Photo of the DayIncredible photos and incredibly addictive!
Phone Wielding Shoppers Strike Fear Into Retailers
Tri Tang, a 25-year-old marketer, walked into a Best Buy Co. store in Sunnyvale, Calif., this past weekend and spotted the perfect gift for his girlfriend.
Last year, he might have just dropped the $184.85 Garmin global positioning system into his cart. This time, he took out his Android phone and typed the model number into an app that instantly compared the Best Buy price to those of other retailers. He found that he could get the same item on Amazon.com Inc.'s website for only $106.75, no shipping, no tax.
Mr. Tang bought the Garmin from Amazon right on the spot.
Is this the new "let your fingers doing the walking" bargain shopping model? No wonder retailers are scared. Of course the shopper could have done his online shopping before he went to Best Buy.
The Euro Crisis, Explained
For some nations, such as Britain, giving up the national currency was an identity crisis too far. Led by the right wing of the Conservative Party, opposition to joining the euro is visceral and deep seated in the U.K., and no British prime minister, Conservative or Labour, has even attempted to argue for membership in the single currency.
France and Germany were willing to cede their national currencies, but not their authority. Politicians like to control tax rates. They like to set budgets. So these functions were reserved for each government's politicians to oversee.
For its first decade the euro worked well. It quickly established itself as a reserve currency. It was instrumental in helping the entire European Union grow economically. Today the EU accounts for between 27 percent and 28 percent of world GDP — a larger share than either the U.S. or China.
Great post, Dss. The pics were good. Took me a minute to figure out I was supposed to click on the blank area, now I wonder how many secrets I've been missing over the years......
ReplyDeleteThe App I wanted, and was tempted to put together, was to let people record what they're buying and where, and post these prices to the server. Then users could make out their list, launch the app, and it would tell them which stores to visit to get the best bargains.
I went to a VC friend, and he reminded me "there's no recurring revenue in that app".
I think it would be really good in the US. Here, it wouldn't because this seems to be a Fair Trade country; no matter where you go, the price is *exactly* the same for the identical item. I guess you can do that when you're small and only have one wholesaler per product line for the whole country.
@Rock,
ReplyDeleteNot sure what you mean by clicking the "blank area". I fixed the photo so it would be right sized.
I got lost in the photos of the day just looking at each picture, one more beautiful and interesting than the next.
@Rock your question previous thread, about the mechanism of a sovereign default. Sry for the delay, was out yesterday. Namely, took a walk down the Champs-Elysee:)
ReplyDeleteI'm no "expert",however my understanding is that a sovereign default can really mean anything, from debt restructuring (rescheduling of payments and/or partial default), to total default. It probably comes in many more flavors than this. Maybe you could check how sovereign defaults happening in the 20th century have been processed.
As far as European Union is concerned, I believe there doesn't exist any written rules for such situations. EU officials are currently debating how to handle defaults occuring in one of its member nations, namely whether they shall enforce part of the losses on the creditors.
Heads of government are due to meet Thursday in Brussels to finalize the plans for a European stability mechanism, the main upshot of which is likely to be a legal framework for restructuring sovereign debt.
WSJ:ECB WATCH: Capital Hike May Herald More Bond Buys--Or Default
@Dss:
ReplyDeleteUnderneath the "shopping before he went to Best Buy" there is a blank area. On my browser (firefox) the background is the same color as the blank spot.
Then under that blank area, there is a link "The Euro Crisis Explained" which resolves to http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/european-union/101215/eurozone-euro-crisis
When I click on the blank area (the pointer goes from the arrow to the finger, indicating it's a link) I go to
http://www.free-stockphotos.com/
Manny is sitting pretty with his TLT! Wish I held on to my little 100 shares.
ReplyDeleteQuadruple witching today.
ReplyDeleteOh. I see a photo of euros that I posted. I use Firefox as well. And the Free Photo website insists that you post a link back to where the free photo came from, so I put that at the bottom.
ReplyDeleteCan anyone else see the Euros?
@Wolfstreet:
ReplyDeleteThx! I understand. I think this might be worth a post, so I'll do some research over the holidays to see what I can find.
Love it, Denise! Ole faithful for me. And I added a bunch more yesterday before the little bump upward.
ReplyDeletePK all over this one today:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/17/opinion/17krugman.html
Morning everyone! Company Holiday party last night. My ass is draggin'
ReplyDeleteOoooh, have you cold climate folks ever seen anything like this?
ReplyDeletehttp://www.aolnews.com/2010/12/16/storm-turns-ohio-lighthouse-into-beautiful-ice-sculpture/
UUP looking a bit perky too.
ReplyDeleteHere's the shock "study" of the day for you. LOL.
