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Question for the Recession, What Jobs?

Bafed — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 04:36:38 +0000

Cited: Newsweek

The economy added just 83,000 new private sector jobs in June according to job numbers released July 2. This has added new fuel to the already heated debate over what the government should do to help unemployed Americans.

Exhibit A: David Brooks, the great moderate hope, attacks the subject in a New York Times column Tuesday. He bashes backers of new stimulus, complaining that there isn’t evidence for the government to make further large-scale infusions of cash into the economy. Instead, Brooks suggests the government extend unemployment benefits, something Congress has been hesitant to do, and extend much-needed aid to state governments, which not only face dire straits but, unlike the federal government, can’t run deficits.

Brooks’s argument has caused a minor food fight between wonks. Time’s Joe Klein calls his argument “not very convincing, and somewhat confused,” while fellowTimes columnist Paul Krugman—one of the “Demand Siders” Brooks calls out—responds with a characteristically combative blog post insisting he’s got plenty of evidence for why we need a new stimulus.

The fact is that any real progress on solutions for unemployment has screeched to a halt on Capitol Hill. NEWSWEEK’s Daniel Gross wrote last week that the paucity of serious proposals suggests politicians just don’t care about unemployment. After repeated attempts, Democrats have still failed to move a bill extending unemployment insurance—one of Brooks’s suggestions—through the Senate, with opposition from deficit hawks hanging it up. The liberal site Think Progress has compiled a list of shame featuring senators from states with high unemployment who still voted against extending benefits on multiple occasions. The latest attempt was put on ice to allow members of Congress to recess for July 4. President Obama voiced his frustration with the lack of progress during his Saturday radio address, blaming Republican obstructionism.

It is clear that the real losers are the out-of-work Americans even know political liability certainly lies with Obama and the Democrats, the GOP might not benefit either. The last extension on and if it’s was allowed by the Congress in May. Out of the overall 15 million jobless Americans, 1.3 million people saw their benefits lapse. With so many unemployed and at home constituents, senators and representatives may feel the heat and go and action. The unemployment benefits extension, which cost $3.5 billion, went back on the table when Congress returns to work July 12.

The House finally passed legislation July 22 extending unemployment insurance for 2.5 million jobless Americans, sending the bill to President Obama who is expected to quickly sign it into law.

Continued aid for the unemployed had been stalled for weeks over Republicans’ insistence that the $33.9 billion cost be paid from spending cuts elsewhere. Democrats have argued that extending jobless aid has typically been treated as an emergency and not required a funding source.

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The vote was 272-152.

The Senate broke the stalemate earlier this week when two Republicans joined Democrats to pass the bill. Obama plans to quickly sign the legislation into law, which would unleash the aid to those who had their benefits cut off in late May. The aid would be retroactive to the cut off and continue through November.

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My Take: Well, At least people will have money until November. Unless they have a job, they’re going to have a lousy Christmas. I have a feeling that people are going to need the services of Los Angeles criminal attorneys soon. The crime rate always goes up in tough economic times. It will probably also need the services of Los Angeles drunk driving accident lawyer, because drinking increases as well.

But as the saying goes, things always look darkest before the dawn. Some things will go on like needing to compare auto insurance to get the cheaper rate and save money or to search for Virginia dental services that are cheaper. Of course, with a Virginia dentist, you could probably work out payment and it is usually free when you compare insurance rate.

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Mona Lisa’s Secrets Revealed

Bafed — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 04:32:46 +0000

Cited: AP

Actually, the “Mona Lisa” smile still remains a mystery. However, French scientists believe they have cracked a few secrets of Leonardo da Vinci’s technique of successive ultrathin layers of paint and glaze that gave his works their dreamy quality. According to the scientists they have cracked some secrets after studying 7 of the Louvre Museum’s Leonardo da Vinci paintings that included the “Mona Lisa”.

Specialists from the Center for Research and Restoration of the Museums of France found that da Vinci painted up to 30 layers of paint on his works to meet his standards of subtlety. Added up, all the layers are less than 40 micrometers, or about half the thickness of a human hair, researcher Philippe Walter said Friday.

The technique, called “sfumato,” allowed da Vinci to give outlines and contours a hazy quality and create an illusion of depth and shadow. His use of the technique is well-known, but scientific study on it has been limited because tests often required samples from the paintings.

The French researchers used a noninvasive technique called X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy to study the paint layers and their chemical composition.

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They brought their specially developed high-tech tool into the museum when it was closed and studied the portraits’ faces, which are emblematic of sfumato. The project was developed in collaboration with the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility in Grenoble.

The tool is so precise that “now we can find out the mix of pigments used by the artist for each coat of paint,” Walter told The Associated Press. “And that’s very, very important for understanding the technique.”

The analysis of the various paintings also shows da Vinci was constantly trying out new methods, Walter said. In the “Mona Lisa,” da Vinci used manganese oxide in his shadings. In others, he used copper. Often he used glazes, but not always.

The results were published July 14 in Angewandte Chemie International Edition, a chemistry journal.

According to history, “Mona Lisa” is a painting of Lisa Gherardini, wife of Florentine merchant Francesco Del Giocondo. Leonardo da Vinci supposedly started the painting in 1503. Another 16th-century painter and biographer of Leonardo da Vinci, Giorgio Vasari, along with other artists believed that perfectionist Leonardo da Vinci took 4 years complete the painting.

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My Take: With so many things wrong in our world, scientists are still going over da Vinci’s paintings? They could be putting their scientific knowledge to better use that would help mankind. They could help to improve air cargo security to prevent terrorists from sending bombs around the world. Or they could help improve metal detection equipment to prevent weapons from entering certain areas.

I can see the necessity of improving airport cargo handling or even walk through metal detectors, but deciphering what da Vinci was doing when painting is just a little out there. That would be like buying baby hair bows for an adult. A hair bow for an adult is a little bit bigger than it is for baby.

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Free Bumper Case to IPhone Owners

Bafed — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 04:27:05 +0000

Cited: ABC News

If you have an iPhone, Apple will give you a free bumper case that is supposed to prevent reception problems plaguing the smartphone. This offer is good until September 30 according to CEO Steve Jobs on July 17.

