Author: Serkadis

The 99g/km CO2 output version of the Audi A3 1.6 TDi was introduced in the UK market this week, priced at £18,005 on the road. The hatchback has a combined economy of 74.3 mpg and is fitted with engine start-stop and energy recuperation systems.

The A3 1.6 TDI can draw on the same 105 hp power output and 250 Nm torque peak as all other versions, and consequently can match them on performance, doing sixty in 11.4 seconds and offering the option to reach a top speed of 121mph where… (read more)

Sales of homes across America rose a whopping 44.1% in November compared to November of 2008 according to the National Association of Realtors.

Sequentially sales wre up 7.4%.

Below, the full release:

NAR: Existing-home sales rose again in November as first-time buyers rushed to close sales before the original November 30 deadline for the recently extended and expanded tax credit, according to the National Association of Realtors®.

Existing-home sales – including single-family, townhomes, condominiums and co-ops – rose 7.4 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate1 of 6.54 million units in November from 6.09 million in October, and are 44.1 percent higher than the 4.54 million-unit pace in November 2008. Current sales remain at the highest level since February 2007 when they hit 6.55 million.

Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist, said the rise was expected. “This clearly is a rush of first-time buyers not wanting to miss out on the tax credit, but there are many more potential buyers who can enter the market in the months ahead,” he said. “We expect a temporary sales drop while buying activity ramps up for another surge in the spring when buyers take advantage of the expanded tax credit, which hopefully will take us into a self-sustaining market in the second half of 2010. In all, 4.4 million households are expected to claim the tax credit before it expires and balance should be restored to the housing sector with inventories continuing to decline.”

An NAR practitioner survey2 shows first-time buyers purchased 51 percent of homes in November, compared with an upwardly revised 50 percent of transactions in October.

According to Freddie Mac, the national average commitment rate for a 30-year, conventional, fixed-rate mortgage fell to 4.88 percent in November from 4.95 percent in October; the rate was 6.09 percent in November 2008. Last month’s mortgage interest rate was the second lowest on record after bottoming at 4.81 percent in April 2009.

NAR President Vicki Cox Golder, owner of Vicki L. Cox & Associates in Tucson, Ariz., said conditions are optimal for buyers in the current market. “Inventories have steadily declined and are closer to balanced levels, which indicate home prices in many areas are either stabilizing or could soon stabilize and return to normal appreciation patterns,” she said. “This means buyers still have good choices but are purchasing near the bottom of the price cycle with historically low mortgage interest rates. Throw a tax credit on top and it really doesn’t get any better for buyers with secure jobs and long-term ownership plans.”

Total housing inventory at the end of November declined 1.3 percent to 3.52 million existing homes available for sale, which represents a 6.5-month supply3 at the current sales pace, down from an 7.0-month supply in October.

Raw unsold inventory figures are 15.5 percent below a year ago. The last time there was a lower supply of homes on the market was April 2006 when it was at a 6.1-month supply.

“Nearly all markets experienced a solid sales gain from one year ago,” Yun said. “The only markets with measurably lower sales were in San Diego, Riverside, and Sacramento, where inventory shortages for lower priced homes are limiting sales.”

For the second month in a row, sales have risen in all price classes from a year earlier. Prior to October, the only consistent gains were in the lower price ranges.

The national median existing-home price4 for all housing types was $172,600 in November, which is 4.3 percent below November 2008. Distressed properties, which accounted for 33 percent of sales in November, continue to downwardly distort the median price because they generally sell at a discount relative to traditional homes in the same area.

Single-family home sales jumped 8.5 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.77 million in November from a level of 5.32 million in October, and are 42.1 percent above the pace of 4.06 million in November 2008. The median existing single-family home price was $171,900 in November, down 4.4 percent from a year ago.

Existing condominium and co-op sales in November were unchanged from a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 770,000 in October, but are 60.1 percent above the 481,000-unit pace a year ago. The median existing condo price5 was $178,000 in November, which is 3.1 percent below November 2008.

