Money Making Secrets

Each day, Inc.'s reporters scour the Web for the most important and interesting news to entrepreneurs. Here's what we found today:

Hats off to Ron Conway. Angel investor Ron Conway, whose prolific portfolio has included Google and PayPal, wrote a scathing e-mail to the super angels involved in what's now being referred to as "Angelgate," and, yes, TechCrunch got a hold of it. When Michael Arrington crashed a secret meeting of angels this week and later wrote that they could be conspiring to cap startup valuations, he mentioned that "a couple of the attendees are saying they were extremely uncomfortable with the direction the conversation was going." Apparently, a partner at Conway's investment firm, David Lee, was one of them. In the e-mail, Conway calls fellow investors "driven by self serving factors around ego satisfaction and 'making a buck.'" He goes on to basically kick ass and takes names ... or rather, drops names. He writes that some fellow investors' actions are "despicable" and specifically calls David McClure out for blogging about the ordeal and causing "embarrassment" for Silicon Valley. Conway also defends David Lee, saying he was "uncomfortable with both gatherings." Conway drives the point home, writing that he wants to disengage, with all the e-mail recipients. "Lets agree to disagree and not have to even engage in any idle chit chat or discussion of any sort….ever." Wow.

Ciao to unlimited data? Verizon recently announced that it expects to start charging wireless customers on the amount of Internet data they use. Robert Chang, writing for the The Wall Street Journal, notes that "the wireless industry has struggled to balance the increasing demand for data capacity with unlimited plans that limit how much revenue carriers can generate from their subscribers." In other words, corporations like Verizon are having a hard time squeezing pennies from the unlimited monthly data plans. The announcement follows Apple's decision to halt sales of unlimited data plans to new customers, and replace it with two service plans that have monthly caps. Customers who go over their limits are charged. But could Verizon be shooting itself in the foot by reducing smartphone Internet use, which could be potentially tapped for revenue streams itself?

Is Obama's small business program falling on deaf ears? The $30 billion in federal lending the president pledged yesterday was supposed to aid struggling small businesses with easier credit and other incentives to grow and hire new workers. But what if businesses don't want the money? Today the AP reports feedback from a number of small businesses and community bank that show reluctance to participate due to concerns about expansion and heightened scrutiny. "We have taken a strategic decision not to have our primary regulatory, the government, also be a partner in our bank," said William Chase Jr., CEO of Triumph Bank in Memphis. Many businesses have also frozen plans to expand since the recession in 2008, and don't intend to borrow until customers and revenues grow as well. Additional fears arise from the strings attached to TARP funding, when participating banks had to later cut dividends to shareholders and limit compensation. While the government has promised fewer regulations this time around, many still balk at the program's ability to change the rules at any time.

Five myths about Facebook. As The Social Network premieres in New York, and Facebook does damage control in Silicon Valley, David Kilpatrick, author of The Facebook Effect: The Inside Story of the Company That is Connecting the World writes in the Washington Post about common misconceptions. Before you get too excited, remember, these are myths, not secrets. Example: "Facebook keeps changing to help sell advertising." Sure, there are tweaks over the use and display of personal data, but it's more about staying nimble than pleasing advertisers, Kilpatrick writes.

Need a job? Just text it. Fast Company reports on Assured Labor, a MIT offspring company that connects low-income job-seekers with employers over mobile SMS. The employment service, created by Harvard and Sloan School of Management students, launched in Mexico this week. Check out what the company's founder and CEO has to say here.

U.S. seeing rising discrimination complaints from Muslim employees. Even before the dispute over the planned construction of an Islamic center in Lower Manhattan erupted, more and more Muslim workers were filing religious discrimination complaints with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, The New York Times reports. "Although Muslims make up less than 2 percent of the United States population," the Times writes, "they accounted for about one-quarter of the 3,386 religious discrimination claims filed with the E.E.O.C. last year." The Times says that Islamic groups expect the 2010 numbers to set a new record. Complaints range from verbal taunts from co-workers like "terrorist" and "Obama," to employers prohibiting Muslim women from wearing head scarves.

The classy way to handle rejection. On his blog, venture capitalist Fred Wilson has some advice for any young company dealing with the anger and frustration of being turned down by investors. Rather than sending an expletive-laced e-mail to the firm that turned you down, Wilson says it is better in the long run to handle the rejection with class. "You need to thank the investor for taking a look," he says. "You need to keep the relationship intact for the next time you want to raise money." Wilson admits that it isn't easy to maintain composure after being told no, but he says, "I always make myself feel better by saying to myself 'this deal is going to be huge and the best revenge will be when they are kicking themselves for saying no.'"

More from Inc. magazine:

Get this delivered to your inbox.

Follow us on Twitter.

Follow us on Tumblr.

Like us on Facebook.

DeMint has not been shy about his vision.

Last week, he single-handedly threatened to stop all legislative activity
in the Senate as it worked to pass a flurry of legislation before
recessing ahead of the election. He has also criticized Democrats and
Republicans alike, chastising GOP leadership on occasion and bucking
them regularly to support more conservative, Tea Party-favored
candidates in Republican primaries. During the summer of 2009, DeMint
also famously said
that if Republicans could stop President Barack Obama from implementing
his proposal health insurance reform overhauls, it would be his
�Waterloo.�

For years, a few, select special interest groups on
the right and left have specialized in the conduit approach to political
fund-raising, including the conservative Club for Growth and the liberal groups ActBlue, MoveOn.org and EMILY�s List. Politicians using their leadership PACs for such activity are comparatively novel.

Individual donors must still abide by campaign contribution limits even
if they send money through conduit organizations, giving no more than
$2,400 per election to candidates.

But political committees aren�t as restricted in the amount of cash they may transfer from one individual.

For
example, DeMint�s leadership PAC directly donated the legal maximum of
$10,000 to Rubio�s Senate campaign in Florida -- money raised from
donors to his PAC who can give no more than $5,000 per year. But the
committee has also been able to bundle more than $240,600 to Rubio�s
campaign from a bevy of individual donors. And by acting as a conduit
organization, it can demonstrate additional clout.

So far this
election cycle, ActBlue has bundled more than $31.4 million. MoveOn.org
has bundled more than $9.2 million. EMILY�s List has bundled about $3.9
million, and the Club for Growth has bundled about $3.3 million.

In terms of all other groups reporting this activity, Hoyer�s
leadership PAC ranks next at $1.3 million, followed by DeMint�s $1.04
million. The only other federal lawmaker who so far this cycle has
reported at least six-figures worth of conduit contributions is Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.), with $168,800, coming via his Mountaineer PAC.

These bundles from Rockefeller�s PAC benefited just two lawmakers, West Virginia Democratic Reps. Nick Rahall, who is in a competitive re-election bid this year, and Alan Mollohan, who lost in a Democratic primary in May.

�Sen.
Rockefeller has supported Congressmen Mollohan and Rahall for years,
and he wanted to help them raise money,� Jamie Smith, Rockefeller�s
communication director told OpenSecrets Blog. �Mountaineer PAC
collected money at an event and forwarded it to the respective
campaigns. The contributions were reported according to FEC regulations
as conduit contributions.�

Hoyer�s conduit giving has been more
prolific. He�s reported bundling conduit contributions for more than 100
candidates this cycle. His top beneficiaries include the following
Democrats:

• Rep. Frank Kratovil (D-Md.): $56,500 and counting
• Rep. Scott Murphy (D-N.Y.): $36,750 and counting
• Rep. Debbie Halvorson (D-Ill.): $29,500 and counting
• Rep. Suzanne Kosmas (D-Fla.): $27,500 and counting
• Rep. Walt Minnick (D-Idaho): $26,100 and counting

�As
part of his job as majority leader, Mr. Hoyer raises and contributes
money to Democratic candidates,� Katie Grant, a spokesperson for Hoyer,
told OpenSecrets Blog in a statement. Grant declined to elaborate further about his direct contributions or bundling of conduit contributions.

Hoyer has also reported transferring conduit contributions to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.
He�s also reported donating $1.08 million from his leadership PAC and
campaign committee to other Democrats -- ranking him the No. 3 lawmaker
in such direct contributions, according to an analysis by the Center for
Responsive Politics.

Other House leaders have also utilized this
more traditional approach in providing financial assistance to fellow
party faithful. But unlike bundling unlimited amounts of conduit
contributions, these direct contributions to campaigns cannot exceed
$5,000 per election.

House Minority Whip Eric Cantor
(R-Va.) ranks No. 1 with more than $1.2 million in contributions to
fellow Republicans from his leadership PAC and campaign committee
combined since January 2009. House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-S.C.) ranks No. 2, with more than $1.1 million in such contributions.

Beyond Hoyer, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi
(D-Calif.) ranks No. 4, with $898,000 in contributions so far this
election cycle to fellow Democrats. And House Minority Leader John Boehner
(R-Ohio), who is poised to become speaker should Republicans wrest
control of the House from Democrats, ranks No. 5, with $862,000 in
contributions.

"The speaker works very hard to make sure that
members have the resources they need to get their message out to
voters," Jennifer Crider, a spokeswoman for Pelosi, told OpenSecrets Blog.
"The hope is that members have what they need to fight back against
shady outside groups who are coming in and misleading voters in their
districts."

