Being Right or Making Money

Twitter, the company that early on never wanted to talk about money, now has a money-making strategy that it says is working well.

On Tuesday, Dick Costolo, Twitter’s chief operating officer, introduced some new ways Twitter will make money. Advertisers will soon be able to pay for Twitter to suggest that people follow their accounts, and next year Twitter advertising will expand to small businesses, which will be able to place ads using a self-serve system.

But another money-making idea for Twitter — the @earlybird e-commerce account that offered daily deals — will be discontinued, at least for now, because it did not work well apart from a few popular sales, he said.

“We’re definitely beyond the experimentation stage,” said Mr. Costolo, speaking at the Interactive Advertising Bureau’s Mixx conference in New York. “We feel like we’ve cracked the code on a new kind of advertising — advertising that starts out as organic content.”

He was referring to Promoted Tweets and Trends, the ads that companies like Starbucks and Virgin America buy on Twitter and that show up as the top Twitter post when people search for related words, or on the list of trending topics.

Advertisers pay anytime someone interacts with the Twitter post, by clicking on a link, forwarding the post to friends or replying to it. People click on these ads 5 percent of the time, Mr. Costolo said.

Companies will now also be able to buy ads to promote their accounts. Twitter suggests accounts that people should follow, based on their interests, and will use the same algorithm to suggest accounts that advertisers pay to promote.

That way, businesses have the chance to get their posts in front of followers through their free accounts every time they post, not just through ads, and people are choosing to see the posts.

Asked if companies will ever spend millions of dollars on Twitter, as they do on Google, Mr. Costolo said, “That day is right around the corner.” So far, about 40 companies have advertised and 80 percent have advertised more than once, he said. He expects that to be in the hundreds by the end of the year.

“Right now, there’s a line out the door to advertise with us and spend significant dollars with us,” Mr. Costolo said.

Twitter will develop a self-serve advertising system next year that will be easy for small businesses to use themselves, Mr. Costolo said. Companies like Google and Yelp offer a similar service. Twitter has been particularly valuable for small businesses, though it has been so valuable as a free service that it might be hard to convince them they should also pay for ads.

“There’s a portion of small businesses that will use Twitter and are happy with organic followers and will build organically, and that’s fine with us,” he said.

Finally, Mr. Costolo gave some new growth numbers — Twitter has more than 160 million users and is adding 370,000 a day — and said the company was working on ways to help users discover real-time events that are being discussed on Twitter, like conversations around an earthquake or sporting event.

Shopping platform Shwowp aspires to be“a Tripit plus Blippy plus Mint for shopping.” Founded by Internet marketer Tara Hunt, Shwowp (in the same space as RightCliq) attempts to grapple with the issue of all our purchase data being siloed across multiple retailers like Amazon, Bluefly, etc by trying to corral our diverse shopping history into one place.

Shwowp users can make a purchase, forward the receipt or order information to wow@shwowp.com and the service will synch that info to their account. Once there a user can change their own data, view their buying patterns and share information about the shopping experience like how long it took to get to the store, availability, how influenced they were by what their friends were buying and so on and so forth.

Of course the end of goal of this is a serving up a personal RFP in order make shopping data more useful, i.e. provide customers with targeted discounts based on their buying history.

Founder Hunt asserts that currently data is “one sided” and hopes that the fully portable Shwowp platform will make sure that customers really take advantage of their own data and get the shopping experience they needed.

Currently in the friends and family stage of funding, Shwowp plans on making money through affiliate advertising, coupons, opt-in vendor deals, data reporting as well as API usage.  They’re targeting the female market primarily, at $37 million dollars a year.

A: We’re not like Blippy, we’re not a sharing platform in way More interested in signaling part and data portability part. Have an export button on the website.

LL: Leaves me with idea that we want to share what we buy.

A: Our target market is women, because they control 4.3 trillion of spending. And they often shop online and share about products.

JS: I wouldn’t mind sharing my data online as long as I was getting economic benefit.

A: Biggest part is data portability…

JH: Love that you’re thinking big. Practical point, I feel like if you have opportunity to streamline what you’re asking users..

A: We have a lot of steps currently because we’re optimizing for privacy.

DD: I think this idea is deeper than you could convey in six minutes. Data portability, that sort of thing. I think it’s pretty powerful. Getting offers to come to you based on your interests. Would suggest your data is already being shared anyway, you just don’t know it.

JS: Reminds me of end-of-year American Express summary, the thought I could turn that around and get paid for it is compelling.

DNC Chair on Fox <b>News</b>: They are &#39;pushing&#39; for Republicans – This <b>...</b>

President Obama is at the University of Wisconsin trying to rally the Democratic base as November elections near. In a newly published Rolling Stone interview, Obama called it "irresponsible" to paint the base as unenthusiastic.

3DS Super Monkey Ball out next year 3DS <b>News</b> - Page 1 | Eurogamer.net

Read our 3DS news of 3DS Super Monkey Ball out next year.

Nintendo: 4m 3DS sales in first month 3DS <b>News</b> - Page 1 <b>...</b>

Read our 3DS news of Nintendo: 4m 3DS sales in first month.

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benchcraft company scam

DNC Chair on Fox <b>News</b>: They are &#39;pushing&#39; for Republicans – This <b>...</b>

President Obama is at the University of Wisconsin trying to rally the Democratic base as November elections near. In a newly published Rolling Stone interview, Obama called it "irresponsible" to paint the base as unenthusiastic.

3DS Super Monkey Ball out next year 3DS <b>News</b> - Page 1 | Eurogamer.net

Read our 3DS news of 3DS Super Monkey Ball out next year.

Nintendo: 4m 3DS sales in first month 3DS <b>News</b> - Page 1 <b>...</b>

Read our 3DS news of Nintendo: 4m 3DS sales in first month.

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Twitter, the company that early on never wanted to talk about money, now has a money-making strategy that it says is working well.

On Tuesday, Dick Costolo, Twitter’s chief operating officer, introduced some new ways Twitter will make money. Advertisers will soon be able to pay for Twitter to suggest that people follow their accounts, and next year Twitter advertising will expand to small businesses, which will be able to place ads using a self-serve system.

But another money-making idea for Twitter — the @earlybird e-commerce account that offered daily deals — will be discontinued, at least for now, because it did not work well apart from a few popular sales, he said.

“We’re definitely beyond the experimentation stage,” said Mr. Costolo, speaking at the Interactive Advertising Bureau’s Mixx conference in New York. “We feel like we’ve cracked the code on a new kind of advertising — advertising that starts out as organic content.”

He was referring to Promoted Tweets and Trends, the ads that companies like Starbucks and Virgin America buy on Twitter and that show up as the top Twitter post when people search for related words, or on the list of trending topics.

Advertisers pay anytime someone interacts with the Twitter post, by clicking on a link, forwarding the post to friends or replying to it. People click on these ads 5 percent of the time, Mr. Costolo said.

Companies will now also be able to buy ads to promote their accounts. Twitter suggests accounts that people should follow, based on their interests, and will use the same algorithm to suggest accounts that advertisers pay to promote.

That way, businesses have the chance to get their posts in front of followers through their free accounts every time they post, not just through ads, and people are choosing to see the posts.

Asked if companies will ever spend millions of dollars on Twitter, as they do on Google, Mr. Costolo said, “That day is right around the corner.” So far, about 40 companies have advertised and 80 percent have advertised more than once, he said. He expects that to be in the hundreds by the end of the year.

“Right now, there’s a line out the door to advertise with us and spend significant dollars with us,” Mr. Costolo said.

Twitter will develop a self-serve advertising system next year that will be easy for small businesses to use themselves, Mr. Costolo said. Companies like Google and Yelp offer a similar service. Twitter has been particularly valuable for small businesses, though it has been so valuable as a free service that it might be hard to convince them they should also pay for ads.

“There’s a portion of small businesses that will use Twitter and are happy with organic followers and will build organically, and that’s fine with us,” he said.

Finally, Mr. Costolo gave some new growth numbers — Twitter has more than 160 million users and is adding 370,000 a day — and said the company was working on ways to help users discover real-time events that are being discussed on Twitter, like conversations around an earthquake or sporting event.

Shopping platform Shwowp aspires to be“a Tripit plus Blippy plus Mint for shopping.” Founded by Internet marketer Tara Hunt, Shwowp (in the same space as RightCliq) attempts to grapple with the issue of all our purchase data being siloed across multiple retailers like Amazon, Bluefly, etc by trying to corral our diverse shopping history into one place.

