I thought this was rather sad while also being brutally true

An era has passed

it was a system that created the illusion of stability while simultaneously creating the conditions for an inevitable and dramatic collapse.

[shudder]

Why capitalism fails - The Boston Globe

More people might buy the product with feature X. Should you build feature X?

Not necessarily. A startup’s cash-on-hand is shrinking every day. You want to add the features that will do the most to stop your losses. You don’t execute every random idea without prioritizing it.

Not just a startup. ANY business. Weighing ideas and prioritizing them is the hardest work you'll do.

Steve Jobs does customer development: No new features - Venture Hacks

What this episode really uncovers is that AT&T is dying. AT&T is dragging down the rest of us by overcharging us for voice calls and stifling innovation in a mobile data market critical to the U.S. economy.

Hello McFly! The telecom industry has been dying for 10+ years. Arguably back in the early 90's when John Malone made the cover of Wired magazine by not following through with his promises of 500 channels and every movie ever PPV. In the process, it's taken $200B+ of our money and stuffed it into it's own coffers. Not shareholder's wallets, but in the compensation of its executives. All the while, the US economy slowly fades into oblivion as it cannot unseize its innovation engines and ingenuity with ubiquitous broadband and countless services for education, health, security, energy, and transportation. And yet Andy Kessler writes this statement as if he's uncovered some unspeakable secret. Thank's Scoop McGee!

Andy Kessler: Why AT&T Killed Google Voice - WSJ.com

Abu Dhabi buying Nova Chemicals at bargain-basement prices on Monday is a sign of things to come, with financial power quickly being transferred over to the world's creditors – namely sovereign wealth funds – and away from the world's debtors.

Guess who the American Taxpayer became over the last 9 months?

'There will be blood' - The Globe and Mail

Of course the whole notion of repairing bank balance sheet is a lie and misdirection. The balance sheets we should want to see repaired are household balance sheets. Banks have failed us profoundly. We want them reorganized, not repaired. A world in which the banks are all fixed but households are still broken is worse than what we have right now. Too-big-to-fail banks restored to health are too-big-to-fail banks restored to power. The idea that fixing legacy banks is prerequisite to fixing the broad economy is a lie perpetrated by legacy bankers.

Dark musings, 2009-03-24 | The Big Picture

This is interesting because of motive. People probably don't realize this but Shell and BP are the biggest producers of solar and wind products in the world. With them exiting the market, I bet it's because they can't get the margins that they thought they'd get because of all the newcomers into the market. Biofuels are a smarter investment IMO, but carbon sequestration is a technical hack.

Slashdot | Shell Ditches Wind, Solar, and Hydro

The administration decided that using billions of dollars to buy troubled assets of financial institutions at the current time was "not the most effective way" to use the $700 billion bailout package, he said.

The announcement marked a major shift for the administration which had talked only about purchasing troubled assets as it lobbied Congress to pass the massive bailout bill.

Bait n switch?

Paulson: Government won't buy troubled bank assets - Yahoo! News

Fifth, the task of forming economic policy and putting it into practice is highly decentralized across states and regions. There really is not a single U.S. economy, but a collection of specialized regional economies—think of the entertainment complex in Hollywood or life sciences in Boston. Each region has its own industry clusters, with specialized skills and assets. Each state and region takes responsibility for competitiveness and addresses its own problems rather than waiting for the central government. This decentralization is arguably America's greatest hidden competitive strength.

Absolutely positively YES. Another great article from one of my heroes, Dr. Michael Porter of HBS.

Why America Needs an Economic Strategy

There are hundreds of sites where job seekers can go to find a new job, and virtually none where you can find reviews of bosses or companies or jobs.

Excellent!

Seth's Blog: Be careful of who you work for