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Tuesday, 12 February 2008
The Biggest Banks
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Credit Suisse Net Falls on SF1.3 Billion Writedowns (Update3)
By Elena Logutenkova Last Updated: February 12, 2008 04:26 EST
Feb. 12 (Bloomberg) -- Credit Suisse Group, Switzerland's second-biggest bank, said fourth-quarter profit fell 72 percent on lower earnings at the securities unit after writedowns of 1.3 billion Swiss francs ($1.2 billion) on debt and leveraged loans.
Net income dropped to 1.33 billion francs, or 1.21 francs a share, the Zurich-based bank said in a statement today. That missed the 1.43 billion-franc median estimate of 11 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. Credit Suisse declined 3.4 percent to 54.2 francs as of 10:10 a.m. in Swiss trading.
Credit Suisse's markdowns in the quarter compare with $14 billion at UBS AG, the country's biggest bank, and 44 million euros ($64 million) at Frankfurt-based Deutsche Bank AG. Chief Executive Officer Brady Dougan scaled down U.S. subprime- mortgage related holdings before a debt-market slump led to more than $145 billion in writedowns and loan losses at the world's biggest financial institutions.
``Dougan is doing an excellent job, certainly better than his competitors here,'' said Dieter Winet, who helps manage $50 billion at Swisscanto Asset Management in Zurich. ``The financial markets are in very bad shape.''
Group of Seven officials said markets will remain volatile and indicated policymakers will be forced to cut interest rates and taxes to shore up the global economy. The group estimates banks worldwide will suffer writedowns of $400 billion, German Finance Minister Peer Steinbrueck said.
`Continuing Turmoil'
Credit Suisse said it is ``well-capitalized and conservatively funded'' and expects ``continuing turmoil in the credit markets'' in the short term. It earned 4.67 billion francs, or 4.12 francs a share, in the final quarter of 2006.
Fourth-quarter revenue fell 13 percent to 9.4 billion francs, with investment-banking down 36 percent to 3.9 billion francs after markdowns of leveraged loans, mortgage-backed securities and collateralized debt obligations.
``I'm confident our 2008 performance will be strong relative to the industry,'' former derivatives trader Dougan, 48, said at a press conference today. ``The markets today are full of uncertainty.''
Pretax profit fell 30 percent to 3.03 billion francs, as earnings at the investment bank slumped more than analysts estimated, down 86 percent to 328 million francs, and asset management had a 247 million-franc loss. Profit from wealth management was 976 million francs and from corporate and retail banking was 401 million francs, both up more than 20 percent.
Outpacing Peers
``Credit Suisse was unable to avoid the credit market crisis but was clearly less affected than some of its competitors,'' Andreas Venditti, an analyst at Zuercher Kantonalbank in Zurich, wrote to investors. He rates the shares ``market perform'' and said he may cut his earnings estimates because of the ``still very difficult environment.''
Credit Suisse fell 36 percent in Zurich trading over the 12 months through yesterday, cutting its market value to 65.2 billion francs. The 60-member Bloomberg Europe Banks and Financial Services Index fell 34 percent in the same period.
The company got 54 percent of 2006 profit from operations before taxes from the investment-banking unit, which Dougan ran for three years before becoming CEO in May. Credit Suisse booked a gain of 1.82 billion francs in the fourth quarter of 2006 for the sale of its Winterthur insurance unit to AXA SA.
The Swiss bank raised its cash dividend for 2007 to 2.50 francs a share from 2.24 francs. Last year it paid out an additional 46 centimes a share after the Winterthur sale.
Holdings Cut
Managers at the SPS mortgage-servicing unit alerted the executive board to concerns about subprime assets in 2006. By the end of that year, the company had originated about 40 percent fewer subprime mortgages than in 2005, Dougan has said.
Credit Suisse wrote down a net 2 billion francs last year on debt and loans. The 2.2 billion-franc third-quarter charge it reported in November was narrowed by gains from hedging throughout the year.
The bank reduced holdings of leveraged loans during the fourth quarter to 36 billion francs from 58.6 billion francs. It also had 25.9 billion francs in commercial mortgage bonds as of Dec. 31, down from 35.9 billion francs; 8.7 billion francs in residential mortgages, down from 16.3 billion francs; and 2.7 billion francs in CDOs, compared with 2.3 billion francs.
``We are very comfortable with our valuations at the year- end,'' Chief Financial Officer Renato Fassbind told journalists on a conference call today.
Deutsche Bank, UBS
Credit Suisse also wrote down the value of securities at the asset-management unit by 774 million francs. It bought them from its money-market funds ``to address liquidity concerns caused by the extreme conditions in the U.S. market,'' it said.
Deutsche Bank, which controls Europe's biggest investment bank by revenue, last week reported a smaller-than-expected decline in fourth-quarter profit, managing to avoid any net writedowns on bonds after booking gains from hedges. CEO Josef Ackermann said the outlook for market-related businesses remains ``challenging'' in 2008.
UBS will publish details on Feb. 14 of its 12.5 billion- franc fourth-quarter loss, the biggest ever for a bank. For the year, UBS's loss amounted to about 4.4 billion francs, it said on Jan. 30, reporting lower earnings than Credit Suisse for the first time since being created in a merger in 1998.
``We are a bit surprised about the new and large exposures on commercial real estate mortgages,'' JPMorgan Chase & Co. analyst Kian Abouhossein said in a note to clients.
Credit Suisse may suffer this year from a revenue slowdown or potential writedowns from commercial mortgage-backed securities and leveraged loans, analysts including ABN Amro Holding NV's Kinner Lakhani have said.
`Advantage in Slowdown'
The bank ranked fifth among global collateralized mortgage- backed securities underwriters in the first nine months of 2007, Lakhani said. It also ranked fifth among bookrunners for leveraged loans in the Europe, Middle East and Africa region last year, according to Bloomberg data.
Credit Suisse said last month it is cutting about 500 jobs at the investment-banking division worldwide to meet reduced demand for some services. The job cuts will be mainly in the global securities unit, which includes equities and fixed-income trading and origination, it said.
``Credit Suisse should concentrate on private banking and institutional asset management,'' Swisscanto's Winet said. ``Investment banking is so volatile and it goes rotten every four years or so.''
The company plans to expand in private banking by adding about 1,000 wealth management advisers through 2010. The bank has opened new offices in the U.S. as part of a business revamp there and is also looking to invest in operations in Singapore and Hong Kong, where it lags behind competitors.
By DAMIAN PALETTA and JAMES R. HAGERTY February 12, 2008
WSJ -- Prodded by the Bush administration, six major mortgage lenders are due to announce today a stepped-up effort to rescue homeowners on the brink of foreclosure.
Under the latest plan, dubbed Project Lifeline, the lenders promise to seek contact with homeowners who are 90 or more days overdue on their mortgages. In some cases, homeowners will be given the chance to "pause" their foreclosure for 30 days while lenders try to work out a way to make the loans affordable. Lenders could begin sending letters to these borrowers as soon as this week.
Homeowners wouldn't qualify for the program if they are in bankruptcy, if they already have a foreclosure date within 30 days or if the loan was for an investment or vacant property.
Unlike the plan announced in December to freeze interest rates at current levels on certain adjustable-rate loans, this latest effort is to involve all kinds of home loans, not just subprime mortgages, a higher-cost variety for people with blemished credit records or high debt in relation to income.
