Wait, let me guess. You don’t need no stinkin’ grammar, right? You’re a business owner, an SEO, an Internet marketer, or maybe even an SEO content provider. You have other things to do, and more important things to worry about than whether you’re using the objective form of a personal pronoun with a preposition. You’re already busy with the business of running a business. The last thing you need to be concerned with is using good grammar in your blog posts.
Yeah, that’s what a lot of small business owners are saying about SEO, and we all know how shortsighted that is, especially when we’re looking for a menu for that new restaurant that just opened up in town but can't seem to find it. Without good grammar and spelling, your marketing efforts are only half as effective as they could be. It all comes down to trust.
Internet marketers have been giving conflicting advice for quite a while now. Any savvy Internet marketing professional will tell you that if you’re running a business, you need a blog. It’s an effective way to communicate with your customers and potential clients, and to build authority in your industry.
Then, as soon as you’re convinced you can’t possibly run your business without a blog, another Internet professional comes along and tells you that sure, you need a blog, but you don’t have to bother to write correctly, or worry about spelling. Nah. Blog posts are apparently informal, casual things you dash off while you’re on your lunch break, and if you worry about making them look good by using correct grammar and spelling, you’re a perfectionist and you have a problem.
But we’re not just talking about plain ol’ writing here! We’re talking about SEO copywriting. So let’s put that shoe on another foot, shall we? If you’re going to have a business site, you absolutely must be implementing SEO to be found, to rank, to build your customer base, and to grow your business. Oh, but you don’t really have to do it correctly. Just throw some keywords here and there—the more keywords, the better!—customize your title and description tags, get some backlinks from any site that will give them to you, and voilà! You are now an SEO!
How does that sound? It doesn't sound very professional or well-optimized, does it? Now you know how an SEO content writer feels whenever someone in Internet marketing says grammar and spelling, elements essential to content creation, don’t matter. And if you preach that while also calling yourself an SEO content writer, please find yourself a new job title—preferably one I don’t have to share with you.
Now, here’s a question: If you make it obvious that you think it’s okay to do one thing half-assed, what’s to stop anyone from thinking that’s how you do everything in your business? If you can’t be bothered to pay attention to the quality of your own blog, why would a potential client assume you’ll pay attention to the quality of the work you do for them, especially if that work is providing SEO content? There is no client relationship without trust.
Good grammar and spelling are important to content overall, but there’s one aspect of SEO copywriting where good spelling is vital—anchor text. Say you land a client who sells accessories for the art of letter-writing. You’ll be doing your client a disservice if every link you build uses stationary in the anchor text, rather than stationery. Aside from the correct word having a higher search volume, your client will look pretty stupid to their customers if it appears they can’t even spell their own product correctly, and that’s not going to be good for sales.
I’m not saying your blog has to be perfect. Everyone makes mistakes. But there’s a difference between making mistakes and being completely indifferent to their existence. Blog posts can be well written without sounding like dissertations. Casual is not a euphemism for incorrect. There’s really no excuse for poor quality content, especially when there are easy ways to avoid it.
Here are some SEO copywriting tips to get you started:
Refresh Your Memory
It’s been quite a while since you had to diagram a sentence in school, so no one expects you to be able to recite all eight parts of speech off the top of your head. (Some sources claim nine or ten parts, but eight is traditional.) But a quick refresher of the basic grammar rules never hurts. You probably don’t have time to take an English class, although that’s not a bad idea, especially if you’re a writer. Instead, gather some good resources. Grammar Girl is one of my go-to sources when I get stuck. If books are more your style, pick upEats, Shoots & Leaves by Lynne Truss. Don’t be put off by the pandas on the cover—they don’t work for Google.
Hire an Editor or Proofreader
Yes, that means you will actually have to spend some money. Have you spent money on a premium blog theme? On a site designer? On conferences? On other tools necessary to do your job well and maintain a high level of quality in your work? Then don’t skimp here. If you don’t have the time or inclination to shore up your grammar and spelling skills, find someone who makes it their business to do that for you. Before you hire anyone, though, take a look at their site and their blog. If they’re a mess, you’ll have an idea of what you’ll get for your money.
Hire an SEO Content Provider
An essential part of running a successful business is deciding what to spend your time on. If you’re at a point where running your business is taking up most of your time, and you’re no longer able (or willing) to write your own content, hire someone to provide it for you, whether it’s an agency that offers content creation services, or an independent contractor. By taking content creation off your plate completely, you can focus on the things you’re really good at, and leave the writing and editing to someone who specializes in SEO content creation.
Get over the idea that being able to spell and use correct grammar are elitist or snobbish, or that having a blog rife with typos is some sort of badge of honor, like bragging about how little sleep you get. The fact is, everyone should strive to produce quality work, whether you do it on your own or with outside help.
You’ll build more trust with your audience when you’re not dumbing things down and making excuses, and when it’s obvious you care enough about them to put in the time and energy to give them quality content. Plenty of people out there appreciate good grammar and spelling. Have some respect for them, and for potential clients. You’ll be showing them that if they hire you, they can expect the same kind of hard work and attention to detail in their deliverables. Besides, anything worth doing is worth doing right. Right?
Travel a few miles from the opulent mansions of Miami Beach and you reach desperately poor neighborhoods.
There’s the grinding poverty of sugar cane country and the growing middle class of Jacksonville.
All told, half the public-school students in Florida qualify for subsidized lunches. Many are the first in their families to speak English or contemplate attending college.
In many states, those economic differences are reflected in the classroom, with students in wealthy schools taking many more advanced courses.
But not in Florida. A ProPublica analysis of previously unreleased federal data shows that Florida leads the nation in the percentage of high-school students enrolled in high-level classes—Advanced Placement and advanced math. That holds true across rich and poor districts.
Studies repeatedly have shown that students who take advanced classes have greater chances of attending and succeeding in college.
Our analysis identifies several states that, like Florida, have leveled the field and now offer rich and poor students roughly equal access to high-level courses.
In Kansas, Maryland, and Oklahoma, by contrast, such opportunities are far less available in districts with poorer families.
That disparity is part of what experts call the “opportunity gap.”
“The opportunity to learn—the necessary resources, the curriculum opportunities, the quality teachers—that affluent students have, is what determines what people can do in life,” said Linda Darling-Hammond, a professor of education at Stanford University.
Our analysis offers the first nationwide picture of exactly which advanced courses are being taken at which schools and districts across the country. Previous studies and surveys have tracked some of these courses, but never with so many variables and covering so many schools. (More than three-quarters of all public-school children are represented in our analysis. Check out our methodology.)
The analysis was drawn from a nationwide survey by the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights, which collected school-by-school reports on a range of offerings, including physics, chemistry and Advanced Placement courses in high schools. The department did the survey to assess whether states and other localities are discriminating by race, gender or disability. State and local education administrators, of course, are responsible for most funding and policy decisions.
We compared the survey results to poverty levels. (We measured that by looking at the percentage of students who receive free- or reduced-price lunch—which the government offers to students from low-income families.)
While our analysis found a link between race and lack of access, poverty was the predominant factor in determining the proportion of students in a school or district who were enrolled in higher-level instruction.
The department plans to make public additional data in the coming months on graduation rates and test scores for these schools. When it does so, we will publish additional stories pinpointing the states in which equal access has achieved the desired results and where it has not.
From the data released so far, Florida stands out. Its results follow a decade-long initiative to broaden educational opportunity launched by then-governor Jeb Bush and his Education Commissioner, and now fellow former governor, Charlie Crist.
“The fact that some states have eliminated these disparities proves that if we make this a priority of policy it can be done,” said Pedro A. Noguera, an education professor at New York University.
Other states show just how complex the problem is. While Maryland has been celebrated for the high percentage of students taking advanced classes, our analysis shows enrollment in such classes at high-poverty schools is much lower.
Or take Mississippi: Richer and poorer schools there provide roughly equal access, but that masks the reality that very few students are enrolled in the classes overall. A Maryland official said enrollment of low-income students has been increasing recently, while a spokesman from Mississippi’s department of education was not immediately available for comment.
While most experts agree about the value of giving students expanded opportunities, many caution that offering advanced classes is not a solution on its own to deeper-rooted gaps in preparation and achievement. They say students often need additional support.
“We’re making AP a reform strategy in and of itself,” said Kristin Klopfenstein, director of the Education Innovation Institute at the University of Northern Colorado. “When it comes to a struggling turnaround school, why in the world would you think that somehow plunking down an AP program would improve that school?”
But with the right support, even the most disadvantaged students can thrive, according to Jose Huerta, the principal at Garfield High School in East Los Angeles.
The school was the basis for the 1980s classic, Stand and Deliver, the story of a determined high-school math teacher, Jaime Escalante, whose single-minded conviction that kids from poor and minority backgrounds could succeed, led to many of his students passing the demanding Advanced Placement calculus exam.
Garfield still provides many rigorous courses—with extra help for some students. And Huerta said that this year his students are heading to colleges such as Yale, Brown, and Harvard.
