] One of Wall Street's leading economists is predicting a
] global recession this year, prompted in large part by
] fears surrounding Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome
] (SARS), the "mystery illness" with cold-like symptoms
] that is blamed for 78 deaths in 15 countries, CNNfn has
] learned.
]
] Morgan Stanley's chief economist in the United States,
] Stephen Roach, will formally advise clients Friday that
] he's forecasting a world recession in 2003. His previous
] forecast was for an annual growth rate of 2.5 percent.

Economist predicts recession, partly linked to SARS - Apr. 2, 2003

] Welcome to the World's LARGEST Consumer
] Advocacy Site for Gas Prices!

Welcome to Gaspricewatch.com - Find the lowest gas prices in your neighborhood.

] Some people think it's more important to give a big
] campaign contribution than to vote…that it's "the
] American way" to buy access and influence with big
] money…that it's OK if public policy is sold to the
] highest bidder. Some even think that the only real
] democracy is in the marketplace, where we all
] supposedly vote with our dollars.
]
] Well, we at Public Campaign disagree, and we believe
] so do a lot of other Americans. Which is why we
] created the "State of the Union" poster. Because we
] wanted to use one picture to say what a thousand words
] couldn't say about the union of big money and Washington.

State of the Union: Congress Meets Wall Street

Interesting little piece on wealth distribution:

Specifically, the number of people with some value of wealth w is proportional to 1/wE. Pareto claimed that E is generally has a value of between 2 and 3. The bigger this value, the greater the extent to which extreme wealth is suppressed - and the more socialist the economy.

Burda's group define liberal economies as those in which E is less than 2, and social economies as those in which E is greater than 2.

Wealth spawns corruption

Behind the crisis in corporate America is a combination of pernicious Southern conservatism and unadulterated greed, argues Will Hutton.

Guardian Unlimited Politics | Comment | Bye bye American pie

He and two partners are chipping in $300 each to purchase prime real estate on Calypso, Project Entropia's virtual world. And then they'll rent out space in these pixilated buildings to players who want to set up their own in-game stores.

Unless they rename this online world to "The Metaverse", I will have nothing to do with it.

"The whole idea is to get people to work for me. I want to be the head honcho," said Quackenbush, who lives in St. Paul, Minnesota, and pulls 10-hour shifts at the local Ford Ranger plant.

s/honcho/idiot/
s/honcho/moron/
s/honcho/dipshit/

... or someting like that. Pick one, or some up with your own!

I think the "sometimes it just takes an idiot" phenomenon that we saw with Napster in the P2P space has potental to create an interesting situation here. Assorted cypherpunks are going to get to say "I told you so" many times if this takes off. The potental for real crime rocks^H^H^H^H^His really high.

Coming soon: The Metaverse

The data centers originally blossomed as the Internet bubble grew. The theory was that Internet traffic would continue to double every six months ... "There was sort of an ad hoc land-grab mentality." ... "The heyday of telecom expansion is not what it was and will not be coming back."

All Over the Area, Data Centers Assume New Identities

... debt slashed to "junk" status; $32B in debt, but customers aren't defecting [yet]. "The bigger problem is going to be two, three or four years out. It's a long-term situation." ... price wars, excess network capacity and a weak economy have taken their toll ... After Thursday, analysts are talking more about the possibility of bankruptcy. "WorldCom's problems will likely cast a further pall on other leveraged telecom carriers with perceived liquidity issues -- primarily Sprint and Qwest."

WorldCom to declare bankruptcy?

In that same year, E*Trade posted a loss of $241.5 million, or 73 cents per share."

E*Trade's CEO salary is 30% of their annual loss!!

E*Trade downgrades CEO's pay - Tech News - CNET.com

This ought to be a glorious moment for the telecommunications industry. Instead, the industry is in the midst of a financial meltdown. The ripples from the telecom implosion extend well beyond the industry. In the boom years, there seemed no limit to telecom's prospects. In desperation, companies began to try to "buy" market share. For a time, companies were able to camouflage their problems. Telecom wouldn't be the first to go through such a boom-and-bust cycle. In the 1880's, the entire railroad industry went bankrupt.

Fiber-Optic Overdose Racks Up Casualties