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As Congress considers how to prevent another financial catastrophe, I have to wonder whether the new safeguards to be approved will keep us and our children and grandchildren financially safe.
In writing my latest Business Casual column, I was inspired by a local professor who authored a book series to teach children about finances.
Toyota said Wednesday that it's recalling about 50,000 early-2003 model-year Sequoia SUVs to fix an electronics problems in the Vehicle Stability Control.
For more info, go to www.toyota.com/recall or call the Toyota Customer Experience
Center at 1-800-331-4331.
When I told my wife about the topic of today's Business Casual column, she looked at me with disbelief.
Was I nuts? How could I write about such a subject without getting a lot of people mad at me.
It's a touchy matter when writing about religion. Making a connection between religion and a car company can be that much more tricky.
I hope I pulled it off in today's column.
Toyota keeps chugging along despite its troubles with the recalls.
Toyota Prius Minivan to Launch in 2011(Nitrobahn.com) A rumor has been doing the rounds for quite a long time now that Toyota had been planning on introducing the Prius minivan in the context of green revolution. As it turns out, the veracity of this report has been confirmed by the Japanese business daily, Nikkei, who reported that the hybrid minivan will be launched in 2011.
Read more on Toyota's hybrid minivan.
This is all fallout from Toyota's sudden-accleration problems and the PR nightmare that ensued.
AP-GfK Poll: Americans say US cars top Asian autos(AP) WASHINGTON -- America's love affair with the automobile has a new spark -- a renewed affection for U.S.-made cars after a long dalliance with foreign automakers.
Slightly more Americans now say the United States makes better-quality vehicles than Asia does, with 38 percent saying U.S. cars are best and 33 percent naming autos made by Asian countries, according to an Associated Press-GfK Poll.
Read more on American car attitudes.
I would be shocked, shocked if EADS snatched this contract out of Boeing's hands. The political ramifications of a European contractor winning an American contract this big would create upheaval in Congress and the White House and at the Pentagon.
EADS goes alone in bid on US tanker contractWASHINGTON (AP) -- A European defense contractor said Tuesday that will make its own bid for the U.S. Air Force's long-delayed $35 billion contract to build a fleet of new refueling jets.
The European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company, also known as EADS, opens a new chapter in the bitterly disputed and politically sensitive Pentagon effort to replace its fleet of KC-135 refueling tankers that date back to the 1950s.
EADS is challenging Boeing Co., a U.S. company, for the right to build 179 new planes for the Air Force. EADS' one-time American partner, Northrop Grumman Corp., dropped out earlier this year after saying the Pentagon project unfairly favored Boeing.
Read more on EADS' tanker bid.
El Segundo-based DirecTV, the nation's largest satellite TV provider, said Tuesday that it added 30 new high-definition channels, which will start rolling out in May.
The roll-out will last several months, eventually bringing DirecTV's total full-time HD lineup to more than 160.
Some of the new HD channels include Showtime Beyond HD, CSN California HD and Showtime Next HD.
DirecTV's announcement comes a day after rival satellite TV provider Dish Network Corp. of Englewood, Colo., said it had reached 200 HD channels before any other U.S. pay-TV service.
However, DirecTV counters that it has more "full-time" HD channels than any other service.
"From day one we have led the way with HD and, to the dismay of our competitors, that has not changed," Derek Chang, DirecTV's executive vice president of content strategy and development, said in a release. "While Dish Network is very skilled at grossly inflating their HD numbers, you'd be hard pressed to find an actual list of comprehensive HD channels that match their recent claims."
I've had some time to rethink my position on the Nintendo Wii game system. And after hours and hours of exhaustive research, I've come to an important conclusion that I share in my Business Casual column.
Elon Musk, founder of Space Exploration Technologies, the Hawthorne-based developer of low-cost rockets praised President Barack Obama for cancelling the Bush-era moon space program.
Musk, whose company is better known as SpaceX, hopes to benefit from Obama's policy shift that will turn over much of the development of the nation's space program to private contractors likes SpaceX.
Here's Musk's statement dated April 15:
At Long Last, an Inspiring Future for Space ExplorationThe Apollo Moon landing was one of humanity's greatest achievements. Millennia from now, when the vast majority of the 20th century is reduced to a few footnotes known only to erudite scholars of history, they will still remember that was when we first set foot upon a heavenly body. It was a mere 66 years after the first powered airplane flight by the Wright brothers.
