Author: Serkadis

Morgan Stanley thinks that it is impossible for the U.S. to successfully inflate itself out of its debt problem, even if it wants to, because three key hurdles are preventing it:

1. Even stealth inflation would push up treasury yields.
2. Nearly half of government spending outlays are linked to inflation.
3. The Fed is unlikely to give into this type of policy. (Yes, we can hear some readers laughing)

Even just hurdles #1 and #2 are enough to prevent the U.S. from inflating its way out of debt since there is a limit to the level of treasury yields the U.S. can handle paying out. It also doesn’t help your financial picture when you increase your future liabilities (in the form of inflation-indexed government outlays) while trying to escape your debt.

Richard Berner @ Morgan Stanley: The lesson of the 1970s: The Great Inflation did erode real debt, but perhaps by less than it appears. More important, the US post-war experience was anomalous: A rapid decline in defense spending yielded a significant ‘peace dividend’, monetary policy was then designed to hold down interest rates, and restrictions on Treasury debt issuance also brought down debt/GDP by restraining rates and debt maturities.

…

Inflation likely will push up US deficits: Social Security, which accounts for one-quarter of federal outlays, is officially indexed, and Medicare and Medicaid are ‘unofficially’ indexed. Together, these programs will account for nearly half of all federal outlays in the next decade.

Already, servicing even the same nominal amount of debt is set to get increasingly expensive:

(Via Morgan Stanley, US: Why We Can’t Inflate Our Way Out, Richard Berner, 24 Feb 2010)

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See Also:

• Morgan Stanley: Today’s PPI Explosion Means You Can Kiss Deflation Goodbye
• Morgan Stanley: U.S. Stocks Outperform When The Dollar Rises And Europe Falls
• Morgan Stanley: Don’t Worry, Europe Can Go Down In Flames And America Will Be Fine

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. (AP) — Indiana University President Michael McRobbie says he’ll be ready to rock when he takes to the airwaves next week for his second stint as a radio disc jockey.

Last April, McRobbie co-hosted a jazz program on Bloomington’s public radio station.

But on March 5, he’ll be the solo host of a 90-minute WFIU program devoted to his favorite rock ‘n roll records from his college days.

McRobbie plans to spin tunes from The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Neil Young, Jimi Hendrix and other American and UK acts.

He says all of his selections will be live recordings “to give listeners a sense of the energy, power and musicianship of all these great groups and artists at their peak.”

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Bearish Texan hedge fund manager, Mark Hart made a bundle by betting against Greece, Portugal, and Spain and only telling friends what he was doing.

According to the people who spoke to the Wall Street Journal, Corriente Capital’s Hart is so pessimistic that he tells his investors to buy physical bars of gold.

He’s kind of paranoid, too. Mr. Hart apparently wrote that no one should reveal details about the fund and their trades in a letter to the investors in his fund, European Divergence Fund LP.

The Wall Street Journal’s sources speculate that Hart and his partner, Louis-Vincent Gave (an ex-French army Lieutenant), probably kept their moves quiet in fear of a government backlash.

The fund invests in CDS that protect against a debt default in Greece, Portugal, and Spain. Governments of course don’t encourage betting on the downfall of those nations.

The sources also suggest that Hart and Gave kept mum because they didn’t want others making the same move – which would raise the price of purchasing the insurance.

The Divergence Fund has been performing well on these bets. It was up a huge 92% in 2008. So far this year, the Divergence Fund is up 20%.

Now they’re taking some chips off the table. The fund recently returned $320 million in profits on the defaults to investors, but kept some money in the positions.

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• Hedge Fund Corriente Gives Cash Back To Investors After Making A Killing Shorting European Debt
• European Banks Prepare For €1 Trillion Debt Rollover Tidal Wave

Filed under: Concept Cars, Geneva Motor Show, Tokyo Motor Show, Honda, Electric

Honda’s bringing a concept car to the Geneva Motor Show that you would more expect to see in the design student gallery section – or Tron Legacy – than on a major automaker’s platform. The 3R-C concept is a three-wheeled, battery-powered single-seater. We’re going to assume the seating position in the rendering is a slight error of scale or that there’s something more complex going on, otherwise, we don’t know how the driver would see above the controls.

It will be joined by the EV-N concept that is debuting in Europe for the first time, but that cute little number was initially shown at the Tokyo Motor Show. Follow the jump to read about both electric offerings, and check them out in the galleries of high-res photos below.