“This is an extremely poor area. These are kids whose parents can’t speak the language, and they’re going to the top college in the country,” said Huerta. “We raise the bar and our kids are going above it.”
How Did Florida Do It?
Florida’s schools once mirrored the inequalities seen in many other states. In 2003, the NAACP sued the state, arguing that it had an “unequal education system.”
“A decade ago, few minority students were taking PSAT/PLAN tests of AP courses, and even fewer were going to college,” said former Gov. Jeb Bush, via email, referring to testing programs that have been used to predict which students will succeed in AP courses. “Florida schools and teachers were not incentivized to provide or teach AP courses—particularly in low-performing schools,” he said.
Bush introduced a combination of measures to foster AP courses, including a partnership with the College Board, the national nonprofit group that manages AP courses and exams. The partnership kicked off in 2000 and was later written into state law. Its stated goal was to “prepare, inspire, and connect students to postsecondary success and opportunity, with a particular focus on minority students and students who are underrepresented in postsecondary education.”
As part of the program, the College Board is now focusing on schools in rural districts, such as Okeechobee in central Florida, where students are often the first members of their families to seriously contemplate attending college, according to Toni Wiersma, principal of Okeechobee High School.
“We fight against the old perception that some people are just not college material,” said Wiersma. “We want to make sure that every student is prepared to do what they want to do.”
The question remains: Have these changes improved student performance?
While measuring outcomes in education is notoriously difficult, data show that the numbers of high-school seniors from poor families who pass at least one AP exam have surged. In 2006, students from low-income families made up 10 percent of all seniors who passed an exam. By 2010, that percentage had doubled.
Florida students still perform below the national average on standardized tests. Still, other government studies show that Florida has made greater strides in closing the achievement gap between white and minority students than many other states.
Florida, Bush said, is setting an example for other states.
“If Florida ...can do it, every state can.”
Kansas’ Long History of Unequal Access to Education Continues
Kansas has also tried to improve, but it still has some of the largest opportunity gaps in the nation.
Few states have as deep a history with educational inequality as Kansas. The state was the birthplace of the landmark civil rights decision Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, in which the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that segregated schools were inherently discriminatory and that states must make education “available to all on equal terms.”
Nearly 60 years later, Kansas still has a deeply unequal educational system, according to the data. High-poverty schools still tend to have fewer students enrolled in AP courses, advanced math, chemistry and physics. Like AP, these courses have been linked to later academic success.
“When people in middle America look at this input data and realize that we’re never giving kids a shot in the first place, that American value of fundamental fairness starts kicking in,” said Russlynn Ali, head of the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights, which conducted the survey.
Officials from the Kansas Department of Education disputed the finding that the state is giving unequal treatment to poorer children. They pointed out that the state has set aside extra funds for schools with high numbers of students from low-income households.
“The funding gives additional weighting to every child that qualifies for free lunches,” said Brad Neuenswander, deputy commissioner at the Kansas State Department of Education. “The poorer your district, the more financial resources you receive.”
College Board data show that these efforts may have had some effect. The percentage of AP test-takers who are from poor families has doubled over the past four years. However, the numbers are still low.
Neuenswander said many districts choose to send students into community colleges, rather than enrolling them in advanced placement courses, particularly those students who were more interested in pursuing a trade.
“We’re a rural state, but more than that, we are heavy agriculture as well as air manufacturing and technology,” he said. Several major companies, such as Boeing and Sprint, have locations in Kansas, which offer employment opportunities to local students, Neuenswander said. “A lot of our students don’t go on to a regent university. They go on to vocational and technical colleges, because of the good jobs here that require skills and trades.”
But nearly 60 years after Brown v. Board of Education, another lawsuit is winding its way through the Kansas court system, claiming that inadequate funding is having a disproportionate effect on the state’s neediest students.
It follows at least six previous cases in the state that have made similar claims.
The plaintiffs in the new case include children across the state who need extra support, said Alan L. Rupe, the lead attorney in the class action suit and an expert in education funding litigation.
“Kids with special needs—whether they’re English-second-language, disabled kids, immigrants or minorities—those kids cost more to educate,” Rupe said. “When funding is reduced, those kids are hurt the most.”
Rupe said one of the most glaring inequalities between rich and poor districts was the ability to attract and retain talented and experienced teachers.
“If you’re a teacher making $35,000 in Kansas City, in a classroom that’s got 90 percent free and reduced-price lunch, and you have the opportunity to drive 10 miles to teach at a brand new school in a neighboring county, to teach in a smaller class, to earn more money, you’re going to do it every time,” said Rupe. “And they do it every time.”
Tennis fans were outraged today when they turned on NBC to watch Maria Sharapova take on Sabine Lisicki in the ladies' semifinal Wimbledon, and discovered there was no sports to be found.
Turning over to ESPN2 (which has also been broadcasting matches from the All-England club for the last two weeks) didn't help either. They were a showing a re-run of Roger Federer's match from yesterday.
Online streaming? No dice. Blackout there too.
Was the match canceled? Nope, it's just ended. (Maria won in straight sets.) But NBC wants to wait and show you the match this after, long after it's already ended. (Instead they showed, the fourth hour of Today and re-run of Ellen.)
Sound familiar?
Yes, those of you driven mad by the Peacock network's Olympics coverage in 2010 (and always) are well aware of NBC's policy of showing games when THEY want you to see them, not when actually happen. (Their Wimbledon broadcast window was 1-5 p.m. ET today and it seems they called dibs on Sharapova's match. So ESPN2 was off limits.)
Of course, by the time it appears on TV later today, the world will already know who won.
One of the concerns after NBC retained the Olympic TV rights for the next 10 years, was a repeat of Vancouver 2010, when angry sports fans were denied the chance to watch dozens of live events, even as they followed the outcomes online.
The new Comcast bosses have promised to show every single event live, somewhere – either online or on cable – but this tennis snafu is not a good omen for the future.
For the record, NBC tells tennis reporter Tom Perrotta that the first men's semi-final on Friday will be on ESPN and the second (between Rafael Nadal and Andy Murray) will be on NBC. Both will (allegedly) be live.
NEW YORK (AP) — The NBA is headed to deadline day, with perhaps one last chance to avoid a lockout.
Negotiators for owners and players will meet Thursday, about 12 hours before the expiration of the collective bargaining agreement and seemingly nowhere close to a deal.
The sides remain far apart on just about every major issue, from salaries to the salary cap, revenues to revenue sharing.
After meeting twice a week for most of the month, this is the only session scheduled this week. The two sides could continue bargaining past the deadline, but that probably requires owners to see evidence of the gap narrowing Thursday.
Otherwise, they could lock out the players for the first time since the 1998-99 season was reduced to 50 games, though Commissioner David Stern has refused to say what would happen if a deal is not done Thursday.
"We're not going to negotiate in the media," he said Tuesday after meeting with owners. "We haven't before, we're not going to do it now. We're looking forward to having our discussion with the players."
There may not be much to discuss. Players declined to offer a new economic proposal in the most recent meeting Friday, and they may still feel their previous offer to reduce their salaries by $500 million over five years is going far enough.
Deputy Commissioner Adam Silver said the league didn't know if the players would make another proposal.
Both sides have moved, but not nearly far enough for the other.
Players still consider the owners' proposal for a "flex" cap, where each team would be targeted to spend $62 million, a hard cap because there is an eventual unspecified level that can't be exceeded. And though the league said total player compensation would never dip below $2 billion over the life of its proposed 10-year deal, that would amount to a pay cut for the players, who were paid more than $2.1 billion this season in salaries and benefits.
Owners have dropped their insistence that no contracts could be fully guaranteed, an issue the players strongly opposed.
"In this league, teams can easily just say, 'We don't want this guy on our team anymore.'" I think the security of having that contract goes a long way because you're taking care of your family, you've got a lot of things you're doing and this is your way of living," All-Star Kevin Durant said.
"I think that's the biggest thing with us, having that security as a player, knowing coming in that you're guaranteed and you're straight. Hopefully we keep that."
Owners still want a reduction in the players' guarantee of 57 percent of basketball revenues. Players said their latest proposal would have taken them down to 54.3, but say the league's offer would have them down to around 40 percent.
The meeting Thursday will include just small groups from each side, after many players attended the last session. Without a deal, there will be no free agency starting Friday, and the summer league in Las Vegas has already been canceled.
Real games could be next to go. Stern has said the offers only get worse once a lockout has started, though there is still plenty of time even if nothing gets done Thursday.
"I don't see us missing any games. But I see it coming down to the wire, though," Milwaukee's Stephen Jackson said.
The Growing Canadian Agri-Innovations Program is supported by the Canadian Federation of Agriculture and is an important tool to assist farmers, food processors, and researchers with introducing innovative ideas to the marketplace in less time.
As a part of Growing Forward, a commitment between the government and the agricultural sector, this program will invest in and support four initiatives: Agri-Science Clusters, Growing Innovative Agri-Products, Agri-Foresight, and Promoting Agri-Based Investment Opportunities. These programs will assist in the agricultural sector of industry by providing a partnership with the government that addresses the changing environment.