Shwowp users can make a purchase, forward the receipt or order information to wow@shwowp.com and the service will synch that info to their account. Once there a user can change their own data, view their buying patterns and share information about the shopping experience like how long it took to get to the store, availability, how influenced they were by what their friends were buying and so on and so forth.

Of course the end of goal of this is a serving up a personal RFP in order make shopping data more useful, i.e. provide customers with targeted discounts based on their buying history.

Founder Hunt asserts that currently data is “one sided” and hopes that the fully portable Shwowp platform will make sure that customers really take advantage of their own data and get the shopping experience they needed.

Currently in the friends and family stage of funding, Shwowp plans on making money through affiliate advertising, coupons, opt-in vendor deals, data reporting as well as API usage.  They’re targeting the female market primarily, at $37 million dollars a year.

A: We’re not like Blippy, we’re not a sharing platform in way More interested in signaling part and data portability part. Have an export button on the website.

LL: Leaves me with idea that we want to share what we buy.

A: Our target market is women, because they control 4.3 trillion of spending. And they often shop online and share about products.

JS: I wouldn’t mind sharing my data online as long as I was getting economic benefit.

A: Biggest part is data portability…

JH: Love that you’re thinking big. Practical point, I feel like if you have opportunity to streamline what you’re asking users..

A: We have a lot of steps currently because we’re optimizing for privacy.

DD: I think this idea is deeper than you could convey in six minutes. Data portability, that sort of thing. I think it’s pretty powerful. Getting offers to come to you based on your interests. Would suggest your data is already being shared anyway, you just don’t know it.

JS: Reminds me of end-of-year American Express summary, the thought I could turn that around and get paid for it is compelling.

benchcraft company scam

DNC Chair on Fox <b>News</b>: They are &#39;pushing&#39; for Republicans – This <b>...</b>

President Obama is at the University of Wisconsin trying to rally the Democratic base as November elections near. In a newly published Rolling Stone interview, Obama called it "irresponsible" to paint the base as unenthusiastic.

3DS Super Monkey Ball out next year 3DS <b>News</b> - Page 1 | Eurogamer.net

Read our 3DS news of 3DS Super Monkey Ball out next year.

Nintendo: 4m 3DS sales in first month 3DS <b>News</b> - Page 1 <b>...</b>

Read our 3DS news of Nintendo: 4m 3DS sales in first month.

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DNC Chair on Fox <b>News</b>: They are &#39;pushing&#39; for Republicans – This <b>...</b>

President Obama is at the University of Wisconsin trying to rally the Democratic base as November elections near. In a newly published Rolling Stone interview, Obama called it "irresponsible" to paint the base as unenthusiastic.

3DS Super Monkey Ball out next year 3DS <b>News</b> - Page 1 | Eurogamer.net

Read our 3DS news of 3DS Super Monkey Ball out next year.

Nintendo: 4m 3DS sales in first month 3DS <b>News</b> - Page 1 <b>...</b>

Read our 3DS news of Nintendo: 4m 3DS sales in first month.

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DNC Chair on Fox <b>News</b>: They are &#39;pushing&#39; for Republicans – This <b>...</b>

President Obama is at the University of Wisconsin trying to rally the Democratic base as November elections near. In a newly published Rolling Stone interview, Obama called it "irresponsible" to paint the base as unenthusiastic.

3DS Super Monkey Ball out next year 3DS <b>News</b> - Page 1 | Eurogamer.net

Read our 3DS news of 3DS Super Monkey Ball out next year.

Nintendo: 4m 3DS sales in first month 3DS <b>News</b> - Page 1 <b>...</b>

Read our 3DS news of Nintendo: 4m 3DS sales in first month.

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Making Money Advertising

A California man who helped funnel stolen cash to a global network of hackers and carders was sentenced Thursday to 6 years in prison for conspiracy to launder money.


Cesar Carranza, 38, also known as “uBuyWeRush,” ran a legitimate business selling liquidation and overstock merchandise online and from three California stores.

But, according to an indictment (.pdf), he also sold MSR-206’s to carders to encode stolen bank card data onto blank cards, and he served as a conduit to transmit stolen money between mules and carders.

He worked with many of the top carders in the criminal underground between 2003 and 2006, including Maksim “Maksik” Yastremskiy, a Ukrainian carder who allegedly worked with TJX hacker Albert Gonzalez and was considered by authorities to be one of the top sellers of stolen card data on the internet.

In 2003 and 2004, Carranza became an approved and trusted vendor on online criminal forums such as CarderPlanet and Shadowcrew, advertising his goods and services and dispensing advice on the best tools to use for various criminal endeavors.

According to court records, he admitted in messages he posted to the forums that he himself had done carding between 1990 and 1998, but retired to become a vendor for other carders.

“I decided to supply all you guys making the real big bucks,” he allegedly wrote. “So if you need me I sell Card Printers, Card Embossers, Tippers, Encoders, Small Readers and more.”

He was first arrested in California in 2004, but was never charged with a crime. Although he was selling MSR-206s through eBay at the time, selling the devices is not illegal. Carranza told Threat Level, however, that police accused him of selling his merchandise to terrorists.

He subsequently sold off his MSR business. But, according to court records, his services as a money launderer for carders continued to flourish, even though it was clear that law enforcement agencies were closely watching him.

Hackers in East Europe and elsewhere would steal credit and debit card numbers and PINs through phishing and other means, then pass the data to so-called mules in the U.S., who would encode the numbers onto the magnetic stripe of blank cards, then use the cards to withdraw money from the accounts at ATMs. They would then send the money back to their co-conspirators in East Europe through Western Union or through e-Gold, an online digital currency.

Authorities say Carranza helped launder about $2.5 million in this way by operating as an e-Gold money exchanger. The mules would give him cash or deposit money into his bank account, and he would either transfer the money to the bank account of another e-Gold exchanger who would convert it to e-Gold for a carder, or he would change the money himself into e-Gold currency through his own e-Gold account, then transfer it to the e-Gold account of carders in East Europe and elsewhere. They would then use a local e-Gold money exchanger to convert the digital fund into their local currency.

One such mule who transmitted stolen money in this way described to Threat Level in 2006 how he obtained hundreds of stolen card numbers from Romanian phishers and Russian hackers that he met online. The man, who used the nickname “John Dillinger,” withdrew more than $150,000 from ATM machines before transferring the money back to East Europe through Western Union and through an e-Gold money exchanger in California.

In addition to laundering stolen funds, authorities say Carranza was a middleman for carders to purchase “dumps” (account and other data stored on a bank card’s magnetic stripe) from one another.

Around January 4, 2006, according to authorities, Carranza transferred about $15,000 worth of e-Gold to the e-Gold account of a carder who went by the nickname “CC-2″ — a known specialist in hacking financial databases and siphoning card data to sell to other criminals. Carranza indicated in a note to the transaction that he was retaining a 6-percent commission for the service. He transferred another $45,000 worth of e-Gold to CC-2’s account over the next two months. In March and April 2006, authorities say he also transferred $33,000 to Maksim Yastremskiy. The latter was arrested in Turkey in 2007 and sentenced to 30 years in prison there and is still wanted in the U.S. for his alleged role in the TJX carding ring.

Between 2003 and 2007, authorities say that more than $2 million went into and out of Carranza’s e-Gold account.

In 2006, e-Gold, under investigation for facilitating money laundering between carders, froze two of Carranza’s e-Gold accounts, which contained about $19,000 at the time. Carranza told Threat Level then that he was considering legal action against e-Gold to release his funds. “I no longer trust the e-gold integrity,” he said. He didn’t follow through on the threat.

He was indicted in 2008 on charges of conspiring to commit access device fraud and money laundering. He pleaded guilty last December to one count of conspiring to launder stolen money.

See also:

• Ukrainian Carding King ‘Maksik’ Was Lured to Arrest


• In Gonzalez Hacking Case, a High-Stakes Fight Over a Ukrainian’s Laptop


• I Was a Cybercrook for the FBI


• Confessions of a Cybermule


• Bullion and Bandits: The Improbable Rise and Fall of E-Gold


• E-Gold Gets Tough on Crime

It is hard not to enjoy beer marketing. Even if you are not a marketer, this industry always offers creative advertising (particularly on TV) that is fun to watch and spends lots of money doing it. Every year at the Super Bowl, a good number of the Top 10 ads come from beer companies. In other venues beyond sports, beer advertising often promises good times, great parties and generally being able to escape from your daily life into a world of fun, travel and festivities.



