February 2010

White House to issue progress report on anniversary of economic stimulus

The White House is releasing its first annual report on the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act on Wednesday, summarizing its progress on the first anniversary of President Obama's signing of the massive, politically contentious economic stimulus package.

Independent arbiters such as the Congressional Budget Office agree that it helped end the recession and added several percentage points to GDP growth, and that it created or saved at least 2 million jobs. But with job losses far deeper in 2009 than the administration expected, the stimulus has not kept unemployment from climbing to 10 percent. Republicans have seized on job-creation tallies reported by stimulus recipients, questioning their reliability. At the same time, Republicans who voted against the bill, as well as Democrats, have touted stimulus spending in their districts.

The package was divided into three main categories:

1) Tax cuts (including $800 for both 2009 and 2010 for most families).

2) Payments, including fiscal aid to states and expanded safety net assistance (such as unemployment benefits, COBRA subsidies and food stamps).

3) Investments in, for example, public infrastructure, energy efficiency upgrades and broadband access.

Washington 'on track' with stimulus cash

The Obama administration on Tuesday said it was "on track" to spend 70 per cent of last year's economic stimulus funds by the end of September, as it prepares to ramp up payments to thousands of infrastructure projects across the US.

Senior officials, speaking on the eve of the first anniversary of the signing of the legislation, sought to defend the benefits of the stimulus, claiming it helped the economy emerge from a deep recession. US officials said about 57 per cent of the stimulus cash - or $453bn - was accounted for in tax breaks, direct payments to local governments and individuals, and infrastructure. But a portion of that money - particularly funds for infrastructure - has not been spent and the administration has been under pressure to deliver the money as rapidly as possible. On Tuesday, officials said the goal of spending 70 per cent of the funds by the end of September was intact.

Bulk of Stimulus Spending Yet to Come

The Obama administration's economic-stimulus program has delivered about a third of its total $787 billion budget during its first year, much of that to maintain social services and government jobs and to provide tax cuts for workers. Now, the pace and direction of stimulus spending are about to change.

Infrastructure spending is set to step up in the second year of the stimulus program, which should mean more money flowing to private-sector employers. Still, economists say that won't likely have a big effect on the unemployment rate, which most say is likely to continue a slow decline as the broader economy recovers. The shift could be significant politically, though, because Republicans have criticized the relative lack of private business hiring directly attributed to the stimulus.

The approach this week of the stimulus program's one-year anniversary sparked a fresh round of dueling partisan statements, as Democrats sought to credit the effort with averting a deeper recession and Republicans said the program deserved a failing grade. But in terms of spending, the stimulus is largely incomplete.

Activists aim to punch holes in online shields of authoritarian regimes

It is the Internet version of David vs. Goliath -- computer savvy activists who launch guerrilla tech attacks to punch holes in online shields erected by governments to control what their citizens do online.

One of the newest cyber-warriors is Austin Heap, a 25-year-old San Francisco software developer who helped launch Haystack, a program to help Iranians wiggle past government filters as tensions between authorities and the opposition movement surge. "It's an arms race," said Rebecca MacKinnon, an expert on Chinese censorship who is familiar with efforts to open up the Internet in Iran as well as other authoritarian countries. "There is no precedence for this." Heap is not alone. He's one of a growing number of online activists building software tools designed to serve as virtual slingshots to take on government censorship.

Experts in the field, though, caution that programs devised to assist dissidents and others trying to elude authorities online are not fail-proof in the never-ending battle of wits and technology between authoritarian regimes and savvy geeks.

A Welcome, if Partial, Fix

[Commentary] "Hi. I'm the C.E.O. of (Fill in the Blank) Corporation, and I approved this message." If Senator Charles Schumer and Representative Chris Van Hollen have their way, you'll be hearing those sorts of disclosures in political ads for November's Congressional elections.

It is a sensible way for voters to find out which businesses, or unions, are using their treasuries to promote which candidates. And it has become absolutely necessary since the Supreme Court's disastrous ruling last month in the case of Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission. The Schumer-Van Hollen bill is expected to be introduced later this month. Congressional leaders should put it on a fast track so it can be in place in time for this year's midterm elections. It could help keep special interest money in check until the real solution comes: a Supreme Court ruling reversing the deeply antidemocratic Citizens United decision.

A Conference Keen on Finding Open Communication

In the world of mobile phone applications, Apple, Google, Nokia and their competitors seem to have only their differences in common.

Most mobile software works on only one type of device or the phones of one carrier. An iPhone application will not work on a Nokia phone, and neither would work on Google's Android system or Microsoft's new Windows Phone. The state of play, experts say, is a cacophony of incompatible software that threatens to slow the growth of the mobile Internet. Companies in this field that are attending the Mobile World Congress here this week are holding sessions to educate software developers on the idiosyncrasies of designing apps for their phones. The competition is similar to what happened in the earliest days of the personal computer industry, when a program bought for, say, a Commodore 64 would not work on a Texas Instruments PC.

Microsoft, Dell Prepare to Fight Tax Increase in Obama's Budget

Software and computer companies such as Microsoft Corp., Hewlett-Packard Co. and Dell Inc. are gearing up to fight an Obama administration plan to curb offshore tax avoidance.

The $15.5 billion proposal in President Barack Obama's 2011 budget targets what the Internal Revenue Service calls the growing problem of so-called transfer pricing. The technique allows companies to reduce their tax bills by transferring intangible property such as patents, trademarks and licenses to offshore subsidiaries. The Business Software Alliance, a Washington-based trade group that represents technology companies, said it would "educate policy makers" on how the proposal would hurt US companies, jobs and the economy. While the proposal represents less than 4 percent of the $400 billion in business-tax increases in the budget plan, the debate signals that companies are likely to resist Obama's efforts to raise their taxes to help narrow deficits the administration estimates will total $8.5 trillion over 10 years.

Online Talent Growing, Workers Making More

With the web becoming more ubiquitous and companies getting used to outsourcing to online freelancers, the market for online work is increasing, one recent study says.

According to online outsourcing firm Elance, the pool of online workers that the company tracks made more than $70-million for online work of various kinds in 2009, up 45 percent from the beginning of the year. The company said that the volume of hiring done through its online service also grew by more than 40 percent over 2008, and the total earnings of independent contractors working through Elance since the service began in 1998 passed the $245-million mark. The survey shows that residents of all 50 states are now earning income online, with California, New York and Texas ranking as the top three states and San Francisco, New York and Dallas among top cities for online income.

100 euros smartphones this year: Symbian

The smartphone market will continue to boom this year as handset vendors roll out new, cheaper models and cut prices of the older phones -- making them more attractive to a mass-market audience.

First Symbian smartphones with unsubsidized prices of 100 euros ($137) will reach the market this year, the chief of the world's most widely used smartphone platform said. The cheapest of Nokia's Symbian phones sells now for 120-130 euros, without operator subsidies. Component makers like Qualcomm and Infineon are expected to play a key role in enabling cheaper smartphones by driving down costs through manufacturing scale and technical innovation.

A la Carte Canadian Style: Bell TV's Satellite Solution

Bell Canada's Bell TV satellite service said it is offering Quebec customers the chance to choose which channels they want to watch, a la carte.

Customers who buy The Basic package -- a $25 service including standard broadcast channels such as CTV and CityTV -- can choose which channels they want to pay for. Bell TV's a la carte rollout is in a market where the satellite service is in an "ever-deepening war" with cable provider Videotron.

Benton

Search