The “U.S. To Revise Disputed Trucking Regulation - Post Chronicle” plus 4 more

U.S. To Revise Disputed Trucking Regulation - Post Chronicle
UPDATE !-U.S. to revise disputed trucking regulation - CNN Money
Oshkosh receives two orders valued at $44 million - Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
There’s Just No Reason to Cry - Democratic Underground.com
Honda in the black, Daimler stays in the red - USA Today

U.S. To Revise Disputed Trucking Regulation - Post Chronicle

Posted: 27 Oct 2009 08:34 AM PDT

The Obama administration has agreed to revise a controversial proposal authorizing longer hours behind the wheel for truck drivers, opponents of the measure said on Tuesday.

The regulation was proposed three times by the Bush administration starting in 2003. It was rejected twice in federal court after being challenged on grounds that the government did not adequately consider the impact of longer hours on traffic safety and driver health.

Consumer group Public Citizen, Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety, the Truck Safety Coalition, and the Teamsters union sued to block the latest proposal last March.

The groups, in a statement, said the Transportation Department had agreed to stop fighting for the plan and to redraft new regulations within nine months.

Under the disputed proposal, long-haul truckers could spend more time behind the wheel -- up to 11 consecutive hours before resting. Off-duty time was also reduced.

It would be the first significant update of regulations dating to the 1940s.

Some large companies covered by the rule include FedEx Corp, UPS Inc and YRC Worldwide Inc.

(Reporting by John Crawley; editing by John Wallace)

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UPDATE !-U.S. to revise disputed trucking regulation - CNN Money

Posted: 27 Oct 2009 08:06 AM PDT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Obama administration has agreed to revise a controversial proposal authorizing longer hours behind the wheel for truck drivers, opponents of the measure said Tuesday.

Consumer group Public Citizen, Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety, the Truck Safety Coalition, and the Teamsters union sued to block the latest proposal last March.

The groups, in a statement, said the Transportation Department had agreed to stop fighting for the plan and to redraft new regulations within nine months.

Under the disputed proposal, long-haul truckers could spend more time behind the wheel -- up to 11 consecutive hours before resting. Off-duty time was also reduced.

It would be the first significant update of regulations dating to the 1940s.

Some large companies covered by the rule include FedEx Corp , UPS Inc and YRC Worldwide Inc. (Reporting by John Crawley; editing by John Wallace)

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Oshkosh receives two orders valued at $44 million - Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Posted: 27 Oct 2009 08:13 AM PDT

Oct. 27, 2009 9:56 a.m. | First baseman Prince Fielder and right-hander Yovani Gallardo were named the Brewers' Most Valuable Player and Most Valuable Pitcher, respectively, for 2009 in balloting conducted by the Milwaukee chapter of the Baseball Writers Association of America.

Other award winners were closer Trevor Hoffman as Top Newcomer, reliever Todd Coffey as Unsung Hero and veteran infielder Craig Counsell as recipient of the "Good Guy" award.

Fielder, who received all six first-place votes in ballots cast, had a record-breaking year in franchise history. With 141 RBI, which tied Philadelphia's Ryan Howard for the major league lead, he shattered the club mark of 126 established by Cecil Cooper in 1983. Fielder also walked 110 times, eclipsing the club record of 99 set by Jeromy Burnitz in 2000.

With 46 home runs, Fielder put his name in the Brewers' record book with the two most prolific seasons, including 50 in 2007. The only player in the majors to play in all 162 games, Fielder became the first player in franchise history to record three consecutive 30-homer, 100-RBI seasons. He made his second all-star team and won the all-star Home Run Derby in St. Louis.

Gallardo went 13-12 with a 3.73 ERA in 30 starts and easily was the most effective starter in an otherwise bleak rotation. He became only the fourth pitcher in club history to record 200 strikeouts, finishing with 204, fifth in the NL, despite being shut down the final two weeks to conserve his workload. »Read Full Blog Post

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There’s Just No Reason to Cry - Democratic Underground.com

Posted: 27 Oct 2009 07:37 AM PDT

There's Just No Reason to Cry
By David Glenn Cox

Abandon your value systems all ye who enter this domain. There is no good nor evil, no rightness or wrongness; there is only money.

As we scrimmaged over healthcare all the summer long, right wing pundits came up with the term "death panels." I thought to myself, damn, that's fiendishly clever. I had this vision of a futuristic "Logan's Run" type of thing going on, or instead of a draft board having to go in front of the "Death Panel." But to millions of Americans in declining health, the idea of marginalized health care was not so amusing. It was real. And they knew which way the decision would probably be handed down in their own case.

Who could have thought that up? Hollywood is in desperate need of such cleverness. Sadly, the truth is they didn't make them up; they actually wished them up.

