Well, don't really want to derail the thread, but "straw man" means a made up point of contention that is easily refuted.
I don't see how anyone who is paying attention can deny that the entire tea party/Sarah Palin/Limbaugh/Beck apparatus is one snarl of resentment at how liberals and immigrants and homosexuals and elites and Obama and the government are ruining everything by establishing death panels and banning the Bible and forcing unwholesome foreign ideologies on simple decent folk and collecting taxes and having regulations and capitulating to terrorists.
I agree about derailing the thread. Let me just say there are plenty of snarly types on both sides of the divide.
Dude, you just did Radio Shack a disservice. :-), I would in fact prefer RS to the MS store. I don't own an xbox and will never own a zune, so what would they possibly sell that I would want?
A laugh or two. btw: I actually like Radio Shack. There's one here right next to Price Chopper were I can go when the wife is food shopping. I never anything there though.
It was not minorities that cause the banking issue, middle class people also suffered due mortgages that were being sold to them way above their incomes, if the rates changed.
I noticed that number of people in USA (not saying all), but ones I encountered borrowed to the max and had the flashiest house, car and lifestyle and lived from paycheck to paycheck. I asked about that to a US colleague and he said that pretty much standard with number of people.
I doubt it was only minorities that caused the crash, since that's what your statement implies.
Well actually it wasn't the minorities at all. It was the government forcing the banks into lowering the qualifications to get loans. Many "flip this house" speculators got the sub-prime loans and when they couldn't sell, they threw the keys in the door and let it go into foreclosure then claimed bankruptcy. Minorities were just caught in the middle of the politics and then got scapegoated.
Then how about too much liquidity, which was fed policy.
Minorities!? No wait, I thought it was all because this country is full of homosexuals!
Yeah, the liquidity definitely fueled the bubble, the lack of regulation on lenders, Wall St. getting hugely into the game, total lack of accountability (Would YOU lend money to someone if you didn't know they could repay it? What if you were lending someone else's money and would get a nice bonus yourself with no liability to you? Well maybe not you then, but for $50 mil. / $200 mil. type bonuses it turns out there are a bunch of a$$holes who will...)
The liquidity / low rates of course were to cover up / soften the effects of the previous tech bubble burst. Toss in huge government deficits / debt. / wars / sacrosanct yet unfundable programs, additional money looking to be invested by foreign govts/institutions thanks to our outsourcing/offshoring manufacturing / IT / anything that isn't nailed down, and you just have a total mess. And not just a mess from 1 party either - both have collaborated to help undercut our economic foundations. And when I say 'both', I'm not sure undercutting is a party goal as much as a matter of the 2 parties just not being accountable either. My oh my how the furor over the electoral college in Florida died down when both sides realized they didn't want actual 1-person 1-vote style election reform! (And remind me, companies not being able to vote - why are they allowed to make ANY sort of political contributions?)
Anyway, there are a lot more factors than that too, and it kills me to see people spout off party 1-liners. It's like if you had a pickpocket working the crowd that's watching a shell game and then had people picking 'sides' as to why only one of them is a crook.
And then there are amusing things like Windows 7 launch parties, Songsmith, and probably these new Microsoft stores... thanks, I need those after thinking about the other issues.
Well actually it wasn't the minorities at all. It was the government forcing the banks into lowering the qualifications to get loans. Many "flip this house" speculators got the sub-prime loans and when they couldn't sell, they threw the keys in the door and let it go into foreclosure then claimed bankruptcy. Minorities were just caught in the middle of the politics and then got scapegoated.
.
Yep - let's just say sub-prime, whoever they may have been.
Well actually it wasn't the minorities at all. It was the government forcing the banks into lowering the qualifications to get loans. Many "flip this house" speculators got the sub-prime loans and when they couldn't sell, they threw the keys in the door and let it go into foreclosure then claimed bankruptcy. Minorities were just caught in the middle of the politics and then got scapegoated.
They didn't force them to make sub-prime / alt-a loans, but they were certainly allowed to - hell, they were fighting to since those sweet (short term) profits the other guys were making were making their own performance look bad. Or did I miss the part where the originators/lenders asked to be regulated to make sure the loans they were either acquiring or selling on were sound because the government was making them do unsound business otherwise?
