Author: Serkadis

Filed under: Motorsports, Hirings/Firings/Layoffs

The biggest football fans don’t just watch the NFL. They’re watching college football too. If not because they say it’s a better spectacle, then simply to see the future pros who’ll ultimately be drafted by NFL teams.

Formula racing works the same way. (Well, sorta.) There are countless feeder series staged every year around the world, and most of the drivers in them are hoping for their shot at the big leagues. But with championships split between so many series – from Formula Renault to GP2 and from Indy Lights to Formula 2 – it can be a bit much to follow.

Fortunately this year in the off-season, all the returning F1 teams came together for one massive test at the Jerez track in Spain. There they put the latest crop of up-and-coming talent to the test. Follow the jump to read how it unfolded.

Continue reading Star Search: Fresh talent descends on Jerez for F1 mega test

Star Search: Fresh talent descends on Jerez for F1 mega test originally appeared on Autoblog on Sat, 12 Dec 2009 09:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

I love this promotional video for the LG eXpo! Hopefully the device will get onto shelves very soon.  If they get this on TV I guarantee they will sell at least a few thousand!

LG has a microsite for the eXpo here where more videos can be viewed.

Gaming has been without The Real Driving Simulator for quite some time now, but Chris Hinojosa-Miranda brought some good news. According to the SCEA associate producer, Gran Turismo 5 finally launches “Summer 2010”
 
 
 

The United States needs to borrow ~$1.5 trillion a year these days to fund its deficit.  And the concern among most deficit hawks is that the cost of that borrowing will rise as the economy comes back to life and inflation fears mount.

So far, rates have remained stubbornly low.  The Treasury is now trying to move its borrowing “out the curve,” however–borrowing money for longer periods to lessen the risk of a short rate increase–and yesterday’s Treasury auction didn’t go well: Specifically, lenders demanded higher than expected interest rates for their money.

The Fed, meanwhile, is stuck keeping short rates at near zero to quietly recapitalize the banks.  This combination has made the yield curve steeper than at any time in the past 29 years.

Bloomberg: Treasuries declined [on Friday], with the yield gap between Treasury 2-year notes and 30-year bonds reaching the widest since at least 1980 amid lower-than-forecast demand for the $74 billion in notes and bonds auctioned in the week.

 

Treasury 10-year notes fell for a second consecutive week as reports showed consumer confidence and retail sales rose more than forecast…

“We had sloppy 10- and 30-year auctions at time when there are less people in the market,” said Larry Milstein, managing director in New York of government and agency debt trading at RW Pressprich & Co., a fixed-income broker and dealer for institutional investors. “The short end is locked in by the Fed and the long end is starting to see pressure from supply. Also, consumers are seeing some positive signs.”

The spread between 2- and 30-year Treasuries reached 374 basis points on Dec. 10, the most in 29 years, as the U.S. sold $13 billion of the so-called long bonds in the last of the week’s auctions.

Read the whole thing >

See Also:
Brace For Hyperinflation
Brace For Hyperinflation 2
Brace For Hyperinflation 3

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• Brace For Hyper-Inflation
• Brace For Hyper-Inflation, 2
• Brace For Hyper-Inflation, 3

 

To Our Clients, Colleagues and Friends, 

• A friend recently asked what a Brooks Machine was.  She was told it was some sort of underwriting machine or underwriting process, but we’d never heard of it.  Have any of you?  Was someone pulling her leg? If you know about this, write us. Curious minds want to know.
• Remember 2007 when only three banks failed, and even 2008 when only 25 failed? We’re already at 130 this year, with two more Failure Fridays left. Actually, one of them is December 25^th, and it’s hard to imagine the FDIC seizing any banks on a Friday when the bank is closed, especially Christmas day. So maybe that means only one Friday left in which they can take down banks. Of course, there’s nothing preventing them from grabbing a bank on other days of the week, and they’ve done that occasionally.  Our vague recollection is that they did the Indy Mac seizure on a Thursday.
• Remember last issue when we showed that among the biggest banks, the Texas Ratio was best at BofA and Citigroup, the two banks that seem to worry people the most?  Here’s a rundown on the Tier 1 Capital ratios for the six biggest banks.

