Cited: CNN

AT&T announced earlier this week that they would be raising rates on data service to their customers that use SmartPhones. The higher rates will go into effect next week but will only be charged to new customers. Their existing customers will still be charged the same rates on the contracts they originally signed. The increases represent a fairly hefty hike in some instances with the cost of the lowest AT&T package rising to $20 per month, an increase of 33%. For its part, AT&T is trying to cushion the blow by telling its new clients that they will be getting up to 300 megabytes per month versus 200 megabytes now offered under this plan.

Other AT&T plans will also cost more with their higher level service rising by 20% to $30 per month. Analyst say that the timing of the rate hikes comes on the back of rumors that Apple will soon introduce the iPad3 with AT&T wanting to get in front of the launch with higher rates. These same analysts also believe that the move by AT&T is risky and that many of its clients will look to other service providers instead of paying the higher rates. In particular they note that AT&T could stand to lose significant market share to Verizon because of their 4G service.

However, other analysts are quick to point out that all of the service providers have increased prices before especially as usage and demands on the system have been stressed to the limits and customers haven’t walked away from any of them in significant numbers. With more and more devises requiring more bandwidth, customers are likely to pay the higher fees or find a plan tailored to their needs, which AT&T is confident they will have for them.

My take:

Its not like there are a lot of choices just yet to provide the service needed by these phones. After all, you can find an inexpensive cell phone company, but not one that can do all that these SmartPhones require. The bottom line is that people will pay for what they need until they decide they don’t need it anymore.

Cited: MSNBC

You can find almost any kind of entertainment you can think of in Las Vegas, with the adult variety being fairly commonplace. It is indeed a grownup Disneyland with everything and anything to help the 18 and over crowd get away from it all and get into it all. And now, part of that entertainment package includes something that you might not consider trying on vacation, operating heavy machinery. With the recession still griping the Las Vegas Strip you can’t help but notice all of the idle construction sites lining the otherwise glistening stretch of dessert roadway. On these construction sites you’ll find idle machinery of all types with funding for the projects drying faster than a puddle in August and the equipment left to bake in the sun; until recently that is.

One savvy business owner looked at the equipment lounging in the sun and realized that here was a way to make some money and put the equipment to work at the same time – let tourists pay to operate the bulldozers, front loaders, cranes, and dump trucks. For a price now you can play with these trucks in your own sandbox and see what it feels like to operate the big rigs. The cost?  Well that also comes with a Las Vegas price tag of $750.

One ten minute lesson in the classroom and guidance from trainers and operators through a headset and you are Fred Flintstone moving boulders and pushing sand. The company behind the idea is called “Dig This” and is the brain-child of its founderr, Ed Mumm, who came up with the idea after renting some heavy equipment to work on his home. He had such a good time playing with the big rigs that he figured that other people would definitely like it too.

Mumm and his staff are the biggest new novelty on the Strip and not surprising to Mumm, the ladies are almost as interested in operating the machinery as the men.

My take:

Fantastic idea. From the time you’re a little kid you play with trucks in the yard or in a sandbox all the time imagining that you are a construction guy. I bet that a lot of people that have the money will pay for a chance to operate a big machine in a big kids sandbox.

Cited: CNN

Walmart knows a good thing when they see it. And the good thing they see right now is the American Idol reality show model and how it can be used to market their brand while finding the next big thing to put on their shelves. Walmart is the king of retailers but that doesn’t mean that they are going to sit on their lofty laurels and wait for business to come to them. Taking a page out of American Idol, the mega-retailer announced plans today to sponsor an online contest on its Web site for any small business that would like to see their product sold on Wallmart shelves. The contest is being dubbed, “Get on the shelf.”

News about the Walmart contest has been leaking into the retail market supply chain since the end of 2011 and even though the official announcement has just been made, Walmart says that they already have 60 product submissions.  Product videos must be submitted by February 22. Voting for the top 10 finalists will take place between March 7 and April 4, with the final vote for the winners happening between April 11 and April 24.

