The biggest technology IPO in history has rightfully captured the imagination of both the general and investment public.However Facebook's stock ultimately performs, what is written is that those that invested in the company in its early days made one of the most incredible angel investments in history.As a private company, Facebook has been not obligated to disclose the exact prices at which it sold shares in its early financing rounds.However, both by pretty simple math and disclosures by the principals involved, we can pretty much deduce both the percentage and real dollar return of some…
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Most Topular Stories
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What Angel Investors Can Learn from Facebook’s IPO
Growthink blogs6 Feb 2012 | 11:46 am -
Double Fine Adventure shatters Kickstarter record with $750,000 raised in first 24 hours
VentureBeat9 Feb 2012 | 10:33 amSketches of Double Fine's new gameEarlier this week Kickstarter set a new record when the Elevation iPhone Dock became the first to close in on the $1 million dollar mark. But that milestone isn’t likely to last long. In the first 24 hours a project from gaming studio Double Fine Adventure’s Kickstarter project has raised more than $750,000 and shows no signs of slowing down. As GamesBeat reported yesterday, Tim Schafer and Ron Gilbert are legendary game makers from the golden age of PC gaming, having created classic LucasArts adventures such as Maniac Mansion, Secret of Monkey… -
Fast Talk: How This Bartender Is Rebooting The Condom
Fast Company9 Feb 2012 | 7:41 amMeet Richard Pessall, a 20-year-old British entrepreneur who wants to take the condom where no man has gone before (no, not space).Richard Pessall, 20, lives and works as bartender in Shropshire, England. He spent nine years living in the United States, but when he ran out of money to pay for college in North Carolina, he was unable to renew his visa and was forced to return to the U.K. He’s decided to make his fortune before attempting to return stateside. His big idea? Reboot the condom. Forplay, the condom company he's been bootstrapping with his barman’s earnings, has grown to a staff… -
30 yr auction soft/another QE keg
The Big Picture9 Feb 2012 | 10:35 amThe 30 yr bond auction was soft as the yield was 1 bp above the when issued and the bid to cover of 2.47 was below the previous 12 month average of 2.68. Also, Direct and Indirect bidders took the 2nd least amount since Aug, leaving the rest to dealers. Bottom line, with another QE keg being brought today to the liquidity party, courtesy of the BoE and reminding me of, http://idiotflashback.files.wordpress.com/2009/12/belushi_in_animal_house-13.jpg, inflation expectations have been rising and the action in the 30 yr bond will reflect the most sensitivity to that. While statistically right now… -
Ad of the Day: Barbie
Adweek : Advertising & Branding9 Feb 2012 | 10:30 amWhat happens when you play with Barbie? Option one: You get strange looks from the other people on the subway. Option two: Your child is mildly entertained for approximately 7-10 minutes. Option three: You are suddenly whisked away to a magical world where everything is pink and shiny and full of exciting adventures just waiting to be had! According to the most literal interpretation of Mattel's latest ad campaign, "See What Happens When You Play with Barbie," it's that third possibility—the appearance of the "Barbie Dream Closet," to be exact—that…
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Growthink blogs
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What Angel Investors Can Learn from Facebook’s IPO
6 Feb 2012 | 11:46 amThe biggest technology IPO in history has rightfully captured the imagination of both the general and investment public.However Facebook's stock ultimately performs, what is written is that those that invested in the company in its early days made one of the most incredible angel investments in history.As a private company, Facebook has been not obligated to disclose the exact prices at which it sold shares in its early financing rounds.However, both by pretty simple math and disclosures by the principals involved, we can pretty much deduce both the percentage and real dollar return of some… -
10 Incredible Mobile Marketing Statistics Every Entrepreneur Must Know
3 Feb 2012 | 9:56 amI have to admit, I'm not a pioneer by any stretch when it comes to most new technologies.I was the last of my friends to get a cell phone. I held off on joining Twitter and Facebook until my employees told me I had to do it. And for years I refused to keep an online calendar, and rather opted to continue using my physical appointment book (several of which I kept and it's pretty interesting to look back a few years ago and see what I had scheduled on a daily basis).And it wasn't until last week that I downloaded the QR code reader app on my iPhone (and now I'm like a little kid scanning every… -
Hiring Employees for Your Small Business: How to Find Winners
31 Jan 2012 | 1:09 pm"I've got a theory that if you give 100 percent all of the time, somehow things will work out in the end." ~ Larry BirdI just love this quote from Larry Bird (who was a professional basketball player, and later coach, for those of you who don't know him). Yes, things always tend to work out, and you always tend to achieve success when you give it your all.The best is when people look at successful athletes and entrepreneurs and say "look how lucky they are." Well if you call working all hours of the day and maintaining a laser-like focus on your goals "lucky," then I guess they're right. But… -
Great, Heaping Platefuls of Business Guts
30 Jan 2012 | 3:00 pmWhen I think of the great entrepreneurs that I've been blessed to get to know personally over the years, Mr. Martin Tibbitts truly stands out. Marty, as the Founder and CEO of the BOSS family of businesses, has both built and acquired an impressive array of companies - ranging from telecommunications to security software, to web services and analytics, to digital media.What stands out about Marty for me above all is his beautiful entrepreneurial mind.Extremely well-read and with a wide array of personal, athletic, and intellectual passions and experiences, Marty is the master of the… -
Successful Entrepreneurs Think This Way
26 Jan 2012 | 12:40 pm"Never interrupt someone doing what you said couldn't be done."This quote from Amelia Earhart is one of my favorites.And I think it is especially applicable to entrepreneurs. Since most entrepreneurial achievements are ones that seemingly couldn't be done.Take Google. Would you have thought that this startup, which initially faced heavy competition from other search engines like Yahoo!, Alta Vista, Lycos, and others would eventually dominate the industry?Or take Apple. Would you have bet in 2004 that Apple would develop sensational products and become the world's largest company based on…
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VentureBeat
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Double Fine Adventure shatters Kickstarter record with $750,000 raised in first 24 hours
9 Feb 2012 | 10:33 amSketches of Double Fine's new gameEarlier this week Kickstarter set a new record when the Elevation iPhone Dock became the first to close in on the $1 million dollar mark. But that milestone isn’t likely to last long. In the first 24 hours a project from gaming studio Double Fine Adventure’s Kickstarter project has raised more than $750,000 and shows no signs of slowing down. As GamesBeat reported yesterday, Tim Schafer and Ron Gilbert are legendary game makers from the golden age of PC gaming, having created classic LucasArts adventures such as Maniac Mansion, Secret of Monkey… -
