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It's not exactly clear what this is or why it's been sitting in the draft folder for the last week, but now seemed to be as good a time as any to throw it up.
On the same day that company officials mounted a defense of their handling of Toyotas' acceleration problems, a Prius in San Diego has to be corralled by a California Highway Patrol officer, the driver clearly petrified and just thankful to have survived.
It's hard to believe that, less than five years ago at the annual Federal Reserve gathering in Jackson Hole, Wyoming as the U.S. housing bubble was fully inflated and seeking out a pin, former Fed chief Alan Greenspan was lauded as the "greatest central banker ever".
Today, according to this story in the Wall Street Journal, some people are hiding portraits that they paid outlandish prices for under their beds or in the back of closets.
Fortunately, despite being largely responsible for two burst asset bubbles over the last ten years that have ruined the retirement plans (if not the lives) of millions of Americans, at least one person has benefited from the Greenspan term at the Fed - artist Erin Crowe who sold an entire series of these paintings for thousands of dollars apiece.
There are lots more details in the WSJ report:In the years before the 2008 financial crisis, Wall Street and Mr. Greenspan's reputation boomed in tandem, and an obscure young artist, Ms. Crowe, gained notice for her distinctive oil portraits of the Fed chairman, now 83 years old. Working from photographs she found online and in newspapers and magazines, Ms. Crowe produced colorful, whimsical canvasses that highlighted Mr. Greenspan's wrinkled forehead, pursed lips, droopy ears, hand gestures and oversize glasses.
The potential good news in all of this, expressed by Mr. Schirmer above, is that the portraits are likely to increase in value after Alan Greenspan passes on.
A gallery in the Hamptons that exhibited her paintings in the summer of 2005 sold every one within a couple of days, recalls Sally Breen, who organized the show with Rebecca Cooper. She had a second Greenspan show in downtown Manhattan. Ms. Crowe says she produced upwards of 50 canvasses of Mr. Greenspan. All were snapped up, some for as much as $5,000 to $10,000, she says.
As her popularity grew, Ms. Crowe flew business class to Hong Kong, where she painted portraits of leading financial figures, including Hong Kong's chief executive and the head of its Monetary Authority. She realized that she'd found her niche: painting financial gurus. The future looked dazzling.
She painted one of the portraits on live television when Mr. Greenspan retired. It fetched $150,400 for charity in an online auction.
Now, the man who bought that painting, Tampa Bay-area businessman Matthew Schirmer, says he keeps it under his bed.
General Motors' sale of the Hummer line of SUVs to Chinese machinery maker Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machinery last year is still awaiting approval by the Chinese government, but, word that the H3 qualifies for Japan's "Cash for Clunkers" program might speed the process up a bit. This New York Times story has all the details:
Japanese drivers spooked by the recent Toyota and Prius recalls might consider another vehicle certified as “ecologically friendly” under Japan’s expanded cash-for-clunkers program: the Hummer H3.Apparently, getting 16 miles per gallon qualifies for the incentive program in Japan if the vehicle's weight is high enough, plus, there seems to be something of a cult following for Hummers in a nation where the roads aren't wide enough for some models.Starting this week, Japanese buyers of the hulking power machines from General Motors — which come with a 5.3-liter, 300 horsepower engine and roar to 60 miles per hour in eight seconds — receive a 250,000 yen ($2,780) subsidy under Japan’s new, looser fuel-efficiency standards for imported cars.
Politics is not a topic that normally garners much attention around here (your humble scribe considers himself to be apolitical, not so much for lack of "interest" - which veers more toward the type of interest you have when you slow down for a traffic accident - but for the dearth of "involvement"), but there is a rather important election going on today in the state of Massachusetts where millions of voters are having their say and the nation's political discourse does appear to be taking a turn for the worse (if that's possible).
The world's tallest building is now open for business in Dubai amid uncertain economic and financial conditions following last year's little debt servicing problem at Dubai World where the government-owned investment company had to be bailed out by Abu Dhabi.