The participating banks, which service about half of the U.S. mortgage market, are Bank of America Corp., Citigroup Inc., Countrywide Financial Corp., J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., Washington Mutual Inc. and Wells Fargo & Co. -- all members of the so-called Hope Now Alliance. They are working with the U.S. Treasury and Department of Housing and Urban Development. Those two departments scheduled a briefing on the plan for 11:15 a.m. today. The plan was reported yesterday by the Reuters News Service.
Almost immediately after the Bush administration announced the freeze plan in December for certain subprime borrowers, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson indicated an interest in developing a strategy to address a broader range of distressed homeowners.
At least 1.3 million home-mortgage loans were either seriously delinquent or in foreclosure at the end of the third quarter, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. Not all of those loans would qualify for the program, however.
Analysts at the investment-banking firm Lehman Brothers recently estimated that the number of foreclosures will surge to one million this year and next, about four times the 2007 level.
Some nonprofit groups that work with troubled borrowers say lenders have become more flexible in recent months in efforts to find ways for more borrowers to keep their homes. But they also say the industry needs to do more.
Martin Eakes, chief executive of the Center for Responsible Lending, a nonprofit research group based in Washington that frequently bashes the mortgage industry, said moves announced so far have been "baby steps." He said lenders should move more aggressively to reduce loan balances to current home values and make monthly payments affordable. He acknowledged, however, that servicers of loans -- the firms that collect payments and handle foreclosures -- face the risk of lawsuits from investors that own loans if those investors believe borrowers have been given overly generous terms.
Bruce Marks, chief executive of Neighborhood Assistance Corp. of America, a Boston-based nonprofit that works with distressed homeowners, dismissed Project Lifeline as a "PR stunt." He said it already should have been automatic for loan servicers to pause foreclosure proceedings for homeowners seeking to qualify for a more affordable loan.
Congressional Democrats also have grown increasingly hostile toward the Bush administration and lenders over the past several months, arguing that not enough is being done to prevent foreclosure. Mr. Paulson is scheduled to testify before the Senate Banking Committee Thursday, and Project Lifeline could help blunt criticism from lawmakers.
The latest initiative came as Countrywide announced a plan to work with the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, or Acorn, to seek alternatives to foreclosure for distressed borrowers.
LONDON/FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Shares in Dutch banking group ING fell by as much as 6.5 percent on Tuesday on market talk of large writedowns, traders said.
ING said it would not comment on market rumors, but a spokeswoman said the firm was "perfectly aware of its obligation to report any material deviations".
The Amsterdam-based banking and insurance group is scheduled to report earnings for the last three months of 2007 and the full year on February 20.
"There are rumors of a writedown of 6-8 billion euros at ING," said one trader. Other traders said the writedown was linked to the U.S. real estate business.
At 4:33 a.m. EST, stock in ING was down 2.84 percent. It was the third-biggest percentage loser on the pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index, which was flat.
At the end of its latest reported quarter, September 30, ING had 3.1 billion euros in exposure to asset-backed securities that had subprime mortgages as collateral.
ING also reported exposure of 26.9 billion euros to Alt-A rated debt, which is considered to be of a higher quality than subprime-backed bonds. Some 23.8 billion euros was held by ING Direct, ING's Internet and direct banking unit.
The credit crisis is no longer just a subprime mortgage problem.
As home prices fall and banks tighten lending standards, people with good, or prime, credit histories are falling behind on their payments for home loans, auto loans and credit cards at a quickening pace, according to industry data and economists.
The rise in prime delinquencies, while less severe than the one in the subprime market, nonetheless poses a threat to the battered housing market and weakening economy, which some specialists say is in a recession or headed for one.
Until recently, people with good credit, who tend to pay their bills on time and manage their finances well, were viewed as a bulwark against the economic strains posed by rising defaults among borrowers with blemished, or subprime, credit.
“This collapse in housing value is sucking in all borrowers,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Economy.com.
Like subprime mortgages, many prime loans made in recent years allowed borrowers to pay less initially and face higher adjustable payments a few years later. As long as home prices were rising, these borrowers could refinance their loans or sell their properties to pay off their mortgages. But now, with prices falling and lenders clamping down, homeowners with solid credit are starting to come under the same financial stress as those with subprime credit.
“Subprime was a symptom of the problem,” said James F. Keegan, a bond portfolio manager at American Century Investments, a mutual fund company. “The problem was we had a debt or credit bubble.”
The bursting of that bubble has led to steep losses across the financial industry. American International Group said on Monday that auditors found it may have understated losses on complex financial instruments linked to mortgages and corporate loans.
The running turmoil is also stirring fears that some hedge funds may run into trouble. At the end of September, nearly 4 percent of prime mortgages were past due or in foreclosure, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.
That was the highest rate since the group started tracking prime and subprime mortgages separately in 1998. The delinquency and foreclosure rate for all mortgages, 7.3 percent, is higher than at any time since the group started tracking that data in 1979, largely as a result of the surge in subprime lending during the last few years.
An example of the spreading credit crisis is seen in Don Doyle, a computer engineer at Lockheed Martin who makes a six-figure income and had a stellar credit score in 2004, when he refinanced his home in Northern California to take cash out to pay for his daughter’s college tuition.
Mr. Doyle, 52, is now worried that he will have to file for bankruptcy, because he cannot afford to make the higher variable payments on his mortgage, and he cannot sell his home for more than his $740,000 mortgage.
“The whole plan was to get out” before his rate reset, he said. “Now I am caught. I can’t sell my house. I’m having a hard time refinancing. I’ve avoided bankruptcy for months trying to pull this out of my savings.”
The default rate for prime mortgages is still far lower than for subprime loans, about 24 percent of which are delinquent or in foreclosure. Some economists note that slightly more than a third of American homeowners have paid off their mortgages completely. This group is generally more affluent and contributes more to consumer spending and the economy relative to its size.
Unlike subprime borrowers, who tend to have lower incomes and fewer assets, prime borrowers have greater means to restructure their debt if they lose jobs or encounter other financial challenges. The recent reductions in short term interest rates by the Federal Reserve should also help by reducing the reset rate for adjustable loans.
Still, economists say the rate cuts and the $168 billion fiscal stimulus package are unlikely to make a significant dent in the large debts weighing on many Americans, because banks have tightened lending standards and expected rebates from the government will not cover most house payments.
The problems are most acute in areas that experienced a big boom in housing — California, the Southwest, Florida and other coastal markets — and in the Midwest, which is suffering from job losses in the manufacturing sector.
And it is not just first-mortgage default rates that are rising. About 5.7 percent of home equity lines of credit were delinquent or in default at the end of last year, up from 4.5 percent a year earlier, according to Moody’s Economy.com and Equifax, the credit bureau.
About 7.1 percent of auto loans were in trouble, up from 6.1 percent. Personal bankruptcy filings, which fell significantly after a 2005 federal law made it harder to wipe out debts in bankruptcy, are starting to inch up.
On Monday, Fitch Ratings, the debt rating firm, reported that credit card companies wrote off 5.4 percent of their prime card balances in January, up from 4.3 percent a year ago. The so-called charge-off rate is still lower than before the 2005 law went into effect.