Send your lover a digital Valentine with Lovestagram
9 Feb 2012 | 10:00 amValentine’s Day is less than a week away, and if you’re looking for a cute and Earth-saving way to show your special someone how much you care, we’ve got you covered*. Kaitlyn Trigger, girlfriend of Instagram co-founder Mike Krieger, created Lovestagram, a simple Valentine creator that uses your Instagram photos. Trigger built the app as a Valentine’s present to Krieger and has opened it up for everyone to use. She taught herself how to code and learned Python, Django, Jinja, HTML, CSS, jQuery, and Photoshop to build the app. As she said in an email to VentureBeat,… -
Google likely to launch Dropbox-like cloud storage service soon
9 Feb 2012 | 9:56 amSearch king Google is close to launching its own cloud storage service similar to Dropbox or Amazon CloudDrive, according to a report from the Wall Street Journal. If the report holds true, Google will be entering an extremely crowded market with a product simply called Drive. (No relation to the awesome Ryan Gosling movie.) On top of Dropbox and Amazon, th market consists of strong players like Microsoft SkyDrive, Box, SugerSync, and many others. Drive’s closest resemblance would be to what Dropbox offers and give users access to cloud-connected storage on smartphones, tablets, and… -
Alibaba suspends public trading to buy back its stock from Yahoo
9 Feb 2012 | 9:53 amAlibaba has suspended public trading of its shares in Hong Kong as it prepares to buy back the 40 percent stake held by Yahoo. The transaction is said to be worth between $10 billion and $11.5 billion. In a filing with the Hong Kong stock exchange, Alibaba representatives said the company would be releasing a statement today that would be “potentially price sensitive.” Late last year, Alibaba began rounding up the financing to buy back its shares; the amount was rumored to be around $4 billion and is now said by sources close to the matter to be closer to $3 billion. Yahoo is also… -
Bankrupt Kodak will stop producing cameras in 2012
9 Feb 2012 | 9:39 amKodak, the beleaguered company that invented the handheld camera, is slashing its product lines in an attempt to survive a rapidly changing consumer electronics landscape. The iconic company will ease production of its cameras, including digital and pocket video cameras, as well as its digital picture frames, before the summer of 2012 is over. Exiting this aspect of its business will cost Kodak an initial $30 million but is expected to result in a $100 million annual savings. Kodak will continue to honor existing product warranties and will offer support services for the cameras and frames.
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Fast Company
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Fast Talk: How This Bartender Is Rebooting The Condom
9 Feb 2012 | 7:41 amMeet Richard Pessall, a 20-year-old British entrepreneur who wants to take the condom where no man has gone before (no, not space).Richard Pessall, 20, lives and works as bartender in Shropshire, England. He spent nine years living in the United States, but when he ran out of money to pay for college in North Carolina, he was unable to renew his visa and was forced to return to the U.K. He’s decided to make his fortune before attempting to return stateside. His big idea? Reboot the condom. Forplay, the condom company he's been bootstrapping with his barman’s earnings, has grown to a staff… -
The Google Wallet Hack Is Not The End Of The World (Or Even NFC) As We Know It
9 Feb 2012 | 7:32 amStay calm and carry on, people: It's way too soon to say that NFC should stand for Now Fatally Corrupted. Yes, Google's breakthrough NFC payments app Wallet is being mentioned all over the news thanks to a flaw--it's vulnerable to a hack that gives nefarious types access to your secure PIN number. But don't believe any doomsayers or fearmongering that you may encounter on this matter; it's not as evil as it seems and, believe it or not, it's actually a sign that the future of wireless mobile payments is probably more secure than your current credit card. As reported over at the blog of… -
Inside INTERPOL's New Cybercrime Innovation Center
9 Feb 2012 | 7:09 amINTERPOL, the international policing agency, is opening a massive innovation center in Singapore in 2014. At the center, law enforcement will learn all about the latest cybercrimes... and have access to cutting-edge forensics laboratories and research stations.INTERPOL, the international policing organization, is building a law enforcement tech geek heaven in Singapore. The INTERPOL Global Complex for Innovation will function as a R&D lab, training facility, and forensics lab for all things cybercrime. Slated to open in 2014, the Global Complex for Innovation (IGCI) will be part of the… -
5 Ways To Put The "Pro" In Profile Pics
9 Feb 2012 | 6:29 amYour profile photo is an important part of your online image, so if you still have an egg as your Twitter avatar or a blue-and-white silhouette for your Facebook page, it's time to step things up. (Hint: This photo is a "don't.")If you still have an egg as your Twitter avatar, it's time to step things up. Your profile photo is an important part of your online image. Not only is this pic the first thing people see when they look you up on the web, whether you're using Facebook, LinkedIn, or Google+, this image is now regularly transported into people's in-boxes and pulled onto their phones as… -
Apple May Sell iPads To Air Force, Groupon Reports Surprise Q4 Loss, Foxconn Servers Hacked
9 Feb 2012 | 6:17 amBreaking news from your editors at Fast Company, with updates all day.Rumor: iPad 3 Announcement In March. The latest buzz on the iPad 3, this time from AllThingsD, is that the new device will be unveiled at an early March event. Sources, per usual, are anonymous, but their tips confirm what's already expected of the device--a faster chip, Retina Display, and better graphics. --NS--Updated 9:15 a.m. ESTApple May Sell iPads To Air Force. The Air Force is on the lookout for about 18,000 new tablets, and chances are the iPad--the only device mentioned on their recently spotted notice--may fit…
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The Big Picture
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30 yr auction soft/another QE keg
9 Feb 2012 | 10:35 amThe 30 yr bond auction was soft as the yield was 1 bp above the when issued and the bid to cover of 2.47 was below the previous 12 month average of 2.68. Also, Direct and Indirect bidders took the 2nd least amount since Aug, leaving the rest to dealers. Bottom line, with another QE keg being brought today to the liquidity party, courtesy of the BoE and reminding me of, http://idiotflashback.files.wordpress.com/2009/12/belushi_in_animal_house-13.jpg, inflation expectations have been rising and the action in the 30 yr bond will reflect the most sensitivity to that. While statistically right now… -
10 Thursday AM Reads