When it comes to marketing strategy, however, it often seems like beer companies focus on being entertaining at the expense of being strategic. With campaigns that seem to change almost monthly and taglines that rarely last for more than a football season, it is easy to dismiss beer marketing as irresponsible spending to promote a high margin product. Is there more to beer advertising than 30 second eye candy and girls in bikinis? Here are a few popular marketing campaigns for beer - along with their corresponding marketing strategy that may yield some surprising lessons ...



1. Be Unique (Red Stripe Beer)



If you have ever had a Red Stripe beer from Jamaica, you know that it has a very unique bottle shape, shorter and stubbier than most others. The bottle sets the beer apart more than anything else, and this fact is brilliantly parodied in this ad featuring their central spokesperson - the Jamaican guy who loves nothing more than celebrating what beer can do with his trademark expression of Jamaican joy: "Hooray Beer!"



 

2. Demonstrate Loyalty (Bud Light)

The ad for Bud Light below follows the model this beer company has focused on for nearly every Super Bowl and football season - forget about your product features and focus on the simple message that guys will do almost anything for your beer. The strategy which seems buried in most of their ads is the unwavering loyalty that the guys in their ads have for Bud Light. They will build houses out of it, jump out of planes, and even walk around naked for a day just to get more of it. It is easy to argue that the name of the beer involved is entirely forgettable, but the ads stand out for being entertaining.

 

3. Create Associations (Estrella Damm)

A popular ad for European beer Estrella Damm - this campaign features a few ads which tell the story where the beer plays a supporting role and one of the tagline reads "Good times never end when you have something to remind you of them." Another ad features a growing relationship between two fellow travellers. While the taglines don't exactly roll off the tongue, the entire campaign creates stories that associate the beer with the common memory of moments like a short term romance on a backpacking trip through Europe that many of their target audience will remember nostalgically, and one that many people won't be able to help sharing.

 

4. Foster Aspirations (Dos Equis)

Probably the most popular campaign of the list, this inspired marketing from Dos Equis creates a persona for the Most Interesting Man In The World who, by his own admission, "doesn't always drink beer, but when he does he prefers Dos Equis." The image of this man is who every guy wants to grow up to be, and works because it places Dos Equis in a typically uncontested space as the choice for a more mature and refined guy versus an infantile male trying to relive lost days of keg stands and beer pong from college. That and irresistible lines like "he lives vicariously through himself" help position Dos Equis as the more aspirational choice in beers.

 

5. Reinforce Perceptions (Heineken)



The thing that European beers have always used to promote themselves against other brands is the sense that they are a more upscale and respectable choice when you go to a bar or similarly public place. Heineken's recent campaign takes this message and replays it with the powerful tagline - "give yourself a good name." The ads feature guys making bold decisions (like drinking with the scary bosses' daughter) and congratulating them on their choice. It helps reinforce the message that what beer you choose says something important about who you are, so choose well.

 

Comments

Obama: Fox <b>News</b> Has A Point Of View That Is &#39;Ultimately <b>...</b>

President Obama has given a lengthy interview to Rolling Stone publisher Jann Wenner for the upcoming issue of the magazine. The cover story is titled Obama Fights Back and boy does he ever. At least where Fox News is concerned.

Fox <b>News</b> Poll: GOPer Johnson Leads Feingold By 8 Points In WI-SEN <b>...</b>

The new Fox News poll of the Wisconsin Senate race has bad news for Democratic Sen. Russ Feingold, with an eight-point lead for Republican businessman Ron Johnson.

Critics &quot;validated&quot; Wii Dead Space Wii <b>News</b> - Page 1 | Eurogamer.net

Read our Wii news of Critics. ... Dead Space: Extraction explained 3 September, 2009. Latest News. Visceral wants to make Dead Space 3 . Wii's Dead Space heading to PSN/XBLA? . Dead Space 2 to have online multiplayer? ...

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Obama: Fox <b>News</b> Has A Point Of View That Is &#39;Ultimately <b>...</b>

President Obama has given a lengthy interview to Rolling Stone publisher Jann Wenner for the upcoming issue of the magazine. The cover story is titled Obama Fights Back and boy does he ever. At least where Fox News is concerned.

Fox <b>News</b> Poll: GOPer Johnson Leads Feingold By 8 Points In WI-SEN <b>...</b>

The new Fox News poll of the Wisconsin Senate race has bad news for Democratic Sen. Russ Feingold, with an eight-point lead for Republican businessman Ron Johnson.

Critics &quot;validated&quot; Wii Dead Space Wii <b>News</b> - Page 1 | Eurogamer.net

Read our Wii news of Critics. ... Dead Space: Extraction explained 3 September, 2009. Latest News. Visceral wants to make Dead Space 3 . Wii's Dead Space heading to PSN/XBLA? . Dead Space 2 to have online multiplayer? ...

A California man who helped funnel stolen cash to a global network of hackers and carders was sentenced Thursday to 6 years in prison for conspiracy to launder money.


Cesar Carranza, 38, also known as “uBuyWeRush,” ran a legitimate business selling liquidation and overstock merchandise online and from three California stores.

But, according to an indictment (.pdf), he also sold MSR-206’s to carders to encode stolen bank card data onto blank cards, and he served as a conduit to transmit stolen money between mules and carders.

He worked with many of the top carders in the criminal underground between 2003 and 2006, including Maksim “Maksik” Yastremskiy, a Ukrainian carder who allegedly worked with TJX hacker Albert Gonzalez and was considered by authorities to be one of the top sellers of stolen card data on the internet.

In 2003 and 2004, Carranza became an approved and trusted vendor on online criminal forums such as CarderPlanet and Shadowcrew, advertising his goods and services and dispensing advice on the best tools to use for various criminal endeavors.

According to court records, he admitted in messages he posted to the forums that he himself had done carding between 1990 and 1998, but retired to become a vendor for other carders.

“I decided to supply all you guys making the real big bucks,” he allegedly wrote. “So if you need me I sell Card Printers, Card Embossers, Tippers, Encoders, Small Readers and more.”

He was first arrested in California in 2004, but was never charged with a crime. Although he was selling MSR-206s through eBay at the time, selling the devices is not illegal. Carranza told Threat Level, however, that police accused him of selling his merchandise to terrorists.

He subsequently sold off his MSR business. But, according to court records, his services as a money launderer for carders continued to flourish, even though it was clear that law enforcement agencies were closely watching him.

Hackers in East Europe and elsewhere would steal credit and debit card numbers and PINs through phishing and other means, then pass the data to so-called mules in the U.S., who would encode the numbers onto the magnetic stripe of blank cards, then use the cards to withdraw money from the accounts at ATMs. They would then send the money back to their co-conspirators in East Europe through Western Union or through e-Gold, an online digital currency.

Authorities say Carranza helped launder about $2.5 million in this way by operating as an e-Gold money exchanger. The mules would give him cash or deposit money into his bank account, and he would either transfer the money to the bank account of another e-Gold exchanger who would convert it to e-Gold for a carder, or he would change the money himself into e-Gold currency through his own e-Gold account, then transfer it to the e-Gold account of carders in East Europe and elsewhere. They would then use a local e-Gold money exchanger to convert the digital fund into their local currency.

One such mule who transmitted stolen money in this way described to Threat Level in 2006 how he obtained hundreds of stolen card numbers from Romanian phishers and Russian hackers that he met online. The man, who used the nickname “John Dillinger,” withdrew more than $150,000 from ATM machines before transferring the money back to East Europe through Western Union and through an e-Gold money exchanger in California.

In addition to laundering stolen funds, authorities say Carranza was a middleman for carders to purchase “dumps” (account and other data stored on a bank card’s magnetic stripe) from one another.

Around January 4, 2006, according to authorities, Carranza transferred about $15,000 worth of e-Gold to the e-Gold account of a carder who went by the nickname “CC-2″ — a known specialist in hacking financial databases and siphoning card data to sell to other criminals. Carranza indicated in a note to the transaction that he was retaining a 6-percent commission for the service. He transferred another $45,000 worth of e-Gold to CC-2’s account over the next two months. In March and April 2006, authorities say he also transferred $33,000 to Maksim Yastremskiy. The latter was arrested in Turkey in 2007 and sentenced to 30 years in prison there and is still wanted in the U.S. for his alleged role in the TJX carding ring.

