The cuts affected operations staff, and a source said equities expects to start seeing cuts soon.
While global numbers are unknown, in New York at least, Goldman could cut up to 230 workers.
The bank notified New York State Department of Labor that it could cull its numbers due to "economic reasons."
A Goldman Sachs spokesman had no comment on the WARN notice, which is essentially a written warning to the DOL that a mass layoff may occur. Such notices must be filed by companies with a headcount of 50 or more, within 90 days of the layoff event.
While Goldman traditionally makes annual cuts to its securities division based on underperformance, this round of layoffs is reported to be broader.
Layoffs were predicted to hit all the bulge bracket banks this summer, as trading profits remain sluggish.
Goldman Sachs in particular is looking to cut costs. The firm has said it wants to cut $1 billion in non-compensation expenses in the coming year.
Mexico has deployed 2,800 soldiers to the state of Tamaulipas along the Texas border, in an effort to purge corruption in local police forces.
The troops have replaced most civilian officers in about 22 Tamaulipas cities and towns, including Nuevo Laredo, Reynosa, Matamoros, as well as Ciudad Victoria, the state capital. The military is now conducting interviews and drug tests on officers to determine who stays and who goes, according to the Brownsville Herald.
The government holds that the military presence will help decrease drug related violence in the state. More than 1,000 people have been killed in Tamaulipas since the beginning of 2010, when bloody turf wars broke out between Los Zetas cartel and their former bosses, the powerful Gulf Cartel.
Global intelligence firm STRATFOR notes that the militarization of local police forces has done little to reduce violence in other parts of Mexico, as many of the laid off officers end up working for the cartels.
In Juarez, murders have actually gone up since the military took over in March 2009; there were 3,200 murders in 2010, up from 2,650 in 2009 and 1,600 in 2008.
More than 36,000 people have died from drug-related violence in Mexico since President Felipe Calderon first ordered the military crackdown on the country's organized crime networks.
LAS VEGAS (AP) — Casino regulators on the British Channel Islands have suspended the gambling license of Full Tilt Poker, halting the company's online card games and intensifying its legal problems in the United States.
The Alderney Gambling Control Commission said Wednesday that it is immediately suspending Full Tilt's license after an investigation prompted by earlier indictments accusing company executives and associates of bank fraud, money laundering and other crimes.
The commission says the investigation has shown that Full Tilt employees and associates have operated contrary to its gambling laws. Full Tilt officials did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment. A site that tracks online poker traffic shows no users playing on Full Tilt for real money, down from an average of 9,000 at any given moment during the past week.
Wimbledon is home to more fantastic upsets than any other tennis tournament.
Quite a few of the greatest players to ever grace a court met an early exit on the lawns of the All England club (most of them took place on Court 2).
The grass creates not only a much quicker playing surface, but also the chance of a funny bounce off of the blades.
Some of the players on this list blamed their surprising loss on an illness or injury, but most of them probably know the truth: they just plain stunk that day.
20. Andreas Seppi pretty much ends James Blake's career (2009)
The Score: 7-5, 6-4, 7-6 (5)
What Happened?: James Blake has been a frustrating player to follow closely since he routinely chokes in big matches. His forehand has made more than a few fans turn their heads, but his inability to win in important situations causes those very same people to turn their heads away in disappointment. One example of that is Blake's loss to the 50th ranked Andreas Seppi in the first round of the 2009 Wimbledon. Blake hasn't been much of a factor in recent years, but a few fans possibly stricken with delusion are keeping their fingers crossed.
19. Venus tastes a major upset for the first time (2010)
The Score: 6-3, 6-2
What Happened?: Venus was cruising along during the 2010 Wimbledon tournament and didn't lose a single set until the quarterfinals where she was stymied not so much by her opponent Tsvetana Pironkova, but more by herself. Venus' played rather poorly and committed several unforced errors.
18. Venus Williams falters again (2011)
The Score: 6-2, 6-3
What Happened?: Venus Williams spent most of her time between the 2010 Wimbledon and the 2011 Wimbledon dealing with injuries. This year's Wimbledon was supposed to be her return to dominance, and it looked like that was going to happen if her first three rounds were any indication. Upset queen Tsvetana Pironkova ended up eliminating her in the fourth round.
Wimbledon is home to more fantastic upsets than any other tennis tournament.
Quite a few of the greatest players to ever grace a court met an early exit on the lawns of the All England club (most of them took place on Court 2).
The grass creates not only a much quicker playing surface, but also the chance of a funny bounce off of the blades.
Some of the players on this list blamed their surprising loss on an illness or injury, but most of them probably know the truth: they just plain stunk that day.
20. Andreas Seppi pretty much ends James Blake's career (2009)
The Score: 7-5, 6-4, 7-6 (5)
What Happened?: James Blake has been a frustrating player to follow closely since he routinely chokes in big matches. His forehand has made more than a few fans turn their heads, but his inability to win in important situations causes those very same people to turn their heads away in disappointment. One example of that is Blake's loss to the 50th ranked Andreas Seppi in the first round of the 2009 Wimbledon. Blake hasn't been much of a factor in recent years, but a few fans possibly stricken with delusion are keeping their fingers crossed.
19. Venus tastes a major upset for the first time (2010)
The Score: 6-3, 6-2
What Happened?: Venus was cruising along during the 2010 Wimbledon tournament and didn't lose a single set until the quarterfinals where she was stymied not so much by her opponent Tsvetana Pironkova, but more by herself. Venus' played rather poorly and committed several unforced errors.
18. Venus Williams falters again (2011)
The Score: 6-2, 6-3
What Happened?: Venus Williams spent most of her time between the 2010 Wimbledon and the 2011 Wimbledon dealing with injuries. This year's Wimbledon was supposed to be her return to dominance, and it looked like that was going to happen if her first three rounds were any indication. Upset queen Tsvetana Pironkova ended up eliminating her in the fourth round.
A special inspection of U.S. nuclear plants after the Fukushima disaster in Japan revealed problems with emergency equipment and disaster procedures that are far more pervasive than publicly described by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, a review of inspection reports by ProPublica shows.
While the deficiencies don't pose an immediate risk and are relatively easy to fix, critics say they could complicate the response to a major disaster and point to a weakness in NRC oversight.
The NRC ordered the inspection in response to the March earthquake and tsunami that crippled Fukushima's reactors. The purpose was to conduct a fast check on the equipment and procedures that U.S. plants are required to have in place in the event of a catastrophic natural disaster or a terrorist attack.
Agency officials unveiled the results in May, stating in a news release that "out of 65 operating reactor sites, 12 had issues with one or more of the requirements during the inspections."
But ProPublica's examination of the reports found that 60 plant sites had deficiencies that ranged from broken machinery, missing equipment, and poor training to things like blocked drains or a lack of preventive maintenance. Some of the more serious findings include:
Plant officials said they have moved to fix those problems and that none would have prevented them from responding in an emergency. The NRC told ProPublica that all the issues raised by inspectors "fell well short of being imminent safety concerns" and were being addressed.
In a summary attached to the inspection findings, however, the NRC expressed some concern.
"While individually, none of these observations posed a significant safety issue, they indicate a potential industry trend of failure to maintain equipment and strategies required to mitigate some design and beyond design-basis events," the summary says.
The NRC reported fewer problems at the plants than ProPublica because it only counted those in which a plant had a problem demonstrating how its emergency preparedness plan would work. The agency said that, despite these questions, all the plants could protect their reactors.
The special inspection covered equipment and procedures for use in disasters that are beyond the scope of the plant's design—major earthquakes, tornadoes, floods, hurricanes, and terrorist attacks.
Many of the items covered in the special inspection are supposed to be checked by NRC inspectors on a regular basis. Items that were required after the 9/11 attacks to respond to large explosions and fires—like extra pumps, hoses and generators—are supposed to be reviewed as part of regular triennial fire protection inspections.
David Lochbaum, a nuclear engineer with the Union of Concerned Scientists, says the large number of problems uncovered in the special inspection shows that NRC must strengthen oversight.
"I think they need to look at the inspections," said Lochbaum, whose group monitors safety matters. "Why did they find so much in these inspections? Shouldn't these have been found sooner?"
Nuclear plants conduct emergency drills every two years, and Lochbaum said that one possible improvement would be for inspectors to check the condition of the emergency response equipment then.
Mary Lampert, executive director of the advocacy group Pilgrim Watch in Massachusetts, said many of the deficiencies uncovered by the NRC may seem minor but could quickly turn into bigger problems in an emergency situation.
"They all add up. They cannot wait for a disaster to start looking around for a screwdriver that is required to open a valve because time is typically of the essence," she said.
Lampert said it is important for the NRC to keep an eye on the problems they found and not simply assume the nuclear companies will fix everything.
The Fukushima accident has focused the NRC's attention on the risk that a natural disaster or attack could knock out a plant's safety systems for an extended period and lead to a radiation release.
Although all plants are designed to withstand natural disasters, U.S. nuclear facilities are aging. Recent studies have shown that earthquake risks are now higher than they were predicted when some plants were built, although the NRC says reactors can still withstand the highest expected quake. Now historic flooding on the Missouri River is testing design limits at two Nebraska plants.