9 Feb 2012 | 7:00 amMy (belated) morning reads: • Why Wall Street Should Stop Whining (Rolling Stone) • To Envision Dodd-Frank’s Future, Look to Its Predecessor SOX (DealBook) • Andy Xie: The outlook for the global economy is gloomy and leaders lacking vision are to blame (Caixin) • Black Helicopters Hover Over Economic Reality (Bloomberg) see also Bernanke Says 8.3% Unemployment Understates Weakness in U.S. Labor Market (Bloomberg) • The insiders are selling heavily (Market Watch) • Wall Street Places Big Bets on Troubled Securities (DealBook) see also Goldman Snags Old AIG Bonds (WSJ) • Records… -
Handing out money instead of candy
9 Feb 2012 | 5:18 amLike handing out candy to kids on Halloween, central banks keep handing out money to adults that continue to magically grow out of electronically generated trees. The Bank of England added another 50b pounds to its asset purchase program bringing the total to 325b pounds. As a percent of UK GDP, the BoE balance sheet is about 21% vs about 20% for the Federal Reserve and almost 30% for the ECB as a percent of the Eurozone economy (not all of EU). The ECB will add more at the end of the month with LTRO Part II and the Fed still has all guns blazing ready to go with more. It’s no… -
Why @GSElevator Is a Fake
9 Feb 2012 | 4:18 amWhen the Twitter handle @GSElevator first launched, I followed it for a while, but soon thereafter unfollowed. Some of it was funny — very funny — but it read less like overheard true conversations, and more like what someone imagined would be overheard in a Goldie elevator. I hadn’t thought about it until a reader sent me a link to a hilarious story about a roadshow gone terribly wrong. It confirmed my suspicions that this was being written by a young aspiring sitcom writer, and not a banker. More on that in a moment. @GSElevator author is supposedly a “former… -
January Chinese inflation higher than expected
9 Feb 2012 | 3:14 amJapanese machinery orders fell by -7.1% in December, far more than the expected decline of -5.0%. With falling exports, deflation, a huge (an ever increasing) public sector debt, slowing growth and an absurdly high Yen, I really believe that Japan is going to struggle. Shorting the Yen has resulted in pretty full graveyards in the past, but…….The IMF forecasts that the Japanese economy will grow by +1.7% this year – sounds pretty optimistic to little old me, though I accept that reconstruction expenditure following the earthquake/tsunami (which will increase public sector…
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Adweek : Advertising & Branding
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Ad of the Day: Barbie
9 Feb 2012 | 10:30 amWhat happens when you play with Barbie? Option one: You get strange looks from the other people on the subway. Option two: Your child is mildly entertained for approximately 7-10 minutes. Option three: You are suddenly whisked away to a magical world where everything is pink and shiny and full of exciting adventures just waiting to be had! According to the most literal interpretation of Mattel's latest ad campaign, "See What Happens When You Play with Barbie," it's that third possibility—the appearance of the "Barbie Dream Closet," to be exact—that… -
Goodby, Silverstein Layoffs Could Number at Least 100 Staffers
9 Feb 2012 | 10:19 amIn the wake of losing flagship clients like Sprint late last year, Goodby, Silverstein & Partners laid off at least 100 people in its San Francisco agency or around 14 percent of its staff of more than 700 people, sources estimated. There were more than 100 staffers working on Sprint alone, according to the sources, underscoring just how big the account was for Goodby. Staff cuts were made across the board, though. In December, GSP was surprised to learn that Sprint, a client of four years, was cutting its GSP ties to move to a new Publicis Groupe-dedicated agency led by Digitas. Just a… -
Ben Stein Is Pissed He Wasn't in Honda's Ferris Bueller Ad
9 Feb 2012 | 9:34 amBen Stein would have enjoyed Honda's Ferris Bueller ad for the Super Bowl, if it hadn't disrespected him so badly. "They had a guy imitating my voice, they should've had me in it," Stein tells one of the goons from TMZ upon being ambushed at an airport. Frankly, if RPA passed on having Alan Ruck (aka Cameron) appear in the spot, there wasn't much chance for Stein—even though a bellhop in the ad (above) does imitate Stein's teacher character from the movie by droning "Broderick? Broderick?" Asked if he feels disrespected, Stein replies, "A… -
Courtney Stodden Stars in Worst Ad of 2012 So Far
9 Feb 2012 | 8:04 amJezebel's writers can be a little overly sensitive, but they're right to heap abuse on this Courtney Stodden ad for freecreditreport.com, because it's just aggressively stupid. The "I'm so wet" line makes no sense, which the article points out. Plus, how do you even catch a mermaid with a fish hook. Plus, Stodden doesn't turn 18 until August, meaning the natural reaction male viewers might have is still technically a felony. That didn't stop her chickenhawk husband, of course (incidentally, he was the weaselly prison guard in The Green Mile), but it still… -
Cycle of Life: Resetting L.A.'s Smoking Deaths Billboard
31 Dec 1969 | 4:00 pmUshering in the New Year at the Smoking Deaths billboard above Santa Monica Boulevard in West L.A. has become a somewhat morbid yet surprisingly meaningful tradition. Each year, just before midnight on Jan. 1, locals gather to watch as the numbers, which tally the nation's annual smoking-related deaths, are manually reset to zero. Onlookers aren't necessarily drawn by personal ties to smoking or cancer. A mixture of curiosity, camaraderie and community compel most to make the scene. Gideon Brower, in an affecting piece in the L.A. Times, describes the scene this past New Year's…
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Twitter / TheEconomist
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TheEconomist: Both Vladimir #Putin and the West should heed the message behind the protests in Russia http://t.co/UsfFYCw4
9 Feb 2012 | 11:14 amTheEconomist: Both Vladimir #Putin and the West should heed the message behind the protests in Russia http://t.co/UsfFYCw4 -
TheEconomist: The growing conflict between the Obama administration and the Catholic bishops seems entirely unnecessary http://t.co/VHFs4l6U
9 Feb 2012 | 10:00 amTheEconomist: The growing conflict between the Obama administration and the Catholic bishops seems entirely unnecessary http://t.co/VHFs4l6U -
TheEconomist: The new weekly edition of The Economist is now available to view via our website at http://t.co/qKrEecEJ
9 Feb 2012 | 8:38 amTheEconomist: The new weekly edition of The Economist is now available to view via our website at http://t.co/qKrEecEJ -
TheEconomist: This week's cover preview: How to set Syria free. February 11th - 17th 2012 http://t.co/s01rVCqQ
9 Feb 2012 | 8:06 amTheEconomist: This week's cover preview: How to set Syria free. February 11th - 17th 2012 http://t.co/s01rVCqQ -
TheEconomist: #Groupon has announced its first set of public quarterly results. Instead of making a profit, it revealed a $43m loss http://t.co/y19DLVDm
9 Feb 2012 | 7:24 amTheEconomist: #Groupon has announced its first set of public quarterly results. Instead of making a profit, it revealed a $43m loss http://t.co/y19DLVDm
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NYT > Business Day
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Mortgage Plan Gives Homeowners Bulk of the Benefits
9 Feb 2012 | 10:32 amUnder the settlement, about $5 billion would go to states and federal authorities, $17 billion would be earmarked for homeowner relief and $3 billion would go for refinancing. -
Is This Living Room Big Enough for My TV?
