of stolen ideas and broken deals “a completely absurd, ludicrous supposition” from men whom she’d turned down for jobs on the site.

This might be interesting  — a stark presentation of the Huffington Post's political agenda. But, really, I'm not too impressed with this notion of stealing "the idea" for a business. Was there a contract or a partnership or not? And it's not much of an idea anyway — a "dominant" website with a political slant. The trick is to do it well and get the traffic. Anyone could try to do it. Huffington did it. Possibly because she picked the right people to work with, and it wasn't Boyce and Daou.

The lawsuit touches on the same legal frontiers of intellectual property and deal-making as did a famous lawsuit Facebook settled in 2008. The success of the suit, which seeks unspecified damages, will hinge on whether Daou and Boyce can prove they had offered “something more specific than a generalized notion” and that Huffington had agreed to make them part of the deal, said Dan Kornstein, a prominent New York litigator.

What is the "more specific" thing? The complaint says the idea was for "a collective of blogs by notable personalities, non-partisan news aggregation, issue-specific web pages, scoops and exclusives derived from the founders’ personal relationships with Democratic Party and media insiders, and online community-building, with the purpose of driving Internet traffic and ‘page views’ for politically progressive messaging.” I'm not impressed.

Jamie Turner is the chief content officer of the 60 Second Marketer, the online magazine for BKV Digital and Direct Response. He is also the co-author of How to Make Money with Social Media, now available at fine bookstores (and a few not-so-fine bookstores) everywhere.

Given the hundreds of social media tools available, and the thousands of different ways to use them in business, you’d think that getting Fortune 500 companies on board would be a complex and daunting task.

But it’s not. The truth is, there are only five different ways the Fortune 500 use social media. Seriously — just five. And once you know what they are, you can figure out which ones would be most useful for your business.

These five social approaches, though different in many respects, all have one thing in common: Each of the Fortune 500 use them to generate a profit. After all, they’re not using social media just to be social. They’re using it to make money.

In order to make money with social media, you have to set up your campaigns to be measured. And I’m not talking about simple metrics like number of followers or unique page views (although those are important). I’m talking about real metrics like leads generated, prospects converted and profits realized. Those are the kinds of metrics that enable you to track the success of your social media campaign on an ROI basis. And when you’re tracking your social media campaign on an ROI basis, you’re making your CFO happy (along with your CEO, your CMO and everyone else in your company).

1. Branding

Some companies use social media strictly as a branding tool. Typically, this means running a YouTubeclass="blippr-nobr">YouTube campaign that (hopefully) gets a lot of buzz around the water cooler. While using social media strictly as a branding tool might be considered “old-school” these days, it can still generate some positive sales growth.

Take Toyota as an example. Its YouTube mini-series featuring the Sienna Family has generated more than 8.3 million impressions. Those are not passive impressions fed to consumers during a TV commercial break, but engaged views attained through social sharing. When people share your commercial with their friends, they’re reinforcing your marketing for you, and it’s the best kind.

Of course, one of the most successful campaigns of this type is the Old Spice YouTube campaign that has more than 140 million impressions and, according to Nielsen, helped sales increase 55% in three months, and a whopping 107% during the month of July alone. Part of what made this campaign successful was that Old Spice set it up so it could quickly respond to viewers’ comments about the videos. By engaging the viewers in the videos, Old Spice improved the stickiness of the campaign and, best of all, enhanced the viral nature of it.

2. e-Commerce

If you can sell your product or service online, then you’ll want to drive people to a landing page on your website where they can buy your goods. How can you accomplish this? Just do what Dell does. It tweets about special promotions for its folloers on Twitterclass="blippr-nobr">Twitter. Right now, the DellOutlet account has 1.5 million followers. If you crunch some hypothetical but fair numbers on the back of an envelope, Dell’s ROI might look something like this:

DellOutlet followers: 1.5 million

DellOutlet followers who actually see the promotional Tweet: 50,000

Followers who click on the link in the Tweet: 500

Prospects who purchase a computer based on the Tweet: 50

50 purchases x $500 computer = $25,000

That’s $25,000 in revenue just for sending out a tweet. Not bad for a day’s work. Of course you’ll have to put in the effort to build your Twitter community in the first place, but those are certainly resources well spent, given the potential return.

3. Research

Many companies are using social media as a tool to do simple, anecdotal research. Sometimes, this involves building a website that engages customers in a dialogue. Starbucks has done this famously with MyStarbucksIdea.com. When visitors land on the site, they’re asked to provide new ideas to Starbucks on ways to improve the brand. Visitors can share ideas, vote on which ideas they like the best, discuss the ideas that have been submitted, and even see the results of their suggestions in action.