The 160-story structure dwarfs every other skyscraper in the world, so much so that they've taking to calling the Burj Dubai a "super-scraper".
Get ready to be inundated by year-end and decade-end reports and retrospectives about Tiger Woods. His timing probably couldn't have been worse, news of his dalliances breaking about a month ago making them not too recent to cause them not to be fully understood, yet still fresh enough for everyone to immediately recall when reflecting on the past.
In this LiveScience story, they look at the impact on the share prices of his former sponsors:
Leading sponsors were (or still are) Accenture, American Express, AT&T, Electronic Arts, Gillette, Nike, Gatorade, TLC Laser Eye Centers, and Golf Digest with share prices for Electronic Arts (via their Tiger Woods PGA Tour Golf game), Gatorade, and Nike reportedly faring the worst.A new study — not yet published in a journal — finds the market value lost to companies that had the golfer as a sponsor is already as high as $12 billion.
The estimate is separate from whatever money Woods himself may lose as a result of his missteps. The golfer was thought to make about $100 million a year in endorsement income.
"Total shareholder losses may exceed several decades' worth of Tiger Woods' personal endorsement income," said Victor Stango, a professor of economics at the University of California, Davis and co-author of the study.
The Daily Show's Jon Stewart takes a close look at the numbers behind a global warming poll presented on Fox News and suspects the data might be manipulated in some way.
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| Gretchen Carlson Dumbs Down | ||||
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Michelle Obama may be taking a closer look at the President's past and future travel itinerary after seeing the cover of the current issue of Golf Digest (as reported at Yahoo! Sports).
I must say, I'm a bit disappointed that the Nike slogan "Just Do It" isn't getting more play with the recent (and still expanding, apparently) Tiger Woods excitement. US Magazine reports that Mr. and Mrs. Woods are now undergoing intense marriage counseling.
This came in the mail the other day and it gave me quite a chuckle.
Yesterday I was at my local COSTCO buying a large bag of Purina dog chow for my loyal pet, Biscuit, the Wonder Dog and was in the checkout line when woman behind me asked if I had a dog.For some reason this it reminds me of that story where a guy receiving unsolicited sales phone calls decides to turn the tables by telling the caller that he's a detective at a homicide and the caller is now a material witness (here's a link).What did she think I had, an elephant? So since I'm retired and have little to do, on impulse I told her that no, I didn't have a dog, I was starting the Purina Diet again. I added that I probably shouldn't, because I ended up in the hospital last time, but that I'd lost 50 pounds before I awakened in an intensive care ward with tubes coming out of most of my orifices and IVs in both arms.
I told her that it was essentially a perfect diet and that the way that it works is to load your pants pockets with Purina nuggets and simply eat one or two every time you feel hungry. The food is nutritionally complete so it works well and I was going to try it again.
(I have to mention here that practically everyone in line was now enthralled with my story.)Horrified, she asked if I ended up in intensive care because the dog food poisoned me. I told her no, I stepped off a curb to sniff an Irish Setter's ass and a car hit us both.
I thought the guy behind her was going to have a heart attack he was laughing so hard.
Costco won't let me shop there anymore.
Better watch what you ask retired people. They have all the time in the world to think of crazy things to say.
It would have been a wonderful idea to have this "BubbleMania" exhibit made available at the Federal Reserve's annual confab in Jackson Hole, Wyoming last weekend.
Maybe next year...
In looking for any recently posted videos at YouTube featuring Marc Faber (otherwise known as Dr. Doom), much to my surprise, this is what showed up atop the search results:
Whilst I continue to pore over the GDP data, check out TARP wife Liz Peek's latest thoughts about Wall Street bonuses as published at the Huffington Post yesterday.