[Source: Honda]

Continue reading Geneva Preview: Honda 3R-C Concept is a funny little thing

Geneva Preview: Honda 3R-C Concept is a funny little thing originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 24 Feb 2010 09:27:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s amazing how many patent attorneys, when you talk to them, will actively volunteer how screwed up the patent system is. While there are still some who make so much money abusing the system that they don’t care, those who actually got into the business because they believe in promoting actual innovation are increasingly admitting that the system is a disaster and widely abused, and rarely instrumental in actual innovation. Venture capitalist Brad Feld has convinced one such patent attorney — who has decided to appear pseudonymously — to write his response to the recent Nathan Myhrvold profile in the NY Times that, yet again, plays up Intellectual Ventures in a very one-sided manner. Feld’s friend, who is writing as “Sawyer” rips the concept of Intellectual Ventures to shreds. The reasoning likely is familiar to our regular readers, as it’s exactly what we’ve been saying for a decade, but it’s nice to see a patent attorney speaking up.

First, he notes the lack of any evidence that patents promote innovation (he suggests there’s an exception in biotech, but the studies there are actually quite mixed). From there, he notes that Myhrvold’s goal has nothing to do with actual innovation or promoting progress, but about building a system that just gets him more money via patents:

Perhaps Mr. Myrhvold recognizes this, because in the article he says “I’m trying to get inventions that kind of respect as an economic entity.” (Emphasis added). IV apparently incentivizes innovation on…inventions? “Inventions” are actually a term of art in patent law, they are the things for which one can legally be granted patent rights. IV, therefore, seems to admit that it wants to enforce patent rights so that we can…have more patents. Mr. Myhrvold wants to create an entire economic category based on payments to entitles that don’t build, produce, sell, etc, any products, or create anything of value (i.e., that don’t innovate, at least in any useful way that advances human progress), in exchange for not being sued on exclusionary patent rights.

Let’s internalize that for a second. IV has collected over a billion dollars so that it can get more patents. They make no products. They apparently don’t funnel ideas to anyone else who makes products.

This is a huge problem if the point of the patent system is to create incentives for actual innovation, as the Constitution requires. But what’s the impact of a system that encourages patents for the sake of encouraging more patents? Well, it drives money away from actual innovation:

Now think about where this money would go otherwise. Microsoft, Apple, and Google, not to mention other large technology companies, have sizable legal departments with teams of attorneys focused full-time on managing the 50+ software patent cases they each are a defendant on. My guess is that they individually spend hundreds of millions of dollars defending and settling such suits per year. Most of the suits are backed by investment funds through shell entities. Many of these funds are backed (with no transparency) by traditional investment banks and hedge funds. What we have, then, is a net outflow, on a yearly basis, of at least several hundred million dollars, from technology companies who “make stuff” and unquestionably innovate, to speculators and investors who don’t. I don’t think that baseline fact is something anyone would question. IV dresses that up in the clothing of “invention,” but they’re really just out to capitalize on a broken patent system like every other non-practicing entity (“NPE” as we call them — they hate being called trolls). What kinds of cool products and technologies would that money be used to develop? We’ll never know, I suppose. At the very least we can presume that the pace of innovation in technology is being slowed by this net outflow of capital to non-innovating parties.

And, despite what the regular peanut gallery of patent system supporters will claim in the comments, these lawsuits aren’t just focused on big companies, but the really innovative startups that are being strangled by patent lawsuits:

One thing I haven’t mentioned is that it isn’t just big companies who get sued. Startups, especially in software, are constantly targetted by patent suits, especially by pseudo-competitors who want to kill more innovative upstarts. How many great companies have been sunk by the costs of patent litigation? Think about it this way — if Facebook had been sued on a social networking patent within a year of its existence, would it be around today? It’s doubtful.

Sawyer also points out that, contrary to claims of the system’s supporters, that “having a patent doesn’t mean that you really invented anything, or that the person you’re suing would actually infringe in a rational world.” Some of you may have seen some of the regular commenters here claim that there the only way to prove you’ve invented something is if you get a patent on it — and that anyone accused of infringing has clearly “stolen” the idea. Neither of those things are true. What Sawyer is pointing out is that getting a patent is just a sign that you were able to convince the USPTO (through a “pseudo-adversarial administrative procedure”) that you deserved such a monopoly privilege. It doesn’t mean you actually invented anything — and it certainly doesn’t mean you’ve done anything to promote the progress or innovation in general.

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I am sick-to-death of the whole Tiger Woods debacle, but I have to address this one facet of the story because it’s it’s driving me insane…

I really should have added Gloria Allred to my ‘jumped the shark’ post. I can’t say much about this because I’ll get myself too worked up before I’m finished my first cup of coffee…

Ms. Allred has become the embodiment of every joke and bad sentiment there is out there about ambulance-chasing lawyers.

Not the fact that she’s representing Tiger’s porn star mistress of three years. That’s her prerogative. But to be out there demanding Tiger have a one on one apology with her? And the reason: because he lied to her and deceived her? Where to begin?! If this makes my head ache like it’s going to explode, I can’t imagine what Elin wants to do to this chick…

Let me settle this for your skanky little client Gloria… Dear Veronica Siwik-Daniels, Your entire relationship was based on a lie. He was MARRIED. You knew that. He had two small children. You knew that as well. If he was the HONORABLE man you’re saying he should be to confront you now that it’s done, he wouldn’t have been with you in the first place. Why don’t you see that? Nothing decent and lasting comes from that which was entirely predicated on a lie.

