Quote from the Freakonomics blog post: "Reading the Secretary’s blog post, it strikes me just how differently he is reacting to a challenge than Arne Duncan (now the Secretary of Education) did when I first told him about my work on teacher cheating when Duncan was in charge of the Chicago Public Schools. I expected Duncan to do what LaHood did: dismiss the findings, circle the wagons, etc. But Duncan surprised me. He said that all he cared about was making sure the children were learning as much as possible, and teacher cheating was getting in the way of that. He invited me into a dialogue, and we ultimately made a difference."

This is an interesting post from the National Apartment Association blog, particularly some of the reasoning behind the lack of deals in multi-family housing:

"'There are going to be deals out there,' he said. But companies should not expect a large-scale clearance reminiscent of the U.S. government’s Resolution Trust Corporation that liquefied many non-performing assets in the late 1980s and early 1990s, he said. 'I don’t see that happening.'

Part of the issue is that special servicers, which represent multiple lenders in commercial mortgage-backed security (CMBS) loans, have little incentive to sell properties at a discount right now, said Christy Freeland, who was recently named Chairman of Riverstone Residential Group, which manages 185,000 apartments across the country. 'Servicers can wait three or four years and see if the property’s value or NOI goes up,' she said."

Seth Godin's post about some people being better customers/prospects has this interesting tidbit:

"Walmart and other mass marketers are now offering top bestsellers for $9 or less each, about $5 less than their cost. Why? Why not offer toasters or socks as a loss leader to get people in the store? I think the answer is pretty clear: people who buy hardcover books buy other stuff too. A hardcover book is a luxury item, it's new and it's buzzable. This sort of person is exactly who you want in your store."

I think he makes an excellent point and it's something to remember as you consider premiums and giveaways for boosting sales: make sure they attract the right kind of customer.

Mark Cuban argues that TV execs should be praising DVRs instead of trying to kill them.

Once again Fec provides a compendium of information about a pressing financial issue. This time it's commercial real estate. Here's my favorite quote-of-a-quote:

"The problem for the industry is that between now and 2013, more than $2 trillion in commercial mortgages, which typically have a five- to 10-year term, will need to be refinanced, according to a July report by Richard Parkus, head of commercial mortgage-backed securities at Deutsche Bank AG. It is not turmoil in the capital markets that is causing the bottleneck, but rather the fact that properties are not worth enough to retire the old debt in a refinancing, Parkus said."

As Scooby says: "Ruh, roh."

"Even with the credit slowdown and recession, the Triangle’s banking market grew by 10 percent in the dozen months ending June 30, according to new federal data."

Depending on what time Erin's team has to be in Burlington for State Cup this Saturday we might be hitting this for breakfast.

Lex points to the RH Donnelly bankruptcy case as more proof that our economic system is rigged. Here's a part of a quote that Lex pulls from a Zero Hedge post: "There is one simple reason: The CEO will make more money bankrupting the company than keeping it alive. It takes a year or more for shareholders to elect new board members who in turn elect the CEO. As a result, when the CEO and board of a company feel threatened they may lose their jobs; they can wipe out current equity at any time regardless of the company’s financial condition by declaring bankruptcy. David Swanson, R.H. Donnelley’s CEO, cut a deal with bondholders to keep his job and have management acquire a 10% stake of the Company when it emerges from bankruptcy."

Once again I think Fred Wilson is SO right:
"And this past week was a big one for the mobile web. We got three big things we've needed badly:

1) A real competitor to the iPhone – the Droid

2) A scalable business model for mobile apps – in app transactions in free apps

3) A standard for broadcasting video (and audio) to mobile devices"

The case study for this piece was a bordello in Germany:

"But Maison d’Envie has seen its business begin to return since it began offering the euro 5 ($7.50) discount in July, Goetz said.

To qualify, customers must show the receptionist either a bicycle padlock key or proof they used public transit to get to the neighborhood. That knocks the price for 45 minutes in a room, for example, to euro 65 from euro 70."

The author of the blog post points out that this is probably a classic case of someone using green as a cover for price discrimination.

A game maker did a limited time "pay what you want" offer for a game: "A survey taken by some of the customers on the game’s website reveals the top two reasons customers chose to pay what they did: It’s all they felt they could afford, and they wanted to support the PWYW model. Few paid the amount they thought the game was actually worth."

A bunch of condo owners in Barefoot Landing have been hosed by the failure of Premier Resorts. Bad times in North Myrtle.

Yes! Weekly blog post details a lot of legal problems for Chuck Woolard, the Republican candidate for the Southeast Ward council seat in Winston-Salem. The cases include criminal (forgery in 1991 and marijuana possession verdict in 2001) and civil judgments against him and/or his construction company (lots of homeowners complaining he took their money and didn't complete the work). I'm thinking voters can deal with the marijuana thing, but forgery and poor business practices are another matter. Whatever chances he might have had before this news hit have flown out the window.

Someone posted this item on PlanetMinis.com about setting up an indoor racing facility in a 40,000 sf warehouse in downtown Winston-Salem. I'm thinking he should talk to the folks at Dell to see if they want to go in with him on his venture in February. I think they'll have some space available.

A Lewisville woman who has battled and survived cancer has built her own spiritual retreat in her yard.

Gotta love politicians: NC Republicans sent out a survey and get responses; they then delivered the surveys to Democratic Gov. Bev Perdue's office as a publicity stunt; the Governor's staff actually read the surveys and found all kinds of interesting stuff, including a donation check to one of the Republicans, which of course begs the question, "Did the Republicans actually read the survey responses themselves?" One comment written by a survey respondent: "Stop wording questions so geared up to get the answers you want and start wording them to actually find out the people's opinion, not just confirm your own. There are probably only three questions on here that are legitimate."

Dana Blankenhorn lets PR flacks know what they need to do to help professional bloggers get their stories out.

Dennis Leyden, a UNCG professor of economics, writes about NC legislators' efforts to reform NC taxes. The most likely change is applying sales taxes to services.

Dan Collins looks past the next five or six games and starts looking at Wake Forest football's future without Riley Skinner at the helm.