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P.S. It's ON tomorrow ladies...get to the Christmasy crafting!!
P.S.S.S.S. I got my necklace from Glitter and Bliss yesterday and it is GORG! Go check her out!
Nikon Coolpix P6000 reviewed, not all that cool
(Via Engadget.)
Nikon Coolpix P6000 reviewed, not all that cool
(Via Engadget.)
(new from Wacom!) Economy for everyone.
With a camera becoming a necessity on all mobile phones today, it only makes sense that the quality of them is being improved all the time.SAN DIEGO, Oct 29 (Reuters) - The pension fund of San Diego, California, may have lost as much as $1 billion of its $5 billion in assets recently, potentially adding to the financial challenges weighing on the state's second-largest city.Colorado PERA Fund
According to San Diego City Attorney Michael Aguirre, San Diego's city pension fund for nearly 20,000 active and retired employees has lost at least $700 million between Dec. 30, 2007, and Sept. 30 -- before the worst of the stock market's recent crash.
The largest pension fund for state and local public employees lost $10 billion in market value through mid-October, raising the specter of higher contribution rates or lower benefits in coming years if markets don't improve rapidly.Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund
Colorado PERA, which covers 413,000 employees and retirees, saw its assets plummet from $41 billion at the beginning of the year to $31 billion on Oct. 15.
Illinois taxpayers may soon be called on to bail out what is arguably the best-funded public pension plan in the state thanks to $3.6 billion in fund losses caused by the spiraling economy.Pension Crisis Looming In Canada
IMRF began 2008 with one dollar in the fund for every dollar promised to present and future retirees in the system. By the end of September, it only had 79 cents for every dollar promised. IMRF has no rainy day fund to recoup losses. Thus, more tax dollars are needed. The questions are how much and when.
The end of December represents a massive, looming crisis for some Canadian companies this year. Companies due to have new valuations at the end of this year are at risk of having to fund their pension plans based on severely deflated stock prices, triggering large cash contributions at a time of tight credit, even if markets recover in 2009, industry analysts say.Los Angeles County public-employee pensions
In the current economic climate, there is a need for governments to look at pension funding rules � a move Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said yesterday Ottawa is considering.
One option would be to give companies more time to fund pension shortfalls. Under current rules, they generally have five years. Some companies want that to be increased to 10 or 15 years. This solution assumes stock markets will recover over that longer time frame. [My comment: This is the LTBH and pray approach. Ask Japan how well that option worked.]
At a time when most workers are watching their retirement savings get swallowed up by falling stock prices, it feels like a cruel trick to learn that taxpayers may have to spend $1 billion in 2010 to prop up Los Angeles County public-employee pensions.Fresno County California
Government watchdogs have been warning for years that generous public-employee pension packages would consume more and more taxpayer dollars. Now, with the nation's stock market in the tank and investments worth significantly less than a few months ago, taxpayers are going to have to foot the bill to keep public-employee pensions fully funded in the coming years. And it could be a very big bill.
Wall Street's volatility has cost Fresno County's retirement system nearly a third of its value over the past year. In the past year, the county's $3 billion pension system has lost $865 million in market value. The plan has declined in value 29% over the past year and now has about $2.13 billion in assets, Retirement Administrator Roberto Pena said.New York State Pension Fund
On Tuesday, Pena told county supervisors that while the county's retirement plan has lost money as a result of stock market declines, it should recover. "We are obviously concerned about it, but we are here for the long term, and we fully expect the market to come back," he said.
NEW YORK, Oct 28 (Reuters) - New York state's pension fund has tumbled 20 percent in value since April, a steep fall though not as big as the 30 percent decline suffered at the end of the dot-com era.California CalPERS may need bailout
Like many other states, New York and lots of municipalities are suffering from lower tax revenues due to the economic slowdown, meaning higher contribution rates could hit them hard.
With stock market losses topping $50 billion since July 1st, CalPERS is on track to needing help in just two years if the nose dive continues on Wall Street. Taxpayer groups are upset that Californians have to foot the bill when many employers have moved away from pension plans.US pension funds face big losses
"This is adding insult to injury. At the same time we're seeing our own 401k's get hit, we're on the hook to make up the shortfalls for public employees who are guaranteed their full pensions without any risk," said Jon Coupal, from the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association.
Cities and counties also use CalPERS. Many can barely afford to keep services going, let alone contribute more to retiree benefits. Pension costs can hurt a public agency's budget. They led to a big scandal in San Diego and helped push the city of Vallejo into bankruptcy.
