RSSMore Bad News From Hooverville
Looks like the worst growing economy is getting worse better. U.S. jobless claims fall to 334,000.
The Federal Reserve had been focused on the weak labor market for much of the past four years. But recent comments from Fed officials indicate that they are satisfied with the improvements in job growth and are now focused primarily on inflationary signals.
The full report from the Department of Labor can be found here.
Also reported by AP:
The big decrease of 19,000 was the first decline after two consecutive weekly increases and it was the largest drop since a decrease of 27,000 the week of Feb. 5.
But not to go without casting a negative conclusion to good economic news, AP also saw fit to rain on positive news by concluding with the following:
The below-par jobs gain was blamed in part on rising energy costs that made businesses more cautious about hiring new workers.
However, analysts still remain confident that the economy will grow at a sufficiently robust pace this year to create more than 2 million jobs. In 2004, the economy created 2.17 million new jobs, a significant improvement after two years of job losses and only a small jobs gain in 2003.
I just never remember them stating such things when similar numbers existed in the past administration. Hmmm.
The end of the CD
For those of you who like music, Mark Cuban over at BlogMaverick has an amazing post on the evolution of the music industry. If you enjoy music, the next stop for you is to get an ipod like device.
Then it occured to me, that I haven’t used my CD Player, portable or at home, in a long, long time. That I rarely, if ever see anyone walking around with a portable CD player anymore. They have all been replaced by MP3 players. If everyone is switching to MP3 players, whether they are Ipods, in phones, in PDAs, in cars, whatever, then that means that everyone is going to have to go through a multistep process in order to get the music from where or how they buy it, to the place they want it.
That’s not good for the people selling music. Particularly retail stores. Think about it. Apple has done such a great job of selling us on why we should store our musically digitally, that every one is either doing it, or on their way to doing it. Which means that 90 pct or more of music being sold is currently being sold on a physical format that the segment of the music buying public that spends the most amount of money on music doesn’t want. They are being sold CDs. They want to listen to their music from hard drives or flash drives. That’s a problem.
…
For less than 10k dollars, it would be EASY to put together a multi-terrabyte hard drive based multi-user kiosk that pretty much holds every song ever published. A screen to enter credit card information, swipe a debit card, enter a member number or call for assistance to handle a cash transaction, a couple USB ports, and wireless connection support to transfer the music, and you are in business. Check the music I want. From kiosk hard drive to my MP3 player at speeds that could easily do 400mbs. That beats the hell out of 250k if I’m lucky real throughput at home. It will be like going to the store to get digital prints from the camera is. Self Service, fast and easy
Loss leaders like Walmart and Best Buy can cut their music square footage by 90 pct and sell more music at lower prices. Their inventory carrying costs will go to zero. If someone wants the CD, they can go home and burn it after docking their MP3 player to their PC. Believe or not, the labels will make more money this way because they will make these big boys committ to minimum guarantees at levels they are at now, and all that money after the artist cut, will go to the bottomline.
We have been listening to music all week while we have been on vacation. It has all been via mp3. Read the rest of thepost. He makes great sense and knows the industry very well.
ACLU Is Now in the T-Shirt Business
So the ACLU thinks that this is a violation of the U.S. Constitution’s guarantees of free speech.
I wonder if the would feel the same way if the T-Shirt read, I support God?
Clinton Wishes His Legacy Was Like the Pope
You ever get that feeling that Clinton has become like that uncle at family functions that everyone just tries to avoid as everything that he says and does is just too damn embarrassing?
Clinton en route to Rome aboard Air Force One told reporters about the Pope, “He’s like all of us – he may have a mixed legacy.” I knew there was a reason why I had wished GWB had gone with my choices for his invited guests to the Pope’s funeral. What is wrong with Clinton? He had an issue with his heart, not his brain. The inappropriateness of his answer, “He’s like all of us,” was only furthered by his joking of “turkey burgers. There is a time and a place for certain behavior. Oh and by the way President Clinton, the Pope is nothing like you.
The idea that Clinton with all his personal scandals would ever put himself in the same light as Pope John Paul II is something that would only cause lighting to strike near oneself. I hate to break it to you Bill, but Pope John Paul II actually took part in and had a major role in the end of Communism. What was it on your slate that was comparable? The motor-voter bill?
One Man’s Middle Name is Another Man’s Marketing Bonanza (aka Thank you Ebay)
It seems one can sell most anything these days on EBAY. Was it advertising space on a bald man’s head again? Nope. Today US software engineer Matthew Jean Rouse sold his middle name.
For the price of $8000.00 a company, LucaHost.com, that hosts web sites purchased the right to rename Mr. Rouse’s middle name. So do you think his new name will be Matthew LucaHost.com Rouse? It probably won’t matter at this point whether they call him SPIKE. The AP story has been unleashed on to the INTERNET. In what be one of the most foolish comments I have heard in some time …
“I guess I’m just surprised that this would generate that much interest,” Mr Rouse told AP news agency.
I guess I am betting that the same was never thought by the owner of the web hosting company who purchased the name change. What do you think? What do you think this type of advertising would cost?
Man sells middle name for $8,000 on eBay (Sun Sentinel)
Man Sells Middle Name Online (Louisville Channel.com)
Man auctioning middle name on eBay (CNN)
Matthew Sells The Middle (CBS)
US man sells middle name on eBay (BBC)
LETS JUST SAY IT WAS AN AP STORY, ENOUGH SAID.
Matthew young man, you didn’t even come close to what you should have charged.
Submitted to Wizbang’s, The 10 Spot.
