Presidential Debate

In case you didnt see it.

McCain's Genius Pick for Vice President.

Watch CBS Videos Online

When McCain dies if he was elected this is who would run our country. . .

If this isnt motivation to vote I dont know what is.

Tina Fey as Sarah Palin

8.5 Billion

Michael Bloomberg made 8.5 Billion dollars in 12 months.

Lets put this in perspective. HE MADE $1000 EVERY 3.7 SECONDS!!!

XMAS in September

Its my favorite time of year. My copy finally came in the mail. The new FORBES 400 List!!! Whooo. One of my favorite lists to analyze and dig into. Bill Gates is a champion at #1

"The rich haven't gotten richer--or poorer--this year. The price of admission to this, the 27th edition of The Forbes 400, is $1.3 billion for the second year in a row. The assembled net worth of America's wealthiest rose by $30 billion--only 2%--to $1.57 trillion.

Rising prices of oil and art paved the way for 31 new members and eight returnees, while volatile stock and housing markets forced 33 plutocrats from our rankings.

With a net worth of $57 billion, Bill Gates remains the richest man in America despite losing his crown to Warren Buffett for a few months this spring. Buffett's shares in Berkshire Hathaway have fallen 15% since February.

Newcomers to the list include fertilizer tycoon Alexander Rovt, car dealer and art collector Norman Braman and Patrón tequila founder John Paul DeJoria.
Also new: Mark Zuckerberg, the 24-year-old founder of social networking site Facebook, who debuts on The Forbes 400 with an estimated net worth of $1.5 billion.

Among the returnees are Urban Outfitters (nasdaq: URBN - news - people ) chief Richard Hayne and Gap (nyse: GPS - news - people ) founders Donald and Doris Fisher, who rode the swelling contemporary-art market back onto the list. The couple's art collection is believed to be worth more than $1 billion.

The Forbes 400 is a snapshot of estimated wealth on Aug. 29, 2008, the day we locked in prices of publicly traded stocks. Given how unsettled the stock market is, some of those on our list will become significantly richer or poorer within weeks--even days--of publication. Many, including AIG shareholders Eli Broad and Steven Udvar-Hazy, have lost hundreds of millions of dollars.

The average net worth of The Forbes 400 is $3.9 billion.

The biggest loser this year was casino mogul Sheldon Adelson, whose fortune has fallen $13 billion in the past 12 months--$1.5 million per hour--as shares of his Las Vegas Sands (nyse: LVS - news - people ) have dropped 75% from their all-time highs last October.

Fellow casino kingpin Kirk Kerkorian lost $6.8 billion this year as his stock in MGM Mirage (nyse: MGM - news - people ) fell 70% since last fall.

Other tycoons who have lost big bucks this year include Min Kao of global positioning system maker Garmin (nasdaq: GRMN - news - people ) (down $2.9 billion), Google (nasdaq: GOOG - news - people ) guys Sergey Brin and Larry Page (down $2.7 billion and $2.6 billion, respectively), eBay (nasdaq: EBAY - news - people ) founder Pierre Omidyar (down $2.6 billion) and media maven Sumner Redstone (down $2.5 billion).

This year's biggest gainer is New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, whose estimated net worth rose $8.5 billion after he bought back a 20% stake in his financial data and news firm Bloomberg L.P. from Merrill Lynch (nyse: MER - news - people ) this summer, finally putting a price tag on the private media outfit.

Several Forbes 400 veterans fell off the list this year. Among them: former AIG (nyse: AIG - news - people ) head Maurice (Hank) Greenberg and former eBay chief Margaret Whitman.

Two-thirds of the members of The Forbes 400 have fortunes that are entirely self-made, while only 19% of the group inherited their entire fortunes.

There are 42 women on the list with an average net worth of $4.2 billion. Oprah Winfrey saw her wealth increase $200 million to $2.7 billion.

Six members of last year's list died, including potato king John Simplot and building supplies magnate Kenneth Hendricks. He is replaced by his wife, Diane. Other deaths included medical device inventor James Sorenson and Cargill heir John Hugh MacMillan III."-Forbes

W.

Government bails out AIG

"The U.S. government seized control of American International Group Inc. -- one of the world's biggest insurers -- in an $85 billion deal that signaled the intensity of its concerns about the danger a collapse could pose to the financial system.

