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Scania Group Press Release / August 3, 2017 Red Pearl and Chimera wow the crowds at Convoy in the Park. Two of Svempa’s spectacular customised trucks – Red Pearl and Chimera – wowed the crowds at the recent Convoy in the Park truck festival in England. The trucks have been on show at various events around Europe over the summer, and the dynamic duo were driven to the event by Robert Bengtsson and Jan Gisslén from Scania. Both Robert and Jan were inundated with questions about the trucks, with enthusiasts wearing out their phone batteries taking photos and movies. And of course, there was the opportunity to hear these magnificent machines’ distinctive roar, which, as our film shows, had people swarming round them like bees to a honeypot. . .

Navistar to drop its medium duty engines by next year Jason Cannon, Commercial Carrier Journal (CCJ) / August 3, 2017 Navistar announced Thursday plans to cease engine production at its Melrose Park, Ill., plant by early next year as the truck maker continues that facility’s transformation into the company’s technical center. The move will bring the company’s medium duty 9/10 liter engines to an end. “Our N9/10 engine family was updated in 2014 and since then has served as a competitive niche offering for specific medium-duty vehicles,” says Persio Lisboa, Navistar chief operating officer. “As we approach future regulatory requirements, the low volume nature of the platform could not justify further product development investments on it.” Navistar reintroduced the 6.7 liter Cummins engine as an option for its Class 6/7 medium duty vehicles in 2013, and in 2016 made available a 9 liter Cummins engine option. The Cummins ISL and ISB, which now take standard position in those trucks, are manufactured in Indiana and North Carolina, while Navistar’s big bore engine plant in Alabama will continue to make engines for International Class 8 trucks. The cessation of engine manufacturing at Melrose Park is expected to affect about 170 employees, many of which are retirement eligible, and reduce Navistar’s operating costs by approximately $12 million annually. Assistance and opportunities for retraining will also be offered to affected employees. “Ending production anywhere is a difficult decision because it affects employees,” Lisboa says. “We continue to be committed to investing in our Melrose Park facility as we complete its transformation into a technical center that is integral to our product design, engineering and sales teams. Given the investments we’ve made, we expect to have a significant presence in Melrose Park for years to come.” Navistar began the transformation of its Melrose Park facility in 2010 by adding a state-of-the-art truck testing and validation center on the 80-acre campus, which complemented an existing engine test center there, all of which is in close proximity to Navistar’s product development teams in Lisle and to the company’s New Carlisle, Ind., proving ground. Over the last several months, the company added a used truck evaluation and reconditioning facility and its flagship Used Truck Sales Center to Melrose Park. Additional consolidation in the former manufacturing space is possible in the future, Navistar says, which would allow even more employees in product design, engineering, service and sales units to work alongside each other.

Heavy Duty Trucking / August 3, 2017 Volkswagen has quietly purchased a significant number of shares in Navistar International Corporation, parent company of International Truck and Engine, during the month of July, according to reports in various international financial news sources. Volkswagen has been a major shareholder in International since purchasing a $250 million stake in the Lisle, Ill., company in September of last year and the two companies have collaborated on diesel engine technology for commercial trucks for over a decade. According to a report in the financial journal Week Herald, Volkswagen acquired 43,501 shares of International stock on Monday, July 17th at an average price of $29.25 per share, for a total transaction of $1,272,404.25. That transaction was followed closely by four additional Navistar stock purchases by Volkswagen in July, ultimately netting the German car and truck manufacturer an additional 341,663 shares in the company for approximately $9,991,085. All told, Volkswagen invested approximately $11,263,489 in Navistar International stock last month. According to additional reporting by the United Kingdom’s Press Herald, as of July 21, 2017, Volkswagen owns approximately 16.4 million shares of Navistar International stock, which is approximately 17% of the company’s overall market capitalization. .

Making ELDs pay in trucking Sean Kilcarr, Fleet Owner / August 3, 2017 So obviously the talk continues apace within the industry regarding the possibility of delaying the still highly controversial electronic logging device (ELD) mandate via legislative action by Congress. Right now, the betting is that this effort to delay the implementation of the mandate by two years isn’t going to fly – largely because, hello, Congress is the one that forced this mandate to be established to begin with. “There is a lot of discussion going on and a lot of conversation going on,” noted Joseph Beacom, vice president and chief safety and operations officer for Landstar System, in the carrier’s second quarter earnings call. “We're trying to get the guys [contracted owner-operators] to move towards implementation of ELDs by the deadline in December. We currently believe … the deadline is going to hold. We're confident that they will get them installed.” Beacom noted, however, that the proposed legislative delay cited above coupled with a request from Congress for the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) to conduct a review of the mandate is creating what he dubbed “a little hesitation” in the industry. “I do think there's been some speculation as to whether or not the deadline will hold and I think there's been some indecision based on that,” Beacom pointed out. “[But] my opinion would be is that it probably doesn't [get delayed]. And I base that on the fact that it was Congress who asked them [FMCSA] to implement it,” he stressed. “So unless there's something that comes out as to trouble with enforcement or something along those lines, I would be hard pressed to think they would defer it further.” Interestingly, Beacom pointed out that 20% or so of Landstar’s contracted owner-operators – whom the carrier calls “business capacity owners” or BCOs – haven’t installed ELDs as of yet and are doing so largely to avoid cost and “inconvenience” issues. “It's not a fear factor. It's not a productivity issue, I don't believe,” he explained. “It's just why incur the cost or the inconvenience before I have to. And so there's that deferring the decision. It isn't something that they're not willing to do," Beacom emphasized. "It's just more a factor of seeing it as there's plenty of time and hope and maybe there's this slight chance that it gets deferred. So why go through the expense and the hassle if it does, in fact, get delayed two years? It's more of that kind of mindset that we're hearing.” Indeed, James Gattoni, Landstar’s CEO, noted on the call that BCO productivity this year has been better than it has been in the past two years – and that’s with 75% to 80% of Landstar’s BCOs using ELDs. “We have to go back to 2014 [as] the last time they were running the way they are running today,” he noted. Thus it clearly seems this group of independents, at least, isn’t suffering too great a business impact from adopting ELDs. And that’s really the key to making the mandate work for truckers, according to Jason Goodrich, product manager of technology solutions at J.J Keller & Associates. “Using is believing,” he told me. “The key is to how to find the proof in the pudding; where you can advantages by using ELDs.” First, Goodrich stressed that there is cost of not being in compliance. For if and when the mandate goes into effect, if it is discovered that a motor carrier doesn’t have one during a roadside inspection, you can placed out of service – expensive downtime any trucker, large and small, can do without. During a conference last year, Bill Quade, the FMCSA’s associate administrator for enforcement and program delivery, noted that there’s going to be very little wiggle room for truckers regarding ELDs. If a motor carrier is discovered without an ELD or issuing one deemed “non-compliant,” the agency plans to only provide an eight-day window from the time of the initial notice that they install compliant ELDs. “But eight days isn’t much time to select, buy and install a new ELD, especially for a large fleet,” he noted. “The regulations, however, do contain provisions that allow for waivers, and FMCSA would take such circumstances into consideration.” Yet rather than think solely about the possible “negatives” associated with ELDs, Keller’s Goodrich told me the key is look at the short- and long-term positives they can offer. And when he said “short-term” he pointedly meant costs savings, such as with fuel tax reporting. “Think about it: with paper logbooks, you have to reconcile the log with paper fuel receipts,” Goodrich explained. “Many times receipts get lost over the course of a 600 mile length of haul, so you end up ‘guesstimating’ the right amount.” With ELDs, however, now you have an exact mileage count. Marry that up to electronic receipts from a fuel card program and, presto, you have far more accurate fuel tax records. Goodrich said the return on that improved accuracy alone can pay for an ELD in a year or two. “We’ve had some customers gain a return [on fuel tax reporting] in a much shorter time frame, too,” he pointed out. Then consider the reduction in time spent on the administrative needs of paper logbooks. “Think about a driver that’s making 20 stops in a day,” Goodrich emphasized. “That’s a lot of time spent noting duty status changes by hand. With an electronic log, that goes away.” Finally, there’s the long-term to think about, especially in terms of recruiting a new generation of drivers – ones who’ve grown up in an electronics-based world. “My grandfather was an OTR [over-the-road] driver, so mobile apps would never have worked for him,” Goodrich said. “But today, mobile apps make sense for the younger generation. They are ordering their groceries online, order Uber via their phones. They send texts; they don’t send letters. So setting up electronic technology to collect [logbook] data automatically appeals to them. This is part of what allows [carriers] to attract a new generation into trucking.”

