Pleasure

Monday, January 3, 2011

Judge Dismisses Hedge Funds' Case Against Porsche

December 31, 2010, 4:36 pm

From our colleagues at DealBook:

A federal judge in Manhattan on Thursday dismissed a $2 billion lawsuit brought against Porsche by 10 hedge fund managers, stating that the New York court had no jurisdiction over lawsuits related to foreign securities — an outcome predicted in an October Deal Professor column.

The suits brought by hedge fund managers, including Elliot Associates and Black Diamond Offshore, accused the automaker of misleading investors about their stake in Volkswagen, which the managers were shorting.

The basis for the ruling comes after a Supreme Court decision this summer in Morrison v. National Bank of Australia Bank Ltd., which limited shareholders’ ability to sue foreign companies in the United States if stocks trade on overseas exchanges. That means the Porsche case could now move to Germany, where the car company is based.

Lawyers for Porsche said they were “delighted” by the decision.

Classic Ad: Blizzard of 2010 Edition

December 31, 2010, 2:00 pm

By ROBERT PEELE

Yes, plenty of New Yorkers have suffered the city’s snow-snarled streets with something less than equanimity. But here at the Wheels blog, we like to keep things in perspective. Case in point: our final classic ad of the year, which proves that with snow, as in life, everything is relative.

In this dramatization of a (supposedly) true story, a fierce storm in the Sierra Nevada Mountains leaves a Volkswagen buried for six months beneath tons of snow and ice. When finally uncovered, the plucky Beetle putters away as if it had been waiting at a traffic light. No word on whether the crew supervisor, last seen hightailing it from the scene of the dig, ever bothered to return.

Meanwhile, drivers stuck on New York’s dreaded “tertiary streets” may have to take matters — not to mention shovels — into their own hands, lest their own wait for for the snowplow last until spring. Here’s hoping everyone digs out the right car.

Happy shoveling!

View the original article here

Watch: Students for Daniels Make Their Pitch

Courtesy of the Student Initiative to Draft Mitch Daniels (PAC):

Mitch Daniels is the candidate students need in 2012. His measured tone and serious policy solutions offer us the best hope for a responsible and intelligent national conversation in 2012, especially on the most pressing question for our rising generation: the national debt.
Governor Daniels has said that he does not plan to run, that he would rather serve out his governorship and give the people of Indiana his undivided attention, and that the only reason he hasn’t completely shut the door on the idea of running for President is his concern that 2012 election will not seriously address America’s real problems.
We share that concern.
That is why we launched the Student Initiative to Draft Daniels. We are a netroots political action committee founded at Yale University that is urging the Governor Daniels to seek the 2012 Republican Presidential nomination. We believe he is the right man for these times.

View the original article here

Obama Signs 9/11 First Responders Bill

Tribute in Light Obama Signs 9/11 First Responders Bill CNN reports:

Washington (CNN) — President Barack Obama signed the 9/11 health bill into law in Hawaii on Sunday, White House spokesman Bill Burton said.
Obama signed the bill during his Hawaiian vacation, with no signing ceremony held. In a statement issued later, the president said he was “honored” to sign the bill, which pays for health care for responders believed to have been sickened by pollution at the ruins of the World Trade Center in New York.
“We will never forget the selfless courage demonstrated by the firefighters, police officers, and first responders who risked their lives to save others,” Obama said. “I believe this is a critical step for those who continue to bear the physical scars of those attacks.”
The bill made a long journey in order to get signed. A printed copy of the bill flew with a White House staffer from Washington to the Hawaiian island of Oahu, so Obama could sign it from his vacation rental in Kailua.
“It came out with a member of the staff so that it could be signed in a timely fashion,” Burton said.
The legislation, officially titled the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act, provides health coverage to workers who helped clear the rubble and search for human remains at the site of the worst terrorist attack in U.S. history. The $4.2 billion legislation also reopens the federal Victim Compensation Fund to provide economic relief to those harmed by the attacks, which killed more than 2,700 people in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania.

