Customize Your Own Internet Ads?

The internet's leading advertiser, Google, has just launched a new advertising program called "interest" advertising through Google Ads Preferences, which allows users to enter their interests so Google can provide specialized advertising. Google has also added tracker cookies to detect sites that users have recently visited, which promote advertisements from those visited sites.

This new advertising program is a smart move by Google, but am I the only person who thinks this is really creepy? Google does allow users to opt out of the tracking cookies (which can be done through the link above), but 99% of internet users won't even think twice about performing this action.

On one hand, I don't know why Google hasn't been doing this for years. On the other, I would have to think that this has to be getting pretty close to violating internet privacy laws. Just thinking about Google storing users' webpage history for their own monetary gain seems nerve-wracking, however, Google claims this information is kept confedential.

The video below is Google's take on their new advertising platform.

Official Stimulus Drink of the White House

The Invisible Backhand

In his masterpiece The Wealth of Nations, Adam Smith explains and describes many different economic theories. One theory, and arguably his most famous, is known as the Invisible Hand Theory. This is the idea that in a free market society, everything will balance out on its own. For instance a producer will produce only the amount of goods consumers are willing to consume. The alternative idea is that the government will set a number of how much a producer must/can produce. This idea will cause either a shortage or an excess of the good.

The Invisible Hand can be applied to many situations. The stock market is another, more raw, and easily track-able example of where the invisible hand can be applied. According to performance of the industry / company / country / sales / accounting / etc, stock prices vary. For many years, the stock market was being artificially inflated, causing the market to seem to be striving. The Invisible Hand, as Smith described it, is constantly trying to keep things at “equilibrium point”. An inflated market obliviously means that the numbers are above the equilibrium point.

So, all of this introduction for what?

All of this present stock market fluctuation is due to the markets trying to find the balance. It is nearly impossible for any market to be at a balance point because of the many calculations that have to be considered. Nearly everyone has noticed that the Dow Jones has lost over 50% of its points from its all time high of about 14,000. When the market began to fall, a snowball effect took place.

I believe the snowball effect brought the market below the equilibrium point. Many economists believe that the markets will keep tumbling through 2009, but I believe this summer we will begin to see a slight recovery. With this recovery there will be an incline in gas prices as well. But as of right now, we are in a deflated stage. We are being kept artificially below the balance from things such as bailouts and other governmental decisions. This snowball effect will cause a huge loss on money for many corporations, it will slow down growth and development, and it will ruin many retirement portfolios. There will be a recovery as long as free markets will be able to take place.

Free Antibiotics - A Stupid Decision

According to the New York Times, several smaller retail pharmacies around the country such as Wegman's Food Market, Publix, and ShopRite are offering free antibiotics this winter to compete with larger chains such as Wal-Mart, Walgreens, and CVS Pharmacy. This tactic has lured more patients to the smaller pharmacies, but the long term consequences of offering free antibiotics could harm the public much more than it helps.

Because of this, many patients have demanded that doctors give them a prescription for an antibiotic when it is not necessary. Antibiotics only work against bacterial infections, and patients that have a virus, such as influenza, might actually be hurting themselves by using them when it is not needed. Overusage of antibiotics increases drug resistance in humans. This decreases the effectiveness of the antibiotic in the future, when it may actually be needed.

Another major problem with increasing antibiotic resistance is the fact that most drug companies do not spend very much research and development in antibiotics. Being in a capitalist society, drug companies try to make as much money as possible. Why would a company create a new antibiotic that is used for 10 days when they could be developing a cholesterol lowering drug that patients would buy 30 days a month, 12 months a year?

Either doctors need to be much more strict in prescribing medications, or drug companies should focus more on the development of antibiotics. The only problem is that doctors want to keep patients happy so they will return, and drug companies want to choose the more lucrative option. This problem will probably not be solved soon, but doctor's must take responsibility and not hand out antibiotics like Jehovah's Witnesses leaflets.

Same Old

Stocks are down. Detroit wants a bailout. Banks are going under. The housing market is a mess. Some old guy ripped off the country for a billion dollars. Obama wants universal health care. Bernanke blames someone else. Japan’s stock market is falling. The dollar is weak. Clinton is making deals overseas. China is doing well. Wal-Mart is doing well. The Euro weakens.

Have you noticed that the news has not changed in a month? Every day, the same exact stories, written by someone else, with a different title. I understand that these are very important topics, but it seems to me that America is in limbo right now. We cannot seem to get out of this rut. We seem to be sitting right on the edge of total economic collapse, and possibly starting to recover.

Answers are out there, there are people smart enough to solve these problems. Politicians are not the answers to these problems. Bernanke, a man who I once believed in, has turned out to be another politician. People smart enough to solve these problems, are smart enough to stay out of politics. Politicians will push us into total economic collapse; the American people will be the recovery.

McDonalds Has a New Dollar Menu!