Ford CEO to Travel to Washington Via Car

A day late and a dollar short but at least the Ford CEO is going to actually drive one of his products to beg for taxpayer money. I hope he drives a Hybrid or something in order to save some gas.

When the Big Three automakers come back to Washington for hearings later this week on the proposed auto bailout, Ford CEO Alan Mulally will be making the more than eight-hour trip from Detroit to the Capitol by car, the company said today. The company won�t say yet, however, what kind of car Mulally will take (a Ford F-150 pickup truck or a Ford Focus compact car?), whether he will be behind the wheel, or when he will arrive: �It depends on traffic,� says a spokesperson.

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Birinyi Associates Head Says Stocks Have Bottomed

This guy predicted the fall so he should be smart enough to predict the bottom as well. He mainly sites the low number of stocks rated "Buy" and the high negative investor sentiment as indicators that the bottom has been put in.

�The market will not again visit 750 on the S&P,� Laszlo Birinyi, who predicted the rout in financial stocks, wrote in a report today titled �The Stock Market Has Bottomed.� While he said that doesn�t mean the benchmark index for American equities is poised to rally, researchers at Bespoke and UBS said it may.

The S&P 500 might climb 17 percent in the next three months, based on the eight five-day rallies that were bigger than the 19 percent advance completed on Nov. 28, Bespoke wrote in a report. The S&P 500 rose 5.6 percent on average in the next month and 17 percent in the next three months, according to Bespoke, whose founders, Justin Walters and Paul Hickey, once worked at Birinyi.

Stocks will post �higher double-digit returns� in 2009, UBS AG�s global strategist forecast.

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House Stimulus Now at $500 billion

Well, it seems like there is now more spending coming down the pike as this stimulus bill is nearly 5 times larger then the last one.

The aide, who asked not to be identified, said the legislation would include a middle-class tax cut, billions of dollars for road, bridge and mass transit construction, expanded aid to states and investments in renewable energy.

I just need to see the actual bill before I can make any comments on it. In any case it will be a nice to be in construction in 2009.

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CNN Accidentally Reveals Mumbai Hostage Whereabouts

It seems that CNN just reports the news in some sort of bubble and doesn't think that terrorists watch cable news. At least CNN did not cause the death of these two Wales residents and other Westerners hiding in Taj Mahal Palace Hotel due to their loose lips.

From her home in Penarth yesterday, Mrs Shaw said: �We have been asked by the British terror police not to talk to the press.

�But the reason I would not want to talk to anyone is because our safety was actually compromised by CNN, which broadcast where we were.

�The terrorists were watching CNN and they came down from where they were in a lift after hearing about us on television. For that reason I would appeal to the media to be very careful about what they broadcast.

�When we left Mumbai there were still around 100 people trapped there.�

She added: �People talk to one another on mobile phones and that gets broadcast and the terrorists knew from that.�

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After a Long Courtship Obama Picks Clinton for State

The dance is finally over and Obama has his Secretary of State:

He introduced Clinton first, saying of his former presidential rival, "She possesses an extraordinary intelligence and toughness, and a remarkable work ethic. ... She is an American of tremendous stature who will have my complete confidence, who knows many of the world's leaders, who will command respect in every capital and who will clearly have the ability to advance our interests around the world."

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Some High Expectations for Obama: The Media Love Affair Edition

I did know that the media was in the tank for Obama in the runup to the election but they seem to be getting out of hand now with the Obama-mania.

Whew! Are journalists fostering the notion that Obama is invincible, the leader of what the New York Times dubbed "Generation O"?

Each writer, each publication, seems to reach for more eye-popping superlatives. "OBAMAISM -- It's a Kind of Religion," says New York magazine. "Those of us too young to have known JFK's Camelot are going to have our own giddy Camelot II to enrapture and entertain us," Kurt Andersen writes. The New York Post has already christened it "BAM-A-LOT."

I guess I kind of like how Obama has cured the Bush-derangement disorder and the anti-American bias that goes along with it. The problem is that I'm afraid the media might be setting the bar so high that if he doesn't clear it it might be disastrous. I mean the hopes and dreams of so many people are tied up in a guy who is described as Lincoln, FDR, JFK and Ronald Reagan all at once.

So if he falters, is shown to be a crass politician, or badly bungles something like all Presidents eventually do (Lincoln got rid of Habeas Corpus, FDR tried to pack the Supreme Court, JFK had the Bay of Pigs, and Reagan had Iran/Contra) then the jaded backlash might damage his Presidency. Sometimes the worst enemies are the true-believers that think he has "sold-out" or somehow "betrayed them."

This is where I hope that the media stays in his corner for the duration just like they did for FDR. I mean the media pretty much hid the fact that FDR was in poor health at the end and could not walk-unaided because they knew that that information would hurt America. So maybe the media will gloss over any deficiencies Obama has and cut him some slack if he screws up. Maybe we will have less stories that damage America because they will damage the Obama Administration. Positive public perception is one of the key ingredients in a recovery.