Banks are responding to the rise in delinquencies by capping home equity lines of credit in areas with falling real estate prices. A few credit card companies have also moved to reduce the credit limits of customers they deem more risky.
Bank of America, Citigroup, Countrywide Financial, JPMorgan Chase, Washington Mutual and Wells Fargo are expected to announce on Tuesday at the Treasury Department that they will offer both prime and subprime borrowers who are more than three months behind a chance to halt foreclosure proceedings for 30 days and work out new loan terms.
In a conference call with analysts in December, Kenneth Lewis, the chief executive of Bank of America, said more borrowers appear to be giving up on their homes as prices fall, noting a “change in social attitudes toward default.”
“You don’t mind making a $2,000 payment when the house is going up” in value, said Steve Walsh, a mortgage broker in Scottsdale, Arizona, who has seen several clients walk away from their homes because they couldn’t refinance or sell. “When it’s going down, it becomes a weight around your neck, it becomes an anchor.”
Home prices in the North Las Vegas neighborhood of Brenda Harris, a technology analyst at a casino company, have fallen 20 percent to 30 percent. The builder who sold her a new three-bedroom home on Pink Flamingos Place for about $392,000 in 2006 is now listing similar properties for $314,000. A larger house a block down from Ms. Harris was recently listed online for $310,000.
But Ms. Harris does not want to leave her home. She estimates that she has spent close to $40,000 on her property, about half for a down payment and much of the rest on a deck and landscaping.
“I’m not behind in my payments, but I’m trying to prevent getting behind,” Ms. Harris said. “I don’t want to ruin my credit.”
In addition to the declining value of her home, Ms. Harris, 53, will soon be hit with a sharply higher house payment. She has an option adjustable-rate mortgage, a loan that allows borrowers to pay less than the interest and principal due every month. The unpaid interest gets added to the principal balance. She is making the minimum monthly payments due on her loan, about $2,400.
But she knows she will not be able to pay the $3,400 needed to cover her interest and principal, which she will be required to pay once her loan balance reaches 115 percent of her starting balance. And under the terms of her loan, which was made by Countrywide Financial, she would have to pay a prepayment penalty of about $40,000 if she chose to refinance or sell her home before May 2009.
She said that she now wishes she had taken a traditional fixed-rate loan when she bought the home. At the time, she asked for a loan that could be refinanced after one year without penalty. She said her broker had told her a week before the closing that the penalty would extend until May 2009 and that she reluctantly agreed because she had already started moving.
A nonprofit community group, Acorn Housing, is trying to broker a modification of Ms. Harris’s loan. In a statement Friday, Countrywide said the company had been in touch with Ms. Harris and would work with her.
Credit counselors say many borrowers like Ms. Harris were cajoled or pushed into risky mortgages that they never had the ability to repay.
Others disregarded warnings about complex loans because they wanted to be a part of the housing boom, which like the technology stock bubble lured people in with seemingly instant and risk-free profits, said Mory Brenner, vice president of Financial Firebird Corporation, a company based in Pittsfield, Mass., that publishes consumer debt information and refers borrowers to credit counselors.
“I’d say, Let me tell you something, this is crazy,” Mr. Brenner said. “You cannot afford this house, even if nothing happens and rates stay as low as they are today. And the response would be: I don’t care.”
Lenders extended credit to people without verifying their incomes and allowing them to make little or no down payments.
But borrowers like Mr. Doyle, the engineer in Northern California, say they are victims of their circumstances — housing prices collapsed and lending standards tightened just as they needed to sell or refinance.
In refinancing their home in 2004, Mr. Doyle and his wife were doing what millions of other homeowners did in the last decade — tapping into the rising value of their homes for home improvements, paying off credit card debt, college tuition and for other spending.
The Doyles took advantage of the housing boom by refinancing their home nearly every year since they bought it in 1995 for $275,000. Until their most recent loan they never had a problem making their payments. They invested much of the money in shares of companies that subsequently went bankrupt.
Still, Mr. Doyle does not regret refinancing in 2004. “My goal was clear: I wanted to help my daughter go through college,” he said. “It wasn’t like it was for us.”
Don't risk rubbing your gal the wrong way with second-rate sex toys from China
By Masuo Kamiyama February 9, 2008
On January 26 -- three weeks ago today -- this column introduced an item from Shukan Jitsuwa (2/7) titled "Fetid conditions may make summer Olympics a springboard for spreading sickness," in which the weekly warned Japanese planning visits to China this August that they risked a host of health concerns, from contagious diseases to food poisoning.
That precaution proved remarkably prophetic. Just six days later, news headlines screamed that 10 people in Chiba and Hyogo prefectures who had consumed frozen 'gyoza' (pork dumplings, a.k.a. pot stickers) imported from China had begun showing unmistakable symptoms of poisoning.
The cause turned out to be methamidophos, a potent phosphorous-based insecticide, apparently introduced into the gyoza packaging. The evidence at this stage is beginning to point to the likelihood of intentional mischief by someone at the point of origin.
"Chinese are wont to think that if something looks good on the outside, it must be good on the inside," a Chinese student at a national university in Japan tells Shukan Jitsuwa (2/21). "If a cook finds a speck of dog poop on meat, he'll just rinse it off and serve to a customer. Spoiled meat or fish are stir-fried in oil at high temperature and served. They aren't willing to accept the loss of even one yen.
"The Chinese government has been saying that a successful Olympics would signify China's emergence as a first-class nation," the student sighs. "I disagree. As long as people aren't educated in proper hygiene, China will remain a third-class country."
The number of poisoning victims in Japan is now approaching 2,000 and, of course, the incident has dominated the TV news and print media, including the weekly magazines, for the past 10 days.
But as is frequently the case, Shukan Jitsuwa is once again ahead of the curve in bestowing sensible advice. Just as extreme caution is warranted concerning edibles from China that you insert into your mouth, Jitsuwa slips in a sniggering suggestion that similar safety measures should be taken when inserting items from China into any other body orifice.
To wit, damsels demanding delights through diddling with a dildo -- whether developed in Dalian or devised in Dongguan -- hazard destructive damage.
"Currently, nearly all the items sold in Japan are imported from China," says the owner of an "adult toy" shop in Osaka's American Village. "I wouldn't say all of them are junk, but maybe about half have high rates of failure. Sourcing shifted to China to keep costs down, but I get the impression they're cutting corners even more than necessary.
"I'm especially concerned with electric vibrators," the shop owner adds. "Even the ones that at first glance appear imported from the U.S. contain a high percentage of components from China. I've noticed the silicone used in some has a peculiar smell to it; we won't stock those in our store."
It seems that frustration from frequent failures due to cheap components and careless quality control is not the problem. Rather, young women working in the sex industry, where such devices are frequently put to use by lecherous customers, have been heard to moan -- and not from pleasure -- that soon after a session with a pink rotary vibrator their nether parts "became inflamed" or "began itching persistently."
Apparently Chinese plastic manufacturers still make extensive use of polyvinyl chloride (PVC), which has been found to contain phthalate-based polyester, a hormone receptor that some researchers suspect contributes to reduced sperm counts in men and menstrual irregularities in women, among others problems.
"In Japan, PVC is prohibited from use in nipples for baby bottles and pacifiers," says a Mr. Kuo (nationality unspecified), a representative director of Asian Drug, a distributor for adult goods. "In Europe, the substance has been banned completely. For sex aids like rotors and vibrators, Japanese makers use silicone or ABS resin. You only find PVC in the products brought in from China."
