This starts to scratch the itch...

...but I think the problems with the bailout may run deeper. Demand
for vehicles in the US has been artificially inflated for years by
easy credit. I think it's logical to assume those days of easy credit
are gone for the foreseeable future.

With demand reduced and unlikely to grow, money spent to artificially
prop up supply seems pretty damn stupid. Does that mean the next step
is federal dollars committed to building make-believe demand as well?

I think the ugly truth is that we're dumping money into a system that
is tying down labor and capital more than it is aiding the economy. At
this point, the only benefit in dragging out all three companies seems
to be that we are delaying their collapse until a time when perhaps it
won't be so devastating to an already reeling economy.

Crazy like a fox?

Apple's iPhone Is Launched In France, Via Vietnam -- iPhone -- InformationWeek

Steve Jobs has taken a lot of heat for releasing Apple's iPhone in Europe without 3G. Crazy, right? I'm not so sure. The hype surrounding the phone has allowed Apple to broker arrangements that might otherwise be considered unheard of:

The iPhone operates on Edge data networks, which are slow, so the availability of Wi-fi which the phone also can use for Internet access, is important to users. France Telecom's embrace of the iPhone would seem to be a marriage made in heaven, because the service provider has more than 2,000 paid Wi-Fi hotspots in Paris alone. In addition there are several hundred more Wi-Fi hotspots -- many of them offered by the city for free. France Telecom and the city of Paris have been squabbling over the free sites.

At the iPhone's unveiling in Berlin, exclusive German provider Deutsche Telekom's T-Mobile trumpeted its 8,500-plus Wi-Fi hotspots. In the U.K, Wi-Fi is needed even more as exclusive iPhone service provider O2 can cover just an estimated 30 % of the U.K. population. Apple and O2 have forged an arrangement with Wi-Fi provider the Cloud for iPhone subscribers to use its 7,500 U.K. hotspots.

Can you imagine any of those mobile companies agreeing independently to allow that sort of access to wifi networks? Apple is changing the game even more than it first appears by forcing these two very separate business lines (mobile plus wifi providers) together - and passing that combination on to the customer with a product that will provide longer battery life - and generally faster connections (because of the wifi deals) than any of its rivals - with a better form factor.

What would Apple truly have gained by moving down the 3G route at this time? It appears to me they've scored a coup that benefits both Apple and the consumers. Now if only T-Mobile had reached a deal with Apple in the US...all those hot spots!

How long will it last?

This article in the IHT leads me to wonder...how long will China's image of the "anti-hegemon" last within the world in general and the Third World in particular? How long until the tables begin to turn and nations tire of the caveats, requirements, and coalitions required to enjoy Chinese largesse?

Yet Chinese support does come with conditions, including a ban on formal ties with rival Taiwan and expectations that recipients vote with China at the United Nations. This month, South Africa joined Beijing in voting against a resolution to censure Myanmar for human rights abuses, arousing criticism that South Africa had forgotten the United Nation's role in abolishing apartheid.

In much of the world, anti-globalization is synonomous (currently) with anti-Americanism - since we are generally seen to be the strongest cultural force advancing within its context. But in economic terms, it is China that gains the most from globalization - and China that does so at the expense of developing countries since it's labor pool directly competes with that of many smaller countries.

In South Africa, where trade unions have complained that Chinese textile imports have been devastating domestic industry, President Thabo Mbeki pointedly told a student audience last month that Africa needed to guard against allowing relations with China to develop into a "colonial relationship."