Flood waters are expected to come within a few feet of levels the Fort Calhoun and Coopernuclear plants were built to withstand. At Fort Calhoun, a special berm providing backup protection collapsed Sunday after being damaged. Operators briefly turned on emergency diesel power but said there was no risk to reactor cooling systems. The plant has been shut down for refueling since early April.
On April 1, the NRC launched a task force of senior agency managers to examine the ability of plants to respond to events that might overwhelm existing safety systems and procedures. The panel is concentrating on disaster preparedness and the ability to survive a lengthy blackout, as at Fukushima.
The six-member group is scheduled to report its findings to the commission on July 19, and the NRC has held two briefings on the subject so far. Until the task force reports back, the NRC said it would not comment on what, if any, changes the agency might propose.
The Union of Concerned Scientists and other watchdog groups have said that Fukushima points to the need for some obvious improvements, such as adding backup generators and moving used nuclear fuel out of cooling pools and into safer storage locations.
Kauffman said U.S. nuclear plants have survived hurricanes, tornadoes and extended power outages without damage to their reactors, but the industry is looking hard at Fukushima nevertheless. "We want to take the lessons learned and make sure they are applied across the industry," he said.
Chairman Gregory Jaczko raised the issue of emergency preparedness this month at an International Atomic Energy Agency conference in Vienna. According to a copy of his speech, he brought up the post-Fukushima inspection results.
"While I see nothing that calls into question the safety of our plants, I see areas where performance was not as good as would be preferred," Jaczko said. Changes are likely, he added, "although it is too early to say right now precisely what those changes might be."
Jaczko visited the Nebraska plants this week and declared that, while flood conditions were likely to continue for some time, the plants are safe.
"Water levels are at a place where the plant [workers] can deal with them," Jaczko said at Fort Calhoun on Monday, according to the Iowa Independent. "The risk is really very low that something could go wrong."
ProPublica intern Ariel Wittenberg contributed to this story.
Now, 10 of the 35 apartments in the Gramercy Park mansion are coming onto the market, reports Curbed.
Unfortunately, prospective renters won't get the same sort of deal as James' brother, who paid just $356 for his apartment. These units will be priced at market rate, which could be around $100/square foot, or $80,000/year, according to Real Estate Weekly.
Toxic loans were a form of speculation, like Tulip futures that were bought and sold into a churn without delivery. The speculation in toxic housing lending came from duped investors. The investors were betting on the continued stability and increase in the housing market. Santelli said borrowers speculated, but that was not quite right. Most home buyers had no idea that the investors were speculating, thereby giving the borrowers the ability to take out easy money loans.
Of course, the speculation was even masked to many investors, who believed that they were purchasing safe bonds. Therefore, the root of housing speculation lies with those that underestimated the risk of the CDO's and related CDS's. The investment banks and Basel 2 are responsible for the fraud. When crime is located that high up on the food chain, only education and protest can alert mainstreet. Speculation becomes a standard business practice.
There is a simple answer to this speculative attack on borrowers. We must boycott the 30 year mortgage. Just as the futures speculation ended, as people no longer trusted the trading without delivery of tulips, so then is the equivalent the boycott of the 30 year mortgage as a way of protecting investors and borrowers.
Indeed, Will Rogers said this about the uselessness of banking speculation:
"You can't break a man that don't borrow; he may not have anything, but Boy! he can look the World in the face and say, "I don't owe you Birds a nickel." You will say, (if everyone stops borrowing) what will all the Bankers do? I don't care what they do. Let 'em go to work, if there is any job any of them could earn a living at. Banking and After-Dinner Speaking are two of the most Non-essential industries we have in this country. I am ready to reform if they are." WA #14, March 18, 1923 (Willrogerstoday.com)
He was willing to give up his massively popular column in the New York Times if bankers would give up speculating! Speculation is being built into our economy, and uncontrolled speculation is here and should be banned. When Joe Weisenthal of Business Insider says that speculation does not drive prices of commodities, but rather supply and demand, one just has to look at the case when fear takes over. When fear of Greece demise overcomes greed, commodity prices go down. This is clearly a result of a pull back in speculation. And remember, tulip mania almost ruined the financial system of the Netherlands. Rampant speculation has no place in the financial world.
It is my view that two types of speculation should be banned. Buying and selling of futures without taking delivery should be banned. And allowing easy money in such quantity that it actually drives up the prices of houses should be banned. Otherwise, Americans will get wiser and wiser and will refuse to play the game. If that happens I will have to do something productive rather than writing these articles. I promise.
For a great overview of the tulip mania please check out this website. I have no idea who the folks are who wrote the article, but it has merit. Also, CNBC and Melissa Francis keep talking about the risk trade. Let's just call it what it is, the speculation trade, a very hurtful attack on mainstreet.It doesn't sound so nice when you call it the speculation trade. CNBC seems to have a euphemism for everything. And as for Rick Santelli, people bet as he says because they were deceived. If people don't know they are betting how can that guy actually call it a bet?
This notifcations menu is just like the one 700 million people used to seeing on Facebook.com. It's filled with the same kind of stuff, too. Photos, status updates, and messages from friends.
The big difference is that you have to go to Facebook to check your Facebook notifications.
Google+ notifications will be on the page most of use to navigate our way through the Internet.
They will also show up on the tens of millions of Android phones out there.
Comscore says 176 million US users go to Google properties each month.
That is massive scale.
It's the kind of scale that will cause Publishers and developers are going to SCRAMBLE to get inside the Google+ notifications feed. And boom, suddenly the Internet is still Google's platform – not Facebook's.
"We had to do something drastic," says Jerry Flowers, a city councilman in Alto, Texas.
Lately, we've find ourselves in the curious habit of collecting stories of impending calamity from around the nation. This morning is no different.
"The police department," the curiously named Mr. Flowers goes on, "being a nonmoney-making entity, was the easiest to get rid of while we catch our breath and build up some cash."
And just like that, Alto did away with its police force.
The chief and his four officers put a padlock on their offices two weeks ago today. They'll be back in six months, assuming the town's balance sheet gets the love it needs.
In the meantime, for protection against ne'er-do-wells, petty thieves and outright criminals, citizens of Alto will have to rely on the Cherokee County sheriff's office, headquartered 12 miles away.
"I'm going to try," commented the county sheriff when notified, "but I can't guarantee you there will always be an officer in the town."
Until recently, drastic cutbacks like this were the province of down-and-out medium-sized cities like Camden, N.J. – where half the police force has been let go. Or Oakland, Calif. – where the cops no longer answer burglary calls.
Alto's population in the 2000 census was 1,190. Yet "Everybody's talking about 'bolt your doors, buy a gun," says Mayor Monty Collins.
There's no dramatic story about how things got to this point – no boondoggle sewer system as in Jefferson County, Ala., no six-figure city salaries as in Bell, Calif.
It's simple: The economy's hurting, property and sales tax revenues are down and the city's chief source of revenue – a natural gas distribution plant – needs expensive repairs, for which city fathers obviously didn't save up. Now the cops have been sent home.
"Can you imagine," we ask in a new special report, "being the victim of a robbery… and knowing the police won't be there to answer your 911 call?"
Big city, small town, doesn't matter. It can happen almost anywhere. But how vulnerable are you, exactly?
Your best defense is knowledge – knowing how deeply your state is in debt, how much it gets in handouts from Washington, how steep are its future pension obligations. We lay it all out in the aforementioned special report, titled American Oases. Details on how you can get your copy on Friday.
Half a world away from Alto, the parliament in Greece agreed today to bind itself in another round of debt servitude.
Violent demonstrations notwithstanding, members approved another round of tax increases and spending cuts to keep Europe's own extend-and-pretend game going a while longer.
Think of Greece as one of your hapless neighbors – maxed out on five credit cards, taking on a second part-time job, holding yard sales and applying for a sixth card just to keep up minimum payments on the other five.
Ahhh… deep breath, everyone.
For now, Greece can keep up its minimum payments to the European banks. Which is good because then European banks won't show up on the doorstep of the American banks to collect on their credit default swaps.
(Not that any of the US banks have the resources to pay, anyway.)
"US deficits and debt as a percentage of GDP are at the same level today as what Greece displayed just a few years ago," reminds Euro Pacific Capital's Michael Pento, bringing our focus back stateside.
"But that fact – if it is being acknowledged at all – is quickly dismissed, because we are also told that the US has a single currency and a printing press that can save us all…
"Once the bond vigilantes come to America and bond yields surge, our saving grace is going to be inflation? Yep, that's our government's long-term strategy. To boost GDP growth, strengthen our dollar, increase foreigners' faith in our debt market and lower our borrowing costs, we are going to use Al Capone's printing press."
(Note: This article was written by Evolver.fm's Chase Hoffberger and edited by Eliot Van Buskirk.)
For all that Bandcamp offers to music fans for finding new artists -- and for artists to sell things to those fans -- the music discovery service has yet to develop a native app, and it may not have to.
The company has taken the Tom Sawyer-style approach of releasing an API (application programming interface) to developers, and letting them have at it.
