Making Money Fast

Submitted by Bo Peng

Making The Last Use Of Reserve Currency Status

I suspect many in the mainstream academia haven't realized what QE2 is.
It is the last use of the dollar's reserve currency status, intended or
otherwise.

In a fiat currency system, inflation should be the
only risk, because fighting deflation should be trivial -- just print
money. This is a fundamental advantage of a fiat system over the old
gold standard. Unfortunately for the US, the dollar's reserve status
means the geopolitical border is not the dam holding the water as in
other countries. As Fed pours in more water, it leaks right out to
lowlands (good investment destinations) all over the world. Given the
current economic prospects in the world, the result is that QE2 cannot
stoke inflation in the US, but causes very unwelcome interference in
exactly the other places in the world where inflation is a big concern.

It's small wonder all the growth EM economies are engaging in the low-grade currency war of capital control.
To them, this is a defensive war for survival against the invading army
of dollars. If the low-grade war proves insufficient, they would
escalate the defensive posture. They have to.

Another
consequence, intended or not, of QE2 + reserve status is that all growth
economies are under tremendous pressure of currency appreciation. Some
may be able to resist it and muddle through until an easier day; others
will have to cave in, therefore caught in the catch 22 of either raging
inflation or shrinking economy, or both. And, of all the growth
economies, China arguably has the most capacity and strongest political
will to resist appreciation. In such a scenario, if the intended target
of Fed's fury is China, as hinted not so subtly by Bernanke, "collateral damage" would once again be the main theme, as has been in all recent offensives launched by the US.

In
summary, Fed's dogged efforts in stoking inflation have caused and will
continue increasing the risk of bringing all growth EM economies to a
halt, significantly increasing policy risks in the rest of the world as
each country tries desperately to deal with the capital tsunami, and all
the while with huge doubt in whether it could reach its domestic goal
of stimulating employment and housing. In other words, Fed is screwing
the world for a slim chance of helping the US economy.

This is
emphatically NOT a moral criticism. But it does represent a significant
abandonment of the responsibilities on Fed's part as the issuer of world
reserve currency.

Let's go back a little in history. Right on
the heels of WWII victory, in 1944 US dictated Bretton Woods that
established the dollar as a proxy for gold in the free world. The
"proxy" part was only convenience, of course, as to be expected and
proven by Nixon in 1971. The arrangement made sense: the US would
provide security blanket, and the rest of free world would pay for it by
accepting and holding the green paper printed by the US. It's the same
idea as gangs collecting protection fee in NY, no cynicism intended.

Fast
forward to Berlin Wall collapse. Now the fundamental premises of the
dollar's reserve status were gone. Europeans quickly realized this
change and created the Euro; why should they continue paying for
protection when there's nothing to protect against? The US has made
numerous fantastic efforts in creating threats (by "creating" I don't
necessarily mean create; often times you just have to doze off for a
second and the enemy will help you out): perpetual terrorism, WMD in
Iraq, perpetual war in Iraq and Afghanistan/Pakistan, Iran, North Korea,
China, even Somali pirates (now it gets really pathetic). But none of
them could ever live up to the high expectations set by USSR.

After
10+ years of trying, it's become clear that this is futile. Nothing
works; none of those idiots could do it. But with the reserve currency
status comes its responsibilities. Win-win is BS-BS; there's no free lunch after all. The time has come to end Bretton Woods II.

Now Zoelick's surprise proposal of a new gold standard makes perfect sense.

With
QE2 the Fed is saying: Ah fuck it, you don't like USD as the reserve
currency? Well guess what? We don't like it, either. So let's drop it
and from now on it's every man on his own. Good luck.

Good luck everybody. We all need it.

Next time you hear an economist or denizen of Wall Street talk about how the "American economy" is doing these days, watch your wallet.

There are two American economies. One is on the mend. The other is still coming apart.

The one that's mending is America's Big Money economy. It's comprised of Wall Street traders, big investors, and top professionals and corporate executives.

The Big Money economy is doing well these days. That's partly thanks to Ben Bernanke, whose Fed is keeping interest rates near zero by printing money as fast as it dare. It's essentially free money to America's Big Money economy.

Free money can almost always be put to uses that create more of it. Big corporations are buying back their shares of stock, thereby boosting corporate earnings. They're merging and acquiring other companies.

And they're going abroad in search of customers.

Thanks to fast-growing China, India, and Brazil, giant American corporations are racking up sales. They're selling Asian and Latin American consumers everything from cars and cell phones to fancy Internet software and iPads. Forty percent of the S&P 500 biggest corporations are now doing more than 60 percent of their business abroad. And America's biggest investors are also going abroad to get a nice return on their money.



So don't worry about America's Big Money economy. According to a Wall Street Journal survey released Thursday, overall compensation in financial services will rise 5 percent this year, and employees in some businesses like asset management will get increases of 15 percent.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average is back to where it was before the Lehman bankruptcy filing triggered the financial collapse. And profits at America's largest corporations are heading upward.

But there's another American economy, and it's not on the mend. Call it the Average Worker economy.

Last Friday's jobs report showed 159,000 new private-sector jobs in October. That's better than previous months. But 125,000 net new jobs are needed just to keep up with the growth of the American labor force. So another way of expressing what happened to jobs in October is to say 24,000 were added over what we need just to stay even.

Yet the American economy has lost 15 million jobs since the start of the Great Recession. And if you add in the growth of the labor force -- including everyone too discouraged to look for a job -- we're down about 22 million.

Or to put it another way, we're still getting nowhere on jobs.

One out of eight breadwinners is still out of work. Most families in the Average Worker economy rely on two breadwinners. So if one out of eight isn't working, chances are high that family incomes are down compared to what they were three years ago.

And that means the bills aren't getting paid.

According to a recent Washington Post poll, more than half of all Americans -- 53 percent -- are worried about making their mortgage payments. This is many more than were worried two years ago, when the Great Recession hit bottom. Then, 37 percent expressed worry.

Delinquency rates on home loans are rising. Distressed sales are up as a percent of total sales.

Most people in the Average Worker economy own few shares of stock, if any. Their equity is in their homes. But with all the delinquencies and distressed sales, the housing market has a glut of homes for sale. As a result, home prices are still dropping. So the net worth of most Americans is still dropping.

And even though interest rates are falling, most people in the Average Worker economy can't refinance their homes. They can't get home equity loans. Banks don't want to lend to the Average Worker economy because people in it are considered bad credit risks. They still owe lots of money, their family incomes are down, and their net worth has fallen.

And according to the Reuters/University of Michigan survey of American consumers, expectations about personal finances are at an all time low.

Inhabitants of the Big Money economy are celebrating Republican wins last week. They figure financial regulations will be rolled back, environmental regulations will be canned, the Bush tax cut will be extended to the top 1 percent, and it will be harder for workers to form unions.

Inhabitants of the Average Worker economy aren't so sure. The economy has been so bad they're angry at politicians. They showed their anger at the ballot box. They took it out on incumbents.

But if nothing changes in the Average Worker economy, there will be hell to pay.

Robert Reich is the author of Aftershock: The Next Economy and America's Future, now in bookstores. This post originally appeared at RobertReich.org.

bench craft company per hole sizing

Willie Nelson Arrested for Pot Possession | Rolling Stone Music

Willie Nelson was arrested yesterday at a border patrol checkpoint in Sierra Blanca, Texas after agents reportedly found 6 ounces of marijuana on his ...

P!nk&#39;s Parents Heard Pregnancy <b>News</b> On The Radio - Starpulse.com

Pop star P!nk was devastated when details of her pregnancy leaked to the press early - because her parents heard the happy news on the radio. The singer is expecting her first child with husband...

Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » Open Thread: Onion <b>News</b> Network!

Angry Black Lady, in her recent post, pointed out how many of Fox's readers (not to mention employees) are humor-impaired. In response, commentor Trollhattan alerts us to the upcoming Onion News Network: ...

bench craft company spread covers

Willie Nelson Arrested for Pot Possession | Rolling Stone Music

Willie Nelson was arrested yesterday at a border patrol checkpoint in Sierra Blanca, Texas after agents reportedly found 6 ounces of marijuana on his ...

P!nk&#39;s Parents Heard Pregnancy <b>News</b> On The Radio - Starpulse.com

Pop star P!nk was devastated when details of her pregnancy leaked to the press early - because her parents heard the happy news on the radio. The singer is expecting her first child with husband...

Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » Open Thread: Onion <b>News</b> Network!

Angry Black Lady, in her recent post, pointed out how many of Fox's readers (not to mention employees) are humor-impaired. In response, commentor Trollhattan alerts us to the upcoming Onion News Network: ...

bench craft company camera tear

Submitted by Bo Peng

Making The Last Use Of Reserve Currency Status

I suspect many in the mainstream academia haven't realized what QE2 is.
It is the last use of the dollar's reserve currency status, intended or
otherwise.

In a fiat currency system, inflation should be the
only risk, because fighting deflation should be trivial -- just print
money. This is a fundamental advantage of a fiat system over the old
gold standard. Unfortunately for the US, the dollar's reserve status
means the geopolitical border is not the dam holding the water as in
other countries. As Fed pours in more water, it leaks right out to
lowlands (good investment destinations) all over the world. Given the
current economic prospects in the world, the result is that QE2 cannot
stoke inflation in the US, but causes very unwelcome interference in
exactly the other places in the world where inflation is a big concern.

It's small wonder all the growth EM economies are engaging in the low-grade currency war of capital control.
To them, this is a defensive war for survival against the invading army
of dollars. If the low-grade war proves insufficient, they would
escalate the defensive posture. They have to.

Another
consequence, intended or not, of QE2 + reserve status is that all growth
economies are under tremendous pressure of currency appreciation. Some
may be able to resist it and muddle through until an easier day; others
will have to cave in, therefore caught in the catch 22 of either raging
inflation or shrinking economy, or both. And, of all the growth
economies, China arguably has the most capacity and strongest political
will to resist appreciation. In such a scenario, if the intended target
of Fed's fury is China, as hinted not so subtly by Bernanke, "collateral damage" would once again be the main theme, as has been in all recent offensives launched by the US.

In
summary, Fed's dogged efforts in stoking inflation have caused and will
continue increasing the risk of bringing all growth EM economies to a
halt, significantly increasing policy risks in the rest of the world as
each country tries desperately to deal with the capital tsunami, and all
the while with huge doubt in whether it could reach its domestic goal
of stimulating employment and housing. In other words, Fed is screwing
the world for a slim chance of helping the US economy.

This is
emphatically NOT a moral criticism. But it does represent a significant
abandonment of the responsibilities on Fed's part as the issuer of world
reserve currency.

Let's go back a little in history. Right on
the heels of WWII victory, in 1944 US dictated Bretton Woods that
established the dollar as a proxy for gold in the free world. The
"proxy" part was only convenience, of course, as to be expected and
proven by Nixon in 1971. The arrangement made sense: the US would
provide security blanket, and the rest of free world would pay for it by
accepting and holding the green paper printed by the US. It's the same
idea as gangs collecting protection fee in NY, no cynicism intended.

Fast
forward to Berlin Wall collapse. Now the fundamental premises of the
dollar's reserve status were gone. Europeans quickly realized this
change and created the Euro; why should they continue paying for
protection when there's nothing to protect against? The US has made
numerous fantastic efforts in creating threats (by "creating" I don't
necessarily mean create; often times you just have to doze off for a
second and the enemy will help you out): perpetual terrorism, WMD in
Iraq, perpetual war in Iraq and Afghanistan/Pakistan, Iran, North Korea,
China, even Somali pirates (now it gets really pathetic). But none of
them could ever live up to the high expectations set by USSR.

After
10+ years of trying, it's become clear that this is futile. Nothing
works; none of those idiots could do it. But with the reserve currency
status comes its responsibilities. Win-win is BS-BS; there's no free lunch after all. The time has come to end Bretton Woods II.

Now Zoelick's surprise proposal of a new gold standard makes perfect sense.

With
QE2 the Fed is saying: Ah fuck it, you don't like USD as the reserve
currency? Well guess what? We don't like it, either. So let's drop it
and from now on it's every man on his own. Good luck.

Good luck everybody. We all need it.

