Akkam’s Razor

• Fimoculous.com - misc - 30 Most Notable Blogs of 2008 - Maybe half of the blogs listed below are new, and the other half deserve attention for having reinvented the medium in some way. Consensus is an impossible task in a world this diverse, but that shouldn't stop us from pointing out excellence when we see it. So here they are, the most notable blogs of the past year[.]
• Inside the Playbook - The New York Times -

• Golden West deal doomed Wachovia in crisis | CharlotteObserver.com - Wachovia, a brand known for conservative lending, had changed course and forged its biggest deal ever. Two and a half years later, the purchase has played a central role in the Charlotte bank's near collapse and its planned sale to San Francisco-based Wells Fargo. Shareholders vote Tuesday on the takeover.
• The Washington Monthly - The Bush gang's penchant for secrecy is well known, but let's not forget their goal of taking their secrets with them.
• US Flight information and Airport Status - A tool that allows you to track flights.

What passes for quality content from Hollywood’s music, film, and TV media complex is also getting squeezed.  All of the above are going to be pushing more crap music, deemphasizing broadcast network TV, more reality-TV, late-night retreads, and more remakes and sequel movies from Hollywood.  Should they capture the audiences’ attention, the cost cutting measures should result in a financial windfall for content producers, as the cost of production is significantly lower.  If it doesn’t, expect audiences to leave, taking advertising dollars with them.  People, it’s time to get acquainted with GarageBand, YouTube, podcasts, and some old, crude knowledge transmission devices known as ‘books’.

• Schumpeter on Political Parties (Harper’s Magazine) - A party is a group whose members propose to act in concert in the competitive struggle for political power. If that were not so it would be impossible for different parties to adopt exactly or almost exactly the same programme. Yet this happens as everyone knows. Party and machine politicians are simply the response to the fact that the electoral mass is incapable of action other than a stampede, and they constitute an attempt to regulate political competition exactly similar to the corresponding practices of a trade association. The psychotechnics of party management and party advertising, slogans and marching tunes, are not accessories. They are of the essence of politics. So is the political boss.

• GOOD » Books Are the New Cars» - Another day, another imploding industry…
• Economist’s View: “Capitalist Fools” - Was there any single decision which, had it been reversed, would have changed the course of history? … The truth is most of the individual mistakes boil down to just one: a belief that markets are self-adjusting and that the role of government should be minimal. … The embrace by America—and much of the rest of the world—of this flawed economic philosophy made it inevitable that we would eventually arrive at the place we are today.

• AllofMe | Timeline yourself - It's a shame this is hosted software and not something I could run on my local computer or my own server.
• The Cycle of Codependency - An interesting chart which shows the relationships between the Chinese and American economies.
• Search Inc.com: Images and PDFs - Inc magazine has some good one-pagers and infographics.

• Map: Show Me the TARP Money - ProPublica - Each marker represents the headquarters of a financial institution that expects or has already received money from the Treasury Department under the TARP (Troubled Asset Relief Program). The size of each marker represents the amount of bailout money given to each institution. Click on the markers to see the institution’s name and amount it’s receiving.

• Is Obama Planning For Battle Against A Looming Depression, Not A Recession? - No doubt, Obama is smart to treat this crisis as potentially as bad as what the country experienced in the 1930s. He would be committing presidential malpractice if he under-treats the condition, and I'm thrilled that Obama picked a professor from my alma mater (Berkeley) to serve as his chief economist. But the noticeable shift in Obama's discussions about our economic situation, along with hints that he'll be putting on the backburner any tax cut rollbacks or efforts to tackle the deficit, are quite revealing.