Alicja Ugnire blog

Ford recalling F-150 pickups to fix door handles

WASHINGTON – Ford Motor Co. recalled nearly 365,000 F-150 pickup trucks in North America on Thursday to fix a problem with the interior door handles that could lead to the doors opening in a crash.

Ford said the recall affects about 280,000 F-150s in the U.S. from the 2009 and 2010 model years built from Jan. 18, 2008, through Nov. 30, 2009. About 68,000 of the popular trucks under recall are in Canada and about 14,000 are in Mexico.

The Dearborn, Mich., company said there have been no crashes or injuries tied to the problem. The F-150 is part of Ford's popular F-Series pickup, the best-selling vehicle in the U.S.

"Ford is committed to safety and is quickly working to address this matter with our customers," said Wes Sherwood, a company spokesman.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said on its website that a spring in the interior door handle could break, causing the door to fail to latch properly. If the truck was struck by another vehicle on the side, the government said the door latch could open.

The recall is expected to begin around Feb. 14. Ford said dealers would inspect the trucks and add reinforcements to the spring or replace the side interior door handle module.

Owners can contact Ford at (866) 436-7332.

Egypt's K Street Connections

-- Given that the repressive government of Egypt received $1.5 billion in military and economic aid from the US government in 2010, it’s not surprising that it is also well represented in Washington’s lobbying community on K Street.

Chris Good ofnotes that since 2007 the Egyptian government has paid the DC-based lobbying firm PLM Group $1.1 million per year. PLM is run by Democratic powerbroker Tony Podesta (whose brother John is a former chief of staff to Bill Clinton and current head of the Center for American Progress), former Democratic Rep. Toby Moffett (who represented Connecticut’s 6 th district from 1975-–83) and former Republican Speaker of the House Bob Livingston. According to their contract, PLM was hired to provide assistance in all facets to the Egyptian embassy and “identify, as early as possible, any weakness and/or problem areas in Egypt's image within Congress or the Executive Branch and advise on ways to deal with such areas of concern.” Presumably that image makeover is kicking into high gear right now, as the Egyptian government attempts to downplay the images of tear gas being directed atin the streets of Cairo.

The Sunlight Foundation and ProPublica add more details about how PLM lobbyists have helped the Egyptian regime on :

Lobbyists for Egypt had at least 279 contacts on military issues, the bulk of which occurred when PLM Group accompanied delegations of Egyptian military officers to meet members of Congress, administration officials and representatives from defense contractors including BAE Systems, General Dynamics, General Electric, Raytheon and Lockheed Martin. All five have done business with the Egyptian government, selling tanks, fighter jets, howitzers and radar arrays to its military. At the time of the meeting with the contractors, Podesta Group counted BAE Systems, General Dynamics and Lockheed Martin among its clients, while the Livingston Group represented Raytheon.

Last year James Gibney of The Atlantic provocatively called on the United States toto Egypt and Israel, pointing out that the billions of dollars in aid spent annually on each country has brought the US government little in return. Today Secretary of Statetried to strike a balanced tone toward the recent protests in Cairo, urging both the government and protesters to exercise restraint, while pressing Hosni Mubarak to respect “universal human rights” and “engage immediately with the Egyptian people in implementing needed economic, political and social reform.” But on K Street, that balance of power is decidedly in favor of an increasingly discredited Egyptian regime.

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Corrected: Morgan Stanley results beat; Smith Barney pays off

(Corrects Jan 20th story throughout to reflect that Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S changed forecast EPS figure to 37 cents a share from 35 cents, and adjusted actual EPS figure to 43 cents from 26 cents. The bank therefore beat expectations for profits, rather than missing them. The error first appeared in UPDATE 4)

By Dan Wilchins

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Morgan Stanley posted stronger-than-expected quarterly results and retail brokerage profit jumped, validating its strategy of bolstering businesses that are less threatened by tougher regulation following the financial crisis.

Morgan Stanley shares rose 4.6 percent.

In 2009, after the financial crisis brought the bank to the brink of failure, Morgan Stanley began reducing its reliance on trading and risk-taking for profit.

It began concentrating instead on areas such wealth management, where revenue is more stable. As part of that move, it bought a controlling stake in Citigroup's retail brokerage business, now a joint venture known as Morgan Stanley Smith Barney.

Those moves seem to be paying off for Chief Executive James Gorman, who was originally hired by Morgan Stanley to oversee the bank's retail brokerage business.

Morgan Stanley Smith Barney generated record profit during the quarter and was responsible for about 20 percent of the bank's profit.

"There were some good signs in these results and, if the retail investor is more active this year, it could really help Morgan Stanley," said Anton Schutz, president of asset manager Mendon Capital, which owns Morgan Stanley shares.

Asset management, a business that was long a weak performer, has turned around under Greg Fleming, who joined Morgan Stanley in February 2010 and is now set to oversee retail brokerage, too. Asset management's revenue rose 68 percent from a year earlier and the business generated about 20 percent of the bank's income.