Now the investment banks purchasing these securities should never have done so, but again it just looked so good, they had money to invest, the housing prices kept going up - it was a sure thing. More and more odd loan types, high margins for the originators, high profits for the portfolios... as long as the market kept rising, anyway. If it looks too good to be true... but some people made a really nice bundle doing it, it was legal, and they walked off rich while we're paying to clean up the mess.
US Government.....get out of the way and let everyone compete on equal footing.
OK. I'm done now.
Private enterprise is great, but so are libraries, social security, medicare, medicaid and the public school system... oh I nearly forgot ... and the Navy and the Army and the Air Force and so on ... OK I'm done now.
Private enterprise is great, but so are libraries, social security, medicare, medicaid and the public school system... oh I nearly forgot ... and the Navy and the Army and the Air Force and so on ... OK I'm done now.
Well you have a point with libraries (and the armed forces) . The rest I am not so sure about.
They just updated the Burlington Mass store recently, they were closed for 2 weeks.
What changed:
Genius bar relocated, and is smaller. (are they trying to discourage people?)
Most of space for selling accesories such as iPod cases gone.
Cashier space gone.
Training area gone.
New area for 1 on 1 training in what used to be accessories and cashier.
Don't know if they are eliminating workshops or not; I used to like them, it was a good way to learn something new. No more training with the big screen.
Now mostly focused on iPod Touch and iPhones, almost half the store.
If I was Microsoft, and I sold mainly software, I would concentrate on making the most butt-kicking online store. Their current one needs work and is not available in very many countries.
gives you a another prespective, why USA had massive slump last year
And the other reason often stated by US Media for the near collapse of US economy is that there was a "Housing bubble in US .." or that "Banks were easy in giving loans to people that could not afford it..."
Hello!!!
Avg house prices in US at their peak in 2006 were below a pathetic $200 per Sqft, again once you did not get that in their peak avg House prices in US were barely $200/Sqft, that is less than what avg House prices are in Canada and Western Europe today! In fact you have to go to 3rd World countries like Turkey, Bulgaria, to get avg House prices below $200/Sqft and quality of houses in US are incredibly high. And about the reason: "Banks were easy in giving loans to people that could not afford it...", House ownership percentage is Higher in Canada than it is in US, it was in 2006 and even more so today.
A housing bubble depends on the before/after prices of homes in a particular region or country. Saying that US homes are cheaper than Western European homes is completely irrelevant. If the houses are worth $50/sq ft, and the prices are inflated to $200/sq ft for no real reason, then that's got nothing to do with whether someone in England paid £2000/sq ft. The actual value of the land or home has been misrepresented and inflated.
Banks DID give loans to people who couldn't really afford them, because they recycled money and took risks to try and make more money. House ownership percentage is irrelevant between US and Canada. Maybe Canadian homes were cheaper, or Canadians richer, or Canadians saving more, or a million other factors.
So... the store will be full of "Gurus" helping people with their Service Pack updates and virus maintenance?
The Guru's will actually be there to teach people how to deal with the stresses of owning and using Microsoft products. There will be meditation areas or "Frustration Zones" as I believe they will be called, with whale sounds, incense and candles to help customers on their path to enlightenment (ie. the path that takes you straight out the door and down the road into an Apple store)
Yes Fannie Mae and Feddie Mac buying mortgages with implicit government backing is pretty irrational. \
Not inherently so.
Faith that markets can regulate themselves despite all historical evidence being to the contrary is irrational. But, then again, the whole libertarian "philosophy" is irrational and self contradictory.
No....no, exactly like that ones created by Apple, Even stole 65% of the name.
I figure they chose Guru because it starts with a "G".
The real difference is when people ask questions, there will be blank stares and blaming of OEM.
Don't also forget that Microsoft always blames their problems on somebody else! It is your hardware that wont work with our software or your driver is not current. That new software won't work with our OS. etc etc. I think the new store will send people Apples way!
Comments
How about the invisible hand is a fairy tale and markets behave irrationally.
Yes Fannie Mae and Feddie Mac buying mortgages with implicit government backing is pretty irrational.
Well, don't really want to derail the thread, but "straw man" means a made up point of contention that is easily refuted.
