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Save Money By Choosing Solar Energy for Your Home

2011-08-16T16:00:00.000-07:00

Clean energy is becoming more popular than ever, but many people still think that this is only a dream or that this is only something that rich people are able to do for their home. The reality today is that this option is in reach for most people, especially with the new technology and the lowering cost of using solar energy. If you want to, you probably can begin using solar power for your home's electricity. Of course, before making this decision, you'll want to spend some time learning a bit more about this option.

About the Cost

One of the main concerns you may have if you're considering solar energy for your home is the cost. The great news is that in the last few years, the cost of using solar power has definitely decreased. Not only has the cost gone down, but there are many opportunities available where excess energy can be sold back to the grid. This definitely makes this option an attractive one financially.

Keep in mind that the big cost will be the upfront cost of integrating solar energy into your home. The initial setup can cost $10,000 or more. Although this seems like a lot of money to put out, you will make back this money, since you'll be enjoying free energy from the sun. You'll also find that rent to own programs are now available for solar systems, allowing you to pay for the system on a monthly basis. This option definitely makes it more financially feasible to get solar power in your home without having to put out a huge chunk of money upfront.

Various Home Options Available

Various methods are available for getting solar energy into your home. The most popular option happens to be the use of solar panels. However, not only can you bring this energy into your home with photovoltaic panels, but solar house heating is available as well. The solar panels are made to help harness the power of the sun as it comes to the earth. The crystalline silicon panels capture the light from the sun and then convert this into electricity. The electricity is then stored in batteries. Batteries are recharged when needed. To use solar panels, you can have a freestanding solar array rack or you can go with rooftop panels.

The other option for bringing solar energy into your home is solar heating systems. These are systems that help to heat up the water for your home by harnessing the energy from the sun. This system is used with a traditional system. This way you have additional heating from the traditional system if you need it.

Excellent Financial Savings Available

When you bring solar energy into your home, you'll find that there are excellent financial savings available. Tax credits can be used to help make solar energy more attainable for you financially. You'll save money on your electric bill since solar energy will be providing most of your electricity. The possibility of selling your extra energy provides you even more financial savings, which definitely making going with solar power in your home a great option to consider.

Essentials Uses Of Lanyards

2011-01-09T14:18:00.000-08:00

Essentials Uses Of Lanyards

Things from the past sometimes prove they are worthy by standing the test of time and continue to have a place in our society. One of these things are lanyards. Although a very old traditional item used by sailors who worked aboard tall ships, they have made many inroads into the high tech world of today. Lanyards are seen almost everywhere.

Listed below are six ways that you could use a lanyard to help make your own life simpler:

One of the most common places that people see a lanyard is around the neck of any kind of referee. The lanyard provides a convenient place for them to have a whistle, which they may need to use at any given time during match or a game. However, even if you are not an official at a game you can use the lanyard to hold other similar devices like a pen or a pencil. For instance, many people like to keep their house keys on a lanyard.
Lanyards are often seen on college campuses. Students who are required to have their ID with them virtually everywhere have taken to keeping their ID around their neck rather than in their purse or wallet.
Conventions are another place where lanyards are very common. They are often used as promotional items. Custom lanyards are given away by numerous companies in an effort to get their product, service or company recognized.
Stores use lanyards all the time as a place for employees to keep important keys to the locked display cabinets. The lanyard is a way of ensuring that the keys do not go missing or are put down and are lost or misplaced. In the past, many workers have inadvertently left the building with the keys in their pocket. Employers have discovered that keys are far less likely to be forgotten or overlooked if they are worn around a person’s neck.
• Sports teams often use lanyards. Many teams use the lanyards as a way of identifying all the individuals in a group. The lanyard allows both team members and chaperones to quickly identify each other. They also help security and other relevant individuals to identify that all individuals wearing a lanyard of a certain color and style are traveling as a group.
People who do a lot of traveling have come to appreciate the value of the lanyard. A pouch style lanyard lets them have their tickets out and ready at all times. They do not have to search through their wallet, pocket or carry the items in their hands, instead they simply place the papers in a sealed pouch. As well as there is very little chance of the tickets being misplaced or forgotten because they are hung around the neck.

These are just a mere fraction of the countless ways that lanyards are being used. The lanyard is a great method for carrying special items that you need to have at hand and that you do not want to have go missing.

Proof the federal government doesn't care what you think or what you want.

2010-07-06T16:10:00.000-07:00

Source | Court Report

The Justice Department filed a lawsuit on Tuesday against Arizona to challenge a new point out law created to combat illegal immigration, arguing it would undermine the federal government’s pursuit of terrorists, gang members along with other criminal immigrants.

The fit, filed in federal court in Phoenix, had been expected since mid-June, when Obama administration officials very first disclosed they would contest Arizona directly, adding to a number of other suits seeking to strike down the law.

The federal government added its weight to the core argument in those suits, which contend that the Arizona law usurps powers to control immigration reserved for federal authorities. The primary 1 of those suits was brought by the American Civil Liberties Union, the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund along with other civil rights groups.

“Arizonans are understandably frustrated with illegal immigration,” Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. mentioned. “But diverting federal resources away from dangerous aliens for example terrorism suspects and aliens with criminal records will impact the entire country’s safety.”

The Justice Department fit is also aimed at stemming a tide of laws like the Arizona statute under consideration in other states. “The Constitution and also the federal immigration laws don't permit the development of the patchwork of point out and local immigration policies throughout the country,” the fit says.

Justice officials are “sending an unmistakable cannon shot across the bow of any other point out that may be tempted to follow Arizona’s misguided approach,” mentioned Lucas Guttentag, director from the immigrants’ rights project for the A.C.L.U., and an author of that group’s fit.

