A new bit of research is out that shows CEOs are feeling the effects of the economy, much like everyone else...

Tax rebates are starting to arrive, and many retailers are looking for ways to get your money from you with enticing deals.

When your business is struggling with the competition and your stock price down, it's time to focus on the fundamentals that got you the leg up when you first started. At least that's what Starbucks (NASDAQ: SBUX) seems to be thinking these days. Click below for video.

Interested in maybe hearing your voice on the BloggingStockCast? Leave a comment for the show by calling 567-226-4583 and leaving a message!

(I apologize for the temporarily wrong number on the video, the phone number handling the video there died! I'll get it right with tomorrow's BloggingStockCast -Tobias)

So you've been on the job for three years but the boss won't cut you a raise. Is that your problem, friend? Perhaps the solution to your problem rests in your own hands. If you can prove you're deserving of a raise in salary and you take the appropriate steps to get one, an increase in taxable income just might be in your future. Take a look at the following informative video to gain some insight on effective paycheck building strategy. If you employ the tactics discussed in this video, and you still can't get a raise, it might be time to seek a new employer. I believe that you have every right to expect appropriate compensation for exemplary job performance, even if that means getting it from a new company.

Here's a happy little video message for the leadership at the now defunct Bear Stearns. I thought of this as soon as I read the recent blog post by Michael Rainey regarding the Bear Stearns blame shifting game that's now going on. C'mon you guys, sit up and take your medicine like good kids do. You screwed up. Just admit it will ya?

This is my shortest post ever but I had to share with our readers a marvelous little bit of musical humor. Click on this to see the best Tech-stock bubble video on YouTube, performed by the Richter Scales (to the tune of Billy Joel's "We Didn't Start the Fire") -- very clever. Hope you enjoy it. I am sure it will make the rounds for a long time to come.

Sheldon Liber is the CEO of a small private investment company and the principal for design and research at an architecture & planning firm. He writes the columns Chasing Value and Serious Money. Disclosure: I do not own shares of GOOG, but I do get silly once in a while.

OK, so I lied about it. To my knowledge, Billy Joel hasn't yet opined on the subprime mess. But we'll keep you posted if he does.

Instead, a hilarious riff on Joel's hit "We didn't start the fire" is making the rounds on the internet -- It's definitely not as good as Merle Hazard's "hit" "H-E-D-G-E F-U-N-D" but it's pretty good.

I wonder whether YouTube videos featuring market-oriented gallows humor could be seen as a sign of a bottom -- a sign that the traders/managers making these videos have finally gone nuts.

In case you missed out on Hazard's follow-up, check out "In the Hamptons."

Finally, a business parody worth featuring. Several videos have laid claim to the throne, there was ... uhhhh ... hmmmm and uhhhhh ... okay; maybe this is the first laugh-out-loud business parody, and it comes from none other than William Henry Gates III of Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) from Redmond, WA:



You want some market predictions, here you go: Bill Gates is the next YouTube superstar!

Timothy Sykes writes the blog timothysykes.com, is a former hedge fund manager, the star of the TV show Wall Street Warriors and author of the book, An American Hedge Fund: How I Made $2 Million as a Stock Operator & Created a Hedge Fund

So far this year, online video is making a big mark. Just look at the Iowa caucuses, where voters posted their efforts on YouTube and then spread them across social networks like MySpace and Facebook. So what else might we see in 2008 for online video?

Well, I had a chance to interview Chase Norlin, who is the CEO of Pixsy (an online video company). According to him:

1. Expect to see continued enforcement by copyright holders over their online video assets; this will drive wider adoption of DRM and licensing platforms.

2. The online video ad category is growing but not at the pace to support the multitude of companies pursuing this market, and a shakeout is therefore likely.

3. More consolidation in the online video space and all other key internet categories.

4. Continued growth in the semipro video publishing market as content producers create and distribute their material in a more cost-effective manner than traditional outlets.

5. More unique video programming, created for the web, making its way to television.

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including The Complete M&A Handbook and The Edgar Online Guide to Decoding Financial Statements. He also operates DealProfiles.com.

With everyone and their mother trying to capitalize on the social networking fad, news came out recently that M.C. Hammer has a start-up to rival YouTube. This may seem like the bankrupt star is jumping on the bandwagon, but I actually think he may do well with his latest project.

"DanceJam.com. is scheduled to debut in mid-January, and will try to upstage Google, Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) 's YouTube and become the Internet's hub for sharing and watching dance videos. DanceJam then hopes to make money by grabbing a piece of the rapidly growing Internet advertising market, which is expected to rake in $27.5 billion in 2008, according to eMarketer."