"Rep. Clyburn believes it's important to elect
candidates who share his vision for the country and the need to keep
moving our country forward. An important part of that effort is raising
money for candidates, so they can run effective campaigns," Adam Hodge, a
spokesman for Clyburn, told OpenSecrets Blog. "Rep. Clyburn hopes that his efforts will help the Democrats maintain our majority this fall."

Spokespeople for Cantor and Boehner did not respond to multiple messages seeking comment for this story.

Here
is a table showing the top 20 lawmakers making the most contributions
to their political brethren from their leadership PACs and campaign
committees this election cycle:




robert shumake

Exclusive: I have some big <b>news</b>... | Ausiello | EW.com

You may need a hug after you read this. Or I may need one. Sources confirm to me exclusively that… I just made pretty much the most difficult decision of my ...

<b>News</b> and Publications - <b>News</b> Release

News and Publications - News Release. ... Academy in the news � News links � Ingenia � Photo Gallery. News Release. 08 July 2010. Academy elects 'unique national resource' to assist in economic recovery. Fifty three of the UK's leading ...

Movie <b>News</b> Quick Hits: &#39;The Hangover 2&#39;, &#39;Thor&#39; Images, &#39;Avatar <b>...</b>

Don't pretend like you're too cool to spend $995 on officially licensed, 'Tron Legacy' light bike suits. [via Gizmodo] - Months ago 'The Hangover.

robert shumake

Exclusive: I have some big <b>news</b>... | Ausiello | EW.com

You may need a hug after you read this. Or I may need one. Sources confirm to me exclusively that… I just made pretty much the most difficult decision of my ...

<b>News</b> and Publications - <b>News</b> Release

News and Publications - News Release. ... Academy in the news � News links � Ingenia � Photo Gallery. News Release. 08 July 2010. Academy elects 'unique national resource' to assist in economic recovery. Fifty three of the UK's leading ...

Movie <b>News</b> Quick Hits: &#39;The Hangover 2&#39;, &#39;Thor&#39; Images, &#39;Avatar <b>...</b>

Don't pretend like you're too cool to spend $995 on officially licensed, 'Tron Legacy' light bike suits. [via Gizmodo] - Months ago 'The Hangover.

robert shumake

Each day, Inc.'s reporters scour the Web for the most important and interesting news to entrepreneurs. Here's what we found today:

Hats off to Ron Conway. Angel investor Ron Conway, whose prolific portfolio has included Google and PayPal, wrote a scathing e-mail to the super angels involved in what's now being referred to as "Angelgate," and, yes, TechCrunch got a hold of it. When Michael Arrington crashed a secret meeting of angels this week and later wrote that they could be conspiring to cap startup valuations, he mentioned that "a couple of the attendees are saying they were extremely uncomfortable with the direction the conversation was going." Apparently, a partner at Conway's investment firm, David Lee, was one of them. In the e-mail, Conway calls fellow investors "driven by self serving factors around ego satisfaction and 'making a buck.'" He goes on to basically kick ass and takes names ... or rather, drops names. He writes that some fellow investors' actions are "despicable" and specifically calls David McClure out for blogging about the ordeal and causing "embarrassment" for Silicon Valley. Conway also defends David Lee, saying he was "uncomfortable with both gatherings." Conway drives the point home, writing that he wants to disengage, with all the e-mail recipients. "Lets agree to disagree and not have to even engage in any idle chit chat or discussion of any sort….ever." Wow.

Ciao to unlimited data? Verizon recently announced that it expects to start charging wireless customers on the amount of Internet data they use. Robert Chang, writing for the The Wall Street Journal, notes that "the wireless industry has struggled to balance the increasing demand for data capacity with unlimited plans that limit how much revenue carriers can generate from their subscribers." In other words, corporations like Verizon are having a hard time squeezing pennies from the unlimited monthly data plans. The announcement follows Apple's decision to halt sales of unlimited data plans to new customers, and replace it with two service plans that have monthly caps. Customers who go over their limits are charged. But could Verizon be shooting itself in the foot by reducing smartphone Internet use, which could be potentially tapped for revenue streams itself?

Is Obama's small business program falling on deaf ears? The $30 billion in federal lending the president pledged yesterday was supposed to aid struggling small businesses with easier credit and other incentives to grow and hire new workers. But what if businesses don't want the money? Today the AP reports feedback from a number of small businesses and community bank that show reluctance to participate due to concerns about expansion and heightened scrutiny. "We have taken a strategic decision not to have our primary regulatory, the government, also be a partner in our bank," said William Chase Jr., CEO of Triumph Bank in Memphis. Many businesses have also frozen plans to expand since the recession in 2008, and don't intend to borrow until customers and revenues grow as well. Additional fears arise from the strings attached to TARP funding, when participating banks had to later cut dividends to shareholders and limit compensation. While the government has promised fewer regulations this time around, many still balk at the program's ability to change the rules at any time.

Five myths about Facebook. As The Social Network premieres in New York, and Facebook does damage control in Silicon Valley, David Kilpatrick, author of The Facebook Effect: The Inside Story of the Company That is Connecting the World writes in the Washington Post about common misconceptions. Before you get too excited, remember, these are myths, not secrets. Example: "Facebook keeps changing to help sell advertising." Sure, there are tweaks over the use and display of personal data, but it's more about staying nimble than pleasing advertisers, Kilpatrick writes.

Need a job? Just text it. Fast Company reports on Assured Labor, a MIT offspring company that connects low-income job-seekers with employers over mobile SMS. The employment service, created by Harvard and Sloan School of Management students, launched in Mexico this week. Check out what the company's founder and CEO has to say here.

U.S. seeing rising discrimination complaints from Muslim employees. Even before the dispute over the planned construction of an Islamic center in Lower Manhattan erupted, more and more Muslim workers were filing religious discrimination complaints with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, The New York Times reports. "Although Muslims make up less than 2 percent of the United States population," the Times writes, "they accounted for about one-quarter of the 3,386 religious discrimination claims filed with the E.E.O.C. last year." The Times says that Islamic groups expect the 2010 numbers to set a new record. Complaints range from verbal taunts from co-workers like "terrorist" and "Obama," to employers prohibiting Muslim women from wearing head scarves.

The classy way to handle rejection. On his blog, venture capitalist Fred Wilson has some advice for any young company dealing with the anger and frustration of being turned down by investors. Rather than sending an expletive-laced e-mail to the firm that turned you down, Wilson says it is better in the long run to handle the rejection with class. "You need to thank the investor for taking a look," he says. "You need to keep the relationship intact for the next time you want to raise money." Wilson admits that it isn't easy to maintain composure after being told no, but he says, "I always make myself feel better by saying to myself 'this deal is going to be huge and the best revenge will be when they are kicking themselves for saying no.'"

More from Inc. magazine:

Get this delivered to your inbox.

Follow us on Twitter.

Follow us on Tumblr.

Like us on Facebook.

DeMint has not been shy about his vision.

Last week, he single-handedly threatened to stop all legislative activity
in the Senate as it worked to pass a flurry of legislation before
recessing ahead of the election. He has also criticized Democrats and
Republicans alike, chastising GOP leadership on occasion and bucking
them regularly to support more conservative, Tea Party-favored
candidates in Republican primaries. During the summer of 2009, DeMint
also famously said
that if Republicans could stop President Barack Obama from implementing
his proposal health insurance reform overhauls, it would be his
�Waterloo.�

For years, a few, select special interest groups on
the right and left have specialized in the conduit approach to political
fund-raising, including the conservative Club for Growth and the liberal groups ActBlue, MoveOn.org and EMILY�s List. Politicians using their leadership PACs for such activity are comparatively novel.

Individual donors must still abide by campaign contribution limits even
if they send money through conduit organizations, giving no more than
$2,400 per election to candidates.

But political committees aren�t as restricted in the amount of cash they may transfer from one individual.

For
example, DeMint�s leadership PAC directly donated the legal maximum of
$10,000 to Rubio�s Senate campaign in Florida -- money raised from
donors to his PAC who can give no more than $5,000 per year. But the
committee has also been able to bundle more than $240,600 to Rubio�s
campaign from a bevy of individual donors. And by acting as a conduit
organization, it can demonstrate additional clout.

So far this
election cycle, ActBlue has bundled more than $31.4 million. MoveOn.org
has bundled more than $9.2 million. EMILY�s List has bundled about $3.9
million, and the Club for Growth has bundled about $3.3 million.

In terms of all other groups reporting this activity, Hoyer�s
leadership PAC ranks next at $1.3 million, followed by DeMint�s $1.04
million. The only other federal lawmaker who so far this cycle has
reported at least six-figures worth of conduit contributions is Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.), with $168,800, coming via his Mountaineer PAC.

These bundles from Rockefeller�s PAC benefited just two lawmakers, West Virginia Democratic Reps. Nick Rahall, who is in a competitive re-election bid this year, and Alan Mollohan, who lost in a Democratic primary in May.

