Category: Business

  • How Intel Killed AMD

    Intel paid PC manufacturers out of its own pocket for years to not buy AMD’s chips.

  • How can the derivatives market be worth more than the world's total financial assets?

    From Slate: Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin issued a call on Tuesday for regulation of the “over the counter” derivatives market, which has an estimated size of about $596 trillion. By contrast, the value of the world’s financial assetsincluding all stock, bonds, and bank depositswas pegged at $167 trillion last year by McKinsey. How can the […]

  • Shining Shithole on the Hill

    The good thing about being an INFJ is you see patterns in everything all the time but stay quiet and introverted enough that you pack down your suspicions labeled as paranoia. I don’t blog much lately because everything I’m feeling is so hopeless. I guess that is a bit extreme. Things locally are wonderful. Ron […]

  • Bank of England Bailout Kept Secret Forever

    £50 billion later: Requests under the Freedom of Information Act are to be denied. Details will be kept secret even after 30 years – the period after which all but the most sensitive state documents are released. Any Bank of England employee leaking the names of institutions involved will face court action for breach of […]

  • Americans Don't Think It'll Get Better

    via Krugman in the New York Times: The Survey Research Center of the University of Michigan has been tracking American economic perceptions since the 1950s. On Friday the center released its latest estimate of the consumer sentiment index — and it was a stunner. Americans are more pessimistic about their situation than they have been […]

  • Numerous Countries Drop Dollar as Reserve Currency

    From Reddit: In the past couple of years, the following countries have stopped using the dollar as their reserve currency or have dropped their currency’s peg against the dollar: China, Japan, Kuwait, Syria, Iran, Libya, Russia, Malaysia, Brazil, Argentina, Ecuador, Switzerland, Norway and some other Scandinavian countries, Some Balkan countries, Many East European currencies.

  • Porn and Casinos, Bullets and Prisons

    I was talking with a trusted colleague last night on Skype and we were batting back and forth what we thought would be the effect of the recession on the online business scene. I’m kind of a pessimist. Each time the credit crisis spreads to a new sector of the financial ecosystem the Fed dumps […]

  • Guys Wins $5.15M Jackpot; Manager Unplugs Slot Machine

    Speaking of dry heaves: Shortly after putting a $20 bill into one of the machines, Paulson said he hit the jackpot. “Next thing I know there’s bells and whistles going off, the place is going crazy,” he said. The machine indicated he’d won $5.15 million; but as the quarters began to pour from the machine, […]

  • Bank of America Asks Government for $739 Billion

    Context and commentary from Mischa: “The proposal warns that up to $739 billion in mortgages are at “moderate to high risk” of defaulting over the next five years and that millions of families could lose their homes. To prevent that, Bank of America suggested creating a Federal Homeowner Preservation Corporation that would buy up billions […]

  • Deficit Under-Reported: It's $54 Trillion

    Trouble with a Capital T: The real accrual number, a figure that is almost never reported, can be determined only by analyzing yet another document, one put out by the U.S. Treasury Department. That analysis reveals a startling truth: Not only is the real federal deficit consistently under-reported, it is uncomfortably high, even with the […]