Author: Serkadis

We tried to get at this the other day when we commented on Warren Buffett’s currency analysis, but the simplest way to put it is this: The Dollar is the new Dow.

Just now, before CNBC went to break, Joe Kernan said: let’s take a quick check of the dollar and showed the below screen.  In years past, the network would have certainly gone to a Dow or S&P chart as the default. If there’s one thing to realize about the nature of today’s market, this is it:

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See Also:

• Warren Buffett Sounds Really Sexy When He Talks Forex
• Forex Vigilantes Are Now Punishing UK Voters For Supporting The Labour Party
• Goldman: The One-Way Yuan Bet Is Over

Yesterday, General Motors confirmed that Vice Chairman Bob Lutz will officially retire on May 1. Why does Bob Lutz want to retire?

In a statement, Lutz said:

“I can confidently say that the job I came here to do more than nine years ago is now complete – the team I have been fortunate to lead has far exceeded my expectations,” Lutz said. “Our product lineup is as strong as it has been in GM’s history. The perception of our products and brands is beginning to catch up with reality.

When asked by Automotive News which project he’s most proud of, Bob Lutz said:

“If you want to point to an individual project that I am particularly proud to have been a leading advocate of — if not the originator — that would be the Chevy Volt. At the time when electric anything was a dirty word at General Motors after the EV1 financial disaster, the Volt was hard to get going and hard to get approved.”

Click here for more news on the Chevrolet Volt.

2011 Chevrolet Volt:

– By: Kap Shah

Source: Automotive News (Subscription Required)

Just like many JRPGs, Glory of Heracles had been released for the Nintendo DS in Japan long ago, but it only hit the West recently. Nothing new there. But what makes this localization a little different is

French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde just said that there is no Franco-German aid plan for Greece.

But this statement left open the possibility of a bailout in the future. There’s no bailout on the agenda “right now.”

It’s as if she had just watched this week’s episode of How I Met Your Mother and decided to keep Greece on the hook. In the episode various characters tell people who want to date them that they cannot be together…right now.

Lagarde spoke to journalists in Marignane in southern France, the Associated Press reports. She said that France and Germany are working on different solutions, but there is no need for them…wait for it… “right now.”

“She hailed the ‘courage’ of the Greek government and its new harsh austerity plan designed to lift the debt-ridden country out of its financial crisis. She said it’s important to make sure those measures are carried out,” the AP reports.

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See Also:

• Greece Locks Up Three Brokers Who Sold Governent Debt To Pension Funds
• Germany Wants Greece To Sell Off Its Islands In Return For Cash
• Merkel Tells Greece To Take A Hike After Papandreou Suggests Europe Is Obligated To Bail Them Out

In this morning’s RBS Global Views newsletter, analyst Andy Chaytor details his plan to short the S&P 500 now that it’s hit the 1120 level.

Apparently it’s a bit of a technical trade:

RBS: The S&P has rallied up to my target level at 1120 and taken me short. Unsurprisingly in the run up to Non-Farm Payrolls, it has not done a lot since there, but I am confident to get short at these levels. At this stage, I’m viewing it as a semi-tactical trade, so I would set a stop above 1150 and a target down at 1050. We shall now watch to see how it plays out in the next few weeks. The major issues to deal with being sovereign structural concerns and the data.

On the former it does feel like we are inching towards some kind of deal. This morning’s announcement of a new 10 year benchmark deal is a definite positive. You will hopefully have seen that a couple of days ago Harvinder Sian recommended getting long 2y Greek paper vs. Portugal. The trade has already moved 25bp, but has another 110bp to go to his target (not counting the monster positive carry) so still very much worth entering now. I really like this trade as I do think Greece can snap back from current levels, but bigger picture I will reiterate that Greece is not the only country with a worrying deficit, just the first in line to be challenged by the market.

So he’s, perhaps oddly, shorting the S&P while going long Greek debt. One of those will probably be right in most imaginable scenarios.