1. Agri-Science Clusters
This branch will help bring together scientific and technical resources for agricultural organizations so that they can establish groups to support swift profitability and competitiveness. This section will encourage industry leadership and will result in less time for new products, practices and processes to reach the market.
2. Growing Innovative Agri-Products
This section will support the science and technology behind the industry-led projects. New economic opportunities for farmers, agri-businesses and communities will be created throughout this innovation. This initiative includes two streams:
Innovation Strategy Development: Creating and expanding agri-based value chains that will develop into new opportunities
Implementation of Applied Science, Technology Development and Piloting Projects: transforming the ideas into products, practices and processes in order to help the sector manage the applied science research and development resources.
3. Agri-Foresight
This branch will predict future challenges and opportunities in the agricultural sector. Those involved, partners and stakeholders, will be able to plan for and take responsibility by creating strategies to increase their profitability despite the challenges.
4. Promoting Agri-Based Investment Opportunities
This section will develop networks encouraging private investments in the new agricultural products, practices and processes. It will promote opportunities to potential investors and agri-entrepreneurs as well as encouraging them to become involved.
Learn More
To find out more about these initiatives, interested Canadian agricultural companies should contact Mentor Works. We will help you determine if your project is eligible of these initiatives and provide expert advise on how to carry out the application process. Be sure to stay up to date on the latest funding news by subscribing to our blog and following me on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.
In response to the rise of vertical information seeking (such asQunarandCtripfor travel info,Dianping,Koubeifor restaurant and local business search,Ganji,58for classified info lookup) and open platform initiatives by quite some prominent internet companies includingRenren,Sina WeiboandTencentetc, Baidu officially launched its Mobile Box Computing effort today in Beijing, which is aiming to offer search engine users with instant and intuitive access to all kinds of features which are originally “outside of the box”.
Baidu’s latest move is derived from its Box Computing rolled out couple years ago. Imagine this, while you’re searching for “Beijing Shanghai flights” or even just “Beijing Shanghai” on Baidu, rather than only returns links to outside websites with desirable information, how great it would be when Baidu features all flights from Beijing to Shanghai in a frame on the SERP(search engine results page), along with flight No., schedule, tickets info, and the ticket is only one click away to buy.
That’s what Baidu Box Computing is all about. Baidu founder and CEO Li Yanhong raised the concept two years ago at Baidu Technology Innovative Conference on Aug 18 2009. To put it simply, box computing serves Baidu users as a medium or an agent wherein users’ queries are analyzed and understand by means of semantic analysis, AI interaction, then the Chinese search engine can satisfies users with convenient feature according to apprehension of user intentions. Searching for weather, you get local weather forecast in a frame, looking up for hit TV serial, you get ready-to-watch video clips at one click away also in a frame.
Mobile Search is the New Opportunity
According to Analysys International, a leading market research firm in China, by 2012 there’re more than 606 million mobile users in China, even more than traditional internet user who access the internet via PC. That’s a market no one want to miss, or can afford to miss.
We can try to grasp mobile box computing from this, take weather app for example: we know that there must be some kind of weather apps in various kinds of app market, usually, we need to look up the weather apps in any market firstly, then install and run it before we can have access to latest local weather forecast in case of getting wet by unexpected rain. Baidu’s point is, with mobile box computing, all the information is one step away in a frame on its SERP, waiving all the hassles for users.
Incubating Ecosystem
According to Baidu, any 3rdparty developers can submit innovative and useful apps to its box computing apps repository to address certain kind of users’ problems that lead the users to look it up on Baidu.
Also, Baidu is currently conducting a Web Apps contest with in an effort to encourage more app vendors to develop and contribute to the Chinese search giant’s box computing platform. Apparently, the more Baidu box computing platform can offer the more traffic and user it can retain.
We can try to understand Baidu’s latest effort in mobile internet from 3 aspects:
#1 Cloud Computing – the ongoing and disruptive trend is changing some of the internet infrastructure, initiating a cloud-based box computing platform do only good to Baidu’s search ecosystem by means of amassing thousands of various apps to complete Baidu’s search offerings.
#2 Vertical Information Seeking – Baidu to date is still the top choice for Chinese people who want to search something online, with a search market share of over 83.6% in China in Q4 last year according to iResearch, a Beijing-based market research company. But admittedly, the rise of vertical information service has taken over some of Baidu’s market. When people think of search some certain type of information, including flight info, listed rooms, local restaurants, they turn to some other service for help as we mentioned before, which undermines the premise of Baidu’s profitable business- traffic.
Baidu gains a lot from serving Chinese people as the information gateway and aggregator. Vertical information services can definitely bring about some pressure on Baidu.
Also interestingly, Google, the innovative and giant search engine hasn’t offer anything that come near to Baidu box computing.
#3 Open Platform – As Sina Weibo, Renren and Tencent partly or completely embrace open platform initiatives, Baidu couldn’t sit alone in the corner. Both box computing and mobile box computing are largely based upon Baidu Open Platform which consists of Baidu Apps Open Platform and Baidu Data Open Platform and hosts thousands of apps by 3rdparty vendors. It’s Baidu’s solution to open platform strategy.
If you haven’t paid any attention to the news around Google Panda but use content to market your business, here’s what you need to know. Google recently changed the way it ranks websites with content in search engine results. So all the dozens of article directories (also known as content farms) are no longer ranking at the top of search results. If you’ve been using article directories to increase your ranking, you’re now wasting your time.
Essentially, Google now looks at the quality of every site that links to yours and determines its value. Of course, Google’s secret formula will never be known, but what we can glean is that it doesn’t like:
Sites with a lot of unrelated content
Sites with lots of ads
Sites that don’t appear to be moderated
Sites that are overstuffed with keywords
Sites that link to many others without reason
You know those sites when you visit them. And while many companies bemoaned these new rules, they’re actually really good rules, if you know how to play the game.
Rule 1: Deliver Good Content
This should be the only rule, honestly. If you’ve been mindlessly churning out articles with little value and lots of keywords, you need to change your strategy. Instead, focus on what your customers want to know. This could be how-tos on your products, frequently asked questions, industry commentary, company news or op-ed pieces. Find out what pains your customers have, then ease them by providing useful content.
For example, you came to Small Business Trends because you were looking for information related to small businesses. You (we hope) find the content useful, and might even come back to see what other good stuff we’ve got going on. You can do the same thing we do on this blog on your own website. Be the expert in your industry and drive traffic to your site through content.
Rule 2: Keep It Fresh
Google loves new content, so don’t write one article and think you’re done. Create a strategy for putting out several articles a week and determine what you’ll write about. You might ask different people in your company to write on their areas of specialty to keep it diverse, but still relevant.
Rule 3: Invest in a Good Writer
Most CEOs don’t have the time or ability to write awesome content week after week. So don’t skimp. Hire a freelance writer or agency specializing in blogs and articles to help if you don’t have someone on your staff who can do it. Look for someone with experience in writing blog posts. You want a pro to drive traffic to your site.
Rule 4: Share Your Content
Your content’s only as good as the people who read it, and if that includes just your mother, it’s not doing its job. Set up an RSS feed from your blog; publish links to your posts on social media; share links in your company emails. Eventually people will find your content on their own, but you need to help them get there.
Look at Google Panda as a positive change that will help you rise above competitors who were doing a bad job of content marketing. If you follow the new rules, you’ll be able to effectively use content to get new customers.
"Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part II" doesn't open until July 15.
But this morning, the giant subway hub in Manhattan's Times Square is in the process of going full-on Harry.
When we passed through the station an hour ago, workers were assembling wall displays with miniature, trailer-playing TVs embedded in the movie posters.
And not a surface in sight was Potter-free.
Each of the posters along the station walls has its own screen with a trailer on-loop -- so you can watch as you walk.
You can see the control panel for the TVs along the bottom of the poster featuring Voldemort -- the workers hadn't finished closing it up yet.
This poor "Zookeeper" ad looked so sad next to Potter's high-tech ads.
Today is the final day of QE2, and many have bet that when the Fed's bond-buying program ends, Treasuries will tank.
And holders of this view might feel good about their view based on action over the final few days, especially today.
As you can see, yields have really run up over the last few days, with a big pop today (the chart shows 10-year yields).
But before you blame the end of QE2, consider two things.
First, stocks have been on a huge run for all kinds of reasons lately, and that's always positive for yields. And also, people are talking about end-of-quarter rebalancing, as funds allocate money away from credit (which has done well) to equities) which have underperformed.
Sony showed off demo units of its two upcoming Honeycomb tablets in Munich this week.
The OS looks the same as any other Honeycomb tablet out there, but what intrigues us is the design. The 9.7-inch "S1" model has a curved edge that's supposed to balance the weight in such a way that you won't get tired after long periods of use.
The "S2" is a 5.5-inch dual-screen device also running Honeycomb.
