Thursday, December 30, 2010

Whos Making Money

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/> [style="text-decoration: underline;">Ed. note: This post is authored by Evan Jowers and Robert Kinney of Kinney Recruiting, sponsor of the Asia Chronicles. Kinney has made more placements of U.S. associates and partners in Asia than any other firm in the past four years. You can reach them by email: asia at kinneyrecruiting dot com.]

Evan Jowers here, with a quick post before the New Year holiday. As you know from our recent posts, Robert Kinney and I have continued our pattern this year of traveling to Hong Kong / China to meet personally with clients and learn of openings (six trips each this year – ouch). Alexis Lamb of course is permanently based in our Hong Kong office and Yuliya Vinokurova travels to Asia periodically from her base in Russia. As a result of our availability to firms and more importantly our success in placing more US attorneys in Asia than any other recruiting firm, we are on top of many US associate openings at present in Hong Kong/China.

As you know from recent posts, we have many current openings for Mandarin fluent cap markets and M&A US associates (too numerous to list here). As the year winds to a close, we wanted to list in one place a description of some of our more unusual openings for US associates at top US and UK firms in Hong Kong / China:

Hong Kong – native Korean fluent private equity fund formation US associate; 2 to 5 years experience

Shanghai – native Mandarin fluent IP transactional US associate; mid to senior level

Hong Kong or Singapore – US securities / high yield / M&A mix US associate (English only ok); 4 to 7 years experience (the successful candidate will have his/her choice of Hong Kong or Singapore location)

Hong Kong – native Korean fluent private equity M&A US associate; 2 to 6 years experience

Hong Kong, Beijing or Shanghai – native Mandarin fluent US senior capital markets associate for counsel or partner role (several openings); very senior associate with top firm experience in China and NYC preferred

Hong Kong – native Korean fluent project finance US associate; 3 to 6 years experience

Beijing – native Mandarin fluent finance associate; junior to mid-level (multiple openings)id="more-50781">

Hong Kong – leveraged / acquisition finance; Hong Kong, UK or US qualification; Mandarin preferred; 2 to 5 years experienced

Hong Kong – acquisition finance US associate / counsel (English only fine, but Mandarin a nice bonus); senior associate / counsel level

Hong Kong – US project finance associate; Mandarin preferred; 3 to 6 years experience

Beijing – native Mandarin fluent project finance senior US attorney; counsel to partner level

Beijing – native Mandarin fluent fund formation / corporate mix US associate; 2 to 5 years experience

Hong Kong – fund formation US associate (Mandarin preferred, but English only ok); 2 to 8 years experience (several openings)

Hong Kong – cap markets US associate (English only ok); mid-level

Hong Kong – native Mandarin fluent banking / finance US associate; 2 to 5 years experience (several openings)

Hong Kong – FCPA / white collar / litigation US associate (Mandarin preferred but not required); mid-level experience

Hong Kong – US or UK qualified regulatory/anti-corruption associate (English-only OK); mid to senior level experience

Hong Kong – native Korean fluent US cap markets / M&A associates; junior to senior levels (several openings)

Hong Kong – native Korean fluent M&A US associate; 2 to 4 years experience

Hong Kong – senior cap markets US associate (English only ok) for Pan Asia practice with strong Philippines and India focus; 5 to 9 years experience

Hong Kong (and eventually Seoul) – native Korean fluent US senior cap markets / M&A associate for counsel or partner role (multiple openings)

Hong Kong – Mandarin fluent senior banking US associate; 6 to 10 years of experience

Hong Kong – Mandarin fluent derivatives and structured finance US associate; mid to senior level

Hong Kong – Mandarin fluent energy / LNG US associate; 3 to 5 years experience

The US and UK biglaw associate lateral hiring market in Hong Kong / China continues to pick up. We are expecting a mini-boom of US associate hiring in Hong Kong, Shanghai, Beijing, and Singapore during the first quarter of ’11. The reason is twofold: a) Hong Kong / China has been a very busy market for more than a year now and most firms are understaffed; and b) numerous US and UK firms in Hong Kong / China have, for the first time since mid ’08, a full “green light” from their global firm management to make US associate lateral hires.

Some of our clients, for example, were able to make one hire here and there during ’10 in Hong Kong / China, but were not able to obtain a full green light to hire as needed by any means (getting clearance from firm management to make each hire was understandably a long process, due to the still shaky US and Europe markets). Recently, some of these firms have been given clearance to hire multiple US associates in Hong Kong / China, in some cases as many as 7 to 10, with most top US and UK firms planning to hire at least 2 in early ’11. While the hiring markets in US and Europe are still shaky, firms’ global management can no longer ignore the long run of heavy deal flow in Hong Kong / China and their offices and partners in the region being understaffed. Naturally, in an end of calendar year period, where budgets for the following year are figured out, the full green lights for Hong Kong / China lateral hiring are coming in bunches recently.

The interview process in ’10 in Asia has been mostly long-winded due to the abundance of great candidates on the market, most firms having to go through a long process internally to get clearance to give an offer, and firms knowing their competitors are also not moving quickly with offers. In the first quarter of ’11, we are expecting firms in Hong Kong / China to move a lot quicker with US associate hiring process and also be a little less selective because of the larger number of openings putting pressure on the market. Some partners have had serious staffing pressures throughout ’10 and they are going to want to hire quickly now that they have the clearance to do so.