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See Also:

• David Rosenberg: Look Around, Nobody Has Any Pricing Power
• Rosenberg’s Themes For 2010: The Consumer Is Still Toast, Housing Is Down, And Everyone Is Delinquent On Everything
• Rosenberg: Retail Investors Are Fleeing From Choppy Stock Rallies, Heading For Bonds

When FoMoCo unveiled the new 2011 Ford Mustang at the 2009 LA Auto Show in Dec. 2009, it walked around with pride saying that its new 3.7L V6 Ti-VCT would make 305-hp and 30 mpg on the highway, one-upping the 2010 Camaro’s 304-hp and 29 mpg rating.

Well, this morning FoMoCo is just that more proud. The 2011 Ford Mustang’s official EPA ratings certify that models equipped with the 305-hp 3.7L V6 and optional 6-speed automatic transmission achieve 31 mpg on the highway and 19 mpg in the city. The standard 6-speed manual transmission is rated at 30 mpg on the highway and 19 mpg in the city.

Not only does that make the 2011 Ford Mustang V6 the most fuel-efficient Mustang ever, but also the first production car in history to produce more than 300-hp with more than 30 mpg highway.

Click here for more news on the Ford Mustang.

“The Mustang engineering team aimed high and, through hard work, achieved fuel economy numbers that elevate Mustang into a class by itself,” said Derrick Kuzak, Ford group vice president, Global Product Development.

Ford announced last week that it has received nearly 11,000 orders for the 2011 Mustang and that half of the nationwide orders have been made for the 305-hp 3.7L V6 engine option.

2009 LA: 2011 Ford Mustang 3.7L V6:

– By: Omar Rana

The effects of the recently introduced browser ballot screen in Microsoft Windows are already beginning to be seen. Opera, the browser with the smallest market share out of the first five that are featured in the screen, is reporting that downloads have tripled in the past couple of days since Microsoft started testing the bal… (read more)

We all have our opinions on a subject, and more so when it runs along the line of our common pastime gaming. On the chopping board today are the guys behind PlayStation: Sony. Instead of putting

Filed under: Aftermarket, Performance, Geneva Motor Show, Europe, Crossover, BMW

We’ll come clean. Collectively, we spend an unexpected amount time repeating the following sentence, “As much as I know I shouldn’t, I love the BMW X6. I know it’s wrong, I know. But it’s just a great car.” But you know what makes less sense than the X6? The X6 M. That car’s stone cold crazy. Therefore we like it even more than the regular flavor SAC (Sports Activity Coupe). Have you met our friend Hamann?

For the 2010 Geneva Motor Show, Hamann brought along its new Tycoon EVO M. And… it’s quite bonkers.The 4.4-liter twin-turbo V8 has been pumped up to the tune of 670 horsepower and 576 pound-feet of torque. For comparison’s sake, the Lamborghini Murcielago LP670-4 SuperVeloce’s mighty 6.5-liter V12 produces 670 hp – exactly the same amount as the Hamann Tycoon EVO M. Crazy, no? Oh, also, the mightiest ever Lambo makes 89 lb-ft of torque less than this mental patient Hamann.

Then there’s the little matter of the carbon fiber. Look, we’re all for saving precious pounds but keep it real for a minute. Before Hamann got their filthy mitts all over it, the X6 M weighed in at 5,324 pounds. Lord (and Hamann) only knows what it weighs now. And since we’re keeping it real, shaving a few pounds off the front end of an over-powered beast like the Tycoon is killing a mouse with the 101st Airborne. In other words, the carbon fiber hood and splitter is nothing but blingy, look-at-me bunting. And since we’re ragging on conspicuous displays of too much wealth, Tycoon? Really? That said, we’ve never seen 23-inch wheels look so perfectly at home.

Geneva 2010: Hamann Tycoon EVO M more powerful than mightiest Lamborghini originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 04 Mar 2010 08:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Is your nation under massive financial pressure due to deteriorating sovereign debt ratings?