I have so much more to say, but my blood pressure is rising…

NEW YORK (AP) — Oprah Winfrey fans who think of the daytime television queen as a friend aren’t the only ones preparing for withdrawal when her show goes off the air next year. Winfrey’s real best friend says it will be a loss for her, too.

“I said to Oprah, ‘I’m having a hard time. I’m not ready,’” said Winfrey’s BFF, Gayle King. “But, you know, I am ready for her. She makes the best decision for herself. I totally understand why she’s doing it. That said, I can’t imagine daytime TV without her.”

As Winfrey makes plans to end her reign after 25 seasons, King is devoting more time to a different medium. She hosts on Oprah Radio on Sirius XM a daily show that was recently extended from one hour to two hours.

King likes to keep an open dialogue with her listeners on a variety of subjects ranging from international news to pop culture. Instead of heated debates, she takes a kinder, gentler approach while not shying away from disagreements.

“I don’t believe you have to annoy people to get them to listen or for them to like you,” she said. “I’m not sitting here trying to be liked … but I do like to engage in conversation with other people, and I think it’s OK to agree to disagree without being nasty to each other.”

Radio isn’t King’s only gig. King also is editor-at-large for O magazine and occasionally appears on Winfrey’s syndicated TV show, “The Oprah Winfrey Show,” which is produced in Chicago.

King has known Winfrey for more than 25 years, and they used to work together in TV news. King says she’ll have a to-be-determined role on Winfrey’s cable channel, OWN: The Oprah Winfrey Network.

“I know I will do something with OWN, but I don’t know what that is,” she said. “We’re trying to figure that out.”

As for the idea of replacing Winfrey, King says no one can fill her friend’s shoes.

“You’ll have to come up with something else. Come up with another model. Come up with another way of doing things,” King said. “The Oprah genre as we know it is done and done with her. Now we have to find something else to do and someone else to watch.”

—

On the Net:

Oprah Radio: http://www.xmradio.com/oprahradio

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WOODSTOCK, Ill. (AP) — McHenry County authorities say a 19-year-old accused of posing as a police officer and making a teenage couple remove their clothes has been arrested, thanks in part to a tip that came in nearly nine months after the incident.

Authorities say Michael Spencer of Harvard was arrested by McHenry County Sheriff’s police on charges of robbery, burglary, aggravated false impersonation of a police officer, aggravated battery and criminal damage to property.

The incident occurred May 15 in a rural area.

They say someone believed to have been Spencer approached a 15-year-old girl and a 16-year-old boy as they sat in a parked car, forced them to strip, smashed the boy’s cell phone and punched him in the face before fleeing.

Spencer was being held Tuesday night on $5,000 cash bond.

—

Information from: Daily Herald, http://www.dailyherald.com

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MILAN — An Italian court convicted three Google executives of privacy violations Wednesday because they did not act quickly enough to pull down an video online that showed bullies abusing an autistic boy.

The case was being closely watched around the world due to its implications for Internet freedom.

In the first such criminal trial of its kind, Judge Oscar Magi sentenced the three to a six-month suspended sentence and absolved them of defamation charges. A fourth defendant, charged only with defamation, was acquitted.

Google called the decision “astonishing” and said it would appeal.

“The judge has decided I’m primarily responsible for the actions of some teenagers who uploaded a reprehensible video to Google video,” Google’s global privacy counsel Peter Fleischer, who was convicted in absentia, said in a statement.

The trial could help define whether the Internet in Italy is an open, self-regulating platform or if content must be better monitored for abusive material.

Google, based in Mountain View, California, had said it considered the trial a threat to freedom on the Internet because it could force providers to attempt an impossible task — prescreening the thousands of hours of footage uploaded every day onto sites like YouTube.

“We will appeal this astonishing decision,” Google spokesman Bill Echikson said at the courthouse. “We are deeply troubled by this decision. It attacks the principles of freedom on which the Internet was built.”

Convicted of privacy violations along with Fleischer were Google’s senior vice president and chief legal officer David Drummond, retired chief financial officer George Reyes. Senior product marketing manager Arvind Desikan was acquitted.

Prosecutors had insisted the case wasn’t about censorship but about balancing the freedom of expression with the rights of an individual.

Prosecutor Alfredo Robledo said he was satisfied with the decision and that Google will now have to consider better monitoring its video.

The charges were sought by Vivi Down, an advocacy group for people with Down syndrome. The group alerted prosecutors to the 2006 video showing an autistic student in Turin being beaten and insulted by bullies at school. In the footage, the youth is being mistreated while one of the teenagers puts in a mock telephone call to Vivi Down.

