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New York Considers "Five-Year Plan" To Save Itself From Debt Doom

admin — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 20:14:00 +0000

Lieutenant Governor Richard Ravitch (not pictured) has called on New York to start setting five year fiscal plans to get the state back in order, according to his proposals released today . Ravitch says that because a “universal human preference for short-term expedients” exists, its necessary to establish these long term planning rules to get New York back in the black. The plan would be submitted along with the governor’s budget on a yearly basis and be overseen by an independent review panel. If the legislature and governor could not come to agreement on the budget, the governor would have the right to make cuts to balance the budget, according to the five-year guidelines . Remember, all this planning is to cut spending, not increase it. Join the conversation about this story ? See Also: The Biggest Moochers: 10 States Making A Fortune From Obama’s Budget REMINDER: The Vast Majority Of The Government Deficits People Hate Comes From Bush’s Wars And Bush’s Tax Cuts New Jersey Lawmakers Desperate To Stop Their Raids On Pension Funds

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New York Considers "Five-Year Plan" To Save Itself From Debt Doom

Six things you can learn from Sex.com’s failure

CHART OF THE DAY: As Europe Crumbled, Investors Quietly Tip-Toed Back Into U.S. Stocks

admin — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 20:10:00 +0000

According to the most recent fund flow data from The Investment Company Institute (ICI), U.S. mutual fund investors came back to U.S. stocks in late February as the Eurozone was rocked with uncertainty. While fund flows were only mildly positive in mid-January and most recently late February, as shown below, keep in mind that a massive $39 billion flowed out of U.S. stocks in 2009 according to ICI (not shown). That’s why the green tip-toes below are significant. The average U.S. investor still remains highly skeptical of U.S. stocks, given the huge 2009 outflows that have yet to return… but… Europe’s travails or the prospect of a sustained U.S. recovery may have rekindled some faith in domestic equities, given that this is the second time in recent weeks that money has flowed into U.S. stocks. This could be the beginning of a period where we see a portion of 2009’s outflows come back to U.S. stocks: Get This Delivered To Your Inbox You can get this dropped in your inbox every afternoon as The Chart Of The Day . It’s a simple. It’s convenient. It’s free. All we need is your email address, country and postal code.? Sign up below! Email ? Country United States Afghanistan Aland Islands Albania Algeria American Samoa Andorra Angola Anguilla Antarctica Antigua And Barbuda Argentina Armenia Aruba Australia Austria Azerbaijan Bahamas Bahrain Bangladesh Barbados Belarus Belgium Belize Benin Bermuda Bhutan Bolivia, Plurinational State Of Bosnia And Herzegovina Botswana Bouvet Island Brazil British Indian Ocean Territory Brunei Darussalam Bulgaria Burkina Faso Burundi Cambodia Cameroon Canada Cape Verde Cayman Islands Central African Republic Chad Chile China Christmas Island Cocos (keeling) Islands Colombia Comoros Congo Congo, The Democratic Republic Of The Cook Islands Costa Rica Cote D’ivoire Croatia Cuba Cyprus Czech Republic Denmark Djibouti Dominica Dominican Republic Ecuador Egypt El Salvador Equatorial Guinea Eritrea Estonia Ethiopia Falkland Islands (malvinas) Faroe Islands Fiji Finland France French Guiana French Polynesia French Southern Territories Gabon Gambia Georgia Germany Ghana Gibraltar Greece Greenland Grenada Guadeloupe Guam Guatemala Guernsey Guinea Guinea-bissau Guyana Haiti Heard Island And Mcdonald Islands Holy See (vatican City State) Honduras Hong Kong Hungary Iceland India Indonesia Iran, Islamic Republic Of Iraq Ireland Isle Of Man Israel Italy Jamaica Japan Jersey Jordan Kazakhstan Kenya Kiribati Korea, Democratic People’s Republic Of Korea, Republic Of Kuwait Kyrgyzstan Lao People’s Democratic Republic Latvia Lebanon Lesotho Liberia Libyan Arab Jamahiriya Liechtenstein Lithuania Luxembourg Macao Macedonia Madagascar Malawi Malaysia Maldives Mali Malta Marshall Islands Martinique Mauritania Mauritius Mayotte Mexico Micronesia, Federated States Of Moldova, Republic Of Monaco Mongolia Montenegro Montserrat Morocco Mozambique Myanmar Namibia Nauru Nepal Netherlands Netherlands Antilles New Caledonia New Zealand Nicaragua Niger Nigeria Niue Norfolk Island Northern Mariana Islands Norway Oman Pakistan Palau Palestinian Territory, Occupied Panama Papua New Guinea Paraguay Peru Philippines Pitcairn Poland Portugal Puerto Rico Qatar Reunion Romania Russian Federation Rwanda Saint Barthelemy Saint Helena Saint Kitts And Nevis Saint Lucia Saint Martin Saint Pierre And Miquelon Saint Vincent And The Grenadines Samoa San Marino Sao Tome And Principe Saudi Arabia Senegal Serbia Seychelles Sierra Leone Singapore Slovakia Slovenia Solomon Islands Somalia South Africa South Georgia And South Sandwich Islands Spain Sri Lanka Sudan Suriname Svalbard And Jan Mayen Swaziland Sweden Switzerland Syrian Arab Republic Taiwan, Province Of China Tajikistan Tanzania, United Republic Of Thailand Timor-leste Togo Tokelau Tonga Trinidad And Tobago Tunisia Turkey Turkmenistan Turks And Caicos Islands Tuvalu Uganda Ukraine United Arab Emirates United Kingdom United States Minor Outlying Islands Uruguay Uzbekistan Vanuatu Venezuela, Bolivarian Republic Of Viet Nam Virgin Islands, British Virgin Islands, U.s. Wallis And Futuna Western Sahara Yemen Zambia Zimbabwe ? Zip Code ? Privacy Policy ? Please Note: Business Insider will never share your information with any other companies. You also have the ability to unsubscribe from these newsletters at any time simply by following the unsubscribe link located at the bottom of each email Join the conversation about this story ? See Also: Lessons To Learn From The Incredible 12-Month Rally Barton Biggs: Here’s Why Global Large-Cap Stocks Are The Cheapest They’ve Been In 30 Years Perma-Bear Bob Janjuah Makes A Bullish Call