"Regular consumers can't differentiate between the types of materials, and they're not indicated as such on the labels," Kuo continues. "To be on the safe side, I'd advise you slip a natural latex condom over it before use. Then you won't have any problems.
"And men should take similar precautions with 'onna-hole' (synthetic vaginas)," he adds.
"Up to now, I haven't consulted with any patients complaining of problems caused by sex toys, but I can't rule out the possibility," remarks Osaka-based physician Yasuaki Ishikawa, an instructor of urology at the Kinki University Faculty of Medicine (okay, stop smirking -- there really is such a place).
Ishikawa says he's encountered a completely different problem: rampant Chinese counterfeiting of ED drugs like Viagra and Cyalis.
"They'll sell five at a time, mixing in one real tablet with four phony ones," he says. "Japanese have been repeatedly swindled. The phonies don't work, and we have no idea what's actually in the pills' ingredients. It's really a shady operation, whoever's behind it."
Wanton women cry that men jerk their shot and miss the real target
By Ryann Connell January 31, 2008
Japan is in dire straits. The population is declining, people are marrying later, having fewer children, if any at all. And Spa! (1/29) says one of the major reasons for the dilemma is that as many as 70 percent of younger men are unable to achieve vaginal ejaculation.
"They've got no erection problems and they can masturbate perfectly normally, but there has been a massive increase, particularly among those in their 20s and 30s, who are suffering from vaginal ejaculation disorder, or an inability to ejaculate inside the vagina," Koichi Nagao, a urologist at the Toho University Omori Medical Center, tells Spa! "It's the most common dysfunction I have to deal with among people who come to the clinic. It leads to problems in the home, fertility problems and, in the worst cases, divorce."
Though there's no data available on exactly how many Japanese men are actually suffering from vaginal ejaculation disorder, a soapland brothel worker the magazine gives as its source says over her many years of servicing male clients, it would have to be around 70 percent.
"Young guys in particular. I'd say for every 10 guys, only about three come inside," the woman says. "There has definitely been an increase in the number of guys who'll finish themselves by hand, guys who leave without coming and guys who only want to talk."
Tsueno Akaeda, a doctor who runs a clinic in Tokyo's Roppongi, agrees with urologist Nagao.
"There are definitely more people with vaginal ejaculation disorder than there used to be," he says. "There has been incredible progress made in masturbation goods and there are plenty of people who can ejaculate into an artificial vagina, but not the real thing. I get more than a few men come to see me about that. And those in their 20s and 30s have grown up watching adult movies. They find masturbation easier and more satisfying than intercourse."
Experts say one of the main reasons men develop vaginal ejaculation disorder is that they learn how to masturbate using methods that feel distinctly different from vaginas, such as rubbing up against pillows or lying face down and moving back and forward for stimulation until climax.
"Naturally picking up somewhat unnatural methods has to be the main reason," Nagao says. "Or, some guys obtain pleasure from some method they've happened to discover almost by accident and keep on doing it that way. It used to be that your bad buddies would tell you the best way to jerk off."
That's not to say that doing it by hand is a preferable solution, either.
"Incorrect methods aren't the only problem. Gripping it too strongly or moving too quickly during masturbation are also methods that bring sensations radically different to an actual vagina," Nagao says. "Ejaculation is stress-relieving, so there's a mentality problem involved as well because guys grip themselves firmer or move their hands faster because they want to feel pleasure as quickly as possible."
Pshrink Katsumi Harima agrees with Nagao that mental issues are involved with the onset of vaginal ejaculation disorder.
"Sex is too accessible for young people nowadays, what with adult movies and Internet porn," Harima tells Spa! "They're too used to the virtual world, which means when they find things like a woman who doesn't have porn star looks, is sweaty, or doesn't moan as loud as they're expecting, they become unable to ejaculate."
SIA pilot caught with pornography at Adelaide airport fined
By Karamjit Kaur, Aviation Correspondent Feb 12, 2008
A SINGAPORE Airlines (SIA) pilot caught with pornographic material at Adelaide International Airport last Saturday, has been charged and fined A$12,000 by Australian authorities.
Captain Ng Kok Yauw, 41, a Malaysian national, was the third person arrested by Australian Customs Service in less than a week as part of a crackdown on attempts to smuggle pornography into the country through Adelaide.
The other two cases involved a 41-year-old Singaporean whose identity is not known and another Malaysian - 23-year-old Ahmad Said who is a co-pilot with Malaysia Airlines (MAS).
Australian media reported over the weekend that the MAS pilot was fined A$6,000, while the 41-year-old Singaporean will appear again in Adelaide Magistrates Court on Feb 25.
A spokesman for Australian Customs told The Straits Times that when Capt Ng was stopped and questioned by officers, he denied carrying any prohibited items.
But when they checked his laptop, they found 'objectionable material depicting abhorrent sexual acts.'
SIA spokesman Stephen Forshaw said in response to queries: 'We are aware of the reports of this case and are examining what the Court has said.
'All our crew are expected to comply fully with the laws of countries to which they operate, and that includes laws relating to the carriage of prohibited items, including data on computers.'
THE Housing and Development Board launched the sale of 278 flats in various towns and estates yesterday. And by the end of the day the units were many times subscribed, with 2,224 online applications received.
Most of the units are four-room flats, plus 64 five-room units and 20 executive flats. They are spread over 13 estates.
Toa Payoh had the largest number of flats available at 119, followed by Tampines with 39 and Bukit Merah with 30.
Cushman & Wakefield managing director Donald Han said: 'Obviously we're seeing a better response for mature estates in fairly central locations. These are the first to experience demand and price increases.'
This is HDB's fifth bi-monthly sales exercise for four-room and bigger flats under the combined balloting/walk-in system. Some 3,350 units have been offered so far.
In the first four exercises, 2,917 of the 3,034 units offered were selected, representing a take-up rate of 96 per cent.
There is also healthy demand for HDB's build-to-order (BTO) flats. The 698-unit Coral Spring @ Sengkang, launched in September 2007, is about 70 per cent taken up, with just 200 units remaining. ERA Singapore assistant vice-president Eugene Lim said this is 'not bad' considering the location.
The strong economy has helped boost BTO and bi-monthly sales. But Mr Lim said increasingly higher asking prices for resale HDB flats are pricing some people out of the resale market. 'There appears to be a stand-off between buyers and sellers in the resale market at the moment,' he said, though there is still demand for resale flats.
HDB, which has stepped up its building programme since 2007, will offer 4,500 new BTO flats in the first half of 2008.
Whether this will help cool the resale market - where at the top end a 21st-storey executive flat in Queenstown went for a record $890,000 last month - is uncertain.
PropNex CEO Mohamed Ismail reckons the resale market will remain strong for now.
'Supply (of flats) through walk-in selection is drying up and BTO flats will take time to build,' he said. 'I also believe the first half of 2008 will see people who sold their private flats en bloc earlier start to receive their collective sale proceeds, and some will downgrade to HDB resale flats.'
As such, Mr Ismail believes the resale market could see more than 30,000 transactions this year.