But you don’t have to build an entire website to keep tabs on your customers’ needs. Got a blog? Great. Ask your visitors to leave suggestions in your comments section. Have an e-newsletter? Terrific. Use the tools from ConstantContact, ExactTarget or MailChimp to include polls and surveys in your e-newsletter. Active on Twitter? Wonderful. Then use Twtpoll, SurveyMonkey or SurveyGizmo to drive people to a survey page on these sites.

The bottom line is there are plenty of ways to keep your finger on the pulse of your community’s needs, using social media tools that are readily available to both you and the Fortune 500.

4. Customer Retention

A good rule to remember is that it costs three to five times as much to acquire a new customer as it does to keep an existing one. Given that, wouldn’t it be smart to use social media as a tool to keep customers loyal and engaged? That’s what Comcast and Southwest Airlines do. They communicate via Twitter, class='blippr-nobr'>Facebookclass="blippr-nobr">Facebook and other social media platforms to help solve customer service issues.

When Frank Eliason at Comcast first noticed that people were making comments about his company on Twitter, he probably wasn’t very happy. After all, if you’re going to Tweet about your cable company, it’s likely a complaint. So Frank took things into his own hands and started Tweeting back to the disgruntled customers. His tweets offered suggestions and tips on how to fix the problems people were having with their services.

Research has indicated that if you take a customer in a heightened state of anger and help them out, they’ll actually become brand advocates. In other words, they start promoting your brand to others because you reached out to them and helped them at a time of need.

That’s what happened with Frank and Comcast. Customers went from being disgruntled to being brand advocates — all because they were pleasantly surprised when Frank reached out to them via Twitter and helped solve their problems.

If you find yourself reading negative comments in the blogosphere about your brand, don’t shy away from them. Engage with them. You’ll be surprised how effective it can be.

5. Lead Generation

If you’re having difficulty selling your product or service online, you may want to invest in a social B2B lead generation strategy. At my company, we use social media to drive prospects to our online magazine for marketers. When prospects get to the website, they can read a blog post, watch a 60-second video or download a white paper. Once we gather their contact information, we (gently) re-market to them by reminding them of all the great results our partner generates for its clients.

This hub-and-spoke system works like a charm. Why? Because B2B and professional service firms are often sold based on a relationship. Much of the decision process is based on a vendor’s reputation and trustworthiness. What better way to build trust than by providing helpful, useful information to the client prospect via social media?

Remember, when you’re using this hub and spoke system, you don’t want to limit yourself to just the big five (class='blippr-nobr'>LinkedInclass="blippr-nobr">LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and MySpaceclass="blippr-nobr">MySpace). You’ll also want to use e-mail marketing, speeches, e-books, webinars, blogs, videos and other social media tools to build trust and awareness.

More Business Resources from Mashable:

- 5 Ways to Sell Your Expertise Online/> - Why Your Business Should Consider Reverse Mentorship/> - 35 Essential Social Media & Tech Resources for Small Businesses/> - 6 Ways to Score a Job Through Twitter/> - 4 Misconceptions About Marketing in Social Games

For more Business coverage:

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bench craft company scam

Small Business <b>News</b>: The Business Of Social Media

Are you in the business of social media? If you are involved in almost any business today you really should be or at least you should have a social media.

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bench craft company scam

Small Business <b>News</b>: The Business Of Social Media

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Follow the latest reaction and fallout as the WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is denied bail, and the latest leaked cables reveal US plans to defend Poland and Baltic states against Russia.

In <b>News</b> Conferences, Obama Shoots at the Buzzer - NYTimes.com

President Obama, as usual, saved his most powerful words for the end of his press conference on taxes and economic policy.

bench craft company scam

Small Business <b>News</b>: The Business Of Social Media

Are you in the business of social media? If you are involved in almost any business today you really should be or at least you should have a social media.

The arrest of Julian Assange: as it happened | <b>News</b> | guardian.co.uk

Follow the latest reaction and fallout as the WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is denied bail, and the latest leaked cables reveal US plans to defend Poland and Baltic states against Russia.

In <b>News</b> Conferences, Obama Shoots at the Buzzer - NYTimes.com

President Obama, as usual, saved his most powerful words for the end of his press conference on taxes and economic policy.

bench craft company scam

Small Business <b>News</b>: The Business Of Social Media

Are you in the business of social media? If you are involved in almost any business today you really should be or at least you should have a social media.