Google Italy, which is based in Milan, eventually took down the video, though the two sides disagree on how fast the company reacted to complaints. Thanks to the footage and Google’s cooperation, the four bullies were identified and sentenced by a juvenile court to community service.

The events shortly preceded Google’s 2006 acquisition of YouTube.

All four executives, who were tried in absentia, denied wrongdoing. None was in any way involved with the production of the video or uploading it onto the viewing platform, but prosecutors argued that it shot to the top of a most-viewed list and should have been noticed.

Google also ran into other setbacks Wednesday in Europe.

In Brussels, the European Commission said it has asked Google to comment on allegations by rivals it demotes their sites in its search rankings.

EU spokeswoman Amelia Torres said the EU antitrust office has received complaints from three Google rivals but had not “opened a formal investigation, for the time being.”

She declined to name the three rivals or elaborate.

Google said it would provide “feedback and additional information on these complaints,” but stressed it was not violating any EU antitrust rules.

On the company’s corporate blog, Julia Holtz, Google’s Senior Competition Counsel, said those complaining were Foundem, a British price comparison site; the French legal search engine ejustice.fr, which complained about being ranked in low in Google searches; and Microsoft Corp’s Ciao! from Bing, complaining about Google’s standard terms and conditions.

The low rankings complaint is significant because high rankings in Google searches drive higher volumes of traffic to web sites.

“Our algorithms aim to rank first what people are most likely to find useful,” said Holtz.

She said after Microsoft acquired Ciao! in 2008 “we started receiving complaints about our standard terms and conditions,” an issue that now before the EU antitrust office.

Holtz said while Foundem and ejustice.fr on the one hand, and Ciao! from Bing on the other, raise “slightly different issues, the question they ultimately pose is whether Google is doing anything to choke off competition or hurt our users and partners. This is not the case.”

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SANTA ANA, Calif. — A jury is set to begin deliberations in the case of a man accused of five Southern California serial slayings in the late 1970s.

Rodney Alcala, 66, who is acting as his own lawyer, has pleaded not guilty to five counts of first-degree murder and could face the death penalty if convicted.

In his closing argument Tuesday, Orange County prosecutor Matt Murphy said Alcala is either guilty or had “the worst bad luck in the history of bad luck.”

Murphy said there was little chance a second person matching Alcala’s description was at an Orange County beach the same day 12-year old Robin Samsoe was abducted.

Prosecutors have relied on witnesses who testified about seeing a curly-haired photographer taking pictures of Samsoe, her friend and other teenagers on the beach minutes before Samsoe disappeared. Photos of one of the girls were later found in Alcala’s possession.

Alcala presented little evidence against charges that he killed four women in Los Angeles County.

But he has fought the charge of killing Samsoe, saying it was another man who was spotted that day.

He pointed out that witnesses said he was dark-skinned and 175 pounds, when he is light-skinned and weighs 150 pounds.

Murphy presented testimony by Samsoe’s mother that a pair of gold ball earrings found in Alcala’s possession had belonged to her daughter.

“He wants so badly to get away with it,” Murphy told jurors. “He wants a free murder. … I’m asking you, I plead with you, use your common sense and convict Rodney Alcala.”

Alcala had been convicted and sentenced to death twice before in Samsoe’s murder, but both convictions were overturned.

Murphy has said investigators discovered Alcala’s DNA in the bodies of victims Georgia Wixted, 27, of Malibu; Charlotte Lamb, 32, of Santa Monica; and Jill Barcomb, 18, who had just moved to Los Angeles from Oneida, N.Y.

Prosecutors said the body of another victim, Jill Parenteau, yielded no DNA but her nude body was posed in a similar fashion as another of the dead women and Alcala was at the same bar as Parenteau the night she was murdered.

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MUNICH — A former Soviet soldier taken prisoner by the Germans during World War II testified at the trial of John Demjanjuk on Wednesday that he didn’t know he would be used as a concentration camp guard when he agreed to work for the Nazis.

Ukrainian-born Alex Nagorny told the Munich state court that, when he was recruited from a prisoner of war camp, he agreed to serve to stave off hunger.

“I was simply asked if I wanted to work and I was hungry,” the 92-year-old testified. “That was all.”

Millions of Soviet prisoners died in German captivity, and the defense has argued those who agreed to serve the Nazis had no choice.

Prosecutors allege that, like Nagorny, Demjanjuk agreed to serve the Germans and was trained at the Trawniki SS camp before being sent to work as a guard.

Demjanjuk is accused of serving as a guard at the Sobibor death camp and charged as an accessory to the murder of 27,900 Jews there.

Demjanjuk, however, denies ever having served as a camp guard, saying he has been mistaken for someone else.