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CHART OF THE DAY: As Europe Crumbled, Investors Quietly Tip-Toed Back Into U.S. Stocks

FarmVille Adds Facebook Credits Payment Option

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 20:06:07 +0000

The Facebook platform game FarmVille now supports the Facebook Credits virtual currency . The popular online game uses two units of in-game currency: Farm Cash and Farm Coins. Previously, you could buy them with a credit card or PayPal. Now the game offers Facebook Credits as an option. Facebook Credits are the number-one option, actually. They’re the default payment choice, featured at the top of the list pictured here. We recently learned that Facebook takes 30% of developers’ Facebook Credits revenue — the same percentage that Apple takes from its iPhone and iPod touch App Store sales. Analysts have speculated that Facebook might surpass $1 billion in revenue this year, and the social network’s virtual currency could be a vital part of growth beyond that. This new option in FarmVille is arguably bigger for Facebook Credits than it is for the game. FarmVille has more than 80 million users , making it bigger than Twitter . Exposure to an audience that large is an important milestone for the Facebook Credits project, which has been a slowly expanding experiment up until now. Tags: facebook , facebook credits , facebook platform , farmville , microtransactions , online games , virtual currency , Zynga

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FarmVille Adds Facebook Credits Payment Option

Internet is indispensible when it comes to local shopping

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 18:52:15 +0000

Small wonder that new local web tools are appearing with increasing frequency. Just yesterday, Foursquare joined the fray , offering local analytics tools to merchants. Full results of the survey are not yet available, but some interesting data points were made public. On average, consumers use 7.9 different media sources when shopping for products or services in their local area, up from 6.5 sources in 2009 and 5.8 in 2008. 58 percent of respondents report using an online coupon when shopping for products or services in their local area in the past year. 19 percent of respondents report making an appointment online in the past six months for a service other than a restaurant reservation, such as a business or health-care appointment, auto service, or personal service such as a beauty salon). This last item is of particular interest, given the ability to make appointments online is anything but widespread. Clearly, it’s a site function consumers are prepared to embrace once adoption increases.

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Internet is indispensible when it comes to local shopping

Test Results Published Show Flash Is Not a "CPU Hog" Like Apple Claims

admin — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 17:04:46 +0000

There’s been a lot of discussion on the blogsphere over the last few weeks due to Steve Jobs being quoted as saying one of the reasons Apple won’t support Flash video on the upcoming iPad was due to Flash being a “CPU Hog”. Apple’s workaround to Flash video is to use HTML5 and that encouraged some to even suggest that…

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Test Results Published Show Flash Is Not a "CPU Hog" Like Apple Claims

Pentax Releases ‘Affordable’ Medium Format DSLR

admin — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 16:48:40 +0000

Pining away for a medium format DSLR camera but can’t bring yourself to drop 20 large for Mamiya’s DM40 ? Maybe Pentax has your number, who just introduced its 645D camera for the comparatively bargain-bin price of $9,400. It’s the company’s first medium format DSLR, which comes with a high-performance CCD image sensor produced by Kodak. The sensor measures 44mm by 33mm and boasts 40MP shots. Other features include a 14-bit A/D converter, lightweight body, dual SD/SDHC memory card slots, the company’s DR (Dust Removal) II mechanism, 11-point wide-frame AF sensor, 77-segment multi-pattern metering, 3.0-inch color LCD, HDR function, HDMI output, and whole host of other goodies. Get the full scoop here . Image Credit: Pentax

