Author: Serkadis

Raquel Martinez-Gomez, Carlos Alberdi and Mario Lubetkin

Since 2007 the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation(AECID) and the global news agency IPS Inter Press Service have a partnership aimed at putting development higher up media agendas. On 25 March, in Madrid, the partners launched a new publication and presented joint AECID-IPS initiatives for 2010 to a large audience of Spanish civil society, media and cooperation representatives.

The book “Communication and Development – Steps towards Coherence” includes contributions from renowned international analysts like Ignacio Ramonet, Marcial Murciano, Osa Maria Alfaro and Steffen Beitz, among others, reflecting on communication as a tool for promoting development and citizen’s education about values like solidarity. The book was presented by Carlos Alberdi, AECID Cultural and Scientific Relations Director, Mario Lubetkin, IPS Director General and Raquel Martinez-Gomez, the book’s coordinator.

Other initiatives for 2010 On 6 May in Barcelona IPS and AECID will launch the study “Media and International Cooperation” analysing coverage of development cooperation in nine of the main journals in Europe: El Pais, La Vanguardia, ABC, Le Monde, Le Figaro, Liberation, The Times, Daily Telegraph and The Guardian.

The first week of July (5-7), a seminar on “Communication and Development: policies, networks and technologies” is scheduled. The meeting will be a reflection forum to give the opportunity to different actors in the field of communication and development to exchange experiences and create coordination channels to improve communication public policies.

Information in the media in Spanish:

El Mundo (Spain) – La comunicacion, herramienta clave para difundir la promocion del desarrollo

Region Digital (Spain) – La AECID y la Agencia IPS dan a conocer las acciones de comunicacion y desarrollo para 2010

Noticias Positivas (Spain) – “Comunicacion y Desarrollo. Pasos hacia la Coherencia” – Varios Autores

One of the many things Ford customers (very lucky few customers we might add) appreciate about FoMoCo is having CEO Alan Mulally deliver their car to them. Mulally, responsible for implementing the ‘One Ford’ motto at the Dearborn automaker, is know for randomly showing up to deliver customer cars.

Mulally recently decided to head over to Ford’s Dongchang dealership where customer Harriet Luo was already excited to pick up her new Ford Focus. Luo received an added surprise when she realized the person handing over her new car was none other than FoMoCo president and CEO, Alan Mulally.

Mulally was also joined by Joe Hinrichs, president of Ford Asia Pacific and Africa, and Robert Graziano, chairman and CEO of Ford Motor China.

Click here to get prices on the 2010 Ford Focus.

“This is totally beyond my expectations. Having Mr. Mulally, Ford’s global CEO, hand over the keys to my new Ford Focus was absolutely incredible,” said Luo.

Luo, said that she compared more than 10 models from different brands and she finally made a decision to buy a Ford Focus.

“I spent more than one month mulling over which car to buy. I finally settled on the Ford Focus, as my family and many friends recommended it for its quality and safety, and I really liked its design and driving performance,” she added.

“I was as thrilled as Harriet to hand over the keys of her new Ford Focus, and be part of her Ford customer experience,” explained Mulally. “Chinese customers truly appreciate our world-class lineup of Ford vehicles, and it was so exciting to welcome Harriet to the Ford family of customers and help start her relationship with the Ford brand.”

We’re guessing Luo will be a customer for life now. Good job Mulally.

– By: Omar Rana

Σύμφωνα με το Βρετανικό Autocar η Bugatti θα ξεκινήσει την παραγωγή της 16C Galibier το 2013. Σύμφωνα με το περιοδικό που επικαλείται ανώνυμες πηγές μέσα από την Bugatti, λόγω της παγκόσμιας ύφεσης η Bugatti έγινε η εταιρία με τις μικρότερες πωλήσεις του ομίλου VW Group. Αυτό όπως πρόκειται να αλλάξει χάρη στην θετική απήχηση που είχε η 16C Galibier στις εκθέσεις που παρουσιάστηκε.

Η παραγωγή της θα περιοριστεί στις 300 μονάδες με την τιμή της να κυμαίνεται γύρω στα 1.3 εκατ ευρώ. Το αυτοκίνητο θα εφοδιάζεται με τον ίδιο W16 8.0 λίτρων κινητήρα της Veyron που στην προκειμένη περίπτωση θα αποδίδει κοντά στα 800 άλογα με την κίνηση να μεταδίδεται σε όλους τους τροχούς μέσω ενός 8-τάχυτου αυτόματου κιβωτίου.

