About Me 0116

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

managing your personal finances

There are many ways to manage your finances online, but many of them handle only the paying of run-of-the-mill bills. A site starting in beta-test mode on Monday, called Manilla, is aiming for something broader.

Manilla, which is owned by the publishing company Hearst, wants to help people organize four categories of accounts: household bills, like phone and cable; magazine subscriptions; air travel rewards programs; and financial bills like mortgages and credit cards. Once users sign up for Manilla they can link their personal accounts to the service and are supplied with a simple and clean interface to manage them.

Jessica Insalaco, an executive vice president at Manilla, said people the company surveyed said they were constantly baffled by the bills, subscriptions and other programs they have to manage. People also feel overwhelmed by the piles of paper bills they face on a daily basis, she said.

I tested Manilla ahead of its introduction and found that the process of linking and managing a bill was simple. I linked my AT&T phone bill to the service and it took only a few seconds to hook up the two sites and begin managing my account from Manilla.

Manilla isn’t only trying to help people organize their household finances. The company is teaming with businesses, too, hoping to offer a less expensive alternative to paper bills.

According to the United States Postal Service’s 2010 Annual Report, businesses in the United States send 48 billion account notices, statements and bills to customers each year. That’s a lot of paper that ultimately ends up in garbage dumps and paper shredders.

“Right now, some companies can spend up to 75 cents on a single paper bill,” Ms. Insalaco said. “We want to work with these major companies to send us the bill, reducing the cost of the paper version, and we will act as the middleman to the consumer.”

To make this process even more seamless, Manilla plans to create “premier partnerships” with some companies. Manilla said in a company blog post that it was opening with Comcast as its first premier partner, where cable customers who sign up for Manilla will no longer receive a paper bill, but will instead be billed directly through Manilla.

The company plans to add several premier partners when it has its full introduction in coming months.

Manilla isn’t only trying to help people organize their household finances. The company is teaming with businesses, too, hoping to offer a less expensive alternative to paper bills.

The company plans to add several premier partners when it has its full introduction in coming months.

BenchCraft, LLC announced that it's going to debut its Concert Sequence, a new line of recliners with an integrated sound strategy, at High Point Marketplace on October 17-22, 2009. Concert Series recliners function two built-in stereo speakers in addition to a subwoofer designed specially to create a complete vary of sound. It has tactile motors which could either vibrate with all the sound or be put into use independently being a massage technique, and separate controls that permit for particular person changes for being made towards the volume, bass/treble, as well as tactile/massage element. The program, that will have a beginning cost point of $699, will also consist of a mini audio jack so users can connect to their diverse audio sources (i.e. iPods, MP3 players, cell phones, etc.). To that end, Sinning mentioned that Berkline may also be introducing in decide on motion
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furnishings its new eCoupled know-how option--a wireless charging station for digital units which includes cell phones, MP3 gamers, and laptops. Developed by Fulton Innovation, it eliminates the will need for power cords by setting up an electromagnetic conduit mixed with an intelligent command strategy that often monitors energy movement so various gadgets from totally different manufactures can charge concurrently. eCoupled engineering can be safe for electronic units since it delivers only the amount of power
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Monday, March 14, 2011

Making Money Web

What is Page 2? Page 2 is a compilation of stories and news tidbits, which for whatever reason, didn’t make the front page of /Film. After the jump we’ve included 48 different items, fun images, videos, casting tidbits, articles of interest and more. It’s like a mystery grab bag of movie web related goodness. If you have any interesting items that we might’ve missed that you think should go in /Film’s Page 2 – email us!

New photos from Dylan Dog: Dead of Night have been released on Facebook.

Mark Millar shares his thoughts on why the movie studios will continue to make comic book movies even though the trend will start to fizzle out:

“The movies are making more and more money. Dark Knight made more than twice what Batman Begins made, and Dark Knight Rises is on track to make over a billion dollars as well, I’d imagine. So they’ll keep making them as long as they keep making money.” … “I’ve always said 2015 is when it’ll start to fizzle out, because the biggest ones are yet to come. Next year you have all the Marvel franchises coming together in one movie, called The Avengers, and it’s directed by a great guy, Joss Whedon. You’re going to have Captain America, Thor, Iron Man, Hulk, all in one film.”

Between The Pages lists the 10 most awesome James Bond cakes.

Here’s that big funding round for Boxee I told you about last fall: The Web video software company has raised another $16.5 million. Previous investors General Catalyst, Spark Capital and Union Square Ventures are all back, joined by new money from Softbank and Israel’s Pitango.

Boxee, which makes software that makes it easier to get video from the Web to your TV, is a buzzy company in a buzzy industry. But I wrote about Boxee’s efforts to raise $10 million to $15 million back in November. What took so long?

My hunch is that in between then and now, the startup had to figure out if it really wanted to raise more money, or sell out to a big fish. For a long time, I figured the company was eventually headed for option B, and that a cable giant like Comcast or a box-maker like Cisco would be the buyer.

And that could still happen! But now the stakes have gotten a lot higher: Boxee has now raised $28.5 million, so in order to please its investors it’s going to need a significant payout.

Which means it really will have to build a real revenue stream, which it doesn’t have yet, and won’t have until it has a significant audience. As I wrote a few months ago:

Boxee’s real plan is both clear and a bit undefined: It wants to get its software on as many devices as possible–not just the Boxee Box but everything from Sony’s TVs to Microsoft’s Xbox 360s to Samsung’s Blu-ray players. And then it wants to build some kind of business based on advertising, consumer payments or both.

So Boxee isn’t trying to make money by licensing its software to hardware companies, any more than Netflix or Pandora is when they get their apps installed on different gadgets. It’s giving D-Link, the company that’s actually making the Boxee Box, its software for free. And it will do the same for other hardware companies.

