A Better Course

“Iceland is bankrupt,” said Arsaell Valfells, a professor at the University of Iceland. “The Icelandic krona is history. The only sensible option is for the I.M.F. to come and rescue us.”

It is uncomfortable to ask for an explanation of an acronym like CDO. What does it mean? What is its real value? Is it sustainable? These are tough questions because they expose the questioner to the smirk of the all-knowing creator of the product.

No doubt the Valley, and technology at large, is in for the toughest times since at least the all-too-recent dot-com bust. But I’m not so sure it will be a bad thing in the long run—maybe quite the contrary.

Whether these cards serve as an effective get-out-the-vote strategy remains to be seen. “When it comes to youth outreach,” said Michael Connery, author of “Youth to Power”, “peer to peer is the gold standard.” But Someecards’ co-founder, Brook Lundy, 37, said he was thinking of ways to ratchet it up: “The cards could start getting more physically threatening.”

Analysts expect that worsening conditions will slow down spending for online display advertising in 2009. This week three Wall Street analysts cut their price targets for Yahoo, which makes the bulk of its money from selling graphical ads on its web properties.