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World Wildlife Fund News: Environmental degradation is causing serious detrimental health impacts for humans, but protecting natural habitats can reverse this and supply positive health benefits, according to a new WWF report.

“Our research confirms what we know instinctively: Human health is inextricably linked to the health of the planet,” says Chris Elliot, WWF’s Executive Director of Conservation.

Vital Sites: The Contribution of Protected Areas to Human Health notes that the World Health Organization (WHO) estimates between 23 and 25 per cent of the global disease burden could be avoided by improved management of environmental conditions.

The report, released in advance of World Forestry Day on March 21, singles out deforestation for its key impacts on human health.

“Deforestation is a double blow to human health,” says Elliot. “It increases the spread of certain diseases while destroying plants and animals that may hold the key to treating illnesses that plague millions of people.”

Protecting natural landscapes can contribute positively to human health through protecting future medicinal resources, reducing the impacts of pollution, toxins and weather extremes and providing recreational places that support physical and mental well-being.

World Forestry Day takes on special significance this year, as 2010 is the International Year of Biodiversity. “Vital Sites” makes a strong case for protecting biodiversity.

In the forests of Borneo alone in the past decade WWF reports discoveries of trees and shrubs that may be used to treat cancer, HIV and malaria. In all, 422 new plant species have been discovered in Borneo in the last 25 years, but deforestation puts them and others waiting to be discovered at risk.

“When WWF stresses the importance of biodiversity, it’s not just because we enjoy a variety of trees or frogs in a forest. It’s because the science tells us that those trees and frogs are vital to the forest’s health, and the forest’s health is vital to our health,” says Elliot.

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Science Daily: Researchers from the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute and Earthwatch met in Panama from Mar. 1-5 to present mid-term research results from the HSBC Climate Partnership, a five-year initiative to identify and respond to the impacts of climate change. The program is supported financially by HSBC and involves a global team of bank employees — ‘climate champions’ — in vital forest research.

The first-ever research program of its kind has so far:

• Found rapid increases in tree growth in the forest around the Smithsonian’s Environmental Research Center (SERC) in Maryland, USA, a finding attributed to increased atmospheric carbon dioxide and longer growing seasons, published in PNAS.
• Proposed a novel biodiversity theory relating stress and seed-size published in PNAS.
• Examined the effects a changing climate in forests is having on white-tailed deer, mice and even mosquitoes.
• Addressed the lack of a reliable method for estimating the carbon storage capability of secondary forests on a landscape scale by assessing how measurements from airborne LiDAR and other remote sensing technologies relate to ground-based measurements.
• Reviewed how human disturbance changes the way forests take up carbon in diverse environments.

Researchers working in broadleaf forest plots near Oxford, England, Atlantic rainforests in Southern Brazil and subtropical forests near Gutianshan Nature Reserve in China, as well as the SERC site in Maryland, have been putting HSBC employees to work. At Oxford, for example, data collected indicates that changes in forest structure have impacted moth populations.

Stuart Davies, director of the Smithsonian’s Center for Tropical Forest Science, says, “We know that carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has shot up from 280 to 385 parts per million since the 1850’s as a result of human activities like the burning of fossil fuels and deforestation. The degree to which atmospheric carbon dioxide levels continue to increase depends, in part, on how trees respond to climate and atmospheric change — whether forests end up storing more or less carbon. This is what the HSBC Climate Partnership research is trying to establish.”

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Science Daily: There’s been a rich debate in marine ecological circles about what happens to a key food source along rocky coastlines dominated by upwelling. The literature is filled with studies suggesting that the larvae of simple prey organisms such as barnacles and mussels hitch a ride on the coast-to-offshore currents typical of upwelling and are thus mostly absent in the coastal tidal zones.

That theory is getting a major challenge. In a paper in Ecological Monographs, Brown University marine ecologist Jon Witman and colleagues report that a key thread in the food web, the barnacle — the popcorn of the sea — flourishes in zones with vertical upwelling. Working at an expansive range of underwater sites in the Galapagos Islands, Witman and his team found that at two subtidal depths, barnacle larvae had latched onto rock walls, despite the vertical currents. In fact, the swifter the vertical current, the more likely the barnacles would colonize a rocky surface, the team found.

The finding “is counter to the prevailing notion about how marine communities are influenced by upwelling,” said Witman, professor of biology in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology.