Here’s a quick interview I conducted last fall with sleep-deprived CEO Avner Ronen, going over the same territory, back in November. Note that Ronen’s plans to bring Hulu Plus to the Boxee Box have yet to pan out. What’s up with that? “As you know these things take time,” he said via email yesterday. “But we are on it.”

Surface Encounters proudly ensures purchaser satisfaction and selling price setting up granite assurance. “I’m generally skeptical heading with new providers, but your employees has manufactured me a believer!” - Steve, Indianapolis

Surface Encounters can be a fast-growing surface encounters business and, yet they've kept pace with all the modern client referrals. “This company is among the most low-priced, trustworthy and pleasant firms from the total state. I might recommend them to any one.” - Mike R., South Bend

A whole lot of get the job done goes into generating gorgeous countertops from nature. The process comes with laser measurement artistic vein matching, precision diamond and water-jet cutting, edging and certified installation. One are not able to plainly phone in their order for any custom countertop and also have it inside every day or two. High quality requires time.

Surface Encounters encourages customers to go to a showroom to understand additional about all natural stone countertops. Apart from the variety and fabrication operation, some other fundamental portion of customer treatment is ensuring 1 knows tips on how to treatment for their granite countertop to help keep it seeking new for years to arrive.

Granite is known as a lovely natural stone product which is a preferred substance used for countertops and floor tiles in kitchens and bathrooms. Granite has surpassed marble in recognition simply because is it much more durable and easier to care for. Granite is unmatched by synthetic items for its strength and durability, tolerance to temperature improvements and resistance to stains and scratches.

Granite can be a effortlessly formed stone that is definitely quarried from deep inside earth, harvested, reduce, polished, sealed and set up in homes to add beauty, elegance and model. Simply because it is a healthy solution, no two slabs are precisely alike. Granite is offered in a large number of shades from your diverse minerals which can be determined during the rock. Due to the fact it comes from all over the world, totally different regions and environmental aspects allow it to be extraordinary.

Granite is mostly developed up of quartz crystal, nevertheless it also is made up of diverse quantities of other metals this includes feldspar, mica, copper and iron. Some granite may possibly incorporate bits of gold or silver. The quantity of each and every metal depends around the region it comes from. All granite is shaped right into a really difficult stone by heat and strain. Rain adds other minerals because it is forming. It can be on the market all over the world, in every last country, and every area will generate a surface encounters exclusive number of granite.

Surface Encounters state-of-the-art machinery ensures the highest level of quality completed product or service because they style and develop some of the finest kitchens and bathrooms. Granite Countertops enhance the warmth and attractiveness of residences whereas escalating their price and bettering lifestyles.

Surface Encounters can also be concerned with employee morale; thrilled personnel are further very likely to contribute to your good results of a business enterprise. Moreover to staying a effective agency and a single that may be fantastic to function for, Surface Encounters does their element to protect our planet.

Surface Encounters does what on earth is precise for their customers, employees as well as setting. Surface Encounters makes use of advanced drinking water recycling capabilities to recycle up to 43,000 gallons of drinking water daily. Additionally, one hundred percent on the scrap produced in generating beautiful kitchens and breathtaking baths is re-used as aggregate in street constructing, surface preparations and concrete.

The Columbus, Ohio Grand Opening of Surface Encounters qualities an artwork gallery showroom of Granite, Marble, Quartz and Engineered Stone counter tops. Keep Supervisor, Scott Donnelly unlocked the doorways of the showroom at 4717 Roberts Street, just west in the I-270 Beltway. The Surface Encounters production plan makes use of precision, automated solutions through the fabrication from the customer's custom-made counter the best, these kinds of as: a laser measuring alignment that plans the diamond-tipped sculpturing blades. Surface Encounters' system consists of computer-driven software program that perpetuates the stone's natural veins. Every last Surface Encounter retail outlet has at least 1 registered, interior designer to assist you in creating the finished task you're seeking for. The craftsmanship continues with the

Homeowners are choosing to remodel rather than offer their real estate in today’s marketplace
Granite countertops have become a high selection amid Wixom individuals for kitchen remodeling tasks. Kitchen remodeling is usually the primary challenge tackled with families paying 3,000 hours or more each year in their kitchen. Granite countertops give an atmosphere that enhances the high-quality time invested with relatives and acquaintances. Granite countertops final a lifetime and make improvements to the top quality of real estate.

Surface Encounters Wixom retailer supervisor, Sal Dellacasa, says there are many explanations consumers are deciding upon granite for their countertop needs. “Granite countertops add splendor and elegance to a kitchen. Granite is accessible in a very variety of vibrant colours and rich textures and its strength and sturdiness is unmatched by any other healthy stone or artificial countertop substance.”

Surface Encounters’ people relish qualified services as well as a pleasant, beneficial staff to guide them through the kitchen remodeling technique. Numerous of Surface Encounters new users are referred to them by prior potential customers.
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Surface Encounters Macomb will be the family home of half-off granite for kitchen and bathroom countertops. Granite countertops by Surface Encounters have quickly come to be the prime choice for Macomb residents that are remodeling their kitchens. Kitchen remodeling can take priority with families paying 3,000 hrs or even more annually within their kitchen. Granite countertops offer an atmosphere that enhances the level of quality time put in with spouse and children and acquaintances and develop the excellent of homes.

Surface Encounters Macomb retail outlet manager, Sal Dellacasa, says there are various causes consumers are deciding granite for his or her countertop wants. “Granite countertops add beauty and elegance to a kitchen. Granite is available inside a variety of vibrant shades and rich textures and its strength and sturdiness is unmatched by every other surface encounters all-natural stone or synthetic countertop content.”