Customers who have already bought a bumper — a plastic cover that prevents human contact from disrupting the antenna signal — will qualify for a refund.

Job’s announcement came at a much-anticipated press conference at Apple’s headquarters in Cupertino, California, called to address a recent flurry of bad publicity over iPhone 4 reception issues. More than 3 million iPhones have been sold to date, he said.

“We’re not perfect, and phones aren’t perfect either,” Jobs said, pacing on stage with an iPhone on hand, wearing his trademark black turtleneck sweater. “But we want to make all of our users happy… and if you don’t know that about Apple, you don’t know Apple.”

Jobs told users they could return their iPhones and get their money back under the company’s regular policy.

“If you’re still not happy, we’ll give full refunds,” he said.

Jobs was doing damage control just three weeks after Apple launched the device to great fanfare. More than 1.7 million iPhone 4s were sold around the world within three days, making it the company’s most successful launch ever. At the time, Jobs touted it as the “biggest leap” yet from the original iPhone.

But tech reviewers and users soon began complaining about dropped calls and spotty reception when the user’s palm covers the bottom left corner of the phone. The flaw, dubbed the “death grip” by bloggers, appears to cut calls off when one’s hand interferes with the antenna, which is embedded in the phone’s metal shell.

Consumer Reports — which announced Monday that it could not recommend the iPhone 4, issued a brief statement after Jobs’ news conference:

“Consumer Reports believes Apple’s offer of free cases is a good first step. However, Apple has indicated that this is not a long-term solution, it has guaranteed the offer only through September 30th, and has not extended it unequivocally to customers who bought cases from third-party vendors,” it said. “

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We look forward to a long-term fix from Apple. As things currently stand, the iPhone 4 is still not one of our recommended models.”

Jobs did not apologize for the defect. Instead, he showed video of other smartphones — from Blackberry , Droid and Samsung — that lose signal strength when held in the “death grip.”

“We love making our users happy,” said Jobs, boasting that the iPhone 4 continues to garner positive reviews from customers and tech experts. “People seem to like it. More important, users seem to want it.”

Jobs argued that “antennagate,” as Apple has humourously dubbed the issue, is overblown, since just 0.5 percent of iPhone 4 users have called AppleCare to complain, and fewer than 2 percent have returned their phones.

“All smartphones seem to do that,” Jobs said of the reception problem that occurs when one’s hand covers the antenna. “We haven’t figured out a way around the laws of physics.”

Steve Jobs: iPhone 4 Owners to Get Free Covers to Solve Antenna Problem

Nevertheless, Jobs admitted that “we screwed up the algorithm” on the signal strength indicator. “We’ve been working our butts off” to understand the issue, he said.

Later, during a brief question-and-answer session, Jobs denied reports that he knew about the flaw before the phone was released.

“That’s a crock,” he said, according to Engadget.com.” If anyone had said this thing has problems, we would have dispatched people to deal with that issue.”

Nevertheless, Jobs admitted that the iPhone 4 drops slightly more calls than the previous version.

The conference comes after weeks of negative publicity, which Apple until now only addressed with formal statements. When complaints surfaced initially, the company released a statement saying that “gripping any phone will result in some attenuation of its antenna performance, depending on the placement of the antennas.”

The company later released another statement, repeating its claim that gripping any phone in certain ways could reduce reception. Apple also said there was a problem with the bars that display signal strength and said it would release a free software update soon to fix the problem.

“Upon investigation, we were stunned to find that the formula we use to calculate how many bars of signal strength to display is totally wrong,” the company said. “Our formula, in many instances, mistakenly displays 2 more bars than it should for a given signal strength.”

At today’s conference, Jobs admitted that Apple had “screwed up the algorithm” on the signal strength indicator. “We’ve been working our butts off” to understand the issue, he said.

Apple’s statements did little to satisfy customers, and several lawsuits seeking class action status have been filed.

The backlash reached its peak on July 19, when Consumer Reports said it would not recommend the new phone, though it still ranked it among the world’s top smartphones. Then, on Wednesday, Bloomberg News reported that a senior antenna engineer at Apple had warned Jobs early on that the iPhone 4’s design could lead to dropped calls.

Steve Jobs: iPhone 4 Owners to Get Free Covers to Solve Antenna Problem

The Apple press conference seemed to go over well with investors. When the conference started, Apple stock was trading at $249, and it jumped to a high of $254.97 while Jobs was speaking. Ross “This clearly represents a good faith effort to address the concerns,” he said. “It’s not a perfect solution, but there may not be a perfect solution, in that there are inherent tradeoffs in handset design.”

Jobs seem to mean what he was saying in his efforts to make things right in the consumer’s eyes according to an analyst at NPD group, Rubin

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My Take: I can’t afford an iPhone, so I’m not worried about its reception. But, I can understand those that did buy it being upset. It is just like buying PlayStation 3 guitar games and when you start play it you find out it doesn’t work. Any time someone pays for something and it does not work, they are likely to be upset about it because they just spent their hard-earned money on it.

Even if you get free PS3 downloads or free access to an online casino, people can be upset if they don’t get what you expect. Of course, with online gambling people can get their money back if they are lucky.

But, I imagine the Steve Jobs doesn’t have much to worry about. I bet he even utilizes SEO services to keep his image alive. Of course, the best SEO services can get any business seen by consumers even the small businesses.

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Lohan May Serve Only 2 Weeks

Bafed — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 04:24:10 +0000

Cited: ABC News

Today, Lindsay Lohan started her sentence at the Century Regional Attention Center in Lynnwood California. Her stay could possibly be as short as 2 weeks. At least, this is what ABC News affiliate KABC-TV in Los Angeles learned on July 20. Her projected release date is August 2 according to her booking form. At the beginning of June, she was sentenced to 90-days in prison and 90-days inpatient rehab for violating her 2007 probation.

Lohan could spend more time in jail because Beverly Hills Judge Masha Revel ruled out work release or electronic monitoring in her probation violation case.

ABCNews.com’s calls to the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department were not immediately returned.

Ten minutes late, clad in sunglasses that couldn’t hide a steely glare, Lohan marched past a throng of photographers and glitter-throwing fans today for a pre-prison court hearing.