Barnacle communities thrived in the vertical-current sites, the team also found. The group routinely found specimens that had grown from one field season to the next to 3 centimeters (about 1 inch) in diameter — “big enough to make soup out of,” Witman said. The researchers also documented the presence of whelks and hogfish, which feast on barnacles. This predator-prey relationship shows that vertical upwelling zones are “much more dynamic ecosystems in terms of marine organisms than previously believed,” Witman said.

Professor of Biology Witman and his team, including Brown graduate student Margarita Brandt and Franz Smith of CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research in Australia, chose a dozen sites of underwater cliffs, ledges and slopes along a 125-kilometer-long transect in the Galapagos. During three field seasons, the team bolted nearly 1,500 plates at depths of 6 and 15 meters to track the colonization of barnacle larvae and the growth of populations in areas with weak, intermediate and strong vertical upwelling.

The team also documented for the first time the strength of currents at the sampling locations, which included a dozen islands or outcrops located in the center of the archipelago. In areas with the most vertical upwelling, the researchers found, the current moved at a brisk 0.6 meters (2 feet) per second; the weakest vertical currents were measured at 5 centimeters (0.2 feet) per second.

Scientists who study coastal marine communities had assumed that prey species such as barnacles and mussels would be largely absent in vertical upwelling areas, since the larvae, which float freely in the water as they seek a surface to attach to, would more likely be swept away in the coast-to-offshore currents. Studies of the near-surface layer of the water in rocky tidal zones confirmed that thinking. But the field work by Witman and his group, in deeper water than previous studies, told a different tale: Few barnacles were found on the plates in the weak upwelling zones, while plates at the strong upwelling sites were teeming with the crustaceans. Flourishing barnacle communities were found at both the 6-meter and 15-meter stations, the researchers reported.

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The official announcement by the Federal Government is today, but the details came out yesterday, about funding & requiring lenders to temporarily slash or eliminate monthly mortgage payments for many borrowers who are unemployed. Banks and other lenders would have to reduce the payments to no more than 31% of a borrower’s income, which would typically be the amount of unemployment insurance, for three to six months. In some cases, administration officials said, a lender could allow a borrower to skip payments altogether. And for borrowers who owe more than their home is worth, the US government, with its big budget surplus (right?) will be offering financial incentives for the first time to lenders to cut the loan balances of such distressed homeowners.

Are the people who are responsible about making their payments subsidizing those that don’t? (Like the Greek debt issue in Europe, perhaps?) That is a huge argument of course, but those who are still current on their mortgages could get the chance to refinance on better terms into loans backed by the Federal Housing Administration. Officials said the new initiatives will take effect over the next six months and be funded out of $50 billion previously allocated for foreclosure relief in the emergency bailout program for the financial system. No new taxpayer funds will be needed, the officials said.

Under RESPA, if a borrower applies for a $50,000 loan and the 1% origination fee is disclosed, and then the loan amount changes to $300,000, is the broker “stuck” with the $500 origination fee? The YSP credit will still be a percentage of the loan but brokers can ever exceed the dollar amount disclosed. The answer to this question (can the broker charge more if the loan amount goes up?) apparently depends on the investor, although HUD seems very clear about “changed circumstances” under RESPA. Most investors think that a loan amount that is changed falls under “Information particular to the borrower or transaction that was relied on in providing the GFE and that changes or is found to be inaccurate after the GFE has been provided, which information may include information about the credit quality of the borrower, the amount of the loan, the estimated value of the property, or any other information that was used in providing the GFE.”  http://www.hud.gov/offices/hsg/ramh/res/resparulefaqs.pdf

As best I can tell, Wells Fargo’s wholesale apparently believes otherwise, and released a GFE-related Newsflash the other day confirming existing Wells’ policies. Wells Fargo will continue to hold Block 1 of the GFE to the last disclosed value when the loan amount changes; “even in instances where a fee included in the total of Block 1 is based on a percentage of the loan amount. This means that if a Block 1 fee on the GFE is based on a percent, Wells Fargo’s policy will not allow the dollar amount of that fee to increase if the loan amount increases. This policy does not affect a broker’s disclosure of compensation as a percentage of the loan amount on other documents disclosed to the borrower. A key benefit of this policy: Broker and lender compensation will be clearer for the borrower as fewer GFEs will be re-disclosed due to loan amount increases. Note: The GFE must be redisclosed if a loan amount change increases the cost to the borrower in other Blocks on the GFE. Block 1 may only increase under limited circumstances, such as changes to: Loan type, i.e. conventional to FHA Loan purpose, i.e. rate/term to cash-out Loan program.”