Morgan Stanley's diversification stands in contrast to rival Goldman Sachs Group Inc, which generated about 82 percent of its fourth-quarter revenue from investment banking. Goldman shares fell 4.7 percent after the bank posted disappointing quarterly results on Wednesday.

"(Morgan Stanley is) starting to look a little clever with these more stable revenue businesses," said Adrian Cronje, chief investment officer at Atlanta-based Balentine, a wealth management firm.

BEATING FORECASTS

Excluding $668 million of pretax gains from the sale of its investment in China International Capital Corp, Morgan Stanley's earnings beat analyst expectations.

The second-largest U.S. investment bank said shareholder profit was $600 million, or 41 cents a share, up from $376 million, or 29 cents a share, a year earlier.

Adjusted earnings were 43 cents a share, above analysts' average forecast of 37 cents, according to Thomson Reuters

I/B/E/S.

Morgan Stanley's shares were up $1.27 at $29.02 at the close on Thursday.

New laws in the United States and abroad threaten to reduce the profitability of many traditional investment banking businesses. Much derivatives trading, for example, is expected to move to exchanges, which will reduce profit for banks that used to match up buyers and sellers themselves.

Under the Dodd Frank U.S. financial reform bill, banks will not be able to do as much trading for their own accounts, which could cut into profits. Morgan Stanley said last week it will spin off its proprietary trading business, which trades the firm's money, in 2012.

In October, Morgan Stanley said it planned to sell a majority stake in FrontPoint Partners, a hedge fund manager, to its portfolio managers. That deal was supposed to close in the fourth quarter, but is now set to close in the first quarter, Morgan Stanley said.

A key manager at FrontPoint, Steve Eisman, was reported to be mulling leaving the company. He told Reuters he wants more control over his fund.

Even if banks will do less trading for themselves, executives have expressed some optimism about the outlook for trading on behalf of customers.

"Clearly, there have been some structural changes in certain parts of the markets. The real question is, are they permanent, are they temporary," David Viniar, chief financial officer at Goldman Sachs, said during a Wednesday conference call. "I don't happen to believe most things are permanent."

But some investors have questioned whether trading volumes could be depressed for some time.

Morgan Stanley posted fourth-quarter revenue of $7.81 billion, topping the average Wall Street forecast of $7.35 billion.

Even with Thursday's gains, the company's shares trade at about 0.9 times their book value, or their net accounting value. Goldman Sachs shares, in contrast, trade at about 1.3 times their book value. Some investors believe Morgan Stanley's valuation has room to move closer to Goldman's.

TRADING

The bank suffered from the same trading malaise that hit JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs and Citigroup Inc. Morgan Stanley's overall trading revenue fell 38 percent and it lost money in fixed-income trading.

Morgan Stanley hopes trading volumes will improve as the global economy improves and hopes it can boost market share, she said.

On a conference call, CEO Gorman said the bank has more work to do in fixed income. Morgan Stanley hired hundreds of traders over the past year as part of a multiyear effort to boost its bond trading business, which is small relative to rivals.

The bank earlier this month said Jack DiMaio, global head of interest-rate, currency and commodity trading, was leaving, and that chief risk officer Kenneth deRegt was becoming global head of fixed income sales and trading.

Morgan Stanley Smith Barney generated income for Morgan Stanley of $166 million in the fourth quarter, up from $29 million a year earlier. Morgan Stanley holds a 51 percent stake in the joint venture.

For the firm as a whole, about 51 percent of revenue was paid out to employees as compensation in 2010, down from 62 percent a year earlier.

Morgan Stanley said it is deferring more of employees' pay.

(Additional reporting by Ryan Vlastelica in New York and Joe Rauch in Charlotte, N.C.; editing by John Wallace and Andre Grenon)

Virtual combat game helps treat stress disorder

WASHINGTON (AFP) – US doctors are treating soldiers suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) by plunging them back into combat, using a virtual reality game that simulates battle scenes from Iraq and Afghanistan.

The therapeutic game, called Virtual Iraq or Virtual Afghanistan, was developed from the X-Box game Full Spectrum Warrior, a combat tactical simulation game launched with funding from the US Army.

Virtual Iraq or Afghanistan uses images delivered via a head-mounted display panel to plunge soldiers back into combat zones in Iraq or Afghanistan and recreate the traumatic experiences they had while at war, the project's lead researcher Albert Rizzo of the University of Southern California said.

"At first blush, it seems counter-intuitive: why would you make somebody go through an approach where one of your goals is to make the patient feel a little bit anxious as they revisit their traumatic experiences?" Rizzo told reporters.

But researchers have found that by progressively raising a patient's feelings of anxiety up to a moderate level while simultaneously encouraging the patient to mentally process and talk about their traumatic experience, they can bring down anxiety levels and decrease PTSD symptoms.

Those symptoms include recurring nightmares and flashbacks, emotional numbing, avoidance of places that stir memories and manifestations like hyper-vigilance, which can be a protective mechanism in a wartime setting but is often disruptive when the soldier returns to civilian life.

The game uses visual, audio and even smell stimuli to realistically recreate what the soldiers would have experienced in Iraq and Afghanistan.

A sensor on the head-mounted monitor causes graphics to update each time the soldier turns his or her head, giving the illusion of being immersed in the environment.

