Unless you live in a bubble you are well aware of the constant rise in fuel prices. People with heating oil are getting a double whammy. Some time ago I posted an article, “Getting Pumped at the Pump”,  about the government seeking to impose upon manufactures  a floor for gas mileage. The minimum mpg will need to be 35 by 2010. Not sure about you, but that is not going to help pay the mortgage now, or feed my kids now.

   To try and find a way to help stem the rising costs of fuel I began doing some research on diesel. Now, off the cuff I knew Mercedes and Volkswagen both made diesel sedans. In fact they are probably the most popular because they have done it the longest. After viewing several websites and a multitude of user comments it was clear that the best fuel economy in a U.S. diesel , was a VW Jetta between 1999 and 2003. See the EPA MPG data, click here .

   However, I did come across information that said VW, BMW, Mercedes and possibly other major car producers were coming out with even better and more efficient diesels that would be US legal. Because apparently there is a Europe only VW that gets 70 miles to the gallon which is AWESOME!!! Now I know you Prius lovers out there beat the Jettas economy and then some. However, I am talking about buying used and not new. Of course if I had $22,000 to burn I would go out and buy a Prius. My point is I can buy a car for half the price, and still really save on gas.

   So I could save $873 a year ( click here and select a 2002 4 cyl Galant and a 2003 Jetta TDI Manual ), on fuel switching to a Jetta diesel. And this will probably only improve as the price of oil continues to rise.  Plus, the money I would save buying used would provide a healthier buffer against any potential out of warranty repairs. I did see that these tend to have reliability issues related to the engine, but with the cost of living sky rocketing, I feel it is a risk worth taking. In fact, I found a 2003 Jetta TDI with 68k miles listed for $11,500 which is $2,000 grand under book value. Now that is a deal!

   As I mentioned before I have no experience when it comes to diesel cars, so any further insight is welcome. If you are saving money by driving a diesel let us know your make and model and what you get on average for fuel economy. Any information on the new wave of diesels would also be welcome.

So I talked some junk in my previous post, “What your tax rebate will really buy” . It seems that despite my pessimism, the government is going to throw us a bone earlier than expected. So instead of paying $4.00 / gallon for regular gas you might be paying $3.75, but something is better than nothing. Heres an article from AP on yahoo announcing the goodish news.

AP
Bush says rebates going out Monday will boost economy
Friday April 25, 11:46 pm ET
By Tom Raum, Associated Press Writer 
Bush says tax rebates going out Monday will help people afford rising gas, food prices

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Bush said tax rebates will start going out Monday, earlier than previously announced, and should help Americans cope with rising gasoline and food prices, as well as aid a slumping economy. Democrats said they were glad the rebate checks were about to go out, but suggested that multinational oil companies were not among the businesses the stimulus package was originally designed to help.
     “Starting Monday, the effects of the stimulus will begin to reach millions of households across our country,” Bush said Friday in remarks on the South Lawn of the White House. Those first rebates will be directly deposited into people’s bank accounts.
     The Internal Revenue Service had been saying direct deposits wouldn’t start until next Friday. Bush said paper checks would begin going out on May 9, a week earlier than previously announced.

Finance.Yahoo.Com – Click Here for Complete Story

Bear Stearns once commended as one of the greatest Investment Firms on Wall Street will soon be absorbed by JPMorgan Chase. A price agreement has been reached and shares of Bear will be swapped for shares of JPMorgan. Shares of Bear Stearns traded for as high as $163 now trades for $10 a share. Only $6 more than when it went public 23 years ago. Getting caught up in the subprime mortgage madness they would soon come undone. In less than a year Bear Stearns would be forced to sell itself or file chapter 7 bankruptcy.

Ticker Symbol: BSC
Company Key Dates:
1923: The original company is founded by Joseph Bear, Robert Stearns, and Harold Mayer as an equity trading house.
1933: Bear Stearns opens its first regional office in Chicago, and Salim L. “Cy” Lewis–future chairman–is hired to direct Bear Stearns’s new institutional bond trading department.
1955: Bear Stearns opens its first international office in Amsterdam.
1965: Bear Stearns begins expanding retail operations in the United States and, over the next eight years, opens offices in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Dallas, Atlanta, and Boston.
1978: Alan “Ace” Greenberg succeeds Lewis as chairman.
1985: Bear Stearns forms a holding company called Bear Stearns Companies, Inc., goes public, and reorganizes from a brokerage house into a full-service investment firm.
1992: Company earnings double to over $295 million for best year in Bear Stearns’s history to date.
1993: James E. Cayne succeeds Alan Greenberg as CEO; Greenberg stays on as chairman.
1999: Bear Stearns agrees to pay $42 million to settle civil and criminal fraud charges in connection with its role as clearing broker for A.R. Baron.
2001: James E. Cayne succeeds Alan Greenberg as chairman.
2001: Bear Stearns completes construction of its world headquarters at 383 Madison Ave, New York, NY.
2003: Bear Stearns along with 9 other of the worlds top investment firms are forced to pay penelaties related to using their in house R&D release false or inflated claims to move stock prices in a favorable manor for the firm.
2006: The company had total capital of approximately $66.7 billion and total assets of $350.4 billion.
2007: Around June 2007 Bear Stearns pumps 1.6 Billion of capital in its Enhanced Leverage Fund and High-Grade Fund to keep them from closing.
2008: Bear Stearns agrees to be bought by JPMorgan Chase for $10 per share, underwritten by $29 billion in special financing from the Fed.

