Author: Serkadis

Happy Monday. Friday’s benign jobs data seems to be pleasing global investors.

Meanwhile, the euro is looking very nice, further evidence of investors hungry again for risk.

That’s right folks. The euro is now a proxy for risk appetite. How weird is that?

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See Also:

• Good News: Unemployment Holds Steady At 9.7%
• Deep Down The Biggest Threat To China Isn’t Property Or Bad Loans, It Is Simply Unemployment
• The Lie Behind Japan’s Good Unemployment Numbers

Going into last Friday it sounded as though China’s National People’s Congress would be pretty benign, with few major restrictions on lending announced.

But this sounds significant, and it suggests, perhaps that the country’s central leaderhip is concerned about the deteriorating financial health of its local governments.

Bloomberg:

China plans to nullify all guarantees local governments have provided for loans taken by their financing vehicles as concerns about credit risks on such debt surges.

The Ministry of Finance will also ban all future guarantees by local governments and legislatures in rules that may be issued as soon as this month, Yan Qingmin, head of the banking regulator’s Shanghai branch, said in an interview. The ministry held meetings on the rules on Feb. 25 with regulators including the China Banking Regulatory Commission and the People’s Bank of China, Yan said March 5.

Professor Patrick Chovanec discusses what this meanins:

So why are Chinese authorities announcing this move now, and what does it all mean?  On one level, it’s part of a series of signals over the past few weeks designed to tamp down runaway lending.  Last spring, in the midst of China’s huge lending boom, the China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC) was reassuring skeptics there was no reason to fear an explosion of bad debt because most loans were going into government-sponsored infrastructure projects and would almost certainly be repaid.  A year later, they’re a lot more worried, and are sending a strong message to lenders that such loans should not be considered risk free.  Even with the guarantees in place, Bloomberg reports that “a few cities and counties may face very large repayment pressure in coming years because of debt ratios [outstanding debt compared to annual revenue] already exceeding 400 percent.”  By striking the fear of God into lenders, regulators hope to get them to turn off the tap.

Whether regulators will really leave banks holding the bag for the loans that have already been made is another matter.  The government has no interest in undermining the balance sheets of the big banks, which it would be forced to bail out in any event.  But I found the Bloomberg article’s allusion the 1998 collapse of Guangdong International Trust & Investment Corp. (GITIC) potentially prophetic.  Besides the “big four” banks, China has literally hundreds of smaller lending institutions, from municipal banks to trust companies to rural credit co-ops.  I wouldn’t be surprised if many of these institutions, with their close ties to local governments, own a big piece of the loans being called into question.  It’s too early to say, but if GITIC offers any precedent, we could see a handful of less-favored institutions cut loose and allowed to implode.  Depositors, creditors, and investors might be well advised to start asking, who is the next GITIC?

Read Chovanec’s entire post here >

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• Here’s Everything You Need To Know About The Meeting Of The Chinese National Congress
• Suddenly, Everyone’s Waking Up To China’s HUGE Public-Sector Debt
• China Thinks The U.S. Economy Has Bottomed And Is Buying Real Estate Using Goldman And BlackRock To Mute Criticism

Filed under: Etc., Work, Specialty

Chip Foose’s John Deere 4020 is pretty kickass, but the reality is this: You needn’t enlist the services of a famous pro rodder to get a slick-lookin’ John Deere tractor. Take, for instance, the John Deere 620 orchard model shown above. Standard-issue 620s have a traditional tractor look to them, but the ones fitted with the additional orchard equipment have a streamlined appearance that looks like it’s a set of giant-sized moon caps away from making a land speed record run at Bonneville.

In fact, all that extra bodywork has nothing to do with aerodynamics or improved performance; its shielding designed to let the tractor operate in an orchard without the tires causing damage to the the tree branches. So, not only does this 620 look great, it does so for totally functional reasons.

And so, we come to tonight’s poll: Which one of these tractors would you rather have? Follow the jump and declare your Deere.

