The other day I posted a video explaining Twitter, the newest internet phenomenon.

This video tutorial is better. David Pogue on the NY Times website.

I believe the NY Times will survive. They have been innovators exploring ways to keep and grow their marketshare of readers. This video is a good example of how to do that.

The Rocky Mountain News, one of Denver’s major newspapers, declared bankruptcy last Friday. That’s the largest paper to go down in the USA, so far.

The “old” model of the newspaper business cannot survive, depression or no depression. It’s simply too expensive compared with online competition.

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David Pogue on the Amazon Kindle.

Sure looks like it to me.

Projected Budget Deficit (so far)

source – Perot Charts

What a shame that Obama arrived at this precise moment.

He’s committed to the bail-outs. Those will sink the ship, I expect. And not work.

How long before the majority of Americans come to realize the bailouts were a mistake? And Obama’s popularity drops through the floor?

Why should all Americans subsidize those who “who bought a house that cost more than they could afford, hoping for a spike in value so they could sell at a profit or take out a new loan based on an increased value.”

That from a good article in the NY Times – I Bought an Expensive House. My Bad, Not Yours

The World Economic Forum (WEF) is a Geneva-based non-profit foundation best known for its Annual Meeting in Davos, Switzerland which brings together top business leaders, international political leaders, selected intellectuals and journalists to discuss the most pressing issues facing the world including health and the environment.

Funny article by journalist Daniel Gross in Slate – Searching for an Optimist at Davos:

… Armed with a notebook, Blackberry, flip camera, and laptop, I mounted a 72-hour effort to locate an optimistic CEO. …

… many CEOs bore the harrowed looks of survivors of the Donner Party. Once they trickled in, many having endured the indignity of flying commercial for the first time in years, they were treated to an avalanche of doomsaying. Alarmists, from hedge-fund manager George Soros to historian Niall Ferguson, spun elaborate tales of catastrophe. Ferguson boldly concluded that the United States was destined for a decade of extremely lame growth. Economists were universally downbeat, which isn’t totally surprising. (They don’t call economics the dismal science for nothing.) Those who had successfully predicted the debacle, like Nouriel Roubini, New York University’s Dr. Doom, were elevated to prime speaking slots. …

read the rest of the article in Slate

I’ve been unaffected, personally, by the recession, as yet.

Perhaps that’s why I have a feeling some parts of the world, including Alberta, will bounce back much more quickly than expected. Perhaps even mid-2009.

No doubt I will be asked to speak in Davos next year.

Swinging the axe – Job-cutting has begun in earnest. But will the axe be wielded wisely? – Economist

I’ve complained much about Canadian banks in the past.

Perhaps too much

LONDON (Reuters) – The global financial crisis could have been avoided if every country had had a banking system like Canada’s, the governor of the Bank of Canada said on Saturday.

Asked in a BBC interview if the world could have been spared the crisis if everyone had had a banking system “as sober and sensible” as Canada’s, Mark Carney said: “Yes, I think, is the short answer.”

“What we did was that we had an absolute restriction on how much leverage, how much borrowing our banks could do,” he said.

“They didn’t like that and they would come in and complain about it regularly because it was stopping them from doing some of the sexier things that their international competitors were doing. But it turns out some of the sexier things that they were doing were quite foolish,” he told the BBC World Service.

Canada has the soundest banking system in the world, according to the World Economic Forum.

Canada avoided banking pitfalls, central bank gov. says

Leave a comment if you disagree.

Though it’s slightly too strident, I still strongly recommend you watch The Story of Stuff documentary.

… a provocative tour of our consumer-driven culture — from resource extraction to iPod incineration — exposing the real costs of our use-it and lose-it approach to stuff.

Watch it on the home page – StoryofStuff.com

If you don’t have time for the full 20min video, check just this 2min introduction:

Global warming gets all the media attention. (Though the green alarmist backlash is revving up.) This video looks at the REAL problem: that our economic model is not sustainable.

Thinking we can continue living as we are living is as stupid as assuming that your house value will continue to increase forever. We can’t. And it didn’t.

Perhaps our current recession will force people to consider Voluntary Simplicity. And sustainability.

I hope so. Or our species will be finished sooner rather than later.