�Sen.
Rockefeller has supported Congressmen Mollohan and Rahall for years,
and he wanted to help them raise money,� Jamie Smith, Rockefeller�s
communication director told OpenSecrets Blog. �Mountaineer PAC
collected money at an event and forwarded it to the respective
campaigns. The contributions were reported according to FEC regulations
as conduit contributions.�

Hoyer�s conduit giving has been more
prolific. He�s reported bundling conduit contributions for more than 100
candidates this cycle. His top beneficiaries include the following
Democrats:

• Rep. Frank Kratovil (D-Md.): $56,500 and counting
• Rep. Scott Murphy (D-N.Y.): $36,750 and counting
• Rep. Debbie Halvorson (D-Ill.): $29,500 and counting
• Rep. Suzanne Kosmas (D-Fla.): $27,500 and counting
• Rep. Walt Minnick (D-Idaho): $26,100 and counting

�As
part of his job as majority leader, Mr. Hoyer raises and contributes
money to Democratic candidates,� Katie Grant, a spokesperson for Hoyer,
told OpenSecrets Blog in a statement. Grant declined to elaborate further about his direct contributions or bundling of conduit contributions.

Hoyer has also reported transferring conduit contributions to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.
He�s also reported donating $1.08 million from his leadership PAC and
campaign committee to other Democrats -- ranking him the No. 3 lawmaker
in such direct contributions, according to an analysis by the Center for
Responsive Politics.

Other House leaders have also utilized this
more traditional approach in providing financial assistance to fellow
party faithful. But unlike bundling unlimited amounts of conduit
contributions, these direct contributions to campaigns cannot exceed
$5,000 per election.

House Minority Whip Eric Cantor
(R-Va.) ranks No. 1 with more than $1.2 million in contributions to
fellow Republicans from his leadership PAC and campaign committee
combined since January 2009. House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-S.C.) ranks No. 2, with more than $1.1 million in such contributions.

Beyond Hoyer, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi
(D-Calif.) ranks No. 4, with $898,000 in contributions so far this
election cycle to fellow Democrats. And House Minority Leader John Boehner
(R-Ohio), who is poised to become speaker should Republicans wrest
control of the House from Democrats, ranks No. 5, with $862,000 in
contributions.

"The speaker works very hard to make sure that
members have the resources they need to get their message out to
voters," Jennifer Crider, a spokeswoman for Pelosi, told OpenSecrets Blog.
"The hope is that members have what they need to fight back against
shady outside groups who are coming in and misleading voters in their
districts."

"Rep. Clyburn believes it's important to elect
candidates who share his vision for the country and the need to keep
moving our country forward. An important part of that effort is raising
money for candidates, so they can run effective campaigns," Adam Hodge, a
spokesman for Clyburn, told OpenSecrets Blog. "Rep. Clyburn hopes that his efforts will help the Democrats maintain our majority this fall."

Spokespeople for Cantor and Boehner did not respond to multiple messages seeking comment for this story.

Here
is a table showing the top 20 lawmakers making the most contributions
to their political brethren from their leadership PACs and campaign
committees this election cycle:

Secrets to Making Money

Your daily dose of news and tidbits from the world of money in politics:

FEC NO LONGER ENFORCING ELECTION LAW?: Following an August story on OpenSecrets Blog chronicling organizations skirting Federal Election Commission disclosure laws, the Campaign Legal Center and Democracy 21 sent a letter to the FEC begging one question: Who is enforcing FEC law if the FEC isn�t?

The letter focuses on contention over �reasonable interpretation� of what constitutes �express advocacy� in the context of a statement by the FEC that an advertisement urging the public �help� a candidate is not express advocacy, since it does not directly tell the public to �vote for� a candidate.

While the letter cites OpenSecrets.org data, the Center for Responsive Politics remains neutral on the issue.

The groups are seeking clarification and a legal explanation, given that advertisements not demonstrating express advocacy are not subject to laws requiring public disclosure of advertising funding.

Meanwhile, a new report by non-profit advocacy group Public Citizen delves deeper into campaign finance information disclosure in the wake of the January Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission Supreme Court ruling. The report contends that the identities of the people and organizations behind political advertisements are becoming less clear, particularly among �Republican-oriented� groups.

The report shows the percentage of groups reporting donors decreasing from 98 percent and 97 percent in 2004 and 2006, respectively, to 49 percent in 2008 and only 32 percent thus far in the 2010 election cycle.

�The Supreme Court has unleashed a flood of new corporate spending on election ads and the public can�t even tell who is behind a given ad,� explained David Arkush, director of Public Citizen�s Congress Watch division, in a Wall Street Journal article.

LADY GAGA AND HARRY REID TEAM UP: What do Lady Gaga and U.S. Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) have in common? Hint: not fashion sense. Still, the pair teamed up earlier this week via Twitter to voice support for the repeal of the military�s �Don�t Ask, Don�t Tell� policy for gay service members.

Reid began the correspondence with a tweet saying �@ladygaga There is a vote on #DADT next week. Anyone qualified to serve this country should be allowed to do so.� The pop star responded by writing �God Bless and Thank you @HarryReid, from all of us, like u, who believe in equality and the dream of this country. We were #BORNTHISWAY.�

While there is no record of Gaga herself making campaign contributions to Reid, the senator has done well fund-raising with her colleagues in the television, movies and music industry, who have donated $436,250 to Reid during the 2010 election cycle.

From 2009-2010, Reid  is second to only U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) in campaign contributions from people and political action committees associated with this industry.

BLOOMBERG�S PERSONAL CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTION RECORD BROKEN: New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg may be notable for massive contributions to his own campaigns, but this billionaire media mogul-turned-politico�s record for the largest personal campaign contribution in U.S. history has been shattered by California gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman, a Republican.

The San Francisco Chronicle reported another $15 million donation Tuesday, bringing Whitman�s total personal contributions for the 2010 governor�s race to $119 million. A recent Rasmussen poll shows Whitman, former chief executive officer of eBay, slightly ahead of Democratic challenger Jerry Brown, the state�s former governor and current attorney general.

Bloomberg set the former record of $108 million in personal contributions in his mayoral re-election bid last year, when he spent about $185 per vote, as OpenSecrets Blog previously reported.

Have a news tip or link to pass along? We want to hear from you! E-mail us at press@crp.org.
   

The company posted an article from Google Fellow and Engineer Amit Singhal on its public policy blog. It stemmed from “a debate” about fairness in search published by the Wall Street Journal. Singhal talks a bit more about Google's secrets and competition: 



"Making our systems 100% transparent would not help users, but it would help the bad guys and spammers who try game the system. When you type "Nigeria" you probably want to learn about the country. You probably don't want to see a bunch of sites from folks offering to send you money . . . if you would only give them your bank account number!"



"We may be the world's most popular search engine, but at the end of the day our competition is literally just one click away. If we messed with results in a way that didn't serve our users' interests, they would and should simply go elsewhere—not just to other search engines like Bing, but to specialized sites like Amazon, eBay or Zillow. People are increasingly experiencing the Web through social networks like Facebook. And mobile and tablet apps are a newer alternative for accessing information."



Singhal also says that Google reveals more about its ranking factors than any other search engine, and offers more tools to webmasters to take advantage. 



Sullivan appears to think the list should be published, without revealing how factors are actually measured, but Schmidt says even the list would reveal too much.

Arrowheadlines: Chiefs <b>News</b> 10/4 - Arrowhead Pride

However, there aren't many real stories because of the bye. I'd expect the hype to start soon. We're just a few days from the undefeated Chiefs playing the "struggling" Colts. Here's your Kansas City Chiefs news.

CBS <b>News</b> Reporter Arrested for Growing Pot | PopEater.com

Police arrested CBS News correspondent Howard Arenstein and his wife, along with reporter Orly Azoulay, Saturday for drug possession with intent to di.

Record attendance for Eurogamer Expo | <b>News</b>

This year's Eurogamer Expo, which took place in London across October 1-3, has been hailed a.

eric seiger eric seiger

Your daily dose of news and tidbits from the world of money in politics:

FEC NO LONGER ENFORCING ELECTION LAW?: Following an August story on OpenSecrets Blog chronicling organizations skirting Federal Election Commission disclosure laws, the Campaign Legal Center and Democracy 21 sent a letter to the FEC begging one question: Who is enforcing FEC law if the FEC isn�t?

The letter focuses on contention over �reasonable interpretation� of what constitutes �express advocacy� in the context of a statement by the FEC that an advertisement urging the public �help� a candidate is not express advocacy, since it does not directly tell the public to �vote for� a candidate.

While the letter cites OpenSecrets.org data, the Center for Responsive Politics remains neutral on the issue.

The groups are seeking clarification and a legal explanation, given that advertisements not demonstrating express advocacy are not subject to laws requiring public disclosure of advertising funding.

Meanwhile, a new report by non-profit advocacy group Public Citizen delves deeper into campaign finance information disclosure in the wake of the January Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission Supreme Court ruling. The report contends that the identities of the people and organizations behind political advertisements are becoming less clear, particularly among �Republican-oriented� groups.

The report shows the percentage of groups reporting donors decreasing from 98 percent and 97 percent in 2004 and 2006, respectively, to 49 percent in 2008 and only 32 percent thus far in the 2010 election cycle.

�The Supreme Court has unleashed a flood of new corporate spending on election ads and the public can�t even tell who is behind a given ad,� explained David Arkush, director of Public Citizen�s Congress Watch division, in a Wall Street Journal article.

LADY GAGA AND HARRY REID TEAM UP: What do Lady Gaga and U.S. Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) have in common? Hint: not fashion sense. Still, the pair teamed up earlier this week via Twitter to voice support for the repeal of the military�s �Don�t Ask, Don�t Tell� policy for gay service members.

