Bret Taylor

"The government’s plan to prop up banks large and small — along with recent bailouts as well as guarantees to support business loans, money markets and bank lending — represents the most sweeping government moves into the nation’s financial markets since the Great Depression, and perhaps ever, according to economists and finance experts... The package does call for the government investments to be in three-year securities that the banks can repay at any time, when markets settle and conditions improve. “This is clearly a crisis measure in crisis times, but it’s a good thing there is a sunset provision that limits the length of the government’s investment,” said Richard Sylla, an economist and financial historian at the Stern School of Business at New York University." - Bret Taylor via Bookmarklet

Thanks to Ross (my cousin, FriendFeed intern) and Robert Scoble for being the sources for my analysis (little did they know!). My talk focused on the signals we are looking at to create better automatic filtering and ranking interfaces for FriendFeed. (Emily is Ross's sister by the way, if you are wondering why he likes her entries so much.) - Bret Taylor

Bret: will do! - Robert Scoble

Thanks for taking the time to talk to us afterwards. Sent you an e-mail about Wakoopa integration, let me know! - Robert Gaal

"In the last few years, newspaper companies have been rapidly expanding their Web presence — adding blogs, photo slide shows and podcasts — in the belief that more features would bring more advertisers. But now, after 17 quarters of ballooning growth, online revenue at newspaper sites is falling. In the second quarter, it was down 2.4 percent compared with last year, to $777 million, according to the Newspaper Association of America. It was the only year-over-year drop since the group began measuring online revenue in 2003. Overall online advertising, however, is strong. Display advertising, the graphics-rich ads that newspaper sites carry, grew 7.6 percent in the second quarter, TNS Media Intelligence reported." - Bret Taylor via Bookmarklet

ad network landscape, trends & outlook Q2 report by rubicon. http://rubiconproject.com/prod... - Lu Tao

It's good to see that some newspapers are starting to discover that making advertising scarce is key to creating value. - Josh

"In his majority opinion, Justice Richard N. Palmer wrote that the court found that the “segregation of heterosexual and homosexual couples into separate institutions constitutes a cognizable harm,” in light of “the history of pernicious discrimination faced by gay men and lesbians, and because the institution of marriage carries with it a status and significance that the newly created classification of civil unions does not embody.” The court also found that “the state had failed to provide sufficient justification for excluding same-sex couples from the institution of marriage.” In 2005, the Connecticut Legislature passed civil union legislation, but the eight gay and lesbian couples who were plaintiffs in the case argued that the civil union law had created an unequal status for gay men and lesbians and did not confer upon them the same rights and protections as marriage." - Bret Taylor via Bookmarklet

Great news! - Grant Gochnauer

"“They protected against car bombs and drive-by attacks,” said Adnan, 39, a vegetable seller in the once violent neighborhood of Dora, who argues that the walls now block the markets and the commerce that Baghdad needs to thrive. “Now it is safe.” The slow dismantling of the concrete walls is the most visible sign of a fundamental change here in the Iraqi capital. The American surge strategy, which increased the number of United States troops and contributed to stability here, is drawing to a close. And a transition is under way to the almost inevitable American drawdown in 2009." - Bret Taylor via Bookmarklet

great to hear thngs are working there - Jonathan Jesse

that's fucking awesome. Congrats to anyone in the military over there reading ff :). - Michael

"The British and American plans, though far from identical, have two common elements according to officials: injection of government money into banks in return for ownership stakes and guarantees of repayment for various types of loans." - Bret Taylor via Bookmarklet

Don't forget about McCain's plan to buy up subprime mortgages from insolvent lenders at full face value with taxpayer money. - Jim Norris

"George Soros, the prominent financier, avoids using the financial contracts known as derivatives “because we don’t really understand how they work.” Felix G. Rohatyn, the investment banker who saved New York from financial catastrophe in the 1970s, described derivatives as potential “hydrogen bombs.” And Warren E. Buffett presciently observed five years ago that derivatives were “financial weapons of mass destruction, carrying dangers that, while now latent, are potentially lethal.” One prominent financial figure, however, has long thought otherwise. And his views held the greatest sway in debates about the regulation and use of derivatives — exotic contracts that promised to protect investors from losses, thereby stimulating riskier practices that led to the financial crisis. For more than a decade, the former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan has fiercely objected whenever derivatives have come under scrutiny in Congress or on Wall Street." - Bret Taylor via Bookmarklet

more evidence that *many* folks knew all along how this would all turn out. - MikeAmundsen