I continue to receive my share of e-mails from folks asking to change their contact from a work e-mail address to a personal one. But companies are definitely still hiring out there. One example is Stearns Lending, recently in the news for planning to enter correspondent lending, which is currently recruiting wholesale account executives for their northwest office (covering OR, WA, ID and MT) – anyone interested can contact Dusty Ferschweiler at [email protected]. Another example is Castle & Cooke Mortgage out of Utah, trying to expand, and companies like California Mortgage Advisors and Bay Equity out of Northern California are searching for DE underwriters.

In Caleeefornia Governor Schwarzenegger signed the Homebuyer Tax Credit into law. AB 183 will provide $200 million for home buyer tax credits, allocating $100 million for qualified first-time home buyers of existing homes and $100 million for purchasers of new, or previously unoccupied, homes. Between May and December of this year the eligible taxpayer who purchases a qualified personal residence, or who purchases a “qualified principal residence” on and after Dec. 31, 2010, and before Aug. 1, 2011, pursuant to an enforceable contract executed on or before Dec. 31, 2010, will be able to take the allowed tax credit. The credit is equal to the lesser of 5% of the purchase price or $10,000, in equal installments over three consecutive years. Under AB 183, purchasers will be required to live in the home for at least two years or forfeit the credit (i.e., repay it to the state).

The prices in the swap market (exchanging one type of debt or interest income for another) are creating some headlines lately. There is a massive amount of supply of new corporate debt hitting the capital markets in the U.S. and Europe currently, and the cost of exchanging interest payments for 10 years was 0.023 percentage point below low-risk Treasury yields. This implies that investors see more risk in holding triple-A-rated 10-year Treasury notes than in swapping rate payments with private counterparties. At the height of the credit crisis, when investors were in panic-mode about counterparties, that cost shot up to as much as 0.780 percentage point above the 10-year Treasury yield.  Tighter swap spreads indicate investors’ confidence (or complacency) about credit risk, and vice versa, but typically the spread is positive relative to Treasuries. But this time, the swaps market reflects demand to receive fixed rates as a hedge, especially by corporations issuing new bonds. That’s resulted in the 10-year swap spread moving to negative 5.5 basis points. It is easy to argue that this is another sign of how far credit markets have recovered: risk premiums in the interest-rate swaps market—in which investors exchange fixed-interest payments for floating payments—turned negative on the 10-year sector for the first time on record. There is one fundamental point, however, and that is market concerns about the US budget are growing as Treasury supply increases.

For the second to last time, the Federal Reserve today reported on their weekly purchases of agency MBS’s: a gross total of $8.26 billion agency MBS’s, selling $260 million for technical reasons resulting in a net total of $8.0 billion agency MBS purchases.

After Wednesday’s drop, fixed-income securities saw some volatility Thursday. The bond market headed south, causing investors to worsen their prices, then bounced back, resulting in some price improvements. The $32 billion 7-yr auction coming in around 3.37% with a bid-to-cover of only 2.61 didn’t help things, but then investors apparently thought, “We like these yields” and back the market came. Traders continued to see selling in 4.5% and 5.0% securities – current coupons, with hedge funds also selling, and banks selling heading into quarter-end. But in the afternoon buyers like private investors, the Fed, pension funds, and money managers started putting some of their cash to work – how exciting!

With the market well off of the lows, the treasury auctions out of the way, originator supply likely to decline, and convexity related mortgage selling finished for the time being, there is some short-term optimism about rates and bond prices. In addition, there is belief that when April rolls around, banks, with their cash, will step in and fill the void left by the Fed and helping current coupon production. Generally speaking, however, why would rates go down with the healthcare package adding to the deficit, questions about China and overseas buyers being increasingly concerned about our exploding deficits, and Bernanke stating he’d like the Fed to get their balance sheet down to its pre-crisis level. Don’t look for overnight Fed Funds to move up soon, but they don’t control long term rates – and many believe that although in the short term rates won’t go up too much, in the long term these factors will definitely push rates higher.
Call it old news, but the 4^th quarter GDP was revised to 5.6% versus 5.9%, down .3% – about as expected. After the GDP news the yield on the 10-yr is at 3.89%, and mortgage prices appear to be flat to .125 better than Thursday afternoon’s levels.