The step marks a dramatic turnabout for the federal government, which had been strongly resisting overtures from AIG for an emergency loan or some intervention that would prevent the insurer from falling into bankruptcy. Just last weekend, the government essentially pulled the plug on Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., allowing the big investment bank to go under instead of giving it financial support. This time, the government decided AIG truly was too big to fail.

As part of the deal, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson insisted that AIG's chief executive, Robert Willumstad, step aside. Mr. Paulson personally told Mr. Willumstad the news in a phone call on Tuesday, according to a person familiar with the call.

Mr. Willumstad will be succeeded by Edward Liddy, the former head of insurer Allstate Corp.

AIG's bailout caps a tumultuous 10 days that have remade the American financial system. In that time, the government has engineered rescues that insert it deep into the housing and insurance industries, while Wall Street has watched two of its last four big independent brokerage firms exit the scene.

The U.S. on Sept. 6 took over mortgage-lending giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac as they teetered near collapse. This Sunday, the U.S. refused to bail out Wall Street pillar Lehman Brothers, which filed for bankruptcy-court protection and is now being sold off in pieces. That same day, another struggling Wall Street titan, Merrill Lynch & Co., agreed to sell itself to Bank of America Corp."-WSJ

Cramer on AIG

Love Cramer!

Greatest thing since Purified Water!!!!!!

Could life get any better. . . . lol I dont know. . . with the markets being absolutely out of control. But yet and still there are little gems that pop up when you least expect it. Anything that can make my life more efficient and keep me informed. . . IM ALL ABOUT IT! READ THEE JOURNAL RIGHT ON YOUR CRACCBERRY!!!

http://wsjmobilereader.com

This could be you. . . . LITERALLY: IMAGINE Cup

[The World’s Premier Student Technology Competition: EGYPT 09
"I wish there had been an Imagine Cup when I was growing up. It gets people involved in seeing that software is changing the world."
--Bill Gates
Chairman, Microsoft Corp.

Everything that the world may become "someday" lies in the hands of young people today. As they look at the road ahead, their close relationship with technology enables them to dream in ways we never have before. Put the two together, and you have young minds holding the tools that can make their vision a reality.

This is the recipe that inspired Microsoft to create the Imagine Cup. What begins with a burst of inspiration and a lot of hard work can become a future software breakthrough, a future career, or a flourishing new industry. The Imagine Cup encourages young people to apply their imagination, their passion and their creativity to technology innovations that can make a difference in the world – today. Now in its sixth year, the Imagine Cup has grown to be a truly global competition focused on finding solutions to real world issues.

Open to students around the world, the Imagine Cup is a serious challenge that draws serious talent, and the competition is intense. The contest spans a year, beginning with local, regional and online contests whose winners go on to attend the global finals held in a different location every year. The intensity of the work brings students together, and motivates the competitors to give it their all. The bonds formed here often last well beyond the competition itself.]-ImagineCup.com


Some guy from Microsoft came and spoke at one of my classes tonight. Pretty rad guy. Sounds like an amazing opportunity!!!

More J. Bezos

Charlie Rose does the best interviews ever. He's one of my favorites to say thee least. The one "channel" I subscribe to on YouTube is Thee Charlie Rose channel. Too many phenomenal interviews to tackle in one sitting. . . . pure motivation and insight.

Jeff Bezos: Founder of Amazon

Glory.

Presidential Debates Dates

Countdown is on.

Sept 26 Presidential Debate
Oct 2 VP Debate
Oct 7 Presidential Debate
Oct 15th Presidential Debate

"The McCain and Obama campaigns said Thursday that they have nailed down the details for this fall’s three 90-minute presidential debates.

As announced two weeks ago, Jim Lehrer of PBS’s The NewsHour will moderate the first presidential debate between Barack Obama and John McCain September 26 at the University of Mississippi. The faceoff will focus on foreign policy and national security issues.

Thursday’s announcement laid out the debate format: each candidate will get two minutes to respond to a question, followed by an open discussion for another five minutes.

The second debate, moderated by NBC’s Tom Brokaw, will be held October 7 at Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee. The format will be town-hall style; all questions will come from members of the audience or queries sent in over the Internet.


The Presidential Debate Commission said earlier this month that Gallup will choose undecided voters from in or around the Nashville, Tennessee area to participate in the town hall, and Brokaw will review each question before it is posed to avoid duplication.

The final presidential debate – which will cover domestic and economic policy issues — will take place October 15 at Hofstra University in Hempstead, New York. CBS Face the Nation host Bob Schieffer will moderate.

The Hofstra faceoff will be the only debate where each candidate will have the chance to make a 90-second closing statement.