9.1%	Citigroup
8.5%	Bank of America
8.2%	JP Morgan Chase
6.8%	U.S. Bancorp
5.6%	PNC
5.2%	Wells Fargo

Notice how the BofA and Citi are the strongest here as well?

• Doesn’t it seem sometimes that picking stocks is like picking the winner of a beauty contest?  One of our favorite Keynesisms was his comment that if you’re trying to guess the winner, the idea was not to pick the contestant you thought was the prettiest, but to figure out whom the judges would think was the prettiest.  If you like picking stocks based on fundamentals, then you want to study every feature and aspect of the company.  If you’re into charts and technical analysis, you don’t care who looks the prettiest to you.  You just want to figure out which way the judges are leaning, i.e. what other investors are voting for with their stock purchases.  Does that make sense?

• We were talking to Don Brown at Secondary Interactive, and they now have what we would call a Data Detective that scrubs your pipeline daily looking for errors.  We were very impressed.

• We just looked at a portfolio of free standing properties for sale, all leased on a triple-net basis to the big pharmacy company, CVS. The cap rates ranged from 8.5% to 9.1%, and with such a good tenant, wouldn’t the cap rates have been half that a few years ago?
• We’ve been retained to find a Chief Financial Officer for a mid-sized mortgage banker in the San Francisco Bay Area.  If you know anyone interested, or even yourself, please have them send a resume to [email protected]
• If you’re looking for one iconic story that symbolizes the financial meltdown, look no further than the auctioning off of the W Hotel in Manhattan this past week.  Isthimar World Capital paid $282 million for it only three years ago.  The winning bid at the auction was, hold your hat, only $2 million. The new owner is responsible for $97 million in mortgages, so you could say that they really bought it for $99 million. But that’s still a long ways from $282 million.  But then, who wants to own a hotel where they can’t afford full strength light bulbs? 
• Did you know that best friends Sammy Davis, Jr. and Frank Sinatra both shared the same birthday, December 12^th?  If they were alive today, Sammy would be turning 109 and Sinatra would be turning 94. Maybe six months we read Sammy Davis Jr.’s autobiography, Yes, I can, and it was actually pretty interesting.  His conversion to Judaism was particularly compelling, and his writings about the racial discrimination he faced furthers our belief that America had its own form of Apartheid till not too long ago.
• We just saw the most powerful movie we’ve seen all year.  Brothers stars Toby McGuire as a Marine Captain who saw horrible things while a prisoner of the Taliban in Afghanistan . When he returns to his wife and family, McGuire’s performance will remind you in its intensity of Robert DeNiro’s character in Taxi Driver, and maybe Christopher Walken’s acting in Deer Hunter.   You’ll never again think of the boyish looking actor as Spiderman.  We predict he’ll get an Oscar nomination. 
• It seems weird, but we think the Wall Street Journal does the best sports reporting out there, bar none. Last week they took the average salary for all major league players last year and came up with the average salary by position.

$7.4 million  1st base	$4.6 million   Starters	$4.3 million  2nd base
$7.3 million  DH	$4.5 million   Outfielders	$4.1 million  Catcher
$6.4 million  3rd base	$4.4 million   Shortstops	$1.8 million  Reliever

It’s interesting that designated hitters are so well paid, considering how one- dimensional they are.  If DH’s are overpaid. We think a top reliever is way underpaid.  Your ace closer will appear in 70+ games and save maybe 35 of them.  Maybe the poorest relievers would have saved 20 of them anyway, but that still leaves your ace responsible for 15 wins.