Regionally, existing-home sales in the Northeast rose 6.6 percent to an annual level of 1.13 million in November, and are 52.7 percent higher than November 2008. The median price in the Northeast was $223,400, down 13.1 percent from a year ago.

Existing-home sales in the Midwest increased 8.4 percent in November to a pace of 1.55 million and are 53.5 percent above a year ago. The median price in the Midwest was $140,800, a decline of 0.4 percent from November 2008.

In the South, existing-home sales rose 4.8 percent to an annual level of 2.39 million in November and are 44.8 percent higher than a year ago. The median price in the South was $151,400, down 1.4 percent from November 2008.

Existing-home sales in the West increased 10.6 percent to an annual rate of 1.46 million in November and are 28.1 percent above November 2008. The median price in the West was $231,100, which is 4.1 percent below a year ago.

The National Association of Realtors®, “The Voice for Real Estate,” is America’s largest trade association, representing 1.2 million members involved in all aspects of the residential and commercial real estate industries.

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• Surging Shadow Inventory Means Actual Housing Inventory Has Barely Budged At All
• IHS: Housing Prices Deeply Undervalued Across The Country
• Moody’s: The Housing Market Has Bottomed

We had already reported that Times Square is going to be bringing in 2010 with a green bang. But what’s even better is that every year, for the past 10 years Royal Philips Electronics has been the source of lighting up the New Year numerals. While over the years the progress has been made from halogen to incandescent to the recent LUXEON LED for 2007 and 2008, the year 2010 will be brought in with the new white-light LED retrofit bulbs that will also be made available to the consumers, yes you and me.

The consumer version of the LED lighting that will be used for the Times Square Ball and its numerals is called the Philips Ambient ED PAR 30 Longneck, which seems perfect for home use. The bulbs consume about 11 watts of energy. For its consumer line, Philips has also launched a series of other lightings such as floodlight, spotlight and candle bulb.
[GoodCleanTech]

Now even Dubai can hold up its head high when it comes to caring for the environment. With the whole Copenhagen summit on, it was high time everyone took energy saving and environment consciousness seriously. The Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry is now the first ever building in the Arab region to be globally recognized with green credentials. It has been the first building there to have achieved LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification from the United States Green Building Council (USGBC). Intelligently planned, the buildings efforts in going eco-friendly include reducing water and energy consumption by approximately 77% and 47% respectively between 1998 and 2008, leading to significant carbon emission reductions and accumulated savings of around seven million. Other efforts include recycling of paper, plastic and other electronic waste and free valet parking for visitors using fuel efficient vehicles.
[Edie]

British carmaker Lotus announced today the release of a commemorative edition of the Exige, dubbed S Type 72. The car has been built to celebrate the black and gold Lotus Type 72 livery which was driven by Jochen Rindt, Emerson Fittipaldi, Ronnie Peterson and Jacky Ickx and won three Formula One Constructors’ Championships (1970, 1972 and 1973) and two Drivers’ World Championships (1970 and 1972).

The Lotus Exige S Type 72 is an evocative sportscar, combining cutting edge handling… (read more)

The 21st Phillip Island Classic Festival of Motor Sport to be held March 19-21, 2010, will be celebrating the Alfa Romeo Centenary, with more than 100 examples of the Italian marque taken to the Grand Prix circuit to be a part of several events.

Various important Alfa Romeo race cars will be featured at the event, including Alfa’s first genuine single-seater Grand Prix car, the 1931 P3 Tipo B monoposto, a 1932 model Alfa Romeo 8C 2300, as well as a 1963 TZ1 (Tubolare Zagato) ra… (read more)

The Christmas star or the Star of Bethlehem has a very special significance attached to it and hence it has got to be the most shining one, especially on the eve of Christmas. Keeping this in mind, Siemens has powered a LED-equipped Christmas Star called ‘Superstar’ that is supposed to be the largest in the world. This star will revolve and will give out a glow that is equivalent to 20,000 Christmas candles, and will yet consume electricity as much as a hair dryer would. This has been made possible with the 900 LED’s that makes the Christmas star energy saving.

