Central Perk

miercuri, 21 decembrie 2011

Be the CEO of More Than Just Your Job

Posted: 20 Dec 2011 01:12 PM PST

Almost two years ago, Brad Feld put up an excellent blog post called "Be the CEO of Your Job" based on an interview with Mark Pincus of Zynga by the NYTimes. I loved the concept and have tried to apply it even since before I had a name for the attitude of independence that great companies tend to grant their team. From Brad's article:

Pause and ponder the idea. Assuming you are in an entrepreneurial organization, are you being the CEO of your job? Is this culturally (and functionally) acceptable? Do you get rewarded for taking risks and succeeding (or failing) like your CEO does? If not, would you be more effective if you did?

Now, if you are the CEO of an entrepreneurial organization, do you encourage everyone in the company to be CEO of their job? Is this culturally (and functionally) acceptable? Do they get rewarded for taking risks and succeeding (or failing) like you do? If not, would they be more effective if they did?

At the Mozplex, "CEO of Your Job" has come up in a few exec meetings and several hiring discussions, too. When it does, it's always as a positive quality we're seeking, e.g. "How can we empower so-and-so to be CEO of their job?" meaning "How do we remove restrictions (imagined or real) so that so-and-so can work on this independently, execute and take pride in that accomplishment?"

But in the last few weeks, I realized that there's a nuance to the logic behind being "CEO of your job" that can cause strife and frustration if it's not well-understood by the entire team. Here's an illustration that (hopefully) says the thousand words I'd rather not type:

CEO of More than Just Your Job

Owning your job is awesome. Empowering people to make decisions on their own and giving them flexibility is, too. But a danger arises when multiple people or teams are being CEOs of their job to the exclusion of the larger organization. This can happen at two-person startups or huge enterprises equally. Heck, I'm guilty of it myself! I get passionate about a particular aspect of the business at Moz (for example, this blog), and overinvest my own time in it, along with those of folks I manage or influence (which is quite a good number at this point). That pulls resources off other mission-critical projects and, potentially, hurts the company's ability to accomplish all those things that desperately need doing.

Mike King recently dropped by Seattle for our mini-Mozcation/charity bake sale (he gave a killer presentation called "What Being an Indie Rapper Taught Me About SEO"). On our walk to dinner after the event, I mentioned to him that it embarrassed me to say that, in the past few years, I've knowingly prioritized projects over SEO, social media or other inbound marketing efforts during our roadmap meetings at Moz. I know.... I complained for years about how the companies I advised as a consultant didn't put SEO first, and then, when I have the power to change things at my own organization, I put other projects first. I'm a hypocrite!

But, I'm also responsible for the success of the whole business, and sometimes that means stepping away from being CEO of just your job to seeing the bigger picture and knowing when your projects deserve to be on the backburner or even when something you're working on needs to be scrapped entirely in favor of a new direction or wholly new task. Autonomy and freedom to kick ass at your work is a great power, but also a great responsibility. If you put your job CEO-dom ahead of the broader goals, things can get messy.

p.s. Hopefully, this post can also help in-house, agency and consultant marketers who get frustrated with executives for not pushing through their agendas with the speed or passion we'd put behind it. Sometimes, especially if resource allocation is a roadblock, it might actually be the right decision (rarely, though). :-)

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Introducing Branded Keyword Rules and Metrics!

Posted: 20 Dec 2011 03:33 AM PST

Posted by Karen Semyan

Looking at your site’s aggregate organic search traffic is a bit like docking a boat without a depth sounder: Sure, you can gauge where you need to go, but you’d be wise to have more details before you head in.

On that same tack, we should have more detail about our overall search traffic before we use it to make decisions. First and foremost, this bucket of attention can be divided into two groups that we need to watch differently: branded and non-branded traffic.

Why segment your branded traffic?

By segmenting your branded and non-branded traffic, you get a clear picture of two important indicators of success: how visitors interact with your brand, and how they find you with generic, non-branded keywords. This information can help you can take action to target the keywords you care about. This split is also a useful metric to educate your organization or client about your brand pervasiveness and overall visibility.

