China’s average GDP to exceed 1000 US dollars At current growth rates this would mean that a supposedly communist country could have a larger economy than the US within 30 years.
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business
Business Plan Archive is a repository of business plans and information about failed .com companies – a sort of intellectual anti-matter I guess, but fascinating reading nonetheless. My personal favorite that I’d forgotten about: Zap.com Portal that makes fish oil
Ping Identity – who are sponsors of the SourceID open source identity project has secured $5M in Financing from General Catalyst Partners – who Jeremy Allaire is involved with.
Benchmark and Kleiner Perkins are rumored to be about to put $10M into Friendster. How to win Friendsters and influence VCs | CNET News.com
The difference between the Bush’s first budget plan, for the next 10 years and today’s: $8,000,000,000,000. NYTimes: “The long-term budget forecast has declined as much in the last two years as the total revenue collected by the United States government from 1789 to 1983.” The reason for some of this shortfall is ‘investment’ to stimulate the economy, but tax cuts and sometimes questionably misdirected hostility are not the same as investing in, say, secondary education. I’m a pragmatist and however unfair, this does work, but to a degree. This would be a choice of someone who prefers short term stimulants to longer term health – cocaine versus cardiovascular fitness (and ‘would be’ might actually read ‘was’, if you believed the rumors). In the business world, this is the equivalent of corporate investment in longer term revenue by raising executive salaries and actually encouraging competition from other companies, instead of new…
People pay a great deal of money for software when there is often an open source alternative for free. There is, quite literally, an ‘open source’ of tap water in most kitchens but people spend more than $7 billion annually on something that would cost less than $1M if they used the open source. This month’s skeptic has some great trivia on the ultimate scam: selling bottled water in countires where the ‘open source’ is just fine… “25 percent or more of bottled water is really just tap water in a bottle–sometimes further treated, sometimes not. If the label says ‘from a municipal source’ or ‘from a community water system,’ it’s tap water. “ “[the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s] bottled water quality standards are the same as [the Environmental Protection Agency’s] tap water standards.” but… “bottled water is subject to less rigorous purity standards and less frequent tests for…
A bit sick, but still… “…The rules of this contest are simple: Start with this image of her cell, and decorate it in a way that would be suitable for the queen of gracious living. Keep in mind, this is not a regular b2b contest – you must redecorate this provided image of a jail cell for Martha… “ Worth1000.com contest
Although deflation strikes fear in the minds of governments (the principal economic stabilizing mechanism, interest rate adjustment, is no longer viable) and bankers (“because a zero rate would roil money market funds, which rely on a positive interest rate to cover their own operating costs”) it is ordinary people who would lose out most. Low interest rates on mortgages may have created a false euphoria where people believe they can afford house prices that would normally be out of their reach. Deflation could spell bad news for anyone with debt, such as a mortgage, as the value of the debt would increase over time. For the poor, who often rely on extortionate loans just to survive, let alone buy property, the effects could be crippling. In the early 19th century in Britain, social unrest brought on from the effects of deflation almost caused a revolution. Deflation Hints Feed Talk of…
The French culture minister, Jean-Jacques Aillagon is alarmed at the possible sale of Universal, after rumors that Apple might buy it, because it owns rights to French artists such as Johnny Hallyday. Er… somehow I don’t think Hallyday is one of Universal’s more lucrative assets. ‘”The minister wrote this letter to say he was being vigilant and that he wanted to be kept informed of the progress of the Universal Music dossier given the importance of this cultural company for French creativity and the value of our national heritage,’ the paper [les Echos] quoted a source close to the minister as saying.” “Aillagon wants more than just financial concerns to guide the sale of Universal Music, which has popular French artists such as Johnny Hallyday under contract, the source said.” Reuters
…or at least his trademark is: “Word MarkSADDAMS Goods and Services(ABANDONED) IC 016. US 038. G & S: comic strips, comic books,and related cartoon characters Live/Dead Indicator DEAD”