If you would like to learn more about these or other openings and / or the Asia markets in general, as always please feel free to contact us at asia@kinneyrecruiting.com.

We would like to wish all of our readers a wonderful holiday season and Happy New Year!

Today’s WSJ features the sad, sad story of retired churchman Fred Osborn, who might have to sell his family home. It only has single-pane windows, making it expensive to heat in the winter. And even after renting it out in the summer, Osborn ends up losing money on the old place. On top of that, his son has moved in, along with his four kids. If it got sold, three generations of Osborns would be kicked out at once.

“I want to enjoy retirement now, but I really can’t afford to do that,” Osborn tells the WSJ’s Anne Miller. “It’s a very conflicting, emotional thing.”

But here’s the rub: the story is in the WSJ’s real estate section. It’s basically about a home for sale. The price is $200,000, plus $1,000 a year in taxes. Will you help poor Mr Osborn out?

Hang on, I might have missed out a zero. Actually, the price is $2,000,000, plus $10,000 a year in taxes. A little bit less sympathetic now, I guess.

Wait, I’ve just found another order of magnitude down the back of the sofa. Osborn, it turns out, “will entertain offers above $20 million”, while taxes are “about $100,000 a year”.

Oh, and he’s the great-great-great-great-grandson of Cornelius Vanderbilt, which I guess makes his gambolling grandhildren Vanderbilt’s great-great-great-great-great-great-gran dchildren. But who’s counting.

Not Miller, whose math doesn’t make much sense at all:

Heating the 14-bedroom stone mansion can run $200 a day in the winter—too expensive for year-round living…

Mr. Osborn IV, a former Columbia University crew coach, rents out the castle for weddings between June and September. Day rates start at $55,000.

But it’s barely enough. The Osborns estimate the property consumes at least $500,000 a year, including taxes.

If the Osborns pay $200 a day every day for six months, that comes to about $36,500 a year to heat the old pile. A lot of money, to be sure, and a lot of carbon emissions too, but still a tiny fraction of those total running costs, which themselves can be covered by renting out the castle for nine days over the course of the summer. Beyond the heating and the taxes, there’s no indication of what makes up the lion’s share of those half-a-mil-per-year running costs, but it hardly seems as though $200 a day for heating would tip the scales enough to force the family to move out of the mansion.

All the same, there’s a hint of possible good news at the end of the story.

Over Thanksgiving, Mr. Osborn III learned that some younger cousins have done well in online ventures and banking. Maybe they will have the funds—and interest—to move in, he said, even if the property doesn’t stay in his direct lineage.

“I’m an equal-opportunity family patron,” he said.

Those younger cousins might not be named Frederick Henry Osborn IV. But their blood is still blue. And that’s what counts, surely.

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Tuesday, December 28, 2010

Free Making Money

Making the Pay-What-You-Want Business Model Work

Pay-what-you-want has become an interesting alternative business model online, with bands like Radiohead demonstrating that it can be an even more successful than traditional pricing. The key to success, however, may be the amount of attention you can generate for your campaign. Pay-what-you-want is often a trade-off between a making small number of full-price sales and a large number of sales at what's likely a far lower price. One of the games in the bundle Machinarium, for example, normally sells for $20. But by being part of the Humble Bundle, certainly it sold many times more copies than normal.

Of course, not everyone can generate quite the buzz of Radiohead or Humble Bundle for that matter, and a recent study pointed to another option for helping make pay-what-you-want endeavors successful: combine it with a voluntary payment to charity, and people then tend to give more. Indeed, Humble Bundle customers can flag some of the money to go towards charity - either Child's Play or the EFF - and some of it towards a tip for the Humble Bundle itself.

It looks like Shep Smith isn't the only person on Fox News that was shamed by Jon Stewart into getting a bit tougher on these Republicans for filibustering the first responders bill. Chris Wallace brought up Stewart's interview with first responders to Jon Kyl, and in response we just got more sorry excuses as to why he still would not support the bill.

Kyl Denies Health Care For 9/11 Rescue Workers Because He Doesn’t Want To ‘Hurry’:

Last week, an incensed Jon Stewart invited 9/11 first responders to the Daily Show to offer their thoughts on this callous behavior. “Disgusted” and “hurt” by their actions, the rescue workers admonished Republicans for using the holiday schedule and Senate process as an excuse to block desperately needed help. Recounting their criticism today, Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace asked Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ) why he couldn’t “find a way to give these heroes peace of mind when it comes to health care.” Ignoring their emotional pleas, Kyl insisted that, while he didn’t want to deny care to those who desperately need it, he just refuses to do so “in a hurry”.

Kyl’s excuses fall flat in the face of fact. Any cries for more time ignore that both the Senate and House version of the Zadroga bill have been available to Kyl since 2009. If a year with the text wasn’t enough, Kyl was free to attend the bill’s June 2010 Senate hearing he insists never happened. Had he shown up, he would’ve learned that the bill is very clear on who is eligible for funding. First responders can pursue compensation established by the Zadroga bill to bolster any coverage already received from the current health fund set up in New York City.