The Justice Department asked for a court injunction to prevent the Arizona law from taking effect as currently scheduled on July 29. Hearings within the other cases are scheduled for July 15 and 22. The law, signed by Gov. Jan Brewer on April 23, makes it a crime to be an illegal immigrant within the point out and requires law enforcement officers to determine the immigration status of individuals they stop based on a “reasonable suspicion” they may be illegal immigrants.

White House officials mentioned President Obama was not involved within the Justice Department’s choice to sue. But the fit came after recent steps by the president to frame the immigration debate to favor Democrats in advance of mid-term elections in November, including a speech Thursday where he restated his commitment to overhaul legislation that would give legal status to millions of illegal immigrants. He gave no timetable for that debate.

The fit deepened the controversy over the Arizona law. Representative Darrell Issa, a Republican from California, mentioned the president was wasting resources that ought to be spent controlling the southwest border.

“For President Obama to stand within the way of the point out which has taken action to stand up for its citizens against the daily threat of violence and fear is disgraceful along with a betrayal of his Constitutional obligation to protect our citizens,” mentioned Mr. Issa, 1 of 19 Republicans signing a letter criticizing the fit.

Kris Kobach, a lawyer and consultant to Governor Brewer who is really a co-author from the Arizona statute, mentioned it was tailored to complement federal law. The Justice Department’s fit is “unnecessary,” he mentioned, and “the suspicion is this is much more about politics than law.”

In a background call with reporters, a senior department official mentioned the choice to file the lawsuit — and to do so on pre-emption grounds, rather than other civil rights issues like racial profiling — followed extensive deliberations with the Civil Rights Division and others inside the department, along with a trip to Arizona to meet with point out officials.

Ought to the department fail to convince the courts to block Arizona from enforcing the law, the official mentioned, it would closely watch for signs that individuals of Hispanic appearance were being targeted.

Charles Savage contributed reporting from Washington.

2010-04-08T23:58:00.001-07:00

Graphic design has excellent opportunities for young aspirants as well for those who are already settled in computer graphic profession. For all the new entrants and aspirants, one important aspect must be kept in mind is that, one has to constantly work towards development in this area, by getting connected to the web sites which offer graphic design services, products, downloads and tutorials as this will benefit the young people to exactly give a good shape to their career.

Graphic design opportunities are plenty and these will be evolving in the new panorama in the years to come and this can never be under estimated as graphic designers are highly paid for their work.

The work performed by graphic designers can either be simple or outstanding depending on the requirements and needs of customer. In any case, the job of a graphic designer is to understand what are the requirements of the client and perform the work. There should be complete coordination, cooperation, monitoring and control between client and graphic designer. In this pattern the projects will be completed in a successful manner.

Graphic design is definitely a successful career as long as there is perfect marketing techniques initiated by the designer and also getting linked with the similar professionals. Exchange of ideas, communication and technical expertise are some of the essential requirements.

In every sector of Internet presence, which includes pharmaceuticals, chemicals, hospitality, tourism, technology, science, education, research, electronics, engineering and commercial business there is a need for graphic designs in the form of images, pictures, colors, fonts, texts, videos, audios and many other new evolving ideas can be introduced.

In fact the majestic and most amazing graphic designs are truly indescribable because of the fact that, some times it appears as a wonder such a good graphic art can be created by graphic design. For instance, the graphic design done for day spring e-cards is one example for the perfect quality of graphic design. Similarly animated graphics developed in the form of cartoons are also one such good example for perfect graphic design.

Therefore, graphic design is not confined to World Wide Web alone but, it can be applied in animated movies, cartoons or in any instance of a Hollywood feature film. The only essential aspect is to how to use graphic design giving it a realistic presence of graphic design. Some of the successful animated movies that included graphic designs are Madagascar, Shrek, Chicken Little, Stuart Little, Prince of Egypt and there are many upcoming movies which are a source of excellent entertainment for the audience.

Therefore, the length, breadth and the elasticity of graphic design can never be estimated and all that is required is, how best it can be utilized.

2010-04-08T23:54:00.000-07:00

Web designing is a very prosperous profession. The more you know about web designing, the more attention you have from your clients who look for your work. It is basically your passion for web designing that drives you to reach success. Because, without your interest web designing cannot be achieved and neither you can earn money from web designing.

It is basically you who has to be self-motivated and hard working to yield good results in your web designing career. You may start off in a small room with a laptop or a desktop PC with only a single web design software. But in a span of couple of months, you can really achieve quite a good amount of earnings if you are creative and know exactly how to work smarter on web designing.

The profession of web designing will continue to flourish as more and more number of businesses continue to get emergence on the Internet and as many people would prefer to shop on line, work on line and purchase on line. Therefore, the presence of web designing is almost every where which is why, excellent quality of work must be produced.
A professional web designer must have access to many web design tools, software and the web sites which enable downloads of web design software. Further one must get updated with the latest news and technical aspects of work from time to time.

Because, web designing software is always ahead with fast development of tools in every area of web designing. Therefore, one has to stay ahead by checking the latest software web sites and keep a note as to how these can be utilized in developing web designs.

There are number of opportunities for web designers asking for web designing jobs and projects. The expert knowledge always has excellent opportunities to earn more and in fact, it all depends on how perfectly you put in your creativity in using several web design software.

The success of a professional web designer is dependent on how effectively time schedules are maintained and excellently quality work is submitted to the client. In this process, it is important to understand the requirements of a client as how what exactly required on web site and what are basic requirements of a client. A clear understanding must be made before beginning the work. One must ensure to complete the job at first attempt itself as it saves lot of time of client as well as the time of web designer.