Between 2003 and 2007, authorities say that more than $2 million went into and out of Carranza’s e-Gold account.

In 2006, e-Gold, under investigation for facilitating money laundering between carders, froze two of Carranza’s e-Gold accounts, which contained about $19,000 at the time. Carranza told Threat Level then that he was considering legal action against e-Gold to release his funds. “I no longer trust the e-gold integrity,” he said. He didn’t follow through on the threat.

He was indicted in 2008 on charges of conspiring to commit access device fraud and money laundering. He pleaded guilty last December to one count of conspiring to launder stolen money.

See also:

• Ukrainian Carding King ‘Maksik’ Was Lured to Arrest


• In Gonzalez Hacking Case, a High-Stakes Fight Over a Ukrainian’s Laptop


• I Was a Cybercrook for the FBI


• Confessions of a Cybermule


• Bullion and Bandits: The Improbable Rise and Fall of E-Gold


• E-Gold Gets Tough on Crime

It is hard not to enjoy beer marketing. Even if you are not a marketer, this industry always offers creative advertising (particularly on TV) that is fun to watch and spends lots of money doing it. Every year at the Super Bowl, a good number of the Top 10 ads come from beer companies. In other venues beyond sports, beer advertising often promises good times, great parties and generally being able to escape from your daily life into a world of fun, travel and festivities.



When it comes to marketing strategy, however, it often seems like beer companies focus on being entertaining at the expense of being strategic. With campaigns that seem to change almost monthly and taglines that rarely last for more than a football season, it is easy to dismiss beer marketing as irresponsible spending to promote a high margin product. Is there more to beer advertising than 30 second eye candy and girls in bikinis? Here are a few popular marketing campaigns for beer - along with their corresponding marketing strategy that may yield some surprising lessons ...



1. Be Unique (Red Stripe Beer)



If you have ever had a Red Stripe beer from Jamaica, you know that it has a very unique bottle shape, shorter and stubbier than most others. The bottle sets the beer apart more than anything else, and this fact is brilliantly parodied in this ad featuring their central spokesperson - the Jamaican guy who loves nothing more than celebrating what beer can do with his trademark expression of Jamaican joy: "Hooray Beer!"



 

2. Demonstrate Loyalty (Bud Light)

The ad for Bud Light below follows the model this beer company has focused on for nearly every Super Bowl and football season - forget about your product features and focus on the simple message that guys will do almost anything for your beer. The strategy which seems buried in most of their ads is the unwavering loyalty that the guys in their ads have for Bud Light. They will build houses out of it, jump out of planes, and even walk around naked for a day just to get more of it. It is easy to argue that the name of the beer involved is entirely forgettable, but the ads stand out for being entertaining.

 

3. Create Associations (Estrella Damm)

A popular ad for European beer Estrella Damm - this campaign features a few ads which tell the story where the beer plays a supporting role and one of the tagline reads "Good times never end when you have something to remind you of them." Another ad features a growing relationship between two fellow travellers. While the taglines don't exactly roll off the tongue, the entire campaign creates stories that associate the beer with the common memory of moments like a short term romance on a backpacking trip through Europe that many of their target audience will remember nostalgically, and one that many people won't be able to help sharing.

 

4. Foster Aspirations (Dos Equis)

Probably the most popular campaign of the list, this inspired marketing from Dos Equis creates a persona for the Most Interesting Man In The World who, by his own admission, "doesn't always drink beer, but when he does he prefers Dos Equis." The image of this man is who every guy wants to grow up to be, and works because it places Dos Equis in a typically uncontested space as the choice for a more mature and refined guy versus an infantile male trying to relive lost days of keg stands and beer pong from college. That and irresistible lines like "he lives vicariously through himself" help position Dos Equis as the more aspirational choice in beers.

 

5. Reinforce Perceptions (Heineken)



The thing that European beers have always used to promote themselves against other brands is the sense that they are a more upscale and respectable choice when you go to a bar or similarly public place. Heineken's recent campaign takes this message and replays it with the powerful tagline - "give yourself a good name." The ads feature guys making bold decisions (like drinking with the scary bosses' daughter) and congratulating them on their choice. It helps reinforce the message that what beer you choose says something important about who you are, so choose well.

 

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Obama: Fox <b>News</b> Has A Point Of View That Is &#39;Ultimately <b>...</b>

President Obama has given a lengthy interview to Rolling Stone publisher Jann Wenner for the upcoming issue of the magazine. The cover story is titled Obama Fights Back and boy does he ever. At least where Fox News is concerned.

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Obama: Fox <b>News</b> Has A Point Of View That Is &#39;Ultimately <b>...</b>

President Obama has given a lengthy interview to Rolling Stone publisher Jann Wenner for the upcoming issue of the magazine. The cover story is titled Obama Fights Back and boy does he ever. At least where Fox News is concerned.

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The new Fox News poll of the Wisconsin Senate race has bad news for Democratic Sen. Russ Feingold, with an eight-point lead for Republican businessman Ron Johnson.

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Read our Wii news of Critics. ... Dead Space: Extraction explained 3 September, 2009. Latest News. Visceral wants to make Dead Space 3 . Wii's Dead Space heading to PSN/XBLA? . Dead Space 2 to have online multiplayer? ...

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personal finances help

Solopreneurs often feel that they don't need a business plan, especially if they're not looking for financing.  Is this true? When do you need a plan? How complex does it have to be?

To help unravel the solo business plan mystery and the "how to" of it all, I turned to small business consultant, Doug Dolan. Here's what Doug has to say:

One of the top five questions I get from solopreneurs is, “Do I need a business plan?” My answer is always, yes. However, this doesn’t mean you need a formal plan. The detail, complexity and length of your plan will vary depending on these key factors:

1. The complexity of your business
2. The amount and source of your funding
3. The severity of the damages you will incur if your business fails

Business plans run the spectrum from a one-page outline or mini-plan to a 30-page formal business plan.

For example, if you wish to start an internet-based business using a meager portion of your savings to bring in some secondary, passive income through affiliate sales while working your day job, you can get started right away with a basic outline or mini-plan.

However, if you are passionate about designing a patentable, reverse osmosis water filtration system requiring a $500,000 investment (a combination of mortgaging your house, cashing out the kids’ college funds, and outside investment), a formal plan is necessary.

What is a mini-plan?
A mini-plan will range in size from one to 10 pages (whereas a formal plan may often span from 18 – 30 pages). So what’s in a mini-plan? At minimum, you need to have the following:

• Your UVP
• A definition of your prime prospect
• A list of your prime competitors
• The products / services you will offer
• Finances needed to reach profitability
• How you will utilize those funds
• Legal structure and other necessary licenses, permits and certifications
• A marketing plan (from ads, to social media, joint venture partners, etc….)
• Goals

What is a formal business plan?
If you do a search online for a “business plan template”, you will find a few different versions. So which do you use? Here are the sections an investor will want to see:

• Executive Summary
• Company Analysis
• Industry Analysis
• Customer Analysis
• Competitive Analysis
• Marketing Plan
• Operations Plan
• Management Bio(s)
• Financial Plans
• Appendix

What if you find yourself stuck (or simply fed-up with the process), where can you get help? You have a couple of options:

1. Do a search online for “free business plan templates”.
2. Buy a software package and fill out a template.
3. Seek out a SCORE or SBDC counselor to give you some free advice.
4. Hire a consultant (like me) to help you develop your plan and / or review and edit a final draft.
5. Hire a consultant or company to draft your plan from scratch.

Here are pluses and minuses with each of these scenarios.

Templates and software packages are simply tools. They don’t fill it out for you. Moreover, most of these options focus solely on the formal plan structure.

Seeking out a SCORE or SBDC counselor offers you a no-cost alternative, however, they will typically only help with reviewing a final plan … and often only a formal plan.

Hiring a consultant for a coaching or a review will cost you some of your start-up funds, however, you will receive more active, personal attention.

As for hiring a consultant to create a business plan for you, typically, this will cost you the most. While this will free up your time for other start-up activities, you will miss an excellent opportunity to get to know your business and your market. It is through market research and developing your plan where you gain the most insight. If you need to pitch investors, you had better know your plan forwards and backwards.

When creating a plan, let me stress a couple of key points.

1. Create a plan.
Don’t get started without a plan. It is your roadmap taking you from an idea to success. How long do you want that road to be? If you set up shop and start without a plan, chances are high, you will have to pull over along the way and ask for directions. Getting lost and asking for directions after the fact will cost you time and money.