"We have plans to make a native app, yes," programmer Joe Holt told Evolver.fm. "Whether it's a complement to the Bandcamp page where you're just looking at what you see on Bandcamp.com now but optimized for mobile, or it's something else; we don't know yet. But the absence of a mobile app just means that we haven't gotten around to it yet."
He's in no rush. The architect behind Adobe Systems' APIs for Illustrator, Photoshop, and InDesign, Holt helped build a rock-solid Bandcamp API that with which third-party developers can create even more unique methods of music discovery -- the foundation of Bandcamp's existence.
Such creativity is evident in the third-party iPhone app Randcamp, a $1 offering from Harry Lundström that randomizes and streams Bandcamp's extensive library of music. Getting started is easy (music starts playing as soon as you open the app), and if you like what you're hearing, you can click through for more information on the artist, including the band's Bandcamp URL. If you don't like it, no sweat -- press Next, and another song queues up in the player.
Some may view Randcamp's limited options as a drawback, but not Holt. He contests that Lundström converted lemons to lemonade, building an app off the Bandcamp API that at the time did not allow for specific-artist search.
The other third-party iPhone app for the service, so far, is Kumbaya, designed by Cirrostratus to mimic the most basic component of Bandcamp the website: the ability to listen to a full album. Users of Kumbaya can access any album by entering a Bandcamp subdomain into the search bar. If you want to listen to Nive Nielsen's excellent nive sings!, enter "nivenielsen" into Kumbaya and you're good to go.
That app works great if you know what you want to listen to, but Holt hopes the next generation of third-party apps will explore the capabilities of music discovery on Bandcamp a bit more. To do so, he's making tweaks to an API, rather than offering direction to an app developer, or creating an app that does that himself.
"That's a direction I want to take the API in a lot more," he says. "The next chance I have to work on it is just supporting discovery -- browsing by genre or location. We really just want to help artists get heard, and discovery is a huge component of that."
Also on Holt's wish list: using the API to create band-centric apps. Like Ninja Tune's label-centric app, Holt envisions artists creating apps that they can use to help promote their own product, whether it be by advertising tour dates, giving away music, or setting up centralized hubs for tweets and Facebook posts about the band.
"Say you're a fan of some band. You go to their website and find an app you can install on your phone. It's all branded about the band; not about Bandcamp, and it's not about discovering all the artists in the same genre. It's for Band X. They might be pulling in their show dates from another database, or having exclusives on the app… It's really wide open what a band camp do with their app, and the Bandcamp API can be central to that, giving bands a way to show their discographies and music… I think that would be cool.
According to recent reports in the Venezuelan press, President Hugo Chávez is currently undergoing medical treatment in Cuba. Beyond that, little is certain.
The right-wing Latino press of southern Florida reports that Chávez is terminally ill, citing unnamed American intelligence specialists. Their track record of predicting the demise of various progressive Latin American political figures up to now has been less than impressive, most notably in the case of Cuba's Fidel Castro. Adding credence to reports about the seriousness of Chávez’s condition however, Spain’s EFE news service reported that his daughter Rosines and his mother, Marisabel Rodriguez were "urgently" flown to Cuba in an air force plane last week.
Chávez underwent an operation on 10 June in Cuba for what his government has said was a pelvic abscess. Lending credence to the reports from Miami however are the remarks last Friday by Venezuelan Foreign Minister Nicholas Maduro, who stated, "The battle that President Chávez is waging for his health must be everyone's battle: the battle for life, for the immediate future of our fatherland." On 12 June Chávez spoke to the Venezuelan state media after his operation to say he was well but has only been seen since in photographs issued to the media showing the Cuban leaders Fidel and Raúl Castro visiting him in hospital.
In May the U.S. imposed sanctions on Venezuela’s state oil company Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A. (PVDSA), the country’s state-owned oil company and the country’s fiscal crown jewel.
According to the U.S. Energy Administration, the United States total crude oil imports now average 9,033 thousand barrels per day (tbpd), with the top five exporting countries being Canada (2,666 tbpd), Mexico (1,319 tbpd), Saudi Arabia (1,107 tbpd), with Venezuela in fourth place at 930 tbpd. What happens to PVDSA if Chávez is permanently incapacitated or dies is the source of intense speculation from washing to Beijing. Will the company proceed as before, or be opened up to foreign investors?
Chávez has used PVDSA as a cash cow for his social reform plans - between 2004 and 2010 PDVSA contributed $61.4 billion to social development funds. In April rising oil prices allowed Chávez to announce that Venezuela's minimum wage will rise by more than 25 percent.
According to PDVSA figures, Venezuela currently has 77.5 billion barrels of oil reserves, the largest in the Western Hemisphere. PDVSA has a production capacity, including its strategic associations and operating agreements, of 4 million barrels per day, the highest production capacity in the Western Hemisphere.
So, where from here? Adan Chávez, the president's brother, has indicated that he will return to Caracas before the presidential summit of the Commonwealth of Latin America and Caribbean on 5 July, – the two hundredth anniversary of Venezuela's declaration of independence from Spain.
Watch the date – and if Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías fails to return next month, expect a significant tussle from the Venezuelans who have benefited from his reforms versus those who would like to control one of the few Western Hemisphere’s multi-million bpd assets.
Unemployment Claims in the US and Nationwide HPI in the UK are the major market-movers. Let see what awaits us today.
In the US, Unemployment Claims, weekly measurement to report the number of Americans filing new Unemployment Claims and value the overall job market condition, about to reduce by 5K from 429K last week to 424K on the coming week.
For all that Bandcamp offers to music fans for finding new artists -- and for artists to sell things to those fans -- the music discovery service has yet to develop a native app, and it may not have to.
The company has taken the Tom Sawyer-style approach of releasing an API (application programming interface) to developers, and letting them have at it.
"We have plans to make a native app, yes," programmer Joe Holt told Evolver.fm. "Whether it's a complement to the Bandcamp page where you're just looking at what you see on Bandcamp.com now but optimized for mobile, or it's something else; we don't know yet. But the absence of a mobile app just means that we haven't gotten around to it yet."
He's in no rush. The architect behind Adobe Systems' APIs for Illustrator, Photoshop, and InDesign, Holt helped build a rock-solid Bandcamp API that with which third-party developers can create even more unique methods of music discovery -- the foundation of Bandcamp's existence.
Such creativity is evident in the third-party iPhone app Randcamp, a $1 offering from Harry Lundström that randomizes and streams Bandcamp's extensive library of music. Getting started is easy (music starts playing as soon as you open the app), and if you like what you're hearing, you can click through for more information on the artist, including the band's Bandcamp URL. If you don't like it, no sweat -- press Next, and another song queues up in the player.
Some may view Randcamp's limited options as a drawback, but not Holt. He contests that Lundström converted lemons to lemonade, building an app off the Bandcamp API that at the time did not allow for specific-artist search.
The other third-party iPhone app for the service, so far, is Kumbaya, designed by Cirrostratus to mimic the most basic component of Bandcamp the website: the ability to listen to a full album. Users of Kumbaya can access any album by entering a Bandcamp subdomain into the search bar. If you want to listen to Nive Nielsen's excellent nive sings!, enter "nivenielsen" into Kumbaya and you're good to go.
That app works great if you know what you want to listen to, but Holt hopes the next generation of third-party apps will explore the capabilities of music discovery on Bandcamp a bit more. To do so, he's making tweaks to an API, rather than offering direction to an app developer, or creating an app that does that himself.
"That's a direction I want to take the API in a lot more," he says. "The next chance I have to work on it is just supporting discovery -- browsing by genre or location. We really just want to help artists get heard, and discovery is a huge component of that."
Also on Holt's wish list: using the API to create band-centric apps. Like Ninja Tune's label-centric app, Holt envisions artists creating apps that they can use to help promote their own product, whether it be by advertising tour dates, giving away music, or setting up centralized hubs for tweets and Facebook posts about the band.
"Say you're a fan of some band. You go to their website and find an app you can install on your phone. It's all branded about the band; not about Bandcamp, and it's not about discovering all the artists in the same genre. It's for Band X. They might be pulling in their show dates from another database, or having exclusives on the app… It's really wide open what a band camp do with their app, and the Bandcamp API can be central to that, giving bands a way to show their discographies and music… I think that would be cool.
There are millions of web pages now, but none of them existed 20 years ago.
The first web page went live on August 6, 1991. It was dedicated to information on the World Wide Web project and was made by Tim Berners-Lee. It ran on a NeXT computer at the European Organization for Nuclear Research, CERN.
There are millions of web pages now, but none of them existed 20 years ago.
The first web page went live on August 6, 1991. It was dedicated to information on the World Wide Web project and was made by Tim Berners-Lee. It ran on a NeXT computer at the European Organization for Nuclear Research, CERN.
Whatever crack the stock market is on we do know the answer to all questions is WINNING. 6 of the past 7 weeks have been in the red but - WINNING - somehow is the attitude as we dress the windows into the end of the quarter so that GS et al can pass around the pipe and lure in a whole new round of suckers to play the game in the second half.
How many times can the market rally on the same news - news that we know is nothing but BS number shuffling out of Europe that pushes the Greek crisis back for a year or two and nothing more? Well it's been about 5 times so far as the average US "investor" has about the same attention span as the average crack addict - although the investors need to get their fixes more often...
