If Kelley Blue Book is any indication, Americans are getting serious about smaller cars. The company has announced the most-researched new cars of 2008 on their website, www.kbb.com.

Here are the cars we’re looking up:

1. Honda Civic
2. Honda Accord
3. Toyota Camry
4. Toyota Corolla
5. Nissan Altima
6. Honda CR-V
7. Toyota Prius
8. Toyota Highlander
9. Toyota RAV4
10. Mazda3
11. Toyota Yaris
12. Ford Escape
13. Honda Odyssey
14. Honda Pilot
15. Honda Fit
16. Ford Mustang
17. Chevrolet Malibu
18. Toyota Sienna
19. MINI Cooper
20. Volkswagen Jetta

Honda or Toyota anyone?

It’s no wonder our auto industry is in a mess - only three of the top twenty are American cars. Kelley Bluebook says Chevrolet’s redesigned Malibu has made the most ‘impressive leap’, jumping 55 places from last year’s rank at 72 to this year’s rank at 17, but we’ll need to do better than that.

While the Highlander and the Odyssey aren’t what I’d call small, they’re a considerable downsize from a Suburban or an Escalade, which a lot of kid-carting families have opted for in the past.

According to Jack R. Nerad of Kelley Blue Book the list reveals what’s on car buyers’ minds.

“Continued interest in Honda and Toyota, Chevrolet’s home-run Malibu redesign and an increase in visits to more fuel-efficient, economical vehicles is an accurate reflection of the marketplace in 2008.”

My husband jokes that the current low fuel prices are only going to endure until the last of the SUVs are sold off the lots. Maybe the gas prices in 2008 have finally convinced us that smaller is better. More fuel-efficient vehicles have certainly made this list. Subcompacts Honda Fit and Toyota Yaris are new to the list this year, and the Honda Civic, Toyota Corolla, Toyota Prius, Mazda3 and Ford Escape have moved up in rank.

What do you think? Have we finally turned the corner on this Big Car fixation?

Image Credit: David McKelvey, Flickr

Officials say the men’s room at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport where U.S. Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, was arrested in a sex sting has lost interest as a tourist stop.

Patrick Hogan, spokesman for the Metropolitan Airports Commission, says that the surge of publicity also brought an abrupt end to the type of activity in the restroom that had prompted lewd-conduct complaints. Hogan says one person offered to buy the restroom stall for $5,000, but that airport officials declined.

Now that’s an interesting concept–selling airport bathroom stalls to individuals. Why not? It sounds like a good way for airports to raise money and individuals to memorialize their favorite, err, places to hang out.

Tired of Ponzi schemes yet? Well, here’s a scheme, albeit less Ponzi than simply preposterous. It has to do with the second-largest homebuilder in the United States, Lennar Corp. According to Rueters:

Shares of Lennar Corp (LEN.N), the second-largest U.S. homebuilder, plummeted on Friday after a letter questioning a late 1990s transaction involving the company surfaced on the Internet.

The letter to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the FBI and Internal Revenue Service from California pastor Barry Minkow, who served time in jail for stock fraud, concerns a joint venture between Lennar and a private developer to build a high-end housing project and golf course in California.

Here’s Minkow’s Fraud Discovery Institute’s rather dramatic summary of what happened with “Lenn-ron”:

In sum: This report…connects the dots of the public record and other documents to prove that Lennar Corporation has a pattern of behavior over a sustained period of time of knowingly and willfully abusing the legal system to gain an unfair advantage over the less capitalized, smaller entities.

The story:

NYSE-listed Lennar Corporation embarked on a joint venture–called HCC Ventures–with a private developer to build an elite housing/golf course project in Rancho Santa Fe, CA, home of innumerable doctors, lawyers, and, formerly, Roy Croc’s widow.

The deal was simple: The predecessor to Briarwood Capital, LLC would contribute the value of his claims which were at the time of the contribution in excess of 50 million dollars and also included claims to the property itself—some 540 acres–while the big public company would, among other things, manage the development on a daily basis. As part of the agreement between the two parties, Lennar assisted in the acquisition of the land for the development of the project.

Both parties signed an operating agreement in August 1997.

…at the closing of this transaction, the smaller developer agreed to contribute the value of his claim and claims to the property itself to the newly formed venture, HCC Investors. In June of 1999 the claims were realized at a sum total of 37.5 million and subsequently wired to the HCC bank accounts per both parties understanding as a capital contribution. And then the unthinkable happened.

Within hours of receiving those funds by wire on June 25, 1999, the big public company…wired out the entire sum by sending out two separate wires…to another one of the public company’s wholly owned subsidiaries, which had nothing whatsoever to do with the project.

What happened next was that over a period of approximately of 5 years, Lennar refused, despite obligations to do so in the operating agreement and numerous written requests, to provide accounting for the wired funds of June 25th, 1999 and the revenue of at the time in excess of 400 million dollars. Accounting was only obtained by court order. And it revealed what happened to the 37.5 million dollars.