As Jon Stewart pointed out earlier this week as well, after refusing to give these first responders health care, none of these birds should ever be allowed by our media to invoke 9-11 for political purposes ever again. Let's hope this thing gets passed despite the continued obstruction by the likes of Kyl and his fellow shameless Republican cohorts.

Transcript via Nexis Lexis.

WALLACE: Joining us now, two Senate leaders, the number two Democrat, Dick Durbin of Illinois, and his Republican counterpart, Jon Kyl of Arizona.

And, Senators, welcome back to "Fox News Sunday."

KYL: Thank you, Chris.

WALLACE: Senators, before we talk about issues that have gotten a lot of attention, I want to ask you about one that hasn't, and let me begin with you, Senator Kyl.

Will you vote this week for the 9/11 bill that would guarantee health care for the first responders who went to Ground Zero?

KYL: I don't know if that bill is going to come before us, but Dick tells me just a moment ago that he thinks that it will. First question is, is it amendable, or is it a take it or leave it proposition? The bill hasn't been through committee. There are problems with it.

And I think the first thing Republicans will ask is do we have a chance to fix any problems that may exist with it. And it's a lot of money, and so I -- my early response is that I am skeptical about that bill.

WALLACE: Senator Durbin, Republicans in addition to Senator Kyl say - - Republican critics say that you're creating a $7 billion entitlement, and that the way you pay for it is a corporate tax increase.

DURBIN: Chris, I can tell you that Senators Kirsten Gillibrand and Chuck Schumer have been working nonstop for the last several weeks with Republicans to try to find the best way to approach this. These first responders literally risked their lives when they went to Ground Zero. They came from all over the United States. And now many of them are struggling with health problems that are clearly directly related to that experience. To turn our backs on these brave people is the wrong thing to do.

Will it cost money? Yes. Is it the right thing to do? Yes. We've got to find a way to fund it that's acceptable to Republicans and Democrats.

WALLACE: Well, but let me ask you about that, Senator Durbin. If this 9/11 bill is so important, why is it that the Democratic- controlled Senate never held a vote on this bill until the lame duck session and that President Obama, the best we can tell, has never said a word about this bill in public?

DURBIN: I can't tell you where the White House stands. I hope they support it. I will just tell you this. This is like an airport that has a runway closed down. We have aircraft stacked up trying to land. We have bills stacked up over the Senate because of the nonstop filibusters that we faced this year.

I wish we could have done things more efficiently and more directly. But we've lurched from one 30-hour delay to another 30-hour delay to more Senate quorums. This Senate could be much more efficient. It should be. And it should be much more bipartisan than this.

WALLACE: Will this bill pass?

DURBIN: I think this bill will pass, and I do believe that Senators Gillibrand and Schumer are working night and day to make that happen.

WALLACE: Senator Kyl, one of your objections is -- he was blaming you for the filibusters. One of your objections is that Harry Reid put too many items on the agenda in this lame duck session.

I want to play what you said and then how one of the first responders who now has cancer reacted. Let's watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KYL: It is impossible to do all of the things that the majority leader laid out without doing -- frankly, without disrespecting the institution and without disrespecting one of the two holiest of holidays for Christians.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(UNKNOWN): I'm here to say that you won't find a single New York City firefighter who considers it a sign of disrespect to work in a New York City fire house on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WALLACE: Senator, everyone -- everyone -- praises the first responders as heroes. You say you're skeptical about this bill. Why not find a way to give these heroes peace of mind when it comes to health care?

KYL: Well, first of all, they should have peace of mind when it comes to health care. The question is what and how.

And when you try to do it, as you said in your introduction, in a hurry, in the lame duck session, without a hearing, without understanding what the ramifications are and whether we can amend the bill, you're doing it in the worst way.

For example, there's already been a settlement for a lot of these people, a fund that has been set up for them to receive funding. Will the people that are supporting this legislation be able to participate in that fund? Nobody has been able to say. Why $7 billion? What will the requirements for qualification be for the money?

Nobody wants to deny care to people who -- and by the way, these are primarily people who helped to clean up the site in the aftermath of 9/11, and there weren't adequate precautions taken in some cases to deal with potential health issues. And to the extent that they've become ill, they do need to be taken care of.

It's one thing to make an emotional appeal, to say we need to care for somebody who did something good. It's another to do it in a sensible way. And that's all we're asking for. You bring it up in the lame duck session with no opportunity to amend it, and you're probably going to make bad legislation.

WALLACE: Let me move to...

KYL: All of this could have been done earlier, I might add.

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"NBC Nightly News" continued its long-running ratings streak in the fourth quarter of 2010, beating its rivals at ABC and CBS by substantial margins. The Brian Williams-hosted program drew 8.72 million viewers in the fourth quarter.

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Thursday, December 23, 2010

personal finance blog

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There are a few different ways to measure the power of a meme in the tech industry. You can run powerful sentiment analysis on blog posts and message boards, scour trending topics on Twitter, or just follow the money. While it’s no absolute indicator, the appearance of well-respected venture capitalists and angels in a sector is usually regarded as a serious market signal.

And “gamification,” or the use of game mechanics to boost interest in non-game applications, is no exception. The notion of engaging consumers using game thinking and game mechanics has transformed both startup pitches and later-stage company strategies. Investors have taken notice and are ramping up their funding in what they perceive as a major, multi-billion-dollar market opportunity.

