Toyota Suspends Sales of 60% of its Line-up
More Gas Pedal Problems

Problems with gas pedals and unintended accelleration continue to dog Toyota. The floormat fix didn't work, apparently. Now Toyota has suspended sales of 8 models that comprise 60% of its sales volumes in North America, including the Camry.

All this reminds me of the first Bill Cosby standup routine to feature Fat Albert. Cosby wanted to lure Fat Albert to a place where he could scare him so he ran to Albert's house and said, "come on out Albert, Herman's gettin' a beatin'." Albert stomped out yelling, "hey hey hey, I love to see Herman gettin a beatin'." Of course, this begs the question, if Toyota is Herman, who's Junior Barnes? Anyway, getting totally off track of the original post, here's a video of people playing "Buck Buck", because Fat Albert was the baddes buck buck player in the whole world.

An Update on the HAMP Mortgage Modification Program
HAMP - A Zero with its Wings Clipped.

Posted to the right is a picture of a Japanese World War II fighter, the A6M Model 32 "Hamp". The Mitsubishi Model 32 was nothing but a Zero with its wings clipped. By coincidence, the you could describe President Obama's HAMP (Home Affordable Mortgage Program) the same way. Here's a link to a good article at the MSNBC website, "Flaws Plague Foreclosure Relief Program" that sums up the program's performance through the end of 2009. Eight months into the program, and out of approximately 3.5 million potentially eligible foreclosure-bound mortgages, 850,000 of these loans have resulted in temporary loan modifications, but only 66,000 permanent modifications have been put in place.

The MSNBC article tracks what I've personally seen in our UAW clients. For most of them the HAMP modifications just don't make sense. First of all, most of the clients either make too much or too little money. Secondly, to enter into the modification would be increasing the principal balance on a loan that is already way over the value of the real estate. In many cases, it means tying the residents to a home that they'll never have significant equity in in their lifetime and under circumstances where they honestly should think about staying unencumbered so that they can move to where the jobs are going to be. It was recently reported that consumer advocate Elizabeth Warren was called to the White House to consult with President Obama. I hope that she can talk some sense into him that the banks don't necessarily know what's best for the economy. In fact, the banks don't even realize what's best for the banks. If the minority of these upside-down borrowers were allowed to reduce the principal of their home to its market value in Chapter 13 bankruptcy, it would give them incentive to stay in the home, keep it up and hope for appreciation. Terms could be inserted in the legislation to allow the mortgage company to share in that appreciation. This could be accomplished without a federal subsidy.

Happy Bubble Wrap Day!
Why isn't this a National Holiday?

Today is the 50th anniversary of bubble wrap. Every time I see bubble wrap, I think of the old SNL where you could win a Beatle. In this case, it was Ringo Starr sitting on your couch popping bubble wrap. Anyway, here's a link to virtual, eco-friendly, bubble wrap.

http://www.virtual-bubblewrap.com/bubble-wrap.swf

Hitler on the Massachusetts Senatorial Election

The Fresh Prince of Nigerian Pranks

From the "Oh no they di-unt" file:
The MacGruber Movie Trailer

This is apparently real. Warning - language alert NSFW.

Why We Need a Consumer Financial Products Safety Commision

The Center For Responsible Lending has prepared this video that gives some very persuasive reasons why we shouldn't rely on our current financial regulatory system to avoid another financial meltdown.

Happy "FAKE JAN" Day


Kind of makes you appreciate William Hung a little bit more, doesn't it?

Saab's Not Dead Yet



Autonews is reporting that, even though GM's deadline for acceptable bids for Saab has passed, Spyker has submitted an 11 point proposal for aquisition of Saab.

Eleven points! With eleven points, it has to be good. After all, anyone who has seen Spinal Tap knows eleven is better than ten.

79.9% Credit Card - What a Deal
First Premier is up to New Tricks

First Premier Bank is famous for its high fee credit cards that are available to anyone, no matter how bad your credit. How do they do it. They charge as much as $259 in an annual fee for a credit card with a balance of $250 to $300.00. It's not uncommon for someone to call us and complain that they are being charged an over limit fee before they've even charged anything. The new credit card bill was supposed to outlaw such practices by capping account fees to 25% of the credit line. According to this article in USA Today, apparently First Premier has found a way around the new law. They'll be charging 79.9% interest to go along with a $75.00 first year fee on a credit card with a maximum credit line of $300.00. The reason for the change: under the new law, annual fees are capped, but interest rates aren't. For more on First Premiere, check out the ripoffreport link here.

The clip is from a great documentary on the credit card industry called Maxed Out.