From the Bloomberg article by Caroline Baum, "If Government Pays Us to Spend, Then Spend We Will. Paul Kasriel, chief economist at the Northern Trust Corp. in Chicago gives his October economic outlook,

"For example, not all spending is created equal. Investment in the future, whether it's the government improving roads or the private sector building a plant, is a plus for future growth.

"If increased government spending on retiree health care comes at the expense of business spending on capital equipment and R&D, then the productivity of the current labor force and long-run growth rate will be adversely affected."

Road spending good! Healthcare spending for seniors bad! Even more to the point is the term "government" spending. The private health insurers pour their billions in profits back into Wall Street. That's good! A government option or single payer plan would invest, like Social Security, in Treasury notes and bonds; government spending bad! The entire healthcare issue dissolves in front of us into Wall Street saying, we don't like any plan that won't allow us to profit from it.

It's not about business models or streamlining healthcare delivery. It's not about tort reform or pre-existing conditions. It is about a government option taking money off of Wall Street's plate. That is their value system. How much money do I have, how much money can I make, and how soon can I get it?

Like the floats in the Thanksgiving's Day parade, they trot out last year's tax cut float and redecorate it with new crepe paper and proclaim, "If increased government spending on retiree health care comes at the expense of business spending on capital equipment and R&D, then the productivity of the current labor force and long-run growth rate will be adversely affected." That's newspeak for government spending bad.

All the hundreds of millions of dollars for private jets and bonuses apparently has no affect on capital spending. But now government spending on healthcare could put a drag on the economy for years to come. Because Wall Street won't profit from it.

There's a movie that's recently come out based on an old parlor game: if I offered you a million dollars to push a button, but if you pushed the button someone would die, would you do it? On Wall Street they play that game for real every day. It's not that they hate you. It's only a question of can they profit from you. Are you a plus or a minus? The system culls out all emotion; if your health insurer does a good job and pays all of your claims, it will be leap-frogged by the companies that don't pay claims.

Stockholders will ask why the other companies are making so much more money, and Wall Street will frown upon them. The share price will go down; the board will be replaced by those more understanding of the system. Those who understand what "Executive Bonus Package" really means. It means that there is good spending and then there is bad spending.

The other day US Ambassador to Afghanistan, Karl Eikenberry, threw the switch on a new electrical power plant in Kabul. Eikenberry asked the Afghans to think of the US taxpayers when they turn on their lights at night. Eikenberry metaphorically called it the emergence out of the "darkness" of oppression and isolation.

The plant was supposed to cost $240 million, but it escalated to $310 million plus another $70 million annually to run the plant, powered by diesel oil. Afghanistan has no diesel oil supply or pipeline, so the fuel must be trucked in to keep the plant operational. This is good spending. Government money going to contractors who profit and whose stock price goes up.

There are just a few little loose ends to tie up. First, the Afghan government says that they never wanted the plant; that it was the Bush administration trying to showcase concrete improvements in Afghan society. Second, only 6% of Afghans have electricity and most couldn't afford a light bulb even if their house was wired for it. It's like running cable TV into Darfur, that's great that they've got Showtime but they need food so much more. And finally, "It's a sophisticated power plant," said Guy Sands, an assistant inspector general, which means the plant will require another $60 million per year so that contractors can oversee and operate the plant.

That is considered good spending. Contractors profit and there's no end to it in sight. Good God, man, that's a stock to watch! A $50 million restoration of a hydroelectric dam with the potential to supply twice the electricity of the new diesel plant has been shelved due to security concerns. Starting to get the picture? A $50 million hydroelectric dam project, bad spending. A $300 million diesel plant with an annual operating budget of $130 million, good spending. It is no wonder that Eikenberry asked the Afghans to think of the US taxpayers when they turn on their lights at night.

This is why it is so important to abandon your value system, at least temporarily, because when you can do that, then complicated issues become clear. That's why there are bridges and highways to nowhere in countries going nowhere, because there is money to be made whether the locals like it or not. The Taliban, Al Qaeda become just good guys and bad guys who are no different from Santa Claus and reindeer displays at Sears. They're just sales props to try and make the sale for more of that good government spending.

But now, that other government spending, for seniors and healthcare? If only there was something that we could do about that.

More from the Bloomberg article: "Uncle Sam handed out your hard-earned tax dollars to prod people to scrap their old cars for more fuel-efficient models. The 'Cash for Clunkers' program sent auto sales on a roller coaster ride -- first up, then down -- in August and September. Some of those buyers would have purchased a new car or truck anyway. Others used the $4,500 rebate as an inducement to strike while the iron was hot."

"Paid to spend.
Just to recap: the government is paying people to do what they would have done at some point anyway."