2. If it doesn’t add up, take two steps back.
While doing additional research to complete your plan, you may find data that suggests your idea won’t make money. Don’t dismiss the negative information and only look for data that supports your idea. It is better at this point to go back to review and alter your idea and target market choice. Don’t try to sell yourself on a bad idea.

3. Have a pro review it.
If this is your first time creating a plan or if you are creating a plan for a business in an industry other than that of your previous work experience, let a successful entrepreneur review it. If you are creating a mini-plan, you may be able to start without having someone else reviewing it (although it wouldn’t hurt to let one successful entrepreneur take a quick look).

If you are creating a formal plan, you may want to consider passing it out to three pros. At least one of the three should be a successful professional with experience within your target industry while at least one should be an outsider.

Why?

First, with three pros, if there is a trend in their responses, you are less likely to dismiss what they have to say. Additionally, you will typically find that they each may give advice not provided by the other two.

Second, an industry insider will help you with the areas of your business you don’t know you don’t know while an outsider can tell you whether your plan is in plain enough English. Not everyone that you pitch your plan to will be from your target industry. You don’t want to miss out on securing money because your language confuses them.

If you have questions or find you are struggling with areas of your plan, leave a comment below or write me at doug@smallbizbreak.com.

Doug Dolan is a partner at Small Biz Break. Small Biz Break helps entrepreneurs expedite their new small business ideas to market and activates a buzz for their brand with multimedia services. Go to Small Biz Break to access their free business templates, forms and ebooks and to get more information about their small business startup and multimedia services.

Events of the last week have made the Deficit Commission an embarrassment. Co-Chair Alan Simpson is a one-man disaster movie, compulsively offending one key voting bloc after another. Commission member Paul Ryan faced an angry crowd over his anti-Social Security stance, while another Commissioner locked experienced workers out of a nuclear facility rather than provide retirement benefits.

That's right: He's cutting retirement benefits.

But if the political blowback is obvious, here's what isn't: The Commissioners who are determined to cut your Social Security benefits are going to enjoy their own retirements in comfort. Their own pension plans insulate them from the fears that many other Americans face, and they don't have the professional expertise that would help them understand those concerns. In fact, the Commission's only expert on retirement is Rep. Jan Schakowsky, and she apparently opposes benefit cuts. The rest of the Commission is dominated by people who've expressed their desire to cut Social Security, despite their own secure futures. Millions of working Americans who have contributed to Social Security all their lives will lose out if these Commissioners have their way.

Happy Labor Day.

Normally I consider it off-limits to discuss people's personal finances when discussing their political opinions. But these Commissioners' lack of subject matter expertise, along with their lack of empathy, is important. If you don't know much about the topic and are protected from the problem, what makes you credible? Their pre-established prejudices makes the situation even worse, and their own situations underscore the irony of their self-professed willingness to make "brave choices" - choices whose consequences will mean little or nothing to them.

The Commission's Social Security obsession is odd anyway, since the projected Social Security shortfall comes out to only 0.7% of GDP. Nevertheless, these Commissioners have made their benefit-cutting intentions plain, presumably because they want to offer up America's seniors as a sacrifice to the bond markets. So how will these would-be income-slashers for the elderly make out in their own golden years? They'll be golden.

Consider Commissioner Alice Rivlin. Rivlin co-authored a paper that called for raising the retirement age and other benefit cuts, and recently released a specious paper about "Saving Social Security." As a former HEW Undersecretary, CBO Director, White House Budget Director, and Federal Reserve Vice Chair, she will presumably enjoy a comfortable retirement supported by multiple public pensions. Says Rivlin: ""We can't get out of this problem without doing both spending cuts, especially slowing the growth of entitlement, and tax increases."

Experts on Social Security finance (including the long-time Chief Actuary for the program) flatly disagree with Rivlin, pointing out that an adjustment to the payroll tax cap would unquestionably be enough to get the job done. They have the numbers to prove it. So why does Rivlin, who does not have their expertise in this area, disagree? Go ask Alice.

Co-Chair Erskine Bowles brokered a deal with Newt Gingrich to cut Social Security in the 1990s, when he served as Bill Clinton's Chief of Staff. Before that he headed the Small Business Administration, so his government tenure presumably qualifies him for a Federal pension. If not, don't worry: He receives $425,000 per year in his current job running the public universities of North Carolina, and the people of North Carolina are presumably also funding a pension on his behalf. To his credit, Bowles pledged to donate $125,000 of his salary for need-based student funds - but then, he can afford it. As the son of a US Congressman, Bowles had the education and connections needed to make millions as an investment banker. The added income he earns today as a Board member for General Motors and Morgan Stanley will help, too - and his government experience undoubtedly helped him win those positions, too.

Republican Rep. Paul Ryan, an aggressive advocate of Social Security cuts and privatization, will also enjoy his sunset years in comfort, thanks to a publicly-funded pension from his tenure as a Congressman. (He'll presumably earn even more as a result of his employment as an aide to two United States Senators.) Rep. Jeb Hensaerling has served as both a Representative and as an aide to Sen. Phil Gramm, so he should be safe from financial insecurity in his old age too .

The average annual pension payments for former members of Congress ranged from $41,000 to $55,000 in 2002, considerably more than the average $13,836 that Social Security recipients received in 2009. Yet neither Ryan nor Hensaerling have proposed cutting Congressional retirement benefits - nor should they. Sound pension plans like theirs were once available to most working Americans, and more effort should be made to restore them.

Former SEIU President Andrew Stern, who once might have been counted on to defend Social Security, recently sneered at Commission critics as "assassins of change" while saying that "all entitlements should be on the table." Mr. Stern's annual pension is $152,000 - and he retired at the age of 59, not 70. Nevertheless, Stern now publicly muses about "whether defined benefit pensions can really exist in the long run in a globalized economy."

Judd Gregg, who wants to raise the retirement age to 70, will receive a Federal pension for his Senate position. Gregg, like Alan Simpson, is the son of a Governor (self-made men, you might say), which means that public pensions also ensured that neither of them had to worry about supporting their aged parents. Tom Coburn, another would-be Social Security cutter, will receive a Congressional and Senatorial pension too.

David Cote, the CEO of Honeywell, provides some "private enterprise" perspective to the Commission's work. But Cote's wealth comes in part from Honeywell's government contracts, which exceed $4 billion annually. What's more, Cote's "free enterprise" ethic didn't stop him from making sure that Honeywell grabbed a few million in stimulus money from the taxpayers, too. A few billion from the Pentagon here, a few million more from Uncle Sam there - that'll plump up the nest egg a little for Mr. Cote's sunset years.

Cote made the headlines this week when Honeywell locked out the union workers at a nuclear power plant over a labor dispute - even though the workers agreed to stay on the job to protect public safety. Instead, Cote hired replacements and put them through a pared-down training process. The image of Homer Simpson comes to mind, pushing the wrong buttons and spilling beer on the reactor console - which would presumably make Cote Mr. Burns.

But it's no joking matter. Apparently there's real danger, which is why the Nuclear Regulatory Commission reportedly stepped in to block Honeywell from distilling uranium with its crew of replacement workers And what are the union and Honeywell arguing about? Honeywell's raising health care costs - and eliminating retiree pension plans for new workers.

That's right. A member of the Commission that's pretending to judge our retirement security with impartiality would rather have hastily-trained amateurs handle nuclear materials than bargain openly with his workers - about their retirement. D'oh!

As for Simpson (Alan, not Bart), to say that he suffers from "political Tourette's syndrome" would be a disservice to Tourette's sufferers. Most of them don't really say socially objectionable things, and those who do (it's called "coprolalia") don't mean what they say. But Simpson does. By attacking senior citizens as "greedy geezers," then offending women with his "milk cow with 100 million tits" comment, and now offending veterans' groups, Simpson has now hit the voting bloc trifecta.

And Cote's outraged labor, a fourth group. But the problem isn't Simpson anymore, or Cote for that matter. It's the Commission itself. The coprolalic curmudgeon Simpson has done a service to the nation. He's drawn attention to the Commission, and to the anti-Social Security biases held by so many of its members - all of whom will retire in comfort, thanks to those whose benefits they would cut. It's the comfortable afflicting the afflicted.