In the last twelve months alone, over $10 million in seed capital has flowed into a series of disruptive, gamification-centric startups, over $25 million additional capital has gone to businesses betting big on gamification as a core customer strategy, and at least one $100 million fund dedicated in part to gamification has been launched. (Last year, more than $600 million was invested in game companies).

We interviewed key investors and companies they’ve funded to figure out what assumptions are driving their investments. They identified three distinct (but overlapping) theses about gamification’s future: It will transform people, it will transform industries and it will transform everything.

One of the believers in the transformative people power of gamification is Brad Feld, famous blogger and Foundry Group partner. As an early investor in Zynga, he saw the power of games first-hand saying in an interview that “How we interact with computers today is crazy.” Feld has a strong interest in new human-computer interactions, and his portfolio includes gamified startups like Fitbit and Oblong, as well as a lead in the $5 million-plus investment in Seattle-based gamification platform BigDoor Media.

When it comes to transforming industries, Glenn Entis knows a thing or two. He’s one of the co-founders of PDI, and a former CEO and CTO of Dreamworks and Electronic Arts. So when he and his business partner launched VanEdge Capital this spring with a $100 million fund dedicated in part to gamification, the market took notice. In explaining his thesis, Entis said that “gamification is about applying the insights and tools of game design to raise engagement,” continuing that they see “opportunities for disruptively gamified businesses everywhere – personal health care, financial management, retail, education, and more.”

Entis is on to something. Finance, education and health care are each trillion-dollar markets with 20+ years of history experimenting with games and game thinking. Whether it was the runaway success of Mint.com, the blockbuster effect of the Obama administration’s “Reach for the Top” program in education or the consumer behavior changes wrought by the Wii and Brain Age, many experts believe these markets are ripe for gamification investment. The common thread: Finance, education and health affect everyone, are cash rich, have few payers and small behavior changes can yield outsized financial benefits.

For years, major investors like Granite Ventures and Adobe have been putting money into gamification through investments in companies like BunchBall – a service and platform provider. More recently, a number of VCs have made a name for themselves in the space, including outspoken veterans Tim Chang and Josh Goldman of Norwest Venture Partners. In candid discussions, they revealed a belief that major verticals, including healthcare and retail would be transformed most, adding that in order to gain their attention, startups must design gamification “from the ground-up, based on a deep understanding of mechanics and engagement loops.” Chang’s passion for so-called smart gamification has led him to volunteer his expertise, shaping the discussion online and at events like the upcoming Gamification Summit (of which I am conference chair).

Leading the vanguard for companies that believe in gamification everywhere is recent TechCrunch Disrupt audience award winner Badgeville. The six-month-old startup’s CEO, Kris Duggan recently revealed a stellar lineup of investors behind their $3 million initial raise. The company’s early partners include Comcast and TechCrunch, and Kris says “The message is clear: loyalty rewards are sorely missing on the web and mobile, and we’ve met with thousands of companies around the world looking to engage their users, customers, employees, and partners.”

Like Badgeville, Utah-based startup iActionable has raised a seed round from notable angels to transform the world into a more fun place. CEO Ryan Elkins says what makes the market a huge opportunity is that it’s about “instant feedback to consumers that is encouraging, motivating and meaningful, while giving companies data that drives better understanding.” Like Badgeville’s Duggan, Elkins’ success doesn’t hinge on a specific vertical (like healthcare) becoming an early adopter, but rather on the long tail of web and mobile content becoming gamified.

Some investors are notably skeptical of the long-tail philosophy and gamification in general. Others, such as Dave McClure, have skewered gamification in at least one expletive-laden tirade (though he’s invested in gamified companies). And even major proponents like Tim Chang have their concerns, saying, “Every entrepreneur has added game mechanics to their business model slide hoping to jump on the buzz bandwagon.” Notably, Chang and other well-known game-y VCs, such as Bing Gordon, have thus far eschewed investing in gamification platforms.

But in perhaps the most telling anecdote, during coffee on a recent Thursday, Charlie O’Donnell of First Round Capital noted “Now, when a consumer internet startup comes to pitch without game mechanics in their plan, I always ask ‘Why Not?’”

If the standard Silicon Valley hype cycle holds true for gamification, there will be some winners and some losers. A multi-billion dollar company or two (three?) will clearly emerge to dominate their sector, while the concept permeates into society. Much like Facebook/social media or Google/search before it, we come to view the underlying concept as a core part of marketing, product design and strategy long after the “startups” are no longer so small.

Perhaps the best (and last) word on gamification as an investment thesis goes to Brad Feld: “Life is one big game that machines are making us play. Therefore, I want to make sure I invest in the technology enabling the machines. I want that edge.”

Sounds sharp to me.

Gabe Zichermann is the author of the book, Game-Based Marketing (Wiley, 2010), the upcoming “Gamification by Design” (O’Reilly, 2011) and blogger at Gamification.Co. He’s also chair of the Gamification Summit coming up in January. He wrote this piece for VentureBeat. [photo source: gamification.org]

Next Story: Forrester reveals who uses location-based services the most Previous Story: Bill Clinton: Cloud computing will lead to a smarter, better world

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Read our Xbox 360 news of Rihanna joins the Dance Central.

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Assange: Republicans, Democrats, Fox News conducting terrorism ...

