Filed under: Europe, Saab, Earnings/Financials, Rumormill

As General Motors suddenly finds itself in search for a new CEO to replace Fritz Henderson, it is also looking to secure a buyer for perennially troubled Saab. GM originally thought it had a new parent for the brand in Koenigsegg, but after that deal went sour, Detroit officials confirmed that it they would give themselves up until the end of the year to find a new buyer instead of simply shutting Saab down.

A number of parties have expressed interest in purchasing the brand since that time, and it has now been confirmed that the Swedish marque has another supercar-building pursuer: Spyker. The Netherlands-based exotic manufacturer has just issued a brief statement confirming that it – along with its shareholders at the Convers Group – has indeed “expressed an interest in Saab Automobile AB” (text available after the jump). Spyker has never been a brand short of ambition (remember its ill-fated Formula One effort?), but taking on Saab would be its most ambitious undertaking yet.

In related news, marque website Saab History is reporting that the US-based Merbanco group has not been chosen by GM as a possible purchaser. According to the SH, Merbanco CEO Christopher Johnston released a statement to the enthusiast group that says:

“As most of you know, we ride with the brand, the fit was good, and were up to the challenges ahead. It is now time for us to depart the field and support the company and its outstanding people.

We are grateful to all of you, fellow Saab enthusiasts and the Saab team for the support you have us. It will never be forgotten. Heartfelt thanks, Ryan and friends for your support.”

(Saab History had previously conducted an interview with Johnston, the contents of which you can find here.)

Interestingly, UK buff book Autocar is reporting that yesterday’s ousting of Fritz Henderson could stem from the exec’s apparent desire to close Saab, a viewpoint that was evidently not shared by the rest of GM’s board. We suspect there were a whole host of issues that led to Henderson’s resignation, but it’s likely that GM’s trustees would prefer to offload the brand rather than incur substantial shutdown costs. Call it a “potential contributing factor,” if you will.

Either way, do you think Saab will survive this tumult? Drop us a line in ‘Comments.’

[Sources: Spyker; Saab History; Autocar; Automotive News]

Continue reading Merbanco out, Spyker in as Saab bidding heats up. Was Fritz axed because he wanted Saab closed?

Merbanco out, Spyker in as Saab bidding heats up. Was Fritz axed because he wanted Saab closed? originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 02 Dec 2009 12:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Vikram Pandit’s dead Citi hedge fund, Old Lane Partners, is back from the grave.

Reincarnated as the private firm Meru Capital, it’s already raised $300 million.

It will include all of the founding partners of Old Lane, minus two:

1) Vikram Pandit

2) The head of Citi’s institutional clients group John Havens.

At what point will Mr. Pandit become sick of all the flak he takes at Citi and settle down for a cushy money management job where he can make all the money he wants without politicians breathing down his neck?

At the very least, this surely qualifies as a Pandit Plan B.

FinAlternatives: Citigroup closed Old Lane in September of last year after the hedge fund, which managed $4.5 billion when Citigroup bought it in July 2007 for more than $800 million, posted hundreds of millions in losses and saw all of its outside investors flee.

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• Pandit Says He’s Embarrassed By Andrew Hall’s $100 Million Bonus (C)
• Citi’s New Dumb Ad Campaign Will Defend Vikram Pandit
• VIDEO: Erin Burnett Stabs Vikram Pandit

December is a great month. There’s Christmas and presents and TV. And every morning you get a chocolate just for waking up. If you haven’t bought your advent calendar yet then what are you doing? Advent has started and the days are running out. Still, before you zip out to the shops and make a disastrous buy, read this. Don’t worry. December is going to be OK.

Lego Pirates Advent Calendar

What could be more Christmasy than the Lego Pirates Advent Calendar? Every day of December you get a new pirate treat, plus a play mat and eight mini-figures. It’s a bit expensive but then it’s a bit more than an advent calendar. Ooh argh!
Price: £15.79  or $60

Star Wars Advent Calendar

Star Wars doesn’t stop for Christmas in fact it gets even bigger. This is not so much an advent calendar as a whole world. The pack includes model spaceships, a 3D landscape of the planet Mustafar, six mountains for painting, stickers, paints and an original Star Wars Top Trumps game.
Price: £20

