Something Ventured

A documentary film on the history of the venture capital business - Something Ventured -  is in post-production. You can view a clip here.

Best of the Web Mick Weinstein on 21 Dec 2010

The minimum wage machine

From artist Blake Fall-Conroy: The minimum wage machine allows anybody to work for minimum wage. Turning the crank will yield one penny every 5.04 seconds, for $7.15 an hour (NY state minimum wage). If the participant stops turning the crank, they stop receiving money.

Best of the Web Mick Weinstein on 20 Dec 2010

The Economics of Seinfeld

Watch reruns... and learn! Three academics created a site that contains over 100 Seinfeld clips that illustrate principles of the dismal science. As they see it: It is the simplicity of Seinfeld that makes it so appropriate for use in economics courses. Using these clips...  makes economic concepts come alive, making them more real for ... read more

Best of the Web Mick Weinstein on 20 Dec 2010

Timely! A WikiLeaks of secret deals

Groupon shmoupon. Wired's latest issue features a piece on ninja online bargain shoppers who show just how far traditional coupon snipping has come. There's a woman who drives away from a food shopping trip with $80 worth of groceries and and a payment from the store - "“I actually made money on this trip" - ... read more

Best of the Web Mick Weinstein on 20 Dec 2010

In tough economy, Santas are also suffering

Tim Price is right: "The real takeaway here is that "the Amalgamated Order of Real Bearded Santas is a thing that exists." Not only that, but they have a website, and some photos to share:

Best of the Web Mick Weinstein on 20 Dec 2010

This year's Green Monday will be huge for e-commerce

Ebay coined the term Green Monday to refer to its best sales day in December, which is usually the second Monday of the month. The term has come to be used generally in e-commerce circles to describe that traditionally heavy online shopping day. As described in this BuySight infographic based on ComScore data, this year's ... read more

Best of the Web Mick Weinstein on 20 Dec 2010

Netflix CEO Reed Hastings to hedge fund manager Whitney Tilson: Cover Your NFLX Short. Now.

An unusual and rather classy response from a company executive to a shortseller of his stock. Interesting that Hastings chose Seeking Alpha to publish his response - it's a nice exclusive for my former employer. The money quote from Hastings: I have to agree with my friend Whitney that there are many risks ahead for ... read more

Best of the Web Mick Weinstein on 20 Dec 2010

Meredith Whitney on 60 Minutes: Expect 50+ muni bond defaults in 2011

Best of the Web Mick Weinstein on 20 Dec 2010

U.S. homes lose another $1.7 trillion in value in 2010

The latest data from Zillow indicate that American homes will have lost more value by the end of this year than they did in 2009 - down a total of $1.7 trillion in 2010 vs. a $1 trillion decline a year ago. Richard Florida produced a helpful chart of the 2010 decline by region (click ... read more

Best of the Web Mick Weinstein on 20 Dec 2010

Gold dispensing ATM debuts in South Florida

"Two grams, which that means (sic) it costs over a hundred dollars... People love it!" Sigh... The AP reporter only says the pricing is "based on market value." Wouldn't you think she'd actually, you know, take a look at that market value? Let's see, if they're selling 10 grams for $482 in the video, that means ... read more

Best of the Web Mick Weinstein on 19 Dec 2010