The revolving attraction has been designed by the Munich multimedia artist Michael Pendry.



[Ecofriend]

As the U.S. becomes less capitalist, Libya is becoming more so.

Mark Mobius is investigating the country as his next potential frontier market.

Even if he doesn’t end up investing in the nation, stints to off the radar places like this at worst help Mr. Mobius maintain his emerging markets branding.

Mark Mobius via Investment Postcards:

After a long period of strained relations with the West, Libya has made considerable efforts since 2003 to normalize and improve diplomatic ties. These include abandoning its weapons of mass destruction programs and paying compensation to the families of victims of the bombings of Pan Am flight 103 (in 1988) and UTA Flight 772 (in 1989). As a result, most international sanctions against the country were lifted in 2004, and in 2006, the U.S. removed Libya from its state-sponsored terrorism list on which Libya had stayed for 27 years. Since then, Libya has attracted a wave of interest from international companies operating mainly in energy and construction. Our hotel was full of business people, particularly oil company executives and oil field employees working on the country’s extensive oil and gas deposits – Libya has the largest oil reserves in Africa.

More importantly for us as investors, the government is moving to privatize state enterprises and develop a capital market. We visited the nascent stock exchange and were impressed by the good systems in place. Only a handful of stocks are listed now, but with many more state-owned companies in areas such as infrastructure, power and telecoms destined to be privatized and listed, we expect that the opportunities to invest in this market will expand. Since 2003, more than 100 government-owned companies have been privatized in the oil refining, tourism and real estate areas.

Read more here.

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• Goldman: Save Africa Because "Health Buys Wealth"
• Scientists: South Africa’s Gold Reserves Are 90% Lower Than Thought
• China Will Do What Western Do-Gooders Failed To Do: Save Africa

Germany will have a dream team inside Formula One for the upcoming few seasons, just as McLaren secured their British fans an all-Englishman lineup for the next 3 years. Nico Rosberg was officially joined in the Mercedes GP lineup by 7-time world champion Michael Schumacher, as the announcement was made during a press conference earlier today.

Having Schumacher as a teammate is never easy, as past experiences have taught us that the German driver, when managed by Ross Brawn (as th… (read more)

Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell said he is “not sure we will ever have a table-games bill” come next month.

The state desperately needs the casino-related bill to pass in order to draw in more revenue and create 1000 new jobs.

Inquirer:

Gov. Rendell yesterday upped the ante in his bid to balance the state budget, saying that without a table-games bill he would have to close the State Museum of Pennsylvania and some state parks in addition to laying off at least 1,000 more government employees.

The bill – the final unresolved part of the state budget the governor signed in October after a 101-day impasse – would bring in $250 million in license fees and taxes that Rendell said is necessary to keep the government running.

“I’m not sure we will ever have a table-games bill,” said Rendell.

Read more >

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• Just In Time: Dubai Opens $8.5 Billion Casino In Vegas
• Clinton’s Plea: Buy A Web Ad In Pennsylvania
• Meet The Man Who Blew $127 Million And Most Of His Family’s Fortune Gambling In Vegas

As we finish up the year, I’m really pleased with the progress the Startup Visa gang is making.  I started thinking about, writing, and working on this on 9/10/09 when I wrote the post The Founders Visa Movement.  One quarter later, we’ve:

• Put together a core group of entrepreneurs, angels, and VCs who are working on this.
• Received a tremendous amount of positive feedback from entrepreneurs and investors who have struggled with this issue.
• Verified that this is a real issue, there is no current solution under the existing visa system, and even though there are plenty of immigration lawyers who say “no problem, I can get around this”, there aren’t clean solutions.
• Engaged with a number of Congressmen in both the house and the senate.
• Found a member of the house who is sponsoring a bill addressing the issue.
• Talking to several folks on the senate side to find a sponsor.
• Codified a first clean draft of language around this.
• Build lots of grassroots support and enthusiasm.
• Gotten plenty of discussion going in the blogosphere and mainstream media.

