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| Topic: Economics |
5:01 pm EST, Jan 22, 2003 |
Okay, this is cool. A big map laying out ownership of the six giant media companies in the world. Gee, no wonder these guys all say the same thing... Looks like Alfred E Neuman put it together too. Media Ownership 2001 |
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| Topic: Economics |
1:01 pm EST, Jan 22, 2003 |
] The richest 10% of the population - about 10 million
] households - owned 84% of the stock and 90% of the bonds
] held by individuals (including that held indirectly
] through mutual funds). The democratization of ownership
] supposedly brought about by mutual funds has a long way
] to go. Great little graph wost the way down showing change in the the comparative wealth of American society. Distributing the booty |
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| Topic: Economics |
12:57 pm EST, Jan 22, 2003 |
Dubious source, and their numbers don't add up, but I think they're generally indicating the right order of magnitude change in wealth over my 32 year lifetime... ] in the late 1970s, the top one percent held 13 percent of
] the wealth; in 1995 it held 38 percent. ] In 1960 CEOs received 40 times the average worker's
] salary. In 1992 they received 157 times. Wealth Distribution |
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Double-dip alert - Washington statisticians have once again redefined the economic landscape. |
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| Topic: Economics |
3:10 pm EDT, Aug 2, 2002 |
Courtesy of the so-called benchmark revision of the national income and product accounts, the recent performance of the U.S. economy has been cast in a very different light. The direction of this annual revision was hardly a shocker. The incoming monthly flow data had tipped us off to expect a weaker picture than the previous data had painted. But there is more to this revision than statistical noise. In my opinion, the new data now place the U.S. economy right on the brink of another recessionary relapse -- the dreaded double dip. Double dips happen because demand relapses invariably occur at just the time when businesses are lifting production in order to rebuild inventories. With the current production upswing well advanced -- industrial production has risen for six consecutive months -- a demand relapse would come at a most inopportune time. Yet with the U.S. economy now back to its stall speed, that's precisely the risk. Courtesy of the government's newly revised depiction of the U.S. economy, the odds of a double dip have risen, in my view. I would now place a 60 percent to 65 percent chance on such a possibility in the second half of this year. Double-dip alert - Washington statisticians have once again redefined the economic landscape. |
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All Over the Area, Data Centers Assume New Identities |
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| Topic: Economics |
3:39 pm EDT, May 14, 2002 |
Not long ago, the Washington region was one of the hottest spots in the nation for building bunker-like warehouses for the powerful computers that send, receive and store data on the Internet. Now, with many of those data centers gone dark, the region has become a magnet for bargain hunters. Only 34.7% of data-center space is being used. About 1/3 of the excess is for sale, at a 50-90% discount off the construction cost. The data centers originally blossomed as the Internet bubble grew. The theory was that Internet traffic would continue to double every six months ... "There was sort of an ad hoc land-grab mentality." ... "The heyday of telecom expansion is not what it was and will not be coming back." All Over the Area, Data Centers Assume New Identities |
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| Topic: Economics |
12:37 am EDT, May 9, 2002 |
(NYTimes login required)
Political leaders in Washington are casting about for measures to ensure that the Enron debacle will never be repeated. Unfortunately, one of the main ideas being considered requiring companies to treat stock options as expenses on financial statements addresses an issue that not only had nothing to do with Enron's failure but is, in fact, not a problem at all. [ The problem is that there needs to be a clear line between the people with 2 million options and those with 2,000. -Rek ] Leave Options Alone |
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Only Some Will Survive the Telecom Shakeout |
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| Topic: Economics |
8:20 pm EDT, May 2, 2002 |
How do you tell the difference between the companies that are going to survive the shakeout among telecommunications service providers and those that will go belly-up? Every CEO running a phone company has studied the problem. When some number of customers stops buying, a company's remaining customers often come looking for discounts. It's exactly this double whammy of falling demand and falling prices that has hit telecommunications providers. ... Verizon will survive; Qwest is a definite maybe; WorldCom is on the ropes. ... Falling prices: $3,000 for an OC-3. A little over $12,000 for an OC-48. And dropping fast. I read an article earlier this week that mentioned a price of $2,000 for an OC-3. Cheap, cheap, cheap! It wasn't too long ago that all you could get for ~ $2k was a T-1. Only Some Will Survive the Telecom Shakeout |
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