Some people call it 'holiday shock'. Others, in the absence of their own witty terms, merely bite their lips and deal with what can be one of the slowest times of year for business.
It is this period – roughly from Christmas Eve to New Year's Day every year – that I call the "Holiday Lull."
While I speak from mostly an American standpoint in talking about this, I would assume that the same comments can be applied to any economy existing in a primarily Christian region celebrating Christmas and New Year holidays in a similar manner.
It has definitely been a long time since I’ve blogged, and what better way to start than now, to help us get rolling into the New Year.Hopefully, I’ll be more consistent with my blogging next year.My plans are to blog at least once a week, most likely on Mondays.If I can’t put out the time to give SLR readers something to read about, how can I expect to make SLR successful?
What a year ’07 has been.We’ve all seen or have even been a victim of all the tumultuous events this year, from the gambling ban to the “oh-not-again” scams to the failure of multiple ‘companies’.However, if there is anything positive to be taken from ’07, it is that this was the year SL cleansed itself and the year the financial sector was officially born.Hopefully, we have all seen the trough.The question now is how high is the peak?
Importantly, for our readers I should note that there will be little negative change in the content you see here. In addition to new content providers you will see floating around SLR, you will also see a familiar old face... me.
I do not intend to fully quit writing for SL Reports, and in fact I feel as if decreased business responsibilities might allow me to do so more in-depth. Through January 15th, I hope to be generating at least one post a day at this site... as scheduling and general 'newsiness' permits.
Beyond that, my participation will vary depending on my own availability. I have committed to management to retain my login and make at least one SL post per week... whether I will do more than that is up in the air.
In my Second Life profile, I have included a message stating that I no longer log into the grid regularly. While it might be logical for you to assume by this that I have quit Second Life, it is far from the truth. The fact is, the message is a mere solidification of what I have have been doing already... logging in once or twice or week. For the time being, I don't see my involvement falling below that.
With great new content providers, though, expect only good things to come here at SL Reports. We appreciate your loyalty and readership, and will be rewarding it with enhanced news coverage in the months to come.
In a stunning nine-point post yesterday, L&L Bank and Trust (CapEx: LNL) CEO Lindsay Druart announced ambitious expansion plans that include the opening of a stock brokerage and global exchange at the bank's website, myllbt.com.
"The brokerage division is now L&L Bank and Trust Brokerage Exchange," said Druart. "Investors will openly trade LLBT’s portfolio on our enhanced website... this will be one stop shopping for all investment needs."
Druart says that companies not currently in the portfolio may be bid upon by investors through their enhanced trading system, at which point shares will be purchased by LNL from the applicable exchanges. Dividends will be paid to investor's accounts in the same way they would be at the respective exchanges.
An interesting twist to LNL's brokerage idea is a vague mention of "specifically-targeted funds and indices" that will be created to trade at the bank's website. An interesting note of this nature also appeared in an announcement from L&L Credit Reporting Agency and Business Services (CapEx: LCA).
A recent thread on a random Second Life forum that I shall not name got me thinking about human differences, discrimination, and perception of such things.
We all have our differences. There's no doubt about it. Some of us are Americans, some are Europeans, some are Asians. Some of us are Christians, Muslims, or Athiests. Some of us are black, or white, or brown... gay, straight, or bisexual... men or women. We're all different, but we're also human.
I think former U.S. President Bill Clinton said it best in his speech at Harvard University's 2007 Class Day. Genetically, all humans are roughly 99.9% the same. Our differences in stature, color, mental capacity, all come from one tenth of one percent.
Yet, as Pres. Clinton points out, the majority of social problems on our great planet are caused when we spend more time arguing about our 0.1% differences than we do celebrating our common humanity.
In Second Life financial markets in particular, we all seem to find great pleasure in pointing out each other's differences in an effort to better our own public positions, rather than focusing on our common goals. It's particularly sad when we see real-life differences such as race, gender, or sexual preference brought into this environment... a place where we can't even SEE EACH OTHER... a place where most of us will never even interact with each other in real life – the one place where these differences can legitimately matter a SMALL FRACTION of the time... all in an effort to garner sympathy or bash a colleague who may have a difference of opinion.
The transcript of the 12/12/2007 meeting of the Second Life Exchange Commission (SLEC) is not very encouraging. It shows an organization struggling with its own identity, leadership, and purpose in the virtual world, all the while public voices are growing increasingly critical of the abilities of the SLEC, as well as the conflicts of interest which reside with its leadership. Two different schools of thought appear to be forming within the SLEC - one which looks at a system of punishment for companies and markets not compliant with the SLEC's regulation, the other which argues for rewarding the companies and markets which are compliant.
The first idea, that of punishment, is a natural one to strive for. It is, after all, how governmental regulatory bodies operate. If a company does not comply with their rules, they can fine, imprison, or seize assets as justified. However, in Second Life this is simply impractical. Although some systems have been constructed to incorporate this system of punishment into the mixture (such as ACE requiring that its companies who own land use BNT land, so that that asset may be seized if necessary), it simply does not carry the same weight that it does in First Life. The bottom line is that even if you do everything you can to an avatar: take their money, land, inventory, maybe even ban them from Second Life - it simply does not carry as much weight as any one of those actions would in First Life.
Opinions 
