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Sunday, March 3, 2013

Detroit emergency declared. Can intervention turn around the city?s finances?

Detroit emergency manager is likely to be assigned in less than two weeks by Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder. Some city council members are considering mounting a legal challenge.

By Mark Guarino,?Staff writer / March 1, 2013

Gov. Rick Snyder tells the Associated Press he will declare a financial emergency prior his television broadcast in Detroit, Friday. Snyder declared a financial emergency in Detroit on Friday, pushing the city closer to having a state-appointed emergency manager control its finances.

Paul Sancya/AP

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The city of Detroit is less than two weeks away from the likelihood of being assigned an emergency manager. In announcing that the city is in a state of financial emergency Friday, Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder (R) said he agrees with a state report that concluded intervention is necessary because city officials have not yet provided a satisfactory alternative.

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The city?s comeback is vital to strengthening the overall state economy, Governor Snyder said in an address Friday. Detroit?s financial collapse has been decades in the making, he said.

?[Citizens] deserve public safety, they deserve better lighting, they deserve better transportation, and the list goes on. We need to solve these issues. Detroit can?t wait any longer,? he said.

Detroit is saddled with a $100 million cash-flow deficit by June 30, in addition to an accumulated deficit of $327 million, a financial review team reported last week. Even more serious is its $14.9 billion in unfunded pension and retirement liabilities. The city needs $1.9 billion to fund liabilities within the next five years, but to date has no plan.

?If those [pension and retirement liabilities] don?t get fixed, it?s hard to see Detroit getting financially solvent. There are very few other long-term fixes,? says Eric Scorsone, an economics professor at Michigan State University in East Lansing.

Snyder?s declaration of a financial emergency sets off a 10-day appeals process, which allows the mayor or the nine-member city council to ask for a hearing to offer an alternative to an emergency manager. The deadline to make the appeal is March 11. The hearing date would be March 12. After that, Snyder will make his final decision.?

Detroit Mayor Dave Bing said he does not support an emergency manager but has long complained that the city council has put up obstacles hindering the city from working with the state on other solutions. A financial consent agreement between the state and city council last April did not significantly improve the financial situation.

?If, in fact, the appointment of an emergency financial manager both stabilizes the city fiscally and supports our restructuring initiatives which improve the quality of life for our citizens, then I think there is a way for us to work together,? Mr. Bing said in a statement.

Soon after Synder?s announcement, many city council members agreed they should be directing their efforts toward mounting a legal challenge to prevent an emergency manager from being assigned. They also discussed pressing for a modified consent agreement, which would create benchmarks for accountability.

?It would be irresponsible for us to not provide some response.... We have to do everything we can to try to stop [emergency management] from happening,? Councilwoman Saunteel Jenkins told The Detroit News.

However, not all city council members projected such defiance. In a statement, Gary Brown, council president pro tem, said he doesn?t support the appointment of an emergency manager on democratic principles, but if the council and mayor don?t address certain roadblocks, ?the only alternative is for the governor to appoint an [emergency financial manager] who has the will to implement the necessary reforms.?

Snyder said he has an emergency manager in mind but did not reveal the name. He said his appointee would need just 18 months to help transition the city out of its current crisis and create structural changes that would lead it to solvency. If Detroit is assigned an emergency manager, it would become the only major US city to operate under state control.

While an emergency manager would have the power to cut spending by consolidating city services, privatizing services and assets, and canceling contracts, he or she could also declare the city bankrupt ? although Professor Scorsone notes that would require the approval of a federal judge. He says the state could face legal challenges if it tries to enact changes through actions that ?look like bankruptcy,? such as selling assets or cutting benefits unilaterally.

?There will be a lot of constitutional issues,? he says. ?Some will claim Michigan is developing a quasi-bankruptcy process outside Congress?s purview, so there are a lot of constitutional issues to see if this is doable or not.?