Rising interest costs got you down?

Rather than having to actually tackle your mounting debt problems, here’s an innovative solution from some Eurozone finance ministers — create your own, friendlier credit ratings:

Der Spiegel:

Now European Union governments are planning to take measures to break the dominance of the main rating agencies, according to a report in the Wednesday edition of the German business daily Handelsblatt. The newspaper reports that euro-zone finance ministers are pushing the European Central Bank (ECB) to set up its own sovereign rating scheme for the 16 members of the euro zone so that it no longer has to rely on private rating agencies, such as Moody’s.

…

Neither the ECB nor the rating agencies were prepared to comment on the alleged plan when approached by Handelsblatt.

The sad thing is that even Der Spiegel gets the situation completely backwards:

Rating agencies have massive power over the fate of companies. A change from an “investment grade” to a “junk” rating can cost a firm billions or even cause it to go bankrupt. The big three — Moody’s, Standard & Poor’s and Fitch — can even decide the fate of entire countries. All that is currently preventing a massive liquidity crisis for Greece is the fact that it still has an A2 sovereign credit rating from Moody’s. But with the agency already threatening another downgrade, such a crisis may not be far off.

To think that a negative rating is what decides the fate of a country is to believe that a doctor who tells you that you have cancer is a murderer. Debt levels are deciding the fate of European countries right now, while ratings agencies are just the messengers reporting what they see. Let’s not forget that ratings agencies were blamed for being too lenient during the financial crisis. Thus they are now far more careful to make sure they err on the side of caution.

If a company like Moody’s were to suddenly turn a blind eye to the debt problems of Greece, for example, and be ‘nice’ by giving a favorable credit rating, their friendly rating wouldn’t have any market credibility if the facts were obviously much different.

Which means that if a new ECB ratings agency only delivered friendly ratings it would also have zero credibility and its ratings would be ignored. Thus to suggest an ECB ratings system as a solution to the Eurozone’s debt problems exposes how financially ignorant some of these leaders are. The problem is the debt, tackle it, there’s no easy way around it.

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See Also:

• Merkel Tells Greece To Take A Hike After Papandreou Suggests Europe Is Obligated To Bail Them Out
• The Scary Reason Europe Is Doomed To Crisis After Crisis After Crisis
• Euro Whipsawed As Traders Realize Europe May Still Not Bail Out Greece After Budget Cuts

One of the things that phat PS3 models have over the Slim line is the ability to install and run other OS, but rumors came out last month (qjnet/playstation-3/new-ps3-fw-to-remove-otheros-feature.html) saying that a future firmware update will remove

expatica.com

There is not a tourist in sight as the sun sets over sand-swept pyramids at Meroe, but archaeologists say the Nubian Desert of northern Sudan holds mysteries to rival ancient Egypt.

“There is a magic beauty about these sites that is heightened by the privilege of being able to admire them alone, with the pyramids, the dunes and the sun,” says Guillemette Andreu, head of antiquities at Paris’ Louvre museum.

“It really sets them apart from the Egyptian pyramids, whose beauty is slightly overshadowed by the tourist crowds.”

Meroe lies around 200 kilometres (120 miles) northeast of Sudan’s capital Khartoum and was the last capital of Kush, also called Nubia, an ancient kingdom centered on the confluence of the Blue Nile, the White Nile and the River Atbara.

Kush was one of the earliest civilisations in the Nile valley and, at first, was dominated by Egypt. The Nubians eventually gained their independence and, at the height of their power, they turned the table on Egypt and conquered it in the 8th century BC.

They occupied the entire Nile valley for a century before being forced back into what is now Sudan.

At the end of March, the Louvre will host its first exhibition on the Meroe dynasty, the last in a line of “black pharaohs” that ruled Kush for more than 1,000 years until the kingdom’s demise in 350 AD.