I pooped the party this morning and sent out an Email Alert to Members saying it was time (7:10) to take the money and run in the futures. At the time we were up about 0.6% pre-market and Greece hasn't even had their vote yet so it just wasn't worth risking the ill-gotten gains - JUST IN CASE the "sure thing" backfires. Now it seems like the vote won't happen until 9 or 10 so we'll have plenty of time to place our bets once the news breaks - no sense in playing the rumors until then - especially as those bullish positions could be quickly whipsawed on a NO vote.
We hedged our bullish WINNERS into yesterday's close with DIA June 30th $121 puts at .50 and the SQQQ July $25/26 bull call spread at .50, which was offset by various bullish short puts plays on some stocks we like that should mitigate the cost of the bearish spread if the market keeps WINNING. As I said in this morning's Alert:
Of course there’s no change in our general view that we keep climbing through Friday but, the higher we climb, the more we want to take off the table and the more we want to begin adding those disaster hedges for after July 4th.
That's right, despite Greece being "fixed" (assuming the vote goes through) I maintain that we are only on course for the move I predicted last week - that we would hold the bottom of our range, run back over our "Must Hold" levels and then fall off a cliff after the July 4th weekend. So far, following our chart for the past 2 months has been a WINNER - so why stop now?
Look how perfectly the market obeys the 5% Rule! Both the Dow and the S&P pulled up just short of their goals yesterday but we're well over now in pre-markets and the Nasdaq should be over 2,740 as well. The RUT already broke through and it's the NYSE that we expect to give us trouble as they are the broadest index and the hardest to manipulate so we can expect some serious resistance at the 8,280 mark and there's no way they'll pull a 2% bump pre-market, even with a yes vote. So we'll watch out for that today as well as the Dollar on the 75 line. As I said to Members this morning, I don't see the Dollar failing there without QE3 being announced or perhaps a $1 Trillion raise in the debt ceiling - something profound to weaken it, not just Greece being "fixed." Barry Ritholtz sums up my other concerns very nicely, saying:
Are we making a major turn? Has psychology become so bad its a contrary indicator? Has the 200 day moving average proved to be inviolable? Perhaps any of those explanations might prove to be the case, although I have my suspicions otherwise. I suspect it is simply a case of funds marking up stocks into the close of the 2nd quarter.
What data supports this thesis? I would point to 2 things: Psychology and Trading Volume. Most metrics are showing psychology is either neutral or optimistic. This tends to be supportive of a short term trading bounce, and not a longer-lasting rally.
Second, the volume has been anemic, even by the unusually low levels we have seen all year. The overall volume on Monday was well below the 30-day average on both NYSE and Nasdaq. Tuesday was even lower. Rallies on increasingly lighter volume are not signs of aggressive institutional buying. Rather, it supports the Window dressing thesis.
Also supporting the markets is the LACK of bad news. Check out the front page of the WSJ - where's the bad news? Greece set to vote on Austerity Plan - YAY! BofA Agrees to Pay $8.5Bn Settlement - YAY! Dow Looks to Extend Win Streak - YAY! NATO Copter Ends Kabul Siege - YAY - Afghanistan is fixed too! Even "Wall Street Wielding the Ax" sounds nice but it's really about layoffs - perhaps the only negative news story that made the on-line cut this morning.
It's 8:47 and the Greek Parliament is voting and you would think the CNBC girl is reporting from a war zone. She has a mask on to stop the tear gas and you can hear screaming and explosions on the street below her as the police throw smoke bombs at the crowd and the crowd throws rocks and molotov cocktails at the police in an exchange of "ideas" in the capitol.
Is this Democracy in action or is this what happens when a Corporate Kleptocracy takes over a Government and denies the people a true voice? Don't worry, we're likely to find out the answer to that one soon enough as America reaches its own end game.
As Charles Smith points out (image by WilliamBanzai17): "This is a classic description of a kleptocracy: a financial and political Elite which skims and concentrates the wealth of the nation via corruption and embezzlement while being protected by the winking complicity of their fellow plunderers who hold civil and financial authority." That pretty much sums up our country, doesn't it? Unless you slept through the entire Financial Crisis and missed the part where the US Citizens took on an additional $5Tn in debt to pay for the Banksters' losses (including the Fed's $2.3Tn giveaway that we'll be billed for later) then you realize we're in the same boat and you MUST read this Austerity Package that is being forced on the Greek people today (courtesy of Zero Hedge).
There is NO WAY the Greek Government will be able to enforce this. If I were your banker, and you were unemployed and up to your eyeballs in debt and 3 months behind on your mortgage and I offered to lend you enough money to cover the past 3 months and the current month as long as you agreed to pay me 10% more 60 days from now because surely you'd have a high-paying job by them - you would take that deal, right? Taking the deal isn't the issue - whether or not you are able to live up to our new agreement IS. That's all this is - more extending and pretending and the negotiations on the US debt ceiling - as I mentioned on Monday - is more of the same.
9am Update: Austerity WINS! NOW let's see if the markets pop on this news. I'm feeling good about my early call as we're off from the 7am highs still and we expected this to be a bit of a "sell on the news" event. Too bad it didn't happen while the markets were open but we have 30 minutes to go and it should be a very interesting day. The S&P futures (/ES) are right on the 1,300 mark and if they can't get the Dollar below 75.25 (now 75.27) down they will go so it's a great line to short OR long off using the Dollar as a key play.
I'm betting short but then I'll still expect a rescue of our markets into the end of quarter but, after that - well, let's just say we are expecting to change those "Must Hold" levels to breakout levels and drop the whole chart at least 5% from there.
This is astoundingly more than the $1 trillion figure named in 2010 by the CBO, which ignored significant portions of current and future military spending.
The academic report looked at interest Pentagon war appropriations, additions to the Pentagon and Homeland Security budgets, veterans' medical and disability, social costs to veterans and military families. It also evaluated the human, social and political costs of the war.
Pentagon war appropriations are the tip of the iceberg
Most people press "Gmail" during the iPhone e-mail setup process without knowing that Google offers a much better (and undercover) way to get email on your iPhone.
Setting up your iPhone to use Google Sync will make you a much happier person, because Google Sync can keep your contacts, calendars, and emails from Google all neat, tidy, and in sync between your computer and your iPhone.
Email works in your Mail app, just like it used to.
Before, you could sync Google Calendar using the default Gmail set-up, but you couldn't sync more than one calendar.
Before, you could get email using the default Gmail set-up, but you couldn't get emails instantly via Push (like on a Blackberry).
Maybe most importantly, Google Sync sticks all your Google Contacts on your iPhone so you don't have to worry about syncing them with a cable to your computer via an address book app.
So, Google Sync basically is a free Microsoft Exchange Server for individuals, and it's dead simple to set up. It's everything MobileMe tried, and failed miserably to do.
We'll give you a quick step by step guide to setting up Google Sync on your iPhone.
To begin, tap your Settings app on your iPhone.
From the Settings menu, tap "Mail, Contacts, Calendars."
Tap "Add Account" underneath the "Accounts" heading
Multiple videos have been circulating on YouTube showing 'strange white glowing orbs' apparently seen over the skies of London, according to The Daily Mail.
The UFOs conveniently made their way over the BBC's Yalding House, where BBC Radio 1 is based. A crowd gathered there to take pictures, the Daily Mail reports.
The text accompanying one of the videos reads: "Right, it took over a week to get it...but finally managed to get these critters on camera on a clear day, and even a close up...It seems to be attracting quite a crowd now when they appear. Can anyone explain what on earth these lights are please?"
Check out the videos below and decide for yourself if the 'white glowing orbs' were a mystery or a hoax by someone or some production company looking for attention:
Another video. This one has over 2 million page views so far:
President Barack Obama today addressed the ongoing dispute between the National Labor Relations Board and Boeing. He did not bend to Republican pressure to criticize the independent agency for trying to prevent the opening of the aerospace giant's new South Carolina factory.
"Companies need to have the freedom to relocate, and they also need to follow the law," Obama said in a press conference. "What defies common sense would be a notion that we would be shutting down a plant or laying off workers because labor and management can't come to a sensible agreement."
This is not what the unions, or the NLRB, hoped he would say. Avoiding having to weigh in on the side of unions,a key Democratic constituency, and said a final decision on the plant is best left up to a federal judge.
Obama is in a tough spot over the ongoing court case. Two senior administration officials served on Boeing's board.
In a mild rebuke to labor, Obama added "we can't afford to have labor and management fighting all the time, at a time when we're competing against Germany and China and other countries that want to sell goods all around the world."
Still no movement on the debt ceiling talks, but we got this from one staffer on Capitol Hill:
I'd put the odds of the first week of August recess being canceled pretty high...80% or so. I very much doubt the House will come in before next Wednesday as scheduled as far as the July 4th recess.
I think the CDS rate jumps are starting to make some lawmakers nervous, but to be honest not enough of them understand the instrument to really get what a 20% increase in 1 yr CDS rates mean, a good chunk of members still don't believe Aug 2 is any kind of real deadline. Definitely still an uphill battle.
