Author: Serkadis

Filed under: Sedan, China, Buick, Cadillac, GM, Misc. Auto Shows, Luxury

General Motors’ China’s sales are up 60 percent year-on-year, and The General wants to keep the momentum going at its Chinese outpost. Automotive News China reports that the Guangzhou Auto Show will play host to the unveiling of the market-specific Cadillac SLS and Buick Excelle XT, the latter described as a four-door “coupé-like sedan.”

The Excelle XT will take a place between the Excelle and the new Regal. The Cadillac gets 3.0-liter and 3.6-liter engines with GM’s SIDI technology that also grace Australia’s new Holden Commodores. The luxury sedan, a lengthened version of our STS with a superior interior, will also be China’s introduction to OnStar.

[Source: Automotive News China – Sub. Req.]

REPORT: New Chinese-market Cadillac SLS and Buick Excelle XT to debut in Guangzhou originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 24 Nov 2009 15:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Money Trickles North as Mexicans Help Relatives – … a startling new phenomenon has been detected: instead of receiving remittances from relatives in the richest country on earth, some down-and-out Mexican families are scraping together what they can to support their unemployed loved ones in the United States. … – NY Times

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The Young Are About to Get Shafted – Terry Savage – For years, I’ve been predicting America’s greatest divide would be generational warfare. Now, those predictions are coming true.  Even though I find myself on the far side of the divide, here’s a warning to those under age 50:  We older grownups outnumber you—and we vote! So beware of the new financial burdens we’re about to impose on you. – MoneyShow.com 

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Banking Fix Made Easy With Six Simple Steps: Roger Lowenstein – Bloomberg

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Liquidity, OTC Market and TBTF Banks – Rortybomb – … So dealers hedge. Constantly. The cheapest way for dealers to hedge is internally … TBTF banks don’t want (and given the times we live in, I might even say “allow”) these products to trade openly because they make excess rents by keeping the market opaque for competitors. … – Rortybomb Blog
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The Coming Deficit Disaster – By DOUGLAS HOLTZ-EAKIN – The president says he understands the urgency of our fiscal crisis, but his policies are the equivalent of steering the economy toward an iceberg.  – WSJ Opinion

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WHAT HAPPENS WHEN THE GOVERNMENT STOPS PROPPING UP THE HOUSING MARKET? – … According to Annaly Capital Management, these programs are having an especially profound impact on the housing market.  As we’ve often argued, many of these programs are nothing more than grandiose wastes of taxpayer dollars and do nothing more than kick the can down the road while adding substantially to the debt burden of the future … – The Pragmatic Capitalist

It was reassuring to hear the Federal Reserve admit today that its efforts to spur on an economic recovery by keeping interest rates law could fuel a new speculative bubble.

The zero interest rate policy “could lead to excessive risk-taking in financial markets,” according to the minutes released this afternoon of the Fed’s closed-door meeting earlier this month. Fed officials think the current likelihood of a bubbl is “relatively low,” however.

The Fed certainly doesn’t think the economy is about to come booming back. Fed policymakers said it could take “five or six years” for the economy and the labor market to be consistently healthy. But there outlook for this year is a bit brighter: they are now expecting the economy to contract just 0.5% versus the older forecast of a contraction from 0.6% to 1.6%. Of course, the meeting took place before the today’s revision of the third quarter GDP numbers.

Here statement:

 

fomcminutes20091104

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See Also:

• FOMC Minutes: More Jawboning About Inflation, Fed Expects Next Move To Be Up

Remember Alan Ralsky? The “spam king” came to be well known online in 2002 after agreeing to a profile in the Detroit Free Press, where he bragged about all the spamming he did and the huge house it had bought him. The folks on Slashdot decided to do something about Ralsky, and started signing him up for all sorts of snail mail marketing offers, so his real life mailbox was overflowing with ads. The humor-impaired Ralsky apparently couldn’t see the irony, saying he was going to sue the people involved. He never seemed to actually get around to that. Instead, while it took quite some time, law enforcement started investigating Ralsky. While he had loudly insisted that the CAN SPAM law wouldn’t impact him, the FBI disagreed. Last year, he was finally indicted. Earlier this year he entered a guilty plea and has now been sentenced to four years in jail for his spamming and fraud activities — reported in the same Detroit Free Press that ran that original profile of him. Maybe he should have avoided bragging about the mansion that spam built.

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While it’s one thing to be updated with the theatrical launch of Tron Legacy, details have been pretty scarce about its accompanying video game. Than…

Filed under: Motorsports, China, SEAT, Diesel

If you would have told us ten or twenty years ago that diesel would come to dominate motor racing, we probably would have laughed in your face. But since Audi charted new territory by dominating Le Mans with its R10 TDI, the competition benefits of burning oil is beyond reproach. Not satisfied to let diesel power dominate endurance sportscar racing, however, sister company SEAT picked up the mantle last year in the World Touring Car Championship with the Leon TDI.

