Bloggers on the campaign trail

This is a good post at Slate on mainstream reporters v. bloggers on the campaign trail. Who asks better questions?

It's no suprise that bloggers often do, but think about it. Bloggers can generally solicit and post the longer answers, whereas the space/time constrictions of print and broadcast media mean most mainstream reporters have to go for the quick answer, the distilled version, the sound bite.

Ever notice how many reporters actually ask yes-or-no questions, the major dead end street of journalism."Everyone knows the media is shallow, horse-race obsessed, blah blah blah ... but in many cases, bloggers really are the ones driving discussion of the issues," this Slate blogger writes. To pick a nit, I'd love it if he, along with almost everybody else, would learn to say and write "the media ARE shallow." Call me old-fashioned. I'm still a stickler for correct grammar.

Meanwhile, Slate's media critic explains what a news embargo is, as if we all didn't already know, and talks about the downside of embargoes. As a reporter who has honored embargoes for the last 20 years, I still find 'em less and less relevant. There are more sources on information on the Internet and woe to the publicist who puts an embargo on a report that has already been posted. The fact that the primary material is available to read makes an embargo useless. We're not going to say ... I read the report online but I won't tell anybody about it until next Tuesday.

Forgive me. I'm in a bad mood this a.m. about the state of journalism in general.

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[homevultures]

Vultures: Necessary (if ugly) Animals

There is a stigma that comes along with the name vulture. Whether it is a bird in the sky, or the name of an investment vehicle. Let’s face it. When people think of vultures they think of death and birds feeding on carcasses. This is very true and one way of looking at it. But don’t forget the vultures serve a purpose. They are cleaning up messes that no one else wants to. And their “profit” goes in their bellies.

In the business world if you’re a individual investor, a celebrity investor or a company that tries to hide its true intentions and purchase an investment out of bankruptcy, at an auction, or repossessed etc., people would look at it like you identified a good deal and capitalized on it. But if you identify your self as a vulture fund or vulture capitalist people say you are taking advantage of the weak.

This is bull. This is what business is about. You identify a deal and try to negotiate it down to the lowest price possible. And that is one of the keys to being successful.

If you understand these fundamentals of business, think about what would have happened if there were no vulture capitalists in the world. Between 2006, the start of the sub prime meltdown, and 2007, over 165 lenders have closed there doors due to poor business decisions. What happened to all their loans? Larger institutions purchased them at pennies on the dollar. These big banks and others were not looked at as vultures. It was simply accepted as common business practice. Now those institutions have to foreclose on all the nonperforming notes they bought and try to sell the properties at auction.

What happens if no one buys them? What if there are no vultures to come and solve the problem?

The more money the banks spend on their properties the less money they have to lend. Eventually they will go out of business and possibly send the country in to a recession. The “carcasses” will rot away, and feed no one.

That where the Vultures come into balance the food chain. Traditionally Vulture funds were set up to help the rich get richer off the miscalculations of others and you would need a minimum of 1 million dollars to take part - because that’s what the market conditions called for. However, now we are in a new age; the age of the Vulture. The market is saturated with deals.

The game calls for more players. That’s where HomeVultures comes in to play as a Dania Florida based company. With its primary focus on the smaller investor, the accredited investor who has a minimum of $50,000 to invest. The kind of guy who actually has been looking for a way to enter the market but didn’t know where to look.

This is where a company like HomeVultures comes in. Here’s part of their recent press release:

Kevin Hershewe Vice President of HomeVultures says “We are a necessity. We balance the economy without us there would be a lot of dead carcasses rotting around us. HomeVultures offers a structured investment vehicle with low risk via the investor partnerships’ managed trust account. We have created a safe, hybrid business model that reduces risk and allows our partners to capitalize on these market conditions with speed, which is crucial. We call it lead pipe capitalism. We’re certainly not the only firm to act on this opportunity, but we do offer small investors the most direct access to the foreclosure market right here in South Florida,” continued Mr. Hershewe.

So there you have it, the business term “Vulture” has a new definition it means a transparent way of doing good business or way to balance the economy.

To contact HomeVultures call 954-624-5570