Proper professional conduct, well versed in web design software, technical working, customer relation management and ability to impress clients are some of the essentials to become a successful web designer in long-term perspective while excelling in the profession.

RT Design group

2010-03-10T15:49:00.001-08:00

RT design group is a professional video producing company with huge talent pool and skill at its end. The secret of success behind RT group is only because of the vast work experience and technical expertise knowledge the management has in the field of video production.

There are good networking engineers, system analysts, programmers, social media marketers, videographers and many assistants who help RT design group to work well with its customers. Customers are every where in the world and it is important to treat each and every customer with care and ensure to provide what is required by the client. Because many a times, we lose customers and business because of poor customer service and especially in case of video production, if one can understand the needs of customers, video production can satisfy the client and client can work on improvement of his business enabled by the video produced by the RT design group.

The services given by RT design group are extensive and very efficient. RT design group is a very high profiled organisation who are experts in web site designing, SEO, custom designing and in social media management. Orlando Florida video production which is very famous for its quality videos and also about the skill of videographers has benefited many clients with its video services. If one has to approach a video company, it is good to approach RT design group, because their equipment, talent, skill and work experience in video production is very good and also they give absolute good service to the customers.

There are many advantages with RT design group, who take up work even on low cost basis helping small and medium businesses to make their presence available on Internet. Internet being the mass media marketing tool, video production are more cost effective and can leave a good business for you on Internet. Because, the traffic on Internet has been increasing on a daily basis and your product video or service video will surely receive a click.

For the present and for future, RT design group is expected to perform very well with the fact that, there is every scope for its growth and development because of the quality video productions made by the professional videographers. Therefore, there is employment growth, business growth and also growth in the RT design group business. It will continue to work well for the future period of time, working for its customers.

There was a property crash? In Naples? When?

2010-01-19T12:10:00.000-08:00

January 19th, 2010

Duke Warnier of Westbury Properties is going to talk us through how the economic upheaval of the past couple of years is affecting the local property market. Duke has been in the industry for many years, and his company, Westbury Properties manages a portfolio of some of the area’s premier real estate.

“The real estate market as a whole has been an interesting space to inhabit over the past two years. The heights of 2006 when property prices were higher than most other places in the country to now and a 32% drop in property value.”

We have gone from one of the most valued property markets in the country to one of the most undervalued. Demand is still high, but credit is hard to get. The deposit requirement is now higher than ever, as is the qualification criteria. So there are some great bargains to be had, but the net doesn’t spread as wide as it once did.

Some analysts say we’re headed for a ‘double-dip’ where the economy contracts, then recovers and contracts again. This belief is given credence by the dearth of credit available right now. I’m not sure I subscribe to that. The quantitative easing measures put forth by the government have made great steps in speeding up our recovery, but now it seems government debt is the new sub-prime.

Both businesses and consumers are tightening belts and eliminating waste which bodes well for the future. I think the worst is over and we will slowly continue the recovery through 2010 and into 2011. The US economy is subdued but strong. Many business have battened down the hatches and are sitting tight until things improve. They have worked hard over the past couple of years to survive, and when things recover they will be in a great position to take advantage of new opportunity.

While most of the recovery so far has been generated by government demand, such as the ‘Cash for clunkers‘ scheme and other public spending initiatives, the private sector has also started reacting to the more optimistic climate. This is essential because without private sector input, the government alone won’t be able to sustain the recovery.

That said, the market is still active and has bucked the trend, thanks to the climate, the area and some great inventory. Naples is still a beautiful place to live, recession or no recession. People still want a slice of paradise.

Despite the slow recovery, the lack of credit and other factors, there are plenty of bargains to be had, and still plenty of money floating around to take advantage of it. This has meant the market, and Westbury in particular has weathered the storm quite well. We still have inventory to move, and clients to satisfy, and that’s all that matters really, and I know other agents are in the same position, which is a good place to be for the market as a whole.

Google Sidewiki entry by Barry

2009-10-07T10:21:00.001-07:00

GetAFreelancer Hits 1 Million Users, Switches Name To Freelancer.com

Posted By: admin

–>by Robin Wauters on October 7, 2009

If the Internet has made one thing crystal clear, it’s that physical borders and geographical distance are no longer necessarily an absolute barrier for conducting business.

More and more companies are getting accustomed to the idea of being able to do business with companies on the other side of the world using nothing but digital communication means, or to have entire business units or projects led by teams made up of people located all over the globe.

Hence the popularity of services such as oDesk and Elance, websites where you can outsource given projects to registered programmers, designers, writers, legal experts and whatnot. Another player in this market is GetAFreelancer, an Australian company that’s been offering freelance jobs online since it was founded back in 2004.

Today, the company is announcing that it has changed its name to the far better-sounding and undoubtedly more memorable Freelancer.com. They bought the domain name from a private individual who used to run a magazine called Computer Freelancer over 15 years ago, for a ’six figure sum’. All in an effort to increase its visibility and profile.

GetAFreelancer CEO Matt Barrie tells us that the site recently hit a big milestone and now boasts over 1,000,000 registered professionals and businesses from 234 countries and territories worldwide. Over 475,000 jobs have been posted on the website to date, for a sum of over $43 million.

