divimg alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.15.1/5737?ns=guardianpageName=Business%3A+State-controlled+banks+take+over+fund+manager+New+Starch=Businessc3=The+Guardianc4=New+Star+Asset+Management+Group+%28Business%29%2CBanking+sector+%28Business%29%2CMergers+and+acquisitions+%28business%29%2CBusiness%2CCredit+crunch+%28Business%29c5=Investments%2CCredit+Crunch%2CBusiness+Marketsc6=Jill+Treanorc7=2008_12_04c8=1128396c9=articlec10=GUc11=Businessc12=New+Star+Asset+Managementc13=c14=h2=GU%2FBusiness%2FNew+Star+Asset+Management" width="1" height="1" //divpBanks rescued by the taxpayer have seized New Star, the troubled fund management group which is to delist from the stock exchange after a radical restructuring./ppJohn Duffield, the founder of New Star, is ceding control of up to 95% of the operation to a consortium of banks led by HBOS to relieve its pound;240m debt. /ppDuffield is thought to have been reluctant to agree to the terms of the debt for equity swap which was finally ratified by the New Star board late yesterday afternoon. The fund manager, which took out high profile billboard adverts to attract savers, had been forced to find a way to eradicate the debt to address the concerns of major clients who were reluctant to place their money with the firm./ppDuffield is not expected to remain with the group he founded for much longer after a long City career during which he has developed a reputation as a maverick - albeit a successful one./ppThe complex restructuring is expected to leave banks rescued by the government with control over New Star, which Duffield launched after a high-profile row with the owners of his previous venture, Jupiter. /ppThe combined Lloyds-HBOS bank in which the taxpayer is likely to own about 40%, will have an estimated 45% stake in New Star and RBS - now 58% owned by the taxpayer - with about 15% in the fund management group. HSBC and National Australia Bank will also have stakes./ppYesterday Duffield, 69, was unrepentant about the restructuring which will also hurt his own pocket as he owns around 5% of the company./pp"The cost of this restructuring is regrettably a substantial dilution for ordinary shareholders, including me. However, in current market conditions we have to recognise that there is no option to ensure the stability of the business," Duffield said./pp"We are now free to focus all our attention on improving our investment performance. Our existing share-based bonus scheme will be replaced by a new scheme to ensure that our key people are locked in." /ppTwo new share-based incentive schemes are being put in place for New Star staff, many of whom had been lured to work at the group by the promise of lucrative incentive schemes. Until the credit crunch began to bite, the schemes had proved attractive to employees after its flotation at 225p three years ago. The shares reached 450p before collapsing to just 4p which values the company at barely pound;20m./ppStaff own about 25% of the company and the debt for equity swap will wipe out all existing shareholders who will have to approve the de-listing of the shares. The company took on the debt to return pound;363m to shareholders last year before the credit crunch began./ppDuffield has taken out a total of pound;150m from the company which had been forced to renegotiate the terms of the loan last month amid client withdrawals. Funds under management are now pound;13.9bn from a peak of pound;20bn./ppNew Star had already embarked upon a cost cutting exercise and is losing 60 jobs from its workforce of 380. More posts may now be shed as the banks exert their influence. Directors such as the chief executive Howard Covington may also decide to step aside. The anxiety about the company's debt was heightened after the market mayhem caused by the collapse of Lehman Brothers. Its customers' nerves were further frayed by the suspension of dealing in its high-profile international property fund. The board also blamed its stock market listing for its plight./pp"The board believes that the reporting requirements and public scrutiny that are part of being a listed company have served to magnify these concerns," New Star said./ppThe restructuring involves the banks converting pound;240m of the pound;260m they are owed into pound;94m of preference shares and enough ordinary shares to allow them to own 75% of New Star. The preference shares pay an annual interest and convert into ordinary shares that could ultimately allow the banks to own 95% of the company. While returns for investors in its funds will be affected by the financial turmoil, all investors' money is held in separate trusts and therefore ring-fenced from the fund manager's operations./pdiv style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"ullia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/newstarassetmanagementgroup"New Star Asset Management/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/banking"UK banking sector/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/mergersandacquisitions"Mergers and acquisitions/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/creditcrunch"Credit crunch/a/li/ul/diva href="http://www.guardian.co.uk"guardian.co.uk/a copy; Guardian News Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our a href="http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html"Terms Conditions/a | a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/webfeeds/1,,1309488,00.html"More Feeds/a pa href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/RHXG0pP5ERb01w-KlTnCK9ho30w/a"img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/RHXG0pP5ERb01w-KlTnCK9ho30w/i" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/p

Flightline Ltd's collapse left Premier League players stranded at Southampton airport before European tie pa href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/7JcrRyRfeCLeUxx3VE0DkNd7ThI/a"img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/7JcrRyRfeCLeUxx3VE0DkNd7ThI/i" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/p

The Serious Fraud Office suffered a huge defeat yesterday with the collapse of its £25 million, six-year investigation into alleged price fixing among drugs manufacturers.

Washington Post columnist George Will and syndicated columnist Mona Charen continued a trend among members of the conservative media of responding to media comparisons between the current economic situation and that of the 1930s and between President-elect Barack Obama and Franklin Delano Roosevelt by attacking the New Deal. In recent columns, both Will and Charen cherry-picked certain unemployment figures to assert that the New Deal failed to reduce unemployment. In doing so, they ignored both the downward trend in unemployment during the New Deal and ignored statistics on the increased numbers of jobs created in the government by the New Deal itself -- the latter omission is one that historians and progressive economists have said portrays New Deal unemployment in the "worst possible light." Indeed, both Will and Charen cited former Wall Street Journal writer Amity Shlaes' 2007 book The Forgotten Man: A New History of the Great Depression in advancing their attacks, but in a November 29 Wall Street Journal column, Shlaes acknowledged using data that ignored "emergency" public employment.

In his November 30 column, Will asserted, "The assumption is that the New Deal vanquished the Depression. Intelligent, informed people differ about why the Depression lasted so long. But people whose recipe for recovery today is another New Deal should remember that America's biggest industrial collapse occurred in 1937, eight years after the 1929 stock market crash and nearly five years into the New Deal. In 1939, after a decade of frantic federal spending -- President Herbert Hoover increased it more than 50 percent between 1929 and the inauguration of Franklin Roosevelt -- unemployment was 17.2 percent."