9 Feb 2012 | 10:10 amHuge televisions, once an expensive oddity, are now the affordable norm. -
Breakthrough on Austerity Clears Way for Greek Deal
9 Feb 2012 | 9:27 amAfter days of talks, Greek political leaders reached a deal Thursday to support a package of harsh austerity measures demanded by Greece’s financial backers in return for a bailout. -
DealBook: Credit Suisse Reports First Quarterly Loss in 3 Years
9 Feb 2012 | 9:20 amThe Swiss bank posted a net loss of $698 million in the fourth quarter, as its core businesses experienced a slowdown in a weak economic environment. -
Central Banks in Europe Hold Interest Rates
9 Feb 2012 | 9:13 amThe Bank of England did say it would increase its purchases of government bonds to keep the British economy from slipping into recession.
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Business News, Financial News, Business Headlines & Analysis - The Washington Post
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FBI’s Steve Jobs file: He will ‘distort reality ... to achieve his goals’
9 Feb 2012 | 9:25 amSteve Jobs, being considered in 1991 for an appointment under President George H.W. Bush, underwent a thorough background investigation by the FBI, according to newly released files from the agency. The FBI amassed a lengthy and often unflattering file on Apple’s co-founder, with more than 30 interviews of friends, neighbors, family, former business associates and Jobs, that revealed his early drug use and concerns that the then-head of NeXT was neglecting his daughter born out of wedlock with his high school girlfriend. Read full article >> -
Ethics reform bill to ban insider trading by Congress members, executive branch passed by House
9 Feb 2012 | 8:45 amThe House on Thursday overwhelmingly approved its scaled-back version of an ethics reform package that would prohibit insider trading on Capitol Hill and in the executive branch. On a 417 to 2 vote, the legislation won approval despite complaints from senators and House Democrats that GOP leaders stripped the measure of several key reforms that the Senate had easily approved. Read full article >> -
Landmark settlement announced on foreclosure, mortgage fraud
9 Feb 2012 | 8:26 amState and federal officials on Thursday announced a settlement of more than $25 billion with five of the nation’s banks over their flawed and fraudulent foreclosure practices. It is the largest government-industry settlement in more than a decade. Read full article >> -
Postal Service loses $3.3 billion in first quarter
9 Feb 2012 | 8:00 amThe holidays weren’t merry or bright for the U.S. Postal Service. The nation’s mail delivery service lost $3.3 billion in its first quarter, which runs from Oct. 1 through Dec. 31 and encompasses the holiday shopping and shipping season. Read full article >> -
Greek officials reach austerity deal that could pave way for bailout
9 Feb 2012 | 7:55 amAfter days of agonizing negotiations, Greek politicians have reached a deal to make a sweeping series of cuts that they hope will secure an international bailout and help the debt-ridden nation avoid bankruptcy, Prime Minister Lucas Papademos’s office said on Thursday. Read full article >>
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Economic Policy Institute - Feed
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What does construction have to do with it?
8 Feb 2012 | 8:34 amWe often hear that our high unemployment is the result of the housing boom and the need to shift unemployed construction workers into new fields, which takes time and training. Construction employment has fallen dramatically since the housing bubble burst, but construction worker unemployment is neither what raised the unemployment rate nor what prevents it from falling as rapidly as we would want. The graph makes this clear by showing the overall unemployment rate and the unemployment rate excluding construction. In the early aftermath of the housing collapse in 2007, the unemployment rate… -
It is not the right workers we are lacking, it is work
8 Feb 2012 | 7:26 amThis piece originally appeared on U.S. News & World Report’s website These days we often hear the claim that one of the reasons hiring remains so low in this recovery is that employers can’t find workers with the education and skills they need. For example, in his State of the Union address last week, President Obama said that he hears from many business leaders who “want to hire in the United States but can’t find workers with the right skills.” While there are always changes taking place in any labor market that will create a degree of mismatch between the… -
The ‘toxics rule’ and jobs: The job-creation potential of the EPA’s new rule on toxic power-plant emissions
7 Feb 2012 | 3:00 pmOn December 16, 2011, the Environmental Protection Agency finalized national standards for mercury, arsenic, and other toxic air pollutants emitted by power plants. Known as the “toxics rule,” this ruling is a significant expansion of the Clean Air Act and will, according to nearly all expert opinion, lead to enormous benefits in terms of lower mortality and improved health outcomes for Americans.1 Judged as it should be—by balancing benefits to health against costs of compliance—the toxics rule is a clear win for Americans. Unfortunately, the debate over regulation more generally… -
Job-seekers ratio improves but has been above the highest rate of early 2000s downturn for more than three years
7 Feb 2012 | 10:34 amToday’s Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) release from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that the number of job openings increased by 258,000 in December, to 3.4 million. The total number of unemployed workers in December was 13.1 million (unemployment is from the Current Population Survey). Therefore the ratio of unemployed workers to job openings was 3.9-to-1 in December, an improvement from the November ratio of 4.3-to-1. To put this figure in context, it’s useful to note that the highest this ratio ever got in the early 2000s downturn was 2.8-to-1, and in December… -
Right To Work: A Failed Policy: A New Hampshire update
6 Feb 2012 | 9:00 pmIn 2011, New Hampshire legislators spent several months debating so-called “right-to-work” (RTW) legislation. To inform the discussion, the Economic Policy Institute issued a study that found that RTW has failed as an economic development strategy and is particularly unsuited to New Hampshire (Lafer 2011). This report seeks to update legislators revisiting the RTW question on the evidence published since the last report. The new evidence strengthens the earlier findings: A right-to-work law could lower New Hampshire workers’ wages, reduce benefits, and threaten the state’s small…
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VoxEU.org: Recent Articles
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The trade effects of natural disasters: New evidence from developing countries
8 Feb 2012 | 4:00 pmJorge Andrade da Silva, Lucian Cernat, 9 February 2012Natural disasters often hit developing countries hardest. To add to the devastating death toll, trade and development can be knocked off course. This column suggests that exports of small developing countries fall by nearly a quarter, and that this continues for up to three years. Exports of larger developing countries, on the other hand, are not significantly affected.Full Article: The trade effects of natural disasters: New evidence from developing countries -
On the uselessness of learning foreign languages
7 Feb 2012 | 4:00 pmVictor Ginsburgh, 8 February 2012English is the dominant language of the Internet, business, and world trade. Do we need another? This column applies an economist’s rationale to the question.Full Article: On the uselessness of learning foreign languages -
Fiscal adjustment: Too much of a good thing?