Reid began the correspondence with a tweet saying �@ladygaga There is a vote on #DADT next week. Anyone qualified to serve this country should be allowed to do so.� The pop star responded by writing �God Bless and Thank you @HarryReid, from all of us, like u, who believe in equality and the dream of this country. We were #BORNTHISWAY.�

While there is no record of Gaga herself making campaign contributions to Reid, the senator has done well fund-raising with her colleagues in the television, movies and music industry, who have donated $436,250 to Reid during the 2010 election cycle.

From 2009-2010, Reid  is second to only U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) in campaign contributions from people and political action committees associated with this industry.

BLOOMBERG�S PERSONAL CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTION RECORD BROKEN: New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg may be notable for massive contributions to his own campaigns, but this billionaire media mogul-turned-politico�s record for the largest personal campaign contribution in U.S. history has been shattered by California gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman, a Republican.

The San Francisco Chronicle reported another $15 million donation Tuesday, bringing Whitman�s total personal contributions for the 2010 governor�s race to $119 million. A recent Rasmussen poll shows Whitman, former chief executive officer of eBay, slightly ahead of Democratic challenger Jerry Brown, the state�s former governor and current attorney general.

Bloomberg set the former record of $108 million in personal contributions in his mayoral re-election bid last year, when he spent about $185 per vote, as OpenSecrets Blog previously reported.

Have a news tip or link to pass along? We want to hear from you! E-mail us at press@crp.org.
   

The company posted an article from Google Fellow and Engineer Amit Singhal on its public policy blog. It stemmed from “a debate” about fairness in search published by the Wall Street Journal. Singhal talks a bit more about Google's secrets and competition: 



"Making our systems 100% transparent would not help users, but it would help the bad guys and spammers who try game the system. When you type "Nigeria" you probably want to learn about the country. You probably don't want to see a bunch of sites from folks offering to send you money . . . if you would only give them your bank account number!"



"We may be the world's most popular search engine, but at the end of the day our competition is literally just one click away. If we messed with results in a way that didn't serve our users' interests, they would and should simply go elsewhere—not just to other search engines like Bing, but to specialized sites like Amazon, eBay or Zillow. People are increasingly experiencing the Web through social networks like Facebook. And mobile and tablet apps are a newer alternative for accessing information."



Singhal also says that Google reveals more about its ranking factors than any other search engine, and offers more tools to webmasters to take advantage. 



Sullivan appears to think the list should be published, without revealing how factors are actually measured, but Schmidt says even the list would reveal too much.

Arrowheadlines: Chiefs <b>News</b> 10/4 - Arrowhead Pride

However, there aren't many real stories because of the bye. I'd expect the hype to start soon. We're just a few days from the undefeated Chiefs playing the "struggling" Colts. Here's your Kansas City Chiefs news.

CBS <b>News</b> Reporter Arrested for Growing Pot | PopEater.com

Police arrested CBS News correspondent Howard Arenstein and his wife, along with reporter Orly Azoulay, Saturday for drug possession with intent to di.

Record attendance for Eurogamer Expo | <b>News</b>

This year's Eurogamer Expo, which took place in London across October 1-3, has been hailed a.

eric seiger eric seiger

Making Money Through

Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, is defaulting; Half Moon Bay, California, is disincorporating; and the City of Miami, Florida, declared a “state of fiscal urgency,” then broke contracts with workers. Yet, Pennsylvania, California, and Florida municipal bond funds managed by Blackrock are trading at or near 52-week highs.

Short sales look timely. Still, there are advantages to a buy side study. First, when the time comes, the opportunities will be broader. Second, the decision to buy will be more a case of negation than attraction. Ruling out unsavory bonds when selecting what to buy will often replicate the process of choosing what to short.

Looking through the wreckage of the 1930s and of the 1970s, there was probably more money lost by premature investments than made by those who waited. This was on the short and long side. New York City is a case in point. Its bust in the 1970s was expected. The stock market had tumbled, a commercial real estate binge of unparalleled excess had desecrated the skyline (new commercial space constructed between 1968 and 1970 exceeded 100% of the city’s commercial building between the World Wars), and – this is as predictable as night following day – from 1968 to 1970, 18 of the largest U.S. corporations left the city and 14 more announced their departure. These included American Can, PepsiCo, General Foods, U.S Tobacco and Shell Oil. Over 1.1 million New Yorkers emigrated from the city in the early and mid-1970s.

In other words, it was so obvious that New York City could not pay its bills that it was too obvious. Anecdotally, there were more investors who shorted New York City too early than those who waited and made money.

By the mid-1970s all New York City bonds were trading for approximately $25 ($100 being par). This was 1933 again, when all City of Miami bonds (yields ranged from 4-3/4% to 5-1/2%, maturities from 1935 to 1955) were quoted at $26. In both cases, the market sulked; yet, in both cases, there were bargains for those who were willing to read legal documents. One such case will be discussed below.

All finance is a reenactment. In his seminal study, Municipal Bonds: A Century of Experience (1936), A. M. Hillhouse wrote: “The major portion of over-bonding by municipalities arises out of real estate booms.” As precedent, Hillhouse quoted H. C. Adams, who wrote in 1890 (Public Debts): “he bonding of a town, and the expenditure of the money procured in showy works, is the occasion of gain to those who speculate in real estate….” Hillhouse, having quoted Adams’ observations of a previous property-boom, municipal-bond bust, should have known better than to write: “There will be no justification for a city [in the future to use] the excuse… that its tax revenues have dried up in times of falling property values.” So, if you miss this one, your children will have the same opportunity.

As for the current wasteland, revenue bonds are a choicer flock to choose from than general obligation bonds. The following distinction between the two is extracted from my seminal study (The Coming Collapse of the Municipal Bond Market ): “Revenue bonds are repaid using the revenue generated by the specific project the bonds are issued to fund (fees from a public parking garage, for example).” General obligation bonds are thought to be safer, at least they are advertised as such, because “they are backed by the full faith and credit of the issuing municipality. This means that the municipality commits its full resources to paying bondholders, including general taxation and the ability to raise more funds through credit. The ability to back up bond payments with tax funds is what makes general obligation bonds distinct from revenue bonds.”

However, it is not possible to draw blood from a stone and we will soon see municipalities that can not meet their bond commitments unless they discover an oil field larger than BP’s folly. Half Moon Bay, California, may already meet this ignoble state. From recent reports, the budget and books are so unintelligible that the city is disincorporating and may become an appendage to San Mateo County. Half Moon Bay’s bonds and yawning deficit will presumably be the burden of San Mateo County.

As a side note, the depth of incompetence on display in this instance would not be tolerated in a grammar school Citizenship Day. Given the state of the country, there will be even more amazing feats of fiscal suicide. Another participant is Standard & Poor’s, which stamped a AA- rating on $18 million of Half Moon Bay debt issued in 2009. Bondholders note: do not expect logic to guide negotiated workouts.

As for the bondholder, there are several difficulties here. Disincorporation has few if any legal precedents in California. (“It’s an option that hasn’t been tried in the state since 1972, when the tiny city of Cabazon (about 2,000 people) disincorporated.” – San Mateo County Times, August 27, 2010) The Cabazon precedent is not one to take on faith. Half Moon Bay and San Mateo County may have competing interests. A judge may have different ideas yet about how Half Moon Bay should resolve an $18 million lawsuit that the city lost related to development rights on a 24-acre property.

Just where do present circumstances leave the debt holder? That is, the owners of Half Moon Bay’s $18 million issue of Judgment Obligation bonds. And what of the free-for-all that follows? Propzero.com, jumping into the Half Moon Bay debate, suggests that disincorporation “may be the answer for many California cities struggling with too many spending commitments and not enough money. Digging out of budget holes may be harder than simply shutting things down.”

As goes Half Moon Bay, so goes the country, or so it seems. If San Mateo County is stuck with the Judgment Obligation bonds, and a large annual deficit, it is a sure bet the county will appeal to the state; Governor Schwarznegger will appeal to President Obama; and the president will appeal – to Congress?

It was easier to bottom fish among CDOs that were trading at $15 (as a group) in 2008 than to wager on these contingencies. Revenue bonds are comparatively easy to understand. In a large-scale, municipal-bond swoon, revenue bonds will sell off. That will be true even if these are water bonds, supported by the revenue that customers pay for services; even if these revenues cannot be touched by the grasping Yoga Instructors’ Union. (Half Moon Bay residents are distraught at the loss of municipal yoga instruction – San Mateo County Times.)

We return to New York City to note the lack of perceptiveness in a time of chaos. In April 1975, the city defaulted on a short-term note. It missed an interest payment (maybe more than one, it isn’t clear). The coupon was eventually paid, but the “New York City default” was highly publicized.

The Municipal Assistance Corporation (MAC) was formed. In The Bond Book, Annette Thau explained that MAC bonds were not obligations of New York City: “The revenues to pay debt service were backed, not by the taxing power of the city, but by the state of New York, and by a special lien on the city’s sales tax and… on a stock transfer tax.” These were revenue bonds that initially yielded “10% as compared to 8% for securities with comparable rating and maturity.”

Thau went on to tell her readers that the winning team does its homework: “This episode demonstrates why it pays, literally, to be very precise about exactly which revenue streams back debt service. In this instance, MAC bonds were tarred by the woes of the city, even though they were not obligations of the city….”

