Idling for 10 seconds uses more gas than restarting the car

Ok, this has absolutely nothing to do with the law, but I was so amazed, that I figured most other folks don't know this either.

In the winter, many people idle their car engine after starting it up because they think it needs time to warm up. Not true! Today's fuel-injected engines don't need a warm-up period, and idling for long periods can lead to excessive engine wear.

Worse, cars idling for more than 10 seconds use more gas and create more global warming pollution than simply restarting the engine. Surprised? It's true - the 10-second rule has been proven empirically.

http://green.yahoo.com/blog/climate411/71/when-to-turn-off-your-engine.html

FINRA Board Approves Rule that Codifies Expungement Procedures for Arbitrators

In an apparent effort to make sure that everyone really, really, really understands that FINRA does not trust its own arbitrators, FINRA's Board of Governors approved a rule proposal that would impose expungement procedures requiring arbitrators to take specific steps, including issuing a written explanation, before recommending expungement of information related to arbitration cases from a registered person's Central Registration Depository (CRD) record.

According to FINRA, this proposal is designed to assure that expungement occurs only when one of the narrow grounds specified in the FINRA rules—factual impossibility, no involvement by the registered person or falsity—is determined and documented by the arbitrators.

FINRA Fines J. P. Morgan Securities $500,000

FINRA fined J.P. Morgan Securities, Inc. $500,000 for failing to disclose to the MSRB that it had used consultants to obtain numerous municipal securities offerings and had made payments to consultants connected to particular offerings. According to the FINRA press release, the firm did not simply fail to dislose, it affirmatively stated that it did not use consultants, and that it made no payments to consultants.

That is not a failure to dislose, that is an affirmative mistatement. And JP Morgan gets a $500,000 fine?

A small firm would have been put out of business, with its principals barred.

FINRA - Investor Advocate?

Has anyone noticed the new FINRA advertising campaign - "FINRA - a not for profit resource with nothing for sale" is the tagline. They are doing television ads, radio spots, even sponsored pay per click links on web pages.

The links go to the Investor information section of FINRA's web site, and the opening paragraph claims that FINRA's job "is to protect investors every day by keeping the country’s capital markets fair. As a not-for-profit financial resource, FINRA offers unbiased information on a full range of issues that affect your money and investments."

If one of my clients made that type of misrepresentation, FINRA would be all over them. Sure, FINRA is a not-for-profit organization, but what does that mean? It means nothing to investors, the public, the markets, or to anyone other than the IRS, so touting that is a bit misleading.

FINRA'S "job" is not to protect investors. That may be a benefit of its "job" but its "job" is to regulate the securities industry. FINRA is not an investor advocate, it is an SRO, a -self-regulatory organization.

There are other questions that arise, like why is FINRA spending its members' money on advertising campaigns, but the real problem here is the identity crisis at FINRA. FINRA is a membership organization turned regulator, and it needs to keep its mission in sight, and its role in mind. Fabricating a new role, as an investor advocate, can cause nothing but problems for it, its members, the markets and ultimately consumers.

We have already witnessed the animosity towards the industry in the past several years in the arbitration area, as rule change after rule change tips the scales more and more in favor of the investor.

And we have seen it in public comments by FINRA management. At a recent conference I attended a FINRA executive actually said that when she joined FINRA she was surprised at how many criminals were in the membership. Her word; criminals.

A significant portion of FINRA Staff does in fact treat firms and individuals as if they are criminals, and such treatment can only get worse if management thinks the industry is full of criminals, and if FINRA thinks it is an investor advocate.

What next, guest speaking at PIABA meetings? Oh wait, FINRA already does that.