7 Feb 2012 | 4:00 pmCarlo Cottarelli, 8 February 2012Almost everyone agrees that the fiscal accounts of several advanced economies are in a pretty bad shape and need to be strengthened. But how rapid should the adjustment be in the present circumstances? At times over the last couple of years the IMF called on countries to step up the pace of adjustment when we thought they were moving too slowly. This column says that in the current environment, some might be going too fast.Full Article: Fiscal adjustment: Too much of a good thing? -
What does ‘Keynesian’ really mean?
6 Feb 2012 | 4:00 pmJonathan Portes, 7 February 2012What does it mean to be a ‘Keynesian’? This column argues that, like so much in economics, the label has become politicised. The cost is an impoverished policy debate that is resulting in millions of avoidable job cuts.Full Article: What does ‘Keynesian’ really mean? -
Falling policy uncertainty is igniting the US recovery
6 Feb 2012 | 4:00 pmScott Baker, Nicholas Bloom, 7 February 2012Reading the business press, one gets the impression that the world of policy is in a very uncertain state around the world. This column presents an up-to-date index of policy uncertainty and suggests that the calming of policy uncertainty may have aided recent economic prospects in the US. Unfortunately, policy uncertainty still appears extremely high in Europe with the Eurozone crisis. Full Article: Falling policy uncertainty is igniting the US recovery
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Statistical Modeling, Causal Inference, and Social Science
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Familial Linkage between Neuropsychiatric Disorders and Intellectual Interests
9 Feb 2012 | 6:47 amWhen I spoke at Princeton last year, I talked with neuroscientist Sam Wang, who told me about a project he did surveying incoming Princeton freshmen about mental illness in their families. He and his coauthor Benjamin Campbell found some interesting results, which they just published: A link between intellect and temperament has long been the subject of speculation. . . . Studies of the artistically inclined report linkage with familial depression, while among eminent and creative scientists, a lower incidence of affective disorders is found. In the case of developmental disorders, a… -
Charles Murray [perhaps] does a Tucker Carlson, provoking me to unleash the usual torrent of graphs
8 Feb 2012 | 6:07 amCharles Murray wrote a much-discussed new book, “Coming Apart: The State of White America, 1960-2010.” David Frum quotes Murray as writing, in an echo of now-forgotten TV personality Tucker Carlson, that the top 5% of incomes “tends to be liberal—right? There’s no getting around it. Every way of answering this question produces a yes.” [I’ve interjected a “perhaps” into the title of this blog post to indicate that I don’t have the exact Murray quote here so I’m relying on David Frum’s interpretation.] Frum does me the favor of citing Red State… -
The more likely it is to be X, the more likely it is to be Not X?
7 Feb 2012 | 4:25 pmThis post is by Phil Price. A paper by Wood, Douglas, and Sutton looks at “Beliefs in Contradictory Conspiracy Theories.” Unfortunately the subjects were 140 undergraduate psychology students, so one wonders how general the results are. I found this sort of arresting: In Study 1 (n=137), the more participants believed that Princess Diana faked her own death, the more they believed she was murdered. In Study 2 (n=102), the more participants believed that Osama Bin Laden was already dead when U.S. Special Forces raided his compound in Pakistan, the more they believed he is… -
Philosophy of Bayesian statistics: my reactions to Hendry
7 Feb 2012 | 6:45 amContinuing with my discussion here and here of the articles in the special issue of the journal Rationality, Markets and Morals on the philosophy of Bayesian statistics: David Hendry, “Empirical Economic Model Discovery and Theory Evaluation”: Hendry presents a wide-ranging overview of scientific learning, with an interesting comparison of physical with social sciences. (For some reason, he discusses many physical sciences but restricts his social-science examples to economics and psychology.) The only part of Hendry’s long and interesting article that I will discuss,… -
Bayesian model-building by pure thought: Some principles and examples
6 Feb 2012 | 6:52 amThis is one of my favorite papers: In applications, statistical models are often restricted to what produces reasonable estimates based on the data at hand. In many cases, however, the principles that allow a model to be restricted can be derived theoretically, in the absence of any data and with minimal applied context. We illustrate this point with three well-known theoretical examples from spatial statistics and time series. First, we show that an autoregressive model for local averages violates a principle of invariance under scaling. Second, we show how the Bayesian estimate of a…
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Marginal Revolution
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Failing versus Forgetting
9 Feb 2012 | 10:38 amBryan Caplan has a very good post on the human capital and signalling models of education. The key point is this, under the human capital model someone who forgets knowledge is no better than someone who failed to learn the same knowledge. Under the signaling model, however, failing and forgetting are very different. Bryan illustrates: If I’d failed Spanish, I couldn’t have gone to a good college, wouldn’t have gotten into Princeton’s Ph.D. program, and probably wouldn’t be a professor. But since I’ve merely forgotten my Spanish, I’m sitting in my… -
Simple truths about Greece
9 Feb 2012 | 9:29 amFrom Ricardo Hausmann: Greece will have to bring its current account deficit down to zero at some point. This can happen in two ways: either Greece exports more or spends less. Adjusting the current account by spending less would require an additional fall in GDP of 25 per cent, given that in Greece only one in four US dollars of spending cuts goes abroad. This is clearly not a pretty picture. But adjusting by raising exports would require they increase by 50 per cent, not an easy feat. Achieving it through tourism alone would require the industry to triple in size – an unlikely prospect. -
Assorted links
9 Feb 2012 | 7:24 am1. There is no great stagnation: the horizontal shower. 2. What if Star Trek had social networks? 3. The culture that is Iceland. 4. New economics blog from Phillips Exeter Academy. 5. TGS for musical instruments? 6. Profile of Scott Stern’s work on the economics of science. 7. Kristof has quite a reasonable review of Murray; by the way if you think dysfunctional social mores all boil down to economics, how are those Albertan tribes with the oil revenues doing? Ex football players in bankruptcy? etc. Here is more Krugman on Murray, now totally on the mark. Matt nails it too. -
The Secret Agreement that Revolutionized China
9 Feb 2012 | 4:28 amIn our principles textbook, Modern Principles: Macroeconomics, Tyler and I illustrate the importance of property rights with the incentive effects of collective farming and the secret agreement of Xiaogang village. We write: Farmers from 18 households in Xiaogang signed a secret life-and-death agreement ending collective farming with their thumbprints. (From Cowen and Tabarrok, Modern Principles: Macroeconomics) The Great Leap Forward was a great leap backward – agricultural land was less productive in 1978 than it had been in 1949 when the communists took over. In 1978, however, farmers… -
What else predicts mobility?