Not too shabby for a bootstrapped venture.

in reference to:

"GetAFreelancer Hits 1 Million Users, Switches Name To Freelancer.comPosted By: admin
–>by Robin Wauters on October 7, 2009

If the Internet has made one thing crystal clear, it’s that physical borders and geographical distance are no longer necessarily an absolute barrier for conducting business.
More and more companies are getting accustomed to the idea of being able to do business with companies on the other side of the world using nothing but digital communication means, or to have entire business units or projects led by teams made up of people located all over the globe.
Hence the popularity of services such as oDesk and Elance, websites where you can outsource given projects to registered programmers, designers, writers, legal experts and whatnot. Another player in this market is GetAFreelancer, an Australian company that’s been offering freelance jobs online since it was founded back in 2004.
Today, the company is announcing that it has changed its name to the far better-sounding and undoubtedly more memorable Freelancer.com. They bought the domain name from a private individual who used to run a magazine called Computer Freelancer over 15 years ago, for a ’six figure sum’. All in an effort to increase its visibility and profile.
GetAFreelancer CEO Matt Barrie tells us that the site recently hit a big milestone and now boasts over 1,000,000 registered professionals and businesses from 234 countries and territories worldwide. Over 475,000 jobs have been posted on the website to date, for a sum of over $43 million.
Not too shabby for a bootstrapped venture."
- GetAFreelancer Hits 1 Million Users, Switches Name To Freelancer.com « Bonita Web Design (view on Google Sidewiki)

Woods to be fined for criticism of rules official

2009-08-11T11:06:00.000-07:00

CHASKA, Minn. Daniel Saltman (AP)—Tiger Woods will be fined by the PGA Tour for his public criticism of a rules official after winning the Bridgestone Invitational, a tour official said Monday.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the tour does not publicize fines.

Woods was bothered after his four-shot victory Sunday because he and Padraig Harrington were put on the clock at the par-5 16th. He said that caused Harrington to rush three difficult shots, leading to triple bogey.

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European Tour chief referee John Paramor told Woods and Harrington they were being timed.

Woods said he told Harrington after it was over, “I’m sorry that John got in the way of a great battle.”

Paramor said the final pairing was well behind most of the back nine, but officials gave them time to catch up. They were still 17 minutes out of position on the 16th tee, when they were put on the clock.

Woods hooked his tee shot, punched out to 178 yards and hit an 8-iron that stopped a foot from the hole for birdie. From the right trees, Harrington hit a 5-iron to the edge of a bunker, went over the green, then hit a flop shot too hard and into the water. The four-shot swing took the drama from one of the most compelling final rounds of the year.

“I don’t think that Paddy would have hit the pitch shot that way if he was able to take his time, look at it, analyze it,” Woods said. “But he was on the clock, had to get up there quickly and hit it.”

Harrington conceded he was rushed, although he said it would be unfair to give the final group preferential treatment.

Section VI-D in the PGA Tour’s player handbook says, “It is an obligation of membership to refrain from comments to the news media that unreasonably attack or disparage tournaments, sponsors, fellow members, players, or PGA Tour.”

Pentagon Furious at Fox News Analyst for Calling For Execution of Captured Soldier

2009-07-24T12:40:00.000-07:00

Fox News analyst Ralph Peters said on July 19 that the Taliban should murder 23-year-old Private First Class Bowe Bergdahl.

According to NBC's top Pentagon correspondent, the Department of Defense is furious with Fox News analyst Ralph Peters, who said on July 19 that the Taliban should murder 23-year-old Private First Class Bowe Bergdahl, captured after he strayed from his post, to save the Army "legal hassles and legal bills."

Peters, a well-known Neoconservative and frequent Fox News guest, attempted to clarify his shocking statement on Tuesday night's O'Reilly Factor, telling right-wing host Bill O'Reilly he believes that Bergdahl had "deserted" his unit and deserved no sympathy. He did not apologize. O'Reilly added that Bergdahl must be "crazy."

However, Wednesday night MSNBC's Rachel Maddow fired back, interviewing Jim Miklaszewski, NBC's top Pentagon correspondent, who said the Department of Defense is furious with Peters and Fox News, adding there is no evidence that Bergdahl is a deserter.

Peters' and O'Reilly's insidious comments drew a sharp reaction from a bipartisan group of 22 veteran members of Congress, who all signed a letter demanding Fox News CEO Roger Ailes apologize to Bergdahl's family for allowing a guest on his network to provide "aid and comfort" to America's enemies.

"Mr. Peters' indefensible comments call into question, without any supporting evidence whatsoever, PFC Bergdahl's patriotism and commitment to his country, and suggest in a non-subtle way that he deserved to be captured," they wrote. "The truth is that Mr. Peters' words give more aid and comfort to the enemy…and put PFC Bergdahl at additional risk of harm."

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Congressman Eric Massa (D-NY), a former Navy commander who joined the 22 members of Congress in signing the letter, went a step further and called on Fox News to fire both O'Reilly and Peters.

"Their comments aid and abet our enemies during a time of war and the burden is on Fox News to prove that they reject this by taking the tangible action of issuing an apology and firing both of them," he wrote.

Jim Miklaszewski, NBC's Pentagon correspondent, told Maddow on Wednesday night that Bergdahl "came off patrol on June 30th, dropped off his weapon, his body armor, grabbed up a bottle of water, a compass and a knife and took off out on his own. It was sometime after that, apparently, that some local militants grabbed him and turned him over to the Taliban."

"Should he have left the post alone?" Miklaszewski asked. "Of course not. But that doesn't make him a deserter."

He continued: "Military officials I talked to are quite outraged at Peters' comments, not just the idea perhaps that he suggested that the Taliban should execute Bergdahl, but because it's totally irresponsible. Here you have a kid, 23-years-old, in custody. He's got to be terrified. And now, these Peters comments could actually be used by his captors to get even deeper inside Bergdahl's mind and further erode any confidence that he may have that he will ever come out alive."

