Samsung has been showing its first Bada phone, able to download applications from Samsung's version of iTunes and nowhere else. But will Bada really challenge Apple and the iPhone?…
WASHINGTON — Legislation extending unemployment insurance for the long-term jobless faces a key test vote in the Senate, its momentum helped by about 60 popular tax breaks for individuals and businesses that expired at the end of last year.
The measure also prevents doctors from absorbing a crippling cut in Medicare payments, extends health insurance subsidies for the unemployed and gives cash-starved states help with Medicaid, the federal-state program providing health care to the poor and disabled.
The unemployment insurance alone – to provide weekly unemployment checks averaging above $300 to people whose core 26-week benefit package has run out – will cost $66 billion through December. In some states people are eligible to receive benefits for up to 99 weeks.
The bill, and the test vote Tuesday, demonstrate the difficulty Democrats face as they focus on jobs. It doesn't include new ideas for boosting jobs, but instead reprises elements of last year's $862 billion economic stimulus bill, which is earning mixed reviews from voters. Simply extending those provisions has produced a far more expensive measure than a separate so-called jobs bill that Democrats hope to soon send to President Barack Obama. That measure would boost highway spending and give tax breaks to companies that hire the unemployed and could clear the Senate for Obama's desk this week.
At a gross cost of about $148 billion, Tuesday's measure illustrates the extraordinary cost of the unemployment safety net as the economy inches out of the recession. Democrats say the unemployment benefits inject demand into the economy and say renewing the tax cuts helps preserve existing jobs.
The measure closes $29 billion of tax loopholes to help defray its cost, including one enjoyed by paper companies that get a credit from burning "black liquor," a pulp-making byproduct, as if it were an alternative fuel.
All told, the measure would add $107 billion to the deficit over the coming decade. Democrats have labeled most of the bill an emergency measure, exempting it from stricter budget rules enacted just last month.
Democrats need to muster at least one Republican vote Tuesday to reach the 60-vote threshold needed to limit debate and guarantee an up-or-down vote. But Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, provided crucial help last week to keep the measure out of another procedural tangle, and Democrats sound confident they will prevail.
The bill includes about 60 popular tax breaks for individuals and businesses that expired at the end of 2009. The bill would extend the tax breaks through 2010, at a cost of about $26 billion.
Congress routinely extends the tax breaks each year with large bipartisan majorities. Businesses and tax planners would prefer a more permanent solution, but lawmakers can't agree on how to pay for a longer extension.
The tax breaks include a property tax deduction for people who don't itemize, lucrative credits that help businesses finance research and development and a sales tax deduction that mainly helps people in the nine states without income taxes: Alaska, Florida, Nevada, New Hampshire, South Dakota, Texas, Tennessee, Washington and Wyoming.
There is a deduction for college tuition for couples making less than $160,000 a year, and one for teachers who use their own money to buy school supplies. There is a tax credit for community development agencies that invest in low-income neighborhoods, as well as a tax break for restaurant owners and retailers who remodel their stores.
The expiration of one tax break, a $1 per gallon credit for the production of biodiesel, has already caused "a pretty substantial blow to the industry," said Michael Frohlich, a spokesman for the National Biodiesel Board. The credit would cost $1 billion to extend for the rest of the year.
WASHINGTON — Legislation extending unemployment insurance for the long-term jobless faces a key test vote in the Senate, its momentum helped by about 60 popular tax breaks for individuals and businesses that expired at the end of last year.
The measure also prevents doctors from absorbing a crippling cut in Medicare payments, extends health insurance subsidies for the unemployed and gives cash-starved states help with Medicaid, the federal-state program providing health care to the poor and disabled.
The unemployment insurance alone – to provide weekly unemployment checks averaging above $300 to people whose core 26-week benefit package has run out – will cost $66 billion through December. In some states people are eligible to receive benefits for up to 99 weeks.
The bill, and the test vote Tuesday, demonstrate the difficulty Democrats face as they focus on jobs. It doesn't include new ideas for boosting jobs, but instead reprises elements of last year's $862 billion economic stimulus bill, which is earning mixed reviews from voters. Simply extending those provisions has produced a far more expensive measure than a separate so-called jobs bill that Democrats hope to soon send to President Barack Obama. That measure would boost highway spending and give tax breaks to companies that hire the unemployed and could clear the Senate for Obama's desk this week.