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Credit Suisse Net Falls on SF1.3 Billion Writedowns (Update3)
By Elena Logutenkova
Last Updated: February 12, 2008 04:26 EST
Feb. 12 (Bloomberg) -- Credit Suisse Group, Switzerland's second-biggest bank, said fourth-quarter profit fell 72 percent on lower earnings at the securities unit after writedowns of 1.3 billion Swiss francs ($1.2 billion) on debt and leveraged loans.
Net income dropped to 1.33 billion francs, or 1.21 francs a share, the Zurich-based bank said in a statement today. That missed the 1.43 billion-franc median estimate of 11 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. Credit Suisse declined 3.4 percent to 54.2 francs as of 10:10 a.m. in Swiss trading.
Credit Suisse's markdowns in the quarter compare with $14 billion at UBS AG, the country's biggest bank, and 44 million euros ($64 million) at Frankfurt-based Deutsche Bank AG. Chief Executive Officer Brady Dougan scaled down U.S. subprime- mortgage related holdings before a debt-market slump led to more than $145 billion in writedowns and loan losses at the world's biggest financial institutions.
``Dougan is doing an excellent job, certainly better than his competitors here,'' said Dieter Winet, who helps manage $50 billion at Swisscanto Asset Management in Zurich. ``The financial markets are in very bad shape.''
Group of Seven officials said markets will remain volatile and indicated policymakers will be forced to cut interest rates and taxes to shore up the global economy. The group estimates banks worldwide will suffer writedowns of $400 billion, German Finance Minister Peer Steinbrueck said.
`Continuing Turmoil'
Credit Suisse said it is ``well-capitalized and conservatively funded'' and expects ``continuing turmoil in the credit markets'' in the short term. It earned 4.67 billion francs, or 4.12 francs a share, in the final quarter of 2006.
Fourth-quarter revenue fell 13 percent to 9.4 billion francs, with investment-banking down 36 percent to 3.9 billion francs after markdowns of leveraged loans, mortgage-backed securities and collateralized debt obligations.
``I'm confident our 2008 performance will be strong relative to the industry,'' former derivatives trader Dougan, 48, said at a press conference today. ``The markets today are full of uncertainty.''
Pretax profit fell 30 percent to 3.03 billion francs, as earnings at the investment bank slumped more than analysts estimated, down 86 percent to 328 million francs, and asset management had a 247 million-franc loss. Profit from wealth management was 976 million francs and from corporate and retail banking was 401 million francs, both up more than 20 percent.
Outpacing Peers
``Credit Suisse was unable to avoid the credit market crisis but was clearly less affected than some of its competitors,'' Andreas Venditti, an analyst at Zuercher Kantonalbank in Zurich, wrote to investors. He rates the shares ``market perform'' and said he may cut his earnings estimates because of the ``still very difficult environment.''
Credit Suisse fell 36 percent in Zurich trading over the 12 months through yesterday, cutting its market value to 65.2 billion francs. The 60-member Bloomberg Europe Banks and Financial Services Index fell 34 percent in the same period.
The company got 54 percent of 2006 profit from operations before taxes from the investment-banking unit, which Dougan ran for three years before becoming CEO in May. Credit Suisse booked a gain of 1.82 billion francs in the fourth quarter of 2006 for the sale of its Winterthur insurance unit to AXA SA.
The Swiss bank raised its cash dividend for 2007 to 2.50 francs a share from 2.24 francs. Last year it paid out an additional 46 centimes a share after the Winterthur sale.
Holdings Cut
Managers at the SPS mortgage-servicing unit alerted the executive board to concerns about subprime assets in 2006. By the end of that year, the company had originated about 40 percent fewer subprime mortgages than in 2005, Dougan has said.
Credit Suisse wrote down a net 2 billion francs last year on debt and loans. The 2.2 billion-franc third-quarter charge it reported in November was narrowed by gains from hedging throughout the year.
The bank reduced holdings of leveraged loans during the fourth quarter to 36 billion francs from 58.6 billion francs. It also had 25.9 billion francs in commercial mortgage bonds as of Dec. 31, down from 35.9 billion francs; 8.7 billion francs in residential mortgages, down from 16.3 billion francs; and 2.7 billion francs in CDOs, compared with 2.3 billion francs.
``We are very comfortable with our valuations at the year- end,'' Chief Financial Officer Renato Fassbind told journalists on a conference call today.
Deutsche Bank, UBS
Credit Suisse also wrote down the value of securities at the asset-management unit by 774 million francs. It bought them from its money-market funds ``to address liquidity concerns caused by the extreme conditions in the U.S. market,'' it said.
Deutsche Bank, which controls Europe's biggest investment bank by revenue, last week reported a smaller-than-expected decline in fourth-quarter profit, managing to avoid any net writedowns on bonds after booking gains from hedges. CEO Josef Ackermann said the outlook for market-related businesses remains ``challenging'' in 2008.
UBS will publish details on Feb. 14 of its 12.5 billion- franc fourth-quarter loss, the biggest ever for a bank. For the year, UBS's loss amounted to about 4.4 billion francs, it said on Jan. 30, reporting lower earnings than Credit Suisse for the first time since being created in a merger in 1998.
``We are a bit surprised about the new and large exposures on commercial real estate mortgages,'' JPMorgan Chase & Co. analyst Kian Abouhossein said in a note to clients.
Credit Suisse may suffer this year from a revenue slowdown or potential writedowns from commercial mortgage-backed securities and leveraged loans, analysts including ABN Amro Holding NV's Kinner Lakhani have said.
`Advantage in Slowdown'
The bank ranked fifth among global collateralized mortgage- backed securities underwriters in the first nine months of 2007, Lakhani said. It also ranked fifth among bookrunners for leveraged loans in the Europe, Middle East and Africa region last year, according to Bloomberg data.
Credit Suisse said last month it is cutting about 500 jobs at the investment-banking division worldwide to meet reduced demand for some services. The job cuts will be mainly in the global securities unit, which includes equities and fixed-income trading and origination, it said.
``Credit Suisse should concentrate on private banking and institutional asset management,'' Swisscanto's Winet said. ``Investment banking is so volatile and it goes rotten every four years or so.''
The company plans to expand in private banking by adding about 1,000 wealth management advisers through 2010. The bank has opened new offices in the U.S. as part of a business revamp there and is also looking to invest in operations in Singapore and Hong Kong, where it lags behind competitors.
Lenders Step Up Effort to Avert Foreclosures
By DAMIAN PALETTA and JAMES R. HAGERTY
February 12, 2008
WSJ -- Prodded by the Bush administration, six major mortgage lenders are due to announce today a stepped-up effort to rescue homeowners on the brink of foreclosure.
Under the latest plan, dubbed Project Lifeline, the lenders promise to seek contact with homeowners who are 90 or more days overdue on their mortgages. In some cases, homeowners will be given the chance to "pause" their foreclosure for 30 days while lenders try to work out a way to make the loans affordable. Lenders could begin sending letters to these borrowers as soon as this week.
Homeowners wouldn't qualify for the program if they are in bankruptcy, if they already have a foreclosure date within 30 days or if the loan was for an investment or vacant property.
Unlike the plan announced in December to freeze interest rates at current levels on certain adjustable-rate loans, this latest effort is to involve all kinds of home loans, not just subprime mortgages, a higher-cost variety for people with blemished credit records or high debt in relation to income.
