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Current Affairs
November 16, 2009
November 11, 2009
Most Valuable Blogs
The world is really changing quickly . . .
The Twenty-Five Most Valuable Blogs In America
It has been nearly a year since 24/7 Wall St. did its latest edition of the Twenty Five Most Valuable Blogs. Valuations have moved up significantly since then. Advertising CPMs have improved markedly since the beginning of this year. A number of the largest blogs on our list have larger audiences than they did a year ago.
All of the blogs analyzed here are private companies. Blogs owned by larger firms are not measured. Blogs used primarily as fronts for other businesses have also been excluded. Some of the blogs on the list have raised VC money and those sums can be used as guidelines if they are disclosed. The only worthwhile value is what an acquirer will pay, so any estimate needs to take into account the value the blog may have to an outside buyer. Several blogs from earlier versions of this list were sold, among them Ars Technica and PaidContent. Some of the largest blogs based on audience measurements do not have significant revenue and are also excluded. For instance, “The Daily Beast”, a large news commentary site controlled by IACI, takes almost no advertising. In theory, it has little if any economic value at all.
Because of the recovering economy, 24/7 Wall St. has moved up the multiples that it assigned to blog revenue and operating profits, when there are any, by about 45% from our last list. Several large public companies in the media sector have stock prices that have doubled since their March lows. The prices being paid for online media properties are almost certainly rising.
To determine value, 24/7 Wall St. looked at unique visitor and page view information from several public sources including Alexa, Quantcast, Compete, and comScore. These services are often criticized for estimating website traffic too low and we have taken that into account to the extent possible. We also looked at audience measurements provided by the blogs themselves when it seemed credible. Our estimated CPMs for ads are based on the current display and text ad environment, the quality of ads at each blog, and the number of ads that it runs on the average page. The CPM value assigned to each blog is based on all the ads it runs on its typical pages. To determine margins, 24/7 looked at headcount when available, and estimated costs of operating and maintaining websites. More complex content platforms were assigned higher monthly costs. Current audience growth rates were taken into account. A site which has traffic doubling year-over-year was given a higher multiple than one which is losing traffic. Because not all blogs make money, multiples of revenue and operating income were used to assess value. 24/7 used its estimate for revenue over the last three months and annualized the figure to derive an annual revenue and expense figure.
Large blogs with big “moats” got higher multiple that smaller ones. Recreating Huffington Post or TechCrunch would be extremely difficult, even in a moderately good economy. Blogs with one founder who does most of the writing were given lower multiple because the presence of that single person is essential to the company’s value. Finally, blogs which have operated for a long time or have recently received funding received higher valuations because they are more likely to survive.
1. Gawker Properties, $300 million. This group of blogs which includes Gawker, Deadspin, Gizmodo, and Lifehacker has about 23 million monthly unique visitors and 250 million page views. Owner Nick Denton has pointed out the business is highly profitable and growing and that advertising revenue has performed better than expected. Almost all the advertising at the family of websites is premium marketing from major companies. The average CPM on a page is estimated to be $20. That would drive $60 million in annual revenue. Gawker is not expensive to run. Its writers are paid relatively low wages. Many of the blogs Gawker owns have only five or ten writers and editors. Gawker keeps at least 50% of its revenue as operating income. The valuation is based on 10x operating income.
2. The Huffington Post, $112 million. The Huffington Post is ranked first among all blogs on the Technorati 100, which means it has a huge number of websites linking to it. Quantcast puts its global unique visitor audience at 20 million. The site is set up to encourage navigation from page to page and uses editor slide shows to build page views which are probably about seven per visitor. Huffington advertisers are a mix of high and middle CPM marketers. Average CPM per page is about $10. The company’s annual revenue run rate should be up to $16 million. Huffington executives say that the company does not make money. Huffington’s prestige and its strategic value to a buyer make it extremely valuable. The 24/7 figure is based on seven times revenue, a much larger-than-normal premium for a media property.
3. Perez Hilton, $44 million. The entertainment and gossip site have over 7 million unique visitors. 24/7 estimates twelve page views per visitor. The site carries very little premium advertising although its text link ads probably do well. CPM per page is $6. The site has revenue of about $6.2 million a year. Perez Hilton has very little staff and appears to have very low operating costs. The company’s margin should be 60%. This site would be very valuable to a large media company with online entertainment content.
