Anyone think this is pretty wild??

A huge company that the american government gave billions and billions of dollars to in order that they could be "bailed out".

This company was about to issue huge bonuses out.... totalling somewhere in the 165 million dollar range. Bonuses for what?

A company that was about to faulter can now give it's own millions of dollars in bonuses in money that was "given" to them in order that they can continue to do business (and better business at that).

While many people worldwide live in the reality of this new economic frontier it seems that some of these corporations do not. It's not bad enough that in some cases corporations were pretty much gambling with people's money.... life savings in some cases... with little regard for those people's well being that they could make increasingly larger profit margins.... but now they've gotta reward themselves with more dough.

So as many have lost it all or near all... these guys should have bonuses after begging for billions and billions of $$..

Nice.

CNN : AIG's insistence on bonuses raises ire in Washington

I think OPEC have realized just a little bit of what their consumers have experienced... a steep decline in monetary value.

Consumers have had their gas/energy prices spike incredibly high leaving their pockets drier... and OPEC has had their oil devalued by about %50 of where it peaked.

Although, products never go down for the consumer as fast as oil prices do... and while there's that convenience  excuse about the delay in pricing due to the refining process... they forget that part when the wind blows a little and they jack the price of oil again.

All of this financial crumbling is creating panic (of course) and panic is not causing any positive results.

One thing that I've been thinking for quite some time is that all of these huge Corps have forgotten some simple principles that people like Henry Ford seemed to understand.

That you're growth really has to be in sync with the consumers of your product. Otherwise, you ain't selling cause no one's buyin'.

And in this global market, to have balance, there has to be syncronicity amongst growth as a whole.... and there has to be such a thing as reasonable growth or healthy growth when speaking of profit margin.

But.... i'm just some guy who's told you his $0.02... not some high roller who just gambled billions and lost them in "investments". So what do I know....

Here's the International Herald Tribune article on OPEC.

I found this article.. which echos a couple of things I mentioned before on this blog.

Seems like their trying to put a different spin.. suing an attorney who's been quite successful in cases against them.

Silly almost.

(InfoWorld blog post)

"Government in bed with the oil companies"... this is common "theory" for many people...... but I'm not sure anyone would have thought that "Government in bed with the oil companies" should be taken in literal terms.

Well, CNN is reporting that it's quite possibly a literal theory.

I guess.... one could say that in this relationship... there probably is an equation.

(Big Oil + Record$$$$$) + Government = One heck of a party.

Nothing like taking piles of money from people whom you (both as businesses and government) serve and making fools of yourselves.

Check out the CNN article here:
http://money.cnn.com/2008/09/10/news/economy/oil_officials.ap/index.htm?postversion=2008091015

I was pretty surprised to see this.... but maybe it's a gag.

ACDC is mentioned as possibly selling their upcoming album through WalMart... exclusively... on CD....

It would somewhat shock me, as digital sales seem to be where the market is and will be. I've switched to iTunes myself.

But, say if this did happen... I'm not anti-CD... and if the album had a ton of strong material on it... .I'd still possibly buy it.

Still kinda surprising though.

(ACDC + WalMart here)

I love looking around and reading articles about current news or of historical events gone by... about a wide range of subjects.

Technology is something that I both work in and love. So I'm often interested by "tech" stuff....

Here's a short article on Bill Gates and Paul Allen, and in brief how they started Microsoft.

Enjoy!

(Wired article)

This is why I dislike these huge corporate entities....

Microsoft may attempt to basically pay their way into the dismembering of Yahoo's board of directors.

I swear, in the tech business... all it's ever about is the control of the market. Not innovation or technology. The coporate entity is out to forever fatten it's profit margin. Not to serve the best "technological" solution or product.... but to have you guy "what they make".... partly by eliminating the competition.

(InfoWorld article)

Seems like someone decided to have a little fun with the RIAA today as they hacked their website.

Here's a couple of interesting articles.

(ZDNet article)

(TorrentFreak article)

My opinion??

Well, I'm not really into the whole hack thing.... but at the same time, I'm not into going after every Tom, Dick and Harry out there to protect my old fashion business model that seems to miss what my current and potential market wants...

I'm an observer.

According to a couple of things I found, they are not suing over ripping mp3s from CDs, but they do non the less allege that it's making illegal copies of their product.

(article here)

That's my only blurb on the subject today.

Ok.

I've read so much in the last few years about the RIAA vs copyright infringement.... illegal downloading, chasing little kids and/or single moms.

After reading through this, I find the claims could get silly..... or sillier....

I'd like to make my position clear first... I don't really believe in taking music without paying the artist unless the artist is actually giving the consumer the choice (ala Radiohead.... which was brilliant). I believe in paying for music.

I do believe that a great advantage lies with consumers checking out services like iTunes, where as they can preview much of an album. Years back, I used to buy many CDs... and let me tell you, there were so many that only featured one decent song it made me sick. Now, I'll buy "the song" on iTunes if I choose.

Anyways.... here's where it gets fuzzy.

The RIAA now claims in the suit VS Jeffrey Howell that any legally purchased CD cannot be ripped into mp3 or similar format.... if this was ruled in favor of the RIAA, can you imagine just how many people who bought CDs and ripped them for their iPods and other MP3 players would be infringing on copyrights??? many many many.

I think that is purely nuts.

Imagine. Technology comes out, and certain markets begin to change.... technology changes again.... and all of a sudden, some rather large "vendors" notice their sales dip... they then notice the market for their product had changed (and it really had)... they failed on a new business opportunities.

They battle in courts on licensing issues....

Then, years after the battles began, they claim new damages resulting in technologies and practices that they failed to claim all along.... again... missing where their actual market is in today's age.

If I purchase music, I want to be able to back it up. Because the technology exists and I don't want to pay 4 times for the same album.

If I purchase music, I want to be able to play it in my car, on my MP3 player, because the technology exists... I'm not buying the album 4 times for 4 different formats.

If laws must be changed, I think that for both the consumer and the business... that when you purchase an album, you should have right to that music in whatever format. Not that you're gonna get a free CD if you bought it on iTunes, but if you bought it on iTunes, you burn it on CD... if you buy a CD, you should be able to rip it.

In my opinion (and I'm just some bozzo on the bus) the RIAA is either still lagging sorely behind where consumers are (and desire to be) or they are just trying to  get some extra cash with lawsuits and pressuring law makers and courts.

That's 2 cents worth.

(Check out this article)