The large and the small of it

A close friend of mine since high school frequently writes for Foreign Affairs Magazine, the Small Wars Journal, and places like Janes's Defence Weekly. His latest article in the Small Wars Journal highlights compelling reasons that bigger, more expensive, weapons systems "borrowed from the end of World War II or the Cold War" are far too costly and are not even what is needed in today's world.

The latest issue of the NFIB Small Business Economic Trends is out today (see report). The March update for February came in at 90.8, which puts it at the 11th percentile in this series. Here is the opening summary of the report:

The latest issue of the NFIB Small Business Economic Trends is out today (see report). The March update for February came in at 90.8, which puts it at the 11th percentile in this series. Here is the opening summary of the report:

By StreetAuthority: By David Sterman Regular readers of my articles know that I spend most of my time in search of undervalued mid-sized and large companies. There are so many bargains in the S&P 500 alone, that it simply hasn't paid to spend too much time on small -- and risky -- stocks in recent quarters.

There was a time three months ago, when "beating" German confidence served as an upward stock and EURUSD catalyst not once but twice in the same week. One would therefore assume a German confidence miss, such as with today's German ZEW, which barely budged from 36.3 to 36.4 on expectations of a rise to 40.0, with the current situtation dropping from 9.2 to 8.9, on expectations of a rise to 9.8, should be risk negative.

Economics professor Mark Perry points us to a fascinating story. A Chinese man reportedly hired virtual assassins to kill his son's World of Warcraft avatar after becoming frustrated with the amount of time his son spent playing the game.

In tough economic times it’s easy to think that you should be prepared to do absolutely anything to get a client and then to keep them happy, but that is the fastest road to madness. Here’s how it happens… A prospective client contacts you with “a quick question”. They start to tell you their problems; they talk and talk, and ask questions. After an hour long conversation, they go away feeling great with their problem solved but you’re left tired, drained, and probably a bit frustrated.

Ludicrous Taxifornia Healthcare Proposal California keeps up its insane attack on businesses of all kinds, this time with a proposal to force small businesses away from money-saving self-insurance plans into the arms of more costly Obama-care plans. The LA Times writes, California seeks limits on small-business self-insurance trend