Playmobil Advent Calendars – Police and Unicorn In Fairy World

So long as your child is over three years old then the people at Playmobil have something special for them this Christmas. For boys what could be better than the Police Playmobil Calendar complete with a mini village, police station, motorbike, policeman and all kinds of accessories. For girls how about Unicorn in Fairy World complete with flowers, oyster, trees, rainbows, fairies and unicorns! For more traditional children there’s a very Christmas calendar. Check them out yourself.
Price: $17

Tea Advent Calendar

What’s the first thing you do when you wake up? If it’s not drink tea then to be honest I don’t want to know about it. The Sonnentor Tea Advent Calendar comes with 24 bags of flavoured tea the like you will never have even imagined. We have energy tea, guardian angel tea, sunshine tea, advent fruit tea, chinese green tea, ginger-lemon tea and rooibos-chocolate tea. Each bag comes in a decorated envelope.
Price: £5.50

24 Penguins Before Christmas

This was a big hit last year, so if you missed out you have another chance. It’s simple and beautifully designed. There are 24 penguins and your child has to find them. The calendar is a pop-up and comes with a little booklet which walks kids through December. It’s nicely made but might actually appeal more to an adult market.
Price: $8

Make Your Own

Christmas might be tight this year. Plus we are all supposed to be environmental. So why bother paying someone else to make your advent calendar? Get your kids to make theirs. It’s simple. A bit of card. Some Christmas drawings. Tin foil. Glitter. Of course if the kids make them they won’t have any surprises. So you might have to do it yourself.
Price: FREE!

Peanuts Advent Calendar

No not peanuts Peanuts. Snoopy Peanuts. Snoopy loves Christmas and everyone loves Snoopy. Or they used to. Maybe this is for yesterday’s children. Still it looks great, there’s chocolate, a tree and a very funny beagle.
Price: $30

Haba Advent Calendar

Here’s a very designer little number. A model Christmas Tree with slide out drawers full of sweet wooden figures. While it will look great on the mantelpiece the sweet figures are not confectionery. And that may be the calendar’s problem.
Price: $30

My Little Pony Advent Calendar

The wonder of My Little Pony continues with a Ponyville December. 24 doors, three ponyville size ponies and over 40 accessories. Your little girl will love it. Yee-hah!
Price: Prices vary

Littlest Pet Shop Advent Calendar

You may struggle to get hold of this one because it’s been a little bit popular. The calendar includes three pets – a miniature mouse, bunny and dog – plus lots of accessories like beds, blankets, scarves, earmuffs, sleds, collars, cups, bowls, food, blankets, sleds, collars, earmuffs, bowls, cups, food, scarves, blankets, sleds, collars, AGGHHHHHHHH!!!!
Price: $17

Filed under: Etc., GM

We’re here in the City of Angels to watch Fritz Henderson deliver GM’s keynote address to the all us media types here at LA Auto Show. Only thing is, Fritz resigned yesterday, and for some reason interim CEO Ed Whitacre will not be delivering the keynote. Which can only mean one thing — GM’s Vice Chairman of Marketing and Communications Bob Lutz will be delivering the opening address. Are you as excited as we are? We kinda doubt it. Make the jump to read our live blog.

Continue reading LA 2009: Maximum Bob, Maximum Live Blog

LA 2009: Maximum Bob, Maximum Live Blog originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 02 Dec 2009 11:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Maetec LLC on behalf of the tiny South Pacific islands of Tonga has created a deep water wind turbine and buoy combination for producing hydrogen through electrolysis of seawater. The hydrogen will then be piped underwater along the seabed to a power generation station where it will replace diesel fuel for producing electricity for the grid.

The hydrogen will be used inside internal combustion engines at the power plants. The hydrogen may also be used as a future transportation fuel for vehicles on the island. Hydrogen is seen as a clean storage alternative for wind and solar rather than lead acid batteries that are not as efficient and not as environmentally friendly as hydrogen.

Officially known as the Kingdom of Tonga, the islands like many other places around the world struggles with how to produce clean energy. Tonga is just north of New Zealand and just east of Australia about one-third of the way to Hawaii.

According to a letter to the editor from Johnny Kraczek, Director of Engineering at Maetec LLC who speaks of hydrogen safety, “Personally I have made hydrogen not only in the lab but even in large quantities in my garage at home. There is an acquaintance of mine, an author, who has run his car on homemade hydrogen for nearly twenty years. He even generates hydrogen off of his treadmill for use in his lawn mower or car.”

