About Me 0107: Making Money on Internet

Last night, for the second week in a row, The Simpsons took a shot at corporate cousin Fox News. However, if you’re clicking over to Hulu or Fox’s websites to check out this week’s helicopter gag, you’re going to be disappointed. WebNewser has noticed that the joke, from the episode’s opening credits, has been removed. Did someone at Fox (other than Bill O’Reilly) complain?

Well, maybe. However, as much as we love a good conspiracy, our money is on WebNewser’s second hypothesis, that the gag was added at the very last minute and after the websites had received their copy. We can easily imagine the producers of the show getting so excited about the media coverage of the first joke (and thoroughly enjoying O’Reilly’s take down of it) that they rushed to their computers to add the new joke to the next episode, which was finished long in advance of airing. Besides, as much as some might like to picture shadowy Fox executives wringing their hands over the joke, we just can’t imagine any exec exclaiming, “What? People are writing about our two-decade-old series all over the internet because of one joke?! Well dont let them do it again!”

However, you’d think that the TV channels would get the shows before the websites so you never know…

UPDATE Simpsons’ Executive Producer Al Jean revealed in an exclusive interview with the NY Times David Itzkoff that the motives behind the anti-Fox News gag were light in spirit:

Mr. Jean said the “Simpsons” producers — in particular, the creator of the series, Matt Groening — were pleased with how the first Fox News joke seemed to ruffle the feathers of Bill O’Reilly, the host of the Fox News program “The O’Reilly Factor.” (On his show last week, Mr. O’Reilly played the “Simpsons” satire of Fox News and, with a smile, said of the cartoon family: “Pinheads? I believe so.”)

The “Simpsons” producers could not let that remark stand, so they rushed their second Fox News joke into Sunday’s episode — so late in the production process that the gag could only be inserted into the version shown in North America, but not into versions shown in foreign markets or on the Internet.

“There’s a lot of masters that go out,” Mr. Jean said in a telephone interview, “so to save money we just put it in the one master that’s for the U.S. and Canada. More money that will then go to Fox News and undoubtedly to Bill O’Reilly.”

Mr. Jean emphasized that neither he nor his “Simpsons” colleagues have ever been told by their corporate Fox parents to stop making fun of Fox News.

Check out the opening from Fox below as well as the Hulu version below that:

Some weeks, there’s just too much to write about. This is one of those weeks. [Notice that I've fixed the grievous typo; no need to tell me about it again!] Not only is my brain percolating with my own ideas for articles, but the internet is abuzz with interesting stories about personal finance. Pity the blogger with a ton of material!

Rather than waste time with a long intro, I’m going to jump right in. Here are some recent articles you folks have sent me, or that I’ve found through my own web surfing:

Earlier this week, I sang the praises of index funds. If you’re interested in index funds, but don’t know where to start, you may want to consider ETFs, or exchange-traded funds. Nearly all ETFs are index funds, but they’re traded like stocks. Confused? Kiplinger’s has an informative article on how to make ETFs work for you. This isn’t just a light-weight breezy piece; it contains solid info.

Elsewhere, that lovable curmudgeon Warren Buffett is at it again. He has a talent for making both liberals and conservatives angry. In this case, Buffett says that the rich should be paying higher taxes. “Taxes for the lower and middle class and maybe even the upper middle class should even probably be cut further,” Buffett told ABC News. “But I think that people at the high end — people like myself — should be paying a lot more in taxes. We have it better than we’ve ever had it.”

Next, GRS reader Brendan Quinn sent me a link to presentation he recently gave to fellow students at Boston College. In his talk entitled Your Money: Buy Anything You Want, Guilt-Free, Brendan covers what he calls the three rules of personal finance:

Spend less than you earn.

Make the money you have work for you.

Prepare for the unexpected.

I think it’s great to see college students taking the initiative to teach each other about financial literacy. Great work, Brendan!

Last week, The New York Times published a story about Nick Martin, who inherited $14 million ($10 million after taxes) in 1998. “But as so often happens to those lucky enough to realize the American dream of sudden riches,” writes Geraldine Fabrikant, “the money slipped through the Martins’ fingers faster than they ever imagined.” I used to mock folks who squandered sudden riches like this (and there are countless similar tales), but lately I’m more sympathetic. As Flexo at Consumerism Commentary wrote about this story, “It’s easy to be judgmental. The internet is a place where armchair quarterbacks feel comfortable. Very few people know what would happen if the same situation — an unexpected windfall — occurs to them.”

