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  • Corvinex Hair Loss Vitamins

    • Corvinex Natural Hair Loss Vitamin
    • Contain all essential ingredients to stop hair loss
    • Prevent thinning hair among men and women
    • prevent receding hair line
    • stop hair loss and promote natural hair regrowth

    Product Description
    Corvinex hair formula is a combination of all natural nutritional supplement, follicle therapy spray, FDA approved 5% minoxidil hair regrowth serum, hair nourishing shampoo and hair thickening conditioner. It is designed specifically for both men and women with thinning hair and hair loss…. More >>

    Corvinex Hair Loss Vitamins

  • Health headlines: Psychotherapy, lung infections and tanning beds

    Tanning bedOther stories we’ve been reading:

    Are kids’ films getting better or worse about safety? New studies say that psychotherapy can help teen girls avoid obesity. Young hunters are more likely to incure treestand injuries.

    You don’t need a large amount of lead to damage kids’ kidneys. Adult’s breathing troubles can start in childhood. There are more lung infections due to kids’ pneumonia vaccines.

    One-fourth of all teen girls have been involved in violence. England wants to keep kids away from tanning beds. Breast feeding could lower your child’s risk of mental health problems.

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  • Hair Loss Treatment – Possible Solutions To Treat Hair Loss

    A certain amount of hair loss is considered to be quite a physiological routine but excessive loss is to be taken into account. Generally, we lose 60-80 hairs a day but more than that can be caused due to eczema, stressful conditions, alopecia, or a change in hormone levels. Hair Loss could be due to taking certain medications or during pregnancy, excess intake alcohol or nicotine or quietly because of tying the hair back too harshly.

    Stress and Hair Loss

    It has been observed that there is a link between stress, anxiety, depression, and hair loss. There are evidences based on clinical trials that suggest that people start to lose hair, anywhere from a few weeks to a few months once they pass through a severe stressful phase in their lives. Naturally, hair loss itself is frustrating so it is always unclear that what came first, a hair loss or stress! As stated by the American Academy of Dermatology, men and women suffering from androgenetic alopecia are more likely to have personality disorders. According to the academy, women suffering from hair loss face a lack of self-esteem, are introspective, feel less tempting, and are stressed in public places.

    Hair Loss Treatment

    The latest researches indicate that like many other health ailments, hair loss is best treated before it turns to a stubborn symptom. For instance, doctors in Asia believe that dandruff and other scalp condition that cuts off the blood supply to hair roots may end up with hair fall. They debate that since the hair root can not breathe or get enough nourishment; the roots of the hair die and ultimately hairs fall out.

    Many health care providers suggest that the earliest form of hair loss treatment is nothing but a professional scalp massage that helps in stimulating the blood vessels of the scalp and helps in keeping the hair follicles efficient enough to grow. Along with this therapy, health care providers also recommend to go for some natural hair care products that can make the scalp healthy. Conditions like eczema or seborrhea are to be treated as soon as possible and treatment must be continued to maintain a healthy scalp since a healthy scalp is less probable to face hair loss.

    Other doctors strongly believe that poor nutrition is the major factor that contributes to hair loss. Hair loss treatment includes people to maintain a healthy diet that helps in promoting healthy hair growth. Health care providers say that diet should be rich in vitamins and iron that promote the blood flow within the scalp. Overall body health is also important to maintain healthy hair. There are also therapies formulated to prevent hair loss and help growing healthy and shiny hair. Herbal topical treatments help to re-grow hair and also to repair the damaged ones.

    The topical hair loss treatment typically includes herbal extracts in the form of oil, gel, cream or even some powder that stimulate the blood vessels present in the scalp and cleanse them ultimately leading to healthy hair. Such products often act on the theory of clogged hair follicles giving raise to hair loss.

    Apart from herbal treatment, hair implantation is also one of the effective hair loss treatments however, as with all surgeries, it may have some pitfalls.

    Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)

  • Keep your car looking fine without toxic chemicals

    Dri Wash n'Guard

                 (Photo: Dri Wash n’Guard)

    EarthTalk is a Q&A column from E/The Environmental Magazine

    Dear EarthTalk: I recently got my car detailed at a local place and then gasped at the chemical fumes when I got inside.