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Friday, March 11, 2011

Making Money Now

Founded in 2009 by Amanda Steinberg, DailyWorth can be a daily electronic mail newsletter that features information and facts on economical literacy and money management skewed in the direction of a female audience. DailyWorth’s subjects assortment from how you can organize your finances to tax tips to conserving help. And DailyWorth has an extraordinary editorial staff to build subject matter. MP Dunleavey, formerly a personalized finance columnist with all the Ny Occasions and at present a contributor with Dough magazine, is main DailyWorth’s editorial group.

Inspite of unions’ prolonged hatred of Scott Walker, the new governor is moving to tackle each the signs and symptoms for the illness along with the illness itself-the public-sector union scheme which has molested Wisconsin’s taxpayers and their youngsters by gaming the strategy. Unions like Wisconsin’s teachers’ union [WEAC] (which was Wisconsin’s biggest-spending lobby in 2009) happen to be extraordinarily adept at repairing the model because of shelling out hundreds of thousands to elect politicians who, in turn, reward the unions in the expense in the taxpayers.

the Wisconsin battle, when when compared with private-sector negotiations is about: 1) the Scope of Bargaining, 2) Union “Income” Security [Right-to-Work vs. Compelled Dues], 3) regardless of whether Wisconsin ought to be the unions’ dues assortment agency [payroll deduction of dues], and four) whether or not public-sector unions will need to be ‘recertified’ by keeping elections each individual year.

put the photos web based to present our tasks staff at msnbc.com, and photographer Jim Seida mentioned, why really do not we just publish it like a slide present? I used to be skeptical at first - would that crimp the writing? - but while in the conclude I used to be advocating undertaking it by doing this when the picture crew was skeptical. I assumed far more many people would read because of it by doing this, and it could be worth an experiment.”

commercial fishing boats based in Crescent City put to sea previous evening once the tsunami alert was first broadcast. It is really much easier to experience out tremendous waves at sea than on the dock. Now a lot of those boats are operating reduced on fuel, but they are unable to return to port even while the surges carry on, reported Chris Renner, operator of C. Renner Petroleum Co. in Crescent Town, which serves the fleet

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On Monday night time, I watched my 1st, The Previous Word host Lawrence O’Donnell.
Whereas O’Donnell laudably attempted to target the audience’s consideration onand hopefully last, Charlie Sheen trainwreck interview, courtesy of the tragic undertow that threatens to pull Sheen underneath for wonderful, I used to be overtaken, not through the pulling on the thread, along with the voracious audience he serves. It didn’t make me depressing, it crafted me angry.

Concerning celebrities, we will be a heartless nation, basking within their misfortunes like nude sunbathers at Schadenfreude Beach. The impulse is understandable, to some degree. It could be grating to listen to complaints from men and women who take pleasure in privileges that the majority of us cannot even picture. In case you cannot muster up some compassion for Charlie Sheen, who tends to make extra income to get a day’s function than the majority of us will make in a decade’s time, I guess I can not blame you.

With all the fast pace of events on the internet and also the information and facts revolution sparked from the Web, it’s incredibly simple for your solutions trade to assume it is unique: consistently breaking new ground and accomplishing stuff that nobody has ever achieved previously.

But you can get other kinds of business that have currently undergone many of the same exact radical shifts, and also have just as excellent a stake within the long run.

Take healthcare, for example.

We frequently feel of it as a large, lumbering beast, but in fact, medicine has undergone a series of revolutions inside the past 200 years which have been a minimum of equal to those we see in technological innovation and specifics.

Much less understandable, but still within the norms of human nature, could be the impulse to rubberneck, to slow down and look into the carnage of Charlie spectacle of Sheen’s unraveling, but on the blithe interviewer Sheen’s lifestyle as we pass it while in the most suitable lane of our daily lives. To become honest, it could possibly be tough for people today to discern the distinction in between a run-of-the-mill attention whore, and an honest-to-goodness, circling the drain tragedy-to-be. On its own merits, a quote like “I Am On the Drug. It’s Named Charlie Sheen” is sheer genius, and we can not all be expected to consider the full measure of someone’s existence every single time we hear one thing humorous.

Swift forward to 2011 and I'm trying to examine would mean of currently being a bit more business-like about my hobbies (mainly audio). By the end of January I had manned up and started to promote my blogs. I had generated various totally different blogs, which had been contributed to by colleagues and colleagues. I promoted these actions by Facebook and Twitter.

2nd: the little abomination that the Gang of 5 on the Supream Court gave us a 12 months or so ago (Citizens Inebriated) definitely comprises a tad bouncing betty of its personal that could quite nicely go off within the faces of Govs Wanker, Sacitch, Krysty, and J.O. Daniels. Due to the fact this ruling extended the notion of “personhood” to equally corporations and unions, to experiment with to deny them any right to run in the legal framework that they have been organized under deprives these “persons” of your freedoms of speech, association and movement. Which means (after once again, quoting law school educated household) that either the courts have to uphold these rights for that unions (as individual “persons” as guaranteed from the Federal (and most state) constitutions, or they have to declare that these attempts at stripping or limiting union rights really have to utilize to big corporations, also.

It's been more than three years since we received any confessions from an employee at Staples. Thankfully, Staples vet Dave decided to write us with the insights he gleaned from his time at the office supply superstore.

1) The managers have a ton of power, the front line employees have very little. If you want to negotiate, get an exception, have a question, or were told one thing and are now being told something else, just ask for a manager. Managers can make pretty much anything happen and are extremely sensitive to customer complaints.

2) Tech work is the lowest priority. Everything else comes first even if it's something as time insensitive as putting out stock. The reason is that everything else is evaluated in some kind of metric, tech work being finished in a timely manner is not (or at least it's never enough of a priority to let front line employees know). This may not seem like a big deal, you wait a few extra hours maybe a day or two, but it exponentially increases the likelihood of error because the tech doing the work is constantly being pulled away from the task at hand, making it far easier to forget what needs to be done, what had been done, and other details of the work at hand.