ReplyDeleteStudy Finds FOX News Viewers Most Misinformed
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/12/17/fox-news-viewers-are-the-_n_798146.html
I can't even watch this whole thing Sickening. All the energy mustered for more tax breaks to the rich, but can't muster up any semblance of decency to pass this bill? Beyond shameful. And then these same clowns will turn around and bemoan the loss of "civility" and "community" in our country. What a joke.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/12/17/stewart-911-responders-bill_n_798114.html
Manny - I go with Denise's advice with most of these guys. Watch what they do, not what they say. For instance.
ReplyDelete"giving young children the same opportunity to "make it" - yet voting against all increases to education funding.
"support the police and fire fighter first responders to 9/11" - yet voting to deny them settlement for their continuing health claims.
Heard on the radio this morning they were talking about the bald face lying in DC and how it's not even frowned upon there anymore. Case in point - Rangel saying that the ethics report vindicated him when it was first released, when in reality it did the exact opposite.
One of these days, it would be nice to get instant fact checking on every public statement these people make.
@Thor: Indeed and it's really hurtling this country to a really bad place if it's not reversed soon.
ReplyDeleteThese people are nasty, lying, soulless scoundrels who will do anything to "win". Anything.
I love how guys like McConnell and Boner can muster up the energy to constantly cry about THEMSELVES and their other buddies in Congress but give no thought to the harm their actions are doing to a lot of good people in this country.
ReplyDeleteThese people are sociopaths and narcissists. Plain and simple.
ReplyDelete@Thor,
ReplyDeleteThe problem is that these people and their policies have been exposed as being shams, liars, charlatans, and no one gives a shit.
There was a court case regarding Faux about them lying on their "news" shows, and they won the case. Faux News can lie with impunity and it is not illegal. There is this implicit trust that we have with the media, it turns out they can say any damn thing they want and not have to answer to anyone. This is why Limbaugh, Beck, and the entire Faux "news" staff gets to lie day after day.
We have always known that almost all politicians lie, but most sheeple don't know that the media lies, too, to further a political or business agenda.
As Mark Twain has so famously said:
ReplyDeleteThere are three kinds of lies; lies, damn lies and statistics. (where statistics are massaged to bolster a weak argument)
Manny - one day it will change. It has to. We've swung back and forth like this in our society for centuries. I don't know that we've ever swung this far in one direction, or that we've ever had this many incompetent, self centered people in positions of power, but it can't go on like this forever, it just can't.
ReplyDeleteCan it? :-)
Meanwhile, NYC now more unequal than Chile. I have no idea how the non-wealthy (and non-financial service sector peeps) can make it in that city. Thank God we left when we had the chance. A lot of its character has really eroded over the years too, IMO.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2010/12/banana-republic-watch-new-york-city-more-unequal-than-chile.html
Really good article at TBP:
ReplyDeleteThe Bond Herd and Gold
"First and foremost, let’s be clear. This bond market riot is a global phenomenon. US-centric observers are blaming the rise of the benchmark ten-year Treasury note yield on an inflation-risk scare or on Fed money printing with QE2 (quantitative easing round 2) or on expanded deficits because of the tax-cut extensions. These observers are missing the boat."
To show how warped and twisted our country has become the First Responders bill has not been passed. Jon Stewart did his whole show on it yesterday:
ReplyDeleteJon Stewart spends entire show on 9/11 First Responders
What I want to know is where are all of these flag waving, Freedom Fry eating, patriotic, war mongering politicians now that it is time to help these people.
Yep, Denise. I commented on that one as well above. Truly amazing. And sad.
ReplyDelete10 year coming down a bit as well.
ReplyDeleteManny,
ReplyDeleteSorry, I didn't see that one. Well, it is important enough to comment twice on it.
Exactly Denise!
ReplyDeleteGood one from Matt Taibi
ReplyDeleteBernie Sanders Puts Barack Obama to Shame
@Thor:
ReplyDelete"giving young children the same opportunity to "make it" - yet voting against all increases to education funding."
I would vote against many, perhaps most, increases to education funding. At my son's primary school, there were huge funds spent on a very very few kids, and kids that did not need the services provided by the education funds at all. For example, my son had to take speech. The speech teacher had only 3 students, and they needed more that "needed" speech training in order to justify her position and funding to the school.
That in my opinion is just wrong. Just wrong.
You make of the school what you put into it.
I own a house next door to a primarily hispanic school. Their test scores were terrible. I introduced to the principal a method of teaching them english by the use of cartoons with sub-captions, and their test scores improved 42% in one year. The cost? I spent 240 on about 9 DVDs.
This school funding thing is absolutely absurd. No child left behind is absurd. The squirrels that don't make it across the street, well, don't make new squirrels.
Rock - I partly agree, mostly that just throwing more money at something isn't always going to guarantee a positive outcome. We dump a lot of money into schools here in LA County yet not much has changed other than a lot of pretty new school buildings. It's a multi-dimensional issue.
ReplyDeleteMy issue was with politicians (all of them?) who say one thing in their speeches and on radio and television, but do the exact opposite when it comes time to vote.