Class 8 orders continue to roll Fleet Owner / August 3, 2017 Medium-duty truck orders dipped in July, though they remain up year-over-year. Class 8 net orders remained strong in July, while medium-duty truck orders took a significant mid-summer dip, though order levels remain higher compared to 2016. Class 8 orders increased 4% in July versus June this year and are up 81% year-over-year. “While down on a nominal basis from the 2017 order trend, seasonal adjustment brings July’s order intake in-line with recent activity," one analyst said. "Over the past six-months, Class 8 net orders, seasonally adjusted, have averaged 21,900 units per month." According to data from FTR Transportation Intelligence, Class 8 net orders for July hit 18,300 units; a month-over-month improvement of 5% and 79% better than the same month one year ago. Orders increased for the second month in a row, a positive sign during the summer, with order volume over the past 12 months indicating an annual Class 8 production total of 224,000 units. “This is a great sign to see orders rising, even slightly, in mid-summer,” noted Don Ake, FTR’s vice president of commercial vehicles, in a statement. “This is the beginning of a positive trend that we expect to continue the rest of this year, right into 2018. Freight is on the upswing and industry capacity is tightening. The equipment markets, both Class 8 and trailer, are starting to respond to this environment.” By contrast, North American Class 5-7 medium-duty orders dropped 26% in July versus June, though they remain 2% higher on a year-over-year basis. After a seven-month stretch of Class 5-7 net orders averaging 22,100 units per month, preliminary orders dropped in July, declining to a 13-month low. Still, taken together, even though heavy- and medium-duty orders were lower month-over-month based on July’s numbers as a group, they are up a combined 33% from last year, which highlights the significant improvement in demand that has occurred over the past twelve months. Truck OEMs themselves remain confident regarding the current commercial truck order and sales trends as well. Paccar, for example, noted in its second quarter earnings report that U.S. and Canada Class 8 orders increased 44% in the first six months of 2017 compared to the same period last year. “Kenworth and Peterbilt’s medium- and heavy-duty truck deliveries increased in the second quarter of 2017 by 25% compared to the first quarter of this year,” said Gary Moore, Paccar’s executive vice president, in that report. “Class 8 truck industry retail sales for the U.S. and Canada are expected to be in a range of 200,000 to 220,000 vehicles in 2017. The truck market reflects the good economy and high levels of freight tonnage.”

Daimler Produces its First 3D-Printed Metal Part Heavy Duty Trucking / August 3, 2017 In Europe, Mercedes-Benz Trucks has printed its first spare part made of metal that has passed all stages of the company’s quality assurance process. The 3-D printed part was a thermostat cover for older series Mercedes-Benz truck and Unimog models. Daimler said this was the first time the company was able to print a strong metal version in original quality. Printing parts that are made of metal could lead to cost-effective, rapid, and flexible production of parts in small batches. Producing metal parts directly from digital records saves money on special tools, storage, and transport costs. "With the introduction of 3D metal printing technology, Mercedes-Benz Trucks is reasserting its pioneering role among global commercial vehicle manufacturers," said Andreas Deuschle, head of marketing and operations for customer services & parts at Mercedes-Benz Trucks. "We ensure the same functionality, reliability, durability, and cost-effectiveness with 3D metal parts as we do with conventionally produced parts." The parts division of Mercedes-Benz Trucks began using 3D printing with increasing success for aftermarket and replacement parts about a year ago. Since then, the customer services and parts division has worked with researchers and pre-developers at Daimler to improve and expand the use of the latest 3D printing processes of plastic parts. Metal components produced through 3D printing processes are an extension of this program, allowing metallic components to be produced on demand. The process was initially used to produce rarely ordered aluminum parts, but in the future it could extend to peripheral engine parts made of metal, in-engine parts, or parts in cooling systems, transmissions, axles, or chassis. “The particular added value of 3D printing technology is that it considerably increases speed and flexibility, especially when producing spare and special parts,” said Deuschle. “This gives us completely new possibilities for offering our customers spare parts rapidly and at attractive prices, even long after series production has ceased.”