9 Feb 2012 | 4:11 amJim Manzi makes some good points: But what about all the other potential reasons, beyond what their Gini Coefficient was in 1985, for varying levels of social mobility between countries as diverse as Japan, France, and New Zealand? The most obvious example is just the size of the countries. It’s at least plausible that much bigger countries contain more variety. In fact, if you do something as simple as recreate the Great Gatsby Curve, but use the population of each country as the X-axis, you get a very strong a statistical relationship (log-linear R2 = .64). Big countries have higher IGE.
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Twitter / freakonomics
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freakonomics: Volcanoes and the Little Ice Age: Did a series of volcanic eruptions cause the Little Ice Age? http://t.co/9HWOK12D
9 Feb 2012 | 11:04 amfreakonomics: Volcanoes and the Little Ice Age: Did a series of volcanic eruptions cause the Little Ice Age? http://t.co/9HWOK12D -
freakonomics: What Should Scare You More: Sharks or Big TVs?: Fatal shark attacks on the rise in 2011. http://t.co/mSF8ONDb
9 Feb 2012 | 8:36 amfreakonomics: What Should Scare You More: Sharks or Big TVs?: Fatal shark attacks on the rise in 2011. http://t.co/mSF8ONDb -
freakonomics: Does Military Service Lead to Crime?: New research points to a link between service and violent crime. http://t.co/V4zZu5HQ
9 Feb 2012 | 7:39 amfreakonomics: Does Military Service Lead to Crime?: New research points to a link between service and violent crime. http://t.co/V4zZu5HQ -
freakonomics: Does This Recession Make Me Look Fat? A New Marketplace Podcast: The Great Recession and obesity in the U.S. http://t.co/LwgJtg5t
9 Feb 2012 | 6:45 amfreakonomics: Does This Recession Make Me Look Fat? A New Marketplace Podcast: The Great Recession and obesity in the U.S. http://t.co/LwgJtg5t -
freakonomics: Tonight! Freakonomics Radio on @MktplaceRadio: Obesity is a problems with a lot of different causes, not all of them obvious. Tune in!
8 Feb 2012 | 12:00 pmfreakonomics: Tonight! Freakonomics Radio on @MktplaceRadio: Obesity is a problems with a lot of different causes, not all of them obvious. Tune in!
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naked capitalism
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Settlement Breakdown by State Plus Other Official Propaganda
9 Feb 2012 | 7:12 amA little birdie sent me some settlement details. You can see how much little your state got, as well as whether your state bothered rewriting the official PR: Settlement Swiss Cheese Release Settlement Graphic State Settlement Amounts -
Links 2/9/12
9 Feb 2012 | 2:16 amThin links tonight, I have media today and should have been in bed hours ago. Please fill in what I missed in the comments section. Blood-sucking flies clue to zebra’s stripes BBC Lizard survives washing machine spin Telegraph (hat tip furzy mouse) Should Plastic Bags Be Banned? New York Times The science fiction effect Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists A Suit Airs Debate on Organic vs Modified Crops New York Times (hat tip reader John L) Brazilian government files lawsuit against Twitter Raw Story (hat tip furzy mouse) Greece Talks Stall as Venizelos Heads to Brussels Bloomberg For… -
The Top Twelve Reasons Why You Should Hate the Mortgage Settlement
9 Feb 2012 | 1:25 amAs readers may know by now, 49 of 50 states have agreed to join the so-called mortgage settlement, with Oklahoma the lone refusenik. Although the fine points are still being hammered out, various news outlets (New York Times, Financial Times, Wall Street Journal) have details, with Dave Dayen’s overview at Firedoglake the best thus far. The Wall Street Journal is also reporting that the SEC is about to launch some securities litigation against major banks. Since the statue of limitations has already run out on securities filings more than five years old, this means they’ll clip… -
Philip Pilkington: The Upcoming Greek ‘Deal’ – Recognition of Reality or Complete Evasion of the Truth?