At a gross cost of about $148 billion, Tuesday's measure illustrates the extraordinary cost of the unemployment safety net as the economy inches out of the recession. Democrats say the unemployment benefits inject demand into the economy and say renewing the tax cuts helps preserve existing jobs.
The measure closes $29 billion of tax loopholes to help defray its cost, including one enjoyed by paper companies that get a credit from burning "black liquor," a pulp-making byproduct, as if it were an alternative fuel.
All told, the measure would add $107 billion to the deficit over the coming decade. Democrats have labeled most of the bill an emergency measure, exempting it from stricter budget rules enacted just last month.
Democrats need to muster at least one Republican vote Tuesday to reach the 60-vote threshold needed to limit debate and guarantee an up-or-down vote. But Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, provided crucial help last week to keep the measure out of another procedural tangle, and Democrats sound confident they will prevail.
The bill includes about 60 popular tax breaks for individuals and businesses that expired at the end of 2009. The bill would extend the tax breaks through 2010, at a cost of about $26 billion.
Congress routinely extends the tax breaks each year with large bipartisan majorities. Businesses and tax planners would prefer a more permanent solution, but lawmakers can't agree on how to pay for a longer extension.
The tax breaks include a property tax deduction for people who don't itemize, lucrative credits that help businesses finance research and development and a sales tax deduction that mainly helps people in the nine states without income taxes: Alaska, Florida, Nevada, New Hampshire, South Dakota, Texas, Tennessee, Washington and Wyoming.
There is a deduction for college tuition for couples making less than $160,000 a year, and one for teachers who use their own money to buy school supplies. There is a tax credit for community development agencies that invest in low-income neighborhoods, as well as a tax break for restaurant owners and retailers who remodel their stores.
The expiration of one tax break, a $1 per gallon credit for the production of biodiesel, has already caused "a pretty substantial blow to the industry," said Michael Frohlich, a spokesman for the National Biodiesel Board. The credit would cost $1 billion to extend for the rest of the year.
Fans of the Twat-O-Tron will be delighted and disturbed in equal measure to learn that one Daily Mail commentard has managed to surpass the hideous turdspurts which emanate from Middle England's automated indignation generator.…
The problem today for most isn't this recession, it's that except for the top 10 percent, average household income hasn't changed a bit for 10 to 20 years.
Google has opened the door to iPhone-like 3D games on certain Android handsets, offering support for the OpenGL ES 2.0 graphics standard with its latest Android Native Development Kit (NDK).…
A criminal court in Thailand has approved the extradition to the US of a Malaysian man suspected of participating in credit card thefts of more than $152m, according to a local news report.…
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Continue reading Geneva 2010: Our top Fantasy and Reality vehicles of the show
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Ubisoft has confirmed its rights management servers were hit by a fierce DDoS attack over the weekend that left some customers unable to play its games for much of Sunday.…
The WSJ and TechCrunch cover Forrester’s relatively bullish e-commerce survey. This is from the WSJ:
In 2009, e-commerce in the U.S. managed to buck the recession that dragged down the rest of retail, growing 11% to reach $155.2 billion, according to Forrester Research. The research firm is predicting in a report out Monday that e-commerce in America will grow another 11% this year.
The Forrester e-commerce number from 2009 — a purported 6% of total retail sales — is inflated. Forrester uses a smaller sample than US government data, which shows e-commerce at 3.8% of total US retail sales (in Q4).
Here’s the more interesting part of the Forrester data, as reported in the WSJ:
And a new area of focus for retailers isn’t online buying at all. Rather, it us using the Internet and mobile technology to influence sales that happen in stores. Already Forrester’s study found that 42% of all retail purchases in 2009 – worth some $917 billion – were influenced by the Web in some way. By 2014 that figure is likely to jump to 53%.
These figures are probably off as well. The online –>offline number should be larger. Recall that Compete/TNS conducted a survey in which it found that 94% did research online prior to (online) purchase. Prior studies by comScore, BIGResearch, Yahoo! and others have found 80% to more than 90% of consumers buying in-store have consulted the Internet for information prior to purchase.
The challenge, in gaining a true picture of consumer behavior, is measuring this online–>offline impact on a campaign basis. There are various methodologies to try and get at this: call tracking, coupons, surveys, sales lift, attribution modeling.
Ironically, as I’ve said in the past, mobile will likely boost e-commerce as people visit stores to check out products and then buy online if they find a better price.