That’s why we’re excited to roll out a new feature today: Branded Keywords. Now you can group your brand-related keywords together and see related branded data in-line with your reports.

What branded and non-branded traffic tells you

Keywords related to your brand tend to show up at the end of the conversion funnel, when visitors are already aware and interested. They’re more specific and unique, often based on company and domain names, key products, and variations/misspellings of those names and products. They aren’t subject to the fluctuations caused by search algorithms in the same way that non-branded keywords are. This makes them useful as indicators of long-term strength and popularity. For that reason, most sites should see a decent portion of traffic coming from brand-related keywords.

With new brand rules, you’ll be able to track that branded traffic clearly, and uncover any problems with branded keywords that aren’t ranking as well as they should be.

Things get really interesting when you remove branded numbers from your search traffic numbers and focus on your non-branded traffic. Now you have an clearer picture of the generic keywords that currently work hardest for you, which ones you should be targeting and are not, and which content is most effective.

A quick cruise through the feature

You can add brand rules for existing campaigns under Overview > Manage Brand Rules. Specify brand-related terms, and we'll filter all keywords that contain those words.

Manage brand rules for existing campaigns

You can also add brand rules for new campaigns during setup. Once campaign setup is complete, your rules will be applied to any additional keywords you add.

Define brand rules for new campaigns

Add or remove individual keywords once rules are set up. At any time, you can label individual keywords as branded or exclude one from the “branded” filter under Overview > Manage Keywords.

Add or remove individual keywords once rules are set up

If your campaign is hooked to Google Analytics, you’ll see your historical traffic data split into branded and non-branded metrics.

View brand-related traffic data

You can get better insight into how people arrive at your site with in-depth metrics on top ten search sources, landing pages, and nonpaid keywords, including PPV, bounce rate, time on site, and more.

See in-depth metrics with your traffic data

See traffic data for brand-related campaign keywords when you filter branded keywords in your ranking report.

View brand-related traffic for campaign keywords

More options for managing your keywords include improved list filters, the ability to view all keywords in the list, and a new label filter for adding keywords.

And there’s more coming in the new year! You’ll see .PDF and .CSV reports added for traffic data. We’ll also start showing you your top keywords that send you traffic, so you can have the option to start tracking them.

Please let us know what you think or if you find something you don't expect to see. You can comment to this post or email help@seomoz.org. You can also go to the feature request forum to share a feature suggestion and see what other people are requesting. As always, we love to hear your feedback!

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"$40 is big money for us"

Your Daily Snapshot for
Wednesday, Dec. 21, 2011

"$40 is big money for us"

Yesterday we asked what $40 meant to you. Thousands of Americans have responded and we wanted to make sure you saw some of those responses:

I can buy lunch from the cafeteria for almost a whole month for my twins, I can buy food, or pay for gas.I can save it for my daughter’s prescriptions deductibles. To some people $40 is nothing, but $40 is big money for us.
L.A., Hamden, Connecticut

$40.00 a paycheck will allow me to continue to pay co-pays to doctors for necessary medical treatments needed to control debilitating disease.
J.R., Arlington, Texas

Our cable internet bill is $49 per month. If we lose this payroll tax cut then we will have to give up either or internet access or possibly our 'Friday Family Pizza' night. Either way, we will lose something that brings us together as a family.
K.Z., Frederick, Maryland

Tell us what $40 means for you and your family, and see what it means for other Americans.

Have questions about the payroll tax cut? Today at 3:30 p.m. EDT, Brian Deese, Deputy Director of the National Economic Council, will be on the @WHLive Twitter account - join in the conversation using the hashtag #WHChat.

Photo of the Day

Marine One approaches the South Lawn of the White House during President Barack Obama's flight from Joint Base Andrews, Md., Dec. 20, 2011. President Obama and Vice President Joe Biden attended a ceremony at Joint Base Andrews marking the return of the United States Forces-Iraq colors to the United States. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

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36 Social Media Sharing Resources for Business People

Posted: 20 Dec 2011 05:18 AM PST

Sharing is the key activity when it comes to proper social media participation and beyond. When you don't share anything on the web today, you can't compete with those who do. They get all the attention, links and ultimately sales or whatever they are after.

