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Indian food in the Triangle

by henrycopeland
May 15th, 2009


As compiled on Gdocs. (Thank you Jenny!)

Guilty as charged

by henrycopeland
May 13th, 2009


WSJ:

The BoE has made clear one of its main objectives in buying £125 billion ($189 billion) of gilts is to drive down gilt yields. In theory, this should be impossible since, as senior Bank officials admit, the gilt market is extremely liquid and deviations in yields away from market interest rate expectations should be quickly arbitraged away.

But these are not normal times. The U.K. government’s decision to borrow 220 billion pounds this year and £600 billion over the next five years means gilts yields have been well above levels implied by the swaps market. Without quantitative easing, gilt yields would be much higher.

In fact, the BoE’s efforts to manipulate the gilt markets may actually be exacerbating the problem. Credit market participants are increasingly uncertain about the true risk-free rate and the market’s interest rate expectations. That makes it harder to price assets — and may drive yields higher even as the BoE is trying to drive them lower though quantitative easing.

In an ideal world, a strong independent central bank would tell the government to get a grip on its borrowing, rather than mopping it up. Instead, the U.K. financial framework requires the BoE to accommodate itself to the government’s reckless fiscal policy. The weakness will eventually have to be addressed — but it might take a crisis to get there.

Same goes for the Fed.

Days like these

by henrycopeland
May 11th, 2009


Some deep chord sounded in me on reading the NYT’s story about the John Lennon museum display in New York capped with this image:

Near the exit is “Telephone Peace,” a white telephone mounted on a wall, with a card telling visitors to answer the phone when it rings.

“This is something we did at the show in 2000,” Mr. Henke said. “Yoko would periodically call in and speak to whoever answers.”

Ms. Ono seemed amused at the prospect. “Yes, you pick up the phone,” she said, “and it will be me.”

Why?

Score another one for Eyeblaster

by henrycopeland
May 11th, 2009


Last week I tweeted this:

is Microsoft’s Atlas going out of business? e-mails bouncing, nobody picking up phone lines.

I thought someone at Atlas might get the message. Nope.

But today I got this from their able competitor Eyeblaster:

@hc Hey Henry, the phone is still getting answered over here. Anything that we can do to help out?

Eyeblaster is already ahead of its competitors in reporting and proactiveness, the SM focus just runs up the score.

BTW, I’m at twitter.com/hc and we’ll soon be pulling together a feed of staff twitter accounts.

TheStreet.com ad sales off 26%

by henrycopeland
May 6th, 2009


TheStreet.com gets the scoop on its own ad sales:

TheStreet.com Inc.(TSCM Quote), an online financial media company and the publisher of this Web site, swung to a loss in the fiscal first quarter and said revenue declined 26% from the same period a year ago. For the first quarter ended March 31, total revenue was $14 million, down from $18.9 million in the same quarter of 2008.

Does anyone know of a “publisher dead pool” that we can link to?

Ad spending off 9% in Q4?

by henrycopeland
May 6th, 2009


Emily Steele reports:In a sign that marketers have begun to deepen their cutbacks, TNS Media Intelligence, an ad-tracking firm owned by WPP PLC, reported Monday that ad spending in the fourth quarter fell 9.2% from a year earlier.That’s a lot worse than any numbers we’ve heard yet elsewhere.

Vote for Megan’s hoodie!

by henrycopeland
May 5th, 2009


Celebrity media disruption

by henrycopeland
May 5th, 2009


I’m psyched to participate in a panel called “The Disruptors: Upending Old Media” sponsored by Mediabankers on May 14. Bonnie Fuller will be on the panel. And I’m looking forward to meeting Twitter-diva Martha Stewart.

Start-up tips

by henrycopeland
May 1st, 2009


I’m a sucker for start-up company tips and tales of failure. Some good ones in here, include a) content businesses suck, b) set a dollar value on your time, and c) the key to negotiating is having options.

Blogads tee-shirts

by henrycopeland
May 1st, 2009


Love the blogads logo tee-shirts? If you’re a blogads seller or buyer, please drop us a line with your address and specify your preferred color and shirt size. (Remember that American Apparel run small.)

Once your shirt arrives, head over to our new Facebook page and post a photo of yourself in some cool location, whether foreign or just around the corner.


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