3) Price matching is pretty much an absolute sure thing so long as it's from a bricks and mortar store. Just bring in some evidence in the form of a flyer, photo, or even have them call to confirm. This is especially useful when combined with...

4) Online coupons are all over the place. Google around on a weekly basis and many times you'll be able to find coupons for 15% off an entire order, sometimes they'll go as high as 25% off. They're not tied to a specific person, or account, and they'll be good over and over again until they expire. If you're shopping for a specific item wait till a brick and mortar competitor puts it on sale, price match it and use the coupon.

5) Staples makes almost nothing, and sometimes loses money, on PCs, especially laptops. As a result, Staples focuses very strongly on selling you a bunch of crap with the PCs. Crap they make a lot more money on. This is why if you try to dash in, buy a laptop and dash out you won't be dashing anywhere. Staples has set up a system to eat up at least 20 minutes of your time, in an attempt to sell you extended service plans, tech services, accessories, and anything else. Most of the metrics Staples uses and pays attention to are focused in this area (the biggest of these is called Market Basket and is essentially the cost of everything bought except the PC that is sold in each transaction with a PC). If a sales associate is letting laptops fly out the door without attaching any other sales to it he won't be there long. As a result it can be difficult to buy just a PC. You'll be hammered with how you need to buy extended warranties for a good bit of it, you'll be asked for lots of information so they can record it for their records (this is mostly an attempt to slow you down so you can't make a quick purchase), you'll be told any number of things to drive up the market basket number. A sales associate would far rather you not buy at all than buy just a laptop, so expect roadblocks to be thrown up if you make your intentions obvious. One associate in a nearby store was notorious for telling customers they were out of stock and would send them to another store to avoid an accessory-free sale.

6) The Up Front Agreement is Staples' attempt to get low-paid, high turnover employees to sell more. There's nothing really to know here except that Staples explicitly touts this as a way to make the customer feel as if they are in charge when really the sales associate is in charge. Not a shock that's what they intend, but a bit more honest than I expected.

7) You get to be an Expert or manager by selling, not by being competent. So if you're dealing with an EasyTech Expert they may know what they're talking about when it comes to fixing your PC, but they definitely know how to sell.

8) Sales end on Saturday night and new ones begin on Sunday. If you find an old tag that's expired they will still honor it so long as you point it out. I once saw an expired tag honored that was out of date by over a year.

9) The Copy and Print Center is by far their most profitable area. As a result they will make it right if you complain, they will re-do the order to correct issues even to the point of if they screw it up enough times giving you your corrected order and your money back. About the only thing they won't do is actual design work, so you'll need to bring in your order already ready to go. If you do need design work done they can send it out to be done, it's a little expensive but I never saw a complaint. Also, you will be upsold here to nicer paper, its not much more and does make a big difference if it's a project you want to impress with. I wouldn't have believed that before I worked in the CPC, but it does.

Thanks to Dave for sending this in. If you have some insider info about the store you work at (or used to work at), send us your confessions at tips@consumerist.com with "confessions" in the subject.

Submitted by Davis Sherman Okst of Financial Sense

Prove Mayans Right: Address Structural Economic Problems With Chicanery (Part 2 of 2)

Monetizing Governmental Debt AKA Money Printing or in Bernanke’s Vernacular - Quantitative Easing

Here are some realities on Quantitive Easing:

If
Bernanke stopped QE, the United States of America would default, the
government would close down, there would be massive interruptions in all
Federally assisted programs (Medicare, Social Security, etc.), debt
service to China et al would be impacted or stop totally
We
take in about 2 trillion in tax revenue, we borrow about 1 trillion and,
like drunken sailors, we spend about 4.5 trillion. 80% of our deficit
is entitlements and debt service. Make all the cuts we want, that stuff
can't be cut. QE is a fancy term for counterfeiting the 1.5 trillion
dollar difference we have NO possible way of paying
QE is debt
monetization that IS increasing the size of the money supply. Since that
money has been spent, there is no way in hell Bernanke or anyone else
can “shrink” the money supply at the right time - the horses are out of
the barn, every POMO auction is just money created out of thin air to
cover the Treasury's checking account

There are those who
would point out that without “velocity” we can’t have hyperinflation;
and with 23% employment we aren’t going to get people spending,
therefore there will be no velocity and thus no hyperinflation. I’d
advocate that this argument be looked at again. First, the government
is spending “funny money” that is, to some extent, creating some
“velocity.” What is more important - money is a
commodity as described in Part 1 - and therefore the more of a commodity
that there is the less its value. Since the inception of the Fed in
1913 the dollar went to a value of .04 cents, 80% of that devaluation
happened since Nixon took us off the gold standard. So if our dollar
goes to a value of less than .04 cents, lets say .00000001 cent - we
will have massive hyperinflation. Printing money is the road to
.00000001 cents.

I’m in the camp that gold hasn’t gone up, silver
hasn’t gone up and the stock market hasn’t gone up. Graham Summers of
Capital Research did a fantastic short piece titled “While I Love Gold” at ZeroHedge.

Stocks Priced to Gold

Like
I said, gold hasn’t “gone up” stocks haven’t “gone up” and food prices
haven’t “gone up.” The value of all currencies have gone down. People
who compare one currency to another won't see what is happening until it
is too late.

It is all how you look at it. We are playing an
entirely idiotic game because no president (other than Andrew Jackson)
had the guts to fix the real problem - money.

About the only
thing gold and silver will do is act as a true store of value and pay
off any fixed debt when things get totally out of hand - which, in my
never so humble opinion - is the obvious unstoppable trajectory we are
on now.

