Want a safe bet in the mortgage world? Try the Amish originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 12 Dec 2008 17:42:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

This post is part of our Battle of the Brands feature. Let us know which brand you prefer, and check out other Battle of the Brands posts.

The heads of CNN, Fox News, and MSNBC along with their corporate masters at Time Warner Inc. (NYSE: TWX), News Corp. (NYSE: NWS) and General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE) must be giggling with delight at the prospect of the Democratic presidential race continuing past the hotly contested race in Pennsylvania.

After all, controversy means more viewers, which of course means more advertising dollars. They probably wish that the Democrats would beat each other up in 30-second TV spots every year, but alas Americans elect a president every four years, which is probably a good thing for everybody. Still, the cable networks are going to ride this gravy train for as long as they can.

Like anything else in cable news, picking a winner in this battle of the brands depends on how you look at it. Fox, the home of Bill O'Reilly and Shepherd Smith, attracted 1.89 million viewers during Monday's prime time, the most of any network, according to Nielsen data cited by TVNewser. CNN attracted 1.03 million on its main network and 572,000 on its Headline News channel, while MSNBC was watched by 676,000.

Before conservatives start declaring Fox the top cable network yet again, remember that statistic does not represent the whole picture. Cable news advertisers are most interested in viewers aged 25 to 54 who are most likely to be interested in buying mutual funds and other products that they are shilling. That's where things get interesting.

Continue reading Battle of the Brands: CNN vs. Fox (and MSNBC too)

Battle of the Brands: CNN vs. Fox (and MSNBC too) originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 01 May 2008 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

I was listening to NPR's Marketplace this morning only to be assaulted by a stunning statistic -- Bill Gross, the manager of the largest bond fund, $102 billion Pimco Total Return Fund, thinks that housing prices could fall 20%. Is Gross right? If so, what should you do?

Gross's assumption is that 2003 was the last time home prices were 'normal' -- based on lower interest rates and demographics. He believes that since then, prices have jumped above that normal value and will therefore drop 20% in order to get back to where they belong. (This is not just idle speculation: home prices in Irvine, CA have already sunk 17% since June.) Gross believes that despite the Fed's talk of inflation vigilance, such a drop in housing prices will lead the Fed to cut interest rates from 5.25% to 4% to cushion the economic pain.

I think Gross may be right. As I've noted here, inflation continues to be a problem. But the Fed seems to be counting on an economic slowdown to solve the problem. And if housing prices do fall 20%, the economic impact may cause the Fed's fear of deflation to exceed its fear of inflation -- due to excess productive capacity in the U.S. economy.

What you should do depends on your situation. If you were thinking of buying a house, wait two years so you can buy after prices have tumbled and sellers are more desperate. If you must sell, cut your price and get out immediately. If you can wait to sell -- I would suggest holding for at least a decade which is how long I think it will take for things to return to normal.

I think 2007 is the year when home owners will be jolted into the realization that trees do not grow to the sky and prices can indeed drop. What do you think?

Peter Cohan is President of Peter S. Cohan & Associates, a management consulting and venture capital firm. He also teaches management at Babson College and edits The Cohan Letter.

Will home prices fall 20%? originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 05 Apr 2007 12:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

NPR - not only on Sirius originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 10 Aug 2006 15:46:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Here are two facts for Apple shareholders to think about:

• 23% of Audible.com's sales were generated via the Apple iTunes Music Store.  That's $4.4 million.  Audible's current partnership as Apple's sole provider of spoken word audio to the Apple iTunes Music Store ends in 2007.
• NPR, reports that in the single month of April 6 million podcasts were grabbed from their site, 20 million since the media organization began podcasting last August.

What these two milestones for their respective companies show is just how ubiquitousness the iPod has become in digital media. It is not only a by-product of an emerging technology, but rather a vehicle aiding in driving change and technological evolution -- in this case, via spoken word audio and new media broadcasting alongside front running technologies such as satellite radio (XM, Sirius).

IPod audio books and podcasts booming originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 11 May 2006 15:08:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.