The sound of a Humvee armored vehicle motor comes through as vibrations and virtual bomb explosions are felt in the distance. A smell machine pumps out scents reminiscent of Iraq or Afghanistan -- gunpowder, diesel fuel, burning rubber or spices.

Previously, therapists had to walk patients "through in imagination the things they're fearful of or have been traumatized by," said Rizzo.

But that had its inherent pitfalls, including that therapists had to trust that the patient was genuinely visualizing the situation.

"But some people aren't good at visualizing, and we know that one of the symptoms of PTSD is avoidance," said Rizzo.

Virtual reality therapy could also remove some of the stigma from seeking treatment for PTSD because the generation of soldiers fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan grew up playing video games and might be more open to seeking care for the mental disorder if it's delivered in a video game package.

An estimated 20 to 30 percent of soldiers who have fought in Iraq or Afghanistan come home with PTSD, according to US military estimates.

PTSD has been linked to a rise in the suicide rate among veterans, which claimed the lives of a record 309 servicemembers last year, up from 267 in 2008, according to Pentagon numbers.

Three randomized control trials of the virtual reality therapy games are currently underway, and a couple of other studies are testing the simulation game to see if it can be used as a tool to assess whether soldiers returning from war have PTSD.

In yet another study, 16 of 20 soldiers who were treated with the simulator game developed by Rizzo and others at USC's Institute for Creative Technology no longer met PTSD criteria at the end of therapy, which was developed in 2003 -- the year of the US-led invasion of Iraq.

Not always pretty, Tomlin makes winning sexy in Pittsburgh

PITTSBURGH (Reuters) – Where Mike Tomlin ranks among the NFL's top head coaches is open to debate but there is no doubt about where he stands among women football fans after being named the league's sexiest coach.

The strong, silent type, Tomlin's unruffled demeanor and smoldering good looks earned the Pittsburgh Steelers coach a top spot on one of lingerie purveyor Victoria's Secret's "What is Sexy" lists in 2008.

Tomlin could be in line for more honors as he leads his team into Dallas for a February 6 Super Bowl showdown against the Green Bay Packers.

If it is true that there is nothing sexier than success then Tomlin is the NFL's George Clooney.

Since taking over the Pittsburgh coaching reins from Bill Cowher in 2007, Tomlin has posted a record of 43-21, taking his team to the Super Bowl twice in three years. He has already lifted the Lombardi trophy once.

The Steelers' dramatic 27-23 victory over Arizona in 2009 made the then-36-year-old Tomlin the youngest NFL head coach to both appear in and win a Super Bowl.

Style points have never mattered to the Steelers or their coach, the victory always more important than the way it was achieved.

Pittsburgh's 24-19 win over the New York Jets in the AFC championship game on Sunday reflected that philosophy as the Steelers raced to a 24-0 lead then held on for the win.

"That first 30 minutes was conference champion worthy," said Tomlin. "We kind of limped home but we aren't going to complain about style points...they made the necessary plays to get the job done."

Getting the job done is the mantra for a franchise that embraces Pittsburgh's blue-collar image.

PRESTIGE JOB

The position of Steelers head coach is one of the NFL's prestige coaching jobs where vacancies rarely come up.

Since the Super Bowl era began in 1967, the Steelers have known only four head coaches, Bill Austin, Chuck Noll, Bill Cowher and Tomlin. Noll, Cowher and Tomlin have each guided Pittsburgh to Super Bowl titles.

Noll occupied the post for 23 years followed by Cowher, who held the job for 15 seasons before passing the baton to Tomlin in 2007.

Following in the footsteps of a Hall of Fame coach like Noll and the hugely popular Cowher left Tomlin with massive shoes to fill.

But Tomlin has managed to live up to expectations, putting his stamp on one of the NFL's iconic franchises.

"He (Tomlin) put his imprint on the team right when he first got here," said defensive tackle Chris Hoke. "When he first came in he was hardcore.

"He wanted to see the personality of this team and once he figured out the personality he knew how to work with us.

"We knew coming in he was a leader. He knew where he wanted to go and he knew what he had to do to get us there. He just had to find the guys who wanted to go with him."

A wide receiver in college, Tomlin never played a down of football in the NFL.

He started his coaching career in the U.S. college system before spending five seasons as defensive backs coach with Tampa Bay, helping the Buccaneers win a Super Bowl in 2003.

After one season as Minnesota Vikings defensive coordinator, Tomlin jumped into the head coaching job with the Steelers.

Players have described Tomlin as intelligent and low key. He is all business prowling the sidelines, always in control and rarely displays any emotion.

Already recognized as one of football's brightest young minds, Tomlin is assembling the type of resume that many observers believe puts him in the same class as New England Patriots mastermind Bill Belichick.

"Coach T (Tomlin), he looks at the game from so many different angles, very intelligent," explained defensive back Ike Taylor. "He would pick up on stuff you never think of picking up on.

"Coach T definitely got sway. A couple of years ago Victoria Secret named him man of year, you got to have some type of sway."

(Editing by Steve Ginsburg)