Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Making Easy Money


Comments


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  1. One thing you're missing here: Craigslist started charging for the Adult Services section at the request of previous Attorneys General with the idea that adding a charge that required a credit card would curtail the use of the section for illegal activities.



    http://www.scattorneygeneral.com/newsroom/pdf/2009/craigslist.pdf



    Posted by: Collin |
    September 8, 2010 6:04 PM




















  2. Ah! Makes sense. Updating the post. Thanks for bringing that to my attention.



     Posted by: Adrianne Jeffries |
    September 8, 2010 6:14 PM




















  3. I'm baffled as to why craigslist didn't see the profit issue ahead of time. I'm 100% behind them, but raking in millions just doesn't look good, and makes them an easy target. From day one of charging for Adult Services, they should have been giving 100% of that money to organizations that work to prevent sex trafficking and child prostitution, to make it 100% clear that the money was for filtering, not for profit.



     Posted by: Brad Weikel |
    September 8, 2010 6:17 PM




















  4. I think this is a good thing to do for Craiglist. But I bet that some thousands or maybe millions of dollars will be taken out from earnings in the industry with Craiglist ready to censor. LOL. Thanks for the info.



    Posted by: WebHosting Guru |
    September 8, 2010 7:09 PM




















  5. I'm baffled how an article on ReadWriteWeb could miss the obvious question of free speech on the internet.



    What you have here is public officials (facing re-election) using their office as a pulpit, making legal threats they know to be unenforceable, and lying to the media in order to prohibit speech which they know to be legal. State AGs are literally using a public relations campaign to circumvent an Act of Congress intended to curtail their power against just *this* kind of electioneering. That the AGs happen to be exploiting victimized children in their media campaign is almost incidental to the larger attack on the law and Constitution.



    The Communications Decency Act protects electronic publishers from liability for content produced by users of the system. Absent that immunity there could be no Google, no Blogspot, no Facebook, no WordPress.com, no Digg or Reddit, no Twitter and no comments (like this one) on ReadWriteWeb.



    The moralistic campaigns against 4chan and craigslist all lead to one inevitable conclusion: the publishers of ReadWriteWeb will be criminally and civilly liable for the comments of this community.



    Here's a concept that's new: Has anyone ever substantiated the claims that Craigslist has ever been used for child or human trafficking? Is there even one demonstrable case of this occurring? If not, then the site may have just established millions of dollars in damages for a defamation suit against it's detractors. Yes, Craigslist is a public person, that doesn't mean they can't be defamed: they just have to prove damages.



    Posted by: Baffled |
    September 8, 2010 10:04 PM




















  6. Mobile phone carriers should be banned to provide a phone number to prostitutes as they are also making tons of money from an illegale activity.



    Same thing for people selling cloth, sex toys, etc.



    Posted by: idont |
    September 9, 2010 9:21 AM






















  7. Fundraising is a key component for most social good campaigns and projects. Thanks to the the Internet and the social web, raising money for a non-profit, community project or charitable organization or relief effort is easier than ever before.

    The web makes it possible to get your message across and collect money from people all over the world and to include your social graph in the process.

    If you have an idea or a cause that you want to bring awareness to and raise funds around, there are lots of great online tools to help get you started. Whether you want to raise money for a local community center or help fundraise as part of a broader social good campaign, these tools make it easy to get the word out and collect the funds you need./> id="more-380180">

    1. FirstGiving

    The U.S. subsidiary of JustGiving.com, FirstGiving lets users raise money for any non-profit in the GuideStar database.

    It’s free to create a basic account, but if you pay $300 you can fully customize your donations page and link them back to your own website. FirstGiving lets you create fundraising around upcoming events, marathons and walk-a-thons too, which is a nice touch. The processing fee for donation is 5% plus another 2% for credit card transactions.

    2. Crowdrise

    We mentioned Crowdrise in a recent post about alternatives to Facebook Causes and it is a great tool for both charities and general purpose fundraisers.

    Once you start a project, you can share your project’s link via Facebookclass="blippr-nobr">Facebook, Twitterclass="blippr-nobr">Twitter and e-mail. You can also earn points from the community based on your project and your overall campaign. Crowdrise also has an ongoing series of promotions and sweepstakes that you can add to your project to sweeten the incentive to give.

    3. Kickstarter

    Kickstarter is most often used by aspiring creatives to fund projects but it can also be used for great effect for local social good community efforts.

    Kickstarter is unique in that if your goal amount isn’t reached, none of the money is collected. This “all-or-nothing” approach often leads to Kickstarter campaigns being more active and more involved than a traditional “donate widget.”

    A great part of Kickstarter for the social fund creator is the ability to reward donors at certain levels. Much like PBS and NPR offer trinkets if you give a certain amount, Kickstarter lets its project creators do the same thing. You can get really creative with your different donor levels to drive people to give more.

    4. WhatGives

    WhatGives offers a great widget you can use on Facebook or on your personal webpage to collect donations for your non-profit. WhatGives is nice because aside from integrating well with Facebook, all donations are handled through PayPal.

    You need to be a registered non-profit with an approved PayPal account, and all donations are channeled directly into that account. You can customize the platform and embed it as a Facebook app or on your blog or website.

    5. Change.org

    Change.org lets users create programs to generate actions from others. This can be as simple as signing a petition or writing a letter, or as generous as donating money. For non-profits in the GuideStar database, you can create your own donation pages to collect funds and also draw attention to other action items.

    Change.org is very focused on making it easy to virally spread a message, and the site itself also acts as a portal to different organizations and awareness campaigns.

    6. Chipin

    Chipin is one of the most popular donation widget tools on the web and it’s a great way to collect money for a good cause. We love the Chipin widget because you can see instant progress on donations, and it accepts many forms of payment.

    Unlike many of the services on this list, Chipin isn’t just for non-profits or community organizations. You can use it for any project you want.

    7. Razoo

    Razoo has options for individuals, non-profits, foundations and corporations to raise money for their causes. Individuals can choose to create a fundraising page for any registered non-profit that Razoo recognizes (they have a database of about a million) and non-profits can create custom pages for their organizations and connect with supporters and encourage them to create their own fundraising pages.

    What we love about Razoo, in addition to its simple interface and great UI, is that it also offers donation matching for corporations or foundations looking for an easy way to raise money.

    8. Convio

    Convio offers software for online fundraising and membership, and while its target audience is probably bigger groups or organizations, it’s still worth a look.

    For example, Convio’s TeamRaiser lets organizations make it easy for volunteers to create their own websites for tracking and attracting donations.

    If you’re organizing a social good fund for a big charity walk or event where volunteers go door-to-door to get donations, check out Convio because it makes managing that process much easier.

    9. Facebook Causes

    Causes is an increasingly common way for individuals to raise money and start their own funds that are tied to a non-profit. Because Causes is so well-integrated into Facebook, it makes getting the word out and raising awareness and funds for your cause that much simpler.

    10. StayClassy

    A newer player in the arena of online giving, San Diego’s StayClassy is focused not just on helping non-profits collect donations online, but also manage events and campaigns, track their fundraising results and plug-in.

    The world of online fundraising is vast and diverse. What tools have you used when starting your own social good funds? Let us know in the comments.

    Brought to you by the class='blippr-nobr'>Mashableclass="blippr-nobr">Mashable & 92Y Social Good Summit

    This post was brought to you by the groundbreaking Social Good Summit. On September 20, as global leaders head to New York for United Nations Week — including a historic summit on global issues known as the “Millennium Development Goals” (MDGs) and the annual General Assembly — Mashable, 92nd Street Y and the UN Foundation will bring together leaders from the digital industry, policy and media worlds to focus on how technology and social networks can play a leading role in addressing the world’s most intractable problems.

    Date: Monday, September 20, 2010/> Time: 1:00 to 6:00 p.m. ET/> Location: 92nd Street Y, New York City/> Tickets: On sale through Eventbrite

    />

    Image courtesy of iStockphotoclass="blippr-nobr">iStockphoto, PinkTag

    For more Social Good coverage:

      class="f-el">class="cov-twit">Follow Mashable Social Goodclass="s-el">class="cov-rss">Subscribe to the Social Good channelclass="f-el">class="cov-fb">Become a Fan on Facebookclass="s-el">class="cov-apple">Download our free apps for iPhone and iPad

    Facebook Making Changes to <b>News</b> Feed, Requests, Bookmarks to <b>...</b>

    After the changes take effect, people who do not play games will no longer see news feed application stories from friends who do play games — same goes for any other third-party app. Because news feed stories were a main way that people ...

