Steve Jobs Wanted to build an icar - Business Insider

Televisions and textbooks weren't the only products Steve Jobs dreamed of redesigning towards the end of his life.

Mickey Drexler, the CEO of J.Crew and a longtime member of Apple's board of directors, revealed in a recent interview that the former Apple CEO really wanted to design a car.

"Look at the car industry; it's a tragedy in America. Who is designing the cars?" Drexler said during Fast Company's Innovation Uncensored conference. "Steve's dream before he died was to design an iCar."?

Drexler believes that if Jobs did have time to design the car, it would have made a serious dent in the auto industry. "It would've been probably 50% of the market. He never did design it," he said.

Even though Jobs never did make a car, some analysts predict that Apple may still have a future in the auto industry by working with car companies to integrate some of its products into vehicles.

Scroll down to watch the video of Drexler's comments:

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Unilever's CEO on Making Responsible Business Work - HBR ...

HBR IdeaCast

The HBR IdeaCast is our weekly audio podcast, bringing you the analysis and advice of the leading minds in management. Subscribe on iTunes.

3:29 PM Thursday May 17, 2012 ?|?Comments

An interview with Paul Polman, CEO of Unilever. This interview is featured in the forthcoming June issue of HBR.

Download this podcast

TRANSCRIPT

A written transcript will be available by May 24.

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Delta Air to trim capacity on trans-Atlantic routes

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1329 Words About Bad Credit Car Loans ? Down Payments, Interest ...

This article covers many different aspects of bad credit car loans and buying cars with bad credit in detail. Topics include the difficulty of obtaining bad credit auto financing, whether or not you actually have to have a down payment, interest rates and whether or not you really have to pay a crazy high interest rate, buying used vs new, where you can get approved and finance add-on products. This article will certainly help you along your way if you are looking to buy a new or used car and have a poor credit rating.

What is a Bad Credit Car Loan in General?

Sub-prime and Secondary finance companies offer auto financing for people that have poor credit ratings. This is commonly known as a ?Bad Credit Car Loan?, as it is a car loan for someone that has bad credit. The interest rates for these types of loans can be very high or reasonable, depending on the lender that you choose to apply with. If you have a bad, fair, slow or poor credit rating (which is all the same), then this type of financing is what you will have to use to buy a car on finance. Not all lenders are created equal and some can offer better terms than others.

Is This Type of Financing Difficult to Obtain?

It depends on what type of lender that you use. Traditional banks are much more difficult to obtain a loan with if you have bad credit. Usually, regular banks and mainstream lenders require large down payments and are very restrictive as to the amount that you can get approved for.

Specialized sub-prime lenders can provide easier approvals and some companies provide their services online, which makes obtaining this type of financing much easier. Generally, if you have a credit score below 680, then a sub-prime lender is what you should deal with if you want to get approved. Credit scores as low as 480 can get approved through special finance programs and in many cases, with little to no money down. While most people become discouraged when trying to get approved with a bad credit rating, it?s much easier if you simply use the right kind of lender.

Do I Have to Have a Down Payment?

Car dealerships request down payments, whether you have good or bad credit. It?s simply another way of getting more money from you in addition to the amount that they receive from the finance company that approves your loan. Buy here, pay here dealerships always require down payments to lower the risk that they incur by offering you financing.

Obtaining a car loan with bad credit, with no down payment is a matter of using the right lender with the right combination of vehicle, finance amount and terms. Just because you have bad credit, does not indicate that you are required to have money down for a car loan. In fact, the need for a down payment can easily be eliminated with the right combination of vehicle and lender.

Do I Have to Pay a High Interest Rate?

Different lenders have very different lending requirements and guidelines that they use to approve auto loans as well as, the specific interest rate that is charged. Contrary to popular believe, your credit score is not the only variable used to determine your interest rate. The year, make and model of the vehicle that you are wanting to purchase can make a significant difference in the rate that you are charged. So do you have to pay a high interest rate? It depends on where you apply and with which company that you get approved with. You will pay a higher rate than someone that has excellent or good credit, but it doesn?t have to be all that bad.

One thing that many people aren?t aware of is that car lots can actually increase your interest rate above and beyond what the loan company actually approved you at. This happens all the time and is the main source of profit for the dealership?s finance department. It?s called back-end profit.

For example, if you get approved at a rate of say, 12%? the dealer can add to that rate from 3% to 5%, depending on the number of ?add-on points? allowed by the finance company. So if your?re real interest rate is 12%, it?s common that you will be told that you?ve been approved at 15 to 17 percent. The difference that you pay in additional finance charges is profit for the dealership and paid to them by the finance company. The dealership finance manager is paid a portion of the amount, usually 25% of the additional finance charges that you pay as a result of this increase in your interest rate.