Revenues used to pay MAC bondholders could not flow to the city until the coupons were already met. This is true of services in different municipalities today. Utilities often fall in this category. Advanced critical reading skills are a prerequisite to distinguish a $25 from a $75 bond.

What of critical services in municipalities without predictable sources of revenue? In July, Indianapolis, Indiana, decided to sell its water and sewer utilities. In August, San Jose, California, discussed privatizing its water utility. There are many other such discussions. The media reported both the Indianapolis and San Jose decisions as sales. From precedent, the transactions may be more complicated than that.

It would be unusual for a local government to relinquish all control. There are many different possible arrangements with investors. At one end, there have been attempts to issue corporate stock in the municipality. This was proposed in Coral Gables, Florida, during the 1930s. It did not work but investment bankers are more inventive today. (Or, maybe not. Assets to be pledged by Coral Gables included “the municipal golf course and club house, the Venetian pool, the Coliseum….” Maybe not the one in Rome, but investment bankers are inventive.)

Probably the most likely arrangements are Public-Private Partnerships. In such partnerships, the investor, a “concessionaire,” steps in after bonds stand no chance of repayment. These might be for a vital service such as a water system, airport, or toll road. Concessionaires pay off all or a portion of the debt in exchange for the right to operate the asset for a negotiated return. Internal rates of return generally fall between 13% – 20%. This is a very simplified description.

There are many other investment approaches that haven’t been mentioned. Those mentioned are merely outlined. If it is not obvious, it must be emphasized how preliminary this discussion has been before making an investment. The most important advice here, on the short or long side, is to be patient, to understand the documents of the security, the laws and covenants that bind related parties, and to know the history of municipal bond defaults. This will open the investor’s imagination to the most improbable scenarios.

Up to this point this dramatic expansion of the U.S. monetary base has not caused that much inflation because U.S. government borrowing has soaked most of it up and U.S. banks have been hoarding cash and have been building up their reserves.

However, this situation will not last forever.  Eventually all this cash will make its way through the food chain and into the hands of U.S. consumers. 

But what is even more troubling is the dramatic spike in commodity prices that we have seen in 2010. 

Wheat futures have surged 63 percent since the month of June.  Wheat has recently been selling well above 7 dollars a bushel on the Chicago Board of Trade.

But wheat is far from alone.  In his recent column entitled "An Inflationary Cocktail In The Making", Richard Benson listed many of the other commodities that have seen extraordinary price increases over the past year....

*Agricultural Raw Materials: 24%

*Industrial Inputs Index: 25%

*Metals Price Index: 26%

*Coffee: 45%

*Barley: 32%

*Oranges: 35%

*Beef: 23%

*Pork: 68%

*Salmon: 30%

*Sugar: 24%

*Wool: 20%

*Cotton: 40%

*Palm Oil: 26%

*Hides: 25%

*Rubber: 62%

*Iron Ore: 103%

Now, as those price increases enter the chain of production do you think that there is any chance that they will not cause inflation?

Do you think there is any chance at all that producers and retailers will not pass those costs on to consumers?

It is time to face facts.

Those cost increases are going to filter all the way through the system and your paycheck is soon not going to stretch nearly as far.

Inflation is coming.

Many savvy investors understand what is going on right now.  That is one reason why gold and silver are absolutely soaring at the moment.

The price of gold set another record high on Friday for the sixth straight day.   

Silver has also experienced extraordinary gains recently, and the U.S. Mint has officially raised their wholesale pricing above spot on American Silver Eagles from $1.50 to $2.00.

Meanwhile, there are even more rumblings that the Fed wants to print lots more money.  On Friday, the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, William Dudley, stated that the high unemployment and the low inflation that the United States is experiencing right now are "wholly unacceptable"....

"Further action is likely to be warranted unless the economic outlook evolves in such a way that makes me more confident that we will see better outcomes for both employment and inflation before long."

During his remarks, Dudley even mentioned what the effect of another $500 billion increase in the Fed’s balance sheet would be.

Now keep in mind, this is not just another "Joe" who is making these remarks.

This is the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York - the most important of all the regional Fed banks.

In recent weeks it is almost as if you can hear Fed officials salivate as they consider the prospect of flooding the economy with even more money. 

Up to this point, very little has worked to stimulate the dying U.S. economy.  The Federal Reserve and the Obama administration are getting nervous as the American people become increasingly frustrated about the economic situation.

So will flooding the economy with even more money and causing even more inflation do the trick?

Well, no, but what inflated GDP figures will do is enable Obama and the Fed to say: "Look the economy is growing again!"

But if a flood of paper money causes the value of goods and services produced in the U.S. to go up by 5 percent but the real inflation rate is 10 percent, are we better off or are we worse off?

It doesn't take a genius to figure that one out.

So don't get fooled by "economic growth" numbers.  Just because more money is changing hands doesn't mean that the U.S. economy is doing better. 

In fact, many American families are going to be financially shredded by the coming inflation tsunami. 

Just think about it.

How far will your paycheck go when a half gallon of milk is 10 dollars and a loaf of bread is 5 dollars?

Already, it is incredibly difficult for the average American family of four to get by on $50,000 a year.

So how much money will we need when rampant inflation starts kicking in?

And do you think that your employers will actually give you pay raises to keep up with all of this inflation?

Not in these economic conditions.

In fact, median household incomes are declining from coast to coast all over the United States.

Earlier this year, Ben Bernanke promised Congress that the Federal Reserve would not "print money" to help the U.S. Congress finance the exploding U.S. national debt.

Did any of you believe him at the time?

Did any of you actually believe that the Federal Reserve would act responsibly and would attempt to keep the money supply and inflation under control?

The reality is that the entire Federal Reserve system is predicated on perpetual inflation and a perpetually expanding national debt. 

Whatever wealth you and your family have been able to scrape together is going to continue to be whittled away month after month after month by the hidden tax of inflation.

And unfortunately, as discussed above, inflation is about to get a whole lot worse.

So is there any room for optimism?  Is there any hope that we will not see horrible inflation in the years ahead?  Please feel free to leave a comment with your opinion below....

<b>News</b> Roundup: &#39;Jersey Shore&#39; Under Fire in Canada, Bret Michaels <b>...</b>

It seems not everybody is DTW (down to watch) the 'Jersey Shore' cast work on their GTL. The macaroni rascals are under fire up North for.

New SSFIV costumes priced, dated <b>News</b> - Page 1 | Eurogamer.net

Read our news of New SSFIV costumes priced, dated.

As AOL rushes to local <b>news</b>, Examiner.com is already there <b>...</b>

Dean is lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat. He covers video games, security, chips and a variety of other subjects. ...

bench craft company rip off
bench craft company rip off

<b>News</b> Roundup: &#39;Jersey Shore&#39; Under Fire in Canada, Bret Michaels <b>...</b>

It seems not everybody is DTW (down to watch) the 'Jersey Shore' cast work on their GTL. The macaroni rascals are under fire up North for.

New SSFIV costumes priced, dated <b>News</b> - Page 1 | Eurogamer.net

Read our news of New SSFIV costumes priced, dated.

As AOL rushes to local <b>news</b>, Examiner.com is already there <b>...</b>

Dean is lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat. He covers video games, security, chips and a variety of other subjects. ...

bench craft company rip off bench craft company rip off

Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, is defaulting; Half Moon Bay, California, is disincorporating; and the City of Miami, Florida, declared a “state of fiscal urgency,” then broke contracts with workers. Yet, Pennsylvania, California, and Florida municipal bond funds managed by Blackrock are trading at or near 52-week highs.

Short sales look timely. Still, there are advantages to a buy side study. First, when the time comes, the opportunities will be broader. Second, the decision to buy will be more a case of negation than attraction. Ruling out unsavory bonds when selecting what to buy will often replicate the process of choosing what to short.

Looking through the wreckage of the 1930s and of the 1970s, there was probably more money lost by premature investments than made by those who waited. This was on the short and long side. New York City is a case in point. Its bust in the 1970s was expected. The stock market had tumbled, a commercial real estate binge of unparalleled excess had desecrated the skyline (new commercial space constructed between 1968 and 1970 exceeded 100% of the city’s commercial building between the World Wars), and – this is as predictable as night following day – from 1968 to 1970, 18 of the largest U.S. corporations left the city and 14 more announced their departure. These included American Can, PepsiCo, General Foods, U.S Tobacco and Shell Oil. Over 1.1 million New Yorkers emigrated from the city in the early and mid-1970s.

In other words, it was so obvious that New York City could not pay its bills that it was too obvious. Anecdotally, there were more investors who shorted New York City too early than those who waited and made money.

By the mid-1970s all New York City bonds were trading for approximately $25 ($100 being par). This was 1933 again, when all City of Miami bonds (yields ranged from 4-3/4% to 5-1/2%, maturities from 1935 to 1955) were quoted at $26. In both cases, the market sulked; yet, in both cases, there were bargains for those who were willing to read legal documents. One such case will be discussed below.

All finance is a reenactment. In his seminal study, Municipal Bonds: A Century of Experience (1936), A. M. Hillhouse wrote: “The major portion of over-bonding by municipalities arises out of real estate booms.” As precedent, Hillhouse quoted H. C. Adams, who wrote in 1890 (Public Debts): “he bonding of a town, and the expenditure of the money procured in showy works, is the occasion of gain to those who speculate in real estate….” Hillhouse, having quoted Adams’ observations of a previous property-boom, municipal-bond bust, should have known better than to write: “There will be no justification for a city [in the future to use] the excuse… that its tax revenues have dried up in times of falling property values.” So, if you miss this one, your children will have the same opportunity.