    Google <b>News</b> Now Eight Years Old

    google-news-screenshot-old Google today announced on the official Google blog the eighth birthday of Google News. It's a huge milestone for the California-based search company, which launched the Google News service on the 22nd of ...

    More People Watched Fox <b>News</b> Monday Than Obama Town Hall <b>...</b>

    In fact, far more people watched the Fox News Channel's "Happening Now" with Jon Scott and Jenna Lee airing at the same time than tuned in to see what the President had to say. Potentially even more embarrassing, when you add in those ...


    robert shumake

    Facebook Making Changes to <b>News</b> Feed, Requests, Bookmarks to <b>...</b>

    After the changes take effect, people who do not play games will no longer see news feed application stories from friends who do play games — same goes for any other third-party app. Because news feed stories were a main way that people ...

    Google <b>News</b> Now Eight Years Old

    google-news-screenshot-old Google today announced on the official Google blog the eighth birthday of Google News. It's a huge milestone for the California-based search company, which launched the Google News service on the 22nd of ...

    More People Watched Fox <b>News</b> Monday Than Obama Town Hall <b>...</b>

    In fact, far more people watched the Fox News Channel's "Happening Now" with Jon Scott and Jenna Lee airing at the same time than tuned in to see what the President had to say. Potentially even more embarrassing, when you add in those ...



    Comments


    Subscribe to comments for this post OR Subscribe to comments for all ReadWriteWeb posts










    1. One thing you're missing here: Craigslist started charging for the Adult Services section at the request of previous Attorneys General with the idea that adding a charge that required a credit card would curtail the use of the section for illegal activities.



      http://www.scattorneygeneral.com/newsroom/pdf/2009/craigslist.pdf



      Posted by: Collin |
      September 8, 2010 6:04 PM




















    2. Ah! Makes sense. Updating the post. Thanks for bringing that to my attention.



       Posted by: Adrianne Jeffries |
      September 8, 2010 6:14 PM




















    3. I'm baffled as to why craigslist didn't see the profit issue ahead of time. I'm 100% behind them, but raking in millions just doesn't look good, and makes them an easy target. From day one of charging for Adult Services, they should have been giving 100% of that money to organizations that work to prevent sex trafficking and child prostitution, to make it 100% clear that the money was for filtering, not for profit.



       Posted by: Brad Weikel |
      September 8, 2010 6:17 PM




















    4. I think this is a good thing to do for Craiglist. But I bet that some thousands or maybe millions of dollars will be taken out from earnings in the industry with Craiglist ready to censor. LOL. Thanks for the info.



      Posted by: WebHosting Guru |
      September 8, 2010 7:09 PM




















    5. I'm baffled how an article on ReadWriteWeb could miss the obvious question of free speech on the internet.



      What you have here is public officials (facing re-election) using their office as a pulpit, making legal threats they know to be unenforceable, and lying to the media in order to prohibit speech which they know to be legal. State AGs are literally using a public relations campaign to circumvent an Act of Congress intended to curtail their power against just *this* kind of electioneering. That the AGs happen to be exploiting victimized children in their media campaign is almost incidental to the larger attack on the law and Constitution.



      The Communications Decency Act protects electronic publishers from liability for content produced by users of the system. Absent that immunity there could be no Google, no Blogspot, no Facebook, no WordPress.com, no Digg or Reddit, no Twitter and no comments (like this one) on ReadWriteWeb.



      The moralistic campaigns against 4chan and craigslist all lead to one inevitable conclusion: the publishers of ReadWriteWeb will be criminally and civilly liable for the comments of this community.



      Here's a concept that's new: Has anyone ever substantiated the claims that Craigslist has ever been used for child or human trafficking? Is there even one demonstrable case of this occurring? If not, then the site may have just established millions of dollars in damages for a defamation suit against it's detractors. Yes, Craigslist is a public person, that doesn't mean they can't be defamed: they just have to prove damages.



      Posted by: Baffled |
      September 8, 2010 10:04 PM




















    6. Mobile phone carriers should be banned to provide a phone number to prostitutes as they are also making tons of money from an illegale activity.



      Same thing for people selling cloth, sex toys, etc.



      Posted by: idont |
      September 9, 2010 9:21 AM






















    7. Fundraising is a key component for most social good campaigns and projects. Thanks to the the Internet and the social web, raising money for a non-profit, community project or charitable organization or relief effort is easier than ever before.

      The web makes it possible to get your message across and collect money from people all over the world and to include your social graph in the process.

      If you have an idea or a cause that you want to bring awareness to and raise funds around, there are lots of great online tools to help get you started. Whether you want to raise money for a local community center or help fundraise as part of a broader social good campaign, these tools make it easy to get the word out and collect the funds you need./> id="more-380180">

      1. FirstGiving

      The U.S. subsidiary of JustGiving.com, FirstGiving lets users raise money for any non-profit in the GuideStar database.

      It’s free to create a basic account, but if you pay $300 you can fully customize your donations page and link them back to your own website. FirstGiving lets you create fundraising around upcoming events, marathons and walk-a-thons too, which is a nice touch. The processing fee for donation is 5% plus another 2% for credit card transactions.

      2. Crowdrise

      We mentioned Crowdrise in a recent post about alternatives to Facebook Causes and it is a great tool for both charities and general purpose fundraisers.

      Once you start a project, you can share your project’s link via Facebookclass="blippr-nobr">Facebook, Twitterclass="blippr-nobr">Twitter and e-mail. You can also earn points from the community based on your project and your overall campaign. Crowdrise also has an ongoing series of promotions and sweepstakes that you can add to your project to sweeten the incentive to give.

      3. Kickstarter

      Kickstarter is most often used by aspiring creatives to fund projects but it can also be used for great effect for local social good community efforts.

      Kickstarter is unique in that if your goal amount isn’t reached, none of the money is collected. This “all-or-nothing” approach often leads to Kickstarter campaigns being more active and more involved than a traditional “donate widget.”

      A great part of Kickstarter for the social fund creator is the ability to reward donors at certain levels. Much like PBS and NPR offer trinkets if you give a certain amount, Kickstarter lets its project creators do the same thing. You can get really creative with your different donor levels to drive people to give more.

      4. WhatGives

      WhatGives offers a great widget you can use on Facebook or on your personal webpage to collect donations for your non-profit. WhatGives is nice because aside from integrating well with Facebook, all donations are handled through PayPal.

      You need to be a registered non-profit with an approved PayPal account, and all donations are channeled directly into that account. You can customize the platform and embed it as a Facebook app or on your blog or website.

      5. Change.org

      Change.org lets users create programs to generate actions from others. This can be as simple as signing a petition or writing a letter, or as generous as donating money. For non-profits in the GuideStar database, you can create your own donation pages to collect funds and also draw attention to other action items.

      Change.org is very focused on making it easy to virally spread a message, and the site itself also acts as a portal to different organizations and awareness campaigns.

      6. Chipin

      Chipin is one of the most popular donation widget tools on the web and it’s a great way to collect money for a good cause. We love the Chipin widget because you can see instant progress on donations, and it accepts many forms of payment.

      Unlike many of the services on this list, Chipin isn’t just for non-profits or community organizations. You can use it for any project you want.

      7. Razoo

      Razoo has options for individuals, non-profits, foundations and corporations to raise money for their causes. Individuals can choose to create a fundraising page for any registered non-profit that Razoo recognizes (they have a database of about a million) and non-profits can create custom pages for their organizations and connect with supporters and encourage them to create their own fundraising pages.

      What we love about Razoo, in addition to its simple interface and great UI, is that it also offers donation matching for corporations or foundations looking for an easy way to raise money.

      8. Convio

      Convio offers software for online fundraising and membership, and while its target audience is probably bigger groups or organizations, it’s still worth a look.

      For example, Convio’s TeamRaiser lets organizations make it easy for volunteers to create their own websites for tracking and attracting donations.

