joi, 4 noiembrie 2010

SEOmoz Daily SEO Blog

SEOmoz Daily SEO Blog


SEOmoz PubCon Happy Hour 2010

Posted: 04 Nov 2010 06:54 AM PDT

Posted by jennita

It's November! Which here at the mozPlex means a few things: It's sunny and beautiful in Seattle [wait.. uhm what??], we're all getting ready for Thanksgiving and most importantly... PubCon is next week! As usual we're sending a big crew down to Vegas to speak, learn, network and of course party.

Both Rand and Joanna will be speaking on several panels, plus you'll find Jamie, Aaron, Miranda, Adam and Gillian on-hand as well. You'll know who they are as they'll be wearing a lovely SEOmoz t-shirt. I really urge you to seek them out and say hi. Really, stalk them... they'll all enjoy it! ;-)

Oh right... you don't care about all that now do you? You care about the party info! Ok fine... Here's the goods:

Happy Hour Details

When: Wednesday, November 10th, 6:00 - 7:30pm

Where: Wynn Hotel in the Alsace 2 room

Who: All PubCon attendees!

Why: We'll have some cool giveaways [including 3 Kindles!] and free drinks of course. It's a party for goodness sake, why wouldn't you come?!

Still not convinced? Check out some of the pictures from last years party (you can see them all here).

Kristy Bolsinger, Kate Morris, Matt Cutts at SEOmoz PubCon party 2009
Kristy Bolsinger, Kate Morris and Matt Cutts

Chris Winfield, Shirly Tan, Brent Csutoras, Dana Lookadoo, Tim Ash
Chris Winfield, Shirley Tan, Brent Csutoras, Dana Lookadoo, Tim Ash

So be sure to head on over to the Wynn right after Matt Cutt's Super Session on Wednesday evening. We'll be tweeting reminders and any updates. We look forward to seeing everyone there!

<3 - The mozzers


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Google's Unspoken Failures Are Limiting Your Potential

Posted: 03 Nov 2010 02:15 PM PDT

Posted by Danny Dover

 As people in relationships spend time with each other they start to leverage each others natural strengths to efficiently store information about the world around them. "Honey, what is the name of my Aunt's employer?" "Babe, what do you call that thing that heats bread?" They rely on each other to store information that is mutually beneficial.  Some believe this process is one of the reasons breakups are so hard. “I feel like when s/he left, s/he took a part of me.” It is common to hear statements similar to this because when it comes to memory, it is more true than many may realize.

Sharing Information

While this phenomenon has historically happened between two people offline, it is now happening online between people and technology. How many times have you checked Google for a fact that you once knew? How many times have you Googled for a resource that you have already read? Like it or not, Google is quickly becoming a second brain in much the same way loved ones have done in the past. While this search engine has benefits that humans don’t (ubiquity), it does have some severe limitations that should be examined.

The self declared mission of the people who run Google is to “organize the world’s information...”. While they have done a remarkable job of this online, they have failed to do this offline in the tangible world. To understand these unspoken failures, all you need to do is examine the five major senses humans use to organize the world’s information.

Limitations

 

Sight

“Who is that guy?” “I recognize that place, where was that scene filmed?” “What is the name of that color?” For most people, sight is the primary sense for experiencing the world. While technology does exist for identifying objects within images (facial recognition algorithms, OCR, color detection, etc...) you can’t utilize these tools directly through Google. This may possibly be the biggest limitation of Google. Be it remembering the name of a person after a date or an entire government agency trying to identify a suspect, identifying someone or something by sight is critical for organizing the world’s information.

Smell

Smell is the closest sense tied to memory. Have you ever walked by a stranger and instantly been flooded with memories of a significant other who happened to wear the same perfume or cologne? It can be a jarring experience. Want to identify that scent? Google can’t help you. While the technology exists for detecting smells and there are databases for identifying smells, a method to easily cross reference and identify a smell online is not available.

Hearing

You are watching How I Met Your Mother and you recognize the voice in the opening sequence. Whose voice is that? You hear an obscure tune as a car blaring loud music drives by your home. What is the name of that song? Like the situation with sight, the technology for identifying sounds exists (Shazam, SoundHound, etc...) but it is not available through Google.  While you can search via verticals for text, video and images, you can’t search for sounds. This is almost certainly a legal limitation rather than a technology one. (After all, Google can identify audio clips in YouTube videos.)