Last week over at All Facebook, Brian Carter posted: Shocker 3% to 7.5% of Fans See Your Page’s Post, which was a wakeup call to many of us that perhaps our Facebook pages weren’t getting quite as many eyes as we had originally thought. Even more surprising was that, based on the data compiled by PageLever, the more fans you have, the less likely it is that your content is reaching your audience. What is going on?
EdgeRank is what’s going on.
EdgeRank is the algorithm that Facebook uses to determine which posts a user should see in his/her news feed. It’s influenced by the freshness of the content, engagement with the content (liking or commenting) and how strong the connection is between the brand and the user. The more interactions a particular user has with your brand, the more likely it is that your content will appear in their News Feed and that they’ll see it. This means, of course, that it’s not simply good enough to create a Facebook Brand page for your business. You must create content that users want to engage with. Otherwise, you’re wasting time posting content to an empty room.
Below are some tips to keep your brand active so you avoid becoming part of Facebook’s walking dead.
Craft Engaging Status Updates
You know how important your Status Update is. It’s pretty much your gateway for interacting with fans, but just because you’re posting something doesn’t mean it’s being seen. As noted above, EdgeRank is what determines whether or not a user will be exposed to what you’re putting out. That means to help your chances, you need to create content that is intended for interaction.
Use your Facebook Status to:
Ask questions
Hold informal polls
Get feedback
Encourage people to “Like” the update if they agree with a particular statement or to discuss why don’t.
The more you can encourage people to comment, Like or interact with your update, the greater your chance that Facebook will put the update on their friends’ news feed, exposing new people to your brand.
Use the Facebook Questions Feature
When using your update to ask your community a question, don’t just type the question into your Status and hit enter. Instead, use the Facebook Questions option that’s located above your status bar to help you post that content. Because of how these Questions are distributed through the site, your question will actually receive more exposure and prominence than if you just posted the question directly into the status bar. Facebook allows you to easily ask true/false, multiple choice or open-ended questions, so there’s plenty of opportunity to get creative.
Use Photo and Video Content
Because of the viral nature of Facebook, media content such as photos, videos and audio tend to do very well. People like to share this content, and the more they share and Like it, the greater the brand karma you’re going to create. Take a look at your brand and ask yourself what kind of media you have that you can share on Facebook. Maybe you have photos of the new line of cakes you’re experimenting with, video from your last company picnic or holiday party, or audio interviews that you’ve shared in newsletters or on-site. If you do, consider putting this material on Facebook, and encourage people to share it. And if you don’t yet have it, consider investing in creating it – either as Facebook exclusive content or content for your website.
Worth noting: Now that Facebook has given photos more real estate on your profile page, it’s even more important to provide something that is eye-catching and will pique interest in your page. If you have a lot of interesting images, you can use the Facebook Profile Banner to customize your photo strip.
Host Relevant Contests
Another great way to create buzz around your Brand page and keep users engaged with it is to hold contests via Facebook. Contests can keep old fans engaged by giving them something to interact with and a reason to re-visit your page, while also helping to attract new fans at the same time. When running Facebook contests, however, do your best to make the contest as targeted to your brand as possible; otherwise, you run the risk of shooting yourself in the foot.
For example, by running a contest that is too broad (“Like this page and win an iPad!”), you may get a lot of people to Like your page, but they’re not people who are interested in what you have to offer and they won’t engage with future posts. The result of this, of course, is a low EdgeRank score over time as a result of untargeted eyes. While Facebook contests can be a great way to attract eyes and ignite buzz, it’s the targeted contests that work the best in the long run.
Bonus: Get Smart About Targeting
One of the neat things about Facebook marketing is the power of the targeting that’s allotted to you. Knowing that part of your EdgeRank score has to do with engagement, you want to make sure that you’re customizing your messages for a particular audience as often as you can so that only the group that’s relevant to the message actually sees it.
For example, did you know that Facebook allows you to choose which audience you want to display certain messages to? Maybe you own a local chain of bakeries with storefronts in several different cities in Michigan. Do you have a special that’s only being run in one particular location? Or maybe you have a cupcake truck that’s circling the town and you only want the people within that area to see that? By clicking the small lock icon below the Status bar, you can opt to have Facebook show that update only to the people who can benefit from the offer.
By creating targeted messages for a small subset of fans, you help increase your engagement percentage.
If you’re not working to keep your fans engaged with your page on a regular basis, chances are you’re not being seen and you’re wasting a great opportunity.
The roller coaster ride for China stocks on Wall Street continues, with some firms subject to intense sell offs based on nothing more than rumors that unfavorable reports from research firms are in the offing.
You’ve seen the names in the news: Sino-Forest, Yurun Food Group, Spreadtrum. Seems like there’s a new story every day with fresh accusations that are later vehemently denied by the companies in question, who are often armed with reams of financial data. In a summary piece out today, Reuters reports:
The accounting troubles and short-selling attacks hitting China-based companies are creating fertile ground for the rumour mill to flourish, with some shares hammered by chatter rather than actual evidence.
Such stock swings have created a dangerous climate for even strong Chinese companies and put regulators on high alert for market manipulation.
How did this happen? One can go through the list of companies that have been “outed” by analysts in recent months, but taking a step back and looking at the trends, I think it all comes down to transparency. (Apologies for stating the obvious, but although I have written about this subject several times, I have yet to sum up how we actually got here.)
I’ve been writing a lot recently about suspect legal structures and the way that investors tend to ignore potential risks. Yes, the onus was on the investors to investigate those structures before pulling the trigger on deals, but to be fair, these listed companies did whatever they could to obscure these (and other) risks in their disclosure documents. U.S. securities laws grant firms a decent amount of wiggle room in that regard.
Add to that murky accounting practices and inadequate corporate governance, and you can see why many investors were suckered in, desperately wanting to cash in on the China growth story.
At this point, let me throw out a few cliched sayings/quotes: you live by the sword, you die by the sword; hoist on his own petard; what goes around, comes around. Enough?
How about this: if you give an optimist a box and tell him there is a surprise inside, he will conjure up images of all sorts of goodies. If you repeat the exercise with a pessimist, he might imagine what sort of dangerous creature might leap out to attack him once it is opened.
The market has recently gone from being wild-eyed optimist to skittish pessimist.
These companies have benefited from being opaque, with China bull optimists helping to push some valuations to laughable territory. But the market’s confidence was based on imperfect information, on data and opinions that were not sufficiently researched.
Now that questions are being asked, that lack of transparency is coming back to haunt these firms.
This too shall pass, and an equilibrium will be reached that is hopefully more in line with reality than the current psychology of the China optimists and pessimists. In the long run, though, only greater transparency will protect these firms from this sort of volatility, which is based on nothing more than the hopes or fears of what’s inside that box.
Brands don't just get popular overnight. There's some serious strategy behind Apple's marketing to the creative class, Volkswagen's advantage over anything Detroit, and Coca Cola's enduring appeal. We spoke with Douglas Cameron, co-founder and chief strategist for Amalgamated Advertising, about how brands become icons -- and how he got his start in the ad business while traveling the world playing the bagpipes.
A while back I talked about how and where to find a co-founder in “Ten Steps in Choosing the Right Startup Partner.”The feedback was good, but some readers asked me to be a bit more specific on attributes that might indicate an ideal startup partner. Even if you are looking in all the right places, it helps to know what you are looking for.
In this context, I’m broadening the definition of partner from co-founder to “business partner.” The reason is that good attributes apply equally well to “external” partners, as they do to internal partners, like a co-founder or CTO.
In all cases, the challenge is the same, of finding people that you can work with and enjoy in the business relationship. The relationship has to have trust, communication, and respect in order to work. Otherwise, like a marriage, it will be doomed to constant conflict, second guessing, and unhappiness. So the following attributes have to apply to both sides of the partnership to work:
Enjoy working with other people. You may be too independent to be partner material. If you find it hard to trust others, love to work alone, always have to be in control, or insist on micro-managing, you probably won’t find a partner who will satisfy you.
Does not need to be managed. Good partners are people who are confident in their own abilities, and willing and able to make decisions, take responsibility for their actions, and able to provide leadership, rather than require leadership.
Compatible work styles. Most entrepreneurs work long hours and weekends to get the job done. If you team with a partner who likes sleep until late morning, and reserves the weekend for other activities, the partnership will likely not work.
Common vision and commitment. It doesn’t take long to sense someone’s real commitment, or vision and desired outcome of a joint project. Is your project seen by both as an end in itself, or a means to another end?
Similar values and goals. If one of your core values is exceeding your customer expectations for quality and service, and your potential partner ascribes to the low cost, high profit mantra, a successful partnership is highly unlikely over the long-term.
Level of integrity. High levels of integrity are important in business, but more important is your level of comfort with your partner’s integrity. This is a critical element of a good relationship, but a tough one. This is probably the best place to apply your “gut” feeling.
Complementary skills. If both of you are experts at software development, even though one loves design and the other loves coding, that still won’t get the marketing done. Look at the big picture first of development, finance, and marketing/sales.
Passion for what they do. The passion has to be in the business context – meaning results oriented, customer oriented, and sensitive to competition. In many cases, experts with academic or research credentials are not good partners for a business venture.