Lastly, on the subject of Ben Bernanke’s path to making the USA Zimbabwe I’d like to address the “We can raise interest rates
in 15 minutes” BS. Sure he can. But the rest of the “We can raise
interest rates in 15 minutes” sentence goes like this: of course 80% of
the deficit is unfunded liabilities and debt that is rolling over, so
doing so will bankrupt the country with impossible to pay interest on
debt. Estimates are that higher interest rates
will add TRILLIONS to our debt. Higher rates will be another nail in
real estates coffin, another nail in high unemployments coffin and
another nail in state and local debt burdens.

In summary: The
biggest lies about Quantitative Easing are: It isn’t [governmental] debt
monetization, we can raise interest rates, it isn’t causing inflation,
it won't cause hyperinflation, we aren’t increasing the size of the
money supply, we can contract the size of the money supply when the time
is perfect, we can stop it [QE] at anytime, it is creating jobs, and we
can sell stuff no one else is now buying and the money is just sitting
there, i.e. there is no velocity.

In short: It is QE or America
defaults. A.) Hyperinflate the absurd debt away or B.) Default. If
Bernanke thinks he can secretly devalue the dollar and reduce our debt
to some payable amount by reducing the dollar’s value by like 10% per
year (thus reducing our 128 trillion dollar debt to half over 5 years)
then he is really an utter and absolute moron.

The Maestro of
Disaster came right out and said that debasing a currency is American
robbery. Covertly stealing - even if it is for some lame unworkable
plan to save the economy - is not leadership, nor is it ethical.

Lies are the hallmark of a leadership deficit. Lies don’t fix problems, solutions do.

The Fix

The
fix is simple: Admit that things got out of hand over the past 4
decades and overtly do what they are covertly doing. Stop prolonging the
agony - it is abolishing the middle class. The only trick is to make
the monetary system as sound as possible. I have no false dreams that
we will ever wind up with a better system (read: something that isn’t
debt-money IS debt) but I do know we can do better.

We supposedly have 10,000 tones of gold.

According
to Greenspan’s own 1960 article this country has been and is a welfare
state that is robbing its citizens through taxation and inflation:

Source: http://removeripoffreports.net/ corporate Reputation Management

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Saturday, March 5, 2011

Making Money

The new U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau isn't even up and running yet, and already it seems its funding could be in trouble. Prof. Elizabeth Warren, the champion of the bureau, is trying to protect her project in the face of a conservative House majority.

The organization, birthed last year during the Dodd-Frank financial reform, would bring together the seven government agencies already in place with consumers' interests in mind. Reuter's Prism Money blog contends that Harvard Law School's Warren is a champion worth protecting.

Warren is a bank watchdog, intent on protecting consumers who might be subject to banking and credit abuses.

Warren feels the problem lies in the hits the middle class has been taking in the face of the credit industry's determined, bank-friendly marketing. Fees, finance charges, high rates are all big problems for families struggling just to pay the bills.

The agency won't be up and running until July and Warren has yet to be dubbed its head. Prism urges those who'd like to see the bureau get off the ground to contact your senators and congressman to "urge them to leave the bureau's funding alone." You can also ask your credit union or community bank directly to support the independent funding of the organization.

CLICK HERE for a list of U.S. Senators and HERE to write your rep in the House of Representatives.

Why Elizabeth Warren needs your help to police the banks [Reuters]

After releasing the trailer last week, timing could not be better for the launch of the first episode of our Highsnobiety TV series on the Money Making Jam Boys. Grammy Award winning artist Black Thought, gives a breakdown of the Money Making Jam Boys.

Interview by Nick Schonberger
Directed by Kellen Dengler

Related posts:
» Highsnobiety TV: 10 Deep x Money Making Jam Boys – Episode 4: Truck North» Highsnobiety TV: 10.Deep x Money Making Jam Boys – Episode 3: STS» Highsnobiety TV: 10.Deep x Money Making Jam Boys – Episode 2» 10.Deep x Money Making Jam Boys “The Prestige” Mixtape» Highsnobiety TV – 10.Deep x Money Making Jam Boys Trailer
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Good news: Obama now brewing his own beer at the White House « Hot Air

Good news: Obama now brewing his own beer at the White House.

The Case Against News, Bryan Caplan | EconLog | Library of ...

I was surprised to learn, then, that someone even more anti-news than me got to present his arguments at TED. A few of his arguments are silly, and more are poorly documented. But the best parts of the paper that inspired the TED talk ...

Psychologist shows why we “choke” under pressure – and how to ...

U.S. News & World Report – September 21, 2010. The Dwarfs were right! Whistling while you work makes you do your job better. Daily Mail – September 22, 2010. Psychologist studies sports 'choke'. United Press International – September 21 ...

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Good news: Obama now brewing his own beer at the White House « Hot Air

Good news: Obama now brewing his own beer at the White House.

The Case Against News, Bryan Caplan | EconLog | Library of ...

Psychologist shows why we “choke” under pressure – and how to ...

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Good news: Obama now brewing his own beer at the White House « Hot Air

Good news: Obama now brewing his own beer at the White House.

The Case Against News, Bryan Caplan | EconLog | Library of ...

Psychologist shows why we “choke” under pressure – and how to ...

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Good news: Obama now brewing his own beer at the White House « Hot Air

Good news: Obama now brewing his own beer at the White House.

The Case Against News, Bryan Caplan | EconLog | Library of ...

Psychologist shows why we “choke” under pressure – and how to ...

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Good news: Obama now brewing his own beer at the White House « Hot Air

Good news: Obama now brewing his own beer at the White House.

The Case Against News, Bryan Caplan | EconLog | Library of ...

Psychologist shows why we “choke” under pressure – and how to ...

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Good news: Obama now brewing his own beer at the White House « Hot Air

Good news: Obama now brewing his own beer at the White House.

The Case Against News, Bryan Caplan | EconLog | Library of ...

Psychologist shows why we “choke” under pressure – and how to ...

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Good news: Obama now brewing his own beer at the White House « Hot Air

Good news: Obama now brewing his own beer at the White House.