4. Drudge Report. $42 million. Most measurements of the blog show that traffic trends are flat to down. The site has about nine million unique visitors. Page view estimates published by Drudge are absurdly high. The site carries a very modest amount of premium advertising and it is unlikely that the CPM per page is above $5. Revenue is about $8 million. Drudge appears to have very low staff levels and extremely small operating costs. Operating income should be about $6 million.
5. TechCrunch. $32 million. The sites that make up TechCrunch have almost 4 million unique visitors and the network has about eighteen million page views. CPMs are very high due to the quality and number of advertisers. 24/7 Wall St. estimates them to be $35 per page. Advertising revenue is about $7.5 million. Other related businesses bring in another $2 million. TechCrunch has a staff of about thirty. Company margins are about 30%, or just less than $3 million.
6. PopSugar Properties. $26 million. The Sugar Network has 11 million unique visitors to its site which include PopSugar, FitSugar, GeekSuger, and SavvySugar. The visitors to the sites are young and predominantly female. The quality of the advertising is low and the sites probably do not get a CPM per page of much more than $6. The company has revenue of about $7.5 million a year. The sites have a very large staff, probably more than 60 people. Operating profits are no better than 25% of revenue, or $2 million. This company would have tremendous value to a media company that targets young women.
7. Politico. $23 million. The site is the largest single media property in the US devoted exclusively to national politics. It has more than 5 million unique visitors and 40 million page views a month. Politico needs a better sales operation. It carries a number of high quality advertisers from corporate image and policy marketers mixed with a number of very low CPM campaigns. Advertising CPM per page is $10. Politico has a great deal of value to a national news organization. It does, however, have very high costs and employs at least 80 people. Politico loses $5 million a year on $5 million in revenue.
8. MacRumors. $20 million. MacRumors has 6.5 million unique visitors per month and 45 million page views. The quality of the advertising is weak. The company’s revenue is about $4.4 million. MacRumors staff is small and the publishing platform the site uses is probably very inexpensive. MacRumors margins are at least 50%. Competition in the “Apple” news website business has gotten fierce.
9. Boing Boing. $18 million. This leading tech and gadget site has 3 million unique visitors a month and probably over twenty-four million page views. CPMs should be relatively high–$14. Boing Boing has revenue of $4 million. The company has thirty or more people so its margins are probably only 50%.
10. Mashable. $17.5 million.This is the top blog in the country that concentrates on social media. It has 4.2 million unique visitors a month. Mashable employees about thirty people. The site has 30 million page views a month. Some of the advertising is from the tech industry and should carry high CPMS, but a fair amount of the inventory is sold to more generic marketers. Total CPM per page is $12. Total revenue for Mashable is $4.3 million. The site is in a highly competitive part of the blog market and is not the leading site in size or reputation. Margins are about 45%.
11. Seeking Alpha. $16 million.Seeking Alpha, the financial content aggregation site, is now nearly as large as some major media websites like SmartMoney and FT.com. The site has 2.5 million unique visitors and 18 million page views. Revenue is $3.5 million a year because of the high quality of the financial advertisers that the site runs. The company has a large staff in Israel and the US. Seeking Alpha has a complex publishing structure. The company makes a very small operating profit. It would be very valuable property for a large media conglomerate that has business and financial websites. Unlike some other sites on the list, SA does not rely heavily on its founder and CEO for its future success.
12. GigaOm. $15 million. This network of websites, founded by Om Malik, includes Tech Insider, CleanTech, Open Source, and Mac Lovers. GigaOm also has a paid research operation and runs several conferences. The sites have about 1.7 million unique visitors and 12 million page views. CPM per page $20. Total advertising revenue is $2.8 million. Sales from other divisions are $1 million. The company has close to 35 employees and high costs of operating conferences. Operating profit is $1.7 million.
13. Breitbart Sites. $11 million. This family of sites includes Breitbart, Big Hollywood, Big Government, and Breitbart TV. Total unique visitors across all sites are 3.2 million and 18 million page views. The site carries a reasonable amount of premium advertisers. CPMs are $12, putting total revenue at $2.5 million. Staff levels seem to be very low and the publishing platforms are simple. Operating profit is about $1.5 million.
14. SB Nation Network. $8 million. The company has a network of about 200 relatively small sites across all major sports. The network has 4 million unique visitors. SB Nation has about twenty employees. The sites are a page view machine but the advertising is low quality. Total revenue of $2 million with very modest margins.