Next time you hear an economist or denizen of Wall Street talk about how the "American economy" is doing these days, watch your wallet.

There are two American economies. One is on the mend. The other is still coming apart.

The one that's mending is America's Big Money economy. It's comprised of Wall Street traders, big investors, and top professionals and corporate executives.

The Big Money economy is doing well these days. That's partly thanks to Ben Bernanke, whose Fed is keeping interest rates near zero by printing money as fast as it dare. It's essentially free money to America's Big Money economy.

Free money can almost always be put to uses that create more of it. Big corporations are buying back their shares of stock, thereby boosting corporate earnings. They're merging and acquiring other companies.

And they're going abroad in search of customers.

Thanks to fast-growing China, India, and Brazil, giant American corporations are racking up sales. They're selling Asian and Latin American consumers everything from cars and cell phones to fancy Internet software and iPads. Forty percent of the S&P 500 biggest corporations are now doing more than 60 percent of their business abroad. And America's biggest investors are also going abroad to get a nice return on their money.



So don't worry about America's Big Money economy. According to a Wall Street Journal survey released Thursday, overall compensation in financial services will rise 5 percent this year, and employees in some businesses like asset management will get increases of 15 percent.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average is back to where it was before the Lehman bankruptcy filing triggered the financial collapse. And profits at America's largest corporations are heading upward.

But there's another American economy, and it's not on the mend. Call it the Average Worker economy.

Last Friday's jobs report showed 159,000 new private-sector jobs in October. That's better than previous months. But 125,000 net new jobs are needed just to keep up with the growth of the American labor force. So another way of expressing what happened to jobs in October is to say 24,000 were added over what we need just to stay even.

Yet the American economy has lost 15 million jobs since the start of the Great Recession. And if you add in the growth of the labor force -- including everyone too discouraged to look for a job -- we're down about 22 million.

Or to put it another way, we're still getting nowhere on jobs.

One out of eight breadwinners is still out of work. Most families in the Average Worker economy rely on two breadwinners. So if one out of eight isn't working, chances are high that family incomes are down compared to what they were three years ago.

And that means the bills aren't getting paid.

According to a recent Washington Post poll, more than half of all Americans -- 53 percent -- are worried about making their mortgage payments. This is many more than were worried two years ago, when the Great Recession hit bottom. Then, 37 percent expressed worry.

Delinquency rates on home loans are rising. Distressed sales are up as a percent of total sales.

Most people in the Average Worker economy own few shares of stock, if any. Their equity is in their homes. But with all the delinquencies and distressed sales, the housing market has a glut of homes for sale. As a result, home prices are still dropping. So the net worth of most Americans is still dropping.

And even though interest rates are falling, most people in the Average Worker economy can't refinance their homes. They can't get home equity loans. Banks don't want to lend to the Average Worker economy because people in it are considered bad credit risks. They still owe lots of money, their family incomes are down, and their net worth has fallen.

And according to the Reuters/University of Michigan survey of American consumers, expectations about personal finances are at an all time low.

Inhabitants of the Big Money economy are celebrating Republican wins last week. They figure financial regulations will be rolled back, environmental regulations will be canned, the Bush tax cut will be extended to the top 1 percent, and it will be harder for workers to form unions.

Inhabitants of the Average Worker economy aren't so sure. The economy has been so bad they're angry at politicians. They showed their anger at the ballot box. They took it out on incumbents.

But if nothing changes in the Average Worker economy, there will be hell to pay.

Robert Reich is the author of Aftershock: The Next Economy and America's Future, now in bookstores. This post originally appeared at RobertReich.org.

bench craft company management

Willie Nelson Arrested for Pot Possession | Rolling Stone Music

Willie Nelson was arrested yesterday at a border patrol checkpoint in Sierra Blanca, Texas after agents reportedly found 6 ounces of marijuana on his ...

P!nk&#39;s Parents Heard Pregnancy <b>News</b> On The Radio - Starpulse.com

Pop star P!nk was devastated when details of her pregnancy leaked to the press early - because her parents heard the happy news on the radio. The singer is expecting her first child with husband...

Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » Open Thread: Onion <b>News</b> Network!

Angry Black Lady, in her recent post, pointed out how many of Fox's readers (not to mention employees) are humor-impaired. In response, commentor Trollhattan alerts us to the upcoming Onion News Network: ...

bench craft company itliano

Willie Nelson Arrested for Pot Possession | Rolling Stone Music

Willie Nelson was arrested yesterday at a border patrol checkpoint in Sierra Blanca, Texas after agents reportedly found 6 ounces of marijuana on his ...

P!nk&#39;s Parents Heard Pregnancy <b>News</b> On The Radio - Starpulse.com

Pop star P!nk was devastated when details of her pregnancy leaked to the press early - because her parents heard the happy news on the radio. The singer is expecting her first child with husband...

Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » Open Thread: Onion <b>News</b> Network!

Angry Black Lady, in her recent post, pointed out how many of Fox's readers (not to mention employees) are humor-impaired. In response, commentor Trollhattan alerts us to the upcoming Onion News Network: ...

bench craft company click here for service

Willie Nelson Arrested for Pot Possession | Rolling Stone Music

Willie Nelson was arrested yesterday at a border patrol checkpoint in Sierra Blanca, Texas after agents reportedly found 6 ounces of marijuana on his ...

P!nk&#39;s Parents Heard Pregnancy <b>News</b> On The Radio - Starpulse.com

Pop star P!nk was devastated when details of her pregnancy leaked to the press early - because her parents heard the happy news on the radio. The singer is expecting her first child with husband...

Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » Open Thread: Onion <b>News</b> Network!

Angry Black Lady, in her recent post, pointed out how many of Fox's readers (not to mention employees) are humor-impaired. In response, commentor Trollhattan alerts us to the upcoming Onion News Network: ...

bench craft company camera tear

Making Money Easy

bench craft company rip off

bench craft company rip off

The Tools of Ignorance: Friday <b>News</b> - Pinstripe Alley

A big offer, the big man's snub, a little trade, and a call for a dose of sanity.

Photos Implant &#39;Memories&#39; of Fictional <b>News</b> Events | Smart <b>...</b>

Participants in a study were far more likely to “remember” a fictional news event when a headline was accompanied by a tangentially relevant photograph.

Good <b>news</b>: James Bond and Indiana Jones hooking up to fight aliens <b>...</b>

Good news: James Bond and Indiana Jones hooking up to fight aliens.

bench craft company rip off

bench craft company rip off

The Tools of Ignorance: Friday <b>News</b> - Pinstripe Alley

A big offer, the big man's snub, a little trade, and a call for a dose of sanity.

Photos Implant &#39;Memories&#39; of Fictional <b>News</b> Events | Smart <b>...</b>

Participants in a study were far more likely to “remember” a fictional news event when a headline was accompanied by a tangentially relevant photograph.

Good <b>news</b>: James Bond and Indiana Jones hooking up to fight aliens <b>...</b>

Good news: James Bond and Indiana Jones hooking up to fight aliens.

bench craft company rip off

The Tools of Ignorance: Friday <b>News</b> - Pinstripe Alley

A big offer, the big man's snub, a little trade, and a call for a dose of sanity.

Photos Implant &#39;Memories&#39; of Fictional <b>News</b> Events | Smart <b>...</b>

Participants in a study were far more likely to “remember” a fictional news event when a headline was accompanied by a tangentially relevant photograph.

Good <b>news</b>: James Bond and Indiana Jones hooking up to fight aliens <b>...</b>

Good news: James Bond and Indiana Jones hooking up to fight aliens.

bench craft company rip off

The Tools of Ignorance: Friday <b>News</b> - Pinstripe Alley

A big offer, the big man's snub, a little trade, and a call for a dose of sanity.

Photos Implant &#39;Memories&#39; of Fictional <b>News</b> Events | Smart <b>...</b>

Participants in a study were far more likely to “remember” a fictional news event when a headline was accompanied by a tangentially relevant photograph.

Good <b>news</b>: James Bond and Indiana Jones hooking up to fight aliens <b>...</b>

Good news: James Bond and Indiana Jones hooking up to fight aliens.

bench craft company rip off

The Tools of Ignorance: Friday <b>News</b> - Pinstripe Alley

A big offer, the big man's snub, a little trade, and a call for a dose of sanity.

Photos Implant &#39;Memories&#39; of Fictional <b>News</b> Events | Smart <b>...</b>

Participants in a study were far more likely to “remember” a fictional news event when a headline was accompanied by a tangentially relevant photograph.

Good <b>news</b>: James Bond and Indiana Jones hooking up to fight aliens <b>...</b>

Good news: James Bond and Indiana Jones hooking up to fight aliens.

bench craft company rip off

bench craft company rip off
bench craft company rip off

The Tools of Ignorance: Friday <b>News</b> - Pinstripe Alley

A big offer, the big man's snub, a little trade, and a call for a dose of sanity.

Photos Implant &#39;Memories&#39; of Fictional <b>News</b> Events | Smart <b>...</b>

Participants in a study were far more likely to “remember” a fictional news event when a headline was accompanied by a tangentially relevant photograph.

Good <b>news</b>: James Bond and Indiana Jones hooking up to fight aliens <b>...</b>

Good news: James Bond and Indiana Jones hooking up to fight aliens.

bench craft company rip off

bench craft company rip off

The Tools of Ignorance: Friday <b>News</b> - Pinstripe Alley

A big offer, the big man's snub, a little trade, and a call for a dose of sanity.

Photos Implant &#39;Memories&#39; of Fictional <b>News</b> Events | Smart <b>...</b>

Participants in a study were far more likely to “remember” a fictional news event when a headline was accompanied by a tangentially relevant photograph.

Good <b>news</b>: James Bond and Indiana Jones hooking up to fight aliens <b>...</b>

Good news: James Bond and Indiana Jones hooking up to fight aliens.

bench craft company rip off

The Tools of Ignorance: Friday <b>News</b> - Pinstripe Alley

A big offer, the big man's snub, a little trade, and a call for a dose of sanity.

Photos Implant &#39;Memories&#39; of Fictional <b>News</b> Events | Smart <b>...</b>

Participants in a study were far more likely to “remember” a fictional news event when a headline was accompanied by a tangentially relevant photograph.

Good <b>news</b>: James Bond and Indiana Jones hooking up to fight aliens <b>...</b>

Good news: James Bond and Indiana Jones hooking up to fight aliens.

bench craft company rip off

One and a Half Cheers for Fox <b>News</b>, David Henderson | EconLog <b>...</b>

Senator Jay Rockefeller made a splash Wednesday by suggesting that the Federal Communications Commission shut down the Fox News Channel and MSNBC. My guess is that he mentioned MSNBC because he wanted to sound equally oppressive of both ...

Rivet returning to lineup - Sabres Edge - Blogs - The Buffalo <b>News</b>

The Buffalo News updated every day with news from Buffalo, New York. Links to national and business news, entertainment listings, recipes, sports teams, classified ads, death notices.

Fox <b>News</b> Decoded - Swampland - TIME.com

What do you do to amp ratings after you've won a big victory at the polls and the public has wandered off to start celebrating the holidays? At Fox News, the answer is obvious: you up the ante.

bench craft company rip off

GT5 installs while played - Sony PlayStation 3 <b>News</b> - Page 1 <b>...</b>

Read our PlayStation 3 news of GT5 installs while played - Sony.

Rivet returning to lineup - Sabres Edge - Blogs - The Buffalo <b>News</b>

The Buffalo News updated every day with news from Buffalo, New York. Links to national and business news, entertainment listings, recipes, sports teams, classified ads, death notices.

Fox <b>News</b> President: Jon Stewart Is Crazy And NPR Is Run By Nazis <b>...</b>

The second part of The Daily Beast's interview with Fox News president Roger Ailes is out today, and Ailes' encore doesn't disappoint. He responded harshly to Jon Stewart's pervasive criticism of cable news and had some tough, ...

bench craft company rip off

EA launching Facebook golf game PC <b>News</b> - Page 1 | Eurogamer.net

Read our PC news of EA launching Facebook golf game.