DETROIT — Detroit, the very symbol of American industrial might for most of the 20th century, is drawing up a radical renewal plan that calls for turning large swaths of this now-blighted, rusted-out city back into the fields and farmland that existed before the automobile.
Operating on a scale never before attempted in this country, the city would demolish houses in some of the most desolate sections of Detroit and move residents into stronger neighborhoods. Roughly a quarter of the 139-square-mile city could go from urban to semi-rural.
Near downtown, fruit trees and vegetable farms would replace neighborhoods that are an eerie landscape of empty buildings and vacant lots. Suburban commuters heading into the city center might pass through what looks like the countryside to get there. Surviving neighborhoods in the birthplace of the auto industry would become pockets in expanses of green.
Detroit officials first raised the idea in the 1990s, when blight was spreading. Now, with the recession plunging the city deeper into ruin, a decision on how to move forward is approaching. Mayor Dave Bing, who took office last year, is expected to unveil some details in his state-of-the-city address this month.
"Things that were unthinkable are now becoming thinkable," said James W. Hughes, dean of the School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers University, who is among the urban experts watching the experiment with interest. "There is now a realization that past glories are never going to be recaptured. Some people probably don't accept that, but that is the reality."
The meaning of what is afoot is now settling in across the city.
"People are afraid," said Deborah L. Younger, past executive director of a group called Detroit Local Initiatives Support Corporation that is working to revitalize five areas of the city. "When you read that neighborhoods may no longer exist, that sends fear."
Though the will to downsize has arrived, the way to do it is unclear and fraught with problems.
Politically explosive decisions must be made about which neighborhoods should be bulldozed and which improved. Hundreds of millions of federal dollars will be needed to buy land, raze buildings and relocate residents, since this financially desperate city does not have the means to do it on its own. It isn't known how many people in the mostly black, blue-collar city might be uprooted, but it could be thousands. Some won't go willingly.
"I like the way things are right here," said David Hardin, 60, whose bungalow is one of three occupied homes on a block with dozens of empty lots near what is commonly known as City Airport. He has lived there since 1976, when every home on the street was occupied, and said he enjoys the peace and quiet.
For much of the 20th century, Detroit was an industrial powerhouse – the city that put the nation on wheels. Factory workers lived in neighborhoods of simple single- and two-story homes and walked to work. But then the plants began to close one by one. The riots of 1967 accelerated an exodus of whites to the suburbs, and many middle-class blacks followed.
Now, a city of nearly 2 million in the 1950s has declined to less than half that number. On some blocks, only one or two occupied houses remain, surrounded by trash-strewn lots and vacant, burned-out homes. Scavengers have stripped anything of value from empty buildings. According to one recent estimate, Detroit has 33,500 empty houses and 91,000 vacant residential lots.
Several other declining industrial cities, such as Youngstown, Ohio, have also accepted downsizing. Since 2005, Youngstown has been tearing down a few hundred houses a year. But Detroit's plans dwarf that effort. The approximately 40 square miles of vacant property in Detroit is larger than the entire city of Youngstown.
Faced with a $300 million budget deficit and a dwindling tax base, Bing argues that the city can't continue to pay for police patrols, fire protection and other services for all areas.
The current plan would demolish about 10,000 houses and empty buildings in three years and pump new investment into stronger neighborhoods. In the neighborhoods that would be cleared, the city would offer to relocate residents or buy them out. The city could use tax foreclosure to claim abandoned property and invoke eminent domain for those who refuse to leave, much as cities now do for freeway projects.
The mayor has begun lobbying Washington for support, and in January Detroit was awarded $40.8 million for renewal work. The federally funded Detroit Housing Commission supports Bing's plan.
"It takes a true partnership, because we don't want to invest in a neighborhood that the city is not going to invest in," said Eugene E. Jones, executive director of the commission.
It is not known who might get the cleared land, but with prospects for recruiting industry slim, planners are considering agricultural uses. The city might offer larger tracts for sale or lease, or turn over smaller pieces to community organizations to use.
Maggie DeSantis, a board member of Community Development Advocates of Detroit, said she worries that shutting down neighborhoods without having new uses ready is a "recipe for disaster" that will invite crime and illegal dumping. The group recently proposed such things as the creation of suburban-style neighborhoods and nature parks.
Residents like Hardin want to keep their neighborhoods and eliminate the blight.
"We just try to keep it up," he said. "I've been doing it since I got it, so I don't look at nobody trying to help me do anything."
For others, Bing's plans could represent a way out.
