Monday, February 23, 2009

I'm Bringing the Cookies to Santelli's Tea Party




Rick Santelli
, an analyst for CNBS on the floor of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange gave an outraged rant on Thursday opposing President Obama’s $75 billion mortgage homeowner bailout plan proposal. Santelli strongly believes that Obama’s administration is spreading moral hazard and that his proposal is a leap towards nationalizing the mortgage market. He says: “Government is promoting bad behavior. . . . Do we really want to subsidize the losers’ mortgages? This is America! How many of you people want to pay for your neighbor’s mortgage? President Obama, are you listening? How about we all stop paying our mortgages! It’s a moral hazard.” Santelli is so fed up with the new administrations that he called for a new Tea Party.

I think Santelli is absolutely right! It’s about time that someone speaks out against Obama nationalizing our country! The plan proposed is for the relief of people who overextended their mortgages- not for the people who responsibly purchased houses in which they KNEW they could afford. But where is everyone else’s relief?!? EVERYONE is in a financial crisis right now- EVERYONE is hurting! Everyone needs financial aid right now- not just the people who irresponsibility overextended themselves. It’s absurd that the government is giving aid to the people who made ignorant, irresponsible, greedy decisions yet don’t give any consideration to responsible homeowners and borrowers.

And where is Obama going to get the money to pay for yet another bail-out plan? Taxes are going will be raised for the middle class who like everyone else, is already in financial ruins. The middle class is going to have to pay for everyone else’s greed. Santelli say, “How many people want to pay for their neighbor’s mortgage who has an extra bathroom and can’t pay their bills?” And he’s right! People who work hard, saved and sacrificed their budget to meet their financial obligations should not have to pay for people who overextended themselves and now are foreclosed homeowners! The people who played by the rules shouldn’t have to pay for someone else’s irresponsible mess. Obama is going to tax the middle class out of existence and then when the middle class disappears, who’s going to bail us out? When he squeezes out the middle class, there’s not going to be anyone left to pay for America’s stimulus and aid.

Obama has no clue what to do next and everything he proposes blocks economic recovery: Not one job is going to be created through his stimulus package- not one. The new administration comes up with unrealistic plans that are only going to hurt our economy more. Obama plans to cut our federal deficit but at the same time, increase government spending to aid banks, stimulate the economy and have universal health care- how does that work out?!?!

The belief on Wall-St is that the government is absolutely clueless and when Wall-St. collapses, Obama’s not going to be able to do anything. How could we depend on our president to lead us out of a recession if he has no economic knowledge and experience? He’s going to economically kill the middle class with his dangerous socialist tendencies and not only block economic recovery but drive our country straight into a depression. You could count me in for Santelli’s Tea Party... In fact I'll be bringing the cookies!

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

1:1 Interview with David Eisenman, Internet Marketing Expert.

I sat down with my brother, David Eisenman who works in a field that is closely related to my Viral Marketing class. I interviewed him, regarding his occupation and discussed helpful tools for social networking/boosting traffic. David is employed by Acronym Media, one of the leading global search engine marketing companies and is involved in many aspects of internet marketing.


Where do you work and what do you do?
I work for Acronym Media, a Search Marketing company located in the Empire State Building as the Lead Technology Strategist. I manage the development of proprietary web applications and technology products for both in house use, and for our Fortune 500 client base.

What did you study in college and do you use that knowledge in your current work?
I majored in Business Administration with a concentration in Corporate Finance. I would say I use my business knowledge to help assess our clients needs as well as to manage large groups of people.

How did you make the jump from finance to internet marketing?
I often ask that question to myself, and it's kind of hard to answer. I actually received Series 7 and Series 63 Financial Licenses even before I had began college and I was really into the financial industry from the start of my college career. During my years at college I found myself drawn the the web, and began to start a few online ventures which would eventually turn very profitable, after I made my first dollar I was hooked, and upon graduating decided that online marketing was my true calling.