Taste

You are traveling in Greece and you order the most interesting looking item on the menu. When it arrives, it looks like nothing you have ever seen. You bite into it and instantly recognize the flavors but can’t remember the name of the meal as it is hidden by an “unique” texture. Again, Google won’t help you (although a napkin might). The same problem happens more frequently with allergies. Want to make sure a meal a friend made for you doesn’t have an ingredient you are allergic to? Some technology can help but Google isn’t one of them.

Touch

BEEP BEEP BEEP! It is 6:00 AM and your alarm clock is screaming. Eyes still closed and crusty, you reach across your bed and use touch to identify the snooze button on your alarm clock. Later that same day, you reach into your bag and navigate its contents by touch to pull out your cell phone. Although more subtlely tied to memory than the other senses, touch can also help you identify objects.

But why would you need to search for something by touch if the object is already at arms length? Good question... unless you are blind. Many blind people use their sense of touch to catalogue the world. Imagine you are not able to see and you find something new and want to know what it is. A friend might be able to help but Google won’t.

And these major limitations are only the beginning:

 

Where are you?

In the United States, the most common text message is “where are you”. While other websites (Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare) have been getting better at answering this question, Google has largely remained stagnant.

Where did I put that?

You are getting ready for work but can’t for the life of you remember where you put your favorite shirt. This type of situation happens daily. Be it car keys, shoes or your little sister, countless man hours have been spent looking for things. When it comes to finding the location of personal items, again Google can’t help.

So Google has some major limitations, why is that a big deal?

These limits are worth writing a blog post about for two reasons; context and awareness.

The great thing about being alive is that everyone is constantly at the forefront of human progress. Right now we are the most evolved we have ever been. And right now, we are even more evolved than when you read that last sentence. It is very likely that while you have read this post, someone, somewhere has invented something that will make your life better moving forward. Google is a great example of that. The limitations I listed above could be fixed with the creation of new features. That is not the point. The point is that while we are currently living in the most technologically advanced time that has ever existed, we still have a long way to go. The Google of today is not the end-all-be-all, it is only a milepost on a much longer stretch of highway.

The second reason I am writing this post is to promote awareness. Whether you like it or not, Google is becoming an important factor in how you experience the world. Just like a person wearing glasses literally sees the world through predefined frames, humans are seeing the Internet through the limits of Google.

Think about that.

If you were a fish living in a fish bowl, would you know the bowl existed? You would certainly know there was an edge to your environment (the glass) but having been enclosed in a bowl throughout your entire existence, you wouldn’t be able to “organize your world’s information” beyond what you could sense. Google is not sensing the world like we do. It can’t see, smell, hear, taste or touch. Yet at the same time, it is largely defining how we experience the Internet. As the Internet becomes an increasingly essential part of our world, the search engine’s limitations become our limitations. These limitations whether noticed or not are limiting your potential to experience the world.


Update 11/4/10 - 9:20AM:

Hey everyone! I want to address some of the comments below. I stick by my argument that Google's limitations are limiting our potential to view the world but judging by the comments, it looks like I didn't explain my word choice well enough.

I hold Google to the standard they set for themselves. The company's mission is to "to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful." When I refer to limits as failures I am doing so in the context of their self declared mission. Google does amazing things with technology but it has failed to do what it set out to do. In this way, these major limitations are failures of their mission.

Although no one brought this up (yet!), I want to note that this post could have easily been about Microsoft. I chose to single out Google simply because they are the dominate market leader. Sitting at my desk right now, I have three devices that have Google set as the default search engine. In my life at least, Google is almost ubiquitous.

Below grasshopper commented: "But as with any utility - and Google is just that, a utility - it's important to remember to switch it off. "

I like that comment as it illustrates a point I was touching on but didn't fully hit. (Forgive me as I am taking your comment slightly out of context ;-p) Just like a utility, you can't actually turn it off. Like gas in your house, you can "turn if off" but this just restricts your access. It doesn't actually remove the gas from the lines under and around your house. Grasshopper continued "Go for a walk outside, talk with your friends and family face-to-face, etc." This is where the problem of ubiquity comes into play. Odds are you will be going on a walk but taking your Internet-enabled cell phone with you. As the drastic growth of mobile searches shows, even on a walk you are not experiencing the world without Google. (This is not meant to be an attack on your comment grasshopper, rather your word choice got me thinking and I was inspired to make another point ;-p)


Danny Dover Twitter

If you have any other related limitations that you think are worth sharing, feel free to post it in the comments. This post is very much a work in progress. As always, feel free to e-mail me if you have any suggestions on how I can make my posts more useful. All of my contact information is available on my profile: Danny Thanks!