Taiwanese <b>News</b> Channel Animates Royal Engagement! | PerezHilton.com

Royal Wedding Fever has hit Taiwan! Check out their animated (because we wouldn´t want it any other way!) interpretation of Prince William´s engagement to Kate Middleton (above)! Sooo...

GT5 installs while played - Sony PlayStation 3 <b>News</b> - Page 1 <b>...</b>

Read our PlayStation 3 news of GT5 installs while played - Sony.

bench craft company rip off

Who's Making Money

Pedro Sorrentino is the first international student to attend Boulder Digital Works, a graduate school based in Boulder, Colorado that exists to build the next generation of digital professionals. Prior to moving to the States, he was the head of marketing and PR for Mediamind (Nasdaq: MDMD) in São Paulo, Brazil, his homeland.

Although startups and Madison Avenue agencies are perceived to have little in common, coffee shop-hopping entrepreneurs and modern “Don Drapers” actually share more characteristics than you might think, and they can learn a lot from one another.

The most valuable assets for startups are time and team. When working on a big idea with little money and a short time to make it real, Mark Zuckerberg’s corporate mantra “move fast and break things” is particularly a propos. Getting user feedback and making (and then fixing) mistakes as quickly as possible can help startups avoid bigger problems and bring home the bacon in the long run.

It seems that now, more than ever, it’s time for “Mad Men” everywhere to heed the advice of the entrepreneurs setting up shop in basements and coffee shops around the world.

Here are five lessons Madison Avenue can learn from startups. Add your own thoughts in the comments below.

1. Be T-Shaped

Big multinational advertising behemoths that hit their stride before the rise of the web often struggle to deliver high-quality digital and interactive work. In many cases, a hesitance to move forward or a lack of technical knowledge within a company’s talent base are at the root of this.

“Startups are most likely to have a small team. Consider eight people and a situation where four or five of them are programmers. They are not just going to do technical stuff. There’s a demand to have a broader line of thought, since there’s no one else around to do the work,” says John Keehler, principal at ClickHere, the digital division for The Richards Group.

Marketers should strive to be T-shaped professionals. This concept was born inside the creative agency Ideo and is about professionals with versatility and the ability to think like a designer or a programmer, even if you work with marketing.

T-shaped professionals have a broad view of things. In startups, this is a reality, but when it comes to big agencies, people tend to be divided in silos.

Advice for Madison Avenue: It’s important to have a wide vision and understanding of everyone who’s involved with the campaign that you’re working on. This versatility saves time and brings more ideas to the table.

2. Test, Fail and Learn

Brent Daily is the COO and co-founder of RoundPegg, a Boulder-based TechStars startup that provides online HR solutions for discovering professional personalities. He thinks that a good startup culture is one that believes “it’s OK to make mistakes and be a spectacular failure.” On the other hand, he agrees that agencies can’t easily bring this acceptance of failure into their ecosystems — after all, if they fail, their clients also fail and that can represent a huge loss of money.

Agencies should consider testing marketing campaigns and products on the web as “beta tests.” Getting feedback from users via the web is a low cost way to get a feel for how the community will take to ideas. After optimizing based on user feedback, campaigns would then be better prepared to launch on other mediums, such as TV or print. When it comes to digital, users tend to enjoy sharing their opinions and giving solid feedback. “There are so many places to go and test advertising rather than doing expensive focus groups, that the result is usually a pretty low-cost test bid for them,” says Daily.

One good example of open innovation is the startup UserVoice. The service positions itself as “customer feedback 2.0″ and allows companies to ask for feedback on an organized web platform. Perhaps some day more companies will substitute the traditional focus groups for this lower cost web alternative.

Advice for Madison Avenue: Before starting a huge ad campaign and spending millions of dollars on media, use the web as your test arena and get quick feedback from your customers.

3. Leverage PR 2.0

PR 2.0 is the art of using social tools to reach and communicate with key stakeholders. There used to be a time when public relations was all about relationships with journalists and sending out press releases. Taking clients to lunch, picking up the check and smiling was the way to go. This method still exists, but is on its way out.

Public relations is now about the art of dealing with, well, the public. Journalists are still very important, but nothing beats the credibility of your customers, and they are probably already talking about your product. The question is: Are you listening?

Fortunately, there’s less and less space for companies with bad products to succeed by deploying exceptional marketing. We as consumers just don’t accept that anymore. Product quality is the true advantage — attaching that strength to a sound PR strategy enables companies to listen to what consumers are saying, engage them and build brand awareness.

Startups take advantage out of this. When a startup offers a great solution with its product, normally there’s an engaged early adopter community ready to give free feedback. Agencies should take advantage of it, too. What better way to improve your business and its product than getting direct feedback from your core users? Initiatives like Starbucks’s customer feedback and idea generation site mystarbucksidea.com are the right way to go.

Advice for Madison Avenue: Remember that having a great product is key. But listen and allow your early adopters to influence the next meeting with your client’s R&D department.

4. Bootstrap It

If a startup can run for months (or years) without without getting funded, Mad Men can dabble in testing and running campaigns without buying media. Agencies could learn a lot by testing out the old startup method of bootstrapping; that is, getting by without external help and being cautious with expenses.

Startups, for example, use free social tools like Twitterclass="blippr-nobr">Twitter, Facebookclass="blippr-nobr">Facebook and YouTubeclass="blippr-nobr">YouTube all the time to save money and still reach large, influential, highly-targeted audiences. Increasingly, agencies and large advertisers are beginning to catch on and test them out; the Old Spice guy campaign is a very good example of this.

As that campaign proved, a Twitter account and some YouTube videos can go a long way. What’s better is that using these tools is cost effective, even if you count time invested. We know that the Old Spice guy videos were not a simple production, but this campaign was comparatively inexpensive because starting with social media is much cheaper (and oftentimes more powerful) than a TV commercial.

Advice for Madison Avenue: Remember that you can do more with less when you have a good idea and a strong plan for execution.

5. Open Up to Feedback

Good startups spend a lot of time crowdsourcing opinions and getting feedback from their communities and mentors in order to improve their products. Agencies, on the other hand, usually won’t share copy or ideas with one another or their communities until a campaign is ready to launch.

Some agencies though, are finding that it doesn’t hurt to ask others for creative or production input — that’s what Victor & Spoils is all about. Based in Boulder, Colorado, the ad agency calls itself “the world’s first creative (ad) agency built on crowdsourcing principles.”

John Windsor, Victor & Spoils CEO and former VP of strategy and innovation at CP+B, understands how disruptive new technologies can be, especially when they relate to the ad world. “We’re moving from a world of scarcity to a world of abundance. The rise of the curator class has a new generator of social creative/digital directors,” says Windsor.

This is a company that has tapped into the startup principles and made its business faster, global (it has people from all around the world giving input) and without the legacy issues that you see on Madison Avenue. As time passes, we can draw a line between businesses that embrace change and the ones that fear new ways of doing things.

Advice for Madison Avenue: Embrace change and don’t fear the unknown. Others can help your cause if you give them the right opportunity.

More Business Resources from Mashable:

- What’s the Value in a Brand Name?/> - HOW TO: Run Location-Based Google Ads/> - HOW TO: Get the Most From a Small Business Social Media Presence/> - Top 5 Qualities to Look for in Startup Job Candidates/> - Why the Best Online Marketing May Be Headed Offline

Images courtesy of MadMenYourself & class='blippr-nobr'>Flickrclass="blippr-nobr">Flickr, jolien_vallins

For more Startups coverage:

class="f-el">class="cov-twit">Follow Mashable Startupsclass="s-el">class="cov-rss">Subscribe to the Startups channelclass="f-el">class="cov-fb">Become a Fan on Facebookclass="s-el">class="cov-apple">Download our free apps for iPhone and iPad

After a few years paying the bills and making money in straight comedies, Ice Cube is going back to some interesting work. He’s working right now with The Messenger director Oren Moverman in Rampart, the film about the ’90s LAPD scandal, in which he plays a cop. And now the founding member of N.W.A and former ‘Fuck thePolice’ MC may end up playing another cop, this time for his Three Kings director David O. Russell.

Their untitled project is a potential franchise kickstart, and it resides at New Line, according to Deadline. Ice Cube’s character is described as “a plainclothes detective who’s quick on the trigger” in an article that quickly compares him to Dirty Harry. The site says this is planned as an R-rated drama and “thematically a throwback to those 70s revenge films.”

David O. Russell concocted the story pitch with New Line’s Toby Emmerich, and then they took it to Ice Cube. But he probably won’t write the first draft — Deadline says Mr. Russell will produce but that he “might co-write” it after New Line brings in another writer to get the project going while the director puts the last touches on The Fighter and gets to work on Old St. Louis and Uncharted.

bench craft company

Arrowheadlines: Chiefs <b>News</b> 11/18 - Arrowhead Pride

Good morning Chiefs fans! A somewhat shorter version of Arrowheadlines this morning. Not a lot out there. Enjoy your Kansas City Chiefs news. Oh, and don't forget about football tonight (Go Bones!).

Senator Rockefeller Wants FCC To &#39;End&#39; Fox <b>News</b>, MSNBC

During a committee meeting on Wednesday about television retransmission consent, Senator Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) veered away from his prepared remarks to take aim at both Fox News and MSNBC: More than just retransmission consent ails our ...

Movie <b>News</b> Quick Hits: &#39;Spider-Man&#39; Casting, 3D &#39;Hovercars&#39; and <b>...</b>

Forget watching 'Dawn of the Dead' for tips on how to survive the inevitable zombiepocalypse, it's all about LEGO zombie-killing vehicles. - Less.

bench craft company

Pedro Sorrentino is the first international student to attend Boulder Digital Works, a graduate school based in Boulder, Colorado that exists to build the next generation of digital professionals. Prior to moving to the States, he was the head of marketing and PR for Mediamind (Nasdaq: MDMD) in São Paulo, Brazil, his homeland.

Although startups and Madison Avenue agencies are perceived to have little in common, coffee shop-hopping entrepreneurs and modern “Don Drapers” actually share more characteristics than you might think, and they can learn a lot from one another.

The most valuable assets for startups are time and team. When working on a big idea with little money and a short time to make it real, Mark Zuckerberg’s corporate mantra “move fast and break things” is particularly a propos. Getting user feedback and making (and then fixing) mistakes as quickly as possible can help startups avoid bigger problems and bring home the bacon in the long run.

It seems that now, more than ever, it’s time for “Mad Men” everywhere to heed the advice of the entrepreneurs setting up shop in basements and coffee shops around the world.

Here are five lessons Madison Avenue can learn from startups. Add your own thoughts in the comments below.

1. Be T-Shaped

Big multinational advertising behemoths that hit their stride before the rise of the web often struggle to deliver high-quality digital and interactive work. In many cases, a hesitance to move forward or a lack of technical knowledge within a company’s talent base are at the root of this.

“Startups are most likely to have a small team. Consider eight people and a situation where four or five of them are programmers. They are not just going to do technical stuff. There’s a demand to have a broader line of thought, since there’s no one else around to do the work,” says John Keehler, principal at ClickHere, the digital division for The Richards Group.

Marketers should strive to be T-shaped professionals. This concept was born inside the creative agency Ideo and is about professionals with versatility and the ability to think like a designer or a programmer, even if you work with marketing.

T-shaped professionals have a broad view of things. In startups, this is a reality, but when it comes to big agencies, people tend to be divided in silos.

Advice for Madison Avenue: It’s important to have a wide vision and understanding of everyone who’s involved with the campaign that you’re working on. This versatility saves time and brings more ideas to the table.

2. Test, Fail and Learn

Brent Daily is the COO and co-founder of RoundPegg, a Boulder-based TechStars startup that provides online HR solutions for discovering professional personalities. He thinks that a good startup culture is one that believes “it’s OK to make mistakes and be a spectacular failure.” On the other hand, he agrees that agencies can’t easily bring this acceptance of failure into their ecosystems — after all, if they fail, their clients also fail and that can represent a huge loss of money.

Agencies should consider testing marketing campaigns and products on the web as “beta tests.” Getting feedback from users via the web is a low cost way to get a feel for how the community will take to ideas. After optimizing based on user feedback, campaigns would then be better prepared to launch on other mediums, such as TV or print. When it comes to digital, users tend to enjoy sharing their opinions and giving solid feedback. “There are so many places to go and test advertising rather than doing expensive focus groups, that the result is usually a pretty low-cost test bid for them,” says Daily.

