If you're watching the financial markets at all (and especially if you have US dollar investments), take a look at these articles. The first one is about how credit card delinquencies are at an all-time high in the US. This situation is blamed on the rising price of gas; not mentioned is that the minimum monthly credit card payment is going to double in October:

"As the tougher bankruptcy law approaches, it's feeding a 'perfect storm' of financial crisis as the credit card industry moves to impose higher minimum payments for card balances. Bank of America started the trend last year, and several other giants, including Discover, Citigroup and MBNA, have followed suit, raising monthly minimums from 2 or 2.5 percent of the balance to the 4 percent range.

This is NOT on TV. But it is important (to humans, not to dolphins)...few are aware of what this portends right now as Dubai Goes After Asian Gold Market. Few in the "West" are taking delivery of gold, preferring to play the virtual, musical chairs markets. Now Dubai is catching up, with the latest technology imported from the UK.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (UPI) -- Dubai is challenging Britain`s hold on the global gold bullion market, particularly its hold on India and China, the Economic Times reported Monday.

I keep needing to be reminded when I read stories like this.

Here are a few more articles for anyone pondering what's going to happen to the US dollar. The first one is from The People's Daily Online (China, English)

China recently announced a trade deficit of 8.4 billion yuan for the first quarter of this year, the first quarterly unfavorable balance of trade registered by the country in 17 years.

In simple terms, economists explain that a country with a favorable balance of trade is lending money for others, while one with an unfavorable balance of trade is borrowing money.

Article from Scotland.IndyMedia.org (English)

Article from Germany.IndyMedia.org (German) (also below)

Richard Stallman - Close Up, Edinburgh, 27.05.2004





St. IGNUcius - mit alter festplatte als Heiligenschein

A person doesn't devote his whole life to developing a new form of freedom without some pre-existing beliefs that drive him to do so. What drives you to spend so much time on software freedoms?

My daughter Diana sent me this email from Malta this morning. That's interesting in itself because although we have talked about money theory in the past, she hadn't read my posts here on A42.

This is a commercial press release found on LXer.com, but it has some interesting information and shows how much the tide is turning. If you want the contact information, follow the original link.

Another company joins the FLOSS revolution: Pingtel "today announced that the company is moving its entire Enterprise communications suite, including the company's award-wining SIPxchange IP PBX platform, into open source." According to this article from LinuxElectrons, the source code will be released on Pintel's site and their business will be changed to a subscription-based support/documentation model.

Story from Pro-Linux.de, or Babelfish version. "Vor allem spezialisierte Fachanwendungen von Nischenanbietern sucht man unter Linux vergebens...Laut Aussagen von Schwäbisch Hall, einen der bekanntesten Linux-Befürworter, verweigern »zwischen einem Drittel und der Hälfte« der Softwarelieferanten, die Gemeinde mit einer Linux-Lösung auszustatten."

The summary of the above sentences is that somewhere between 50-67% of specialized Linux programs cannot yet be supplied to a municipality which need them. As the software scene continues to change from Windows to Linux, with Europe and especially Germany in the lead, there are many holes in Linux specialty software availability which need to be filled. This provides an open window of opportunity for entrepreneurial activity in these areas. The trick is to find the right area of expertise, and the timing to market entry. The article points out that there is no problem for Internet, intranet, and office type software. The difficulties lie in certain sectors. Banking is also mentioned as an open field, which is also changing in Europe.

We often have armchair discussions about how FOSS can be useful for companies. And here is an example of how it can really work:

...There was only one more issue to discuss.