The way around paying the higher interest rates is by using a direct lender. By bypassing the dealership finance department you can get lower interest rates and also have the ability to negotiate as if paying cash.

Do I Have to Buy a Used Car?

New cars that are priced reasonably can be obtained with bad credit just as easily as used cars. The added benefit is that there frequently are manufacturers rebates that can be applied to lower the price of the car below invoice, which puts you in good standing as far as the amount requested vs the loan value of the vehicle (great way to get a no money down new car loan with bad credit).

So no, you don?t have to buy a used car just because you have bad credit. In fact, many people think that car payments are always lower on used cars. That?s not the case and the reason is simple. New cars can be financed for longer than used cars. Also, it?s easier to get a lower interest rate (much lower) on a new vehicle than on a used one.

Where Can I Get Approved Easiest?

As described above in the first section, you will need to use a sub-prime or secondary finance company to get a bad credit car loan. You should use a good lender that is legitimate and has a long track history of getting people approved, regardless of their credit history. Some are available online and can provide quick approvals in minutes. But beware of scams and hoax sites that don?t deliver.

While you can try to get approved by going directly to a car dealership, it is best if you work with a lender directly. Dealing with a direct auto loan lender will certainly get your loan approved easier and with less hassles. Just because you have credit problems, does not mean that you can?t get an auto loan direct, just like people that have good credit. You just have to use the right kind of lender as mentioned above (sub-prime or secondary).

Do I Have to Buy an Extended Warranty to Get Approved?

This question is being addressed because some car dealerships will try to pressure you into purchasing an extended car warranty. Some will state that it looks favorable to the lender or is a requirement that the lender has stipulated for the approval. This is not the case and you absolutely do not have to purchase any type of extended warranty as a requirement for an auto loan.

What About GAP Insurance Added to My Loan?

GAP insurance covers the difference between what you owe on the vehicle and what it is actually worth. In cases where the amount that you will owe will be more than the market value for the car, GAP insurance can be good to have to protect you from having to come up with that amount should the vehicle be stolen or totalled in a car accident. It is against the law for a dealer to force you to purchase it, so be careful when signing the dotted line and don?t let a dealer pressure you into having it added to your loan contract.

Reprinted with Permission

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Aussie Businesses Discover Good Web Design and Development ...

Sydney, Australia (PRWEB) May 02, 2012

Snap Easy believes that websites made easy also make more money. The stellar web design and consulting firm recently announced another revenue-earning opportunity for small and large businesses across Australia with the introduction of its smart, brand-building solution: logo and logo animation design.

Our logo design consultants know how to reduce loading time through adjustments in the number of colors, vertical color change, and loop sequences. You can leave all technical details of your animated logo and videos to our design experts, says Cheryl Eagers, co-founder of the purveyor of quality web design, Mackay-based Snap Easy Websites.

Now more than ever, businesses are discovering that website creation shouldnt have to mean nightmarish experiences where domain names are left to expire, websites are left to fester on the World Wide Web without so much as a click, and confusing site navigation systems discourage hundreds, if not thousands, of customers.

Using advanced applications and tools, Snap Easy Websites provides trouble-free web design that avoids such horrific scenarios and guarantees businesses acquire online presence that gets results. Eagers explains, An effective business website combines visual appeal and the right technical elements or HTML code incorporated at the design and development stage or, in the case of existing websites, at the website redesign stage.

Moreover, Snap Easy Websites remains true to its name by providing a smooth, worry-free experience for small and large businesses looking to have credible and effective online presence. Snap Easys comprehensive menu of services allow every company or brand to actually be found online, to captivate new markets, and to greatly enhance revenue.

With todays technology Snap Easy can easily provide you with a great business website design that is a positive investment in online marketing. Operating from Mackay, Snap Easy Websites offers key online solutions such as Internet marketing consulting, search engine optimization (SEO), social media marketing, and pay-per-click (PPC) services to suit web design Townsville, says Eagers.

Web development has evolved through leaps and bounds as more sensible technology makes it easier for companies to fully take advantage of the Internet as a profitable means to build their businesses. Competition, therefore, is fiercer than ever as brands and companies fight for attention online. Snap Easy recognizes this objective by offering a clever edge over all others with logo designs that create an impact and guarantee sales.

Snap Easy says that it firmly believes in the power of a well-crafted business logo design to build integrity and popularity, both of which eventually pave the way for more profits. Eagers shares, Clean and simple designs register well on all types of marketing materials traditional and Internet-based. They leave a lasting impact on the minds of viewers, are easily remembered, and adapt to new business directions.

Web design and development in the 90s used to frustrate many businesses and even confound many consumers when it came to visual appeal and usability. Many consumers used to complain about confusing site navigation systems that failed to lead them to the content they were seeking. Tacky graphics and crude page layouts botched a companys professional image. These days, products and tools have been designed to provide ease-of-use for consumers and a professional look for businesses without the big business costs.