Company History:
Bear Stearns Companies, Inc., the holding company that owns Bear, Stearns & Company, Inc., was created on October 29, 1985, as the successor to Bear Stearns & Company and Subsidiaries, a partnership organized in 1957. The partnership, in turn, was the successor to a company founded in 1923 by Joseph Bear, Robert Stearns, and Harold Mayer as an equity-trading house. Headquartered in New York, Bear Stearns today is a full service brokerage and investment banking firm focused on three core areas: capital markets, wealth management, and global clearing services. The company maintains offices in major cities all over the globe.
Read more…

Who’s excited about the tax rebate? Not me. I was thinking about it and on the outside it seems nice, but upon further investigation , its just adding insult to injury. I am looking at potentially receiving $1,200. Not bad. Consider this; I have a 4 cylinder car, with a 13 gal. / 14 gal. tank. It costs me $46 to fill @ $3.29 per gallon. By the time May / June rolls around they are talking $4 + so now it is going to cost me $56 every two weeks. Heating and Electric run me another $150 or so per month. Then another $100 a month to keep my car insured so I can get to my job. Plus , $50 a month so my kids can watch Hanna Montana.

 So I am up to $415 and I have not even bought food to feed myself or my kids. The average family probably spends $100 to $150 per week on groceries since those have gone up substantially as well. So we will say $400, brining us to $815 per month.

Then there is rent , student loans , credit card debt, and so forth. I am not sure if this is what they had in mind when they wanted to stimulate the economy. I am not running out to buy a T.V. or put a deposit down on a new car. All the check is going to do , assuming we still get one, is help not play beat the bank for one month. I hope there are others out there working hard , and in a position to use it to have some fun. I guess I will just have to live vicariously through them.

Congress Sends $168 Billion Economic Stimulus to Bush (Update2)
By Alison Fitzgerald and Brian Faler

 Feb. 8 (Bloomberg) — The U.S. Congress passed and sent to President George W. Bush a $168 billion economic stimulus package that he said is needed to help boost the slowing economy.

The legislation would send tax rebate checks to more than 111 million households, probably beginning in May. Lawmakers yesterday altered an earlier plan by making 20 million senior citizens and 250,000 disabled veterans eligible for the rebates. Bush said he will sign the measure.

“I want to thank the members for passing a good piece of legislation, which I will sign into law next week,” Bush said today in a speech to the annual Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington.

In addition to the rebates and incentives for businesses to invest in new equipment, the measure increases the size of mortgage loans that government-chartered mortgage-finance companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac can buy.

Bloomberg.Com – Click for Complete Story

Finance committee gives nod to stimulus measures. Proposals to give tax rebates to seniors and aid the unemployed gain support. Next step: Full Senate vote.

By Jeanne Sahadi, CNNMoney.com senior writer
January 30 2008: 6:36 PM EST
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — The Senate Finance Committee on Wednesday approved a proposal intended to curb a further slowdown in the economy. The proposal, which differs from a bill overwhelmingly approved Tuesday by the House, could be introduced as a bill and voted on by the full Senate as early as Thursday. Lawmakers are aiming to send final legislation to President Bush by Feb. 15.

The committee meeting took place the same day that the government issued a report that economic growth in the last quarter of 2007 was weaker than expected and the Federal Reserve cut a key interest rate another 50 basis points following its emergency move last week that lowered the federal funds rate by 75 points.

 CNN.Money.Com – Click for Complete Story

AP
Stocks Dive, Then Rebound After Fed Cut
Tuesday January 22, 6:23 pm ET
By Madlen Read, AP Business Writer NEW YORK (AP)

The opening bell hadn’t even sounded on Wall Street when the Federal Reserve announced an emergency interest-rate cut. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 465 points including 300 in the first minute then rebounded to finish down a more bearable 128. The recovery Tuesday was a victory of sorts for a battered market. But a long-term comeback may depend on factors much more difficult to achieve a turnaround in the housing market and renewed confidence among U.S. consumers, who hold up most of the economy.

The alarming early drop in U.S. stocks followed the lead of markets abroad, where investors fled stocks and sent indexes plummeting on fears of a U.S. recession that could spread to other global economies.

By the close, the Dow had recovered to a loss of 128.11, or just over 1 percent, at 11,971.19. Before trading began, the Federal Reserve moved to slash its benchmark federal funds rate by 0.75 percentage points, to 3.5 percent. It was the widest cut since 1990, the beginning of what the Fed says is a comparable period in the way it handled the rate. The Fed cut the discount rate, the interest rate the Fed charges banks directly, to 4 percent, also a three-quarter-point cut.

Finance.Yahoo.com – Click for Complete Story

Time Inc. to Close Business 2.0 
 
By BRAD STONE
Published: September 5, 2007
The latest dot-com casualty comes from the newsstand, not the Internet. Ten editorial staff members from Business 2.0 will join Time Inc.’s Fortune magazine. Business 2.0, a monthly magazine about the new economy, will be shut down rather than sold, its owners at Time Inc. have decided. The publication, which has been suffering from a decline in advertising revenue, will cease publication after its October issue, which will have a cover article on where to invest in a real estate downturn.

According to people familiar with Time Inc.’s handling of the matter, Time turned down offers from Mansueto Ventures, owners of the rival magazine Fast Company, and other prospective buyers to acquire the Business 2.0 brand and its circulation list of 600,000 subscribers.

nytimes.com – Click for Complete Story