(12-17) 09:43 PST BAGHDAD, (AP) —

The Iraqi Oil Tanker Co. launched its first new ship in 27 years Monday, and delivery of two more tankers is expected within three months.

The Dijlah Д the name for the Tigris River in Arabic Д was inaugurated in the southern port city of Basra, officials said.

The 14,000-ton capacity, Chinese-built ship will help ease export problems Iraq has encountered as its beleaguered but vital oil industry begins to recover from years of war and neglect, officials said.

Basra Gov. Mohammed al-Waili led the ceremony and said the Dijlah would help spur growth in Iraq’s oil industry.

Iraq’s fleet of oil tankers was battered by the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war and then by the first Gulf War.

Are you on «investing.businessweek.com» yet? Maybe you should be.

I made this pronouncement on my «pulverblog.pulver.com» recently, encouraging my friends and contacts to join me in leaving «investing.businessweek.com» behind. Little did I know the ripple effect it would have.

Within hours of my posting, several high-tech bloggers took note of the move and started their own LinkedIn vs. Facebook discussions, many asking whether Facebook, a site that began as a social network for college kids, could replicate LinkedIn, a network aimed at helping professionals forge and maintain business connections. Hundreds of my contacts who did not have a Facebook account as recently as March were swarming Facebook by mid-July. Everywhere there were “Facebook for Business” blog posts, and the network, it seemed, had suddenly recaptured the attention of key executives across the media, entertainment, communications, and Internet fields.

Facebook already was recognized as a growing and disruptive social site for young people, but it was starting to be seen as a viable force for business. We are in the midst of a coming of age for Facebook, and I have embraced the network fully. Growing Apart from LinkedIn

I have no regrets—although like many in my demographic, I wasn’t always a welcome member of its community. That changed in January when I met Matt Cohler, one of the Facebook co-founders, at DLD 07 in Munich and he invited me to join. At first, I connected with some relatives and just a handful of friends already there. For months, I was there but not paying much attention.

Then, in late May, a number of people “friended” me out of the blue. Some of them are people I never would have expected to find on a social network—whether because they’re the wrong age, they were already on LinkedIn, or they simply weren’t the type I would expect to share much personal information. I live a fairly public Internet life, but many of my tech friends wouldn’t—or so I thought. I quickly realized something big was going on, and this time when I visited, I decided to stay for a while.

The more time I spent on Facebook, the less time I had for LinkedIn, where I had formed a large network, «pulverblog.pulver.com» almost exactly four years before my public departure. On LinkedIn, what I ended up with was a network of people, many of whom I didn’t know. I suppose it was my fault but I rarely refused someone who asked to connect with me. And over time, not only was I inundated with “connect me” requests from strangers, but I also was regularly spammed with reminders to follow up on such requests. What’s more, my world at LinkedIn was pretty flat, nonviral, and there was no compelling reason for me to stay and interact with the community. Easier Networking

Once I left, I never looked back. Facebook is great for business networking as well as socializing, and provides a platform for creating networks among like-minded people. There are hundreds if not thousands of groups across a variety of business topics. And joining a business-oriented group and engaging with the community make it easier to establish yourself as a brand and forge networks than relying on a third party to make an introduction to someone you don’t know.

Consider my recent trip to Israel, where I traveled in July for meetings and a speaking commitment. At the time, I had 100-plus friends on Facebook from Israel, and I thought it would be interesting to bring them together in what I call real-time social networking. I started by creating a Facebook event and invited friends using Facebook. Attendees could visit the event site beforehand and gather information that would facilitate later face-to-face networking.

(12-17) 04:00 PST Washington —

Alan Greenspan, former chairman of the Federal Reserve, suggested Sunday that a tax break or other government financial help for homeowners facing the mortgage crunch would be the best political fix for the economy.

He cautioned against meddling with home prices or interest rates to address the housing problem.

Greenspan did not specifically call for a tax cut. Instead, he called for the government to apply money to the severe housing market slump. Such a cash infusion would typically come through a tax break or a new government spending program.

“Cash is available, and we should use that in larger amounts, as is necessary, to solve the problems of the stress of this,” Greenspan said during an appearance on ABC’s “This Week.”

Separately, Greenspan said he is concerned about signs of a resurgence of inflation.

“Core inflation is up. Wholesale prices had their highest increase I think in a generation. That raises the specter of stagflation again,” said Greenspan, referring to a simultaneous stagnant economy and upward pressure on prices.

He said the Federal Reserve should “do what it has to do to suppress the inflation rates that I see emerging, not immediately, but clearly over the intermediate and longer term period.”

Greenspan said a large number of people are in major financial stress, even when they’ve tried exceptionally hard to make their monthly mortgage payment. But some political solutions would only prolong their agony, he said.

“It’s far less damaging to the economy to create a short-term fiscal problem, which we would, than to try to fix the prices of homes or interest rates. If you do that, it’ll drag this process out indefinitely,” said Greenspan, referring to his preference for a cash infusion to help homeowners.

Greenspan ran the central bank for more than 18 years. He has been criticized by some for keeping interest rates too low for too long after the 2001 recession.

He said - as he did earlier in the week in another interview - that he agrees with some experts who see prospects for a recession at about 50-50.

“Whether it’s above or below (50 percent) is really extraordinarily difficult to tell,” Greenspan said.

Greenspan said the key lesson the economy has provided lawmakers over the last 20 years is that inflation must be suppressed for sustained economic growth to occur.