15. ReadWriteWeb. $7 million. The site covers online trends. It bills itself as a site for tech innovators. The site has 1.2 million unique visitors and 10 million page views. The company has a staff of ten. CPM per page is very high with some pages carrying as many as 10 premium ads. CPM at $20 brings total revenue to $2.4 million. Margins are probably close to $1 million. ReadWriteWeb is in an extremely competitive part of the online content business.
16. The Business Insider. $7 million. The Business Insider is a family of websites covering media, the internet, business, and finance. The sites together have 1.8 million unique visitors and 14 million page views. The sites carry a large amount of premium advertising. The Business Insider revenue is about $2 million. The firm has a large staff of about 20 people and probably losses a modest amount of money.
17. Destructoid. $5 million. Mega-gamer site with 1.1 million unique visitors and ten million page views. The website is game reviews meets social networking. It appears to have very loyal audience. Most of the content is user-created and the staff appears to be small. There are not a lot of ads, but those that run are from the game industry and should have high CPMs. Annual revenue is $1.4 million and margins are at least 50%.
18. Apple Insider. $4.5 million. Another of the many websites about what goes on in the land of Steve Jobs and his many spectacularly successful inventions. The site has 1.2 million unique visitors and eight million page views. Advertising is a mix of high-end consumer products, which tend to pay low CPMs, and business electronics. Apple Insider appears to have a small staff. Revenue is about $1.3 million and the site should make $700,000 in operating profit.
19. //film. (SlashFilm). $4 million. The audience for this film blogging site has dropped about 15% over the last three months, but unique visitors are still 1.3 million and eleven million page views. The site carries very little premium advertising, averaging CPMs at less than $10 per page. Revenue for //film is about $1.3 million a year. The company probably is keeping more than half of that as profit.
20. SearchEnginLand. $4 million. This site, which covers the search engine industry, makes most of its money from conferences called the SMX Search Market Expos. The company that runs the site and conferences is Third Door Media. The main site has about 400,000 unique visitors and 3.5 million page views. That means the internet part of the company has revenue of just over $600,000. Revenue from the conferences is probably $2 million. The parent firm has a large staff.
21. Smashing Magazine. $3.5 million. The site is the online destination for graphics design and has 900,000 unique visitors a month and 6 million page views. The site has a huge Twitter following of over 80,000. The company has a very small staff and some outside contributors. Each page has a large number of premium online ads. Revenue of $1.9 million and 30% operating margin.
22. Talking Points Memo Sites. $3.5 million. This collection of sites includes political coverage site Talking Points Memo, TPMMuckracker, and TPM TV. The sites have 1 million monthly unique and 8 million page views. The company has a small staff and gets some news from wire services. TPM operates in the crowded and competitive space that includes The Huffington Post and Politico. The sites have very little high-CPM ads. Revenue is just under $1 million a year and the business does no better than breakeven.
23. VentureBeat. $3 million. This is the class of the online venture capital news and analysis websites. The site has 800,000 unique visitors and seven million page views. There are a number of premium advertisers on VentureBeat and most pages carry multiple ads. Revenue for the company is $1.25 million. Venture Beat’s staff is large enough that it probably does not make money.
24. The Superficial. $3 million. The Superficial is the flagship of a small number of sites run by Anticlown Media. The site is a modest version of Perez Hilton, and competes in a sector that includes websites like TMZ and the online operations of People and US magazines. The Superficial has one million monthly unique visitors and Compete shows a slight drop in audience recently. The site has 10 million page views and very little high CPM advertising. Revenue is about $1.5 million.
25. 24/7 Wall St. Network. $???. Family of sites which includes 24/7 Wall St., Volume Spike Investor, BioHealth Investor, and Apple Financial News.
Douglas A. McIntyre
Unwinding the Global Stimulus Packages
Global Confidence Dips as Policy Makers Begin Exit Strategies
Share Business ExchangeTwitter| Email | Print | A A ABy Shamim Adam and Shobhana Chandra
Nov. 11 (Bloomberg) -- Confidence in the world economy dipped in November as central banks’ actions to withdraw some stimulus measures sparked concern about the strength of the recovery, a Bloomberg survey of users on six continents showed.