One good example of open innovation is the startup UserVoice. The service positions itself as “customer feedback 2.0″ and allows companies to ask for feedback on an organized web platform. Perhaps some day more companies will substitute the traditional focus groups for this lower cost web alternative.

Advice for Madison Avenue: Before starting a huge ad campaign and spending millions of dollars on media, use the web as your test arena and get quick feedback from your customers.

3. Leverage PR 2.0

PR 2.0 is the art of using social tools to reach and communicate with key stakeholders. There used to be a time when public relations was all about relationships with journalists and sending out press releases. Taking clients to lunch, picking up the check and smiling was the way to go. This method still exists, but is on its way out.

Public relations is now about the art of dealing with, well, the public. Journalists are still very important, but nothing beats the credibility of your customers, and they are probably already talking about your product. The question is: Are you listening?

Fortunately, there’s less and less space for companies with bad products to succeed by deploying exceptional marketing. We as consumers just don’t accept that anymore. Product quality is the true advantage — attaching that strength to a sound PR strategy enables companies to listen to what consumers are saying, engage them and build brand awareness.

Startups take advantage out of this. When a startup offers a great solution with its product, normally there’s an engaged early adopter community ready to give free feedback. Agencies should take advantage of it, too. What better way to improve your business and its product than getting direct feedback from your core users? Initiatives like Starbucks’s customer feedback and idea generation site mystarbucksidea.com are the right way to go.

Advice for Madison Avenue: Remember that having a great product is key. But listen and allow your early adopters to influence the next meeting with your client’s R&D department.

4. Bootstrap It

If a startup can run for months (or years) without without getting funded, Mad Men can dabble in testing and running campaigns without buying media. Agencies could learn a lot by testing out the old startup method of bootstrapping; that is, getting by without external help and being cautious with expenses.

Startups, for example, use free social tools like Twitterclass="blippr-nobr">Twitter, Facebookclass="blippr-nobr">Facebook and YouTubeclass="blippr-nobr">YouTube all the time to save money and still reach large, influential, highly-targeted audiences. Increasingly, agencies and large advertisers are beginning to catch on and test them out; the Old Spice guy campaign is a very good example of this.

As that campaign proved, a Twitter account and some YouTube videos can go a long way. What’s better is that using these tools is cost effective, even if you count time invested. We know that the Old Spice guy videos were not a simple production, but this campaign was comparatively inexpensive because starting with social media is much cheaper (and oftentimes more powerful) than a TV commercial.

Advice for Madison Avenue: Remember that you can do more with less when you have a good idea and a strong plan for execution.

5. Open Up to Feedback

Good startups spend a lot of time crowdsourcing opinions and getting feedback from their communities and mentors in order to improve their products. Agencies, on the other hand, usually won’t share copy or ideas with one another or their communities until a campaign is ready to launch.

Some agencies though, are finding that it doesn’t hurt to ask others for creative or production input — that’s what Victor & Spoils is all about. Based in Boulder, Colorado, the ad agency calls itself “the world’s first creative (ad) agency built on crowdsourcing principles.”

John Windsor, Victor & Spoils CEO and former VP of strategy and innovation at CP+B, understands how disruptive new technologies can be, especially when they relate to the ad world. “We’re moving from a world of scarcity to a world of abundance. The rise of the curator class has a new generator of social creative/digital directors,” says Windsor.

This is a company that has tapped into the startup principles and made its business faster, global (it has people from all around the world giving input) and without the legacy issues that you see on Madison Avenue. As time passes, we can draw a line between businesses that embrace change and the ones that fear new ways of doing things.

Advice for Madison Avenue: Embrace change and don’t fear the unknown. Others can help your cause if you give them the right opportunity.

More Business Resources from Mashable:

- What’s the Value in a Brand Name?/> - HOW TO: Run Location-Based Google Ads/> - HOW TO: Get the Most From a Small Business Social Media Presence/> - Top 5 Qualities to Look for in Startup Job Candidates/> - Why the Best Online Marketing May Be Headed Offline

Images courtesy of MadMenYourself & class='blippr-nobr'>Flickrclass="blippr-nobr">Flickr, jolien_vallins

For more Startups coverage:

class="f-el">class="cov-twit">Follow Mashable Startupsclass="s-el">class="cov-rss">Subscribe to the Startups channelclass="f-el">class="cov-fb">Become a Fan on Facebookclass="s-el">class="cov-apple">Download our free apps for iPhone and iPad

After a few years paying the bills and making money in straight comedies, Ice Cube is going back to some interesting work. He’s working right now with The Messenger director Oren Moverman in Rampart, the film about the ’90s LAPD scandal, in which he plays a cop. And now the founding member of N.W.A and former ‘Fuck thePolice’ MC may end up playing another cop, this time for his Three Kings director David O. Russell.

Their untitled project is a potential franchise kickstart, and it resides at New Line, according to Deadline. Ice Cube’s character is described as “a plainclothes detective who’s quick on the trigger” in an article that quickly compares him to Dirty Harry. The site says this is planned as an R-rated drama and “thematically a throwback to those 70s revenge films.”

David O. Russell concocted the story pitch with New Line’s Toby Emmerich, and then they took it to Ice Cube. But he probably won’t write the first draft — Deadline says Mr. Russell will produce but that he “might co-write” it after New Line brings in another writer to get the project going while the director puts the last touches on The Fighter and gets to work on Old St. Louis and Uncharted.

bench craft company>

Arrowheadlines: Chiefs <b>News</b> 11/18 - Arrowhead Pride

Good morning Chiefs fans! A somewhat shorter version of Arrowheadlines this morning. Not a lot out there. Enjoy your Kansas City Chiefs news. Oh, and don't forget about football tonight (Go Bones!).

Senator Rockefeller Wants FCC To &#39;End&#39; Fox <b>News</b>, MSNBC

During a committee meeting on Wednesday about television retransmission consent, Senator Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) veered away from his prepared remarks to take aim at both Fox News and MSNBC: More than just retransmission consent ails our ...

Movie <b>News</b> Quick Hits: &#39;Spider-Man&#39; Casting, 3D &#39;Hovercars&#39; and <b>...</b>

Forget watching 'Dawn of the Dead' for tips on how to survive the inevitable zombiepocalypse, it's all about LEGO zombie-killing vehicles. - Less.

bench craft company

bench craft company

bench craft company

Arrowheadlines: Chiefs <b>News</b> 11/18 - Arrowhead Pride

Good morning Chiefs fans! A somewhat shorter version of Arrowheadlines this morning. Not a lot out there. Enjoy your Kansas City Chiefs news. Oh, and don't forget about football tonight (Go Bones!).

Senator Rockefeller Wants FCC To &#39;End&#39; Fox <b>News</b>, MSNBC

During a committee meeting on Wednesday about television retransmission consent, Senator Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) veered away from his prepared remarks to take aim at both Fox News and MSNBC: More than just retransmission consent ails our ...

Movie <b>News</b> Quick Hits: &#39;Spider-Man&#39; Casting, 3D &#39;Hovercars&#39; and <b>...</b>

Forget watching 'Dawn of the Dead' for tips on how to survive the inevitable zombiepocalypse, it's all about LEGO zombie-killing vehicles. - Less.

bench craft company

Pedro Sorrentino is the first international student to attend Boulder Digital Works, a graduate school based in Boulder, Colorado that exists to build the next generation of digital professionals. Prior to moving to the States, he was the head of marketing and PR for Mediamind (Nasdaq: MDMD) in São Paulo, Brazil, his homeland.

Although startups and Madison Avenue agencies are perceived to have little in common, coffee shop-hopping entrepreneurs and modern “Don Drapers” actually share more characteristics than you might think, and they can learn a lot from one another.

The most valuable assets for startups are time and team. When working on a big idea with little money and a short time to make it real, Mark Zuckerberg’s corporate mantra “move fast and break things” is particularly a propos. Getting user feedback and making (and then fixing) mistakes as quickly as possible can help startups avoid bigger problems and bring home the bacon in the long run.

It seems that now, more than ever, it’s time for “Mad Men” everywhere to heed the advice of the entrepreneurs setting up shop in basements and coffee shops around the world.

Here are five lessons Madison Avenue can learn from startups. Add your own thoughts in the comments below.

1. Be T-Shaped

Big multinational advertising behemoths that hit their stride before the rise of the web often struggle to deliver high-quality digital and interactive work. In many cases, a hesitance to move forward or a lack of technical knowledge within a company’s talent base are at the root of this.

“Startups are most likely to have a small team. Consider eight people and a situation where four or five of them are programmers. They are not just going to do technical stuff. There’s a demand to have a broader line of thought, since there’s no one else around to do the work,” says John Keehler, principal at ClickHere, the digital division for The Richards Group.

Marketers should strive to be T-shaped professionals. This concept was born inside the creative agency Ideo and is about professionals with versatility and the ability to think like a designer or a programmer, even if you work with marketing.

T-shaped professionals have a broad view of things. In startups, this is a reality, but when it comes to big agencies, people tend to be divided in silos.

Advice for Madison Avenue: It’s important to have a wide vision and understanding of everyone who’s involved with the campaign that you’re working on. This versatility saves time and brings more ideas to the table.

2. Test, Fail and Learn

Brent Daily is the COO and co-founder of RoundPegg, a Boulder-based TechStars startup that provides online HR solutions for discovering professional personalities. He thinks that a good startup culture is one that believes “it’s OK to make mistakes and be a spectacular failure.” On the other hand, he agrees that agencies can’t easily bring this acceptance of failure into their ecosystems — after all, if they fail, their clients also fail and that can represent a huge loss of money.

Agencies should consider testing marketing campaigns and products on the web as “beta tests.” Getting feedback from users via the web is a low cost way to get a feel for how the community will take to ideas. After optimizing based on user feedback, campaigns would then be better prepared to launch on other mediums, such as TV or print. When it comes to digital, users tend to enjoy sharing their opinions and giving solid feedback. “There are so many places to go and test advertising rather than doing expensive focus groups, that the result is usually a pretty low-cost test bid for them,” says Daily.

One good example of open innovation is the startup UserVoice. The service positions itself as “customer feedback 2.0″ and allows companies to ask for feedback on an organized web platform. Perhaps some day more companies will substitute the traditional focus groups for this lower cost web alternative.

Advice for Madison Avenue: Before starting a huge ad campaign and spending millions of dollars on media, use the web as your test arena and get quick feedback from your customers.

3. Leverage PR 2.0

PR 2.0 is the art of using social tools to reach and communicate with key stakeholders. There used to be a time when public relations was all about relationships with journalists and sending out press releases. Taking clients to lunch, picking up the check and smiling was the way to go. This method still exists, but is on its way out.

Public relations is now about the art of dealing with, well, the public. Journalists are still very important, but nothing beats the credibility of your customers, and they are probably already talking about your product. The question is: Are you listening?

Fortunately, there’s less and less space for companies with bad products to succeed by deploying exceptional marketing. We as consumers just don’t accept that anymore. Product quality is the true advantage — attaching that strength to a sound PR strategy enables companies to listen to what consumers are saying, engage them and build brand awareness.

Startups take advantage out of this. When a startup offers a great solution with its product, normally there’s an engaged early adopter community ready to give free feedback. Agencies should take advantage of it, too. What better way to improve your business and its product than getting direct feedback from your core users? Initiatives like Starbucks’s customer feedback and idea generation site mystarbucksidea.com are the right way to go.

Advice for Madison Avenue: Remember that having a great product is key. But listen and allow your early adopters to influence the next meeting with your client’s R&D department.

4. Bootstrap It

If a startup can run for months (or years) without without getting funded, Mad Men can dabble in testing and running campaigns without buying media. Agencies could learn a lot by testing out the old startup method of bootstrapping; that is, getting by without external help and being cautious with expenses.

Startups, for example, use free social tools like Twitterclass="blippr-nobr">Twitter, Facebookclass="blippr-nobr">Facebook and YouTubeclass="blippr-nobr">YouTube all the time to save money and still reach large, influential, highly-targeted audiences. Increasingly, agencies and large advertisers are beginning to catch on and test them out; the Old Spice guy campaign is a very good example of this.