The 89-year-old retired autoworker from Ohio, who also was born in Ukraine, maintains that he was a Soviet soldier who was captured by the Germans and spent most of the rest of the war in prison camps.

Nagorny told the court that, after he agreed to serve the Germans, he was sent from his prisoner of war camp in Chelm, Poland, to the nearby Trawniki camp, where he received only rudimentary military training.

“They said go left, go right, there was nothing more,” he said, speaking Ukrainian that was translated for the court. “We were shown how to use a weapon, but we did not shoot.”

He testified that he guarded an aircraft factory in Rostock where forced laborers were used, and was then sent to the Flossenbuerg concentration camp in Germany as a guard near the end of the war.

In statements to German investigators, Nagorny has said he was sent from Trawniki to Flossenbuerg with Demjanjuk.

Though Demjanjuk is not charged with any crimes at Flossenbuerg, the statement is important to proving he was a guard, said Thomas Walther, who led the investigation that prompted Germany to prosecute Demjanjuk.

“Here is a living witness who can say, ‘I was a Trawniki man and with me was Demjanjuk who was also a Trawniki man,” Walther told The Associated Press on the sidelines of the trial. “That’s important here because Demjanjuk says he was not a Trawniki.”

In morning testimony, however, Nagorny did not mention Demjanjuk and failed to remember the names of many of his Ukrainian comrades during the war — and those with whom he lived after the war.

“I knew all their names, but they’re long dead,” he told the court.

He walked into the courtroom slowly but unaided, alternating the hand in which he held his cane. He did not make eye contact with Demjanjuk, who lay on a bed next to the door through which he entered.

The special German prosecutors’ office responsible for investigating Nazi-era crimes is investigating Nagorny himself, to see whether he might have served at the Treblinka death camp.

There is evidence implicating a “Nagorny” as having served as a Treblinka guard, but investigators have said that it is not clear whether it is the same person.

Prosecutors argue in the Demjanjuk case that to have served at one of the Nazi death camps in occupied Poland — whose sole purpose was extermination — is enough to accuse one of accessory to murder.

The argument does not extend to those who served in the scores of concentration camps like Flossenbuerg where, though scores were killed or died through inhumane treatment, people were not necessarily sent simply to be murdered.

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As Drew Peterson heads to trial in the death of his third wife, it’s clear that prosecutors hope to make their case by trying to prove he also killed his missing fourth wife, even though he has never been charged in her disappearance.

That unusual strategy depends on whether a judge permits testimony about what Stacy Peterson allegedly told others before she vanished in 2007, including that she considered threatening to tell police her husband killed ex-wife Kathleen Savio three years earlier; that he came home dressed in black and with a bag of women’s clothes the night before Savio’s body was found; and that the former Bolingbrook police officer had bragged about being able to conceal a homicide.

“You still can win without Stacy, but it’s much tougher without it,” said David Erickson, senior law lecturer at Chicago-Kent College of Law.

Will County Judge Stephen White still must rule on whether he’ll allow such hearsay — or secondhand — evidence at Peterson’s upcoming trial on charges of killing Savio, whose body was found in a bathtub in 2004. On Tuesday, White said jury selection will begin June 14.

Prosecutors have not said how much they would tell jurors about Stacy Peterson, but an extraordinary pretrial hearing revealed just how closely the circumstantial evidence against Drew Peterson in Savio’s slaying is tied to Stacy Peterson’s disappearance.

The hearing was the result of a new Illinois law that allows a judge to admit hearsay evidence — statements not based on a witness’ direct knowledge — if prosecutors can prove a defendant may have killed a witness in order to prevent him or her from testifying.

Prosecutors claim Peterson killed Savio to keep her from testifying against him in a property settlement hearing and prevent her from getting the hundreds of thousands of dollars such a settlement might cost him.

Savio’s divorce attorney testified at the hearsay hearing that Stacy Peterson asked him to represent her in her own planned divorce of Peterson and asked about extorting money out of Drew Peterson by threatening to tell police that he killed Savio. Stacy Peterson disappeared shortly after that — before she filed for divorce and got any of Peterson’s money.

Stacy Peterson’s disappearance also figures in another cornerstone of the prosecutors’ case: that Drew Peterson had the ability to kill Savio, not leave any evidence, and even make her death look like an accident.

“This is not somebody who just watched CSI,” Assistant State’s Attorney John Connor told White on the last day of the hearing in which prosecutors detailed Peterson’s law enforcement career, including his experience as an evidence technician. “This is somebody who’s been CSI.”

Peterson knew how to render someone unconscious without leaving any marks that would indicate a struggle, prosecutors said. Also, prosecutors said, he knew how easily crime scenes can be contaminated and made sure neighbors entered Savio’s house before he did the day her body was found.