If these Deficit Commission members want their recommendations to have any credibility, they should pledge to live on the same Social Security benefits that they would impose for other Americans. Better yet, they should dedicate themselves to helping provide every American with the kind of retirement security they enjoy. That was part of the social contract this nation embraced during its years of greatest economic growth, the fulfillment of a promise that a lifetime of work should never end with years of deprivation. They should be working to restore that contract, not erode it even further.

One thing is clear: This Commission has no business making recommendations about Social Security.

(Sign a petition asking Congress and the President to protect Social Security from the Deficit Commission. Roger Hickey has more here.)

Additional links:

* Sam Seder and I discussed Social Security this week while co-hosting The Young Turks.

* For further reference on the Commission's members and their biases, see Firedoglake and Talking Points Memo.

* House Democrats are vowing to protect Social Security from any cuts. The polls show why that's a very wise idea.

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Small Business <b>News</b>: An Owner&#39;s Manual

If only there were an owner's manual that came with your small business telling you what works, what doesn't and what are the best ways to move ahead in your.

<b>News</b> - Lindsay Lohan Going Back to Jail Until Oct. 22 - Celebrity <b>...</b>

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Elden S. Fox revokes her probation for failing at least one drug test.

Scripting <b>News</b>: Angelgate in a Nutshell

Recent stories. Twitter links. My 40 most-recent Twitter links, ranked by number of clicks. My bike. People are always asking about my bike. A picture named bikesmall.jpg. Here's a picture. AFP news pic. Calendar ...

Small Business <b>News</b>: An Owner&#39;s Manual

If only there were an owner's manual that came with your small business telling you what works, what doesn't and what are the best ways to move ahead in your.

<b>News</b> - Lindsay Lohan Going Back to Jail Until Oct. 22 - Celebrity <b>...</b>

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Elden S. Fox revokes her probation for failing at least one drug test.

Scripting <b>News</b>: Angelgate in a Nutshell

Recent stories. Twitter links. My 40 most-recent Twitter links, ranked by number of clicks. My bike. People are always asking about my bike. A picture named bikesmall.jpg. Here's a picture. AFP news pic. Calendar ...

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Small Business <b>News</b>: An Owner&#39;s Manual

If only there were an owner's manual that came with your small business telling you what works, what doesn't and what are the best ways to move ahead in your.

<b>News</b> - Lindsay Lohan Going Back to Jail Until Oct. 22 - Celebrity <b>...</b>

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Elden S. Fox revokes her probation for failing at least one drug test.

Scripting <b>News</b>: Angelgate in a Nutshell

Recent stories. Twitter links. My 40 most-recent Twitter links, ranked by number of clicks. My bike. People are always asking about my bike. A picture named bikesmall.jpg. Here's a picture. AFP news pic. Calendar ...

personal finance

10 Things Money Managers Won't Say [Smart Money] "#1: 'You may have more investing experience than I do.'"

3 Proven Ways to Save Real Money at Garage Sales [Wise Bread] "Here is how I managed to get some awesome deals!"

6 Tips to Stretch Your Back-to-School Cash [Money Talks News] "Here are five tips for stretching your back-to-school dollars."

Tips on tipping for 63 services [NY Times] "You know how much to tip the pizza delivery guy, right? But how about the fishing guide, tour guide or tattoo artist?"

Getting a Will: Six Common Questions [Bucks Blog] "Some common queries that tend to arise when writing a will."

— FREE MONEY FINANCE

Synium Software has released an update to iFinance Mobile adding native iPad support and several additional new features. iFinance Mobile is a personal finance application for iOS devices that allows users to record transactions and expenses on the go and optionally sync that data with iFinance for the Mac for expanded financial review and planning. iFinance Mobile 2.0 is now a universal app providing native support for the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad and adds a new Account History chart, CSV export of transaction data via e-mail and an improved, redesigned user interface for both the iPhone and iPad. The update also provides several other smaller enhancements such as a graphical calendar view, automatic BIC and IBAN validation, transaction sorting by date and localization in Czech, Polish, French and Russian. iFinance Mobile 2.0 is available from the App Store for $2 and is a free update for users of any prior version.

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Pentax announces price and availibilty for 645D camera: Digital <b>...</b>

Pentax announces price and availibilty for 645D camera: Photokina 2010: Pentax has announced its 645D medium format digital camera will start shipping globally from December 2010. The camera will sell at a retail price of $9999.99 for ...

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Pentax announces price and availibilty for 645D camera: Photokina 2010: Pentax has announced its 645D medium format digital camera will start shipping globally from December 2010. The camera will sell at a retail price of $9999.99 for ...

Lindsay Lohan Photos &amp; Pics | BREAKING <b>NEWS</b> - Lindsay Lohan Gets <b>...</b>

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SpeakerCraft rolls out speakers for iPad, iPhone, iPod | iLounge <b>News</b>

iLounge news discussing the SpeakerCraft rolls out speakers for iPad, iPhone, iPod. Find more iPod Accessories news from leading independent iPod, iPhone, and iPad site.

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Pentax announces price and availibilty for 645D camera: Digital <b>...</b>

Pentax announces price and availibilty for 645D camera: Photokina 2010: Pentax has announced its 645D medium format digital camera will start shipping globally from December 2010. The camera will sell at a retail price of $9999.99 for ...

Lindsay Lohan Photos &amp; Pics | BREAKING <b>NEWS</b> - Lindsay Lohan Gets <b>...</b>

Lindsay Lohan has just been sentenced to 30 days in jail for violating her probation after testing positive for cocaine. Judge Fox has denied Lindsay bail and has sent her straight to jail until October 22nd. But due to the overcrowding ...

SpeakerCraft rolls out speakers for iPad, iPhone, iPod | iLounge <b>News</b>

iLounge news discussing the SpeakerCraft rolls out speakers for iPad, iPhone, iPod. Find more iPod Accessories news from leading independent iPod, iPhone, and iPad site.

Making Money Ideas

Late last week, I spoke with former SEIU president and current Georgetown fellow/fiscal commission member Andy Stern about hosting a series of pieces laying out different ideas to kick-start job creation. The idea here is not to see how many compromises can dance on the head of the congressional pin; it's to see what exactly different experts think needs to be done. In Ben Bernanke's memorable term: "blue sky thinking."

The first piece came, naturally enough, from Andy Stern; the second was from Dean Baker, and the third was from Mark Zandi. In the coming days, there'll also be pieces from Rep. Paul Ryan, Sonecon's Robert Shapiro, the Peter G. Peterson Foundation's David Walker and others. Today's comes from Heather Boushey.

Moving the U.S. economy out of first gear

Heather Boushey

Senior economist, Center for American Progress

We are now nearly a year into what economists call a recovery, but it doesn’t look like one to U.S. workers. A close look at the data shows that while the U.S. economy is no longer in reverse, it is having a hard time getting out of first gear.

The U.S. economy continues to have a significant output gap: Capacity utilization is at 75 percent -- meaning that a full quarter of our machines are sitting idle -- while 1 in 10 workers sits at home. We need to find a way to connect the workers who want to work with the idle machines, be those desktops or assembly lines. What we need is a continued injection of demand -- demand for goods and services that will put businesses into motion to start investing and hiring again.

The question now is what we should do to push demand out of first gear. There are two ways to think about the challenges ahead: what makes sense from an economic perspective and what may be politically possible. Ideally, we can find ideas that do both.

President Obama has encouraged Congress to vote on a set of growth-oriented tax cuts, which are in the “realm of the possible.” Policymakers should focus on putting money in the hands of people who will spend it given where our economy is. Extending the Bush tax cuts for the middle class, as Obama proposes, is a good idea. The middle class will continue to spend these extra funds and this will boost demand and spur economic growth. But Congress should allow the tax cuts for those earning above $250,000 to expire because they do relatively little to boost demand and our economy can ill afford ineffective economic policies.

Other good tax ideas include extending the full range of provisions in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act that boost incomes for middle- and working-class families. These include the Making Work Pay tax cut, which gives a $400 tax cut for single filers and up to $800 for joint filers. It is implemented by reducing the amount of tax withheld from each paycheck. Other ARRA tax provisions include improvements to the Earned Income Tax Credit and expansion of the Child Tax Credit, including making it refundable.

The president also proposes allowing firms to deduct 100 percent of new equipment purchases in 2010 and 2011 rather than depreciate these expenses over time. These are the kind of policies that should garner Republican support, and pairing them with middle-class tax cuts makes good political sense. But it will probably not do much to boost demand. The fundamental problem facing firms (especially small businesses) is not enough customers. It is not the cost of investing, which is at historic lows.