As it turns out, running on diesel came to be a liability for SEAT as the WTCC reformatted the rules to reduce diesel’s advantage. But the Sociedad Española de Automóviles de Turismo (Spanish Touring Car Company) pulled together, rallied its team and went on to dominate the World Touring Car Championship for the second year in the row, clinching all three of the series titles this past weekend in Macau – China’s closest approximation of Monaco and the final round in the championship.

SEAT won the manufacturers’ title, outpacing rivals BMW by three small points and outshining Chevrolet (with their new Cruze-based touring car) and Lada. SEAT’s main shoe, Gabriele Tarquini, clinched the drivers’ title ahead of his teammate (and defending champion) Yvan Muller. As if that wasn’t enough, privateer Tom Coronel drove his gasoline-powered Leon to secure the Independents Trophy as well, making it a resounding triple victory for SEAT and its WTCC crew. Details in the press release after the jump and photos in the high-res image gallery below.

[Source: SEAT]

Continue reading SEAT dominates with second consecutive World Touring Car Championship

SEAT dominates with second consecutive World Touring Car Championship originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 24 Nov 2009 15:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Facebook says it has created a dual-class stock structure.

Startups sometimes take this step before an IPO.

In a statement, however, Facebook says “this revision to the stock structure should not be construed as a signal the company is planning to go public.”

“Facebook has no plans to go public at this time.”

In instances where the creation of a dual stock struction does precede an IPO, the idea is to create one class of “super-voting shares” for the company to own, and one non-controlling class for the public markets.

This enables holders of those “super-voting” shares (likely management or the VC investors) to maintain voting control of the company while selling some economic stake to the public.

Facebook says it changed the stock structure “because existing shareholders wanted to maintain control over voting on certain issues to help ensure the company can continue to focus on the long-term to build a great business.”

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As folks gather around Thanksgiving dinner, Tekken-atics will have one more thing to be thankful for – Namco Bandai follows up on a promise and will…

Filed under: Hatchback, Nissan, Electric, Quick Spin

Nissan has gone into a back room, pulled out its Ouija board and decided that the time is right to make a huge bet. The Japanese automaker, along with its partner Renault, wants to be the world leader in pure electric vehicles. Even though you can go buy an Altima hybrid right now, the company didn’t develop its own gas-electric technology (the sedan uses Toyota tech). This time around, Nissan believes the future belongs to vehicles without an internal combustion engine (ICE) and is preparing to put its own foot forward. It’s way too early to know for sure, but Nissan’s gamble could pay off handsomely. Toyota leads the hybrid race, General Motors and others are adding plugs to vehicles with liquid-fueled engines, but no major automaker has claimed the pure EV pole position. If everything goes right, Nissan will be that automaker.

The flagship vehicle for the automaker is, of course, the Leaf EV hatchback, which was unveiled in August and recently made its North American debut in Los Angeles. We were on hand to take a Leaf mule out for a short (very short) spin and heard directly from Nissan how this unique-looking EV will secure Nissan’s place in the auto industry as tremendous changes take place in the coming years. Follow us after the jump to learn about Nissan’s wager and find out if the Leaf has got the potential to (silently) propel the company to the top.

Photos copyright (C)2009 Sebastian Blanco / Weblogs, Inc.

Continue reading Quick Spin: Nissan Leaf the tip of mass market EV spear

Quick Spin: Nissan Leaf the tip of mass market EV spear originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 24 Nov 2009 14:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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You can now get the T-Mobile HD2 from here.

This puts T-Mobile ahead of O2 for actually releasing it, though I swear they never announced it…

It’s free on a 24 month £35 a month contract, and £195.73 on an 18 month £15 a month contract. It’s by no means cheap, but it is at least competitive with more fruity phone prices (as far as I can tell).

Let us know if you’ve got one, or it’s full of bloatware!

Well, you just knew this was going to happen eventually. Suddenly publishers are starting to freak out over “ebook piracy,” claiming (totally inaccurately) that they’ve lost $600 million to it. Of course, as some are noting the real problem isn’t “piracy” but the industry’s response to it:

The best way to fight piracy? Got e-book shoppers accustomed to buying from legitimate sources before it’s too late. That means easy downloading, fair prices and the ability to move content easily from machine to machine within a household. Use of the standard ePub format and the end of traditional DRM could go a long way in that regard.

Instead, they’re likely to go in the other direction (they always do) and try to raise the DRM walls higher in a futile effort to “fight” piracy. Of course, as we discussed nearly a year ago, the ebook industry could really use more piracy, because it’s actually a great indicator of what people really want. And, of course, locking up content with more DRM will only serve to take away value. If there’s growing piracy, that just means the industry is putting up unreasonable barriers. Hopefully publishers realize this before totally screwing things up, but somehow it seems likely they’ll make all the same mistakes as the music industry.