    Are there green detailers out there, or products that I could use myself to keep my vehicle clean and my family out of harm’s way?
    — David Berkowitz, Newton, MA

    Traditionally, auto detailing has employed a range of not-so-green products such as ammonia, volatile organic compounds (VOCs), nonphenolethoxolates (NPEs), abrasive detergents, and chemical-based leather, vinyl, fabric and carpet treatments. Inside the car, they can off-gas harsh airborne pollutants; when washed down storm drains they can wreak havoc on public water supplies.

    Unfortunately, while environmental awareness is beginning to crop up among auto detailing services (online discussion boards are full of posts from professional detailers sharing their tips for greener, more effective products and formulations), finding a green detailing service isn’t very easy just yet, so doing it yourself might be the only way to ensure that the environment and your health are spared chemical insult. There are green detailing products and kits out there, easily found through an Internet search.

    Two leading suppliers are Laura Klein’s Green Cleaning and Mean Green. These companies, among others, specialize in degreasers, dashboard dressings, tire cleaners, spot removers and other products made with natural, biodegradable water- and plant-based substances (including coconut, palm, citrus, corn and soy), combined and concentrated to be as effective as or better than their chemical-laden counterparts.

    Another way to be green and clean at the same time is to choose wash and wax products that don’t contain harsh chemical surfactants — and as such don’t require water-wasting, polluting rinses. No-Wet Waterless Concepts and Optimum Polymer Technologies are two leading manufacturers for such goods. (See more waterless car wash products.)

    Do-it-yourselfers should be careful not to dump wastewater into nearby storm drains not intended to carry toxic run-off. Most reputable car wash businesses go to great lengths to make sure the water, soaps, oils and other dirt from your car doesn’t end up polluting groundwater, rivers and streams, and so should you. If you clean your car in your own driveway or garage, try to collect any run-off and dispose of it into a drain or toilet that will send it through the sewage treatment system, not into the curbside storm run-off drain that may well lead directly to a local water body or shoreline.

    While finding a green detailer may not be easy, you can start by asking those operators in your region if they currently use environmentally friendly products and/or processes. If not, ask them if they would be amenable to greening up their operations for the sake of attracting customers like you.

    Some detailers that have already take the green plunge include: Ecodetail Services of Sacramento, CA; Car Wash Concepts of Aliso Viejo, CA; Gia’s Detailing of Long Island, NY; Scott’s Mobile Auto Detailing of Tarrant County, TX; and Elite Detailing Service Inc. of Plainfield, IL. These providers share an interest in environmental protection, use minimal amounts of water and other resources, and dispose of run-off according to the stringent standards set forth under the federal Clean Water and Clean Air acts.

    GOT AN ENVIRONMENTAL QUESTION? Send it to: EarthTalk, c/o E/The Environmental Magazine, P.O. Box 5098, Westport, CT 06881; submit it here or via e-mail. Read past columns here and check out the recent book Earthtalk: Expert Answers to Everyday Questions about the Environment

    Friend us on Facebook and Follow us on Twitter.

    More from The Daily Green

    Reprinted with permission of Hearst Communications, Inc

  • Apple retaliates: requests US import ban on Nokia phones

    As expected, Apple just responded to Nokia’s ITC request to ban Apple device imports with a US embargo request of its very own. Notice of Apple’s complaint (without any detail) was posted yesterday on the website of the International Trade Commission — a government agency tasked with protecting the US market from unfair trade practices. As you might recall, the whole Nokia v. Apple legal spat started with Nokia suing Apple for infringing upon Nokia patents relating to GSM, UMTS, and WiFi; a claim later expanded to include “implementation patents” covering a wide range of items including camera sensors and touchscreens. While the ITC hasn’t agreed to investigate either Nokia’s or Apple’s complaints, it is customary to do so with investigations usually taking about 15 months to complete. We’ll post more when the details of Apple’s patent infringement complaint are revealed.

    Apple retaliates: requests US import ban on Nokia phones originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 16 Jan 2010 07:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

    Permalink Bloomberg  |  sourceUSITC  | Email this | Comments

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  • Korean Air subsidiary renting out PSP Go consoles for in-flight gaming

    Korean Air subsidiary Jin Air has a new trick up its sleeve for entertaining passengers going to and fro South Korea. The airline is now offering a 16GB PSP Go to rent for in-flight gaming. No clue what games are on the device, but it’s probably the best 4,000 won (about $3.50) you can spend — assuming, that is, there’s more than a sudoku app.