As that campaign proved, a Twitter account and some YouTube videos can go a long way. What’s better is that using these tools is cost effective, even if you count time invested. We know that the Old Spice guy videos were not a simple production, but this campaign was comparatively inexpensive because starting with social media is much cheaper (and oftentimes more powerful) than a TV commercial.

Advice for Madison Avenue: Remember that you can do more with less when you have a good idea and a strong plan for execution.

5. Open Up to Feedback

Good startups spend a lot of time crowdsourcing opinions and getting feedback from their communities and mentors in order to improve their products. Agencies, on the other hand, usually won’t share copy or ideas with one another or their communities until a campaign is ready to launch.

Some agencies though, are finding that it doesn’t hurt to ask others for creative or production input — that’s what Victor & Spoils is all about. Based in Boulder, Colorado, the ad agency calls itself “the world’s first creative (ad) agency built on crowdsourcing principles.”

John Windsor, Victor & Spoils CEO and former VP of strategy and innovation at CP+B, understands how disruptive new technologies can be, especially when they relate to the ad world. “We’re moving from a world of scarcity to a world of abundance. The rise of the curator class has a new generator of social creative/digital directors,” says Windsor.

This is a company that has tapped into the startup principles and made its business faster, global (it has people from all around the world giving input) and without the legacy issues that you see on Madison Avenue. As time passes, we can draw a line between businesses that embrace change and the ones that fear new ways of doing things.

Advice for Madison Avenue: Embrace change and don’t fear the unknown. Others can help your cause if you give them the right opportunity.

More Business Resources from Mashable:

- What’s the Value in a Brand Name?/> - HOW TO: Run Location-Based Google Ads/> - HOW TO: Get the Most From a Small Business Social Media Presence/> - Top 5 Qualities to Look for in Startup Job Candidates/> - Why the Best Online Marketing May Be Headed Offline

Images courtesy of MadMenYourself & class='blippr-nobr'>Flickrclass="blippr-nobr">Flickr, jolien_vallins

For more Startups coverage:

class="f-el">class="cov-twit">Follow Mashable Startupsclass="s-el">class="cov-rss">Subscribe to the Startups channelclass="f-el">class="cov-fb">Become a Fan on Facebookclass="s-el">class="cov-apple">Download our free apps for iPhone and iPad

After a few years paying the bills and making money in straight comedies, Ice Cube is going back to some interesting work. He’s working right now with The Messenger director Oren Moverman in Rampart, the film about the ’90s LAPD scandal, in which he plays a cop. And now the founding member of N.W.A and former ‘Fuck thePolice’ MC may end up playing another cop, this time for his Three Kings director David O. Russell.

Their untitled project is a potential franchise kickstart, and it resides at New Line, according to Deadline. Ice Cube’s character is described as “a plainclothes detective who’s quick on the trigger” in an article that quickly compares him to Dirty Harry. The site says this is planned as an R-rated drama and “thematically a throwback to those 70s revenge films.”

David O. Russell concocted the story pitch with New Line’s Toby Emmerich, and then they took it to Ice Cube. But he probably won’t write the first draft — Deadline says Mr. Russell will produce but that he “might co-write” it after New Line brings in another writer to get the project going while the director puts the last touches on The Fighter and gets to work on Old St. Louis and Uncharted.

bench craft company

bench craft company

Arrowheadlines: Chiefs <b>News</b> 11/18 - Arrowhead Pride

Good morning Chiefs fans! A somewhat shorter version of Arrowheadlines this morning. Not a lot out there. Enjoy your Kansas City Chiefs news. Oh, and don't forget about football tonight (Go Bones!).

Senator Rockefeller Wants FCC To &#39;End&#39; Fox <b>News</b>, MSNBC

During a committee meeting on Wednesday about television retransmission consent, Senator Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) veered away from his prepared remarks to take aim at both Fox News and MSNBC: More than just retransmission consent ails our ...

Movie <b>News</b> Quick Hits: &#39;Spider-Man&#39; Casting, 3D &#39;Hovercars&#39; and <b>...</b>

Forget watching 'Dawn of the Dead' for tips on how to survive the inevitable zombiepocalypse, it's all about LEGO zombie-killing vehicles. - Less.

bench craft company

bench craft company

Arrowheadlines: Chiefs <b>News</b> 11/18 - Arrowhead Pride

Good morning Chiefs fans! A somewhat shorter version of Arrowheadlines this morning. Not a lot out there. Enjoy your Kansas City Chiefs news. Oh, and don't forget about football tonight (Go Bones!).

Senator Rockefeller Wants FCC To &#39;End&#39; Fox <b>News</b>, MSNBC

During a committee meeting on Wednesday about television retransmission consent, Senator Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) veered away from his prepared remarks to take aim at both Fox News and MSNBC: More than just retransmission consent ails our ...

Movie <b>News</b> Quick Hits: &#39;Spider-Man&#39; Casting, 3D &#39;Hovercars&#39; and <b>...</b>

Forget watching 'Dawn of the Dead' for tips on how to survive the inevitable zombiepocalypse, it's all about LEGO zombie-killing vehicles. - Less.

bench craft company

Arrowheadlines: Chiefs <b>News</b> 11/18 - Arrowhead Pride

Good morning Chiefs fans! A somewhat shorter version of Arrowheadlines this morning. Not a lot out there. Enjoy your Kansas City Chiefs news. Oh, and don't forget about football tonight (Go Bones!).

Senator Rockefeller Wants FCC To &#39;End&#39; Fox <b>News</b>, MSNBC

During a committee meeting on Wednesday about television retransmission consent, Senator Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) veered away from his prepared remarks to take aim at both Fox News and MSNBC: More than just retransmission consent ails our ...

Movie <b>News</b> Quick Hits: &#39;Spider-Man&#39; Casting, 3D &#39;Hovercars&#39; and <b>...</b>

Forget watching 'Dawn of the Dead' for tips on how to survive the inevitable zombiepocalypse, it's all about LEGO zombie-killing vehicles. - Less.

bench craft company

Arrowheadlines: Chiefs <b>News</b> 11/18 - Arrowhead Pride

Good morning Chiefs fans! A somewhat shorter version of Arrowheadlines this morning. Not a lot out there. Enjoy your Kansas City Chiefs news. Oh, and don't forget about football tonight (Go Bones!).

Senator Rockefeller Wants FCC To &#39;End&#39; Fox <b>News</b>, MSNBC

During a committee meeting on Wednesday about television retransmission consent, Senator Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) veered away from his prepared remarks to take aim at both Fox News and MSNBC: More than just retransmission consent ails our ...

Movie <b>News</b> Quick Hits: &#39;Spider-Man&#39; Casting, 3D &#39;Hovercars&#39; and <b>...</b>

Forget watching 'Dawn of the Dead' for tips on how to survive the inevitable zombiepocalypse, it's all about LEGO zombie-killing vehicles. - Less.

bench craft company bench craft company
bench craft company

bench craft company
bench craft company

Arrowheadlines: Chiefs <b>News</b> 11/18 - Arrowhead Pride

Good morning Chiefs fans! A somewhat shorter version of Arrowheadlines this morning. Not a lot out there. Enjoy your Kansas City Chiefs news. Oh, and don't forget about football tonight (Go Bones!).

Senator Rockefeller Wants FCC To &#39;End&#39; Fox <b>News</b>, MSNBC

During a committee meeting on Wednesday about television retransmission consent, Senator Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) veered away from his prepared remarks to take aim at both Fox News and MSNBC: More than just retransmission consent ails our ...

Movie <b>News</b> Quick Hits: &#39;Spider-Man&#39; Casting, 3D &#39;Hovercars&#39; and <b>...</b>

Forget watching 'Dawn of the Dead' for tips on how to survive the inevitable zombiepocalypse, it's all about LEGO zombie-killing vehicles. - Less.

benchcraft company portland or

About Making Money

#31
China Wholesaler Town -

Submitted by jywhy999 on Sat, 11/13/2010 - 2:44am.

China Wholesaler Town - China's most viable wholesale supplier of promotional gifts, Wholesale Umbrella you can customize your own logo, no matter anywhere in the world! Wholesale Lighter Successful corporations realize Wholesale Camera that well-planned and well-executed employee incentives play an important Wholesale Speakersrole in helping reach objectives, Wholesale Razor building company morale, Wholesale Jewelryand rewarding both the employees and the valued customers.Wholesale Socks With promotional and novelty gift items, China Wholesale Town Wholesale Furniture International became a specialist in providing branding services. Recorder Pen We proud ourselves in being fast and accurate. Wholesale Scarf We can put your logo on all the products from our OEM / ODM ection. Wholesale Chair Most of our items can be decorated with logo or personalized with personal engraving. ladies Briefcase We delivering to virtually every country in the world Computer Desk. Our warehouse and office

are staffed by a young team of Chinese and Western staff Vacuum Storage Bag . Our professional staff will contact you as soon as possible to provide you with the best quality service through the mail and the telephone.Wholesale Briefcase We can provide customers around the world with many well-produced goods and good service,Wholesale Toys because of many years of

experience in friendly and Wholesale Stress Ball cooperative relations with many Chinese factories and suppliers. Wholesale Fan Here you can find all the most popular, Wholesale Clocks stylish, high-quality goods. Wholesale Sweatshirt China Suppliers, Custom Logo Imprinted, Wholesale Wallet Promotional Products, Promotional Gifts, Promotional Items, Waterproof Waist Pack Wholesale Suppliers, Wholesale Merchandise, Dropship Wholesale, Wholesale Accessories, Wholesale Directory China Wholesale Town - Most Reliable China Wholesale Suppliers, Wholesale Ashtray Custom Logo Imprinted Promotional Gifts, Promotional Items Products, Giveaway Material!Wholesale Pen If you want to start your business with some daily used items, Wholesale Pillow here is the site you need to check. It offeres many products like Bottle Opener, T-Shirts, Carabiner Wholesale Frisbee and Umbrella, Pen, Wholesale Carabiner ect. Under each product section, there are some detailes classification. For Wholesale Keychain, there are Coffee Mug, Water Bottle. For Wholesale Socks and Wholesale USB Products, there are also some detailed classifications. Wholesale Waterproof Case China Wholesale Town - China's most viable wholesale supplier of Promotional Gifts, you can customize your own logo, no matter anywhere in the world! China Wholesale Town - Most Reliable China Wholesale Suppliers, Custom Logo Imprinted Promotional Gifts, Promotional Products Items, Giveaway Material! If you want to start your business with some daily used items, Wholesale Kitchenware here is the site you need to check. It offeres many products like Wholesale Pom Poms, T-Shirts, Carabiner Wholesale First Aid Kit and Umbrella, Pen, Bottle Opener ect. Under each product section, there are some detailes classification. For Wholesale Cup, there are Coffee Mug, Water Bottle. For Wholesale Clap Hands and Wholesale Water Bottle, there are also some detailed classifications. China Wholesale Town - China's most viable wholesale supplier of Promotional Gifts, you can customize your own logo, no matter anywhere in the world! Wholesale Apron Top China Wholesaler-Buy Wholesale Promotional Gifts Promotional Products from China Our main products are consumer electronics, gifts and souvenirs, Wholesale Lanyard, health care products, beauty products, Wholesale Carabiner, automobile parts, household items, plastic products, metal products, Wholesale Mug, kitchen supplies, stationery, sports goods, toys, Wholesale Christmas Gifts, watches, leather products, etc. Tips for Choosing Sports Wholesale Halloween Gift; One Way To Protect Your Device - Wholesale Waterproof Case; Introduce The Wholesale Lanyard For You; Customized Cheaply Prices Promotional Caps-Wholesale Bag; And the Wholesale Clothes Rack also gradually become recognized best promotional product; Buying A Gift For your Friend Who Likes Reading-Wholesale Golf Products; Customized Printed Wholesale Vase

Personalization/Engraving Services

Some items, such as Crystal Award and Metal Coaster and Metal Money Clip and Metal Luggage Tag and Metal Keychain etc, crystal material or metal material products. Camera Tripod require a plate to be added for engraving. Wholesale Clothing These plates can added as your request.Bean Bag

Debossing/Embossing

Debossing services are offered on leather items. Such as Leather Wallet and Leather Mouse Pad and Conference Folder and Leather Name Card Holder etc, Debossing is a method that depresses yor company name or logo down into the surface of a leather item. Eye Mask Wholesale EarphoneThis method displays your company logo through the leather goods without color, Water Guncommonly known as "blind debossing". Wholesale MatWe use this method to ensure quality of your goods. Over time, Wholesale Keyboardcolor that is added to leather will fade or flake away.