Similarly, in her November 28 column, Charen asserted, "You know the fairy tale. You were probably taught it in school. During the 1920s, America practiced laissez-faire economics. The 1920s were seen, as historian Amity Shlaes put it, as a period of 'false growth and low morals.' " Charen later claimed that "the New Deal's chief object was never achieved -- it did not solve the nation's unemployment problem. The CATO Institute's Jim Powell points out in FDR's Folly, 'From 1934 to 1940, the median annual unemployment rate was 17.2. At no point during the 1930s did unemployment go below 14 percent. ... Living standards remained depressed until after the war.' "

Will and Charen both cited certain unemployment figures during the 1930s but ignored the overall downward trajectory of unemployment rates throughout the New Deal. In a July 5, 2007, Slate article, University of California-Davis history professor Eric Rauchway noted: "Except in the 1937-38 recession, unemployment fell every year of the New Deal. Also, real GDP grew at an annual rate of around 9 percent during Roosevelt's first term and, after the 1937-38 dip, around 11 percent." Further, New York Times columnist and Nobel laureate Paul Krugman wrote that it was a reversal of New Deal policies that contributed to rising unemployment during the 1937-38 recession. In a November 10 Times column, Krugman wrote: "After winning a smashing election victory in 1936, the Roosevelt administration cut spending and raised taxes, precipitating an economic relapse that drove the unemployment rate back into double digits and led to a major defeat in the 1938 midterm elections."

Moreover, Will claimed, "In 1939 ... unemployment was 17.2 percent," and Charen repeated Powell's claim that "[f]rom 1934 to 1940, the median annual unemployment rate was 17.2 percent," but they appear to be relying on unemployment data that ignores government-relief employment created by New Deal programs. Indeed, Shlaes acknowledged that her figures excluded "make-work jobs," instead relying on data compiled for the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) by economist Stanley Lebergott. In a November 29 Wall Street Journal column, she wrote, "To be sure, Michael Darby of UCLA has argued that make-work jobs should be counted. Even so, his chart shows that from 1931 to 1940, New Deal joblessness ranges as high as 16% (1934) but never gets below 9 percent" [emphasis in original].

After World War II, BLS ceased counting those in work-relief programs as unemployed, as noted by economist Gene Smiley in a 1983 Journal of Economic History article:

Apparently the purpose of the estimates of the number of unemployed was to estimate how many private-sector jobs would have to be created to reemploy all those who were unemployed as well as those who were employed on federal government work-relief programs. These data were used by Lebergott in constructing his unemployment rate estimates for the 1930s. Since World War II the BLS does not count as unemployed those employed in any type of government relief programs, so the Lebergott rates are not consistent with those reported since the 1930s.

As Media Matters for America documented, University of Texas professor James Galbraith criticized the methodology Shlaes used in her book. On November 18, at a Campaign for America's Future conference, Galbraith stated that "the underlying numbers, which Shlaes uses ... do not count the people who actually worked on the New Deal as employed. They count them as unemployed. Why did they do that? Because in retrospect, to give -- to put a charitable construction on it, they wanted to assess the condition of the private economy." Further, Rauchway noted in an October 10 blog post that "if you don't count these people who held jobs as unemployed, you get a different picture of unemployment in the 1930s."

As Media Matters for America has noted, in recent weeks, Will has repeatedly attacked the New Deal. During the November 23 edition of ABC's This Week, Will asked, "Before we go into a new New Deal, can we just acknowledge that the first New Deal didn't work?" He added: "That is, the biggest collapse in industrial production in history occurred in 1937, eight years after the stock market collapse of 1929, five years into the New Deal."

The comments echoed remarks Will made the week before on This Week when he asserted that "one of the ways we turned a depression into the Great Depression that didn't end until the Japanese fleet appeared off Hawaii was that there were no rules, and investors went on strike, because the government was completely improvising." He added: "Net investment was negative through almost all of the '30s because, again, people did not know the environment in which they were operating because the government had the fidgets and would not let rules and markets work." Krugman was also a panelist on the show. He responded:

KRUGMAN: No, the negative net investment was because, you know, when you have 20 percent unemployment and all the factories are standing idle, who wants to build a new one? You don't need to invoke the government to explain that. No, what actually happened was, you know, there was an -- there was a collapse of the financial system, which was not restored for a long time. There was a persistent deep slump in consumer demand and, therefore, no investment demand, and so you were stuck in this trap.

Roosevelt got the economy moving somewhat. By 1937, things were a lot better than they were in 1933. Then he was persuaded to balance the budget, or try to, and he raised taxes and cut spending and the economy went back down again. And it took an enormous public works program known as World War II to bring the economy out of the Depression.

From Charen's November 28 syndicated column:

The conventional wisdom has had a rough time of it lately among scholars. You know the fairy tale. You were probably taught it in school. During the 1920s, America practiced laissez-faire economics. The 1920s were seen, as historian Amity Shlaes put it, as a period of "false growth and low morals." Greedy businessmen got out of control and created a market crash in 1929. President Hoover, obedient to Republican ideas concerning noninterference in the market, did nothing. The economy spiraled into a depression. Roosevelt was elected in 1932, banished fear, inaugurated the New Deal, and put America back to work.

A series of recent books has demolished the myth. Some of Roosevelt's reforms were salutary (the Securities and Exchange Commission, reform of the Federal Reserve) but the New Deal's chief object was never achieved -- it did not solve the nation's unemployment problem. The CATO Institute's Jim Powell points out in "FDR's Folly," "From 1934 to 1940, the median annual unemployment rate was 17.2. At no point during the 1930s did unemployment go below 14 percent. ... Living standards remained depressed until after the war."

From Will's November 30 Washington Post column:

The assumption is that the New Deal vanquished the Depression. Intelligent, informed people differ about why the Depression lasted so long. But people whose recipe for recovery today is another New Deal should remember that America's biggest industrial collapse occurred in 1937, eight years after the 1929 stock market crash and nearly five years into the New Deal. In 1939, after a decade of frantic federal spending -- President Herbert Hoover increased it more than 50 percent between 1929 and the inauguration of Franklin Roosevelt -- unemployment was 17.2 percent.

