] So if jobs are scarce and wages are flat, who's
] benefiting from the economy's expansion? The direct gains
] are going largely to corporate profits, which rose at an
] annual rate of more than 40 percent in the third quarter.
] Indirectly, that means that gains are going to
] stockholders, who are the ultimate owners of corporate
] profits. (That is, if the gains don't go to self-dealing
] executives, but let's save that topic for another day.)

Here's our so-called recovery. Anyone here feel left out in the cold?

Op-Ed Columnist: Our So-Called Boom

] SAN FRANCISCO -- Tech job postings on two popular online
] employment sites have increased sharply, a sign that the
] long moribund job market may finally be turning around.
]
] Craigslist tech job postings in the San Francisco Bay
] Area have doubled from a year ago and are up 50 percent
] from six months ago, said CEO Jim Buckmaster. Activity
] has particularly picked up in the past four weeks, he
] said.
]
] A similar picture has emerged at Monster.com, one of the
] Web's biggest job sites. Overall listings are up 19
] percent in the past six months, said founder Jeff Taylor.
] The increases are centered in such tech job categories as
] software development (39 percent), call center jobs (36
] percent) and engineering (21 percent).

Wired News: Not So Quiet on Tech Job Front

] To many Linux fans in this post-Enron world, it seems odd
] that a stock like SCOX would be doing well at all given
] what has come out about the lawsuit, let alone doing so
] incredibly well. It may also seem odd that talking heads
] on TV or in the business press can hype a stock that
] seems even shakier than many of the dot-bombs, but
] apparently it can still happen. In a June 23 in
] BusinessWeek, we learn that Jonathan Cohen has invested
] in SCO stock and feels it will do well. The next day, he
] gives a good rating to SCOX on moneycentral.msn.com. By
] 30 June 2003, we see that he owns 167,500 shares of SCOX
] stock through Royce and Associates.

] So, our friend Jonathan Cohen is in charge of a Technology
] Fund that has invested in SCO stock. How heavily?
] According to Morningstar, SCOX represents over 5% of the
] total fund. According to the same link, SCOX is up over
] 900% (as of the morning of 29 August 2003) since Cohen
] bought the stock. In fact, Cohen, through the Royce fund,
] is the 5th largest institutional investor in SCOX stock.

Jonathan Cohen and SCO

"It is totally unauthorized as far as we are concerned. It's really a serious mistake on the part of DARPA."

Sound familiar?

This meme just in: DARPA is the new AOL Time Warner, and John Poindexter is the new Justin Frankel.

Terror Trading Site Goes Bust

] In the midst of negotiating a steep tax cuts package, the
] US government shelved a report that showed the United
] States faces future federal budget deficits of more than
] 44.2 trillion dollars.

] The Financial Times hinted that the decision not to publish
] the report may have been because the White House was
] campaigning for a massive tax-cut package that critics
] claim will expand future deficits.
]
] The study, according to the same source, said that sharp
] tax increases, massive spending cuts or both are
] unavoidable if the US is to meet benefit promises to
] future generations.
]
] "It estimates that closing the gap would require the
] equivalent of an immediate and permanent 66 percent
] across-the-board income tax increase," the Financial
] Times said.

Yikes.

Yahoo! News - Washington shelved report of 44-trillion-dollar deficit

] And our receptionist? She'd still be paying about 30
] percent, which means she would be contributing about 10
] times the proportion of her income that I would to such
] government pursuits as fighting terrorism, waging wars
] and supporting the elderly. Let me repeat the point: Her
] overall federal tax rate would be 10 times what my rate
] would be.

[IP] Buffett on dividend taxes

Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said on Wednesday the Iraq war's full impact on the U.S. economy would not become clear until the conflict is over.

"We will not know what the full impact of this war will be until it's over," Greenspan said in answer to audience questions after a speech at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California, adding that the U.S. economy is "more prone to economic growth than stagnation."

----

Now you think they would have modeled what would happen to US economy and world economy.

Greenspan: War's Economic Impact Not Clear

] There doesn't seem to be much awareness in the Bush
] administration of the terrible distress of the unemployed
] American worker. This is an ache that does not extend to
] the gilded towers of the very wealthy, which is where the
] administration has always focused its concern.
]
] The White House response to the latest job loss figures
] is the same response it has had all along to bad economic
] news: more tax cuts are the cure.

Workers Who Feel Discarded

As expected, the second big economic shoe dropped this week and hit with a resounding thud: another big job loss in March and an even bigger one in February than was previously announced. Add that to news this week of a downturn in manufacturing and what do you get? Two important recession signals flashing the same message: Danger Will Robinson!
...
Here's what matters in trying to figure out where the economy is heading, the four main indicators of recession:

1. Employment - the number of jobs created each month
2. Industrial output -- mainly manufacturing
3. Personal income -- think monthly paycheck
4. Business sales -- wholesale and retail

The Hays Files: Shades of recession

] Whether we protect intellectual property as an
] inalienable right or as a privilege vouchsafed by the
] sovereign, such protection inevitably entails making some
] choices that have crucial implications for the balance we
] strike between the interests of those who innovate and
] those who would benefit from innovation.

This is a worrysome and cryptic comment.

1. He raises the specter of Intellectual Property as an inalienable right. With respect to the Constitution that is an extremely radical position. It has gained ground in recent years because of careful marketing efforts by the media industries. His comment is too vauge to know what he really wants, only that he thinks IP should be strengthened.

2. The separation of "those who innovate" and "those who would benefit from innovation" into two separate and exclusive groups is crusty industrial age thinking.

3. Finance people often do not understand the economic importance of activity which occurs outside of the market. I didn't figure Greenspan to be one of those people. Your strong protections for innovators aren't going to do you much good if you can't innovate because all of your citizens are stupid. If you create a world where culture only exists for entertainment purposes and comment, criticisms, and derivative works are all impossible to produce your culture will stagnate and your people will become dull.

4. If you have to rebuild the entire operating system from scratch in order to make a small improvement to a particular feature, you aren't going to do it. IP maximalism hurts innovation.

Greenspan: Secure intellectual property