[John Deere 620 image via TractorClocks.com]

Continue reading Poll: Foose/Deere 4020 vs John Deere 620 Orchard

Poll: Foose/Deere 4020 vs John Deere 620 Orchard originally appeared on Autoblog on Sun, 07 Mar 2010 20:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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For those who has been keeping a close watch on the latest update regarding the multiplayer issues of Battlefield: Bad Company 2, EA DICE has confirmed another outage has hit the games server today affecting all platforms.

As we wait for the Oscars to begin, we thought we’d head over to Intrade to check out the market odds for best-picture winners. Here are the full odds. Our commentary is below.

Two things:

1. Wow, we forgot there are 10 films now. That just seems crazy, but it’s all part of the Academy’s efforts to bestow “Best Picture” nominations on more films, potentially juicing up ticket sales.
2. Despite the fact that there are 10 films, there’s a 93% chance that the winner is either Hurt Locker or Avatar.

Of course, the market isn’t totally liquid or perfect, and the bid-ask spreads are sizable, so it costs 12.2% to buy the remaining 8 films. Still, we like this trade. You’re getting paid 8-1 and it pays if any of 8 films (including “Basterds”) wins. Given that there are 10 films, and thus the potential for anyone to win with just a tiny plurality of the votes, this seems pretty generous.

And if you do buy the rest, and you lose, well… you knew the odds were long. It doesn’t mean you weren’t getting good value for your bet.

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• How To Watch The Oscars Live Online
• Oscars Winner Picks! Here’s How To Win Your Academy Awards Office Pool
• ‘Hurt Locker’ Producer Banned From The Oscars

Are you asking yourself questions that further weigh you down?

Why didn’t I . . .?

What if . . .?

Why me?

Would you accept some of the mean and nasty questions you ask yourself if they came from an outside source?

If not, then stop and swap them immediately for these questions that bounce you upward:

What can I do to move forward?

How can I grow from this challenge?

What’s within my control to change?

Happiness Assignment: Next time a question pops into your head, ask yourself, “Is this a non-bounceable question?” If it is, drop it. And watch out for your toes!

Feeling challenged, stressed or depressed? Check out my book – THE BOUNCE BACK BOOK – which has been praised by Tony Robbins! Just click this line, right here right now!

MOST PEOPLE settle for an average life. If you’re not MOST PEOPLE and want to LOVE YOUR LIFE be sure to sign up for my famous and FREE Be Happy Dammit newsletter by clicking this line, right here, right NOW.

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Filed under: Motorsports, Performance, Chevrolet, Dodge, Ford

Last week in The Wall Street Journal, writer Ben Austen publised an article in which he ruminates on why no one appears to be racing the Detroit Three’s neo-muscle offerings – the Ford Mustang, Chevrolet Camaro and Dodge Challenger. That the piece succeeds overwhelmingly at, however, is highlighting the myopia of America’s mainstream press when it comes to motorsports. Many people in media seem to be completely unaware that there are forms of automotive competition other than NASCAR, because the cars the WSJ article focuses on most assuredly are involved in active competition.

NASCAR may be the big dog in terms of the number of races, sponsor participation, and even people at the track. But by no means is anything about modern stock car racing in any way relevant. A more important question might be why automakers continue pour hundreds of millions of dollars into NASCAR every year, but we’ll leave that for another day.

All three of the current crop of pony cars compete in a wide variety of racing, from drags to ovals and road courses. Ford in particular has offered turnkey Mustang race cars for several years, and they’ve been very successful in a number of classes, including the NASCAR-owned Grand-Am series. In fact, fans watching the 2010 Grand-Am Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge will see Mustangs, Camaros, and at least one Dodge Challenger slugging it out on a regular basis.

Pratt & Miller racing currently runs a program in which it converts Grand-Am Pontiac GXP.Rs to Camaro bodies. Dodge Challengers can be found at many drag strips (along with innumerable Mustangs and Camaros). And let’s not forget that NASCAR is running Challenger- and Mustang-branded stockers in a few Nationwide Series races this year as part of its own “Car of Tomorrow” program.