A mortgage broker dies suddenly.   He immediately goes to visit St Peter who is sitting in front of the pearly gates.
St Peter tells the broker: “Well, you are a unique case.  You haven’t been good enough to go to heaven but you haven’t been bad enough to go to hell.  So, just for you, we are going to try something different.  We have decided to let you pick.   Where would you like to spend eternity, Heaven or Hell?”
Now the broker, being the typical mortgage broker, knows he should just instantly pick Heaven but the thought of being able to see Hell was too much.  The broker asked St Peter; “Well, I know I should pick Heaven but can I see both Heaven and Hell before I answer that question.”
St Peter, slightly annoyed, agreed with the broker’s requests.
Immediately, the broker is in Heaven. It is exactly like the stories describe.  There are white clouds, golden streets, angels with harps…..its storybook Heaven.
Next, the broker is in Hell.  It is nothing like the stories.  It is a large “man cave”.  In the cave is a large wall of big screen TV’s with every sports event ever recorded.  There are recliners all over the cave and Hooters girls brining everyone beer and wings.  It’s amazing!
The broker is then returned to St Peter.  St Peter again asks: “Where would you like to spend eternity, Heaven or Hell?”
Now, the broker being a typical mortgage broker asks St Peter “Can I think about it and tell you tomorrow?”  St Peter, again annoyed, agrees.
The next day, St Peter asks the broker to choose.  The broker explains; “Well, I know I should pick Heaven.  I’ve lived my entire life thinking about going to Heaven.  But honestly, when I saw Hell, I just believe I will fit into that environment better.  I need to pick Hell.”
With that the broker is immediately in Hell…..but this time it looks different.  It’s still a cave but now the broker is chained to the wall.  There are cracks in the floor and walls, each with flames heating the cave to a literal inferno.  Across the room is an ice cold glass of water….just barely outside the brokers reach…never to be obtained.
The broker looks up and yells “Hey St Peter, what happened to the TV’s and the Hooter girls?”
And St Peter yells down “You should have locked yesterday”.

Rob

(Check out http://www.mortgagenewsdaily.com/channels/pipelinepress/default.aspx. For archived commentaries, check www.robchrisman.com )

Article Tags: Bill Board, CO2 Propaganda, Comment

I came across the above bill board from Oxfam and felt it overstated it’s case on “Man Made” Climate Change.

We have recently seen a reversal on one campaign via the advertising standards Ed Miliband’s adverts banned for overstating climate change by Jonathan Leake, Environment Editor, The Sunday Times.

The bill board heading reads:

“You might have read that the climate change talks are dead in the water”

“Bit of irony there for the thousands who’ll be hit by floods”

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Some more excellent thoughts from Mike O’Rourke, the Chief Market Strategist, of BTIG this time on the news of Greek’s bailout.

First on Germany’s bizarre insistence that the bailout be orchestrated by the IMF:

Jean Claude Trichet certainly has a way with words.  The European Central Bank President did not pull any punches when expressing his view on the prospects for having IMF involvement in an aid package for Greece.  Trichet’s stated, “If the IMF or any other authority exercises any responsibility instead of the Euro group, instead of the governments, this would clearly be very, very bad.”  The EU’s political leadership showed what they thought of their top Central Banker’s view.  Today kicked off “Merkel Madness,” that time of year when the EU’s political leadership filled out their brackets for the amount of help they want to beg for from the IMF.  This “beggar thy neighbor” approach taken by Germany is one in which the haves are manipulating a situation to  receive aid from the have-nots.  The top 5 IMF members in order of Special Drawing Rights are: the United States 16.7%, Japan 6.2%, Germany 5.9%, France 5% and the U.K. 4.5%.  The irony is that the two countries with best fiscal situation (by a pretty fair margin) on that list are Germany and France.  It is still hard to comprehend how it is the IMF’s responsibility to ensure that Greece remains a member of the EU.  Maybe the United States should lobby the IMF to bail out California.
 
We cannot say whether Merkel’s motivations are politic, selfishness or just stupidity.  It is so misguided we are wondering if it is a secret plot to weaken the Euro and boost the EU economies.  Of course we are being facetious but that is how absurd the situation is.  Greece is not the problem, it can be handled.  The problem is that the dysfunctional structure of the EU has been exposed.  If a small problem like Greece cannot be solved, imagine if and when a larger problem arises (investing in the U.S. is looking better and better every day).  That is the essence of the EU problems – while the IMF can easily step in and handle the situation in Greece, it cannot do so when the next larger problem emerges.  It is hard to see how Jean-Claude Trichet does not resign after today.  The only problem is that he is the voice of reason and was correct in his assessment. 

