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07 Apr 2010 10:42

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Biz: GM lost a little pocket change in the second half of 2009

  • $4.3 billion in losses – and that was after bankruptcy source

07 Apr 2010 10:39

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World: State of emergency No. 2: Red Shirts too much for Thailand

  • Dudes apparently stormed the Parliament today. The blood-spilling, angry-at-government protesters have held parts of the capital at their whim for days, and now Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva’s government has called a state of emergency. Why? To give the military more control. (However, they can’t harm civilians.) Have fun with that, guys. source

07 Apr 2010 10:30

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World: State of emergency No. 1: Kyrgyzstan in dire straits today

At least 17 people were killed after riot police clashed with protesters. Protesters want President Kurmanbek Bakiyev to step down. source

07 Apr 2010 10:17

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Biz: Alan Greenspan: The mortgage crisis not caused by the poor

  • The house price bubble, the most prominent global bubble in generations, was caused by lower interest rates but. … it was long-term mortgage rates that galvanized prices, not the overnight rates of central banks, as has become the seeming conventional wisdom.
  • Former Federal Reserve Chairman (and all-around smart guy) Alan Greenspan • Speaking in business-ese about something which we can put much more simply: Low interest rates that allowed low-income people to buy houses didn’t cause the housing crisis. Instead, the culprit was a couple levels up the food chain. Speak English, Alan. (Greenspan, by the way, is attempting to defend his legacy here.) source

07 Apr 2010 10:06

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Music, Tech: Do your legal MP3s have “secret” DRM? Some stores play dirty

  • Apple, Lala and Wal-Mart are culprits. Does the record industry have sights on putting the cat back n the bag? Despite the lack of digital rights management in nearly all of the online music stores, some embed your name in the file, something which could lead to backdoor digital rights management down the line – especially if cloud-based services like Lala (which we otherwise love) take off. Will the labels ever learn? And why are Apple, Wal-Mart and Lala enablers? source