Admittedly, it would be nice to see a revival on the level of the old Trans Am series, with all three of these machines running in force, but journalists like Mr. Austen would do well to remove the NASCAR blinders before summarily dismissing the modern pony cars as being absent from today’s racing scene. It’s just not so.

[Source: The Wall Street Journal]

Who says Mustangs, Camaros and Challengers don’t race each other? originally appeared on Autoblog on Sun, 07 Mar 2010 18:27:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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While administration leaders tout the positive effects of the stimulus, the big guy, Paul Volcker is realistic about the economy, and recognizes that it can’t stand on its own two feet.

Bloomberg:

“This is not the time to take aggressive tightening action, either fiscally or monetary-wise,” said Volcker in an interview in Berlin yesterday, pointing to “high” unemployment. “So I think we have to, as best as we can, maintain the expectation that it will be taken care of in a timely way.”

Why was Volcker in Berlin?

Trying to convince his European counterparts to support some kind of global equivalent of the Volcker rule. After all a US law limiting the abilities of US banks will be toothless if internationals aren’t limited by the same regulations.

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• Here’s Proof That The Stimulus Money Is Getting Exactly Where It Needs To Go
• Goldman: Here’s The One Way We Could Have A Double-Dip Recession
• Good News: Unemployment Holds Steady At 9.7%

Filed under: Etc., Videos

If you were to research all of the posts ever published on Autoblog, you’d find that one of the most popular was one published back in June 2006 about artist Scott Wade from San Marcos, Texas. Wade is a painter who, unlike his peers, uses dirty cars as his canvas. He turns dusty rear windows into masterpieces that only last as long as a stiff breeze or unannounced rain shower allows.

At the time, we didn’t know much about how Wade created his art other than that typical artists’ tools like paint brushes were used. We recently found this video on YouTube created in January of this year, that details exactly how these amazing images are created.

Surprisingly, Wade first has to clean the rear window of the car he’s working on. He then applies almond oil to the glass so the special dust he uses, the same kind of fake dust used in the movies, will stick better. The dust is applied using a hair dryer to blow it onto the glass, and once an even and opaque coating has been achieved, he goes to work with his paint brushes. A complete piece of dirty rear glass art takes about 2-4 hours to complete, after which it’s either washed off or left to naturally decay on its own, which will happen fast.

Take a look at the video after the jump and revisit our gallery of past pieces by Scott Wade in the gallery below.

[Source: DirtyCarArt.com]

Continue reading Video: Scott Wade’s dirty car art and how it’s done

Video: Scott Wade’s dirty car art and how it’s done originally appeared on Autoblog on Sun, 07 Mar 2010 17:08:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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[Welcome James Bradley and Host Burt Cohen] [As a courtesy to our guests, please keep comments to the book.  Please take other conversations to a previous thread.  – bev]

The Imperial Cruise: A Secret History of Empire and War

Ever wonder about why Imperial Japan attacked Pearl Harbor?  Or why they became imperial in the first place? It’s all here in The Imperial Cruise, and it all points to America’s own “Rough Rider,” Teddy Roosevelt.

Perhaps you thought “waterboarding” started in Iraq. It was really the Spanish-American War in 1898.  Massacres in Vietnam? There was precedent here too. Photos in the book.

I don’t think I’ve ever read a book as quickly as I read The Imperial Cruise. On The Burt Cohen Show, I regularly interview current authors of history books. I’ve never had a more fascinating, really breathtaking  and revelatory interview than with author James Bradley, well known for his Flags of Our Fathers, and Flyboys. Bradley’s father was one of those pictured raising the American flag at Iwo Jima, and he spent six years researching this new book, seeking answers as to why the Japanese fought as they did at Iwo Jima and committed such widespread atrocities such as the infamous rape of Nanking. The answers are shocking and deeply disturbing: Teddy Roosevelt encouraged them to become the dominant race of Asia, to implement their own Monroe Doctrine for the Pacific. Of course, millions died in the second world war.

