“Toyota issued a voluntary recall of 760,000 model-year 2006-11 versions of the RAV4 compact crossover and 18,000 model-year 2010 versions of the Lexus HS 250h hybrid sedan because of problems with the rear suspension nuts.

“Toyota has determined that if the nuts on the rear suspension arm are not tightened following the proper procedure and torque specification during a rear wheel alignment service, excessive play may occur at the threaded portion of the arm, followed by rust formation,” the automaker said in a statement. The rear suspension arm could separate, increasing the risk of an accident.”

Full article

“(Reuters) – American International Group is looking to buy back a large chunk of its shares from the U.S. government, whose stake in the bailed-out insurer could subsequently go below 50 percent by this fall, the Wall Street Journal said, citing people familiar with the company’s thinking.

The buybacks are likely to be accompanied by one or more public share offerings of AIG stock by the U.S. Treasury, the WSJ said.

The timing and scale of future offerings and repurchases are not clear, the Journal said.”

Full article

(CNN) — More than half of all U.S. counties have been designated disaster zones, the Department of Agriculture reported, blaming excessive heat and a devastating drought that’s spread across the Corn Belt and contributed to rising food prices.

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack on Wednesday declared disaster zone designations for an additional 218 counties in 12 states because of damage and losses caused by drought and excessive heat.

The states are Arkansas, Georgia, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Mississippi, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee and Wyoming.

Read here:

via miamiherald.com 

The latest Case-Shiller numbers show South Florida trailing Phoenix in rising home values. Having two of the country’s worst housing bubbles helps make the recovery look stronger.

BY DOUGLAS HANKS

[email protected]

South Florida enjoys the country’s second-best housing rebound this year.

That’s one result from the Economic Time Machine’s ranking of the latest figures from Case-Shiller, the top yardstick for the country’s housing crisis. Since January, South Florida’s Case-Shiller real estate index increased 5 percent. Only Phoenix had a better showing, with a 10 percent gain over five months. (The ETM used a two-month average to wash out monthly quirks in the Case-Shiller numbers.)

Change from a year ago	Change from January	Change from peak	Change from May 2002
Phoenix	10%	10%	-51%	-2%
Los Angeles	-3%	2%	-39%	30%
San Diego	-1%	2%	-39%	12%
San Francisco	0%	4%	-39%	0%
Denver	3%	3%	-8%	4%
Washington, DC	2%	4%	-27%	40%
South Florida	3%	5%	-48%	12%
Tampa	2%	4%	-45%	5%
Atlanta	-16%	-1%	-36%	-23%
Chicago	-4%	0%	-36%	-9%
Boston	0%	1%	-16%	11%
Detroit	2%	-2%	-46%	-39%
Minneapolis	4%	4%	-33%	-10%
Charlotte	1%	2%	-16%	6%
Las Vegas	-5%	3%	-61%	-20%
New York	-3%	0%	-25%	25%
Cleveland	-1%	1%	-20%	-9%
Portland, Ore	0%	2%	-27%	21%
Dallas	3%	3%	-6%	4%
Seattle	0%	3%	-29%	20%
Average metro area	-1%	2%	-33%	11%

Change from a year ago

Change from January

Change from peak

Change from May 2002

The ETM analysis also compared the May reading to peak levels for all 20 metropolitan areas that Case-Shiller tracks. The gap from the top of the market to now helps explain South Florida’s current rebound.

According to Case-Shiller, South Florida’s housing bubble continues to be one of the worst in the country. Values are off 48 percent in South Florida from peak levels set in 2006. That’s only slightly worse than Phoenix’s 51-percent drop, but considerably better than the ultimate bubble: Las Vegas, where values are down 61 percent.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/08/01/2925090_south-florida-no-2-in-the-housing.html#storylink=addthis#storylink=cpy

Ridiculous sociopath.