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Who Are the Mumbai Terrorists?

This is a great article on who could be behind the recent terror in Mumbai. It seems to be about 4 different Islamist groups that are loosely behind the troubles in Kashmir. This part is especially harrowing though:

None of the India-based operatives would most likely know one another, nor for the most part would even meet. Contact with the handler woould always be through a public call center to make it difficult to trace calls. If an operative were picked up by police, there would be no way for him to identify fellow plotters. "It assures total anonymity," Sahni told TIME last year. "The handler is in Bangladesh or Pakistan, and the people here don't know each other. It's the most significant tactical shift in the near past and is a model for international terrorism in the future."

These groups working as a team all from command and control facilities that are fairly anonymous could make ferreting out these terrorist cells pretty difficult. I think this Sahni guy needs to mention that these groups are probably using some anonymous Internet communication as well. That means they might be able to have up to the moment communication that is very hard to track.

The Obama Administration better use some of that technocat power that won them the election to keep tabs on these guys. I think this Indian model could work very well with any US based terrorist groups.

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Wal-Mart Worker Dies for Savings

This is a pretty sad statement when it comes to consumers in the US.

Dozens of store employees trying to fight their way out to help the man were also getting trampled by the crowd, Fleming said. Witnesses said that even as the worker lay on the ground, shoppers streamed into the store, stepping over him.

Kimberly Cribbs, who witnessed the stampede, said shoppers were acting like "savages."

"When they were saying they had to leave, that an employee got killed, people were yelling 'I've been on line since yesterday morning,'" she said. "They kept shopping."

Yes, these scum actually stepped over a dying man and were angry they had to leave the store due to this mans death. So basically this employee died so people can get cheap flat screen TVs and DVD players. I hope they study the security camera footage and charge everyone that knocked the guy down and stomped on him with capital murder.

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Obama's White House Changes: To be the "Green" House and Homework in the Lincoln Bedroom

Hmm, it seems this may be a Presidency for "Change" at least when it comes to the White House itself. The first daughters will not be waited on hand and foot and will have chores in the White House. I guess that means no maids to pick up their toys and put away their books. Also one of the girls will be doing her homework at Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation desk.

Obama, who is known to be an avid reader of Lincoln history, said his daughter told him "I'm going to sit at that desk, because I'm thinking that will inspire big thoughts."

Maybe the Ghost of Lincoln will help her with her civics homework. This part will be an interesting change I think.

Obama will be sworn in on Jan. 20, and he said he wants to work quickly to make the White House "green."

The president-elect said he plans to sit down with the chief usher for the presidential mansion and do an evaluation of its energy efficiency.

I think he should put a big Solar Panel on the roof of the White House to show more adoption of the technology. Even if they use it to heat water I still think it would be a nice gesture to show Americans how easy it would be to adopt that technology. He can even spend the tax rebate check on something nice for the family.

I think getting rid of the t-ball field that Bush put in and putting in a nice vegetable and fruit garden would be an interesting touch as well. It would be a nod to sustainable living and organically grown produce. It would be cool for the President to say "I grew these squash myself" when a foreign dignitary or a Congressman visits.

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Memristors May be a Boon for HP Stock in the Next few years

It seems that HP (HPQ) is working on a new type of transistor that can remember what resistance it was in even if the juice is turned off.

After rediscovering Chua's work, researchers at HP Labs built the first working memristor in May of this year. And last week, at the first ever Memristor and Memristor Systems Symposium, in Berkeley, CA, the same team showed how memristors can be integrated into functioning circuits. Their circuits require fewer transistors, allowing more components (and more computing power) to be packed into the same physical space while also using less power to function.

The idea is that if they can get these things to increase the computing power of HP chips as well as reducing the amount of electricity that they use it could be great for their bottom line. Also these memristor/transistor chips may be used in future HP computers. This should lead to costs savings since HPs supply chain will be vertically integrated.

HP might even become a big player in the semiconductor market even if they don't build the chips themselves (I'm not sure they would want to get into the serious manufacturing side of the business.) They might just farm out the manufacture of the chips to Taiwan Semi or someone like that on the Fab side.

This also provides some real high margin business on the licencing side of things. I can see Intel using some of these things in future netbook CPUs since they seem to seriously sip power and may lead to an instantly bootable machine. HP can also licence this technology to Flash memory makers who can use it to reduce their costs as well. I think this memristor breakthrough might provide a lucrative revenue stream for HP in the years ahead.

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Obama Third Press Conference in as Many Days: Strikes an FDR tone

Well I guess him showing up with the "Office of the President-Elect" seal day after day is reassuring someone since the market is rallying quite nicely.

"Help is on the way," he proclaimed at his third news briefing on the economy this week. Fifty-five days away from taking office, he declared he would have an economic plan ready for action "starting day one."