The small developer filed suit about the secret wire. Lennar countered that a verbal agreement had been made allowing for the $37.5 million to be wired to “an unaffiliated entity,” even though the operating agreement banned verbal agreements.

Shady. Makes you wonder who’s next.

President-elect Barack Obama’s speech today covered his outlook for the economy and new economic stimulus plan. From Brian Knowlton, New York Times:

President-elect Barack Obama on Thursday urged Congress to act quickly to pass sweeping economic stimulus measures, including a tax cut and an infusion of as much as $800 billion, or face the likelihood that “this recession could linger for years.”

While Mr. Obama did not question the American capacity to recover or its potential for “future greatness,” he cautioned that “it will take time, perhaps many years.”

Obama is delivering as promised, committing government resources towards a better energy economy, bridging the technological divide, and school upgrades. The hook is that these are all long-term upgrades. Doubtless, a more efficient healthcare system, a competitive sustainable economy, and better-educated kids will make the United States much more competitive. But these are long-term outcomes, for which the dialectic panders to Congress. What Obama needs to do now is play on his strength and address the people with specifics, beyond blanket optimism, beyond a few hopeful phrases here and there.

Right now, most people are worried about where their next paycheck will come from, whether they can continue to run their small businesses, and whether their remaining money is safe. I want to be reassured that the economic firefighters are on the job as well as the long-term cash infusions. Obama, in your next speech, please answer this:

-Paulson & Co. seem to have thrown billions of dollars into a big black hole. What is working in the Paulson plan?

-There’s an outbreak of violence going on right now, people with guns whose rage gets the better of them. What are you going to do about situations like the Pfizer shooting, the Oakland riots, the hundreds of other violent crimes that will take place this year? People fundamentally have trouble dealing with their stuff getting taken away. I want to see a social and economic leader.

-Why didn’t you repeal the Bush tax cuts?

-Do you have a contingency plan in place in case China decides to get rid of its US debt holdings, eg. treasuries? Do you have a way of convincing China not to do that?

Some are skeptical of Obama’s prognosis, saying that he is fear-mongering and avoiding key issues. I think that his grim outlook is realistic, but he needs to empower his flock more. Americans aren’t culturally prepared for lean times, as is evidenced by the propensity to vent through murder. If it’s not getting better for years, Obama, throw some motivation our way. It is sorely needed.

Dull, that is, both in form and in content, according to a couple of reports. This was Steve Ballmer’s first keynote at the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES), which takes place in Las Vegas today. However, Ballmer wasn’t on fire, and neither were Microsoft’s products.

This Wired report, as tweeted on Consumer Electronics Insider, highlights the main points of Ballmer’s preso:

–Windows 7 beta will be available for free download in a couple of days. The best part of Windows 7 is that is rescues users from the devil Vista, which eats up RAM, is incompatible with alomst everything–and everyone–else, and has more pop-ups than a porn site.

The report says that Microsoft listened to Vista critics. Windows 7 will be leaner, faster, and with less annoying pop-ups, it says.

–Another announcement had to do with Windows Live, used to access email, calendars, documents, etc. from anywhere on the Web. Windows Live is now out of Beta. The report says that Windows Live anticipates an OS-irrelevant future, and is designed in part to keep users out of Google’s applications–eg. Gmail.

–Microsoft also presented a flexible gaming display, which the Wired reporter thought was a fake. He did, however, laud the $8 billion Microsoft put into R&D last year.

In sum, the report says, Microsoft is playing catch-up. I agree. It went from market innovator to monopolist to pack runner. With an R&D budget that big, you’d think they could come up with something more innovative, instead of loosely following Google and Apple’s leads.

The San Francisco-based Internet service provider Autonet Mobile serves a slightly different target market from the average ISP—cars. The company’s router creates a Wi-Fi hotspot in and around the vehicle in which it’s installed—and even in the face of a significant economic downturn, company CEO Sterling Pratz is optimistic about Autonet’s future.

And Pratz says the range of devices already being used on the system is impressive. “We’re seeing not just laptops and mini-PCs… we’re also seeing iPod touches streaming Internet radio into the front seat—mostly FlyCast and Pandora… and in the back seat, we’re seeing a lot of Facebook, a lot of social networking, Yahoo! Messenger, and a lot of Google Earth,” he says.

Clever invention. I especially like the idea of streaming Pandora into the car radio and using Google Earth for navigation.

What I don’t like is the idea of being connected all the time, everywhere, thus having no excuse not to reply to your online friends, coworkers, clients, etc. Can you imagine taking a beautiful drive up Big Sur and being pinged by your boss through your car radio?

Now the connectivity has made it into even the most remote areas, it’s time to delineate some boundaries around usage etiquette.

From Ananova:

Police in Germany banned a woman driver’s car from the road - for being too untidy. The Vauxhall Astra was so full of junk, magazines, old clothes and even bits of furniture that they could barely see the driver at it roared down a motorway near Dusseldorf.

Police said the car was so full of junk the woman’s face was pressed up against the windscreen as she drove.

Do German cops have too much time on their hands? What a waste of taxpayer funds.

