Federal Reserve’s “Beige Book” shows improving economy

The Federal Reserve regularly publishes a summary of economic activity in the 12 Federal Reserve Districts in the United States.

It is important to note that “This document summarizes comments received from businesses and other contacts outside the Federal Reserve and is not a commentary on the views of Federal Reserve officials.”

Much, if not most of the news was promising.

Summary highlights from this Beige Book 2013-01-16 are that:

• “Reports from the twelve Federal Reserve Districts indicated that economic activity has expanded since the previous Beige Book report, with all twelve Districts characterizing the pace of growth as either modest or moderate.”

• “All twelve districts reported some growth in

Oil prices crashed and Chevron still made nearly $24 a barrel

Must be something to what those kooky Occupy Wall Street type folks, and the evil Democrats are saying.

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By Ronald D. White; July 27, 2012, 1:32 p.m.

Take just about any business situation in which the value of a company’s primary product suddenly falls by more than 29% and it could be time to panic. Then there is the oil patch, where billions of dollars in profits are possible even after that kind of collapse in crude prices. Chevron Corp. of San Ramon, Calif., is just such an example.

Even with the sharp drop in oil prices that began in the first quarter and ran through the end of the second quarter — a decline from $109.41 a barrel to $77.69 a barrel — Chevron had a positive margin of $23.53 on every barrel of crude it produced, according to analysts. Chevron said its margin was actually $26 a barrel.

THE SKY IS FALLING! THE SKY IS FALLING! Or… maybe not.

Believe it or else, there were opponents to air bags, seat belts and child safety restraints.

Some time, someone will oppose everything… even vanilla ice cream and Mother’s Day.

There are, I suppose, several ways to consider the following.

One could presume the psychotic Chicken Little, paranoid delusional “the-sky-is-falling” approach, or, one could suppose the device is only an extension of someone who cannot tell a lie… or, at least is very difficult to deliberately fabricate falsehood.

And then, there’s something in the middle.

I would imagine that’s where the truth resides.
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A Black Box in Your Car?

By Sam Favate, April 23, 2012, 1:40 PM

If you thought having EZ Pass in your car would make it too easy for the government to track you, you ain’t seen nothing yet.

The Senate passed a bill in March that calls for “mandatory event data recorders” (or black boxes) to be installed in all new passenger motor vehicles, starting with the 2015 models, and which would record data before, during or after a crash, according to KurzweilAI.net.

The bill, which can be seen here, has a privacy provision but gives the government the authority to access the black box in a number of circumstances, including court order, consent of the owner, an investigation or inspection, or to determine the need for emergency responses.

The same bill would allow the IRS to

Hey, dude. You forgot your cocaine.

Alternate title: Man not “James Bond.”

Hmmm… man drives gold car.

Does man also have gold teeth?

Could he be Goldfinger?

You be the judge.

Huntsville man jumps out of car after police chase, leaves behind cocaine

BMW Tapped $3.6 Billion in Federal Reserve Funds During Financial Crisis

BMW Headquarters, Munich, Germany - Image via Wikipedia

By Chris Reiter – Dec 2, 2010

Bayerische Motoren Werke AG, the world’s largest maker of luxury cars, secured funds from the U.S. Federal Reserve during the financial crisis to boost liquidity as other sources dried up.

BMW’s largest transaction under the Fed’s Commercial Paper Funding Facility was for $3.62 billion on Jan. 30, 2009, according to data released yesterday. BMW made “intermittent” use of the Fed program for refinancing at a time when other forms of credit were frozen, Mathias Schmidt, a spokesman for the Munich-based automaker, said today.

“We tapped into this program in 2008 and 2009 during the financial crisis

Just in time for Christmas!

*!* Conspicuous Consumption *!*

*!* Consumer Alert *!*

From our “Useless Junk Aimed at the Stupidly Über Wealthy” Department:

With “Black Friday” looming in a few days, it’s not too early to begin thinking about what you’ll get for that person whom “has everything”!

Perhaps you work

Come… and Go

And are you aware, that pound-for-pound, Viagra is MORE expensive than a fully loaded Mercedes-Benz S550 4Matic?

A fully-dressed, 2005 Mercedes-Benz S550 4Matic (their top-of-the-line/flagship luxury sedan) weighs

“This is a contact sport.”

“This is a contact sport. We want to see drivers mixing it up.”

– NASCAR Chairman Brian France, referring to

Another reason to buy a Ford

Aside from General Motors “going out of business” taxpayer bail-out fire sales and their deceptive “you can return this care if you don’t absolutely love it” teevee commercials… yeah, that’s enough to make anyone’s stomach turn.

Andyway, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, a private, insurance-company-funded organization (don’t get me started on those bastards, the insurance ones, that is), has released their “Top Safety Pick” for 19 sedans and 8 SUVs fro the 2010 model year. Their ratings are, in order, from the top: Good (G), Acceptable (A), Marginal (M), and Poor (P).

Ford and Volvo (a Ford-owned subsidiary), each earned 6, while Subaru, Volkswagen and their Audi division each received 5.

Chrysler earned 4, while Honda and GM each had 2, with Toyota, BMW, Mazda and Mitsubishi receiving none.

Hey!

What about Mercedes-Benz?

Oh yeah… their C class automobile (which the IIHS classifies as “midsize” – what’s their S class, then? Super? The C class is Coupe/Compact, you idiots!) is a “Top Safety Pick” for 2010.

And, Mercedes models have ranked Good from 200-2009 and Acceptable from 1997-2000.