Assange counters 'high-tech terrorist' label by accusing his critics of terrorism.

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Bad news from freed detainee: The Jews used witchcraft on me at Gitmo.

Rihanna joins the Dance Central Xbox 360 News - Page 1 | Eurogamer.net

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Assange: Republicans, Democrats, Fox News conducting terrorism ...

Assange counters 'high-tech terrorist' label by accusing his critics of terrorism.

Bad news from freed detainee: The Jews used witchcraft on me at ...

Bad news from freed detainee: The Jews used witchcraft on me at Gitmo.

Rihanna joins the Dance Central Xbox 360 News - Page 1 | Eurogamer.net

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Assange: Republicans, Democrats, Fox News conducting terrorism ...

Assange counters 'high-tech terrorist' label by accusing his critics of terrorism.

Bad news from freed detainee: The Jews used witchcraft on me at ...

Bad news from freed detainee: The Jews used witchcraft on me at Gitmo.

Rihanna joins the Dance Central Xbox 360 News - Page 1 | Eurogamer.net

Read our Xbox 360 news of Rihanna joins the Dance Central.

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Assange: Republicans, Democrats, Fox News conducting terrorism ...

Assange counters 'high-tech terrorist' label by accusing his critics of terrorism.

Bad news from freed detainee: The Jews used witchcraft on me at ...

Bad news from freed detainee: The Jews used witchcraft on me at Gitmo.

Rihanna joins the Dance Central Xbox 360 News - Page 1 | Eurogamer.net

Read our Xbox 360 news of Rihanna joins the Dance Central.

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Wednesday, December 22, 2010

personal financeonline personal finance

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News Conference by The President | The White House

News Conference by The President. South Court Auditorium, Eisenhower Executive Office Building. 4:16 P.M. EST. THE PRESIDENT: Hello, everybody. Good afternoon. I know everybody is itching to get out of here and spend some time with ...

Julian Assange | Sarah Palin | Fox News | Mike Huckabee | Mediaite

In an exclusive interview with Cenk Uygur on MSNBC's Dylan Ratigan Show, Julian Assange described criticism in Washington and elsewhere of WikiLeaks as nothing short of attacks on journalism and the first amendment.

CBS News airs fake, typo-ridden cover of Bush's 'Decision Points ...

During a Sunday book special, CBS News aired a misspelled, mocking cover of Bush's memoir Decision Points.

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News Conference by The President | The White House

Julian Assange | Sarah Palin | Fox News | Mike Huckabee | Mediaite

CBS News airs fake, typo-ridden cover of Bush's 'Decision Points ...

During a Sunday book special, CBS News aired a misspelled, mocking cover of Bush's memoir Decision Points.

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News Conference by The President | The White House

Julian Assange | Sarah Palin | Fox News | Mike Huckabee | Mediaite

CBS News airs fake, typo-ridden cover of Bush's 'Decision Points ...

During a Sunday book special, CBS News aired a misspelled, mocking cover of Bush's memoir Decision Points.

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News Conference by The President | The White House

Julian Assange | Sarah Palin | Fox News | Mike Huckabee | Mediaite

CBS News airs fake, typo-ridden cover of Bush's 'Decision Points ...

During a Sunday book special, CBS News aired a misspelled, mocking cover of Bush's memoir Decision Points.

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News Conference by The President | The White House

Julian Assange | Sarah Palin | Fox News | Mike Huckabee | Mediaite

CBS News airs fake, typo-ridden cover of Bush's 'Decision Points ...

During a Sunday book special, CBS News aired a misspelled, mocking cover of Bush's memoir Decision Points.

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News Conference by The President | The White House

Julian Assange | Sarah Palin | Fox News | Mike Huckabee | Mediaite

CBS News airs fake, typo-ridden cover of Bush's 'Decision Points ...

During a Sunday book special, CBS News aired a misspelled, mocking cover of Bush's memoir Decision Points.

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News Conference by The President | The White House

Julian Assange | Sarah Palin | Fox News | Mike Huckabee | Mediaite

CBS News airs fake, typo-ridden cover of Bush's 'Decision Points ...

During a Sunday book special, CBS News aired a misspelled, mocking cover of Bush's memoir Decision Points.

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News Conference by The President | The White House

Julian Assange | Sarah Palin | Fox News | Mike Huckabee | Mediaite

CBS News airs fake, typo-ridden cover of Bush's 'Decision Points ...

During a Sunday book special, CBS News aired a misspelled, mocking cover of Bush's memoir Decision Points.

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News Conference by The President | The White House

Julian Assange | Sarah Palin | Fox News | Mike Huckabee | Mediaite

CBS News airs fake, typo-ridden cover of Bush's 'Decision Points ...

During a Sunday book special, CBS News aired a misspelled, mocking cover of Bush's memoir Decision Points.

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News Conference by The President | The White House

Julian Assange | Sarah Palin | Fox News | Mike Huckabee | Mediaite

CBS News airs fake, typo-ridden cover of Bush's 'Decision Points ...

During a Sunday book special, CBS News aired a misspelled, mocking cover of Bush's memoir Decision Points.

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News Conference by The President | The White House

Julian Assange | Sarah Palin | Fox News | Mike Huckabee | Mediaite

CBS News airs fake, typo-ridden cover of Bush's 'Decision Points ...