So, to sum up, it’s not just the large first world nations like the U. S., Japan and Germany who are turning to hydrogen as a clean energy resource, but also second and third world nations are wise to the need for hydrogen as well. If Tonga can do it, this gives hope for many other countries big and small.

Filed under: LA Auto Show, Videos

With Fritz Henderson’s resignation termination as General Motor’s CEO, the General’s generals had to pull a last-minute swap with today’s keynote speaker at the LA Auto Show. None other than Maximum Bob Lutz will be manning the podium in a few minutes and in addition to live-blogging the proceedings (coming in 5…4…3…), we’ve got streaming video of the address after the jump.

Continue reading LA 2009 LIVE VIDEO: Bob Lutz Keynote address

LA 2009 LIVE VIDEO: Bob Lutz Keynote address originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 02 Dec 2009 11:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Google is pushing ahead with Street View despite the numerous controversies surrounding the product. Some countries are more welcoming than others though and it looks like the latest venture is getting a warmer reception. Google has just launched the service in Singapore making it the first country in South Asia to get Street View and one of the first in the region after Japan, Australia, New Zealand and Taiwan. While countries like Japan or Germany had more than a few issues with the service, in Singapore the local government is excited about the image and tourism opportunities it opens up.

“STB is very excited by Street View’s marketing potential as it will further raise Singapore’s prominence and reach through the Internet. People unfamiliar with Singapore can now get a first look at our city,” Mr Ken Low, assistant chief executive of Marketing, with the Singapore Tourism Board (STB), said.

“The convenience of Google Maps, and the Street View feature, will give people from anywhere in the world a much better idea and picture of what Singapore looks like, and what it has to offer and we welcome private sector initiatives such as these which help us add value to our visitors’ experiences,” he added.

The feature is now live on Google Maps and can be accessed… (read more)

Rumor has it that we are not the ones to blame for climate change–the human race, that is. Scientists of the Climate Research Unit at the University of East Anglia were recently found to have manipulated data in order to support preordained conclusions about mankind’s responsibility for climate change, and climate change skeptics have come out in full force to cite this one example as proof of man’s innocence when it comes to global warming.

While the misconduct of the CRU may puff up the skeptics’ sails, the Editorial Board hopes that this one unfortunate example will not lead the public to abandon its concern about climate change. The fact is that mankind’s climate change culpability is backed by strong scientific evidence and the majority of scientific opinion. All that is needed to continue progress at combating climate change is further support from policymakers and the media. Climate change skeptics, for the most part, are doing everything they can to hamper this support.

The turn of the century witnessed a change in humanity’s consciousness about our effects on the environment. Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth, the damaging effects of Hurricane Katrina and the 2004 tsunami at last drew the public’s eye toward the Earth and its changing environment. Whether or not the tsunami or Katrina was directly influenced by global warming, these catastrophic events nevertheless changed how we view our environment and our impact on the planet. So, now that naysayers of global warming have the floor once more, is it time to turn our backs on the wisdom painfully acquired over the past decade?

The planet and people feel the effects of our changing environment no matter how many seek to crowd out scientific proof of climate change. There is solid evidence that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases trap heat in our atmosphere. There is solid evidence that burning fossil fuels is not only unsustainable, but that fossil fuel consumption adds 27 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere each year. There is solid evidence that temperatures are increasing and the environment is changing, in many cases, for the worse. There will always be time to argue about what the cause of climate change is with those who dispute scientific evidence. But there will not always be an equal chance to prevent its occurrence and limit its effects.

To concede ground to skeptics at this time will only halt needed efforts at reducing the future impacts of the changing climate. With the Copenhagen Climate Conference quickly approaching, this is not the time to feed into a fringe, anti-science group of right-wing extremists who are opposing virtually indisputable scientific evidence by giving these skeptics media attention. Our minds and media should focus on further progress now that our current climate wisdom shows us the need for policy action on the global and personal scales.

The Editorial Board believes that, while the conduct of the CRU is less than ethical and unjustified, this scandal and others like it should not fuel the fire that threatens environmental consciousness and efforts to protect our planet. The growing momentum of conservation and protection is one that should continue into the next decade and beyond. Progress may be questioned by the fringe–their voices seemingly the only ones we hear at times–but progress toward a greener and cleaner planet has begun and should not be displaced. We can only hope that environmentalism will not evaporate, even if the ethics of scientists and politicians do. A focus on effective climate change policy should remain at the top of policymakers’ lists, hopefully with a louder and more resounding voice than the small cries of skeptics.