Egyptology News Blog, Andie Byrnes

Google / AFP

Charles Bonnet, the 76-year-old doyen of Sudan archaeologists who helped rewrite an ancient chapter of Africa’s largest country, has come a long way from the Swiss vineyards he harvested as a youth.

“As a young person, I was a wine grower. I jumped off my tractor and quickly went to university,” he recalled, eyes lighting up, as he sat with an AFP correspondent on the terrace of the Acropole hotel in the Sudanese capital Khartoum.

He still gives some credit to his roots as a vine grower. “One learns how to see the ground, the vegetation, the colours of the ground,” he said, things he could not pick up at university.

Bonnet helped show that Sudan was not merely a satellite to Egypt’s wealth of ancient relics. He unearthed statues of Sudan’s “black pharaohs”, the overlords of the Kingdom of Kush, and showing Sudan was a trove itself.

After university, he drifted to South America, but ended up setting his sights on Egypt. “I was interested in Egypt, but more in Africa. I realised it was wrong to seek Sudan in Egypt. It was necessary to seek Sudan in Sudan,” he said.

Egyptology News Blog, Andie Byrnes

Filed under: Aftermarket, Performance, Geneva Motor Show, Porsche

There were dozens of tuners exhibiting at the Geneva Motor Show, but Porsche specialist Techart had one of the more impressive displays. Three of their cars made world debuts this week including a customized 911 Turbo, their latest version of the GTStreet R and a concept based on the Panamera.

The Panamera, named the Concept One, is undoubtedly the most interesting of the bunch. The exterior features a new body kit that’s on the reserved side compared to some of the others we’ve seen, although the new front end and the vented hood give it a fairly aggressive look. The interior really caught our attention, however, with its cocoa and white colors combined with green stitching and cerbero leather trim. It looks pretty cool, but realistically we guess it would be pretty tough to keep clean. Check out each of the cars live from the show floor in the high-res gallery below.

Photos by Drew Phillips / Copyright (C)2010 Weblogs, Inc.

Geneva 2010: Techart debuts trifecta of tuned Porsches originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 04 Mar 2010 07:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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“The Obama White House has recently announced that they will go forward with a reconciliation process — sometimes called the “nuclear option” — to try and pass their government run healthcare plan in the Senate. This process circumvents a Republican filibuster and only requires a simple majority vote of 51 rather than 60…” (source)

In this video (posted on Breitbart) from 2005 Obama condemns the practice of Reconciliation Use (the nuclear option) as “Absolute Power” and “Not What the Founders Intended.”

It will be interesting to see if the MSM calls Obama on quotes like this one:
“You know, the Founders designed this system, as frustrating it is, to make sure that there’s a broad consensus before the country moves forward.”

With that quote in mind, here’s an interesting little tidbit…a battle of academia if you will. One of tomorrow’s WashPo OpEds (in defense of Obama’s nuclear option) contains this gem:

“But the Founders said nothing in the Constitution about the filibuster, let alone “reconciliation.” Judging from what they put in the actual document, the Founders would be appalled at the idea that every major bill should need the votes of three-fifths of the Senate to pass.” (source)

The author was chastising Orin Hatch’s evocation of the Founders…I guess he hadn’t seen the video of Obama doing the same just 5 short years ago.

The there’s Harry Reid and juxtaposed with his recent “Stop crying” comment to Republicans, also in 2005 he said,

“The right to extend a debate is never more important than when one party controls both Congress and the White House. The filibuster serves as a check, on power, preserve our limited government.”

Then there was VP Joe Biden (also known as the gift that never stops giving) with this one, “[T]his nuclear option is ultimately an example of the arrogance of power…it is a fundamental power grab” and in the course of a prayer said “I pray God when the Democrats take back control we don’t make the kind of naked power grab you are doing.”