And from this we see why everyone loves the dollar again:

As a result of the antics on the other side of the Atlantic, a nice U.S. equity market rally fueled by earnings news was stymied.  After Trichet’s comments hit the newswires at 1:30 pm, the Euro broke down versus the Dollar, Treasuries caught a bid after two days of selling and the S&P 500 sold off (see charts below).  The downside leadership in equities were the Energy and Materials sectors reacting to the Dollar strength.  Note: the Head and Shoulders Tops pattern we were looking for in the Energy and Materials sectors are looking very probable.  Even if the EU comes up with a responsible plan, the credibility of the leadership has been eradicated, and the market is well aware there is likely much more downside in the Euro and strength in the Dollar.  (U.S. Treasury Secretaries over the past decade had it backwards, they should have been advocating a weak Euro instead of a strong Dollar.)  Now that it appears that the market has again reached a level where Dollar strength exerts an influence, it will likely provide a modest headwind.  Relative to the competition, the Dollar should be strengthening.  On a positive note, it should help keep a lid on commodities but it will be up to the earnings and economic recovery to push equities through this headwind.

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Filed under: Government/Legal, GM

Last December General Motors began repaying its debt to the U.S. government by making a $1 billion payment to its U.S. debtors and another $192 million to Canada. Company CEO Ed Whitacre promised that the payments would keep coming every quarter until the loan was paid off in June, 2010, and with the first quarter of 2010 coming to a close, The General is about due for another payment. Keeping with Big Ed’s word, the company issued a statement on Thursday that the next installment of another billion dollars will be paid on March 31.

The brief statement is attributed to Whitacre and promises another $1 billion in cold, hard cash to the U.S. government and an additional $192 million to Canada. In the statement Whitacre sounds confident that the loans will soon be paid in full, adding “GM has every confidence that the remainder of the loans will be paid in full by June 2010; five years ahead of schedule.”

On April 1 The General will have shaved $2 billion off its debts with another $4.7 billion to go. We’re no math experts, but we’re guessing $1 billion per quarter is going to have to be substantially increased over the next three months to repay its debt in full by June 30. But with about $40 billion in the bank, GM will likely have the cash on hand to pay off Uncle Sam by the time Summer is in full swing.

Once GM does pay off its $6.7 billion loan, the feds will still own 61% of the Detroit, MI-based automaker, but with some analysts expecting GM to take its stocks public in the next few months, the automaker could soon be a fully public company again. We’re sure GM executives will be very happy when that happens. Hit the jump to read GM’s brief press release.

[Source: Detroit Free Press | Image: Bill Pugliano/Getty]

Continue reading Report: GM to make another $1B loan repayment

Report: GM to make another $1B loan repayment originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 26 Mar 2010 08:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The stock market has gotten boring, what with its incessant up moves day after day.

So instead the action has completely come back to the bond market, and boy what a story we’ve got going on there.

Here’s a nice chart from Waverly Advisors showing how the trend has been broken and also just how much more we could fall if we start to undo the big multi-year bull market we’ve seen.

Here’s three key points they observe:

This market has had an extended run up since mid 2007, for fundamental reasons that
are both obvious and widely known.  Due to the length of the uptrend, there is a lot
of potential downside from these levels.

There have been a series of lower highs as the market has painted an extended
triangle consolidation.  In fact, the entire history back to January 2009 can be viewed
in context of this large consolidation pattern.

This market has had a clean series of higher lows.  Even though the trendline seems
to be losing its power to support the trend, we are not close to having an established
trend change.  

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Google announced last month that it wanted to deploy 1 Ggps fiber-to-home connections to up to 500,000 Americans. It asked local authorities interested in getting Google to bring the super-fast broaband connections to their town to submit applications for consideration. Plenty of towns got excited at the prospect, sometime leadi… (read more)

There are three paths to happiness, according to Martin Seligman:

1. the pleasant life
2. the good life
3. the meaningful life

“The pleasant life” is basic moment-to-moment contentment—doing simple things like downing martinis or playing computer games. But eventually, you’ll get bored and want more.

“The good life” comes through “engagement”: spending time with friends and family or getting involved with a rewarding work project. This is a step-up on the happiness food chain.

But the biggest feelings of happiness come from leading “a meaningful life”— using personal strengths to serve some larger end.

In an experiment called “Philanthropy versus Fun,” Seligman divided up his psychology students so that one group engaged in pleasurable activities (going to the movies, eating yummy ice cream) and the other group did philanthropic activities (volunteering at a soup kitchen, reading to the blind).