She sat through a brief courtroom discussion before Revel ordered that all cameras be shut off for Lohan’s handcuffing. The actress stood, placed her hands behind her back, and let two deputies cuff her and lead her out of the courtroom without making a scene.

Not so for her estranged father. Michael Lohan shouted, “We love you, Lindsay,” as she was escorted out. Lohan’s mother, Dina, and younger sister, Ali, also watched as she was taken into custody.

From the courtroom, Lohan went to a courthouse holding facility before shipping off to the Lynwood facility. Before leaving the courthouse, she swapped out her jeans, sleeveless top, cropped jacket and corset belt for her new, albeit temporary, wardrobe: an orange jail jumpsuit.

Shawn Chapman Holley, who resigned as Lohan’s lawyer after her July 6 sentencing, represented the actress at the hearing. She addressed reporters afterwards, saying that she stepped back into the Lohan case when the actress decided she did not want famed O.J. Simpson attorney Robert Shapiro to represent her.

“She’s stepped up, she’s accepted responsibility,” Holley said about Lohan. “She’s scared as anyone would be, but she’s as resolute and she’s doing it.”

Lohan’s surrender came two weeks after her tearful sentencing hearing, in which she sobbed as Judge Revel handed down her sentence.

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What Lindsay Lohan’s Jail Stint Looks Like

Lohan will serve her time at the same facility that housed Paris Hilton in 2007 and will be segregated from the general jail population. At most, she may only end up serving 23 days of the 90-day sentence. At the July 6 hearing, L.A. County Sheriff’s spokesman Steve Whitmore noted that “female, non-violent prisoners will do about 25 percent of their sentence” because L.A. jails suffer from “an overcrowding situation.”

At a news conference outside the Lynwood facility today, Whitmore said Lohan “has been extremely cooperative” so far.

“As with any inmate, Lohan was treated just like any other,” he added, noting that most inmates don’t draw throngs of paparazzi. “Inside it’s business as usual.”

Her time in prison won’t be posh. Lohan will swap her plush bed for a vinyl mattress and her sprawling home for a 12-by-8 foot cell. She won’t be able to smoke in jail or wear makeup.

According to a former inmate, today will be brutal for the 24-year-old starlet.

“It is something you will never forget,” former inmate Tanya told “Good Morning America” today. “When you get strip searched it takes away a lot of dignity. You are not in a room by yourself.”

But ABC News legal analyst Dana Cole said that for most of her time behind bars, Lohan will just be bored.

“It’s not going to be the worst situation imaginable, far from it,” Cole said, noting that she’ll be separated from other inmates for her own protection. “It’s just going to be boring basically.”

At least Lohan will be cooped up with someone she knows — sort of. The Los Angeles Times reported today that one of Lohan’s inmates at the Lynwood jail is 19-year-old Alexis Neiers, whose “bling ring” of accused burglars targeted celebrity residences, including Lohan’s Hollywood Hills home.

Neiers is currently serving a 180-day sentence for felony first-degree residential burglary of actor Orlando Bloom’s home.

Of course, because Whitmore noted that Lohan “will be kept away from [the] general population” of the jail, they may not meet at all.

Lindsay Lohan’s Road to Jail

The days leading up to Lohan’s surrender were anything but serene. According to People magazine, she spent a stressful weekend at the Pickford Lofts sober living facility in L.A.

“She has not been able to sleep and has barely been eating. All weekend, Lindsay kept crying, chain smoking and chewing her nails,” a source told People. “She is a nervous, fidgety mess, and her legal team, family and friends are very concerned about her fragile state.”

But the night before heading to court and then jail, Lohan seemed at least a little lighthearted. On Twitter, she wrote “the only “bookings” that i’m familiar with are Disney Films, never thought that i’d be “booking” into Jail… eeeks.”

She also retweeted an ABCNews.com story about pets victimized by the BP oil spill.

Lohan is scheduled to be released from jail in time for the premiere of her newest movie, “Machete,” in which she plays a gun-toting nun.

This will be Lohan’s second time in jail. She spent 84 minutes in prison in 2007 after pleading guilty to two misdemeanor counts of being under the influence of cocaine and no contest to two counts of driving with a blood-alcohol level above 0.08% and one count of reckless driving.

Back in 2007, Lohan was in the public eye with 2 arrests. These resulted in a sentence of 3 years probation, which was extended one year in October by Lohan’s request because she failed to complete her alcohol education courses on time.

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My Take: She should be in jail. Just because she’s famous, does not mean she can get off easily. That has happened too many times in the past. I hope she had a good Dallas DWI attorney or a Philadelphia drug lawyer. Otherwise she would be spending more time in jail. The government has been getting tougher on drug and alcohol laws lately.

Either a TX DUI attorney or a Philadelphia County DUI attorney would be able to explain that a lot better than I can. Maybe somebody should have explained the consequences to Lohan before she got into trouble. Maybe she might not be in jail right now, who knows. I bet one thing, she will be doing commercials for something other than alcohol or drugs when she gets out.

I doubt that she will be doing commercials for sports nutrition. Although, she might do some for international foods because they are a little bit more lenient on their movie stars than we are, except for the paparazzi. They tear people down just for the hell of doing it.

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Contagious Disease and Divorce Part 2

Bafed — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 04:18:19 +0000

Cited: ABC GMA

Continued from “Contagious Disease and Divorce Part 1“

For more than 10 years, Fowler and his colleagues have used research from the Framingham Heart Study to examine the scope of this influence. He said his research has demonstrated that problems such as smoking, drinking, even gaining weight can all be spread through a group.

“What these social network studies show, is that you can’t do it alone,” he said. “If you want to make a positive change in your own life, you have to get your friends and family involved. If you want to lose weight, you have to get your friends to lose weight. If you want to have a healthy marriage, you have to get your friends to have healthy marriages. We’re really all in this together.”

More Divorce in Trimble Family

Trimble said he believes his family is a strong example of the type of phenomenon Fowler’s research outlines. His youngest daughter, Courtney Maples, is now also getting divorced.