Working smarter and harder: Metal 3D-printed parts for trucks Aaron March, Fleet Owner / August 3, 2017 As 3D printing technology continues to find real-world applications in automotive and trucking, Mercedes-Benz Trucks has opened new possibilities with an announcement yesterday that it's now printing metal spare and replacement parts. That follows up on the OEM's plan to begin 3D printing plastic or composite spare parts for certain European market trucks in late 2016. It may have seemed a move that would have limited applications or advantages, but the company's expansion into new materials could offer more. For example, Mercedes-Benz noted that the first metal parts it's printing are aluminum, and "these excel with almost 100% density and greater purity than conventional die-cast aluminum parts." The 3D printing process could deliver items with a material/ structural advantage, which has also been touted in using the technology to make things from plastic and similar materials. 3D printing — especially if it can use and produce items from a wider range of materials — can offer a better way to provide spare parts and faster service for older model vehicles. That might seem counter to manufacturers' continual push to sell new ones, and more of them, but older vehicles are a diminishing fraction of their business that can tie up significant capital. Consider large investments needed in traditional manufacturing runs; shipping, distribution and storage of parts; and maintaining and storing production tooling to make those parts. What's more, Mercedes-Benz noted that 3D printing can adeptly handle more complex items and may have very broad applications for vehicles indeed — so long as the production needs match the technology's capabilities as they currently stand. "Especially when they have complex structures, 3D-printed metal parts in small numbers can be produced cost-effectively as infrequently requested replacement parts, special parts and for small and classic model series," Mercedes-Benz stated. "Conceivable areas of use are peripheral engine parts made of metal, in-engine parts and also parts in cooling systems, transmissions, axles or chassis." Size matters The scope of what can be 3D printed has grown with the introduction and broader use of larger printers. What began with desktop 3D printers — which were good for affordability and "oohing and ahing" the public, but limited in practical automotive-type uses to actually compete with traditional manufacturing — suddenly opened up with the potential to print parts more of a size that trucks and other vehicles require. You can even print an entire vehicle body, such as companies like Local Motors and Cincinnati Inc. have demonstrated using that latter firm's Big Area Additive Manufacturing (BAAM) technology, for example. "Additive manufacturing" is the somewhat more clinical term for 3D printing. Computer-designed parts going back for years essentially provide a built-in blueprint that could be used with such printers. Ford Motor Co., another automaker that has pioneered the use of 3D printing, said earlier this year that it was testing out the use of large-scale 3D printers from Stratasys in vehicle production. "Imagine a 3D printer as big as a room, capable of printing auto parts of practically any size," the manufacturer said — and the technology also has the potential to make equivalent parts lighter, a major strategy OEMs use to increase vehicle efficiency. Notably, Stratasys has been expanding other transportation applications as well with its printers. In July, the company said its machines were chosen for an Airbus project to 3D print parts such as brackets for planes to "achieve greater supply chain flexibility and improve cost competitiveness, while leveraging on reduced material consumption and waste." Back in spring, McLaren Formula 1 Racing announced it had increased its use of Stratasys 3D printers in making similar parts for faster design, installation and testing at the track. Siemens Mobility, a branch of Siemens AG, has used Stratasys printers in making some custom "one-off" parts for trains operating in Ulm, Germany. A 3D-printed part for the nose of trains, for example, can be made to exact specifications and holds its shape when exposed to the elements better than the equivalent part made from fiberglass plastics. Thus 3D printing can even produce items with characteristics that are "simply not achievable to the same degree" with traditional manufacturing, according to Siemens Mobility. In those and other uses, 3D printing appears to be finding its niche, though currently somewhat narrow, even as printer size and materials range are widening it. The technology makes most sense when limited quantities of items are needed, and traditional production and distribution is comparatively slow and costly. What's been emerging are more applications, whether it's specialty situations like racing parts or various kinds of prototyping or vehicles found in limited numbers — perhaps classic cars or late model heavy trucks. .

Navistar to End 9/10L Engine Production by 2018 Heavy Duty Trucking / August 3, 2017 Navistar announced on Aug. 3 that it will cease production of its medium-duty 9L and 10L engines at the company’s Melrose Park, Illinois, facility by the second quarter of 2018. The change is part of Navistar’s transformation of the Melrose Park facility into a technical center that conducts truck and engine testing and validation as well as used truck sales and reconditioning. The majority of engines produced at the facility are 9- and 10-liter engines used in International Class 6 and 7 vehicles. Alternative engines are currently offered in all applications. “Ceasing production of engines at Melrose Park is a difficult decision, but represents another important step on our journey to strengthening the company’s competitiveness,” said Persio Lisboa, Navistar chief operating officer. “Our N9/10 engine family was updated in 2014 and since then has served as a competitive niche offering for specific medium-duty vehicles. As we approach future regulatory requirements, the low-volume nature of the platform could not justify further product development investments on it.” Navistar reintroduced the option of a 6.7L Cummins engine in 2013 and a 9L Cummins engine in 2016. The Cummins engines that are used in the medium-duty Class 6/7 segment are manufactured in Indiana and North Carolina, while Navistar’s big-bore engine plant, which makes engines for Navistar’s Class 8 trucks, is in Alabama. The cessation of engine manufacturing at Melrose Park is expected to affect about 170 employees and reduce Navistar’s operating costs by about $12 million annually. The company will take an approximate charge of $43 million as a result of the action, including around $8 million in cash-related charges. .

Navistar to Cease Engine Production at Melrose Park Plant Transport Topics / August 3, 2017 Manufacturer Navistar International Corp. is phasing out the production of engines at its Melrose Park, Ill., plant and will turn the facility into a technical center for truck and engine testing. The company said Aug. 3 that the production shutdown will be completed around February to April and affect about 170 employees. The company uses Melrose Park to make its 9- and 10-liter N-Series engines, mainly for Classes 6 and 7 trucks and buses. The original equipment manufacturer, based in Lisle, Ill., said the move will reduce operating costs by $12 million a year, but it will cost $43 million at the start of the process. “Ceasing production of engines at Melrose Park is a difficult decision but represents another important step on our journey to strengthening the company’s competitiveness,” Navistar Chief Operating Officer Persio Lisboa said. The N9 competes with the Cummins Inc. ISL engine, which also has 9 liters of displacement. The Navistar statement said the transformation of Melrose Park began in 2010, when the company added a truck testing-and-validation center at the 80-acre campus. Engine testing was done there for years prior to 2010. The company also has a proving ground in New Carlisle, Ind. Navistar is a major builder of smaller Class 8 trucks. Often called Baby Eights, these heavy-duty trucks have engines smaller than 10 liters. During the first half of this year, Navistar ranked second behind Freightliner Trucks in sales of Baby Eight trucks, according to data from WardsAuto.com. There was a major change, though, in that Navistar truck buyers in the segment switched overwhelmingly to Cummins engines from Navistar engines. .

Fleet Owner / August 3, 2017 Company said it will end production of medium-duty 9/10L engines by 2018 and will continue transformation of Melrose Park facility. Navistar announced that it will cease all engine production at its plant in Melrose Park, IL, by the second quarter of fiscal 2018. The company said it will continue the facility’s transformation into Navistar’s technical center, including truck and engine testing and validation as well as used truck sales and reconditioning, continuing the process that started in 2010. The majority of engines produced at Melrose Park are medium-duty 9/10 liter engines used in International Class 6 and 7 vehicles, for which alternative engine options are currently offered in all applications. Once completed, the cessation of engine manufacturing at Melrose Park is expected to affect about 170 employees and reduce Navistar’s operating costs by approximately $12 million annually. The company noted it will take an approximate $43 million charge as a result of this action, including approximately $8 million of cash related charges. “Ceasing production of engines at Melrose Park is a difficult decision, but represents another important step on our journey to strengthening the company’s competitiveness,” said Persio Lisboa, Navistar chief operating officer. “Our N9/10 engine family was updated in 2014 and since then has served as a competitive niche offering for specific medium-duty vehicles. As we approach future regulatory requirements, the low volume nature of the platform could not justify further product development investments on it.” In 2013, Navistar reintroduced the option of a ISB 6.7 liter Cummins engine [200-325hp] for its Class 6 and 7 medium-duty vehicles, followed in 2016 by a ISL 8.9 liter Cummins engine option [260-380hp]. “Ending production anywhere is a difficult decision because it affects employees,” Lisboa said. “We continue to be committed to investing in our Melrose Park facility as we complete its transformation into a technical center that is integral to our product design, engineering and sales teams. Given the investments we’ve made, we expect to have a significant presence in Melrose Park for years to come.” The transformation of the Melrose Park facility began in 2010, when the company added a truck testing and validation center at the 80-acre campus. Truck and engine testing are now being conducted at Melrose Park, in close proximity to Navistar’s product development teams in Lisle and to the company’s New Carlisle, Indiana proving ground*. * https://www.bigmacktrucks.com/topic/40066-navistar-buys-668-acre-indiana-proving-grounds-from-bosch/ .