    Korean Air subsidiary renting out PSP Go consoles for in-flight gaming originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 16 Jan 2010 07:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

    Permalink Joystiq  |  sourceSiliconera  | Email this | Comments

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  • Computer Screen Cleaner – great free utility

     

    You probably don’t clean your computer screen very often
    and it is really hard to do the inside,
    so
    here  is my present to you.

    click on the word  “here”  above and wait for a few seconds and the inside of your screen will be cleaned for you!

  • THE PRIESTS OF DOOM SCARING US TO DEATH by Frederick Forsyth, Daily Express

    Article Tags: Frederick Forsyth

    THE doom-and-disaster stories pour upon us from our wintry landscape but it is nice to note that some of the catastrophes never happened.

    What about Mexican swine flu? All right, we are having the usual seasonal winter flu but do you recall the now retiring government chief medical officer Sir Liam Donaldson telling us of the apocalypse that was coming upon us all?

    Sixty five thousand corpses, we were promised. We’d be tripping over them come muck-spreading, he said. We needed a trillion doses of Tamiflu, he said. Visions were unavoidable of handcarts pulled through the streets to the cry of “Bring out your dead”.

    Nostradamus was portrayed as an optimist compared with Sir Liam D. It seems to have gone the way of the Millennium Bug, the computer virus that during the first seconds of 2000 AD would destroy every cyber-gizmo we have and terminate civilisation as we know it. Never happened.

    Source: dailyexpress.co.uk

    Read in full with comments »   


  • Immigration Debate Finds Center In Phoenix

    Immigration Debate Finds Center In Phoenix
    A huge rally will converge in Phoenix on Saturday with activists calling for federal action to address Arizona’s immigration problems. At the center of it all is Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, a man accused of racial profiling in his notorious crusade against undocumented immigrants. Many see Arizona as ground zero in the ongoing national debate over illegal immigration and immigrants’ rights. —JCL USA Today: When activists from around the country rally for immigrants’ rights Saturday, it’s no coincidence that they’ll converge here. Arizona is the flash point of the immigration debate, a place where high levels of illegal immigration have led to state and local restrictions, most recently a law that requires government workers to report illegal immigrants seeking public benefits. Perhaps the most visible figure in Arizona’s immigration politics is Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio. He has won praise and condemnation for having deputies swarm neighborhoods, stopping people in search of criminals and illegal immigrants. His department is under investigation by the Justice Department for allegations of racial profiling and discrimination based on national origin. Read more

    A huge rally will converge in Phoenix on Saturday with activists calling for federal action to address Arizona’s immigration problems. At the center of it all is Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, a man accused of racial profiling in his notorious crusade against undocumented immigrants.

    Many see Arizona as ground zero in the ongoing national debate over illegal immigration and immigrants’ rights. —JCL

    USA Today:

    When activists from around the country rally for immigrants’ rights Saturday, it’s no coincidence that they’ll converge here.

    Arizona is the flash point of the immigration debate, a place where high levels of illegal immigration have led to state and local restrictions, most recently a law that requires government workers to report illegal immigrants seeking public benefits.

    Perhaps the most visible figure in Arizona’s immigration politics is Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio. He has won praise and condemnation for having deputies swarm neighborhoods, stopping people in search of criminals and illegal immigrants.

    His department is under investigation by the Justice Department for allegations of racial profiling and discrimination based on national origin.

    Read more

    Related Entries


    News Minute: Haiti, Health Care, Arenas’ Plea
    In this brief news update, The Associated Press reports about the status of relief efforts in Haiti and the latest in the ongoing saga of health care reform in Washington. In other news from our nation’s capital, Washington Wizards guard Gilbert Arenas pleads guilty to a felony gun charge.

    Haiti report

    In this brief news update, The Associated Press reports about the status of relief efforts in Haiti and the latest in the ongoing saga of health care reform in Washington. In other news from our nation’s capital, Washington Wizards guard Gilbert Arenas pleads guilty to a felony gun charge.