Such products and tools have been mastered by Snap Easy Websites. Every business needs an online strategy. Snap Easy Websites offers you a key online solution by providing consulting and effective business web design to increase profits in your business, adds Eagers.

Web design and development naturally cant be done with the mere snap of a finger, but with Snap Easy Websites fuss-free approach and smart online marketing solutions, it can certainly seem like so.

17. May 2012 by HideHecyWaich
Categories: Ppc | Tags: Aussie, Businesses, Create, Design, Development, Discover, Easy, Good, Profits, Snap, Techniques, Websites | Leave a comment

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Killers of Banks and Jobs by Richard W. Rahn

by Richard W. Rahn

Richard W. Rahn is a senior fellow at the Cato Institute and chairman of the Institute for Global Economic Growth.

Added to cato.org on May 14, 2012

This article appeared in The Washington Times on May 14, 2012.

Last week, Jamie Dimon, CEO of the nation?s largest bank, JPMorgan Chase, revealed that the bank had made a $2 billion-plus trading mistake. The bank has more than $2 trillion in assets and made a profit of about $20 billion last year. So it lost one-tenth of 1 percent of its assets and an amount equal to about 10 percent of its income for last year. No big deal, despite all the hand-wringing of the political and media class.

Predictably, Sen. Carl Levin, Michigan Democrat and arguably the most irresponsible member of Congress, immediately issued a press release calling for more bank regulation. One can understand that the bank?s stockholders and board are unhappy with the mistake, because the bank?s stock took the expected hit. Heads are rolling already. That is, the board is fulfilling its responsibilities without more rules from Congress.

Congress has the oversight responsibility for the U.S. government, in much the same way a corporate board has the oversight responsibility for a corporation. Mr. Levin has the responsibility (along with his colleagues) to make sure taxpayer dollars are spent wisely and not wasted or stolen. Medicare, for example, spends more than $500 billion annually. Sen. Tom Coburn, Oklahoma Republican, who, unlike Mr. Levin, tries to be fiscally responsible, estimates that about 20 percent, or $100 billion, of Medicare spending is fraudulent. Other estimates of Medicare fraud, including those of the U.S. government, range between $20 billion and $100 billion. The point is that Mr. Levin and many of his colleagues prefer to spend their time bashing private businesses rather than protecting the taxpayer, which is their responsibility.

Whatever the real or imaginary problem is, Mr. Levin always has one answer: more regulation. There is never enough as far as he is concerned. How has that worked out? He and many others get all worked up about banks becoming ?too big to fail,? which is a doubtful proposition to begin with. Yet they are in denial about the fact that their own actions have caused much of the banking consolidation and subsequent problems.

As can be seen in the accompanying table, before the advent of the Federal Reserve (the primary federal bank regulator) in 1913, the United States had more than 26,000 banks. The Fed and the federal government began aggressive bank regulation during the Great Depression in the 1930s, and the regulations and economic policies of the time led to a loss of approximately 40 percent of the nation?s banks. Subsequently, Fed and bank regulatory policies were relatively benign until the 1970s, when the Fed went off the rails again and banks were saddled with anti-money-laundering and other regulations which, in part, caused a further drop in the number of banks. The ever-growing bank regulations of recent years continue to result in a decline in the number of banks, as well as making it more difficult and costly for people to obtain bank accounts. In fact, people who move frequently because of their jobs or other reasons, or Americans living abroad, increasingly find it impossible to open a bank account where they live, causing great hardship.

Both large banks and small community banks ? and even non-U.S. banks ? must comply with most of the new regulations. A small community bank that engages in traditional banking by accepting deposits from local residents and then lending the money to local businesses and consumers now must comply with the tens of thousands of pages of new banking regulations just like the largest banks, even though the bank wisely may have just a few dozen employees ? an impossible task. This fixed cost of regulation is far more burdensome to the smaller banks, helps drive banking consolidation and ultimately ends up with banks ?that are too big to fail.?

Mr. Levin and many of his colleagues seem incapable of understanding that much of the banking and financial regulation that they have imposed has been not only counterproductive but downright destructive and is in the process of driving trillions of dollars of foreign investment out of the United States ? and the millions of jobs dependent on such investment. They also seem to be willfully blind when one of their own, such as former Sen. Jon Corzine, runs his financial institution into the ground while apparently misusing more than $1 billion of his customers? assets, which, if true, is criminal in manner. Yet the Obama Justice Department has yet to indict Mr. Corzine.

