luni, 13 septembrie 2010

Daily Snapshot: Discussing the Economy with Families in Virginia

The White House Your Daily Snapshot for
Monday, September 13, 2010
 

Photo of the Day

Photo of the Day - September 9, 2010

President Barack Obama pauses during a moment of silence in the Diplomatic Reception Room of the White House at 8:46AM, Saturday, Sept. 11, 2010, in remembrance of the time that the first plane hit the World Trade Center in 2001. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

View more photos.

Today's Schedule

In the morning, the President and Vice President will meet with the national security team for the regular monthly meeting on Afghanistan and Pakistan in the Situation Room.  In the afternoon, the President will meet with a family at their home in Fairfax, Virginia. Following the meeting, the President will hold a discussion on the economy with families from the area.  

In the evening, the President will continue a tradition started by President George W. Bush by honoring championship teams and student athletes from across the NCAA with a reception at the White House. The President will welcome student athletes from dozens of schools and various sports to congratulate them on their accomplishments in the classroom as well as on and off the playing field.

All times are Eastern Daylight Time

9:30 AM: The President receives the Presidential Daily Briefing

10:30 AM: The President delivers remarks at the Historically Black Colleges and Universities Reception in the Grand Foyer WhiteHouse.gov/live

11:00 AM: The President and the Vice President meet with the national security team for the regular monthly meeting on Afghanistan and Pakistan

1:45 PM: The President meets with Fairfax family

2:00 PM: The President holds a discussion on the economy WhiteHouse.gov/live

3:30 PM: The President meets with senior advisors

4:30 PM: The President meets with Secretary of Defense Gates

5:45 PM: The President delivers remarks to NCAA Champion Student Athletes WhiteHouse.gov/live

6:30 PM: The Vice President attends an event for Representative Joe Sestak

  WhiteHouse.gov/live  Indicates Events that will be livestreamed on WhiteHouse.gov/live.

In Case You Missed It

Here are some of the top stories from the White House blog

The President, the Vice President, the First Lady and Dr. Biden: A Day of Service and Remembrance
On the 9th anniversary of the tragic attacks of September 11, 2001, the Administration dedicates itself to a day of honoring those who lost their lives through service.

Another Government Shutdown?
Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer discusses the latest agenda item from House Republicans.

The President's Press Conference: From the Economy to the Middle East and "What This Nation Was Founded On"
The President opens his press conference discussing the economy but goes on to take a broad range of questions. Watch the video with direct links to any exchange you want to watch.

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SEOptimise

SEOptimise


Clever Tricks You Can Do With Google Alerts

Posted: 13 Sep 2010 04:54 AM PDT

This is a guest post from Kelvin Newman at Site Visibility.

Google Alerts is one of the most powerful tools made available from our friends at Mountain View, but despite it's huge potential it's largely under-rated and doesn't get the appreciation or the acknowledgement it deserves.

It's been around for donkey's years but is still in Beta, and the chances are you're using it already in a simple way, perhaps to keep track of your own name to see whether there's a Footballer in Spain with your name or a namesake who's running for the local council.

You might even have it running for your companies brand name to keep tabs on any good or bad press you're getting.

And if you aren't doing either of those two things stop reading this article now (we'll wait for you) and go and get that set up before you do anything else.

Seriously sort it out now…

But I wanted to share with you just a few of the cleverer ways it can be used that will surprise you and almost certainly make you life a bunch easier.

Using Google Alerts to Find Out If You've Been Hacked

With everyone switching to WordPress as a CMS there's a very real danger of more sites getting hacked. It seems currently the main reason people are hacking WordPress sites is to fill them with links to websites in the less savoury corners of the web.

They're even clever enough to cloak your website so only search engines can see the links and they are invisible to you.

So how do you find out if your website has been attacked bar waiting for your rankings to tank for linking to spam sites?

You can use a Google Alert, rather than entering a simple keyword set up your Google alert using site:yourdomain.com then add multiple keywords like viagria, cialis web cams,  etc. If you add OR in caps lock between the words then it will look for any mentions of they keywords on your site.

Essentially you're setting up a system which says email me whenever you find any of these dodgy words on my site, you might mention them innocently and get an alert but if something untoward is going on this should give you a early warning.

The only real downside is Google have already spotted the problem so it may already be too late.

This is a great little tip with a hat tip to Patrick.

Using Google Alerts to Find Out Who's Linking to You

You no doubt know that search google with link:yourdomain.com will give you a rough approximation of some of the links pointing at your site. It's no big secret that the data you get from this search is a little flawed, but setting up a Google Alert with this syntax is not a bad way to find out about some new links you've attracted.

Keep Track of Your Competitors Links

You can use exactly the method discussed above to keep track of new inbound links to your competitor sites, this method is arguably it's even more valuable. If you discover they've had a series of infographics which have gone viral perhaps you should be exploring a similar approach, or maybe competitions are leading to high quality editorial links? Well then you should get your thinking cap on.