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/Oe7K2D4b2sg/Detroit-emergency-declared.-Can-intervention-turn-around-the-city-s-finances

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Kinetica comes into its own with illusory adventures

Kat Austen, CultureLab editor

One, two, three by Trope Scope

It?s that time of year again. This year?s Kinetica Artfair has opened in London to the delight of many science-minded art explorers.

The theme of illusion and reality runs strongly through many of the exhibits and performances this year, and this thread helps transform what has in the past seemed like a playground for grown-ups into something more enriching.

Angel In My Peripheral Vision by Chris Levine (see video above) plays on a quirk of our vision to produce an image just on the edge of perception. Turn your head, and you catch a glimpse of a figure, but look straight at the artwork and all you see is a human-height column of flickering green LEDs.

Playing with the phenomenon of persistence of vision is a theme in other works such as Tim Lewis?s Transformer, which uses a strobe light to animate a small man running inside a hamster wheel, and Mechanical Flipbook?s Horse in Motion, which recalls Eadweard Muybridge?s pioneering work in the field.

Taking things a step further, Trope Scope present One, two, three, a sculpture-cum-experiment that comes out of the multidisciplinary Diasynchronoscope Project at Goldsmiths, University of London.

Designed by artists Carol MacGillivray and Bruno Mathez as part of the project, the piece is used to investigate how our brains construct a continuous visual stream from discrete objects. ?Most perception experiments use screens,? says Mathez, ?but a screen is not reality. We can represent reality in a much better way by positioning the viewer within a room and playing with space and depth. We can control the experiments very precisely.?

They will be investigating apparent movement - the way that we perceive frames of a film to be a continual flow of information. Everyone consumes movies all the time, MacGillivray says, but most of us don?t really know why we see them move, or what the thresholds are to seeing movement.

One, two, three is a stunning piece of art in its own right. It combines audio-visual elements that nod to MacGillivray?s experience in animation with a sculptural element that brings the projections into the realm of the real.

Other works play with our instinctive reactions to visual stimuli. Madi Boyd has worked with psychologists and neuroscientists who look at how we first respond to visual stimuli and then try to interpret what we?re looking at.

In Fragment Cinema, she draws us in with a completely abstract light projection emerging from a prism-shaped box, but also presents us with an almost-interpretable film element projected onto the outside of the box to engage us at the second, interpretation, stage.

The video hints at a narrative that the viewer can almost, but not quite, unravel. We linger as the images flicker by looking for the next clue, the next pattern that might explain the whole.

In its fifth year, Kinetica Artfair is coming into its own. With a series of performances over the weekend and a host of other fun and interactive exhibits, it?s certainly worth a visit.

If you?re in London and in the mood for more art this weekend, Art13, an art fair for international up-and-coming artists, has some science-related treats too, including taxidermy artist Polly Morgan?s Foundations/Rename - a tower made of casts of a crow?s femur - and Catharina Van Eetvelde?s Subject of the Sun, prints that call to mind Galileo?s struggle with the Catholic church.

Kinetica Artfair runs until Sunday at Ambika P3 (opposite the London Planetarium), University of Westminster, London

Art13 runs until Sunday at Kensington Olympia, London

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SpaceX rocket launched but problem with thrusters

The Falcon 9 SpaceX rocket lifts off from launch complex 40 at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Cape Canaveral, Fla., Friday, March 1, 2013. The rocket is transporting the Dragon capsule to the International Space Station containing more than a ton of food, tools, computer hardware and science experiments. (AP Photo/John Raoux)

This Jan. 12, 2013 photo provided by NASA shows the Dragon spacecraft inside a processing hangar at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Cape Canaveral, Fla. where teams had just installed the spacecraft's solar array fairings. The California company known as SpaceX is scheduled to launch its unmanned Falcon rocket on Friday morning, March 1, 2013, carrying a Dragon capsule containing more than a ton of food, tools, computer hardware and science experiments. (AP Photo/NASA, Kim Shiflett)

In a photo provided by NASA, the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, with it's Dragon spacecraft onboard, is seen shortly after it was erected at Launch Complex 40 at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida on Friday, March 1, 2013. Launch of the second SpaceX Commercial Resupply Services mission is scheduled for later Friday morning. (AP Photo/Nasa, Bill Ingalls)

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) ? A commercial vessel carrying a ton of supplies for the International Space Station ran into trouble shortly after liftoff Friday.