Phillip and Donna Walls were under attack Monday — or at least they thought they were.
The couple was using bath salts — a type of synthetic drug — when they called 911 to complain that phantom gang members were camped out under their house, police in Kings Mountain, N.C., said.
“They were there yesterday and last night,” Donna told the dispatcher.
The couple then allegedly hauled a military bag full of weapons outside, and Donna fired about seven shots into the air.
Their neighbors, Richard and Debra Robinson, got caught in between the couple’s delusions and a terrifying reality when the paranoid suspected shooters forced their way into the Robinsons’ home, WSOC-TV reported.
“They were delusional,” Debra Robinson said. “They really thought somebody was out to kill them.”
Despite the danger, Richard Robinson, a pastor, said he knew the couple needed help.
“I was little afraid, don’t get me wrong,” he recalled. “But even in that state of mind, he had enough presence to ask me to pray for him.”

Full Article

Apparently, their software fucked the market this morning.

Shares of Knight Capital are now down more than 20% or 7 year lows.

Volume is running way above normal, most likely due to some fucked up algorithm gone rogue.

The stock is down 10% on no news, other than the fact that algorithms have completely broken the market.

Carry on.

VIZ.

The Florida justice system released him. However, the good folks over at iBankCoin have apprehended and detained him, for the greater good, for all of mankind.

Indeud.

Bail has been set for $10,000.

Fun times in banking…

Full article

A U.S. government watchdog says more than $200 million was wasted on a program to train the Iraqi police force, with security concerns and a lack of interest by the Iraqi government the main culprits for the program’s shortcomings.

In an audit released Monday by the office of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, or SIGIR, auditors also said the Police Development Program faced challenges at the outset due to the lack of an assessment of Iraqi police force capabilities, and of a written commitment from the Iraqi government for the program to move forward.

Stuart W. Bowen Jr., who as inspector general leads the SIGIR office, signed the report that was sent to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and the U.S. Embassy in Iraq.

The purpose of the program is to help Iraqi police services develop the capabilities needed to lead, manage and sustain internal security and the rule of law. The State Department is hoping to reach those goals by 2016.

Read here:

Technology is a lovely thing, but sometimes it scares the bejeezus out of us. This working 3D-printed gun is one such case.

Gun enthusiast “HaveBlue” has documented in a blog post (via the AR15 forums) the process of what appears to be the first test firing of a firearm made with a 3D printer.

Full Article

News came out overnight that Twitter has disallowed Instagram users from finding their friends who are already on Twitter and adding them as users on Instagram.

Twitter has confirmed this.

This is big news because it is a first step towards disallowing Instagram users from posting their pictures to Twitter, which almost certainly coming.

Read the rest here.

The $3.7 trillion municipal market is wrapping up its best month since January. If the past decade is any indication, August may be even better.

Read the rest here.

Mebane Faber’s recent post, in which he asked rhetorically why it was that TheStreet.com wasn’t coining money, got me thinking. I was probably one of the first 1000 people ever to have read TheStreet, beginning in 1996. I worshiped Jim Cramer and read every post he and Herb and the gang put up. What made it pop and sparkle was that it was mainly written from the standpoint of someone who was actually in the investing business (Cramer, Harrison, Kass et al) or by a journalist with serious reporting chops and strong convictions (as in the case of Greenberg, Task etc).

I wrote an homage to the site, its early days and the amazing roster of talent that’s passed through it in the fall of 2010 and I meant every word of it.

But TheStreet has lost its way. It’s having an identity crisis, a financial crisis and an existential crisis all at once. They’re burning cash, flailing about for social media strategies and fighting to stay relevant now that the rules of the web have changed.

The suits are mostly clueless as to what to do, no matter what they say. The editorial side is aimless; a hodgepodge of uninformed, redundant one page articles chopped up into three pages for CPM purposes, paywalled insights from a handful of great financial writers and a host of filler and fodder that serves no discernible purpose whatsoever. And the ad placement is atrocious, it’s slapped across every open space as if to remind the reader that much of what he’s stumbling across on the site is there mainly for the pageviews anyway.

Full Article

Both gold and silver are slightly higher, oil is unchanged and the euro is off by 0.3%.

DRAGHI SAID TO HOLD TALKS WITH WEIDMANN ON NEW ECB MEASURES

Full article