My take:

Sounds like an incredibly smart idea. I bet Walmart gives a huge bonus to whoever in their marketing department dreamed this one up. Well, it is Walmart, so they’ll probably just get a modest bonus but, nonetheless this is a great idea. I’ll be interested to see just how many people actually vote to gauge the popularity of this marketing strategy.

Cited: CNN

Among the many hotly contested questions being debated by the Republican candidates for the presidency is whether or not convicted felons should have the right to vote. When the question was posed to the panel of GOP candidates this past Monday at the South Carolina debate Rick Santorum, former senator from Pennsylvania, said that he believes that ex-cons should have the right to vote after having finished their sentences. Noting that not having the right to vote disproportionately effects the black community, Santorum also went further to say that the disenfranchisement of the convicted felons was a much larger problem than anything that could follow from giving them the right to vote.

Front-runner Mitt Romney on the other hand doesn’t think that felons should ever have the right to vote, or at least those that have committed violent crimes. Voter’s rights advocacy groups say that with over 2.3 million people in jail, the topic of the rights of these inmates to vote at some point after they have served their sentences is bound to come up at more than just a debate. Presently, convicts are restricted from voting or granted the right to vote on a state by state basis with Kentucky, Iowa, Florida, and Virginia banning convicts from voting for life. However, there is an appeals process that an ex-con can use to have his or her voting rights restored.

Voter’s right’s groups point to several extremely close elections in some local and national races where every vote counted could sway the outcome of the elections. With a majority of those incarcerated coming from minority communities the question of ex-felons right to vote can be a polarizing issue with the obvious battle lines drawn between Republicans against, since they stand to gain little by having more minorities at the voting booth, and Democrats in favor of giving ex-cons the right to vote in the hopes that they will attract these votes in their races. Rick Santorum, Republican, is an obvious exception.

My take:

I guess if they have paid the penalty for their crimes, cons should be given the right to vote. The other way to look at it is that based on their crimes they have already displayed a complete lack of concern, knowledge, or care for the rule of law, so why should they be allowed to choose those who make the laws? Not an easy question.

Cited: CNN

For all the money that people spend on fad diets, diet pills, exercise regimes, gym fees, and exercise equipment and gadgets you’d think that some good news on obesity would follow the money trail. You would think. But the connection between caring about your weight, spending on weight loss products, and actually shedding pounds isn’t quite the straight line that many would have us believe. While the number of obese people nationwide seems to have leveled-off, it hasn’t declined either with 37% of all American adults being obese and 17% of all children and teens also among the corpulent.

One noteworthy fact coming out of the recent report is that the number of men who are obese is catching up with the number of woman who are obese at a time when the overall number of fatties seems to be at a plateau. The study conducted using data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey found that obesity is a bigger problem in minority communities, and is more common in teenage boys than teenage girls.

Dr. Montgomery Rice, one of the researchers conducting the study says that the results are okay, but they won’t be good until we start to see  the number of obese adults and kids start to decline. Dr. Rice attributes some of the positive news in the survey to nationwide efforts to educate everyone about the importance of daily exercise, a healthy diet, as well as getting this message into American schools. She also notes that the job of getting our country in shape has just begun and that physicians need to work very closely with their overweight patients to give them reasonable weight-loss goals and to help them achieve these goals.

My take:

Its no wonder that so many people are overweight when you see the lines of people stretching out of McDonald’s,  Burger King, KFC, and other fast-food establishments. If people would simply learn how to shop, and cook simple meals it would do a wonder for their overall health, their weight and their pocketbook.

Cited: CNN

US equity prices hit six-month highs in trading today on the back of the IMF plan to increase it’s Euro-zone bailout package, earnings news from financial giant Goldman Sachs, and a positive report about the U.S. housing market. At last check the DJIA was up about 97 points or nearly 1% while similar gains were also seen in the S&P 500 and the NASDAQ.

The IMF reported that it will raise up to $500 billion in additional bailout funds for the Euro-zone on top of the $200 billion already announced by euro governments at the end of last year. The euro also gained ground vs. other major currencies following the news out of the IMF, rising to $1.28 vs. the greenback. However, no one is declaring the war against excessive government debt in some European countries over, not by a long shot with most economists and industry analysts still keeping a keen eye on Greece.