In the nine months to the end of September, the average state pension fund lost 14.8 per cent, according to Northern Trust, a fund company. The loss has grown since, as financial markets slumped further in October. The previous highest loss for state funds was 7.9 per cent for the full year in 2002.Future Expectations Too High
State and local pension funds comprise a patchwork of 2,700 funds that manage $1,400bn on behalf of 21m employees, including teachers, firefighters and other municipal workers. About 40 per cent are underfunded, meaning that they would not be able to pay the future pensions that employees have been promised.
Critics say the underfunding is worse than official data show. The calculation is based on an assumption of annual returns of 8 per cent, but few funds will reach that in the next few years.
Nikkei Monthly ChartIf that chart seems far fetched for US equities, I assure you it's not. Click on the above link for a fundamental and technical explanation of why something like that might happen.
click on chart for sharper image
In the third quarter of 2007, Volvo AB booked 41,970 European orders for new trucks. Guess how many prospective purchases Volvo, the world's second-biggest maker of heavy rigs, received in the third quarter of this year?Obama Promises Help For US Auto Industry
Here's a clue. Picture a highway gridlocked by 41,815 abandoned trucks -- because Volvo's order book got destroyed to the tune of 99.63 percent, with customers signing up for just 155 vehicles in the three-month period, the Gothenburg, Sweden-based company said last week.
The pathogen that has fatally infected swathes of the banking industry is now contaminating non-financial companies. "We're heading toward the sharpest downturn I've ever seen in Europe," said Chief Executive Officer Leif Johansson.
If nobody is buying your trucks, you don't need to rent a vessel to carry that shiny new 18-wheeler to its new owner. Hence the Baltic Dry Index, which tracks the cost of shipping goods and commodities, fell below 1,000 this week for the first time in six years.
Put another way, it is now almost 90 percent cheaper to ship goods over the oceans than it was at the beginning of the year. And because the huge vessels known as capesize ships can't currently charge much more than their daily operating cost of about $6,000 per day, their captains have slowed down to economize on fuel and save money, to about 8.68 knots from 10.33 knots in July, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
It isn't just the oceans that are emptying. Air freight traffic dropped 7.7 percent in September, according to the latest figures from the International Air Transport Association. That's the steepest decline since the trade group began compiling the data in January 2003.
General Motors Corp.'s pursuit of federal aid ahead of a merger with Chrysler LLC gathered momentum as six governors and presidential candidate Barack Obama prodded the government to help the auto industry.The grim statistics pile up every day. Yet some of it has to be shocking even to the biggest of bears. A 99.63 percent drop in truck orders at Volvo certainly qualifies as a shocking statistic.
Obama said that should he win next week's election, he would meet with the chiefs of GM, Chrysler, Ford Motor Co. and the United Auto Workers union to develop a plan for an industry overhaul, according to a transcript released by NBC.
Paulson would prefer any funding for Detroit-based GM come from the low-interest loans that will be distributed by the Energy Department, not the banking-system rescue, people familiar with the matter have said. The Energy Department said yesterday it is still writing rules for the loans.
The government needs to take action, said Kim Rodriguez, who leads accounting firm Grant Thornton's automotive restructuring group in Southfield, Michigan. "Chrysler as we know it will cease to exist very soon," she told reporters at a briefing yesterday.
A GM victory in its quest for federal funds probably would assure a tentative merger agreement before the Nov. 4 election, Rodriguez said. Yet even with a merger, the industrywide disruptions would include the loss of 74,000 jobs at Chrysler and its suppliers and the closure of half of the company's plants, Grant Thornton estimated.
With automakers struggling to revive sales and profits, the vise on the industry was underscored by auto lender GMAC LLC, which has begun telling some dealers it will no longer provide the financing they need to buy vehicles.
"GMAC is going to zap them of their existing capital," Peter Welch, CEO of the California New Car Dealers Association, said in an interview. "You could see a lot dealers going out of business," he said.
Leif Johansson - President and CEOHere are the official numbers: Volvo Orders Down 55%
"Yes, obviously you have seen the order in take on greater Europe there up 20,000 orders. Gross orders then offset by cancellations, but I think that the 20,000 number is a better number to look at, which means that the market is in debt. It means that it's slower than last year but its great difficulty to make any forecast there as we said. We won't make forecast for 2009, the forecast for 2008 has come down which of course with three quarters already gone that's a sign that the end market is heading south."
