October 2009
25 posts
On The Road Again
The hip is holding up well as I’m off on my first travels for 2.5 months. First to Philly for a few days and then off to Europe for 2-3 weeks. Travels sooth the restless soul and is giving me great new ideas and connections.
PS. Learned that Dopplr.com has been sold to Nokia for a steal and am looking fwd to new cool features. The team behind Dopplr.com is just fantastic. I’ve never...
September 2009
38 posts
New Signs Emerge That Recovery Will Be Shaky →
The economic cheerleaders have been working overtime to instill faith and confidence in the economic recovery. Waiving new pom-poms can only do so much to drive engagement. There needs to be underlying strength and growth to create real economic recovery.
Sales of previously owned homes fell in August after a few months of growth. This is natural and called seasonality. Once we enter Q409...
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WatchOne of the funniest episodes I’ve ever watched of this show!
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Watch
My 20 Latest Blog Posts Turned Into Podcasts →
Really hilarious text to speech conversion. Sounds okay though.
“- When I was a kid, it was the station wagon. When I had children, it was the...”
– From Families ‘cross over’ to the smaller side of SUVs.
Next step will be to prioritize what you bring on your road trips. How come that a basic sedan worked well during the 70s and 80s but not in the 00s? It’s not like people are having more kids? And everyone cannot be obese -...
California Jobless Rate Hits New High At 12.2% →
This is the U-3 number so U-6 will probably be closer to 20%. Majority most likely old world jobs with people living in suburbs… more pressure on real estate prices. We just have to hope that Obama doesn’t sign the $8K-$15K tax deduction for first time buyers: devastating to them as prices will keep going down and to the federal deficit. I’d rather not see my tax money being used...
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The Truth Will Set You Free
Ivan Seidenberg’s admission to having seen the light comes late amid his position in the industry. Many times I wonder about the quality of the oxygen in the upper echelons. Isn’t this exactly what he is handsomely paid for to figure out.
The number of landlines has been in decline since 2001 and it’s estimated that the last landline will be disconnected in 2025. The first step...
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“As a country, we must demand that our politicians stop serving those whose...”
– Americans have been taken hostage, by Dylan Ratigan
The Hule Fall Linup →
Excited about the new seasons of Fringe, Bones and House.
Why are we too cheap to eat well?
We live in a culture that admires luxury but wants cheap food. Why is that? Food is the very base of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, without food we’ll die. That’s not the case with any other human need.
So why do we refuse to spend money on food but happily fork out thousands of dollars every month on housing, cars and health insurance? We are okay with paying real estate tax,...
TV Viewers Turn to Internet for Fresh Content with... →
Hulu had 38MM unique users in July 2009 that generated 457MM video views - an all-time high.
“The only reason a great many American families don’t own an elephant is that...”
– From Mad Magazine - very funny (I used to read Mad as a a young teen…)
Excellent Negotiation
Salesman: I wanted to touch base with you regarding the G500 you were interested in.
Weintraub: I'm glad you called because we were just about to make a decision on another car. We haven't made a move yet because the prices you guys gave us were higher than my customer wants to spend.
Salesman: Well, what prices would be fair for you? I'm trying to work something out here.
Weintraub: You are listing a 29,000-mile, 2005, certified [car] for $49K and change, correct? Well, my client wanted the price to be closer to $44-$45K. I understand if you guys want to flip this car and make money, but once again, it's not the right car for him based on those prices.
Salesman: So let me ask you this, Oren. I know you're a businessman, and we're both real busy. So if I were to offer you the car at $47,900, would that work?
Weintraub: I would say that if you can do $44K on the car, we would probably have a deal. But I don't want to present it to him unless it's a real offer.
Salesman: OK. I'll see if I can make that deal happen. One more question: Are you in the market for any other vehicles at this time?
Weintraub: What you do right now could lead to more business for you. If we find the people we're dealing with to be professional and tenacious about price, we'll send you more business.
Salesman: I'll call you right back.