These proposals are a good start. But if we want to bring unemployment down in the short to medium term, there are other bold steps we can focus on to boost demand. Andy Stern and Dean Baker have already outlined some good ideas. Here’s my “blue sky” contribution:

Invest in laying the foundation for economic growth. Congress should seriously consider Obama’s proposal to increase infrastructure spending by $50 billion to invest in roads, rails and runways (and let’s really think “blue sky” and wonder if maybe a new Congress could allocate even more).

There are two stark realities in front of us that make this a crucial step. First, the United States has been underinvesting in infrastructure, which threatens our economic competitiveness moving forward. Every U.S. business relies on our transportation networks and electricity grids to keep their operations humming. We need an upgrade. And second, it may be some time before we’re back to full employment; taking steps now to make long-term investments that will boost job creation in the years to come is smart policy.

Invest in ourselves. We should put our national service programs “on steroids” to give our youngest workers useful job experience and an opportunity to give back to their communities. Expanding our national service programs, as Stern suggested, is also an excellent way to meet pressing community needs and tap into the skills and expertise of older workers.

But there are other ways to create jobs now. For instance, Congress should extend the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families Emergency Jobs Program, which as of the end of September will have created 250,000 jobs through public-private partnerships nationwide. The Local Jobs for America Act, introduced by Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.), would create approximately 1 million jobs by providing $100 billion in funds to be used over two years to protect state and local government jobs and create local government and nonprofit sector jobs.

Do the right thing: Boost demand through unemployment benefits. At the end of November, extended benefits for the long-term unemployed will expire. The U.S. economy continues to have more long-term unemployed -- those out of work and searching for a job for at least six months -- than at any time in more than half a century.

Unemployment benefits are targeted at these workers, and we know that this is one of the most effective ways to boost demand because recipients go out and spend these benefits. So later this fall Congress should extend long-term unemployment benefits until the unemployment rate comes back down -- no ifs, ands, or buts about it. Further, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, which provides food assistance, is also an effective way to boost demand as well as help families avoid hunger and continued funding is critical.

Wonk Room is covering the Clinton Global Initiative.  This is a cross-post by Brad Johnson.

President Bill Clinton believes the “number one thing” to restore the American economy is clean, efficient energy. In a blogger roundtable at the beginning of his Clinton Global Initiative in New York City, Clinton told us his “favorite ideas” for making the green economy a political and economic reality:

One: Federal loan guarantees for building energy efficiency retrofits

Two: Renewable energy initiatives in economically depressed cities

Three: Green jobs programs for poor Americans

Clinton, relaxed and slim, held court with a dazzling mastery of policy details, wit, and storytelling.

Citing a Center for American Progress report on the promise of energy efficiency, Clinton described his desire for the federal government to kickstart private financing of energy retrofits, much as the Clinton Foundation had done for the Empire State Building:

The Center for American Progress says we can get half the way home to an 80 percent reduction in greenhouse gases by 2010 by efficiency alone. Unemployment in construction is 25 percent. We can’t go out and build new houses. And there are very few office buildings that need to be built. So what I think we should do is to have a lot more Empire State Buildings. We should retrofit every public school, every college and university building every hospital, every auditorium in this country, and every office building unencumbered by debt.

Clinton believes the reason that this investment hasn’t already happened is that “spooked” banks don’t want to make loans that could collapse. His solution is to establish a federal loan guarantee program, which he believes could create one million jobs with only $15 billion in federal investment:

Give them a federal guarantee like the SBA guarantee, and you only have to set aside $1 for every $10 you loan. Still very conservative, because we know the historic failure rate is one percent, not ten percent. It might not cost the taxpayers anything.

Here’s the multiple: every billion-dollar investment in retrofits gives you 7000 jobs. Homes 8000. Wind energy 3300 if you build and assemble the windmills where you put them up. Solar 1900, coal 870, nuclear a little over 900. This is not close. If you want to put America back to work, give a loan guarantee, get banks start making loans.

Set aside $15 billion for guarantees, you get $150 billion in bank lending, you get a million jobs.

His other policy ideas are about making the clean energy economy real for the American people, rich and poor:

My second candidate: pick places that are both distressed and full of potential for energy independence. My number one candidate is Nevada, where the sun shine and the wind blows. And you’ve got all those real expensive hotels there with roofs that could be filled with solar panels. And you have all the hills around that could be filled with windmills.

I would say take a few places like that and go straight out and make them energy independent and document how many jobs have been created, and then everybody will want to do that.

My third candidate is prove it works for poor people. One of our best commitments is designed to provide after school jobs and summer jobs for poor kids in Harlem, upper Manhattan Washington heights by paying them to go in and retrofit a lot of these old buildings, whitewashing the black roofs.

If you did those three things so that every day you were proving over and over again to all the naysayers that it was good economics to build a clean energy future, you can build a consensus necessary to do what has to be done. You could beat the special interest groups.

He admitted that the key problem with this vision is that it requires a change from how the energy sector traditionally makes money:

If you make a deal for a nuclear power plant or a coal-fired power plant and you knowingly deprive all these jobs increase greenhouse gas emissions or you increase other risk or you increase huge costs — with nuclear, it’s always more expensive — the only real reason they do it is because they’ve always done it that way, and it is so much simpler. If you’re running the utility, there’s one contractor that’s going to build that plant, there’s one supplier of the fuel, and then you go to one PUC and they give you permission to make the ratepayers pay for it at a profit. It’s simple because it’s centralized.

The new energy economy is more decentralized, but it’s less expensive, more job intensive, and parenthetically will save the planet.

“That’s what I think we have to do,” Clinton concluded. “You’ve got to prove this is good economics. And it is! The number one thing we could do for America is change the way we produce and consume energy.”

Small Business <b>News</b>: The Times They Are A Changing

In the 60's it was a song of revolution when change was just not as common. Today, it reflects a fact of life, at least for small business owners and.

Official Google Blog: Google <b>News</b> turns eight

Today we celebrate the eighth birthday of Google News. Not long after the tragic events of September 11, 2001, we started building and testing Google News with the aim of helping you find current events from a wide variety of global and ...

Pentax announces price and availibilty for 645D camera: Digital <b>...</b>

Pentax announces price and availibilty for 645D camera: Photokina 2010: Pentax has announced its 645D medium format digital camera will start shipping globally from December 2010. The camera will sell at a retail price of $9999.99 for ...

robert shumake

Small Business <b>News</b>: The Times They Are A Changing

In the 60's it was a song of revolution when change was just not as common. Today, it reflects a fact of life, at least for small business owners and.

Official Google Blog: Google <b>News</b> turns eight

Today we celebrate the eighth birthday of Google News. Not long after the tragic events of September 11, 2001, we started building and testing Google News with the aim of helping you find current events from a wide variety of global and ...

Pentax announces price and availibilty for 645D camera: Digital <b>...</b>

Pentax announces price and availibilty for 645D camera: Photokina 2010: Pentax has announced its 645D medium format digital camera will start shipping globally from December 2010. The camera will sell at a retail price of $9999.99 for ...

Late last week, I spoke with former SEIU president and current Georgetown fellow/fiscal commission member Andy Stern about hosting a series of pieces laying out different ideas to kick-start job creation. The idea here is not to see how many compromises can dance on the head of the congressional pin; it's to see what exactly different experts think needs to be done. In Ben Bernanke's memorable term: "blue sky thinking."

The first piece came, naturally enough, from Andy Stern; the second was from Dean Baker, and the third was from Mark Zandi. In the coming days, there'll also be pieces from Rep. Paul Ryan, Sonecon's Robert Shapiro, the Peter G. Peterson Foundation's David Walker and others. Today's comes from Heather Boushey.

Moving the U.S. economy out of first gear

Heather Boushey

Senior economist, Center for American Progress

We are now nearly a year into what economists call a recovery, but it doesn’t look like one to U.S. workers. A close look at the data shows that while the U.S. economy is no longer in reverse, it is having a hard time getting out of first gear.

The U.S. economy continues to have a significant output gap: Capacity utilization is at 75 percent -- meaning that a full quarter of our machines are sitting idle -- while 1 in 10 workers sits at home. We need to find a way to connect the workers who want to work with the idle machines, be those desktops or assembly lines. What we need is a continued injection of demand -- demand for goods and services that will put businesses into motion to start investing and hiring again.