The Ritz-Carlton hotel and condos is among the richest development to begin construction in Vancouver, a $2,500-per-square foot, 58-storey ultra-luxury tower with an eye-catching 45-degree twist designed by Arthur Erickson.It's Different Here
But that $500-million design is currently little more than a half-completed hole in the ground - the most glittering symbol of the troubled times that have humbled real estate development in Vancouver, a city that spent the last half-decade treating new condos like an evergreen money tree.
Credit turmoil, construction costs and the threat of a recession have left several towers stranded, unfinished and searching for either new designs or new money, while some developers are now threatening to sue buyers who are walking away from huge cash deposits, unwilling to commit to condos they pre-bought.
Signs of weakness are becoming increasingly obvious. As recently as August, Merril Lynch calculated that Vancouver - as has Toronto - had more multi-unit buildings under construction "than in all other Canadian cities combined a decade ago."
In the Vancouver suburb of Surrey, workers have abandoned a set of unfinished towers that stand at 21 and 25 storeys tall after the developer, who had secured some of his funding through Lehman Brothers, ran out of cash. (Work will resume if a new developer can be found to pay the $100-million in remaining costs; 560 of the towers' 690 units have been pre-sold.) In North Vancouver, work has stopped on two high-rises - one with seven storeys built, one still at the foundation stage - as the developer waits for a finalized subdivision plan. That work is expected to resume. One developer said a half-dozen other towers are vulnerable.
In the first nine months of 2007, the city of Vancouver issued building permits for 3,842 dwelling units. This year, it is down to 1,476. The Real Estate Board of Vancouver reported September sales were down 42.9% from last year, while listings were up 28.8%.
"I've never seen anything so deep, so fast," said Eric Carlson, the CEO of Anthem Properties Corp. "I used to be a know-it-all. Now, I'm pretty humble."
Expect British Columbia real estate sales to have fallen substantially by the end of this year, but stage a modest recovery in 2009, according to the latest forecast of the B.C. Real Estate Association (BCREA).Quick Recovery Nonsense
Helmut Pastrick, chief economist for Central 1 Credit Union, said that while his own forecast does not agree with the BCREA on the exact numbers, he does agree that B.C.'s economy won't go into recession, and consumers will get a bit of their wind back at some point in 2009.
Sending relevant emails is not rocket science. Most of the email tools/services have a way to send highly customized emails. You just have to explore them.
Do you have examples of irrelevant emails or relevant emails that you would like to share? Send them to me.
Comments? Questions?
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"Supposedly the emperor [Hadrian] sent the plans for [the Temple of Venus and Roma] to the professional architect Apollodorus. Apollodorus, one of the great architects of Imperial Rome, had previously served Trajan, and known Hadrian for perhaps twenty years; the modern historian William MacDonald describes the architect as "a man of considerable consequence, a writer and a cosmopolitan citizen." When Hadrian sent him the plans for this new work, Apollodorus criticized the technical construction and the proportions of both the building and its statues. Hadrian reacted, according to later gossip, by having Appolodorus killed.- Richard Sennett from Flesh and Stone: The Body and the City in Western Civilization (W.W. Norton & Co., 1994, p. 97)
Just a day after the Federal Reserve dropped its key short-term interest rate to 1% -- matching the generational low reached in 2003-04 -- the betting is intensifying on another cut.December FOMC Meeting Implied Probability
Trading in futures contracts on the federal funds rate, the Fed�s benchmark, implies a 51.4% probability that the central bank will slash the rate to 0.50% on or before its next meeting on Dec. 16, according to Bloomberg News data.
Rate expectations may be cueing off the government�s report today that the economy shrank at an annualized rate of 0.3% in the third quarter. Although analysts figured the economy had contracted in the period, the details were ugly -- particularly the 3.1% decline in real consumer spending, the biggest drop since the vicious recession that began in 1980.
The Bank of Japan had to maintain its benchmark interest rate at or near zero for most of the 1999-2006 period, before policymakers finally felt comfortable that the economy was in a sustainable recovery.
Real gross domestic product -- the output of goods and services produced by labor and property located in the United States -- decreased at an annual rate of 0.3 percent in the third quarter of 2008, (that is, from the second quarter to the third quarter), according to advance estimates released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis. In the second quarter, real GDP increased 2.8 percent.Ridiculous Numbers
The decrease in real GDP in the third quarter primarily reflected negative contributions from personal consumption expenditures (PCE), residential fixed investment, and equipment and software that were largely offset by positive contributions from federal government spending, exports, private inventory investment, nonresidential structures, and state and local government spending. Imports, which are a subtraction in the calculation of GDP, decreased.