"I say after eight years of this administration we have just as much unemployment as when we started," lamented Henry Morgenthau, FDR's Treasury secretary. Unemployment declined when America began selling materials to nations engaged in a war America would soon join.

centerimg id="image1642" src="http://rhizome.org/imagebase/article/2130/polite-umbrella-2small.gif" alt="polite-umbrella-2small.gif" //centerbr / centerimg id="image1643" src="http://rhizome.org/imagebase/article/2130/politeumbrella1small.gif" alt="politeumbrella1small.gif" //centerbr / centeriImage: JooYoun Paek, Polite Umbrella/i/centerbr / ipa href="http://www.jooyounpaek.com/"JooYoun Paek/a builds small, object-based responses to urban life, transforming the aches and pains we customarily suffer, at the hands of the metropolis, into novel sites of reflection, social courtesy, and rest. The artist's humorous, insightful approach bespeaks her familiarity with her subject; she was raised in Seoul, Korea, and moved to New York in 2005 to attend NYU's a href="http://itp.nyu.edu/itp/"Interactive Telecommunications Program (ITP)/a. Fresh from her recent participation in "a href="http://eyebeam.org/engage/engage.php?page=exhibitionsid=190"Untethered/a," at a href="http://eyebeam.org/"Eyebeam/a, and "a href="http://www.moma.org/exhibitions/exhibitions.php?id=5632"Design and the Elastic Mind/a," at a href="http://www.moma.org/"MoMA/a, JooYoun caught up with me at her a href="http://www.lmcc.net/"LMCC/a Workspace Residency studio, on the twenty-ninth floor of the Equitable Building in Manhattan's Financial District. - Tyler Coburn /p/i pbWhat's the difference between wearable technology and what you make?/b/p pThe difference? Well, I never define what I make as wearable technology. I think I'm just doing conceptual work that's wearable. Wearable technology is more about focusing on using new technology and making it fashionable, but also highly functional. I don't think my work was ever designed for utilitarian purposes. But oftentimes the methodologies of what I'm doing and wearable technology overlap, and that's why people think, on the surface, that my work is similar./p bpThat really comes across in a piece like a href="http://www.jooyounpaek.com/politeumbrella.html"iPolite Umbrella/i/a./p/b pYes. I made iPolite Umbrella/i after I came to New York for ITP. ITP isn't really a fine art school. It focuses more on collaborative and innovative practices. We had an assignment of observing daily life and behavior, and I began to observe umbrella usage. Quite interestingly, it was the fall of 2005, which was one of the rainiest times in New York City. October was a record-breaking month. It rained almost every day. This was my first time living in New York, so I thought this was usual. Previously, I had framed myself as an artist working with sculpture and sometimes in performance and photography and video, but after going to ITP, I began to explore design. This didn't bother me that much, because the observation of life was already a part of my creative process, which either came out as very utilitarian or very expressive objects. It always started from the observation of mundane moments./p pbOne of the things that I find interesting about this piece is that I can imagine an umbrella that just condenses uniformly, but your model responds to specific scenarios, such as a particular angle of passing. One or all sides of it can compress. So it's not just something that has a function that’s designed to meet a generic social scenario; it's something you can control on a case-by-case basis. I think that specificity is what pushes it beyond just being a quirky object./b/p pIt's not only helpful to you. It also gives a gesture to other people. I definitely involved the cultural reference of people bowing to one another in this piece./p pbSo you see the compression of the side of the umbrella as a gesture of social politeness?/b/p pYes. It has a morphing gesture, but conceptually it gives other people more space./p pbI can see a similar interest in modifying and improving everyday city life in a href="http://www.jooyounpaek.com/ssc.html"iSelf-Sustainable Chair/i/a, which is also controlled by the user, yet is far more absurdist in conceit./b/p pWith this piece, I was also inspired by New York and walking in the city. I was getting sick and tired of walking the same commute route from my station stop to my home every day while carrying a heavy backpack. I wanted to make something that could make every walk I take more meaningful. The idea was very abstract, so I began to add up the days and minutes of my commute time. My walk ended up being almost fifteen full days per year. That time should be more exciting, so I made this chair. I thought that each step could generate some energy, which can then transform into something else./p centerimg id="image1644" src="http://rhizome.org/imagebase/article/2130/selfsustainablechairsmall.gif" alt="selfsustainablechairsmall.gif" //centerbr / centeriImage: JooYoun Paek, Self-Sustainable Chair/i/centerbr / bpIt punctuates the commutes. No two walks are the same anymore, depending on when you choose to stop or pause or contemplate. I like the way that once the chair becomes full, it not only gives you the option to rest but sort of forces you to. It makes you stop for a minute. It seems like a lot of your work is about using fast-paced technologies to slow down, or as palliatives. The origami project, a href="http://www.jooyounpaek.com/foldloud.html"iFold Loud/i/a, comes to mind. You actually stitched circuits onto sheets of folded paper, such that a given user's manner of folding would close the circuits and release specific human vocal harmonies. The possible combinations aren't just beautiful to the ear; they're soothing./p/b pThere is that kind of notion./p !--more-- pbBut not, as you were saying, in a practical fashion. More in a fanciful fashion. Like iSelf-Sustainable Chair/i, this object presents a far-fetched way of relaxing, which more interestingly offsets our pace of living than an object we could buy from a store for stress relief./b/p pSome people ask about iPolite Umbrella/i, "So when will we see it on the market?" And I groan, "Oh, I don't really think it would work that well on the market."/p bpI think the fact that you're not distributing them as such also lends to how they function conceptually as art-objects – to their being singular ideas manifest./p/b pYeah. I think it's about the statement. You mentioned the origami work. It reflects some of my personality, but this foldout doesn't really tie into my past work./p pbHow do you mean?/b/p pIt's a very design-oriented work. The object isn't really tied into any context./p pbWell, it's tied into a historical context./b/p pYes, it is tied into a historical context, but not necessarily into the daily mundane experiences that a lot of my other work ties into. So I'm having a hard time connecting it to the other work. iFold Loud/i was more about exploring technology with my personality, in my way. I made it as my ITP thesis project. I could have gone more in the direction of fine art, but I wanted to take the chance to use technology and see where it ended up./p bpBut there's also an everyday reference. I grew up in the States and we didn't make origami, but we would play games with folding paper, like predicting our futures. Even origami is something that is made in Japan as a way to pass the time. So while it's definitely more of a niche reference than those in your other works, I think that there's still a connotation of the everyday. But I agree with you. It is more to the side. I don't think this means that it's more of a design object, though. I think it actually very much engages with contemporary conceptual art strategies by taking a method of folding, an idea of sound production, and the idea of origami as hardware, and drawing an axis between these points. This seems like a very contemporary approach. I couldn't speak to how much it engages with the design world, but I think it's very relevant to contemporary art./p/b pYes, thank you./p centerimg id="image1645" src="http://rhizome.org/imagebase/article/2130/foldoudsmall.gif" alt="foldoudsmall.gif" //centerbr / centeriImage: JooYoun Paek, Fold Loud/i/centerbr / bpIn the text on your website, you describe the work as having a "meta-technological aesthetic." What do you mean by that?/p/b pThe technology isn't hidden. It forms the exposed circuits, so you can actually see how it's working. The technology is bubbling up. It has a different sensibility than most devices, where things are hidden behind a button and you don't know how you trigger the events on the screen./p bpSo given that iFold Loud/i marks something of a departure form previous work, has the stuff you've been making since been more in line with it?/p/b pWhat's interesting is that I'm still working in the way I used to, and Fold Loud is developing as a side-project. For the Eyebeam Fall show, "Untethered," I had two pieces. One was called a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/eyebeam/2831757646/in/set-72157607128132407/"iNot-Bicycle Cover/i/a, which is a bicycle cover that camouflages your bike. It's a small cover that looks like a pile of garbage bags that you can unfold, pump up, and inflate. The other project was called a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/eyebeam/2899668716/in/set-72157607128132407/"iNothing In It/i/a. It's a little bag, and when you open it, it releases the sound of objects. When you close it, they disappear. And when you open it again, you hear different sounds. But when you look into the bag, you see that there's nothing in it./p bpAre all the sounds from public, urban space?/p/b pThere are a lot of these sounds. There is also the sound of a ticking clock./p pbWhat informed the sounds that you used?/b/p pI was thinking a lot about this. Should I have the sound of someone telling a story? Should I have the sound of someone singing? I actually tried to minimize that effect and use the sounds of random objects to not convey too much of a specific story. With a story you have to listen from the beginning to the end, but these sounds should make sense anytime you open the bag./p bpAll the sounds are also things that might be heard as the bag is carried around, so it seems appropriate to collapse them into a mobile, personal belonging. It makes it seem like the sounds you hear have actually been collected by the bag./p/b pInteresting./p bpSo I have to ask: how was it practically made, given that you can't see anything inside?/p/b pI ideally wanted everything to be self-contained within the bag, but for this show I had to make it quickly, so the audio system is beneath the pedestal and the bag is made with a zipper sensor. The concept of the piece relates to the idea that what's in the world is only there because of your belief, and if you start to believe in different ways, things will change. So it was about making you recognize the notion of what you’re believing in - that your belief is really creating the world. Nothing else. /pimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/rhizome-fp/~4/473940998" height="1" width="1"/