The participating banks, which service about half of the U.S. mortgage market, are Bank of America Corp., Citigroup Inc., Countrywide Financial Corp., J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., Washington Mutual Inc. and Wells Fargo & Co. -- all members of the so-called Hope Now Alliance. They are working with the U.S. Treasury and Department of Housing and Urban Development. Those two departments scheduled a briefing on the plan for 11:15 a.m. today. The plan was reported yesterday by the Reuters News Service.
Almost immediately after the Bush administration announced the freeze plan in December for certain subprime borrowers, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson indicated an interest in developing a strategy to address a broader range of distressed homeowners.
At least 1.3 million home-mortgage loans were either seriously delinquent or in foreclosure at the end of the third quarter, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. Not all of those loans would qualify for the program, however.
Analysts at the investment-banking firm Lehman Brothers recently estimated that the number of foreclosures will surge to one million this year and next, about four times the 2007 level.
Some nonprofit groups that work with troubled borrowers say lenders have become more flexible in recent months in efforts to find ways for more borrowers to keep their homes. But they also say the industry needs to do more.
Martin Eakes, chief executive of the Center for Responsible Lending, a nonprofit research group based in Washington that frequently bashes the mortgage industry, said moves announced so far have been "baby steps." He said lenders should move more aggressively to reduce loan balances to current home values and make monthly payments affordable. He acknowledged, however, that servicers of loans -- the firms that collect payments and handle foreclosures -- face the risk of lawsuits from investors that own loans if those investors believe borrowers have been given overly generous terms.
Bruce Marks, chief executive of Neighborhood Assistance Corp. of America, a Boston-based nonprofit that works with distressed homeowners, dismissed Project Lifeline as a "PR stunt." He said it already should have been automatic for loan servicers to pause foreclosure proceedings for homeowners seeking to qualify for a more affordable loan.
Congressional Democrats also have grown increasingly hostile toward the Bush administration and lenders over the past several months, arguing that not enough is being done to prevent foreclosure. Mr. Paulson is scheduled to testify before the Senate Banking Committee Thursday, and Project Lifeline could help blunt criticism from lawmakers.
The latest initiative came as Countrywide announced a plan to work with the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, or Acorn, to seek alternatives to foreclosure for distressed borrowers.
ING shares slide on market talk of writedowns
Tue Feb 12, 2008 5:06am EST
LONDON/FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Shares in Dutch banking group ING fell by as much as 6.5 percent on Tuesday on market talk of large writedowns, traders said.
ING said it would not comment on market rumors, but a spokeswoman said the firm was "perfectly aware of its obligation to report any material deviations".
The Amsterdam-based banking and insurance group is scheduled to report earnings for the last three months of 2007 and the full year on February 20.
"There are rumors of a writedown of 6-8 billion euros at ING," said one trader. Other traders said the writedown was linked to the U.S. real estate business.
At 4:33 a.m. EST, stock in ING was down 2.84 percent. It was the third-biggest percentage loser on the pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index, which was flat.
At the end of its latest reported quarter, September 30, ING had 3.1 billion euros in exposure to asset-backed securities that had subprime mortgages as collateral.
ING also reported exposure of 26.9 billion euros to Alt-A rated debt, which is considered to be of a higher quality than subprime-backed bonds. Some 23.8 billion euros was held by ING Direct, ING's Internet and direct banking unit.
Mortgage Crisis Spreads Past Subprime Loans
By VIKAS BAJAJ and LOUISE STORY
February 12, 2008
The credit crisis is no longer just a subprime mortgage problem.
As home prices fall and banks tighten lending standards, people with good, or prime, credit histories are falling behind on their payments for home loans, auto loans and credit cards at a quickening pace, according to industry data and economists.
The rise in prime delinquencies, while less severe than the one in the subprime market, nonetheless poses a threat to the battered housing market and weakening economy, which some specialists say is in a recession or headed for one.
Until recently, people with good credit, who tend to pay their bills on time and manage their finances well, were viewed as a bulwark against the economic strains posed by rising defaults among borrowers with blemished, or subprime, credit.
“This collapse in housing value is sucking in all borrowers,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Economy.com.
Like subprime mortgages, many prime loans made in recent years allowed borrowers to pay less initially and face higher adjustable payments a few years later. As long as home prices were rising, these borrowers could refinance their loans or sell their properties to pay off their mortgages. But now, with prices falling and lenders clamping down, homeowners with solid credit are starting to come under the same financial stress as those with subprime credit.
“Subprime was a symptom of the problem,” said James F. Keegan, a bond portfolio manager at American Century Investments, a mutual fund company. “The problem was we had a debt or credit bubble.”
The bursting of that bubble has led to steep losses across the financial industry. American International Group said on Monday that auditors found it may have understated losses on complex financial instruments linked to mortgages and corporate loans.
The running turmoil is also stirring fears that some hedge funds may run into trouble. At the end of September, nearly 4 percent of prime mortgages were past due or in foreclosure, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.
That was the highest rate since the group started tracking prime and subprime mortgages separately in 1998. The delinquency and foreclosure rate for all mortgages, 7.3 percent, is higher than at any time since the group started tracking that data in 1979, largely as a result of the surge in subprime lending during the last few years.
An example of the spreading credit crisis is seen in Don Doyle, a computer engineer at Lockheed Martin who makes a six-figure income and had a stellar credit score in 2004, when he refinanced his home in Northern California to take cash out to pay for his daughter’s college tuition.
Mr. Doyle, 52, is now worried that he will have to file for bankruptcy, because he cannot afford to make the higher variable payments on his mortgage, and he cannot sell his home for more than his $740,000 mortgage.
“The whole plan was to get out” before his rate reset, he said. “Now I am caught. I can’t sell my house. I’m having a hard time refinancing. I’ve avoided bankruptcy for months trying to pull this out of my savings.”
The default rate for prime mortgages is still far lower than for subprime loans, about 24 percent of which are delinquent or in foreclosure. Some economists note that slightly more than a third of American homeowners have paid off their mortgages completely. This group is generally more affluent and contributes more to consumer spending and the economy relative to its size.
Unlike subprime borrowers, who tend to have lower incomes and fewer assets, prime borrowers have greater means to restructure their debt if they lose jobs or encounter other financial challenges. The recent reductions in short term interest rates by the Federal Reserve should also help by reducing the reset rate for adjustable loans.
Still, economists say the rate cuts and the $168 billion fiscal stimulus package are unlikely to make a significant dent in the large debts weighing on many Americans, because banks have tightened lending standards and expected rebates from the government will not cover most house payments.
The problems are most acute in areas that experienced a big boom in housing — California, the Southwest, Florida and other coastal markets — and in the Midwest, which is suffering from job losses in the manufacturing sector.
And it is not just first-mortgage default rates that are rising. About 5.7 percent of home equity lines of credit were delinquent or in default at the end of last year, up from 4.5 percent a year earlier, according to Moody’s Economy.com and Equifax, the credit bureau.
About 7.1 percent of auto loans were in trouble, up from 6.1 percent. Personal bankruptcy filings, which fell significantly after a 2005 federal law made it harder to wipe out debts in bankruptcy, are starting to inch up.
On Monday, Fitch Ratings, the debt rating firm, reported that credit card companies wrote off 5.4 percent of their prime card balances in January, up from 4.3 percent a year ago. The so-called charge-off rate is still lower than before the 2005 law went into effect.