Screen/Silk Screen PrintingWholesale Jacket

Screen or silkcreen printing is popular for our non-textile products. Poncho RaincoatThis screening can be either single or multicolored. such as Pen and and USB Flash Drive and Tape Measure and Mug and Water Bottle and  Umbrella and Inflatable etc, plastic material, leather material, metal material, Wholesale Knifesilicone material, rubber material, Wholesale Candletextile material are available.



EmbroideryWholesale Mouse

At Corporate Snobs we pride ourselves in offering some of the best choices of customization in the industry.Wholesale Calculator

Our embroidery options are available for most of our monogrammed Tote Bag  and  Apron and Cap  and Embroidery Coaster and Towel etc textile products.　

Decoration styles vary per item. PVC Vase Each decoration style will be listed in the product page. Wholesale Mp3For various products, Wholesale Tie decoration options are available for customer to choose type of engraving desired. BB GunsThis will be noted as a choice with the item.Wholesale Earphone Promotional Products, Promotional Gifts, Electric Shaver  Promotional items from China, Toy Guns Custom-made gift Wholesale, Promotional Giveaway Material! Sport Watch Wholesale Merchandise, Safety Belt Wholesale Suppliers, Wholesale Dropship, Door Mat Wholesale Distributors, Wholesale Accessories, Wholesale Watch Wholesale Directory, Discount Wholesaler Flexi Vase

• Login or register to post comments

As you may or may not have already heard, Life and Style reported last week that an insider (most likely Gary's friend Jordan) spilled the beans about the Teen Mom salaries. Your first thought might be, "Who cares?" But some people do seem to care a lot, admittedly including me. The question is, why?

Many applaud the show for being a hip pregnancy deterrent. Others insist that it doesn't paint a dismal enough picture. Those who believe it does a disservice by making young motherhood look less than hellish often cite their belief that the only thing saving the cast from public housing is the bags of money MTV is showering upon them. But really, are the girls' lives much different now than they were when 16 and Pregnant first aired? Even if we believe that MTV has turned Teen Mom from a docu-series to a scripted drama (frankly I don't think any of the cast are good enough actors to pull that off), they have stayed true to the girls' roots. If the show never existed, would any of them be in dramatically different living situations than they are now? I doubt it.

MTV works hard to portray the Teen Mom cast as broke and struggling to provide for their babies. Catelynn, despite placing her baby for adoption a year ago, is still stuck at home in a dysfunctional and emotionally abusive family. Amber and Gary seem to stay in their volatile relationship for no other reason than having nowhere else to go. Farrah works rough hours and needs her late boyfriend's SSI to help support her daughter. Maci seems to do alright but that could be attributed to her parents' assistance, though she still worries about moving out of their house and paying the rent on a new apartment.

None of their situations strike me as unrealistic. I was a teen mom, I know quite a few teen moms, and I've seen all of these scenarios (and more) play out in real life. What does seem odd to me is that they are living the way they are if they're getting $60,000 paychecks. Compared to the other top MTV stars' salaries, $60,000 a season is chump change. But it's a respectable full-time yearly salary for an American family, especially in the areas where the girls live. They could live comfortably on that particularly with their additional sources of income, which actually makes a lot of people angry.

Recently I spoke to a young woman ("T") who backed out of 16 and Pregnant's second season. She wanted to go on the show because she felt she could be a positive role model to other young mothers. But MTV producers wanted to focus a lot more on her struggles with bulimia, her less than stellar relationship with her mother, and her 20-year-old boyfriend's religious family who kept her a secret and pushed her to place the baby for adoption. She was offered $2,500 during filming and an additional $2,500 when her episode aired. If the father of the baby was involved, he would get $1,000. "Hardly 'rich', but enough to help with the expenses and leftover medical bills," she told me.

I asked her how she feels about the show now that she's a mother:

The show mostly shows the hardships in my opinion, the moments all mothers reach at some point when they are sleep deprived, frustrated, and just need a break, but it is looked on more harshly because of the fact these are teen moms and not 30-something-year-old women.

When I watched season 1 of 16&Pregnant, it psyched me out beyond all belief. They showed the girls tired, run down, emotional, and struggling with everything. I was so worried I could not handle it, because I literally thought my life was going to be made up of only those frazzled moments shown on TV, but when my daughter was born I was surprised to find it was not as bad as I thought. Sure, it was frustrating, tiring, and there were times I wanted to rip my hair out, but it was not like I had hyped it up to be.

And that is the crux of the issue.

People must care about the money because they're searching for an explanation. They want to know why the girls on Teen Mom are not destitute and seething with regret. Every season during the Dr. Drew finale wrap-up, I get the feeling he's doing PR damage control by constantly reiterating, "You love your child but life would be sooo much easier if you didn't get pregnant, right?" Sure, each of them has her own problems (some bigger than others) but they are not "teenage mom" problems so much as they are personality flaws or unfortunate family situations that anyone at any age could be strapped with. Still, because of our assumptions about young mothers, the only way their lives make sense is if they have enough money that the hardships don't matter as much. But a lot of young moms who aren't on TV say the same thing: It's difficult, but it's worth it. It's not as bad as they thought it was going to be. That makes people very uncomfortable.

I asked T what she or her friends think about the claim that MTV glamorizing motherhood and whether she thinks the show curbs pregnancy:

Whether or not it is a deterrent is relative to who watches it. Someone might see it and think "wow I don't want that, I better be more careful!" and others might see how amazing pregnancy and birth is and think they want it NOW. It really depends on the person.

It occurred to me that's the bottom line. We debate whether MTV is encouraging or discouraging pregnancy. When it boils down to it, I'm not sure they're not really doing either. MTV is presenting us with a relatively straightforward narrative about the lives of young women who often have little in common with each other besides giving birth. We're filling in the rest all by ourselves.

Ask people their opinion about the show and you can infer a lot about their politics. The comments on the episode recaps I've been doing for MomHouston.com are often shocking in the depth of hatred and disgust pointed at sexually active young women. Even self-proclaimed feminists who should be supportive of all forms of reproductive freedom chime in with pearls of wisdom like, "The answer to all teenage pregnancy is abortion!" 16 and Pregnant and Teen Mom are an endless festival of slut-shaming served up as an educational tool.

Teenage pregnancy sits squarely in the intersection of our most pathological American obsessions: female sexuality, public aid, race, religion. Teens moms are an easy target, because who is going to defend them? MTV tapped into a gold mine with this one -- a topic so emotionally fraught and politically intense that hardly anyone can resist offering their opinion about it. Like the proverbial train wreck, once you see the show you can't drag your eyes away. We care about it because we like scapegoats. We care about it because we like to pat ourselves on the back when our prejudice is validated and enjoy the indignation when it's not.

So next time we as a nation sound off about "babies having babies" and how much money they are or aren't making for doing so, let's question whether we are really interested in social reform or if we are playing into cultural attitudes about age, gender, sex, and socioeconomic status. That, I think, could be the enduring lesson we salvage from the Teen Mom phenomenon.

bench craft company scam

Gray Matter sneaks out early PC <b>News</b> - Page 1 | Eurogamer.net

Strange news, considering the game's publisher announced last month that the title's UK release had been pushed back to February 2011 due to "the need for more polishing of the game." Gray Matter was first announced way back in 2003 for ...

Denver Broncos <b>News</b>: Horse Tracks - 11/17/10 - Mile High Report

Your Daily Cup of Orange and Blue Coffee .. Horse Tracks.

First Solar <b>News</b>, Rumors: CIGS, Mercury, Tellurium : Greentech Media

First the news... Apollo Solar Energy (OTC: ASOE), a vertically integrated miner, refiner and producer of high purity tellurium (Te), announced a five-year purchase contract between Apollo Solar Energy and a major worldwide solar panel ...

benchcraft company scam

#31
China Wholesaler Town -

Submitted by jywhy999 on Sat, 11/13/2010 - 2:44am.

China Wholesaler Town - China's most viable wholesale supplier of promotional gifts, Wholesale Umbrella you can customize your own logo, no matter anywhere in the world! Wholesale Lighter Successful corporations realize Wholesale Camera that well-planned and well-executed employee incentives play an important Wholesale Speakersrole in helping reach objectives, Wholesale Razor building company morale, Wholesale Jewelryand rewarding both the employees and the valued customers.Wholesale Socks With promotional and novelty gift items, China Wholesale Town Wholesale Furniture International became a specialist in providing branding services. Recorder Pen We proud ourselves in being fast and accurate. Wholesale Scarf We can put your logo on all the products from our OEM / ODM ection. Wholesale Chair Most of our items can be decorated with logo or personalized with personal engraving. ladies Briefcase We delivering to virtually every country in the world Computer Desk. Our warehouse and office

are staffed by a young team of Chinese and Western staff Vacuum Storage Bag . Our professional staff will contact you as soon as possible to provide you with the best quality service through the mail and the telephone.Wholesale Briefcase We can provide customers around the world with many well-produced goods and good service,Wholesale Toys because of many years of

experience in friendly and Wholesale Stress Ball cooperative relations with many Chinese factories and suppliers. Wholesale Fan Here you can find all the most popular, Wholesale Clocks stylish, high-quality goods. Wholesale Sweatshirt China Suppliers, Custom Logo Imprinted, Wholesale Wallet Promotional Products, Promotional Gifts, Promotional Items, Waterproof Waist Pack Wholesale Suppliers, Wholesale Merchandise, Dropship Wholesale, Wholesale Accessories, Wholesale Directory China Wholesale Town - Most Reliable China Wholesale Suppliers, Wholesale Ashtray Custom Logo Imprinted Promotional Gifts, Promotional Items Products, Giveaway Material!Wholesale Pen If you want to start your business with some daily used items, Wholesale Pillow here is the site you need to check. It offeres many products like Bottle Opener, T-Shirts, Carabiner Wholesale Frisbee and Umbrella, Pen, Wholesale Carabiner ect. Under each product section, there are some detailes classification. For Wholesale Keychain, there are Coffee Mug, Water Bottle. For Wholesale Socks and Wholesale USB Products, there are also some detailed classifications. Wholesale Waterproof Case China Wholesale Town - China's most viable wholesale supplier of Promotional Gifts, you can customize your own logo, no matter anywhere in the world! China Wholesale Town - Most Reliable China Wholesale Suppliers, Custom Logo Imprinted Promotional Gifts, Promotional Products Items, Giveaway Material! If you want to start your business with some daily used items, Wholesale Kitchenware here is the site you need to check. It offeres many products like Wholesale Pom Poms, T-Shirts, Carabiner Wholesale First Aid Kit and Umbrella, Pen, Bottle Opener ect. Under each product section, there are some detailes classification. For Wholesale Cup, there are Coffee Mug, Water Bottle. For Wholesale Clap Hands and Wholesale Water Bottle, there are also some detailed classifications. China Wholesale Town - China's most viable wholesale supplier of Promotional Gifts, you can customize your own logo, no matter anywhere in the world! Wholesale Apron Top China Wholesaler-Buy Wholesale Promotional Gifts Promotional Products from China Our main products are consumer electronics, gifts and souvenirs, Wholesale Lanyard, health care products, beauty products, Wholesale Carabiner, automobile parts, household items, plastic products, metal products, Wholesale Mug, kitchen supplies, stationery, sports goods, toys, Wholesale Christmas Gifts, watches, leather products, etc. Tips for Choosing Sports Wholesale Halloween Gift; One Way To Protect Your Device - Wholesale Waterproof Case; Introduce The Wholesale Lanyard For You; Customized Cheaply Prices Promotional Caps-Wholesale Bag; And the Wholesale Clothes Rack also gradually become recognized best promotional product; Buying A Gift For your Friend Who Likes Reading-Wholesale Golf Products; Customized Printed Wholesale Vase

Personalization/Engraving Services

Some items, such as Crystal Award and Metal Coaster and Metal Money Clip and Metal Luggage Tag and Metal Keychain etc, crystal material or metal material products. Camera Tripod require a plate to be added for engraving. Wholesale Clothing These plates can added as your request.Bean Bag

Debossing/Embossing

Debossing services are offered on leather items. Such as Leather Wallet and Leather Mouse Pad and Conference Folder and Leather Name Card Holder etc, Debossing is a method that depresses yor company name or logo down into the surface of a leather item. Eye Mask Wholesale EarphoneThis method displays your company logo through the leather goods without color, Water Guncommonly known as "blind debossing". Wholesale MatWe use this method to ensure quality of your goods. Over time, Wholesale Keyboardcolor that is added to leather will fade or flake away.