Finally, here are two recent articles from USA Today. Cindy Perman has a long (and controversial) piece about Americans dying with debt. Many boomers have little saved for retirement. But more than that, the article reports that “nearly 40% of retired Americans said they’ve accumulated credit-card debt in their twilight years — and aren’t worried about paying it off in their lifetime”. In happier news, here’s a short piece about a homeless Arizona man who returned a backpack containing $3300 cash and a laptop. Now, that is an awesome story.

There are plenty of other great stories in my stack, but this is already one of the biggest “Spare Change” round-ups I’ve ever posted. We’ll call this good for now.

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Mr. Jean said the “Simpsons” producers — in particular, the creator of the series, Matt Groening — were pleased with how the first Fox News joke seemed to ruffle the feathers of Bill O’Reilly, the host of the Fox News program “The O’Reilly Factor.” (On his show last week, Mr. O’Reilly played the “Simpsons” satire of Fox News and, with a smile, said of the cartoon family: “Pinheads? I believe so.”)

The “Simpsons” producers could not let that remark stand, so they rushed their second Fox News joke into Sunday’s episode — so late in the production process that the gag could only be inserted into the version shown in North America, but not into versions shown in foreign markets or on the Internet.

“There’s a lot of masters that go out,” Mr. Jean said in a telephone interview, “so to save money we just put it in the one master that’s for the U.S. and Canada. More money that will then go to Fox News and undoubtedly to Bill O’Reilly.”

Mr. Jean emphasized that neither he nor his “Simpsons” colleagues have ever been told by their corporate Fox parents to stop making fun of Fox News.

Check out the opening from Fox below as well as the Hulu version below that:

Some weeks, there’s just too much to write about. This is one of those weeks. [Notice that I've fixed the grievous typo; no need to tell me about it again!] Not only is my brain percolating with my own ideas for articles, but the internet is abuzz with interesting stories about personal finance. Pity the blogger with a ton of material!

Rather than waste time with a long intro, I’m going to jump right in. Here are some recent articles you folks have sent me, or that I’ve found through my own web surfing:

Earlier this week, I sang the praises of index funds. If you’re interested in index funds, but don’t know where to start, you may want to consider ETFs, or exchange-traded funds. Nearly all ETFs are index funds, but they’re traded like stocks. Confused? Kiplinger’s has an informative article on how to make ETFs work for you. This isn’t just a light-weight breezy piece; it contains solid info.

Elsewhere, that lovable curmudgeon Warren Buffett is at it again. He has a talent for making both liberals and conservatives angry. In this case, Buffett says that the rich should be paying higher taxes. “Taxes for the lower and middle class and maybe even the upper middle class should even probably be cut further,” Buffett told ABC News. “But I think that people at the high end — people like myself — should be paying a lot more in taxes. We have it better than we’ve ever had it.”

Next, GRS reader Brendan Quinn sent me a link to presentation he recently gave to fellow students at Boston College. In his talk entitled Your Money: Buy Anything You Want, Guilt-Free, Brendan covers what he calls the three rules of personal finance:

Spend less than you earn.

Make the money you have work for you.

Prepare for the unexpected.

I think it’s great to see college students taking the initiative to teach each other about financial literacy. Great work, Brendan!

Last week, The New York Times published a story about Nick Martin, who inherited $14 million ($10 million after taxes) in 1998. “But as so often happens to those lucky enough to realize the American dream of sudden riches,” writes Geraldine Fabrikant, “the money slipped through the Martins’ fingers faster than they ever imagined.” I used to mock folks who squandered sudden riches like this (and there are countless similar tales), but lately I’m more sympathetic. As Flexo at Consumerism Commentary wrote about this story, “It’s easy to be judgmental. The internet is a place where armchair quarterbacks feel comfortable. Very few people know what would happen if the same situation — an unexpected windfall — occurs to them.”