    Related Entries


  • Bil Browning: Indiana State Senate to take action on marriage amendment

    Bil Browning: Indiana State Senate to take action on marriage amendment
    A constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage in Indiana has been re-introduced in the state senate and will be heard in committee next week. Similar…

    John Odum: A Response to my Senator, Bernie Sanders, on Where We Go From Here
    My Senator Bernie Sanders, whom I greatly admire (and even briefly worked for as an organizer during the 1996 campaign), has asked Huffington Post readers…

    Civilian Casualties Soar; Key Afghan Metric Headed In Wrong Direction
    Civilian deaths in Afghanistan climbed in 2009 to their highest number since the fall of the Taliban, the United Nations says in a recent report….

    Scott Brown Engaged In Culture Wars As Mass Pol
    Years before he became a state senator — and many years before he became a fast-rising Republican candidate for United States Senate — Scott Brown…

    Billy Hallowell: Hollywood’s Oxymoronic Definition of ‘Liberal Tolerance’
    Why can’t people like Perez Hilton, Cher, and Madonna simply be good liberals and accept — as their self-professed doctrine would ask them to — that Americans have unique perspectives and life experiences?

  • Fox Nation, Hoft falsely claim Coakley said “Catholics” shouldn’t work “in emergency rooms”

    Fox Nation, Hoft falsely claim Coakley said “Catholics” shouldn’t work “in emergency rooms”

    Fox Nation and Gateway Pundit blogger Jim Hoft have seized on comments made by Democratic Massachusetts Senate candidate Martha Coakley during a January 14 radio interview to falsely claim that Coakley said “devout Catholics” should not “work in emergency rooms.” In fact, as the context of Coakley’s remarks makes clear, she was discussing individuals who would refuse to provide certain emergency medical procedures and treatments — including emergency contraception — to patients on the grounds of their religious beliefs, not all “devout Catholics.”

    Fox Nation, Hoft falsely declared Coakley said Catholics “shouldn’t work in the emergency room”

    Gateway Pundit, Big Government posts: “Martha Coakley: Devout Catholics ‘Probably Shouldn’t Work in the Emergency Room.’ ” In a January 14 Gateway Pundit blog post, Hoft reported that “Democrat Martha Coakley was on with Ken Pittman from WBSM in Massachusetts today. Martha told Ken that if you object to abortion and are a devout Catholic then…You probably shouldn’t work in the emergency room.” Hoft declared these remarks to be a “game-changer” in the Massachusetts Senate race. Hoft reposted this blog post on BigGovernment.com.

    Fox Nation: “Coakley: Catholics Shouldn’t Work in the ER.” On January 15, Fox Nation linked to Hoft’s Gateway Pundit post. From Fox Nation:

    fn_coakley

    In fact, Coakley discussed those who would refuse to provide medical treatment – including emergency contraception — on religious grounds

    Coakley referred to those who would “deny emergency contraception to a woman who came in who had been raped.” In the interview, WBSM’s Ken Pittman asked Coakley, who reportedly is Catholic, if she would “pass a health care bill that had conscientious objecter toward certain procedures, including abortion.” Coakley stated that she didn’t “believe that would be included in the health care bill,” and that she would oppose legislation that “say[s] that if people believed that they don’t want to provide services that are required under the law and under Roe vs. Wade that they can individually decide to not follow the law.” Referencing her Republican opponent, Coakley added: “And let’s be clear, because Scott Brown filed an amendment to a bill in Massachusetts that would say that hospital and emergency room personnel could deny emergency contraception to a woman who came in who had been raped.” Coakley’s statement prompted the following exchange with Pittman:

    PITTMAN: Right, if you are a Catholic, and you believe what the Pope teaches, you know, that any form of birth control is a sin. And you don’t want to do that, that –

    COAKLEY: No, but we have a seperation of church and state here, Ken, let’s be clear.

    PITTMAN: Yeah, but in the emergency room you still have your religious freedom.

    COAKLEY: The law says that people are allowed to have that. And so, then, if you — you can have religious freedom, you probably shouldn’t work in the emergency room.

    PITTMAN: Wow. OK, so if you have religious conviction, stay out of the emergency room.