The Case Against News, Bryan Caplan | EconLog | Library of ...

Psychologist shows why we “choke” under pressure – and how to ...

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Good news: Obama now brewing his own beer at the White House « Hot Air

Good news: Obama now brewing his own beer at the White House.

The Case Against News, Bryan Caplan | EconLog | Library of ...

Psychologist shows why we “choke” under pressure – and how to ...

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Good news: Obama now brewing his own beer at the White House « Hot Air

Good news: Obama now brewing his own beer at the White House.

The Case Against News, Bryan Caplan | EconLog | Library of ...

Psychologist shows why we “choke” under pressure – and how to ...

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Good news: Obama now brewing his own beer at the White House « Hot Air

Good news: Obama now brewing his own beer at the White House.

The Case Against News, Bryan Caplan | EconLog | Library of ...

Psychologist shows why we “choke” under pressure – and how to ...

Monday, February 21, 2011

Making Money Easy

App Store Classics: Game Dev Story, a game about making games.

Ever wondered what it’d be like to run your own game development house? Me neither, but don’t let that stop you getting involved with Game Dev Story (iTunes link), a little gem of a game from Japanese developers Kairosoft, currently on sale in the app store for $0.99.

The concept is straightforward – grow your development house from a tiny team of four staff churning out cheap and cheerful PC games to a revered coding powerhouse in swanky offices crafting masterpieces for the latest consoles.

At first you’ll probably be going over budget left right and centre, trying to figure out which game types work best and therefore shift more units, but once you get into the swing of it you can concentrate on hiring and training the best staff and purchasing licences to develop console games, resulting in better made and better selling games with higher profit margins.

It’s not just a question of hiring and firing, coming up with game ideas and watching your staff working their buns off though. Through the use of ‘boosts’ which are periodically made available to purchase as the game progresses (not in-app purchases I hasten to add), you can choose one of your coders to work on enhancing one specific aspect of the game. This pushes up the overall quality of the game you’re making and results in better reviews and sales, adding a further strategic element as you choose the right moment and category in which to use your boosts. At certain points within the development cycle you also get the chance to work on the graphics and sound specifically, either using one of your own staff or hiring in a freelancer, and this too gives you the opportunity to increase the overall quality of your virtual product.

When you make your first million seller it’s a satisfying moment but there’s no time to rest on your laurels. There are always new consoles appearing on the market, contract jobs to take on, new staff to hire and new game types to discover. If you leave too much of a gap between development cycles you start losing fans and therefore a few sales, but think carefully about what kind of games you make – my pirate simulation was a right turkey.

It’s all great fun, but it’s fair to say there are a few things here which need to be addressed by the time Game Dev Story 2 arrives in the app store. I know it’s a tall order on a phone but I couldn’t help thinking how nice it would be if I could play the games my team had made. Even a comedy cut sequence showing some aspects of the latest game would have been good. There are also some hugely expensive advertising options within this game that offer no feedback other than some numbers increasing on a stat page. If I’m sponsoring a racing team I’d like to see my company logo on the side of a formula one car at least!

Finally, the game is perhaps a bit on the easy side. I’m sure if developing a multi million selling game was this straightforward we’d all be at it. Well, maybe not, but it’s easy to make enough money that you don’t have to worry too much about how you spend it, and this negatively impacts the strategy element.

All things considered however, Game Dev Story is great fun. It’s a good natured game and from the cute graphics and retro sound to the amusing titles you can give your creations, it’s a rewarding experience which works perfectly whether in short bursts or longer play sessions. Did I mention that it’s currently only $0.99 on the app store?

Coming to a station near you any time soon?Photo: Tim GilliamPresident Obama doesn't seem
like he's going to let this high-speed rail thing go, making it a centerpiece
of the infrastructure section of his State of the Union Address last night:

Within 25 years, our goal is to give 80 percent of Americans
access to high-speed rail. This could allow you to go places in half the time
it takes to travel by car. For some trips, it will be faster than flying --
without the pat-down. As we speak, routes in California and the Midwest are
already underway.

Sounds great, if you're a
high-speed rail fan. But last fall's midterm elections exposed GOP opposition
to Obama's plan to bring fast train service to all regions of the country. As a
gubernatorial candidate, Republican Scott Walker of Wisconsin made opposition
to a Milwaukee-Madison high-speed route a centerpiece of his campaign. After he
was elected, he
handed the feds back $810 million that would have funded the line, on the
grounds that it would be too expensive for the state to run. It was a move
echoed by New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie's rejection of funds for a regular-speed
rail tunnel under the Hudson River (Christie is fighting hard not to repay money the feds already spent on that project).

And in California, which
ended up getting some of that Wisconsin money, there's been controversy over the first phase of the state's own HSR project, with detractors calling it "a train to
nowhere" and farm communities worried about the impact on available land.

So it's notable that Obama
doesn't seem to be backing down from his push to make HSR part of his legacy.
That 80 percent figure is pretty aggressive.

The president also hammered
away at the need for the need to continue upgrading and repairing the
transportation infrastructure we already have:

So
over the last two years, we've begun rebuilding for the 21st century, a project
that has meant thousands of good jobs for the hard-hit construction industry.
And tonight, I'm proposing that we redouble those efforts.

We'll
put more Americans to work repairing crumbling roads and bridges. We'll make
sure this is fully paid for, attract private investment, and pick projects
based [on] what's best for the economy, not politicians.

Obama's
stance was cheered by Transportation for
America (T4A) a coalition group calling for a reform of the nation's
transportation system. At the same time, the group's statement also acknowledges the difficulty of
getting projects funded. From the statement released by T4A's executive director, James Corless, today:

We were thrilled to hear the President come right
out and say that investment in transportation and other infrastructure is
central to rebuilding and growing our economy. An upfront investment in the
most-needed, clean transportation projects is a great opportunity to create
near-term jobs and lay the groundwork for the future economy.