The Bloomberg Professional Global Confidence Index fell to 60.3 from 61.7 in October, the highest level in the series that began two years ago. The index exceeded 50 for a fourth month, which means there were more optimists than pessimists.
The survey follows steps by central banks including the Federal Reserve to start unwinding emergency measures, seeking to avoid market distortions that may spur bubbles in assets from stocks and commodities to real estate. The shift comes at a time when unemployment is still rising in the U.S. and Europe, threatening a nascent recovery as consumers limit spending.
“Confidence hinges almost entirely on the level of stability produced by extraordinary monetary support,” said Lena Komileva, an economist at Tullett Prebon Plc in London who participated in the survey. “As the effect of fiscal stimulus peaks, the future path of growth figures will become more volatile and that will affect confidence.”
The survey of more than 1,500 Bloomberg users was conducted between Nov. 2 and Nov. 6. Since the previous survey, the U.S. jobless rate surpassed 10 percent for the first time since 1983, threatening to hurt household spending in the world’s largest economy. American gross domestic product rose at an annual 3.5 percent in the third quarter, signaling the start of a recovery from the deepest recession since the 1930s.
Liquidity Injections
Policy makers’ record injections of liquidity have stirred some concern that inflation will climb. European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet said this month that the bank will withdraw some liquidity operations, while the Bank of England slowed the pace of bond purchases.
Australia and Norway have started increasing borrowing costs, and the Fed this month indicated the circumstances in which it would be prepared to raise rates. The Group of 20 nations last week outlined a timetable to rebalance the global economy, mapping exit strategies from the stimulus.
A measure of U.S. participants’ confidence in the world’s largest economy fell to 46.9, the lowest reading since July, from 48.8, the survey showed.
“The unemployment rate is going to continue to rise and it’ll take a big chunk out of consumer spending,” said Chris Rupkey, chief financial economist at Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ Ltd. in New York and a regular survey participant. “People are concerned growth in the U.S. is likely to be a two-quarter phenomenon as the fiscal stimulus will burn itself out.”
Europe’s Gauge
The confidence gauge for western Europe rose to 47.7 from 44 last month. Germany’s index rose to 62.5 from 50 as the government, which is spending 85 billion euros ($127 billion) to stimulate growth, last month raised its outlook for the economy, forecasting an expansion of about 1.2 percent in 2010 after a 5 percent contraction this year.
Bloomberg users in Spain remained the most pessimistic in Europe as that nation stayed mired in recession, with unemployment soaring toward 20 percent and the economy struggling to recover from a construction-industry collapse. The Spain confidence index was 17.7 this month from 10 in October.
“We’ve turned the corner but the global economy isn’t really soaring,” said David Semmens, an economist at Standard Chartered Bank in New York, and a regular survey participant. “Businesses and consumers are still quite cautious. You’re not seeing the rebound you saw in earlier recoveries after a recession.”
Latin America
Confidence dropped in the South American region this month, with its index falling to 66.5 from 72.9 in October. In Brazil, the region’s biggest economy, the confidence index fell to 86 from 88.3 last month.
Sentiment fell the most in Japan, where bond yields are rising on concern government pledges to support households will exacerbate what is already the largest debt burden in the industrialized world. The gauge declined to 29.9 from 38.8, the biggest drop among country indices in the survey. Asia’s index dipped to 75.6 from 76.2.
Fewer respondents expect the U.S. dollar to weaken further in the next six months against the world’s most actively traded currencies. The trade-weighted Dollar Index has fallen 7.7 percent this year. The dollar confidence index rose to 42.4 from 31.2 in October.
Biggest Decline
Users in Japan are less optimistic about the yen’s appreciation against the dollar, with the index falling for a second month to 53 from 56.9. Respondents in western Europe were divided on the direction of the euro against its U.S. counterpart.
Bloomberg users were mixed on the outlook for their equity markets in the next six months. Respondents in the U.S., Japan and the U.K. expect shares to decline, while those in Mexico, Germany and Italy predict their markets will extend their advances.
Survey participants in the U.S., Europe and Latin America also remained confident short-term interest rates will rise in the next six months, the survey showed.
To contact the reporters on this story: Shamim Adam in Singapore atsadam2@bloomberg.net; Shobhana Chandra in Washingtonschandra1@bloomberg.net
Last Updated: November 11, 2009 07:00 ESThttp://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=a8BXE1cFSiIw&pos=3
Another Government Mandate in Progress
House Passes Chemical Facility Security Standards
11/10/2009 -
Tough and controversial new antiterrorism standards for chemical facilities passed the House last week, setting up an upcoming battle in the Senate.