One challenge in Savio’s case is convincing jurors there was a homicide at all; a coroner ruled her death an accidental drowning and police didn’t collect forensic evidence.

That might be easier if prosecutors could convince jurors he killed Stacy Peterson.

To do that, experts say prosecutors would have to zero in on what happened after Stacy Peterson disappeared: nothing.

That means presenting witnesses to testify that she was never heard from again after Oct. 28, 2007, never again used a credit card or her cell phone, and never wrote a letter to anyone she knew.

“And the biggest one: She never attempted to contact her children,” said DuPage County state’s attorney Joe Birkett, who has prosecuted a number of high-profile cases and has used the hearsay law.

Even if the judge does not initially allow anyone to testify about Stacy Peterson’s disappearance, the cases are so intertwined that there is always a chance a single question by one of Peterson’s attorneys could change that.

“When you’re doing cross examination you’ve got to be damn sure you don’t do something that trips into the other case,” said Erickson. “If there’s one phrase trial judges love it’s, ‘Counsel, you opened the door.’”

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Filed under: Coupe, Aston Martin, Celebrities

If you’re not a big fan of Olympic ice skating you probably missed the fact that U.S. skater Evan Lysacek beat out Russian favorite Evgeni Plushenko to win the gold metal at the Vancouver games. We know we missed it, but we can’t pass on a chance to talk about the Aston Martin DBS.

It seems Lysacek has a fondness for fast cars and James Bond movies, and the best way to celebrate the biggest of skating wins is with an Aston. Yahoo is reporting that Lysacek will celebrate victory in the Great White North by ponying up more than $269,000 for a new DBS (the Quantum of Solace DBS starts at $305,000). The world-renown skater (in skating circles, anyway) is trading up from his Land Rover for an English GT that is more our cup of tea. Yahoo quotes Aston Martin Newport Beach in Southern California executive salesman Gary Briggs as saying “we know how much Evan likes his luxury cars, and he will enjoy taking a tour of a showroom and test driving the DBS.” So would we.

As to how Lysacek intends to pay for his new Aston, we’re guessing the advertising deals that come with winning gold in one of the winter game’s more popular events will more than make up for the quarter million he’ll need to spend to get behind the wheel of a DBS. We never really aspired to Olympic gold, but if we knew the winner got a DBS, we may have taken those childhood skiing lessons a bit more seriously. Let us know when you’re ready to take us for a spin, Evan.

[Source: Yahoo Sports via Daily Derbi]

Gold medal winner Evan Lysacek only has eyes for Aston Martin DBS originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 24 Feb 2010 08:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Jim Rogers has absolutely no faith in Britain’s credit. Prepare for a downgrade in the very near future:

Economic Times:

Do you think that the UK is going to lose its AAA credit rating this year?

Of course. How can they maintain the credit rating other than fixing the books, or something. The UK has staggering amounts of debt that it has taken on in the past few years.

Read more here >

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• Jim Rogers: The US And China Are On A Serious Political Collision Course
• Jim Rogers: Stocks To Be Crushed Any Day Now
• Faber: India’s Middle Class Will Soon Be Larger Than America’s

Yahoo is moving forward with its big social web integration plan and has announced Twitter features will be available across many of its online proprieties and tweets will start showing up in search results. This comes after Yahoo also announced a similarly wide-reaching deal with Facebook. Twitter results are already live on Yahoo Search and the rest of … (read more)

Joining the F800 Style concept at the 2010 Geneva Motor Show will be the launch of the MercedesSport label. The new elegant and sporty individualization program features a portfolio of factory customizations by Mercedes-benz including light-alloy wheels, upgraded braking system, a sports suspension and mounted aerodynamic and some really nice styling components.

All MercedesSport produces will be produced by Mercedes-Benz Accessories GmbH in collaboration with the same designers and engineers who were responsible for the company’s production models.

Click here to get pricing on the 2010 Mercedes-Benz E-Class.

MercedesSport is initially available for the E-Class Saloon, Estate, Coupe and Cabriolet. Other models will follow.

Make the jump for the press release.

MercedesSport on 2010 Mercedes-Benz E-Class:

Press Release:

MercedesSport for elegance and sportiness: Individualisation of the premium class

Under the new label MercedesSport, Mercedes-Benz is presenting a portfolio of elegant and sporty individualisation products for the first time at the Geneva Motor Show. This MercedesSport portfolio includes specially designed light-alloy wheels, a sports suspension and mounted aerodynamic and styling components. These retrofitted parts emphasise the car’s sportiness as elegant, eyecatching features. All MercedesSport products were developed by Mercedes-Benz Accessories GmbH in collaboration with the same designers and engineers who were responsible for the standard production models. This ensures that both the high standard of the sophisticated design idiom and the quality criteria of Mercedes-Benz, which go well beyond standard norms, are met. As a result, everything appears to have been cast from a single mould. Thanks to their intelligent design, these products also impress with their attractive price/benefit ratio. MercedesSport is initially available for the E-Class Saloon, Estate, Coupé and Cabriolet.