As Chris Dodd and his cronies have massed on the ridge, prepared to mow down the reckless "culture of greed" that got us into this recession mess, few have ventured to champion the industry that increasingly fed the coffers of New York. Privately, though, those responsible for keeping the lights burning on Fifth Avenue and for shoveling up after the mounted police have watched in horror at the meltdown of investment banking profitability. Consider that fully 20% of New York State tax revenues and 12% of the city's income stemmed from the securities industry. Governor Paterson has noted that Wall Street has "bailed us out for a number of years" while state legislators spent beyond their means. Baldly put, New York thrives on a healthy Wall Street.It is as if "this is the way it has always been, and this is the way that it shall always be".Not only are banking profits essential to the well being of New York, those pesky bonuses play a vital role as well. Wall Street payouts peaked at more than $30 billion in 2006, generating billions in revenues for New York, New Jersey and - yes! - even Chris Dodd's home state of Connecticut. Not only did those banking employees trundle home with mountains of bacon, but they were joined by legions of hedge fund and private equity types who also cashed in big time in recent years. Last year's drop in banking bonuses cost New York State almost $1 billion in tax revenues, while the city saw $275 million go up in smoke.
This CarsDirect email arrived within an hour of reports first circulating about the Cash for Clunkers program being suspended, which, according to this USA Today story is now official.
It started a week ago? Cool! Where do I sign up?
Spotted over at MissTrade via Manolith, where they ask, "You know how watching a bunch of babies on roller skates makes you thirsty? No? Okay, weirdo."
Bloomberg reports on the consensus amongst traders and investors that the price of natural gas has nowhere to go but up, yet it keeps going down ... a lot.
The United States Natural Gas Fund expanded today to the largest position in its 27-month history as investors snapped up the last of its shares and it awaited government approval to issue more units.One of the interview subjects for the story noted that the total value of the futures contracts holdings for the United States Natural Gas Fund (NYSEArca:UNG) are now so large that they are creating distortions in the market. Duh...
As of early today, the exchange-traded fund owned the equivalent of 124,926 natural gas futures contracts on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The number of shares outstanding reached a record yesterday, rising 14.5 percent to 322.3 million, more than 10 times the total at the start of the year, and worth $3.97 billion.
The fund’s natural gas position, spread across swaps and futures on the Nymex and the ICE over-the counter-market, equals the equivalent of 86 percent of the open interest in natural gas futures on the NYMEX.
“Clearly, this has become an extraordinarily attractive investment,” said Dave Nadig, an associate editor at IndexUniverse.com, in Decatur, Georgia. “There’s a lot of speculation among people like us who are wondering who is in this.”
The ETF can’t grow further for now because yesterday it ran out of new shares to issue. The ETF asked the Securities Exchange Commission on June 5 for permission to create 1 billion new shares, and is awaiting approval.
The model portfolio at Iacono Research had a small position in this ETF last year - bought it at around $45, watched it go up to over $60, and then sold it at around $25 late in the year.There is something that is just not right about the idea of GM's beleaguered Hummer brand being bought by a Chinese company. Of course, it looks like thousands of American jobs will be saved in the process and the sale will help the giant U.S. automaker "reinvent" itself, but it seems like a big step backward for the fastest growing economy in the world.
As longtime readers know, this blog had something of an obsession with the giant SUVs back at the peak of the housing boom as chronicled in the late-2005 Hummer Overfloweth and others have expressed even more extreme views about what the brand really represents.
So, it's not surprising that many others are scratching their head about the whole "Hummer goes to China" story and the sudden appearance on the world stage of Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machinery, the soon-to-be new owner.
This report in Time doesn't seem to answer many questions:Analysts say the brand's future lies in either slimmed-down SUVs or large special-purpose vehicles not unlike the military-troop carriers that formed Hummer's roots.
The LA Times has no better insight into the purchase:
In the first public statement from Hummer's Chinese bidder, Yang Yi, CEO of Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machinery, said his company "will be investing in the Hummer brand and its research and development capabilities, which will allow Hummer to better meet demand for new products such as more fuel-efficient vehicles in the U.S."The new owners are planning to push sales of the gargantuan vehicle here, where it is already a status symbol for China's newly rich.
The idea of China becoming the next global super-power has somehow changed in a very fundamental way - and not for the better.