The Wall Street Journal / August 3, 2017 North American fleet owners ordered more big rigs used for long hauls Trucking companies stepped up orders for new big rigs in July for the second consecutive month, signaling optimism that the freight market is recovering from last year’s prolonged downturn. Last month, North American fleet owners ordered 18,300 Class 8 trucks, the heavy-duty vehicles used for long hauls, a 5% increase from June and 79% more than the same month during a depressed period for orders last year, according to preliminary numbers from FTR, a freight transportation research firm. Commercial truck orders tend to slow down in the summer, bottoming out in July before picking back up in October, when large carriers typically make plans to expand fleets or replace older units. This year’s early uptick bodes well for the fourth quarter, when truck orders are expected to accelerate, paving the way for increased demand in 2018, said Don Ake, FTR’s vice president of commercial vehicles. “Freight is growing at a stronger pace than it was last year,” Mr. Ake said. Cargo volumes at U.S. seaports were up in June, buoyed by surging imports at the start of the shipping industry’s peak season for demand. U.S. manufacturing activity expanded in July for the 11th month in a year, and unemployment remains low. Cummins this week upgraded its earnings forecast for the year in part because of what it said was stronger orders in North America. Trucking firms that pared back their fleets when demand was weak appear to be reversing course. Capacity is expected to shrink further at the end of the year, when truckers will be required to electronically record their hours behind the wheel. Other factors bolstering orders this year: a rollout of more fuel-efficient trucks in late 2016, as well as a rebound in commodity prices, said another analyst. “There’s probably twice as many heavy trucks operating in the oil patch as there were a year ago,” he said.

US tax reform hopes become mired in foreign cash piles The Financial Times / August 3, 2017 Lawmakers cannot agree on how to tackle tax on company worldwide earnings Republican attempts to make progress on tax reform after the party’s failure on healthcare are being undermined by a lack of consensus on handling US companies’ offshore earnings, an issue set to spark fierce lobbying and discord. The White House and Republican lawmakers want to scrap the US practice of taxing American companies on their worldwide earnings rather than domestic income alone, which is loathed by multinationals and marks the US as an odd one out globally. But congressional aides and independent experts agree there is no problem-free way to move the US from worldwide to domestic-only taxation, also known as a territorial system. “I don’t think the thinking is well formed at the moment,” said a Republican aide. The current system has resulted in companies led by Apple and Microsoft stockpiling hundreds of billions of dollars of “locked out” earnings overseas, because America’s 35 per cent corporate tax rate only becomes payable when the income is repatriated. At the same time, it has inspired other businesses such as Medtronic and Mylan to escape the US tax net by using so-called “inversion” deals to move their tax addresses overseas, drawing scorn from both Republicans and Democrats. Bemoaning the system of worldwide taxation, an approach abandoned by most of the US’s biggest trading partners over the past 30 years, the tax chief of one big US manufacturer said: “We would take any other country’s system over the US.” While the White House, Senate and House of Representatives are yearning to notch up a big legislative achievement — and see tax as their best hope — the most concrete part of a joint tax announcement made last week was a step backwards on ending worldwide taxation. Policymakers said they were ditching a plan for a border adjusted tax, which would have created a quasi-territorial system by imposing a tax on imports to the US while exempting exports. For Republicans, offshore earnings need to be tackled in three steps. First, they need to work out how to treat companies’ existing offshore earnings. Second, they must decide how to exempt future foreign earnings. Third, they need to ensure an end to taxing foreign earnings does not trigger a new surge of tax avoidance to other countries. “You are going to have cheerleaders and opponents no matter what path you pick,” says the Republican aide. Apple revealed this week that its offshore stash of cash and marketable securities had grown to $246bn. The next largest in 2016 was Microsoft’s $116bn, followed by Cisco with $62bn and Google parent Alphabet with $52bn, according to the rating agency Moody’s. Jim Carter, who was head of tax for the Trump administration’s transition team, says it was a “foregone conclusion” that the earnings would be subject to some form of mandatory one-off tax. The Trump campaign tax plan proposed a levy of 10 per cent, a generous giveaway in the eyes of Democrats given the standard 35 per cent rate. One fight with companies will be over whether there is a single blanket rate, or a “bifurcated” rate, with a higher tax on cash and a lower tax on earnings that have been invested in M&A deals or facilities. The tax chief at the manufacturer, which has reinvested a big chunk of its overseas earnings, said: “We don’t have the option of just saying we’ll write you a cheque. We don’t want to be forced into a situation where we actually have to sell assets.” On future foreign earnings, eliminating US taxation is less simple than it sounds. “It is not clear that a ‘perfect’ or pure territorial tax system exists,” said the Tax Foundation, a think-tank, in a report this week. France, Germany and Japan exempt only 95 per cent of foreign income from taxation, not the 100 per cent exempted by the UK and Australia. How to measure that percentage is another potential source of disagreement. Mr Carter said: “I’d imagine in negotiations on the Hill Democrats would want something less than 100 per cent, but there would need to be trade-offs and compromises.” It remains to be seen, however, whether Republicans will try to make a tax deal with Democrats or go it alone. Worries about a move to domestic-only taxation backfiring are real. The fear is that if policymakers cannot lower the headline US corporate rate enough to satisfy executives, a territorial system would give them more incentive than ever to shift US profits overseas as a means of tax avoidance. One anti-avoidance idea is a so-called minimum tax on foreign income, which was at one point advocated by the Obama administration. Sullying the purity of a territorial system, it would require companies to pay US tax immediately on foreign earnings if they had not already been taxed up to a certain level by foreign tax collectors. The Obama era threshold was 19 per cent. Another alternative would focus on the use of intellectual property in tax avoidance — common in the technology and pharmaceuticals sectors — by imposing a tax on foreign income derived from IP. This was proposed in 2014 by Dave Camp, the then Republican chairman of the tax-writing House ways and means committee, but it prompted an outcry from business. The Republican aide said: “What is not yet fully in bloom is the political opposition we will face to whatever the committees come out with.”