Yesterday really serious security bug was found in FreeBSD (from 7.1 to 8.0). Using public exploit local user can gain root privileges on vulnerable system. Below is an easy way solution to fix this terrible bug:

% cd /usr/src/libexec/rtld-elf/
% fetch http://people.freebsd.org/~cperciva/rtld.patch
% cat rtld.patch | patch -p1
% make && make install && make clean

Thanks to soko1 from truebsd.org.

While today 2.6.32 is the mainline version of Linux kernel, 2.4 branch is still supported by Linux community developers who fix security bugs there but don’t add any new functionality (unlike 2.6 that grows with new features like a snowball). Sometimes it happens that Linux box runs too much services which cannot be stopped so that admin is not allowed to migrate from 2.4 to 2.6 to keep those services online.

In my example the box runs 2.4.37.7 kernel but Vmware Server 1.0.* fails on it with segmentation fault throwing into the logs the errors below in this post. Does that look familiar to anybody? Is there any solution to run Vmware Server at 2.4.37 kernel? Thank you!

...
Nov 24 15:26:29: vmx| NumVCPUs 1
Nov 24 15:26:29: vmx| UUID: location-UUID is 56 4d f2 10 ee e7 61 ad-47 0a 05 f7 f0 0f b7 74
Nov 24 15:26:29: vmx| MM: Using partialmap, 40960 pages AC 0 CE 1 TM 0 DOHU 0
Nov 24 15:26:29: vmx| UUID: canonical path is /var/lib/vmware/1/1.vmx
Nov 24 15:26:29: vmx| UUID: location-UUID is 56 4d f2 10 ee e7 61 ad-47 0a 05 f7 f0 0f b7 74
...
Nov 24 15:26:29: vmx| MM: using fileName /var/lib/vmware/1/564df210-eee7-61ad-470a-05f7f00fb774.vmem for paging
Nov 24 15:26:29: vmx| Msg_Reset:
Nov 24 15:26:29: vmx| ----------------------------------------
Nov 24 15:26:29: vmx| Opened paging file /var/lib/vmware/1/564df210-eee7-61ad-470a-05f7f00fb774.vmem
Nov 24 15:26:29: vmx| Mapped mainmem as pageable
Nov 24 15:26:29: vmx| MStat: Creating Stat vm.cpuusage
Nov 24 15:26:29: vmx| MStat: Creating Stat vm.ram
Nov 24 15:26:29: vmx| MStat: Creating Stat vm.uptime
Nov 24 15:26:29: vmx| AIOGNRC: Starting 4 I/O threads.
Nov 24 15:26:29: vmx| Caught signal 11 -- tid 18393
Nov 24 15:26:29: vmx| SIGNAL: eip 0x0 esp 0x40b38a9c ebp 0x40b38b0c
Nov 24 15:26:29: vmx| SIGNAL: eax 0x0 ebx 0x6cf208 ecx 0x6c67e0 edx 0x40b38ac4 esi 0x40b38bb0 edi 0x40b38ac4
Nov 24 15:26:29: vmx| SIGNAL: stack 0x40b38a9c : 0x006c67fc 0x00000000 0x40b38ac4 0x00000000
Nov 24 15:26:29: vmx| SIGNAL: stack 0x40b38aac : 0x00000000 0x00000000 0x00000000 0x00000000
Nov 24 15:26:29: vmx| SIGNAL: stack 0x40b38abc : 0x00000000 0x40b38bb0 0x006cf208 0x40b38bb0
Nov 24 15:26:29: vmx| SIGNAL: stack 0x40b38acc : 0x00000000 0x40b38b0c 0x40b38aa4 0x006c67e0
Nov 24 15:26:29: vmx| SIGNAL: stack 0x40b38adc : 0x00000000 0x00000000 0x00000000 0x00000000
Nov 24 15:26:29: vmx| SIGNAL: stack 0x40b38aec : 0x00000000 0x00000000 0x00000000 0x00000000
Nov 24 15:26:29: vmx| SIGNAL: stack 0x40b38afc : 0x00000000 0x006c6760 0x00000000 0x00000000
Nov 24 15:26:29: vmx| SIGNAL: stack 0x40b38b0c : 0x00000000 0x00829aba 0x40b38bb0 0x00000000
Nov 24 15:26:29: vmx| Backtrace:
Nov 24 15:26:29: vmx| Backtrace[0] 0x40b3867c eip 0x805afc0
Nov 24 15:26:29: vmx| Backtrace[1] 0x40b3874c eip 0x80f358a
Nov 24 15:26:29: vmx| Backtrace[2] 0x40b387bc eip 0x80f331a
Nov 24 15:26:29: vmx| Backtrace[3] 0x40b38b0c eip 0x6cd0b8
Nov 24 15:26:29: vmx| Backtrace[4] 00000000 eip 0x829aba
Nov 24 15:26:29: vmx| Unexpected signal: 11.
Nov 24 15:26:29: vmx| Backtrace:
Nov 24 15:26:29: vmx| Backtrace[0] 0x40b3825c eip 0x805afc0
Nov 24 15:26:29: vmx| Backtrace[1] 0x40b3867c eip 0x80c02fb
Nov 24 15:26:29: vmx| Backtrace[2] 0x40b3874c eip 0x80f35ed
Nov 24 15:26:29: vmx| Backtrace[3] 0x40b387bc eip 0x80f331a
Nov 24 15:26:29: vmx| Backtrace[4] 0x40b38b0c eip 0x6cd0b8
Nov 24 15:26:29: vmx| Backtrace[5] 00000000 eip 0x829aba
Nov 24 15:26:29: vmx| Core dump limit is 51200 kb.
Nov 24 15:26:29: vmx| Attempting to dump core...
Nov 24 15:26:30: vmx| Msg_Post: Error
Nov 24 15:26:30: vmx| [msg.log.error.unrecoverable] VMware Server unrecoverable error: (vmx)
Nov 24 15:26:30: vmx| Unexpected signal: 11.
Nov 24 15:26:30: vmx| [msg.panic.haveLog] A log file is available in "/var/lib/vmware/1/vmware.log".
Nov 24 15:26:30: vmx| [msg.panic.haveCore] A core file is available in "/var/lib/vmware/1/core.18394".
...
Nov 24 15:26:30: vmx| [msg.panic.requestSupport.linux]
Nov 24 15:26:30: vmx| To collect files to submit to VMware support, run vm-support.
Nov 24 15:26:30: vmx| [msg.panic.response] We will respond on the basis of your support entitlement.