SpaceX's billionaire founder Elon Musk reported a problem with the thrusters on the unmanned spacecraft, named Dragon. Three of the four sets of thrusters did not kick in, he said via Twitter, and flight controllers for the company were trying to override the system.

Musk said from SpaceX Mission Control in Hawthorne, Calif., that he wants at least two thruster pods active before the twin solar panels that provide power are deployed.

NASA flight controllers in Houston offered help as they monitored space station operations.

The problem cropped up immediately following Dragon's separation from the rocket upper stage, nine minutes into the flight. The launch itself appeared to go flawlessly.

More than 1 ton of space station supplies is aboard the Dragon, including some much-needed equipment for air purifiers. The capsule is supposed to arrive at the space station Saturday morning after an unusually short chase.

This is the first major trouble to strike a Dragon in orbit. Two previous capsules, launched last year, had no problem getting to the space station.

SpaceX has a billion-dollar contract with NASA to restock the orbiting lab, and hopes the venture will lead to astronaut rides in a few years.

The private California company run by the billionaire who helped create PayPal, launched its unmanned Falcon rocket into clouds right on time. It was the third supply run by a Dragon capsule, an unparalleled accomplishment all under a year.

Launch controllers applauded and gave high-fives to one another, once the spacecraft safely reached orbit. The successful separation of the Dragon from the rocket was broadcast live on NASA TV; on-board cameras provided the unique views nine minutes into the flight.

Then the trouble struck.

The space station and its six-man crew were orbiting 250 miles above the Atlantic, just off the New England coast, when the Falcon soared. Astronauts are to use a hefty robot arm to draw the Dragon in and dock it to the station.

SpaceX tucked fresh fruit into the Dragon for the station residents; the apples and other treats are straight from the orchard of an employee's family. Also on board: 640 seeds of a flowering weed used for research, mouse stems cells, protein crystals, astronaut meals and clothing, trash bags, air-purifying devices, computer parts and other gear.

SpaceX ? formally Space Exploration Technologies Corp. ? has a $1.6 billion contract with NASA for space station shipments.

NASA's deputy administrator, Lori Garver, said using commercial providers is more efficient for the space agency. It's part of a long-term program, she noted, that has NASA spending less money on low-Earth orbit and investing more in deep-space missions. That's one reason why the space shuttles were retired in 2011 after the station was completed.

The goal is to have SpaceX and other private firms take over the job of ferrying astronauts to and from the space station in the next few years.

SpaceX ? so far the leader of the pack ? is aiming for a manned Dragon flight by 2015.

This is the second in a planned series of 12 SpaceX deliveries under the contract with NASA; the first was last October. A company-sponsored demo mission kicked everything off last May.

Competitor Orbital Sciences Corp. has yet to get off its Virginia launch pad. The company plans to launch a free-flying test of its Antares rocket and Cygnus supply ship in April, followed by a demo run to the space station in early summer. Then the so-called operational supply runs can begin.

Russia, Japan and Europe regularly make station deliveries as well, and Russia is the only option for astronaut rides. But only the Dragon is designed to bring back substantial amounts of research and used merchandise.

This Dragon is scheduled will spend more than three weeks at the space station before being cut loose by the crew on March 25. It will parachute into the Pacific with more than a ton of medical samples, plant and cell specimens, Japanese fish and old machinery, and used spacewalking gloves and other items.

SpaceX plans to launch its next Dragon to the station in late fall.

More than 2,000 guests jammed the Cape Canaveral launch site Friday morning to watch the Falcon take flight. It wasn't much of a show because of all the clouds.