Banks are responding to the rise in delinquencies by capping home equity lines of credit in areas with falling real estate prices. A few credit card companies have also moved to reduce the credit limits of customers they deem more risky.
Bank of America, Citigroup, Countrywide Financial, JPMorgan Chase, Washington Mutual and Wells Fargo are expected to announce on Tuesday at the Treasury Department that they will offer both prime and subprime borrowers who are more than three months behind a chance to halt foreclosure proceedings for 30 days and work out new loan terms.
In a conference call with analysts in December, Kenneth Lewis, the chief executive of Bank of America, said more borrowers appear to be giving up on their homes as prices fall, noting a “change in social attitudes toward default.”
“You don’t mind making a $2,000 payment when the house is going up” in value, said Steve Walsh, a mortgage broker in Scottsdale, Arizona, who has seen several clients walk away from their homes because they couldn’t refinance or sell. “When it’s going down, it becomes a weight around your neck, it becomes an anchor.”
Home prices in the North Las Vegas neighborhood of Brenda Harris, a technology analyst at a casino company, have fallen 20 percent to 30 percent. The builder who sold her a new three-bedroom home on Pink Flamingos Place for about $392,000 in 2006 is now listing similar properties for $314,000. A larger house a block down from Ms. Harris was recently listed online for $310,000.
But Ms. Harris does not want to leave her home. She estimates that she has spent close to $40,000 on her property, about half for a down payment and much of the rest on a deck and landscaping.
“I’m not behind in my payments, but I’m trying to prevent getting behind,” Ms. Harris said. “I don’t want to ruin my credit.”
In addition to the declining value of her home, Ms. Harris, 53, will soon be hit with a sharply higher house payment. She has an option adjustable-rate mortgage, a loan that allows borrowers to pay less than the interest and principal due every month. The unpaid interest gets added to the principal balance. She is making the minimum monthly payments due on her loan, about $2,400.
But she knows she will not be able to pay the $3,400 needed to cover her interest and principal, which she will be required to pay once her loan balance reaches 115 percent of her starting balance. And under the terms of her loan, which was made by Countrywide Financial, she would have to pay a prepayment penalty of about $40,000 if she chose to refinance or sell her home before May 2009.
She said that she now wishes she had taken a traditional fixed-rate loan when she bought the home. At the time, she asked for a loan that could be refinanced after one year without penalty. She said her broker had told her a week before the closing that the penalty would extend until May 2009 and that she reluctantly agreed because she had already started moving.
A nonprofit community group, Acorn Housing, is trying to broker a modification of Ms. Harris’s loan. In a statement Friday, Countrywide said the company had been in touch with Ms. Harris and would work with her.
Credit counselors say many borrowers like Ms. Harris were cajoled or pushed into risky mortgages that they never had the ability to repay.
Others disregarded warnings about complex loans because they wanted to be a part of the housing boom, which like the technology stock bubble lured people in with seemingly instant and risk-free profits, said Mory Brenner, vice president of Financial Firebird Corporation, a company based in Pittsfield, Mass., that publishes consumer debt information and refers borrowers to credit counselors.
“I’d say, Let me tell you something, this is crazy,” Mr. Brenner said. “You cannot afford this house, even if nothing happens and rates stay as low as they are today. And the response would be: I don’t care.”
Lenders extended credit to people without verifying their incomes and allowing them to make little or no down payments.
But borrowers like Mr. Doyle, the engineer in Northern California, say they are victims of their circumstances — housing prices collapsed and lending standards tightened just as they needed to sell or refinance.
In refinancing their home in 2004, Mr. Doyle and his wife were doing what millions of other homeowners did in the last decade — tapping into the rising value of their homes for home improvements, paying off credit card debt, college tuition and for other spending.
The Doyles took advantage of the housing boom by refinancing their home nearly every year since they bought it in 1995 for $275,000. Until their most recent loan they never had a problem making their payments. They invested much of the money in shares of companies that subsequently went bankrupt.
Still, Mr. Doyle does not regret refinancing in 2004. “My goal was clear: I wanted to help my daughter go through college,” he said. “It wasn’t like it was for us.”
Don't risk rubbing your gal the wrong way with second-rate sex toys from China
By Masuo Kamiyama
February 9, 2008
On January 26 -- three weeks ago today -- this column introduced an item from Shukan Jitsuwa (2/7) titled "Fetid conditions may make summer Olympics a springboard for spreading sickness," in which the weekly warned Japanese planning visits to China this August that they risked a host of health concerns, from contagious diseases to food poisoning.
That precaution proved remarkably prophetic. Just six days later, news headlines screamed that 10 people in Chiba and Hyogo prefectures who had consumed frozen 'gyoza' (pork dumplings, a.k.a. pot stickers) imported from China had begun showing unmistakable symptoms of poisoning.
The cause turned out to be methamidophos, a potent phosphorous-based insecticide, apparently introduced into the gyoza packaging. The evidence at this stage is beginning to point to the likelihood of intentional mischief by someone at the point of origin.
"Chinese are wont to think that if something looks good on the outside, it must be good on the inside," a Chinese student at a national university in Japan tells Shukan Jitsuwa (2/21). "If a cook finds a speck of dog poop on meat, he'll just rinse it off and serve to a customer. Spoiled meat or fish are stir-fried in oil at high temperature and served. They aren't willing to accept the loss of even one yen.
"The Chinese government has been saying that a successful Olympics would signify China's emergence as a first-class nation," the student sighs. "I disagree. As long as people aren't educated in proper hygiene, China will remain a third-class country."
The number of poisoning victims in Japan is now approaching 2,000 and, of course, the incident has dominated the TV news and print media, including the weekly magazines, for the past 10 days.
But as is frequently the case, Shukan Jitsuwa is once again ahead of the curve in bestowing sensible advice. Just as extreme caution is warranted concerning edibles from China that you insert into your mouth, Jitsuwa slips in a sniggering suggestion that similar safety measures should be taken when inserting items from China into any other body orifice.
To wit, damsels demanding delights through diddling with a dildo -- whether developed in Dalian or devised in Dongguan -- hazard destructive damage.
"Currently, nearly all the items sold in Japan are imported from China," says the owner of an "adult toy" shop in Osaka's American Village. "I wouldn't say all of them are junk, but maybe about half have high rates of failure. Sourcing shifted to China to keep costs down, but I get the impression they're cutting corners even more than necessary.
"I'm especially concerned with electric vibrators," the shop owner adds. "Even the ones that at first glance appear imported from the U.S. contain a high percentage of components from China. I've noticed the silicone used in some has a peculiar smell to it; we won't stock those in our store."
It seems that frustration from frequent failures due to cheap components and careless quality control is not the problem. Rather, young women working in the sex industry, where such devices are frequently put to use by lecherous customers, have been heard to moan -- and not from pleasure -- that soon after a session with a pink rotary vibrator their nether parts "became inflamed" or "began itching persistently."
Apparently Chinese plastic manufacturers still make extensive use of polyvinyl chloride (PVC), which has been found to contain phthalate-based polyester, a hormone receptor that some researchers suspect contributes to reduced sperm counts in men and menstrual irregularities in women, among others problems.