Guess what? The happiness afterglow of the fun was nothing compared to the lasting happiness of doing altruistic acts.

Meaning? Doing good for others will make you feel good—and, according to Seligman, your highest level of feel-good.

My guess? Altruism raises your mood because it raises your self- esteem, which increases happiness. Plus giving to others gets you outside of yourself and distracts you from your problems.

Bounce Back Assignment:

Ask yourself: What loving deed can I do? How can I help those in greater need? Consider getting involved with a charity where you can make an ongoing contribution.

NOTE: The above is an excerpt from my book THE BOUNCE BACK BOOK – which has a symbolic red rubber cover on the outside — and inside all kinds of resiliency psychology tips – and was praised by Anthony Robbins! If you’re feeling stressed and/or depressed, click this line, right here, right NOW!

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Article Tags: Alan Caruba

Despite a significant majority of Americans who opposed the healthcare bill, despite protests heard by members of Congress starting in the summer of 2009, despite a huge protest rally in Washington, D.C. in September, despite having the phones and faxes of Congress jammed with protests, the bill passed the House on March 21 by a margin of five votes.

Five votes! The final count was 220 for it and 215 against it. The story of how those votes were secured is a sordid and ugly chapter in the governance of this republic. Americans are still reeling from the catalog of bribes and backroom deals involved. Healthcare represents an assault on the Constitution, on the nation’s economic future, and on the belief that the will of the people should be the guiding factor regarding legislation.

The vote portends, however, legislation that is intended to completely and utterly destroy the economic foundations of the nation.

Waiting in the Senate is a Cap-and-Trade bill that would impose the largest tax on the use of energy the nation has ever seen. It lacks any scientific justification, based as it is on the fraud known as “global warming.”

The nation will not survive Cap-and-Trade and James M. Taylor, a Senior Fellow specializing in environmental policy at The Heartland Institute, a Chicago-based, non-profit, free market think tank has authored “The Cap & Trade Handbook” that explains why. It is a slim six pages. (On May 16-18, the Institute will sponsor the Fourth International Conference on Climate change.)

Source: factsnotfantasy.blogspot.com

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Segundo informações do Los Angeles Times, o número de mortes que estão envolvidas com o acidente da aceleração involuntária dos carros da Toyota já tenha ultrapassado uma centena, o que é o dobro do que foi oficialmente relatado no começo do ano.

A Toyota, que está fazendo o maior recall da história da indústria automobilística, está tendo que enfrentar diversas reclamações de consumidores para a NHTSA, o órgão que zela pela segurança no tráfego norte-americano. Segundo essa entidade, os casos de morte pelo defeito da aceleração involuntária dos carros sejam de 102 até o momento.

O aumento das mortes relacionadas a esse problema fez com que a Toyota fizesse uma avaliação minunciosa de cada uma das mortes envolvendo veículos dessa marca. Como era de se esperar, todas as mortes envolveram os veículos que agora estão participando do recall da empresa. Tomara que os números não aumentem ainda mais até que tudo seja resolvido.

Via | Autoblog

Filed under: Europe, Hatchback, Toyota

We’ve seen no lack of superminis specially outfitted by fashion labels, from the the Citroen DS3 by Yves Saint Laurent and the Mini Clubman by Agent Provocateur to the Fiat 500 by Diesel and Lancia Ypsilon by Versus. This, however, is another story altogether.

Toyota‘s European operations has teamed up with Belgian chocolatiers Neuhaus to come up with the special-edition iQ N-Collection. Limited to just 700 units, the Neuhaus edition city car comes in two flavors: Chocolate brown or cream butter, each with correspondingly delicious interiors and the requisite special badging. The car that looks tastier than the Aston Martin Cygnet and which could be the perfect dessert to follow the Oscar Meyer weinermobile, although the tasty duo is currently only available in Germany. Pricing comes in at for 14,600 euros (~$19,500), or about 1700 euros more than a base iQ with the same 1.0-liter VVT engine

[Source: OmniAuto (translated)]

Toyota iQ N-Collection by Neuhaus gives Germans their chocolate fix originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 26 Mar 2010 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Contact: Joan Jewett
Phone: (503) 231-6121
FFS #R1BR, R1GR

ILWACO, WA. – The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, an agency of the Department of the Interior, has awarded a $212,400 contract under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to Quigg Bros., Inc., a marine specialist construction company based in Aberdeen, Washington. An additional $12,000 was used to replace damaged or missing signs on the land boundary at the refuge.