___

Online:

SpaceX: http://www.spacex.com/

NASA: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/main/index.html

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-03-01-Private%20Space/id-01dcdb5c4572456db1aa50341c592f8c

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Saturday, March 2, 2013

Groupon fires CEO, still faces underlying problems

FILE - In this Oct. 14, 2009 file photo, Andrew Mason, the CEO of Groupon, poses for a photo in Chicago. The struggling online deals company said Thursday, Feb. 28, 2013, after the market closed that it ousted Mason as CEO and will look for a new chief. (AP Photo/M. Spencer Greenm, File)

NEW YORK (AP) ? Now that Groupon has gotten rid of its quirky founder and CEO, the chief question is whether the company's underlying online deals business is promising enough to reverse its falling stock price, declining revenue growth and waning consumer interest.

Groupon Inc. fired Andrew Mason on Thursday, one day after the company reported another disappointing quarter amid worries that people are tiring of the restaurant, spa and Botox deals that Groupon built its business on.

In a refreshingly candid memo to staff, Groupon CEO Andrew Mason admitted he "failed at this part of the journey" and said the company's employees "deserve the outside world to give you a second chance. I'm getting in the way of that. A fresh CEO earns you that chance."

Mason's firing has been "fairly widely expected" given the company's performance, and the surprise was how long it took, Gartner analyst Michael Gartenberg said.

But a new CEO may not be enough to tackle all of Groupon's problems.

"The question is whether this as a business model can last," Gartenberg said. "It's easy to replicate and under a lot of pressure. The question is where the company goes from here.... Clearly something wasn't working, isn't working."

Benchmark Co. analyst Daniel Kurnos also questioned whether a change in leadership will be enough, but he said a successor might succeed in getting Groupon more focused and steering it toward more traditional businesses. For example, Groupon Goods, which sells products rather than restaurant or spa deals, has been performing well. With its deals, Groupon's challenge is to balance pleasing merchants who sell the deals with pleasing the customers who buy them, he added.

"There was always a sense that Groupon had a lot of good ideas but no real focus," he said.

The company appointed Executive Chairman Eric Lefkofsky and Vice Chairman Ted Leonsis to the Office of the Chief Executive while a replacement for Mason is found. Lefkofsky is a co-founder of Groupon. The 43-year-old entrepreneur, a veteran of the Internet boom and bust in the late 1990s and early 2000s, is also the company's largest shareholder and pre-IPO investor. Leonsis is a former executive at AOL, where he helped steer the company's transition from a dying business, selling dial-up access, to one revolved around ad-supported content and services.

Groupon Inc.'s stock increased nearly 13 percent Friday. The announcement had come Thursday after the market closed.

Mason, a Northwestern University graduate and former punk band keyboardist, founded Groupon in 2008, pioneering the daily deals business. Groupon started as a side project to another website, The Point, which helped raise funds for various causes. The idea behind daily deals is that if enough people sign up for a discount ? for restaurant meals, manicures or weekend getaways ? offering the deals will be worthwhile for businesses, especially if customers bring friends or come back. Groupon makes money by taking a cut from those deals. By 2010, Groupon was available in 25 countries, and some people saw online deals as the next big thing in retailing.

But analysts have been questioning the long-term viability of such a business, not just at Groupon but also at the long list of copycats, which include LivingSocial, Google Offers and Amazon Local.

While the business is easy to set up, it is difficult to sustain and to stand out. Companies must make both their customers and the businesses that offer the deals happy. Many merchants have become reluctant to offer deals because of how little they were getting in payments and repeat business once the promotions ended. And to keep growing, companies need to make more from each subscriber, rather than simply add more addresses to email deals lists. Investors had been worried that instead of buying more, people were suffering from fatigue over the frequent emails.

LivingSocial, Groupon's closest competitor, laid off 9 percent of its workforce late last year. To diversify its business, Groupon has expanded into product sales, payments services and other areas, but there have been worries that those efforts haven't been paying off.

Mason, known for an eccentric character that didn't fit the mold of a buttoned-down CEO, made no qualms about what had happened.