Shortly after I started talking to people in Congress about this it became clear that this wouldn’t be a 2009 legislative issue given the massive financial and health care reform issues being worked on in Congress.  So – we decided to use Q409 to “figure this out” with a goal of launching aggressively in Q110 with the goal of having this be part of whatever immigration reform activity happens next year, especially in the context of a renewed push for job creation activity in the US.

In addition to the Startup Visa OpEd that Paul Kedrosky and I wrote and published in the Wall Street Journal, several other high profile thinkers have written great essays on this issue.

The Startup Visa And Why The Xenophobes Need To Go Back Into Their Caves: Vivek Wadhwa (Visiting Scholar at UC-Berkeley, Senior Research Associate at Harvard Law School and Director of Research at the Center for Entrepreneurship and Research Commercialization at Duke University) wrote a great piece in TechCrunch.

Immigrant Scientists Create Jobs and Win Nobels: Susan Hockfield (MIT President) wrote a WSJ OpEd that – while not talking directly about the Startup Visa – clearly supports that overall effort and also reinforces my belief that any graduate with an advanced degree from a US college or university should get a green card stapled to his diploma.

While there are plenty of other articles in the mainstream media swirling around, ones in CNN Money such as Want to create jobs?  Import entrepreneurs does a good job of laying it all out.

Many of you have asked how you can get involved.  Look for a variety of easy ways to do this in Q1.  And – a huge thank you for everyone out there that has helped in any way so far.  In the mean time, feel free to add to the Wikipedia page of American Startups with Immigrant Founders.

This time of year, you see a lot of “best of the decade” or “best of the year” lists, and of course we take part as well.

Among the most striking we’ve seen is this one at China Daily on the Top 10 Real Estate Debacles Of 2009.

The funny thing about it is that China’s property market is experiencing a monster boom.

A list from the US would be all about the various commercial real estate deals gone bad — Stuy-Town, The Union Square W, etc. — but there it’s all about the toll of a country that’s gone mad, building as much property as it can, as fast as it can.

So the stories are about peasants lighting themselves on fire to protect their homes, or, of course, the infamous Chinese apartment building that just fell sideways, because the construction was so shoddy.

Anyway, if you have the time, you really should read through the list of stories >

(Image via ChinaDaily)

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• AGAIN: Chinese Man Self-Immolates To Protest Eviction
• Chinese Lady Self-Immolates To Protest Destruction Of Her Home
• Shanghai Redefines Subprime Construction: Building Just Falls Over

Filed under: Motorsports, Mercedes-Benz

All clearances given, the BBC is reporting that Michael Schumacher is officially a driver for the Mercedes-Petronas F1 team. The deal is understood to be a one-year agreement, with Schumacher being paid £6.2 million ($9.82M U.S.) and having an open door at the end of the year to carry on if it all works out.

Mercedes is said to have its eye on Sebastian Vettel when his contract is up in 2012. Theoretically then, if Michael remains Michael behind the wheel, he could drive for the Three-Pointed Star and collect trophies, and perhaps Championships, until then. That’s an immense theoretical, however: Prost and Lauda took time off, came back, and won the whole show again; Jacques Villeneuve, well, not so much.

And as much as Ferrari respects the times it had with Schumacher, we have a feeling Luca di Montezemolo has already called Alonso to tell him, “You know what you have to do…” On the other hand, if Alonso doesn’t work out at Ferrari, and Michael does well and only has a one-year deal with Mercedes…

[Source: BBC | Image: Clive Mason/Getty]

He’s Back: Schumacher reportedly signs with Mercedes-Benz F1 for 2010 originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 23 Dec 2009 08:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Talk of the euro replacing the dollar has diminished lately, what with the realization that Euro Area economies face massive financial risks of their own.

Bloomberg: “If you start having serious problems credit wise with the likes of Spain, then the issue for the euro’s credibility and its pricing against other currencies becomes a much bigger issue,” O’Neill said in an interview with Bloomberg Radio in New York today.