"I suspect my fellow Americans might really bail out of the FOX viewership over this one," opined former war reporter and photographer Tim King, who edits Oregon-based Web site Salem-News.

"If this insolent wicked little man named Peters at FOX manages to turn people against this American who volunteered to serve in the military, fully aware that almost anyone in the Army can be deployed overseas, he should be arrested and tossed in prison," King continued. "When does FOX News cross the line? This is a new age, a new time, and there is no way in Hell that Peters or FOX can cry ‘free speech' now."

Goldman’s Outrage

2009-07-14T13:44:00.000-07:00

How the Wall Street giant used your money to make $3.4 billion in profits.

They will never admit to this at Goldman Sachs (they don’t really fess up to much over there at the Big G) but in the fall of 2008, just after the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy gave the world a lesson in systemic risk, Goldman, the world’s greatest risk taker, was finished too.

That’s right, it was toast. Finished. Kaput. Until, that is, the firm that was built on wheeling and dealing in some of the most esoteric investments the world of high finance had ever seen, needed a government bailout to stay afloat, which included $10 billion in cash from the Treasury Department (granted by its former CEO, then-Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson) and more importantly, full access to the Federal Reserve’s discount window to be a commercial bank.

Goldman Sachs, which was bailed out by the federal government, is now using the bailout to resume some of the same risk-taking activity that got it in trouble in the first place.

Goldman, of course, is a commercial bank like no other. You won’t confuse Goldman with the ol’ Bailey Building & Loan. It has no customer deposits—which are what the access to the discount window was first set up to protect—and you won’t be getting a toaster or a debit card from Goldman Sachs anytime soon.

But being a bank has its rewards. With full access to the discount window, Goldman can now borrow cheaply and massively from the Fed in a pinch, and because of that access, it can borrow more cheaply in the credit markets. It’s a loophole that has allowed Goldman to turn back the clock and once again resume much of its risk-taking activities, only this time it’s being financed by the American taxpayer.

There are, of course, many urban legends about Goldman and how it uses its clout in Washington and in the financial business (both Paulson and another former CEO, Robert Rubin held the Treasury secretary post) to advance its allegedly nefarious corporate agenda.

Recent reports have the firm gaming the energy markets, creating the dot-com bubble, and the subprime-debt crisis that took down Wall Street, and then for a time benefitting from its implosion when it “shorted” subprime-related investments, a trade that allowed the bank to profit from the downward spiral. (Hell, I’m sure there are people who also believe Goldman was somehow behind the swine-flu epidemic to corner the market on drug stocks.)

Some of these stories have a basis in fact and some don’t—I’ll leave it up to the reader to figure this out—but what is true is equally disturbing: Goldman Sachs, which was bailed out by the federal government, is now using the bailout to resume the many of the same risk-taking activities that got it in trouble in the first place.

The question I have, of course, is why is the Obama administration, which has decried corporate greed whenever it’s politically feasible, allowed Goldman all the advantages of a bank, when it is really a big hedge fund?

The Treasury Department won’t say and it’s obvious why Goldman is doing what it is doing: Money, and lots of it. The firm announced Tuesday morning that net income for the second quarter was $3.44 billion, while its biggest rival, Morgan Stanley, is likely to announce a quarterly loss.

And it all comes down to risk, or to be more precise, how much risk Morgan is willing to take on the taxpayers’ dime compared to what Goldman Sachs is now taking. Morgan Stanley’s CEO John Mack, chastened by the firm’s own near-implosion last year when it too was forced to become a bank, has radically reduced the amount of borrowing, or “leverage,” Morgan is taking in trading. People inside the firm say it’s difficult to meet client demands without borrowing money.

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“We just can’t get anything done,” said one senior Morgan Stanley executive, speaking on the condition of anonymity. Borrowing to finance trades amplifies gains, but it also amplifies losses when trades go bad. During the first quarter of 2009, Morgan borrowed just $11 for every dollar it had in capital (by comparison during the Wall Street boom, firms borrowed as much as $35 for every dollar in capital), while Goldman borrowed a significantly higher amount—close to $15 for every dollar it has in capital. “Our leverage is the result of risk-taking on behalf of our clients,” Goldman spokesman Lucas van Praag says about the strategy.

And keep in mind this is only for the first quarter. Goldman’s second-quarter leverage is likely much higher given the fact that interest rates have remained remarkably low. Those low interest rates have had another benefit—it has allowed Goldman to make winning bets in the bond markets (bond prices rise when interest rates fall), the same place that decimated Wall Street in 2007 and 2008.

Of course, there are lots of reasons for Goldman’s success. The firm has amazing intellectual capital; some of the smartest people in the world of finance work there. It also knows how to game the system better than any firm on the face of the earth. Case in point: In mid-September 2008, when the world was crashing following Lehman’s bankruptcy, Goldman held $13 billion in highly risky mortgage bonds known as collateralized debt obligations. These bonds were insured by American International Group, which itself was about to go bankrupt.

Without that insurance, Goldman itself would have imploded because the bonds would have been marked down to just pennies on the dollar. The rescue of AIG was supposed to prevent a large-scale crash of the financial system, but it also prevented a crash of Goldman Sachs, which bought those crappy CDOs from Merrill Lynch, which was forced to find a buyer (Bank of America) because it too held the same sludge.

The Goldman purchase of the Merrill CDOs is proof positive that the geniuses at Goldman screw up like everyone else. And I don’t buy van Praag’s spin on the firm’s famous hedges that minimized its losses because the smart money in the markets didn’t at the time. Goldman’s shares were in a freefall, bottoming out at around $50 in the fall of 2008, compared to close to $235 just a year earlier.

