Interesting article from TIME: “The ’00s: Goodbye (at Last) to the Decade from Hell”

Bookended by 9/11 at the start and a financial wipeout at the end, the first 10 years of this century will very likely go down as the most dispiriting and disillusioning decade Americans have lived through in the post–World War II era. We’re still weeks away from the end of ‘09, but it’s not too early to pass judgment. Call it the Decade from Hell, or the Reckoning, or the Decade of Broken Dreams, or the Lost Decade. Call it whatever you want — just give thanks that it is nearly over.

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Today it seems as if half the nation is on one side or the other of this ideological divide. Currently, however, those pursuing rights devoid of their own exercise of responsibility are in charge of our government and their radical zeal threatens to profoundly transform our nation into one which will forever punish those who value rights borne of responsibility and reward those who would be responsible to no one or nothing while endlessly demanding benefits that they have neither earned nor deserve.

- Edward Wimberley, “On Rights and Responsibilities: One Cannot Exist Without the Other”

REALLY good article which touches a lot of topics, but focuses on an “ideological struggle” in the USA right now.

Some excerpts:

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From “The Lowdown on Home-Buyer Tax Credits“:

Last week, President Barack Obama signed a law that extends through next spring a temporary tax credit of up to $8,000 for some first-time home buyers, which was due to expire Nov. 30. The law also adds a new tax credit of up to $6,500 for certain repeat home buyers. The package, which the government estimates will cost a total of $11 billion, is intended to help spur housing sales, a critical part of the economy.

There’s a good FAQ section in the article after this section.

More reading:
Homebuyers tax credit supported
Will rejuvenated tax credit draw more home buyers?
Extended Home Buyer Tax Credit May Not Be Good For Existing Buyers
Home Buyer Tax Credit Program Should Benefit Market, Realtors Say
The First-Time Homebuyer Tax Credit – A Consumer’s Point of View

Keep this in mind the next time you’re thinking about buying a used XBox, or from some other third-party. From “Microsoft disconnects Xbox gamers“:

Online reports suggest that as many as 600,000 gamers may have been affected.

Microsoft confirmed that it had banned a “small percentage” of the 20 million Xbox Live users worldwide.

Microsoft said that modifying an Xbox 360 console “violates” the service’s “terms of use” and would result in a player being disconnected.

“All consumers should know that piracy is illegal and that modifying their Xbox 360 console to play pirated discs violates the Xbox Live terms of use, will void their warranty and result in a ban from Xbox Live,” Microsoft has said in a statement.

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From “Got Perfect Credit? You Could Be Charged For It“:

The banks are starting to charge fees to reliable customers in response to a slew of new credit card industry regulations that will limit when banks can hike interest rates. Cardholders who get a new annual fee notice in the mail will be in a no-win situation.

“They can either pay that fee or they can close the account, and if they have had the account for a while and they close it, they are potentially going to hurt their credit card score,” said Woolsey.

Analysts say right now the banks are trying to figure out what their customers will tolerate. Many say they’d cancel cards with a high new annual fee.

“I think it is really bad. They’re encouraging you to be a bed creditor or not have good credit,” one New Yorker told CBS 2 HD.

Even canceling a credit card could hurt your credit? WHAT THE HELL.

So in order to come out on top here, you HAVE to be in debt? What the shit is this?

***UPDATE***
Some more information from “Citibank shows why credit card holders need protection“:

Months before a law takes effect that cracks down on abuses by credit card issuers, the bank increases interest rates to almost 30% on customers who pay their bills on time.[...]
Many banks have scrambled to get ahead of the new rules by jacking up interest rates or converting fixed-rate cards to variable-rate plastic. Many also have slashed cardholders’ credit limits or changed contract terms.

In August, Citi introduced an annual fee for some cards that hadn’t carried such fees in the past. Cardholders were notified that they could pay as much as $90 a year unless they use their plastic for at least $2,400 in purchases.

Samuel Wang, a Citi spokesman, declined to comment on details of the new fee. He said only that “a small number of Citi customers were notified in August of changes to their card agreement which included an annual fee.”