“I think that same contagious thing that transferred from Alycia and her situation to my former spouse and me, transferred right on down the line to Courtney and her spouse,” he said.

While Maples said she and her husband had been having troubles in their marriage previously, she said it was only after seeing her mother and sister get divorced that she contemplated one herself.

“When you have somebody very close to you go through a situation in their lives — good or bad — for a lot of us, it always brings out a time of self-reflection,” Maples said. “My sister’s my best friend. So to know that she made it through definitely helped me realize that it wasn’t something I couldn’t handle.”

Web-Extra Tips

Terry Real appeared on “Good Morning America” today to discuss the idea of contagious divorce, and he offered some tips for what couples can do if they feel their relationship has been threatened by the divorce of a friend or family member.

Talk About It. Don’t hold your fears in. Talk to your spouse about your insecurity.

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Ask For Reassurance. Simply and directly tell your partner you’re nervous and ask for his or her support.

Seize the Opportunity and Evaluate. Instead of running from the threat you may feel at this moment, take stock of your relationship. What’s working well? What isn’t? What are your relationship’s strengths and weaknesses? Now is the time to take out whatever you’ve swept under the rug and take a good honest look .

Seize the Opportunity and Take Action. Talk to your partner about how the two of you might make the relationship work better. Perhaps the issue you’ve been neglecting is sex, or parenting as a team, or help with your in-laws. Use this shake-up as an opportunity to commit to strengthening your relationship by dealing with weak or conflicting areas that you’ve been shy to address.

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My Take: It is just hard to believe that anybody is hundred 147% more likely to do anything just because they are in a group. However, I do believe it. I even believe that an Austin divorce lawyer would probably agree. The reason I say it’s difficult, is simply because he always hear that saying “if your best friend jumped off a bridge would you”.

Even the Austin family law attorney would agree that just because someone you know does something does not mean you will do the same. Those people who do what everybody else is doing is just trying to 1 up the other person. For example, a friend gets house cleaning in Silver Spring MD, so they get the same thing. And if they don’t live in Silver Spring, they will get Rockville MD home cleaning.

It’s really bad when 2 friends are pregnant and they are trying to outdo the other with birth announcements. It’s less difficult if only one sends out baby boy birth announcements. People do strange things in groups, including divorce. So I guess it is possible after all.

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Is Goldman Sachs Mortal after All?

Bafed — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 04:14:41 +0000

Cited: Reuters

It seems that Goldman Sachs could be mortal after all after confirming on July 20 that their quarterly earnings had fallen drastically by 82%. That is much more than the analysts had predicted. Questions were raised about whether the firm could still outsmart its competition because of a trading and underwriting slump to put a big dent in their profits.

“We’ve grown accustomed to Goldman bucking the trends in (investment banking), but this quarter it seems like maybe they’re more susceptible to broader industry issues,” said Walter Todd, portfolio manager with Greenwood Capital Associates. “Maybe Superman is turning into Clark Kent.”

Profit at the bank, long famed for lavish pay and political influence, slumped to $453 million, hurt by $550 million for settling the fraud suit brought by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and $600 million to compensate its City of London bankers for a special 2009 UK bonus tax.

Even after stripping out those costs, Goldman’s return on equity, a measure of the bank’s ability to squeeze profits out of shareholders’ money, was just 9.5 percent. Over the prior four quarters, the average was close to 25 percent.

Despite a lower profit, Goldman shares were up 2.2 percent after opening lower as value investors saw clearer skies ahead for the bank and seized on opportunities to buy the stock cheaply. Goldman is trading at 1.2 times book value, compared with well above two times book value before the financial crisis.

“You are getting value investors dipping in on light trading volumes,” said Matt McCormick, a portfolio manager with Bahl & Gaynor.

If Goldman continues to generate a return on equity of around 10 percent, it should be trading closer to book value by one rule of thumb for valuation, but the firm’s cost of capital is a key element of that analysis.

Goldman Chief Financial Officer David Viniar, on a conference call with reporters, said client activity fell in the quarter. He blamed worry about global growth rather than concern about the SEC suit.

“Hopefully things will pick up and we hope that (return on equity) over the cycle will be higher than this,” Viniar said.

Goldman’s chief rival, Morgan Stanley (MS.N), is due to report quarterly earnings on Wednesday. Morgan Stanley shares were up 1.8 percent on Tuesday.

Goldman’s weak numbers were expected by analysts after rivals including Bank of America Corp (BAC.N) and Citigroup Inc (C.N) also saw their investment banking results get pummeled.

“The bad is in the (Goldman) stock,” said Anton Schutz, president of Mendon Capital Advisors. “I think it is pretty well built in. The whole group has gotten punished pretty hard and I’m not sure how bad the sins really are.”

REFORMING WALL STREET

Viniar underscored the significance of a financial reform package approved by the U.S. Congress but said it was far too early to assess the impact of the new rules.

The legislation targets lucrative trading in risky over-the-counter derivatives and aims to force banks to end trading for their own profits. It will also limit how much large financial firms can invest in hedge funds and private equity funds.

“The new financial regulatory legislation represents the most sweeping change for the financial industry in decades,” Viniar said.

Uneasiness over financial reform was just one factor that rattled markets and weighed on trading and underwriting profits in the second quarter. In a quarter marked by increased currency volatility, higher risk premiums for corporate bonds and plummeting stocks, client activity diminished and Goldman scaled back risk.

“Most of our risk is driven by client activity, and there was just so much less in activity in the quarter,” Viniar said.

By one measure, the bank took less trading risk during the period. Its value-at-risk, or the maximum possible losses on 95 percent of the trading days during the quarter, fell to $136 million from $245 million in the same quarter of 2009. The second-quarter 2010 figure was the lowest in three years.

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THE NUMBERS GAME

Goldman’s revenue fell a greater-than-expected 36 percent to $8.84 billion, reflecting weakness in fixed income trading as well as investment banking.

Equity trading revenue tumbled 62 percent to $1.2 billion as extreme volatility hampered the market.

“Goldman’s numbers were not good,” said Peter Kenny, a managing director at Knight Equity Markets in New Jersey. “… Their business is down, and it’s down in virtually every segment — not just trading but product sales, innovation in terms of product offerings. The business is down, demand is down, volumes are down.”