As for the current wasteland, revenue bonds are a choicer flock to choose from than general obligation bonds. The following distinction between the two is extracted from my seminal study (The Coming Collapse of the Municipal Bond Market ): “Revenue bonds are repaid using the revenue generated by the specific project the bonds are issued to fund (fees from a public parking garage, for example).” General obligation bonds are thought to be safer, at least they are advertised as such, because “they are backed by the full faith and credit of the issuing municipality. This means that the municipality commits its full resources to paying bondholders, including general taxation and the ability to raise more funds through credit. The ability to back up bond payments with tax funds is what makes general obligation bonds distinct from revenue bonds.”

However, it is not possible to draw blood from a stone and we will soon see municipalities that can not meet their bond commitments unless they discover an oil field larger than BP’s folly. Half Moon Bay, California, may already meet this ignoble state. From recent reports, the budget and books are so unintelligible that the city is disincorporating and may become an appendage to San Mateo County. Half Moon Bay’s bonds and yawning deficit will presumably be the burden of San Mateo County.

As a side note, the depth of incompetence on display in this instance would not be tolerated in a grammar school Citizenship Day. Given the state of the country, there will be even more amazing feats of fiscal suicide. Another participant is Standard & Poor’s, which stamped a AA- rating on $18 million of Half Moon Bay debt issued in 2009. Bondholders note: do not expect logic to guide negotiated workouts.

As for the bondholder, there are several difficulties here. Disincorporation has few if any legal precedents in California. (“It’s an option that hasn’t been tried in the state since 1972, when the tiny city of Cabazon (about 2,000 people) disincorporated.” – San Mateo County Times, August 27, 2010) The Cabazon precedent is not one to take on faith. Half Moon Bay and San Mateo County may have competing interests. A judge may have different ideas yet about how Half Moon Bay should resolve an $18 million lawsuit that the city lost related to development rights on a 24-acre property.

Just where do present circumstances leave the debt holder? That is, the owners of Half Moon Bay’s $18 million issue of Judgment Obligation bonds. And what of the free-for-all that follows? Propzero.com, jumping into the Half Moon Bay debate, suggests that disincorporation “may be the answer for many California cities struggling with too many spending commitments and not enough money. Digging out of budget holes may be harder than simply shutting things down.”

As goes Half Moon Bay, so goes the country, or so it seems. If San Mateo County is stuck with the Judgment Obligation bonds, and a large annual deficit, it is a sure bet the county will appeal to the state; Governor Schwarznegger will appeal to President Obama; and the president will appeal – to Congress?

It was easier to bottom fish among CDOs that were trading at $15 (as a group) in 2008 than to wager on these contingencies. Revenue bonds are comparatively easy to understand. In a large-scale, municipal-bond swoon, revenue bonds will sell off. That will be true even if these are water bonds, supported by the revenue that customers pay for services; even if these revenues cannot be touched by the grasping Yoga Instructors’ Union. (Half Moon Bay residents are distraught at the loss of municipal yoga instruction – San Mateo County Times.)

We return to New York City to note the lack of perceptiveness in a time of chaos. In April 1975, the city defaulted on a short-term note. It missed an interest payment (maybe more than one, it isn’t clear). The coupon was eventually paid, but the “New York City default” was highly publicized.

The Municipal Assistance Corporation (MAC) was formed. In The Bond Book, Annette Thau explained that MAC bonds were not obligations of New York City: “The revenues to pay debt service were backed, not by the taxing power of the city, but by the state of New York, and by a special lien on the city’s sales tax and… on a stock transfer tax.” These were revenue bonds that initially yielded “10% as compared to 8% for securities with comparable rating and maturity.”

Thau went on to tell her readers that the winning team does its homework: “This episode demonstrates why it pays, literally, to be very precise about exactly which revenue streams back debt service. In this instance, MAC bonds were tarred by the woes of the city, even though they were not obligations of the city….”

Revenues used to pay MAC bondholders could not flow to the city until the coupons were already met. This is true of services in different municipalities today. Utilities often fall in this category. Advanced critical reading skills are a prerequisite to distinguish a $25 from a $75 bond.

What of critical services in municipalities without predictable sources of revenue? In July, Indianapolis, Indiana, decided to sell its water and sewer utilities. In August, San Jose, California, discussed privatizing its water utility. There are many other such discussions. The media reported both the Indianapolis and San Jose decisions as sales. From precedent, the transactions may be more complicated than that.

It would be unusual for a local government to relinquish all control. There are many different possible arrangements with investors. At one end, there have been attempts to issue corporate stock in the municipality. This was proposed in Coral Gables, Florida, during the 1930s. It did not work but investment bankers are more inventive today. (Or, maybe not. Assets to be pledged by Coral Gables included “the municipal golf course and club house, the Venetian pool, the Coliseum….” Maybe not the one in Rome, but investment bankers are inventive.)

Probably the most likely arrangements are Public-Private Partnerships. In such partnerships, the investor, a “concessionaire,” steps in after bonds stand no chance of repayment. These might be for a vital service such as a water system, airport, or toll road. Concessionaires pay off all or a portion of the debt in exchange for the right to operate the asset for a negotiated return. Internal rates of return generally fall between 13% – 20%. This is a very simplified description.

There are many other investment approaches that haven’t been mentioned. Those mentioned are merely outlined. If it is not obvious, it must be emphasized how preliminary this discussion has been before making an investment. The most important advice here, on the short or long side, is to be patient, to understand the documents of the security, the laws and covenants that bind related parties, and to know the history of municipal bond defaults. This will open the investor’s imagination to the most improbable scenarios.

Up to this point this dramatic expansion of the U.S. monetary base has not caused that much inflation because U.S. government borrowing has soaked most of it up and U.S. banks have been hoarding cash and have been building up their reserves.

However, this situation will not last forever.  Eventually all this cash will make its way through the food chain and into the hands of U.S. consumers. 

But what is even more troubling is the dramatic spike in commodity prices that we have seen in 2010. 

Wheat futures have surged 63 percent since the month of June.  Wheat has recently been selling well above 7 dollars a bushel on the Chicago Board of Trade.

But wheat is far from alone.  In his recent column entitled "An Inflationary Cocktail In The Making", Richard Benson listed many of the other commodities that have seen extraordinary price increases over the past year....

*Agricultural Raw Materials: 24%

*Industrial Inputs Index: 25%

*Metals Price Index: 26%

*Coffee: 45%

*Barley: 32%

*Oranges: 35%

*Beef: 23%

*Pork: 68%

*Salmon: 30%

*Sugar: 24%

*Wool: 20%

*Cotton: 40%

*Palm Oil: 26%

*Hides: 25%

*Rubber: 62%

*Iron Ore: 103%

Now, as those price increases enter the chain of production do you think that there is any chance that they will not cause inflation?

Do you think there is any chance at all that producers and retailers will not pass those costs on to consumers?

It is time to face facts.

Those cost increases are going to filter all the way through the system and your paycheck is soon not going to stretch nearly as far.

Inflation is coming.

Many savvy investors understand what is going on right now.  That is one reason why gold and silver are absolutely soaring at the moment.

The price of gold set another record high on Friday for the sixth straight day.   

Silver has also experienced extraordinary gains recently, and the U.S. Mint has officially raised their wholesale pricing above spot on American Silver Eagles from $1.50 to $2.00.

Meanwhile, there are even more rumblings that the Fed wants to print lots more money.  On Friday, the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, William Dudley, stated that the high unemployment and the low inflation that the United States is experiencing right now are "wholly unacceptable"....

"Further action is likely to be warranted unless the economic outlook evolves in such a way that makes me more confident that we will see better outcomes for both employment and inflation before long."

During his remarks, Dudley even mentioned what the effect of another $500 billion increase in the Fed’s balance sheet would be.

Now keep in mind, this is not just another "Joe" who is making these remarks.

This is the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York - the most important of all the regional Fed banks.

In recent weeks it is almost as if you can hear Fed officials salivate as they consider the prospect of flooding the economy with even more money. 

Up to this point, very little has worked to stimulate the dying U.S. economy.  The Federal Reserve and the Obama administration are getting nervous as the American people become increasingly frustrated about the economic situation.

So will flooding the economy with even more money and causing even more inflation do the trick?

Well, no, but what inflated GDP figures will do is enable Obama and the Fed to say: "Look the economy is growing again!"

But if a flood of paper money causes the value of goods and services produced in the U.S. to go up by 5 percent but the real inflation rate is 10 percent, are we better off or are we worse off?

It doesn't take a genius to figure that one out.

So don't get fooled by "economic growth" numbers.  Just because more money is changing hands doesn't mean that the U.S. economy is doing better. 

In fact, many American families are going to be financially shredded by the coming inflation tsunami. 

Just think about it.

How far will your paycheck go when a half gallon of milk is 10 dollars and a loaf of bread is 5 dollars?

Already, it is incredibly difficult for the average American family of four to get by on $50,000 a year.

So how much money will we need when rampant inflation starts kicking in?

And do you think that your employers will actually give you pay raises to keep up with all of this inflation?

Not in these economic conditions.

In fact, median household incomes are declining from coast to coast all over the United States.

