阅后即焚（七）

kept extending the near-zero federal funds rate and it will remain in the place for several more years.
search for higher yields: take on questionable investments; bank roll over rather than write off bad loans;
foreign central banks follow the easy money policy — global increase in money risks commodity booms and busts;
(respond) increase aggregate demand; but micro analysis shows not.
Fed is imposing an interest-rate ceiling on the long-term market by saying it will keep the short rate unusually low — reduce the supply of credit, reduce aggregate demand and increase unemployment;

McDonald’s, Starbucks, free access to wi-fi, for students who cannot access internet connection at home to do assignment;
“21-century skills”. but school close at 5, public library close at 6.
high speed internet and advanced wireless network aren’t subject to rules such as the ones that required carriers to make traditional telephone service available to everyone;
“No one disagrees with the concept of 100% connectivity, the rub is how do you get there in a way that doesn’t distort the market.”

Investors Intelligence Advisory Sentiment Index: determine market risks by measuring the level of optimism or pessimism;
Currently, the index is showing a strong level of optimism among advisers.
has to be cautious — too many people are ignoring the short-term risks inherent in stocks.

the past: large firm their own proprietary solutions; independent firms and advisers struggles;
changes: increase in bandwidth; the emergence of Application Programming Interfaces (APIs), software packages able to “talk” to one another;
impact: no longer good to build their own proprietary software; advisers now have more flexibility to change which firms they affiliate with;
the rise of the “middleware” programmers and integrators specialized in the software that is built for advisory firms. like designing “Apps”;

rose 5.5% from November a year ago;
Case-Shiller report track 20 metropolitan cities, only NYC shows decline; Phoenix 22.8%, San Francisco 12.7%;
in 2013, rising taxes and dysfunction in Washington make less optimistic;
Home ownership rate 65.4% from 65.5% last year; but 69.2% in 2005.

Managing director Mark Whitaker stepping down, replaced by Jeff Zucker;
past: focus on hard news, while other rivals more opinionated;
now pull back international reporting and focus more on stories of people talk about on any given day;
(Zucker) “News is more than just about politics and war.”