"I've decided that I'd like to spend more time with my family. Just kidding ? I was fired today," wrote Mason, 32. "If you're wondering why... you haven't been paying attention."

He referred to controversy over its accounting practices, "two quarters of missing our own expectations and a stock price that's hovering around one quarter of our listing price." The stock fell another 24 percent Thursday before the announcement and closed at $4.53, 77 percent below the $20 it started trading at when Groupon went public in November 2011.

"The events of the last year and a half speak for themselves," he wrote. "As CEO, I am accountable."

Groupon, which is based in Chicago, has faced scrutiny about its high marketing expenses and enormous employee base. Its staff has ballooned to more than 11,000, more than that of other Internet darlings such as Twitter, Facebook or Zynga Inc., the other fallen star of the latest swath of Internet IPOs.

Groupon's IPO was one of the most highly anticipated ? and controversial ? among the social media and Internet companies that began publicly trading in the past year and a half. It faced regulatory scrutiny for reporting as revenue the total amount its customers spent on deals, not just the money it got to keep. After federal regulators questioned the practice, Groupon submitted new documents that showed that net revenue in the first half of 2011 was about half of what it originally reported.

Though it made a profit in the second quarter of last year ? its only profitable quarter as a public company ? investors have been more focused on its slowing revenue growth. In 2012, its first full year as a public company, Groupon's revenue increased 45 percent to $2.33 billion. But that's much slower than the five-fold growth in 2011 and 22-fold increase in 2010, compared with the previous years.

Thursday's announcement came one day after more disappointing news on revenue. The company said revenue in the current quarter would be in the range of $560 million to $610 million, below analyst expectations of $647 million.

Groupon said Mason was not available for interviews.

The company did not disclose details about any severance package he might have received, though it will be required to do so by next week. In a regulatory filing last year, Groupon said Mason is potentially entitled to $4,344.36 in total compensation if he is fired "without cause or for good reason." The bulk of that amount is for health coverage, as Mason voluntarily reduced his base salary to $756.72 in 2011, from $180,000.

Much of Mason's wealth comes from Groupon's stock. He owns 7 percent, or about 46 million shares, according to FactSet. Based on Thursday's closing price of $4.53, that's worth more than $208 million.

Groupon's stock hasn't traded above $10 since last July and hit its lowest point, $2.60, in November. Until Wednesday's earnings report, the stock had been crawling back up, but the results disappointed investors who sent it tumbling once again.

On Friday, the stock added 57 cents to close at $5.10. The nearly 13 percent gain was modest compared with the 24 percent drop Thursday, before the announcement. It's a sign that investors will need more than the CEO's firing to start believing in Groupon again.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/495d344a0d10421e9baa8ee77029cfbd/Article_2013-03-01-Groupon-CEO/id-5dba18f028d94f8c8c31d2b2c9bd6c96

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Can aid without weapons help resolve Syrian conflict?

Hussein Malla / AP

Syrian rebel fighters take their positions as they observe the Syrian army forces base of Wadi al-Deif, at the front line of Maarat al-Nuaman town, in Idlib province, Syria, on Feb. 26, 2013.

By Ayman Mohyeldin, Correspondent, NBC News

News Analysis?

Nearly two years after the Syrian uprising began, Secretary of State John Kerry announced the U.S. has for the first time agreed to directly supply Syria's opposition with $60 million in non-lethal aid. But, while this money is needed, it is unlikely to immediately change anything on the ground.?

Speaking under the condition of anonymity, supporters of the opposition working to topple Syrian President Bashar al Assad said they were privately disappointed that the U.S. didn't extend more assistance, specifically weapons, and that the EU has not yet lifted an arms embargo.

But the concern among U.S. officials is that extremist elements are increasingly filling in the vacuum in areas where the regime has been pushed back and the opposition is struggling to govern. There are worries weapons could end up in the wrong hands.

According to Salman Sheikh, director of the Brookings Doha Center, Kerry?s announcement is "unlikely to change the calculation of the Syrian regime's biggest allies ? Russia, Iran and Hezbollah." They will not take the U.S. decision as a serious threat to the regime's survival.?