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Is This The Beginning of The New Living? →
Upgrading and downsizing. Our living space is taking the biggest chunk out of our disposable income. Everything from minimal to foreclosure. Is the McMansion dead?
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What Makes A Perfect Market?
We should all know by now that there are no perfectly rational markets. The efficient market theory was beautifully shot down by Paul Krugman in his excellent New York Times article “How did economists get it so wrong?” and the lack of accounting of financial flows in Dick Bezemers Financial Times article “Why some economists could see this crisis coming”.
The study of...
Are we born to believe in Gods?
I agree that mythology is a very strong part of our culture; be that organized religion, strong interest in Lord of the Rings or pagan rituals:
“From childhood, humans form enduring and important social relationships with fictional characters, imaginary friends, deceased relatives, unseen heroes and fantasised mates.
“It is a small step from this to conceptualising spirits, dead ancestors and...
“Whatever remains after one has removed all other possibilities, however...”
– Sherlock Holmes
“There is always an easy solution to every human problem — neat, plausible and...”
– H. L. Mencken
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How Did Economists Get It So Wrong? →
A fantastic article by Paul Krugman. A must read for anyone with an interest in economics.
Excerpt:
Take, for example, the precipitous rise and fall of housing prices. Some economists, notably Robert Shiller, did identify the bubble and warn of painful consequences if it were to burst. Yet key policy makers failed to see the obvious. In 2004, Alan Greenspan dismissed talk of a housing bubble: “a...
Does History Repeat Itself?
Let’s assume that human history is non-linear and cyclical; that it’s divided into seasons or social eras that repeat over and over again throughout history. That’s what William Strauss and Neil Howe argues in their 1996 book The Fourth Turning which I found via John Mauldin’s (an excellent independent financial thinker) Investor Insight.
They have studied history and...
“Isn’t it odd that we’re willing to spend $300,000 to buy an accredited but...”
– Seth Godin (via tmblg)
WatchSocial mood produce social events? Very interesting video: History’s Hidden Engine. Note the correlation between music and stock markets. It’s the type of music that matters and not the most popular as I argued in a previous post.
WatchOnce in a while I hear people talk about Barack Obama being a *socialist* with a mission to turn the US into USSR. Socialism is an economic theory for which the public - through the government - owns and operates access and allocation to production resources. Hmm, don’t think so.
The only thing the current government can be accused of is continuing Bush’s socialism for the rich:...
San Francisco the 7th Happiest City in the World →
What 2 Do When Cool Goes Mainstream
Forrester Research have found early adoption is now a mainstream pleasure:
According to the study, which surveyed 53,668 households in the United States and Canada by mail, half of all American adults are gamers. Sixty-three percent of American households have a broadband Internet connection. Three-quarters of American households have cellphones and PCs. And nearly 10 million American households,...
WatchEdmunds.com live up to their mission to help people by saying that “now is not a good time to buy a car”. This is how comparison, consumer and community sites can drive out price excess and create a more efficient economy that is benefiting the consumer, not just the producer.
"Komma Överens"
“Att komma överens” means to agree or finding a common ground in Swedish and it’s the secret to the esoteric Nordic culture. It’s very important to agree with people in your close vicinity or at least avoid conflicts. The goal is hardly ever to reach the most cost-effective or productive solution but a solution that everyone can agree on. It’s a very consensus...
Are Recessions Producing Better Music Than...
This is an old thought of mine from the 90s when grunge exploded in the midst of wars and recessions: Are recessions the catalyst for more artistic and creative output than market expansions? If so, why?
I searched for “the top albums of all times” on Google and found Rolling Stone’s “The RS 500 Greatest Albums of All Time”. Picking the top twenty and matching them...
Lifestyle Design: The Key to an Awesome Life
If I’d one goal in life, it has always been to manage my choice of lifestyle. I grew up during the collectivistic 70s (great music) and egomaniacal 80s (bad music) when this was more a dream than reality for the vast majority of people. Choice was a political and marketing slogan more than anything else. Truly choosing what to do, where to live and how to live was an utopia (and still is for...