You’ll find Sears In the Nasdaq Aisle After Kmart Merger

Most people who paid a little bit attention on the news lately know something about the merger of Sears, Roebuck & CO. and Kmart Holding Corp. There will be a new retailer to be known as Sears Holdings Corp.
The Sears, Roebuck & CO. has been in New York Stock Exchange for 95 years, while Kmart Holding Corp. is in the Nasdaq Stock Market Inc. However, now Sears is leaving NYSE, and heading to Nasdaq due to the merger. On February the 1st, 2005, the two companies said in their merger documents filed, the combined company had already applied to list its stock on Nasdaq. The symbol is not known yet. Moreover, Sears spokesman said that they've had a "longstanding and proud relationship with the NYSE”, and they are looking forward the new relationship with Nasdaq. Meanwhile, Nasdaq Chief Executive Robert Greifeld said that they are proud to welcome Sears to become a member of Nasdaq family.
Sears has been listed on NYSE in March 1910, many decades before Nasdaq was even born. But now the “Big Board” is saying goodbye to it. And the Symbol “S”, which is pretty unique, will soon be available. Those one-letter symbols actually have traditionally been prized by NYSE. However, there are now several alphabet letters that are available such as H, I, J, M, P, U, W and Z as well as some letters that may be free up later on.
I think it is pretty interesting that the stocks that listed on the NYSE usually have 1, 2, or 3 letters while the stocks that listed on Nasdaq usually have 4 or 5 letters.
In addition, seems like there are more and more companies start to leave the NYSE and join Nasdaq. Like the symbols I and M which have been reserved for Intel Corp. and Microsoft Corp., but the two technological companies have resisted the NYSE’s pitch over the years and remain listed on Nasdaq. I think that might be Nasdaq, which is more electronic and technologic than the old and traditional NYSE, is more easy and convenient for people nowadays in this technological era.

Marietta College ups tuition!

Yes that's right folks. Marietta College raised the tuition by 4.25%. I am sure many of you have gotten the letter, and if not I'm sure your parents have. The total cost of everything has risen from about 27 grand to 29 grand. Sure hope everyone files their FAFSA!!! What does everyone think about this??

National Sales Tax???

Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan on Thursday said some form of a consumption tax, such as a national sales tax, could spur greater economic growth, but he also pointed out the fact that the government would face significant problems making the transition to this kind of system. This kind of system would come under fire from almost all democrats. So, Greenspan's suggestion to the President's advisory council is that maybe a combination of an icome tax and a consumption tax would work. I would support what the President feels is the best solution. If this tax is going to help economic growth and generate revenue, then I will support it. What is your opinion? Is the national consumption or sales tax the solution to the problem? If not, what is the best solution to help stimulate the economy?

Productivity Increases

Finally, a good sign. Labor productivity has increased faster than the costs for more labor, this has resulted in higher employment for February and lower unemployment claims.

Macroeconomic theory would guide us through the following thought process. An increase in labor productivity would shift the production curve (RGDP as a factor of labor) upward. The increase in output would also shift the aggregate supply to the right, increasing economic growth under Classical assumptions. But, there's another hidden effect. An increase in productivity of workers makes them more profitable to employers, thus firms will demand more labor in the labor market and increase the number of workers. Again, on the new, shifted production curve, the number of workers would have us move alone the curve to the right, causing an increase in RGDP. This increase will again shift the aggregate supply curve to the right. Thusly, it can be said that, under Classical economic theory, the increase in the productivity of workers will increase economic growth twice.

Want to Make Some Quick Dough? Steal!

Ah, the newest and most thriving market, and it's not what you would expect. It's not for consumer goods, but for your identity and it operates underground. Identify theft is quickly becoming the new method of profit for thieves instead of old fashioned pick pocketing. With the Bank of America recently losing the personal information of over a million of it's clients, and the theft occurring at ChoicePoint, identify theft is starting to hit close to home.

Hackers and others of the like are becoming better and better at accessing more and more information about you with less resources. Now, because of how interconnected our lives are online, simply a social security number in the wrong hands can ruin your life. There has to be a black market for the information though.

With more and more people supplying their information online, this could be seen as increase in the supply of information on the black market. More and more hackers are finding how easy it is to steal the information as well, increasing the demand. In a typical market, price change would be ambiguous, but the amount of theft has increased.

Chew on this: According to the Better Business Bureau, 9.3 million Americans were victims of ID theft last year.

Hockey Buyout?

