US

Seeing the future…

Next weekend on the political talk shows, someone will say “nobody foresaw this crisis”. It’s the same excuse used for the morgage crisis; and just like the morgage crisis, it’s untrue. 

“The practice is very different, as Warren Buffett worked out years ago. His 2002 letter to his Berkshire Hathaway shareholders made headlines by condemning derivatives as “financial weapons of mass destruction”. The passage comprised only a couple of pages of the lengthy letter but read it again today – it is the best guide to understanding how Wall Street has arrived at today’s mess.”

Wall Street crisis: Is this the death knell for derivatives? |Business |guardian.co.uk

Politics, UK

That’s got to hurt someone…

Mainly, right now, it’s just a forest of figures: 12% wiped off property prices in a year; new mortgage approvals down by 71%; house sales at a 30-year-low; bank lending to homebuyers down by £12.1bn; one in seven homeowners in negative equity within two years; repossession orders up 24%; 45,000 families set to lose their homes.

Jon Henley on Britain’s attitude to bricks and mortar | Money | The Guardian

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One world…

When we look at market share in IT we often quote global figures that hide massive geographic differences. Also we believe that what we use is the global standard. AOL Messenger is a good example of this, if you’re in the US everyone uses it (or almost).

However, look at the figures by country and the picture is very different.

global_im_market_share_stats_july_08.pdf (application/pdf Object)

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It’s Netscape all over again…

“Today, it’s clear to me why I’ve felt this way: Google isn’t interested at all in “being a citizen” or part of a platform, they are interested in being the platform. If you look at the way Chrome is designed, it’s not so much designed to be a good browser, as much as it is a good operating system for web applications.”

Google Chrome and Gears – Unweary

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Hiding things…

So I’m reading Oliviers blog and we get to this quote…

“It’s incredible that something as potentially game-changing as a Google browser has stayed under wraps for two years.”

Une partie de l’histoire de Chrome » Le blog d’Olivier 

Oh my god. What else have they got hidden there?

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Shoot me now…

“Globalization will destroy incomes for the vast majority in the developed world, guaranteed. We’ve been at a plateau for the last thirty years (the average person in the US makes slightly less than he did in 1973). A descent to global norms for similarly skilled/trained labor is inevitable.”

John Robb’s Weblog: Immigration Theater

Random thoughts…