The arrest of Julian Assange: as it happened | <b>News</b> | guardian.co.uk

Follow the latest reaction and fallout as the WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is denied bail, and the latest leaked cables reveal US plans to defend Poland and Baltic states against Russia.

In <b>News</b> Conferences, Obama Shoots at the Buzzer - NYTimes.com

President Obama, as usual, saved his most powerful words for the end of his press conference on taxes and economic policy.

bench craft company scam

Small Business <b>News</b>: The Business Of Social Media

Are you in the business of social media? If you are involved in almost any business today you really should be or at least you should have a social media.

The arrest of Julian Assange: as it happened | <b>News</b> | guardian.co.uk

Follow the latest reaction and fallout as the WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is denied bail, and the latest leaked cables reveal US plans to defend Poland and Baltic states against Russia.

In <b>News</b> Conferences, Obama Shoots at the Buzzer - NYTimes.com

President Obama, as usual, saved his most powerful words for the end of his press conference on taxes and economic policy.

bench craft company scam

Small Business <b>News</b>: The Business Of Social Media

Are you in the business of social media? If you are involved in almost any business today you really should be or at least you should have a social media.

The arrest of Julian Assange: as it happened | <b>News</b> | guardian.co.uk

Follow the latest reaction and fallout as the WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is denied bail, and the latest leaked cables reveal US plans to defend Poland and Baltic states against Russia.

In <b>News</b> Conferences, Obama Shoots at the Buzzer - NYTimes.com

President Obama, as usual, saved his most powerful words for the end of his press conference on taxes and economic policy.

bench craft company scam

Small Business <b>News</b>: The Business Of Social Media

Are you in the business of social media? If you are involved in almost any business today you really should be or at least you should have a social media.

The arrest of Julian Assange: as it happened | <b>News</b> | guardian.co.uk

Follow the latest reaction and fallout as the WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is denied bail, and the latest leaked cables reveal US plans to defend Poland and Baltic states against Russia.

In <b>News</b> Conferences, Obama Shoots at the Buzzer - NYTimes.com

President Obama, as usual, saved his most powerful words for the end of his press conference on taxes and economic policy.

bench craft company scam

Small Business <b>News</b>: The Business Of Social Media

Are you in the business of social media? If you are involved in almost any business today you really should be or at least you should have a social media.

The arrest of Julian Assange: as it happened | <b>News</b> | guardian.co.uk

Follow the latest reaction and fallout as the WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is denied bail, and the latest leaked cables reveal US plans to defend Poland and Baltic states against Russia.

In <b>News</b> Conferences, Obama Shoots at the Buzzer - NYTimes.com

President Obama, as usual, saved his most powerful words for the end of his press conference on taxes and economic policy.

bench craft company scam

Small Business <b>News</b>: The Business Of Social Media

Are you in the business of social media? If you are involved in almost any business today you really should be or at least you should have a social media.

The arrest of Julian Assange: as it happened | <b>News</b> | guardian.co.uk

Follow the latest reaction and fallout as the WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is denied bail, and the latest leaked cables reveal US plans to defend Poland and Baltic states against Russia.

In <b>News</b> Conferences, Obama Shoots at the Buzzer - NYTimes.com

President Obama, as usual, saved his most powerful words for the end of his press conference on taxes and economic policy.

bench craft company scam

Small Business <b>News</b>: The Business Of Social Media

Are you in the business of social media? If you are involved in almost any business today you really should be or at least you should have a social media.

The arrest of Julian Assange: as it happened | <b>News</b> | guardian.co.uk

Follow the latest reaction and fallout as the WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is denied bail, and the latest leaked cables reveal US plans to defend Poland and Baltic states against Russia.

In <b>News</b> Conferences, Obama Shoots at the Buzzer - NYTimes.com

President Obama, as usual, saved his most powerful words for the end of his press conference on taxes and economic policy.

bench craft company scam

Small Business <b>News</b>: The Business Of Social Media

Are you in the business of social media? If you are involved in almost any business today you really should be or at least you should have a social media.

The arrest of Julian Assange: as it happened | <b>News</b> | guardian.co.uk

Follow the latest reaction and fallout as the WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is denied bail, and the latest leaked cables reveal US plans to defend Poland and Baltic states against Russia.

In <b>News</b> Conferences, Obama Shoots at the Buzzer - NYTimes.com

President Obama, as usual, saved his most powerful words for the end of his press conference on taxes and economic policy.

bench craft company scam

Small Business <b>News</b>: The Business Of Social Media

Are you in the business of social media? If you are involved in almost any business today you really should be or at least you should have a social media.