For its part, Bank of America says it will soon start experimenting with annual credit card fees ranging from $29 to $99.

More reading:
Big banks aim fees at those who avoid debt, pay bills on time
Credit Cards To Charge Good Behavior Fees
New Credit Card Fees: Will You Be Charged For Good Credit Habits?

CALLED IT.

From “Nintendo Slashes Wii Price $50“:

Nintendo has cut the price of the Wii — the world’s most popular gaming system — slashing $50 off the cost of the system. The move follows the recent price cuts Microsoft made to its Xbox 360 Elite and Sony to its PlayStation 3.
Since its introduction in November 2006, the Nintendo Wii has been priced at $250. The 20 percent price drop means the bare-bones system is now available for $199.99. The new price will take effect Sunday, Sept. 27, according to a Nintendo statement released this morning.

More articles:
Wii price drop confirmed: $199 starting this weekend
Nintendo announces Wii price Cut - apparently only in USA and Japan. Sorry, UK, but rumors are circulating about a bundle instead of a price cut.

How’s the PS3 doing?

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From “Why capitalism fails”:

But if Minsky was as right as he seems to have been, the news is not exactly encouraging. He believed in capitalism, but also believed it had almost a genetic weakness. Modern finance, he

argued, was far from the stabilizing force that mainstream economics portrayed: rather, it was a system that created the illusion of stability while simultaneously creating the conditions for an inevitable and dramatic collapse.

In other words, the one person who foresaw the crisis also believed that our whole financial system contains the seeds of its own destruction. “Instability,” he wrote, “is an inherent and inescapable flaw of capitalism.”

Minsky’s vision might have been dark, but he was not a fatalist; he believed it was possible to craft policies that could blunt the collateral damage caused by financial crises. But with a growing number of economists eager to declare the recession over, and the crisis itself apparently behind us, these policies may prove as discomforting as the theories that prompted them in the first place. Indeed, as economists re-embrace Minsky’s prophetic insights, it is far from clear that they’re ready to reckon with the full implications of what he saw.

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From “It’s up to Congress to extend homebuyer credit“:

The program has succeeded in what its designers intended; home sales have perked up noticeably since the credit was enacted. But it remains to be seen whether the tax credit was enough to stop the downward spiral in the housing market. The ongoing rise in foreclosures doesn’t bode well.

There is also strong opposition to extending the credit from members of Congress who are worried about the cost. With the federal budget deficit exploding, these folks are rightly concerned about the impact of piling more borrowing on the national debt. Even if the program ends at the end of November, the cost could hit an estimated $15 billion, which is more than double what its supporters projected when it was passed in February as part of the economic stimulus package.

So it’s entirely possible we’ll see an extension, but no one knows. No one can know. One thing you can be sure of is that your pushy real estate agent is clearly much more interested in locking up a commission than in helping you make the decision that’s right for you.

Maybe there’s hope for me yet.

You may have remembered a couple of blogs I wrote a while ago about “Corpware.”

I’ll be honest, I’ve been in the middle of writing a third and final post to wrap it up but it’s been left on the backburner for a while. An article just popped up that is sparking my interest again.

Rather than go all out like my other Corpware blog series, I’ll post real quick about this gem:

From “Activision: if we can’t run a game into the ground, we don’t want it“:

On a conference call, Activision Blizzard CEO was pretty open about his thought process. Unless he can beat a horse into tatters, he doesn’t want to ride it. MTV Multiplayer has the story:

Kotick responded not by addressing any of the games by name, but by talking about Activision’s publishing philosophy. The games Activision Blizzard didn’t pick up, he said, “don’t have the potential to be exploited every year on every platform with clear sequel potential and have the potential to become $100 million franchises. … I think, generally, our strategy has been to focus… on the products that have those attributes and characteristics, the products that we know [that] if we release them today, we’ll be working on them 10 years from now.”

So let’s say you have a great game with huge potential. Unless Kotick can release a Wii and DS port and then create a sequel every year, he just doesn’t care. That sounds like a recipe for success, don’t you think?

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