8 Feb 2012 | 10:24 pmBy Philip Pilkington, a writer and journalist based in Dublin, Ireland Civilization begins with order, grows with liberty and dies with chaos – Will Durant Well, it looks like the Greeks are going to get a deal on their debt. Provided they continue to destroy their economy through austerity measure, of course. But then why should it be otherwise – why on earth should logic rule when crass moralising is so much more palatable? But there are a couple of problems with the current ‘arrangements’. As Marshall Auerback wrote yesterday: Suppose Greece finally does get a deal? I realize… -
Wolf Richter: Angela Merkel’s Desperate And Risky Gamble
8 Feb 2012 | 9:59 pmBy Wolf Richter, San Francisco based executive, entrepreneur, start up specialist, and author, with extensive international work experience. Cross posted from Testosterone Pit. Following the German-French council of ministers in Paris on Monday, Chancellor Angela Merkel and President Nicolas Sarkozy gave a joint press conference about the crisis in Greece, among other topics. They agreed on everything. They urged the Greek government and all political parties to implement structural reforms and meet the Troika’s demands for deeper budget cuts. Without them, the next bailout tranche…
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drupal.org
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Drupal 7.12 and 6.24 released
1 Feb 2012 | 10:23 amDrupal 7.11 and 6.23, maintenance releases which fix security vulnerabilities are now available for download. Drupal 7.12 and 6.24 also fix other issues reported through the bug tracking system. Download Drupal 7.12 Download Drupal 6.24 Upgrading your existing Drupal 7 and 6 sites is strongly recommended. There are no new features in these releases. For more information about the Drupal 7.x release series, consult the Drupal 7.0 release announcement, more information on the 6.x releases can be found in the Drupal 6.0 release announcement. Drupal 5 is no longer maintained, upgrading to Drupal… -
Drupal elections this week: all candidates meetings and when to vote
31 Jan 2012 | 6:51 pmElections for at large Drupal Association elections are kicking into high gear with two all candidates meetings this week before voting opens Friday. Election candidates will participate in all candidates meetings are scheduled over the next two days (Wed., Thurs. or Fri., depending on your location). The first meeting, intended to work for people in the Asia and the Pacific, is scheduled for 01:00 UTC on Thursday. That's 5 PM PST on Wednesday for those in the US and Canada. The second all candidates meeting at 17:00 UTC Thursday is timed for participants in Europe, Africa, and the Americas. -
DrupalCon Denver Final Sessions Are Posted
26 Jan 2012 | 9:03 amThe final session selections for DrupalCon Denver were announced this week. DrupalCon will take place March 19-23, 2012. Get your tickets soon so that you don't miss out on over 100 sessions across 8 tracks! This year we have added tracks specifically for Non-profit, Government & Education, in addition to Community, Commerce, Mobile, Design & User Experience, Business & Strategy, Coding & Development, Site Building, and Core Conversations. Conference Dates: March 19 - Pre-conference trainings -- over 16 from beginners to advanced + API Hack-a-thon March 20 - 22 - Three… -
Getting Involved in the Drupal Community: Survey Results
23 Jan 2012 | 8:52 amIntroduction Drupal.org has over 725,000 registered members in 228 countries. However, only a very small percentage of this members contribute back to the project. Why is this? How can we attract more contributors? What can we do to make it easier for people to contribute? Which areas of the Drupal project would people want to contribute? To get answers to these questions, two surveys were conducted in 2011 by the community to understand the experience of contributing or considering to contribute to the Drupal project. This is a combined report of 358 respondents’ responses to the surveys. -
Candidates Needed: Drupal Association 2012 elections are on!
18 Jan 2012 | 6:36 pmCome one, come all! As of January 18, 2012 nominations are open for the 2012 elections of two "at large" directors of the Drupal Association. The at large directors are intended to represent the Drupal community. Specifics of the election were decided through a community-based process with participation by dozens of Drupal community members. More details are in the proposal that was approved by the Drupal Association board. Who can vote? Voting is open to all individuals who have a drupal.org account by the time the elections begin and who have logged in at least once in the past year. These…
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@ProBlogger
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6 Powerful Guest Post Tactics that No One’s Talking About
9 Feb 2012 | 6:05 amThis guest post is by Tom Ewer of Leaving Work Behind. Guest posting is a hot topic amongst startup bloggers. It is one of the most widely-adopted blog promotion strategies in existence, and has been made perhaps even more popular by the success of “serial” guest posters such as Danny Iny of Firepole Marketing. His “blitzkrieg” strategy may come across to some as a triumph of quantity over strategy, but nothing could be further from the truth. He understands the key concepts that we will be exploring in this post, and executes them in a highly effective manner. Whilst… -
How to Succinctly Report a Blog Issue to Tech Support
8 Feb 2012 | 6:07 amThis guest post is by Matthew Setter of Malt Blue. How often do you find it happening to you? You discover an issue with your site, or one of your community members emails you to tell you about it, and soon you start to see tweets about it too. Maybe it’s as simple as an error message that detracts from the professional appearance of your site. Perhaps the contact form doesn’t send messages to your contact email address. Or is it that the whole site just displays as a blank page, otherwise known as the white page of death? You’re not a programmer, a software engineer or a seasoned… -
Make Your Blog Load Faster than ProBlogger: Part 2
7 Feb 2012 | 12:05 pmThis guest post is by Devesh of WP Kube. A few months ago, I wrote a guest post here called How to Make Your Blog Load Faster than ProBlogger. Today, I’ll go into some more detailed advice to help you speed up your site even more. If you’re a blogger, you already know about the importance of blog loading speed, and the role it plays in search engine rank and marketing your blog. But if this is new territory for you, here are three quick reasons why you need to speed up your blog: Google includes website loading speed as an important metric in their ranking algorithm. If you want… -
How I Beat my Best Month Ever by Doing Something Good, Better [Case Study]
7 Feb 2012 | 6:04 amMid-December 2010: on my photography site, we launched a new campaign—our first ever 12 Days of Christmas promotion. The result was my biggest month of earnings ever up to that point. The idea was simple: offer discounts on 12 products over the 12 days leading up to Christmas. I used a mix of my own ebooks and products from other photography sites with affiliate commissions. The result was massive. Not only did we see some great revenue generated, it created some lovely buzz on the site. Due to the success of the 2010 campaign, in mid-December 2011 we launched our second 12 Days of… -