Last Friday, the House passed the 178-page Chemical and Water Security Act of 2009 (H.R. 2868) by a vote of 230-193. The bill makes permanent the Department of Homeland Security's right under the Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards (CFATS) to regulate security at chemical facilities and allows the department to mandate inherently safer technologies (IST) when cost-effective. The IST mandate has created the biggest controversy, according to the Associated Press.
A main sticking point was a provision under which the DHS could require some chemical facilities to use certain chemicals or technologies under what are called inherently safer technology, or IST, standards. Backers of the bill said that would apply to the most at-risk facilities; opponents argued it would saddle smaller plants with costly bureaucratic mandates and result in job cuts.
The legislation also extends the security regulations to previously exempted public water and wastewater treatment facilities and tasks the Environmental Protection Agency with carrying the regulations out, reports CQ.com (subscription only).
The bill is opposed by the chemical industry, which sees it as unnecessary government regulation. According to Bloomberg.com:
Chemical-industry lobbyists say that letting the secretary mandate substitutions in chemicals and manufacturing processes, as the House measure would do, could cause shortages of some products.
“A particular chemical could be singled out because it’s viewed as bad in one application” although it’s safe when used in other ways, said Marty Durbin, vice president of federal affairs for the American Chemistry Council.
Republican members of the House tried in vain to amend the bill to downgrade security regulations that they find economically onerous and unnecessary, reportsCongressDaily.
An amendment from Homeland Security Transportation Security Subcommittee ranking member Charles Dent (R-Pa.) striking language giving Homeland Security the authority to require faculties to use safer technologies and processes was defeated 236-193.
Another Dent amendment to simply extend the department's current chemical security regulations -- as opposed to broadening its powers -- was defeated 241-186.
Democrats also defeated, by a 236-189 vote, a motion to recommit the bill offered by Dent, who wanted language added ordering the department to consider what impact requiring facilities to use safer technologies would have on jobs in a local community.
An amendment from House Energy and Commerce ranking member Joe Barton (R-Texas) that would prevent state and local governments from enforcing stricter security standards than federal regulations was defeated, 262-165.
The New York Times lauded the House's passage of the bill yesterday and criticized industry opposition.
The House bill is a carefully written compromise that is more than accommodating to the concerns of industry. It focuses only on the highest-risk plants, and it would make them use safer chemicals or processes only when the Department of Homeland Security determines that they are feasible and cost-effective.
In related news last week, the Clorox Company, a leading manufacturer and marketer of consumer products, announced it will substitute high-strength bleech for chlorine to manufacture its products. Its first manufacturing plant will institute the changes within six months while other plants will convert to safer practices over the next few years. "This decision was driven by our commitment to strengthen our operations and add another layer of security," said Clorox Chairman and CEO Don Knauss in a company press release.
The environmental organization Greenpeace welcomed Clorox's announcement, connecting it to the then upcoming House vote. "By leading the way in eliminating the potential consequences of a catastrophic terrorist attack or accident, Clorox's announcement also provides Congress with compelling new evidence to enact chemical plant security legislation," said Rick Hind, Greenpeace legislative director, in a press release.
The legislation now goes to the Senate, which is not expected to take it up until early next year. According to Bloomberg.com, urgency over the bill has waned since Congress extended the CFATS for one more year. The antiterrorism standards that went into effect in 2007 were originally supposed to expire in October.
♦ For more on inherently safer technologies, see Associate Editor Matthew Harwood's "New Chemical Solutions" from the August 2007 print edition.
♦ Photo of the Two Rivers Wastewater Treatment Plant in Washington, D.C. byLester Public Library/Flickr
http://www.securitymanagement.com/news/house-passes-chemical-facility-security-standards-006420
November 10, 2009
Just Hit the Ball Straight!
Golf balls: 'Humanity's signature litter'
November 10, 2009 9:20 a.m. EST
Concern is growing in some corners that golf-ball litter is a growing problem.
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- It takes 100 to 1,000 years for a golf ball to degrade
- Golf balls are composed of a zinc rubber filling
- UK lawmaker says golf balls are "humanities signature litter"
London, England (CNN) -- Research teams at the Danish Golf Union have discovered it takes between 100 to 1,000 years for a golf ball to decompose naturally. A startling fact when it is also estimated 300 million balls are lost or discarded in the United States alone, every year. It seems the simple plastic golf ball is increasingly becoming a major litter problem.
