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Strategies & Market Trends : Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Crimson Ghost who wrote (18993)	12/19/2004 4:27:57 PM
From: Chispas	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 116555

Quality of U.S. Wireless Networks is Pathetic : .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. Published: Dec 19, 2004 Modified: Dec 19, 2004 6:23 AM U.S. more connected to cord Country uses wireless less than elsewhere; service quality one of the reasons The Associated Press On a trip on the Tokyo subway last year, almost everyone ignored the young man talking on one wireless phone, sending messages with another and juggling a third. Such cell phone overload would almost certainly get noticed in the United States, which lags the rest of the developed world in mobile-phone use. An estimated 57 percent of the U.S. population chats on mobile phones. The proportion is similar to that in much poorer Jamaica, where 54 percent of the people have mobile phones, according to the International Telecommunications Union. By comparison, in Hong Kong there are 105.75 mobile subscribers for every 100 inhabitants. In Taiwan, there are 110. Sprint's $35 billion deal this week to buy Nextel Communications is likely to spark another round of price wars and handset giveaways in the United States, but it will take more than industry consolidation and aggressive marketing to increase use. Why? The reasons range from credit checks to network quality to coverage areas. Wireless networks elsewhere are simply better than those in the United States, said Albert Lin, an analyst at American Technology Research. "For a long time, the U.S. had way too many networks being supported by not enough investment," he said. "The quality of U.S. networks is only now coming close to the quality you would see in major European and Asian markets." Not that the European model was perfect: Companies there paid $125 billion for licenses to operate "third-generation" mobile networks that enable European users to zap videos and data by phone. The result: Mountains of debt, but a chance to sell phones packed with features James Bond would love. That hasn't been the case in the United States. Wireless companies were the No. 2 sector for complaints to Better Business Bureaus in 2003, trailing only car dealers. They were the second-lowest ranked industry in the University of Michigan's customer satisfaction index, behind only cable television companies. One reason American consumers are miffed is what Forrester Research analyst Lisa Pierce calls "big holes in rural coverage." In the area of Tampa, Fla., where she lives, her calls start breaking up one mile south of her home. Her husband uses a different carrier; his calls break up one mile north. Another reason for lower cell phone use in the United States is how service is sold. The largest services sell phones by subscription, requiring a credit check and a commitment of at least one year. "We have tapped out the prime-credit segment in the U.S.," said Roger Entner, a Yankee Group analyst. "Everyone who wants to have a wireless phone and can pass a credit check has one. Everyone who can pass a credit check and doesn't have one -- after ten years of a continuous barrage (of advertising), they're not going to cave." If the industry wants more users, it will have to change its business model to embrace people with weaker credit who are willing to prepay for service, he said. newsobserver.com

To: Crimson Ghost who wrote (18993)	12/19/2004 5:04:27 PM
From: mishedlo	Respond to of 116555

Silver's Three Flags By Hugo Salinas Price La Jornada, Mexico City (Translated from Spanish to English by the author) Saturday, December 11, 2004 Silver as a vehicle for popular savings has turned out to be a very effective flag that has gathered support among the principal Mexican political parties, which in everything else are deeply at odds with one another. This November 30 the 31 governors of all the states that make up the Mexican Republic sent a communiqué to the Ways and Means Committee of the Mexican House of Representatives, expressing their unanimous approval of the monetization of silver and urging the committee to approve a bill which aims to achieve precisely this objective. Some 176 Mexican newspaper writers put their signatures to full-page declarations by the Journalists' Club in the main newspapers of Mexico City, also in support of the monetization of the "Libertad" silver ounce. A permanent organization of ex-legislators also expressed their support for the measure in favor of the monetization of silver. A poll by national TV Azteca revealed that 96 percent of viewers approved of the monetization of the silver ounce. The Bank of Mexico, Mexico's Central Bank, is adamantly opposed to this measure. The bank does not want the public to have the opportunity of saving in monetized silver. It wants to maintain its monopoly on the printing of Mexico's money, which has no intrinsic value and does not want the public to have any alternative for its savings, other than bills or bank deposits. The Bank of Mexico sent a group of 12 men to the meeting of the Ways and Means Committee on November 30 to confuse and cow the committee members and forestall a favorable vote on the bill to monetize silver. We do not know how the committee members will cast their decisive vote when the time comes. But even if their vote is negative, we can predict, from the support given to this reasonable and salutary measure in the interest of Mexico, that the idea of monetizing silver will not die. The idea of using silver as money that cannot be devalued, for savings by the people, is now firmly rooted in the Mexican consciousness. An idea on the march is a force that does not die easily. Suppressed, it will only gather strength. Such is the history of all ideas. But silver flies another and more important flag. In the mid-19th century, when modern Italy had not yet taken shape and Italians were still under the domination of Austria-Hungary, there was sown the idea that Italy should be reborn as a united and self-governed state and that the domination by Austria-Hungary should be ended. Garibaldi came forward as a leader of this resurgence of the Italian fatherland. A young composer, Giuseppe Verdi, composed an opera to symbolize Italy under the heel of Austria-Hungary: "Nabuco" was its name. The Hebrews captured by Nabuco, the Babylonian king, symbolized the Italians under the rule of Austria-Hungary. One hymn of this opera was so moving that it spread like wildfire among the population. It became impossible to frustrate the resurgence of Italy. Verdi's hymn is, to this day, Italy's national anthem. This is silver's second flag: national union, with a consciousness of our own worth, our own culture, and our independence. A national consolidation will take place when we once again take up silver, our ancestral money. But there is another and still greater flag for silver: Silver turned into Mexican money, circulating in parallel with paper money, no matter how small the amount of silver in the nation's economy, means that Mexicans will always remember that silver can actually be used as real, honest money -- and that as the years pass it will always be there, inviting us to use it in the most dangerous and dark times that may come. Silver in circulation will remind us that it is possible for a society to use silver and benefit from the use of real money, honest money. Otherwise, it is possible that we may forget this, as has happened to many nations. When Mexico monetizes silver, it will become a lighthouse of hope for the world, a light that shows the way out of the swamp of slavery and perpetual impoverishment that comes with paper money. Paper money, which is today the only kind of money in the world, ensures economic and therefore political control over the populations that use it. The planet's banking caste that issues paper money and virtual, electronic money, threatens to become the sovereign power through the fictitious money it issues, and aspires to dominate humanity. The result of paper money is the dehumanization of the human race. So this is silver's third and most important flag: the cause of humanity. Silver's flags, therefore, are three: * The flag of people's savings. * The flag of national union. * The flag of the preservation of men against dehumanization. The silver coin as money: an idea that has come alive and will not be suppressed. goldmoney.com