So where are we sharing online?
How do you actually share?
What tools help you with sharing?

I compiled a list of 36 Social Media sharing resources that cover a variety of content types, such as how to articles, statistics, tools for business people.

How to share

Most people, it seems, have lost the ability to share. Instead, business social media users in particular tend promote themselves. They have to learn that on social media you don't promote yourself directly but you share instead. You share content provided by others.

Statistics

Some statistics show that most sharing online still gets done via e-mail, as in the early days of the web before social media. Facebook comes first or second, depending on the source. Google+ or automated sites such as StumbleUpon, which claim to bring more social media traffic, are far less important than you might think judging from the press they get. Some social media statistics show much more detailed insights into how sharing is going on.

Infographics

Most statistics and other social media related data tends to be a bit overwhelming. Some social media infographic do a great job at visualising what's going on and putting things into perspective.

Tools

Beyond the usual suspects everybody uses, i.e. Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, there are lots of tools out there that can simplify, streamline and analyse your social media activity. I won't add the numerous social media analytics tools, but only those focusing on sharing.

Facebook

Facebook is still the number one when it comes to social media or rather social networking. It has added numerous features and manifold changes recently. Using Facebook to share is already a science of its own. Especially dealing with the Facebook algorithm that decides who sees your shares is intriguing and complex to say the least.

Google+

Google+ has received lots of attention, especially compared with its real size. Google is too omnipresent to let Plus fail. Thus I'd like to show you how Google adds features strategically to get the social ranking signals it needs, because clearly Google+ is not just a Facebook competitor but part of a bigger plan to get people to stay and share in Google’s own eco system.

All these resources will help you to plan and practice sharing on the social Web, the most basic part of your social media presence. Without sharing you don't have such a real presence - you may practice customer service on social sites but as long as you don't share anything beyond your own content you're just doing promotion without truly participating.

* CC image by ryancr

Seth's Blog : Trustiness

Trustiness

We're all looking for someone to trust. People and institutions that will do what they say and say what they mean.

Banks used to use marble pillars and armed guards to make it clear that our money was safe. Doctors put diplomas on the wall and wear white smocks. Institutions and relationships don't work without trust. It's not an accident that a gold standard in business is being able to do business on a handshake.

Today, though, it's easier than ever to build a facade of trust but not actually deliver. "Read the fine print," the financial institutions, cruise ship operators and business partners tell us after they've failed to honor what we thought they promised.

It's incredibily difficult to build a civil society on the back of "read the fine print." Emptor fidem works so much better than caveat emptor. When we have to spend all our time watching our back and working with lawyers, it's far more challenging to get anything done--and it makes building a business and a brand infinitely more difficult.

The question that needs to be asked by the marketer is, "are we doing this to create the appearance of trust, or is this actually something trustworthy, something we're proud to do?"

Building trust is expensive. You can call it an expense or an investment, or merely cut corners and work on trustiness instead.

Trust is built when no one is looking, when you think you have the option of cutting corners and when you find a loophole. Trustiness is what happens when you use trust as a PR tool.

The difference should be obvious. Trust experienced is remarkable, trustiness once discovered leaves a bad taste for even your most valued customers.

The perverse irony is this: the more you work on your trustiness, the harder you fall once people discover that they were tricked.

(With a hat tip to Colbert)

• Email to a friend •

marți, 20 decembrie 2011

Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis

$30 Billion Fund Manager Makes Case for Being Totally on Sidelines in Treasuries and German Bonds
Japan Proposes Nonsensical Deal to China: "I'll Loan You a Nickel if You Loan Me a Nickel"; Japan Worries About Servicing Its Debt
Dysfunctional Politics: Both Sides Champion Tax Cuts, Obama Agrees - Result: No Tax Cut
Capital Account Video: Mish on Malfunctioning Bureaucrats, Gold's Recent Decline and Chinese Chicken Feet

$30 Billion Fund Manager Makes Case for Being Totally on Sidelines in Treasuries and German Bonds

Posted: 20 Dec 2011 11:13 PM PST

Michael Platt, CEO and founder of BlueCrest Capital, a $30 billion hedge fund, states the case in an interview on Bloomberg for being totally on the sidelines in short-term US Treasuries and German Bonds.