divimg alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.15.1/790?ns=guardianpageName=Sport%3A+India+step+up+security+to+prevent+cash+crisisch=Sportc3=guardian.co.ukc4=England+cricket+team%2CIndian+Premier+League+%28cricket%29%2CCricket%2CMumbai+terror+attacks+%28News%29c5=Not+commercially+useful%2CCricketc6=David+Hoppsc7=2008_12_03c8=1128213c9=articlec10=GUc11=Sportc12=England+Cricket+Teamc13=c14=h2=GU%2FSport%2FEngland+Cricket+Team" width="1" height="1" //divpIndia will embark on a major upgrading of security facilities at its international stadiums in a desperate attempt to prevent the economic collapse of the international game in the wake of the Mumbai terrorist attacks./ppEmergency levels of security, perhaps unprecedented in cricket history, have been guaranteed for England's return to India for Tests in Chennai and Mohali, but there is no guarantee that the Indian government will be so amenable to special measures — such as the provision of special security forces — in the future./ppIndian cricket has therefore concluded that permanent security measures must be introduced for all major competitions to allay players' fears about their safety, guard against mass withdrawals and to protect the country's status as cricket's thriving economic powerhouse./ppIndia's greatest worry is that the country that provides roughly 70% of cricket's revenue will become the country that nobody wants to tour — causing it to follow Pakistan towards the prospect of a depressing future playing home matches in Abu Dhabi or Dubai./ppFor India to have to take such a step would ultimately have a disastrous effect on the finances of the game and England, and its top players, would not be immune./ppThe driving force behind the security measures is, unsurprisingly, Lalit Modi, vice-president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India and commissioner of the Indian Premier League. Modi knows that the IPL will not receive such security support from the state, so he is now pressing for what amounts to a total modernisation of India's stadiums, with security the overwhelming priority./ppModi said after the Mumbai atrocities: "Security is something we need to think about seriously because becoming sidelined like Pakistan due to security threats is something that is logical. We have to ensure that the security measures we take are the best. We shouldn't allow such attacks to disrupt our determination."/ppHis response has been swift. He has written to representatives of the eight grounds that stage IPL Twenty20 cricket — to insist upon new security measures. He has contacted Shashank Manohar, the board's president, pressing for all cricketing associations to convene an emergency meeting at the earliest opportunity./ppIt is intended that all these measures will be in place long before the start of the next IPL tournament in April. Kevin Pietersen and Andrew Flintoff are among the most sought-after England players — although Flintoff is widely reported as having ruled out a return to India for the Test series when the England squad makes its expected departure at the end of the week./ppMeasures include the installation of permanent CCTV cameras at every stadium and the provision of turnstiles — rather than just manned gates — at entry and exit points to allow a more controlled check on spectator entry. Security arrangements at the eight IPL grounds will be managed by a central agency answerable to the IPL and funding will be provided by the Indian board. Modi also wants disaster management teams to be appointed to devise definite plans in the event of a terrorist strike at a cricket stadium./ppIndia has always prized its rotation system, retaining its 21 grounds, including some in such outlying places as Guwahati and Visakhapatnam, despite much criticism from touring sides, but those grounds that do not enthusiastically implement the new measures may find that security concerns end their status as an international venue./ppThe IPL's governing council had already begun to examine development needs at its eight stadiums, recognising that many of India's stadiums remain disgracefully underfunded for such a wealthy cricketing country. Security, by necessity, has now shot to the top of the agenda./pdiv style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"ullia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/englandcricketteam"England Cricket Team/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/indianpremierleague"Indian Premier League/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/cricket"Cricket/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/mumbai-terror-attacks"Mumbai terror attacks/a/li/ul/diva href="http://www.guardian.co.uk"guardian.co.uk/a copy; Guardian News Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our a href="http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html"Terms Conditions/a | a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/webfeeds/1,,1309488,00.html"More Feeds/a pa href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/91iIV3BERltue5jSAABYCuMOrJ0/a"img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/91iIV3BERltue5jSAABYCuMOrJ0/i" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/p

