links for 2009-10-22

It’s more than passing strange that, in the U.S. Senate, Johnny Isakson of Georgia has been pushing an expanded tax credit for homebuyers while, in the House, U.S. Rep. John Lewis of Atlanta is examining abuse of the same.

The United States, which posted a record deficit in the last fiscal year, may lose its Aaa-rating if it does not reduce the gap to manageable levels in the next 3-4 years, Moody's Investors Service said on Thursday.

The new chief executive of MySpace has told the Financial Times that the company is no longer interested in competing with Facebook, effectively conceding defeat in the race to become the largest online social network.

When Cisco Systems announced that it wanted to buy video conferencing expert Tandberg, the market barely shrugged. The largest independent competitor in that space after the Cisco-Tandberg marriage is Polycom, and that stock hardly moved on news that Cisco is moving further into its space in a big way. But perhaps Mr. Market was just waiting for an excuse to punish Polycom…

Twitter Inc. is selling the rights to mine its communications hotbed to both Internet search leader Google Inc. and Microsoft Corp. in dueling deals that underscore the growing importance of being able to show what's on people's minds at any given moment.

Each time Lance and Kelli Thorson thought they had found their first home, someone would outbid them. It's already happened at least 15 times. This isn't how it's supposed to be in a depressed housing market like Phoenix. Buyers are supposed to be able to walk in, and get pretty much whatever they want.

The much-debated effort to save major banks from collapse drew praise and criticism today from its official watchdog. And President Obama said he plans to redirect some of that money to smaller banks and businesses.

While it has been widely advertised by chest-thumping bulls in the media that at least two-thirds of the companies that have reported third-quarter earnings have beaten forecasts, there was less than meets the eye to third-quarter profits as in many cases the "beats" were on lowered estimates.

What is often being ignored is how orchestrated earnings season has become, not only that the beats are from lowered and depressed guidance but that, in many cases, there have been high-profile forward-quarter guide downs.