I think that's a fair and accurate characterization of the shell games that pass for strategy from the nation's leading financial institutions, Chris. And still it's gotten no easier for well qualified borrowers to get mortgages; lending banks are amazingly impervious to the bad PR.
Terry, I too share your reluctance to believe the recent spate of M&A activity is anything more than year end window dressing or bargain hunting.
Yes, the market has enjoyed an unprecedented 60% increase from the March lows, but the economy will continue to struggle as long as unemployment continues to rise.
The market has climbed the wall of worry throughout the year, and will end on a positive note. The large institutional banks are paying back TARP money through the sale of common stock rather than profits. The dilution of shares does not strengthen the banking system nor does make stock holders any wealthier. But what it does do is get the government off the bankers back and leaves the Pay Czar totally ineffective. Now bonuses and salaries can go back to being disproportionate again, at the expense of us all.
I'm not sure whether anyone with "an issue" would want to touch one of these gadgets with a 10-foot pole. That said, no doubt they're great for law enforcement, or for companies looking to validate employee sobriety (e.g., utilities firms with regulated businesses that already drug-test field engineers).
The office employees may be exempt: On the Internet, nobody knows you're drunk, right?
Thanks, Mary... yes, biometric intoxifcation detection system is a mouthful, and the first biometrics application I've seen in this vein. I guess it's a little built-in Breathalzyer type device, which would be great for people on probation or parole for drunk driving convictions, have a chronic issue, or have ever had their driver's license suspended.
Great summary, Terry. I choose to think the trend you summarize IS good news. We will be better able to judge when the figures on shopping come out after Christmas.
In the meantime, I think any business could benefit from a biometric intoxication detection kit -- at least until New Year's Eve.
Good news! The US gross domestic product grew by 5.5% last quarter. But does that number accurately reflect the value created by the information economy?
Who put the "co" in Overstock's "O.co" branding campaign? Colombia, which, like some other countries, is selling its top-level Internet domain to anyone who wants to be a .co. Top-level domains of all kinds may soon be for sale, but the jury's out on whether search engines care about them.
Data mining of social networks means people might face unforeseen consequences as a result of their seemingly innocuous personal choices and associations.
If you listen to the hype, clouds are everywhere. But if you look at the data, it turns out most customers say they still wouldn't use cloud computing for mission-critical apps or data. What's holding them back? Fritz investigates.
How do you recognize an Internet bubble when you see one? Saunders explains how all bubbles have four symptoms in common – and takes a swipe at Google and Twitter into the bargain.
The sky is falling! And in other news, Saunders explains why he’s predicting a second Internet bubble – this one based around the current craze for social media.
The restaurant chain's Chris Laping describes how the company drives innovation in everything from operations to team uniforms under his leadership. Internet Evolution's Mitch Wagner interviewed Laping at the E2Innovate conference.
Expert Integrated Systems: Changing the Experience & Economics of IT In this e-book, we take an in-depth look at these expert integrated systems -- what they are, how they work, and how they have the potential to help CIOs achieve dramatic savings while restoring IT's role as business innovator. READ THIS eBOOK
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M2M: Rise of the Machines? Not Yet David Weldon In the 1970 science fiction thriller Colossus: The Forbin Project, two giant supercomputers from the United States and Soviet Union secretly join forces to take control of the collective nuclear might of the two countries. In the film, the two machines discover each other's existence, communicate back-and-forth, share their collective data, and cut their human creators out of the process. It is the ultimate example of machine-to-machine communications, or M2M. CLICK FOR MORE
M2M: Rise of the Machines? Not Yet David Weldon In the 1970 science fiction thriller Colossus: The Forbin Project, two giant supercomputers from the United States and Soviet Union secretly join forces to take control of the collective nuclear might of the two countries. In the film, the two machines discover each other's existence, communicate back-and-forth, share their collective data, and cut their human creators out of the process. It is the ultimate example of machine-to-machine communications, or M2M. CLICK FOR MORE
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