Both tablets will have access to PlayStation games, just like the Xperia Play Android phone. They're both slated to launch this fall.
Check out a video of the dual-screen S2 in action below.
The Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City released the June Manufacturing Survey today. According to Chad Wilkerson, vice president and economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, the survey revealed that growth in Tenth District manufacturing activity rebounded solidly in June after a brief slowdown last month, and producers remained generally optimistic about future activity.
Yesterday the Federal Reserve Board announced final rules that will limit debit card swipe fees, as mandated by the “Durbin Amendment” under the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.
It backed away from a proposal to cap debit interchange fees at 12 cents per transaction, and instead the Board voted on a final proposal that includes a cap of 21 cents per transaction, plus 5 basis points per transaction for fraud prevention costs. Financial institutions with $10 billion or less in assets, governmental benefit cards, and certain prepaid cards are exempt. The cap is better than many banks had hoped, though higher than retailers may have expected given the previous proposal.
At stake is an estimated $14-19 billion a year in revenue issuers collect from merchants when consumers use their debit cards to make purchases. Merchants currently pay an average of about 44-47 cents per transaction, which is divvied up among the merchant’s financial institution and the bank or credit union that issued the card. (Visa and MasterCard also get paid, though not directly.) Under the new rules finalized today, issuer revenues will be cut, but not as dramatically as initially expected.
More consumers now have debit cards than credit cards, and consumers use debit cards more often than cash, credit cards, or checks individually, according to the the 2008 Survey of Consumer Payment Choice. If you’re among those consumers who rely on debit cards, is that about to change?
If you have listened to the arguments on both sides of the issue (or all four sides, if you include small issuers, large issuers, retailers and consumers) you’d think the sky is falling. But this may just be a bit like an industry-created Y2K, with fear-mongering and uncertainty cultivated from both sides. Big money has been at stake.
With today’s announcement, we can confidently say that debit cards are not going away. Even if the interchange limit were stricter, financial institutions have invested far too much time and money persuading consumers to move away from cash and checks to abandon them now. Many consumers don’t have, or don’t want to use, credit cards. Do most merchants really want to risk losing sales by discouraging these “plastic checks” and the additional sales they bring?
Restrictions on interchange fees will be effective October 1, 2011. The rules that related to the networks over which transactions are processed and competition among networks take effect October 1, 2011 and April 1, 2012.
The impact of this rule will play out over the next couple of years, and at least one Federal Reserve Board member said there is no evidence of what the impact will be on consumers. Here are some scenarios, however, and what I think is likely to happen:
Lower prices at the cash register? Don’t hold your breath.
Retailers insist they are going to be able to bring prices down as debit swipe fees go down. The Federal Reserve Board said, though, that looking at other countries, the evidence is weak that lower interchange leads to lower prices for shoppers. So don’t hold off on making major purchases until October 1st, hoping to get a better bargain.
Fewer debit card rewards? Likely.
Debit card rewards are not nearly as rich as credit card rewards, because credit cards can be so much more profitable. Still, the reason debit card rewards exist is because these transactions (especially signature-based debit) have been profitable. Now there’s been a double whammy on those revenues—reduced debit overdraft income as the result of earlier regulation, and now swipe fee income. Combined, it means there is a good chance some issuers will reduce their debit rewards programs—if they keep them at all. Wells Fargo, Chase and SunTrust are among the issuers who have curtailed or ended their debit rewards programs in the wake of the original proposal. Whether they will revive more limited programs remains to be seen.
There’s been a lot of talk that this rule will spell the end of free checking. While it does diminish one major source of revenue, it doesn’t mean that free checking is a thing of the past. As one industry consultant points out, financial institutions “that do away with free checking will be sending customers to competitors.” Still, there is a legitimate concern that it may be harder for lower income customers to find free checking accounts. In fact, it is one of the reasons Federal Reserve Board Member Elizabeth Duke cited in voting against the proposed rule. She explained that earlier in her career she studied the demise, and subsequent revival of free checking accounts, largely due to debit interchange revenue.
Fewer debit card programs and more prepaid cards? Maybe.
After mobile payments, prepaid is the buzzword in the payments industry. American Express recently entered the foray with their new prepaid card, and it’s likely that other issuers are also looking at prepaid since these programs may be designed to avoid the Durbin swipe fee restrictions. Prepaid cards were mentioned by several board members with no clear conclusions about the effect of the final rule on their issuance. Still, it’s important to remember that when you’re looking at migrating millions of consumers from a payment method to which they have become accustomed, that wouldn’t be a smooth—or guaranteed—transition.
Fees for debit cards or debit transactions? Be on the alert.
Although less likely under the current cap than under the previous proposal, it’s still very possible that some issuers will start charging debit card fees, at least on less profitable accounts. As with ATM fees, they’ll start small, test the waters, and if successful, slowly raise them. Just as we’ve become accustomed to ever increasing ATM fees, we may adjust to the idea of debit card fees as well. And just as some financial institutions waive ATM fees for their best customers, the same is likely to happen with debit cards as well. (Merchants may offer discounts for preferred payment methods, but under card company rules they cannot charge surcharges. That has not changed.)
Incentives/perks that favor one payment method over another? Why not?
Under part of the Durbin amendment that has already gone into effect, merchants are allowed to impose a $10 minimum on credit card purchases (though not debit cards). They are also allowed to encourage consumers to use preferred payment methods as long as they don’t encourage one specific card issuer or brand over another. So you might see special deals—free shipping or gift wrapping, for say, a debit card purchase over a credit card purchase.
Opponents of the amendment warned that the new limits could stifle innovation in the industry, but the Fed argued that the final rule should have a positive effect on innovation. In the end, the best thing that could come out of this multi-million dollar battle would be greater competition in both payment and fraud prevention technologies. Despite all the Doomsday warnings, the Fed’s final rules appear to be reasonable and with new products being developed for the payment industry, it may not be long before this whole brouhaha—along with the debit cards we use today—will seem so yesterday.
So as usual, I know it’s weird to ask for my own gift, but I’m going to do it any way.
Will you share one specific thing I Will Teach You To Be Rich (or my Earn1K course) has helped you do this year? This can be anything concrete and measurable: overcoming a psychological barrier, paying off your last credit card bill, getting your first paying client. Maybe it has nothing to do with money at all.
I wouldn’t be surprised, actually. IWT isn’t really about money. It’s about behavioral change. And it’s been an incredible ride, from starting this blog in 2004 as a cocky college kid, to growing this site into what it is today.
The reason I write this site is to treat IWT like a laboratory: to help you figure out how to get more done in weeks than you’ve done in years. To show you that barriers can be crushed, that techniques can be put into practice, and to show you that information is not enough — we have to actually DO it.
Nothing could be better than hearing how my material has helped you.
Just leave a comment on this post. Or, upload a video to YouTube and tag it “iwillteachyoutoberich.”
The more specific, the better. Share a story. Tell us how IWT helped you hit a goal, pay off debt, earn more, get a better job — whatever. Provide specific, concrete #’s. Tell me what it meant to you.
During discussions, News Corp. offered to run Sky News as a separate company in an effort to ease concerns about monopolizing media, reports the AP.
An understandable fear, as News Corp. also owns several U.K. newspapers including The Sun and News of the World.
Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt agreed to the offer but set forth additional conditions, including the installment of a "monitoring trustee" to ensure that News Corp. remains compliant with any requirements.
However, not everyone is happy.
Of the deal, Labour Party member Tom Watson said to Hunt:
"You have chosen to accept the assurances of News Corp. when they have breached previous assurances made when The Times, the Sunday Times, the Sun, and the News of the World were taken over."
"How on Earth did we become so spineless as to allow a company whose directors not only failed in their duties to prevent criminality at the News of the World, but actually participated in the cover-up of that criminality, to hold dominion over such vast swaths of the media in this country?"
A high level Research In Motion employee has written an anonymous open letter to the company on tech site BGR.
And it's a brutal read.
In short, the company is in chaos, needs better products, and a new CEO structure.
RIM has been in a tailspin all year, but for the most part has kept any internal turmoil internal. If this is where things are going for RIM, it's going to get ugly.
"You have many smart employees, many that have great ideas for the future, but unfortunately the culture at RIM does not allow us to speak openly without having to worry about the career-limiting effects."
"We are in the middle of major “transition” and things have never been more chaotic. Almost every project is falling further and further behind schedule at a time when we absolutely must deliver great, solid products on time."
"We need some heavy hitters at RIM when it comes to software management. Teams still aren’t talking together properly, no one is making or can make critical decisions, all the while everyone is working crazy hours and still far behind. We are demotivated."
"There is a serious need to consolidate our focus to just a handful of projects. Period."
"We simply must stop shipping incomplete products that aren’t ready for the end user. It is hurting our brand tremendously."
"We urgently need to invest like we never have before in becoming developer friendly."
"25 million iPad users don’t care that it doesn’t have Flash or true multitasking, so why make that a focus in our campaigns? I’ll answer that for you: it’s because that’s all that differentiates our products and its lazy marketing."