The question now is what we should do to push demand out of first gear. There are two ways to think about the challenges ahead: what makes sense from an economic perspective and what may be politically possible. Ideally, we can find ideas that do both.

President Obama has encouraged Congress to vote on a set of growth-oriented tax cuts, which are in the “realm of the possible.” Policymakers should focus on putting money in the hands of people who will spend it given where our economy is. Extending the Bush tax cuts for the middle class, as Obama proposes, is a good idea. The middle class will continue to spend these extra funds and this will boost demand and spur economic growth. But Congress should allow the tax cuts for those earning above $250,000 to expire because they do relatively little to boost demand and our economy can ill afford ineffective economic policies.

Other good tax ideas include extending the full range of provisions in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act that boost incomes for middle- and working-class families. These include the Making Work Pay tax cut, which gives a $400 tax cut for single filers and up to $800 for joint filers. It is implemented by reducing the amount of tax withheld from each paycheck. Other ARRA tax provisions include improvements to the Earned Income Tax Credit and expansion of the Child Tax Credit, including making it refundable.

The president also proposes allowing firms to deduct 100 percent of new equipment purchases in 2010 and 2011 rather than depreciate these expenses over time. These are the kind of policies that should garner Republican support, and pairing them with middle-class tax cuts makes good political sense. But it will probably not do much to boost demand. The fundamental problem facing firms (especially small businesses) is not enough customers. It is not the cost of investing, which is at historic lows.

These proposals are a good start. But if we want to bring unemployment down in the short to medium term, there are other bold steps we can focus on to boost demand. Andy Stern and Dean Baker have already outlined some good ideas. Here’s my “blue sky” contribution:

Invest in laying the foundation for economic growth. Congress should seriously consider Obama’s proposal to increase infrastructure spending by $50 billion to invest in roads, rails and runways (and let’s really think “blue sky” and wonder if maybe a new Congress could allocate even more).

There are two stark realities in front of us that make this a crucial step. First, the United States has been underinvesting in infrastructure, which threatens our economic competitiveness moving forward. Every U.S. business relies on our transportation networks and electricity grids to keep their operations humming. We need an upgrade. And second, it may be some time before we’re back to full employment; taking steps now to make long-term investments that will boost job creation in the years to come is smart policy.

Invest in ourselves. We should put our national service programs “on steroids” to give our youngest workers useful job experience and an opportunity to give back to their communities. Expanding our national service programs, as Stern suggested, is also an excellent way to meet pressing community needs and tap into the skills and expertise of older workers.

But there are other ways to create jobs now. For instance, Congress should extend the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families Emergency Jobs Program, which as of the end of September will have created 250,000 jobs through public-private partnerships nationwide. The Local Jobs for America Act, introduced by Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.), would create approximately 1 million jobs by providing $100 billion in funds to be used over two years to protect state and local government jobs and create local government and nonprofit sector jobs.

Do the right thing: Boost demand through unemployment benefits. At the end of November, extended benefits for the long-term unemployed will expire. The U.S. economy continues to have more long-term unemployed -- those out of work and searching for a job for at least six months -- than at any time in more than half a century.

Unemployment benefits are targeted at these workers, and we know that this is one of the most effective ways to boost demand because recipients go out and spend these benefits. So later this fall Congress should extend long-term unemployment benefits until the unemployment rate comes back down -- no ifs, ands, or buts about it. Further, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, which provides food assistance, is also an effective way to boost demand as well as help families avoid hunger and continued funding is critical.

Wonk Room is covering the Clinton Global Initiative.  This is a cross-post by Brad Johnson.

President Bill Clinton believes the “number one thing” to restore the American economy is clean, efficient energy. In a blogger roundtable at the beginning of his Clinton Global Initiative in New York City, Clinton told us his “favorite ideas” for making the green economy a political and economic reality:

One: Federal loan guarantees for building energy efficiency retrofits

Two: Renewable energy initiatives in economically depressed cities

Three: Green jobs programs for poor Americans

Clinton, relaxed and slim, held court with a dazzling mastery of policy details, wit, and storytelling.

Citing a Center for American Progress report on the promise of energy efficiency, Clinton described his desire for the federal government to kickstart private financing of energy retrofits, much as the Clinton Foundation had done for the Empire State Building:

The Center for American Progress says we can get half the way home to an 80 percent reduction in greenhouse gases by 2010 by efficiency alone. Unemployment in construction is 25 percent. We can’t go out and build new houses. And there are very few office buildings that need to be built. So what I think we should do is to have a lot more Empire State Buildings. We should retrofit every public school, every college and university building every hospital, every auditorium in this country, and every office building unencumbered by debt.

Clinton believes the reason that this investment hasn’t already happened is that “spooked” banks don’t want to make loans that could collapse. His solution is to establish a federal loan guarantee program, which he believes could create one million jobs with only $15 billion in federal investment:

Give them a federal guarantee like the SBA guarantee, and you only have to set aside $1 for every $10 you loan. Still very conservative, because we know the historic failure rate is one percent, not ten percent. It might not cost the taxpayers anything.

Here’s the multiple: every billion-dollar investment in retrofits gives you 7000 jobs. Homes 8000. Wind energy 3300 if you build and assemble the windmills where you put them up. Solar 1900, coal 870, nuclear a little over 900. This is not close. If you want to put America back to work, give a loan guarantee, get banks start making loans.

Set aside $15 billion for guarantees, you get $150 billion in bank lending, you get a million jobs.

His other policy ideas are about making the clean energy economy real for the American people, rich and poor:

My second candidate: pick places that are both distressed and full of potential for energy independence. My number one candidate is Nevada, where the sun shine and the wind blows. And you’ve got all those real expensive hotels there with roofs that could be filled with solar panels. And you have all the hills around that could be filled with windmills.

I would say take a few places like that and go straight out and make them energy independent and document how many jobs have been created, and then everybody will want to do that.

My third candidate is prove it works for poor people. One of our best commitments is designed to provide after school jobs and summer jobs for poor kids in Harlem, upper Manhattan Washington heights by paying them to go in and retrofit a lot of these old buildings, whitewashing the black roofs.

If you did those three things so that every day you were proving over and over again to all the naysayers that it was good economics to build a clean energy future, you can build a consensus necessary to do what has to be done. You could beat the special interest groups.

He admitted that the key problem with this vision is that it requires a change from how the energy sector traditionally makes money:

If you make a deal for a nuclear power plant or a coal-fired power plant and you knowingly deprive all these jobs increase greenhouse gas emissions or you increase other risk or you increase huge costs — with nuclear, it’s always more expensive — the only real reason they do it is because they’ve always done it that way, and it is so much simpler. If you’re running the utility, there’s one contractor that’s going to build that plant, there’s one supplier of the fuel, and then you go to one PUC and they give you permission to make the ratepayers pay for it at a profit. It’s simple because it’s centralized.

The new energy economy is more decentralized, but it’s less expensive, more job intensive, and parenthetically will save the planet.

“That’s what I think we have to do,” Clinton concluded. “You’ve got to prove this is good economics. And it is! The number one thing we could do for America is change the way we produce and consume energy.”

robert shumake

Small Business <b>News</b>: The Times They Are A Changing

In the 60's it was a song of revolution when change was just not as common. Today, it reflects a fact of life, at least for small business owners and.

Official Google Blog: Google <b>News</b> turns eight

Today we celebrate the eighth birthday of Google News. Not long after the tragic events of September 11, 2001, we started building and testing Google News with the aim of helping you find current events from a wide variety of global and ...

Pentax announces price and availibilty for 645D camera: Digital <b>...</b>

Pentax announces price and availibilty for 645D camera: Photokina 2010: Pentax has announced its 645D medium format digital camera will start shipping globally from December 2010. The camera will sell at a retail price of $9999.99 for ...

robert shumake

Small Business <b>News</b>: The Times They Are A Changing

In the 60's it was a song of revolution when change was just not as common. Today, it reflects a fact of life, at least for small business owners and.

Official Google Blog: Google <b>News</b> turns eight

Today we celebrate the eighth birthday of Google News. Not long after the tragic events of September 11, 2001, we started building and testing Google News with the aim of helping you find current events from a wide variety of global and ...

Pentax announces price and availibilty for 645D camera: Digital <b>...</b>

Pentax announces price and availibilty for 645D camera: Photokina 2010: Pentax has announced its 645D medium format digital camera will start shipping globally from December 2010. The camera will sell at a retail price of $9999.99 for ...