Most of the major components contributed to the downturn in real GDP growth in the third quarter. The largest contributors were a sharp downturn in PCE for nondurable goods, a smaller decrease in imports, a larger decrease in PCE for durable goods, and a deceleration in exports. Notable offsets were an upturn in inventory investment and an acceleration in federal government spending.
Final sales of computers contributed 0.06 percentage point to the third-quarter change in real GDP after contributing 0.17 percentage point to the second-quarter change. Motor vehicle output contributed 0.09 percentage point to the third-quarter change in real GDP after subtracting 1.01 percentage points from the second-quarter change.
Gross domestic product contracted at a 0.3 percent pace from July to September, according to a Commerce Department report today in Washington.Unemployment Forecast 8%
"The crisis really kicked up in late September," Ethan Harris, co-head of U.S. economic research at Barclays Capital Inc. in New York, said in a Bloomberg Television interview. "We're going to be looking at a very unfriendly GDP number in the fourth quarter, with a drop of 2 to 4 percent."
Consumer spending dropped at a 3.1 percent annual pace, the first decline since 1991 and the biggest since 1980, after President Jimmy Carter imposed credit controls. The median forecast was for a 2.4 percent drop.
Unemployment is at a five-year high of 6.1 percent and may rise to 8 percent by end of 2009, according to Jan Hatzius, chief U.S. economist at Goldman, Sachs & Co. in New York. Consumer borrowing fell in August by the most on record as banks tightened credit. And the steep drop in the stock market so far this quarter has wiped about $2.8 trillion from investors' portfolios.
The report also showed what may be the last burst of inflation before the economic slowdown forces companies to limit price increases. The price gauge rose at a 4.2 percent pace last quarter, the biggest gain in 17 years. Costs tied to consumer spending and excluding food and energy, increased 2.9 percent, the most in two years.
The report also showed what may be the last burst of inflation before the economic slowdown forces companies to limit price increases. The price gauge rose at a 4.2 percent pace last quarter, the biggest gain in 17 years. Costs tied to consumer spending and excluding food and energy, increased 2.9 percent, the most in two years.
A while ago, I got to chance to try out the Casio EX-Z9, and I found the camera very simple to use with great specs. It appears that Casio has put the power of an 8.1 megapixel camera on a cellular phone with the EXILIM Keitai W63CA flip phone.
(Via Engadget.)
(Via Engadget.)
RED To Release Epic And Scarlet Cameras
RED will release two new updated version of Epic and Scarlet cameras on November 13th, 2008. These new versions feature new incredible programs for both video cameras. FYI, the original Epic and Scarlet has been released in April 2008 as 5K and 3K resolution video cameras, respectively. The cameras are priced at $3,000 upwards.
(Via The Digital Camera Blog.)
RED To Release Epic And Scarlet Cameras
RED will release two new updated version of Epic and Scarlet cameras on November 13th, 2008. These new versions feature new incredible programs for both video cameras. FYI, the original Epic and Scarlet has been released in April 2008 as 5K and 3K resolution video cameras, respectively. The cameras are priced at $3,000 upwards.
(Via The Digital Camera Blog.)
The Federal Reserve agreed to provide $30 billion each to the central banks of Brazil, Mexico, South Korea and Singapore, expanding its effort to unfreeze money markets to emerging nations for the first time.Step Towards The Cliff
The Fed set up "liquidity swap facilities with the central banks of these four large systemically important economies" effective until April 30, the central bank said yesterday in a statement. The arrangements aim "to mitigate the spread of difficulties in obtaining U.S. dollar funding."
"The swap lines will help unclog the liquidity pipeline and that action is boosting markets even more than" the Fed's rate cut, said Venkatraman Anantha-Nageswaran, head of research at Bank Julius Baer & Co. in Singapore. "It's a step in the right direction and prevents things from getting worse."
South Korea's stock index rose by a record and the won surged after the central bank signed a $30 billion currency swap with the Federal Reserve and President Lee Myung Bak said he's ready to take more steps to aid the economy.Exit Strategy
The swap line is part of the Federal Reserve's efforts to alleviate a credit freeze in emerging nations, with the U.S. also providing dollars to Singapore, Brazil and Mexico. Korean lawmakers today approved the government's $100 billion guarantee of bank debts to help lenders struggling to access foreign funds.
Korea's currency jumped 14 percent, the most in a decade, as policy makers' actions allayed concern the nation was headed for a repeat of 1997, when it needed an International Monetary Fund bailout to help repay offshore debt. The Fed's dollar provisions are part of increased global endeavors to thaw money markets, with Hong Kong and Taiwan lowering interest rates today following cuts yesterday by the U.S. and China.