$3.5 billion for 30 all NHL teams, nearly $116 million per team, a hefty price. Two Boston based companies are acting together to offer this proposal to the NHL team owners. With a loss of $500 million over the past two seasons, is it enough to coerce the owners to sell? Clearly, the 116 million offer per team outweighs the cost of nearly 16 million per team, but are there other benefits that are strictly not monetary? Perhaps wealth man with too much money and time on his hands owns a team simply because of his love for the sport or tax shelter.

I'd like to view this somewhat as a contract zone..... Is there a bargaining area? Being as that the league has to make a unified decision vs. team by team buyouts, will the demanded price increase? Perhaps the proceeds from the buyout wouldn't be evenly split among the owners, but maybe it would resemble something like profit sharing. It's highly probably that the big market teams like New York and Boston will demand a bigger piece of the pie so to speak.

Will they sell?

Oscars

And the Oscar goes to...

The Aviator and Million Dollar Baby cleaned up at the Oscars last night but what does it all mean. To Hollywood even being nominated for an Oscar is a great honor but to actually receive one is amazing. But why do the Oscars matter so much? It is not even the most fun awards show to watch. Actually in my opinion it is quite boring. The only reason I watched is because I really liked Million Dollar Baby when I went and saw it in the theatre.

Do the Oscars sell movies? When you go into Wal-Mart and look at DVD's do you look for one that says Oscar winner on the front? I know I never do. So why are the Oscars such a big deal?

Does college produce a marginal benefit?

We've all grown up knwing that you almost have to college if you want to make it anywhere in the world. I would be willing to bet that for this reason the majority of us are even attending college. I mean, we could be out working paying jobs and earning some money, but instead we are here, paying even more money to go school for even longer. Why? Because it is supposed to pay of in the long run. We are supposed to earn much more money for coming here and spending an extra hundred-thousand dollars that could have been avoided by going straight to work. When we get out of here we are supposed to be able to pay back our hundred-thousand no problem and spend the rest of our lives earning an income that we can put forth to things that we really want. Is this what will happen? Things still seem to be pointing in the direction of college being alomst necessary, however things also seem to be changing. When my parents were growing up if you had a bachelors degree from college you were far above the rest and would earn top dollar for your skills. Now, a bachelors degree is almost as common as a morning cup of coffee and graduate school is quickly becoming important if you want to earn that extra buck. A bachelors degree now is nearly required to find a decent job and a masters will get you the big money, but is it worth the cost? As i said before, we pay about a hundred-thousand dollars to go to college and that is before graduate school, but college tuition is rising each year and doesn't show signs of stopping anytime soon. A not only is tuition rising rapidly but the new Bush budget for upcoming years will cut much of the funding that is given to those who are pursuing a college career. Will the average person be able to afford college for much longer? Are we on our way to needing a masters to survive or are we closer to regressing back to the days where a high school diploma would get a decent job where you could work your way up? Are college becoming too expensive? All Marietta College students recieved a memo in the mail this past week letting us know of the new 4.25% increase in tuition here at MC. I don't about everyone else but I have enough loans as it is let alone now having to take on more because of yet another increase. Will it ever stop? Will the market ever actually level out and form some set of standard?

Steroids in Baseball Part II

With spring training coming up right around the corner the big topic in baseball is steroids. Who is using them and what should be done. Hall of Famer and Washington Nationals manager Frank Robinson believes steroids have created a "cloud over baseball" and the penalties against stroid use arn't strong enough (White). Many fans are ignoring the steroid use due to the fact they enjoy seeing the long ball, the RBI's, and line drive hits that almost take players heads off. Robinson goes on telling about how the players do care. I would to. If i was sitting on a bench with a teammate that was on roids and we play the same position, an he is putting up bigger numbers, i would be pretty pissed. Even tho testing might an invasion of privacy, if you look to be using them you should be tested. Bud Sehlig, the commisioner of baseball, proposed new standards on drug testing to athletes that test positive. First offense is 10 day suspension, Second offense 30, Third offense 60, Fourth offense one year and all offenses are with out pay. What is a 10 day suspension with out pay to a professional athlete? Robinson is right, they penalties should be a harsher than 10 days for the first offense. I think they should hit them harder the first time so they wont do it again later. With this proposal if i were to get caught once, wouldnt you keep going. How do you feel about this drug testing and the new proposal?

NHL Lockout

The NHL lockout has aroused many problems for economy, fans, players, and the league its self. Hockey has been around for how many years now, how can you just get rid of it all of a sudden. They have tried to rescue the season many times this year so far but they can not come to agreement primarily based upon salary caps and NHL's lack of economic standing in host communities (Hiltzik). Also many sponsors are loosing money in this lockout from what services they provide the arena's and teams. I believe that salary caps do play a huge role in sports. Some times i think other sports should take this into consideration. Like baseball. The New York Yankees salary caps are twice and even triple other major league teams which allow them to purchase the best players in the league. You do not see this as much in the NHL because most the players are just playing for the love the game and not for the money. I bet you there are people out there that couldnt name 5 people on the Tampa Bay Lightning when the won the Stanley Cup. I hope the NHL can come to some agreement soon and bring back a sport that is actually interesting to watch. What do you think about the Lock out? What do you think they could do to bring it back? Leave em

Moss in Black and Silver means Green!

