patrick.net

>> “Politics” at work is always everywhere.

I agree. Please refer to this Agile 2007 paper:

The Facts of Work: Living with Power and Politics
http://www.agile2007.org/agile2007/downloads/presentations/The_Facts_of_Work_Power_and_Politics_417.pdf

In Yahoo strong leadership is needed to effectively complete with Google. In my five months I observed no sign of competitiveness. For example they were showing Brobeck Mountain in Yahoo! cafe which was attended by a large number of employees. Yahoo! has failed to effectively execute on Overture (project Panama) acquisition.

northernvirginiarenter Says:
Residential makes up about 80% of total tax commerical 20%. Property tax revenue represents about 90% of total revenues. So in real terms, a 30% decline in property values, given the political difficulties in raising tax rates, represents armegeddon for them.

Ouch - no wonder they don't want to consider anything worse that a 5% chance of a 30% drop!

californians answering calls in hindi

Yeah, I was thinking of Dilbert sitting here in Sunnyvale, trying his best to put on a thick Indian accent "Hello sir, I am Ramalamanindam" and interrupting someone's dinner in Mumbai to sell him a subscription to satellite TV... A few more rate cuts should get the dollar low enough to get us there.

OTOH, Church of DinOR sounds good too. He could smite people and cure them of their affliction to cheap Chinese bling.

The Fed is now completely irrelevant and impotent. They are saying now they "hope" they are done cutting. Well, maybe that's just a message to maintain a floor under the dollar, important politically and otherwise. Of course, they can't be done as the unwind continues. It's the only tool they really have, meaningless as it has become, to loosen up financial institutions that are in complete denial as to the losses they are about to face. Simply cutting the borrowing costs of financial institutions is in no way an offset to the scale of losses coming.

Apologies on being so obvious, I'm just losing hair over here.

In Yahoo strong leadership is needed to effectively complete with Google.

It is not a leadership issue. It is a cultural issue.

Are you sure competition is the solution?

With technology, it is nearly impossible to effectively defend against every single emerging competitor, and yet changes and revolutions are the core of the tech industry. This is why I do not invest in technology.

I think the best course of actions for a technology company is to quickly introduce disruption, maximize initial profits, and execute an exit strategy early.

There is no use staying around.

Gold went crazy again. Damn! I was trying to buy more!

@peter P

I think the best course of actions for a technology company is to quickly introduce disruption, maximize initial profits, and execute an exit strategy early.

There is no use staying around.

Completely agreed. All of yahoo's business are under full frontal attack and no new high margin product is coming out the door.

Relative to yahoo vs google: Microsoft search is in some ways ahead of google in analytics (closer to their customer, advertisers). They get their consumer front up to par (search return results) and I think they grab some serious marketshare from Google. Bill Gates is correct, people underestimate their ability to catch up to google in paid search. After all, nothing keeps folks "sticking" to google for search, it's easy to switch away. You give advertisers a better product, they will move over to the dark side, and they have cash to move the eyeballs over as well.

CD rates are shitty low once again. 3.5% average per bankrate.

i was getting 5.5% just last summer.

my mom is pissed and so am i. (i have the same investment portfolio as her....all CD's...not very agressive i know, just wanna keep it safe)

ZIRP is killing me, bring back Volcker is he still alive?

So i suppose everyone who 'fled to safety' like me is suppose to dump all thier USD into stocks per the fed manipulation. I guess i should have locked in multi year CDs. To get back to 5.5% will take 5 years, we have to suffer more rate cuts, then the slow slow rate increases.....CD's are looking like a poor poor place now for a while...

After all, nothing keeps folks “sticking” to google for search, it’s easy to switch away.

Exactly.

BTW, I do not consider Microsoft a technology company. It is more like an empire. I have great respect for Bill Gates.

In fact, I think he is the most respectable person in 20th century history. :)

@SP

lol confusious is wise, I talk out of my 'other end' more often than not. I think it comes from being completely surrounded by idiots most of the time(not here, of course). And this is said with due humility.

Speaking of the Fed rate cut, as expected, the Wall Street Junkies are already looking forward to the next fix:

(from the money.cnn.com piece on the Fed cut)

Wall Street is now betting on more rate cuts in the next few months. According to federal funds futures on the Chicago Board of Trade, investors are pricing in a 100 percent chance of at least another quarter point cut by the end of April and a 26 percent chance of a half-point of cuts. The Fed will meet in March and April.

Too funny relative to Chicago Board. So Fed says that's "hopefully" it, and the wisdom of the mob says "Yeah, good luck with that".

Thinking about HelloKitty's comment,

Have you ever noticed that the media has never dared drift onto the topic of depositors that used interest earnings as a very important means of income. They are usually older, conservative and need the money. If you want to make this administration look like a bunch of heartless hoods, the news should interview some of those folks.

Speaking of Volcker, I had a passbook savings that was %11.75. You wanna' get votes, bring that back!!! Of course, the rest of the economy was in the dumper at the time. Ahhh well, I guess we can't have it all.

Hey, how about that inedible gold, eh? Too bad I can't drink it, either.

Of course, the shorts got slaughtered today. That's OK, I can hold for another few months, market's only going in one direction, inflation or no.

@Richmond,

I live there my friend, I live there. While there are some decent ETF's out there that pay 8 3/4 and upwards of 9 1/2% you have immediate and serious obstacles.

1st. you're trying to explain (to elderly clients) how this *isn't a bond. Then you have the add'l hoop of explaining the concept of ETF's. (I realize everyone here is familiar and actually prefers them but it's a new wrinkle for older folks). Assuming you haven't completely lost them by now you still have to explain options.