The brand "is synonymous with adventure, freedom and exhilaration, and we plan to continue that heritage," said Yang Yi, chief executive of Tengzhong.
But for others, the Hummer is a bad omen, the epitome of American excess before soaring gas prices and the housing collapse humbled the nation's psyche. As with H1N1 flu, they hope it isn't catching.
"To me, the car makes me think about the generation born in the 1980s that only believes in hedonism and shows us the bad consequences of consumerism," said Zhou Xiao Zheng, a sociologist at Beijing's Renmin University. "I dearly wish we only adopted the good things from the U.S. and not the bad things."
It's too late for that.
If only it were as easy for others to find purpose in their life as it is for Winter in this Wall Street Journal story about a man whose quest to visit every Starbucks in the world is facing unforeseen challenges as the global economic slowdown causes stores to be shuttered.
The freelance software programmer, 37 years old, calls himself Winter. He was on a job in Wisconsin last month when he learned that a Starbucks in Prince George, British Columbia, would close the next day. He spent $1,400 to jet there for a cup of coffee -- sugar, no cream -- and a photograph.Maybe Winter should seek an expert opinion on his own tendencies, what some medical professionals might go so far as calling disorders, rather than trusting his own diagnosis.
"If the store closed before I visited, I would lose another piece of my soul," Winter says.
He has been to more than 9,000 Starbucks stores in the U.S., Japan, Lebanon, Turkey and 13 other countries in the past dozen years, a trek chronicled on his Web site, starbuckseverywhere.net. He gained some notoriety mid-decade, when he was the subject of media reports and a documentary film, "Starbucking." He has "mildly obsessive-compulsive tendencies," he concedes, and a "mild addiction" to coffee.
When he's not on the road working on software contract jobs, playing in Scrabble tournaments or visiting Starbucks, he lives with his parents in Houston, where he stores his collection of 10,000 super-hero comic books.It gets even creepier from there - I chose to stop reading. Continue if you dare.
He changed his name because he didn't want his credit history confused with his father's. (His dad's credit history is fine, Winter says.) His mother, Georgina Lozano, says she and her husband refuse to call their son "Winter" and pray he will halt his Starbucks mission. "My husband and I feel it's a waste of time," she says.
At the Wisconsin pharmacy-equipment supplier where Winter has worked for several months, his supervisor, Don Rich, says he finds the hobby amusing. To a point. "When he does something for you on a Friday and then flees the state, it makes it kind of hard," he says. "You can't call him in on a Saturday to fix something."
Former Lehman Brothers CEO Dick Fuld has put his Park Avenue apartment up for sale at a price 50 percent higher than when it was purchased two years ago.
Lehman Brothers’ fall helped pop the Manhattan real estate bubble for good. But Richard Fuld, the investment bank’s former chief executive, is looking for a handsome profit on the co-op that he bought for $21 million in January 2007, according to a report in The New York Observer.Is the new gilded age really coming to an end, or is this just a setback? Read more...
Mr. Fuld and his wife, Kathleen, are quietly listing the 6,200 square-foot apartment for $32 million, according to the Observer. Despite the big mark-up, one broker estimated that the apartment was in need of $10 million in repairs when the Fulds purchased it more than two years ago.
The Park Avenue apartment, which includes four servants’ rooms and five fireplaces, hasn’t been listed and is instead being quietly marketed, the Observer reporst. The listing, which comes less than a year after Mr. Fuld left Lehman without any severance pay, doesn’t come as a big shock in Manhattan real estate circles. “Everybody knows it, everybody’s just waiting for it to come on,” one broker told the Observer. “It’s not brain surgery.”
Mr. Fuld transferred a waterfront mansion on Florida’s Jupiter Island to his wife in January, prompting speculation that Mr. Fuld was worried about investor lawsuits. The couple hasn’t listed its Connecticut, Vermont and Idaho homes, according to the Observer.
I must be missing something here - this MarketWatch report looks like something that would appear at the nation's finest news source, The Onion. This Wikipedia entry may help explain.
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