Sheikh, who has advocated for arming the rebels, says $60 million is an insignificant amount for an opposition that is now expected to operate like a government in some parts of Syria. The salaries of civil servants who are expected to maintain law and order, as well as the country?s justice, sanitation and education services, can cost close to $500 million a month. And Sheikh estimates?humanitarian assistance to meet the needs of the people displaced and suffering both inside and outside is about $40 million a day.

The U.S. aid package, which will assist the Syrian Opposition Coalition in 'liberated' areas, is aimed at helping the fledgling coalition expand the delivery of basic goods and services, including security, sanitation and educational services. The United States also will send technical advisers to support opposition staff in Egypt and work with the movement's military arm to provide non-lethal support to the Free Syrian Army, including things such as military rations and medical supplies to tend to sick and wounded fighters.

Foreign ministers from Saudi Arabia and Qatar described Thursday's announcement as a transformational point in the Syrian conflict. And British Foreign Secretary William Hague said his government would be making an announcement on additional aid to the opposition next week.?

However, Yaser Tabbara, the spokesperson for the Coalition and its legal advisor, said Kerry?s Rome meeting with the head of the Syrian National Coalition, Moaz al Khatib, gave reason for "cautious" optimism.

The Syrian opposition is under increasing pressure to deliver a solution but doing so requires substantial "investment in the infrastructure of the armed opposition," Tabbara said. "A political solution without tipping the balance of power on the ground is not viable."

The Syrian opposition had promised to form an interim government by?March 2?but that has been postponed for logistical reasons.?

Meanwhile, Syria's official government news agency described Kerry's announcement as a paradox, saying it?expressed "Washington's desire to find means to speed up the political process, which aims at ending the crisis in Syria and its desire to help and back the armed terrorist groups in the country."

Related:

U.S. to send rations, medical supplies to Syrian rebels, but not weapons

Source: http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/02/28/17135338-can-aid-without-weapons-help-resolve-syrian-conflict?lite

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Auto sales surge despite Washington budget fight

Joseph Szczesny , The Detroit Bureau ? ? ? 17 hrs.

For the last several years, automotive sales have helped carry the struggling economy. This time, however, the recovering housing market appears to be giving a boost to the auto industry.

February sales showed unexpectedly solid momentum, automakers are reporting today, despite concerns about recent fuel price spikes and the potential damage that the ongoing budget battle in Washington could cause to a still-fragile economy.

As in recent months, cheap financing and pent-up demand helped propel the car market, but industry analysts say other factors helped drive a roughly 7% increase for February in the sales of new cars, trucks and crossovers.

?The housing sector has now joined auto sales in propelling the U.S. economy forward,? said Kurt McNeil, vice president of U.S. sales operations for General Motors, which reported a 7% increase, year-over-year. ?More importantly, the recovery in new home construction is reinforcing the underlying improvement in auto buying conditions, especially for pickups.?

The Detroit Bureau: A Worthy Flagship: First Drive of the Acura RLX

Domestic makers GM, Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler LLC all reported solid gains for February -- the smallest of the Detroit Big Three reporting its best February in five years ? while Volkswagen and Toyota also reported modest sales gains.

Though the overall market was up, the performance varied widely from one maker to another. Two key Japanese automakers, Nissan and Honda, posted small sales declines, as did BMW, while rival Mercedes-Benz reported a 22% sales increase.

?Light vehicle sales have now been running at a mid-15 million unit annual rate since November,? noted GM?s McNeil. And February appears to have maintained that pace, with several automakers indicating they may up their forecasts for the rest of the year ? and consequently alter their own production plans.

The Detroit Bureau: China's Car Boom Could Go Bust

The strong performance in the automotive market counters reports of consumer spending cutbacks on lower-priced goods, a potential trend analysts are ascribing to a variety of factors including higher Social Security taxes, the recent ending of a federal payroll tax break and higher fuel prices this winter.