Of course, the shorts got slaughtered today.

Huh? Dow Jones is now down.

Hey, how about that inedible gold, eh?

I have definitely eaten gold on top of sushi.

Huh? Dow Jones is down---------

Golly, it's only been an hour and they want more. It must not have been a %100 pure rate cut.

DinOR :
While there are some decent ETF’s out there that pay 8 3/4 and upwards of 9 1/2%

If you don't mind, can you share the names of the ETFs you like ? No investment advice of course :-), just pointers for more research. TIA.

northernvirginiarenter :

Appreciate your zeal bro'. Thanks for the updates from the "other" parts of the country.

I used to have SFF, which used to have 11% div at a time.

http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?s=SFF&t=my

Somewhere before the peak, it seemed to me the valuation was way out of whack, so I got out.

Not investment advice.

It would appear we now have a clear metric as to the effectiveness of the FED. By integrating the area under the curve and multiplying by 6, we can quantify...

I was always wondering when it would begin. Seems like a small cut, but definitely a big psychological shock.

http://tinyurl.com/26d38b

MUMBAI: Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), India’s largest software exporter, is effecting a small across-the-board cut in employee salaries based on the company’s performance in the third quarter, a move reflecting caution amid tough times for the outsourcing industry.

DinOR Says:
there are some decent ETF’s out there that pay 8 3/4 and upwards of 9 1/2%

Names! Ve vant ze names!

Peter P Says:
Dow Jones is now down.

Ha ha ha... Hey Bernanke, what you got there, boy? A rate cut? Gimme that. Here's what I think of your f*ckin' rate cut. Here, hold it for a sec while I piss on it. Now, go back home and ask your mom to bake another cut for me, and make it quick.

Word is that a bond-insurer is going down, so the street is sh*tting itself all over again.

I'm a Californian because I chose to inmigrate here from the Midwest. My son is a Californian because he was born at Sequoia Hospital. I'm not sure what that has to do with anything, to be honest. Of all the generalizations chucked around, this is one of the weakest. The US has always, since before the building of the great railroads, enjoyed a unique flexibility in it's population's willingness to "move around". It has made us strong, and allowed us to survive numerous massive economic shifts.

Contrast that to Europe, where even within one's own country people are hyper reluctant to move. Even for jobs. They'd rather stay home and force the government to pay them to sit around and bitch about how the government doesn't give them enough assistance.

Names! Ve vant ze names!

http://screen.yahoo.com/stocks.html

You can search by yield. I don't think DinOR can give names. That would be investment recommendations, right?

Contrast that to Europe, where even within one’s own country people are hyper reluctant to move. Even for jobs. They’d rather stay home and force the government to pay them to sit around and bitch about how the government doesn’t give them enough assistance.

Europe is toast!

Peter P Says:
Europe is toast!

And we are... jelly?

And we are… jelly?

More like peanut butter.

No, in this case b/c it's not like "touting" an ind. stock some of the ones I use are...

ETY 11.06%
EXG 11.20%
QQQX 11.25%
AGC 11.91%

The discounts to NAV *aren't as steep as they were in NOV/DEC but I believe all are still somewhat discounted.

*NIA

"Word is that a bond-insurer is going down"

I hate to be mean about this but... who cares!

Like a lot of us "here" (out west) we've owned a LOT of non-rated issues over the years. If the damn thing is a G.O bond why should we need the insurance anyway? Just b/c a bond is "non-rated" doesn't mean it's cr@p paper, it can often be the case that it was too small to afford the "skimming fee".

OT: I am heading to Iraq for a year of sun and fun. Currently I do my banking with Chase. Since I am going to be in the Middle East would anyone recomend changing banks? Barclay's? I was thinking along the lines of splitting the money stream 70%-30% of each check with the greater part going to a CD and the lesser for expenses. Opinions?

@richcta,

Just eat up that year as quickly and as safely as you can and get home to your family, God's speed, Mr..

More bearish housing news in the local rag:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/01/30/BUF1UOAE9.DTL

"We're in a housing recession" (Bay Area...)

richcta, come home safely! God bless!

Larger banks that are "too big to let fail" should be fine.

richcta - You might want to look into what banks will have branches where you'll be based. Remember the US Empire is building several large bases there, including an Embassy larger than Monaco or something. So, just look into what banks will be there, I'd ask someone who's been over there and see. I'd guess Chase, BofA, maybe Wells and Wamu. But find out from someone's who's been. And be careful over there, last I've heard it's kinda dangerous, like Oakland.

And, as some of us predicted, VC funding may suffer as a result of the credit problems, impending recession:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/01/30/BUAUUOICM.DTL

"Venture capitalists losing confidence."

"You could be a well-qualified buyer and not get your loan funded"

Sorry Mr. K. What CAR has deemed as "well-qualified" over the last 5+ years just isn't gonna' cut it any more. Think back, way back. Uh-huh, back to when well-qualified meant having a down payment.

I'm calling for a FICO Review! Let me get this straight? You have a 750+ but you can't come up w/ closing costs? Dude, you're a 650 (and I'm being generous!)

I dont care where anyone is from either - just saying that it would sure be nice to own a ca$ino....apparently you need to have evolved from apes while in CA to do this.

The piece of dirt you land on after your mother craps you out doesnt say much about a person.

At this very moment, Cramer is spewing sewage about a bottom in the housing market. It's painful to watch. "I'm buying the homebuilders, I'm buying the banks" and "Guess what, I'm buying a house!".

Very Entertaining. Herding 'em into the slaughterhouse.