Shame on Weak Addition to Cash for Clunkers

Shame on the United States Congress for approving another $2 billion for the "Cash for Clunkers" program today. The program, which started earlier this week, allows owners to trade in a qualified, old, gas-guzzling vehicle for a newer vehicle with higher Miles Per Gallon in return for a $3,500 or $4,500 rebate. Already this week, $100 million has been redeemed of the original $1 billion approved for the program. Although this program is a good start at making our environment better while keeping the auto industry going from its already-faint heartbeat, the plan is flawed. The only specifics as to what kind of new car you can get is just one that has a higher MPG rating than the old car - hardly would make any difference if your old car got 18mpg and your new one gets 22mpg right? Representatives and Senators should have corrected this mistake with this second pass on the program. Don't get me wrong, I am not against keeping American auto workers on the job. However, Detroit wanted lower standards originally because they could barely compete with Japanese automakers' highly fuel-efficient vehicles, but in return, we screwed up a BIG chance to really turn this country around with better, cleaner, vehicles.
But there is hope in sight: a bipartisan group of senators is planning to oppose the new deal unless more stringent fuel-efficiency requirements are added. Oddly enough, 95 Republicans opposed the bill, even though the auto lobby has historically been pretty aligned with the GOP.

http://www.streetsblog.org/2009/07/31/house-quickly-sends-2-billion-more-to-cash-for-clunkers/

Published Post Number:146/152
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No More Flying and Driving Without a License

Sad news from the aviation and train simulation games world - Microsoft has canceled the production of their sequel, Train Simulator 2 as well as closing the production team for their more than a quarter-century long enterprise, Flight Simulator. Both games were pretty fun to play and will be sorely missed. Train Simulator had been canceled several years earlier, but was restarted shortly after that. Flight Simulator has had 10 releases in 27 years, making it the longest-running video game franchise. This announcements comes along with Microsoft's decision to cut 5,000 jobs worldwide.

Published Post Number:108/114
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Cooper Union Builds (a New Building & its Status)

The Cooper Union embarked on the construction of a New Academic Building in 2004, and the building (scheduled for completion last week) will most likely be opened in time for classes in the 2009 Fall semester. Located on Third Avenue between 6-7th Sts, the 8 floor building will actually be 20% smaller than the current Engineering Building, located a block away and scheduled to be torn down and leased to a developer. It will have spaces for students from all of the schools at Cooper (Art, Architecture, and Engineering) as well as being New York City's first "green" academic building. It will surpass Mayor Bloomberg's PlaNYC's challenge of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by possibly obtaining LEED Platinum status, a measure of a building's environmental friendliness. The building, originally estimated to cost $94 million initially, is now expected to cost $157.9 million (school paper). However, this cost is expected to increase, as the way some of the concrete floors were poured resulted in a slanted floor.
>>>A Daily Dose of Architecture has some shots from January 2009.

In addition, last week The New York Times published a story regarding Cooper's large increase in early decision applications this year - 70% - a huge jump from increases of 5-10% annually. As one of the nation's most competitive colleges, with an acceptance rate of roughly 8%, it is also one of the few colleges that provide all students with a full-tuition scholarship. With the prices of attending both private and public universities increasing, this college is especially attractive in today's slowing economy, and its Board of Directors has even recently voted to not raise the prices of mandatory student "lab" fees for the 2009 Fall Semester.

Also, the Cooper Union recently unveiled their new logo (as seen above) as part of their rebranding campaign which also celebrates its 150th Anniversary. The logo can be explained by an interview with its designer here.

Published Post Number: 106/112

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Say NO to Boxer/Inhofe Amendment

Currently, there is an amendment for the stimulus package proposed by Barbara Boxer (D-CA) and James Inhofe (R-OK) - Inhofe is a global warming denier - that would kill mass transit funding and give $50 billion for highway construction. I recognize the fact that having large-scale road construction is a more visible sign of stimulating the economy, but more roads = more cars = more demand for fossil fuels = higher prices for fuel, increased pollution, more funding towards potential terrorism. Tell your senators to vote NO to the Boxer-Inhofe amendment and to vote YES on Senator Schumer's (D-NY) amendment to the Murray bill (which was defeated) that would boost transit funding to (a still measly) $15 billion while leaving $40 billion in highway funding intact, either by calling them or emailing them. More information here:

Urgent Action: Oppose Highway Robbery in Senate Stim Bill
Urgent Alert: Oppose Wasteful Highway Funding Amendment
Tell the Senate: Vote NO on highways-only amendments!