      If you’re organizing a social good fund for a big charity walk or event where volunteers go door-to-door to get donations, check out Convio because it makes managing that process much easier.

      9. Facebook Causes

      Causes is an increasingly common way for individuals to raise money and start their own funds that are tied to a non-profit. Because Causes is so well-integrated into Facebook, it makes getting the word out and raising awareness and funds for your cause that much simpler.

      10. StayClassy

      A newer player in the arena of online giving, San Diego’s StayClassy is focused not just on helping non-profits collect donations online, but also manage events and campaigns, track their fundraising results and plug-in.

      The world of online fundraising is vast and diverse. What tools have you used when starting your own social good funds? Let us know in the comments.

      Brought to you by the class='blippr-nobr'>Mashableclass="blippr-nobr">Mashable & 92Y Social Good Summit

      This post was brought to you by the groundbreaking Social Good Summit. On September 20, as global leaders head to New York for United Nations Week — including a historic summit on global issues known as the “Millennium Development Goals” (MDGs) and the annual General Assembly — Mashable, 92nd Street Y and the UN Foundation will bring together leaders from the digital industry, policy and media worlds to focus on how technology and social networks can play a leading role in addressing the world’s most intractable problems.

      Date: Monday, September 20, 2010/> Time: 1:00 to 6:00 p.m. ET/> Location: 92nd Street Y, New York City/> Tickets: On sale through Eventbrite

      />

      Image courtesy of iStockphotoclass="blippr-nobr">iStockphoto, PinkTag

      For more Social Good coverage:

        class="f-el">class="cov-twit">Follow Mashable Social Goodclass="s-el">class="cov-rss">Subscribe to the Social Good channelclass="f-el">class="cov-fb">Become a Fan on Facebookclass="s-el">class="cov-apple">Download our free apps for iPhone and iPad


      Make Money Online by sankar15


      robert shumake

      Facebook Making Changes to <b>News</b> Feed, Requests, Bookmarks to <b>...</b>

      After the changes take effect, people who do not play games will no longer see news feed application stories from friends who do play games — same goes for any other third-party app. Because news feed stories were a main way that people ...

      Google <b>News</b> Now Eight Years Old

      google-news-screenshot-old Google today announced on the official Google blog the eighth birthday of Google News. It's a huge milestone for the California-based search company, which launched the Google News service on the 22nd of ...

      More People Watched Fox <b>News</b> Monday Than Obama Town Hall <b>...</b>

      In fact, far more people watched the Fox News Channel's "Happening Now" with Jon Scott and Jenna Lee airing at the same time than tuned in to see what the President had to say. Potentially even more embarrassing, when you add in those ...


      robert shumake

      Facebook Making Changes to <b>News</b> Feed, Requests, Bookmarks to <b>...</b>

      After the changes take effect, people who do not play games will no longer see news feed application stories from friends who do play games — same goes for any other third-party app. Because news feed stories were a main way that people ...

      Google <b>News</b> Now Eight Years Old

      google-news-screenshot-old Google today announced on the official Google blog the eighth birthday of Google News. It's a huge milestone for the California-based search company, which launched the Google News service on the 22nd of ...

      More People Watched Fox <b>News</b> Monday Than Obama Town Hall <b>...</b>

      In fact, far more people watched the Fox News Channel's "Happening Now" with Jon Scott and Jenna Lee airing at the same time than tuned in to see what the President had to say. Potentially even more embarrassing, when you add in those ...

















Tuesday, September 21, 2010

How to Making Money


Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, is defaulting; Half Moon Bay, California, is disincorporating; and the City of Miami, Florida, declared a “state of fiscal urgency,” then broke contracts with workers. Yet, Pennsylvania, California, and Florida municipal bond funds managed by Blackrock are trading at or near 52-week highs.


Short sales look timely. Still, there are advantages to a buy side study. First, when the time comes, the opportunities will be broader. Second, the decision to buy will be more a case of negation than attraction. Ruling out unsavory bonds when selecting what to buy will often replicate the process of choosing what to short.


Looking through the wreckage of the 1930s and of the 1970s, there was probably more money lost by premature investments than made by those who waited. This was on the short and long side. New York City is a case in point. Its bust in the 1970s was expected. The stock market had tumbled, a commercial real estate binge of unparalleled excess had desecrated the skyline (new commercial space constructed between 1968 and 1970 exceeded 100% of the city’s commercial building between the World Wars), and – this is as predictable as night following day – from 1968 to 1970, 18 of the largest U.S. corporations left the city and 14 more announced their departure. These included American Can, PepsiCo, General Foods, U.S Tobacco and Shell Oil. Over 1.1 million New Yorkers emigrated from the city in the early and mid-1970s.


In other words, it was so obvious that New York City could not pay its bills that it was too obvious. Anecdotally, there were more investors who shorted New York City too early than those who waited and made money.


By the mid-1970s all New York City bonds were trading for approximately $25 ($100 being par). This was 1933 again, when all City of Miami bonds (yields ranged from 4-3/4% to 5-1/2%, maturities from 1935 to 1955) were quoted at $26. In both cases, the market sulked; yet, in both cases, there were bargains for those who were willing to read legal documents. One such case will be discussed below.


All finance is a reenactment. In his seminal study, Municipal Bonds: A Century of Experience (1936), A. M. Hillhouse wrote: “The major portion of over-bonding by municipalities arises out of real estate booms.” As precedent, Hillhouse quoted H. C. Adams, who wrote in 1890 (Public Debts): “he bonding of a town, and the expenditure of the money procured in showy works, is the occasion of gain to those who speculate in real estate….” Hillhouse, having quoted Adams’ observations of a previous property-boom, municipal-bond bust, should have known better than to write: “There will be no justification for a city [in the future to use] the excuse… that its tax revenues have dried up in times of falling property values.” So, if you miss this one, your children will have the same opportunity.


As for the current wasteland, revenue bonds are a choicer flock to choose from than general obligation bonds. The following distinction between the two is extracted from my seminal study (The Coming Collapse of the Municipal Bond Market ): “Revenue bonds are repaid using the revenue generated by the specific project the bonds are issued to fund (fees from a public parking garage, for example).” General obligation bonds are thought to be safer, at least they are advertised as such, because “they are backed by the full faith and credit of the issuing municipality. This means that the municipality commits its full resources to paying bondholders, including general taxation and the ability to raise more funds through credit. The ability to back up bond payments with tax funds is what makes general obligation bonds distinct from revenue bonds.”


However, it is not possible to draw blood from a stone and we will soon see municipalities that can not meet their bond commitments unless they discover an oil field larger than BP’s folly. Half Moon Bay, California, may already meet this ignoble state. From recent reports, the budget and books are so unintelligible that the city is disincorporating and may become an appendage to San Mateo County. Half Moon Bay’s bonds and yawning deficit will presumably be the burden of San Mateo County.


As a side note, the depth of incompetence on display in this instance would not be tolerated in a grammar school Citizenship Day. Given the state of the country, there will be even more amazing feats of fiscal suicide. Another participant is Standard & Poor’s, which stamped a AA- rating on $18 million of Half Moon Bay debt issued in 2009. Bondholders note: do not expect logic to guide negotiated workouts.



As for the bondholder, there are several difficulties here. Disincorporation has few if any legal precedents in California. (“It’s an option that hasn’t been tried in the state since 1972, when the tiny city of Cabazon (about 2,000 people) disincorporated.” – San Mateo County Times, August 27, 2010) The Cabazon precedent is not one to take on faith. Half Moon Bay and San Mateo County may have competing interests. A judge may have different ideas yet about how Half Moon Bay should resolve an $18 million lawsuit that the city lost related to development rights on a 24-acre property.


Just where do present circumstances leave the debt holder? That is, the owners of Half Moon Bay’s $18 million issue of Judgment Obligation bonds. And what of the free-for-all that follows? Propzero.com, jumping into the Half Moon Bay debate, suggests that disincorporation “may be the answer for many California cities struggling with too many spending commitments and not enough money. Digging out of budget holes may be harder than simply shutting things down.”


As goes Half Moon Bay, so goes the country, or so it seems. If San Mateo County is stuck with the Judgment Obligation bonds, and a large annual deficit, it is a sure bet the county will appeal to the state; Governor Schwarznegger will appeal to President Obama; and the president will appeal – to Congress?