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San Gimignano, Italy | Incredible Ruins

In the age of the Renaissance, Tuscany was the center of the Western World. Its towns and cities grew insanely wealthy from a dense network of trade routes that spanned the Mediterranean and continental Europe. Florence, Sienna and Pisa are home of some of the most iconic architectural and artistic marvels of Italy. However, many more incredible are hidden away in smaller towns scattered across the region.

A small town of San Gimignano lies conveniently on one of most important medieval pilgrimage routes. Its inhabitants exploited the situation well. Made quickly rich by the constant influx of pilgrims, the families of San Gimigano wanted to show off. Each of them yearned to have a palace, but only thing that could be crammed between the tight confines of towns walls was a tower. Merchant families of San Gimignano entered an informal contest of building a higher and more splendid stone tower. The law forbid building the tower higher than the main communal one, known as Rognosa. Owning one become a status symbol. At the peak of fashion San Gimignano boasted no less the 72 of them.

Today only 15 remain. In 1348 the Plague devastated the city. It faded in obscurity, until it was rediscovered as tourist attraction in 19th century. Historic center of San Gimignano is protected as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

A similar Tuscan tower, the

On November 12, 2009, Herbert Williams was sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. The Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals struck down Mr. Williams’s death sentence last year after finding that his trial lawyer failed to provide effective representation because he did not investigate or present powerful evidence of abuse and psychological trauma at trial.

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If Shigeru Miyamoto had just graduated, chances are, he won’t even land a job with Nintendo. He said so himself. This is coming from a man who’s way…

 

Click for larger version

AT&T and HP  today announced the upcoming availability of the new HP iPAQ Glisten, a feature-rich 3G world phone that meets the increasing demands of modern mobile professionals. AT&T’s first smartphone with an AMOLED (active-matrix organic light-emitting diode) screen, the HP iPAQ Glisten is loaded with features tailored with the business power user in mind.

Featuring the Microsoft Windows® Mobile 6.5 operating system, the iPAQ Glisten offers a touch-friendly user interface and improved browser with Flash support. Connections to your favorite people, content and applications are a fingertip away on the redesigned Start Menu, and Internet Explorer Mobile** supports the rich experiences that many Web pages offer for desktop computers.

Users can easily move between work and leisure with advanced mobile e-mail capabilities, built-in Wi-Fi and GPS functionality as well as rich multimedia features and applications. AT&T supports Windows Marketplace for Mobile for access to a variety of applications.

The iPAQ Glisten features a full QWERTY keyboard and five-way directional pad for fast, easy and accurate messaging including SMS/MMS and e-mail. The touch-enabled AMOLED screen, among the best displays on the market, allows users to easily navigate through menus, windows, and links with the touch of a finger.

“iPAQ Glisten adds to our innovative Windows Phone portfolio,” said Michael Woodward, vice president, Mobile Phone Portfolio, AT&T Mobility and Consumer Markets. “It meets the demands of our business customers while boasting a beautiful AMOLED touch screen and a full package of multimedia features.”

“The iPAQ Glisten packs a powerful punch with its multiple input methods, variety of connectivity options, and a familiar, consistent email experience that allows mobile professionals to connect with the people and information that matter most to them,” said Susan Macke, vice president, Marketing, Handheld Global Business Unit, Personal Systems Group, HP. “Our strategy for success in growing the iPAQ business and customer base is working with industry leaders, like AT&T and Microsoft, and leveraging our collective strengths in the business and prosumer markets.”

Manage and take control of demanding professional lifestyles
Power users stay more connected with Outlook calendaring, Microsoft Word and Excel as well as the ability to view Microsoft PowerPoint and Adobe PDF documents. The HP iPAQ Glisten gives users the ability to manage a single contact list and synchronize them wirelessly or with a PC using a supported e-mail account. It also comes with an integrated inbox that summarizes recent emails, calls, and texts.

In addition, users can take advantage of the built-in speakerphone and enjoy the freedom of hands-free control with Voice Commander, voice recognition software which reads text messages, emails and appointment details and lets users begin messages and dial contacts using simple voice prompts.

Bridge work and social life
Web browsing and streaming video on the HP iPAQ Glisten are fast and enjoyable with the improved Internet Explorer Mobile 6. Users can turn on the built-in Wi-Fi quickly with a dedicated on/off button and enjoy high-speed Internet access – featuring automatic access to over 20,000 AT&T Wi-Fi hotspots included at no additional charge with select smartphone data plans.

Users can also connect with friends and colleagues on their favorite social networking sites, including a preloaded Facebook application. Mobile professionals can capture pictures and videos with the 3.1 megapixel camera and view them in brilliant color and clarity or edit them with HP Photosmart Mobile and easily share them via email or on the Web using Snapfish.