I don't see how anyone who is paying attention can deny that the entire tea party/Sarah Palin/Limbaugh/Beck apparatus is one snarl of resentment at how liberals and immigrants and homosexuals and elites and Obama and the government are ruining everything by establishing death panels and banning the Bible and forcing unwholesome foreign ideologies on simple decent folk and collecting taxes and having regulations and capitulating to terrorists.
I agree about derailing the thread. Let me just say there are plenty of snarly types on both sides of the divide.
Dude, you just did Radio Shack a disservice. :-), I would in fact prefer RS to the MS store. I don't own an xbox and will never own a zune, so what would they possibly sell that I would want?
A laugh or two. btw: I actually like Radio Shack. There's one here right next to Price Chopper were I can go when the wife is food shopping. I never anything there though.
Ironical there was nothing but government involvement in that whole thing.
ie, Chris Dodd, Barney Frank.
Fanny May, was created by the government, and banks were told loan to minorities or else.
To be honest. That was just the top of the slippery slope.
It was not minorities that cause the banking issue, middle class people also suffered due mortgages that were being sold to them way above their incomes, if the rates changed.
I noticed that number of people in USA (not saying all), but ones I encountered borrowed to the max and had the flashiest house, car and lifestyle and lived from paycheck to paycheck. I asked about that to a US colleague and he said that pretty much standard with number of people.
I doubt it was only minorities that caused the crash, since that's what your statement implies.
Well actually it wasn't the minorities at all. It was the government forcing the banks into lowering the qualifications to get loans. Many "flip this house" speculators got the sub-prime loans and when they couldn't sell, they threw the keys in the door and let it go into foreclosure then claimed bankruptcy. Minorities were just caught in the middle of the politics and then got scapegoated.
Then how about too much liquidity, which was fed policy.
Minorities!? No wait, I thought it was all because this country is full of homosexuals!
Yeah, the liquidity definitely fueled the bubble, the lack of regulation on lenders, Wall St. getting hugely into the game, total lack of accountability (Would YOU lend money to someone if you didn't know they could repay it? What if you were lending someone else's money and would get a nice bonus yourself with no liability to you? Well maybe not you then, but for $50 mil. / $200 mil. type bonuses it turns out there are a bunch of a$$holes who will...)
The liquidity / low rates of course were to cover up / soften the effects of the previous tech bubble burst. Toss in huge government deficits / debt. / wars / sacrosanct yet unfundable programs, additional money looking to be invested by foreign govts/institutions thanks to our outsourcing/offshoring manufacturing / IT / anything that isn't nailed down, and you just have a total mess. And not just a mess from 1 party either - both have collaborated to help undercut our economic foundations. And when I say 'both', I'm not sure undercutting is a party goal as much as a matter of the 2 parties just not being accountable either. My oh my how the furor over the electoral college in Florida died down when both sides realized they didn't want actual 1-person 1-vote style election reform!
Anyway, there are a lot more factors than that too, and it kills me to see people spout off party 1-liners. It's like if you had a pickpocket working the crowd that's watching a shell game and then had people picking 'sides' as to why only one of them is a crook.
And then there are amusing things like Windows 7 launch parties, Songsmith, and probably these new Microsoft stores... thanks, I need those after thinking about the other issues.
Well actually it wasn't the minorities at all. It was the government forcing the banks into lowering the qualifications to get loans. Many "flip this house" speculators got the sub-prime loans and when they couldn't sell, they threw the keys in the door and let it go into foreclosure then claimed bankruptcy. Minorities were just caught in the middle of the politics and then got scapegoated.
.
Yep - let's just say sub-prime, whoever they may have been.
Well actually it wasn't the minorities at all. It was the government forcing the banks into lowering the qualifications to get loans. Many "flip this house" speculators got the sub-prime loans and when they couldn't sell, they threw the keys in the door and let it go into foreclosure then claimed bankruptcy. Minorities were just caught in the middle of the politics and then got scapegoated.
They didn't force them to make sub-prime / alt-a loans, but they were certainly allowed to - hell, they were fighting to since those sweet (short term) profits the other guys were making were making their own performance look bad. Or did I miss the part where the originators/lenders asked to be regulated to make sure the loans they were either acquiring or selling on were sound because the government was making them do unsound business otherwise?