"RIM has a lot of people who underperform but still stay in their roles. No one is accountable."
"Perhaps it is time to seriously consider a new, fresh thinking, experienced CEO."
Here's a thought: let's buy our Congress back from the special interests who now own it.
We all know special interests own the U.S. Congress and the Federal machinery of governance (i.e. regulatory capture). How much would it cost the American citizenry to buy back their Congress?
The goal in buying our Congress back from the banking cartel et al. would not be to compete with the special interests for congressional favors--it would be to elect a Congress which would eradicate their power and influence altogether.
A tall order, perhaps, but certainly not impossible, if we're willing to spend the money to not just match special interest contributions to campaigns but steamroll them.
A seat in the U.S. Senate is a pricey little lever of power, so we better be ready to spend $50 million per seat. Seats in smaller states will be less, but seats in the big states will cost more, but this is a pretty good average.
That's $5 billion to buy the Senate.
A seat in the House of Representatives is a lot cheaper to buy: $10 million is still considered a lot of money in this playground of power. But the special interests-- you know the usual suspects, the banks, Wall Street, Big Pharma, Big Insurance, Big Tobacco, the military-industrial complex, Big Ag, public unions, the educrat complex, trial lawyers, foreign governments, and so on--will fight tooth and nail to maintain their control of the Federal machinery, so we better double that to $20 million per seat. Let's see, $20 million times 435....
That's $8.7 billion to buy the House of Representatives.
It seems we're stuck with the corporate toadies on the Supreme Court, but the President could scotch the people's plans to regain control of their government, so we better buy the office of the President, too.
It seems Obama's purchase price was about $100 million, but the special interests will be desperate to have "their man or woman" with the veto power, so we better triple this to $300 million.
Add these up and it looks like we could buy back our government for the paltry sum of $14 billion. This is roughly .0037% of the Federal budget of $3.8 trillion, i.e. one-third of one percent. That is incredible leverage: $1 in campaign bribes controls $300 in annual spending--and a global empire.
Once we bought back our government, what would be the first items on the agenda? The first item would be to eradicate private bribes, a.k.a. private campaign contributions and lobbying.
If you allow $1 in campaign contributions, then you also allow $10 million. There is no way to finesse bribery, so it has to be cut and dried: no member of Congress can accept any gift or contribution of any nature, monetary or otherwise, and all campaigns will be publicly financed.
Is this system perfect? Of course not. There is no perfect system. But the point here is that a system which allows even a $1 private contribution to a campaign cannot be restricted; after the courts have their say, then all attempted limitations prove worthless.
So it's really all or nothing: either we put our government up for auction to the highest bribe, or we ban all gifts and private campaign financing and go with public financing of all elections in the nation.
That is the only practical and sane solution. Any proposal that seeks to finesse bribery will fail, just like all previous attempts at campaign finance reform.
Any member of Congress who accepts a gift, trinket, meal, cash in an envelope, etc. will lose their seat upon conviction of accepting the gift. Once again, you can't finesse bribery. It has to be all or nothing, and the only way to control bribery is to ban it outright.
As for lobbying, thanks to a Supreme Court dominated by corporate toadies, it will be difficult to ban lobbying outright. However, that doesn't mean Congress shouldn't try to force the toadies on the Supreme Court to make a distinction between a corporation with $100 billion in assets and billions to spend on bribes and a penniless citizen.
(Those two are not coincidental; in a nation run by and for corporations, the citizens all end up penniless unless they own or manage said corporations, or work for a Federal fiefdom which can stripmine the nation at will.)
Congress should pass a law banning paid-for lobbying. If a citizen wants to go to Congress and advocate a position, they are free to do so--but they can't accept money to do so. If they receive any compensation from any agency, enterprise, foreign government, other citizen, you name it, from any source, then they will be sentenced to 10 years of fulltime community service in Washington D.C., picking up trash, etc.
If the Supreme Court toadies strike down that law, then here's another approach:
Require all paid lobbyists to wear clown suits during their paid hours of work.
In addition, all lobbyists are required to wear three placards, each with text of at least two inches in height.
The first placard lists their total annual compensation as a lobbyist.
The second lists the special interest they work for.
The third lists the total amount of money that special interest spent the previous year on lobbying, regulatory capture, bribes to politicos and political parties, etc.
Every piece of paper issued by lobbyists must be stamped in large red letters, "This lobbying paid for by (special interest)", and every video, Powerpoint presentation, etc. must also be stamped with the same message on every frame.
The second item on the agenda is a one-page tax form. The form looks like the current 1040 form except it stops at line 22: TOTAL INCOME. A progressive flat tax is then calculated from that line. Once again, you cannot finesse bribery or exemptions, exclusions, loopholes and exceptions. Once you allow exemptions, exclusions, loopholes and exceptions, then you've opened Pandora's Box of gaming the system, and the financial Elites will soon plow holes in the tax code large enough to drive trucks through while John Q. Citizen will be paying full pop, just like now.
The entire charade of punishing and rewarding certain behaviors to pursue some policy has to end. Any deduction, such as interest on mortgages, ends up creating perverse incentives which can and will be gamed. It's really that simple: you cannot finesse bribery or exemptions, exclusions and loopholes, because these are two sides of the same coin.
The tremendous inequality in income, wealth, power and opportunity which is distorting and destroying our nation all flow from the inequalities enabled by bribery and tax avoidance. The only way to fix the nation is to eliminate bribery (campaign contributions and lobbying) entirely, and eliminate tax avoidance entirely by eliminating all deductions, exemptions, loopholes, etc. State total income from all sources everywhere on the planet, calculate tax, done.
When you think about how tiny $14 billion is compared to the $3.8 trillion Federal budget and the $14.5 trillion U.S. economy, it makes you want to weep; how cheaply we have sold our government, and how much we suffer under the whip of those who bought it for a pittance.
I’ve been using Google+ for a little more than a day now, and I think I’m just starting to grasp how this “Circles” concept works. The idea is to give users much more control over who they share with, and to allow for unbalanced relationships (where one person cares more about the other) in a way that mutual friending doesn’t allow.
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Derek Jeter is set to rejoin the Yankees on Monday in his return from a calf injury.
The shortstop said Thursday he will play minor league rehab games Saturday and Sunday at Double-A Trenton and be with the Yankees for a series in Cleveland.
"I feel good now," Jeter said after working out at the Yankees' minor league complex. "I'm ready to get out of here."
The team captain is six hits shy of 3,000. A return next week could put him on track to reach the milestone at Yankee Stadium during a four-game series against Tampa Bay from July 7-10. Then comes the All-Star break, and New York opens the second half with an eight-game road trip.
Jeter had been eligible to come off the 15-day disabled list Wednesday but wasn't ready. His bid to become the 28th major leaguer — and first with the Yankees — to get 3,000 hits has been on hold since he strained his right calf June 13 against the Indians.
Once upon a time ago the WWE intercontinental championship was one of the most prestigious titles in pro wrestling. Some of the greatest Feuds and rivalries in WWE history were for the intercontinental title. So today I celebrate the gold by looking back at the top ten intercontinental champions of all time.
My first thought after watching Ezekiel Jackson win the WWE intercontinental title was to do a top 10 worst intercontinental champions blog. Yet on second thought rather than rag on today's champion, I thought it would be a lot more fun to celebrate the lineage of this once great title.
Fortunately I grew up as a wrestling fan during the golden years of this title. This allows me to go back in time and dig deep for firsthand knowledge of these great champions. I based my list on appeal, number of great rivalries, length of championship reign, quality of matches, legacy, and drawing power as champion.
MobileBeat 2011 — VentureBeat’s 4th annual flagship conference on the future of mobile — will be held on July 12-13 at the Palace Hotel in San Francisco. MobileBeat is gathering the brightest minds in the industry to explore this year’s hottest macro trend: the arrival of true mobile computing now that 4G is here.
There’s no doubt that 4G is more than just a speed upgrade. It allows consumers to use the mobile web like their home broadband connection, which is spurring untold innovation from all major industry sectors. At MobileBeat 2011, we’ll dissect these multi-billion dollar sectors that are being transformed by the new, resource-rich mobile networks and platforms: payments, e-commerce, phone & device makers, cloud, web development, mobile gaming, and more. Learn firsthand what the major players from within these sectors are doing to leverage 4G.
Recently confirmed speakers:
Jason Spero, Head of Mobile, Google
Jeremy Stoppelman, CEO & Co-Founder, Yelp
Humphrey Chen, Executive Director New Product Technologies, Verizon Wireless
Stephanie Tilenius, VP Payment & Commerce, Google
Aaron Levie, CEO & Founder, Box.net
Matt Murphy, Partner, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers
David Williams, VP of Mobile Products, AT&T
Mihir Shah, President & CEO, Tapjoy
Omar Green, Director of Strategic Mobile Initiatives, Intuit
Krishna Subramanian, Co-Founder, Mobclix
plus many more!
