AdSense for Games
Posted Wednesday, October 8, 2008 - 1:36pm
After more than a year of anticipation, Google has unveiled AdSense for Games, its new service to sell text, display, or video ads in web-based computer games. Under the new program, game developers that can boast 500,000 game plays every day can now partner with Google, place ads in and around the game play, and split the revenue with the search giant.
Soup Wars!
By Dan Mitchell
Posted Wednesday, October 8, 2008 - 1:18pm
John McCain and Sarah Palin may be less certain of this truism lately, but negative campaigning sometimes works.
In response to Campbell Soup's ad campaign mocking rival Progresso for using MSG in some of its soups, Progresso owner General Mills announced on Wednesday that it no longer will include the ingredient in any of its 80 soup varieties.
By Mark Gimein
Posted Wednesday, October 8, 2008 - 9:20am
Of all the financial crashes in history, what makes 2008's mortgage-credit-stock collapse unique is that so many people saw it coming. The people who predicted it were by no means marginal. The gallery of doomsayers included everyone from widely followed economist Nouriel Roubini to Stephen Roach, the chairman of Morgan Stanley Asia.
Bubble Economics 101
Posted Tuesday, October 7, 2008 - 1:53pm
For weeks, politicians and journalists have struggled to explain the “credit crisis”—a phrase that has decayed into a meaningless neologism. Metaphors like Henry Paulson’s “[the] American economy's arteries, our financial system, is clogged” don’t help matters. It still doesn’t explain what the heart attack would feel like or what damage the credit markets can inflict. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s budget disaster provides a teachable moment.
Posted Sunday, October 5, 2008 - 4:31pm
"The fundamentals of our economy are strong."
—Sen. John McCain, Sept. 14, 2008
Back in the Reagan days, Republicans talked economics. We had problems; they had solutions. Tight money would cure inflation. Low taxes would stimulate saving and hard work. Small government would "crowd in" investment; free trade would make us efficient. Smart people believed this, and they had Milton Friedman to back them up. I never thought they were right—but they were serious. They were coherent. And they argued with passion and conviction, which commanded respect.
Strange Brew Merger
By Dan Mitchell
Posted Friday, October 3, 2008 - 3:36pm
Given the credit crisis, InBev's acquisition of Anheuser-Busch might be one of the last huge mergers for a while. The deal has solid financing behind it—highly unusual in the current climate—and debt isn't likely to be a big problem for the combined companies.
But that doesn't mean things will be easy. As the companies work to make their huge and disparate operations work together, they are facing increasing costs and softening demand in key markets.
Posted Friday, October 3, 2008 - 12:32pm
It's been 14 days since Henry Paulson injected the mega-bailout into all of our lives. Fourteen days since he lumbered on stage at the Treasury Department to propose a rescue plan of hundreds of billions of dollars. Fourteen days since the presidential race was thrown upside down. Fourteen days since the country started explicitly living under a threat of a total credit drought. Fourteen days since the country saw its elected leaders promise salvation, fail to deliver, and promise it all over again.
