kmanm

Google's Android vs. Apple: History Repeats Itself

In about 2-3 years Google can become huge mobile phone player. They are slowly building huge telephone/mobile customer base using Google Voice, building a nice slick mobile software (android) and add things like Free maps and you have a real threat to Apple.

I realize Apple can still capture huge percentage of smart phone market but it is nice to have an alternative option to keep their prices in check.

US Dollar: "I'm Not Dead Yet!"

The dollar may not be dead yet but it is on life support unless something changes soon.

The big issue is US in decline while Russia, China and few other countries are growing. On top of that , US is running huge growing deficit.

We like it or not US needs to change and adopt a new reality. This means cutting cost including national defense, social programs and foreign aid. Also US need to remove itself from expensive international programs and start thinking running a balanced budge at any cost while finding a way to grow the economy by encouraging new ideas and innovations.

Gone Nowhere in 8 Years

SEC and the government should be accountable for failing average hard working men and women. The market is slowly becoming a legalized gambling. Everyday it is becoming hard to trust the company executive making the best decision for the share holders. It is unfortunate that the CEO are driven by greed and short term gain. This is huge structural flaw that will continue to hurt the companies as well as the small investors.

What we saw in the last ten years with Ernorn, Mci,the financial system collapose (or near collapse), Maddof and etc are just the tip of the iceburg and a symptom of what's wrong with the system.

I for one, I don't have stock market passion as once I did. I am slowly avoiding stock market and getting into commodities and other tanagable investments. I have been investors since 1998 (right after college) and quite honestly I've learned that the system is not designed to make money for small investors.

Top 10 U.S. Online Video Properties, July 2009

Let me correct my statment.."More than 1/3 of American citizens have watched video on Google sites at least once in th month of July".

Top 10 U.S. Online Video Properties, July 2009

These numbers don't mean anything. According to this number, more than 1/3 of american citizens have watched video on Google site at least once. We all know this is far from the truth.

U.S. vs. Canada: Banking Edition

I think you got it wrong. It is not that the Canadian banks wanted conservative approach but rather a better bank system which prevented for Canadian banks to take unnecessary (bad) risk.

www2.macleans.ca/2009/.../

Boeing Delivery and Order Numbers: Read 'Em and Weep

They can deliver tons of plane all year round but the fact is that is that BA is not a great stock. The stock is trading around 1996 level.

Google Drops a Nuclear Bomb on Microsoft. And It's Made of Chrome.

Yes, it is easy for the geeks and nerds to install linux/OS and may run the new chrome OS but the average person doesn't want to do it or have the time to do it. My wife is a prime example. She is an office manager and I suggested to her to consider using start office instead of ms-office software. Her response was big No. Why? Because she and her staff have been using office and they have no desire to change and learn anything new.
It is great news for geeks but the average user doesn't care . It is not like the geeks pay for their OS anyway.

No Bailout for the Governator: California's 'Fiscal Emergency'

CA's budget problem is a poster child to what will happen to the country unless the government cut spending significantly and start paying down the national debt. Soon or later the government will start issuing IOU to China and US will be lead by politicians not from Washington DC but from Beijing. Remember, US is paying over half trillion dollar (and growing) on interest alone. This cannot be sustained and something has to give in. Be assure the first causality will be the dollar.

7 Reasons Why the Loonie Will Trounce the Dollar

The problem with Canada is that it is too dependent on US economy for it's growth. Also, Canada is not easy place for businesses to grow. Taxes are high and I think this will always put Canada somewhat at disadvantage compare to it's biggest trade partner (US).

The Growing Debate on When to Cut Fiscal Stimulus

The biggest threat to existence of US is not terrorism. It is the national debt. US government need to cut benefit across the board including SS, health care, military spending, foreign assistance, war, social services and etc. I will even argue that national sales tax need to be brought back at 1-2% to pay down on national debt.

I know this is not popular among conservatives and liberals but it has to be done!!

Currently US national debt is over 10 Trillion dollars and grwoing. The government is spending over $500BIllion dollars a year just paying on the interest. This cannot continue and if it does continue, expect the spiral down of the dollar and the US we know will come to an end.

Obama's Financial Proposal: Why It's Too Soon for Reforms

People are losing confidence in the system and rightly so. The problem is that corporation board members and CEOs are now in the same bed. There is no accountability. The CEOs are willing to find a way to cook the book for short term gain hurting the companies in the long term. Personally I started investing in late 1990s right after college. Everyone told me to take a risk as I was young and I did. Shortly I got burned in tech crush. I continued to invest in real estate, consumer products and etc. In 2008 I got burned again. Yes, some of the mistake was my stupidity but the fact is there are lots of fraud in wall street and the average joe is paying the price. We need more transparency and protect the average investor. CEOs compensation but be tied not to a short term gain but a long term gain of a company. We need to encourage CEO's to thing long term.

I personally will not invest as I did unless things change in Wall Street. We need more oversight and more accountability. Too much fraud. I am happy stashing my cash away, buying land and gold.

Google Voice's Secret Weapon: Number Portability

I have been using google voice and formerly grand central for over two years. It has saved me tons of money due to my unlimited incoming calls plan on my cell phone. Plus, it is of course it is a slick way to combine all your phone numbers (office,home, cell and etc) into one number.
The problem with GV is that it is not open to the public yet and it may never be opened. Could you imagine the demand for the service? If Google can open the service for the public, Google can become a huge telecom company over night but the problem is that I don't think Google's infustructure is ready to support millions of requests for the service.

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer Introduces Bing!

msft is much better position than a year ago. Last year they were about to pay 34-36 dollars/share for yahoo. Today they can easily buy it for almost half of that price and instantly become threat to google.

In my opinion what lacks msft and yahoo is vision. They need to start think outside the box just like Google and compete aggressively with google.

For example, publishers don't have much alternative to adsense and lots of people are not happy with google ad (including me). Here yahoo and msn can fill in the void. Why is it taking them long to open up their publisher network open up for the public.

I don't think plastering your home page with annoying ads will increase traffic. Bring something people can use.

Google: Where Failure Is Instructive

I will argue that Google's best years are behind it. I personally think TV ads will continue to decline even if the economy recovers due to the popularity of DVRs. Google is still the best search engine in the world but other than that it really doesn't have much of anything else. Yes, they have great products like gmail, google voice, googledoc and etc but they don't ad much to the revenue.

The big question for google is that if companies will be willing to pay top dollars as they did 3-4 years ago for google ads? The way the economy is, I have my doubts.