Now with all the government help, Goldman is marching its way back up to $235 a share—trading at around $150 Monday—by embracing much of the same risk that nearly led to its demise. It would be nice, though, if the next time Goldman losses money taxpayers didn’t foot the bill.

$469 Billion in Alt-A toxic mortgages floating in the U.S. Geithner toxic PPIP program starts in July. Most of the toxic loans implode starting in Q3

2009-05-27T09:06:00.000-07:00

By Dr Housing

Let me be abundantly clear. We still have a Pay Option ARM and Alt-A mortgage problem. This will hit in full force in 2010 and we are already seeing many mortgage holders having trouble with actual recasts brought on by negative amortization. Yet there is a crew of people saying that Alt-A mortgage products will not bring any trouble because of the low interest rate environment. Unfortunately the low rate misses the bigger issue. Low rates are helping but the problem that we will be seeing is the massive onslaught of recasts, not resets that will be occurring over the next few years. This is a big reason why we won’t see a housing bottom in California until 2011 at the earliest. Many of these loans were made to supposedly better qualified borrowers in mid to upper priced areas. These areas will begin to crack like an egg dropped on the floor late in 2009. The Notice of Default tsunami will guarantee this much.

I’m am stunned that some people are actually saying that Alt-A mortgages or Pay Option ARMs will create little problems in the market. Okay. Then how about we remove the public-private investment program that conveniently has a cap with the FDIC of $500 billion? After all, if there isn’t any problem with toxic mortgages why should we have a toxic mortgage program that has the design to eat up $1 trillion in loans. Exactly. Let me break down the latest figures from data by none other than the Federal Reserve:

California

At the end of March 2009

Subprime loans active: $119 billion

Alt-A loans active: $288 billion

U.S.

Alt-A active: $469 billion

When we talk about the $500 billion in Alt-A mortgages this is what we are talking about. Last time I checked $469 billion does not mean the problem has gone away. Businessweek came out with a chart only last month showing how Pay Option ARMs will be recasting over the next few years:

Click for sharper image

I’ve added a reference point for all those people who seem to think that Option ARMs and Alt-A loans have somehow disappeared from the market. The game is just starting. Currently, we are seeing less than $2 billion per month of these loans recasting. However, in 2010 we are going to start seeing $8 to $10 billion per month recast, nearly 5 times the current rate. The chart states “months to 1^st reset” but they are referring to recasts brought on by negative amortization. And as you will see, since the majority of these loans are in California the bulk are underwater Jacque Cousteau style.

Wachovia in their infinite wisdom swallowed up Golden West at the height of the lending insanity. This cratered the bank which was taken over by Wells Fargo. Just because you eat a bank doesn’t mean the toxic waste suddenly disappears. In fact, there is still well over $100 billion in Pick-A-Pay mortgages in their portfolio. Wells Fargo has written off a portion of the portfolio but there is still a significant amount remaining:

This is from their most recent 10-Q. Wells Fargo alone has $42 billion in unpaid principal linked to Pick-A-Pay mortgages here in California. The Pick-A-Pay was basically the Pay Option ARM World Savings Style. Here were the terms:

Source: Mortgage X

These are the crappiest loans in the world. World Savings which was owned by Golden West thought that by simply having a little more collateral and looking at FICO scores that handing out toxic waste would be smart. Some of these insane loans don’t have the first adjustment until 10 years later! Of course, if Wells Fargo had any sense they would look at that absurd 152% LTV and freaking recast the entire lot. Somehow I doubt they are doing this since they are too busy sucking up taxpayer money through the crony bailout and pretending everything is fine through manufactured stress tests. Look at the LTV on some of the toxic foursome. Arizona actually beats California out with a 161% LTV which is astonishing in itself. But again, out of this little section of $61 billion in Pick-A-Pay loans $42 billion are in California, a state that has seen the median price drop by 50% in one year.

Wells Fargo seems to have the biggest amount of this crap on their books. Yet Bank of America and JP Morgan now have a lot since they acquired toxic mortgage experts Countrywide Financial and WaMu. Let us first look at Bank of America:

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Bank of America has $20 billion in Pay Option ARMs courtesy of Countrywide. But keep in mind Countrywide was a toxic mortgage expert and other Alt-A crap producer. They are the 31-Flavors of toxic waste. We can find some of that junk in the whopping $261 billion residential mortgage portfolio. If you haven’t realized it yet, if you lose your job any mortgage becomes toxic if you are underwater and can’t make the payment. So many of these “prime” loans are equally bad. The only difference is these Pay Option ARMs are monstrosities of epic proportions born in the laboratory of financial meth labs. Take a look at what the California Attorney General shows through one glorious example of a Countrywide Pay Option ARM:

Here we get a firsthand look of a toxic mortgage product in action. This is for a $460,000 loan which is what is sitting in many of those mid to upper priced areas in California. Initially, the first year payment is $1,479 which of course is absurdly low. But by the time we hit the first 5 year adjustment our payment jumps up to $3,747! The payment more than doubles. These craptastic loans were made throughout the bubble from 2004 to 2008 (yes, 2008 with freaking Wachoiva). A large number of these will have major adjustments in 5 years (that is why we are seeing the first batch now) while some like the idiotic Pick-A-Pay loans can go on for 10 years. Like I stated before, I highly doubt that Wells or BofA are going to push to recast many of these loans since they are going to fold the minute they do it. Most people in these loans can’t sell and are basically renters. That is until they hit recast and you will be seeing some massive moonwalking from homes. Yet buyers are walking because they are not building equity (aka, renting). If you bought a place for $500,000 and now know it is worth $250,000, you might make that $1,500 a month payment but are you going to make the payment once it goes up to $3,700? Heck no! You are out. These banks are praying the market will recover. It will not. At least not under their delusional expectations and V-shaped bubble recovery plans.