    COAKLEY: Well, no, I’m not — look, you’re — you’re the one who brought the question up. I don’t believe that the law allows for that, and I know that we accommodate all kinds of differences all the time. I think Roe vs. Wade has made it clear that women have a right to choose, and in Massachusetts, particularly if someone has been the victim of a rape, an assault, and she goes to an emergency room to get contraception, someone else should say, “Oh, no, I don’t believe in this, so I’m going to affect your constitutional rights?”

    PITTMAN: I agree that you’ve gotta have some balance there.

    Hoft did not include transcript for the portions of the exchange in which Coakley made clear she was discussing those who would deny certain treatments — including emergency contraception — to patients because of their religious beliefs.

  • Tea Party Convention Organizer Used ‘Our Passion For The Movement To Build His Start-Up’

    Tea Party Convention Organizer Used ‘Our Passion For The Movement To Build His Start-Up’
    The organizer of the National Tea Party Convention used conservative activists’ willingness to work on behalf of the Tea Party cause in his bid to launch a money-making enterprise, according to one fellow Tea Partier.


    Presented By:

  • Era uma vez na América nos anos 30 …


    As fotos desta apresentação, são fotos reais. Algumas delas são históricas e foram realizadas por Charles C. Ebbets no princípio dos anos 30.
    Correspondem a cenas quotidianas de trabalhadores que participaram na construção de arranha-céus entre 1920 e 1935.
    Como poderão ver, as medidas de segurança não existiam e as fotos serviram para denunciar esta situação.

    A primeira fotografia foi uma das mais vendidas no mundo.
    Foi tirada em Nova York, no 69.º andar do edificio GE do Rockefeller Center, em 29 de Setembro de 1932 e publicada no New York Herald Tribune no suplemento dominical de 2 de Outubro.

    FOTO 1

    FOTO 2 – Este é Charles C. Ebbets durante a realização de algumas destas fotografías.

    FOTO 3

    FOTO 4

    FOTO 5

    FOTO 6

    FOTO 7

    FOTO 8

    FOTO 9

    FOTO 10

    FOTO 11

    FOTO 12

    FOTO 13

    FOTO 14

    FOTO 15

    FOTO 16

    Até dá um friozinho no estômago…rs

    Muitas destas fotos fazem parte do arquivo fundado por Otto Bettmann en 1936.
    Uma colecção de muitos milhões de fotografias, que actualmente pertence à companhia Corbis, propriedade de Bill Gates.

  • Cashew Loaf( Nut – Cashew )

    Daily Random Recipe

    INGREDIENTS:

      • 2 cups raw cashews
      • 4 slices whole wheat bread
      • 2 T soy sauce
      • 2 T parsley
      • 2 large onions
      • 1/2 t celery seeds
      • 1 t salt
      • 2 cups soy milk

    METHOD:
    Grind cashews and bread. Pour milk, mix well. Cook in oiled pan at
    350F/180C for 40 minutes.

  • Solar Power Is Now an Option for Even the Most Cash-Strapped Suburbanites

    Solar Power Is Now an Option for Even the Most Cash-Strapped Suburbanites
    Residential solar leases offer a no-money-down, low-monthly plan that makes solar electricity cheaper than the stuff we get by wire — and you don’t have to buy the panels.

    Residential solar leases offer a no-money-down, low-monthly plan that makes solar electricity cheaper than the stuff we get by wire — and you don't have to buy the panels.

    Regime Change in Iran? Don’t Bet on It … Yet
    Many Westerners believe the dramatic images of protesters in Iran fearlessly facing the govt.’s brutal crowd control are a preamble to revolution, but we’re a long way off.

    Many Westerners believe the dramatic images of protesters in Iran fearlessly facing the govt.'s brutal crowd control are a preamble to revolution, but we're a long way off.

    Why It’s So Tricky for Atheists to Debate with Believers
    Debates over faith often leave non-believers holding the bag: look like a jerk or leave the debate unfinished and apparently concede defeat.

    Debates over faith often leave non-believers holding the bag: look like a jerk or leave the debate unfinished and apparently concede defeat.