Very interesting article... I actually managed to get through the whole thing. What was a bit stunning for me is that Greenspan is blaming greed and dis-honesty / lack of integrity in wall-street for the crisis! For a leading economist, he must know these is just basic human-nature in action. What did he expect! - Bindu Reddy

Yeah, the Greenspan/Giuliani/McCain "get rid of the few bad apples" approach doesn't seem to apply well here. - Jim Norris

"Tens of thousands of eligible voters in at least six swing states have been removed from the rolls or have been blocked from registering in ways that appear to violate federal law, according to a review of state records and Social Security data by The New York Times. The actions do not seem to be coordinated by one party or the other, nor do they appear to be the result of election officials intentionally breaking rules, but are apparently the result of mistakes in the handling of the registrations and voter files as the states tried to comply with a 2002 federal law, intended to overhaul the way elections are run. Still, because Democrats have been more aggressive at registering new voters this year, according to state election officials, any heightened screening of new applications may affect their party’s supporters disproportionately." - Bret Taylor via Bookmarklet

don't forgot the stories on ACORN being investigated in mulitple states for voter fraud. also read a story that the city of Indianopolis has 105% of its people registered to vote. - Jonathan Jesse

30 days before an election is *not* the time to purge voter roles. 'instant registration' and early voting is screwing up our electoral process. - MikeAmundsen

"If you had purchased $1,000 of Delta Air Lines stock one year ago, you would have $49 left. With Fannie Mae, you would have $2.50 left of the original $1,000. With AIG, you would have less than $15 left. But, if you had purchased $1,000 worth of beer one year ago, drunk all of the beer, then turned in the cans for the aluminum recycling REFUND, you would have $214 cash. Based on the above, the best current investment advice is to drink heavily and recycle..."" - Bret Taylor via Bookmarklet

beer & recycling FTW! :) - Susan Beebe

so the meltdown is a solution for the homeless? - Stewart Rogers

"His policy preferences are distinctly liberal, but he is determined to speak to a broad range of Americans who do not necessarily share his every value or opinion. For some who oppose him, his equanimity even under the ugliest attack seems like hauteur; for some who support him, his reluctance to counterattack in the same vein seems like self-defeating detachment. Yet it is Obama’s temperament—and not McCain’s—that seems appropriate for the office both men seek and for the volatile and dangerous era in which we live. Those who dismiss his centeredness as self-centeredness or his composure as indifference are as wrong as those who mistook Eisenhower’s stolidity for denseness or Lincoln’s humor for lack of seriousness." - Bret Taylor via Bookmarklet

"We cannot expect one man to heal every wound, to solve every major crisis of policy. So much of the Presidency, as they say, is a matter of waking up in the morning and trying to drink from a fire hydrant. In the quiet of the Oval Office, the noise of immediate demands can be deafening. And yet Obama has precisely the temperament to shut out the noise when necessary and concentrate on the essential." - Scott Loganbill via twhirl

"Obama’s immersion in diverse human environments (Hawaii’s racial rainbow, Chicago’s racial cauldron, countercultural New York, middle-class Kansas, predominantly Muslim Indonesia), his years of organizing among the poor, his taste of corporate law and his grounding in public-interest and constitutional law—these, too, are experiences. And his books show that he has wrung from them every drop of insight and breadth of perspective they contained." - Rebecca Sun

"The choice between experience and eloquence is a false one––something that Lincoln, out of office after a single term in Congress, proved in his own campaign of political and national renewal. Obama’s “mere” speeches on everything from the economy and foreign affairs to race have been at the center of his campaign and its success; if he wins, his eloquence will be central to his ability to govern." - Keith Pelczarski

"I think we've been tricked by the veneer of lucky people on the top of the heap. We see the folks who manage to skate by, or who get so much more than we think they deserve, and it's easy to forget that: a. these guys are the exceptions and b. there's nothing you can do about it anyway. And that's the key to the paradox of effort: While luck may be more appealing than effort, you don't get to choose luck. Effort, on the other hand, is totally available, all the time." - Bret Taylor via Bookmarklet

good advice. esp. now that the economy is shaky. - MikeAmundsen via fftogo

have you guys seen this Michael Jordan commercial? Somehow your post made me think of this... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v... - leigh himel

Nice work guys. I just removed MyBlogLog and put this in its place. It'd be great to have the option to customize it a bit as it seems my icons wrap around the image if the space is too narrow. But it's good. - Louis Gray

I've been using Evan's widget but it seems to have stopped updating... (see http://www.cosmictap.com) - Anthony Citrano