How the CIA Came to Doubt the Official Story of JFK’s Murder Politico / August 3, 2017 Newly released documents from long-secret Kennedy assassination files raise startling questions about what top agency officials knew and when they knew it. After the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in November 1963, the CIA appeared eager, even desperate, to embrace the version of events being offered by the FBI, the Secret Service and other parts of the government. The official story: that a delusional misfit and self-proclaimed Marxist named Lee Harvey Oswald killed the president in Dallas with his $21 mail-order rifle and there was no evidence of a conspiracy, foreign or domestic. Certainly, the CIA’s leaders told the Warren Commission, the independent panel that investigated the murder, there was no evidence of a conspiracy that the spy agency could have foiled. But thousands of pages of long-secret, assassination-related documents released by the National Archives last week show that, within a few years of Kennedy’s murder, some in the CIA began to worry internally that the official story was wrong—an alarm the agency never sounded publicly. Specifically, key CIA officials were concerned by the mid-1970s that the agency, the FBI, the Secret Service and the White House commission led by Chief Justice Earl Warren had never followed up on important clues about Oswald’s contact with foreign agents, including diplomats and spies for the Communist governments of Cuba and the Soviet Union, who might have been aware of his plans to kill Kennedy and even encouraged the plot. (There is no credible evidence cited in the documents released so far that Cuban leader Fidel Castro or other foreign leaders had any personal role in ordering Kennedy’s murder.) The CIA documents also offer tantalizing speculation about the chain of events in late 1963 that explained Oswald’s motives for killing Kennedy, which have previously never been established with certainty—how he may have become enraged after reading a detailed article in his hometown newspaper in New Orleans in September suggesting that his hero Castro had been targeted for assassination by the Kennedy administration. According to that theory, Oswald, who had rifle training in the Marine Corps, then set out to seek vengeance on Castro’s behalf—to kill Kennedy before the American president managed to kill the Cuban leader. If that proved true, it would have raised a terrible question for the CIA: Was it possible that JFK’s assassination was, directly or indirectly, blowback for the spy agency’s plots to kill Castro? It would eventually be acknowledged the CIA had, in fact, repeatedly tried to assassinate Castro, sometimes in collusion with the Mafia, throughout Kennedy’s presidency. The CIA’s arsenal of weapons against Castro included a fungus-infected scuba suit, a poison-filled hypodermic needle hidden in a pen—and even an exploding cigar. The Warren Commission, never told about the CIA’s Castro plots, mostly ducked the question of Oswald’s motives, other than saying in its final report that he had expressed a “hatred for American society.” JFK historians and the nation’s large army of private assassination researchers are still scrambling to make sense of the latest batch of tens of thousands of pages of previously secret CIA and FBI documents that were unsealed last week by the National Archives. The documents—441 files that had previously been withheld entirely, along with 3,369 other documents that had been previously released only in part—were made public under terms of a 1992 law that requires the unsealing of all JFK assassination-related documents by October, the law’s 25-year deadline. Since the release last week, researchers do not appear to have identified any single document that could be labeled a bombshell or that rewrites the history of the assassination in any significant way. Many of the documents, which were made public only online, are duplicates of files that had been released years earlier. Other documents are totally illegible or refer to CIA and FBI code names and pseudonyms that even experienced researchers will take months to decipher. Several documents are written in foreign languages. Still, the newly released documents may offer an intriguing glimpse of what comes next. The National Archives is required to unseal a final batch of about 3,100 never-before-seen JFK-assassination files by the October deadline, assuming the move is not blocked by President Donald Trump. Under the 1992 Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act, the president is the only person empowered to stop the release. (Congressional and other government officials have told us in confidence that at least two federal agencies—likely the CIA and FBI—are expected to appeal to Trump to block the unsealing of at least some of the documents. Even after 54 years, some government officials apparently still want to keep secrets about this seminal event in U.S. history. The CIA and FBI acknowledged earlier this year they are conducting a final review of the documents, but have been unwilling to say if they will ask the president to block some from being released.) None of the files released last week undermines the Warren Commission’s finding that Oswald killed Kennedy with shots fired from his perch on the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository in Dallas’ Dealey Plaza—a conclusion supported by 21st century forensic analysis—and that there was no credible evidence of a second gunman. But the new documents do revive the question of why the CIA, so skeptical internally of many of the commission’s other findings by the 1970s, never acknowledged those suspicions to later government investigators—or to the public. Documents released decades ago show that CIA and FBI officials repeatedly misled—and often lied outright—to Chief Justice Warren and his commission, probably to hide evidence of the agencies’ bungling in their surveillance of Oswald before the president’s murder. The CIA appears also to have been determined to block the commission from stumbling on to evidence that might reveal the agency’s assassination plots against Castro and other foreign leaders. In 2013, the CIA’s in-house historian concluded that the spy agency had conducted a “benign cover-up” during the Warren Commission’s investigation in 1963 and 1964 in hopes of keeping the commission focused on “what the Agency believed was the ‘best truth’ — that Lee Harvey Oswald, for as yet undetermined motives, had acted alone in killing John Kennedy.” But what if the “best truth” was wrong? According to documents made public last week, the CIA was alarmed by the mid-1970s to realize that no one had properly followed up on clues about an especially mysterious chapter in Oswald’s life—a six-day, apparently self-financed trip to Mexico City beginning in late September 1963, two months before the assassination. The reason for the trip has never been determined with certainty, although he told his wife, Marina, that he went there to obtain a visa that would allow him to defect to Cuba, much as he had once attempted to defect to the Soviet Union. The CIA acknowledged long ago that the agency’s Mexico City station had Oswald under surveillance during the trip, and that he met there with Cuban and Soviet diplomats and spies. The CIA station chief said later he was convinced that Oswald had a brief sexual relationship with a Mexican woman who worked in the Cuban consulate. Although there is no credible evidence of Soviet involvement in the assassination, Oswald’s other contacts in Mexico included—shockingly enough—a KGB assassinations expert who doubled as an accredited Soviet diplomat. A top-secret June 1964 FBI report, made public in the 1990s but apparently never seen by key investigators for the Warren Commission, suggests that Oswald was overheard threatening to kill Kennedy during his visits to the Cuban diplomatic compound in Mexico. The files released last week also show that the CIA and other agencies failed to pursue clues that Oswald, who publicly championed Castro’s revolution even while serving in the Marine Corps, had been in contact with Cuban diplomats years before the Mexico trip—possibly as early as 1959, when he was deployed to a military base in Southern California. The information initially came to the FBI and the Warren Commission from a fellow Marine who recalled how Oswald boasted about his contacts with Cuban diplomats in Los Angeles, where Castro’s government then had an office. The account from the fellow Marine was of “a lot more possible operational significance” than was realized in the months after the assassination but was never “run down or developed by investigation,” according to a 1975 CIA internal memo released last week. “The record of the beginning of OSWALD’s relationship with the Cubans starts with a question mark.” That 27-page memo, which does not identify its author, is among the most intriguing of the documents in last week’s batch unsealed by the National Archives. Copies of the document were found inside larger CIA files released last week, including thick agency files labeled HELMS HEARING DUPLICATE. That seems to suggest the memo was given to former Director of Central Intelligence Richard Helms, who led the agency from 1966 to 1973, when he was later summoned to testify secretly to Congress about his involvement in the CIA assassination plots against Castro and other foreign leaders. Similar documents about the Kennedy assassination and Oswald were written in the 1970s by a senior CIA counterintelligence official, Raymond Rocca, who had served as the agency’s chief liaison to the Warren Commission. Labeled “SECRET” and stamped “REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED” on each page, the 1975 memo lists several important clues about Oswald that went unexplored in the months and years after Kennedy’s death. (Versions of the same CIA memo were part of the flood of millions of pages of documents released after the 1992 law, although it has never attracted detailed attention outside a small circle of assassination researchers. Brian Latell, a respected former CIA analyst on Cuban intelligence, cited a version of the document in his 2012 book Castro’s Secrets, which suggested much closer links between Oswald and Cuba than had previously been known.) The 1975 document noted the failure of the CIA, FBI and the Warren Commission to interview a key witness in Mexico City—Silvia Duran, the Mexican woman who worked in the Cuban consulate and was reported to have had the affair with Oswald. She is the “sole live witness on the record regarding Oswald’s activities,” yet her testimony “was taken and presented, solely, by the Mexican governmental authorities,” the CIA memo said. Duran, who is still alive, has repeatedly insisted she had no sexual relationship with Oswald, although she readily acknowledges that she helped him with his unsuccessful visa application for Cuba. It was that same CIA memo that offered a detailed theory of the chain of events that led Oswald to kill Kennedy—how Oswald, who lived in his hometown of New Orleans for much of 1963, may have been inspired to assassinate the president if, as seemed probable, he read an article on Monday, September 9, in the local newspaper, that suggested Castro was targeted for murder by the United States. The article, written by a reporter for The Associated Press in Havana and then published prominently in the Times-Picayune, was an account of an AP interview with Castro two days earlier, in which the Cuban strongman angrily warned the Kennedy administration that he was aware of U.S. assassination plots aimed at Cuban leaders, presumably including him, and was prepared to retaliate. The article quoted Castro as saying: “U.S. leaders would be in danger if they helped in any attempt to do away with leaders of Cuba.” The CIA memo suggested that if Oswald, who was known to be an “avid reader” of the Times-Picayune, saw the article, it might have put the idea in his head to kill Kennedy as retaliation for the threat the United States posed to Castro—an idea that would have been in his mind as he left for his trip to Mexico that month. The possibility that Oswald read the article “must be considered of great significance in light of the pathological evolution of Oswald’s passive/aggressive makeup” and “his identification with Fidel Castro and the Cuban revolution,” the CIA memo said. Immediately after the assassination, the CIA’s Mexico City station warned CIA headquarters that the AP article might contain a vital clue about Oswald’s motives for killing Kennedy—and even about possible Cuban involvement. But according to the 1975 analysis, “There is no evidence in the files on the Kennedy assassination that the Castro interview was considered in following up leads or in dealing with the Warren Commission, although Mexico Station specifically directed headquarters to the AP story very shortly after the Dallas killing.” Previously released internal documents from the Warren Commission show that one of the commission’s most aggressive staff lawyers believed that Castro’s remarks to the AP—and the possibility that Oswald read the article—might be of great significance in explaining Oswald’s motives. But the internal files show that more senior staff members decided against any reference to the AP article in the commission’s final report for fear of feeding conspiracy theories about a possible Cuban link to Kennedy’s death. It does not reflect well on the legacy of either the CIA or the commission that, half a century after those gunshots rang out in Dealey Plaza, the newly released documents suggest that at least some of those conspiracy theories might be true. http://nsarchive.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB493/docs/intell_ebb_026.PDF http://www.politico.com/magazine/f/?id=0000015d-a54b-d494-a77f-e75f2a570001 http://www.politico.com/magazine/f/?id=0000015d-a4cc-dd39-a75d-afdfd18d0001 http://static.politico.com/e9/d5/e052c650448ea8576d922d1657d0/timespicayune.JPG