"In Japan, PVC is prohibited from use in nipples for baby bottles and pacifiers," says a Mr. Kuo (nationality unspecified), a representative director of Asian Drug, a distributor for adult goods. "In Europe, the substance has been banned completely. For sex aids like rotors and vibrators, Japanese makers use silicone or ABS resin. You only find PVC in the products brought in from China."
"Regular consumers can't differentiate between the types of materials, and they're not indicated as such on the labels," Kuo continues. "To be on the safe side, I'd advise you slip a natural latex condom over it before use. Then you won't have any problems.
"And men should take similar precautions with 'onna-hole' (synthetic vaginas)," he adds.
"Up to now, I haven't consulted with any patients complaining of problems caused by sex toys, but I can't rule out the possibility," remarks Osaka-based physician Yasuaki Ishikawa, an instructor of urology at the Kinki University Faculty of Medicine (okay, stop smirking -- there really is such a place).
Ishikawa says he's encountered a completely different problem: rampant Chinese counterfeiting of ED drugs like Viagra and Cyalis.
"They'll sell five at a time, mixing in one real tablet with four phony ones," he says. "Japanese have been repeatedly swindled. The phonies don't work, and we have no idea what's actually in the pills' ingredients. It's really a shady operation, whoever's behind it."
Wanton women cry that men jerk their shot and miss the real target
By Ryann Connell
January 31, 2008
Japan is in dire straits. The population is declining, people are marrying later, having fewer children, if any at all. And Spa! (1/29) says one of the major reasons for the dilemma is that as many as 70 percent of younger men are unable to achieve vaginal ejaculation.
"They've got no erection problems and they can masturbate perfectly normally, but there has been a massive increase, particularly among those in their 20s and 30s, who are suffering from vaginal ejaculation disorder, or an inability to ejaculate inside the vagina," Koichi Nagao, a urologist at the Toho University Omori Medical Center, tells Spa! "It's the most common dysfunction I have to deal with among people who come to the clinic. It leads to problems in the home, fertility problems and, in the worst cases, divorce."
Though there's no data available on exactly how many Japanese men are actually suffering from vaginal ejaculation disorder, a soapland brothel worker the magazine gives as its source says over her many years of servicing male clients, it would have to be around 70 percent.
"Young guys in particular. I'd say for every 10 guys, only about three come inside," the woman says. "There has definitely been an increase in the number of guys who'll finish themselves by hand, guys who leave without coming and guys who only want to talk."
Tsueno Akaeda, a doctor who runs a clinic in Tokyo's Roppongi, agrees with urologist Nagao.
"There are definitely more people with vaginal ejaculation disorder than there used to be," he says. "There has been incredible progress made in masturbation goods and there are plenty of people who can ejaculate into an artificial vagina, but not the real thing. I get more than a few men come to see me about that. And those in their 20s and 30s have grown up watching adult movies. They find masturbation easier and more satisfying than intercourse."
Experts say one of the main reasons men develop vaginal ejaculation disorder is that they learn how to masturbate using methods that feel distinctly different from vaginas, such as rubbing up against pillows or lying face down and moving back and forward for stimulation until climax.
"Naturally picking up somewhat unnatural methods has to be the main reason," Nagao says. "Or, some guys obtain pleasure from some method they've happened to discover almost by accident and keep on doing it that way. It used to be that your bad buddies would tell you the best way to jerk off."
That's not to say that doing it by hand is a preferable solution, either.
"Incorrect methods aren't the only problem. Gripping it too strongly or moving too quickly during masturbation are also methods that bring sensations radically different to an actual vagina," Nagao says. "Ejaculation is stress-relieving, so there's a mentality problem involved as well because guys grip themselves firmer or move their hands faster because they want to feel pleasure as quickly as possible."
Pshrink Katsumi Harima agrees with Nagao that mental issues are involved with the onset of vaginal ejaculation disorder.
"Sex is too accessible for young people nowadays, what with adult movies and Internet porn," Harima tells Spa! "They're too used to the virtual world, which means when they find things like a woman who doesn't have porn star looks, is sweaty, or doesn't moan as loud as they're expecting, they become unable to ejaculate."
SIA pilot caught with pornography at Adelaide airport fined
By Karamjit Kaur, Aviation Correspondent
Feb 12, 2008
A SINGAPORE Airlines (SIA) pilot caught with pornographic material at Adelaide International Airport last Saturday, has been charged and fined A$12,000 by Australian authorities.
Captain Ng Kok Yauw, 41, a Malaysian national, was the third person arrested by Australian Customs Service in less than a week as part of a crackdown on attempts to smuggle pornography into the country through Adelaide.
The other two cases involved a 41-year-old Singaporean whose identity is not known and another Malaysian - 23-year-old Ahmad Said who is a co-pilot with Malaysia Airlines (MAS).
Australian media reported over the weekend that the MAS pilot was fined A$6,000, while the 41-year-old Singaporean will appear again in Adelaide Magistrates Court on Feb 25.
A spokesman for Australian Customs told The Straits Times that when Capt Ng was stopped and questioned by officers, he denied carrying any prohibited items.
But when they checked his laptop, they found 'objectionable material depicting abhorrent sexual acts.'
SIA spokesman Stephen Forshaw said in response to queries: 'We are aware of the reports of this case and are examining what the Court has said.
'All our crew are expected to comply fully with the laws of countries to which they operate, and that includes laws relating to the carriage of prohibited items, including data on computers.'
HDB offers 278 flats for sale
By ARTHUR SIM
February 12, 2008
THE Housing and Development Board launched the sale of 278 flats in various towns and estates yesterday. And by the end of the day the units were many times subscribed, with 2,224 online applications received.
Most of the units are four-room flats, plus 64 five-room units and 20 executive flats. They are spread over 13 estates.
Toa Payoh had the largest number of flats available at 119, followed by Tampines with 39 and Bukit Merah with 30.
Cushman & Wakefield managing director Donald Han said: 'Obviously we're seeing a better response for mature estates in fairly central locations. These are the first to experience demand and price increases.'
This is HDB's fifth bi-monthly sales exercise for four-room and bigger flats under the combined balloting/walk-in system. Some 3,350 units have been offered so far.
In the first four exercises, 2,917 of the 3,034 units offered were selected, representing a take-up rate of 96 per cent.
There is also healthy demand for HDB's build-to-order (BTO) flats. The 698-unit Coral Spring @ Sengkang, launched in September 2007, is about 70 per cent taken up, with just 200 units remaining. ERA Singapore assistant vice-president Eugene Lim said this is 'not bad' considering the location.
The strong economy has helped boost BTO and bi-monthly sales. But Mr Lim said increasingly higher asking prices for resale HDB flats are pricing some people out of the resale market. 'There appears to be a stand-off between buyers and sellers in the resale market at the moment,' he said, though there is still demand for resale flats.
HDB, which has stepped up its building programme since 2007, will offer 4,500 new BTO flats in the first half of 2008.
Whether this will help cool the resale market - where at the top end a 21st-storey executive flat in Queenstown went for a record $890,000 last month - is uncertain.
PropNex CEO Mohamed Ismail reckons the resale market will remain strong for now.
'Supply (of flats) through walk-in selection is drying up and BTO flats will take time to build,' he said. 'I also believe the first half of 2008 will see people who sold their private flats en bloc earlier start to receive their collective sale proceeds, and some will downgrade to HDB resale flats.'
As such, Mr Ismail believes the resale market could see more than 30,000 transactions this year.
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