  • The Garrett, Watts Report (Jan. 15, 2010)

     

    garrett-watts1

     

    To Our Clients, Colleagues and Friends, 

    • Are mortgage bankers getting smarter about compensation? We’re finally seeing some pushback on the outrageous commission splits we used to see, and 90-10 splits seem to be going the way of the dinosaur.  We’re also seeing salaries in general adjusting downward compared to 2005-06.
    • Four years ago, we saw Ops managers at $150,000 a year.  We saw that drop to $90,000 as the mortgage world started collapsing in 2007 and then watched it fall even lower in 2008.  It’s coming back, but it’s still a long way from the peak a few years ago.
    • A hero has died, Miep Gies passing away last week at age 100.   She was the woman who hid Anne Frank and her family in her Amsterdam apartment during the Nazi occupation.  If we could name some sort of award to people who act who display great courage, we’d call it the Miep Gies Award.
    • With Mark McGwire admitting the obvious about his steroid use, it’s time to remember the true record holder for the most home runs in one season.  Roger Maris hit 61 home runs in 1961, passing Babe Ruth by one. Yes, we know he played in a longer season, but the asterisk next to his record is long gone.  The movie about him (*61)  is worth renting.

      j1

    The middle photo of McGwire was when he was right out of college, and we remember him vividly as a tall, lanky, scrawny 1st baseman for the Oakland A’s.  The third photo is when scrawny Mark started doing his Arnold Schwarzenegger imitation.  At least Arnold admitted his steroid use from the start.