Ethical and diversity boundaries. How the leaders of your company handle adherence to the spirit as well as the letter of the law will be seen by all employees, customers, and investors. Ethics and the view of personal boundaries should be explored fully.
No historical baggage. Partner decisions are more important than hiring decisions. Thus you should do the same or more due diligence on educational background, previous work, and references. Look impartially from all angles and do the follow-up.
Beyond the core team of two or three startup partners, every startup should seek to “outsource” the rest of their strategic requirements to external business partners. It’s faster and cheaper than building a large team in-house, and usually more effective.
By using this checklist, you should be able to objectively match potential partners with your own needs and expectations. Then, as I suggested before, it’s time to establish a formal agreement or contract to cement the partnership. With that, you will have a strong foundation for success, as well as a great working relationship in your new venture.
Specific Media, one of the biggest online advertising networks, has purchased MySpace from News Corp. for $35 million today.
We spoke with CEO Tim Vanderhook recently about growth of the Irvine-based company, which is now one of the industry's largest video ad networks with its $55 million acquisition of BBE.
Cisco finally revealed the price for its upcoming 7-inch Android tablet, the Cius: "below" $750.
That seems crazy expensive compared with the sub-$600 starting prices of 10-inch Android tablets like the Motorola Xoom and Galaxy Tab. It also doesn't stack up very well against the iPad, which starts at $499 and also has a 10-inch screen.
So how does Cisco expect to get away with this?
A spokeperson explained:
Bulk discounts. As with most enterprise products, the $750 is a top-end retail price with room for negotiation. Companies who buy big volumes will pay less.
Built for communications. The Cius is a combo device -- it's got a high-fidelity screen for video calls, can connect to IP-based phone networks, and also supports a keyboard for users to do real work. In other words, IT departments may be able to get a regular laptop computer for less money, but it won't do as much.
More controllable. Cisco is giving companies a way to to build a custom "app store" for their employees, so IT departments can basically control what they can and can't download. It's called AppHQ, and it's similar to what AppCentral has been doing for the iPad for some time now.
Here's the thing: most IT departments are only supporting tablets because employees demand them. When the CEO wants to use his iPad for work, you can't say no. But tablets don't offer any particularly obvious productivity benefits for most workers.
But Cisco says that the Cius is already getting a ton of attention -- it's the most popular product page Cisco has ever put up on its site, and the company says it will announce some big customers pretty soon.
When he first laid eyes on her, she was in a tight spandex bathing suit.
As the story goes, Prince Albert of Monaco was so taken with Charlene Wittstock, a 5-foot-11 blond freestyler for the South African swim team, that when he saw her competing in the 2000 Olympic Games, he asked her manager if he could take her out on a date.
“We spent the whole evening laughing and talking,” Wittstock later told Vogue magazine.
This Saturday, Wittstock and Albert—the only son of Grace Kelly—will tie the knot outside on Monaco’s Place du Palais. She’ll walk down the aisle in a gown custom-made for her by her friend Giorgio Armani.
Wedding guests, which will include designer Karl Lagerfeld and Desmond Tutu, will swill boatloads of Perrier-Jouet Champagne and dine on an endless meal prepared by culinary legend Alain Ducasse. After dinner, the Eagles will perform—just before the spectacular fireworks show. (On Tuesday, wedding guests had reportedly already begun to fill Monaco’s harbor with their yachts, and access to Nice’s Côte d’Azur airport had been reserved for visitors who can prove they’re invited to the wedding—such is the build-up of private jets on the tarmac.)
The couple will drive off in an electric-powered LS600h L Landaulet Lexus following the ceremony, and a 33-year-old woman from Zimbabwe will inherit the title of Serene Princess of Monaco.
It may be the epitome of a fairytale wedding—and one far more private and luxurious than the pomp and circumstance of the Windsor nuptials, which played out in front of a TV audience of more than 2 billion people.
But the Monaco ceremony, already referred to as that other royal wedding, brings a new royal crush into the limelight: Charlene Wittstock, who mixes Grace Kelly’s reticence and glamour and Princess Diana’s passion for charity with Kate Middleton’s (comparatively) humble upbringing.
Wittstock was born in Bulawayo, Rhodesia, to a swim coach and a sales manager, but moved to South Africa with her family at age 12. She was a member of the women’s 4x100 meter medley, finishing fifth at the 2000 games. She retired from the sport three years ago after an ankle fracture, but still trains with an Olympic coach at the couple’s sweeping Roc Angel estate, a hillside estate given to Grace Kelly by Prince Rainier. Wittstock is an active supporter of the Special Olympics and the Born Free Wildlife Foundation.
According to the South African Sunday Times, Wittstock demonstrated her social conscience at the tender age of 12, penning in her yearbook: “What’s happening to our world? Imagine the year 2000 and our ozone layer has vanished…Our planet has a fever and she is burning up—what will you do?” As her fiancé said of Wittstock last year: “Charlene has a very strong personality and I have no doubt of her desire to get involved in things alongside me.”
And gradually, since she first appeared alongside Albert in 2006, she also has distinguished herself sartorially: not as Diana did—embracing high fashion only after leaving the palace—or as Kate Middleton does, slowly swapping her sundresses for saucer hats. The former Olympian, already an official “ambassador” for Armani, is outspoken about her love of fashion. She’s sat front-row at Armani’s fashion shows and is pals with Lagerfeld, Donatella Versace, Naomi Campbell, and Karolina Kurkova.
One minute she’s next to Albert at the Monaco National Day Gala Concert in a glittering Armani Privé gown. The next she’s kicked off her heels to dart barefoot onto a yacht for a “Jet Set” soiree in a mini-dress. And at her bachelorette party last month at Cipriani in New York, which was themed “leather and lace,” Wittstock wore a leather corset and tight pants as she drank champagne and danced alongside Bungalow 8’s socialite-founder Amy Sacco and her bevy of model friends.
Wittstock says she wants to introduce a Monaco Fashion Week, telling Vogue that she would like to make the principality “one of the fashion capitals of the world,” by introducing brands such as Stella McCartney and Ralph Lauren. “Grace Kelly forged a link between Monaco and the movie world,” she says, “And I would like to create a strong bond between Monaco and the fashion community.”
On paper, Charlene and Albert—who took their relationship public in 2006—certainly appear a perfect match. The prince himself is a famous crusader for environmental causes and has competed in the Olympics himself as a member of Monaco’s bobsled team.
Still, after dating a string of stunners from Brooke Shields to Gwyneth Paltrow, Albert earned the nickname “the Playboy Prince.” He has fathered two children out of wedlock, including one with a former Air France flight attendant from Togo. His reputation as a bachelor was so well-known that in 2002 Monaco’s Parliament even changed the country’s constitution to allow one of Albert’s two sisters to inherit the crown should he fail to produce a male heir.
As for his bride, Wittstock has been groomed to be a princess for years, like Kate before her. She was raised Protestant but has converted to Catholicism to participate in the Roman Catholic service. And though not yet fluent, Wittstock is currently cramming in French lessons.
“I speak a little bit and I can follow conversations, but I think it will take time to improve myself,” she told Madame Figaro magazine (in halting French) in May. Though Wittstock has been closely guarded in her interactions with the press, she admitted to Tatler magazine last year: “The people I mixed with in Monaco didn’t relate to my South African mentality or humor…Although I have met some wonderful people since I’ve been living in Monaco, I regard them all as acquaintances. I only have two people I consider friends here.”
Some are already pointing to this image of Wittstock as a woman kept in a gilded cage, and Albert’s playboy past, as evidence that trouble may be lurking for the couple down the road. As The New York Times’ Elaine Sciolino wondered: “Will her royal marriage end up being a happy union based on mutual love and respect, as Kate [Middleton’s] seems to be so far, or a melancholy charade like Diana’s?”
Last week, the French magazine L’Express reported that Wittstock had tried to escape to South Africa days before the wedding “only hours after learning that Albert had not been leading the exemplary life she thought” and was stopped by police at Nice airport as she tried to flee. A lawyer for Prince Albert said on Tuesday that this story was “madness” and that “everything is false.”
On the surface at least, after their Saturday wedding, Wittstock is expected to continue to transition effortlessly into her new role as princess of Monaco.
Since she appeared alongside Albert in a now-infamous “Christmas tree” dress at the Red Cross Ball in 2007, Wittstock has managed to transform herself into a modern-day Grace Kelly. “Finding my fashion feet has certainly been the biggest challenge,” she told Vogue. But on the eve of her wedding, she’s already come full circle: Now, she says, “I’ve reached the point where I know what I like and what works.”
"The world is full of banana peels, that goes without saying," the insightful financial writer, James Grant, observed last week. "The difference today, across a range of markets, is you're not getting compensated for the risks you face."
Without knowing the context of Grant's observation, most investors might imagine he was referring first and foremost to the stock market. But he wasn't. He was referring to money-market mutual funds, or what most folks consider "cash."
To be sure, Grant is no fan of the volatile, richly priced stock market; nor the bouncy, low-yielding bond market. But it is the utterly placid, zero-yielding "cash market" that seems to concern him the most. The world's "safest" investments are, suddenly, among the world's riskiest.
