Comments on: Counterparties: The largest antitrust settlement in US history?

By: Potatoe1

Potatoe1 — Wed, 18 Jul 2012 17:20:35 +0000

mfw13, They said the same thing in 2004 but Bush won anyways. Thank you for the reply. :-) “Some of the issues described above have created problems for voters generally. Others, however, by accident or (it is charged) by design, have disproportionately affected racial minorities. For example, the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights determined that, in Florida in 2000, 54 percent of the ballots discarded as “spoiled” were cast by African Americans, who were only 11 percent of the voters” From Wiki. Money does talk.

By: mfw13

mfw13 — Tue, 17 Jul 2012 23:33:11 +0000

Potatoe1,

In theory you are correct…logic says that spending gobs of money should enable you to influence voters.

BUT, I’ve yet to see any actual evidence that it does so.

You bring up Florida….right now the polls say Obama has a 5-7 point lead there, despite all the GOP to make it harder to vote….

By: Potatoe1

Potatoe1 — Tue, 17 Jul 2012 10:07:07 +0000

mfw13, the money is not just for TV ads but mostly for marketing companies that can study the election issues and spin things for the candidate. The marketing companies tell the candidate what his message should be and where his opponent may be weak. The more you can spend, the more finely tuned your message will be. Look at Florida, I guarantee that the Republicans hired a consultant and asked the question, “How can we make sure that we win this state?”, The answer was to limit the ability of minorities to vote. That is what more money can buy for you. An election…

By: TFF

TFF — Tue, 17 Jul 2012 04:09:20 +0000

Groupon update…
October 27, 2011: “Henry Blodget has a smart post on how to value Groupon today. Is he right that it’s vastly overpriced at a $10 billion valuation?”

Evidence:
http://www.google.com/finance?chdnp=1&ch dd=1&chds=1&chdv=1&chvs=maximized&chdeh= 0&chfdeh=0&chdet=1342497960203&chddm=676 43&chls=IntervalBasedLine&q=NASDAQ:GRPN& ntsp=0

Presently at a $5B valuation. Might still be too much? Business is falling off, and they STILL haven’t turned a profit.

By: mfw13

mfw13 — Tue, 17 Jul 2012 00:15:57 +0000

Regarding SuperPac spending…has anyone actually studied the extent to which all this spending actually affects the outcome of elections?

Given that the money mostly gets spent on TV advertising, which most sane people try to tune out, it may not have as much of an impact as people think.

At the Presidential level, I’m guessing the impact is relaitvely minimal, but I would think its much bigger in Senate/House/gibernatorial races.