Let us look at JP Morgan who ended up swallowing up WaMu, another Pay Option ARM fanatic. Before WaMu went under like the titanic they had a gigantic amount of Pay Option ARMs:

Right before WaMu bit the banking dust, it had $52 billion in Pay Option ARMs. And where were the bulk of these loans? If you guessed California you win a prize:

Now JP Morgan wrote down a large part of this portfolio. But how much of it? That is the real question. If we are to take the stress test as any guide, banks are still insanely optimistic of potential losses. Let us pull up the latest 10-Q for JP Morgan:

According to the above, they still have $40.2 billion in Option ARMs and $21 billion in subprime loans. But another major issue that I won’t address here but should be obvious is that massive “home equity” line item. JP Morgan has $140 billion in these loans. Many times, these loans are combined with Pay Option ARMs which makes for a dynamic duo of crap. These loans are secured by home equity which doesn’t even exist anymore! These will implode simultaneously as things get worse with these loans. In the Pick-A-Pay portfolio with Wells, the majority of people make the minimum payment meaning negative amortization. Meaning, the bank most likely will recast the product based on the appraised price at time of sale. Many will say otherwise but this is the only logical conclusion. If we are to appraise those loans in today’s current market, the vast majority of the portfolio would shatter the 110% or 125% (insane) caps and all these mortgages would hit recast oblivion. I doubt that since banks are waiting for the PPIP so the taxpayer can assume the position at the worst time. And that is why this problem hasn’t been solved. I’ve heard a few misguided pundits say that most of these loans have been refinanced. Sorry, the data above doesn’t show that. Most of these are still out there. The only refinancing going on with these toxic mortgages occurs in the foreclosure process.

So why has refinancing activity picked up? Because buyers in no financial trouble have taken advantage of the low mortgage rate environment and this is smart. But don’t think all the activity was because of subprime and Alt-A borrowers running to get new government backed mortgages. They don’t qualify!

I’ll leave you with the most recent graph from Credit Suisse:

The big hit is going to be in 2010. With 135,000 Notice of Defaults in California for Q1 of 2009, the second half of the year is going to expose the eye of the hurricane we are currently in. The pundits who say these loans have been taken care mistake silence with a problem being solved. The data does not back them up but since when do we expect pundits to pay attention to data?

Fake DHS "photography license" for fake no-photos laws

2009-05-15T16:10:00.001-07:00

All around the world, cops and rent-a-cops are vigorously enforcing nonexistent anti-terrorist bans on photography in public places. If you're worried about being busted under an imaginary law, why not download these templates and print yourself an imaginary "Photography license" from the DHS? Who knows if it's legal to carry one of these -- probably about as legal as taking away your camera and erasing your memory card for snapping a pic on the subway.

In the event you're stopped by overzealous law enforcement or security officials attempting to enforce fictitious laws, I've designed these fictitious and official-looking Photographer's Licenses. If you have Adobe Illustrator, you can download the EPS vector art file and print your own. You'll need a photo of yourself, and OCR (or a similar font) to fill in your personal information.

Diamonds pile up worldwide as consumers finally realize their worthlessness.

2009-05-15T14:07:00.000-07:00

Diamonds pile up worldwide as consumers finally realize their worthlessness.

By ANDREW E. KRAMER May 11, 2009

——————————-

Each day, the contents of the bags spill into the stainless steel hoppers of the receiving room. The diamonds are washed and sorted by size, clarity, shape and quality; then, rather than being sent to be sold around the world, they are wrapped in paper and whisked away to a vault — about three million carats worth of gems every month.

“Each one of them is so unusual,” said Irina V. Tkachuk, one of the few hundred people, mostly women, employed to sort the diamonds, who sees thousands of them every day.

“I’m not a robot. I sometimes think to myself ‘wow, what a pretty diamond. I would like that one.’ They are all so beautiful.”

It could be years before another woman admires that stone. Russia quietly passed a milestone this year: surpassing De Beers as the world’s largest diamond producer. But the global market for diamonds is so dismal that the Alrosa diamond company, 90 percent owned by the Russian government, has not sold a rough stone on the open market since December, and has stockpiled them instead.

As a result, Russia has become the arbiter of global diamond prices. Its decisions on production and sales will determine the value of diamonds on rings and in jewelry stores for years to come, in one of the most surprising consequences of this recession.

Largely because of the jewelry bear market, De Beers’s fortunes have sunk. Short of cash, the company had to raise $800 million from stockholders in just the last six months.

The recession also coincided with a settlement with European Union antitrust authorities that ended a longtime De Beers policy of stockpiling diamonds, in cooperation with Alrosa, to keep prices up.

Though it is a major commodity producer, Russia has traditionally not embraced policies that artificially keep prices up. In oil, for example, Russia benefits from the oil cartel’s cuts in production, but does not participate in them.

Diamonds are an exception. “If you don’t support the price,” Andrei V. Polyakov, a spokesman for Alrosa, said, “a diamond becomes a mere piece of carbon.”

In an attempt to carefully calibrate its re-entry on the global market, without forcing prices still lower, Russia is relying on two things: the Soviet-era precious gem depository — created to hold jewelry confiscated from the aristocracy after the 1917 revolution — and capitalist investors, whom Alrosa hopes will buy diamonds as an investment, like gold.