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Michael Gray - Graywolf's SEO Blog

Michael Gray - Graywolf's SEO Blog


Is Flash Bad for SEO

Posted: 04 Nov 2010 07:45 AM PDT

Post image for Is Flash Bad for SEO

Perhaps it’s related to Apple not installing flash on the newest air macs, but there’s been more talk than usual about flash & SEO in the past few weeks.

My position on flash and SEO is as follows:

  • I’d prefer to not use it, but I do understand that there are some circumstances in which flash makes a better user experience
  • If you do use flash, putting it anywhere along the mission critical path or main navigation is dangerous
  • If you do put put it in the mission critical path, you are going to have to maintain a separate HTML version for bots and the 20 million+ iphone and iPad users

Personally, I’m lazy. I like low maintenance websites (see how I manage a wordpress website). But if you’re a big corporation and have the manpower and other resources to support two websites, that’s fine. Just make sure you configure it properly so you don’t get flagged as cloaking. I would stay away from user agent detection and instead use JavaScript to detect the shockwave plugin. Are there some people with JavaScript disabled but flash enabled? Sure, but they are an outlier condition. Using JavaScript will cover the users and the bots.

Another thing to be mindful of is doing redirects. Since you will be creating an HTML version, that’s what will show in the SERPs. So, when a user clicks through, you’ll want to redirect to the flash version in the appropriate place. It can really get tricky, so be careful if you go this route.

Let’s recap:

  • Unless using flash adds to the user experience in a meaningful way, avoid it
  • If you do use flash, try to avoid using it in mission critical paths like main navigation and checkout
  • If you insist on using it in mission critical areas, you’ll have to create multiple versions of the same website. Make sure you have the resources to support it
  • Use javascript to detect for the the flash plugin instead of user agent detection to help you avoid the appearance of cloaking for nefarious reasons

Creative Commons License photo credit: law_keven

tla starter kit

Related posts:

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Is Flash Bad for SEO

"Let's Find Those Areas Where We Can Agree"

The White House Your Daily Snapshot for
Thursday, Nov. 4,  2010
 

Photo of the Day

President Barack Obama holds a news conference in the East Room of the White House, November 3, 2010. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza).

Today's Schedule

All times are Eastern Daylight Time 

9:20 AM: The President and the Vice President attend a Cabinet meeting

10:00 AM: Press Secretary Robert Gibbs will convene an off-camera gaggle in the Brady Press Briefing Room

12:00 PM: The President and the Vice President have lunch

2:15 PM: Briefing by Press Secretary Robert Gibbs WhiteHouse.gov/live

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.

President Obama’s Press Conference: "Let's Find Those Areas Where We Can Agree"
In a news conference in the East Room this afternoon, the President spoke openly about the lessons of the previous night’s elections, and his hope for working with the new Congress going forward on the economy and other issues.

Life-Saving Treatments: Made in the U.S.A.
Learn more about tax credits made possible by the Affordable Care Act that will help save lives and create jobs.

What You Missed: Tuesday Talk on the President’s Trip to Asia
Jeff Bader, Senior Director for Asian Affairs, and Ben Rhodes, Deputy National Security Advisor for Strategic Communications, answer your questions about the President’s trip to India, Indonesia, South Korea and Japan in a live video chat on WhiteHouse.gov and Facebook.

Get Updates

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Seth's Blog : Laziness

[You're getting this note because you subscribed to Seth Godin's blog.]

Laziness

I think laziness has changed.

It used to be about avoiding physical labor. The lazy person could nap or have a cup of tea while others got hot and sweaty and exhausted. Part of the reason society frowns on the lazy is that this behavior means more work for the rest of us.

When it came time to carry the canoe over the portage, I was always hard to find. The effort and the pain gave me two good reasons to be lazy.

But the new laziness has nothing to do with physical labor and everything to do with fear. If you're not going to make those sales calls or invent that innovation or push that insight, you're not avoiding it because you need physical rest. You're hiding out because you're afraid of expending emotional labor.

This is great news, because it's much easier to become brave about extending yourself than it is to become strong enough to haul an eighty pound canoe.