Also - definitely not a liberal/conservative issue in a lot of places either. You know what the schools up in the city are like. Look at everything the politicians have done up there over the last 15 years. The Embarcadero, the restoration of City Hall, the new libraries and museums, the old trolley lines, and to cap it all off, a brand new Bay Bridge. Yet when it comes to schools, forget it. With all that money, SF still has some of the worst schools in the country.
ReplyDeleteSo for all the liberal talk of getting our educational system up to par, when it comes down to it, the money won't be spent, it'll go to a new Civic Center, or yet another extension of BART.
So ol' Rock has done some weakness research.
ReplyDeleteThis week, we've dropped about a percent in the S&P. But in the stocks I follow, there are a bunch that lost way more than that. This means, they have poor relative strength. If you wish to track these for possible future shorting, here they are:
-.02
CMP WRE TAO PSA GCO FINL EBAY CHS JBLU AMR CHL LEN ITRI ASA DO ATML SNE HPQ BRCD DELL ALU ASBC C EWH
.03
KSU DSX SOLF FTO CKP INTC RIMM AKAM PFCB ADM HCS GS BEN
.04
SPG PLCE CMP CNW SLW GG ABX LDK RIG NBR DRQ HOC WEN AXP EWP
-.05
KR PVG PCX SA TSL JASO PVG NOA WTI PVG DIN EIDO MOS
-.06
WFR CREE GMCR
-.07
LIZ XTXI CRM WFR DFS
-.08
BBY BIDU HBAN
-.09
LLNW AEM DRIV WDC
-.11 CLD
-.13 MA
-.14 ICO
-.16 WNR V
I bought V this morning. IMHO, the decline for MA and V is misdirected.
There are rounding errors.
The crumbling of our schools is at least partially a cultural issue, IMO. I believe that studies have shown kids clearly do better when parents are really involved in their learning since birth, meaning a lot of reading to them and ensuring that there the promotion of the love of learning is constantly there. These days, with two parents having to work most cases more than 40 hour a week jobs, or single parents trying to carry the load, along with other factors, has contributed to breaking things down, IMO.
ReplyDeleteHoly TLT.
ReplyDeleteSchools are a touchy issue, for the most part the cities have terrible public school systems, terrible outcomes, which force parents into private schools.
ReplyDeleteIt is much more than a question of money, but many of the schools in Chicago are terrible places to be because of the aging physical plant, neglected grounds, lack of supplies, disadvantaged children.
If we spent the same amount of emphasis, time and effort on educating our children we all would be better off, but it is a very low priority in this country. Money is an issue especially in funding Illinois schools as they are funded by local taxes. Rich suburbs have the best schools, poor suburbs have the worst schools.
We have a good school system where I live and many lower income families will move into the few apartments that are available just to have the opportunity for their kids.
If our society put a top priority on education we would have the best schools but we don't. Pretty much it is up to the parents to seek out the best opportunities for their children.
Manny - Good trade man! Denise, I'm sorry you got stopped out :-( Ya win some, ya lose some eh?
ReplyDelete@Dss
ReplyDeleteYou're right. The entire football team was "volunteered" to work for Head Start, and I continued on for 2 years after the assignment was over, until I graduated. When just a few, a very few, parents become involved, the kids notice, and start believing in themselves.
It really does take only a few to make a difference.
Same as on Anonymouse Traders.
@Manny,
ReplyDeleteFabulous Taibbi article, proves he can be a terrific writer without the bomb throwing.
@Thor,
ReplyDeleteI have to stick to my conviction and I am sorry to say that I did get stopped out, but there's always another trade tomorrow.
What is interesting while the bonds were crating, muni's especially, those at ZH were doing their best dancing on the grave of munis routine with TD leading the pack.
Ten years screaming to new highs of the day.
ReplyDeleteAgreed on Taibbi, Denise.
ReplyDeleteI love his bomb throwing, but this article is so good, too.
ReplyDeleteGood article from Salon -
ReplyDeleteWhy the "lazy jobless" myth persists
During the recent fight over extending unemployment benefits, conservatives trotted out the shibboleth that says the program fosters sloth. Sen. Judd Gregg, for instance, said added unemployment benefits mean people are "encouraged not to go look for work." Columnist Pat Buchanan said expanding these benefits means "more people will hold off going back looking for a job." And Fox News' Charles Payne applauded the effort to deny future unemployment checks because he said it would compel layabouts "to get off the sofa."
@Thor: Front page picture and article in the local paper showed a LONG line of people waiting to be accepted to shovel snow at TCF Bank Stadium on the University of MN campus for $10/hour. Most were turned away and not needed, as the people they had got it done more quickly than they anticipated. Yeah, those people are just lazy lining up in frigid weather to do back-breaking work for a measly $10/hour. Lazy whiners.
ReplyDeleteYay! Child #3 made it home from college!
ReplyDeleteYay!
ReplyDelete