Screen/Silk Screen PrintingWholesale Jacket

Screen or silkcreen printing is popular for our non-textile products. Poncho RaincoatThis screening can be either single or multicolored. such as Pen and and USB Flash Drive and Tape Measure and Mug and Water Bottle and  Umbrella and Inflatable etc, plastic material, leather material, metal material, Wholesale Knifesilicone material, rubber material, Wholesale Candletextile material are available.



EmbroideryWholesale Mouse

At Corporate Snobs we pride ourselves in offering some of the best choices of customization in the industry.Wholesale Calculator

Our embroidery options are available for most of our monogrammed Tote Bag  and  Apron and Cap  and Embroidery Coaster and Towel etc textile products.　

Decoration styles vary per item. PVC Vase Each decoration style will be listed in the product page. Wholesale Mp3For various products, Wholesale Tie decoration options are available for customer to choose type of engraving desired. BB GunsThis will be noted as a choice with the item.Wholesale Earphone Promotional Products, Promotional Gifts, Electric Shaver  Promotional items from China, Toy Guns Custom-made gift Wholesale, Promotional Giveaway Material! Sport Watch Wholesale Merchandise, Safety Belt Wholesale Suppliers, Wholesale Dropship, Door Mat Wholesale Distributors, Wholesale Accessories, Wholesale Watch Wholesale Directory, Discount Wholesaler Flexi Vase

• Login or register to post comments

As you may or may not have already heard, Life and Style reported last week that an insider (most likely Gary's friend Jordan) spilled the beans about the Teen Mom salaries. Your first thought might be, "Who cares?" But some people do seem to care a lot, admittedly including me. The question is, why?

Many applaud the show for being a hip pregnancy deterrent. Others insist that it doesn't paint a dismal enough picture. Those who believe it does a disservice by making young motherhood look less than hellish often cite their belief that the only thing saving the cast from public housing is the bags of money MTV is showering upon them. But really, are the girls' lives much different now than they were when 16 and Pregnant first aired? Even if we believe that MTV has turned Teen Mom from a docu-series to a scripted drama (frankly I don't think any of the cast are good enough actors to pull that off), they have stayed true to the girls' roots. If the show never existed, would any of them be in dramatically different living situations than they are now? I doubt it.

MTV works hard to portray the Teen Mom cast as broke and struggling to provide for their babies. Catelynn, despite placing her baby for adoption a year ago, is still stuck at home in a dysfunctional and emotionally abusive family. Amber and Gary seem to stay in their volatile relationship for no other reason than having nowhere else to go. Farrah works rough hours and needs her late boyfriend's SSI to help support her daughter. Maci seems to do alright but that could be attributed to her parents' assistance, though she still worries about moving out of their house and paying the rent on a new apartment.

None of their situations strike me as unrealistic. I was a teen mom, I know quite a few teen moms, and I've seen all of these scenarios (and more) play out in real life. What does seem odd to me is that they are living the way they are if they're getting $60,000 paychecks. Compared to the other top MTV stars' salaries, $60,000 a season is chump change. But it's a respectable full-time yearly salary for an American family, especially in the areas where the girls live. They could live comfortably on that particularly with their additional sources of income, which actually makes a lot of people angry.

Recently I spoke to a young woman ("T") who backed out of 16 and Pregnant's second season. She wanted to go on the show because she felt she could be a positive role model to other young mothers. But MTV producers wanted to focus a lot more on her struggles with bulimia, her less than stellar relationship with her mother, and her 20-year-old boyfriend's religious family who kept her a secret and pushed her to place the baby for adoption. She was offered $2,500 during filming and an additional $2,500 when her episode aired. If the father of the baby was involved, he would get $1,000. "Hardly 'rich', but enough to help with the expenses and leftover medical bills," she told me.

I asked her how she feels about the show now that she's a mother:

The show mostly shows the hardships in my opinion, the moments all mothers reach at some point when they are sleep deprived, frustrated, and just need a break, but it is looked on more harshly because of the fact these are teen moms and not 30-something-year-old women.

When I watched season 1 of 16&Pregnant, it psyched me out beyond all belief. They showed the girls tired, run down, emotional, and struggling with everything. I was so worried I could not handle it, because I literally thought my life was going to be made up of only those frazzled moments shown on TV, but when my daughter was born I was surprised to find it was not as bad as I thought. Sure, it was frustrating, tiring, and there were times I wanted to rip my hair out, but it was not like I had hyped it up to be.

And that is the crux of the issue.

People must care about the money because they're searching for an explanation. They want to know why the girls on Teen Mom are not destitute and seething with regret. Every season during the Dr. Drew finale wrap-up, I get the feeling he's doing PR damage control by constantly reiterating, "You love your child but life would be sooo much easier if you didn't get pregnant, right?" Sure, each of them has her own problems (some bigger than others) but they are not "teenage mom" problems so much as they are personality flaws or unfortunate family situations that anyone at any age could be strapped with. Still, because of our assumptions about young mothers, the only way their lives make sense is if they have enough money that the hardships don't matter as much. But a lot of young moms who aren't on TV say the same thing: It's difficult, but it's worth it. It's not as bad as they thought it was going to be. That makes people very uncomfortable.

I asked T what she or her friends think about the claim that MTV glamorizing motherhood and whether she thinks the show curbs pregnancy:

Whether or not it is a deterrent is relative to who watches it. Someone might see it and think "wow I don't want that, I better be more careful!" and others might see how amazing pregnancy and birth is and think they want it NOW. It really depends on the person.

It occurred to me that's the bottom line. We debate whether MTV is encouraging or discouraging pregnancy. When it boils down to it, I'm not sure they're not really doing either. MTV is presenting us with a relatively straightforward narrative about the lives of young women who often have little in common with each other besides giving birth. We're filling in the rest all by ourselves.

Ask people their opinion about the show and you can infer a lot about their politics. The comments on the episode recaps I've been doing for MomHouston.com are often shocking in the depth of hatred and disgust pointed at sexually active young women. Even self-proclaimed feminists who should be supportive of all forms of reproductive freedom chime in with pearls of wisdom like, "The answer to all teenage pregnancy is abortion!" 16 and Pregnant and Teen Mom are an endless festival of slut-shaming served up as an educational tool.

Teenage pregnancy sits squarely in the intersection of our most pathological American obsessions: female sexuality, public aid, race, religion. Teens moms are an easy target, because who is going to defend them? MTV tapped into a gold mine with this one -- a topic so emotionally fraught and politically intense that hardly anyone can resist offering their opinion about it. Like the proverbial train wreck, once you see the show you can't drag your eyes away. We care about it because we like scapegoats. We care about it because we like to pat ourselves on the back when our prejudice is validated and enjoy the indignation when it's not.

So next time we as a nation sound off about "babies having babies" and how much money they are or aren't making for doing so, let's question whether we are really interested in social reform or if we are playing into cultural attitudes about age, gender, sex, and socioeconomic status. That, I think, could be the enduring lesson we salvage from the Teen Mom phenomenon.

benchcraft company scam

Gray Matter sneaks out early PC <b>News</b> - Page 1 | Eurogamer.net

Strange news, considering the game's publisher announced last month that the title's UK release had been pushed back to February 2011 due to "the need for more polishing of the game." Gray Matter was first announced way back in 2003 for ...

Denver Broncos <b>News</b>: Horse Tracks - 11/17/10 - Mile High Report

Your Daily Cup of Orange and Blue Coffee .. Horse Tracks.

First Solar <b>News</b>, Rumors: CIGS, Mercury, Tellurium : Greentech Media

First the news... Apollo Solar Energy (OTC: ASOE), a vertically integrated miner, refiner and producer of high purity tellurium (Te), announced a five-year purchase contract between Apollo Solar Energy and a major worldwide solar panel ...

bench craft company scam

bench craft company scam

bench craft company scam

Gray Matter sneaks out early PC <b>News</b> - Page 1 | Eurogamer.net

Strange news, considering the game's publisher announced last month that the title's UK release had been pushed back to February 2011 due to "the need for more polishing of the game." Gray Matter was first announced way back in 2003 for ...

Denver Broncos <b>News</b>: Horse Tracks - 11/17/10 - Mile High Report

Your Daily Cup of Orange and Blue Coffee .. Horse Tracks.

First Solar <b>News</b>, Rumors: CIGS, Mercury, Tellurium : Greentech Media

First the news... Apollo Solar Energy (OTC: ASOE), a vertically integrated miner, refiner and producer of high purity tellurium (Te), announced a five-year purchase contract between Apollo Solar Energy and a major worldwide solar panel ...

benchcraft company scam

#31
China Wholesaler Town -

Submitted by jywhy999 on Sat, 11/13/2010 - 2:44am.

China Wholesaler Town - China's most viable wholesale supplier of promotional gifts, Wholesale Umbrella you can customize your own logo, no matter anywhere in the world! Wholesale Lighter Successful corporations realize Wholesale Camera that well-planned and well-executed employee incentives play an important Wholesale Speakersrole in helping reach objectives, Wholesale Razor building company morale, Wholesale Jewelryand rewarding both the employees and the valued customers.Wholesale Socks With promotional and novelty gift items, China Wholesale Town Wholesale Furniture International became a specialist in providing branding services. Recorder Pen We proud ourselves in being fast and accurate. Wholesale Scarf We can put your logo on all the products from our OEM / ODM ection. Wholesale Chair Most of our items can be decorated with logo or personalized with personal engraving. ladies Briefcase We delivering to virtually every country in the world Computer Desk. Our warehouse and office

are staffed by a young team of Chinese and Western staff Vacuum Storage Bag . Our professional staff will contact you as soon as possible to provide you with the best quality service through the mail and the telephone.Wholesale Briefcase We can provide customers around the world with many well-produced goods and good service,Wholesale Toys because of many years of

experience in friendly and Wholesale Stress Ball cooperative relations with many Chinese factories and suppliers. Wholesale Fan Here you can find all the most popular, Wholesale Clocks stylish, high-quality goods. Wholesale Sweatshirt China Suppliers, Custom Logo Imprinted, Wholesale Wallet Promotional Products, Promotional Gifts, Promotional Items, Waterproof Waist Pack Wholesale Suppliers, Wholesale Merchandise, Dropship Wholesale, Wholesale Accessories, Wholesale Directory China Wholesale Town - Most Reliable China Wholesale Suppliers, Wholesale Ashtray Custom Logo Imprinted Promotional Gifts, Promotional Items Products, Giveaway Material!Wholesale Pen If you want to start your business with some daily used items, Wholesale Pillow here is the site you need to check. It offeres many products like Bottle Opener, T-Shirts, Carabiner Wholesale Frisbee and Umbrella, Pen, Wholesale Carabiner ect. Under each product section, there are some detailes classification. For Wholesale Keychain, there are Coffee Mug, Water Bottle. For Wholesale Socks and Wholesale USB Products, there are also some detailed classifications. Wholesale Waterproof Case China Wholesale Town - China's most viable wholesale supplier of Promotional Gifts, you can customize your own logo, no matter anywhere in the world! China Wholesale Town - Most Reliable China Wholesale Suppliers, Custom Logo Imprinted Promotional Gifts, Promotional Products Items, Giveaway Material! If you want to start your business with some daily used items, Wholesale Kitchenware here is the site you need to check. It offeres many products like Wholesale Pom Poms, T-Shirts, Carabiner Wholesale First Aid Kit and Umbrella, Pen, Bottle Opener ect. Under each product section, there are some detailes classification. For Wholesale Cup, there are Coffee Mug, Water Bottle. For Wholesale Clap Hands and Wholesale Water Bottle, there are also some detailed classifications. China Wholesale Town - China's most viable wholesale supplier of Promotional Gifts, you can customize your own logo, no matter anywhere in the world! Wholesale Apron Top China Wholesaler-Buy Wholesale Promotional Gifts Promotional Products from China Our main products are consumer electronics, gifts and souvenirs, Wholesale Lanyard, health care products, beauty products, Wholesale Carabiner, automobile parts, household items, plastic products, metal products, Wholesale Mug, kitchen supplies, stationery, sports goods, toys, Wholesale Christmas Gifts, watches, leather products, etc. Tips for Choosing Sports Wholesale Halloween Gift; One Way To Protect Your Device - Wholesale Waterproof Case; Introduce The Wholesale Lanyard For You; Customized Cheaply Prices Promotional Caps-Wholesale Bag; And the Wholesale Clothes Rack also gradually become recognized best promotional product; Buying A Gift For your Friend Who Likes Reading-Wholesale Golf Products; Customized Printed Wholesale Vase