During a Sunday book special, CBS News aired a misspelled, mocking cover of Bush's memoir Decision Points.

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Sunday, December 19, 2010

how to budget personal finances

Automate Your Finances to Spend Less Time Managing Your Accounts

Despite how simple the process can be, most of us are terrible at saving and paying bills. Here's a strategy to effectively automate most of your finances to keep you saving and out of late fee trouble.

Ramit Sethi of I Will Teach You To Be Rich.com has put together a system for managing your personal finances that only takes about an hour of your time each week. The video above fully explains the process in detail, but here's the gist. First, you want to set up your bills and other payments so they're all happening on the day you get your first paycheck of the month (the first of the month for most people). Once you have that in place, you want to set up automatic savings plans (Sethi suggests using Ing Direct) with sub-savings accounts that let you organize your savings into specific categories (vacation, wedding, etc.). You'll also want to send a percentage of your paycheck to your 401k, and have all of this happen immediately so that the money you see when you get paid is the money left when everything has already been saved. From there, you automatically pay as many bills as you can with your credit card (and then pay the credit card bill on pay day). For the bills you can't pay with your credit card (like rent, in most cases), you can use your online banking to automatically issue a check. This will leave a little money leftover in your checking account that you can use to budget for guilt-free spending and cash withdrawals.

As someone who's often fallen victim to the faults of automatic payments systems (despite frequently using them), definitely do not forget to stay on top of your bills nonetheless. Make sure you set some time aside at least once a month to do a little maintenance and make sure there are no bugs causing your automated finance system to break down. Sethi isn't suggesting a set-it-and-forget-it automated finance system by any means, but as someone who hates paying bills I know how easy it can be to procrastinate and ignore the task. If you set up a good automated system like this one, you'll be at a point where all you have to do is watch and fix the occasional problem as the most important things are being taken care of for you.

Monday - When Irish Banks are Ailing

By Phil of Phil's Stock World

$130 Billion!

That's how much money Ireland will be getting in the bailout package they said they didn't need as recently as Friday. I just want to make it perfectly clear that I also DO NOT need a bailout of tens of Billions of dollars so whatever you do - DON'T give me a bailout this weekend. Let's hope that works! The U.K. and Sweden may contribute bilateral loans, the EU said in a statement. Irish Finance Minister Lenihan declined to say how big the package will be, saying that it will be less than 100 billion euros but Goldman Sachs said yesterday the government needs 65 billion euros to fund itself for the next three years and 30 billion euros for the banks.

Ireland's annual deficit is the worst in Europe at 30% of GDP (that would be like the US having a $5Tn annual deficit) and the nation is expected to slash its budget by $20Bn next year just to keep it under that level. Prime Minister Cowen holds a very thin majority and now faces a "no confidence" vote that could lead to further turmoil with a special election coming on Thursday for a vacant parliamentary seat. "The likelihood of this government surviving long beyond the first month or two of next year is virtually gone now," says David Farrell, professor of politics at the University College Dublin.

I already put out a special note to Members early this morning on the Dollar and the markets, so I won't get back into it here but suffice to say we are VERY concerned about any instability that may drive people back into the dollar. I also have nothing to say on the US Economy that John Mauldin didn't say in his great article this weekend "O Deflation, Where is Thy Sting?" so please read that and catch up on Market Tamer's very nice chart series and then we can move ahead with current events. All caught up now? Great, let's go!

Also featured at PSW this weekend was Ed Harrison's note that perhaps some of the great Q3 performance in tech names was the result of good old-fashioned "channel stuffing," where companies inflate sales figures by forcing more products through a distribution channel than the channel is actually capable of ultimately selling. In other words, be it the salespeople or the management trying to get better-looking results, they shove deliveries out the door in overly-optimistic anticipation of demand that is not likely to show up. This goes a long way to explain the discrepancy between reported sales and the lack of actual activity measure in the Baltic Dry Index (down 25% since early September) and rail traffic reports (flat).

Even mighty German export growth is slowing according to the Ifo Economic Institute, which showed October's Export Climate index fell for the sixth consecutive month to 1.0, which is the lowest reading since last December. India is facing a mini crisis as micro-lenders begin to fail en masse and the S&P downgraded New Zealand to NEGATIVE on concerns over that country's finances. Keeping in mind that it's ALL about the Dollar (see note to Members) - the bulls should be VERY concerned about these developments.

Another thing you need to see is this weekend's Stock World Weekly which features, among other things, the amazing Beta 3 tracker and, as we're still in free Beta, I can still print the chart for you here. UNFORTUNATELY, the chart has not let us down so far and woe unto the markets if we hold this pattern through December:

Keep in mind that we are completing the Beta 3 as it's the up-trending pattern we've been following for months. If we begin to break down, that's going to be a different pattern and it's not likely to be driven and distorted by a "flash crash" like our May dip was although we can't discount the possibility and THAT'S WHY WE'RE BACK IN CASH! I'm bored with saying it so you must be bored hearing it but I still see too many people asking "what's good to buy" when my answer is generally "nothing" at the moment. If you think the above chart is depressing, take a look at this little piece of pattern recognition panic:

The big news in the US this week will be the "vast" insider trading probe of US markets that will, as usual, include our friends at Goldman Sachs. US banks are looking at another $100Bn in potential mortgage losses, according to Barron's this week and, of course, China continues to try to flight inflation, which some estimate will move over 6% next year despite measures already in place.