Details of the vice presidential debate at Washington University in St. Louis, which will be hosted by NewsHour’s Gwen Ifill, will be released after both candidates name their running mates."-CNN

Government takes over Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac

Sept. 7 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. government seized control of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac after the biggest surge in mortgage defaults in at least three decades threatened to topple the companies making up almost half the U.S. home-loan market.

``Our economy and our markets will not recover until the bulk of this housing correction is behind us,'' Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, who engineered the takeover along with Federal Housing Finance Agency Director James Lockhart, said in Washington today. ``Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are critical to turning the corner.''

As losses on the mortgages grew late last year, the companies recorded $14.9 billion in combined net losses, eating into their capital. Fannie raised $14.4 billion since November and Freddie sold $6 billion of preferred securities. Plans for a $5.5 billion sale were delayed as the company's fortunes sank.

Fannie had $47 billion of capital as of June 30, according to company filings. The company is required by its regulator to hold $37.5 billion. Freddie's capital stood at $37.1 billion, compared with a requirement of $34.5 billion, filings show.

Fannie's market capitalization is now $7.6 billion, down from $38.9 billion at the end of last year. Freddie's has fallen to $3.3 billion, from $22 billion over the same period.

$200,000 a day. . .. not ENOUGH!!!

Josh sent this to me this summer. . . . older article but yet. . . GLORY! and motivating. . . .

"Mark McGoldrick earned about $70 million in pay last year -- nearly $200,000 a day -- placing bets using Goldman Sachs Group Inc.'s money. He was one of Goldman's highest-paid employees.

Turns out it wasn't enough.

Internally dubbed "Goldfinger" for running one of Goldman's most-profitable units, Mr. McGoldrick delivered a big chunk of the firm's 2006 profits, people familiar with the matter say. He co-founded and built the firm's secretive "special-situations group," Goldman's elite but opaque money-making machine that buys and sells eclectic assets including British power plants, Japanese golf courses and Thai auto loans.

Mr. McGoldrick and some of the partners in his unit griped that they weren't being rewarded as well as counterparts at hedge funds and private-equity firms. Though highly paid, his team was "under-compensated," Mr. McGoldrick complained to Goldman colleagues. He groused about being shut out of investments because of potential conflicts inside Goldman. Then he quit.

. . . . . Mr. McGoldrick was one of the highest-paid executives at the firm, with about $70 million. Mr. Blankfein, Goldman's CEO, received a pay package totaling more than $53 million.

Mr. McGoldrick believed they deserved more, considering their group's profits. When rivals such as Fortress and Blackstone went public this year, their founders reaped financial bonanzas. His team grumbled that their pay no longer was based on "market reality." Most compelling to Mr. McGoldrick: His close friend, Fortress executive Mr. Briger -- the man with whom he started the special-situations group -- became an overnight billionaire worth $2 billion."- WSJ

Creative Capitalism

An article that stood out to me over the summer.

"Capitalism has improved the lives of billions of people — something that's easy to forget at a time of great economic uncertainty. But it has left out billions more. They have great needs, but they can't express those needs in ways that matter to markets. So they are stuck in poverty, suffer from preventable diseases and never have a chance to make the most of their lives. Governments and nonprofit groups have an irreplaceable role in helping them, but it will take too long if they try to do it alone. It is mainly corporations that have the skills to make technological innovations work for the poor. To make the most of those skills, we need a more creative capitalism: an attempt to stretch the reach of market forces so that more companies can benefit from doing work that makes more people better off. We need new ways to bring far more people into the system — capitalism — that has done so much good in the world.

Creative capitalism isn't some big new economic theory. And it isn't a knock on capitalism itself. It is a way to answer a vital question: How can we most effectively spread the benefits of capitalism and the huge improvements in quality of life it can provide to people who have been left out?

More than 30 years ago, Paul Allen and I started Microsoft because we wanted to be part of a movement to put a computer on every desk and in every home. Ten years ago, Melinda and I started our foundation because we want to be part of a different movement — this time, to help create a world where no one has to live on a dollar a day or die from a disease we know how to prevent. Creative capitalism can help make it happen. I hope more people will join the cause."-time

Back to Thee Glory!

Ok clearly I have not made a single post in months due to a extremely busy and productive summer. There is so much to share and speak about. So now that im back at thee batcave I will get back to sharing my random thoughts and posting bits of news that are pretty interesting and important. LETS GO!! VICTTTOORRRYYY!!