Or, taken one step further in the healthcare debate, the government wants to spend money on people to do what they would have done at some point anyway. Die!

Outrageous? Not really. Wall Street contemplated its navel and in their vision they received the word. The word was money, and nothing else matters.

Abandon your value systems all ye who enter this domain. There is no good nor evil, no rightness or wrongness; there is only money.

The bodies pile up until the blood fills our shoes, but there is no outrage where money is God because they died in the service of God. There is just no reason to cry; God is good!

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Honda in the black, Daimler stays in the red - USA Today

Posted: 27 Oct 2009 07:08 AM PDT

Honda said Tuesday it expects a net profit for the fiscal year ending in March of 155 billion yen ($1.7 billion), nearly four times its initial outlook for a 40 billion yen profit.

Hit by a strong yen and weak global auto market, net profit for the July-September quarter fell 56.2% from a year earlier but was better than expected. For the first half, the automaker booked a net profit of 61.5 billion yen compared with its earlier projection for a 10 billion yen loss.

"The numbers were surprising," said Yoshihiro Okumura, auto analyst with Chiba-gin Asset Management. "The better vehicle sales numbers are producing results."

He said a bigger fall in profit was avoided by strong sales in Japan, driven by green incentives, and good sales numbers in Asia.

Honda (HMC) has succeeded in weathering the global economic slump better than some rivals because it focuses on smaller fuel-efficient models such as its new Insight hybrid, which has been a big hit with the Japanese. All hybrids are now tax-free in Japan. The automaker stayed in the black in the fiscal year ended March 2009, while Toyota (TM) and Nissan slipped into losses.

Honda also raised its forecast for sales this fiscal year to 3.4 million vehicles. It expects more sales in emerging Asian markets and in the previously sluggish Japan, where tax breaks and government-backed discounts for green vehicles are helping along a recovery.

Honda in July forecast vehicle sales of 3.29 million but the new projection is still below the nearly 3.52 million vehicles it sold globally the previous fiscal year.

Honda, which makes the Insight gasoline-electric hybrid, Asimo robot and Accord sedan, said quarterly revenue fell 27.2% from a year earlier.

A strong yen weighed on Honda's results. Unfavorable currency exchange rates erased 79.7 billion yen ($866 million) from Honda's quarterly operating profit, it said in a statement. The dollar bought 106 yen the previous year but has fallen to 90-yen levels lately.

Even in the U.S., where vehicle sales fell during the quarter, a cash for clunkers program also helped sales, Honda said.

Honda has also been helped by its strong motorcycle business, which has been enjoying growth in Vietnam and India.

Honda now expects to sell 665,000 vehicles in Japan for the full year, up 19.6% from the previous fiscal year.

It hopes to sell 910,000 vehicles in the rest of Asia, up 14.8%. Sales are expected to decline in North America to 1.31 million vehicles, down 12.8% from the previous year.

Toyota reports earnings Nov. 5, Nissan on Nov. 4.

Daimler said it expects to report positive operating earnings for the current quarter, but warned that times remained challenging.

Daimler reported net income of 56 million euros ($84 million) in the July-September period, compared with 213 million euros a year ago.

Revenue fell 21% to 19.3 billion euros.

Despite the lower earnings, Daimler's results are far better than in the previous quarter, when the company booked a net loss of nearly 1.1 billion euros.

"In recent months, we have increasingly mastered the crisis," Dieter Zetsche, the company's chief executive said in a statement.

Zetsche said the company was "very well positioned," and could look to the coming year with confidence, but that the future would remain challenging for some time.

While the company said it expects positive operating earnings for the fourth quarter, net income could be pulled down by a number of effects, including the lingering economic downturn putting the pinch on dealerships and suppliers.

The results were largely expected, given that Daimler released preliminary operating income and revenue figures early last week.

Daimler reported earnings before interest and taxes of 470 million euros in the third quarter, a 27% decline from the third quarter of 2008.

By divisions, the company's trucks business saw the steepest — 40% — decline in revenue for the quarter to euro4.4 billion. Daimler is the world's biggest truckmaker with its brands including Freightliner, Western Star and Mitsubishi Fuso. The division has been hit particularly hard by the downturn.

The van business, with models including the Sprinter, saw revenue slide 33% to 1.6 billion euros. Meanwhile, bus revenue fell 15% to 1 billion euros.

The main Mercedes-Benz cars division, which includes the namesake brand, Smart compacts, and Maybach super-luxury cars, saw revenue decline 12%.

The company said total group unit sales fell 26% to 386,461 vehicles in the quarter from a year ago. Truck unit sales declined 46%; vans 45%; busses 23% and car unit sales declined 14%.

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