How does one get into this field of work?
It's hard for me to say, when I was in school there were very few courses on online marketing, and the industry is so fast-paced and dynamic that it constantly changes which I imagine can make courses hard to develop as they become obsolete very quickly. I'm sure however, that there are a lot more classes and resources today than when I was in school (a little over a year ago). I'm somewhat self-taught in that respect, there are literally thousands of fantastic online resources that have been helpful in getting me acclimated with online marketing.

Do you feel that online marketing is more effective than traditional forms of marketing?
In a lot of respects, yes.

How?
Online Marketing, specifically Search Marketing, by nature is very calculable, meaning you can track each dollar spent, and see its direct results. Your ROI (return on investment) is much more visible than running traditional media. Say you buy a billboard, you can never be sure how effective it is since it's somewhat hard to tell if your customers are buying your product because of that ad or from another influence. With the analytics available online, you can be sure that your money is being spent efficiently, and you have much more insight into the path in which it comes back to you.

What do you recommend to a beginner blogger how to increase their visibility on the internet?
First and foremost, it's important to write interesting articles! Secondly, try to leverage social networking to make your articles more visible and accessible to people around the web. Show off your articles to your friends on Facebook and Myspace, and post them to social news sites such as Digg.com and Reddit.com for additional exposure.

Thursday, February 12, 2009

The End Of Juicy Campus: The Beginning Of CollegeACB

The famous college gossip website, JuicyCampus was shut down this past week. The website was very similar to the Gossip Girl website on CWB's hit television show, Gossip Girl. The foul website was the college version of US Weekly. Students from colleges worldwide could anonymously post topics about any gossip in their school and can comment on other posts as well. Students would crudely bash one another: They anonymously discuss the hottest guys/girls on campus, the biggest sluts, losers, rejects, ect- all and any crude and vulgar topics they choose. For example, one of the most popular posts from SUNY Purchase was titled, “Who gives the most BJ’s” and students anonymously named people who they thought to be promiscuous- publicly ruining the persons’ name.

As the infamous website was shut down in the past week, some people are thankful and relieved that their worst traits and mistakes will not be publicly talk about and spread web-wide, while other, more ignorant students are upset and outraged that their ‘Perez Hilton’ for college will no longer exist to entertain them and immorally allow them to secretly offend others.

But surprise, surprise- the second the college gossip site was shut down, another one was created: CollegeACB.com is the new upcoming replacement for JuicyCampus. The website has a few rules, such as requiring you to become a member in order to be able to comment or post topics [membership is free]. This puts restrictions on being unknown- in hopes that people would be nicer and more courteous when discussing one another. The CollegeACB website is build on the same concept as Juicy Campus, with a little touch of boundaries on foul behavior and a lighter negative connotation. Their mission statement states:

"The CollegeACB or College Anonymous Confession Board seeks to give students a place to vent, rant, and talk to college peers in an environment free from social constraints and about subjects that might otherwise be taboo."


Do you think the website will make it?

www.collegeacb.com

Thursday, February 5, 2009

Big Haus Inmate

Unfortunately I live in shitty old Big Haus and when we were gone for winter break, the Big Haus RA’s went in our room practically looking for reasons to write us up. I got written up for having a completely empty, washed out, cleaned bottle of Red Label in my room. The bottle was purely decoration and was as small as a water bottle. I got written up on TWO offences. One for “not complying with the college alcohol policy” because I am not of legal drinking age just yet so apparently I can’t have ANY alcohol bottles in my room- even if theyre empty and even if theyre for decoration use only. Ridiculous. Not only that, but my roommate IS of age and according to college policy, she IS ALLOWED to have alcohol in the room, drink it in the room, and use the bottle for any kind of decoration she pleases.

The other offense was even more ludicrous. I got charged for underage alcohol consumption. What? There was absolutely no way this anonymous RA could charge me with alcohol consumption for an empty decorative bottle that she nor anybody has ever seen me drink. This whole this was just so absurd.

In the end, I was found not guilty for both charges but the moral of the story is that when going on break, dispose of or hide any and all liquor bottles and drinking paraphernalia because the anonymous RA’s will get you!