Find out Every-time Google Index a new Page of Your Site.

A real trend I've seen over recent months is websites suffering from decreasing number of indexed pages in Google, in most cases this hasn't adversely influenced their search traffic or search entry pages but is still an issue of concern. Do you have a system in place to monitor whether your pages are getting indexed as you hope? or are you just submitting an XML site map and crossing your fingers? If you set up a Google alert for site:yourdomain.com you'll get a notification every time a page is indexed, which will help spot any indexing issues you may be suffering from.

Use Google Alerts to Keep Track of Changing Content with RSS feeds

There's certain areas to certain websites that you'd really like to keep track of but for what ever reason don't have RSS feeds, I've found this a lot in press centre sections of company websites, for example.

It can be really helpful to get updated whenever a new page is added to this section of the site. Again a bit of clever Google Alerts syntax can help you. Setting one up for a query like site:theirdomain.com/press-centre/ would do the trick nicely.

See not bad for a free tool that's been in beta for donkey's years.

© SEOptimise – Thinking of attending SMX London in May 2010? get a 15% discount code!

The myth of preparation

Beginner.001-001
There are three stages of preparation. (For a speech, a product, an interview, a sporting event...)

The first I'll call the beginner stage. This is where you make huge progress as a result of incremental effort.

The second is the novice stage. This is the stage in which incremental effort leads to not so much visible increase in quality.

And the third is the expert stage. Here's where races are won, conversations are started and sales are made. A huge amount of effort, off limits to most people, earns you just a tiny bit of quality. But it's enough to get through the Dip and be seen as the obvious winner.

Here's the myth: The novice stage is useful.

If all you're going to do is go through the novice stage before you ship, don't bother. If you're not prepared to put in the grinding work of the expert stage, just do the beginner stuff and stop screwing around. Make it good enough and ship it and move on.

We diddle around in the novice stage because we're afraid. We polish (but not too much) and go to meetings (plenty of them) and look for deniability, spending hours and hours instead of shipping. And the product, in the end, is not so much better.

I'm all for expertise. Experts, people who push through and make something stunning--we need more of them. But let's be honest, if you're not in the habit of being an expert, it's unlikely your current mode of operation is going to change that any time soon.

Go, give a speech. Go, start a blog. Go, ship that thing that you've been hiding. Begin, begin, begin and then improve. Being a novice is way overrated.

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duminică, 12 septembrie 2010

Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis

Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis


Australian Lenders Learn Nothing from US Housing Bust: Mortgage House offer 105% Mortgages, Westpack offers 97% Mortgages

Posted: 12 Sep 2010 09:13 PM PDT

Smack in the face of a US housing bust and an enormous property bubble in Australia, Australian lenders are offering up to 105% mortgages.

It is amazing to see sheer stupidity played out on the assumption "It's Different in Australia".

Please consider Lenders back to throwing cash at buyers
Next month, non-bank lender Mortgage House will offer a home loan equivalent to 105 per cent of the property's value - the most generous deal since the global financial crisis kicked in three years ago.

The company also offers a 99 per cent loan-to-value ratio loan, which it launched last month, and says applications have been flooding in. "Demand is really strong; people are finding it difficult to save substantial deposits" Mortgage House CEO Ken Sayer said.

Last week, Westpac raised its LVR for new customers from 87 per cent to 92 per cent, reversing the cut it made back in January; while ANZ also last week raised the maximum LVRs from 95 per cent to 97 per cent for existing customers, and from 90 per cent to 92 per cent for new borrowers

Westpac denied it was fuelling house-price growth and said the falling unemployment and strong economy were behind its decision.

"This change reflects our growing confidence in the economic environment, reflected in the low level of delinquencies for this market segment," it said.
Australia Lenders Fuel the Bubble

In the US banks loosened lending standards and kept right on doing it until the whole mad scheme blew up. Australian banks are now making the same mistake.

People find it difficult to save for a down payment for the specific reason Australia is in a bubble. And just as the US bubble burst so will Australia's. It is really sad to see Australia lenders fuel the bubble this way.

One thing different in Australia regards the ability to "walk away". Clearly the lenders are playing off that, with no regards to ethical conduct. It won't matter.

Bubbles always pop no matter what the conditions or restraints are.

For example, the Bankruptcy Reform Act of 2005 was supposed to halt bankruptcies in the US. After the bill passed, lenders, especially credit card and Home Equity lenders, took advantage of the situation counting on home prices to rise and the inability of consumers to declare bankruptcy. The mess blow up in the lenders' faces anyway.

The same scenario is destined for Australia. Moreover, the bigger the bubble the bigger the bust. Australia's bust will be staggering.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com
Click Here To Scroll Thru My Recent Post List


Inflation in China Escalates - Miracle Expansion or Bubble to Burst?