Willie Mae Pickens has lived in her near east-side home since the 1960s and has watched as friends and neighbors left. Her house is the only one standing on her side of the street.
"They can buy it today. Any day," said Pickens, 87, referring to city officials. "I'll get whatever they'll give me for it, because I want to leave."
(This version corrects that Younger is past executive director of group, since she left it last week. It also corrects that renewal work money was granted in January, instead of last month.)
Cisco Systems has pulled out of the WiMAX base-station market, according to reports, favoring the LTE standard instead.
The Way We Live Now: Traditionally. We're subtly reverting to the days of yore. When women were paid in buttons. When the Hamptons were sleepy beach villages. When money was...controlled by Second Life sex fiends. Well, semi-traditionally.
Women: Still underpaid! Hey, that's not news. Here's what would be news: if the US government were offering homeowners cold hard cash if they sell their crappy underwater homes at a loss. That would be news.
People change, but things mostly stay the same. See? East Hampton was very la-dee-da for a minute there, but now it's essentially reverted to its former status as "a place that does not have Brooks Brothers, Cole Haan and Calypso Home stores there."
All thanks to the recession! So don't be surprised if you see one of your fellow citizens walking down the street whistling a happy tune. He's probably just one of the many sex fiend nerds who made $567 million in real money last year selling various forms of penises and rape machines to his fellow digital deviants.
It's all very much "the good old days are back again." Sure, times are tough, but at least the men are happy spending their last nickels on realistic internet dog sex while the women slave away for pennies on the dollar and spend their free time clipping coupons like real live maniacs. It's the principle that America was founded upon. (Dog sex).
Any day now, the Obama administration will announce $4.35 billion in extra federal funds for under-performing public schools. That's fine, but relative to the financial squeeze all the nation's public schools now face it's a cruel joke.
The recession has ravaged state and local budgets, most of which aren't allowed to run deficits. That's meant major cuts in public schools and universities, and a giant future deficit in the education of our people.
Across America, schools are laying off thousands of teachers. Classrooms that had contained 20 to 25 students are now crammed with 30 or more. School years have been shortened. Some school districts are moving to four-day school weeks. After-school programs have been canceled; music and art classes, terminated. Even history is being chucked.
Pre-K programs have been shut down. Community colleges are reducing their course offerings and admitting fewer students. Public universities, like the one I teach at, have raised tuition and fees. That means many qualified students won't be attending.
Last year the nation committed $700 billion to bail out Wall Street banks, the engines of America's financial capital, because we were told we'd face economic Armageddon if we didn't.
We've got our priorities backwards. Our schools are the engines of our human capital, and if we don't bail out public education we face a bigger economic Armageddon years from now.
Financial capital moves instantly around the globe to wherever it can earn the best return. Human capital -- the skills and insights of our people - is the one resource that's uniquely American, on which our future living standards uniquely depend.
Starting immediately, the federal government should give states and local governments interest-free loans to make up for all school and university budget shortfalls. The loans can be repaid when the recession is over and local and state tax revenues revive.
Over the longer term we must shift incentives away from financial capital toward human capital. A tiny one half of one percent tax on all financial transactions would generate about $200 billion a year, according to the Economic Policy Institute. That might put a crimp on Wall Street bonuses but it's enough to fund early childhood education, smaller K-12 classes, and lower tuition and fees for public higher education.
The Street's financial capital is important to the American economy, but over the long term the classroom's human capital is absolutely crucial.
Cross-posted from RobertReich.org.
Any day now, the Obama administration will announce $4.35 billion in extra federal funds for under-performing public schools. That's fine, but relative to the financial squeeze all the nation's public schools now face it's a cruel joke.
The recession has ravaged state and local budgets, most of which aren't allowed to run deficits. That's meant major cuts in public schools and universities, and a giant future deficit in the education of our people.
Across America, schools are laying off thousands of teachers. Classrooms that had contained 20 to 25 students are now crammed with 30 or more. School years have been shortened. Some school districts are moving to four-day school weeks. After-school programs have been canceled; music and art classes, terminated. Even history is being chucked.
Pre-K programs have been shut down. Community colleges are reducing their course offerings and admitting fewer students. Public universities, like the one I teach at, have raised tuition and fees. That means many qualified students won't be attending.
Last year the nation committed $700 billion to bail out Wall Street banks, the engines of America's financial capital, because we were told we'd face economic Armageddon if we didn't.