You'll also get a peek at 20 of the hottest new mobile startups in the applications and infrastructure/services categories as they present live onstage at the MobileBeat 2011 Startup Competition.
Business Insider readers click here and use discount code "VB-BI" to get 20% off!
For a chance to win a free ticket or one of 3 tickets at 50% off, simply leave a comment below by July 5. We will pick winners at random from the commenters. In order for us to contact you, you'll need to login or register for a Business Insider account so we have your email address. (We will never sell your information to any third party.) Hint -- your name will appear in blue when you leave a comment if you have registered and logged-in correctly. Good luck!
But more importantly, it was the second straight year that Federer bowed out at the All-England Club without even reaching the semifinals. This coming after winning six Wimbledon's in the previous seven years.
So, at age 29, is Federer done?
If Federer doesn't win the US Open, a tournament he hasn't won since 2008, this would mark the first year that Federer didn't win a Grand Slam since 2002.
Below is a look at Federer's career in the Grand Slams, since 2003, the year he won his first Slam.
From 2006 through 2009, a span of 16 Grand Slams, Federer was in the finals of 15 of those tourneys, winning nine times. However, since winning the Australian Open last year, Federer has only made it to the finals of one Slam (2011 French Open). And three times he didn't even make it to the semis.
Is Rog on the downswing of his career? Without a doubt. Can he win another Slam? Sure. But at this point it might take an unexpected run in the twilight of a great career. Because there is no reason right now why Federer will ever be the favorite to win another Grand Slam.
A married pharmaceutical sales rep at Forest Labs (FRX) sent a mass email to her colleagues confessing she’d had an affair with another married sales rep, and that they’d used company money to book hotel rooms for their trysts.
The woman used the email to complain that Forest’s human resources department failed to protect her when, after she ended the affair, the man continued to contact her.
The email, needless to say, has caused a stir on CafePharma, the anonymous bulletin board that drug company employees use to trade gossip. It’s also a morality tale about just how badly wrong a workplace relationship can go. The woman claims her husband eventually beat up her lover, and her manager assigned both cheaters to work together in the same sales territory.
In two recent lawsuits, employees at Bayer (BAYRY), Endo Pharmaceuticals (ENDP), and Novartis (NVS) have used allegations sexual harassment to bolster gender discrimination claims. The drug business is uniquely primed to generate inappropriate workplace relationships because management tends to hire attractive people as salespersons, teams of reps are on the road unsupervised all day, they host dinners for their doctor clients at night, and management expects them to attend regular conferences and meetings at hotels.
While the Forest email does not appear to have generated any litigation, it does show how quickly unchecked office romances can blow up in a company’s face. (Just ask former Hewlett-Packard CEO Mark Hurd).
Saturday night special
The unnamed woman at Forest apparently sent the email late on a Saturday night before a “POA” meeting in early June that she, her ex-lover and many of their colleagues were expected to attend for a “launch.” POA usually stands for “plan of action” in drug industry lingo. It states:
This affair always took place during work, and lasted over a year. We took advantage of the company by performing unethical acts such as ** obtaining his own room at POA meetings so that we could continue our sexual affair. In addition, he would talk me into obtaining hotel rooms when I would have dinner programs in places such as ** and we would meet during work to continue our deception. Additionally, we would meet at his house while his wife was working to continue our sexual affair.
A message for Forest Labs requesting comment was not immediately returned. (You can read the full text of the email, which doesn’t name names, below.)
The reaction of her colleagues is interesting because of what it says about the reputation of Forest’s HR department. Commenting on CafePharma, most said they did not believe that HR would help the woman. Given her statement that she had misused company resources, many expected her to be fired (the email says she’s on leave).
A copy of the text of the email follows:
Subject: Harassment Importance: High
It has been a very difficult time in my professional and personal life. I am writing this note to speak the truth, clear my conscious and hopefully some action will finally come from Forest HR. I was off of work for several months and this was directly related to an affair that I had with a co-worker **. I was a Specialty Representative and he was a Sales Representative in my ** territory. I confess that ** and I both acted unethical and completely took advantage of our spouses and the freedom in which this job provides. This affair always took place during work, and lasted over a year. We took advantage of the company by performing unethical acts such as ** obtaining his own room at POA meetings so that we could continue our sexual affair. In addition, he would talk me into obtaining hotel rooms when I would have dinner programs in places such as ** and we would meet during work to continue our deception. Additionally, we would meet at his house while his wife was working to continue our sexual affair.
I finally realized how low and unethical ** was when his wife was diagnosed with cancer. She was going through treatment and he still wanted to continue the affair. I no longer wanted to be part of this as the guilt was overwhelming. I also felt that there was no limit to his deception as he lied so easily and frequently. This is also apparent with his unethical sales practices that I admit I became a part of at one time. At one point my husband became suspicious and ** called my husband to meet in person. ** deception had no boundary as he told my husband in person that there was nothing going on and even called his wife to talk to my husband. Once I confessed to my husband, my husband beat ** up and got in trouble with the law.
This affair was the worst decision in my life. This horrible mistake has cost me my family, house and possibly my career. I have tried to move on however, I was continued to be harassed by **. I have informed HR about the harassment and even stepped down from my Specialty spot so I no longer would have to be exposed to this situation. HR has totally dropped the ball in terms of protecting me. I have made several calls to HR to report this and nothing has been done. Now the company has realigned the territories put us under the same manager. This now puts us in direct contact and I will have to be part of his team during the upcoming launch meeting. I admitted that I have made horrible mistakes and that I was wrong for what I did. But once I said no and no longer want to be involved with him that should be it. I should no longer have to be exposed to further advances and comments. I believe that the company has no followed through on its promise to protect me even though I have done my part and stepped down.
In the week ending June 25, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 428,000, a decrease of 1,000 from the previous week's unrevised figure of 429,000. The 4-week moving average was 426,750, an increase of 500 from the previous week's unrevised average of 426,250.
The recovery is now 2 full years old. Yet, the 4-week moving average of weekly claims remains an elevated 426,750.
4-Week Moving Average of Weekly Claims
The 4-week moving average of weekly unemployment claims is at or above recession levels.
Historically, fat finger trades -- where a trader presses the wrong key or adds a zero too many on an electronic trading system -- were considered exclusive to equities markets. Not anymore. They are now stretching their piggy little digits across into other asset classes.
Most recently, on June 8, an alleged fat finger wiped eight percent off of natural gas prices on NYMEX in an after-hours trade from Asia. The natural gas market recovered almost immediately, but not before some savvy traders saw what had happened and jumped in to buy and profit from the mistake, according to Reuters. The same thing happened during the May 6, 2010, equities flash crash, although it was the smarter machines with clever algorithms that did most of the jumping in, rather than human beings.
Fat fingers, abusive or manipulative trading and mini flash crashes, are increasing as high frequency trading penetrates alternative asset classes, such as energy and commodities, at a rapid pace. The Reuters article said that about a third of energy futures volume is now done by computers, and HFT accounts for half of that. Issues with high-speed algorithmic trading are growing concurrently.
Consider that on May 5 the crude oil market saw its second largest ever daily drop when sell-stops were triggered again and again by trading algorithms. This time there was no fat finger, and no Greek-tragedy style news such as that of May 6th, 2010. The $13 drop in the price of Brent was almost unprecedented, yet it made few headlines. Oil prices dropping are like equities prices rising - good news for most people.
But good news or not, the fall was exacerbated by several machines which had similar sell-stops programmed in. If a machine hits a sell-stop and the market plummets, it will likely encounter more sell-stops and push the market further down. This could cost investors a serious amount of money. If algorithms are not programmed to sniff out when they should stop selling, perhaps even to jump back in to buy, then money will be left on the table.
On May 5, human traders with charts could have predicted the fall, and some did -- just as they did during the later natural gas drop. There is nothing illegal about taking advantage of a sell-off, whether it is event-led or whether it is human or machine-created. There are concerns over whether human beings could trigger the sell-off intentionally, however. That is the domain of the already-overburdened regulators. But the velocity of the drop and the ungainly actions of the trading algorithms are my concern here.
As HFT-style algorithms migrate to asset classes with higher volatility, and oil is certainly a prime candidate, the margin for error increases. Fat fingers, market abuse or manipulative trading will trigger increasingly quick market moves. Many will happen before a human being can say "what the...?" and capitalize on them.
As we saw on the day of the flash crash, many algorithms sensed there was something wrong and pulled out of the market -- which decimated liquidity. While some of their owners were scratching their heads in puzzlement, some of the more clever algorithms recognized a buying opportunity. A report by four economists, "The Flash Crash: The Impact of High Frequency Trading on an Electronic Market," said that the buying activity of so-called "opportunistic" traders on May 6, 2010, could have translated into "substantial profits."
In markets that are relatively new to HFT, such as energy and commodities, issues with mini flash crashes, fat fingers and market abuse are just beginning. High frequency trading is still fraught with obstacles and issues, some of which cannot be regulated away. But out of some of these threats can arise opportunities for machines and algorithms that are flexible enough to face down and profit from the adversity.