After Langerud got word that Randy Moss perrenial Pro-bowl wide reciever for the Minnesota Vikings was being shipped off to Oakland. He immediately started slashing the prices on Moss's jearseys on his online store in Forrest Lake Minn. He lowered the prices from $65 to $40 and $199 to $160. Moss's new Oakland jersey is predicted to be the top selling in the NFL next year. But what number will Randy be sporting? #84 is taken by Oakland WR Jerry Porter whom signed a five year deal on Tuesday. Will Randy Moss try to buy his jersey or will he change his number? What do you think he should do/or will do?

Price Ceilings

We all know that price ceilings keep prices artificially low and designed to help the poor, right? Well that might not be the case. Some economists argue that by looking deeper into price ceilings, the exact opposite happens. They claim that price ceilings actually keep prices artifically high, and when the ceiling is removed, the price goes down. This is because the ceiling creats an incentive for the producer not to supply too much of something, and this incentive is lost whent the ceiling is removed. So when the quantity supplied goes up, price goes down. This is the reason that some economists argue that price ceilings actually hurt the poor more than they help them. The ceilings create a price above equilibrium, which is even harder for the poor to pay. Add to this the shortage that a ceiling can cause, and the poor are worse off than before the ceiling. This shows that the invisible hand theorem is correct, that free markets really will maximize social welfare. For the entire article, go to: http://www.fee.org/vnews.php?nid=1081&printable=Y

What are you smoking?

If you walk into a gas station or a supermarket and you feel the need for a cigarette you may one of any number of cigarette brands. (Marlboro, Camel, etc...) You may even possibly buy some sort of cigar, whatever it is however will be just an ordinary cigarette. What if that could change? What if you could walk into a gas station and ask for a pack of marijuana cigarettes? For that matter, what if you could go and purchase any illicit drug at no risk of being imprisoned? The legalization of the now illegal drugs has been discussed again and again and I just had to stop and think about it myself. Think about what it would mean if you could buy drugs publicly. It would mean an end to blackmarket sales of these items, less people working on the streets trying to sell their products, they could just start their own drug convenient store, but is it right to legalize something so terrible. There have positives and negatives used to support each side. The negatives are pretty self-explanatory, these drugs hurt people, not only do the people who use these drugs to serious harm to themselves but they also have a higher likelihood to harm someone else. When using drugs the user has very little control over his or her actions. Now the positives of legalizing drugs would be that there would be much less crime. People wouldn't have to hide in the shadows to buy and sell drugs. Stealing other people's drugs, or the gang wars that take place over drugs and drug trafficking would all but disappear because everything would be out in the eye of the public. The government would be able to tax the product which would both discourage buyers and sellers, at least in a minor way, from handling the drugs. The site that I have linked to this post gives various statistics about drugs and drug use and it shows information gathered about which drugs are the most popular and number of drug related arrests. What do you think? Should drugs be legalized? Are there certain drugs that should be legalized and other kept illegal? How can we decide whether these drugs should be legalized or not? Is there a better way to control the drug situation? I ask the questions, you give the answers (or at least you opinion and input).

Are schools up to date?

I think that this is a great idea. Bill Gates wants to upgrade how we are teaching our kids of today. I mean look at the drop out rates. If you look them up on the internet they are alot larger than in past years. We have kids dropping out because of drugs and various other things such as unwanted pregnacies. It will cost alot of money to upgrade all the schools but it will do alot of good. Some schools dont even have computer programs taught and that is not going to help these kids going out into the world today. Computers are used everywhere for virtually everything. This big expense would be very very well worth it. If we can spend tons of money on stupid things like movies and upgrading horse racing facilities we can for sure make schools teaching more up to date with todays society. Our kids are coming out not knowing alot about technology when in fact its all around them.

Horse Racing: is it worth it?

Have you ever seen a horse race at a track or on T.V. Chances are that most of us have. I mean yea it can be entertaining but is it really worth all the money that goes into it. Especially all the money that goes into making VIP places and special places for coperate people to watch. This article goes into talking about all these luxary places being built at this track and the high costs of doing so. That in turn raises the price of going to see a race. Is it really necessary for this? I mean isnt there better things that the money could go into such as bettering the schools in the area or maybe towards fixing run down roads. I mean 35,000 dollars for a tent to sit under to keep rich and snobby people out of the sun. I just think thats not really a necessity.

