I am a bit ambivalent about all the issues Apple has been having with content providers for pricing on iTunes. Apple wants to keep the pricing model simpler. Same price for popular items as for obscure ones. I personally love that model and I know lot of other people do too. It is simple and it works and you are not constantly worried about whether you got the right price or not. The prices don't constantly change on you and make you look stupid if you bought something when it was popular. In today's cluttered world it is a welcome simplicity.

Content providers of course see their content as cash cows. If a song is big let me charge as much as I possibly can and make as much money with it as I possibly can because only about 10% of the content I produce actually makes any money for me and really subsidizes the cost of other unpopular stuff that may have a smaller but sometimes dedicated following. Also, after all it is my content so I should be able to sell it at whatever price I want to whether or not my intention is noble and I want to subsidize fringe stuff by cashing in on mainstream stuff or whether I am just a greedy bastard.

What iTunes is doing is similar in a sense to what Wal-mart does in its stores: pushing content providers (manufactures) to subscribe to its cost model. While Wal-mart's model is strictly about reducing prices Apple's model is about keeping prices consistent. Both models if I really think about it are an attempt to help the customer -- by either giving them a better deal or a less confusing experience. Both in a sense are stifling for the content providers and are dictatorial and both are practicing monopsony.

I love the Apple model and hate the Wal-mart model almost instinctively. However, thinking about it some more they are really doing the same thing and hence the ambivalence.

This country's infrastructure is in the pits. In the last few weeks we've seen a bridge collapse, planes in complete disarray and I've personally had no water for two days and then power went down the very next day. This morning was probably the worse commute so far when my fourteen minute train ride was converted into an hour and 10 minutes because of the few inches of rain that feel last night. Apparently the entire New York transportation system is in complete disarray. Wow!, this is the most powerful society ever! Given the wealth of resources and money at their disposal, this feels more like a shoddy excuse for progress. No major capital investment on infrastructure over the last 50 years or so and the signs are for all to see. Traffic jams that waste billions of dollars a year are common. However, the nation is busy fixated on TV and the see-saw crap of Wall Street's indexes.

Those who thought Chrysler had no chance to survive even under a private hat should rejoice. Given the thickness of the wonderful leaders of business, Bob Nardelli the "headstrong" CEO of Home Depot crediting for making billions while the depot crashed on the street, is now going to lead Chrysler.

Mr. George Bush you need not worry. A Nobel Peace Prize awaits you.

New York Times has thinned down today. No, not fired the entire editorial staff but cut-off an inch and a half horizontally off the newsprint. I am not crazy about. I know the Wall Street Journal also did it earlier this year but I was hoping the Times would hold off. But no. The pressure of commerce is just too much I guess -- enough to squeeze the life out of the erstwhile newsprint. I personally detest it. I get the feel of reading a tabloid.

Once again the march of Genghis Khan continues. What will Murdoch not own by the time he is done? The sale of Wall Street Journal (more than Dow) is just another example of what is wrong with this world in general.