But, ?I think these little speed bumps aren?t enough to slow down the momentum right now,? said analyst Jeff Schuster, of LMC Automotive.

Indeed, consumers seemed to shrug off the turmoil in Washington D.C. over the budget, and consumer confidence, a critical element in sales of new vehicles, edged upwards in February, according to recent surveys.

Detroit?s Big Three were looking for solid gains last month, especially GM and Ford, both of which lost market share in 2012. Ford sales grew 9% as the maker posted its best February in six years ? with cars up 6%, utility vehicles up 21% and trucks like the big F-Series pickups gaining 4%.

?As more new vehicle buyers continue returning to the marketplace, our fresh new product portfolio of fuel-efficient vehicles is winning over customers,? said Ken Czubay, Ford vice president, U.S. Marketing, Sales and Service. ?People are buying our all-new Fusion and Escape in record numbers, thanks to strong fuel economy and innovative new technologies.?

The Detroit Bureau: Chrysler Investing Nearly $400 Mil, Adding Another 1,250 Jobs

Despite early forecasts that the company's sales were poised to drop for the month, Chrysler managed a 4% increase compared with sales in February 2012 as the group posted its best February sales since 2008. The maker?s Dodge, Ram Truck and Fiat brands each posted year-over-year gains. The Dodge brand?s 30% increase was the largest sales gain of any Chrysler Group brand in February.

Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne last month had cautioned pointed out that first-quarter volumes will likely be off from the same period in 2012 due to the company?s numerous product launches. These include the 2014 Jeep Grand Cherokee, Jeep Compass and heavy-duty Ram. The Jeep plant in Toledo, Ohio also cut production as it ended the run of the old Liberty model to convert over for the launch of the all-new Jeep Cherokee.

?In spite of a cautious ramp up of some of our most popular products which limited inventory last month, we still managed to record our strongest February sales in five years and our 35th-consecutive month of year-over-year sales growth,? said Reid Bigland, Chrysler?s director of U.S. Sales. ?Looking ahead, we expect to get our inventory gaps corrected over the next 90 days resulting in additional products contributing to our growth.?

Chrysler Group finished the month with a 71-day supply of inventory, slightly higher than the industry norm ? and an apparent build-up meant to offset the impact of its current production slow-down.

The Detroit Bureau: How Foreign Automakers Like Toyota Are Rapidly Ramping up Exports

Initial indications suggest each of the Detroit makers should gain some share for February at the expense of the Japanese, with only Toyota among that country?s big marques showing a sales gain last month.

?Despite rising gas prices, severe winter storms and concerns about the federal budget, February was a good indication of the overall strength of the market,? said Bill Fay, group vice president and general manager, Toyota Division. ?With the most fuel efficient full line of vehicles, Toyota is well positioned and we?re encouraged by very positive consumer reaction to our new Avalon and RAV4.?

Volkswagen reported a 2.9% increase over prior year sales during February. It was Volkswagen?s best February since 1973.

"February's sales results and 30 consecutive months of growth reflects increasing consumer interest in our products," Jonathan Browning, president and chief executive officer of the Volkswagen Group of America.

"There is a lot of intensity in the marketplace," added Browning, who noted carmakers, in general, have picked up their advertising and incentives in order to set up the traditionally strong spring selling season.

The intense competition in key segments, including compacts, midsized sedans and entry-luxury models appears to have taken the biggest toll on foreign-owned brands like Nissan, Honda and BMW. Honda also blamed fierce winter storms for its 2% sales drop.

The Detroit Bureau: New McLaren P1 "Ultracar" Could Leave You Breathless

Little Subaru, which has posted a steady string of annual sales records, even through the recession, fared better than any of its big Japanese rivals ? perhaps because it has a strong reputation for slogging through the worst weather conditions in its key Snowbelt markets.

Porsche, posted the market?s biggest gain for the month, sales surging 31% year-over-year. And both Korean makers, Hyundai and its sibling Kia, eked out modest gains.