With Dubai concerns easing, the Volatility Index (VIX) is dropping like a rock again, down about 3.7% to 21.10 right now, which means that it is rapidly approaching a new all-time low for the year.

Whatever warnings you may be hearing from market commentators, the options market is priced for ever lower amounts of stock market volatility (risk) going forward.

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• The VIX Goes Schizophrenic
• The VIX ETF "VXX" Is Another Classic ETF Disaster (UNG, USO, VXX)
• The VIX Has Completely Over-Estimated Stock Market Risk This Year

A journalism professor by the name of Tim Luckhurst is claiming that newspaper paywalls are needed to preserve democracy, and that free content online undermines democracy. We’ve heard this argument before, and it makes no more sense now than when it was first raised. The basic argument is that free content online isn’t bringing in enough revenue to pay reporters, thus newspapers are going under and firing reporters. Thus, with fewer reporters, there are fewer people to watch the government and therefore corruption runs rampant. Or something like that.

Of course, there are so many fallacies wrapped up in this argument, it’s difficult to even know where to start (though, one would have hoped that a journalism professor would have done the decent thing and checked into these things a bit more carefully before writing a silly opinion piece based on a variety of myths):

• Newspapers need readers to pay to survive. Not true. Not even close to true. First, newspapers have almost never made money from subscription fees or newsstand purchases. Those fees rarely even covered the cost of the newsprint and delivery. Newspapers have always made their money on advertising and classifieds (a form of advertising).
• Free content online is why newspapers are in trouble. Again, not true. In most cases, the publications that are in trouble are in that position because they took out tremendous amounts of debt. Most newspapers are actually still profitable on an operational basis, but aren’t making enough to repay the debt. The problem was poor management thinking in believing that leveraging their futures to ridiculous levels made sense.
• Without old school newspapers, government corruption is not well covered. This one remains to be seen, but there is growing evidence that it, too, is not true. The power of the internet has made it such that many more people can hold our governments accountable by gaining a voice and speaking out against corruption or corruptive influences. It’s not fixing the problem entirely, but then again, neither did newspapers. The fact is that it’s much easier now to call attention to corruption, and there are more and more forums to help with that — such as Wikileaks, combined with the ability to self publish or more easily contact those with a larger audience.
• Putting up a paywall will somehow fund more journalism. Again, remains to be seen, but there’s little evidence to support this claim. There are numerous competing offerings providing news in the marketplace today. There is little indication that enough people are interested in paying directly for news to the level it would take to support news operations. Combine that with the decrease in ad revenue (the real source of revenue for most news organizations) from cutting off a large chunk of an audience, and it seems likely that these paywalls will actually serve to decrease overall revenue over the long term rather than increase it. It’s not clear how that helps anyone.