Link if video does not play: Euro Crisis - Hedge Fund CEO Mike Platt - Bloomberg 15-12-2011

The video is 15 minutes long and well-worth watching. Platt is not a permabear by any means. He caught the rebound nicely in 2009 but now believes the prudent thing to do is completely avoid risk for the time being as better opportunities will come down the road for those who stay liquid.

Partial Transcript

Michael Platt: We distill it down to one really essential fact. If you look at the debt of Italy at 120% of GDP, which is increasing at a real rate of 5% where they have to fund these days, and if you look at GDP which is now forecast to be declining at 1.5%, arithmetically that debt is going to blow up. We don't see anything that is happening at the policy level that gives us any indication that there's going to be anything to convert this situation from where it is now to a much more substantial and real crisis in the future.

If Italy and Spain are forced to roll their debt over which this year is going to be on the order of 600 billion euros, if they have to pay rates between 5 and 7 percent, then the situation in Europe is unsustainable.

We are not going to have any Eurobond. We are not going to have a full political and fiscal union where the transfers can take place. It seems that what we are going to have is an attempt to control the European situation through continued austerity which is a process that is pro-cyclical. More austerity creates more slowdown. To raise more capital we are looking for a three trillion take-down in European balance sheets. There is nowhere I can see to get any growth from.

Bloomberg: It's all about economics and not a cultural and political divide?

Michael Platt: Absolutely it's about a cultural and political divide. The reality is there is no willingness within the Eurozone to share wealth.

I want to make something very clear, the market price says the probability of a eurozone breakup is distinctly non-zero, despite what the politicians say.

Bloomberg: Is it going to get worse?

Michael Platt: We are going into 2012 and the problem is going to get worse.

The actual process that this has been unfolding under as been extremely gradual and there has been a lot of optimism in the markets that some kind of solution will be found. But unfortunately, the process of bond markets selling off, driving funding costs higher, has been absolutely continual and now as debt rates go up to 7% it becomes a self-fulfilling prophesy.

Bloomberg: Most of the banks in Europe are insolvent now?

Michael Platt: repeating ... If banks were hedge funds and you marked them to market properly, I would say most most of them are insolvent.

Bloomberg: How do you feel about banks as counterparties?

Michael Platt: I do not take any exposure to banks at all if I can avoid it. All the money at BlueCrest Capital is in 2-year US government debt or 2-year German debt. We have segregated accounts with all our counterparties. We are absolutely, radically concerned about the credit quality of our counterparties.

Bloomberg: Are you afraid of taking risk right now?

Michael Platt: Absolutely. We are not interested in taking any peripheral debt risk at all.

Bloomberg: You are looking for all of the potential opportunities out there in the world, not to perform.

Michael Platt: The most important thing to remember about crises is: you don't make your money going into the crisis. Because when you go into a crisis like 2008, markets trade against positions. People have positions on. People need to get risk off. All the things that people thought were a good idea, start going into reverse.

The big money is made in the aftermath of the crisis.

Bloomberg: Are you looking at opportunities in illiquid assets? A lot of hedge funds are saying man, there is a lot of yield to be had in some of these illiquid products.

Michael Platt: I would not touch illiquid assets. We are going into an environment in which banks are going to delever. Illiquid assets are going to be coming out on the street everywhere. The price of liquidity is going to go up.

Bloomberg: You're not temped? Just as were hearing, banks are shedding assets, we are hearing from many investors this stuff is too cheap to ignore.

Michael Platt: It would have been the end of my business in 2008 if I had done such a thing. Ayone that had illiquid positions in their hedge funds, there were runs on those hedge funds because people wanted to get the cash out. In 2008 I paid out $9.5 billion to the street. I was up a lot and completely liquid.

Bloomberg: Do you expect we are going to see a repeat of 2008? There's going to be something akin to a credit crunch and anybody holding illiquid assets is going to get crushed the same way they were three years ago?

Michael Platt: That's what I think. Yeah. What's going on now is significantly worse than 2008.