He acknowledged that money will be tight and we
have to make the best of use it. That requires fixing the 20th century
infrastructure -- our crumbling roads and bridges -- as we build out the
infrastructure for the 21st. That certainly includes
high-speed rail, but it also means helping communities get moving on
long-planned networks of light rail, street cars, rapid buses, and making
progress on road reconstruction to make our streets safer people walking,
biking and driving.

The President's vision for infrastructure is not just about
near-term construction jobs. It is, as he said, about growing new businesses,
livable neighborhoods and dynamic regions that can attract a young and mobile
workforce and compete with our international competitors. It's about the jobs
associated with new transportation technologies
and manufacturing modern transit vehicles, everything from real time
information systems to make our highways and transit corridors smarter, to the
new rail cars being built today by United Streetcar in Oregon that can breathe
new life into our cities and suburbs.

T4A's Equity Caucus, which focuses on
the needs of poor, working-class, and minority Americans, had this to say:

[O]ur inadequate, outdated,
and underfunded transportation systems are keeping too many struggling
Americans -- young and old, rural and urban -- from fully connecting and
contributing to the national economy.

Millions of Americans
rely exclusively on public transit, walking, or biking to get to work, to the
doctor's office, to school, and to the grocery store. Nearly 20 percent of
African American households, 14 percent of Latino households, and 13 percent of
Asian households live without a car. Fifteen percent of Native Americans must
travel more than 100 miles to access basic services.

Smarter transportation
investments can unleash the under-realized economic power of communities across
America.

All this comes in the context
of a transportation reauthorization bill that has been stalled for the past year and a
half in Congress -- and that was when the Democrats controlled both the House and the
Senate. With Republicans now in control of the House, things are bound to get more complicated. Rep. John Mica (R-Fla.), the new Republican chair of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee in the House, had this to say about the president's call for more infrastructure spending (via Transportation Nation):

After the Administration derailed a major six-year transportation
bill in 2009, it is encouraging that they are now on board with getting
infrastructure projects and jobs moving again. However, just another
proposal to spend more of the taxpayers’ money, when we have billions of
dollars sitting idle tied up in government red tape, will never get our
economic car out of the ditch.

We’ve got to do more with less to improve our infrastructure in a fiscally responsible manner.

Central to all future
discussion about infrastructure enhancement and repair will be the question of
money. With lawmakers avowedly against raising the gas tax, finding the cash to
build new systems -- or to stop the proverbial crumbling of the old ones -- is
going to be the biggest problem.

Some Genes Like It Hot - Science News

Home / News / Article. Some genes like it hot. Regional DNA differences may be due to climate. By Laura Sanders. Web edition : Saturday, February 19th, 2011. font_down � font_up Text Size. WASHINGTON — You are where you live, ...

News Corp. to Buy Shine Group for $663 Million - The Hollywood ...

Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. is to acquire the entirety of Shine Group, owned by daughter Elisabeth Murdoch.

Samsung announces five NX camera system lenses: Digital ...

Samsung announces five NX camera system lenses: Samsung has announced five lenses for its NX interchangeable camera system. The latest range includes a 16mm F2.4 pancake, 85mm f/1.4, 16-80mm and new versions of its 60mm f/2.8 macro with ...

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Thursday, February 17, 2011

foreclosure list

In the last week, several ideas for fixing the housing market have surfaced. One is the Third Way proposal, which appears to be an Administration trial balloon. Predictably, it is yet anther bailout, with plenty of smoke and mirrors to disguise that fact.

A second proposal, from Sheila Bair yesterday, is to establish a “foreclosure claims commission“. This is in keeping with the direction that Iowa’s Tom Miller has been pushing for with the 50 state attorneys general investigation. This scheme sounds more promising that the Third Way proposal, but is very likely to wind up in bailout territory.

Third is a not-widely-covered plan by Senator Jeff Merkley which has two provisions that would force banks to address the fact that mortgages are deeply under water. That makes it firmly anti-bailout (or more accurately, any resulting bailouts would be explicit as opposed to buried in various mortgage market gimmies to banks). It would thus speed recognition of housing market losses, force debt writedowns, and accelerate repricing and clearing of the housing market.

The Merkley proposal is pro consumer and pro investor; the other two are pro bank. Sadly, it isn’t hard to see which is likely to prevail in the absence of public pressure.

The Bair proposal was presented at the Mortgage Bankers Association meeting in DC, In addition to the not-very-fleshed out idea of a claims fund, she also proposed a list of fairly modest but still badly needed servicing reforms, the biggest being required write downs of second mortgages when the servicer is negotiating the first mortgage with a borrower, and a independent process for appealing loss mitigation turn-downs. The latter is useful but needs to be made broader. Borrowers still lack any recourse save costly and time-consuming litigation if they believe servicers have made errors, so independent review should include a disclosure and dispute process for routine servicing.

The restitution fund concept is worrisome. It is not yet clear whether it will be funded, which means it could be a joint private/public kitty. The provision of any explicit government funding in the absence of a serious investigation, including possible criminal action, is not warranted. The hallmark of this financial crisis is no perps, save some foot soldiers (the hapless robosigners, for instance) have been identified, much less held to account.

And even the private funding model is likely to prove unsatisfactory. HousingWire suggested that it might be based on the BP restitution fund. That’s a red flag. The BP fund was seen as a win for the embattled oil company, since BP was given several years to contribute money to the fund. In addition, even though the fund in theory did not limit BP’s liabilities, most investors reacted as if the damage had been capped. And given that any participant in the fund claims process had to waive his rights to litigate, the process did serve to limit exposure (particularly of the punitive damages sort). Moreover, many people who applied for damages were deemed not to be eligible because the harm they suffered was allegedly too indirect (think hotel owners in affected areas). Others were denied because they could not document revenue and expenses (many small fishermen run heavily cash-based operations that are not hugely profitable even in the best of times).