But remember, this wasn’t over a major shift in the American system–this was attempting to push through stalled judicial nominees. Almost every Democrat that is now advocating the use of the nuclear option is on record railing against it. Harry Reid even went so far as to post a passionate argument against the use of reconciliation on his Senate website. <---Amazing he can look people in the face with this so easily accessible! Believe it or not, there are a few MSM outlets writing about the glaring discrepancy , even if the majority are defending it to the death.

The ‘Hurt Locker’ was definitely on my ‘to see list’…until an uber left friend of my brothers recommended “all Americans see The Hurt Locker.” Then I was suspect. Why would an important player in the Young Democrats of Philadelphia want all Americans to see a movie about a war they called illegal unless it depicted a flawed America and disenfranchised troops? The problem is, I can’t find anyone that saw it to tell me what they thought.

I searched this morning and found a WashPo article that says some OIF veterans were annoyed with the inaccurate portrayals:

“Many in the military say “Hurt Locker” is plagued by unforgivable inaccuracies that make the most critically acclaimed Iraq war film to date more a Hollywood fantasy than the searingly realistic rendition that civilians take it for.

To which you might say: It’s just a movie and an action flick at that. It’s Tinseltown fiction — an interpretation of war such as “Full Metal Jacket” or “Apocalypse Now.” It’s supposed to entertain. It’s not a documentary, not real life.

But to those who were there, Iraq is real life. And they’re very sensitive — some would say overly so — when their war is portrayed via a central character who is a reckless rogue.

Hence a rising backlash from people in uniform, such as this response on Rieckhoff’s Facebook page from a self-identified Army Airborne Ranger:

“[I]f this movie was based on a war that never existed, I would have nothing to comment about. This movie is not based on a true story, but on a true war, a war in which I have seen my friends killed, a war in which I witnessed my ranger buddy get both his legs blown off. So for Hollywood to glorify this crap is a huge slap in the face to every soldier who’s been on the front line.” (source)

That brings us to “The Green Zone.” Matt Damon just can’t seem to let go of Jason Bourne (I get it Matt, he’s much cooler than the real you) and has recast him as an American soldier that is out to expose the American government for faking a source that provided WMD information. Well, that’s what I gather from watching the trailer. I have to say, given his proclivities…I kinda loathe seeing him in that uniform.

The U.A.E., of course. The home of the world’s tallest building is eager to prove that the Dubai default never happened and they really are home to unlimited wealth.

The proposed gold tender would follow several commemorative coins launched by the Emirates (pictured).

Other gold coins in circulation include the South African Krugerand, the British Sovereign, the Australian Nugget, and the Canadian Gold Maple Leaf.

Newzglobe:

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See Also:

• The World’s #1 Miner Succeeds By Completely Ignoring Gold
• First international Bloomingdale’s opens in Dubai
• Dubai Was Always Destined For Disaster When Money Came Cheap

Filed under: Sedan, Performance, Geneva Motor Show, Maserati, Luxury

Nobody could rationally justify that they “need” a Maserati Quattroporte, but we’d gladly take one just the same. In similar fashion, we don’t “need” an excuse to photograph and report on the sumptuous Italian exotic saloon. But we’ll take any we can get. This year’s is called the Awards Edition.

Created to mark the innumerable honorable citations the QPorte has accrued since its launch a couple of years ago, the Awards Edition starts off with the top-of-the-line Quattroporte GT S. From there, the Trident marque has upgraded it with special “Quarzo Fuso” paint, tastefully muted brightwork, and an interior decked out in the creamiest of leathers and Alcantara. 20-inch wheels round out the package housing upgraded Brembo brakes.

New trimmings does not a new Quattroporte make, but then it doesn’t require much in the way of enhancement. It’ll do for an excuse, though. Check it out in the galleries below.

Photos by Noah Joseph / Copyright (C)2010 Weblogs, Inc.

Geneva 2010: Maserati Quattroporte GT S Awards Edition takes a bow originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 04 Mar 2010 07:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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