In the 41 years that have passed since 1969, we have yet to surpass that achievement in human spaceflight. Since then, our capability has actually declined considerably and to a degree that would yield shocked disbelief from anyone in that era. By now, we were supposed to have a base on the Moon, perhaps even on Mars, and have sent humans traveling on great odysseys to the outer planets. Instead, we have been confined to low Earth orbit and even that ends this year with the retirement of the Space Shuttle.
In 2003, following the Columbia accident, President Bush began development of a system to replace the Shuttle, called the Ares I rocket and Orion spacecraft. It is important to note that this too would only have been able to reach low Earth orbit. Many in the media mistakenly assumed it was capable of reaching the Moon. As is not unusual with large government programs, the schedule slipped by several years and costs ballooned by tens of billions.
By the time President Obama cancelled Ares I/Orion earlier this year, the schedule had already slipped five years to 2017 and completing development would have required another $50 billion. Moreover, the cost per flight, inclusive of overhead, was estimated to be at least $1.5 billion compared to the $1 billion of Shuttle, despite carrying only four people to Shuttle's seven and almost no cargo.
The President quite reasonably concluded that spending $50 billion to develop a vehicle that would cost 50% more to operate, but carry 50% less payload was perhaps not the best possible use of funds. To quote a member of the Augustine Commission, which was convened by the President to analyze Ares/Orion, "If Santa Claus brought us the system tomorrow, fully developed, and the budget didn't change, our next action would have to be to cancel it," because we can't afford the annual operating costs.
Cancellation was therefore simply a matter of time and thankfully we have a President with the political courage to do the right thing sooner rather than later. We can ill afford the expense of an "Apollo on steroids", as a former NASA Administrator referred to the Ares/Orion program. A lesser President might have waited until after the upcoming election cycle, not caring that billions more dollars would be wasted. It was disappointing to see how many in Congress did not possess this courage. One senator in particular was determined to achieve a new altitude record in hypocrisy, claiming that the public option was bad in healthcare, but good in space!
Thankfully, as a result of funds freed up by this cancellation, there is now hope for a bright future in space exploration. The new plan is to harness our nation's unparalleled system of free enterprise (as we have done in all other modes of transport), to create far more reliable and affordable rockets. Handing over Earth orbit transport to American commercial companies, overseen of course by NASA and the FAA, will free up the NASA resources necessary to develop interplanetary transport technologies. This is critically important if we are to reach Mars, the next giant leap in human exploration of the Universe.
Today, the President will articulate an ambitious and exciting new plan that will alter our destiny as a species. I believe this address could be as important as President Kennedy's 1962 speech at Rice University. For the first time since Apollo, our country will have a plan for space exploration that inspires and excites all who look to the stars. Even more important, it will work.
--Elon--
Honda will start selling the EV-neo in Japan at the end of this year.
Just one more blow against Toyota's reputation amid the recent recall of more than 8 million vehicles.
This is the most convenient option for Toyota since its lawyers and PR team are based in Torrance.
LA Chosen by US Panel for Toyota Lawsuits(ABC News) A judicial panel has chosen Los Angeles federal court to consolidate dozens of lawsuits filed in the aftermath of Toyota's recall of millions of vehicles over sudden unexpected acceleration problems.
The decision Friday by the U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation affects more than 200 lawsuits against Toyota around the country. It means a single judge will hear important pretrial motions for all cases.
Read more on lawsuits against Toyota.
Personal mobility devices will likely become more and more popular as they smaller and less expensive.
Honda One-Ups Segway With the Cool U3-XHonda's very polite but very nervous engineers held their breath as I prepared to mount the U3-X, the company's futuristic "personal mobility" prototype. It's a unicycle of sorts that works a bit like a Segway. Although I approached the machine with the utmost care and followed Honda's explicit instructions to wear pants -- no skirts, they warned, and I can see why -- the engineers were just a wee bit antsy.
"Gently," one of them said. "Make sure you make adjustments very gradually."
Read more on Honda's U3-X.
At this point, it seems almost impossible that Boeing wouldn't win the contract. But that's what people said before Northrop/EADS won it. Of course, that win was overturned bc of problems in the Air Force's scoring of each bid.