U.S. industry sales figures for February appear to have come in at a 15.5 million units Seasonally Adjusted Annual Rate, or SAAR.

"Any industry over 15 million units is a strong industry," said VW?s chief American executive, and would mark a big jump from the 14.5 million vehicles sold in 2012.

The strongest factor behind the industry surge appears to be ?strong pent-up demand from consumers and businesses that have been holding off on buying a new car for years,? said Jesse Toprak, Senior Analyst for TrueCar. ?Even with the rise in gas prices, demand for new cars (appeared to reach) the highest SAAR since December 2007,? or Seasonally Adjusted Annual Rate, explained Toprak.

TrueCar estimated that rebates and other incentives rose a modest 1.8% from January to February, to an average $2,392 per vehicle. But that was still down 3.9% compared to the typical giveback a year earlier.

Meanwhile, Toprak forecast that transaction prices ? what consumers actually paid for the typical vehicle in February after adding in options and subtracting discounts and other incentives -- will likely be ?nearing record levels? for February at an estimated $30,958.

Paul A. Eisenstein contributed to this story.

Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/business/auto-sales-surge-despite-washington-budget-fight-1C8636739

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Discover tips about how to choose the best nike shoes | Midtown ...

Ecommerce is becoming popular all around the world. Entrepreneurs are eager to launch businesses from the expansive platform of the internet. Online stores are supporting physical businesses or themselves prime sources of business generations. In recent past, small and medium businesses with small workforce had to run from pillar to post to reach starting point of their internet businesses. First and foremost issue was used to be designing of stores. Online shops cannot compromise on appealing factors since unlike brick and mortar businesses they have customers disappointed or pleased truly of atmospherics. Colors, styles hollister, designs of websites are, after all hollister, to create brand recognitions.

Despite that web designers bend over backwards to sum up the appealing factors into the websites abercrombie, individual client has one choice at one time hollister. For example abercrombie, designer has single output for one client after thrashing out different ideas with him. Contrastingly, website templates, premade designs, provide numbers of choices for a single business. Therefore, online store templates are preferred by the entrepreneurs to set up online retail shops.

Amazon and ebay entered into the online shopping industry to the convenience of customers as product lines and ranges of these online retail tycoons are great. Their brands are household names in Europe and North America, generating sales revenue comparable to any offline retail shops. Retailers that have made their presence feel in the physical retail industry are also harnessing internet to expand customer base. For example, Wal Mart is banking on the combined force of online and offline retail industry hollister online shop.

Countries where penetration of internet has reached to the extent that its usage has become an integral part of life have obviously lucrative grounds for online shopping centers louboutin pas cher. Having ease in copious ways, shoppers prefer to make online purchases abercrombie uk. Fast developing technologies are encouraging people to give online shopping first preference or at least consider it supplementary to offline shopping.

Small businesses can set up professional looking internet shopping outlets easily on online store templates. Bespoke retail outlet designs do not only give choices to the entrepreneurs, they also provide them with cost-effective solutions. Both small and big businesses are attracted towards online templates to shoot attention-grabbing forays into the online retail industry hollister.

This latest technology is attracting businesses also because of its user-friendliness. Interestingly, with little technical knowledge, persons can establish online stores on templates. If run on open source content management systems for example Joomla, these websites are also manageable by non-technical web administrators. The specialty of Joomla is that it does not merit HTML familiarity. Updates hollister, additions, and deletions are performed from the word processor like editor of the software. Joomla templates are also specially predesigned for online retail shops.

Many websites are running on Joomla. For instance mercurial vapor pas cher, Living Well Magazine chaussure de foot, an international renowned consumer-oriented directory, gathers backend supports for its website from CMS Joomla. How-to-increase-ranking-of-websites-on-search-engines question, popularly known as search engine optimization (SEO), is inducing sleeping disorders among SEO experts. As search engines are inching up?and subsequent variable algorithms prefixed the acronym with international (ISEO)?the ranker's job has become rather tough. Joomla is known for its increasing ranking of websites through ever developing extensions and features.
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