pkarnig’s posthaven

Arianna Huffington: Sunday Roundup

As satisfying as it was watching Goldman Sachs executives being grilled by the Senate this week (especially Carl Levin's "shitty deal" barrage), the sense of justice being done was tempered by the stench of hypocrisy hovering over the proceedings. After all, of the committee's ten Senators, only Ted Kaufman has not accepted campaign contributions from Goldman. Plus, as truly appalling as Goldman's behavior has been, much -- though certainly not all -- of what Goldman did fell within the rules set up by Congress. The Senators seemed intent on getting Goldman to apologize. But don't our representatives owe us an apology too? For instance, Susan Collins, who berated Goldman execs at the hearing, voted to repeal Glass-Steagall. Have we gotten an apology from her yet? Yes, Goldman should be held accountable; but so should our elected officials.

As long as special interests are free to pay for campaign costs, there will be no level playing field. Big business will always win and the people will lose. This is what is happening in the US today. We no long have a Democracy. It's time to stand up and and take back our country from Big Business.

Read the story that started it all, "The Great American Bubble Machine," and find out why Matt Taibbi called Goldman Sachs "a great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity."

Here's the CliffsNotes version of the scandal: Back in 2007, Harvard-educated hedge-fund whiz John Paulson (no relation to then-Treasury secretary and former Goldman chief Hank Paulson) smartly decided the housing boom was a mirage. So he asked Goldman to put together a multibillion-dollar basket of crappy subprime investments that he could bet against. The bank gladly complied, taking a $15 million fee to do the deal and letting Paulson choose some of the toxic mortgages in the portfolio, which would come to be called Abacus.

This is just one of many examples of how big banks have played the market from both ends and have defrauded their customers. This is why we need new sweeping reform in how our banks and financial institutions are regulated.

Isn't this somewhat ironic given the current sex scandal that is hanging over the catholic church.

The sculpture, created by artist Paul Vella Critien, has been on show in the town of Luqa since 2006. It sits at the entrance to the town, near the planned route for the Pope's visit. It is said to represent a symbol dating back to ancient Egypt.

Critien was unrepentant about the statue, calling his critics "ignorant" and "uneducated."

Others have shown their support for the work of art. A Facebook group called 'Save the Z--- Monument' has been set up, with other 1,300 members at the time of writing.

The groups creator is candid in his support of the monument. "Look: I don't like having a massive erect penis slap bang outside our airport either... but everybody accepted it until the Pope decided to pay us a visit," writes Raphael Vassallo in the group's description.

"If it's good enough for the LIDL [a European supermarket chain] roundabout then it's good enough for Pope Benedict XVI."

Let’s pause and look at trends that have emerged over the last few years: How will they affect the digital newsmedia industry? First, we’ll try and list a few undisputed facts. Then we’ll drift towards conclusions bordering the uncharted territory of predictions. It’s worth the risk.

The web fuel problem. The internet economic engine isn’t firing on all cylinders. For online news, that’s an understatement. The primary source of income, advertising, has proven itself unable to sustain ambitious journalism. There might be exceptions here and there, a few news organizations have found their way to profitability, but they flourish in niche beats. For example, Politico, which covers Washington DC’s arcana — but it relies on hybrid model (web and print).

Others benefits from a powerful mothership such as New York Times Digital’s DealBook on finance: with a 2.5 to 3m unique visitors a month, this eight journalists operation could break even if it were granted a separate P&L. (DealBook also brings intangible but highly valuable status to the NYT in its fight against the Wall Street Journal.) But these are specialized products.

Observers mention the Huffington Post, with its presumed 10m UV/month, as the prototype for a popular internet news success. To me, the HuffPo is not a journalistic product per se. Taking third party content, the HuffPo builds a clever participatory mash-up, with a focus on juicy stuff. The whole thing is staged it in such a way (splashy editing, pictures, headlines) that it triggers loads of prattling — and page views. Fine. But this is not hardcore journalism.

As we speak, a 50-100 people newsroom stands no chance of living by advertising alone.
This state of affairs won’t change anytime soon. Last year, US ad spending fell by 9% and we know the recovery will take a while. As the CEO of Zenith Optimedia (Publicis Group) said last week in Paris: “In terms of revenue, 2012 will be like 2006″. This even though he predicts the money invested on the internet will keep progressing and will end up coinciding with the time people spend online.

That’s fact #1: don’t count on advertising. At least not in full ad-supported mode, not for a while.