Six Steps to Make Sure Your Site Is Ready to Go Viral
6 Feb 2012 | 6:00 amThis guest post is by Nancy Sathre-Vogel of Family on Bikes. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. Surely Google Analytics was confusing my site with another, way more popular site. There was no way my visitor numbers could be so high! And yet they were. One of my posts had taken off and was spreading like wildfire. Those viral post phenomena that happen to others were now happening to me. The first day, 17,000 visitors came to my website. The next day we topped out at 56,000. Readers were coming in droves. It was exciting. It was exhilarating. My site, viral! Wow! And then I took a…
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Business Blogging - How to Build A Better Blog
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What Business Bloggers Can Learn from Hobby Bloggers
6 Feb 2012 | 6:15 amThis is a guest post by Linda Dessau of ContentMasteryGuide.com While business bloggers have the ultimate goal of attracting prospective clients, hobby bloggers have a whole other set of motives. Here are just three of them, along with some ways you can apply them to your business blog: Free Your Passion Hobby bloggers have the liberty to indulge in deep exploration of their passions, wherever that journey takes them. In an earlier article about what happens when artists call their art a hobby, I noted how that "means freedom from the creative constraints that might be involved once you… -
Six Essential SEO Strategies for Bloggers
27 Jan 2012 | 6:20 amBloggers can never get enough advice about SEO. This is a guest post by Chrisian Arno at Lingo24. Six Essential SEO Strategies for Bloggers When a blog forms part of your marketing strategy, you need to be confident your words will reach the right people. With search engines constantly refining their algorithms, not to mention the huge amount of information competing for your readers, this can seem like an impossible task. Here are six strategies that can help you regain your confidence with SEO.Do Your ResearchIf you are someone who dashes off blog posts when inspiration strikes, slow… -
Blogging Without Dates - The pros, the cons and meeting in the middle
6 Jan 2012 | 6:45 amThis is a guest post by Linda Dessau of ContentMasteryGuide.com In his October 2011 post about why you no longer need a blog (in the traditional sense), John Jantsch of Duct Tape Marketing predicts that soon our content will "no longer be consumed in chronological fashion." When Jim Connolly of Internet Marketing Jam explored the question of why people remove dates from their blog posts, in the end, he came to the conclusion that for his blog, the benefits far outweighed any risks. What are the pros of blogging without dates? What benefits did Jim Connolly see? People were spending more… -
Pitching to bloggers - the do’s and don’ts of blogger pitching
22 Dec 2011 | 6:25 amThis is a guest post by Kristy Shaw of Punch Communications. Pitching to bloggers… the do’s and don’ts of blogger pitching Life as a PR has certainly changed over the last few years; with the rise in popularity of blogs it has meant having to adapt the way I pitch to different types of media. Bloggers can be just as influential as many print publications and therefore should always be on PR agencies radars. Pitching to bloggers is a world away from traditional pitches to journalists; there are many more things to take into account. For example, in contrast to traditional media… -
Two Tips for Generating More Leads on Your Business Blog
19 Dec 2011 | 6:55 amRecently I joined the Social Media Biz School as an instructor. In the video below, I share a couple of the business blogging tips to give you a taste of the kind of strategies, tactics, tips and tools you'll be learning in the free 27 minute webinar on demand: How to Generate More Leads with Social Media... [Can't see the video in your blog reader? Click here to watch on YouTube.] You can get instant access to the free webinar here. Your instructors are: Viveka von Rosen (LinkedIn), Lori Gama (Twitter), Andrea Vahl (Facebook), Lou Bortone (Online Video) and me (Blogging). Get…
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Entrepreneur Update
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Eight Creative Marketing Ideas to Make Your Business Stand Out
9 Feb 2012 | 8:00 amIf your marketing could use a new twist, consider these new ideas to reach today's customers. -
Four Questions to Ask Before Setting a Price
9 Feb 2012 | 5:03 amBefore you figure out your pricing, figure out your business. -
Three Ways to Extend the Battery Life of Smartphones and Tablets
9 Feb 2012 | 4:00 amConsider these options for extending the battery life of your mobile devices. -
Fashion Mogul Christopher Burch Talks Business
9 Feb 2012 | 2:00 amAs Fashion Week kicks off, we sat down with the man behind brands like Tory Burch and Monika Chiang to find out what it takes to make it in the business. -
Seven Ways to Kill Your Meetings and Unleash Productivity
8 Feb 2012 | 12:08 pmDespite studies showing that meetings are a colossal waste of time, they remain common. Here's how to collaborate while cutting back on meetings.
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The latest from GolfDigest.com
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My Town: Ian Kennedy's Phoenix
7 Feb 2012 | 9:00 pmLiving in the Arizona Desert has the D-Backs pitcher hooked on golf. -
Golf-Crazed Celebs
7 Feb 2012 | 9:00 pmAs celebrities descend on Pebble Beach, a look at the most passionate golfers among them. -
Swing Sequence: Tony Romo
7 Feb 2012 | 9:00 pmTony Romo works on extension in his powerful swing -
Golf Requires The Hardest Thing To Pull Off In All Of Sports
6 Feb 2012 | 9:00 pmAs Spencer Levin and Kyle Stanley have shown us in this early season, the pressure of closing a PGA tournament might be the hardest of any sport. -
Tiger at Pebble: It's a love/hate thing
6 Feb 2012 | 9:00 pmWith Tiger Woods making his return to the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am, we take a look back at his up-and-down history at the famed course.
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Olympic Alpine Skiing News
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Bode Miller Heaps Praise on Sochi Ski Venue
9 Feb 2012 | 7:12 amSochi's Olympic ski venue is "world class" and as good a competition destination as any on the World Cup tour, Vancouver gold medalist Bode Miller said Thursday. -
Alpine Skiing: Potential Olympic champions set for Sochi 2014 test
9 Feb 2012 | 2:57 amSOCHI: Potential candidates for Olympic downhill gold in 2014 will put their technical and gliding skills to the test when they tackle the men's course for the first time in competition here Wednesday. -
Former U.S. Olympic skier's spirit shines
8 Feb 2012 | 10:52 pmAmerican Olympic downhill skier Bill Johnson, of Van Nuys, Calif., balls up for faster flight through the air on Feb. -
B.C.'s Ben Thomsen takes downhill ski world by storm
8 Feb 2012 | 8:48 pmA Last summer, Benjamin Thomsen was living in a suite built into a warehouse building in an industrial park in Invermere and collecting cans and bottles to redeem at the recycling depot next door for extra cash. -
Incline alpine skiing | Keller leads small Highlander contingent
8 Feb 2012 | 6:43 pmIncline freshman Lauren Keller led the Highlanders with a fifth-place finish in a Tahoe Basin Ski League slalom race held at Diamond Peak on Monday.