Even though Goldman’s quarter missed expectations and the company dealt with the SEC charges, its investment banking franchise still was strong compared with its rivals.

The bank reclaimed the top spot for mergers and acquisitions advice in the first half of 2010, advising on nearly $190 billion of transactions, although Goldman slipped to a fourth-place ranking when the second quarter is taken on its own.

SEC SETTLEMENT

Viniar said there was no evidence that clients fled from the company in the second quarter as it faced the SEC charges.

“As best we can tell, for the most part, our clients stayed quite supportive of Goldman Sachs,” he said. “Our market shares did not suffer.”

“I can’t tell you there weren’t some calls that we would have gotten that we didn’t get,” he added. “We don’t know about those.”

Some customers with large public profiles have been more cautious in working with the company recently, and analysts speculated that a prolonged legal battle with the SEC would have been damaging to Goldman’s brand.

Goldman last missed analysts’ forecasts in January 2009, when it reported a deeper-than-expected loss following the financial crisis. It was also the smallest profit the bank has reported since the financial crisis.

The SEC civil fraud suit stemmed from Goldman’s marketing and packaging of the Abacus collateralized debt obligation. The bank agreed to settle the case July 15.

As Goldman’s earnings swung lower, so did its set-aside for compensation. The firm slashed its compensation and benefits expense by 42% to $3.8 billion.

Non-compensation expenses, according to analysts, rose 44% and were a driving force behind Goldman missing the mark. Analysts included the SEC settlement and related litigation costs plus hire professional and brokerage fees clearing, exchange and distribution fees as part of that increase.

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My Take: The bigger they are the harder they fall! A Houston work injury lawyer can easily testify to that. They take on these big wigs companies and win. This is one big company who didn’t know what to expect. Their customers don’t like hearing these kinds of things about their company.

If they keep going downhill, it will be a miracle if they can even afford a dolly truck. One thing is for sure, things do fall, they will will I will him not need their workbenches anymore. I know they are not factory workers, but a desk could be construed as a workbench.

Since they are facing flames of destruction, does that mean they need to wear flame resistant clothing? It is so fun to make fun of a company that thinks they are indestructible. Maybe I’ll send them some Carhartt coats so they can keep warm this winter.

I hope nobody gets hurt in their buildings, they cannot afford to get sued by a Houston TX personal injury attorney. That would definitely be their downfall because they wouldn’t have any money to pay it off.

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Contagious Disease and Divorce Part 1

Bafed — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 19:54:19 +0000

Cited: ABC GMA

Experts are now comparing divorce with contagious diseases in close social groups. You can catch it if somebody close to you has it.

“Think of this ‘idea’ of getting divorced, this ‘option’ of getting divorced like a virus, because it spreads more or less the same way,” University of California, San Diego professor James Fowler told “Good Morning America.”

“When one person experiences divorce, it gives the people around them information about what that’s like,” he said.

According to new research done by Fowler, along with professors Nicholas Christakis and Rose McDermott, being friends with someone who gets divorced makes someone 147 percent more likely to get divorced themselves. A person who has a sibling who gets divorced is 22 percent more likely to also split from his spouse, the researchers say.

Fowler said someone does not necessarily have to get divorced himself to change the way divorce is viewed in a social group.

“You might have a friend, for example, who gets divorced, and that changes your mind about whether or not this is an appropriate option. And then you go and talk to a different friend about whether or not they should get divorced. And so one person’s divorce can travel through the network even though the person in the middle isn’t really affected,” Fowler said.

Husband: 32 ‘Very Good Years’ Ended in Divorce

For more than three decades, Dan Trimble thought he had a picture-perfect marriage. He and his wife, Grada, had two daughters and what he considered a life of adventure.

But he said everything changed two years ago when Trimble’s oldest daughter got divorced and the idea spread — like a “disease” according to Trimble — to his wife, who dissolved their own marriage.

“The 32 years we were married, for the most part, were very good years,” Trimble told “Good Morning America.” “We had a lot of memories. I was active duty Air Force. We were traveling all over the world.”

In the final years of his marriage, Trimble said, he and his wife had begun to grow apart. Trimble says at the time he did not realize that he and his wife were developing separate interests.

Then, two years ago, his daughter, Alycia Sheley, and his grandchildren, moved in with Trimble and his wife.

Sheley said she was having trouble in her marriage and decided to seek a divorce.

“In my family divorce was still a stigma; it was still a bad word. No one got divorced; you just didn’t do it, no matter what was going on in your marriage you stuck it out,” Sheley said. “To stand up against that … took a lot of courage for me.” Within a few months, Sheley said, she started dating an old friend from high school. Sheley soon found happiness in the new relationship, she said, and she moved out of her parents’ home. In October 2008, she married the man she began dating while living with her parents.

Trimble said seeing his daughter experience divorce and then find happiness changed his wife’s perspective on their marriage. Just a month after Sheley remarried, her mother asked Trimble for a divorce of her own.

Trimble and his daughter said they believe her divorce and new life “inspired” Trimble’s wife.

“Seeing how I came through it and came out on the other side in a better place and lived to tell about it, essentially kind of pushed [my mother] to stand up and say, ‘I am not happy in my own marriage,’” Sheley said.

Trimble said that while he does believe his wife decided to divorce him because of his daughter’s example, he does not blame his daughter.

Instead, he said, he compares their relationship to an immune system.

“If your immune system is up to full speed, and you’re good and healthy, you’re eating right, you’re sleeping right, you’re getting exercise … you can be subjected to people who have colds and flu,” he said. “But if your immune system is run down, and you get up against somebody who’s got a cold or maybe has the onset of the flu, you’re a pretty good suspect for coming down with it.

“I kind of think in my own particular situation, my marriage was a lot like that,” he said. “The best way I can describe it is as a disease.”

Trimble said his daughter’s decision to leave her husband — and then to begin a new relationship — served as a wake-up call for his wife.

“[My wife] saw the changes that it made in [my daughter],” he said. “She went from kind of an unhappy situation in her marriage to a situation now where her life was beginning to come back to the way life should be. With some fullness, and some meaning, and some happiness. And that sort of thing. And I think it kind of was a catalyst that gave her the momentum to say, ‘A change needs to be made, and I think is a change that we need to make.’”