I think this has potential because while YouTube is THE dominant player in this space, the fact that Hammer is specializing on one vertical makes it interesting. If he can get traction and become the site specifically for dance video sharing, this may just work. While we may think the shared content space is saturated, I think it's just in it's infancy. Wait until technological advances enable this type of sharing and social networking over the cellphone. That's just going to be a massive market. There are some Israeli start-ups already close to a product on this. The leader is Vringo.

With Hammer's name and celebrity, he may just be able to pull this off and take some significant traffic from YouTube.

Aaron Katsman is the lead Portfolio Manager and Managing Director of America Israel Investment Associates, LLC. and Senior Editor of IsraelNewsletter.com. Disclosure: Writer has no position long or short in any stock mentioned as of 1/2/7.

Got your portfolio rejiggered for 2008 yet? You might want to check out the latest edition of StockWatch: Between the Bells featuring BloggingStocks contributor Timothy Sykes. The author of An American Hedge Fund: How I Made $2 Million as a Stock Operator & Created a Hedge Fund recommends sectors to avoid and suggests stock plays for the coming year, including Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN), Baidu.com (NASDAQ: BIDU) and Evergreen Solar (NASDAQ: ESLR).

Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT) was early to the video download service, beginning to offer movies over a year ago. Now that service has been shut down, according to Reuters. The company says that Hewlett-Packard (NYSE:HPQ) is no longer offering the technology needed to run the operation, but that seems pretty thin.

Wal-Mart probably figured out that having a lot of customers online does not translate into successfully offering them new services. Most online research numbers show walmart.com as one of the top two or three e-commerce sites. But Wal-Mart customers are often not affluent and may not be ideal targets for a video download operation.

There is also the question of competition. Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) has its iTunes service, which is growing. Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX) has another, similar operation, and there are a dozen others.

People may buy clothes and household goods from a retail website, but that does not mean that the customers can be moved to digital downloads. "Would you like a movie with that shirt?" does not necessarily work.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.

Have you girded your stock portfolio against recession? You may want to take some tips from the latest edition of StockWatch: Between the Bells with Kevin Depew. The Minyanville.com executive editor offers some stock plays to head off a broad downturn in the market, and explains how large-cap companies are moving the market.

For 25 years, Steven Halpern, editor of TheStockAdvisors.com, has surveyed the leading financial newsletter advisors asking for their favorite stocks for the coming year. This article is one of 100+ ideas in the Best Stocks for 2008 report.

"My top speculative pick for 2008 is Harmonic (NASDAQ: HLIT), a beneficiary of the 'video changes everything' theme," says Rusty Szurek with Next Inning.

"Harmonic is the only broad-line pure-play video infrastructure company of meaningful size left standing in the market today. Its three primary markets are cable, satellite and the budding world of telecom video or, as it's often called, IPTV.

"There is a war raging between these three competing methods for delivering TV programming. Fortunately for Harmonic, the bullets of differentiation these three industries are using in this war are derived from products Harmonic sells.

"Satellite operators are focused on leveraging HD programming through their inherent bandwidth advantage, but need to overcome weaknesses in downloaded video-on-demand. Cable companies are leveraging their inherent advantages to deliver rich video-on-demand experiences, but must quickly overcome bandwidth limitations to keep pace with satellite's rapid deployment of HD programming.

'Tis the season to celebrate the spirit of giving and how better to do that than to give you a great stock pick – financial information provider TheStreet.com (NASDAQ: TSCM). This is my first pick in a series of picks that will highlight companies that are redefining their respective niches and, more importantly, whose stocks are breaking out to new highs.

Everybody's familiar with TheStreet.com; if you're into the stock market, you've definitely read, heard or watched co-founder Jim Cramer by now – he's even here on BloggingStocks. TheStreet.com has many other commentators, too, but c'mon, this is basically a one man show – and therein lies the risk. Then there's the potential for a bear market, which (as CNBC, owned by General Electric (NYSE: GE) has learned over the years) crushes profits. Wait a minute; I'm positive on this company, right? Yes. Here's the good news: this company has a lot going for it.

Revenue and profit growth have been steady in the mid-20% range, and the stock is fairly valued for that range. But TheStreet.com is also shifting its focus to take advantage of the interactive nature of the internet. In the coming months, it'll be launching a redesigned TheStreet.com (apparently, it's not even search engine optimized!), along with a new site, MainStreet.com. It also has been on an acquisition spree, buying Stockpickr.com (an interactive stock idea community with 125,000+ users) and Corsis (web marketing). Further acquisitions are guaranteed considering just last month the company more than doubled its near $40 million war chest by selling a minority stake to a private equity firm.