• Have you ever wondered just what Charles Schwab’s Bank does with your money?  Of all 8,000 banks in this country, they rank #10 in terms of the percentage of their loan portfolio made up of Home Equity Loans. The Schwab Bank holds $6.7 billion in loans, of which a scary 45.7% are HELOCs.  Isn’t that an absurd concentration?

• Someone wrote us that Jim Morrison actually sang “Mr. Mojo’s Rising” and not “My Mojo’s rising” He also heard that the phrase is an anagram for Jim Morrison.  It’s clearly not, but people, let’s not over-intellectualize this.   Jim Morrison was arrested for “playing” with himself on stage, so when he say’s his Mojo is rising or Mr. Mojo is rising, either way, well, what do you think he’s referring to??

• If you’re looking for funny names, the U.S. House of Representatives sure doesn’t have many.  We just looked at a list of all 435, and there’s a Congresswoman named Bordello, but that’s about it.  Oh, there’s a Randy Neuberger ( Texas ) and a Howard Berman, ( California ) as in Neuberger, Berman but that’s real Wall Street trivia and would only be funny to a handful people if they were to co-sponsor a bill.
• Remember when Loan Origination Systems first started, and almost all processors refused to use them.  They wanted to stick with typewriters and white out.  Today’s struggle to go paperless reminds us of that, and just as we now take an LOS completely for granted, this will be the case eventually with being paperless. If you’ve read about Davy Crockett, Daniel Boone, or Lewis & Clark, you know that pioneers often get lost and discouraged early in their adventures. 
• We just read a WSJ interview with the CEO of Ryanair, the Irish deep discount airline.  He said, and he’s serious, that they’re thinking of having the last ten rows of the planes removed, installing handrails, and selling standing room flights for about $2.00. Sounds crazy, but maybe it make sense for a flight of an hour or less.   Um, what happens during turbulence?
• Last week we showed how cheap things had been in 1960. The ever-diligent Steve Zabel of Idaho First Bank calculated the price rise over the past 50 years.  By his calculations, the federal deficit has grown at an average 2.9% per year, the $.04 stamp has grown at a rate of 4.9%, That 1960 $0.29 gallon of gas has increased at 4.8%, a Chevy at 3.6%, and salaries at 4.8%.  It seems strange, but if the federal deficit is growing at a mere 2.9% per year since 1960, that means its growing even slower than the rate of inflation.
• This past Friday the list of Banks with Dumb Names was reduced by one. Solutions Bank failed, and get this, its $421 million in deposits got picked up by Arvest Bank for free. Arvest did not pay even $1 point to the FDIC for the deposits.
• If you live in Reading , Kansas , the main bank in town is called Tightwad Bank.

Garrett, Watts & Co.  Helping mortgage lenders increase revenues, control costs, and better manage risk.

• Joe Garrett         ([email protected])
• Mike McAuley      ([email protected])
• Corky Watts         ([email protected])

Google Chrome has had a very busy week. The latest beta came out, the first to be released on all supported platforms, Windows, Mac and Linux, a major milestone for the project. Google also opened the doors to its Extensions Gallery, which is already proving rather popular. However, in order to make sure that the latest Chrome build was beta quality, the latest updates to the dev channel have been mostly small bug fixes.

In the meantime, the dev team was still working on a bunch of new features and the Chromium project was moving ahead. Now that the beta is out the door, the dev channel was also updated moving ahead quite a few builds from Chrome 4.0.249.33 straight to 4.0.266.0. Interestingly, the Mac build was held back as the team is still working on bringing extensions support on par with the other platforms.