It was easier to bottom fish among CDOs that were trading at $15 (as a group) in 2008 than to wager on these contingencies. Revenue bonds are comparatively easy to understand. In a large-scale, municipal-bond swoon, revenue bonds will sell off. That will be true even if these are water bonds, supported by the revenue that customers pay for services; even if these revenues cannot be touched by the grasping Yoga Instructors’ Union. (Half Moon Bay residents are distraught at the loss of municipal yoga instruction – San Mateo County Times.)


We return to New York City to note the lack of perceptiveness in a time of chaos. In April 1975, the city defaulted on a short-term note. It missed an interest payment (maybe more than one, it isn’t clear). The coupon was eventually paid, but the “New York City default” was highly publicized.


The Municipal Assistance Corporation (MAC) was formed. In The Bond Book, Annette Thau explained that MAC bonds were not obligations of New York City: “The revenues to pay debt service were backed, not by the taxing power of the city, but by the state of New York, and by a special lien on the city’s sales tax and… on a stock transfer tax.” These were revenue bonds that initially yielded “10% as compared to 8% for securities with comparable rating and maturity.”


Thau went on to tell her readers that the winning team does its homework: “This episode demonstrates why it pays, literally, to be very precise about exactly which revenue streams back debt service. In this instance, MAC bonds were tarred by the woes of the city, even though they were not obligations of the city….”


Revenues used to pay MAC bondholders could not flow to the city until the coupons were already met. This is true of services in different municipalities today. Utilities often fall in this category. Advanced critical reading skills are a prerequisite to distinguish a $25 from a $75 bond.


What of critical services in municipalities without predictable sources of revenue? In July, Indianapolis, Indiana, decided to sell its water and sewer utilities. In August, San Jose, California, discussed privatizing its water utility. There are many other such discussions. The media reported both the Indianapolis and San Jose decisions as sales. From precedent, the transactions may be more complicated than that.


It would be unusual for a local government to relinquish all control. There are many different possible arrangements with investors. At one end, there have been attempts to issue corporate stock in the municipality. This was proposed in Coral Gables, Florida, during the 1930s. It did not work but investment bankers are more inventive today. (Or, maybe not. Assets to be pledged by Coral Gables included “the municipal golf course and club house, the Venetian pool, the Coliseum….” Maybe not the one in Rome, but investment bankers are inventive.)


Probably the most likely arrangements are Public-Private Partnerships. In such partnerships, the investor, a “concessionaire,” steps in after bonds stand no chance of repayment. These might be for a vital service such as a water system, airport, or toll road. Concessionaires pay off all or a portion of the debt in exchange for the right to operate the asset for a negotiated return. Internal rates of return generally fall between 13% – 20%. This is a very simplified description.


There are many other investment approaches that haven’t been mentioned. Those mentioned are merely outlined. If it is not obvious, it must be emphasized how preliminary this discussion has been before making an investment. The most important advice here, on the short or long side, is to be patient, to understand the documents of the security, the laws and covenants that bind related parties, and to know the history of municipal bond defaults. This will open the investor’s imagination to the most improbable scenarios.



I feel we need to support films that send powerful messages to kids about courage, values, and being true to yourself.



If we don't get behind them and support them Hollywood won't make them.



Last summer I had the incredible opportunity to be a part of Rob Reiner's new film, Flipped. It's a story about two 13-year-olds in the early 1960s -- Bryce and Juli -- who live across the street from each other and how they find themselves and each other through the trials of love and friendship.



The story "flips" between the viewpoints of these young characters and, as they grow, their perceptions of each other "flip" as well.



I play Juli's mom in the film, alongside a fantastic ensemble of actors: Madeleine Carol & Callan McAuliffe (the kids), Aidan Quinn, John Mahoney, Rebecca De Mornay, and Anthony Edwards.



Flipped is not just about first love, but about how a young girl teaches a young boy about what's important in life. It's a movie about courage, character, and standing up for what you believe in.



Juli comes from a warm, tight-knit family that's low on money but rich on love while Bryce's family is wealthy but repressed. Bryce learns over time from Juli that life is not about where you come from but what you do and the choices that you make define who you are. Bryce really starts to grow into a young man of character because of Juli and her family.



Based on the beautiful novel of the same title by Wendelin Van Draanen, the film stays true to the story, humor, morals, and life lessons that made the book such a huge hit with adolescents. While the book takes place in present day, Rob chose to set the movie in the early 60's to capture that pre-Vietnam, pre-Twitter/Facebook time of innocence. It makes the film a very nostalgic experience for those who grew up in that period, as Rob did, remembering your first love and how it changed your life. It's also relatable to kids today who are experiencing that now.



Flipped was a real passion project for Rob and he was the perfect man to bring this story to the screen. He tells stories about human beings. You won't find explosions, aliens, or vampires in this movie.



From my experience working with him and counting him as a friend, Rob is a man that really appreciates and respects women and values the immense impact they have on men's lives.



I wanted to reach out through HuffPost's amazing network to all the mothers and grandmothers who want to take their children and grandchildren to see a movie this summer with a message that will surely inspire.



And if you love it, tweet about it!





Flipped is playing now in Los Angeles, Austin and Sacramento. On August 27th it will open in New York, Chicago, Boston, Toronto, and San Francisco. And then, hopefully, in theaters across the country.



This post originally appeared at The Women's Conference.







Panasonic Lumix DMC-GH2 announced and previewed: Digital <b>...</b>

Panasonic Lumix DMC-GH2 announced and previewed: Photokina 2010: Panasonic has announced the DMC-GH2 Micro Four Thirds camera. The successor to the GH1 continues with its 'hybrid' stills/video philosophy but adds a host of tweaks and ...

BillBoard - Blogs - The Buffalo <b>News</b>

The Buffalo News updated every day with news from Buffalo, New York. Links to national and business news, entertainment listings, recipes, sports teams, classified ads, death notices.

Newsy: The Story Behind its Innovative <b>News</b> App

Today we're starting a new interview series on ReadWriteWeb, focused on product innovation on the Web. I'll be interviewing a number of startup founders over the coming weeks, ...


robert shumake

Panasonic Lumix DMC-GH2 announced and previewed: Digital <b>...</b>

Panasonic Lumix DMC-GH2 announced and previewed: Photokina 2010: Panasonic has announced the DMC-GH2 Micro Four Thirds camera. The successor to the GH1 continues with its 'hybrid' stills/video philosophy but adds a host of tweaks and ...

BillBoard - Blogs - The Buffalo <b>News</b>

The Buffalo News updated every day with news from Buffalo, New York. Links to national and business news, entertainment listings, recipes, sports teams, classified ads, death notices.

Newsy: The Story Behind its Innovative <b>News</b> App

Today we're starting a new interview series on ReadWriteWeb, focused on product innovation on the Web. I'll be interviewing a number of startup founders over the coming weeks, ...



Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, is defaulting; Half Moon Bay, California, is disincorporating; and the City of Miami, Florida, declared a “state of fiscal urgency,” then broke contracts with workers. Yet, Pennsylvania, California, and Florida municipal bond funds managed by Blackrock are trading at or near 52-week highs.


Short sales look timely. Still, there are advantages to a buy side study. First, when the time comes, the opportunities will be broader. Second, the decision to buy will be more a case of negation than attraction. Ruling out unsavory bonds when selecting what to buy will often replicate the process of choosing what to short.


Looking through the wreckage of the 1930s and of the 1970s, there was probably more money lost by premature investments than made by those who waited. This was on the short and long side. New York City is a case in point. Its bust in the 1970s was expected. The stock market had tumbled, a commercial real estate binge of unparalleled excess had desecrated the skyline (new commercial space constructed between 1968 and 1970 exceeded 100% of the city’s commercial building between the World Wars), and – this is as predictable as night following day – from 1968 to 1970, 18 of the largest U.S. corporations left the city and 14 more announced their departure. These included American Can, PepsiCo, General Foods, U.S Tobacco and Shell Oil. Over 1.1 million New Yorkers emigrated from the city in the early and mid-1970s.


In other words, it was so obvious that New York City could not pay its bills that it was too obvious. Anecdotally, there were more investors who shorted New York City too early than those who waited and made money.


