Matt, founder of WordPress that hosts this blog speaks here.  I like his style and approach, and how that translates into a simple, yet constantly improving blog platform.  I recommend to anyone, because it virtually eliminates all the problems (technical set up, comment spam, easy commenting) and allows bloggers to focus on blogging. WordPress founder looks into blogging’s future | Webware : Cool Web apps for everyone Now, the site draws roughly 100 million unique monthly visitors and is among the top 25 global sites, according to research firm Comscore. Still, WordPress and Automattic only have 18 employees and they … Continue reading Matt Mullenweg speaks about WordPress and blogging

Courtesy of Trey with the potentially prescient title, of Sub-Prime 2.0, he highlights this Fortune article on Yahoo, reflecting the UK experience with their home price crash two years ago, and supplemented by observations from North American Card companies.  The upshot is that we will see a significant jump in credit card defaults over the next 1 – 2 years. The $915 Billion Bomb in Consumers’ Wallets Citi said the change in loan losses was “inherent in the portfolio but not yet visible in delinquencies.” Then American Express said that it too was seeing “signs of stress” and would boost … Continue reading Credit cards – starting to show signs of strain – US

This from the US Federal Reserve shows the dramatic shift in values of world currencies that has occurred.  Much of the shift has occurred in 2007.  The biggest shifts are those with high levels of outsourcing , eg Canada, and India.  Those costs will be much higher for Banks with those outsourcing arrangements outsourinng as a result. FRB: G.5 Release–Foreign Exchange Rates–November 1, 2007 THE TABLE BELOW SHOWS THE AVERAGE RATES OF EXCHANGE IN OCTOBER 2007 TOGETHER WITH COMPARABLE FIGURES FOR OTHER MONTHS. Numbers represent cost of $1 US in local currency Oct 07 ‘Sep 07 Aug 07 Oct 06 … Continue reading Currency shifts, will alter views on outsourcing

The impacts of the sub prime situation are now beginning to have a impact on the big Banks. Expect more of this. Citigroup CEO Prince to resign: reports | Reuters NEW YORK (Reuters) – Citigroup Inc Chief Executive Charles Prince plans to resign this weekend, the Wall Street Journal said, as the widening subprime mortgage crisis deals a final blow to a reign long under attack. Technorati Tags: sub+prime Continue reading Citi Chief Executive Charles Prince plans to resign

Amid rumblings of an upcoming announcement that FaceBook will open up its application platform shortly, Google goes one better, with a platform that appears to solve the reusability problem, by offerring a platform that will provide applications to work anywhere. This is appealing, not just for marketers to simplify leverage of their applications, using build one use everywhere (except FaceBook), but more importantly, people can continue with their application preferences across networks, or as they switch networks.  Anything that places that power back in the hands of people is a good thing.  Anything that treats the entire web as a … Continue reading Google to launch OpenSocial and raises the stakes for open standards vs walled gardens

Some background and stats, indicating the sub-prime crisis is not isolated to lower income people.  I can’t help but feel there is more to come on this situation, and Banks losses are understated at this point. Subprime fallout arrives in the suburbs | FP Passport According to a study by the nonprofit Urban Institute, high-interests loans were indeed popular in low-income neighborhoods. However, they were much more popular in Fairfax County, which has a median income of $100,318—the highest in the country. Many homeowners there used subprime loans to upgrade to a larger house. In fact, these kinds of loans fueled … Continue reading “But the Dow keeps chugging along. I can’t figure out why” | Sub Prime is understated so far

Prosper released their regular review of results, and the commentary on the marketplace interest rates, and how they reflected market shifts is interesting. Prosper People-to-People Lending Market Survey: Financial News – Yahoo! Finance What is interesting about these percentage drops is how close they are to what was widely anticipated to be a quarter-point instead of a half-point reduction by the Fed. However, what remains to be seen is whether the market will continue to push rates down further in line with the Fed’s surprise move. What is also of note, is the anticipated trend out of sub prime lenders. … Continue reading Prosper commentary on interest rates

 The Big Picture speaks about something even I have noted recently.  More and more Mainstream Media (MSM) are seeking ways to bolster their ad revenue’s.  If I can summarise the The Big Pic’s conclusion it is that these MSM’s value is so low that they are desparately seeking alternative eyeballs to boost their revenue.  When we see this kind of thing, it suggests desperation, and perhaps revenue problems for MSM. The Big Picture | Soon to be worthless: Nielsen Net Ratings and comScore Media Metrix Their business model appears to be essentially a “Seeking Alpha” aggregation approach, with the added … Continue reading Why is it assumed that the web is entertainment ?

eBay take an interesting and provocative route by offerring eBay Desktop.  This is app that runs on your desktop (Windows only – requires Adobe Air) that will give the user speed and convenience while they are in Ebay.  Interesting metaphor for FaceBook to consider, to offer high speed, and additional functionality.  eBay Desktop beta Go Beyond the BrowserRecent item stash, desktop outbid alerts, and no need to refresh. Plus, it’s Free. Technorati Tags: eBay, desktop Continue reading Ebay lead with a desktop application

After this post the other day, something has been bothering me. Are we at some kind of crossroads here in the convergence of old style banking, with internet banking? By Internet Banking, I am not thinking of paying bills online and moving money around … the traditional, transactional view of online banking. Is there a deep shift occurring, where internet becomes the channel, with branch and telephone as fall back channels? Brand managment will exclude social networks | Citi « The Bankwatch Citi represent the apparent majority view, amongst Banks, and the antithesis of Wells Fargo, and RBC. What intrigues … Continue reading Is there a deep shift occurring, where internet becomes “the” channel?