Bradley reveals what we today would consider incredibly racist illustrations and then-mainstream editorial cartoons about the “Pacific Negroes,” such as Filipinos and Hawaiians who dared to defy American hegemony.

And like Barack Obama, Teddy Roosevelt was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

Host of The Burt Cohen Show, heard on the Progressive Radio Network Thursdays at 4 PM ET, and podcast at TheBurtCohenShow.com, Burt Cohen served in the New Hampshire state senate for seven terms, from 1990-2004, He also hosts Fine Aged Rock, featuring artists who are 50 or older or who would have been had they lived.

Tags: Beijing, Burt Cohen, China, Hawaii, Honolulu, James Bradley, Japan, Korea, Manila, Monroe Doctrine, secret agreements, Seoul, Teddy Roosevelt, The Imperial Cruise, The Philippines, Tokyo, waterboarding, William Howard Taft

Unlike Admin, I cannot write a very good Skype article, but here are my two cents. It seems that after the long talk about how they had a poor user experience, they went ahead and took down skype for Symbian OS. There have been reports of the deals that took place between Verizon And Skype, and from what we see, it was evil.

Just earlier this week, Symbian joined the likes of Windows Mobile, and Android in the list of mobile OSes that meet a take down of Skype service from their markets. The list is beginning to get larger day by day and it is a matter of time before Blackberry and Iphone  apps get removed.

This just seems like a bad deal between Verizon and Skype, or in Verizon Wirelesses part, a great deal. Only time will tell what will comes out of all these take downs, maybe a newly designed Skype for North America 0r a Verizon Wireless limit on the app.

Via: BGR

Filed under: Car Buying, Wagon, Saab

Saab has released pricing details on its 2010 9-3 lineup, a newsworthy action in that it wasn’t long ago that “Saab” and “2010 models” appeared to be mutually exclusive terms. Now that Victor Muller and Spyker have graciously relieved GM of the Saab albatross, it’s onward and (ideally) upward for 2010 as the new company, Saab Spyker Automobiles, chases after the profits that have perennially eluded Trollhättan. The most noteworthy ride on the just-released the price list? That would be the 2010 Saab 9-3X, the Allroad/Outback style jacked-up, all-wheel-drive SportCombi. Parking one in the garage at your ski home in Aspen will set you back, at minimum, $37,800, including destination. You can check out more high-res pics in the galleries below.

[Source: Saab]

Continue reading 2010 Saab 9-3X U.S. pricing announced

2010 Saab 9-3X U.S. pricing announced originally appeared on Autoblog on Sun, 07 Mar 2010 15:25:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Gamingnewslink.com’s self-help guide for Battlefield Bad Company 2, Freezing, Slowdown, Install and Crash to Desktop problems
Spread the link to this page if you find this post useful ^_^

IMPORTANT NOTE : If you encounter errors or issues with Battlefield Bad Company 2 that are not included in the list below, issues which the solutions listed does […]

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Article Tags: Doug L. Hoffman

Experts predict that, over the long term, food security can’t be achieved without energy security. Add in mechanization, storage, and transport and the energy impact of a typical meal in industrialized nations is many times the amount of energy the meal’s consumer derives. Recently, researchers have been taking a close look at just how much energy it takes to produce even seemingly similar foods. The conclusion: Food choices can have a significant impact on energy use in agriculture, and by extension, on greenhouse gas emissions as well. Beef lovers beware! As the world diverts more of its grain harvests into meat production, some scientists are taking a closer look at more environmentally friendly sources of protein, including insects.

Attacks on meat eating are nothing new. In 2003, the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health started “Meatless Mondays,” an initiative to reduce U.S. meat consumption by 15%. More recently, a number of pop celebrities, including Paul McCartney and Sheryl Crow, started a campaign for “Meet Free Mondays.” Indian economist and IPCC head R. Pachauri , who is also a vegetarian, encouraged all people to “give up meat for one day [a week] initially, and decrease it from there.”