By the mid-1970s all New York City bonds were trading for approximately $25 ($100 being par). This was 1933 again, when all City of Miami bonds (yields ranged from 4-3/4% to 5-1/2%, maturities from 1935 to 1955) were quoted at $26. In both cases, the market sulked; yet, in both cases, there were bargains for those who were willing to read legal documents. One such case will be discussed below.


All finance is a reenactment. In his seminal study, Municipal Bonds: A Century of Experience (1936), A. M. Hillhouse wrote: “The major portion of over-bonding by municipalities arises out of real estate booms.” As precedent, Hillhouse quoted H. C. Adams, who wrote in 1890 (Public Debts): “he bonding of a town, and the expenditure of the money procured in showy works, is the occasion of gain to those who speculate in real estate….” Hillhouse, having quoted Adams’ observations of a previous property-boom, municipal-bond bust, should have known better than to write: “There will be no justification for a city [in the future to use] the excuse… that its tax revenues have dried up in times of falling property values.” So, if you miss this one, your children will have the same opportunity.


As for the current wasteland, revenue bonds are a choicer flock to choose from than general obligation bonds. The following distinction between the two is extracted from my seminal study (The Coming Collapse of the Municipal Bond Market ): “Revenue bonds are repaid using the revenue generated by the specific project the bonds are issued to fund (fees from a public parking garage, for example).” General obligation bonds are thought to be safer, at least they are advertised as such, because “they are backed by the full faith and credit of the issuing municipality. This means that the municipality commits its full resources to paying bondholders, including general taxation and the ability to raise more funds through credit. The ability to back up bond payments with tax funds is what makes general obligation bonds distinct from revenue bonds.”


However, it is not possible to draw blood from a stone and we will soon see municipalities that can not meet their bond commitments unless they discover an oil field larger than BP’s folly. Half Moon Bay, California, may already meet this ignoble state. From recent reports, the budget and books are so unintelligible that the city is disincorporating and may become an appendage to San Mateo County. Half Moon Bay’s bonds and yawning deficit will presumably be the burden of San Mateo County.


As a side note, the depth of incompetence on display in this instance would not be tolerated in a grammar school Citizenship Day. Given the state of the country, there will be even more amazing feats of fiscal suicide. Another participant is Standard & Poor’s, which stamped a AA- rating on $18 million of Half Moon Bay debt issued in 2009. Bondholders note: do not expect logic to guide negotiated workouts.



As for the bondholder, there are several difficulties here. Disincorporation has few if any legal precedents in California. (“It’s an option that hasn’t been tried in the state since 1972, when the tiny city of Cabazon (about 2,000 people) disincorporated.” – San Mateo County Times, August 27, 2010) The Cabazon precedent is not one to take on faith. Half Moon Bay and San Mateo County may have competing interests. A judge may have different ideas yet about how Half Moon Bay should resolve an $18 million lawsuit that the city lost related to development rights on a 24-acre property.


Just where do present circumstances leave the debt holder? That is, the owners of Half Moon Bay’s $18 million issue of Judgment Obligation bonds. And what of the free-for-all that follows? Propzero.com, jumping into the Half Moon Bay debate, suggests that disincorporation “may be the answer for many California cities struggling with too many spending commitments and not enough money. Digging out of budget holes may be harder than simply shutting things down.”


As goes Half Moon Bay, so goes the country, or so it seems. If San Mateo County is stuck with the Judgment Obligation bonds, and a large annual deficit, it is a sure bet the county will appeal to the state; Governor Schwarznegger will appeal to President Obama; and the president will appeal – to Congress?


It was easier to bottom fish among CDOs that were trading at $15 (as a group) in 2008 than to wager on these contingencies. Revenue bonds are comparatively easy to understand. In a large-scale, municipal-bond swoon, revenue bonds will sell off. That will be true even if these are water bonds, supported by the revenue that customers pay for services; even if these revenues cannot be touched by the grasping Yoga Instructors’ Union. (Half Moon Bay residents are distraught at the loss of municipal yoga instruction – San Mateo County Times.)


We return to New York City to note the lack of perceptiveness in a time of chaos. In April 1975, the city defaulted on a short-term note. It missed an interest payment (maybe more than one, it isn’t clear). The coupon was eventually paid, but the “New York City default” was highly publicized.


The Municipal Assistance Corporation (MAC) was formed. In The Bond Book, Annette Thau explained that MAC bonds were not obligations of New York City: “The revenues to pay debt service were backed, not by the taxing power of the city, but by the state of New York, and by a special lien on the city’s sales tax and… on a stock transfer tax.” These were revenue bonds that initially yielded “10% as compared to 8% for securities with comparable rating and maturity.”


Thau went on to tell her readers that the winning team does its homework: “This episode demonstrates why it pays, literally, to be very precise about exactly which revenue streams back debt service. In this instance, MAC bonds were tarred by the woes of the city, even though they were not obligations of the city….”


Revenues used to pay MAC bondholders could not flow to the city until the coupons were already met. This is true of services in different municipalities today. Utilities often fall in this category. Advanced critical reading skills are a prerequisite to distinguish a $25 from a $75 bond.


What of critical services in municipalities without predictable sources of revenue? In July, Indianapolis, Indiana, decided to sell its water and sewer utilities. In August, San Jose, California, discussed privatizing its water utility. There are many other such discussions. The media reported both the Indianapolis and San Jose decisions as sales. From precedent, the transactions may be more complicated than that.


It would be unusual for a local government to relinquish all control. There are many different possible arrangements with investors. At one end, there have been attempts to issue corporate stock in the municipality. This was proposed in Coral Gables, Florida, during the 1930s. It did not work but investment bankers are more inventive today. (Or, maybe not. Assets to be pledged by Coral Gables included “the municipal golf course and club house, the Venetian pool, the Coliseum….” Maybe not the one in Rome, but investment bankers are inventive.)


Probably the most likely arrangements are Public-Private Partnerships. In such partnerships, the investor, a “concessionaire,” steps in after bonds stand no chance of repayment. These might be for a vital service such as a water system, airport, or toll road. Concessionaires pay off all or a portion of the debt in exchange for the right to operate the asset for a negotiated return. Internal rates of return generally fall between 13% – 20%. This is a very simplified description.


There are many other investment approaches that haven’t been mentioned. Those mentioned are merely outlined. If it is not obvious, it must be emphasized how preliminary this discussion has been before making an investment. The most important advice here, on the short or long side, is to be patient, to understand the documents of the security, the laws and covenants that bind related parties, and to know the history of municipal bond defaults. This will open the investor’s imagination to the most improbable scenarios.



I feel we need to support films that send powerful messages to kids about courage, values, and being true to yourself.



If we don't get behind them and support them Hollywood won't make them.



Last summer I had the incredible opportunity to be a part of Rob Reiner's new film, Flipped. It's a story about two 13-year-olds in the early 1960s -- Bryce and Juli -- who live across the street from each other and how they find themselves and each other through the trials of love and friendship.



The story "flips" between the viewpoints of these young characters and, as they grow, their perceptions of each other "flip" as well.



I play Juli's mom in the film, alongside a fantastic ensemble of actors: Madeleine Carol & Callan McAuliffe (the kids), Aidan Quinn, John Mahoney, Rebecca De Mornay, and Anthony Edwards.



Flipped is not just about first love, but about how a young girl teaches a young boy about what's important in life. It's a movie about courage, character, and standing up for what you believe in.



Juli comes from a warm, tight-knit family that's low on money but rich on love while Bryce's family is wealthy but repressed. Bryce learns over time from Juli that life is not about where you come from but what you do and the choices that you make define who you are. Bryce really starts to grow into a young man of character because of Juli and her family.



Based on the beautiful novel of the same title by Wendelin Van Draanen, the film stays true to the story, humor, morals, and life lessons that made the book such a huge hit with adolescents. While the book takes place in present day, Rob chose to set the movie in the early 60's to capture that pre-Vietnam, pre-Twitter/Facebook time of innocence. It makes the film a very nostalgic experience for those who grew up in that period, as Rob did, remembering your first love and how it changed your life. It's also relatable to kids today who are experiencing that now.



Flipped was a real passion project for Rob and he was the perfect man to bring this story to the screen. He tells stories about human beings. You won't find explosions, aliens, or vampires in this movie.