The company will replace 25 pylons and their associated boundary signs at the Willapa National Wildlife Refuge to clearly designate the 16,950-acre Presidential Proclamation Area boundary. Originally constructed in 1937, the wooden pilings used to mark the Proclamation Area boundary are rotting, broken, and/or missing. This project will replace the existing pilings with less expensive and more durable plastic/steel pilings located in open salt water. At least five workers will be on site during the project.

“We have extensive experience with this type of marine pile driving project, and we have the barges, tugs and seasoned workers in place to do specifically this type of work,” Quigg Bros., Contract Manager Joelle Buckman said. “We are always looking to keep folks employed, and this ARRA funded project helps us do that. In addition, this project is closer to home than most, and ensures guys will be home with their families at night.”

In addition to providing work for local contractors, the signs will help clearly designate private and commercial lands from those protected as a wildlife sanctuary by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1937.

“To eliminate any confusion over rules and regulations that apply to Willapa NWR it is important the public knows where it is legal to be waterfowl hunting and where it is not,” Willapa NWR Manager Charlie Stenvall said. “There are many things that are not appropriate on a refuge, and it is important to have these lands surveyed, marked and delineated.”

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act passed earlier this year gave $3 billion to the Department of the Interior. Of that amount, $280 million in funding goes to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

The ARRA funds are part of a stimulus package that is an important component of President Obama’s plan to jumpstart the economy and put a down payment on addressing long-neglected challenges so the country can thrive in the 21st century. Under the ARRA, Interior is making an investment in conserving America’s timeless treasures – our stunning natural landscapes, our monuments to liberty, the icons of our culture and our heritage – while helping American families and their communities prosper again. Interior is also focusing on renewable energy projects, the needs of American Indians, employing youth and promoting community service.

“With its investments of Recovery Act funds, the Department of the Interior and its bureaus are putting people to work today to make improvements that will benefit the environment and the region for many years to come,” Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar said.

Secretary Salazar has pledged unprecedented levels of transparency and accountability in the implementation of the Department’s economic recovery projects. The public will be able to follow the progress of each project on www.recovery.gov and on www.interior.gov/recovery.

Secretary Salazar has appointed a Senior Advisor for Economic Recovery, Chris Henderson, and an Interior Economic Recovery Task Force to work closely with Interior’s Inspector General to ensure the recovery program is meeting the high standards for accountability, responsibility, and transparency set by President Obama.

The mission of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is working with others to conserve, protect and enhance fish, wildlife, plants and their habitats for the continuing benefit of the American people. We are both a leader and trusted partner in fish and wildlife conservation, known for our scientific excellence, stewardship of lands and natural resources, dedicated professionals and commitment to public service. For questions, comments or concerns e-mail us at [email protected]. For more information on our work and the people who make it happen, visit www.fws.gov.

Congressional Contacts:
Senator Maria Cantwell (D)
Senator Patty Murray (D)
Congressman Jay Inslee (D)

Egyptians (Tim Reid)

The avenue of rams is on the fast track to be completed in three years though UNESCO wanted a twenty year restoration. Here we have an article on the rough eviction of a Anglican pastor his wife and small child to demolish their home and the churches property to make way for the avenue.

That’s what Mussolini did in his efforts to get down to the imperial remains of Rome as fast as possible leaving everything in the path destroyed simply to achieve his twisted vision of history.

The Arab American News (William Peck)

In addition to the swelling number of tourists, another revolution is taking place, one not imaginable by those who have previously visited Luxor. In a move to make the ancient sites more accessible and facilitate the movement of tourists, the main streets have been widened by removing hundreds of buildings, including private houses and shops. Walls have been erected that often shut off the buildings that remain. To make the major temple sites more “attractive,” large empty plazas and rows of badly designed shops have been created, again by removing many of the former occupants and their businesses.

The long avenue of sphinxes that connected Luxor and Karnak Temple in the past is being excavated, apparently in great haste, even where it passes under major areas of the city. Many of the sphinxes are so badly damaged they are unrecognizable, raising the question as to the value of the whole operation.

Egyptology News Blog, Andie Byrnes

Sweden is now considered the most networked country in the world, according to the latest Global Information Technology Report from The World Economic Forum. The report doesn’t rank countries by their information and communication technology capabilities alone, though that certainly plays an indirect role, but looks at how those countries… (read more)

Looting Matters (David Gill)

Egyptology News Blog, Andie Byrnes