We've got our priorities backwards. Our schools are the engines of our human capital, and if we don't bail out public education we face a bigger economic Armageddon years from now.
Financial capital moves instantly around the globe to wherever it can earn the best return. Human capital -- the skills and insights of our people - is the one resource that's uniquely American, on which our future living standards uniquely depend.
Starting immediately, the federal government should give states and local governments interest-free loans to make up for all school and university budget shortfalls. The loans can be repaid when the recession is over and local and state tax revenues revive.
Over the longer term we must shift incentives away from financial capital toward human capital. A tiny one half of one percent tax on all financial transactions would generate about $200 billion a year, according to the Economic Policy Institute. That might put a crimp on Wall Street bonuses but it's enough to fund early childhood education, smaller K-12 classes, and lower tuition and fees for public higher education.
The Street's financial capital is important to the American economy, but over the long term the classroom's human capital is absolutely crucial.
Cross-posted from RobertReich.org.
Any day now, the Obama administration will announce $4.35 billion in extra federal funds for under-performing public schools. That's fine, but relative to the financial squeeze all the nation's public schools now face it's a cruel joke.
The recession has ravaged state and local budgets, most of which aren't allowed to run deficits. That's meant major cuts in public schools and universities, and a giant future deficit in the education of our people.
Across America, schools are laying off thousands of teachers. Classrooms that had contained 20 to 25 students are now crammed with 30 or more. School years have been shortened. Some school districts are moving to four-day school weeks. After-school programs have been canceled; music and art classes, terminated. Even history is being chucked.
Pre-K programs have been shut down. Community colleges are reducing their course offerings and admitting fewer students. Public universities, like the one I teach at, have raised tuition and fees. That means many qualified students won't be attending.
Last year the nation committed $700 billion to bail out Wall Street banks, the engines of America's financial capital, because we were told we'd face economic Armageddon if we didn't.
We've got our priorities backwards. Our schools are the engines of our human capital, and if we don't bail out public education we face a bigger economic Armageddon years from now.
Financial capital moves instantly around the globe to wherever it can earn the best return. Human capital -- the skills and insights of our people - is the one resource that's uniquely American, on which our future living standards uniquely depend.
Starting immediately, the federal government should give states and local governments interest-free loans to make up for all school and university budget shortfalls. The loans can be repaid when the recession is over and local and state tax revenues revive.
Over the longer term we must shift incentives away from financial capital toward human capital. A tiny one half of one percent tax on all financial transactions would generate about $200 billion a year, according to the Economic Policy Institute. That might put a crimp on Wall Street bonuses but it's enough to fund early childhood education, smaller K-12 classes, and lower tuition and fees for public higher education.
The Street's financial capital is important to the American economy, but over the long term the classroom's human capital is absolutely crucial.
Cross-posted from RobertReich.org.
By Geoffrey A. Fowler, Reporter, The Wall Street Journal
Shopping continues to shift to the Web, but the years of torrid growth are coming to an end. In 2009, e-commerce in the U.S. managed to buck the recession that dragged down the rest of retail, growing 11 percent to reach $155.2 billion, according to Forrester Research. The research firm is predicting in a report out Monday that e-commerce in America will grow another 11 percent this year.
A consensus is evolving that the semiconductor industry is going to recover mightily in 2010. But the analysts at iSuppli want to remind everyone that things are only going to feel so good this year because they were so bad in late 2008 and through 2009.…
Unemployed? If you're looking for something to get you out of the house, the Census is hiring and apparently they're really enjoying the sudden influx of lawyers and other professionals to choose from, says the Washington Post.
The WaPa says:
The Census Bureau expects to hire at least 700,000 people throughout the spring and summer for part-time jobs, paying $10 to $25 an hour, mostly to knock on the doors of people who don't send in forms that will arrive in mailboxes this month. Many of the expected 3 million to 4 million applicants will be like Williams: highly educated and in the prime of their working life but sidelined by a recession that has driven the unemployment rate to almost 10 percent.So, what are they looking for? WaPo says you must be 18 and submit to an FBI background check that includes fingerprinting. it's also helpful if you are actually from a neighborhood where the Census needs people for canvassing. They figure that people are more likely to open the door to a familiar face.
Language skills will also be important.
Does this sound like something you'd like to do?
Laid-off professionals line up for part-time census jobs [WaPo]
[Census.gov]
Advertising regulator the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) will take over the regulation of companies' social networking pages by the end of the year, according to advertising industry proposals.…