Money market funds have always been rather boring, but they were trustworthy. They paid an acceptable annual yield with no significant risk. These things weren't supposed to be exciting and sexy. They were supposed to do a single job and to do it reliably, like Wonder bread, drywall or toilet paper.
But now that money market funds are yielding zero…or close to it, they seem to have slipped into a kind of financial torpor. They just sit there, lifeless, yielding nothing. When you scratch below the surface, however, you discover that these funds are much more exciting than they ought to be. They are incurring lots of risk for very little reward.
Somewhere along the way, the money market funds lost their way. These nerds of the financial world started acting like playboys…or at least trying to.
The fund managers started taking bigger and bigger risks for smaller and smaller rewards. Not content to receive respectable yields by buying commercial paper from the likes of Johnson & Johnson and Dupont, the managers started reaching for a few extra basis points by buying heavily processed and re-packaged asset-backed securities from Wall Street.
That episode did not end well. The crisis of 2008 erupted, causing widespread panic and capital loss in the global financial markets.
But the US government saved the day and the money market fund managers learned their lesson. Oh wait; those last two things didn't actually happen. The money-market fund managers learned nothing, except that the US government will clean up whatever financial Superfund sites they create.
Thus, less than three years after nearly dooming the US financial system by buying American asset-backed garbage, the money funds are at it again, buying European PIIGS-backed garbage.
"US regulators are worried about the 'systemic risk' posed by the exposure of American money-market funds to European bank debt," The Wall Street Journal reports. "That's right, nearly three years after the panic of 2008, our all-seeing regulators have somehow not fixed what was arguably that biggest single justification for government intervention at the time.
"In 2008," the Journal continues, "the feds felt obliged to guarantee all money-fund assets after they let the Reserve Primary Fund pile into bad Lehman Brothers paper, Reserve broke the $1 net-asset-value, and in the following days some $400 billion fled prime money funds. We'd have thought our regulatory wise men would have fixed this systemic risk before all others.
"Yet now we learn that since 2008 US money funds have been allowed to pile into European bank debt, even as everyone knew those banks had stocked up on bad European sovereign paper. The Treasury is even saying privately that the US needs to support the European bailout of Greece, lest European banks fail, US funds take big losses, and we get another flight from money funds.
"Can this possibly be happening?"
Yes, is the short answer. Here's the longer answer:
In a zero-percent world, one would imagine that cash managers would resign themselves to earning nothing for clients when nothing – approximately – is what the market is offering. One would imagine that cash managers would be busy improving their golf games. But one would be wrong. Instead of playing golf, the cash managers are busy "groping for yield."
Yield-groping, despite its provocative name, does not elicit any harassment lawsuits, nor even a censure from the Human Resources Department. But it is a very questionable practice, nonetheless…and it usually ends badly.
Yield-groping, loosely defined, is the tactic of pursing a small amount of incremental yield in exchange for a large amount of incremental risk. Think of it as tight-rope-walking across Niagara Falls to get a free ice cream cone. As long as you make it, you get your reward.
But it's a bad bet, no matter the outcome.
The nation's largest money market funds are busy shimmying across Niagara Falls. As Grant observed in a recent edition of Grant's Interest Rate Observer, these bellwether money market funds hold an average of 41% of their assets in European debt securities.
Most of these European borrowers are large banks that have loaned tens of billions of dollars each to the governments and corporations of Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece, and Spain (PIIGS). At some banks, loans to the PIIGS countries are so large that they total more than half of the bank's net equity.
A little problem in Athens, therefore, could become a big problem in Paris…and in Boston, where the Fidelity money-market funds are loaded up on commercial paper from European Banks.
Who could have imagined that the dismal finances of the Greek government might someday impact the "cash" in your American brokerage account? Who could have imagined that an insolvent Greek butterfly, flapping its wings in Athens, might cause a tsunami of redemptions from American money-market funds in Boston?
We did not imagine it before now…but now our imagination is running wild.
As the chart above clearly shows, fear is ascendant on the European continent. Bond yields in the PIIGS countries are soaring, relative to the AAA-rated bonds of the Swiss government. These soaring bond yields testify to the genuine distress that is already besetting the credit markets of Europe. Perhaps conditions will improve, but we wouldn't bet on it.
Fidelity's money market fund managers are betting on it, and receiving about 20 basis points per year for the bet. Seems like a bad bet to us, but then again, we aren't professional money managers. Maybe they know something we don't, like how a government with a debt-to-GDP of 150%, annual deficits equal to 10% of GDP and a 200-year history of chronic default is going to pay its bills.
A few months ago, we showed you a pretty awesome light painting project that visually captured invisible Wi-Fi signals around town using a Wi-Fi detecting rod filled with 80 LEDs. With some long exposure photography, the results were pretty amazing. This project was inspired by those crazy Norwegians, but this build lets you do something even more amazing—capture pictures of colorful written text and drawn images, frozen in midair.
This project hails from Gavin Smith, an Aussie hardware hacker from the Sydney area, which calls his device LightScythe. The POV (persistence of vision) scythe is an acrylic tube that contains a 2-meter programmable strip of LEDs, and is controlled by a small receiver and battery pack. A laptop computer with a wireless link sends the image data to the scythe at a specified time, making it possible to visualize the invisible network data into some awesome light paintings.
By taking 10 to 15 second exposures, he can write colorful (and odd) phrases in front of houses...
He can shows his love of pecs at the Sydney Harbour Bridge...
And can visualize Pac-Man chasing after those monster ghosts at the Sydney Opera House...
And you can, too... LightScythe uses open-source software and can be built from electronics parts available online. Visit the LightScythe project page to see where to get everything and more importantly—how to build your own. More of his light painting pictures can be seen on Flickr.
What does Michele Bachmann think about key issues?
No one much cared a few weeks ago. Now that's she's emerged as Mitt Romney's principal challenger for the 2012 GOP presidential nomination, people want to know.
We reviewed any number of her speeches and press interviews to get a sense of where she stands on some major political issues. This is what we found out:
Health Care
Bachmann's campaign website says her number one priority will be to repeal Obamacare, which she has called "the crown jewel of socialism."
She thinks the Ryan plan for turning Medicare into a voucher program is good—but doesn't go far enough. "I voted for it with an asterisk with further reforms in mind," it says.
The Debt Ceiling
Bachmann claims President Obama is using "scare tactics" as leverage in the negotiations over raising the debt ceiling.
"Until I see a legitimate, serious reduction in spending, I can't give my vote" to raise the debt ceiling, she told CBS' Early Show yesterday.
She has endorsed Senator Pat Toomey's proposal that the U.S. should pay only the interest on the debt while leaving the principal untouched. That plan is very popular among Tea Party supporters, though the Republican congressional leadership has not endorsed it.
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner have said that this plan would diminish the United States' borrowing reputation in international markets.
Afghanistan
Bachmann supports staying the course in Afghanistan. "We have to win southern Afghanistan, then we have to go on and win eastern Afghanistan," she told the Weekly Standard. "I believe that we will be victorious, and we'll end it."
Bachmann opposes President Obama's proposed withdrawal of 10,000 troops this year and 23,000 next year.
"Announced deadlines for withdrawing forces from any battle enables the enemy to simply wait until we leave to reconstitute itself," Bachmann said.
In May, however, Bachmann expressed uneasiness about the Afghan mission.
"I want to reduce U.S. exposure in Afghanistan," she told CNN. "Let's get them out as quickly as we can."
Newport Beach in California is by far the most expensive housing market in the country.
The average list price for a four-bedroom, two-bathroom home in Newport Beach is $2,537,126, according to Coldwell Banker's Home Listing Report. The next most expensive market was Pacific Palisades, Calif. at only $1,606,992.
Greg Bingham, the manager of a California Coldwell Banker told the Corona Del Mar Patch, "The supply of homes in Newport Beach is relatively small. Everyone wants to live by the ocean."
Bingham also said the schools in Newport Beach are a huge draw, and the the city of Newport Beach has done a great job taking care of their residents.
Six of the most expensive markets are in California, while the other four are in New Jersey, Connecticut, Washington and Massachusetts.
#10 In Cupertino, Calif. the average 4B list price is $1,140,656.00
The pictured home at 1004 Cranberry Dr. is $1,150,000
#9 In Mercer Island, Wash. the average 4B list price is $1,143,521.00
"Target's a growth company, and we perform well in virtually any environment. We haven't seen a material change in the business climate, really, from the beginning of the year until now. Our 'Expect more, pay less' brand promise and strategy should perform well in this economy or any other economy, for that matter."
But Steinhafel is candid about its competition: "Walmart is a very formidable competitor. It's not a zero-sum game between us and Walmart."
Target plans to remodel 400 locations this year, expand into Canada and roll out smaller, urban stores. Steinhafel, who became CEO in 2008, started as a buyer-in-training for Target in 1979.
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This is a Request for Information only. The OAG is seeking information from Legal Teams preliminary to undertaking a process to select a Legal Team to pursue an investigation and possible litigation to determine the legality of the Bowl Championship Series system for College FBS post season football under federal and Utah state antitrust or other applicable law and to obtain appropriate relief.