So it is also easy to imagine, as with the various government mortgage mod programs, that the banks will run the process and will use strict documentation requirements as a way to limit payouts, when their abuse of the documentation procedures they created is at the root of this crisis.

By contrast, there is much to like about the Merkley proposal, which was covered by Dave Dayen at FireDogLake. It has two mechanisms to force banks to recognize and realize losses on underwater mortgages, and thus put an end to “extend and pretend”.

First is a “national short refinance program”. Per Dayen:

When a bank sends a home into foreclosure, it becomes an REO property, to be sold at auction at a large loss for the investors. Instead of going through the long process of resale, with the attendant upkeep that has to be spent by the bank on the home, and the disruption to the property values from having a vacant home in their neighborhood, this short refi program would allow qualified families facing eviction to refinance to an FHA-guaranteed mortgage based on current property values and interest rates. In the interim the family could stay in the home during the appraisal, new underwriting and final resolution. Many families would be able to pay a reduced payment if the home was written down to real value. The investor would get a bigger payoff than selling a vacant home in foreclosure. Neighbors would see their communities stabilized without a vacant property in their midst. And the family would get to stay in their home.

The main effect of the FHA short refi program is likely not to be a wave of mass refis, but to force servicers to offer deep principal mods. If a mortgage leaves the pool via a refi, the servicer loses all of the fees associated with that loan. If the servicer concludes a mod, it still gets ongoing servicing income, but on a lower principal balance.

The second mechanism is judicial modifications, aka bankruptcy cramdowns. In pretty much every other type of secured lending, save for residential mortgages (which were exempted via legislation), when the borrower goes into bankruptcy, the secured debt is written down to the value of the debt, and any amount owing beyond that is added to unsecured debts. The idea is commonsensical: you can’t say a $200,000 mortgage is “secured” by a house now worth $160,000. The court process is well established and not controversial (as in you don’t see fulminating about abuses).

The scaremongering by the banking industry used to forestall judicial foreclosures is that every Tom, Dick, and Harry will run to the courthouse to get out of his mortgage, As anyone who has contemplated or gone though bankruptcy knows, it’s a very painful, humiliating, and disruptive process. And the widespread use of background checks as part of employment screening, with a bad credit record seen as a sign of bad character, is yet another deterrent. Correspondents of mine who would be ideal candidates (for instance, one is underwater due to investments gone sour and Chinese drywall making a sale of their home impossible, yet still have decent cashflow from their main business) are still loath to file.

Proof of the legitimacy of judicial mods as an option comes from the fact that most mortgage backed securities investors favor it, because they see it as a device for servicers to offer principal mods. With servicer fees and expenses coming first out of mortgage cashflow, the costly foreclosure process comes out of investors’ hides. All but a small percentage prefer principal mods because it will produce lower losses to them than costly foreclosures and sales of distressed property.

The Merkley plan has some other promising elements, such as requiring servicers to have a single point of contact (the Bair servicing reforms include this idea), a broad third party review process for mortgage mods (similar to successful programs at the state level) and the end of the “dual track” process (which keep the foreclosure process in motion while mod discussions are underway; this idea was present in a watered down form in the Bair speech as part of the foreclosure “settlement”).

Frankly, although individual borrowers may continue to suffer, the best prospect for an equitable long term solution is to let the wheels of justice continue to grind on. The outburst of reform ideas seems to be the direct result of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Ibanez decision. The terms of debate are, perversely, still very much skewed in favor of banks despite the considerable harm they have done to homeowners, investors, and communities. But judges are increasingly abandoning the assumption that banks must be right in foreclosure cases, and a more objective posture is sure to put the banking industry even more on the back foot. Letting the courts continue to do their work offers the best hope of exposing, and therefore ultimately remedying, large-scale misconduct by the securitization industry.

Taegan D. Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites.

Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.

Goddard is also co-author of You
Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political
management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from
both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public
policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country,
including the Washington Post, USA Today, Boston Globe, San Francisco
Chronicle, Chicago Tribune, Philadelphia Inquirer and Christian Science
Monitor.

Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.

PRAISE FOR POLITICAL WIRE

"There are a lot of blogs and news sites claiming to understand
politics, but only a few actually do. Political Wire is one of them."

-- Chuck Todd, NBC News political director

"Concise. Relevant. To the point. Political Wire is the first site I check when I’m looking for the latest political nugget. That pretty much says it all."

-- Stuart Rothenberg, editor of the Rothenberg Political Report

"Political Wire is one of only four or five sites that I check every
day and sometimes several times a day, for the latest political news
and developments.”

-- Charlie Cook, editor of the Cook Political Report

"The big news, delicious tidbits, pearls of wisdom -- nicely packaged, constantly updated... What political junkie could ask for more?"

-- Larry Sabato, Center for Politics, University of Virginia

"If I were on the proverbial
desert island and had only one web site to access, Political Wire would
be it."

-- Dotty Lynch, CBS News political consultant

"Taegan Goddard has a knack for digging out political gems that too
often get passed over by the mainstream press, and for delivering the
latest electoral developments in a sharp, no frills style that makes
his Political Wire an addictive blog habit you don't want to kick."

-- Arianna Huffington, founder of The Huffington Post

"Political Wire is one of the absolute must-read sites in the blogosphere."

-- Glenn Reynolds, founder of Instapundit

"I love Political Wire. It is a one stop shopping site for all the political information I need. It makes me sound brilliant so naturally I like it!"

-- Dick Morris, political consultant

"I rely on Taegan Goddard's Political Wire for straight, fair political news, he gets right to the point. It's an eagerly anticipated part of my news reading."

-- Craig Newmark, founder of Craigslist.

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