“Initial implementation of the HTML5 sandbox attribute for iframes. Copying an image from a web page and pasting into Gmail now works. Spellchecker moved to renderer,” Orit Mazor from the Google Chrome team listed the updates for all platforms. “Fixed download dialog truncation in German locale. Fixed options panel truncation in various locales. Implement keyboard access between bookmarks and main toolbar” were the fixes specific to the Windows build. The Linux build also got severa… (read more)

An alcohol free liquid concentrate in vegetarian capsules. Specially formulated at the request of lactation consultants, this blend of More Milk Plus with Goat’s Rue Enhances women with special needs such as Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS), breast reduction surgery and adoptive moms to build mammary tissue as well as to safely and effectively increase breast milk. This formula is also useful for women who did not see an increase in their breast size during pregnancy.

An alcohol free formula of More Milk Plus, Motherlove’s best selling product for safely and effectively increasing breast milk.

Red Clover is a flowering plant that flourishes in meadows and fields throughout Europe, North America and northern and central Asia. It is mentioned in the traditional medical texts of both Eastern and Western civilizations for a variety of ailments.

Motherlove’s best-selling More Milk Plus formula is now an alcohol free liquid concentrate in vegetarian capsules. A safe and effective herbal formula designed to quickly increase breast milk.

This formula is known as the Antispasmodic. This is a time tested formula used historically for convulsions, fainting, cramping, delirium, tremors, hysteria, pyorrhea, mouth sores, coughs, hiccoughs, throat Problem created due to harmful organisms, tonsillitis, etc. This extract is in a base of pure grain alcohol.

Natural Lycopene is a powerful antioxidant carotenoid and the pigment that gives tomatoes, watermelon and pink grapefruit their characteristic red color. Clinical studies have indicated that natural Lycopene works thorugh a number of mechanisms to support cardiovascular health and immune function. In addition, epidemiological studies have determined that Lycopene may be particularly important for the support of prostate health, as well as for the health of the digestive tract.

Individually, both Echinacea and Goldenseal are viewed as beneficial in supporting the body’s healthy overall immune function. When combined, a unique synergism occurs that makes this one of the most effective supplements available to promote optimal wellness.

Clinical studies indicate that administration of L-5-HTP enhances synthesis of serotonin in the brain. Vitamin B-6 is the cofactor for enzymes that convert L-tryptophan to serotonin, and Vitamin C catalyzes the hydroxylation of tryptophan to serotonin. In addition, this product is enterically coated to enable the capsules to bypass enzymes in the stomach which would convert L-5-HTP to serotonin prematurely (before reaching the central nervous system).

A perennial with separate male and female plants, Nettle (Urtica dioica) grows up to 4 feet tall and has toothed, pointed leaves that sting when touched. This sting causes a burning sensation. This because each hair consists of a sharp, hollow spine that breaks off easily, allowing the liquid inside, formic acid, to be released into the object causing the injury. In spite of its stinging, Nettles are of considerable use in many ways, including culinary; they contain vitamins A and C, iron, and a variety of other minerals. The young shoots can also be boiled as a vegetable. Nettle fibers can be spun into rope and made into cloth. Cosmetically, Nettle is a good cleanser, especially for oily skin. As a tea, Nettle may be taken hot or cold and many prefer it sweetened and flavored with lemon.

Zinc Enhances protect against free radicals and is recognized as an important nutritional support during the winter season.Nature’s Way Zinc Lozenges also contains Echinacea and Vitamin C.

Horse chestnut seed extract was successfully revalidated as a phytomedicine in Germany in early 1994. Clinical trials support the venotonic, vascular protective, and antioxidant effects of horse chestnut seed extract standardized to escin, a saponin. The horse chestnut seed extract in this product is guaranteed to contain a minimum of 18% escin. Solaray Guaranteed Potency Herbs deliver confidence by providing exacting and consistent dosing of thoroughly tested herbs of the highest quality available.

Nature’s Way standardized Hawthorn leaf is a scientifically and technically advanced herbal extract standardized to 1.8% to 2.2% vitexin.

HeartCare contains up to 9 times more flavonoids than competing hawthorn extracts because it is standardized to 19% oligomeric procyanidins from the herb’s leaves and flowers. Most other brands standardize to 2.2% vitexin taken from the berries.