| GM's next generation Chevrolet Impala will remain FWD-based
When ever you want the biggest change, you don't go after the smallest items. The end result.......the top25 offenders probably won't be sports cars. They'll be Trucks and SUV's.The end of the big V8 dead? So far from the truth. There are advantages to forced induction (turbocharing and supercharging) but issues as well. There is an old addage, "there's no replacement for displacement". So true. NA engines will deliver signifigantly more torque than their equal powered turbo'd counterparts. Torque is what gives acceleration response, which consumers have become accustomed to.Now for those horrible American engines:For example:2008 Mitsu Evo X:2.0L 4cyl Turbo 320hp16city/22highway2008 Corvette6.2L 8cyl 436hp18city/28highwayAnd now for that same engine in a much heavier car:2008 Cadallac CTS-V6.2L 8cyl 430hp17city/25highway (2007 models were 15/24)Which would you rather have? Less power in a small turbo engine, with poorer fuel economy, or more power in a more fuel efficient engine.
No spin needed on desperation for residency
A Bangladeshi student I saw recently attempted suicide after failing to pay his tuition fees. On closer questioning it turned out his parents had sold off almost all their land and taken out a sizeable loan from a moneylender at an extortionate rate. They were banking their future upon him completing his degree in Australia and gaining permanent residency. As if to underline the depths of his despair, he showed me a picture of him dressed up as Santa Claus to advertise a suburban car wash business. It was one of his three part-time jobs. His situation is hardly out of the ordinary. While there are overseas students from wealthy families and developed countries, the bulk are from households of moderate means, usually from Asia. As someone born in Bangladesh, but raised in Australia, I often feel like an unelected representative of the Third World.
The stakes are high if WaMu sells out
Let us count the people who would be pleased by, or at least wouldn't mind very much, if Washington Mutual were sold. The acquirer that figures it has bought valuable assets on the cheap. Top executives, who will get munificent golden parachutes. Those who bought at the absolute bottom of the trough of WaMu's stock-price graph. Investors who want a deal done now, at any price. Now let us count those who would be mighty unhappy should WaMu, as is widely speculated, be bought by an out-of-town company. Investors who bought the stock when it was trading in the $20s, $30s or $40s. Thousands of employees whose jobs could be consolidated out of existence. And those who think that Seattle's business climate and vitality are enhanced by having nationally prominent and significant companies with headquarters here, no matter how stumbling their performance happens to be at the moment.
Editorial: Incentives for NWA? Proceed with caution
"I wanted to take this opportunity to respectfully remind you of the commitments NWA has made to Minnesota. The Metropolitan Airports Commission recently entered into a lease agreement with NWA. As part of that agreement, NWA committed to keep both a hub presence and its headquarters in Minnesota.'' Gov. Tim Pawlenty, in a Jan. 17 letter to Northwest CEO Doug Steenland and Delta CEO Richard Anderson .
Resolve to avoid credit pitfalls
Here's a different spin on financial New Year's resolutions. It's what you should not do in the new year, provided by the National Foundation for Credit Counseling and the Consumer Credit Counseling Service of Northeastern Ohio. These are resolutions you SHOULD break: • Apply for every credit card you receive in the mail. (This makes your credit score lower.) • Charge everything, even those items that you could easily pay for with cash. (This runs up a large debt load.) • Don't open the monthly statements from your creditors in a timely manner. Instead, wait until it's convenient for you. (This equals late charges.) • Open store charge accounts simply because they'll give you 10 percent off today's purchases.
Household budget pain to worsen
Last year's juicy paper profits on share portfolios have taken a hefty hit since the beginning of the year and superannuation returns for this financial year now look shaky. For those people on a standard variable mortgages there was also that niggling rate increase by the major banks. And to top it all, those credit card bills will now be arriving from that $36.5 billion Christmas shopping frenzy that we had to have. It seemed like a good idea at the time. Will things get better in the next few months ahead? Probably not. This week's inflation numbers for the December quarter were shocking and economists generally expect the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) to counter this increasingly worrying problem with another rate rise when its board holds it first meeting of the year on February 5.
ROCKY TOP BEAT: Misstep in Kentucky
When the Vols meet Kentucky next time, hopefully, they will have Duke Crews patrolling the paint and they will not have an off night shooting by Tyler and JuJuan Smith. It should be a wild afternoon in Knoxville when these two tangle again. Looking for something good from this game, Chris Lofton shot 50 percent from the field and from the three point line. Chris also became the all time three point shooter in SEC history. Let's hope that this night will lead to more of Chris' shots finding their mark as we move deeper into the SEC schedule.The Lady Vols will continue their quest to stay undefeated in SEC play Thursday when they host the Arkansas Lady Razorbacks. They will be playing this game short handed once again as Alexis Hornbuckle will be missing from the line up as she under goes medical diagnostic tests.
Marblehead's Golden Opportunity
This transaction poses an interesting question. First Marblehead is a middleman -- it mainly provides expertise to the student lending process, not capital. With its agency business model, First Marblehead has so little need for cash that it never even spent the proceeds of its initial public offering. Apparently, the only reason the company even went public at all was to provide a market for its founders and executives to cash out stock and options -- not unlike Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) in that regard. So why sell another big block of stock right now, near all-time lows for the share price, thereby diluting value for stockholders? Why raise all that debt? The answer is likely twofold. In the short term, the company is playing defense, reacting to the credit crunch. Over the long term, it's playing offense, as First Marblehead's continued growth requires that its business evolve from a pure agency into something more capital-intensive.
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