In letters to nine major banks that will receive $125 billion of taxpayer funds, Chairman Waxman requested information on their compensation and bonus plans in 2008.
List of Banks
Letter to Citigroup (121 KB)
The American Folk Art Museum in New York City by Tod Williams Bille Tsien Architects, 2001. The project was featured on my weekly page in 2001 and 2002.
Previously:
Tod & Billie Musing #1
Tod & Billie Musing #2
To contribute your Flickr images for consideration, just:
:: Join and add photos to the archidose pool, and/or
:: Tag your photos archidose
Citigroup Inc. and Credit Suisse Group AG are among banks tying corporate loan rates to credit- default swaps, raising borrowing costs and exposing companies to derivatives accused of crippling the financial system.Illogical Flaw In Rates
Banks are toughening terms following $678 billion in writedowns and losses, rising funding costs and a jump in companies drawing on lines they'd already negotiated. Before markets seized up this year, most rates on $6 trillion of revolving loans were based on a borrower's debt rating and priced at an amount over the London interbank offered rate.
The inclusion of the swaps shows that banks are shifting away from setting loan pricing by relying on debt ratings and Libor, a benchmark rate that is set each day in London by tallying the cost of 16 banks to borrow from each other.
"That's crazy," said Lynn Tilton, chief executive officer of $6 billion private-equity firm Patriarch Partners in New York, which loans or lends money to more than 70 companies. "This will accelerate the downward spiral of market prices and raise borrowing costs to unsustainable levels."
The default swaps were created so bondholders and banks could buy protection against a borrower's inability to repay debts. The market ballooned to more than $60 trillion in the last decade as investors used the instruments to bet on companies. The Securities and Exchange Commission is probing allegations trading helped create a panic that caused the collapse of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.
FirstEnergy, with utilities in Ohio, Pennsylvania and New Jersey, agreed this month to link interest rates on a $300 million credit line to the cost of Libor as well as the sum of the spread on its default swaps and those of Credit Suisse, according to a regulatory filing.
Loans from the Zurich-based bank would require total interest payments of about 6 percentage points over Libor if the power company draws on the bank line, according to regulatory filings and Bloomberg data. That's almost 14 times the spread on a $2.75 billion credit line the company negotiated in 2006.
Credit lines were once seen mainly as emergency funds to be tapped as a last resort. Since markets tightened last year, at least 36 companies hurt by the slowing economy and an inability to tap commercial paper or bond markets have borrowed $30 billion on previously negotiated lines, according to Pacific Investment Management Co. in Newport Beach, California.
"Historically there's been an illogical flaw in the price of revolving credit facilities and backstop loans in particular, they were priced very cheaply as they were never meant to be drawn down," said David Slade, head of European leveraged finance at Credit Suisse in London. "But now, in the current environment, these lines are being used and banks need to be properly recompensed."
The Federal Open Market Committee decided today to lower its target for the federal funds rate 50 basis points to 1 percent.When the Fed follows up with any additional cuts, a new low in Fed Funds Rate will be set. Remember that Bernanke wanted to put a floor in rates at 2%.
The pace of economic activity appears to have slowed markedly, owing importantly to a decline in consumer expenditures. Business equipment spending and industrial production have weakened in recent months, and slowing economic activity in many foreign economies is damping the prospects for U.S. exports. Moreover, the intensification of financial market turmoil is likely to exert additional restraint on spending, partly by further reducing the ability of households and businesses to obtain credit.
In light of the declines in the prices of energy and other commodities and the weaker prospects for economic activity, the Committee expects inflation to moderate in coming quarters to levels consistent with price stability.
Recent policy actions, including today�s rate reduction, coordinated interest rate cuts by central banks, extraordinary liquidity measures, and official steps to strengthen financial systems, should help over time to improve credit conditions and promote a return to moderate economic growth. Nevertheless, downside risks to growth remain. The Committee will monitor economic and financial developments carefully and will act as needed to promote sustainable economic growth and price stability.
Voting for the FOMC monetary policy action were: Ben S. Bernanke, Chairman; Timothy F. Geithner, Vice Chairman; Elizabeth A. Duke; Richard W. Fisher; Donald L. Kohn; Randall S. Kroszner; Sandra Pianalto; Charles I. Plosser; Gary H. Stern; and Kevin M. Warsh.
In a related action, the Board of Governors unanimously approved a 50-basis-point decrease in the discount rate to 1-1/4 percent. In taking this action, the Board approved the requests submitted by the Boards of Directors of the Federal Reserve Banks of Boston, New York, Cleveland, and San Francisco.