Keep an eye on copper $3.80, that's a canary in the coal mine for the global markets as is oil failing the $80 mark if it comes to that (now $81.67) but today is the last day of December contracts on the NYMEX and our bet is they dump off in the morning and climb back over $82.50 into inventories this week - as long as the Dollar stays below that 79 mark (now 78.67). We will get a lot of data for a short week with GDP and Existing Home Sales tomorrow morning and FOMC minutes, which are always fun, at 2pm. Tuesday is all of the week's data stuffed into one day including oil inventories plus Mortgage Applications, Personal Income and Spending, PCE Prices, Durable Goods, Jobless Claims, Michigan Sentiment, New Home Sales and the FHFA Home Price Index.

As I said this morning to Members in the Weekly Outlook:

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News - Gwyneth Paltrow Confirms: I Helped Set Up Jake and Taylor ...
After Us reported that Paltrow hosted a private dinner for the duo, she opens up about Gyllenhaal and Swift's budding romance.
Twitter Worth around $3.7 Billion | Latest Technology News
Updates about iphone, gadgets softwares, laptops, microsoft and latest technology news.
More Injury News - CelticsBlog
Jermaine O'Neal and Shaquille O'Neal both practiced today, but Shaq will be a game-time decision tomorrow and Jermaine will not play.

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News - Gwyneth Paltrow Confirms: I Helped Set Up Jake and Taylor ...
After Us reported that Paltrow hosted a private dinner for the duo, she opens up about Gyllenhaal and Swift's budding romance.
Twitter Worth around $3.7 Billion | Latest Technology News
Updates about iphone, gadgets softwares, laptops, microsoft and latest technology news.
More Injury News - CelticsBlog
Jermaine O'Neal and Shaquille O'Neal both practiced today, but Shaq will be a game-time decision tomorrow and Jermaine will not play.

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News - Gwyneth Paltrow Confirms: I Helped Set Up Jake and Taylor ...
After Us reported that Paltrow hosted a private dinner for the duo, she opens up about Gyllenhaal and Swift's budding romance.
Twitter Worth around $3.7 Billion | Latest Technology News
Updates about iphone, gadgets softwares, laptops, microsoft and latest technology news.
More Injury News - CelticsBlog
Jermaine O'Neal and Shaquille O'Neal both practiced today, but Shaq will be a game-time decision tomorrow and Jermaine will not play.

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News - Gwyneth Paltrow Confirms: I Helped Set Up Jake and Taylor ...
After Us reported that Paltrow hosted a private dinner for the duo, she opens up about Gyllenhaal and Swift's budding romance.
Twitter Worth around $3.7 Billion | Latest Technology News
Updates about iphone, gadgets softwares, laptops, microsoft and latest technology news.
More Injury News - CelticsBlog
Jermaine O'Neal and Shaquille O'Neal both practiced today, but Shaq will be a game-time decision tomorrow and Jermaine will not play.

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News - Gwyneth Paltrow Confirms: I Helped Set Up Jake and Taylor ...
After Us reported that Paltrow hosted a private dinner for the duo, she opens up about Gyllenhaal and Swift's budding romance.
Twitter Worth around $3.7 Billion | Latest Technology News
Updates about iphone, gadgets softwares, laptops, microsoft and latest technology news.
More Injury News - CelticsBlog
Jermaine O'Neal and Shaquille O'Neal both practiced today, but Shaq will be a game-time decision tomorrow and Jermaine will not play.

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News - Gwyneth Paltrow Confirms: I Helped Set Up Jake and Taylor ...
After Us reported that Paltrow hosted a private dinner for the duo, she opens up about Gyllenhaal and Swift's budding romance.
Twitter Worth around $3.7 Billion | Latest Technology News
Updates about iphone, gadgets softwares, laptops, microsoft and latest technology news.
More Injury News - CelticsBlog
Jermaine O'Neal and Shaquille O'Neal both practiced today, but Shaq will be a game-time decision tomorrow and Jermaine will not play.

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News - Gwyneth Paltrow Confirms: I Helped Set Up Jake and Taylor ...
After Us reported that Paltrow hosted a private dinner for the duo, she opens up about Gyllenhaal and Swift's budding romance.
Twitter Worth around $3.7 Billion | Latest Technology News
Updates about iphone, gadgets softwares, laptops, microsoft and latest technology news.
More Injury News - CelticsBlog
Jermaine O'Neal and Shaquille O'Neal both practiced today, but Shaq will be a game-time decision tomorrow and Jermaine will not play.

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News - Gwyneth Paltrow Confirms: I Helped Set Up Jake and Taylor ...
After Us reported that Paltrow hosted a private dinner for the duo, she opens up about Gyllenhaal and Swift's budding romance.
Twitter Worth around $3.7 Billion | Latest Technology News
Updates about iphone, gadgets softwares, laptops, microsoft and latest technology news.
More Injury News - CelticsBlog
Jermaine O'Neal and Shaquille O'Neal both practiced today, but Shaq will be a game-time decision tomorrow and Jermaine will not play.