Anthony: have you tried any of the official widgets? You may have more luck. http://friendfeed.com/embed - Bret Taylor

"The controversial ban clearly had some unintended consequences. It originally applied to 799 companies, but regulators allowed the stock exchanges to add other companies to the lists. By this week, about 190 had been added, including some that might not seem obviously linked to the banking industry, like General Electric, General Motors and CVS Caremark. The list became a source of jokes among traders, who came up with all kinds of conspiracy theories — such as companies rushing out negative earnings revisions as soon as they angled their way onto the list." - Bret Taylor via Bookmarklet

Banning short selling just makes it longer for the market to bottom out. It used to be the market plunge, then the people got around to finding out what happen, and the market recover... Now, the plunging takes longer, people find out what is happening, and nothing gets done because everyone has an expert opinion and the market continues to fall. - Dickson Loh

GE has banks, I just saw a branch in Poland last week. - Michael

248,000 views and climbing ?! - Charlie Anzman

pity you can't vote on these issues they're talking about :-/ just hope that there's a candidate that matches enough of your views. yes, votings good, but it hardly covers these issues independently :-( - immaterial

1,323,315 votes - Matt Cutts

Totally worth watching. - David Sifry

Good message. At times, his delivery me of a professional wrestler. - Daisy

Great, great speech. - Jess Lee

Excellent speech. Makes my heart go warm. I grew up with union activist parents, who kept supporting the steel workers' union until long after they had themselves become entrepreneurs. - Mustafa K. Isik

"While technical and legal hurdles remain, some forward-thinking media executives hope that the ability to connect actions on news sites to social networks will keep visitors on their sites longer and make them more appealing to advertisers." - Bret Taylor via Bookmarklet

A life without Entourage would be a sad place - Traci

Hear! Hear! +1 Traci - April Buchheit

I thought there were 10 kinds of people? Those who understand binary and those who don't. - David Clements

different picture here in Europe, but equally depressing. - Vincent van Wylick

fake, but really quite funny - I am curious to see how the endless cheerleaders of the free market economy will spin this meltdown - Nadine Schaeffer

Perhaps you can read the recent blog post of Prof. Gary Becker: http://www.becker-posner-blog...., it doesn't seem to me what is melting down is a free market economy, given the fact that majority of consumers in the market made their financial decision without fully understanding nor being well informed what it was. Or, in other words, fundamentally it is not free market mechanism that has caused the current problem. - Sophie Yip

"With the credit crisis cutting off access to short-term financing, California has asked the United States government to lend it $7 billion, warning that the state could run out of money in a few weeks without it... Typically, the state gets routine short-term loans in the fall to cover its bases until state coffers refill in the spring from tax revenue and other sources." - Bret Taylor via Bookmarklet

Yikes! - Raymond

i wonder about the claim about 60% of Americans believing in Noah's arc... I've heard reports about the number of evangelical Christians being greatly exaggerated, http://www.onthemedia.org/tran... puts it at 7% - Karl Rosaen

I saw the show and that Bill Maher made some interesting observations. - Bob

"At one point, in 1985, Pixar, losing money fast, was nearly sold to General Motors and Philips Electronics, which wanted its computer-graphics modelling tools to help design cars and transform medical scans into three-dimensional images. Even when Steve Jobs, a co-founder of Apple, came to the rescue, Pixar was still in danger. Its pretence to be a computer company was going badly: sales of the Pixar Image Computer were slow. The only significant way the company was earning money was by making cartoon advertisements to sell other companies' products." - Bret Taylor via Bookmarklet

I'm about halfway through "The Pixar Touch" by David Price and I highly recommend it. Great read. http://www.amazon.com/Pixar-To... - Andrew Smith

On the other hand, I think Wall-E was better than the Dark Knight (which was pretty darn good too) ... Cars is the only one I didn't like, but it was still watchable. - Deepak

"John McCain is pulling out of Michigan, according to two Republicans, a stunning move a month away from Election Day that indicates the difficulty Republicans are having in finding blue states to put in play. McCain will go off TV in Michigan, stop dropping mail there and send most of his staff to more competitive states, including Wisconsin, Ohio and Florida. Wisconsin went for Kerry in 2004, Ohio and Florida for Bush." - Bret Taylor via Bookmarklet

"FriendFeed's turning one! A year ago today, Bret, Jim, Paul and Sanjeev put our site and service out there and invited some folks. Soon, more people joined—as users, coworkers and friends. The rest, as they say, is history. Although not particularly ancient history." - Bret Taylor via Bookmarklet