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Obama: Win & Loss in 2 Days

Yesterday, President Obama's nominee for both the Secretary of Health and Human Services as well the director of the new White House Office of Health Reform, Tom Daschle, withdrew from his nomination because of his tax troubles. Obama had counted on him, with his years of experience dealing with the health industry, to reform health care. Personally, I believe that Daschle should not have withdrew himself - everyone has a skeleton in their closet and he revealed it before he took office and was transparent about it in the past month or so about it. This is a major blow to the commitment that Obama made to provide better access to healthcare to the country. I hope he will find a replacement with as much (or more) experience soon.

Today, Obama overcame the sad news yesterday by ordering a pay freeze on executives of companies which were receiving taxpayer money from any bailouts. The salary would be capped at $500,000; any additional money paid by the companies would have to be issued as stock that cannot be sold until the company has paid back its government loans. This move is especially important, considering how companies still paid their executives over $18 Billion in bonuses last year, and many more bonuses, such as Wells Fargo continuing their annual tradition of an exclusive 2 week retreat for top-performing employees - this time a trip to the pricey Wynn in Las Vegas - until public outcry forced them to cancel it this year.

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Circuit City Closing Bad for Consumers

On Friday, Circuit City, the nation's second-largest electronics retailer, announced that it would close all of its 500+ U.S. stores. This effectively leads to 34,000 people being laid off and opens the way for Best Buy, the largest retailer, to increase their prices as their competition has decreased. This market became even more oligopolistic (few sellers) and will also be even tougher for the already sluggish economy. Yesterday, I ventured to a Circuit City in Union Square and also in Midtown to find extremely long lines and huge crowds. The liquidators in charge of the chain plan to close each store either when their merchandise runs out or by the end of March, whichever arrives first. My bet is, according to my experience yesterday, most stores in urban areas will close in less than 2 weeks.

In a later post, I'll talk about my experience at Best Buy later that day and how their customer service may already be taking a hit.

To Save or Not Save (the US Automakers)

I would love to see Ford and GM's CEOs work for $1 a year.

>>>Yahoo! News-Ford tells Congress it may be able to go it alone

I Told You So!

Well, more like I told my parents, but the average gas price this year never exceeded $5 a gallon, despite what felt like ever-increasing prices earlier this year!

>>>ABCNews-Low Gas Prices Mean Holiday Savings

Bloomberg: Not Just a Mayor

Michael Bloomberg is not just New York City's widely-loved Mayor, he's a potential economic adviser to the next U.S. President as well. In an open letter published in the October 25th issue of Newsweek, he wrote to the president-elect on how he should tackle the current financial crisis. Some of his key points were:
-Reforming financial institutions and its governance,
-Energizing alternative and clean energy development and construction,
-Strengthening our immigration while allowing competitiveness,
-Investing in better education programs,
-Being tough in their stance and making sure a bipartisan agreement is in place.

The only way we can get out of this recession is by investing in our economy and future. With term limits in NYC extended to three terms recently by the City Council, Bloomberg definitely has what it takes not only to continue as the city's Mayor, but perhaps also as a counsel to the next president of the United States.

777 Ain't Lucky After All

I'm talking about the stock market of course. The Dow Jones industrial average plummeted 777.68 points today , as the US House rejected a $700 billion bailout plan for the nation's crippling bank and investment system. It was the largest one day decline for the Dow Jones, resulting in a $1,000,000,000,000 loss for investors, and other markets both in New York and in the world quickly reacted and followed suit with their own losses. Looks like stuffing money under the mattress might be back...

(Screenshot from: CNN Money)
Edited 11:38

A Perk to Being a Lehman Brothers Employee

I found a group that was trying to make light of the recent bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers. I boarded a subway car this morning and caught an A-Capella group singing the Beach Boys' Barbara Ann. As the train came to a stop at the next station and they finished the song, one of the members said to the onboard passengers, "You can purchase a copy of our CD for only $9.99, but if you have a Lehman Brothers' ID card, we'll give you 2 for $10." Many riders, including myself, smiled. (They were obviously not employees of LB.)

>>>Patrick.net: Lehman Brothers' bankruptcy filing...all those billions and millions of unsecured funds, oh my! (PDF file - 445KB)
>>>ABC News: As Wall Street tumbles, the world quakes