In order to meet the demand for individualision accessories with a sporty look and the same, high manufacturer quality, Mercedes-Benz Accessories GmbH is now offering an appropriate product portfolio under the new MercedesSport label. This will enable every Mercedes-Benz customer to retrofit their car with a number of very personal features, with the option of enjoying even more sporty handling characteristics.

The highlights in the MercedesSport product range include:

– Intelligently designed front aprons, spoiler edges and side skirts ensure an elegant and sporty appearance. Unlike conventional products on the market, the sophisticated “add-on principle” makes it unnecessary to replace the original components.

– Optional rear and roof spoilers, a diffuser-look rear apron insert and fog lamp louvres round off this finely coordinated package of visual and aerodynamic features for the exterior.

– Striking eighteen-inch light-alloy wheels in a trendy bicolor version. These have sections painted in high-sheen black and bear the MercedesSport logo. They are enhanced and protected by a clear varnish coat.

– A sporty suspension, with noticeably stiffer damping, transverse stabilisers and shorter springs to lower the suspension by up to 15 millimetres. This sports suspension kit makes for more direct and sporty handling without compromising the high level of comfort.

– A sports braking system with perforated brake discs and grey brake calipers bearing the Mercedes-Benz logo, for outstanding deceleration and a sporty look.

– A grippy four-spoke sports steering wheel with perforated leather and a silver contrasting seam, optionally available with shift paddles and heating. For a sporty touch in the cockpit, right at your fingertips.

– A stainless steel pedal cluster, stainless steel door entry panels illuminated in white and bearing the MercedesSport logo and black velours floor mats with an edge border and silver contrasting seam, likewise bearing the MercedesSport logo, are further eyecatching features in the interior.It is with these retrofitted features that Mercedes-Benz meets the wishes of customers who wish to enhance and individualise their cars even further.

MercedesSport components distinguish themselves from other products available in the individualisation market in three respects:

– They are designed in accordance with the high quality criteria of the Mercedes-Benz brand, which in part impose far stricter standards than existing technical norms. Their development is based on the extensive findings and experience gained from the development work on the base vehicle, as well as on the original vehicle’s computer data. This means that the components fit with extraordinary precision, for example. All components have undergone computer simulations and sophisticated practical tests for reliability, durability and function – also under extreme operating conditions. The aerodynamic components have also been tested in the wind tunnel, and under the dynamic driving conditions of high-speed tracks. MercedesSport components are also highly dimensionally stable, and extremely resistant to impacts. And as MercedesSport components meet the very highest standards, they are covered by the original Mercedes-Benz warranty.

– Thanks to the intelligent design according to the “add-on principle”, no existing parts need to be removed or replaced. The original bumpers, side skirts are retained, and merely complemented with MercedesSport components. This means a considerably lower use of resources accompanied by lower costs, for the same or better results in both form and function.

– The same designers who created the original vehicle are responsible for MercedesSport styling. These mounted components accentuate the character of the vehicle, and seamlessly blend into the sophisticated design idiom of the Mercedes-Benz brand. Light-catching contours and taut surfaces create a sporty touch and underline the car’s self-confident presence. In its sporty, individualised form, the car is still clearly recognisable as a Mercedes.

MercedesSport will initially be available for the entire E-Class family (Saloon, Estate, Coupé, Cabriolet), with other model series to follow. MercedesSport is available from authorised Mercedes-Benz sales and service outlets, and can also be professionally installed there.

Mercedes-Benz Accessories GmbH is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Daimler AG, and is responsible for the development, selection and marketing of genuine accessories and Collection items for the Mercedes-Benz, Maybach, AMG and smart brands. The product range includes accessories designed for enhancement and individualisation, telematics, wheel/tyre combinations, care and protection products, carrier systems, comfort and safety features, mounted components and Collection items in the merchandising and licensing sectors. The company employs more than 200 personnel and is based in Stuttgart-Vaihingen.

– By: Omar Rana

Mansory, a tuner known for its extreme modifications, will show up to the 2010 Geneva Motor Show next month with a modified version of the new Rolls-Royce Ghost.

Besides attracting show-goers with a gold and blue paint scheme, Mansory will be offering some performance upgrades that are sure to please the enthusiast crowd. Power has been bumped to 710-hp (standard Ghost makes 562-hp) with a maximum torque of 752 lb-ft. The upgrade is a result of larger turbos, a sports manifold, new catalyzers and an upgraded ECU.

Click here to get pricing on the Rolls-Royce Phantom Coupe.

That allows the Mansory Rolls-Royce Ghost to go from 0-62 mph in 4.4 seconds with a top speed of 193 mph.

