Monday, April 30, 2012
Friday, April 20, 2012
Mercedes CLA concept previews expanded compact line
hat's the message Mercedes-Benz plans to pitch as it prepares to unveil the CLA Concept Style Coupe at the Beijing auto show. The concept will offer design hints for the new Mercedes-Benz A/B compact vehicles coming to U.S. showrooms in late 2013.
The luxury automaker previewed the CLA concept this week in Los Angeles and will provide a more detailed look in Beijing with the 2.0-liter, 208-hp, four-cylinder-powered Concept Style Coupe.
The coupe will be revealed in Beijing with a four-door body. Mercedes said it will be priced below the automaker's C class.
Mercedes parent Daimler AG has invested 1.4 billion euros ($1.9 billion) to build a new generation of compact premium cars in China, Hungary and Germany. Daimler CEO Dieter Zetsche said last month that the automaker will improve the profitability of its compact cars by expanding the lineup from two models -- the A class and B class -- to five cars and building significantly higher volumes.
The CLA represents new territory for Mercedes-Benz, a brand traditionally known for its spacious luxury sedans.
"The Concept Style Coupe is expressive and powerful in its design," Zetsche said in a statement. "We are staking our claim very clearly here. This is the model against which sporty vehicles in the executive segment will have to measure themselves in future."
The concept features a large gaping grille known to insiders as a soft-nose treatment, headlamps with LED graphics, frameless side windows, panoramic roof, integrated dual-flow exhaust system and interior design cues from the Concept A-Class, with carbon-fiber trim instrument panel, suede trim steering wheel, chrome trim, Command Online multimedia system and the ability to browse the Internet when the vehicle is stationary.
Daimler did not say when it will begin building the CLA, although press reports say production of the car will start at year end and that it will arrive in showrooms early next year.
Sources told Autoweek, an affiliate of Automotive News, that the CLA styling is largely faithful to the production version of the new sedan.
"Certain design elements have been subtly altered to lend a more powerful look for added presence on the show stand, but as a whole the exterior and interior reflect the true design of the car we will build at our new manufacturing plant in Kecskemet, Hungary," an unidentified source told Autoweek.
The Concept Style Coupe is expected to undergo mild styling changes before the CLA lands in showrooms, Autoweek reported.
The CLA sedan's luxury-brand rivals will include a sedan version of the third-generation Audi A3, due in 2013, and a new sedan version of the BMW 1 series that is undergoing conceptual development and an expected introduction in 2015, Autoweek reported.
Mercedes said it has so far received more than 100,000 orders for the B class since its launch in Europe in November 2011. The B class is built in Rastatt, Germany, and Kecskemet.
The new A class, which also will be assembled in Rastatt, will go on sale in Europe in September and is scheduled to arrive in the United States in 2014.
New federal agency OFR stirs 'Orwellian' fears
The Office of Financial Research, or OFR, was created by the Dodd-Frank financial services overhaul that President Obama signed into law in July 2010. Technically housed under the Treasury Department, the agency has until now received its funding not from the Congress, but directly from the Federal Reserve.
Starting in July, the OFR Fiscal Year 2013 budget, estimated at $158 million, will be funded entirely through assessments -- also known as taxes -- on bank-holding firms with consolidated assets worth at least $50 billion.
But as became clear at Thursday’s hearing by the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, a close reading of the law the president signed provides no limit on the growth of OFR’s budget, nor on the taxes the agency can impose on big banks to fund it.
“We’ll call you on it,” said Rep. Michael Capuano, D-Mass., warning what would happen if he and his colleagues see the agency growing too large.
Yet the Congress’ prospects for doing that are at present limited, as it holds no power of the purse over OFR. Detractors call it "the CIA of financial regulators,” and conjure "Orwellian" visions of "an omniscient Soviet-style central risk manager."
The agency’s official mission is to collect financial data and funnel it to another Dodd-Frank creation: the Financial Stability Oversight Council. These agencies were designed with the idea of preventing another systemic shock of Lehman Brothers magnitude.
Toward that end, OFR was invested with virtually unlimited subpoena power. It can compel just about any company in America to turn over to the federal government sensitive internal data, even proprietary information.
“We're only going to be collecting the data that we absolutely need, to fulfill our mission,” testified Michele Shannon, the new agency’s chief operating officer. “We're trying to fill data gaps. We're not going to be collecting for collection's sake. We're going to be making sure that only those people who absolutely need to have access to sensitive data have that access.”
But Republicans on the panel remained skeptical about the potential for abuses of power.
“You're able to tax corporations without any oversight by the U.S. Congress,” said Rep. Steve Pearce, R-New Mex. “Our Constitution is pretty clear, and so if we're a little scratchy on our side, just understand it's because you're conducting things that we feel like are completely unconstitutional.”
Rep. Bill Posey, R-Fla., questioned both the need for OFR to exist and its ability to protect adequately the sensitive data it will collect through its subpoena power.
“Your agency…seems to think it can outsmart Wall Street, if they have enough extra people and enough software, that they can see where the next problem is going to be,” Posey said at Thursday’s hearing. “But everyone with half a brain in this country saw the last problem way before it burst. We knew there was a subprime crisis; it was just a matter of how long it would be before it burst.”
Posey also noted that the computer systems of some national defense agencies have been hacked. “I wonder whether or not you'll be able to have a safer process than some of them did,” he said.
One of the panel’s most liberal members, Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., normally alarmed by unbridled expansions of subpoena power, defended OFR, citing the experience of the Great Recession. “I hope that all my colleagues agree that having, consolidating, and understanding this complex financial data would be key to preventing another systemic risk,” she said.
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/04/19/new-federal-agency-ofr-stirs-orwellian-fears/#ixzz1saAXsCln
Tuesday, April 17, 2012
WOW - Kim Kardashian plans to run for mayor in 2017
WOW HERE WE GO! Kim Kardashian wants to run for mayor.
The reality TV star has revealed plans to enter the political arena in 2017 by running for the position in Glendale, California, where a quarter of its residents share her Armenian background and has already asked close pal Noelle Keshishian to help with her campaign.Speaking to her sister Khloe during an episode of 'Khloe & Lamar ', Kim said: ''I decided...I'm gonna run for the mayor of Glendale...but it's gonna be in like five years.
''You have to have full residency in Glendale...so I have to buy a house there. Noelle and I are looking into all the requirements. It's an Armenian town.''
Kim isn't the only celebrity to consider politics. In December Alec Baldwin canceled his plans to run for New York City mayor because he said he isn't as ''horny'' for the role as other candidates, who have a much bigger appetite for the job.
He explained: ''I've lost my appetite. They're all just so horny for it.''
He added the other candidates are ''like a guy on a date that you can tell he just can't wait to get his hand up your blouse before even the lights go out in the theatre''.
Monday, April 16, 2012
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