End Transcript

That is one of the best interviews I have heard in a while. Platt stated his position very well and I am in essential agreement with the overall message about risk.

Those who avoid risk now will be rewarded later. Those who take risk now will regret it.

Upside is limited, and global economic fundamentals are horrendous. Better opportunities will come for those who are patient.

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

Japan Proposes Nonsensical Deal to China: "I'll Loan You a Nickel if You Loan Me a Nickel"; Japan Worries About Servicing Its Debt

Posted: 20 Dec 2011 05:59 PM PST

Circular lending theories have spread from Europe to Asia.

Please consider Japan Talking to China About Buying Yuan Government Bonds

Japan is discussing with China possible purchases of Chinese government bonds, Finance Minister Jun Azumi said, a sign the nation is diversifying foreign- exchange holdings by tapping into the world's second-largest economy.

"I think it's mutually beneficial" for the two countries to be investing in one another's debt, Azumi said at a press conference in Tokyo today. "We're not abandoning the dollar or euro, but we're adding the yuan to deepen our relationship."

Japan Scared to Death

As I was reading the article it was immediately apparent what the problem is. The last paragraph explains nicely.

China, which is also Japan's largest trading partner, sold the second-biggest net amount of Japanese debt on record as the yen headed for a postwar high against the dollar and benchmark yields approached their lowest levels in a year. It cut Japanese debt by 853 billion yen ($11 billion) in October, Japan's Ministry of Finance said on Dec. 8. China sold a net 2.02 trillion yen of Japanese debt in August 2010, a record based on data going back to January 2005.

Japan Records Trade Deficit in October

The above chart from Trading Economics.

Japan's Exports Collapse

Bloomberg reports Japan's Exports Fall More Than Estimated as Yen Gains

Japan's exports fell for the first time in three months, indicating that the yen's appreciation and financial turmoil in Europe are slowing the nation's recovery from the March disaster.

Shipments dropped 3.7 percent in October from a year earlier, the Ministry of Finance said today in Tokyo, worse than all 29 estimates of economists surveyed by Bloomberg News.

Exports to China, Japan's biggest market, slid 7.7 percent, the largest drop since May, today's report showed. Weakening overseas demand has led companies including Toshiba Corp. and Nippon Yusen K.K. to call on the government to follow up on last month's yen intervention with steps to prevent the currency from appreciating further.

Function of Math

As I have talked about numerous times before, foreign debt buying is a function of math: Countries that run current account surpluses accumulate foreign currency and bonds.

As trade deficits or surpluses change so will accumulation of foreign reserves.

Thus the discussion between Japan and China is complete silliness, although it clearly highlights Japan's concern as to servicing its enormous national debt.

If China has a trade surplus with Japan, then over the long haul China is likely to buy Japanese bonds, just as Japan and China buy US treasuries today.

However, everyone cannot be a net exporter to everyone else. Please see Another Preposterous Proposal to "Fix the Unfixable"; Political, Economic, and Mathematical Realities for the latest proposal from Europe on how to save the euro by increasing exports.

It is mathematically impossible for every country to have a trade surplus, not matter how hard they all attempt to export themselves to nirvana.

Moreover, and more importantly, yields on Japanese bonds are unlikely to remain low if Japan's vaunted export machine takes a sustained hit and Japanese corporations and banks slow their buying of Japanese bonds as a direct consequence.

All hell will break loose when Japanese bond yields rise high enough that Japan struggles to service its debt.

How Can Japan Service its Debt?

I have written about Japan's debt problem on numerous occasions, most recently on August 9, 2011, in Worst Demand on Record for Japanese 40-Year Bonds; Can Japan Service its Debt? How?

Inquiring minds may be wondering "With a Debt-to-GDP ratio exceeding 200%, how is Japan going to service its national debt?"

I have been wondering that for years. Adding fuel to the debate, please consider Worst 40-Year Bond Sale Shows Cash King as Investors Flinch

The worst demand on record for 40- year Japanese bonds sold yesterday signals growing concern about Japan's ability to service the world's biggest debt pile and the risk of holding long-term securities while markets are volatile.