Earlier this year, Ben Bernanke promised Congress that the Federal Reserve would not "print money" to help the U.S. Congress finance the exploding U.S. national debt.

Did any of you believe him at the time?

Did any of you actually believe that the Federal Reserve would act responsibly and would attempt to keep the money supply and inflation under control?

The reality is that the entire Federal Reserve system is predicated on perpetual inflation and a perpetually expanding national debt. 

Whatever wealth you and your family have been able to scrape together is going to continue to be whittled away month after month after month by the hidden tax of inflation.

And unfortunately, as discussed above, inflation is about to get a whole lot worse.

So is there any room for optimism?  Is there any hope that we will not see horrible inflation in the years ahead?  Please feel free to leave a comment with your opinion below....

bench craft company rip off

<b>News</b> Roundup: &#39;Jersey Shore&#39; Under Fire in Canada, Bret Michaels <b>...</b>

It seems not everybody is DTW (down to watch) the 'Jersey Shore' cast work on their GTL. The macaroni rascals are under fire up North for.

New SSFIV costumes priced, dated <b>News</b> - Page 1 | Eurogamer.net

Read our news of New SSFIV costumes priced, dated.

As AOL rushes to local <b>news</b>, Examiner.com is already there <b>...</b>

Dean is lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat. He covers video games, security, chips and a variety of other subjects. ...

bench craft company rip off bench craft company rip off

<b>News</b> Roundup: &#39;Jersey Shore&#39; Under Fire in Canada, Bret Michaels <b>...</b>

It seems not everybody is DTW (down to watch) the 'Jersey Shore' cast work on their GTL. The macaroni rascals are under fire up North for.

New SSFIV costumes priced, dated <b>News</b> - Page 1 | Eurogamer.net

Read our news of New SSFIV costumes priced, dated.

As AOL rushes to local <b>news</b>, Examiner.com is already there <b>...</b>

Dean is lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat. He covers video games, security, chips and a variety of other subjects. ...

bench craft company rip off bench craft company rip off

<b>News</b> Roundup: &#39;Jersey Shore&#39; Under Fire in Canada, Bret Michaels <b>...</b>

It seems not everybody is DTW (down to watch) the 'Jersey Shore' cast work on their GTL. The macaroni rascals are under fire up North for.

New SSFIV costumes priced, dated <b>News</b> - Page 1 | Eurogamer.net

Read our news of New SSFIV costumes priced, dated.

As AOL rushes to local <b>news</b>, Examiner.com is already there <b>...</b>

Dean is lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat. He covers video games, security, chips and a variety of other subjects. ...

bench craft company rip off bench craft company rip off

Making Money Now

What makes a man want to amass more money than God, and once he has, keep going? For each hedge-fund manager the answers are a little bit different, and a little bit the same. From today's Bloomberg Markets we believe we have identified the four primary things that motivated Harbinger Capital founder Philip Falcone (or as readers of this blog may know him, Mr. Lisa Falcone), whose fund made $11 billion betting against subprime, to become who he is today.

We begin with a sepia-tinted moment when Falcone first leaves his Minnesota hometown, all gawky of limb and Lionel Richie of hair, to seek his fortune in the big city.

Neil Sheehy, from nearby International Falls, had offered Falcone a ride to Harvard University, which had recruited both of them to play hockey for the Crimson. The car stalled in front of Falcone’s house, and Sheehy had to restart it on a hill while Falcone’s mother and one of his sisters sobbed their goodbyes.

“It’ll be all right, Mrs. Falcone; it’ll be all right,” Sheehy recalls telling Caroline Falcone as the car chugged to life and headed east.

Falcone was one of nine, and his mother still cared that he was leaving home! This is meaningful and leads us to Motivation 1: Phil can never let his mama down.

[To wit, later: "Galloway says he once set up a meeting for Falcone with a billionaire investor who was interested in Harbinger. Falcone said he couldn’t make the meeting because he had to go see his mother."]

Immediately after leaving home, life decided to punk young Philip by showing him that even when you think that things are tough, they can always get worse.

Falcone rode to Cambridge, Massachusetts, with his feet on the dashboard because Sheehy had packed a skate-sharpening machine on the floor of the front seat... Halfway there, the roof liner came loose and showered the young men with fiberglass insulation that stuck to them as they sweated in the late.

Motivation 2: The fuck he's going to go through something like that again. He is going to kick life's ass!

Then, he did not quite fit in at school.

Falcone was wide-eyed when he arrived at Harvard in 1980, says hockey teammate Greg Olson, who’s now a dentist in Minnetonka, Minnesota. “He was a deer in the headlights,” Olson says. After recovering from the initial shock, Falcone made himself something of a campus don. Hockey teammates called him “Fashion Phil” because he cared so much about his clothes, Olson says. He had a blue, three-piece suit that he wore often, and he always wore stylish shoes.

Motivation 3: Show those jerkoffs who called him a hick and a fag who the man is.

But after graduation, he was more confident.

[Wife Lisa] was working as a model when she met Phil Falcone through mutual friends at a Manhattan restaurant in the late 1980s.

Motivation 4: GIRLS!

Of course, a hot wife and incredible financial success doesn't keep the critics at bay. If anything, it just makes them worse.

“Just because a manager got the subprime trade right, it doesn’t necessarily mean he’s a skilled manager,” says Brad Balter, managing partner of Balter Capital Management LLC, a Boston-based firm that invests in hedge funds for clients. “There have been several funds that benefited from that bet in 2007 whose performance was mediocre before and continues to be mediocre today.”

Motivation 5: Show those jerkoffs who suggest he is a one-hit wonder who the man is. Then show them again. And again. Until he dies.

Falcone Losing Touch Borrowing From Funds While His Investors Denied Cash

You would think that Californians had learned their lesson by now.

Remember Darrell Issa? Issa, who ran against Barbara Boxer in 1998, but lost his party's nomination to Matt Fong, the California Treasurer. In that race, Issa spent $12 million of his own money and, after losing, went on to get elected to the House in 2000. Issa actually stands to become the head of the House Government Operations Committee if Republicans take control of the Congress in he next election.

Issa, you may recall, gave Californians Arnold Schwarzenegger as their governor. Issa contributed $1.6 million toward the recall of Gray Davis and presumed he would be his party's nominee to replace Davis. Then, following the recall of Davis, the party tapped Issa on the shoulder and said, "Your work is done." Schwarzenegger became governor. And California, like the rest of the country, sank into even worse economic shape than when Davis was in office.

Now, California Republicans want you to refocus. The man who had no governmental experience whatsoever, yet who went on to become the chief executive, was really a highly successful movie actor with little aptitude for the job. That may not have been the best idea. What California needs now is a businessman. Or businesswoman. Enter Meg Whitman.

Beyond being another figure in a business success story who now believes that power is her next entitlement and governing is the next challenging hobby, Whitman, like Schwarzenegger, has no government experience. That is problematic for two reasons. One is that California is a remarkably diverse state. Its near hemispheric political divide between its northern and southern constituencies makes politics in the state capitol very complicated. In these economic times, to send another candidate to Sacramento who simply mouths that "Government needs to be run like a business" would be disastrous.

The second issue is Whitman's opponent. In my opinion, Jerry Brown is one of the most visionary and dedicated public servants I have ever encountered during my life time. Smart, tough, experienced, committed, Brown wasn't making a fortune for himself these past four decades. He was serving the people of California. The attack ad that Whitman shows of Bill Clinton laying into Brown is unfair, inaccurate and repugnant. Primary races can be bloodier than the general election and Brown versus Clinton exemplifies that. But Clinton is guilty of a bit of hyperbole when he states that Brown spent down California's surplus while in office. The most casual examination of the record shows that, in classic California fashion, a loss of property tax revenues forced Brown to spend a good deal of the state's surplus, but not all of it. Californians, with their preposterous property tax laws, never seem to recognize that a loss of revenue to the counties and/or cities usually spells undue pressure on the state to find that money elsewhere. Even Schwarzenegger, the fitness role model, was reduced to selling state park land to make up for huge gaps in his budget. Clinton in full attack mode is a sight to behold, but not one Californians should base this race on.

In their websites and in their official statements, both Whitman and Brown say the usual things about jobs, taxes and education. But it is in the area of jobs from clean energy technologies and in pension reform that Brown holds the clearest edge. California has, through necessity, been a leader in environmental policy-making. Spend any time in California and see how many hybrid cars are on the road. How many wind turbines are in operation. How much photo-voltaic equipment is already in place. Brown knows that this is just the beginning. Where Whitman and other business types believe that markets themselves will lead us where we need to go, Brown knows that government must lead. The push to bring as much of the American power grid into the renewable market must come from government. The money we spent on Iraq alone might well have begun to solve this problem once and for all.

Whitman the businesswoman lacks the political skill to bring the pension issue into the 21st century. Unions and pensioners must be brought to the table for talks that recognize them as entitled on one hand yet partners with taxpayers on the other. Brown will do that. And he must before the pension problem in California crushes the government into insolvency.

All governments need to be run in a more business-like manner and now more than ever. But government should never literally be run like a business. Business is about cold numbers, strict adherence to bottom lines and the ascent of those with the greatest skills and advantages. Governing requires a humanism that we find largely absent in the business world of today. It calls for skills that the business world often overlooks or shuns. Governing requires the ability not to follow spreadsheets and marketing advice but to weigh all of the relevant information and decide what is best for all of California in both the long and short term.