Investors' improved spirits kept pace. The Dow Jones industrials were up about 200 points near the end of the trading day.

I guess that is the Obama jawbone effect. I do like his talk on the stimulus package since it is helping the stock of construction companies like Fluor (FLR) and Jacobs Engineering (JEC.) Also it would help Caterpillar (CAT) at a time when Chinese equipment spending seems to be slowing. I think these companies are cheap but will reap the lions share of the billions in government cashola to fix broken streets and upgrade our energy infrastructure.

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The FED Starting to Nationalize Some Mortgages

I think some rappers need to take a page out of the FEDs book. They are just throwing massive piles of money around and seeing what happens.

Rolling out powerful new weapons against the financial meltdown, the Bush administration and the Federal Reserve pledged $800 billion Tuesday to blast through blockades on credit cards, auto loans, mortgages and other borrowing. Total bailout commitments, loans and pledges of backing neared a staggering $7 trillion.

Yeah that is trillion with a T. They also seem to be diamonds out of the trash when it comes to loans they are plucking from the corpse of Fannie and Freddie.

As for Tuesday's actions, the mortgage-backed securities the Fed will buy will be investment-grade assets � not the toxic mortgage-related assets that the administration initially had said the $700 billion financial rescue program would buy.

By focusing on investment-grade securities, the Fed will be able to help provide a functioning secondary market. It will pay the prices for these securities that are being set by the market. Had the Fed needed to buy bad assets, it would have had to develop a mechanism to properly price assets that weren't being traded.

So they are able to nationalize the good loans and leave the bad stuff on the books of the GSEs. They are also making a market in these securities and setting the price as well. I guess the "Lender of Last Resort" has just become the "Mortgage Bank of Last Resort." Now they can slowly destroy the bad debt at the GSEs and take over these foreclosed homes if they want. Perhaps they can then sell the houses or use them to house low income families or something.

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Obama Keeps Gates at Defence

It seems that Obama is really trying to fashion a Lincoln-like government by keeping Gates on at Defence for at least a year or more.

Gates and retired Gen. James Jones would bring decades of experience to the administration of a 47-year-old commander in chief who campaigned on a pledge to redeploy combat troops in Iraq within 16 months while simultaneously ramping up the U.S. military presence in Afghanistan.

Obama is picking the right man for the job over and over again in his Cabinet. Even Joe Lieberman agrees.

"Everything that President-elect Obama has done since election night has been just about perfect, both in terms of a tone and also in terms of the strength of the names that have either been announced or are being discussed to fill his administration," Lieberman said during a visit to Hartford.

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A Solar Investors Primer from Forbes

It seems that the Solar Industry has some interesting trends starting to develop in it. I'm convinced that solar will be the best growth industry going forward once things shake out a bit. Here are some key points from the article.

1.) Thin film versus crystalline silicon-based cells-based cells. Some companies are staking their money on one technology or the other. First Solar (FSLR) is the thin film leader while SunPower (SPWRA) leads in home and utility installation of crystalline silicon. Thin film takes up less materials to build and thus should be cheaper

2.) New solar technology called organic solar cells which are being developed by companies like Konarka. (which isn't publically traded)

These solar cells are made of carbon molecules that figure to be cheaper, more flexible, lighter and more customizable than silicon or thin-film. In some cases they might even be disposable.

They could be the game changing technology that could conceivably get the cost closer to parity with other forms of energy. If we have an office building made with windows that double as solar cells then this organic solar cell technology will be what they use. There might be a time when every window in your house will double as sun harvesting device.

3.) A new business model is being developed to securitize the solar power system into a fixed income security. This defrays the high upfront costs and spreads the project risk to multiple investors. I think they do this through securitizing the solar incentive tax credit but the article doesn't say.

4.) Solar companies are starting to become vertically integrated. They are basically making the solar cells, designing the setup, and then building the solar plants using this securitization model mentioned in 3. This would be quite lucrative if they can sell their electricity at a cost basis that can compete dollar for dollar with a coal/oil power plant.

Here government intervention from Obama will really be a boon. If he put caps on carbon that raises the costs for oil/coal plants ,or provides incentives for utilities to use solar generated energy, then these vertically integrated solar companies will really take off. In the meantime they can control costs and receive a steady income from selling the electricity into the grid at market rates. This could be the so-called "Solar Utility" model going forward.

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Cisco to Shut Down for 5 Days

It seems that companies are cutting back on tech buying this quarter and into next year.

"In particular, this will help lower payroll and facility expenses," wrote Nikos Theodosopoulos, analyst with UBS, in a research note Tuesday. "We believe it is prudent for Cisco's management team to plan for cushion in the event of weaker than expected revenues."

That seems like a pretty extreme measure in order to lower their expenses. I guess capital spending on networking equipment is being deferred to quarters where the buyer can afford it. I mean most companies can get by with their old equipment for a few years long before they need to upgrade anything.

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