The 400 billion yen ($5.2 billion) sale drew bids valued at 2.03 times the amount on offer, the weakest since the Ministry of Finance began selling the securities in 2007.

Japan's Ministry of Finance said that every 1 percentage- point increase in 10-year yields above 2 percent would add 1 trillion yen in debt-servicing costs to a projection of 22.9 trillion yen for the fiscal year starting April 2012. The nation's total debt may reach 219 percent of gross domestic product next year, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

Double-Edged Sword

Please note that was not a failed auction. Indeed it was oversubscribed. However, nearly all of that demand is internal.

Internal demand is a double-edged sword. Right now it is still sufficient. However, when (not if), Japan ever needs foreign buyers for its bond market, rates will not be 2.3% on 40-year bonds.

On account of miserable and worsening demographics, bond redemptions have started. However, those redemptions are a still a trickle. That trickle will at some point turn into a torrent.

Balance of Trade a Key Issue

People have been talking about this for years, although I have not seen discussion of the trade angle before.

Here is the key: If Japan does not maintain a trade surplus covering both interest on its national debt and bond redemptions, all hell will break loose. This gives rise to the question as to how long Japan's vaunted export machine can remain intact. I do not have the answer to that question, but China and the rest of Asia are nibbling away bits and pieces now. The tsunami sure did not help.

Trade issues and demographics explain Japan's paranoia regarding a strengthening Yen. It is also another one of those global imbalances that "does not matter, until it does, and it will" kind of things.

It is mathematically impossible for every country to maintain a trade surplus and increase exports, yet every country wants to do just that.

Rising interest rates would crucify Japan, and that is why Japan is courting China, hoping China will buy Japanese debt.

Europe did the same, for the same reason. Such pleas are useless. If Japanese exports and corporate profits sink, and Japan needs external financing to service its massive pile of debt, interest rates on Japanese bonds will head North, likely in a major way.

Japan is in deep trouble if its export machine breaks down. That time may be at hand.

Addendum:

In regards to my statement "foreign debt buying is a function of math: Countries that run current account surpluses accumulate foreign currency and bonds" Aaron Krowne at ML-Implode responds ...

You should also mention that this is only true so much as net trade deficits are not settled with gold (which would be the smart way to handle this, and the one based on thousands of years of history up until a few decades ago).

Aaron is correct and I have discussed this previously on several occasions.

Please see Hugo Salinas Price and Michael Pettis on the Trade Imbalance Dilemma; Gold's Honest Discipline Revisited for the solution to the trade imbalance dilemma.

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

Dysfunctional Politics: Both Sides Champion Tax Cuts, Obama Agrees - Result: No Tax Cut

Posted: 20 Dec 2011 11:52 AM PST

Political maneuvering has taken on the theater of the absurd. Republican House Speaker John Boehner openly sings the praises of President Obama, as both want to extend tax cuts and unemployment benefits. That is odd enough in and of itself.

Moreover, the Senate has already passed a bill, yet the measure died in the House.

What happened?

Obama and House Republicans want a 1-year deal, the Senate passed a 2-month deal. Adding to the confusion, the Senate packed their bags and left Washington for the holidays while the House voted to kick the bill back to the Senate to negotiate with Senators who will not even be in town.

Deal Rejected

The New York Times reports Republicans in House Reject Deal Extending Payroll Tax Cut

House Republicans on Tuesday soundly rejected a bill approved by the Senate that would have extended the payroll tax cut for most Americans beyond the end of the year and allowed millions of unemployed people to continue receiving jobless benefits.

The House vote, which passed 229 to 193, also calls for establishing a negotiating committee so the two chambers can resolve their differences. Seven Republicans joined Democrats in opposition.

It was far from clear whether the two sides would be able to bridge the gap by year's end. If they fail to do so, payroll taxes for 160 million Americans will rise to 6.2 percent, from 4.2 percent, in January, for an average annual increase of roughly $1,000.

Republicans said the two-month extensions provided by the Senate bill left too much uncertainty at a time of deep economic vulnerability and would leave Congress facing the same thorny issues early in the new year. They said it was a deeply inadequate half-measure that represented the old ways of Congress.

