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30 Oct 2009 20:52

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Biz: Despite many chances, Bernie Madoff surprised he wasn’t caught sooner

  • It was a nightmare for me. I wish they caught me six years ago, eight years ago.
  • Bernard Madoff • Speaking during a June prison interview with investigators about the Securities and Exchange Commission’s constant probing of his ponzi scheme. You start to feel sympathetic until you realize that this jerk could’ve easily said something six or eight years ago and prevented some of the $21 billion in investor losses. So Bernie gets no sympathy. • source

30 Oct 2009 10:25

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Biz: Corporate bureaucracy gets Pepsi in hot water over Aquafina

  • one letter the piece of information informing PepsiCo they were getting sued over their Aquafina bottled water; it got lost source

30 Oct 2009 09:12

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Biz, U.S.: Consumer spending doesn’t keep up with clunker sales

  • +1.4% the increase in consumer spending in August, largely thanks to cash for clunkers source

29 Oct 2009 10:45

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Biz: Jolt Cola could get jolted out of the market by investors

Jolt Cola
  • Sad story, really. The generation-old ultra-caffeinated cola, which was a trailblazer for energy drinks across the board, is in danger of going away for good. The founder of the company, Carl J. Rapp, blames investors who damaged the company’s assets, pushed it into debt and are attempting to force it into liquidation. “The name will show up someplace else, but just that,” said William I. Kohn of the Cleveland firm of Benesch, Friedlander, Coplan & Aronoff. “I don’t see anybody buying the entire package.”source

29 Oct 2009 10:30

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Biz, Tech: Nintendo can’t count on the Wii to save them anymore

  • 52% drop in quarterly profit – Sony & MS are on top again source

29 Oct 2009 10:25

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Biz: Exxon Mobil’s unbelievable record profits couldn’t last forever

  • $45.2 billion the size of Exxon Mobil’s profits in 2008, helped by super-high oil prices; in other words, they didn’t need a bailout source

29 Oct 2009 09:57

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Biz: That’s promising: The economy’s starting to grow again

  • 3.5% increase in 3Q gross domestic product; hooray! source
 

28 Oct 2009 10:48

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Biz, Tech: Messing with GPS: Google is no longer friends with TomTom

  • There’s no doubt that those guys are going to be disrupted.
  • Opus Research analyst Greg Sterling • On Google’s decision to offer free navigation software for mobile phones, essentially taking the GPS navigation abilities of TomTom and Garmin and making them look expensive and useless. Google does this a lot, and it has the effect of creating animosity in certain industries. For his part, Google CEO Eric Schmidt says he doesn’t see it as disruption, just helping consumers: “Obviously we like the price of free because consumers like that as well.” • source

28 Oct 2009 10:23

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Biz: Everyone sucks in newspapers except the Wall Street Journal

The Awl recently put together a graph showing how crappy the newspaper industry was doing. It wasn’t pretty. Not at all. source

27 Oct 2009 10:58

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Biz, U.S.: Daily poll: Are you feeling confident, fellow consumers?

  • The Conference Board research group says its consumer confidence index is currently sitting at a 26-year low. We guess we can see it, but want to know how you’re feeling, personally. And since we can’t come to every one of your homes to ask you, a poll is the best way. So vote.source