Marissa Campise, the 32-year-old venture capitalist that Venrock poached from Greycroft, spoke with Bloomberg last night.
She told them why she doesn't think we're in a bubble, what kind of startups are walking through Venrock's doors, and how her life as a single mother has shaped her investment decisions.
Earlier this month, Paul Pabst of The Dan Patrick Show tracked down the Heisman Trophy that Reggie Bush had yet to return to the Heisman Trust. It was sitting in storage at the San Diego Hall of Champions, where Bush’s mother and stepfather, Denise and Lamar Griffin “loaned” it in March.
Bush had his Heisman Trophy stripped in September of 2010 after the NCAA determined that he was ineligible during his trophy-winning 2005 season. At the time, Bush agreed to forfeit the trophy.
“[A] source said Bush has decided he will not return the Heisman Trophy to the Heisman Trophy Trust,” Brooks writes. “I was told Bush and the Griffins ‘loaned’ the trophy to the San Diego Hall of Champions to get it off their hands for the time being, treating the local museum as a safe deposit box of sorts. When Bush’s disgraced reputation eventually fades from everyday life, ... the Griffins will retake personal possession of the sacred bronze object to do with it what they please.”
On the one hand, there’s something endearing about the Bush family openly refusing to let the NCAA and the Heisman Trust revise the history of the sport.
But on the other hand, Bush and his family have been wreaking havoc ever since they stepped foot on USC’s campus nearly a decade ago. They were at the center of an improper benefits scandal that ultimately brought severe NCAA sanctions to the school. And they obviously still think they’re above the law.
Ultimately, you’ve got to think the trophy will find its way back to the Heisman Trust. But Bush and the Griffins won’t go quietly.
On closer inspection that statement doesn’t really make sense. But still, you know you’re in some PR trouble when noted nice-guy Dwight Howard starts ripping you.
Howard been hitting Twitter pretty hard this offseason.
A small army of multitouch tablet computers has been launched this year to take on Apple's iPad, which has managed to sell 25 million units and attract 90,000 tablet-specific apps in just about 15 months, and is already in its second generation, the iPad 2. So far, none of these contenders has gained any significant traction with consumers or app developers.
Now, the world's largest PC maker, Hewlett-Packard, is entering the fray. On Friday, it will start selling the TouchPad, a 10-inch tablet with a slick, distinctive software interface. The TouchPad starts at $500, the same entry price as the iPad 2.
This morning on Morning Joe Mark Halperin, under the impression Morning Joe was on a 7 second delay, said he thought President Obama was a 'dick' in his press conference yesterday.
He quickly apologized once it became clear the remark had aired, ad did the entire Morning Joe crew.
Not enough.
MSNBC has since suspended Halperin. Their statement:
"Mark Halperin's comments this morning were completely inappropriate and unacceptable. We apologize to the President, The White House and all of our viewers."
Remember that kinky sex party that German insurance company Munich Re hosted for some of its workers back in 2007?
As a reminder, the firm invited 100 of its top performers to enjoy 20 pre-paid prostitutes at a party in Budapest, Hungary.
Not surprisingly, the details of the story -- one factoid, for example, was that prostitutes wore color-coded wristbands to denote who was available for sex favors -- were mortifyingly embarrassing for the insurer.
So Munich Re just "took out full-page advertisements in national newspapers today to apologize for laying on prostitutes for its top salesmen," according to the Herald Sun, via Dealbreaker.
The advertisement said:
When people make mistakes they say sorry. When firms make mistakes they do something about it. That's why we are doing both.
We are working intensively on clearing up these allegations. We are taking far-reaching measures to make sure that mistakes like this don't happen again.
We're trying to get a photo of the ads -- so if you have the paper in hand, take a snap and email to us.
No one expects Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke to pull a rabbit out of his hat after quantitative easing ends today, but he may still have a few tricks up his sleeve if the economic picture fails to improve.
For now, the Fed is set to sit tight.
Along with investors, Bernanke is looking for a silver lining in economic data.
If this summer's numbers turn bleaker, then Bernanke's team will be forced to go back to the drawing board, that is, if it hasn't already done so. Bears will of course say, "I told you so."
Traditionally, the central bank has three tools for monetary policy—buying and selling treasuries in the open market, setting the discount rate and dictating reserve requirements—all of them blunt at best.
We stretched our imaginations to find the leftovers in Bernanke's toolbox. Not surprisingly, the following list comes with big caveats from analysts. And don't forget, Bernanke has his own warning too: "All of these things are somewhat untested."
1. Cut the interest rate on excess reserves
The current rate that the central bank pays banks holding more deposits than required is 0.25%, about the rate at which banks lend to each other. If the Fed lowers the rate on excess reserves, the mechanics say that banks should loan out more, both to each other and to the public.
Can this work?
"It should," says Steve Blitz, economist at ITG Investment Research.
"Looks promising," says Peter Cardillo, chief market economist at Avalon Partners.
However, just because banks might be more willing to supply money, lenders won't necessarily jump at the opportunity to borrow. The Fed can essentially toy with the "supply side," explains Blitz, but if a corporate America doesn't want the extra cash (and corporations do have a lot of cash sitting on their balance sheets already), then forcing more liquidity is pretty useless.
2. Buy more securities and structure them differently
Otherwise known as a third round of quantitative easing in disguise. The Fed has already said it will keep buying up long-term Treasuries in the months to come. Total purchases will likely add up to at least $300 billion. Investing in corporate bonds is still an option on the table. Albeit we were in quite different times during the housing bubble when the central bank dumped $1.25 trillion in mortgage-backed securities, we've learned that the Fed is ready to move on new methods when necessary.
The verdict from analysts?
"It's clear that a couple of reserve members have already said enough is enough," says Robert Johnson, director of economic analysis at Morningstar, who doesn't think we'll see a QE3.
"Unlikely," says Blitz. "We've been down this road with QE2... Bernanke already stated that we are in a different position than we were in a year ago, given that unemployment is better and deflation risk is smaller."
"Buying different types of securities might capture people's attention because it's bizarre and new," says James Paulsen, chief investment strategist at Wells Capital Management. However, Paulsen says that because there is so much liquidity already, pumping in more is akin to dumping a bucket of water into the sea.
3. Give guidance on the Fed's balance sheet
The Fed could be more transparent in its plans for structuring the $3 trillion-worth of securities currently on its balance sheet. That might mean more clarity in the breakdown of long verses short term securities. This is similar to tool #2 in which the Fed would formally announce which securities it plans to buy.
4. Set an inflation target
Targeting a low inflation rate should help anchor expectation. Americans might feel more confident about spending and businesses might feel more willing to invest. However, the Fed might hit a roadblock in determining which measure of inflation to target. Energy and food inflation hit consumers the hardest, but some of the inflation comes from factors abroad rather than domestic.
The analysts were overwhelming negative on this one. Bernanke's answer in his last speech was lukewarm (it's "worth considering").
5. Define what the Fed means by "extended period"
Reporters at the last Federal Open Market Committee meeting pushed Bernanke to pinpoint exactly how long the Fed intends to keep the federal funds rate near zero. It seems unlikely that Bernanke will hash out the language here further given that he already said the timeline depends on how the economy, inflation and unemployment evolve. "...The reason we use terms like 'extended period' is not be intentionally opaque," said Bernanke. "The reason is that we don't know exactly how long."
Bernanke appeased the public somewhat by revealing the Fed would not take action for at least the next two or three FOMC meetings.
Analysts seem to sympathize with Bernanke: "The Fed wants to leave itself some leeway and not put itself in a box," said Morningstar's Robert Johnson. After all, "they don't want people to say, you're a liar and a cheat."
6. Take a bold stance
We all know the Fed is in a pickle. It can try to fiddle with the fundamentals, but if confidence in America's economy doesn't budge, a downturn becomes a self-fulfilling prophesy.
Wells Capital's James Paulsen proposes a raise in the interest rate to 50 basis points.
The Fed's actions are hurting the American psyche, he explains. Raising the interest rate would signal to the markets "hey, we want you to know that the economy is sustaining in its recovery."
Mark Dahir, a former vice president at Omaha State Bank, got his 7th DUI while driving under the influence of meth on February 15th this year, according to police tests.
Now, after he crashed head on into Steven Murray's car and put him in a wheelchair with a dislocated hip, broken pelvis and broken ankle, Murray and his lawyer are planning to appeal the 2-3 year prison sentence the judge handed Dahir. The max he could get for the crime is 5 years.
"What do you have to do to get someone 5 years?" asks Murray. "That's as bad as it gets besides killing someone."
Dahir's attorney, Steve Lefler, disagrees. He spoke in court this week about how Dahir was the victim of a “public lynching," and a thirst to see the “little rich kid get his due,” according to Omaha World Herald. 36-year old Dahir is no longer with Omaha State Bank, but it's owned by his family. He was also critically injured in the crash, according to KETV 7.