Big Rigs / August 3, 2017 Caught filling in for our old mate "Jacko”, it was great to catch up with Ben Allen from Westbury when we dropped in to the Epping Forest Caltex on our way to Bridgenorth. He was driving a distinctive RBA Line Haul 2002 Mack Magnum with a 600 Signature up front, (with almost three million on the clock) and towing a B-double at the time, and he was on his way to Hobart, and then return. "I've been with Bruce for 12 months now, and am really enjoying the job,” he said. "In fact I have been working as a diesel mechanic now for 15 years, interspersed with driving off and on for the last six of them. "It's all good, but I admit I enjoy the driving too, especially working for Bruce, you couldn't get a better boss, and he keeps all his gear in top nick as well. "Yes, I am happy, as long as I am working around or in trucks, wouldn't swap it for quids!” Asked about his spare time, he said it's all devoted to the family, and the four kids. Oh and a heap of animals as well! .

Vintage San Francisco Fire Trucks Seeking a Home Joe Rosato Jr., Bay Area NBC / August 2, 2017 A collection of historic antique San Francisco fire engines is slowly deteriorating beneath the rain and sun in an industrial parking lot, as a group historians sound the alarm to city officials. The group of more than a dozen trucks, one used to fight the1906 earthquake and fire, has been without an indoor home in years, after bouncing around between city warehouses on Treasure Island and Bayview-Hunters Point. Several years ago the Academy of Art donated space for the collection in a warehouse in the industrial Bayshore area, but bounced the collection to the parking lot about a year ago when it needed the space. “As you can see there’s extensive deterioration due to it’s being stored outside,” said James Lee, a retired San Francisco firefighter who is trying to find the trucks a new home. Lee said the collection, which includes water tenders, ladder trucks and other unique apparatus, is rotting in the elements — especially following a particularly wet winter which repeatedly blew off the protective tarps. Lee’s group, Guardians of the City, has been providing care for the trucks though they are officially city property. “What I see here now,” Lee said, “is there is a benign neglect with regards to the protection of this historical equipment.” Last week, Lee and his group issued a plea to the San Francisco Fire Commission to find shelter for the collection. Commission members said it was urgent the city find shelter for the beleaguered trucks — though they didn’t offer an immediate solution. They set an October hearing date to consider more options. Both San Francisco fire department officials and the office of Mayor Ed Lee said they support finding a new home for the trucks — though no specific plan is yet in place Lee and his group have proposed finding space for the collection on Pier 19 or possibly in the city’s vast storage space beneath Civic Center. “I believe there is space within the city,” Lee said, “and it could happen very easily.” During his first days in the fire department back in the early 1960s, Lee worked on one of the old ladder trucks now languishing in the lot. He climbed up on the truck’s running board and demonstrated how he would grip its wooden ladder for support as the truck responded to calls. He rode the truck for six months. “It was a great ride when it was pouring rain,” he chuckled. He’d also seen a water tender in the collection in action back in the 1970s just before it was retired. The truck, which hailed from the 1920s had reported to a large, stubborn fire in the city’s Tenderloin. “This thing drove up,” Lee recalled. “They put it up, turned it on, fire went out.” Lee eventually hopes to see the collection restored to its original glory. He wants to find companies and benefactors to sponsor the trucks’ restoration. But before that can happen — he said — they first need a home. “It brings a lot of memories,” Lee said pacing past the row of trucks. “There’s a lot of water under the bridge.” Video - http://www.nbcbayarea.com/on-air/as-seen-on/Vintage-San-Francisco-Fire-Trucks-Seeking-a-Home_Bay-Area-438225733.html

Land Line (OOIDA) / August 2, 2017 Daimler Trucks North America (DTNA) has issued a safety recall for certain Freightliner and Western Star trucks, according to National Highway Traffic Safety Administration documents. Recalls deal with tow hooks and battery cables. The first recall affects certain 2018 Freightliner and Western Star trucks equipped with tow hooks used for recovery purposes. Tow hooks may fail during use without warning, leading to a sudden release of the vehicle. Affected trucks include: 2018 Freightliner 114SD 2018 Freightliner 122SD 2018 Freightliner Cascadia 2018 Freightliner M2 Business Class 2018 Western Star 4700 2018 Western Star 5700 Owners will be notified and faulty tow hooks will be replaced for free. The recall is expected to begin on Sept. 14. For more information, call 800-745-8000 with recall number FL-742. The second recall affects 2014-2017 Freightliner Custom XCR chassis. A battery cable mounting bracket may not have been installed correctly. Consequently, the improperly routed and clipped battery cable can contact the frame rail, possibly causing chafing and short circuiting. Owners will be notified and dealers will inspect and revise the battery cable mounting bracket and cable routing for free. The recall is expected to begin on Sept. 14. For more information, call 800-745-8000 with recall number FL-741.