Posted: 12 Sep 2010 09:06 AM PDT

The New York Times reports Inflation in China Is Rising at a Fast Pace
From street markets to corporate offices, consumers and executives alike in China are trying to cope with rising prices. The National Bureau of Statistics announced on Saturday that consumer prices in China were 3.5 percent higher compared with a year earlier, the largest increase in nearly two years.

To make matters worse, inflation over the short term also seems to be accelerating. A seasonally adjusted comparison of August prices to July prices showed that inflation was running at an annualized pace closer to 4.8 percent.

Prices are rising in China for reasons that many Americans or Europeans might envy. The economy is growing, stores are full and banks are lending lots of money, according to other statistics released by the government on Saturday.

Compared with August of last year, industrial production rose 13.9 percent last month, retail sales increased 18.4 percent, bank lending climbed 18.6 percent and fixed-asset investment surged 24 percent.

All four categories rose slightly more than economists had expected, in the latest sign of the Chinese economy's strength even as recoveries seem to be flagging elsewhere.

But salaries for recent college graduates, at $300 to $500 a month in coastal areas, have actually declined in the last few years, even before adjusting for inflation. A rapid expansion of universities over the last decade has resulted in more young men and women with undergraduate degrees than companies are ready to hire, except at lower pay.

And as in many countries, retirees are among the most vulnerable to inflation. Ms. Lam said her own mother lived on a pension of just $150 a month.

Rising wages are putting pressure on companies to increase their prices. Mr. Dong, the sales manager at the Ningbo Deye Domestic Electrical Appliance Technology Company, said the company had to raise wages by 10 percent a year, while raw material costs were also climbing.

"It is impossible to transfer our cost increases entirely to our customers, because if we do so, they will all run away," he said. "We are currently doing a study of our assembly line work processes to see where we can achieve greater efficiency."

But as the powerful growth in fixed-asset investment last month showed, Chinese companies are still responding to rising prices by building more factories, office buildings and other equipment, instead of cutting back.

Chinese officials have said for many years that they regard 5 percent inflation as unacceptable, and they have shown a willingness to clamp down on bank lending and investment whenever annual increases come close to that level. They have taken some of these steps in recent months, but more recently eased back on lending controls as some Chinese economists suggested that domestic demand might not be as strong as the August data showed.
Economic Stress and Property Bubbles, or Miraculous Expansion?

Let's not confuse an economy booming because of loose economic policy, massive currency intervention printing Yuan to buy dollars, and stimulus that at a minimum rivals that in the Unites States. Also the Chinese property market is in one enormous bubble with vacant malls, vacant offices, and vacant apartments.

For more on the Chinese property bubble, please see ...


The US appeared to be growing rapidly in 2006 and early 2007 on the backs of housing and commercial real estate expansion. When housing crashed, people were reluctant to spend, banks were reluctant to lend, and businesses were reluctant to hire.

Before anyone gets too excited about the miraculous looking expansion in China, one needs to take the above ideas into consideration.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com
Click Here To Scroll Thru My Recent Post List


Sunday Funnies 2010-09-12 Worthless Dollar

Posted: 12 Sep 2010 08:09 AM PDT

The following is in reference to Instant Insanity - my comments on three whacko ideas by Willem Buiter, chief economist for Citigroup, to cure deflation.

Please give it a look if you have not done so already.




Given enough time, all fiat currencies go to zero (relative to some starting point). 2% inflation a year is enough to do it. This should not be confused with hyperinflation, a complete loss of faith in currency.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com
Click Here To Scroll Thru My Recent Post List


Seth's Blog : Shipit Workbook back in stock for a while

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Shipit Workbook back in stock for a while

Two weeks ago, I told you about a workbook I published. I was amazed and a bit delighted to discover that less than 16 hours after announcing it, the entire warehouse was sold out. (It peaked at #8 on the Amazon list).

I apologize to those of you that weren't able to get a set. And I doubly apologize to my beloved Canadian readers who were shut out for no apparent reason that I've been able to discern.

We've gone back to press for more and I'm pleased to announce that the workbooks are now available, and there's a special option for Canadians. I can't promise that these will last much longer than the last batch, but I've already ordered some more.

Shipping atoms is difficult, and crossing borders is more difficult still. I'm going to adjust as I go and hope to make the supply more reliable. It's doubly disappointing that you can't order when they run out of stock. We're working on that. If you discover an out of stock, please check back after a week...

I'm investigating new ways to make this more efficient going forward. I apologize again, and thank you for your good humor.

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Seth's Blog : Why jazz is more interesting than bowling

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Why jazz is more interesting than bowling

Bowling is all about one number: the final score. And great bowlers come whisker-close to hitting the perfect score regularly. Not enough dimensions for me to be fascinated by, and few people pay money to attend bowling matches.

Jazz is practiced over a thousand or perhaps a million dimensions. It's non-linear and non-predictable, and most of all, it's never perfect.

And yet...

when we get to work, most of us choose to bowl.

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