But to be fair, Dahir will end up spending more than his recent sentence in jail. When he crashed, Dahir was out on bond from a separate DUI charge from August, his sixth DUI. He got 180 days in jail and his license was revoked for 15 years for that charge, according to KETV 7.
Recently, we've received several inquiries from peoplestruggling with how to definetheir purpose. They explain thatdespite their strong desire and the time they've spent thinking about it, they find themselves still struggling. Ironically, it is often when we are not thinking that the deeper connections to the best parts of ourselves appear unbidden.
The idea behind Pic3D film is as magical-sounding as it is straightforward.
Apply it to a screen of your choosing, and in conjunction with a piece of software to re-render the image, you have an instant glasses-free 3D display.
It works by using lenticular lens technology, and Wikipedia tells us that a lenticular lens is "an array of magnifying lenses, designed so that when viewed from slightly different angles, different images are magnified."
We'll remain skeptical until we see it in person, but until then, check out the demo video below:
Prince Harry and his new girlfriend are related, The Telegraph reports.
The British paper reports that new beau Florence Brudenell-Bruce, a lingerie model, is the Prince's cousin, 8 times removed:
Miss Brudenell-Bruce is a descendant of the seventh Earl of Cardigan, Lieutenant General James Thomas Brudenell, who famously led the Charge of the Light Brigade against the Russians during the Crimean War.
Her connection to the Royal family comes through Sir Edward Walpole, the son of Britain's first prime minister Sir Robert Walpole. Sir Edward, who died in 1784, had a daughter, Maria, who married into the Royal family.
Three students from a Sarasota high school are dead after being hypnotized by their school principal (via Raw Story).
Two of the students committed suicide and a third died in a car crash this spring, shortly after they were hypnotized by Principal George Kenny, according to an ABC News report.
Kenny had reportedly hypnotized more than 75 students, parents and teachers in an effort to motivate them to focus on school and athletics. Sarasota County School District official repeatedly warned him to stop, but he ignored the warnings, according to the report.
Kenny has since been reassigned to an administrative position.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) announced Thursday morning that the Senate will remain in session next week, canceling a planned vacation to work on a deal to lower the deficit and raise the debt ceiling.
The decision comes one day after President Barack Obama publicly chastised Congress for taking too many vacations instead of negotiating an agreement to raise the $14.3 trillion debt limit before the government defaults on August 2.
"They're in one week, they're out one week," Obama said during a nationally televised press conference yesterday. "And then they're saying, Obama has got to step in. You need to be here. ’ve been here. I’ve been doing Afghanistan and bin Laden and the Greek crisis. You stay here. Let’s get it done."
Republican Speaker of the House John Boehner had a different response for the President, saying he had been absent from negotiations to reach a deficit reduction agreement to go along with the debt ceiling hike.
"His administration has been burying our kids and grandkids in new debt and offered no plan to rein in spending," Boehner said yesterday. "The President has been AWOL from that debate."
Democrats and Republicans are preparing for a contentious fight over tax increases next month — Obama insists any deal to raise the debt ceiling must include the elimination of tax breaks and subsidies, while Republicans says they will not agree to any revenue increases.
"The Mafia is the longest-running corporation in history. It thrives along with other companies during prosperous times and flourishes even more in periods of economic decline. Bear or bull makes no difference to the Mafia."
Former Gambino associate Louis Ferrante offers unique wisdom and advice in Mob Rules: What The Mafia Can Teach The Legitimate Businessman. Click here to buy the book.
We've picked out some of our favorite maxims.
"Why are the Mobsters in the Newspapers So Old? Love What you Do and you'll Never Work a Day in Your Life"
He has a point. You see a lot of old mobsters around, and not just at the top. These guys love what they do, every day, and they stay in the life because they love it. They do what they love and, well, you know the rest.
Ferrante writes:
"'The thing you've got to understand about Jimmy [Burke] is that he loved to steal. He ate and breathed it. I think if you ever offered Jimmy a billion dollars not to steal, he'd turn you down and then try to figure out how to steal it from you. It was the only thing he enjoyed. It kept him alive." - Henry Hill, quoted in Nicholas Pileggi's Wiseguy
Few people are fortunate enough to connect what they love with what they do. Don't settle and you'll be one of them.'
"Hide Your Gun and Help the Old Man Across the Street: Family Values"
The mob teaches at an early age to respect boundaries, hierarchies, age, and gender. Big earners get more latitude but it isn't carte blanche. Is that your office culture?
Ferrante writes:
"In the mob, the men who embrace the organization's values are those who go on to become the biggest earners. Every company should have a set of values, and every employee should share those values. This common ground will be reflected in its image and business practices."
"The Mob Doesn't Take Notes: Sharpen Your Memory"
Call girls and little black books, email trails that lead to indictments, and wire-tapped conversations prosecutors dare only dream of. If you don't need notes, you are more powerful for it. And if always you email, text, and speak as if every word you speak, type, or transmit were going to land on the front page of the Times, you will do yourself an enormous favor.
Ferrante writes:
"Joe Massino, former boss of the Bonanno family, ran a billion-dollar organization without pen, paper, or laptop - nothing. He knew every man in his army of soldiers, and every law enforcement agent who ever tailed him. If an agent questioned Massino and returned to question him years later, Massino remembered that agent's name and asked when the agent had switched cars, mentioning the make and model of the old car, including the license plate number."
The South Carolina's state Legislature voted last night to override Republican Gov. Nikki Haley's veto of state funding for the Republican presidential primary.
The vote ensures that the state's GOP presidential primary will preserve its important first-in-the-South status. The State reports that Senate Democrats have asked Republicans to turn the budget provision into permanent law so that it applies to future presidential primaries.
The State Election Commission has about $680,000 on hand to help fund next year's primary. The commission projects the primary will cost about $1.5 million.
In addition to restoring funding for next year's primary, South Carolina's Republican-controlled Legislature overrode 26 of Haley's 35 budget vetoes. The votes restored all but $507,967 of the $213 million in spending cuts Haley had sought with her vetoes.
Original Post, June 28:
South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley killed funding for the state's first-in-the-South 2012 presidential primary with a budget veto today, but promised to help the state Republican party raise money for the election, according to The State.
Haley said that the primaries don't merit taxpayer funding because they are not an essential government function. Instead, she said, state political parties should pick up the tab.
"We are going to have the best South Carolina presidential primary we have ever had," Haley told the AP. "And we're going to do it in the way that it was intended to be — which is with private funds where each party goes and raises the money that they're supposed to raise."
The South Carolina Election Commission estimates that the 2012 Republican primary will cost $1.5 million. The state GOP chairman said Monday that the party will raise the money to put on the closely-watched nominating contest.
According to Fox News, that could mean that the party goes back to running the primary with paper ballots and volunteers, which was how the South Carolina primary was conducted until the parties won state funding in 2008 and turned over operations to the state election commission.
WIMBLEDON, England (AP) — Petra Kvitova reached her first Grand Slam final by defeating Victoria Azarenka 6-1, 3-6, 6-2 at Wimbledon on Thursday.
Last year's semifinalist from the Czech Republic went one stage further, using her powerful first serve and more aggressive approach to overcome the fourth-seeded Azarenka on Centre Court.
After the left-handed Kvitova dominated the first set, Azarenka turned the tables in the second when she surged into a 3-0 lead and held onto the advantage to close out the set.
The 21-year-old Kvitova broke early in the decider and won the semifinal on her second match point when Azarenka double-faulted.
Warren's headline read: “BREAKING! Jerome Corsi’s Birther Book Pulled From Shelves!” Bercovici notes the post followed up the article with an additional statement, saying:
"We committed satire this morning to point out the problems with selling and marketing a book that has had its core premise and reason to exist gutted by the news cycle, several weeks in advance of publication. Are its author and publisher chastened? Well, no. They double down, and accuse the President of the United States of perpetrating a fraud on the world by having released a forged birth certificate. Not because this claim is in any way based on reality, but to hold their terribly gullible audience captive to their lies, and to sell books. This is despicable, and deserves only ridicule."
Farah and Corsi claim the article and update interfered with their ability to sell copies of the book various retailers, while exposing them to “extreme ridicule in the community where they reside and where their works are viewed and read.”
We have not seen the complaint. The blog post spoke for itself. It was satire, an age-old and completely legitimate form of expression. Additionally, the piece was tagged as ‘humor,’ as are all of our frequent satire posts on Esquire’s Politics Blog. That was not lost on our observant readers.
Here's a thought: let's buy our Congress back from the special interests who now own it.
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Derek Jeter is set to rejoin the Yankees on Monday in his return from a calf injury.
MobileBeat 2011
someone 5 years?" 
a thirst to see the “little rich kid get his due,” according to 
"The Mafia is the longest-running corporation in history. It thrives along with other companies during prosperous times and flourishes even more in periods of economic decline. Bear or bull makes no difference to the Mafia."
to buy the book.
Update:
WIMBLEDON, England (AP) — Petra Kvitova reached her first Grand Slam final by defeating Victoria Azarenka 6-1, 3-6, 6-2 at Wimbledon on Thursday.
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