Now the investment banks purchasing these securities should never have done so, but again it just looked so good, they had money to invest, the housing prices kept going up - it was a sure thing. More and more odd loan types, high margins for the originators, high profits for the portfolios... as long as the market kept rising, anyway. If it looks too good to be true... but some people made a really nice bundle doing it, it was legal, and they walked off rich while we're paying to clean up the mess.
See?....isn't competition great?
US Government.....get out of the way and let everyone compete on equal footing.
OK. I'm done now.
Private enterprise is great, but so are libraries, social security, medicare, medicaid and the public school system... oh I nearly forgot ... and the Navy and the Army and the Air Force and so on ... OK I'm done now.
Private enterprise is great, but so are libraries, social security, medicare, medicaid and the public school system... oh I nearly forgot ... and the Navy and the Army and the Air Force and so on ... OK I'm done now.
Well you have a point with libraries (and the armed forces)
What changed:
Genius bar relocated, and is smaller. (are they trying to discourage people?)
Most of space for selling accesories such as iPod cases gone.
Cashier space gone.
Training area gone.
New area for 1 on 1 training in what used to be accessories and cashier.
Don't know if they are eliminating workshops or not; I used to like them, it was a good way to learn something new. No more training with the big screen.
Now mostly focused on iPod Touch and iPhones, almost half the store.
So... the store will be full of "Gurus" helping people with their Service Pack updates and virus maintenance?
As it stands, the only support from microsoft that is free is Windows update.
For that matter, I bet they'll run WGA or something even stronger to make sure all those copies of Windows are actually genuine.
See?....isn't competition great?
US Government.....get out of the way and let everyone compete on equal footing.
OK. I'm done now.
That actually requires the US Government to set the rules and for all participants to then handle the tip off.
Without it we get megacorps that dictate innovation.
http://yousearchengine.com/news/show...l7i5dgjkntp861
gives you a another prespective, why USA had massive slump last year
And the other reason often stated by US Media for the near collapse of US economy is that there was a "Housing bubble in US .." or that "Banks were easy in giving loans to people that could not afford it..."
Hello!!!
Avg house prices in US at their peak in 2006 were below a pathetic $200 per Sqft, again once you did not get that in their peak avg House prices in US were barely $200/Sqft, that is less than what avg House prices are in Canada and Western Europe today! In fact you have to go to 3rd World countries like Turkey, Bulgaria, to get avg House prices below $200/Sqft and quality of houses in US are incredibly high. And about the reason: "Banks were easy in giving loans to people that could not afford it...", House ownership percentage is Higher in Canada than it is in US, it was in 2006 and even more so today.
A housing bubble depends on the before/after prices of homes in a particular region or country. Saying that US homes are cheaper than Western European homes is completely irrelevant. If the houses are worth $50/sq ft, and the prices are inflated to $200/sq ft for no real reason, then that's got nothing to do with whether someone in England paid £2000/sq ft. The actual value of the land or home has been misrepresented and inflated.
Banks DID give loans to people who couldn't really afford them, because they recycled money and took risks to try and make more money. House ownership percentage is irrelevant between US and Canada. Maybe Canadian homes were cheaper, or Canadians richer, or Canadians saving more, or a million other factors.
So... the store will be full of "Gurus" helping people with their Service Pack updates and virus maintenance?
The Guru's will actually be there to teach people how to deal with the stresses of owning and using Microsoft products. There will be meditation areas or "Frustration Zones" as I believe they will be called, with whale sounds, incense and candles to help customers on their path to enlightenment (ie. the path that takes you straight out the door and down the road into an Apple store)
Yes Fannie Mae and Feddie Mac buying mortgages with implicit government backing is pretty irrational.
Not inherently so.
Faith that markets can regulate themselves despite all historical evidence being to the contrary is irrational. But, then again, the whole libertarian "philosophy" is irrational and self contradictory.
No....no, exactly like that ones created by Apple, Even stole 65% of the name.
I figure they chose Guru because it starts with a "G".
The real difference is when people ask questions, there will be blank stares and blaming of OEM.
Don't also forget that Microsoft always blames their problems on somebody else! It is your hardware that wont work with our software or your driver is not current. That new software won't work with our OS. etc etc. I think the new store will send people Apples way!
They have been doing these renovations to apple stores all over the country before MS even announced they were doing the brick and mortars. Non story.
Agreed, ours received a renovation about this time last year. To be honest though I didn't notice anything different when it reopened.