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miercuri, 3 noiembrie 2010

Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis

Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis


Bernanke Admits Targeting Stock Prices

Posted: 03 Nov 2010 07:42 PM PDT

Everyone knew the Fed was attempting to lift stock prices. Today Bernanke admitted it. Please consider Bernanke Says New Purchases Should Aid Growth With Lower Rates
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said resuming large-scale asset purchases should boost economic growth through lower borrowing costs and higher stock prices and that concerns about the strategy are "overstated."

"This approach eased financial conditions in the past and, so far, looks to be effective again," Bernanke said today in an opinion article for the Washington Post released hours after the Fed announced the $600 billion of Treasury buying through June in a second round of unconventional monetary stimulus.

"Stock prices rose and long-term interest rates fell when investors began to anticipate this additional action," Bernanke said. "Easier financial conditions will promote economic growth."

Bernanke said that low and falling inflation indicates that the economy has many idle resources and that further monetary policy efforts will not cause the economy to overheat.
Overheat Where?

It might not cause our economy to overheat, but it is creating one big mess for emerging markets such as Brazil. Money is pouring in as the dollar sinks. Inflation in China is massive.

What the Fed Did and Why

Inquiring minds may wish to read Ben Bernanke's Washington Post Op-Ed What the Fed did and why: supporting the recovery and sustaining price stability.

Here are a few snips...
Notwithstanding the progress that has been made, when the Fed's monetary policymaking committee - the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) - met this week to review the economic situation, we could hardly be satisfied. The Federal Reserve's objectives - its dual mandate, set by Congress - are to promote a high level of employment and low, stable inflation. Unfortunately, the job market remains quite weak; the national unemployment rate is nearly 10 percent, a large number of people can find only part-time work, and a substantial fraction of the unemployed have been out of work six months or longer. The heavy costs of unemployment include intense strains on family finances, more foreclosures and the loss of job skills.

Today, most measures of underlying inflation are running somewhat below 2 percent, or a bit lower than the rate most Fed policymakers see as being most consistent with healthy economic growth in the long run. Although low inflation is generally good, inflation that is too low can pose risks to the economy - especially when the economy is struggling. In the most extreme case, very low inflation can morph into deflation (falling prices and wages), which can contribute to long periods of economic stagnation.

With short-term interest rates already about as low as they can go, the FOMC agreed to deliver that support by purchasing additional longer-term securities, as it did in 2008 and 2009. The FOMC intends to buy an additional $600 billion of longer-term Treasury securities by mid-2011 and will continue to reinvest repayments of principal on its holdings of securities, as it has been doing since August.

This approach eased financial conditions in the past and, so far, looks to be effective again. Stock prices rose and long-term interest rates fell when investors began to anticipate the most recent action. Easier financial conditions will promote economic growth. ....

The Federal Reserve cannot solve all the economy's problems on its own. That will take time and the combined efforts of many parties, including the central bank, Congress, the administration, regulators and the private sector. But the Federal Reserve has a particular obligation to help promote increased employment and sustain price stability. Steps taken this week should help us fulfill that obligation.
Effective Again? In What Way?

There has been little job creation, no increase in R&D, no increase in bank lending. The only case for stating "effective again" (before round II even started I might add) is stock prices, commodity prices and junk bonds are all up.

How long can that last with no benefit to the real economy?

Federal Reserve Cannot Solve Any Problems

Bernanke said the Federal Reserve cannot solve all the problems on its own. More realistically, the Fed cannot solve ANY problems on its own (or for that matter with the help of anyone else).

The problem is "The Fed is the Problem"

The Bernanke and Greenspan Fed have blown one bubble after another. Now the Fed is openly pursuing another bubble in stocks.

However, the credit bubble and housing bubbles are bubbles of last resort. Both created jobs (artificially of course), then we crashed and the jobs vanished.

Fresh new bubbles in stocks, junk bonds, or commodities will not create any jobs.

In fact, rising commodity prices based on speculation and misguided attempts to force the CPI higher will cost jobs. The reason is so obvious that only a monetary crank trapped in academic wonderland cannot see it.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com
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Quantitative Easing Graphs, US, UK, Japan

Posted: 03 Nov 2010 04:55 PM PDT

The Financial Times has an interesting set of Quantitative Easing Graphs depicting central bank assets as well as assets as a percent of GDP, by country.

Here is one graph from the article.



By that comparison, the Fed has room to grow, and grow it will, whether it makes any sense or not (which of course it doesn't). Japan offers proof of the silliness of QE. So does common sense.