The Wall Street Journal reports on today’s announcement of Macy’s store closings throughout the country:

Macy’s this morning announced the closing of 11 stores, a move that came after a rough holiday season. Macy’s also said Thursday that same-store sales for December fell 4%, amid what it called “the most challenging economic environment in memory.

Here’s a list of the 11 Macy’s stores that are slated to close.

The closures represent a small proportion of Macy’s 860 total stores. Nevertheless, barring a miracle of credit or influx of mall-hungry tourists, the move probably preempts more closures.

Where will all the mall rats go now?

Outside my window a guy is hacking away at a stump with all manner of hand and electric powered tools. He’s been at it for over two hours. At times he seems… well, stumped. But he continues to do the job. He’ll do it until it’s done because he’s a professional stump remover. It’s what he does. He’s not alone. Small businesses everywhere are continuing on despite the gloomy outlook. It’s what they do.

A Beverly Hills company is proof that old fashioned values will help small businesses through these tough economic times. Divine Imaging Inc. is a small, woman-owned GSA/DoD government contractor who is thriving supplying the government with everything from IT equipment and office supplies to body armor and paper products.

The 14 hardworking people of Divine credit “old fashioned” American business practices: honesty, hard work, showing up early, staying late and working weekends with their success.

Divine Imaging, Inc. founder and President, Kimberly Devane states the company philosophy:

“We believe that lasting success is built upon some very simple practices: We work hard and smart, we put in long hours, we stay out of debt, and we manage our expenses as though every dollar counts – because it does! “

CEO Larry Abbot echoes Divine’s values:

“Our business plan certainly includes innovation and improvements to our IT systems and our data-base management, but our success has more to do with our mindset and attitude. Small businesses like ours do not need to be bailed out. We ARE the bailout. We will drive and rebuild the economy by using the same “old fashioned” business practices that our forefathers used to build this great country — no shortcuts, no accounting tricks … just hard work, decency and sound business practices.”

What would our financial markets look like if more bankers shared this attitude?

And when did hard work become old fashioned?

Image Credit: Divine Imaging, Inc.

The New York Times recently published a provocative article on the swindle…err, business of the Bowl Championship Series (BCS) and college bowls:

Statistically, the system is such an abomination that at least one expert…advocated that no self-respecting statistician should have anything to do with it…he wrote that the B.C.S. computer rankings serve as little more than a confirmation of the results of the two opinion polls the system also uses to create its rankings. The people who run the computer rankings, he noted…are not allowed to use the score or site of a game in their calculations.

“The six big conferences don’t want to share money with the smaller conferences,” (expert) Stern said. “That to me is the story that people don’t tell.”

After the derivatives crisis, Enron, Madoff, and other recent Great American money-mongering schemes, the BCS remains intact. According to this chart, the Pacific Life Holiday Bowl, the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl, FedEx Orange Bowl, Rose Bowl presented by Citi, Allstate Sugar Bowl, and the BCS National Championship Game (with rotating sponsors) have a payout of $17 million each, for a total of $85 million. Compare that to the 30+ non-BCS bowl games that take place posteason. Their payouts total roughly $43 million.

More:

in the best-case scenario schools from the non-BCS conferences would receive approximately 34% of the least of the schools in the BCS conferences, including Notre Dame. These numbers are not the actual amounts paid to each school, but look at the amounts paid to each school on average.

The BCS Media Guide claims that over the first 10 years of the BCS arrangement, a total of $100 million has been given to the 51 non-BCS Football Bowl Subdivision schools and the 122 Football Championship Subdivision schools. This gives an average of $10M/year, or $58,803 per school year. By comparison, EACH BCS conference (between eight and twelve schools) is guaranteed $18 million this year, an average of $1.66M per school for the 65 participating institutions. These disparities are clearly defined within the Media Guide.

Why not a playoff, like every other sport in the NCAA? The BCS isn’t a requirement of the sport at all; rather, it is a corrupt financial system that rewards those in the club, propogates mediocrity, and often fails to decisively decide the best team in the nation.

Jordan Kobritz at The Guiding Light of the Sports Business has this to say:

A playoff is held in every other football division and every other NCAA sport. But the BCS isn’t affiliated with the NCAA. The six conferences that comprise the BCS broke away from the governing body in the aftermath of a 1981 lawsuit brought by the Universities of Oklahoma and Georgia.

So why allow yourself to be ripped off by the existing bowls? The answer has nothing to do with tradition or the sanctity of the bowls. The current system suits the BCS conferences just fine. They get to decide who gets how much money and they don’t have to deal with the NCAA. In this case, power is more important than money.

Let me get this straight. The polling system that decides who attends BCS bowls is notoriously faulty. The payouts for attendees of those conferences–and, even more, the BCS itself–are ridiculous in comparison to non-BCS games. BCS championships attract more sponsors, viewers, and promotions than any of the others, providing incentive for those profiting most off the system to maintain it.

This very well may be one of the most blatant lacks of oversight remaining in the American economy. If Obama pushes around his weight here, it will be welcomed.