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News - Gwyneth Paltrow Confirms: I Helped Set Up Jake and Taylor ...
After Us reported that Paltrow hosted a private dinner for the duo, she opens up about Gyllenhaal and Swift's budding romance.
Twitter Worth around $3.7 Billion | Latest Technology News
Updates about iphone, gadgets softwares, laptops, microsoft and latest technology news.
More Injury News - CelticsBlog
Jermaine O'Neal and Shaquille O'Neal both practiced today, but Shaq will be a game-time decision tomorrow and Jermaine will not play.

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News - Gwyneth Paltrow Confirms: I Helped Set Up Jake and Taylor ...
After Us reported that Paltrow hosted a private dinner for the duo, she opens up about Gyllenhaal and Swift's budding romance.
Twitter Worth around $3.7 Billion | Latest Technology News
Updates about iphone, gadgets softwares, laptops, microsoft and latest technology news.
More Injury News - CelticsBlog
Jermaine O'Neal and Shaquille O'Neal both practiced today, but Shaq will be a game-time decision tomorrow and Jermaine will not play.

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News - Gwyneth Paltrow Confirms: I Helped Set Up Jake and Taylor ...
After Us reported that Paltrow hosted a private dinner for the duo, she opens up about Gyllenhaal and Swift's budding romance.
Twitter Worth around $3.7 Billion | Latest Technology News
Updates about iphone, gadgets softwares, laptops, microsoft and latest technology news.
More Injury News - CelticsBlog
Jermaine O'Neal and Shaquille O'Neal both practiced today, but Shaq will be a game-time decision tomorrow and Jermaine will not play.

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Thursday, December 9, 2010

Making Money Online Easy

This post is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark as a new part of the Spark of Genius series that focuses on a new and innovative startup each day. Once a week, the program focuses on startups within the BizSpark program and what they’re doing to grow.

Consumer electronics search engine and review site Retrevo had the best traffic day in its four-year history on Monday. But unlike Cyber Mondays of the past, site visitors who were browsing the site’s comprehensive reviews also had the option to buy electronics without leaving the Retrevo site.

In the past two months, the company has been dipping its toes into e-commerce — an industry that it plans to dive into fully next year. The site’s long-time sources of revenue have been advertising and cost-per-click fees it collects by referring its users to electronic retailer sites. Since launching e-commerce components, such as its daily deals, it has more than doubled its monthly revenue.

To complement the new strategy, the company is launching a new search engine today that allows consumers to search accessories, the major portion of its product offerings, by entering a specific electronic device they wish to accessorize.

Taking this leap into e-commerce was something of a risk for CEO Vipin Jain. E-commerce is a decidedly different industry than review indexing, and there was a question of whether readers who trusted the site for information would also trust the site with their money (the answer thus far appears to be that they will).

class='blippr-nobr'>Mashableclass="blippr-nobr">Mashable recently chatted with Jain about making the transition that he says is likely to triple annual revenue.

Building a Strong Frame

Retrevo built a 6-million-unique-users-per-month user base for its search and review engine before it decided to start selling products itself. And although selling electronics is turning out to be much more profitable than recommending them, the four years that it spent refining this system were an important component in building the site’s e-commerce success.

For one thing, customers already trust the site. “We probably would not have had this much success with e-commerce if we had not gone through building the trust with the information and reviews and recommendations first,” Jain says. “I think that where we are and where we think the company is going to be, I think that is a result of having that belief in the recommendation and the advice we are giving them. It is easier for them to open their wallets and give us money to buy products.”

It’s also unlikely that consumers would choose to buy from the site if it were just another Amazon-like retailer. The comprehensive reviews, which make it easy for people without a lot of technical knowledge to pick out a product, is the reason that people will continue to visit the site. And, as Jain sees it, the commerce component is a way of completing this easy-to-navigate experience. Instead of sending customers to a third-party site that might be confusing, users can easily complete their checkout where they started their search.

Changing Course

Earlier this year, when Retrevo started planning for the switch, the staff didn’t have any delusions about what a drastic change the company would be making. Retrevo sought new talent from online retailers like Newegg.com and eBay to help its team think in e-commerce terms.

“We were the king of the hill in our old world (CE reviews and recommendations),” Jain says. “E-commerce is full of potholes, and we are going against big guys such as Amazon. Amazon can be very aggressive when it comes to pricing for items that they want to move.”

Instead of competing with Amazon down to pennies, Retrevo’s advantage needs to come from helping customers buy the best products for their needs and get the most out of them. The accessory search engine that launches today, for instance, helps customers find the right accessories based on what devices they have. If the accessory doesn’t work with the device, the company will accept the return with no questions asked.

It would seem that selling and recommending devices on the same site might be a conflict of interest, but Vain insists that it is no more so than when the review site has hosted advertisers like Sony in the past.

“I think we have established over the years that Retrevo is a trusted place and the reviews and recommendations that we give you have not been influenced by any business model or revenue model,” he says.

Because being a reliable source of decision-making information about products is the key to its e-commerce strategy, it seems like much of Retrevo’s success or failure will depend on whether this statement holds true.

Image courtesy of class='blippr-nobr'>Flickrclass="blippr-nobr">Flickr, Chuck “Caveman” Coker, Dean Terry

CNBC Real-Time for iPad

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