On the domestic front, Goldman Sachs came out with its fourth quarter earnings report, which showed that the investment banking giant earned over $1 billion for the quarter. The profitable quarter followed a loss in Q3 and was attributed to some belt tightening around the Brooks Brothers suits populating the firm. Reduced salaries, bonuses, and a 7% cut in staff helped profits while an emphasis on keeping operating costs under control also kept Goldman’s books in the black for Q4.

And on the housing front, the National Association of Home Builders announced that their housing market index jumped to a four year high of 25 in January, from 21 in December. The index is a measure of home builder’s confidence, which has been trending higher and as such helping to boost the U.S markets.

My take:

Good news for the economy would be more people being hired back to work. Even though the employment picture has been getting a little better of late, the rosy scenario on Wall Street won’t make it into Main St. until more working men and women are actually back to work.

Cited: MSNBC

With such an emphasis these days on making sure that our children get the best education possible, especially in math and science, other subjects can often be overlooked and usually at the expense of the kids. During the late 1980′s and into the 1990′s business schools and business degrees were all the rage as students and their parents saw the $$$ that these particular sheepskins would fetch in a job on Wall St. In the aftermath, teaching professionals noticed an incredible drop-off in college students’ basic writing skills as well as their knowledge of history and world affairs.

Once again University presidents are concerned that the emphasis on STEM subjects, science, technology, engineering, and math, will divert students’ attention from other critically important subjects that fly under the heading of general studies. Today in Florida the presidents of the eleven public universities in the state spoke at the House Education Committee hearing to discuss this topic and to voice their concern that their students get a well-rounded education. University of Central Florida President John Hitt noted that while his school has always emphasised STEM courses, the result being a very well-respected engineering program, he also says that many graduates of these programs lack writing skills, the capacity for problem solving and critical thinking, all areas which can easily be mastered if some liberal arts courses are incorporated into their overall coursework.

The competition for higher paying jobs at prestigious firms can sometimes cloud the education picture and gloss-over the need for basic, general studies courses in high tech curriculum, and in doing so these graduates can be at a loss as they move ahead in their careers.

My take:

Its always a matter of chasing the next best thing I guess. However, given the cost of a college education there must be room somewhere to make sure that even engineering students can write a paragraph, or a speech, or perhaps lend some historical perspective to whatever project they are working on in the lab.

Cited: CNN

Republican Presidential Candidate Newt Gingrich came full circle today in addressing a foreign policy forum in South Carolina when he told the group that he advocates a return to the gold standard. If nothing else, the former Speaker of the House at the very least wants to look into it, a position that he has espoused while Speaker and at various points in his public life. The only only other Republican candidate to advocate a return to the gold standard is Ron Paul, whose views on foreign policy and financial matters are often found dangling along the fringe of reality.

The United States went off the gold standard for good in 1971. Prior to this, the dollar was backed by the gold reserves held by the U.S. Since that point, the value of the dollar floats on the world’s currency markets, no longer pegged to the value of gold. Former Speaker Gingrich would like to form a commission similar to that formed by Ronald Reagan to look into the possibility of returning to what Gingrich calls hard money. One of the many problems with a return to the gold standard is that the price of U.S. goods overseas can and will fluctuate wildly, putting many U.S. businesses at risk of losing their share of foreign markets.

Gingrich also used today’s speaking engagement to criticize the Federal Reserve Bank. He has often said that the U.S central bank should return to its sole duty of keeping prices under control, monetary policy, and refrain from getting involved with fiscal concerns such as economic growth, and job creation; as though the central bank could operate without considering both aspects of the economy or that they are not intricately related and virtually inseparable  from a policy prospective.

My take:

Newt will say anything that his audience wants to hear so when it comes to conservative Republicans in South Carolina and you want their votes you vilify the Fed, Planned Parenthood, the ACLU, and you advocate a return to the gold standard, prayer in schools, and church on Sunday….or else.