It’s all about profit, and I understand where the silence is coming from, but they are missing the long-term picture. [Chinese leaders’] end game is to extract as much technology out of American companies as they can, transfer that to their own companies and, when they feel those companies have reached a level of technical maturity, show the American companies the door.
—Dan Slane, chairman of the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission,speaking to Bloomberg about Google’s plan to offer uncensored search data in China and why the information giant stands alone.
I definitely don’t agree with Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster, who believes that iPhone will be the dominant mobile platform. Silicon Alley Insider’s Henry Blodget was right to argue that Apple’s mobile phone business would go the same way as the Mac did in the 1980s and 1990s.
I’m sitting outside the auto repair shop waiting for the brake light switch on my aging Toyota Corolla to be fixed. I’m typing on the Nokia N97 smartphonne, on which I also have been reading news. I had blogged that the N97 would get a second chance. The iPhone 3GS is on ice, so to speak. But my N97 experience is topic for another post.
U Cal Berkley prof Robert Reich astutely and concisely sums up the prospects for economic revival in commentary “When Will the Recovery Begin? Never.” I saw it today at Salon, but Robert posted to his blog on July 9.
Have you wondered why Microsoft quietly accepted yet another two years of government oversight? Simply put, Microsoft doesn’t want to end up with the problems looming over Google.
Is the American era over? I’m beginning to wonder if the answer is yes. History is the reason. In 1914, the British Empire spanned the globe, and London was the financial capitol (eh, capital would work, too) of the world. Four years later, England’s fortunes had changed. The country had shifted much of its manufacturing production to the war and spent quite a bit of its capital supporting European allies. Meanwhile, the United States picked up manufacturing slack and monetary might. Could America’s fortunes change so quickly?
It has been 513 calendar days since the stock market peaked on Oct. 9, 2007. Since then, the S.&P. 500 is down 56 percent and the Dow is off 53 percent. On Jan. 29, 1931—the identical number of days after the 1929 market peak—the S.&P. 500 was down 49 percent and the Dow was down 56 percent. The 1929 crash got off to a much faster start, but we have now more or less caught up.
Floyd Norris, The New York Times
Do you have a story of the econolypse that you’d like told? Please e-mail Joe Wilcox: joe at oddlytogether dot com.