Trimble’s ex-wife did not want to be interviewed by “Good Morning America,” but did confirm that Trimble’s account of their relationship and divorce is accurate.

The phenomenon of divorce — or other issues — spreading in social groups is not uncommon, according to Fowler’s research.

“Your friends influence you, your siblings influence you, even your co-workers influence you,” said Fowler, the co-author of “Connected: The Surprising Power of Our Social Networks and How They Shape Our Lives.”

For more than 10 years, Fowler and his colleagues have used research from the Framingham Heart Study to examine the scope of that influence. He said his research has demonstrated that problems such as smoking, drinking, even gaining weight can all be spread through a group.

More Divorce in Trimble Family

Trimble said he believes his family is a strong example of the type of phenomenon Fowler’s research outlines. His youngest daughter, Courtney Maples, is now also getting divorced.

“I think that same contagious thing that transferred from Alycia and her situation to my former spouse and me, transferred right on down the line to Courtney and her spouse,” he said.

While Maples said she and her husband had been having troubles in their marriage previously, she said it was only after seeing her mother and sister get divorced that she contemplated one herself.

Web-Extra Tips

Talk About It. Don’t hold your fears in. Talk to your spouse about your insecurity.

Ask For Reassurance. Simply and directly tell your partner you’re nervous and ask for his or her support.

Know When to Get Help. It may be that you have backed away from facing an issue because you’ve tried over and over again and gotten nowhere. That’s generally an indication that you need help. Don’t be shy about reaching out to a trained professional to unblock the channel of communication.

Continued in “Contagious Disease and Divorce Part 2“

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My Take: I think this is a will but ridiculous. When somebody is married for 20-30 years, there are going to be points in that marriage or they want to be with somebody else. That’s natural. If there are other problems, the couple is just ignored them until somebody brings into light and they start focusing on them. That is what makes it seem contagious.

Even a Bergen County divorce attorney or a Nashville TN divorce attorney will tell you to try counseling before putting up the money for a divorce. It may turn out that all you need to do is hire an Arlington maid for a while to give your wife a little bit of free time. On the other side of the coin, the husband may need to buy Viagra so he can please his wife a little bit more. Or it could be something so simple like listening and actually hearing what your spouse has to say.

You really should try before you hire a divorce litigation attorney in NJ. It also happens to show that you care, besides every husband or wife can use a little house cleaning DC once in a while. And if you do have ED, it’s a good idea to get to your doctor and get erectile dysfunction medication. You will both be much happier.

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Criminal Cases

If you’re involved in something other than a divorce case, such as a criminal case, you may wish to contact a Nashville TN criminal attorney who can assist you. They might hire a LA California court reporting service to gather depositions from witnesses to help your case. Like your attorney, the Los Angeles court reports are held to the attorney-client privilege rule and everything that is protected. Once your attorney has developed your defense, that is when your lawyer will either set a court date for request a dismissal.

Space as New Vacation Spot

Bafed — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 18:56:59 +0000

Cited: MSNBC

Space enthusiasts are going to have a huge choice to make when it comes to summer getaways soon. The rise of commercial space flight will allow anybody that can afford it a new choice in vacation spots.

From a simple trip to view a rocket launch, to an actual flight in space, there are options to suit all kinds and all budgets. And while many new space experiences come with a hefty price tag, there are still some options for the budget traveler.

Here are six space-related trips private citizens can take:

See America’s space centers

At the low end of the space tourism vacation plan are simple trips to NASA space centers or rocket launching sites at spaceports around the country, which come at the cost of plane tickets, a hotel stay and a rental car.

The two final space shuttle launches, set for Nov. 1, 2010 and Feb. 26, 2011, can be viewed from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., which is home to a visitor’s center that offers regular tours of the spaceport and programs on U.S. spaceflight history.

Unmanned rocket launches can be seen blasting off from the nearby Cape Canaveral Air Force station and from California’s Vandenberg Air Force Base, and occasional launches also lift off from Wallops Island in Virginia. [ Full Launch Schedule]

Tourists in Houston can also see how astronauts train at Johnson Space Center.

These centers also feature museums showcasing space memorabilia and actual rockets that have made the trip to space.

Slideshow: Space in living color

Kids and adults can both get a taste of the spaceflight experience at Space Camp, at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, Ala. This program offers the chance to ride space simulators and practice a mock space mission, complete with “anomalies” thrown at participants to test their coping skills.

Escaping gravity (kind of)

To get a step closer to flying in space, try a weightless flight on a modified jet — though you will to dig a bit deeper into your pocketbook.

The Zero Gravity Corporation offers weightless experiences aboard an airplane flying parabolic curves, though these flights typically go for about $4,950 a person. The service commercializes a type of flight used by NASA on its famed “vomit comet” aircraft to train astronauts for flying in space.

Parts of the film Apollo 13 were shot during a similar ride, and at least one couple even threw a weightless wedding aboard a ZERO-G flight. These trips can be brokered through Vienna, Va.-based space tourism firm Space Adventures.

Astronaut training for sale

Train like a pro at the National Aerospace Training and Research (NASTAR) Center outside Philadelphia. This facility offers immersive space training, including centrifuge simulators that make you feel the additional G’s of launch.

Virgin Galactic founder Sir Richard Branson is among NASTAR’s professional clients. For $5,800, trainees can go through a rigorous two-day space training program aimed at preparing future space tourists for flights on his firm’s SpaceShipTwo suborbital spacecraft.

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Suborbital flights

The next step for any aspiring astronaut is to take a suborbital joyride with one of the few private firms planning to offer quick flights to outer space.

These trips would fly above 62 miles (100 km) in altitude where space begins but would stop shy of entering Earth orbit. Passengers will experience up to five minutes of continuous weightlessness and get the chance to gaze out at 360-degree views of space and the Earth’s horizon below.

Slideshow: Great — summer has arrived

Prices start at $102,000 for a ride on Mesquite, Texas-based Armadillo Aerospace’s suborbital rocket ships currently in development. Those trips can also be booked through Space Adventures.

