Filed under: Economic data, Headline news, Housing, Federal Reserve, Recession

Not at all surprising, the Federal Reserve has announced it cut its benchmark federal funds rate by a quarter percentage point, to 2%. Further, it also signaled it would pause the recent policy of rate cuts as it removed some language that was previously present in the statements regarding downside risks to economic growth.

Despite the move being fully expected, especially after today’s GDP report showed the economy hasn’t contracted and that inflationary pressures weren’t as high as presumed, the stock market reacted positively and Dow Jones Industrial Average topped 13,000 for the first time since January. Superior than expected results from General Motors (NYSE: GM) and Procter & Gamble (NYSE: PG) also added to the positive sentiment.

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Hugh Pickens writes “Nick Bostrom has an interesting interpretation on why the failure of the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence (SETI) for the past half-century is good news and why the discovery of life on Mars could foretell our doom. Bostrom postulates a ‘Great Filter,’ which can be thought of as a probability barrier and consists of one or more evolutionary transitions or steps that must be traversed at great odds in order for an Earth-like planet to produce a civilization capable of exploring distant solar systems.”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Several readers wrote to tell us about one of the next major projects to enter the Google-verse. We already have pretty views of the Earth and the Sky, the next target is apparently a 3D map of the oceans. “The tool — for now called Google Ocean, the sources say, though that name could change — is expected to be similar to other 3D on the internet mapping applications. People will be able to see the underwater topography, called bathymetry; search for particular spots or attractions; and navigate through the digital environment by zooming and panning. (The tool, however, is not to be confused with the “Google Ocean” project by France-based Magic Instinct Software that uses Google Earth as a visualization tool for marine data.)”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Summary Box: More Republicans back Democrats’ housing rescue - Newsday
CONFLICTED GOP : Despite objections from the White Home , some Republicans are converting to the Democrats’ housing plan after getting an earful from voters struggling to fight off foreclosures. WHO: The GOP lawmakers backing Democrat Barney Frank

FDIC housing plan aims to help 1 million borrowers - San Diego Union-Tribune
WASHINGTON – The government would give emergency loans to around 1 million troubled borrowers under a new housing-assistance plan developed by a federal bank regulator. Sheila Bair, the chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., wants the

Housing Downturn Hammers the Economy - US News and World Report
In Tuesday’s S&P/Case-Shiller report , we learned that home prices are dropping at a clip that’s even faster than expected. This day, we got a superior picture of just how damaging the housing bust has been to the overall economy. It ain’t pretty . While

FDIC housing plan aims to help 1 million borrowers - Forbes
The government would give emergency loans to around 1 million troubled borrowers under a new housing-assistance plan developed by a federal bank regulator. Sheila Bair, the chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., wants the government to make

Economy grows by only 0.6 percent in first quarter - Forbes
The bruised economy limped through the first quarter, growing at just a 0.6 percent pace as housing and credit problems forced people and businesses alike to hunker down. The country’s economic growth during January through March was the same as in

International Carpenters Union President Calls for Swift, Decisive and - Forbes
CHICAGO, April 30 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — Talking this day in Chicago, General President Douglas McCarron of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters stated, “Congress must move swiftly to assist the troubled housing industry. The housing industry was the

Corus eliminates dividend, girds against further housing slide - Crain’s Chicago Business
(Crain’s) — Corus Bankshares Inc. eliminated its quarterly dividend and liquidated a $67-million bank-stock portfolio to buttress itself against the worsening housing crisis. The steps, which CEO Robert J. Glickman said are intended to keep the

Home price index sinks at record clip in February - Boston Globe
NEW YORK— Housing prices dropped in February at the fastest rate ever, a widely watched index showed on Tuesday, reflecting that the housing slump is gaining momentum and showing no signs of letting up. The Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller home price

Napa renter with massive family wins eviction case - San Francisco Gate
(04-30) 14:44 PDT NAPA — Two Napa landlords accused of evicting a woman because they felt she had too many kids have concurred to pay her $18,000 to settle her housing-discrimination complaint, officials said today. Arlene Dennett and Dottie

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I Don’t Believe in Imaginary Property writes “We now know how the Whitehouse managed to lose about five million emails. It seems that they ‘upgraded’ their Lotus Notes system, which had an automatic retention and backup system, for Microsoft Exchange, which didn’t support the automatic system. So they changed it to a manual process, where aides would manually sort emails one by one into individual PST files, which they call a ‘journaling’ archive system. They’re still building a replacement for the retention system. Right when they had one finished, the White House CIO complained that it made Microsoft Exchange too slow, so they hired yet another contractor to build another one, causing a senior IT official to quit in protest. So they still haven’t finished the project after almost eight years, and rely on humans to sort millions of emails.”