Finally, here are two recent articles from USA Today. Cindy Perman has a long (and controversial) piece about Americans dying with debt. Many boomers have little saved for retirement. But more than that, the article reports that “nearly 40% of retired Americans said they’ve accumulated credit-card debt in their twilight years — and aren’t worried about paying it off in their lifetime”. In happier news, here’s a short piece about a homeless Arizona man who returned a backpack containing $3300 cash and a laptop. Now, that is an awesome story.

There are plenty of other great stories in my stack, but this is already one of the biggest “Spare Change” round-ups I’ve ever posted. We’ll call this good for now.

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Mr. Jean said the “Simpsons” producers — in particular, the creator of the series, Matt Groening — were pleased with how the first Fox News joke seemed to ruffle the feathers of Bill O’Reilly, the host of the Fox News program “The O’Reilly Factor.” (On his show last week, Mr. O’Reilly played the “Simpsons” satire of Fox News and, with a smile, said of the cartoon family: “Pinheads? I believe so.”)

The “Simpsons” producers could not let that remark stand, so they rushed their second Fox News joke into Sunday’s episode — so late in the production process that the gag could only be inserted into the version shown in North America, but not into versions shown in foreign markets or on the Internet.

“There’s a lot of masters that go out,” Mr. Jean said in a telephone interview, “so to save money we just put it in the one master that’s for the U.S. and Canada. More money that will then go to Fox News and undoubtedly to Bill O’Reilly.”

Mr. Jean emphasized that neither he nor his “Simpsons” colleagues have ever been told by their corporate Fox parents to stop making fun of Fox News.

Check out the opening from Fox below as well as the Hulu version below that:

Some weeks, there’s just too much to write about. This is one of those weeks. [Notice that I've fixed the grievous typo; no need to tell me about it again!] Not only is my brain percolating with my own ideas for articles, but the internet is abuzz with interesting stories about personal finance. Pity the blogger with a ton of material!

Rather than waste time with a long intro, I’m going to jump right in. Here are some recent articles you folks have sent me, or that I’ve found through my own web surfing:

Earlier this week, I sang the praises of index funds. If you’re interested in index funds, but don’t know where to start, you may want to consider ETFs, or exchange-traded funds. Nearly all ETFs are index funds, but they’re traded like stocks. Confused? Kiplinger’s has an informative article on how to make ETFs work for you. This isn’t just a light-weight breezy piece; it contains solid info.

Elsewhere, that lovable curmudgeon Warren Buffett is at it again. He has a talent for making both liberals and conservatives angry. In this case, Buffett says that the rich should be paying higher taxes. “Taxes for the lower and middle class and maybe even the upper middle class should even probably be cut further,” Buffett told ABC News. “But I think that people at the high end — people like myself — should be paying a lot more in taxes. We have it better than we’ve ever had it.”

Next, GRS reader Brendan Quinn sent me a link to presentation he recently gave to fellow students at Boston College. In his talk entitled Your Money: Buy Anything You Want, Guilt-Free, Brendan covers what he calls the three rules of personal finance:

Spend less than you earn.

Make the money you have work for you.

Prepare for the unexpected.

I think it’s great to see college students taking the initiative to teach each other about financial literacy. Great work, Brendan!

Last week, The New York Times published a story about Nick Martin, who inherited $14 million ($10 million after taxes) in 1998. “But as so often happens to those lucky enough to realize the American dream of sudden riches,” writes Geraldine Fabrikant, “the money slipped through the Martins’ fingers faster than they ever imagined.” I used to mock folks who squandered sudden riches like this (and there are countless similar tales), but lately I’m more sympathetic. As Flexo at Consumerism Commentary wrote about this story, “It’s easy to be judgmental. The internet is a place where armchair quarterbacks feel comfortable. Very few people know what would happen if the same situation — an unexpected windfall — occurs to them.”

Finally, here are two recent articles from USA Today. Cindy Perman has a long (and controversial) piece about Americans dying with debt. Many boomers have little saved for retirement. But more than that, the article reports that “nearly 40% of retired Americans said they’ve accumulated credit-card debt in their twilight years — and aren’t worried about paying it off in their lifetime”. In happier news, here’s a short piece about a homeless Arizona man who returned a backpack containing $3300 cash and a laptop. Now, that is an awesome story.

There are plenty of other great stories in my stack, but this is already one of the biggest “Spare Change” round-ups I’ve ever posted. We’ll call this good for now.

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Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Making Money on Internet

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