Competing firm Virgin Galactic is also planning to offer suborbital trips on its SpaceShipTwo craft, which would be carried into space by the company’s WhiteKnightTwo mothership. These trips would lift off from Spaceport America in New Mexico. The price for those flights starts at $200,000.

Seeing Earth from orbit

Suborbital flights may seem downright affordable when compared to a multimillion-dollar ticket to actual Earth orbit.

Space tourists can book seats on Russia’s Soyuz spacecraft (when available) and fly alongside professional astronauts to the International Space Station. These orbital tourist trips are brokered with the Russian Federal Space Agency through Space Adventures in Virginia.

Recent flights have gone for about $35 million, though prices are expected to rise to about $50 million for future seats. Soyuz slots will become scarce after the space shuttles retire next year, when the Russian spacecraft are the only option to transport astronauts to the space station.

Space Adventures has also offered a $15 million upgrade which would allow a customer to take a spacewalk in a Russian spacesuit in the past.

The company already has a waiting list for orbital trips, though especially eager recruits can get preferential access to available seats by paying $5 million to join Space Adventures’ Orbital Mission Explorers Circle.

Shoot for the moon

Really intrepid space explorers with uber-deep pockets - can become the first private citizens to visit the moon.

For $100 million, avid space tourists can book a seat aboard a dedicated Soyuz flight that would take them to orbit around the moon, offering up-close views of the lunar surface. This voyage, also available through Space Adventures, would allow for two paying passengers and one professional astronaut steering the ship.

One option that may be offered is for someone to have a private lunar flight.

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My Take: Wow! If I had the money, you bet I would take this vacation trip. I have dreamed of going to space since I was a kid just like many people. However, like many people I will not go to space on vacation. One thing I don’t think people are going to be taking on a space vacation will be their iPhone or computer.

Could you imagine how much it would cost for a New Jersey computer service to come fix their computer while on vacation? They definitely would have a problem if they needed their iPhone repair. I know I am making fun, but think about it. How many people go on vacations that do not take their computer or their cell phone? So it would be logical if they did they would need New York computer repair services or even a iPod repair service.

I am sure that NASA has great data recovery solutions to if somebody took their computer they would lose their data, maybe. They wouldn’t have to worry about data recovery if they had remote backup, but then it might take a while to back things up, considering how far they will be away from the earth.

I know I have been making jokes about this, but there are a lot of things people will do that are funny when it comes to vacation time.

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Postage Going up Again?

Bafed — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 18:44:39 +0000

Cited: AP

In January, citizens may be looking at a $.46 stamp. The post office is asking for an increase of the price of a stamp $.02. Due to the bad economy and e-mail, the post office has experienced massive losses and declining mail volume as it faces a financial crisis.

Postal officials announced a wide-ranging series of proposed price increases July 6, averaging about 5%, and covering first class, advertising mail, periodicals, packages and other services.

The request now goes to the independent Postal Rate Commission which has 90 days to respond. If approved, the increase would take effect Jan. 2.

“The Postal Service faces a serious risk of financial insolvency,” postal vice president Stephen M. Kearney said.

Kearney said the agency is facing a $7 billion loss in 2011. The rate increase will bring in an extra $2.5 billion, meaning it still faces a $4.7 billion loss.

The rate increase is part of a series of money-saving plans announced in March. These also include reducing mail deliveries to five days a week, closing offices and making other cuts in expenses. Congress must agree to eliminate deliveries on Saturdays.

While the cost of a first-class stamp would go up to 46 cents, people who bought “Forever” stamps at lower prices will still be able to use them for first-class mail without paying the difference.

Officials also said they plan a new design for Forever stamps, which currently have am image of the Liberty Bell. New Forever stamps will have images of evergreen trees. All Forever stamps would remain valid.

In addition to the $.46 rate for the first ounce of a letter the cost for each additional ounce would go up a penny to $.18. The cost to mail a post card would go up $.02 to $.30.

The price to send periodicals would go up about 8 percent and other rates for advertising mail, parcels and services will also go up by varying amounts.

The current $.44 first-class rate took effect May 11, 2009.

The agency lost $3.8 billion last fiscal year despite cutting 40,000 full-time positions and making other reductions. It has continued to face significant losses this year.

The weak economy has sharply reduced mail volume as companies cut their advertising. At the same time there has been a significant drop in lucrative first-class mail, with more and more people turning to the Internet to communicate with each other as well as to receive and pay bills.

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The proposal drew a prompt complaint from the mailing industry.

“This proposed rate increase amounts to another tax imposed on Americans at a time when the economy can least afford it,” said Tony Conway, executive director of the Alliance of Nonprofit Mailers, a group representing charities and other organizations.

“Consumers everywhere will pay more for the letters and packages they need to send; businesses — large and small — will suffer and even more jobs will be lost,” complained Conway, who was designated spokesman for the Affordable Mail Alliance, a coalition of businesses, charities and other mailers formed to oppose the increase.

Postal officials also have proposed eliminating Saturday mail delivery as a means of cutting costs, a change that would require congressional approval.

Post office finances are also complicated by the requirement that the agency make annual payments to pre-fund future health benefits for retirees, something not required of other government agencies.

According to the postal inspector general, the Postal Service has been overcharged for retirement benefits of previous employees. These billions of dollars are for retirement benefits of employees, who were employed by the Post Office Department before it was converted to the Postal Service in 1970.

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My Take: If those employees paid in the money, then they should get the benefits no matter who would boss is! What they need is a Bergen County accountant to straighten things out for them. Maybe they should hire New York QuickBooks services to straighten things out.

The postal inspector general needs to set back and grab his E-cigarette and relax. (If you don’t know what it is, it is one of the smokeless cigarettes.) Those people paid into their retirement benefits and should be paid. Nobody can help it if they live longer than their retirement benefits were supposed to last.

Maybe he should go out and do what women do when they get upset, buy Laguna Beach jeans. At least women seem to find it relaxing. So Mister postal inspector general, go buy a pair of Mek denim jeans and relax.