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Pentax Releases ‘Affordable’ Medium Format DSLR

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Cisco Preparing To Launch New Flip Cameras

admin — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 16:07:16 +0000

Last week someone sent me specs for new Flip cameras Cisco is preparing to launch around the NAB time frame. While I’ve been able to confirm that new cameras are in fact on the way, I have not been able to verify that the specs I have been sent are completely accurate, so I’m not going to publish them. But…

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Cisco Preparing To Launch New Flip Cameras

Facebook to Launch Location Features Next Month

Six things you can learn from Sex.com’s failure

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 11:41:00 +0000

Yet next week, Sex.com will go on sale again. The reason? For more than a year, Escom LLC has reportedly been in default on a loan it used to finance its Sex.com purchase. So the lender is finally foreclosing and hoping to recoup millions at auction. For a domain that once reportedly generated $15,000 in revenue every day , the failure of Sex.com offers six important lessons. A great domain only goes so far. Sex.com is certainly one of the most desirable domain names on the internet — perhaps the most desirable domain name — yet a great domain and the type-in traffic that comes with it usually aren’t enough to build a sustainable business. It’s all about development. A great piece of land can appreciate in value, but you typically have to develop a property to produce income . Given the amount of competition online, developing an awesome website that offers value is an absolute prerequisite for attracting and retaining users. As the Baltimore Sun notes , Sex.com features little more than a ” mish-mash of blah links and boring essays (paired with a design our 10-year-old cousin could improve upon) “. Make no mistake about it: poor execution on the development-side is one of the biggest reason Sex.com is heading to the deadpool. Focus is important. If you haven’t visited, you might think Sex.com is something it isn’t. For instance, you probably wouldn’t expect Sex.com to be selling rather tame ” I Saw Your Dad on Sex.com ” t-shirts. But it is. You’ll also find a YouTube video of the day, love horoscopes, and polls. In other words, Sex.com is trying to do everything, and because of that it does nothing well. Business models change in every market. The ‘ adult entertainment ‘ industry is often heralded as cutting-edge adopter of technology, and that’s probably true to an extent. But like all industries, it faces challenges online, from piracy to rampant competition. The owners of Sex.com clearly failed to innovate and adapt to the changes within the industry as they said they would, and they paid the price just like companies in other industries that have failed to keep up with the rapid pace of change. You always have to market yourself. Despite the domain, Quantcast reports that Sex.com receives less than half a million unique visitors in the US each month. Even more surprising: you won’t find Sex.com on the first page of Google when you search for ‘ sex ‘. Whether you’re paying for advertising or building organic traffic through SEO, you can’t sit back and expect users to find you. That’s especially true when you’re not giving existing users much reason to come back. Allocation of resources is crucial to success. Every business has a budget. The key to success is maximizing that budget by allocating resources appropriately. Blowing all of your money on a domain name and skimping out on everything else, for instance, is a recipe for failure. Like other massive .com flameouts before it, Sex.com is a reminder that money, ideas and domain names come easy. Building a real business doesn’t. Without common business sense and execution, very little can keep a website from failing. Even Sex.com. Photo credit: je@n via Flickr.

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Six things you can learn from Sex.com’s failure

China Import / Export Data Improves

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 11:05:51 +0000

G10 Advancers and Decliners vs USD CHF -0.07 EUR -0.12 GBP -0.35 JPY -0.39 • Australia Westpac Consumer Confidence printed at 0.2% vs. -2.6% exp • Australia Jan owner-occupied housing finance -7.9% m/m vs.-2.0% exp investment finance +0.9% • In Australia RBA AsstGov Lowe sounded very optimistic stating that growth was at or above average for the next couple of yrs, while labor market are strong and inflation consistent with medium-term target, challenge to expand supply…

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China Import / Export Data Improves

Former EC President Prodi: The Greece Problem Is "Completely Settled" (Now Help Us Pick What’s Next!)

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 10:46:23 +0000

We said it Friday , and then reiterated it Monday , and now Former European Commission President Romano Prodi is saying it, so it must be true. The Greek crisis is over. In addition, according to Bloomberg , Prodi told Italian TV: “ I don’t see any other case now in Europe. I don’t think there is any reason to think the euro system will collapse or will suffer greatly because of Greece. ” Now, participate in our poll. Online Surveys ?&? Market Research Join the conversation about this story ? See Also: The Greek Crisis Is Over! (For Now) The Greek Crisis Comes To A Close The Greek Debt Crisis Was Resolved By A Confidence Game

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Former EC President Prodi: The Greece Problem Is "Completely Settled" (Now Help Us Pick What’s Next!)