Russia is taking a leadership role in other ways, too.

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Sergei Vybornov, Alrosa’s chief executive, said that he had helped persuade the central bank of Angola — which, like Russia, is still relatively flush with oil money — to buy 30 percent of the production of Angola’s diamond mines, keeping these stones off the market.

And last fall, Alrosa began what it called the St. Petersburg Initiative, along with De Beers and other large producers, to invest collectively in generic diamond advertising, akin to De Beers’s promotion of the slogan “Diamonds are forever.” Russia assumed the task as De Beers has principally shifted to promoting its own branded gems.

Still, it is a precarious time for the Russian diamond company to assume leadership of the industry.

Until last year, De Beers produced about 40 percent of the global rough stone supply, and Alrosa 25 percent. But De Beers, which is prohibited under its European Union antitrust agreement from stockpiling, closed mines in response to the glut in rough stones. Russia is loath to do that, as authorities in Moscow, gravely concerned about potential unrest by disgruntled unemployed workers, try to keep workers on the payroll.

In the first quarter, De Beers reduced output by 91 percent compared with the previous year. The diversified mining companies Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton also curbed production.

Meanwhile, the market for wholesale polished diamonds, worth about $21.5 billion, is expected to fall to about $12 billion in 2009, according to Polished Prices, an analytical service for the industry.

Rough diamond prices have fallen even more, as much as 75 percent since their peak last July at some auctions.

The two markets are distinct. Typically, about 60 percent of a rough diamond is lost as dust or shavings in the cutting process.

Mr. Vybornov blames diamond traders who pledged diamond stocks as loan collateral for part of the world glut. When credit dried up last fall, banks and other creditors seized those gems and sold them, he says, flooding the market. By December, his company decided to withdraw entirely from the market rather than further erode prices.

Russia historically remained mostly a behind-the-scenes player, perhaps because Soviet authorities would have had to perform some ideological gymnastics to promote a product consumed principally by the rich of the capitalist world.

Instead, twisting politics, the Soviets concluded a semisecret agreement with apartheid-era De Beers to sell Siberian diamonds in a way that would not undercut the market.

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After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Russian diamond industry created a formal alliance with De Beers, selling the South African company half of each year’s production at a discount intended to subsidize De Beers’s generic diamond advertising undertaken in the 1990s, mostly in the United States.

Now, the Russians are in the driver’s seat.

Charles Wyndham, a former De Beers evaluator and co-founder of Polished Prices, said Russia had thus far managed the transition well: withholding gems to make more money in the long run rather than further depressing the market.

“Whatever one wants to say about the Russians, they certainly aren’t stupid,” Mr. Wyndham said.

Alrosa is seeking to jump-start demand by selling gems under long-term contracts to wholesale buyers in Belgium, Israel, India and elsewhere. Under these contracts, six of which have been signed, prices are set at a midpoint between the peak last August and this winter, and fixed for a period of several years.

“A diamond ring should not cost $100,” Mr. Vybornov said. “We don’t want that type of client.”

Alrosa is also working with a Moscow investment bank, Leader, a subsidiary of the Russian natural gas monopoly Gazprom, to market diamonds to investors. Under the plan, investors would buy diamonds but the gems would not be released to jewelers for several years.

It is a program, essentially, of outsourcing the stockpiling function to investors in exchange for the chance to profit from a possible recovery in the market.

At one of Alrosa’s cutting shops in one of Moscow’s outer districts, Aleksandr A. Malinin, an adviser to the president of Alrosa, showed a typical collection that might become the basis for such an investment vehicle.

The gems fit in a felt box about the size of a laptop computer.

The larger stones, a circular-cut 10 carat flawless white and a princess-cut yellow, were estimated at about $400,000. The smaller ones ranged from $16,000 to $100,000. But the value of the box, while surely several million dollars, is something of a mystery just now given the depressed market.

How the buy-in price for the stones will be set, and how the company will determine when the price goes up and down, is unclear, Mr. Malinin said.

“We have to tell people that diamonds are valuable,” he said. “We are trying to maintain the price, just as De Beers did, as all diamond producing countries do. But what we are doing is selling an illusion,” meaning a product with no utility and a price that depends on the continued sense of scarcity where there is none.

At the Alrosa unit that receives diamonds, called the United Selling Organization, where about 90 percent of the output of the Siberian mines arrives for processing, Elena V. Kapustkina pours about 45,000 carats of diamonds though a stainless steel sieve every day to sort them by size.

“It’s just a job,” she said.

When asked whether diamonds had lost their romance for her, Ms. Kapustkina paused, looked down at the pile of gems on her table and blushed.

In fact, she said, her husband, a truck driver, gave her a half-carat ring 22 years ago. “Of course I love it,” she said. “It’s from my husband.”

Google learns to read flash...

2008-07-01T06:29:00.001-07:00

Google learns to crawl Flash

6/30/2008 09:26:00 PM

Posted by Ron Adler and Janis Stipins, Software Engineers

Google has been developing a new algorithm for indexing textual content in Flash files of all kinds, from Flash menus, buttons and banners, to self-contained Flash websites. Recently, we've improved the performance of this Flash indexing algorithm by integrating Adobe's Flash Player technology.

In the past, web designers faced challenges if they chose to develop a site in Flash because the content they included was not indexable by search engines. They needed to make extra effort to ensure that their content was also presented in another way that search engines could find.

Now that we've launched our Flash indexing algorithm, web designers can expect improved visibility of their published Flash content, and you can expect to see better search results and snippets. There's more info on the Webmaster Central blog about the Searchable SWF integration.