gross domestic product

If you talked to portfolio managers at any time in 2009, chances were good that they would extol the virtues of technology stocks. The information technology sector of the Standard & Poor's index of 500 stocks rocketed 59 percent higher last year, beating every other sector and doubling the broad index's 23.5 percent advance in 2009.

How quickly fashions change on Wall Street. A month into 2010, tech is down 8.2 percent, more than any sector but telecommunications, itself off 8.9 percent this year. The S&P 500 has dropped 2.3 percent.

There's not much I will miss about [the last] decade.

And to think it all began with such promise. At the dawn of the new millennium, optimism abounded. The U.S. economy was roaring, with gross domestic product increasing 6.1 percent in 1999. The Dow Jones industrial average gained 2,300 points in a year. Unemployment was at 4 percent. America was at peace and largely unchallenged.

Companies across the economy are finding ways to do more with fewer workers, dimming hopes that hiring will take off anytime soon.

Employers became leaner and more efficient in the third quarter. Wages, meantime, remain flat or falling. The result is that productivity -- output per hour of work -- jumped at the fastest pace in six years.

Michael Blim

Now begins the end game of the health care reform
legislation. The President has spoken, and Senator Baucus finally has finally
made his play. The results could not be more disappointing.

by Michael Blim

From Himal Southasian:

When a free Web service called WolframAlpha launches in the coming days, the general public will get to try a "computational knowledge engine" that has had technology insiders buzzing because of its oracle-like ability to spit out answers and make calculations.

Which has a bigger gross domestic product, Spain or Canada? What was New York City's population in 1900? When did the sun rise in Los Angeles on Nov. 15, 1973? How far is the moon right now? If I eat an apple and an orange, how much protein would I get?

From Nature:

Europeans are now paying far less for broadband Internet and cell phone calls compared with previous years, boosting their use and helping the telecoms sector grow faster than the rest of the economy, the European Commission said Wednesday.

The European Union now has more mobile phones than people, the EU executive said, as penetration rates hit 119 percent, well above the U.S. and Japan.

Average cell phone bills have fallen by more than a third in the last five years, it said, while monthly charges for broadband Internet access dropped by at least a fifth from 2007 to 2008.

U.S. computer maker Dell Inc. announced Thursday it will slash its Irish work force and shift its European manufacturing operations to Poland in a move certain to undermine Ireland's recession-hit economy.

Dell is Ireland's second-largest corporate employer, its biggest exporter and in recent years has contributed about 5 percent to the national gross domestic product. Economists warn that each Dell job underpins another four to five jobs in Ireland.