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


QEII Announced, Fed Set to Buy $600 Billion in Bonds, Reinvest $250 Billion More; Fed Micromanaged Economy to Oblivion; No Miracles Coming

Posted: 03 Nov 2010 12:13 PM PDT

As expected, the Fed announced a "modest" $600 billion second round of Quantitative Easing. Estimates rated as high as $2 trillion.

Please consider the Fed's Statement Regarding Purchases of Treasury Securities
On November 3, 2010, the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) decided to expand the Federal Reserve's holdings of securities in the System Open Market Account (SOMA) to promote a stronger pace of economic recovery and to help ensure that inflation, over time, is at levels consistent with its mandate. In particular, the FOMC directed the Open Market Trading Desk (the Desk) at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York to purchase an additional $600 billion of longer-term Treasury securities by the end of the second quarter of 2011.

The FOMC also directed the Desk to continue to reinvest principal payments from agency debt and agency mortgage-backed securities into longer-term Treasury securities. Based on current estimates, the Desk expects to reinvest $250 to $300 billion over the same period, though the realized amount of reinvestment will depend on the evolution of actual principal payments.

Taken together, the Desk anticipates conducting $850 to $900 billion of purchases of longer-term Treasury securities through the end of the second quarter. This would result in an average purchase pace of roughly $110 billion per month, representing about $75 billion per month associated with additional purchases and roughly $35 billion per month associated with reinvestment purchases.
QEII Duration

The Fed is going to be stuck with this garbage on its balance sheet for a long time as the following table shows.



That table explains the Fed's exit plan: None.

The Fed will hold 29% of the garbage it buys for at least 7 years. The Fed may hold all of it to duration. Don't worry, the Fed does not have to mark-to-market any of these holdings, regardless of what happens to interest rates.

Doubts Persist

MarketWatch reports Fed to buy $600 billion in bonds
The Federal Reserve pledged on Wednesday to start a controversial new billion bond-buying spree to rescue the economy from its current doldrums.

The Fed said it would buy up to $600 billion in long-term Treasurys until the end of June 2011, about $75 billion this month, in a strategy called quantitative easing

This is the second time the Fed has engaged in quantitative easing, as it snapped up $1.7 trillion in mostly housing-related assets December 2008 and March 2010.

The Fed purchases are designed to bring down yields on government bonds believing that lower rates could always give the recovery a boost.

More broadly, the Fed wants to prompt private businesses and investors to begin to act with more confidence and help get the economy's juices flowing.

"They are trying to break through the fear," said J.P. Morgan Chase economist James Glassman.

Doubts persist about whether the plan will work, but many feel the Fed had little choice but to act.
Doubts? What Doubts?

There is little doubt, at least in this corner, that the plan cannot possibly work. Corporate borrowing costs are the lowest in history and that hasn't spurred hiring. Will another quarter of a point lower matter? Will QEII even lower rates that much?

Simple explanations as to why QEII will fail are best: "Money's Already Quite Cheap"

With mortgage interest rates at all time lows, is this supposed to help housing? Why?

It is sad but true economic thinking these days that the "Fed had to do Something". Why does it make sense to do something, just for the sake of doing, when it should be crystal clear that doing just adds to problems down the road.

Fed Micromanaged Economy to Oblivion

The Fed has clearly micromanaged this economy to oblivion. Greenspan's experiment short-circuited the 2001 recession but the expense was the biggest housing bubble in the history of the world, not just in the US, but globally.

A global recession soon followed.

Now on misguided calls to "do something" the Fed is blowing a bubble in commodities that cannot possibly help margin strapped small businesses.

An excerpt from $30 Billion Offer No One Wants - Small Businesses Hit by Deflation will show why.
NFIB Small Business Trends

Inquiring minds are taking a look at NFIB Small Business Trends for September.
INFLATION

The weak economy continued to put downward pressure on prices. Seasonally adjusted, the net percent of owners raising prices was a negative eight percent, a four point increase from July. August is the 21st consecutive month in which more owners reported cutting average selling prices that raising them.

COMMENTARY

The Index has been below 93 every month since January 2008 (32 months), and below 90 for 25 of those months, all readings typical of a weak or recession-mired economy.

Inflation? Not a threat. Far more owners have cut prices than raised them for 21 months in a row. Deflation? It certainly feels that way to a quarter of the owners reporting price declines for the goods and services they produce and sell.
QEII, QEIII, QEIV, QEV

How many more rounds of QE will there be before Bernanke gets the message? 2? 3? 4? Is Bernanke capable of getting any message short of a bond market revolt?

