ARTS & FARCES internet

Business

Here we go again. Nelson D. Schwartz, writing for the New York Times, reports that beginning in 2012 more than US$700 billion in collateralized loan obligations—sliced and diced subprime corporate debt; “junk bonds”—will start to come due. “The period from 2012 to 2014 represents payback time for a Who’s Who of private equity firms and the now highly leveraged companies they helped buy in the precrisis boom years,” writes Schwartz. The Goldman Sachs of the private equity firms, by all appearances, is Kohlberg Kravis & Roberts. If all of this doesn’t sound familiar, maybe this from Schwartz will help: “Optimists like Martin Fridson, a veteran high-yield strategist, note that investors seeking high yields snapped up speculative-grade bonds last year and early this year, and he suggests that continued demand will allow companies to refinance before their loans come due.” Oh, and if that’s not enough, the US federal government will have to borrow US$1.8 trillion in 2012—US$1.4 trillion in 2013 and 2014—to cover old bonds that will come due.

Dave Winer, who knows a thing or three about running a business has posted and absolutely essential guide to doing small business in this so-called economy. Forget about an MBA and forget about most of the thick business books (there are a few worth their ink; Michael Phillips’s Honest Business and The Seven Laws of Money come immediately to mind). Winer nails working on the web with his first guideline: “People come back to places that send them away. This means NO LOCK-IN. You don’t hold your customers by force, you hold them with the love they feel for you. ... If your investors say you need to force your users to use your stuff, fire your investors and keep the users. Money is fungible. People are not.”

Business

Evidence is increasingly slim that any sort of US economic recovery is underway, but at least we’ll have beautiful, informative infographics about how bad it is: Edward Tufte named to President Obama’s Recovery Independent Advisory Panel.

Just as private pension funds are heading for the hills—abandoning the stock market in favor of long-term bonds—public pension funds (like mine) are doubling down on the stock market. Higher returns mean higher risks and investor and former chair of the Texas Pension Review Board, Frederick E. Rowe, tells Mary Williams Walsh, writing for the New York Times, “In effect, they’re [the public pension funds] going to Las Vegas. Double up to catch up.” Experts say assuming an eight percent rate of return is untenable, but “nobody wants to adjust the rate, because liabilities would explode,” Trent May, chief investment officer of Wyoming’s state pension fund told Walsh.

Censorship

Alvin Poussaint is a recognized expert on children’s health. He’s a Harvard Medical School professor and director of the Media Center at the Judge Baker Children’s Center, a Harvard-affiliated children’s mental health center. Last October, Poussaint’s Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood forced Disney to offer full refunds to anyone who purchased Baby Einstein videos from June 2004 - September 2009. Tamar Lewin, writing for the New York Times, reports that “days after the Disney refunds were described on the front page of The New York Times on Oct. 23, campaign officials said they were contacted by Judge Baker officials expressing unhappiness with the group’s activities.” Two weeks after the New York Times story appeared, Poussaint’s campaign was evicted from Harvard. Lewin reports that in a 10 February letter to John Weisz, president of the Judge Baker Center, Poussaint wrote: “... You told me that the mission of CCFC—to protect children from harmful exploitation by corporate marketers—is not in line with the Judge Baker mission. Indeed, we were told that we could no longer criticize any corporations, even if they were exploiting children.” For the last 3.5 years, I’ve been working once again in higher education (I started my career in higher education) and I’ve been struggling to understand just what matters there anymore. This incident significantly clarifies that for me.

Business

Bob Collins, writing in his news cut blog for Minnesota Public Radio, cites the Economist and US News with the first wave of a potential political push for delayed retirement. Collins notes, “the push to delay retirement is gaining some favor at a time when many older workers are being forced into early retirement because they’re losing their jobs.” Here’s the nut graf from US News: “The number of unemployed Americans ages 55 and older expressing interest in finding a job has grown by 60 percent since the end of 2007, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. But finding work has proved difficult. The unemployment rate for older job seekers has more than doubled since 2007 to 7.2 percent in December 2009, and the average duration of the job search for older workers was 36 weeks in November—far longer than the 28 weeks most younger workers remain unemployed.”

ESRD

Gary Schwitzer, tenured University of Minnesota Journalism School associate professor, announced his resignation via Twitter. Schwitzer wants to focus on helping people understand issues related to healthcare and devote more time to healthnewsreview.org (hey, full-text for your RSS feed would be nice) which provides analysis of healthcare journalism. Last year, Schwitzer helped develop a health journalism program for the University’s J-School. It’s been shelved, because, after all, who needs quality healthcare journalism.

Intellectual property

Apple this week filed a series of lawsuits against HTC, the manufacturer of Google’s Nexus One smartphone which runs Google’s Android operating system. Apple claims infringement of 20 of its patents. The question is why Google wasn’t named in the actions.

Business

CitiBank blocked fabulis.com’s bank account for “objectionable content on their blog.” Fabulis.com appears to be setting up a rather innocuous travel portal for gay men.

Censorship

Iceland wants to become a haven for media freedom—under the Icelandic Modern Media Initiative—similar to the way that Delaware is a corporate haven. The idea is advancing, so far unopposed, in the Icelandic parliament. The initiatives core concepts—press freedom, source protection, and immunity for carriers—aim at forming the planet’s strongest journalism and whistleblower protection laws.

ESRD

Tracy Lynn Kaply’s blog, Kaply, Inc. is the best dialysis blog going. I’d say I just adore her attitude, but she’d probably punch me in the tits.

Intellectual property

Microsoft files DMCA notice on Cryptome alleging copyright infringement of the software giant’s surveillance compliance document. Cryptome owner John Young files a DMCA counterclaim, but Network Solutions takes Crytome offline and locks domain. Microsoft backs down a few days later.

Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) internet chapter leaked. The leaked material indicates an intention to override the WIPO and to use three-strikes as a model. ACTA negotiations are happening in private, without transparency or public input. Cory Doctorow’s “Copyright Undercover: ACTA & the Web” provides the best overview I’ve found.