Pricing and availability
The HP iPAQ Glisten will be available in the coming weeks for $229.99 (receive a $50 AT&T Promotion Card with two-year agreement, smartphone data plan). The smartphone will be available through AT&T business services, HP corporate sales, small and medium business and consumer Websites at AT&T.com and HP.com as well as through third-party e-commerce sites.

More information on HP iPAQ Glisten is available at www.att.com/hpipaqglisten and www.hp.com/go/glisten.

Via Engadget.com

Filed under: Marketing/Advertising, BMW

You wouldn’t know it if you weren’t a serious film buff or marketing exec, but Propaganda GEM is responsible for a big share of the products you see placed in films. The entertainment marketing agency represents such brands as Audi, Lamborghini, Nokia, Panasonic, Bang & Olufsen and Casio, to name just a few. And it has a new client: the BMW Group.

Following such films as I, Robot and Iron Man, Propaganda has helped Audi significantly increase its profile in Hollywood. But the agency will be terminating its 13-year relationship with Audi (and, we’d expect, Lambo along with them) in order to take on BMW (together with Mini, Rolls-Royce and BMW motorcycles), spearheading a new marketing initiative for the Bavarian automaker.

Having temporarily stolen the James Bond spotlight from Aston Martin and Lotus in the mid-Nineties and launched The Hire film short series in 2001, BMW is no stranger to product placement, but the tie-in with Propaganda promises to take things to the next level. Apparently Munich’s marketing budget has increased recently, thanks in large part to the termination of the company’s Formula One program this year. BMW’s sponsorship of the 2012 Olympic Games in London will only be the tip of the proverbial iceberg, as we can expect to see its products and those of its subsidiaries in more movies, television shows, music videos and video games in the near future. Thanks for the tip, Adam!

[Source: Variety]

REPORT: BMW using money saved from F1 pullout for more product placement originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 24 Nov 2009 14:28:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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SnapDragon, WVGA, 5 megapixel camera and slide-out keyboard. It seems this will all be arriving for happy Canadian Windows Mobile users.

The LG IQ, which will be showing up on Telus soon and previously known by the code-name LG Monaco, appear to feature an optical mouse/ D-pad, and runs Windows Mobile 6.5 with elements of LG’s S-class interface, which no doubt will run excellently on the Snapdragon processor.

MobileNinjas has published this collection of pictures of the device in the wild, showing what appears to be an excellent 4 row keyboard.

See more pictures below.

Click for larger versions

See more pictures at MobileNinjas here.

Thanks RileySFreeman for the tip.

Filed under: Sedan, Kia, Misc. Auto Shows, South Korea

Kia has taken the wraps off the 2010 Cadenza in its home market before its official debut at next month’s Riyadh Motor Show in Saudi Arabia, and if you’re wondering what the South Korean automaker had planned for the next generation Amanti, this is it.

Based on an all-new front-drive platform (Type-N) spanning 195.5 inches, the Cadenza is slightly shorter than the Amanti it’s due to replace, but its wheelbase has grown to 112 inches and Kia managed to reduce the weight by over 280 pounds while keeping torsional rigidity and overall strength up. MacPherson struts are employed up front with a multi-link suspension in the rear, while 11.8-inch discs (front) and 11.2-inch rotors (rear) are hidden behind standard 16-inch or optional 17-inch wheels.

Three engines, each mated to a six-speed automatic transmission, will be available when the Cadenza launches outside of North America in January. Outputs will range from 162 (four-cylinder) to 286 hp (V6), with the latter like to come to the US. Kia hasn’t released when the new Amanti will make it Stateside, but the smart money says sometime late in 2010. Make the jump for the full release.

[Source: Kia]

Continue reading 2011 Kia Cadenza bows in Korea, replacing Amanti in the U.S.

2011 Kia Cadenza bows in Korea, replacing Amanti in the U.S. originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 24 Nov 2009 13:56:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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While Uranium prices have fallen from 2008 levels, there’s reason to believe they could potentially be back on the upswing.

World uranium consumption outstripped production in 2008 and could do the same in 2009 and 2010. According to the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics (ABARE) this could send uranium prices up 22% from a forecast average of 46.4 US$ in 2009 to $56.7 in 2010.

Meanwhile, Nymex Uranium futures for December 2010 delivery appear to be around $48.50. Thus ABARE’s last commodities outlook might not yet be priced into the market consensus for this radioactive metal.

One potential uranium-related play might be Canada’s Cameco (CCJ), though we caution investors to due their own due diligence on any stock.

The author does not own shares in Cameco (CCJ).

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See Also:

• Why Investors Are Going Crazy For Australia
• Australia Hikes Interest Rates Yet Again
• We’re Screwed If Just One Central Bank Makes An Error