U.S. Unemployment Rate: 9.8 to 17+ Percent (and Twitter Valued at $1 Billion)

-- Current, 0:25: Domino's is the old-school business model. They "sell a product" called "pizza" and "people buy that pizza" and "Domino's makes a profit."

[Fast-forward: FT: December 31, 2010: A December funding round valued the company at $3.7bn... Though the value of the company was recently estimated at $3.7bn, it runs at a loss.; Charlie Rose, January 11, 2011, Since its inception in 2006, the site has become a powerful tool... 24:46 (of 25:18): Is Twitter making money? It's making, it's making money. We have revenue... Making money has to do with profit. Making money has to do about positive cash flow. We have a long way to go. We have long way to go... We have revenue.]

[Jun. '11: Ttr. worth $7B: "...just over 500 employees...more than 200 million registered user accounts, is currently on track to produce about $150 million in ad revenue this year, according to research firm eMarketer, up from $45 million last year...According to comScore Inc., Twitter.com in May saw 139 million unique visitors globally, up from 90 million a year earlier. Growth in the U.S. has been slower than internationally, with the site hitting 27 million unique U.S. visitors in May, up from 23.8 million in 2010."]

[Sooo... Dec. '11: Ttr. worth $9-12B?]

[Fast-forward: Apr. '12: Instagram bought for $1B]

[Fast-forward: May '12: Pinterest valued at $1.5B...WSJ: "The $1 Billion Club Gets Crowded: At least 20 closely held U.S. companies backed by venture capital are now valued at $1 billion or more...Today's membership exceeds even that during the frothy days of the late 1990s dot-com bubble, when 18 such start-ups scored a $1 billion-or-higher price tag...Most of the valuation frenzy has unfolded only recently. Since the beginning of last year, 15 start-ups have landed 10-figure valuations. Only two weeks ago, note-taking app maker Evernote Corp. hit the milestone...Many of today's billion-dollar club members do differ from their dot-com brethren in that they generate revenue, and spend far less cash than Web companies a decade ago. Dropbox CEO Drew Houston, for example, has said the San Francisco company is profitable..."]


AP: Even though economists think the economy has begun to grow, it could be well into 2010 before job creation ramps up.

Forbes: Manhattan, Kansas [4.8%] shares the attributes of many of the cities with the lowest unemployment [Lincoln, Nebraska: 4.3%] -- a state with a strong agricultural base and a big college campus, in this case, Kansas State.

NYT: G.D.P. R.I.P., G.D.P. Seen as Inadequate Measure of Economic Health