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JLTV makes strides, Oshkosh receives USD195 million order IHS Jane's Defence Weekly / August 2, 2017 Oshkosh yesterday announced an order for 748 Joint Light Tactical Vehicles (JLTVs) worth more than US$195 million. It marks the fifth order to date and includes “2,359 installed and packaged kits”. The JLTV contract for low-rate initial production (LRIP) of 16,901 vehicles was awarded to Oshkosh on 24 August 2015. The White House’s fiscal year 2018 (FY 2018) budget request for JLTV is up approximately US$366 million compared with the US$775.8 million enacted in FY 2017 for the program. In FY 2018, the request includes funding for 2,110 vehicles for the US Army, 527 for the US Marine Corps (USMC), and 140 for the US Air Force. .

The "deep state" that guides the markets has made a science of manipulating the ill-informed investing masses. When one should be selling, they tell you to buy (e.g. Enron, all the way to the end). When one should be buying bargains (e.g. Navistar - Jan 2016), they have most afraid to do so until the price has risen above bargain levels.

Mercedes-Benz Trucks introduces its first 3D-printed spare part made of metal Green Car Congress / August 2, 2017 Mercedes-Benz Trucks has introduced its first 3D-printed spare part made of metal (an aluminum-silicon material), a thermostat cover for truck and Unimog models from older model series. In contrast to the Selective Laser Sintering (SLS) process used in plastics 3D printing, 3D printing of metallic components uses Selective Laser Melting (SLM). In the case of the thermostat cover, for example, the powdered aluminium/silicon material (ALSi10Mg) is applied in individual layers and melted by an energy source—usually one or more lasers. When one layer is completed, a new layer of powder is applied automatically and the melting process is repeated. The process is repeated until a high-strength, three-dimensional aluminium component suitable for use in areas of high temperature has been produced. With the layered structure, the process also offers a level of geometrical freedom that cannot be matched by any other production method. In the Customer Services & Parts division of Mercedes-Benz Trucks, automotive 3D printing began its increasing success in the production departments for the after-sales and replacement parts business a year ago. Since then, Customer Services & Parts has worked together with the researchers and pre-developers at Daimler AG to constantly improve and expand the use of the latest 3D printing processes for plastic parts. 3D printing of high-quality plastic components has now successfully established itself as an additional production method, and is particularly suitable for the production of smaller batches. Metal parts from the 3D printer excel with their very high strength and thermal resistance, and the process is therefore particularly suitable for the production of mechanically and thermally stressed components required in small numbers. Metallic components can be produced “at the touch of a button” with any geometry and in any numbers. 3D replacement parts production began with rarely ordered aluminium parts. These excel with almost 100% density and greater purity than conventional die-cast aluminium parts. Apart from their high strength and hardness, as well as high dynamic resistance, their production requires no cost-intensive development work or procurement of special tools. Conceivable areas of use are peripheral engine parts made of metal, in-engine parts and also parts in cooling systems, transmissions, axles or chassis. Especially when they have complex structures, 3D-printed metal parts in small numbers can be produced cost-effectively as infrequently requested replacement parts, special parts and for small and classic model series. The new thermostat cover is an example of cost-effective spare and special parts production in top quality, made possible by use of the 3D printing process for highly resistant metal parts made of die-cast aluminium alloy. This replacement part is only ordered in small numbers, and is used in older truck and Unimog models whose production ceased around 15 years ago. .

http://guardiansofthecity.org/sffd/museum_collections/apparatus/eng_co_no14.html

At the moment, the world is overflowing with political uncertainty. Markets appear to have factored in more of the good news than the potential risks. Unable to factor in one extreme outcome or another, the market has once more chosen to assume the status quo. There are reasons to be concerned.

What’s behind the Dow’s stunning rise to 22,000 The Washington Post / August 2, 2017 The Dow surged past the 22,000 mark Wednesday for the first time. The Dow Jones industrial average closed above 22,000 Wednesday, setting a new record high in what has become one of its longest bull markets in history. The extraordinary rise of the stock markets since early 2009 — when the Dow was a mere 7,063 — has greatly fattened the portfolios of American investors, especially the wealthiest ones. And it has played a role in boosting the political fortunes of President Trump who on Wednesday once again took credit for the markets’ performance. The surprisingly persistent gains this year have come courtesy of robust profits at big companies, low interest rates, and a rare alignment of developed economies in good or improving health at the same time. So far, those have been more powerful forces on stocks than world events such as North Korean nuclear missile tests, Venezuela’s economic and political meltdown, or legislative gridlock in Washington. The markets’ most recent run-up does indeed have something to do with Trump’s win in November, several analysts said. Back then, some on Wall Street cheered the ascent of a businessman into the White House and his promises to cut taxes, invest in infrastructure and increase military spending. The Dow turned sharply up right after the election and has risen 23 percent since then. Some companies had more to gain from Trump’s pronouncements than others and saw their stocks jump, an effect Wall Street brokers call the “Trump Trade.” Boeing, which generates much of its profits from its Defense, Space and Security division, has seen its shares soar more than 70 percent since Trump’s election. It has accounted for 45 percent of the Dow’s rise this year, far more than any of the other 29 companies in the index. “We’ve picked up over $4 trillion of net worth in our country, our stocks, our companies,” Trump said at a White House event on immigration Wednesday. “The stock market hit the highest level that it has ever been and the country is doing very well.” Since becoming president, Trump has taken credit for stock market gains he once dismissed. (Meg Kelly/The Washington Post) By the late spring, a series of reports from prominent analysts showed Wall Street was growing skeptical of Trump’s pledges on taxes and infrastructure. But the markets kept marching higher. Stock analysts attribute this to a simple fact: Big corporations, such as Apple, McDonalds and Boeing — which lean heavily on overseas sales — continue to make a lot of money. “The market has pretty much shrugged off Washington’s dysfunction,” said Chris Gaffney, president of World Markets at EverBank. “The larger story is about the return of the consumers both here in the states and in the emerging markets of China and India.” A weakening dollar – an unusual trend during a bull market – has only helped boost earnings at big corporations because American goods have become cheaper to overseas customers and sales to those customers have greater value when they are converted into U.S. currency. The effect of the dollar is “starting to show up in company earnings,” said Craig Birk, executive vice president of portfolio management at Personal Capital, a California investment firm with $4.9 billion under management. “It’s also provided some confidence that the strength we saw in [quarterly] earnings… can continue for the rest of the year. The dollar weakness has been pretty universal around the world. July was the fifth consecutive month of dollar declines.” Yet not everyone has shared in the stock market’s stunning rise. Nearly half of America has no money invested in the stock market, according to the Federal Reserve. And the rich are far more likely to own stocks than middle or working-class families, surveys show. Eighty-nine percent of families with incomes over $100,000 have at least some money in the stock market compared to just 21 percent of households earning $30,000 or less, a recent Gallup survey found. “Lot of people in America tragically aren’t participating in the stock market,” says Brad McMillan, chief investment officer at Commonwealth Financial Network, a financial advisory firm that works mainly with “Main Street” America. Many ordinary investors are still sitting in the sidelines, missing out on one of the longest-running bull markets in American history because they are still scared from the financial crisis, McMillan added. Stock ownership before 2008 was 62 percent, Gallup found. Even after recent inflows, only 54 percent of Americans are invested now. And most ordinary investors who are in the markets invest through mutual funds, retirement plans, or 529 college-savings plans. According to a 2016 paper by the Tax Policy Center, only 25 percent of Americans owned individual stocks in 2015. Others worry that average investors have been pouring more money into the markets this year, with more than eight years of gains already passed. Michael Farr, a Washington investment manager said the Dow’s 22,000 mark “should be celebrated. It heralds the success of the American economy. “But,” he continued, “the individual investor should remember that the rule is buy low and sell high. This is not low. Market’s don’t say high forever. This will come down.” The Dow’s record on Wednesday was its sixth consecutive record high. Ed Yardeni of Yardeni Research called the most recent surge in stocks a “summertime lullaby” in a recent blog post. “For stock investors, the living has been relatively easy since March 2009, when this great bull market started,” he said. “It would have been far easier if we all fell asleep since then and just woke up occasionally to make sure we were still getting rich. “Now it seems that we are all getting lulled to sleep by the monotonous advance of stock prices,” Yardeni wrote. “ They just keep heading to new record highs with less and less volatility.”