On the whole, if one were to grade this professor’s analysis, you’d have to give him a failing grade for basing an argument on outright falsehoods and unsupported statements.

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GameStop (GME) is going to have to find a way to stay competitive this holiday season. Its stock is currently down nearly 8% due to Walmart’s (WMT) new strategy of slashing prices on video games:

Bloomberg: GameStop Corp. fell the most in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index on concern the world’s largest video- game retailer may be forced to lower prices after Wal-Mart Stores Inc. offered discounts on its top video games.

Read the whole thing >

Here Wal-Mart’s announcement

—-

BENTONVILLE, Ark., Dec. 2 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — Gamers of all ages can gear up to save after Thanksgiving weekend as Walmart  announces its next round of holiday savings, including new Rollbacks on many top 2009 games and a $50 Gift Card with Wii console purchase. Now through Dec. 24, the retailer will offer 15-20% savings on 25 top video game titles, including games for kids, families and extreme gamers, in stores. Starting Saturday, Dec. 5, shoppers with a Wii on their wish list will have the added bonus of receiving a $50 Walmart Gift Card with the purchase of a $199 Wii console in stores, through Dec. 12 while supplies last.*

Walmart expects this news will please many moms this holiday. According to recent research on holiday shoppers, 58 percent of Walmart moms considering the purchase of video games believe that games are the “must have” gift this holiday season for family and kids. As for the variety of games, more than half of those moms are considering purchasing kids games, 41 percent action adventure, and one third sports-themed games this season.**

“We have promised shoppers that through the holidays, even after last week, we would continue to offer real savings on items we know are on shoppers’ minds, and this offer is for anyone buying games as gifts or even for themselves,” said Greg Hall, vice president media and services, Walmart Entertainment. “Regardless of whether you have a PS3, Xbox or Wii, these savings will help anyone to build a gaming library with great new titles.”

Video Games Savings through Dec. 24.

These newly priced titles, most of which are also available on www.walmart.com today, include these below and many others:

• Mario & Sonic at the Winter Olympics (Wii) – now $40
• Lego Rock Band (Wii) – now $40
• Rock Band: Beatles (Wii) – now $40
• MySims: Agents (Wii) – now $40
• Tekken 6 (Xbox 360 and PS3) – now $50
• Madden 2010 (Xbox 360 and PS3) – now $50
• WWE 2010 (Xbox 360) – now $50, WWE 2010 (Wii) – now $40
• Batman Arkham Asylum (Xbox 360) – now $50
• Dragon Age: Origins (PS3) – now $50
• Left 4 Dead 2 (Xbox 360) – now $50
• Halo 3:ODST (Xbox 360) – now $50
• Uncharted 2 (PS3) – now $50

Wii Console with $50 Gift Card

Beginning this Saturday, Dec. 5 at 8 a.m. through Dec. 12, Walmart will offer a $50 Walmart Gift Card immediately after the purchase of the $199 Wii console. The card can be used on the very next purchase or at any future purchase at any Walmart store.

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• Best Buy Goes After GameStop On Their Home Turf (BBY, GME)
• Gamestop CEO: Amazon Will Flop At Mail-Ins Because We Did (AMZN, GME)
• WalMart And Amazon Barely Making Money On Top 25 Best-Sellers

 

During a recent password audit, it was found that a blonde was using the following password: MickeyMinniePlutoHueyLouieDeweyDonaldGoofy. When asked why such a big password, she said that it had to be at least eight characters long.

