Well all of Wall Street has been salivating over this event and Google has filed for it’s IPO. Virtually every news agency is covering this:

• Slashdot
• BBS
• ABC
• Forbes
• Ars Technica
• NPR
• CNN

And of course the actual SEC IPO statement and as expected, it is super-slashdotted as everyone and their mother wants to see this thing. One of the neat things that I read on Slashdot is “In the filing, Google said that it ‘generated revenues of $961.9 million in 2003 and reported a net profit of $106.5 million. Sales rose 177 percent from a year ago although earnings increased by just 6 percent’.”

UPDATE: Wired News has posted an excellent article discussing the SEC IPO filing letter and some of the things that are even more interesting or ironic like:

“its planned offering is $2,718,281,828 dollars, which some would immediately recognize as the mathematical constant e.”

After several recent conversations about world economy and the comparative value of the dollar, I have done some actual inspection of the numbers. here is a look at the information that I came up with. The values below are courtesy of x-rates.com they have a very basic interface that allows you to get right down to business and find what you need.

One of the primary reasons that I began looking into this seriously is to make money, but also because it is just plane interesting. I mean that the comparative value of one nations currency can fluctuate from day to day for no readily apparent reasons. the value of the dollar in one of those things that we take for granted.

We live in an economy that accepts that 2% inflation is acceptable and that a 2.45% yield on a savings account is acceptable. This is, in my opinion far from acceptable. I am no financial wizard by any stretch, but this is ridiculous when you consider that these same banks are using this money that we have in our accounts to fund loans that they are making around 5-18% interest on.

Now take for example the fact that if a bank charges $5 per user for a checking account (more if you opt for internet access options) and multiply that by 15,000 (consertivative guestimate) customers per branch. This makes an astounding $75,000 profit per month, and this is only from checking accounts. Now multiply this by several million (per branch) for loans and credit cards and you have an amazing racket.

The rich get richer and the poor stay poor. The only solution that exists for this cicular problem is to become rich. Make your money make money! Invest, Invest, Invest! Saving accounts now available at the bank of James Zambon!

There are several articles that I have found recently about finances.

• MSN: Getting Rich is Simpler that You Think
• MSN: How Does Your Debt Stack Up
• MSN: 8 Ways to Build a Killer Credit Score

Continue reading →