Mansory Rolls-Royce Ghost:

2011 Rolls-Royce Ghost:

Press Release:

World premiere at the 80th Geneva Motor Show

Unlimited luxury in a golden robe – MANSORY refines the Rolls Royce Ghost

A large programme for the “little” Rolls Royce. Automobile refiner Kourosh Mansory offers a breathtaking individualisation for the Rolls Royce Ghost. The specialist for luxury cars combines most precious materials with elaborate performance, individual appearance and stylish interior refinements. This creates a unique overall concept with a self-confident character.

The most striking part of the metamorphosis is an individually varnish in Gold and Blue. The self-assured colouring does not only reflect the exclusive status of the car, but also emphasises the newly developed exterior shape.

The golden varnish accentuates the delicate cross-beam in the new front skirt as well as the vertical gill between the headlights and the front wheel houses. Also the modified radiator grill insert duly profits from the varnish.

The evidence for the increased performance of the MANSORY Ghost can be found in the side skirts, the stainless steel sheeting, the unobtrusive rear spoiler and the rear skirt with the indicated diffuser and the two-pass end pipes of the double sport exhaust system.

The sportiness imbued by the exterior package is confirmed by the content under the bonnet. Enlarged bi-turbo chargers, the map optimisation of the control electronics as well as the sports manifold and the sports catalysers significantly increase the performance of the Rolls Royce. Instead of serial 570 hp (420 kW), the Ghost refined by MANSORY now renders phenomenal 720 hp (530 kW) at 5,850 r.p.m. The engineers from the Bavarian town Brand near Bayreuth catapult the maximum torque from 780 to astonishing 1,020 Newton metres. Therefore, the engine accelerates the 2,360 kg of the car from 0 to 100 km/h in only 4.4 seconds and is thereby half a second faster than the serial version. Thanks to the removed top speed limitation, the acceleration does not stop at 250, but only at 310 km/h.

With these performance values, also the wheels are growing. Especially for the Rolls Royce Ghost, MANSORY developed a new design whose innovative look perfectly matches with the new appearance of the car.

The monoblock rims measure enormous 22 inches and their surface is refined with the same golden varnish as the exterior. At the front axle, 9 inch wide wheels carry the high-performance tyres Dunlop SP SportMaxx in the dimension 265/35, whereas the rear 10.5 inch wide wheels are fitted with tyres in the dimension 295/30.

The interior presents itself as an oasis for luxury and perfectly goes with the exquisite outer refinement. Large parts of the interior are covered with the most delicate leather with diamond-quilted ornaments and are completed by an ultra-suede lining from the roof line to the dashboard. Special wide carbon and a sports steering wheel in combination with light bamboo wood inlays render and atmosphere which can not be surpassed in terms of exclusiveness. Moreover, there are illuminated door sills and the implemented ambience light effects: seats, door casings and dashboard are equipped with LEDs which supply a pleasantly soft light throughout the passenger cabin.

Once again, company founder Kourosh Mansory has understood to lift a top luxury class automobile into even higher levels. After the refinement, the Rolls Royce Ghost presents itself with a self-confident character. There is a perfect synergy between technology and luxury which further confirms the individual design.

– By: Kap Shah

CHAMPAIGN – One lane of Neil Street in downtown Champaign will be closed during the day for most of next week while work crews install some fiber optic conduit.

Larry Creadon of contractor IHC Construction said a southbound lane of Neil Street between Springfield Avenue and Green Street will be closed between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. each day beginning Monday and ending March 5, weather permitting.

Distributed via Chicago Press Release Services

Filed under: Etc., Europe, Government/Legal

Every couple of years, a big charity gets in trouble for paying out big monies to executives or cronies. This time it’s two German charities, Treberhilfe and Hatun & Can, being dipped in some boiling water not because of money their executives made, but money they spent. On a Maserati and a Land Rover, to be precise.

When it was discovered that Treberhilfe’s director drives a Maserati company car, Harald Ehlert said that it’s “a car for a gentleman” and that he had to make a good impression on donors. On that latter point, well, he might have a point; as they say in LA, you can’t sell million-dollar homes in a Pontiac. And even the director of the Salvation Army makes nearly $200,000 per year. None of that has quelled the baying, although we do find it intriguing that Ehlert’s 3-year-old car was only discovered because of a court dispute about a speeding ticket.

The leadership at Hatun & Can, a women’s aid group, has not only been called out by donors but is being investigated by the German police for fraud and embezzlement. In this case it is unclear what the financial shenanigans entail, but a Land Rover has been confiscated from the charity’s fleet and the non-profit’s bank accounts have been frozen. If you happen to be the head of an aid group and you’ve had your eye on a 911 for a spell, one word for you: don’t.

[Source: Deutsche Welle]

German charity execs in hot water over luxury car ownership? originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 24 Feb 2010 08:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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