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VW, Daimler and BMW to Upgrade 5 Million Diesels in Rescue Pact Bloomberg / August 2, 2017 Recalls include 2.5 million VW cars that are already fixed Automakers will contribute to fund for cleaner urban transport Volkswagen, Daimler and BMW agreed to upgrade more than 5 million newer diesel cars in Germany and offer trade-in rebates on older models, avoiding more costly remedies in a bid to salvage diesel technology and avoid driving bans in cities. The recalls, hashed out at an emergency summit in Berlin on Wednesday, will cost about 500 million euros ($593 million) and largely sticks to commitments that the automakers had already made. The deal allows them to dodge expensive hardware recalls, which would have ballooned costs. Meanwhile, about half the fixes have already been carried out as part of Volkswagen’s response to its cheating scandal. “What the agreement doesn’t do is restore consumer confidence in diesel engines,” said Arndt Ellinghorst, a London-based analyst with Evercore ISI. “Two years into the VW diesel scandal, having learned about the shortcomings of bench emission testing and ways to trick the system, consumers rightly demand new technologies.” Top executives from the German auto industry were summoned to face off with ministers and state leaders amid a steady drumbeat of negative news about diesel pollution, dialing up concerns over the technology’s impact on urban air quality. The manufacturers agreed to absorb the costs of the upgrades, which they said wouldn’t diminish performance, fuel usage or durability. Recall breakdown by automaker: Volkswagen - 3.8 million vehicles Daimler - 900,000 BMW - 300,000 The aim of the fixes, which also involve vehicles from PSA Group’s Opel and some other brands, is to cut emissions of smog-inducing nitrogen oxides by 25 percent to 30 percent on average, German auto industry lobby VDA said in a statement. The bulk of the costs to the industry will come from incentives for scrapping older models. While overall details were unavailable, BMW outlined plans to offer 2,000-euro trade-in bonuses. “I understand that many people think that the German car industry is the problem,” Daimler Chief Executive Officer Dieter Zetsche said in an emailed statement. “It’s our job to make clear that we’re part of the solution.” There’s a lot at stake for all sides. German automakers need diesel as a stop-gap technology to buy time to catch up with the electric offerings of Tesla Inc. and Nissan Motor Co. And with less than two months until a federal election, Chancellor Angela Merkel, whose ruling bloc runs the ministry overseeing carmakers, has to ward off criticism that the government is too lenient on carmakers while also not endangering the country’s 800,000 auto jobs. Diesel was once the calling card of German auto-engineering prowess, with the industry boasting about the technology offering more power while emitting about 15 percent less carbon dioxide than equivalent gasoline engines. German politicians in turn heavily backed diesel for decades with tax incentives that make the fuel cheaper at the pump and offered little oversight. That all started coming crashing down in September 2015 following Volkswagen’s admission that it duped regulators and consumers for years with diesels rigged to cheat on emissions tests. “We’re in a very tough spot here, and it’s the car industry that’s responsible for this. There’s been cheating going on,” Stephan Weil, the prime minister of Lower Saxony and VW supervisory board member, said in an interview with N24 television in Berlin. “There are numerous unresolved questions, but what must be avoided at all cost is a driving ban for large parts of the German car fleet.” Dealing with the crisis is a difficult balancing act in Germany, where every fifth job depends on the automotive industry and the sector accounts for more than half of the country’s trade surplus. Last year, some 46 percent of the cars sold in the country had a diesel engine, but demand has been sliding since Volkswagen’s scandal. And German politicians agreed there was more to be done to revive faith in the technology. “Today’s agreement is not yet enough,” Environment Minister Barbara Hendricks told reporters after the meeting. “Software updates won’t completely resolve diesel’s NOx problem,” and the government expects “a new culture of responsibility from manufacturers.” The turmoil compounds an already tense situation for the industry which is also struggling with the switch to electric cars and adding self-driving features, while new challengers like Tesla, Uber Technologies Inc. and Apple Inc. ready strategies to grab a slice of future profits. The chummy relationship between the industry and German politicians has also come into focus during the scandal, with critics questioning why Transport Minister Alexander Dobrindt only now called the meeting nearly two years after U.S. authorities exposed VW’s cheating. While American consumers received generous compensation payments from the automaker, affected owners in Europe are only offered fixes. ‘Only Losers’ “In this game, there are only losers,” said Ferdinand Dudenhoeffer, director of the University of Duisburg-Essen’s Center for Automotive Research. “But the biggest loss is the credibility of the politicians,” who could have made more fundamental reforms in response to the crisis. To comply with environmental rules, German carmakers rely on diesel to power their big sedans and a growing fleet of brawny sport utility vehicles, as consumers remain reticent to buy a sparse lineup of electric cars. The industry’s reliance on diesel has been attributed to a slow pivot to battery-powered vehicles. In the statement, the auto industry underscored the commitment to boost electric-car demand by building a fast-charging network along German highways. “There will have to be a co-existence of electric and combustion engines in coming decades, which is why we’re investing in both technologies,” VW CEO Matthias Mueller said. .