EADS could pick L-3 as partner for tanker bid(Reuters) WASHINGTON - Europe's EADS (EAD.PA) would likely choose L-3 Communications Holdings Inc (LLL.N) as a key supplier, should it decide to challenge Boeing Co (BA.N) for a U.S. aerial refueling contract worth up to $50 billion, according to analysts and sources following the matter.
"Based on what we know today -- and things can change -- it appears that L-3 seems to be the likely subcontractor," Scott Hamilton of Leeham Co said, noting that there is a large faction within EADS that wants to move ahead with a bid.
Read more on the earial refueling tanker.
Foreclosure rates rose in February year over year for the Los Angeles-Long Beach-Glendale area, according to First American CoreLogic, which tracks housing data.
The rate of foreclosures for outstanding mortgage loans was 3.58 percent in February, up from 2.46 percent in the same month a year earlier.
February foreclosure activity in the local area was higher than the California foreclosure rate of 3.53 percent and national rate of 3.17 percent.
The local area also saw an increase in mortgage delinquency for February, when 12.06 percent of mortgage loans were at least 90 days delinquent compared to 7.88 percent for the same month last year.
The local rate was higher than the statewide delinquency rate of 11.68 percent and national rate of 8.78 percent.
Toyota's technical and legal troubles are so high profile that they're overshadowing the problems of other vehicle makers like Honda.
Honda Settles Class-Action Suit Over Brakes
(NYT) Honda has agreed to settle a class-action suit that claims the rear brakes in 750,000 late model Accords and Acura TSXs are wearing out more than twice as fast as they should.
The suit was filed in September, claiming that unreasonable wear was due to a defective design that caused "excessive force to be applied to the vehicle's rear wheels."
Read more on Honda's class action settlement
It's interesting that Raytheon's sales and profit grew last year while Swanson's pay fell. It's the opposite of bank CEOs getting massive pay packages right before the financial institutions collapse or need government help to survive.
Raytheon's Swanson earned $18.6mRead more on Raytheon CEO's pay.(Boston Globe) Raytheon Co. chief executive William H. Swanson earned $18.6 million last year, down from $20.5 million in 2008, mainly because of a smaller increase in his pension benefits.
The Waltham defense contractor said Swanson, a long-time Raytheon executive who became CEO in 2003, earned $3.5 million in pension benefits and deferred compensation in 2009, down from $4.7 million in 2008.
Toyota's recalls for unintended acceleration could have a positive long-term impact on motorists.
General Motors and Mazda will add brake override systems in all their new vehicles.
Just because I feel like I'm being watched doesn't mean I'm some kind of nut.
We should acknowledge that we are all increasingly monitored. But I'm not talking about the government's warrantless spying on citizens.
Please read my new Business Casual column and find out what I mean.
Boeing isn't happy about the Pentagon's decision to extend the deadline to submit a bid for the $35 billion aerial refueling tanker to allow European firm EADS to compete.
Century City-based Northrop, which had teamed with EADS, recently dropped out of the competition. So now EADS is thinking of submitting its own bid without Northrop.
Boeing's statement was released today, April Fool's Day. But there's no humor anywhere to be found.
Here's Boeing's bristling statement on the Pentagon's decision:
The U.S. Department of Defense on March 31 said it will extend the deadline to receive proposals in the U.S. Air Force KC-X Tanker competition from May 10 to July 9 if European Aeronautic Defence and Space (EADS) makes a formal request for an extension. The Boeing Company today responded with the following statement:"We are deeply disappointed with EADS-Airbus efforts to further delay this vital warfighting program and tilt the U.S. procurement process in its favor. EADS-Airbus has been fully engaged in the competition for four years and was always expected to provide the vast majority of its team's work content.
"We welcome the denial of EADS's repeated requests to alter U.S. warfighting requirements, and we support the Air Force's stated intent to provide a level playing field for qualified competitors. We do not see a legitimate reason for EADS's bid deadline extension request, and we believe an extension that favors any individual competitor does not further the goal of ensuring fair competition.
"Boeing remains fully prepared to submit a competitive proposal by the May 10 deadline originally set by the Air Force. However, this latest development, along with the World Trade Organization's recent final ruling that Airbus has been heavily and illegally subsidized for decades, requires Boeing to review all of our options for going forward while we wait for a final determination on a deadline extension."