    • We got a few e-mails about our thumbs down on Up in the Air, and watching George Clooney travel from city to city made us think of Willie Loman.  How can you be in the housing finance business and not think about Death of a Salesman?  Willie Loman’s last act before taking his life was making the final payment on his mortgage, and the man who spent a lifetime in search of the American Dream finally achieved a piece of that dream by owning his home free and clear.  In fact, his wife’s last words at the gravesite were “Willie, why did you do it?  We’re free and clear, Willie, free and clear.” A few parts of the play feel dated (it was written 61 years ago) but it’s still a timeless piece of literature.  And isn’t it interesting that paying off one’s mortgage was once such a big party of the American Dream?
    • We hate to be cynical, but sometimes we think people view the American Dream as getting a cash-out refinance at 4.5%.
    • Look up the performance of AmeriCredit’s sub-prime auto loan portfolio.  Their 30 day delinquencies were 9.3% in December and their 61+ day lates were only 3.09%.  That looks pretty good compared to subprime mortgages, doesn’t it?  Wouldn’t you think subprime auto loans would be a bigger disaster than subprime residential? But think about all the gardeners and contractors who depend on their Toyota pick-ups to carry their tools when they go to work.  The theory is that you can always sleep in your truck, but you can’t drive your house to work.
    • Although it was filmed fifty years ago, Splendor in the Grass may still be the most poignant story of young love ever made. Here’s the final segment of that movie, and if you haven’t seen it, this just might inspire you to rent the movie:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ylal5gfj_kY&feature=related.  Watch it with your wife or husband or date.  Shocking as it might sounds, you could even take your spouse asyour date.
    • We meet a lot of bank Presidents, and they always impress the heck out of us. When things are going well, it’s the most fun job in the world, but in tough times like these, it’s probably the toughest job in the world.  If we really did get to pass out Miep Gies Awards for sheer courage, we’d give them to all the bank Presidents we know.
    • We’ve done a fair amount of Due Diligence for banks acquiring mortgage banking companies lately, and if you’re a bank which is thinking about buying one, check out page nine of the January 15th American Banker.  They ran an article we wrote on the things banks must look at prior to an acquisition.  One example is that lots of banks want to project earnings once their capital allows the mortgage company to really grow its volume.  That’s fine, but we like to show the acquiring bank what things will look like if margins drop by 30% and volume drops by 50%.
    • We’ve said it many, many times, but we still think most of the regulators’ criticism of brokered deposits is misplaced.  They seem to think that brokered deposits cause management to make bad loans, but it’s really the opposite.  Banks that make bad loans tend to use brokered deposits. The bad loans come first. And let’s remember that correlation is not causation.  Crack down on bad loans, not brokered deposits.
    • Speaking of banks, we were just at NexBank in Dallas , and our hotel was in nearby Frisco.  If you’re from San Francisco , that will make you laugh because we consider it really bad form to call our fair city Frisco. San Francisco has had a long tradition of eccentrics, and one of the biggest was Joshua A. Norton.  He made a fortune in the Gold Rush but lost it all through speculation, and when he lost his money, he also lost his mind. He declared himself Norton I, Emperor of the United States and Protector of Mexico , wore a Royal uniform, and made various declarations. One was that he declared it illegal to refer to San Francisco as Frisco, and he wandered the streets handing out citations to people who referred to it is as such.
      j1
      He convinced the papers to print his various declarations, a list of which is attached. While everyone knew he was crazy, people loved him.  Restaurants gave him free meals, hotels gave him free rooms, and when he died, 10,000 San Franciscans turned out for his funeral. 
    • We have a ton of coffee mugs given us by banks we’ve done work for, and here are a few comments:  We normally don’t like light lettering on dark backgrounds, but the Liberty Bank mug is okay,  The lettering is big enough to make it work. We love the look and feel of Farmers National Bank (“celebrating 100 years”), but the gold lettering doesn’t stand our enough.  First Security Bank has bold lettering that jumps out at you.  Nice.  The Goldman Sachs one is boring, and we’re surprised they even have them.  We love Alta Alliance Bank and think the world of their management, but guys, the gold lettering on the green cup is almost invisible.  Our favorite is the Golf Savings mug.  We like the shape, the size, and the clarity of the name. We realize that how your coffee mug looks isn’t quite as important as your CAMELS rating, but hey, it’s a lot easier to your coffee mugs look cool than to get your CAMELS rating down to a two.
    • Can you believe we write about bank coffee mugs? Or even think about them?
    • Are you really bored? We have an idea for you.  Collect coffee mugs and giveaways from banks and thrifts that no longer exist. Great Western, Home Savings, American Savings, Homeowners, Dime, Imperial, Gibraltar , State Savings, Lincoln, Citizens.  You could display them on a website, and in the background, you’d have someone singing Where have all the flowers gone, but you’d change it to Where have all the S&L’s gone….
    • Wouldn’t you agree that mortgage banking is a commodity business?  Everyone does the same types of loans (GSE and FHA), everyone sells to the same investors (BofA, Chase, Wells, and directly or indirectly, FNMA and Freddie Mac), and everyone uses the same underwriting standards.  Why, then, is there such a disparity in profitability.  We see top performers making 100+ bps per loan, and we see companies struggling to make 10 bps. Why? There’s no Secret Sauce, so why?
      In the past year, the  biggest cause of under-performance we’ve seen has been leakage.  If you build in a profit of, say, 125 bps on a loan, you should be realizing 125 bps. The most profitable companies have almost no leakage.  The strugglers always do.
      Take Bill & Ted’s Excellent Mortgage Company and let’s compare it to Bob & Tom’s Horrible Mortgage Company.  Both are in the same city . Both are retail originators.  Both pay the same commissions. Both originate FHA loans.  Both sell their loans to BofA and Wells.  Both use DataTrac.  Both use Optimal Blue as a pricing engine.  Both build in the same profit margin.  But Bill and Ted net 120 bps on each loan and Bob & Tom net 20 bps.  We see this all the time, and the reason for the disparity in profitability is leakage.  The Horrible Mortgage Co. is just not realizing on their loan sales the margin they built in. There are a finite number of reasons for this leakage, and we don’t have room to go into them here.  But if there’s one thing you should look at if you’re uncertain why you’re not doing better, look at the gain-on-sale you build in and compare it to the gain-on-sale you actually realize.
      Maybe there needs to be a Leakers Anonymous.  “Hi, my name is Bob and I suffer from leakage.”   Actually, the good news is that you don’t need 12 steps to get better.  But you do need to see what your numbers are. Once you do that, the rest is pretty straightforward.

    Richard Nixon’s 97th birthday just came and went with nobody noticing, and won’t it be interesting to see how history views him 50 years from now?  If Martin Luther King were alive today,  he’d be 81, and it seems that with every passing year, his message of love and tolerance looms ever larger.

    Garrett, Watts & Co.

    “Helping mortgage lenders increase revenues, control costs, and better manage risk.”