From my experience working with him and counting him as a friend, Rob is a man that really appreciates and respects women and values the immense impact they have on men's lives.



I wanted to reach out through HuffPost's amazing network to all the mothers and grandmothers who want to take their children and grandchildren to see a movie this summer with a message that will surely inspire.



And if you love it, tweet about it!





Flipped is playing now in Los Angeles, Austin and Sacramento. On August 27th it will open in New York, Chicago, Boston, Toronto, and San Francisco. And then, hopefully, in theaters across the country.



This post originally appeared at The Women's Conference.








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robert shumake

Panasonic Lumix DMC-GH2 announced and previewed: Digital <b>...</b>

Panasonic Lumix DMC-GH2 announced and previewed: Photokina 2010: Panasonic has announced the DMC-GH2 Micro Four Thirds camera. The successor to the GH1 continues with its 'hybrid' stills/video philosophy but adds a host of tweaks and ...

BillBoard - Blogs - The Buffalo <b>News</b>

The Buffalo News updated every day with news from Buffalo, New York. Links to national and business news, entertainment listings, recipes, sports teams, classified ads, death notices.

Newsy: The Story Behind its Innovative <b>News</b> App

Today we're starting a new interview series on ReadWriteWeb, focused on product innovation on the Web. I'll be interviewing a number of startup founders over the coming weeks, ...


robert shumake

Panasonic Lumix DMC-GH2 announced and previewed: Digital <b>...</b>

Panasonic Lumix DMC-GH2 announced and previewed: Photokina 2010: Panasonic has announced the DMC-GH2 Micro Four Thirds camera. The successor to the GH1 continues with its 'hybrid' stills/video philosophy but adds a host of tweaks and ...

BillBoard - Blogs - The Buffalo <b>News</b>

The Buffalo News updated every day with news from Buffalo, New York. Links to national and business news, entertainment listings, recipes, sports teams, classified ads, death notices.

Newsy: The Story Behind its Innovative <b>News</b> App

Today we're starting a new interview series on ReadWriteWeb, focused on product innovation on the Web. I'll be interviewing a number of startup founders over the coming weeks, ...

















Saturday, September 18, 2010

personal finance and budgeting





Are you a fan of the GTD personal productivity system? Well if you like "Getting Things Done," here's GFD, Getting Finances Done, which shows you how to map David Allen's same principals to managing your personal finance and achieving your financial goals.



Applying GTD principles to your personal finances - Part 1 [Getting Finances Done]









BillFloat Pays Your Bills When You Can't





If money's tight and you need a little extra time to cover a bill, service BillFloat can take care of it for you and you can pay them back later.

After entering the company you need to pay, you give BillFloat the amount of the bill and your account number. It'll let you know how many days it'll float the bill (a maximum of 30) and how much you'll owe BillFloat—which is generally $5, but decreases with the number of bills you pay. BillFloat will collect a little more information about you, like how you're going to pay them back, and then you'll be all set. Just make sure you'll have the money in a month, since BillFloat won't float its own bills.



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Canucks <b>News</b> On Day 1 Of Training Camp - Nucks Misconduct

Hodgson speaks about Canucks relationship plus more.

Baltimore Crime: Saturday crime <b>news</b>

Saturday crime news. State Senator Ulysses Currie pleaded not guilty to federal corruption charges. Triple stabbing on an MTA bus in West Baltimore. posted by ppatin at 11:07 AM ...

Small Business <b>News</b>: Small Biz Bill Passed

So what do you think of the new small business bill passed recently in the US Senate? Supporters are no doubt high-fiving each other and congratulating.



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Tuesday, September 14, 2010

personal finance planning


When Crepes Bonaparte was first approached by the Food Network to participate in the Great Food Truck Race, in which seven acclaimed food trucks compete for the highest sales in various cities across America (and a grand prize of $50,000), Murcia jumped at the chance to compete against some of the other well-known trucks from across the country. As Murcia puts it, “It was an opportunity to test our abilities against some of the most successful food trucks out there.” Spoken like a true competitor. Of course, arriving on the first day of the competition to be greeted by famed chef Tyler Florence was no doubt an exhilarating experience for the show’s contestants. Murcia recalls, “We were a little nervous because it was a little intimidating. You know…you show up, and there’s Tyler Florence!”



Two of the six Great Food Truck Race episodes have aired to date. The first episode took Crepes Bonaparte and the competition to San Diego, California, where Murcia had his first taste of the challenges that were to come: “We were thrown into an environment of, ‘OK, you’re going to San Diego…GO!’ so it was very rushed to figure out what to do. We were planning literally as we were on our way to San Diego.” Murcia also recalls the challenges met in the second episode’s trip to Santa Fe, New Mexico: “We ran out of food like three times, so we had to keep buying more food! It’s tough to know how many people to prep for when you’re in a place where you don’t know what your sales are going to be.”



One can’t help but wonder how the dynamics were between the contestants off-camera in such a competitively-charged atmosphere while on the show. Murcia explains, “When we were selling, we were competitors. We didn’t talk at the end of the day about who had done what in terms of sales…but we’re all great friends. We all got to try each other’s food, and it was all delicious.”



Also featured on the show as a key member of team Crepes Bonaparte is Murcia’s then-fiancĂ© Danielle. Now married, Murcia jokes, “We spend more time together as a couple than I think any other couple out there.” Despite the long hours logged side by side, the duo works very well together. Murcia explains, “I’m more the numbers, finance guy who has to do all the paychecks, HR, and permitting, and Danielle is very much our marketing and operations person. Because we work so much, it’s a great way to spend that time together.”



Of course, operating a food truck presents its own challenges, television show or not. The most challenging aspect of the business for Murcia is simply working within such a small physical space. Murcia explains, “Dealing with a small kitchen and operating a full service catering business out of here as well is the biggest challenge. We are constantly dealing with never having enough refrigerator space, and having to get creative with how to position things in the fridge and make it work.”



Challenges aside, Crepes Bonaparte has benefited from the exposure gained through the show, if not a few borderline-obsessed fans. Murcia laughs, “We do a farmer’s market in Anaheim, and one lady literally shoved her cell phone in the truck and was like, ‘I have to take a picture of you!’ I thought, ‘Whoa, that’s a first!’ When people come by the truck who have seen the show and say, ‘Oh, I’m rooting for you guys,’ it has made our work environment that much more fun.” Call it irony, but Murcia has yet to watch any of the episodes of the Great Food Truck Race. “I don’t have cable!” he confesses.



Murcia first conceptualized Crepes Bonaparte as an undergraduate student at the University of Southern California. Lacking the big dollars required to open a full fledged restaurant, Murcia first operated Crepes Bonaparte as a catering firm specializing in crepe stations, with the hope of evolving into to a restaurant in the future (catering still comprises 30% of the business). Of course, given the popularity and expansion of the food truck industry over the past few years, Murcia is content with current operations: “As of now, I plan on staying with the food truck, and just seeing it out because it’s still such a new trend. We don’t really know exactly where it’s going…we’re all learning.”



Behind the beret, Murcia is a businessman with a passion for providing customers with crepes just the way they are in France: “simple, cheap, and on-the-go.” Murcia reflects, “Every time I see a Yelp or blogger review about us, I feel like we’ve done that part right. So I think that’s the most rewarding part of the business. Even though I have these ideas of how I want my business to look in my head, the consumer gets it, and it reminds me that OK, I’m doing what I meant to do.”



Maryn Nelson Moslenko is an OC-based food blogger who writes Le Cupcakerie. The Great Food Truck Race airs Sundays at 9 on the Food Network.






I've read a lot of stores lately about "credit score enthusiasts" who want to get the perfect credit score or are obsessed with improving their score. While it's certainly better than not caring about your credit score at all, it almost never pays to get a perfect score.



Despite all the stories about the odd ways your score is being used, the reality is that once you have a good credit score, you don't need to obsess about it.



Consider this - if your score is better than 760, then Fair Isaac Corporation, the company that invested the credit score formula; says you get zero benefit from improving it. For mortgage interest rate purposes, a 761 is the same as an 850. For auto loans, the bar is even lower. If you have a score about 720, it's the same as having a perfect score of 850. Visit their site and look in the right hand column - there's a table listing FICO scores and APRs for 30-year fixed mortgages, 15-year fixed mortgages, and 36-month auto loans.



