OperaMan

Sirius XM's Game Changer About to Rock

First let me say that I am an XM subscriber for my car radio and I am very happy with the service. Particularly for Jazz music, it provides me with programming that I cannot easily find on FM radio in my area. My car subscription also comes with the ability to listen through web-based access to their programs through a browser or a Windows Vista gadget on my home computer.

But, I'm confused as to why this is a game changer when there is already an iPhone app that delivers the Sirius/XM program data stream to my iPhone over the 3G network? This service already requires a premium subscription which has presumably added some marginal increase in revenue from existing subscribers, but should already be represented in their revenue numbers.

I've tried this service through the one week trial offer and found the sound quality to be completely acceptable; roughly equal to the iPod capabilities of my iPhone, and I can receive all the programs I am used to listening to in my car.

But why would I want to spend extra money on a bulky add-on dock to receive something that I already can receive without any additional hardware? Easy portability is one of the major features of the iPod/iPhone paradigm and extra hardware just doesn't fit in.

Labor Costs Are Down, but Who Really Benefits?

I think your observations on the declining fortunes of 99% of America’s workers are spot on. And your observation regarding the bleak future for the standard of living for those 99% of Americans is prescient. But, to think that this situation can continue in the long run without causing strong countervailing forces to emerge is, I think, naive.
There are some real consequences to this trend which may affect the future course of the other trends you mention in your article, some of which may be:
• Business that depend on the aggregate spending by consumers, especially those businesses that cater to spending on non-essential or luxury items, are going to suffer a continued decline in their overall revenues. This will inflict some pain on those members of the privileged classes who live off the income from these businesses which will in turn create pressure to make substantial political changes to try to fix things.
• Political pressure from the disadvantaged masses will also support movements for political change. We already see this in the election of Obama and the continuing collapse of popular support for the Republican laissez-faire capitalist agenda amongst the 99%. The Obama Administration’s pushes for comprehensive health care reform and for EFCA are just the start. If the situation does not improve, political pressure for more extreme measures will result and the privilege classes may well reflect back nostalgically on the Obama Administration’s mild move towards socialism as having been quite benign. Consider the high polling numbers for Obama at the 100 day mark of his administration as a signal in the shift in the public’s mood.
• Your description of IBM’s solution to export their workers to lower wage countries is very interesting and has many implications. Not the least of which is a massive brain drain which will rob this country of its innovative edge as not only America’s innovative citizens leave to find better situations (and likely more amenable foreign employers), but the lure of America to talented foreigners quickly fades as well. Once the word is out on just how bad an employer IBM is becoming, how much of the world’s engineering and scientific talent want to work for it or, by extension, for any other American company?
• Seeing what bad career choices science and engineering are in this country, more young people will continue to avoid studying for degrees in these fields in favor of careers with better probable outcomes (including entrepreneurial ventures). Innovation will continue to decline in this country as American becomes progressively less attractive a place for talented foreigners to immigrate to and American companies become progressively less attractive to work for (even in their foreign subsidiaries).
The decline of the American middle class and the American life-style are well under way. What political and social pressures and changes emerge as a result will be very interesting to observe. We are all in for a bumpy ride.

Interview with Peter Schiff: Reflating the Bubble

It seems to me that the hole in this argument about inflation due to spending ignores the one key fact of why we are in this mess to begin with and that is the collapse of consumer buying power due to wage stagnation for at least the last decade.

Unless wage earners suddenly see a vast increase in their earnings from labor (where most of us get our money to spend) there will be no increase in spending to cause the increase in the velocity of money to drive prices up. Given the lack of well paying jobs in this country, such a large increase in real wages is, to say the least, unlikely.

Given the new realities of declining real wages, and the realities of the new frugality (driven by the unavailability of consumer credit and a real fear of not having sufficient savings to weather a continuing series of personal financial crisis), there will not be any major increases in consumer spending (except maybe for the gifted top 2% of wage earners) any time in the near future.

Things We Don't Talk About (But Should): National Debt and $2 Trillion Deficits

If you think slow consumer spending is an issue now, wait until the baby boomers who haven't retired contemplate how much more they will need to save to be able to survive cutbacks in Social Security payments.

Those nearing retirement will have to go into panic savings mode to compensate, which in turn will greatly reduce the amount of money flowing into the consumer economy.

Why Bailouts Are Not the Answer

Once again TARP = FFEBGC (Federal Financial Executive Bonus Guarantee Corporation)