View the original article here

Wikileaks: US Diplomats Pushed Boeing Planes

airplanesmall Wikileaks: US Diplomats Pushed Boeing Planes The New York Times reports:

WASHINGTON — The king of Saudi Arabia wanted the United States to outfit his personal jet with the same high-tech devices as Air Force One. The president of Turkey wanted the Obama administration to let a Turkish astronaut sit in on a NASA space flight. And in Bangladesh, the prime minister pressed the State Department to re-establish landing rights at Kennedy International Airport in New York.
Each of these government leaders had one thing in common: they were trying to decide whether to buy billions of dollars’ worth of commercial jets from Boeing or its European competitor, Airbus. And United States diplomats were acting like marketing agents, offering deals to heads of state and airline executives whose decisions could be influenced by price, performance and, as with all finicky customers with plenty to spend, perks.
This is the high-stakes, international bazaar for large commercial jets, where tens of billions of dollars are on the line, along with hundreds of thousands of high-paying jobs. At its heart, it is a wrestling match fought daily by executives at two giant companies, Boeing and Airbus, in which each controls about half of the global market for such planes.
To a greater degree than previously known, diplomats are a big part of the sales force, according to hundreds of cables released by WikiLeaks, which describe politicking and cajoling at the highest levels.
It is not surprising that the United States helps American companies doing business abroad, given that each sale is worth thousands of jobs and that their foreign competitors do the same. But like the other WikiLeaks cables, these offer a remarkably detailed look at what had previously been only glimpsed — in this case, the sales war between American diplomats and their European counterparts.
The cables describe letters from presidents, state visits as bargaining chips and a number of leaders making big purchases based, at least in part, on how much the companies will dress up private planes.
The documents also suggest that demands for bribes, or at least payment to suspicious intermediaries who offer to serve as “agents,” still take place. Boeing says it is committed to avoiding any such corrupt practices.

View the original article here

Saturday, December 25, 2010

Happy Holidays, Wheels Readers

December 23, 2010, 6:03 pm

By THE NEW YORK TIMES

Whatever the mode of transport that conveys you to your destination, the editors and contributors at Wheels wish you safe and happy travels this holiday weekend. We’ll be taking a short break, returning to our regular coverage on Monday, Dec. 27.

Meantime, Mr. Hamilton has a special message for you:

View the original article here

Friday, December 24, 2010

Canadians Prefer the Mustang Over the Home-Grown Camaro

OTTAWA — The decision by General Motors to manufacture the Camaro in Oshawa, Ontario, was widely hailed in Canada as a coup for the country’s auto industry. But it seems that patriotism matters for little in Canadian showrooms.

According to DesRosiers Automotive Consultants, Canadians have bought 3,974 Camaros this year as of the end of November, compared with 4,935 Mustangs, which are assembled in Michigan.

The situation is the reverse of the United States, where 75,685 Camaros were sold during the same period compared with 68,264 Mustangs, according to the manufacturers. (Sales of both vehicles account for a much smaller portion of the overall Canadian market, which is roughly one-tenth the size of the United States.)

It’s not entirely clear why Canadians are more fond of the imported muscle car.

Kerri Stoakley, a spokeswoman for the Ford Motor Company of Canada, argued that Canadians believed that Mustangs were better.

“The Ford Mustang is an icon, a vehicle that many Canadians consider their dream car,” she wrote in an e-mail.

David Caldwell, a General Motors spokesman in Detroit, suggested that two factors might be at play: a lack of price incentives on the Camaro and the unavailability of a convertible model.

While Canada might be a wintry land, about half of the Mustangs sold were convertibles. By comparison, they account for only 15 to 20 percent of American sales.

Because high-power, rear-wheel-drive sports cars are less than ideal winter vehicles, many of them spend the long Canadian winter in indoor storage and are used only during seasons when a convertible top is an asset.

The convertible Camaro now on its way may alter the Canadian sales war.

While G.M. has heavily promoted the Camaro’s sales lead in the United States, Mr. Caldwell seemed to take the car’s second place in the Canadian market in stride.

“Maybe this isn’t so unusual,” he wrote. “Mustang is no longer No. 1 in its country of origin either.”

View the original article here