Personalization/Engraving Services

Some items, such as Crystal Award and Metal Coaster and Metal Money Clip and Metal Luggage Tag and Metal Keychain etc, crystal material or metal material products. Camera Tripod require a plate to be added for engraving. Wholesale Clothing These plates can added as your request.Bean Bag

Debossing/Embossing

Debossing services are offered on leather items. Such as Leather Wallet and Leather Mouse Pad and Conference Folder and Leather Name Card Holder etc, Debossing is a method that depresses yor company name or logo down into the surface of a leather item. Eye Mask Wholesale EarphoneThis method displays your company logo through the leather goods without color, Water Guncommonly known as "blind debossing". Wholesale MatWe use this method to ensure quality of your goods. Over time, Wholesale Keyboardcolor that is added to leather will fade or flake away.



Screen/Silk Screen PrintingWholesale Jacket

Screen or silkcreen printing is popular for our non-textile products. Poncho RaincoatThis screening can be either single or multicolored. such as Pen and and USB Flash Drive and Tape Measure and Mug and Water Bottle and  Umbrella and Inflatable etc, plastic material, leather material, metal material, Wholesale Knifesilicone material, rubber material, Wholesale Candletextile material are available.



EmbroideryWholesale Mouse

At Corporate Snobs we pride ourselves in offering some of the best choices of customization in the industry.Wholesale Calculator

Our embroidery options are available for most of our monogrammed Tote Bag  and  Apron and Cap  and Embroidery Coaster and Towel etc textile products.　

Decoration styles vary per item. PVC Vase Each decoration style will be listed in the product page. Wholesale Mp3For various products, Wholesale Tie decoration options are available for customer to choose type of engraving desired. BB GunsThis will be noted as a choice with the item.Wholesale Earphone Promotional Products, Promotional Gifts, Electric Shaver  Promotional items from China, Toy Guns Custom-made gift Wholesale, Promotional Giveaway Material! Sport Watch Wholesale Merchandise, Safety Belt Wholesale Suppliers, Wholesale Dropship, Door Mat Wholesale Distributors, Wholesale Accessories, Wholesale Watch Wholesale Directory, Discount Wholesaler Flexi Vase

• Login or register to post comments

As you may or may not have already heard, Life and Style reported last week that an insider (most likely Gary's friend Jordan) spilled the beans about the Teen Mom salaries. Your first thought might be, "Who cares?" But some people do seem to care a lot, admittedly including me. The question is, why?

Many applaud the show for being a hip pregnancy deterrent. Others insist that it doesn't paint a dismal enough picture. Those who believe it does a disservice by making young motherhood look less than hellish often cite their belief that the only thing saving the cast from public housing is the bags of money MTV is showering upon them. But really, are the girls' lives much different now than they were when 16 and Pregnant first aired? Even if we believe that MTV has turned Teen Mom from a docu-series to a scripted drama (frankly I don't think any of the cast are good enough actors to pull that off), they have stayed true to the girls' roots. If the show never existed, would any of them be in dramatically different living situations than they are now? I doubt it.

MTV works hard to portray the Teen Mom cast as broke and struggling to provide for their babies. Catelynn, despite placing her baby for adoption a year ago, is still stuck at home in a dysfunctional and emotionally abusive family. Amber and Gary seem to stay in their volatile relationship for no other reason than having nowhere else to go. Farrah works rough hours and needs her late boyfriend's SSI to help support her daughter. Maci seems to do alright but that could be attributed to her parents' assistance, though she still worries about moving out of their house and paying the rent on a new apartment.

None of their situations strike me as unrealistic. I was a teen mom, I know quite a few teen moms, and I've seen all of these scenarios (and more) play out in real life. What does seem odd to me is that they are living the way they are if they're getting $60,000 paychecks. Compared to the other top MTV stars' salaries, $60,000 a season is chump change. But it's a respectable full-time yearly salary for an American family, especially in the areas where the girls live. They could live comfortably on that particularly with their additional sources of income, which actually makes a lot of people angry.

Recently I spoke to a young woman ("T") who backed out of 16 and Pregnant's second season. She wanted to go on the show because she felt she could be a positive role model to other young mothers. But MTV producers wanted to focus a lot more on her struggles with bulimia, her less than stellar relationship with her mother, and her 20-year-old boyfriend's religious family who kept her a secret and pushed her to place the baby for adoption. She was offered $2,500 during filming and an additional $2,500 when her episode aired. If the father of the baby was involved, he would get $1,000. "Hardly 'rich', but enough to help with the expenses and leftover medical bills," she told me.

I asked her how she feels about the show now that she's a mother:

The show mostly shows the hardships in my opinion, the moments all mothers reach at some point when they are sleep deprived, frustrated, and just need a break, but it is looked on more harshly because of the fact these are teen moms and not 30-something-year-old women.

When I watched season 1 of 16&Pregnant, it psyched me out beyond all belief. They showed the girls tired, run down, emotional, and struggling with everything. I was so worried I could not handle it, because I literally thought my life was going to be made up of only those frazzled moments shown on TV, but when my daughter was born I was surprised to find it was not as bad as I thought. Sure, it was frustrating, tiring, and there were times I wanted to rip my hair out, but it was not like I had hyped it up to be.

And that is the crux of the issue.

People must care about the money because they're searching for an explanation. They want to know why the girls on Teen Mom are not destitute and seething with regret. Every season during the Dr. Drew finale wrap-up, I get the feeling he's doing PR damage control by constantly reiterating, "You love your child but life would be sooo much easier if you didn't get pregnant, right?" Sure, each of them has her own problems (some bigger than others) but they are not "teenage mom" problems so much as they are personality flaws or unfortunate family situations that anyone at any age could be strapped with. Still, because of our assumptions about young mothers, the only way their lives make sense is if they have enough money that the hardships don't matter as much. But a lot of young moms who aren't on TV say the same thing: It's difficult, but it's worth it. It's not as bad as they thought it was going to be. That makes people very uncomfortable.

I asked T what she or her friends think about the claim that MTV glamorizing motherhood and whether she thinks the show curbs pregnancy:

Whether or not it is a deterrent is relative to who watches it. Someone might see it and think "wow I don't want that, I better be more careful!" and others might see how amazing pregnancy and birth is and think they want it NOW. It really depends on the person.

It occurred to me that's the bottom line. We debate whether MTV is encouraging or discouraging pregnancy. When it boils down to it, I'm not sure they're not really doing either. MTV is presenting us with a relatively straightforward narrative about the lives of young women who often have little in common with each other besides giving birth. We're filling in the rest all by ourselves.

Ask people their opinion about the show and you can infer a lot about their politics. The comments on the episode recaps I've been doing for MomHouston.com are often shocking in the depth of hatred and disgust pointed at sexually active young women. Even self-proclaimed feminists who should be supportive of all forms of reproductive freedom chime in with pearls of wisdom like, "The answer to all teenage pregnancy is abortion!" 16 and Pregnant and Teen Mom are an endless festival of slut-shaming served up as an educational tool.

Teenage pregnancy sits squarely in the intersection of our most pathological American obsessions: female sexuality, public aid, race, religion. Teens moms are an easy target, because who is going to defend them? MTV tapped into a gold mine with this one -- a topic so emotionally fraught and politically intense that hardly anyone can resist offering their opinion about it. Like the proverbial train wreck, once you see the show you can't drag your eyes away. We care about it because we like scapegoats. We care about it because we like to pat ourselves on the back when our prejudice is validated and enjoy the indignation when it's not.

So next time we as a nation sound off about "babies having babies" and how much money they are or aren't making for doing so, let's question whether we are really interested in social reform or if we are playing into cultural attitudes about age, gender, sex, and socioeconomic status. That, I think, could be the enduring lesson we salvage from the Teen Mom phenomenon.

bench craft company scam

benchcraft company scam

Gray Matter sneaks out early PC <b>News</b> - Page 1 | Eurogamer.net

Strange news, considering the game's publisher announced last month that the title's UK release had been pushed back to February 2011 due to "the need for more polishing of the game." Gray Matter was first announced way back in 2003 for ...

Denver Broncos <b>News</b>: Horse Tracks - 11/17/10 - Mile High Report

Your Daily Cup of Orange and Blue Coffee .. Horse Tracks.

First Solar <b>News</b>, Rumors: CIGS, Mercury, Tellurium : Greentech Media

First the news... Apollo Solar Energy (OTC: ASOE), a vertically integrated miner, refiner and producer of high purity tellurium (Te), announced a five-year purchase contract between Apollo Solar Energy and a major worldwide solar panel ...

benchcraft company scam

bench craft company scam

Gray Matter sneaks out early PC <b>News</b> - Page 1 | Eurogamer.net

Strange news, considering the game's publisher announced last month that the title's UK release had been pushed back to February 2011 due to "the need for more polishing of the game." Gray Matter was first announced way back in 2003 for ...

Denver Broncos <b>News</b>: Horse Tracks - 11/17/10 - Mile High Report

Your Daily Cup of Orange and Blue Coffee .. Horse Tracks.

First Solar <b>News</b>, Rumors: CIGS, Mercury, Tellurium : Greentech Media

First the news... Apollo Solar Energy (OTC: ASOE), a vertically integrated miner, refiner and producer of high purity tellurium (Te), announced a five-year purchase contract between Apollo Solar Energy and a major worldwide solar panel ...

bench craft company scam

Gray Matter sneaks out early PC <b>News</b> - Page 1 | Eurogamer.net

Strange news, considering the game's publisher announced last month that the title's UK release had been pushed back to February 2011 due to "the need for more polishing of the game." Gray Matter was first announced way back in 2003 for ...

Denver Broncos <b>News</b>: Horse Tracks - 11/17/10 - Mile High Report

Your Daily Cup of Orange and Blue Coffee .. Horse Tracks.

First Solar <b>News</b>, Rumors: CIGS, Mercury, Tellurium : Greentech Media

First the news... Apollo Solar Energy (OTC: ASOE), a vertically integrated miner, refiner and producer of high purity tellurium (Te), announced a five-year purchase contract between Apollo Solar Energy and a major worldwide solar panel ...

bench craft company scam

Gray Matter sneaks out early PC <b>News</b> - Page 1 | Eurogamer.net

Strange news, considering the game's publisher announced last month that the title's UK release had been pushed back to February 2011 due to "the need for more polishing of the game." Gray Matter was first announced way back in 2003 for ...

Denver Broncos <b>News</b>: Horse Tracks - 11/17/10 - Mile High Report

Your Daily Cup of Orange and Blue Coffee .. Horse Tracks.

First Solar <b>News</b>, Rumors: CIGS, Mercury, Tellurium : Greentech Media

First the news... Apollo Solar Energy (OTC: ASOE), a vertically integrated miner, refiner and producer of high purity tellurium (Te), announced a five-year purchase contract between Apollo Solar Energy and a major worldwide solar panel ...

how to lose weight fast benchcraft company scam
benchcraft company scam

bench craft company scam