Immediately after the vote, Speaker John A. Boehner released a letter to the president, saying that he agreed with Mr. Obama on the need for a full-year extension of the tax cut and unemployment benefits.

"There are still 11 days before the end of the year, and with so many Americans struggling, there is no reason they should be wasted," Mr. Boehner wrote. "You have said many times that Congress must do its work before taking vacation. Because we agree, our negotiators and the House stand ready to work through the holidays. I ask you to call on the Senate to return to appoint negotiators so that we can provide the American people the economic certainty they need."

But the White House spokesman, Jay Carney, insisted that the burden to act was on House Republicans.

Senate Majority Leader Rejects Bargaining

Please consider House GOP rejects 2-month payroll tax cut

If Congress doesn't pass a bill by the end of the year, payroll taxes will go up for 160 million workers on Jan. 1. Almost 2 million people could lose unemployment benefits in January as well.

The House vote, 229-193, kicks the measure back to the Senate, where the bipartisan two-month measure passed on Saturday by a sweeping 89-10 vote. The Senate then promptly left Washington for the holidays. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., says he won't allow bargaining until the House approves the Senate's short-term measure.

The Senate's short-term, lowest-common-denominator approach would renew a 2 percentage point cut in the Social Security payroll tax, plus jobless benefits averaging about $300 a week for the long-term unemployed, and would prevent a 27 percent cut in Medicare payments to doctors. The $33 billion cost would be financed by a .10 percentage point hike in home loan guarantee fees charged by mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which the administration says would raise the monthly payment on a typical $210,000 loan by about $15 a month.

The House passed a separate plan last week that would have extended the payroll tax cut for one year. But that version also contained spending cuts opposed by Democrats and tighter rules for jobless benefits.

Both the House and Senate bills included a provision designed to force Obama to make a decision on construction of the controversial Keystone XL pipeline, which would deliver up to 700,000 barrels of oil daily from tar sands in Alberta, Canada, to refineries in Texas. The provision requires him to issue the needed permit unless he declares the pipeline would not serve the national interest.

Both sides were eager to position themselves as the strongest advocates of the payroll tax cut, with House Republicans accusing the Senate of lollygagging on vacation and Senate Democrats countering that the House was seeking a partisan battle rather than taking the obvious route of approving the stopgap bill to buy more time for negotiations.

Dysfunctional Politics at its Finest

For starters, I strongly suspect the Senate bill will add to the deficit and is not revenue neutral as claimed. At the same time I struggle to believe that some compromise will fail to pass this year or early next year.

However, there is so much political posturing for the sole purpose of election engineering that perhaps nothing is done, on purpose, ironically for the explicit reason it will allow both Republicans and Democrats to claim they were "more for" a bill that did not pass than the other party.

This is dysfunctional politics at its finest.

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

Capital Account Video: Mish on Malfunctioning Bureaucrats, Gold's Recent Decline and Chinese Chicken Feet

Posted: 20 Dec 2011 09:10 AM PST

On Monday, I had the pleasure of doing a live video for Capital Account with Lauren Lyster. I come in at about the 2:45 minute mark for much of the rest of the 30 minute session.

Discussion is about the Eurozone, trade with China, regulations, gold, and alleged "malfunctioning markets".

Link if video does not play: Mish on Malfunctioning Bureaucrats, Gold's Recent Decline and Chinese Chicken Feet

I had fun doing this and hope to be back on again.

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

miercuri, 21 decembrie 2011

Be the CEO of More Than Just Your Job

Be the CEO of More Than Just Your Job

Why segment your branded traffic?

What branded and non-branded traffic tells you

A quick cruise through the feature

"$40 is big money for us"

SEOptimise

SEOptimise

Seth's Blog : Trustiness

Trustiness

More Recent Articles

marți, 20 decembrie 2011

Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis

Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis

Pagini

Persoane interesate

Arhivă blog

miercuri, 21 decembrie 2011

Why segment your branded traffic?

What branded and non-branded traffic tells you

A quick cruise through the feature

More Recent Articles

marți, 20 decembrie 2011

Pagini

Persoane interesate

Arhivă blog

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