If you are planning on getting a loan in the next year or two and your score is close to the next tier, by all means try to improve it. If you aren't planning on getting a loan and you have a decent score, focus your energies on something else. I assure you that you will get a better return doing something other than obsessing about your credit score.



Jim writes about personal finance at Bargaineering.com.











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Small Business <b>News</b>: Facebook Phenomenon

The Facebook phenomenon may be the most important to small businesses on the Web currently, even if other tools like Twitter are sometimes more talked about.

Famed Civil Rights Photographer Ernest Withers Exposed as FBI <b>...</b>

(Sept. 14) -- Civil rights photographer Ernest Withers did double duty as an FBI informant, divulging the most intimate and potentially damaging secrets of his confidants to a government agency then dedicated to discrediting the ...

New Children&#39;s Book Coming from President Obama - Political Punch

As part of the book deal then-Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., inked in 2004, Random House today announced the publication of a children's book by the president, “Of Thee I Sing: A Letter to My Daughters.” Political Punch Blog.



Sponsor: Success Business Services by Julia Delligatti


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Small Business <b>News</b>: Facebook Phenomenon

The Facebook phenomenon may be the most important to small businesses on the Web currently, even if other tools like Twitter are sometimes more talked about.

Famed Civil Rights Photographer Ernest Withers Exposed as FBI <b>...</b>

(Sept. 14) -- Civil rights photographer Ernest Withers did double duty as an FBI informant, divulging the most intimate and potentially damaging secrets of his confidants to a government agency then dedicated to discrediting the ...

New Children&#39;s Book Coming from President Obama - Political Punch

As part of the book deal then-Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., inked in 2004, Random House today announced the publication of a children's book by the president, “Of Thee I Sing: A Letter to My Daughters.” Political Punch Blog.


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Sponsor: Success Business Services by Julia Delligatti































Monday, September 13, 2010

Making Money Work



Some highlights:



* "No friend to the puu yai (big shots) of organized crime, militant groups, or government, colorful forensic pathologist Porntip Rojanansunan solves human rights cases."



* 'The Aftermath Project': Photographers go back after the war. (Gallery) "An experience in Bosnia led Sara Terry to create an organization to explore and document the consequences of conflict long after the world’s attention has turned elsewhere."



* Packing 400 lunches - and love - to serve the homeless: "Kansas City's 'mother of the streets' rises at 4:30 each morning, packs 400 decorated bags, and then seeks out the homeless."



* How do you teach third grade math? "Reconciling diverse languages, experiences, and the playfulness common to all 9-year-olds, Ann Griffith’s job is to get her students to the right answers."



* In Pakistan, women's rights activist Sheema Kermani stages plays that stir controversy – and thought.



* When scholars face threats, global networker Robert Quinn finds them safer places to do their work. He's the founder and executive director of Scholars at Risk, in New York.



* Finnish teacher unlocks music for special-needs students: "Markku Kaikkonen helps Marko Koivu and other students become skilled musicians, even though they don't read conventional musical notation."



* Protecting women and girls in China, where one child per family is the rule – and a boy the preference. "Chai Ling was a leader of the 1989 student uprising at Tiananmen Square. Now she wants to help women and girls in her native China."



* Saving cultural treasures in war-torn lands: "Stuart Gibson of UNESCO circles the globe to help endangered museums undergo rebirth."



* After seeing Mumbai's slums bulldozed, he now works to save and restore them: "Crews once bulldozed thousands of slum homes in Mumbai, a metropolitan region of about 16 million people in India. Santosh Thorat sees a better way: Help residents fix them up."



* Teaching others how to give money: 'Born into wealth, Marion Rockefeller Weber uses her Flow Fund Circle to teach philanthropists how to give money wisely.'



Also see:

Little Bill Clinton: A school year in the life of a new American. (A separate year-long special report, some of which shows up in the Making a Difference section.)



Background on the CSM from their 100th anniversary in 2008.

President Obama's plan for fixing America's badly-worn transportation infrastructure is not, as some critics have asserted, simply throwing more taxpayer money down the rabbit hole.



In fact, if implemented correctly, it could not only help us make up for a lot of lost time re-building a critical component of our economy, make us more competitive in the global marketplace, and serve as economic "game-changer," a fundamental re-orientation of how we structure long-range industrial policy.



Right now, most people are focused on jobs. U.S. unemployment rose to 9.6 percent in August, and for the construction industry, that figure is 17 percent, nearly double. What's worse, those numbers may continue upward when the money from the first stimulus package runs out. In short, far too many Americans are not going back to work tomorrow.



Rebuilding our third-rate transportation infrastructure will also help us catch up with established competitors like Germany and up-and-coming players like China, Brazil, and India. Those nations are investing in their economies and their future competitiveness by putting money into modern ports, freight rail, and other infrastructure. Right now, there are serious question about whether U.S. infrastructure can deliver the level of service American businesses need.



Finally, there is the matter of practical policy. The latest extension of our nation's transportation law runs out at the end of this year. In this toxic political environment, it may be impossible to get a renewal, which could force a shutdown of the program, as was the case earlier this year, and put thousands of existing jobs in jeopardy. Washington must show leadership now.



An effectively-designed infrastructure initiative can stabilize and strengthen our economy beyond the current crisis. Smart investments can generate productive, sustainable and inclusive growth. A strategy of "invest and reform" would ensure that infrastructure investments were driven by market logic, factual evidence, and performance rather than the greatest short-term political reward.



Does President Obama's plan do all these things?



The good news--there are several key reforms that promise to change the way transportation infrastructure projects are funded and chosen on the federal, state, and metropolitan levels: A merit-driven National Infrastructure Bank could be the vehicle for green-lighting projects that have the highest return on investment, rather than the greatest political reward. Another round of projects that support bottom-up decision-making linking transportation, housing, energy, and environmental concerns. A program for transportation modeled after the Education Department's Race-To-The-Top initiative that could instill meaningful reforms on the state level, where most decisions are made.



The investments in high-speed rail and next-generation air traffic control are important in that they begin to shift focus away from small-bore spending to the kind of transformational investments the federal government should be focusing on. Linking high speed rail to the rest of the transportation program will help us begin to think of these siloed investments as a holistic system.



Obviously, the big challenge is how to get this done. Effective transportation policy in the U.S. does not lack for good, practical ideas. It lacks funding, or, more accurately, it lacks interest in raising taxes to generate the funding. Most of what the president proposed is traditionally funded by the tax on gasoline. But as driving declines, and as more fuel-efficient cars mean we're consuming less gas, there's much less money overall.



President Obama has taken any gas tax increase off the table, proposing instead to repeal the domestic manufacturing deduction for oil and gas production. This may be enough to fund parts of the president's plan, but it is short of the comprehensive package we need.



We need to hear more about what the administration's priorities are for the long-term reauthorization of the transportation law. Again, there is no shortage of ideas. There's a draft bill in the House, and likely to be one in the Senate. Three national commissions have weighed in on this.



We need to know how the program--largely the same framework used to build the interstates a couple of generations ago--will be updated to reflect the realities of 21st century metropolitan America.



Finally, we need a frank conversation about how we're going to pay for all this, and then to exercise the will to do that. A jump start now is no good if we stall again down the road.







eric seiger

Fox <b>News</b> Audience Grows Among Republicans And Independents; CNN <b>...</b>

Pew is out with their annual look at how news consumers get their information, with several interesting breakdowns across various forms of media. But one category that sticks out is which cable news network plays a significant role in ...

Arrowheadlines: Chiefs <b>News</b> 9/13 - Arrowhead Pride

Are you ready for some football? The Kansas City Chiefs finally get this thing started tonight. I know a lot of you will be at the game, I also know most of us can't make it. We will be there in spirit. Keep us in mind as you roar on ...

Team ICO Collection &quot;around £25&quot; PlayStation 3 <b>News</b> - Page 1 <b>...</b>

Read our PlayStation 3 news of Team ICO Collection.





