As we reported in The Resilient Earth, others have pursued this story for different purposes. The UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization has estimated that meat production accounts for nearly a fifth of global greenhouse gas emissions. ABC News picked up the story in an article titled “Meat-Eaters Aiding Global Warming? New Research Suggests What You Eat as Important as What You Drive.” In it they reported that you should become a vegetarian if you want to help lower greenhouse gas emissions. They quoted researchers who liken eating red meat to driving an SUV. This position would certainly be supported by PETA, the group running the GoVeg.com web site.

Now, according to a news article in Science, if people in the developed world ate less meat, it would free up a lot of grain that could feed billions of hungry people. A lot of good farmland could be converted from grazing to crop production as well. As article author Erik Stokstad put it in “ Less Meat Mean More Food?”:

Click source to read FULL report by Doug L. Hoffman

Source: theresilientearth.com

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Article Tags: Himalayan Glacier Data

Senior scientists at the Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology (WITG) has rejected the Global Warming Theory and told that the Himalayas are quite safer zone on earth, where Global Warming has no role in controlling the conditions.

In an exclusive chat with HT, Director WIHG Dr AK Dubey has said that the conditions of Himalayas are controlled by the winter snowfall rather than external factors like much hyped Global Warming. He told that for a concrete result, at least 30 years of continuous research with steady outcome is needed to confirm the actual impact.

“According to a data for over 140 years available with a British weather observatory situated in Mukteswar (2311m) in Almora has actually revealed that temperature in that region witnessed a dip of .4 degrees,” he said.

Since 1991, the institute is monitoring the Himalayas extensively with focusing the glacial studies and last twenty year data has never witnessed a continual retreat. Sometimes, the recession rates have gone up but on an average the rate is very much safer, he added.

Click source to read more

Source: hindustantimes.com

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Filed under: Recalls, Toyota

During the first round of Congressional hearings last month, Toyota was blindsided by one Professor David Gilbert who was added to the witness list at the last minute to talk about an experiment in which he induced sudden unintended acceleration (SUA) in a late model Toyota Avalon. His test was reproduced in a shoddy ABC News report with Brian Ross behind the wheel and referenced often in the Congressional hearings by politicians trying to understand the complicated method by which Gilbert got the Avalon to take off running.

Well, Toyota and its independent consulting firm Exponent (they’re funded by Toyota but produce results reportedly not influenced by their client) have studied Gilbert’s experiment and been able to reproduce the results themselves. In Toyota’s words:

The analysis of Professor’s Gilbert’s demonstration establishes that he has reengineered and rewired the signals from the accelerator pedal. This rewired circuit is highly unlikely to occur naturally and can only be contrived in a laboratory. There is no evidence to suggest that this highly unlikely scenario has ever occurred in the real world. As shown in the Exponent and Toyota evaluations, with such artificial modifications, similar results can be obtained in other vehicles.

Likewise, a small portion of owners with vehicles that have already received the fix for Toyota’s sticky pedal recall have complained to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration that the fix didn’t work. These owners have reportedly experienced SUA after having their vehicles fixed. Toyota has moved quickly to evaluate these complaints and submit its results to NHTSA. Again, Toyota in its own words:

The evaluations have found no evidence of a failure of the vehicle electronic throttle control system, the recent recall remedies or the brake override system.

What these two moves by Toyota tell us is that the embattled Japanese automaker is finally sticking up for itself in the face of media pundits and politicians who have used this unfortunate situation to score points with their audiences and constituents.

[Source: Toyota]

Continue reading Toyota rebuts Professor Gilbert, reports nothing found wrong with remedied vehicles

Toyota rebuts Professor Gilbert, reports nothing found wrong with remedied vehicles originally appeared on Autoblog on Sun, 07 Mar 2010 13:35:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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