The scale of the dilemma was underlined recently in Scotland, where scientists -- who scoured the watery depths in a submarine hoping to discover evidence of the prehistoric Loch Ness monster -- were surprised to find hundreds of thousands of golf balls lining the bed of the loch.
It is thought tourists and locals have used the loch as an alternative driving range for many years. The footage shot by underwater robotics team SeaTrepid, can be seen below.
With an increasing number of golf balls discarded each year, the Danish Golf Association devised a number of tests to determine the environmental impact of golf balls on their surroundings.
From the moon to the bottom of Loch Ness, golf balls are humanity's signature litter
--UK lawmaker Patrick Harvie
It was found that during decomposition, the golf balls dissolved to release a high quantity of heavy metals. Dangerous levels of zinc were found in the synthetic rubber filling used in solid core golf balls. When submerged in water, the zinc attached itself to the ground sediment and poisoned the surrounding flora and fauna.
Course manager for the Danish Golf Union, Torben Kastrup Petersen, said the scale of the problem is unknown: "There has been very little research on the environmental impact of golf balls, but it's safe to say the indicators are not good. We are planning to collaborate with environmentalists in America to conduct more tests to fully explore the extent of the problem."In many cases, removing a partially degraded ball from a lake or woodland area could result in further damage to the wildlife. So what is the solution? Harvie had this advice: "Keep your balls on the fairway or invest in a stock of biodegradable balls."
http://www.cnn.com/2009/SPORT/11/04/littering.golf.balls/index.html
November 09, 2009
November 06, 2009
Insurance or Else!
Today, Ranking Member of the House Ways and Means Committee Dave Camp (R-MI) released a letter from the non-partisan Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) confirming that the failure to comply with the individual mandate to buy health insurance contained in the Pelosi health care bill (H.R. 3962, as amended) could land people in jail. The JCT letter makes clear that Americans who do not maintain “acceptable health insurance coverage” and who choose not to pay the bill’s new individual mandate tax (generally 2.5% of income), are subject to numerous civil and criminal penalties, including criminal fines of up to $250,000 and imprisonment of up to five years. In response to the JCT letter, Camp said: “This is the ultimate example of the Democrats’ command-and-control style of governing – buy what we tell you or go to jail. It is outrageous and it should be stopped immediately.” Key excerpts from the JCT letter appear below: “H.R. 3962 provides that an individual (or a husband and wife in the case of a joint return) who does not, at any time during the taxable year, maintain acceptable health insurance coverage for himself or herself and each of his or her qualifying children is subject to an additional tax.”[page 1] - – - – - – - – - - “If the government determines that the taxpayer’s unpaid tax liability results from willful behavior, the following penalties could apply…” [page 2] - – - – - – - – - - “Criminal penalties Prosecution is authorized under the Code for a variety of offenses. Depending on the level of the noncompliance, the following penalties could apply to an individual: • Section 7203 – misdemeanor willful failure to pay is punishable by a fine of up to $25,000 and/or imprisonment of up to one year. • Section 7201 – felony willful evasion is punishable by a fine of up to $250,000 and/or imprisonment of up to five years.” [page 3] When confronted with this same issue during its consideration of a similar individual mandate tax, the Senate Finance Committee worked on a bipartisan basis to include language in its bill that shielded Americans from civil and criminal penalties. The Pelosi bill, however, contains no similar language protecting American citizens from civil and criminal tax penalties that could include a $250,000 fine and five years in jail. “The Senate Finance Committee had the good sense to eliminate the extreme penalty of incarceration. Speaker Pelosi’s decision to leave in the jail time provision is a threat to every family who cannot afford the $15,000 premium her plan creates. Fortunately, Republicans have an alternative that will lower health insurance costs without raising taxes or cutting Medicare,” said Camp. According to the Congressional Budget Office the lowest cost family non-group plan under the Speaker’s bill would cost $15,000 in 2016. http://biggovernment.com/2009/11/06/committee-confirms-comply-with-pelosi-care-or-go-to-jail/#more-26766
Unemployment Graph
http://michaelscomments.wordpress.com/2009/11/06/october-job-losses-accelerate-again-10-2/
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