Sunday, September 12, 2010

Making Easy Money

Eton Park, the hedge fund founded and ran by Goldman's youngest partner, Eric Mindich, has just joined Paulson and Soros in making GLD his largest common stock position at $800 million (in addition to owning calls and puts on GLD for another $1.1 billion in gross notional). The fund also owns puts for almost $900 million gross in the MSCI Emerging Markets index, but without having any detail on the strike and duration, this position could be equivalent to a net notional of anything (not to mention possible arbs with non-disclosable CDS and other OTC products). Either way, as Eton Park had no GLD common holdings at March 31, it is now clear where a substantial buying interest in the ETF came from in Q2.

Elsewhere, Soros posted an update on his own holdings, which dropped by over 40%, from $8.8 billion to $5.1 billion, signifying the Hungarian manager may be getting more bearish on the economy. Further confirming his departure from stocks, aside from his top GLD position at 5.2 million shares, Soros' other key top 10 positions were convertible bond positions in Linear (3.125% 2027), Lawson (2.5% 2012), Flextronics (1% 2010), RF Micro (0.75% 2012), Epicor (2.375% 2027), RF Micro (1% 2014), Diodes (2.25% 2026), Cadence (1.375% 2011), Blackboard (1.5% 2027), JDS (1% 2026), and Ceradyne (2035), in order of size.

The problem is that now that most funds have blown their easy money on accumulating GLD stakes, any incremental purchases in GLD will likely not be as easy on the margin. And with some of the biggest hedge funds in the world having made GLD their top position, and the likelihood that at least some of them have made wrong bets in their other holdings, a potential drop in the market, which could incite a flash round of margin calls, will likely see liquidations in GLD which is now liquidity of first resort for many of the top 10 worldwide hedge funds. This indeed foots with Goldman's recent upgrade on gold (PT of $1,300), which we took very skeptically. Our concern was subsequently validated by Robbin Griffiths in the following King World News interview:

So! Ping launched earlier this week, and more than a million people have signed up. I’m not one of them. I use iTunes for downloading music but I always decline when prompted to update this or that new version. As described by the AFP, Ping “allows users to view photos and videos of their favorite musicians and receive information about concert dates.” There’s also a social component but honestly, I get what I need from Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr and, most importantly, YouTube, which is the first place I go when I want to hear a song (and before music types get all cranky, it’s usually followed up by a visit to iTunes for a download, so there). Point being, I love music and love learning about new stuff, but after reading about it didn’t really see how Ping could add value to my life. After reading VC/thought-leader Fred Wilson’s take yesterday, I felt vindicated – but also piqued:


In summary, Ping is not very social and it is not really about music. It is about music purchases and celebrities.


If you want to see a social network about music, check out last.fm. It knows what I am listening to right now no matter where I am listening (not in iTunes hopefully). It knows what music I like and it doesn’t ask me to tell them what that is. It knows who likes the same kind of music I do.


Ping shows what a command and control culture thinks a social network is. I am sure millions of people will use Ping. And I am equally sure that it will not advance the state of the music business one bit.


Two things here. First, the piquing was about last.fm, which Wilson evangelizes for frequently that I finally went to his channel, fredwilson.fm, to put his money where my ears are. There I found a whole bunch of new, great music. Bookmarked. Second, his description of Ping made me think not of Apple, but of Twitter.


I was recently annoyed to discover that my malfunctioning Tweetdeck was not the result of an overworked computer (my default assumption always) but rather Twitter deciding to kill some of its darlings. Or rather, some of your darlings — apps that users have become used to, that they have integrated into their behavior (Business Insider has an extensive list). I get why that has to happen — should happen, and is natural to happen, even — but I’m keeping my eye on how it’s happening.


It happened imperiously, top-down-ly, dare I say Facebook-ly. Sending out an email that your filter couldn’t distinguish from follower and DM notifications, instructing you to update your applications without so much as a prompt (they just…won’t work) and doing it during the last week of August — when people have tons of time to dedicate to reading emails from Twitter, and tending to their malfunctioning technology — all that doesn’t exactly maximize the user experience.


And Twitter is all about user experience — the fact that it is so easy, so clean, so unencumbered has won it so many users and fans, for so many different reasons. So when it starts to become annoying — with too many ads in the feed, too cluttered an interface, too many fail whales etc. — the less committed amongst us will bolt. I wrote about that in November when those lists were launched, and found it a “time-consuming, burdensome process users,” rolled out in such a way as to create an urgency about making lists now lest you be left off the gravy train. (Not to be confused with the “Suggested Users” gravy train which was also more about brands and celebrities than anything else.) And it’s new “Suggested Follow” user confuses me because, unlike last.fm, it does not seem to know “what I am listening to right now,” since it keeps suggesting people I already follow. There doesn’t seem to be much “listening” going on at all.


So that phrase — “a command and control culture” — doesn’t only sound like Apple, with its beautiful but un-openable iPad, but also Facebook with its top-down maze of privacy settings, and now Twitter with its weirdo Orwellian OAuth lingo (like something that might one day, say, enslave drones like these). The jury’s out on whether Twitter’s reassertion of control is better for users — I can’t help but agree with the note of caution sounded by Chris Dixon —  but the more they behave like ”a command and control culture” the less they will ”advance the state [of the] business.” In the words of Cory Doctorow: “Incumbents make bad revolutionaries.”


I was halfway through writing this post when I remembered that Fred Wilson was not only the evangelizer of the free-and-social last.fm but was also the key investor who brought forth Twitter’s app-killing message. Hmm. Discrepancy? Hopefully not — maybe that will mean he’s aware of the pitfalls, and will keep an eye on Twitter lest it become more like Ping than Last.fm. Because I have to say, I worry about Twitter. Not that it will survive — they don’t need my blessing for that — but that it will stay the kind of open, community-enhancing-and-enabling site that made it flourish at the outset. The kind of site that got people of influence not only using it, but evangelizing for it. I worry about the incumbents vs. revolutionaries dichotomy, I worry that, as Chris Dixon said, “having one company control a core internet service hinders competition and therefore innovation,” I worry about its stability, like Caroline McCarthy of CNET did last year, when she noted its not-infrequent wobbles and mused that “the prominence of Twitter as a communications channel in the Iranian crisis raises the question of whether a pre-revenue company — no matter how cushy its venture backing — is up to task.” But honestly, between the closed “Suggested Users” list, the rollout of lists, its lack of support for the businesses that banked on it early — from outfits like Stocktwits to TwitPic, which amazingly is threatened now (despite this Twitter-cred-making moment), and this top-down UE-ignoring OAuth stuff, I worry that they are becoming a site that I use but don’t care about, or root for. Like Facebook.


Yes, I know that Facebook has 600 million users or some such crazy thing. It doesn’t need me, but anyway, I still use it. But MySpace has shown what happens when users don’t love using anymore. So, too, did Friendster (and man was I on that thing every other minute back in the day). So while I know that Twitter is doing just fine with or without my 140-character contributions, I also know that people are fickle, and when using something becomes too annoying, they stop. Using Twitter this week was annoying. So, all things being equal, I’d rather they stop than the rest of us.


Related:

Here’s Who Just Got Screwed By Twitter [Business Insider]

Don’t Get Cocky, Twitter

Twitter’s Youth Is Over

Why does it matter that Twitter is supplanting RSS? [Chris Dixon]

“There’s a plane in the Hudson”


Photo of Steve Jobs from Pocket-Lint.com; Twitter illustration from LaurenceBorel.com. Now-iconic Hudson plane pic by JKrums on Twitpic.

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eric seiger

Morning <b>News</b> | Slog | The Stranger, Seattle&#39;s Only Newspaper

Slog, featuring Dan Savage, is Seattle's most popular News & Culture Blog. Seattle News, Politics, and Arts Blog. The Stranger covers local & national news, politics, restaurants, bars, music, movies and the arts.

Breaking <b>News</b>: CDC Concedes Vaccines Result in Autism. - Fighting <b>...</b>

I am sure this news report (ahem, truth) won't be sensationalized by the media or will be a 5 second blip that is forgotten or as my friend Ginger would say 'some sort of internet sewer alligator monster must have climbed up from the ...

Small Business <b>News</b>: The Twitter Revolution

Think Twitter is only a fad and not very important in the operation of your small business? PLEASE reconsider. The world's most popular microblogging platform.





















Saturday, September 11, 2010

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