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Strategies & Market Trends : The Epic American Credit and Bond Bubble Laboratory -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: russwinter who wrote (58554)	4/18/2006 12:54:28 PM
From: C.N.S.	Respond to of 110194

Do you have a link for the source, Russ ?

To: russwinter who wrote (58554)	4/18/2006 4:19:30 PM
From: patron_anejo_por_favor	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 110194

It's especially strange given the MBA numbers through the last quarter were negative (or flat at best). They must be picking up market share through some kind of weird incentivizing.....

To: russwinter who wrote (58554)	4/18/2006 4:56:44 PM
From: shades	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 110194

China finds place to park dollars What do you think Russ - if they didn't pirate all that software, dvd's, etc etc - that could soak up a lot of thier dollars eh? Hubbard was just on CNBC saying the president was happy Jintao said they would start buying software and enforcing IP laws. How does HU get his 1.4 billion to be honest on the great pirate ship? I don't see it. My seattle friends say VISTA gonna make MSFT a fortune in china and here - the money will just roll in. I dont really see what Vista is going to do for me as a stock trader, deathmatch game player, or SI poster - do you? informationweek.com Chinese Piracy Law Helps Windows; Gates Hosts Chinese President A new Chinese law mandates all computers sold in China must have paid and preinstalled operating systems. In related news, Chinese President Hu Jintao visits Microsoft this week. By K.C. Jones TechWeb.com Apr 17, 2006 03:16 PM The Chinese government recently passed an operating system mandate to cut down on software piracy. The government is requiring that all computer sellers include paid and pre-installed operating systems with purchases, according to Chinese media. Most news reports attributed the information to Microsoft Corp Vice President Pamela Passman who granted interviews as Chinese President Hu Jintao prepared to visit the United States this week, including a visit with Bill Gates' at the Microsoft chairman's home near Microsoft headquarters in Washington state. One of the China's largest computer manufacturers signed an agreement to sell all of its computers with Microsoft Windows operating systems, according to the People's Daily Online. Blogger and technology writer Aalaap Ghag is already asking: "Will the assembler have to buy paid versions of Linux?" Chinese media reports about the new law fail to mention the free, open source operating system, which has been popular there. According to Chinese media, so-called "naked" computers usually end up running on pirated versions of Windows. Chinese government workers are leading the way in the effort to reduce intellectual property theft by requiring that their computers come with the software and certificates of proof.

To: russwinter who wrote (58554)	4/18/2006 5:45:13 PM
From: shades	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 110194

Shapiro says Pirating killing USA nationalreview.com Listening to the American political conversation recently, one would conclude that the foremost threats to the U.S. economy are the purchase by foreigners of our “critical infrastructure” and an insufficient supply of unskilled labor to pick our lettuce. These two nonissues have been part of the red-hot debates over the (since jettisoned) Dubai ports deal and illegal immigration. As is so often the case, where there is heat in American politics, there is no light, and if you want to discover a truly important issue, it is often necessary to look to one that is relatively neglected — like the protection of intellectual property. The American economy is not built on denying foreigners investment opportunities nor on importing stoop labor, but on the ideas and creations of our minds and imaginations. Foreign countries go about systematically stealing those immensely valuable intellectual products, and the Bush administration has done very little to try to stop them. With this week’s visit to Washington of Hu Jintao — president of the kingdom of intellectual piracy otherwise known as China — the protection of intellectual property should move closer to the prominence it deserves. Hu should be held to account for the low thievery that is a routine part of the Chinese economy. In an eye-opening study, American Enterprise Institute economist Kevin Hassett and former Clinton administration economist Robert Shapiro document the importance of ideas to our economy. “We estimate,” they write, “that U.S. intellectual property today is worth between $5 trillion and $5.5 trillion — greater than the gross domestic product of any other nation in the world.” Nearly 10 percent of U.S. GDP is accounted for by copyright industries like music, publishing and software, together with patent-intensive industries like computers and pharmaceuticals. Innovation — in other words, new ideas — is the key driver of the American economy, creating “an estimated 30 to 40 percent of the gains in productivity and growth achieved during the 20th century,” according to Hassett and Shapiro. As Shapiro says, innovation and creativity represents the comparative advantage of the U.S. economy — it is what we do better than anyone else. And it is ripped off, especially in Asia and Latin America. China is a leader: 85 percent of recordings there are pirated; 50 percent of certain drugs are counterfeit; government computers have been known to run on stolen software. The Organization for Economic Development reports that companies around the world lose more than $600 billion a year to piracy, “losses greater than the total GDP of all but 12 countries,” Hassett and Shapiro note. The cost to the U.S. of counterfeiting alone was $56 billion in 2004. If something tangible were being robbed from us — say, our airplanes or oil deposits — there would be national outrage. Since it is intangible assets, there is a national yawn. The Bush administration has been notably uninterested (perhaps understandably — it has had other things on its plate). Between 1996 and 2000, the U.S. filed 15 intellectual-property cases with the World Trade Organization. Since 2001, it has filed just two, and one of them was filed recently and perhaps under pressure to be more active on this front. The Chinese are beginning to make better sounds. But assurances are cheap. Every major city in China has markets openly selling pirated CDs, DVDs and computer software. Surely if President Hu’s government can hunt down people for doing Falun Gong breathing exercises, it can crack down on these markets. We shouldn’t believe anything the Chinese say about this issue until they come up with a serious plan to reduce their theft and comply with the intellectual-property protections set out by the World Trade Organization. The U.S. can’t compete with many countries around the world when it comes to cheap labor and real estate, or sometimes even when it comes to low taxes. What we can still do is out-innovate, -think and -imagine anyone else. We should be protecting that ability like the priceless resource that it is.