    Joe Garrett   (510-469-8633)

    Corky Watts   (408-395-5504)
    Mike McAuley    (281-250-2536)

  • Rep. Van Hollen to President Obama: We can create jobs right now by establishing a Green Bank

    Rep. Van Hollen to President Obama: We can create jobs right now by establishing a Green Bank
    Yesterday Congressman Chris Van Hollen wrote President Obama asking that he put the Green Bank in the State of the Union and in the jobs bill. This move by the head of the DCCC signifies a shift in the politics…



    Chris Van HollenDemocratic Congressional Campaign CommitteePoliticsVan HollenBarack Obama

    The Last Big Question: Will Health Care Reform Be Paid For By The Rich or the Middle Class?
    There’s only one big remaining issue on health care reform: how to pay for it. The House wants a 5.4 percent surtax on couples earning at least $1 million in annual income. The Senate wants a 40 percent excise tax…


    Health careSenateExciseUnited States SenateHealth

    Democrats Should Tax The Hell Out Of the Upcoming Wall Street Bonuses
    This is from today’s New York Times. “Industry executives acknowledge that the numbers being tossed around — six-, seven- and even eight-figure sums for some chief executives and top producers — will probably stun the many Americans still hurting from…


    New York TimesWall StreetUnited StatesChief executive officerGoldman Sachs

  • Beck: Obama is ?dividing the nation? by reacting ‘so rapidly to Haiti.?

    Beck: Obama is ?dividing the nation? by reacting ‘so rapidly to Haiti.?
    Right wing radio talker Rush Limbaugh has received considerable criticism for politicizing the earthquake in Haiti this week with a series of inflammatory remarks attacking President Obama. Limbaugh said the White House thinks it can use the disaster to boost its credibility with the “light-skinned and dark-skinned black community” in the U.S. Defending his comments, […]

    Right wing radio talker Rush Limbaugh has received considerable criticism for politicizing the earthquake in Haiti this week with a series of inflammatory remarks attacking President Obama. Limbaugh said the White House thinks it can use the disaster to boost its credibility with the “light-skinned and dark-skinned black community” in the U.S. Defending his comments, Limbaugh attacked Obama for speaking publicly about Haiti sooner than he had the failed Christmas Day terror attack. Today on his radio show, Fox News host Glenn Beck jumped on the bandwagon:

    BECK: I also believe this is dividing the nation…to where the nation sees him react so rapidly on Haiti and yet he couldn’t react rapidly on Afghanistan. He couldn’t react rapidly on Ft. Hood. He couldn’t react rapidly on our own airplanes with an underwear bomber…it doesn’t make sense. […] Three different events and Haiti is the only one. I think personally that it deepens he divide to see him react this rapidly to Haiti.

    Listen here:

    Yet Beck’s premise is fautly. Polling shows that majorities of Americans approved of Obama’s handling of the Christmas Day plot and that it didn’t divide the country. But also, even conservatives Bill O’Reilly and Laura Ingraham took issue with the Limbaugh-Beck attack. “It’s good that he reacts quickly to Haiti,” O’Reilly said last night on Fox News, later asking Ingraham, “You have no problem with his quick response to Haiti?” “Yeah, no,” she replied.

  • Democrats seek quick deal on health-care bill

    Democrats seek quick deal on health-care bill
    President Obama and congressional leaders raced Friday to strike a compromise on far-reaching health legislation, hoping to settle lingering disputes before Tuesday, when a special election in Massachusetts could hand Republicans their 41st vote in the Senate and the power to defeat Obama’s top…

    Administration to allow Haitians in U.S. illegally to stay for 18 months
    The Obama administration will allow 100,000 to 200,000 Haitians living in the United States illegally to stay for 18 months because of Tuesday’s earthquake but warned that Haitians who are newly caught trying to enter the country will be deported.

    Democrats scramble in Massachusetts to retain Ted Kennedy’s old Senate seat
    BOSTON — Shaken by polls showing Republican Scott Brown surging in the Senate race that could decide the fate of President Obama’s agenda, Democrats on Friday scrambled to shore up the battered candidacy of Martha Coakley, the state attorney general whose once-commanding lead appeared to vanish in…

    Justices to hear case on disclosure of names on a petition
    The Supreme Court on Friday intervened for the second time this week in a question of whether those who oppose expanding gay rights face threats and harassment by public disclosure of their views.