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Housing wait is ‘out of control’ - Cambridge News
THE number of households in Cambridgeshire waiting for social housing has soared by 5,500 in the past five years. Statistics from the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) show there were 9,902 households in Cambridgeshire on the

Home price index sinks at record clip in February - Boston Globe
NEW YORK— Housing prices dropped in February at the fastest rate ever, a widely watched index showed on Tuesday, reflecting that the housing slump is gaining momentum and showing no signs of letting up. The Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller home price

British mortgage total at 15-year-low - Forbes
The Bank of England said Tuesday that the number of home mortgages approved in March was the lowest in 15 years of record keeping, yet another sign of the slowdown in the once-booming housing market and the economy at massive. The bank stated the 64,000

Nation briefs - Detroit News
NEW YORK — Housing prices dropped in February at the fastest rate ever, a widely watched index showed on Tuesday, reflecting that the housing slump is gaining momentum and showing no signs of letting up. The Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller home price

Summary Box: More Republicans back Democrats’ housing rescue - Newsday
CONFLICTED GOP : Despite objections from the White House , some Republicans are converting to the Democrats’ housing plan after getting an earful from voters struggling to fight off foreclosures. WHO: The GOP lawmakers backing Democrat Barney Frank

Housing foreclosures push Houston renters out the door - Houston Chronicle
Contractor Jessie Johnson rebuilds homes lost to Hurricane Katrina in Louisiana. But back here in Houston he faces the possible loss of his own home — the house he rents has been foreclosed on. “I’d really like to know what I can do to keep from

Feds state head of East Haven agency embezzled - Newsday
EAST HAVEN, Conn. - Federal authorities have charged the head of the East Haven Housing Authority and her husband with embezzling $173,000 in federal funds from the bureau. Cassandra and Jonathan Ashe allegedly made more than 250 withdraws with a

Repairs Underway in Barracks, Army Says - Washington Post
Peeling paint was among the conditions that soldiers returning from Afghanistan found in their Fort Bragg, N.C., barracks. (By Ed Frawley) A senior Army official voiced regret yesterday for dilapidated conditions at barracks in Fort Bragg , N.C

U.K. House Prices Posted First Annual Drop Since 1996 in April - Bloomberg
April 30 (Bloomberg) — U.K. home prices fell in April from a year earlier, the first such decline since 1996, after the credit squeeze dried up finance for property buys, Nationwide Building Society stated. Home values dropped 1 percent to 178

Illegals denied Habitat housing - Memphis Commercial Appeal
Immigrants must prove they’re here legally and have the right to work in the United Says before they receive low-cost homes through Habitat for Humanity of Greater Memphis, the nonprofit organization has decided. The organization’s board of

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Filed under: Products and services, Eastman Kodak (EK), Battle of the Brands

This post is part of our Battle of the Brands feature. Let us know which brand you like, and check out other Battle of the Brands posts.

Rochester, New York-based Eastman Kodak Co. (NYSE: EK) was founded in 1892, and is well known for its wide range of photographic film products; it remains to today the largest supplier of photographic films in the world. The company played a vital role in the invention and development of the motion picture industry, setting the standard of 35 mm film.

But times change. In 1999, Kodak entered into the consumer inkjet photo printers market in a joint venture with manufacturer Lexmark (NYSE: LXK). In 2004, Kodak announced it would stop producing traditional film cameras, beginning a multiyear struggle to refocus on digital photography and printing. Some of the results of that effort include the Kodak Smart Picture Frame, into which digital files are downloadable via a network connection. The Kodak Gallery is a website where users can upload photos into albums, print them out, and create mouse pads, calendars, and the like. And in 2006 Kodak announced that Flextronics (NASDAQ: FLEX) would manufacture and help design its digital cameras. Kodak also has long-term plans to sell ink jet printers and flat-panel displays.

Tokyo-based Canon Inc. (NYSE: CAJ) also has a venerable history, founded in 1937 as a camera maker. These days, the company has a high profile in the consumer market for cameras and personal printers, but most of the company’s revenue comes from the office products division, especially for analog and digital copiers, fax machines, and scanners. Canon has also entered the digital displays market a joint-venture with Toshiba to develop and manufacture flat panel televisions. The original camera business makes digital cameras, camcorders, liquid-crystal display projectors, lenses, and binoculars.

One significant difference between these two imaging giants: while Kodak has been called one of the worst corporate polluters in the United States, Canon once topped a list climate friendly companies.

Another difference is that in surveys by Thomson Financial, analysts recommend buying Canon, but holding Kodak (leaning toward sell). Canon reported $38.2 billion revenue last year and has a market cap of 67 billion. Though the share price as slipped 10.15% in the past year, it has also risen 9.71% year to date. Kodak, on the other hand, reported revenue of $10.3 billion and has a market cap of $5.6 billion. The share price has fallen 17.88% in the past year, 10.97% since the beginning of the year.

But what do consumers like? Well, in a current list of the top ten most popular digital cameras, four of them were Canon PowerShot cameras, but just one was a Kodak EasyShare.

Which do you prefer?

Vote in our poll for Canon or Kodak as your preferred brand, and let us know in the comments why you love it.

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Filed under: Bad news, Products and services, Consumer experience, World wide web, Competitive strategy, Tech for the rest of us, Personal finance

A easy 24 hour email outage for a system upgrade has turned into a 3 day technical nightmare for Hughes Communications Inc. (NASDAQ: HUGH). Initially, the company informed customers that email service would be suspended for a 24 hour period, from 6pm Saturday, April 26 through 6pm Sunday, April 27. As of this writing, HughesNet email service is still down.

I guess one can live without email for a few more days, although some might have important data to transmit via email. It’s data which could affect one’s career advancement. I guess in my case I could hand it off to my ground based mail carrier. However, because I have become quite accustomed to lackluster performance from Hughes Communications, I’m glad I’m not invested in it.

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