psmallEmma Hughes a href="http://www.theinquirer.net/"the Inquirer/a, Wednesday 3 December 2008. 15:40:00/small/ppi Domino effect /i/ppPOOR OLD WOOLIES’ collapse is now beginning to affect others as entertainment retailer Zavvi has been forced to shut its website down. The decline of the ailing store has caused mass stock shortages for Zavvi..../pimg width='1' height='1' src='http://feeds.theinquirer.net/c/554/f/7127/s/27d9127/mf.gif' border='0'/div class='mf-viral'table border='0'trtd valign='middle'a href="http://res.feedsportal.com/viral/sendemail2.html?title=Woolies collapse hits Zavvi websitelink=http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2008/12/03/woolies-collapse-hits-zavvi" target="_blank"img src="http://rss.feedsportal.com/images/emailthis2.gif" border="0" //a/tdtd valign='middle'a href="http://res.feedsportal.com/viral/bookmark.cfm?title=Woolies collapse hits Zavvi websitelink=http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2008/12/03/woolies-collapse-hits-zavvi" target="_blank"img src="http://rss.feedsportal.com/images/bookmark.gif" border="0" //a/td/tr/table/divbr/br/a href="http://da.feedsportal.com/r/25853529419/u/89/f/7127/c/554/s/41783591/a2.htm"img src="http://da.feedsportal.com/r/25853529419/u/89/f/7127/c/554/s/41783591/a2.img" border="0"//a

a href="http://www.energybulletin.net/node/47157"Second Great Depression? We should be so lucky./a Or so Dmitry Orlov says. Orlov, an engineer who watched the collapse of the Soviet Union, argues that the United States is well into a similar process of collapse. In Orlov's model, collapse is divided into five stages: financial, commercial, political, social and cultural. The first one is currently happening, and the next two are guaranteed to follow; as for cultural collapse, that happened a long time ago, but people were to narcotised by consumerism to notice. And things look set to get very, very dire indeed, with runaway hyperinflation, shortages, the breakdown of political institutions, the fragmentation of the US, and, if the quot;social collapsequot; stage is reached, roaming gangs and ethnic cleansing. br /

Category: Games
Released: Dec 02, 2008
Price: $0.99

Description:
*Limited time offer - introductory price $.99!!* This is a new action-puzzle game with colors - a brand new twist on the match 3 formula! The basic game rules are simple - you slide rows and columns of colored tiles to combine groups (vertical or horizontal lines) of the same color and double-tap to remove them from the screen. Using multicolored tiles you can create color chains - intersecting lines of tiles which will be submitted as a single group, giving you much higher score. As difficulty levels progress, bigger tiles are introduced, making the matching more challenging. Also, tiles react to gravity, so tilting in combination with sliding can be a very useful play technique! The game includes 3 game modes each with 4 difficulty settings to provide plenty of variety and a great challenge. *PUZZLE (it's a puzzle, unlimited time) *COLOR RUSH (fast paced action) *ZEN COLORS (endless mode, for relaxed playing) If you like games like Collapse! Chaos, Trism, Bejeweled or TETRIS, you will enjoy this game. If you are tired of match 3 puzzles - try this one, it has a few unique features you're likely to enjoy! If you don't like puzzle games - try this game, very possibly it will make you change your mind (it already has for some people)! ------------------------ See what the beta-testers of the game say: "I just wanted to let you know that this is a great concept. It's about time somebody went beyond the whole match three thing and did something different." "Really nice and polished game." "I didn't think I would like this game as much as I do. I'm so addicted to it right now, so I really recommend it. My top 3 puzzle games right now - in order - Quadrum:Colors, Fuzzle and Trism." "At first load-up, the game seemed to me to be the "same old" match game, but after playing it for a while, I see that there is a lot more strategy than the "same old" formula." "I tend to get quickly bored with color matching games. But the puzzle mode and zen mode offer that puzzling challenge that should hold my interest over the long term. Excellent game!" "This is one of my favorite games."

Website: http://www.ichromo.com
Support Website: http://www.ichromo.com

Note: The description above is the official one supplied by the application developer and does not necessarily represent the views or opinions of this site or its staff.


Get it on iTunes: Quadrum:colors

Cholera is a vicious disease. It can take a healthy person and kill him or her in a day by rapidly dehydrating them from a massive, watery diarrhea. The resulting electrolyte imbalance can lead to vascular collapse or cardiac arrest. Cholera is usually spread by fecally contaminated drinking (...)

PGnJ 1.0PGnJ is an intuitive SQL Database Development Environment for Mac OS X. PGnJ is surprisingly simple, yet extremely powerful for working with databases. Unlike alternative clients, PGnJÂ’s unique, single window interface gives you everything you need, right at your fingertips.
WHAT'S NEWVersion 1.0:

• [NEW] Oracle support added. (Thanks, Lorgio!)
• [NEW] SQLite support added. (Thanks, Milan!)
• [NEW] Tab completion support for table and column names added to the query editor.
• [NEW] A Script Library for managing SQL scripts added (:variables supported).
• [NEW] A template system for generating DDL SQL templates.
• [NEW] A common toolbar has been added to the Query Editor and Script Library views.
• [NEW] A filter bar (CMD+F to focus) to filter and order data with SQL added in the DataBrowser. (Thanks, Lorgio!)
• [NEW] The bookmark manager can now remember connection passwords.
• [NEW] The execution engine has been completely rebuilt from scratch to better handle multiple queries regardless of type.
• [NEW] The database tree now automatically refreshes when DDL is detected.
• [NEW] The database tree's state is now recalled when the database is refreshed (expanded nodes remain expanded, selected node remains selected).
• [NEW] SQL can now be executed directly from a file without first loading it into the query editor (for larger scripts).
• [NEW] It is now possible to drop one more files directly onto the query editor's input area to load sql.
• [NEW] Right clicking on a result set now reveals a pop-up menu that allows copying the content of either a single cell or the entire row in CSV format to the clipboard.
• [NEW] The bookmark manager now remembers the last selected database type to ease the task of adding bookmarks.
• [NEW] Table details are now pre-fetched in a background thread after connection to database is established.
• [NEW] A drag handle has been added to the bottom left action bar to make resizing the sidebar easier.
• [NEW] PGnJ can now remain running without any windows open (like standard Cocoa applications).
• [NEW] Experimental horizontal scroll wheel support added (use preference to toggle).
• [NEW] Added preference to convert all zero datetimes in MySQL to NULL (on by default; off causes exception).
• [NEW] Added menu items and keyboard shortcuts to navigate the table details at the bottom of the sidebar.
• [NEW] A shortcut (CMD+T) to focus on the database tree in the sidebar has been added.
• [NEW] A shortcut (CMD+W) to close the preferences window when it is visible has been added.
• [NEW] When started, PGnJ now specifically asks if it's okay to check for updates rather than defaulting to autochecking.
• [CHANGE] CSV Export no longer wraps integers, floats and booleans in quotes.
• [CHANGE] The connection sheet and bookmark manager are now fully keyboard navigable.
• [CHANGE] The connection sheet now cancels on escape. (Thanks, Manton!)
• [CHANGE] The keyboard shortcut CMD+E and menu item 'Database > Execute SQL' now executes SQL when the QueryEditor is visible and reloads the DataBrowser when the DataBrowser is visible.
• [CHANGE] Altered the row selection behavior on the database tree so that clicking on an expand/collapse arrow doesn't highlight that row unless the currently selected row is a child of that row.
• [CHANGE] When using CMD-UP/CMD-DOWN quick history from the Query Editor, if there is SQL currently in the Editor, it is added to the history so that it isn't lost.
• [CHANGE] The history browser (CMD-SHIFT-H) no longer automatically executes a SQL statement after selecting it and appropriately cleans up the query editor before loading the selected SQL.
• [CHANGE] Connection sheets are now correctly document modal. (Thanks to Werner, the Quaqua developer!)
• [CHANGE] Menu items are now properly enabled or disabled based on the context of the application.
• [CHANGE] Where necessary, tooltips are assigned to disabled menu items to explain how they can be enabled.
• [CHANGE] All tables are now borderless to be more in line with current trends in OS X application design.
• [CHANGE] The background color of the sidebar has been darkened slightly to better resemble the sidebar background colors of other OS X applications.
• [CHANGE] Polished dialogs with more appropriate copy and icons.
• [CHANGE] The QueryEditor now receives focus upon a successful connection to a bookmark.
• [CHANGE] When resizing the window, the sidebar now only grows the area containing the database tree rather than the table details section at the bottom.
• [CHANGE] Updated Quaqua LAF to version 5.0.1. (Thanks to Werner, the Quaqua developer!)
• [FIX] Now able to issue ALTER, CREATE and DROP statements to MySQL databases.
• [FIX] When a new bookmark is setup to connect to, it is now only added if the connection is successful.
• [FIX] The AutoCheckForUpdates preference is no longer (accidently) ignored.
• [FIX] Style changes in the query editor are no longer registered in the undo/redo history.
• [FIX] When loading a sql file, the QueryEditor properly replaces the current view.
• [FIX] Dialogs (sheets) now correctly gain focus, enabling keyboard interaction. (Thanks to Werner, the Quaqua developer!)
• [FIX] Columns of a table no longer sporadically appear multiple times in the table details area.

REQUIREMENTSMac OS X 10.4 or later.
DEVELOPERThomas Mango
DOWNLOADS7733
DOWNLOAD NOW (5.8 MB)
More information

The number of people out of work in Spain is poised to surpass 3m amid a deepening recession caused by the collapse of the country's housing market and the global...

Radar's investment guide to cocaine, hookers, and other vices nbsp; nbsp; Our economy, you might have heard, is not doing so hot. Your 401(k), if you are lucky enough to have one, is a shell of its former self. Your house, if you are lucky enough to own one, might soon be foreclosed. Your job, if you are lucky enough to still be employed ... well, let's hope it stays that way. The Dow seemingly fluctuates 500 points a day. nbsp; nbsp; And experts say that the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression is only going to get worse. nbsp; nbsp; So how's a man to cope? Through the usual litany of vices: booze, cigarettes, cards, sex, and drugs, of course! nbsp; nbsp; Conventional wisdom has long held that the vice industries are generally repression-proof. (Gambling revenue and booze consumption rose sharply after the stock market collapse of 1929, for example.) People may be broke and depressed, but they'll still smoke, drink, gamble, and screw—perhaps with even more vigor than when they could afford to put their kids through college. nbsp; nbsp; So, is America on the verge of turning into a nation of alcoholic, coke-sniffing, Marlboro-smoking blackjack players with a penchant for fake breasts and a willingness to pay for sex? If so, is it time to pad your portfolio with stock in Philip Morris and Vegas casinos?