The arrest of Julian Assange: as it happened | <b>News</b> | guardian.co.uk

Follow the latest reaction and fallout as the WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is denied bail, and the latest leaked cables reveal US plans to defend Poland and Baltic states against Russia.

In <b>News</b> Conferences, Obama Shoots at the Buzzer - NYTimes.com

President Obama, as usual, saved his most powerful words for the end of his press conference on taxes and economic policy.

bench craft company scam

Small Business <b>News</b>: The Business Of Social Media

Are you in the business of social media? If you are involved in almost any business today you really should be or at least you should have a social media.

The arrest of Julian Assange: as it happened | <b>News</b> | guardian.co.uk

Follow the latest reaction and fallout as the WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is denied bail, and the latest leaked cables reveal US plans to defend Poland and Baltic states against Russia.

In <b>News</b> Conferences, Obama Shoots at the Buzzer - NYTimes.com

President Obama, as usual, saved his most powerful words for the end of his press conference on taxes and economic policy.

bench craft company scam

Small Business <b>News</b>: The Business Of Social Media

Are you in the business of social media? If you are involved in almost any business today you really should be or at least you should have a social media.

The arrest of Julian Assange: as it happened | <b>News</b> | guardian.co.uk

Follow the latest reaction and fallout as the WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is denied bail, and the latest leaked cables reveal US plans to defend Poland and Baltic states against Russia.

In <b>News</b> Conferences, Obama Shoots at the Buzzer - NYTimes.com

President Obama, as usual, saved his most powerful words for the end of his press conference on taxes and economic policy.

bench craft company scam

Small Business <b>News</b>: The Business Of Social Media

Are you in the business of social media? If you are involved in almost any business today you really should be or at least you should have a social media.

The arrest of Julian Assange: as it happened | <b>News</b> | guardian.co.uk

Follow the latest reaction and fallout as the WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is denied bail, and the latest leaked cables reveal US plans to defend Poland and Baltic states against Russia.

In <b>News</b> Conferences, Obama Shoots at the Buzzer - NYTimes.com

President Obama, as usual, saved his most powerful words for the end of his press conference on taxes and economic policy.

bench craft company scam

Small Business <b>News</b>: The Business Of Social Media

Are you in the business of social media? If you are involved in almost any business today you really should be or at least you should have a social media.

The arrest of Julian Assange: as it happened | <b>News</b> | guardian.co.uk

Follow the latest reaction and fallout as the WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is denied bail, and the latest leaked cables reveal US plans to defend Poland and Baltic states against Russia.

In <b>News</b> Conferences, Obama Shoots at the Buzzer - NYTimes.com

President Obama, as usual, saved his most powerful words for the end of his press conference on taxes and economic policy.

bench craft company scam

Small Business <b>News</b>: The Business Of Social Media

Are you in the business of social media? If you are involved in almost any business today you really should be or at least you should have a social media.

The arrest of Julian Assange: as it happened | <b>News</b> | guardian.co.uk

Follow the latest reaction and fallout as the WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is denied bail, and the latest leaked cables reveal US plans to defend Poland and Baltic states against Russia.

In <b>News</b> Conferences, Obama Shoots at the Buzzer - NYTimes.com

President Obama, as usual, saved his most powerful words for the end of his press conference on taxes and economic policy.

bench craft company scam

Small Business <b>News</b>: The Business Of Social Media

Are you in the business of social media? If you are involved in almost any business today you really should be or at least you should have a social media.

The arrest of Julian Assange: as it happened | <b>News</b> | guardian.co.uk

Follow the latest reaction and fallout as the WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is denied bail, and the latest leaked cables reveal US plans to defend Poland and Baltic states against Russia.

In <b>News</b> Conferences, Obama Shoots at the Buzzer - NYTimes.com

President Obama, as usual, saved his most powerful words for the end of his press conference on taxes and economic policy.

bench craft company scam

Small Business <b>News</b>: The Business Of Social Media

Are you in the business of social media? If you are involved in almost any business today you really should be or at least you should have a social media.

The arrest of Julian Assange: as it happened | <b>News</b> | guardian.co.uk

Follow the latest reaction and fallout as the WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is denied bail, and the latest leaked cables reveal US plans to defend Poland and Baltic states against Russia.

In <b>News</b> Conferences, Obama Shoots at the Buzzer - NYTimes.com

President Obama, as usual, saved his most powerful words for the end of his press conference on taxes and economic policy.