They specifically say that they aren't asking for bids and aren't looking to actually hire anyone. Yet. Just a bunch of lawyers talking about talking about something.
He claims that the BCS is an anti-trust nightmare that robs federally funded-institutions of the right to win trophies and money. Which it totally is. It remains to be seen if the courts will agree.
The Utah Utes have been one of the BCS's biggest victims, having twice gone undefeated in the last decade without being allowed to play the National Championship Game.
Obviously, Greece is the word, and as people have been suspecting for a few days now, the Parliament did ultimately pass the controversial austerity bill, with 155 votes out of 300 seats. Technically, there's still a vote tomorrow on a law to implement the bill, and then there's the inevitable failure of the austerity program. But for now, crisis delayed.
Markets all around the world rallied, as did peripheral debt. (Asia also had a good night).
Futures were up huge ahead of the vote, but then immediately afterwords, we got that classic "sell the news" moment. In fact, after being up some 3% earlier in the day, Athens stocks totally collapsed. Perhaps one reason for that is that there's tons of chaos on the streets. The building housing the Ministry of Finance even caught fire.
The news was pretty light in the US. The only data was pending home sales, which were surprisingly strong. There were some corporate movers of note. Visa and MasterCard surged after the Fed lifted the swipe fee cap. Several Chinese stocks, which have been getting beaten pretty hard, bounced back. And the banks bounced back hard, keying off of Bank of America's mortgage settlement. Goldman Sachs finally had a Nice day. Along with the huge risk-on day, Treasuries got hammered again. The 10-year yield is back up to 3.12%.
Meanwhile, Obama held a press conference mostly focusing on the debt ceiling. He didn't make any news, except for the fact that there's really no progress being made. Not surprisingly, along with the
You heard me right. Netbook. Not MacBook Air or MacBook Pro, but a 9-inch Dell that's tricked out to run OSX gracefully and without issue.
People have been doing this for years. There are numerous walkthroughs online to tell you how to do this for yourself.
For a small initial investment and a little bit of work, you can build a brand new Apple computer. What are you waiting for?
One of the most popular computers to convert into a Macintosh is the Dell Mini series. In fact, Ed Gain started MyMacNetbook.com to spread the word about how to do it.
What follows is a highly abbreviated version of tricking out your Dell to run OSX. Since it's a technical process and might lead to some questions, you'll want to head over to Ed's site to get them answered.
Until then...
First of all, understand that your new Hackintosh will exist outside the realm of Apple. If something goes wrong, you can't take it to the Apple Store to get it fixed. It's up to you to take care of your computer.
What you need to get started.
Dell Mini 10v with at least 8GB of hard disk space
Mac OS X Snow Leopard retail disc
Intel-based Mac with DVD-ROM drive and USB port
8GB or larger external USB drive (hard disk or flash drive)
On your "legitimate" Mac, fire up Disk Utility and insert the OSX retail disk. You're going to create a bootable backup to your external drive or flash drive.
When OPEC members met in Vienna recently, the Saudis failed to control the meeting, OPEC’s production ceiling remained unchanged, and member countries are setting their own output levels.
But talk of an OPEC breakup is premature.
After all, it has survived major wars, numerous diplomatic disputes, and two major market collapses. In fact, the secret to OPEC’s survival is its weakness, not its strength.
Roddy Boyd -- the Financial Investigator and the author of Fatal Risk -- tackles AIG's failure in his new book. Painting a history of the insurance company from the rise of Hank Greenberg to today, he investigates the complex series of events that led to its downfall.
Watch below as he explains why AIG's executives have not been investigated thoroughly by the US government, and points a finger at some possible culprits. Do you agree?
Jobs at McDonald's are defined by low wages, little training and high turnover rates.
But what does it take to get canned from one of the company's 32,000 locations worldwide?
Here are a collection of stories about employees that got fired from McDonald's that were reported and confirmed by the media.
Have your own story about being fired from McDonald's or any other fast food chain? Tell us in the comments or send an email to kbhasin@businessinsider.com.
Giving out a Happy Meal with marijuana in the box
An 8-year old girl found three items in her Happy Meal after going to an Illinois McDonald's drive thru in 2007: a lighter, a pipe and a bag of marijuana.
17-year-old offender Brandon Scott was fired immediately, arrested and charged with possession of marijuana and drug paraphernalia.
Letting an NFL star use the bathroom after hours
Tiffany Langeslay broke the rules for Minnesota Vikings star running back Adrian Peterson when she allowed him to use the restroom after-hours. When she showed up for her next shift a few days later, her boss told her she was fired.
McDonald's promptly offered to give Langeslay the job back once the local media contacted them about it. She accepted.
Pissing off a bunch of UPenn students, who started a Facebook boycott campaign
University of Pennsylvania students made a Facebook group called "Boycott McDonald's" after an incident regarding the use of a bathroom in a store. The students alleged that the manager told a cashier to take her time fixing a problem with the register after a student was told he couldn't use the bathroom without ordering food. They also alleged verbal abuse and threats by a security guard.
The store's general manager Anthony Hill apologized directly to the aggrieved students and terminated the employees involved.
I recently spent some time in Washington, D.C. and met with legislative staffers, regulators, privacy professionals and reps from various industry associations.
It was very busy on The Hill, with two hearings on mobile privacy issues - one held by the Senate Judiciary Committee on May 10th (see here) followed by another held by the Commerce Subcommittee on Consumer Protection on May 19th (see here).
Congressional interest in TRUSTe’s recently completed mobile privacy survey was high, and Senate Judiciary chairman, Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT), quoted from our survey in his opening remarks at the Judiciary mobile privacy hearing. TRUSTe also submitted testimony to the Senate Commerce Subcommittee regarding “Protection and Privacy in the Mobile Marketplace,” which you can read in its entirety here.
A few observations I took away from the visit:
1. Privacy Has Never Been Bigger. Several individuals expressed to me that they haven't seen so much activity related to privacy ever. Legislation. Proposed legislation. Draft bills. Hearings and more hearings. FTC enforcement actions. And continued, heavy press coverage.
2. Mobile and Apps Need to Embrace Privacy . . . but it’s too early for regulation. Despite the recent hearings, most legislative staffers recognize that we are too early in the development of the mobile economy and technology to be overly prescriptive. Many also recognized that a lot of mobile app developers are either very small or outside of the US, making regulation a partial solution at best.
I imagine that the mobile app directories and stores will continue to be expected to enforce privacy requirements on their app providers and raise their levels of review. In addition, everyone is hoping, if not expecting, that new solutions to help app developers "build in privacy" through privacy statements and accessible choices will emerge. While location privacy is the first area of concern, advertising and demographic targeting are not far behind.
3. Do Not Track is Not As Easy as it Sounds. There is growing recognition that providing a one-size fits all "Do not Track" is not likely legislatively, thereby putting more focus on browser self-regulation as well as self-regulatory solutions like the DAA's Self-Regulatory Program for Online Behavioral Advertising.
4. Children's Privacy. There are substantial fears around teens and children's privacy/safety, especially on smart phones and social networking sites, generating a sub-set of legislative privacy proposals in addition to the expected review of COPPA. Websites and apps that even tangentially market to kids need to take care or face a very difficult environment.
5. Industry, Legislators and Regulators Want Self-Regulation to Work for Online Behavioral Advertising and More. Nearly every group I spoke to asked pointed questions about the state of self-regulation, primarily from the perspective of wanting these solutions to work. This reflects broad recognition that even the best regulation alone won't solve Internet privacy issues. The advertising industry associations that formed the DAA, and the DAA now under the leadership of Peter Kosmala, are extremely dedicated to encouraging if not outright pushing their memberships to adopt DAA self-regulatory program as soon as possible. They are very happy to see TRUSTe's commitment and momentum as the largest DAA-approved provider of OBA compliance through our TRUSTed Ads technology platform.
6. Going Global. In addition to the limitations of any one legislative solution or even technology solutions, I was surprised to have so many discussions on the activities around international privacy. There is still great confusion regarding the EU "Cookie" law, especially around implementation and enforcement. Some hope that the US, Europe and the Asia Pacific reason will come together with global guidelines, but there is not much confidence that this will occur. Global companies are especially concerned about their ability to manage data practices in the face of differing and sometimes contradictory international compliance frameworks.
According to the HuffPo, "Will Ferrell is focusing his brand of goofy humor and satire on a truly deserving target: the wrecked economy, and those who did the wrecking... Ferrell will take on the hedge fund industry in a new comedy, 'Swear To God.'"
The screenplay will be authored by the writers from "Due Date" and "King of the Hill" and "it's a buddy comedy in which Ferrell plays a narcissistic hedge fund manager who thinks he has seen God," Deadline reported.
It's 8:47 and the Greek Parliament is voting and you would think the CNBC girl is reporting from a war zone. She has a mask on to stop the tear gas and you can hear screaming and explosions on the street below her as the police throw smoke bombs at the crowd and the crowd throws rocks and molotov cocktails at the police in an exchange of "ideas" in the capitol. 
Today's advice comes from Target CEO Gregg Steinhafel's 
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