divimg alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.15.1/43031?ns=guardianpageName=Business%3A+The+road+to+ruinch=Businessc3=The+Guardianc4=Automotive+industry+%28Business%29%2CGeneral+Motors%2CFord%2CBusiness%2CUS+economy+%28Business%29%2CUS+news%2CWorld+newsc5=Motoring%2CNot+commercially+useful%2CBusiness+Markets%2CUS+Economyc6=Ed+Pilkingtonc7=2008_12_03c8=1127737c9=articlec10=GUc11=Businessc12=Automotive+industryc13=c14=h2=GU%2FBusiness%2FAutomotive+industry" width="1" height="1" //divpThe Ford plant in Highland Park, a city within the city of Detroit, is a monument to the American automobile. It opened in 1910, and three years later pioneered the world's first car assembly line. In 1925, it spewed out 9,000 Model Ts in a single day. The revolution that turned America into a car-owning democracy had arrived. Today, there is ample evidence of that revolution. The factory looks over a six-lane highway that is heavy with traffic from dawn to dusk. Next door is a drive-thru McDonald's, where customers come to order Big Macs before rolling 50 metres to a drive-thru chemists to pick up indigestion tablets./ppThe story of the plant is told in one of those green-and-gold heritage plaques erected by the main entrance. It says: "Mass production soon moved from here to all phases of American industry and set the pattern of abundance for 20th-century living." Pattern of abundance: the phrase reads like a sick joke, for the Ford factory it describes is a shell of what it once was. Its red brick and granite walls still stand proud, framed by decorative mosaics. But the windows are broken or boarded up, its ceilings have gaping holes, the floor is covered in broken lumps of fallen plaster. On the roof, the flagpole that for years flew the Stars and Stripes is rusty and bare./ppOther companies, other countries, might have turned Henry Ford's factory of dreams into a museum rather than let it decay into the pitiful wreck that it is today. But Ford, and its fellows in the Big Three - General Motors (GM) and Chrysler - have enough to do staying alive without worrying about preserving the past. GM, the giant of the three, has lost $73bn in the past three years; it is haemorrhaging $2bn a month. At that rate it will run out of cash by the middle of next year and collapse by that year's end, potentially bringing millions of workers down with it. Which is why the CEOs of the three giants took their begging bowls to Washington earlier this month, pleading for a "bridging loan" of $25bn./ppThey didn't get a warm reception. They were ridiculed by senators for having flown in three separate corporate jets, an act that must rank among the most impressive PR disasters of the decade. But what the senators and the largely hostile media coverage missed was that the miserable condition of the Detroit car industry is not merely a comment on the failed leadership of its corporate executives, though it is that. It is also a matter of personal survival for millions of Americans who depend, directly or indirectly, on the revolution Henry Ford began 100 years ago./ppNowhere is this more visible than in Detroit, the crucible of the Big Three. Half of GM's 100,000 workers live in the city, and they in turn support a spider's web of relatives, spin-off industries and services. Detroit is really nothing but a company town. Hamtramckis a city within the city that borders one of GM's main factories. When GM enjoyed good times, Hamtramck boomed. Now GM is in the doldrums, Hamtramck is too. We walk along a stretch of shops along one of its main streets. First in line is Anna's Beauty Salon: it's closed, but the sign on the door suggests Anna is managing to stay open four days a week. Next, Popular Fashion and Variety Store: shut down. Billiards and Burger Hall: abandoned. Antiques store, an oil painting portraying an autumn landscape still in its window: deserted. Law offices: vacant. Funeral home: open. Even in a recession, one aspect of life must go on - the ending of it./ppOn the other side of the road is the Family Donut shop, a local institution run by a Polish family for the past 28 years. It has a picture of Princess Diana on the wall, a gift from one of the regular clients, and another of the Three Stooges. The owner, Vojno, is unloading a bundle of cardboard boxes used to pack the donuts. A few years ago he would order up to 30 bundles a month; now it's 10. On Polish festive days, there would be a line of customers out the door and round the corner, and the stools at the counter would be loaded. Today, the line is more of a dribble and the counter is largely empty. Unless GM recovers, and money starts flowing again, he will have to close in a few months. "It's not just me. Everybody around here is going to shut down," he says. What will he do if he does have to close? "I'll stay home and sleep. I'm hungry for sleep," he says./ppOne of the few clients, dressed in a bomber jacket with Detroit written across the back, shouts over at him. "You only work one job, so why do you need to sleep?"/pp"Shut up, Eddie," Vojno replies./pp"I work three jobs to make my money," Eddie Fabiszak says, prompting the only other customer in the bakery to say, under his breath: "Lucky man."/ppThe other customer is Melis Lejlic, 27, a naturalised American originally from Bosnia. His father and mother, two uncles and a cousin all work in the car business. All now fear redundancy. Lejlic works in construction, but that is no better. Car workers are no longer spending on home improvements, so demand for his work has fallen by half. Of 10 builders he knows, seven are unemployed. "Everybody in a small town like this is looking to the car industry, and there's no hope there," he says. "Drive around, you'll see. Detroit is worse right now than Baghdad."/ppThe comparison sounds far-fetched, but in the streets around the GM plant you can see what he means. Several houses have no glazing in their rickety wooden walls. Front lawns have turned into littered pasture. Walls are lined with barbed wire. A mural of a Stars and Stripes has been graffitied. And though it is nothing like Baghdad, there is clearly a market in lawlessness. A poster advertising the services of a lawyer says: "Aggressive criminal defence. Drugs CCW [carrying a concealed weapon] Theft Murder All felonies misdemeanours." That is how Henry Ford's dream looks in November 2008./ppGM's headquarters in downtown Detroit dominate the city's skyline. The seven cylindrical glass towers of the Renaissance Centre were built in 1977 as a statement of the company's untouchable status as the then unquestioned king of the auto world. Inside the main tower, there is an exhibition of some of GM's most memorable models, dating back to the 1950s. It is almost shocking to see how beautiful and exhilarating those cars were. There is a 1953 Chevrolet Corvette Roadster, built largely by hand, its white, sensuous curves set off by red leather seats. Then there's a 1955 Chevrolet Bel Air in black, the quintessential car of the American dream, big enough to carry a family to its suburban home but sufficiently powerful and sleek to avoid any sense of frumpiness. Pride of place goes to a 1959 Cadillac series 62 convertible, which is an outrageously attractive work of art. This was the baby of Harley Earl, GM's legendary designer. Inspired by the tail of a second world war fighter plane, he placed fins on the back of the car, with rear brake lights the shape of rockets and exhausts mimicking those of a jet. The 59 Cadillac summed up an entire generation - young, dangerous, fast, unstoppable./ppPeter DeLorenzo spent 22 years working in the car business as an advertising and marketing consultant and now runs an influential website called Autoextremist. He explains that when the explosion of creativity burst out in the 50s, Detroit had just emerged from the crucial role it had played as the manufacturing backbone of the war effort, churning out tanks and missiles at extraordinary rate, and confidence was riding high. "Coming out of the second world war, the automobile was the symbol of American might. GM was the symbol of American might, and most Americans were proud that GM was a successful corporation that turned out magnificent cars people wanted."