Rational people understand that bank executives have huge incentives ? their jobs, wealth and reputations to begin with ? to avoid mistakes that can cause losses, let alone those that endanger the existence of their bank. They don?t need the government to tell them that. Nor do they need the government to tell them to treat their customers and depositors well, because they understand that if they don?t, they will have neither.

In contrast, there is good evidence that government waste, fraud and mismanagement exceed the size of the deficit, but where are the calls by Mr. Levin for heads to roll at the top levels of the Obama administration and for corrective action? Jamie Dimon immediately apologized for making mistakes at JPMorgan Chase and promised corrective action to make sure that it does not happen again. How long will we have to wait for apologies from President Obama and his Cabinet officers and the corrective action to protect taxpayers from the massive fraud and ongoing waste in federal spending?

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Russian plane goes missing in Indonesia, dealing blow to aviation industry (+video)

The late-model Russian Sukhoi SuperJet-100 was meant to revive Russia's aging and accident-prone airplane fleet. It disappeared on a demonstration flight.

By Fred Weir,?Correspondent / May 9, 2012

In this September 2007 file photo, a Sukhoi Superjet-100 is displayed outside the aviation factory in Komsomolsk-on-Amur, Russia, about 3,900 miles east of Moscow.

Ruslan Krivobok/RIA-Novosti/AP/File

Enlarge

In what is likely to be a terrible blow for Russia's struggling aviation industry, a Sukhoi SuperJet-100,?the first completely new post-Soviet jetliner, went missing during a promotional tour in Indonesia.

Skip to next paragraph Fred Weir

Correspondent

Fred Weir has been the Monitor's Moscow correspondent, covering Russia and the former Soviet Union, since 1998.?

Recent posts

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'; } else if (google_ads.length > 1) { ad_unit += ''; } } document.getElementById("ad_unit").innerHTML += ad_unit; google_adnum += google_ads.length; return; } var google_adnum = 0; google_ad_client = "pub-6743622525202572"; google_ad_output = 'js'; google_max_num_ads = '1'; google_feedback = "on"; google_ad_type = "text"; google_adtest = "off"; google_image_size = '230x105'; google_skip = '0'; // --> Russia's Sukhoi SuperJet-100, the first completely new post-Soviet jetliner, went missing during a promotional tour in Indonesia.

The plane is?presumed crashed, although Russia's official RIA-Novosti agency said that darkness and fog have prevented search teams from reaching the site where the plane is believed to have gone down during a demonstration flight near Mt. Salak, about 50 miles from Jakarta.

The SuperJet, a half-dozen copies of which are already serving with two Russian airlines, is supposed to replace the fleets of aging Soviet-era Tupolev, Antonov, and Yakovlev mid-range aircraft that serve hundreds of far-flung regional routes across Russia and which have?suffered a rash of catastrophic accidents in recent years.?The situation became so bad last year that then-President Dmitry Medvedev ordered two regional workhorses, the Tupolev Tu-134 and the Antonov An-24,?to be permanently grounded.

Great hopes have been invested in the SuperJet, which was developed by Russia's famous producer of fighter planes,?Sukhoi, with input from several top Western aviation firms, including Boeing, Snecma, and Honeywell. The plane meets all the latest global aviation standards, and production models should be able to carry almost 100 passengers with an operating range of up to 2,500 miles, which makes it an ideal replacement for a wide range of?troubled Soviet aircraft?on Russia's multitude of outback routes.

There are also high hopes that the plane might do well on international markets, particularly in Asia, where its $35 million price tag makes it a tough competitor for similar-sized jets produced by the Canadian Bombardier Inc. and the Brazilian Embraer SA.

The SuperJet, which has sailed through testing and certification, has also been relatively accident-free in its development stages. The only serious mishap so far occurred in March, when a SuperJet operated by Aeroflot was forced to abandon a flight from Moscow to the Caspian city of Astrakhan due to problems with its undercarriage. Airline officials said passengers were never in danger.

But Russia's airline industry has been hit with a series of scandals, including revelations that many engineers working in aircraft factories have inadequate or fake diplomas.?

Many Russians can recall, often with a shudder, how a catastrophic crash of the Soviet Union's "Concordski" Tu-144 supersonic jetliner?at the Paris air show in 1973?destroyed the USSR's reputation as a worthy competitor of the West in aviation. All eyes will be on the investigation into today's SuperJet disappearance, and everyone will be hoping it does not reveal fundamental flaws in the plane's design.?

Some reports said there were 44 people on board, others 50, including its eight-member Russian crew. Many of the passengers were aviation journalists and representatives of Asian airline companies that have been considering purchases of the new aircraft. The plane had previously visited Myanmar, Pakistan, and Kazakhstan. After Jakarta it was supposed to go to Laos and Vietnam.

Get daily or weekly updates from CSMonitor.com delivered to your inbox.?Sign up today.?

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