The Numbers Game

This article is dealing with the free agency market involving superstar calliber athletes being moved to other teams and going through complications not only involving salary but involving them playing with their lucky number. Chris Webber was recently traded from the Sacramento Kings to the Philidelphia 76ers, and wanted to keep him number 4. Webber has had this number since he was playing at Michigan withthe FAB 5. Webber was able to retain his number from Philidelphia's 1st round draft pick last year Andre Iguodala. Usually players will have to pay another player for the rights to that number if someone already has the number on the team. It usually involves thousands of dollars. In this case it was nothing. Andre's agent who played with Webber at Michigan said,"Andre was a huge fan of the Fab 5.", he also stated"Any time a young, rising star can do something to show respect for someone he looked up to, he's going to do it." Amoung the players that are being sent to other teams Keith Van Horn #44, Baron Davis #1, and Antone Walker's # 8 (others and full article can be found here http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=1999152 ) are all going to have to be bought from another teamate. Is a number worth thousands of dollars? In this greedy world of athletes yes, i believe it is. Whatever makes them perform at a high level with a minimal amount of complaining works best!

Sony Puts Pizza Ordering in Web Game

"Hello, yes my name is 'The Dark Elf' and I would like a large pepperoni pizza...."
-This is the latest statement that could come from a uber EVERQUEST gamers mouth....

For those who do not know, Everquest is an online RPG (Role Playing Game) that has over 300,000 active players. And now, Sony has gone a bit further in its online interaction.

Sony lets users type in the command " /pizza " which will take them to a Pizza Hut website to order pizza, which will be delivered to their door. Also, as taken from the article..."Sony plans to integrate the pizza function more tightly into the game, so players can charge pizza to their monthly game subscription bill. "

Also, Chris Kramer, a spokesman for SONY says "The goal for the future is to eventually let people do more things like this," Kramer said. "They could type /harry potter and get the new Harry Potter (news - web sites) book delivered or /star wars and get the new Star Wars DVD."

All I can say is WOW! This has gone a bit too far!

Do you think this will really help sales of all of these products?

Selling Pirated DVD's

As each day passes, another "pirater" is added to the list.

My question is, how bad is selling pirated DVD's. I am not talking about copies of DVD movies. But movies which were taped in a theater, either by an audience member, or a person who works in the theater. These DVD's are mostly fuzzy pixeled and the audio is sort of bad. As an avid movie downloader, there are plenty of scenes in which actual people get up in front of the screen and walk away- possibly to get popcorn or use the bathroom.

I beleive, movie piraters are helping the low- to middle class people out by selling a dvd, for say $5. This is up to $3 less than a single movie ticket, and not all hard working families have the money or time to go to a theater, buy $30 worth of $5 food, and watch a movie.

Possibly, the movie piraters are helping people realize how some movies, put out to be SO great, SUCK! For example, Cursed. Wow, that was a waste of my money! I thought it looked good, but no! Therefore, when my family, or my girlfriends family wants to see it, I can download the movie, and burnt it to watch.

How bad is it hurting the Movie Industry? I mean, we only hear the numbers..... bla bla bla pulled in $130 million from its first weekend......oh well, hate it or love it...

Spring Break Fares

It's one week till spring break which means none of us are going to be focusing on much this week except dreaming of sand and sun. The sand and sun may be harder to get to this year though. Many major airlines such as Northwest and Delta have raised fares to account for the ever-increasing oil prices. Continental, U. S. Airways, and United are low-fare carriers and have maintained their low fares. While it's not entirely clear who started the fare raising many carriers followed the lead of Northwest after the premier carrier raised its fares by $5 for one way flights under a 1,000 miles and $10 for flights any longer. Many experts attribute the raise in fares to the exceedingly low fares this past year. They claim they were bound to go up and they will stay up. This is going to affect many business travelers who frequent the airports our our country each and every day, and what is going to happen to the tourism industry.

Patriots Part Ways with Cornerback Ty Law

The New England Patriots, Superbowl XXXIX Champs, cut cornerback Ty Law late last week. He was at the end of his 7 year, $51 million contract. Any true Patriots fans out there realizes how big of a loss this actually is. Although Law missed a majority of this season with a broken foot, he is still arguably one of the best cornerbacks in the game. He helped the Patriots win 2 of their 3 Superbowls with key interceptions in almost all of his post season appearences. His $12.5 million dollar contract for next season was to much for the Patriots to shell out, especially when most of their players are only being paid a few million a season. Any football fans with some insight, please comment!