The use of passwords and computers has certainly become an integral part of the mortgage business, and the flow of information. Lenders are especially following the 1/1 RESPA changes which include the Good Faith Estimate, the HUD-1 and the HUD 1-A. Many Ops employees are going directly to HUD for information and you don’t even need to create a new password:
RESPA Rule” http://www.hud.gov/offices/hsg/ramh/res/finalrule.pdf
RESPA FAQs: http://www.hud.gov/offices/hsg/ramh/res/resparulefaqs.pdf
Sample GFE: http://www.hud.gov/offices/hsg/ramh/res/gfestimate.pdf
Sample HUD-1: http://www.hud.gov/offices/hsg/ramh/res/hud1.pdf

Lend America, after being fined by HUD and asked to stop doing government loans, closed their doors yesterday. One look at their website says it all: http://www.lendamerica.com/ The FHA accused them of submitting false documents and making loans that did not meet requirements, among other things. Kids, don’t try this at home!

more news on AmTrust saga, Fed buying MBS and commercial loans, market moves, banks hoarding reserves, and joke of the day <<< CLICK HERE

Filed under: Car Buying, Hybrid, Government/Legal, Marketing/Advertising, Technology, Chevrolet, Electric

If environmentally-friendly transportation is your thing, there’s no place like California. Not only is the state home base to Tesla – the first company to genuinely demonstrate that hugging a tree and hugging the road needn’t be mutually exclusive – it was also chosen by General Motors as the launch site for its EV1 and by Honda for the FCX Clarity. It should come as no great surprise, then, that GM has just announced that its latest earthmobile – the highly anticipated Chevrolet Volt – will launch in California first before being introduced in markets across the country.

Not only with the Volt be available in the nation’s largest car market before any other, but The General is also partnering with a number of local electric companies to accompany the rollout. Pacific Gas and Electric, Southern California Edison and Sacramento Municipal Utility District, together with the non-profit Electric Power Research Institute, will help demonstrate the benefits and practicality of the Volt’s hybrid powertrain, thanks in part to a $30 million grant from the federal Department of Energy’s Transportation Electrification Initiative. Follow the jump to read all about it in GM’s full press release.

[Source: General Motors]

Continue reading GM confirms Chevrolet Volt to be introduced in California before nationwide rollout

GM confirms Chevrolet Volt to be introduced in California before nationwide rollout originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 02 Dec 2009 10:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Some amateur investors are content with logging on to TD Ameritrade, going long on a few 100 shares of GE, and waiting a few years for a payout.

Others, however, are rabid for money.

Day traders need the right tools and equipment to get an edge, especially as technology continues to progress and high-frequency trading becomes more prominent.

Learn how you can set up the ultimate trading station at home.

Click here to see the setup >>>

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• Sign Of The Times: Hedge Fund Trading Desks Are Trash Assets
• A Forensic Reconstruction Of Goldman's 2008 Prop Trading (GS)
• Cyborg Trading Promises High-Frequency Trading For Joe Six-Pack

 

To Our Clients, Colleagues and Friends, 

• We just picked the first ten technology companies that came to mind, and looked up how many jobs they’ve created and what their revenues are. None of these ten companies below existed 25 years ago, and many didn’t exist even 15 years ago.  For those who despair over America ’s economic future, think about the companies that don’t exist now but which will be huge winners and sources of jobs in twenty years!  Here’s the number of employees they have.

8,000   Yahoo	66,000   Cisco
16,000   E-Bay	76,000   Dell
20,000   Amazon	82,000   Intel
20,000   Google	87,000   Oracle
32,000   Apple	91,000   Microsoft

We probably missed some big companies, but these ten names, all start-ups in our lifetime, currently employ 498,000 people!!
Here’s how much revenue these companies generated last year.

$  7 billion    Yahoo	$32 billion    Apple
$  8 billion    E-Bay	$38 billion    Intel
$19 billion    Amazon	$39 billion    Cisco
$22 billion    Google	$60 Billion    Microsoft
$22 billion    Oracle	$61 billion    Dell

This adds up to $308 billion in revenue, more than the GDP of most nations!!  And again, these are companies that didn’t exist 25 years ago.  How can you look at thee two graphs and not believe in the future of America ?

• We mentioned Ownit as the first of the sub-prime companies to fail in 2006, and a few of you reminded us that Acoustic blew up in 2005!  We should know.  Our own Corky Watts was doing Due Diligence on them, and he came back pretty shaken.   “There is one huge firestorm about to happen in Alt-A and subprime, and it’s going to be unbelievably ugly.” 
• China just issued 50 year bonds for its first time, and the issue was over subscribed by a factor of two!  China hardly needs the money, but it clearly establishes the country as being in a very exclusive club of nations strong enough to issue such long-term paper.  Ultimately, issues that go out this far are a test of investors’ confidence, and China passed with flying colors. The yield? 4.3%.
• And how about that 12-0 Boise State football team?  They’re 73-4 this decade.

