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16 Jun 2010 10:19

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Biz: Manufacturers use low interest rates to ramp up production

  • 1.2% boost in May’s industrial production levels source
  • » Why this is important: If companies are building more stuff, that means more jobs. However, it’s contingent on people buying the new stuff in stores. Manufacturers will only be able to keep building supplies if demand continues to increase. However, the current low interest rates at least help encourage companies to create supply when they otherwise wouldn’t.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

20 Jan 2010 09:22

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Biz: Bank of America lost the TARP, posted huge losses. Coincidence?

  • $2.2B in losses this year, despite a strong upswing at formerly faltering Merrill Lynch
  • $4B the amount Bank of America spent on killing off those pesky bailout funds
  • $5.6B the amount Bank of America lost at its global credit cards division; oof source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

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
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

21 Oct 2009 21:51

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Biz: Obama’s pay czar: Pretty unpopular around Wall Street right now

  • 90% of the salaries of highly-paid executives at bailed-out companies will be taken away by pay czar Kenneth Feinberg
  • $200,000 the pay cap set on the incomes of executives at AIG’s financial products unit, which largely caused the financial crisis source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

05 Oct 2009 20:29

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Biz: A couple deathly serious numbers about the funeral industry

  • 35% of all funerals are cremations, which kills the revenue of mom & pop funeral shops
  • 80% of the funeral market is run by mom & pops and private corpserations … er, corporations source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

13 Sep 2009 12:20

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Biz: Let’s not pretend that newspapers aren’t dying. Let’s talk about it.

  • It’s a bold approach to take. Newspapers across the U.S. have felt the devastating effects of the economy on their business, and the San Jose Mercury News is a microcosm for the whole mess. Caught in the center of more than one major storm – the merging of Knight Ridder with McClatchy (which destabilized the entire industry), its purchase by MediaNews, and the ensuing cuts – the paper went from crown jewel to shell of its former self in a few short years. Mercury News columnist Mike Cassidy asks for help from readers in today’s paper – it’s frank, it’s honest and it hides nothing. Good for them. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

12 Sep 2009 11:43

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Culture: The porn industry is no longer recession-proof, guys

  • 30-50% estimated decline in revenues for the porn industry during the recession; stars are getting paid less, too
  • 2,000 fewer porn films are being made now than in previous years; free porn on the Internet is (in part) to blame source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 

13 Jun 2009 22:00

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Culture: HIV transmission is still high for adult movie actors

  • 22 actors have gotten HIV from being in porn movies since 2004 source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 3 Comments • Permalink

11 Jun 2009 20:23

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Biz, U.S.: Big Health mounts a full-on assault against Obama’s plan

  • $6.4 million in 1Q ’09 to change the cycle to hardcore spin source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

01 Jun 2009 21:12

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Biz, U.S.: Currently on Obama’s plate: Financial industry regulation

  • How do we make sure this never happens again? Re-invent FDIC? Kill the Office of Thrift Supervision? Throw out the rule book? The Obama administration is considering all sorts of MacGyver-like techniques to prevent future financial industry screw-ups. Don’t expect them to combine a bunch of organizations together like a puzzle, though. Obama doesn’t think he’ll get enough political support for that, and even some of his closest colleagues in Congress think it’s a bad idea. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 
 
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