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Rock-Bottom Rates Has Housing Sector on Edge

Bafed — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 18:39:25 +0000

Cited: ABC News

Since the Eisenhower era, interest rates for homebuyers haven’t been lower and home prices all over the country have fallen drastically

Buyers who qualified for the federal tax credit program that ended in April, meanwhile, were given extra time, through the end of September, to close on their homes.

And yet, home sales are in decline. Existing home sales fell 2.2% in May compared to the prior month, the National Association of Realtors said in June. Pending home sales — contracts signed but not closed — dropped 30% in May, the NAR said July 1.

As perplexing and disturbing as this economic brainteaser may seem, the housing sector would be in even worse shape if not for those twin government sponsored enterprises, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, both in government conservatorship and bleeding assets.

Such a scenario, a housing market propped up by Fannie and Freddie, several economic experts admit glumly, is akin to running a power plant on an auxiliary generator that is jumper-cabled to a car running on fumes.

“As bad as the housing price situation is, it’d be even worse if not for the cheap mortgage financing enabled by Fannie and Freddie, as scary as that sounds,” said Dan Alpert, managing partner of Westwood Capital LLC, a New York-based investment bank.

Beleaguered as they may be, Fannie and Freddie still are pumping liquidity into a near-bone-dry mortgage loan market, primarily by converting pools of loans into mortgage-backed securities, and by guarantying such securities.

Both Freddie and Fannie, having failed two summers ago, are 79.9% owned by the U.S. government, which means that the remaining 20.1% is still owned by the investing public.

However, shares of both are trading well under $1. In fact, $1 would be enough to buy a share of each and still have some spare change.

Both Fannie and Freddie are about to become de-listed by the New York Stock Exchange, which has rules about companies trading below $1 for an extended period of time. So starting July 8 these once mighty enterprises will trade alongside penny stocks on the Over-the-Counter Bulletin Board, a place where many companies go to die.

Those who are having renovations done . . . The National Home Valuation Study has shown that a distinctive front entry door can considerably increase a homes perceived value. Once a prospective buyer has entered the home, the same can be said about interior wood doors. Nothing makes a whole more beautiful than beautiful doors.

While it’s doubtful Fannie and Freddie ever will return to anything resembling solvent, it’s difficult to contemplate how the U.S. mortgage market could function without the nearly $6 trillion in funding they provide to this market and the institutions that comprise it.

Talk about being between a rock and a hard place. After the Dodd-Frank financial reform bill made it through the House-Senate reconciliation phase in late June, Republican critics immediately blasted the legislation’s failure to address the problems and risks to taxpayers surrounding Freddie and Fannie, although no one on either side of the aisle has much to offer by way of a solution. Too big to fail, and too broke to fix.

“It’s a problem that can’t be ignored much longer, but at the same time, with the economy still not fully recovered and the housing market still wobbly, now is definitely not the time to pull the plug,” said Paul Leonard, a spokesman for the Housing Policy Council in Washington, D.C.

The HPC, part of the Financial Services Roundtable, a financial industry lobbying group, has advocated replacing Freddie and Fannie at some point in the not-too-distant future by new private-sector enterprises that would be known as Mortgage Securities Insurance Companies. MSICs would provide the same liquidity to the mortgage market as the GSEs do, except without the implicit government guarantee.

While MSICs would not be backed by the government, the HPC’s proposal calls for the government to provide an “explicit” backup-guarantee directly on mortgage backed securities that are insured by the MSICs, John Dalton, HPC president said recently during a roundtable sponsored by the Smith School’s Center for Financial Policy.

“To be clear, this catastrophic guarantee would not apply to the MSICs themselves; it would apply only to the [mortgage backed securities] that they guarantee,” Dalton said. “Without such a guarantee, investors in MBS will seek other investments, and as they do so, the level of funds available for housing finance will be reduced and the cost of mortgage loans will increase.”

The proposal, which, according to the HPC’s Leonard, has gotten positive response from Wall Street banks, would open the door for a new kind of mortgage lending behemoth but limit the government’s guarantee to a form of “catastrophic reinsurance,” covering interest and principal payments on MBS only after all private capital backing an MBS is exhausted.

Gilbert Leistner, a Swiss-based financial industry consultant and a member of the Chicago Board of Trade, has a more blunt approach for dealing with Fannie and Freddie: “Euthanize them,” he said.

Kevin Duffy, co-founder of Bearing Asset Management in Dallas, said his firm, which has $75 million in assets, began shorting Fannie eight years ago when shares traded around $70 and Freddie when it was around $50.

“They are hemorrhaging right now and the taxpayer is keeping them on life support,” he said. “You have a sliver of equity on a mountain of debt. They need to be put down. Sever all ties to the government and let the private sector run the mortgage market, painful as that will be.”

However, rates have no place to go but up and they are now at the lowest in over half a century. Drake also stated that mortgage rates may spike in the future.

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My Take: I hope they don’t spike too soon. I am in the process of trying to buy a home. I am what has been termed as an a “1st time home buyer” because the only thing I’ve owned has been a mobile home. I thought for sure I would have to eliminate credit debt to qualify, but my credit score was good enough. I thought for sure that because of my bankruptcy 10 years ago I would not qualify. However, I do not have to face that same situation of bankruptcy vs debt settlement because I have been watching what I buy.

In my search I found some beautiful property like the Palisades real estate, it was gorgeous. And then there is a piece of South Nyack real estate in a beautiful country setting, again gorgeous. However, I live in Arizona and I do not want to move to Nyack New York.

So I have been limiting research to Phoenix AZ foreclosures because they are cheaper and I can get a loan for that amount. Phoenix home buyers have a lot of choices in foreclosures. Unfortunately, many of the people who were the owners tore them apart because they were mad they lost the house. This means that whoever buys a house has to fix it up. Luckily, I qualify for a first-time home buyers program that helps with not only the down payment but refurbishment costs as well. I can’t wait to get my new house!

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New construction on the Rise

According to various sources across the country, new construction of homes has begun to rise again. If you are having your home built for you, you may want to contact one of the Colorado construction law lawyers to make sure that your contract is above board. There are a lot of people out there that are scamming the uninitiated. Remember, it’s back your new home completely, if it is not done to your specifications and it causes a death you may need Denver wrongful death attorneys.