• We recently reviewed a 2005 valuation on an Alt-A wholesale shop in the mid-Atlantic area.  They did about $600 million a year, and ignoring their earnings, which were very healthy, they were valued at about $51 million.  The valuation report was beautifully done, and the people who prepared it did a near-perfect job.  But the missing element was that their business was doing Alt-A loans, and Alt-A crashed, burned, and vanished.   The company which had been valued at about $51 million doesn’t exist today.  You can draw your own conclusions, but there are a few lessons here for everyone to learn from.

• We were going to finish the list of books we want to read, and then we realized, who the heck would even care?  Maybe we’ll run the rest of them when we’re really desperate to fill some space.  Maybe 5-6 people sent in their suggestions, all quite good, and we thank them.
• We’re still getting lots of e-mails on manners, and the #1 irritant seems to be people looking at their Blackberry or i-Phone while you’re talking to them.  One person wrote “I feel like grabbing their Blackberry and throwing it out the window.”
• We were sitting in a meeting with some very sober commercial bankers in the mid-West recently.  They got an MOU and are having their share of problems with Commercial Real Estate loans.  The Bank President quoted Yitzak Rabin that “If a problem has no solution, it is not a problem, but a fact, not to be solved but to be coped with.”  The CFO added the old cliché that “If you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the problem”, but that really didn’t apply to this situation and was completely unhelpful.   Finally, someone more junior, presumably a chemistry major in college, added, “Well, if you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the precipitate.”  It’s not all that funny, but it loosened everyone up in an otherwise pretty grim meeting.
• We were vaguely curious, and mostly bored, so we looked up Time Shares on the internet.  Remember when everyone was so hot-to-trot on these, and people were paying $15-20,000 or more for a single week? It was kind of shocking to see how many of them are now selling for under $1,000! 
• Yes, we think most mortgage bankers doing over $20 million a month should sell on a mandatory basis, but not all of them.  A lot depends on the corporate culture and how it defines the role of the loan officer.  As just one example, if you don’t have tight rules over loan officer behavior regarding locks, extensions and investor selection, then you should not go mandatory, regardless of your loan volume.
• We get asked a lot for a job description for someone to head up secondary, especially for companies just transitioning into mandatory selling.  We don’t have room for the whole thing here, but (1) we firmly believe most companies should use one of the known, national hedging advisory services, and (2) if you’re using one of these advisors, your secondary marketing person’s main job is to manage the rate lock function and ensure the integrity of the data in the pipeline.  The right person will do much more, but nothing really matters if you don’t have 100% accuracy in your pipeline.
• And you think you’ve got problems?  Here are the five banks with the highest ratios of non-performing loans:

68%    Eastern Savings  Bank ( Maryland )

50%    H&R Block Bank  ( Missouri )

49%    Community Bank  ( Illinois )

43%    City Bank  (Washington)

38%    Wilton Bank ( Connecticut )

We recognized a few others, among them #7 Amtrust with 32% non-performers, Towne Bank in Arizona at 30%, and First Fed in Santa Monica with 22%.  We can guaranty you that the senior officers at these banks are hating life these days.

• By the way, picking the right hedging advisory service is not always as easy as you might think.  Each has its own strengths and its own twists, and even if they all appear to do the same thing and do it at about the same price, you want to rely heavily on talking to people who’ve used these services and do some very serious due diligence on what the relationship will look like and what you can expect.
• All you new Windows 7.0 users, what do you think?  Is it worth switching from Vista ?
• We once did a project for an Islamic oriented bank in Southern California .  Their Chairman has published book on Judeo-Christian-Islamic values in Banking. We’re pretty swamped with books to read, but we’re going to try to get to this one: The Art of Islamic Banking and Finance: Tools and Techniques for Community-Based Banking (Wiley Finance) by Dr. Yahia Abdul-Rahman.  We know him and respect him greatly.
• Do you like HELOCs? If you’re the Bank of America, you’d better like them. The BofA owns $151 billion of them, followed by Wells Fargo with $127 billion and JP Morgan Chase with $235 billion.

Take care, stay warm, read good literature, go easy on yourself, always have a kind word for others, be loyal to friends and family, and enjoy life! . Garrett, Watts & Co.  Helping mortgage lenders increase revenues, control costs, and better manage risk.·Corky Watts ([email protected])Joe Garrett ([email protected])Mike McAuley    ([email protected] )