Fed Uncertainty Principle

The Fed Uncertainty Principle corollaries #2 and #3 provide the answer.
Corollary Number Two: The government/quasi-government body most responsible for creating this mess (the Fed), will attempt a big power grab, purportedly to fix whatever problems it creates. The bigger the mess it creates, the more power it will attempt to grab. Over time this leads to dangerously concentrated power into the hands of those who have already proven they do not know what they are doing.

Corollary Number Three:
Don't expect the Fed to learn from past mistakes. Instead, expect the Fed to repeat them with bigger and bigger doses of exactly what created the initial problem.
Expect No Miracles

Unless a miracle occurs, consider QEII as a down payment. Meanwhile the important fact right now is benefits are set to expire on 2 million collecting extended unemployment benefits.

Lower interest rates (assuming that even happens) will not help those 2 million one iota.

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


LPS Mortgage Monitor Shows 7 Million Noncurrent Loans, 2 Million Homes in Foreclosures, Deteriorating Conditions

Posted: 03 Nov 2010 03:25 AM PDT

The LPS Mortgage Monitor has a nice series of 33 slides that shows delinquent loans had stabilized in the first half of 2010 but new problem loans are once again picking up.

Over 4 million homes are 90 days late or in foreclosure.

Total Delinquent and Foreclosure Rates



Delinquent loans still at troubling levels. Expect foreclosures to rise.


Noncurrent Loans



There are 7 million noncurrent loans but that is down from 8.1 million at the beginning of the year.

New Problem Loans




Unfortunately, things have gotten worse since July-August, just about when home prices stopped rising.


Average Days Delinquent for Homes in Foreclosure



That chart highlights the desperate need to speed up, not halt the foreclosure process.

Economic Conditions Deteriorating

Unfortunately, but not unexpectedly, things are getting worse since mid-summer.

Adding to the housing misery, over 2 million unemployed workers will lose benefits starting November 30 unless Congress acts to extend benefits in the lame-duck session. Don't count on it.

Furthermore, gallup surveys point to a flat Christmas season at best, so seasonal hiring may not be as good as expected. Finally, stimulus money is spent and there is no driver for jobs with inventory replenishment nearing the end.

These factors will put still more pressure on delinquent loans and foreclosures, which in turn will further pressure prices.

The housing bottom may be a lot further off than most think, in terms of time and price.

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


Anticlimactic Blowout and Knockout Punch for Obamanamics

Posted: 03 Nov 2010 02:05 AM PDT

Except for a handful of races, the election is over.

House Results

Republicans will pickup at least 59 seats in the House. They are leading in four other races. The likely total now is 62-63. Democrats lost some key ranking positions budget and other committees. I was disappointed that BJ Lawson, Doug Cloud, and John Dennis lost, but two of those three were expected and the other was a tossup.

Senate Results

In the Senate, Republicans picked up at least 6 six seats with Alaska, Washington, and Colorado yet to come in. It appears Lisa Murkowski will win a write-in campaign to retain her seat in Alaska. If so, she will caucus with the Republicans. Buck has a slight lead in Colorado so that would make it 48 total and a pickup of 8 (counting Buck and Murkowski). Washington will likely go to Democrat Murray.

The only true Senate disappointment is majority leader Harry Reid held onto his seat.

Governors

In Gubernatorial races, Republicans picked up 10-11 seats, with Florida likely. Independents picked up Rhode Island and perhaps Maine.

Republicans also picked up 17 state legislatures. The big Gubernatorial disappointment is Illinois. This race will come down to a few thousand votes. Chicago provided overwhelming totals for Quinn, and Quinn will likely win.

Knockout Punch for Obamanamics

This was the biggest pickup for either party in 62 years. As I said yesterday, the only question was the size of the blowout.

The good news is this is a knockout punch for Obamanamics. Cap-and-Trade and a whole bunch of other Obama supported nonsense is no dead. This Congress, especially the House, will be far more fiscally conservative than the last, also a good thing.

The bad news is the economy will remain stuck in the mud and troops will likely remain stuck in Afghanistan and 139 other places around the globe.

The Republicans can block anything they want, but they cannot pass anything they want. The same holds true for Senate Democrats.

No miracles are in store. So don't expect any.

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