Archive for the 'Economy' Category
New Zealand: Rural Broadband Light at the End of the Tunnel is the Train
February 7th, 2011You’ve heard of putting a wolf in charge of guarding a hen house. In rural New Zealand, we’ll get two wolves on the job. The final announcement has not yet been made, so I suppose there’s a chance that it might not be as bad as it looks now. However, my money is on the […]
Hackers Penetrate Nasdaq Computers
February 6th, 2011Via: Wall Street Journal: Hackers have repeatedly penetrated the computer network of the company that runs the Nasdaq Stock Market during the past year, and federal investigators are trying to identify the perpetrators and their purpose, according to people familiar with the matter. The exchange’s trading platform—the part of the system that executes trades—wasn’t compromised, […]
Beijing Bomb Shelters House One Million People
February 5th, 2011Via: Telegraph: To understand how far ordinary Chinese have been priced out of their country’s property market, you need to look not upwards at the Beijing’s shimmering high-rise skyline, but down, far below the bustling streets where nearly 20m people live and work. There, in the city’s vast network of unused air defence bunkers, as […]
The Youth Unemployment Bomb
February 4th, 2011Via: Business Week: In Tunisia, the young people who helped bring down a dictator are called hittistes—French-Arabic slang for those who lean against the wall. Their counterparts in Egypt, who on Feb. 1 forced President Hosni Mubarak to say he won’t seek reelection, are the shabab atileen, unemployed youths. The hittistes and shabab have brothers […]
Madoff and JP Morgan
February 4th, 2011Via: Guardian: The UK’s Serious Organised Crime Agency (Soca) was warned about Bernard Madoff in October 2008, two months before the fraudster confessed that his investment empire was a sham, according to a lawsuit unsealed in New York. The allegation was made in a suit filed against JP Morgan, one of Madoff’s banks, on behalf […]
California Cities Top Most Miserable List
February 4th, 2011Via: Reuters: If the saying “as goes California, so goes the nation” still rings true, then Americans are facing a depressing future, according to a list of the country’s most miserable cities. Ravaged by falling house prices, high unemployment, a massive budget deficit, rampant crime and high state taxes, California filled four of the top […]
Son of Ex-Enron Boss Found Dead
February 4th, 2011Via: AP: The youngest son of former Enron President Jeff Skilling was found dead in his Southern California apartment this week. John Taylor Skilling, 20, was found dead in his Santa Ana home around 10.30pm on Tuesday after his friends called police when he didn’t show up for a planned dinner, police Cpl. Anthony Bertagna […]
Obama Administration Allows Unrestricted Planting of GMO Alfalfa
February 4th, 2011Via: Politics of the Plate: On Thursday, the Obama administration showed whose side it is on in the battle between proponents of sustainable, organic agriculture and the big businesses that profit from conventional, chemical agriculture. Big Ag won. It wasn’t even close. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced that the United State Department of Agriculture (USDA) […]
When Irish Eyes Are Crying
February 4th, 2011Via: Vanity Fair: First Iceland. Then Greece. Now Ireland, which headed for bankruptcy with its own mysterious logic. In 2000, suddenly among the richest people in Europe, the Irish decided to buy their country—from one another. After which their banks and government really screwed them.
Blocking Internet Cost Egypt At Least $90M, Says OECD
February 3rd, 2011Via: Network World: The Egyptian government’s five-day block of Internet services cost the national economy at least US$90 million, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) said Thursday. The Paris-based organization said telecommunications and Internet services account for between 3 percent and 4 percent of Egypt’s GDP, so the daily loss amounted to around […]