There is no one better for that job than Jerry Brown.

------

A post script regarding the New York governor's race. Voter dissatisfaction is real and valid. But Palladino versus Cuomo is a nearly impossible distortion of that reality. The difference between Carl Palladino and Andrew Cuomo, in terms of effectiveness, talent and experience, is the between a water pistol and a fire hose. A pea shooter and a cannon. When Eliot Spitzer was elected, a great man became governor. That man faltered and was replaced by an interim governor who has struggled. Now, New Yorkers can return another brilliant, hard-working public servant to the governor's office by electing Andrew Cuomo.

ScribbleLive plans to reinvent the <b>news</b> article | VentureBeat

Anthony is VentureBeat's assistant editor, as well as its reporter on media, advertising, and social networks. Before joining VentureBeat in ...

How to be a data journalist | <b>News</b> | guardian.co.uk

Data journalism trainer and writer Paul Bradshaw explains how to get started in data journalism, from getting to the data to visualising it • Guardian data editor Simon Rogers explains how our data journalism…

Small Business <b>News</b>: The White Paper Overview

Pundits still say they are a great way to develop credibility for your business easy to distribute in their popular current PDF format and also, if done right,

eric seiger dermatology eric seiger do

What makes a man want to amass more money than God, and once he has, keep going? For each hedge-fund manager the answers are a little bit different, and a little bit the same. From today's Bloomberg Markets we believe we have identified the four primary things that motivated Harbinger Capital founder Philip Falcone (or as readers of this blog may know him, Mr. Lisa Falcone), whose fund made $11 billion betting against subprime, to become who he is today.

We begin with a sepia-tinted moment when Falcone first leaves his Minnesota hometown, all gawky of limb and Lionel Richie of hair, to seek his fortune in the big city.

Neil Sheehy, from nearby International Falls, had offered Falcone a ride to Harvard University, which had recruited both of them to play hockey for the Crimson. The car stalled in front of Falcone’s house, and Sheehy had to restart it on a hill while Falcone’s mother and one of his sisters sobbed their goodbyes.

“It’ll be all right, Mrs. Falcone; it’ll be all right,” Sheehy recalls telling Caroline Falcone as the car chugged to life and headed east.

Falcone was one of nine, and his mother still cared that he was leaving home! This is meaningful and leads us to Motivation 1: Phil can never let his mama down.

[To wit, later: "Galloway says he once set up a meeting for Falcone with a billionaire investor who was interested in Harbinger. Falcone said he couldn’t make the meeting because he had to go see his mother."]

Immediately after leaving home, life decided to punk young Philip by showing him that even when you think that things are tough, they can always get worse.

Falcone rode to Cambridge, Massachusetts, with his feet on the dashboard because Sheehy had packed a skate-sharpening machine on the floor of the front seat... Halfway there, the roof liner came loose and showered the young men with fiberglass insulation that stuck to them as they sweated in the late.

Motivation 2: The fuck he's going to go through something like that again. He is going to kick life's ass!

Then, he did not quite fit in at school.

Falcone was wide-eyed when he arrived at Harvard in 1980, says hockey teammate Greg Olson, who’s now a dentist in Minnetonka, Minnesota. “He was a deer in the headlights,” Olson says. After recovering from the initial shock, Falcone made himself something of a campus don. Hockey teammates called him “Fashion Phil” because he cared so much about his clothes, Olson says. He had a blue, three-piece suit that he wore often, and he always wore stylish shoes.

Motivation 3: Show those jerkoffs who called him a hick and a fag who the man is.

But after graduation, he was more confident.

[Wife Lisa] was working as a model when she met Phil Falcone through mutual friends at a Manhattan restaurant in the late 1980s.

Motivation 4: GIRLS!

Of course, a hot wife and incredible financial success doesn't keep the critics at bay. If anything, it just makes them worse.

“Just because a manager got the subprime trade right, it doesn’t necessarily mean he’s a skilled manager,” says Brad Balter, managing partner of Balter Capital Management LLC, a Boston-based firm that invests in hedge funds for clients. “There have been several funds that benefited from that bet in 2007 whose performance was mediocre before and continues to be mediocre today.”

Motivation 5: Show those jerkoffs who suggest he is a one-hit wonder who the man is. Then show them again. And again. Until he dies.

Falcone Losing Touch Borrowing From Funds While His Investors Denied Cash

You would think that Californians had learned their lesson by now.

Remember Darrell Issa? Issa, who ran against Barbara Boxer in 1998, but lost his party's nomination to Matt Fong, the California Treasurer. In that race, Issa spent $12 million of his own money and, after losing, went on to get elected to the House in 2000. Issa actually stands to become the head of the House Government Operations Committee if Republicans take control of the Congress in he next election.

Issa, you may recall, gave Californians Arnold Schwarzenegger as their governor. Issa contributed $1.6 million toward the recall of Gray Davis and presumed he would be his party's nominee to replace Davis. Then, following the recall of Davis, the party tapped Issa on the shoulder and said, "Your work is done." Schwarzenegger became governor. And California, like the rest of the country, sank into even worse economic shape than when Davis was in office.

Now, California Republicans want you to refocus. The man who had no governmental experience whatsoever, yet who went on to become the chief executive, was really a highly successful movie actor with little aptitude for the job. That may not have been the best idea. What California needs now is a businessman. Or businesswoman. Enter Meg Whitman.

Beyond being another figure in a business success story who now believes that power is her next entitlement and governing is the next challenging hobby, Whitman, like Schwarzenegger, has no government experience. That is problematic for two reasons. One is that California is a remarkably diverse state. Its near hemispheric political divide between its northern and southern constituencies makes politics in the state capitol very complicated. In these economic times, to send another candidate to Sacramento who simply mouths that "Government needs to be run like a business" would be disastrous.

The second issue is Whitman's opponent. In my opinion, Jerry Brown is one of the most visionary and dedicated public servants I have ever encountered during my life time. Smart, tough, experienced, committed, Brown wasn't making a fortune for himself these past four decades. He was serving the people of California. The attack ad that Whitman shows of Bill Clinton laying into Brown is unfair, inaccurate and repugnant. Primary races can be bloodier than the general election and Brown versus Clinton exemplifies that. But Clinton is guilty of a bit of hyperbole when he states that Brown spent down California's surplus while in office. The most casual examination of the record shows that, in classic California fashion, a loss of property tax revenues forced Brown to spend a good deal of the state's surplus, but not all of it. Californians, with their preposterous property tax laws, never seem to recognize that a loss of revenue to the counties and/or cities usually spells undue pressure on the state to find that money elsewhere. Even Schwarzenegger, the fitness role model, was reduced to selling state park land to make up for huge gaps in his budget. Clinton in full attack mode is a sight to behold, but not one Californians should base this race on.

In their websites and in their official statements, both Whitman and Brown say the usual things about jobs, taxes and education. But it is in the area of jobs from clean energy technologies and in pension reform that Brown holds the clearest edge. California has, through necessity, been a leader in environmental policy-making. Spend any time in California and see how many hybrid cars are on the road. How many wind turbines are in operation. How much photo-voltaic equipment is already in place. Brown knows that this is just the beginning. Where Whitman and other business types believe that markets themselves will lead us where we need to go, Brown knows that government must lead. The push to bring as much of the American power grid into the renewable market must come from government. The money we spent on Iraq alone might well have begun to solve this problem once and for all.

Whitman the businesswoman lacks the political skill to bring the pension issue into the 21st century. Unions and pensioners must be brought to the table for talks that recognize them as entitled on one hand yet partners with taxpayers on the other. Brown will do that. And he must before the pension problem in California crushes the government into insolvency.

All governments need to be run in a more business-like manner and now more than ever. But government should never literally be run like a business. Business is about cold numbers, strict adherence to bottom lines and the ascent of those with the greatest skills and advantages. Governing requires a humanism that we find largely absent in the business world of today. It calls for skills that the business world often overlooks or shuns. Governing requires the ability not to follow spreadsheets and marketing advice but to weigh all of the relevant information and decide what is best for all of California in both the long and short term.

There is no one better for that job than Jerry Brown.

------

A post script regarding the New York governor's race. Voter dissatisfaction is real and valid. But Palladino versus Cuomo is a nearly impossible distortion of that reality. The difference between Carl Palladino and Andrew Cuomo, in terms of effectiveness, talent and experience, is the between a water pistol and a fire hose. A pea shooter and a cannon. When Eliot Spitzer was elected, a great man became governor. That man faltered and was replaced by an interim governor who has struggled. Now, New Yorkers can return another brilliant, hard-working public servant to the governor's office by electing Andrew Cuomo.

ScribbleLive plans to reinvent the <b>news</b> article | VentureBeat

Anthony is VentureBeat's assistant editor, as well as its reporter on media, advertising, and social networks. Before joining VentureBeat in ...

How to be a data journalist | <b>News</b> | guardian.co.uk

Data journalism trainer and writer Paul Bradshaw explains how to get started in data journalism, from getting to the data to visualising it • Guardian data editor Simon Rogers explains how our data journalism…

Small Business <b>News</b>: The White Paper Overview

Pundits still say they are a great way to develop credibility for your business easy to distribute in their popular current PDF format and also, if done right,

skin and vein center eric seiger dermatologist