Thus it's interesting that Russia and China are now investigating the Canadian dollar as a U.S. dollar alternative.

Business Week: Canada’s Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said China, with the world’s largest currency reserves of $2.3 trillion, may be poised to buy Canadian dollars as it seeks to shield its reserves against the U.S. dollar’s decline.

“It does not surprise me that China and Russia would take greater positions in the Canadian dollar than they have previously,” Flaherty, 59, said during an interview in his office in Ottawa. “I would expect countries looking around the world to invest in market currencies that are reliable.”

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• The Euro Breakup Will Be THE Story Of 2010, As Analyst Expects Ireland And Greece To Leave The Union
• Time Bomb For The Euro: Greek Debt Poses Threat To The Common Currency
• Skype's Niklas Zennstrom Pitches VC Firm, Bullish On Euro Startups

Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner seems to think job growth will return when the snow has melted and the birds are chirping again.

———————————————-

AP: Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner says he believes it’s reasonable to expect “positive job growth” by spring and that people should have confidence about an improving economic climate.

In an interview broadcast on ABC’s “Good Morning America,” Geithner  also said he believes many banks around the country still have work ahead of them to regain the public’s faith. He said, “They need to work very hard to shore it up” and said he wasn’t certain that “all banks get it.”

Geithner’s stewardship of the Treasury has come in for criticism on occasion. He said Wednesday, “I think most people would say the economy actually is strengthening now going into the end of the year,” but that the key is to regain lost jobs.

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• Don’t Blame Citigroup For The Latest Outrage–It Was Tim Geithner’s Fault
• Tim Geithner, Meet Your Replacement
• Half Of State Unemployment Programs Are Broke

Marbridge Daily reports that Zhang Zhijiang, GM of China Unicom’s technology division revealed that China Unicom is buying twice as many Windows Mobile handsets for 2010 that iPhones.

The announcement was made at the 2010 Communications Industry Technology Annual Conference currently underway in Beijing, where he said 8% of their 3G handset procurements will be Windows Mobile handsets, while 4% will be iPhones.

China Unicom is the exclusive carrier for the iPhone in China, where the handset has been rumoured to be struggling to hit sales targets.

Read more at Marbridge Consulting here.

After having a few conversations yesterday about the Startup Visa, I realized that I never posted the Wall Street Journal OpEd on the Startup Visa that Paul Kedrosky and I wrote and had published on 12/2/09.  I don’t know the rules about reposting OpEd’s – I assume that since we wrote it I can republish it.  If that’s not true, I’m sure some one will tell me.  In the mean time, here it is:

Start-up Visas Can Jump-Start the Economy

Immigrant entrepreneurs are an engine of jobs and growth. We need more of them.

While fast-growing companies have long been the main source of new jobs and innovation, this country makes it outrageously difficult for immigrants to launch new companies here. This doesn’t make any sense. After all, Google, Pfizer, Intel, Yahoo, DuPont, eBay and Procter & Gamble are all former start-ups founded by immigrants. Where would this country be today without their world-changing innovations?

Immigrants have not only founded big, well-known companies. Foreign-born residents made up just 12.5% of the U.S. population in 2008. But nearly 40% of technology company founders and 52% of founders of companies in Silicon Valley.

Yet we don’t seem to care. We send recent, foreign-born university science and engineering graduates back to their own countries after their student visas expire—unless these creative sorts are willing to spend some of the most entrepreneurial years of their lives working in a big company under an H-1B visa after they finish their studies.

For those who studied elsewhere, but who nonetheless want to bring their job-creating ideas here, American policies treat them—the job-creating, trouble-making innovators that they are—as a cross between deadbeats and queue-jumpers. Why can’t they wait in line like everyone else to get a visa in five years or so? What’s their hurry?

Their hurry is Joseph Schumpeter’s hurry: They want to hustle out and disrupt markets when the opportunity arises.

In the 21st century those opportunities don’t wait for our interminable, employment-based visa programs. As a result rather than saying "Come and create jobs here" we, in effect, tell them to shove off. Come back when you have a few million in sales— at which point they will be rooted elsewhere and creating jobs somewhere else.

