News from around the web: 2009-08-25

My Healthcare Links page is now up. The list is a work in progress.  My idea is to have a central place where one can get up to speed with various relevant issues related to the healthcare reform debate. While I am generally pro-reform, I have tried to make this list more balanced in terms of reasoned arguments from across the spectrum.

I expect to be adding to this list and amending it as time continues so that it is vastly more comprehensive.  If you have any recommendations, send them to feedback at creditwritedowns dot com.

  • Person-to-person online lending starts to pick up | The Japan Times Online

    Online person-to-person money-lending, a growing business in the United States, is showing signs of catching on in Japan despite its potential risks. An emerging Tokyo venture called maneo Inc. has become a pioneer in the field, bringing together prospective lenders and borrowers over the Internet.

  • Make Firefox Faster by Vacuuming Your Database – Lifehacker

    All-things-Firefox weblog Mozilla Links previously detailed how to defragment SQLite databases with a vacuum command, but the whole process was a bit clumsy, and it required a restart. Now they’ve updated the technique with a simple bit of code you can run inside Firefox’s Error Console that requires no restart.

  • Florida Mortgage Company Files for Bankruptcy – DealBook Blog – NYTimes.com

    The Taylor, Bean & Whitaker Mortgage Corporation filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Monday and said it might liquidate, three weeks after it closed its mortgage lending business and was suspended by a federal agency. The company, which is based in Ocala, Fla., and was the nation’s 12th-largest mortgage lender from January to June, sought protection from its creditors in Federal Bankruptcy Court in Jacksonville.

  • Hotels Shrug Off Bad News – WSJ.com

    Some analysts, however, say the fundamentals don’t warrant the bull run and that investors are being misguided. "You have some investors that weren’t invested…at all. And then these stocks moved and they had to play," said Chris Woronka, an analyst at Deutsche Bank. "This isn’t a basis for a sustainable rally, and that puts the stocks in this sector on shaky ground."

  • Unmasked blogger sues Google over court order

    Last week, New York Supreme Court Judge Joan Madden ordered Google to hand over the computer IP address and email address of the blogger, and Ms. Cohen learned that the woman behind the posts was 29-year-old fashion student Rosemary Port. Now, Ms. Port plans to file a US$15-million federal lawsuit against Google for failing to protect her privacy, according to the New York Daily News newspaper.

  • Blackberry users ‘work an extra 15 hours a week’ out of the office – Independent.ie

    Staff with mobile technology such as Blackberries work an extra 15 hours a week as they constantly check emails even out of the office, according to new research. A survey of over 600 British employees revealed many were turning into workaholics because of the ability to receive and send messages and work online even when they were at home.

  • There’s no will to fight inflation – Bill Fleckenstein

    Fleck says "In a social democracy with a fiat currency, all roads lead to inflation." Right now, we’re looking more at asset inflation than price inflation. The way this inflation gets transferred into consumer prices may be through commodities.

  • financial news