/ppThe design-led strategy not only generated exquisite cars, it worked handsomely for GM. In 1955, four out of every five cars around the world were US-produced and half of those came from GM. The Big Three monopolised around 95% of the domestic market, and between them they transformed the US. They provided the stimulus for the biggest construction project in world history - the laying of the US interstate highways - and gave birth to the suburbs and to urban sprawl. Think Los Angeles. Think Phoenix rising out of the desert of Arizona./ppHow you get from the invincibility of those days to the verge of bankruptcy is a cautionary tale for the whole of America as its dominance wanes in an increasingly globalised economy. DeLorenzo, who has written a book called The United States of Toyota, dates the start of the rot to 1979 - just after GM had moved into its monolithic new headquarters in the Renaissance Centre. By then Japanese car companies were already snapping at the heels of the Big Three, but Detroit ignored the threat, steeped in complacency that the good times would last for ever. Leadership within the business also crucially changed hands, from the designers to what DeLorenzo calls the "bean counters". /ppBy the 1990s, the Big Three's reputation for innovation and beauty had withered, replaced by a reputation for faulty products. "People started to associate Detroit with cars coming off the assembly line and their doors falling off," says Micheline Maynard, a New York Times business reporter and author of The End of Detroit: How the Big Three Lost Their Grip. She recounts how in 2002 GM's vice-chairman, Bob Lutz, declared that their vehicles were every bit as reliable as Honda's and Toyota's; that same afternoon GM recalled 1.5m minivans./ppFrom the sleek elegance of the 1959 Cadillac to the lumpen brutality of the Hummer: what was in the mind of the GM executive who conceived putting a machine modelled on armoured vehicles on to the civilian streets of US cities, at barely 13 miles per gallon? But then Lutz has argued that that hybrids like the Toyota Prius "make no economic sense" and once called global warming "a total crock of shit"./ppThe other key element in the demise of Detroit concerns the staple of the American auto industry - the car worker. Ron Nidiffer is drinking beer in the New Dodge Lounge in Hamtramck, temporarily off work as the GM plant has suspended production for want of sales. He has worked in car factories for 36 years, 10 of them on the assembly line. He is one of a dying breed of car workers who had their pay and conditions set back in the heyday. His union, the United Auto Workers, negotiated a series of deals in the 1970s and 80s that have become the albatross around the industry's neck. He makes $29 an hour - substantially more than American workers in Japanese plants that have been transplanted to the non-unionised south, from Alabama to Texas. /ppBut the trouble really starts when you include the so-called "legacy costs", the generous terms agreed for pensions and health care that allowed workers to retire as young as 48. GM now carries about 470,000 retirees and spouses on benefits - more than four times its productive workforce - adding a total of about $2,000 for every car it makes, a terrible burden in the face of fierce foreign competition./ppThe symbol of excess that the UAW's critics like to point to is the "jobs banks", by which workers are paid 95% of their salaries for doing nothing. The scheme was introduced as a way of ensuring minimum employment levels, but billowed uncontrollably until it included about 40,000 workers. Nidiffer concedes that looking back, the jobs bank was indefensible. "Yes, it was a bad idea. And I understand why some people are jealous of what we've had. We had good conditions, even to excess."/ppBut what annoys him is the assumption that the largesse and complacency that epitomised the attitude of both unions and management is still prevalent today. The job banks have been whittled down to 3,500 workers, and wages have been cut in half for all new employees. He is one of the last at the GM plant in Hamtramck to enjoy the old $29 an hour rate, the others having taken redundancy. A deal has also been struck to lift the burden of legacy costs from GM's shoulders by transferring health insurance into an independent fund administered by the union. After all that, to hear Congress turn away the plea for $25bn from the Big Three CEOs makes Nidiffer see red. "I'm extremely mad. We've made all these concessions, taken the hit, and yet we're still accused of being lazy and greedy."/ppIt has not made him any happier that while Congress rebuffed Detroit, it has bailed out the banks with apparent alacrity, including Citibank which was last week handed the exact amount requested by the Big Three. "We're looking for a pittance compared with what they've given the banks," Nidiffer says. His anger is echoed in the front-page headline in the Detroit Free Press: "$85 billion for AIG. $700 billion for financial firms. $25 billion for Citigroup. Why is the bar so high for $25 billion to Detroit?"/ppNidiffer's frustration is heightened by his belief that if Detroit can see it through another 18 months it will have turned the corner. His GM plant is poised to produce the Volt, a new plug-in electric hybrid that will run for 40 miles on one full battery before a tiny petrol motor recharges it. The cutting-edge model, which goes into production in 2010, has been spearheaded by Bob Lutz, the global warming sceptic - a sign of how dramatically the outlook has changed at GM./ppBut none of the new ideas being scrambled out by the Big Three will matter if they fail to make it to 2010. Will the Volt go down in history as a great idea that GM carried with it to its grave? "There used to be a saying, so goes GM, so goes the country," Nidiffer says. "That was in happy days. But the same is true now. If GM goes under, the ripple effect will be felt throughout America."/ppA car worker desperate to hold on to his job would say that, wouldn't he? But economists agree. Susan Helper, a professor at Case Western university, says if GM went into bankruptcy next year, it could set in train a knock-on effect that would hit not just the 240,000 employees of the Big Three, but also 730,000 suppliers and about 1 million people working in dealerships across the country. Harder to quantify, but potentially even more devastating, would be the loss of social capital - the knowledge that is imbedded in a generation. "The idea that you can just liquidate Detroit and start again is crazy. Knowledge is not held by any one person, but comes from how people in a company interact."/ppCrunch time is coming. The tragedy of the American car is approaching its climax. You can feel it, palpably, on the lot of Galeana's Dodge dealership, a short drive away from Nidiffer's watering hole. Balloons in red, white and blue festoon the long line of cars, but who are they fooling? A more accurate reflection of the mood are the signs propped up under a succession of bonnets that spell the word S-A-L-E. Inside, a query about how things are going is met with the reply: "Look at the board." The board in question has just one car handwritten on it - the extent of today's business. Two years ago, the daily average was 15 cars./ppChrysler, which owns the Dodge brand, used to offer huge discounts on the price of the cars disguised as leasing agreements. But in July it announced it was suspending all leasing, and business went through the floor. The Big Three can no longer afford to lower their prices, so instead the cars sit on the lot, looking cheerful beneath the balloons. There is one small cause for hope for Galeana's dealers. A local Chrysler plant has just announced 5,000 job losses, and each worker made redundant will be given a voucher to buy a new Dodge car. It's come to this: the only chink of light for the dealers are the redundancy packages of the workers who make the cars they sell./ppThis week, the CEOs of the Big Three have one last shot at saving Detroit. They are travelling back to Washington to plead their case again. And this time, they won't be going by private jet - Ford's Alan Mulally will drive a Ford hybrid, and GM chief executive Rick Wagoner and Chrysler CEO Bob Nardelli will fly on commercial planes. Tomorrow and on Friday, they will present Congress committees with a new business plan that is expected to include a cap on top bosses' pay, concessions from the UAW and the death of the most loss-making brands. Less certain is the outcome. Will they get their $25bn and, if they do, will it be anywhere like enough? Or will this once great institution, this embodiment of American might and ingenuity - and with it the livelihood of millions - go the way of Henry Ford's factory of dreams./pdiv style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"ullia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/automotive"Automotive industry/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/generalmotors"General Motors/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/ford"Ford/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/useconomy"US economy/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/usa"United States/a/li/ul/diva href="http://www.guardian.co.uk"guardian.co.uk/a copy; Guardian News Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our a href="http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html"Terms Conditions/a | a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/webfeeds/1,,1309488,00.html"More Feeds/a pa href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/LPbma0ZH57Qib3vjcofBZfL78zw/a"img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/LPbma0ZH57Qib3vjcofBZfL78zw/i" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/p