That needs to end now. Immigrants who come here to create companies create jobs. We need the jobs.

One good idea to make this process easier is to create a new visa for entrepreneurs, something that is increasingly being called by venture capitalists, entrepreneurs, and angel investors a "start-up visa." It might work like this: If immigrant entrepreneurs want to start a company in the U.S. and are able to raise a moderate amount of money (perhaps as little as $125,000) from an accredited U.S.-based venture capital firm or qualified U.S.-based angel investors, we should let them start a company here. It could be a couple of founders with an idea—that’s it. We would give visas to the founders and welcome them in to our country.

Would it work every time? Of course not. It would fail more often than not. Start-ups often fail.

But having failed, the immigrant entrepreneurs could try again, and again. And as long as they are trying, raising money, creating jobs, and making sales, we would let them stay here. Founders of new companies are precious for a vibrant economy, and we should welcome them. Indeed, the country would be better served to find more of them.

Some will say a start-up visa program will be abused. They will say that it will become a way to end-run immigration rules, to jump the queue if you have money.

There are at least two answers to these objections. First, to get such a visa you would have to raise money from real investors. Second, Canada and other countries already allow entrepreneurs to start a company in their country. Shouldn’t the U.S. stop worrying so much about keeping these people out, and start worrying about bringing them in?

We also think science and engineering graduates should get visas stapled to their diplomas. You complete your higher education here, you get to stay so that you can get out and create jobs, innovate, and grow the economy. Uncle Sam wants you, if you’re a prospective entrepreneur.

The U.S. remains one of the most attractive countries for entrepreneurs. It has a culture of risk taking, capital formation, and an economic dynamism that is the envy of the world. This gives us a competitive edge that we should not let slip through our fingers.

Challenging The Past blog (Marsia Sfakianou Bealby)

Current Research in Egyptology XI will be held in Leiden (Netherlands) this year from 5th to 8th January 2010 and the full programme is now available at the above blog site.

One of the principles of anticipating the future correctly, separating out what will happen from what we think-hope-fear will happen, is to consciously factor in the principle that fundamental human needs don’t disappear. They are bundled, interpreted, and served one way in the present, and this may change in a new era as technologies advance and relationships and associations change. But needs are forever. And often the future goes ‘backwards’ to old, archetypal models that served needs before.

Witness the uptake of ‘feudal’ protection in a competitive, recessionary marketplace, where Wal-Mart is offering rental space insde a new Chicago store to neighborhood businesses. Apparently tenants already include a dog groomer and a fried chicken outlet, and Wal-Mart is going to be inviting in barbers, manicurists, and other local small businesses.

Regional general manager Rolando Rodriguez told the NY Times: “We want the same resurgence of the community…”.

It’s not all about community of course. Wal-Mart is seeking counter-PR to endemic criticism (and evidence) that their megastores kill mom-and-pop shops on which many local jobs and services depend, and is hoping the gambit will revive its six-year stalled bid for the city’s approval of proposed Chicago stores.

Anyway, as one observer, Marissa Johnson, said of the new arrangement: “It’s like sharecropping.”

Yes, this is the return of a feudal model. The lord owns the land and the small guy works his patch, offering a regular tribute. And small guys will jump at it because — in the absence of fundamental challenge to an iniquitous system — having the protection of a lord is better than not having it.

Another need that’s not going away, merely being reinterpreted (ironically back to pre-feudal organization) is our need to mark the darkest night of the year with ritual. Yule is the pagan winter solstice rite centered on a December 21 dusk-to-dawn vigil. It was absorbed into Christmas and not widely practiced for centuries. But now, as reported in the big UK media Christmas pregame show, there’s been a great surge in Yule festivities and attendance. By how much depends on who is quoted but nobody is denying the trend — which more or less mirrors the decline in formal Christian Christmas (secular, gift-giving, tree decorating Christmas is alive and well.)

The need is a constant. The rituals will change, often mining the past.

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