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Inflation Concerns? That's So Yesterday
If the author forecasts that the Fed will pour money on our liquidity problem, it seems to me that, given just a little spark (e.g. threat to shipping in the Persian Gulf, or a major bankruptcy by a company like GM or Ford), inflation caused by an imploding dollar has the potential to raise commodity prices so rapidly it'll make early 2008 look tame.
Face it. We were on a balance beam which is quickly narrowing to a 2x4 and then to a tightrope. The Fed has precious little margin for error and the stakes are very high to the economy.
As usual, my 2 cents.
Browser Wars: What Are They Good For?
Google has implemented a browser "substructure&quo... called Gears, that has been available for use for many months now. Gears speeds up routine web database operations by caching recently-accessed information, which reduces internet traffic and increases perceived speed. Chrome integrates Gears.
Additionally, Google says they have reduced the memory footprint and improved the stability of the browser; it wouldn't surprise me at all if they have provided software hooks to allow developers to create a wider variety of well-behaved add-ons than are currently doable. MySpace has already created a Gears-aware environment that (it is said) is far faster that their previous non-Gears application. And the end-user doesn't have to change anything but their browser...apps that use Gears just run faster and with less network overhead when accessed with a browser that supports it.
My initial reaction is that the company with the most at risk in the current environment is Adobe. Apple has gone on record as not supporting Flash in their handhelds. Google's handheld is expected a few months from now. There's no doubt in my mind that Android (the Google cell phone product) will incorporate Chrome. Suddenly, Adobe's role in the hottest part of the IT market is unclear. While visually flashy (pun intended) Flash is piggy with memory and CPU cycles.
I've used Chrome and aren't won over from Firefox and Safari (yet). But the opening shots have just been fired, and the game is far from over.
Where Are the Bank Failures in This Financial Crisis?
In the S&L days, failures were regionalized due to the localized nature of S&L (indeed, even commercial) lending. There was little or no repackaging or tranching of loans. When a region saw a disproportionate number of loan defaults, may of the regional banks were in trouble.
Consequently, the losses incurred by those institutions that failed were simply too big for them to swallow, given their relatively small size.
Today, the same magnitude (more or less?) of losses is being absorbed by much larger firms, who are more well equipped to handle the write-downs and/or are deemed "too big to fail", either one of which keeps them in business.
It's not to say that the losses, and consequent shaking of faith in the stability of the system, aren't still very serious.
...my two cents.
The Inconvenient Truth of the Slowing U.S. Economy
How To Solve the Housing Crisis Tomorrow
* where does the government get the several trillion bucks to give homeowners in exchange for half their homes? (Ans: it prints the money. Hello, big-time inflation.)
* what does the government do when mortgages are unpaid (Ans: it kicks out homeowners and forecloses, just like banks. This is improvement?)
* what kind of country is it, where the govt owns a significant share of all private property? (Ans: starts with 'C')
The list goes on and on; I fail to see how this plan solves ANYTHING. Someone correct me so I don't have to question the judgement of Seeking Alpha's editors in allowing such idiocy on these pages...
World's First Cancer Vaccine Approved; Expect Interest in Antigenics, Dendreon
Oncophage is hardly the first vaccine against cancer. I think that the US approved Gardisil (a vaccine against the human papillomavirus (HPV)) in 2006 or 2007; it's currently being marketed like crazy. It is claimed to prevent most, but not all, cervical cancers.
It's no surprise Oncophage wasn't approved by FDA...it ,a href="seekingalpha.com/artic...;>failed its Phase 3 trial!
Why Hollywood Hates the TiVo Consumers Love
It sounds to me like Hollywood is telling them "You should have come to us first, so we could gouge a part of either the functionality or revenue out of your business. That would have been better."
Ha! If Hollywood loses too much money and goes out of business, someone with smaller margins or better content will come along to take their place and make a business in this age of new media distribution.