Oct

Fed Eyes Move To Unsecured Loans

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The Federal Reserve is working with the US Treasury on plans for a dramatic move into unsecured lending in the hope that this extreme step could help bring credit markets back to life. As well as unsecured lending to banks, this could lead to the Fed directly purchasing commercial paper or funding a special purpose vehicle set up to do this.

Any unsecured lending would be a radical departure for the Fed. Central banks almost never make unsecured loans, and the Fed has never done so in its history.

The Fed and Treasury are working together on how that might work but were not ready to announce it -yesterday. It is awkward for the Treasury to move to supporting a big unsecured lending programme when the core of its pitch to Congress was the plan to purchase troubled mortgagerelated assets.

There remains some chance that the US authorities will not be able to reach agreement. But the urgency of the situation - and the fact that the Fed referred to unsecured lending in a press release yesterday - suggests that it will happen.

This reliance on overnight money is dangerous for the financial system. It makes banks vulnerable to short-term market dislocations or loss of confidence, increasing the likelihood of failures and firesales of assets.

There are two reasons why banks cannot obtain term unsecured loans from the private market. There is a classic financial-crisis coordination problem, characterised as: “I won’t lend you money for a month if I think that everyone else will only lend you money for a day, allowing them to pull out tomorrow and leave me stranded.” This “roll-over” risk is a form of liquidity risk. The second reason is the credit risk of lending to banks, which has been elevated by the financial and economic turmoil.

The Fed’s existing liquidity operations - ramped up again yesterday - reduce liquidity risk by providing a large backstop source of funds. But they are imperfect substitutes for unsecured borrowing, as they are only available on a secured basis. Unsecured term loans - for instance at 100 or 150 basis points over the federal funds rate for three-month money - would provide a near-perfect substitute.

The unsecured Fed term loan rate would act as a ceiling for Libor. Banks would be able to use these loans to reduce their reliance on overnight borrowing, making the system more stable.

Moreover, banks would in theory become more willing to lend spare funds to each other, reviving the private interbank market, since the borrower or lender could turn to the Fed for unsecured loans if it suddenly needed additional liquidity.

Tags: backstop, central banks, characterised, coordination problem, credit markets, credit risk, dislocations, dramatic move, economic turmoil, extreme step, federal reserve, financial crisis, liquidity risk, overnight money, private market, radical departure, source of funds, special purpose vehicle, unsecured loans, us treasury

Fall Movie Preview

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It’s no secret that the movie industry wants your soul and, my friends, this is the time of year when that soul is ripest for picking. There will be Halloween movies to make you scream, Thanksgiving movies that make you miss your Ma, Christmas movies that will cause you to weep all over your yule log.

In between is everything else, with shoot-outs, spies, end-of-the-world scenarios, all manner of love that is lost, found, salvaged and rediscovered.

If there is one thing you can say about the moviemakers, it’s that they offer something for everybody. Some of it will be fantastic, win awards, go directly to the classic wall at the video store. More of it will stink like the theater lobby after another showing of “Rocky Horror.”

I claim no special ability to forecast the success of movies, yet here I am doing it. You should pay no special attention to my prognostications because when it comes to movies, I am notoriously unpredictable. I will turn my nose up at a movie simply because the title reminds me of something airing on The Lifetime Channel something horrible starring Valerie Bertinelli and that sellout Gerald McRaney. I will go see another movie just because I heard there is a maggot scene or a lot of side boob.

But see which movies you want, people. It’s your souls, after all.

Tags: aim, movie, movie industry, moviemakers

Movie Makers Lose The Plot In Gameland

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One of the things we certainly would rather not think about is movie adaptations of computer games. Defrag is oddly excited about the forthcoming release of the Max Payne movie, even though deep down we know we’ll be disappointed. This is because every movie based on a game has thus far been so awful that the people behind The Mummy 3 can watch them and for a brief, shining moment actually feel like auteurs. It’s also because Max Payne’s plot makes sense for about the first 10 minutes of game play and then goes completely wackjob nutso cuckoo.

As baffling as wringing a vaguely coherent plot out of Max Payne is, that would be a densely plotted James Ellroy novel compared with another adaptation that is rumoured to be in the works. According to Ain’t it Cool News, the next game to become a big movie is The Sims.

On one level the not thinking very hard about things level that makes sense because The Sims is one the best selling PC games ever. On the other hand, since the game is an open ended life simulation in which you create a bunch of people and have them interact with each other in social settings for no specific purpose, it seems a little broad in narrative for a film. It’s like announcing that you’re making a movie about the world.

Although now that we think about it, a never ending, plotless movie that chronicles the minutiae of daily life has potential. All the makers would have to do is film it in black and white with French dialogue and we’d have the world’s first video game adapted art house smash.

Tags: coo, movie, movie maker, narrative, video game

Mallozzi on Stargate Atlantis movie

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While there is still plenty of work to be done to finish out the fifth and final season of Stargate Atlantis, executive producers Joseph Mallozzi and Paul Mullie are already busy penning the first Atlantis movie that will follow the series when it bows in January (story).

The film doesn’t have a title yet, but Mallozzi has nicknamed it “Project Twilight” in these earliest stages of pre-production.

Mallozzi, who also serves as Atlantis’s day-to-day showrunner along with Mullie, called the cancellation news “bittersweet.” “To be honest, we knew the odds were stacked against us,” he told GateWorld. “Still, given the numbers, we did hold up hope for a renewal.

The film will of course play into the established mythology of Stargate Atlantis, but the story won’t have the burden of tying up loose story threads from the television series.

Tags: ins, movie, producers, television, television series

Scenes from a movie-going town

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The truth is that, with a few sparkling exceptions, movie-going in the holy city has become a thoroughly unpleasant business. As a movie critic, I go to more movies than most people, and I regret that there are fewer theaters today than ever, as each and every theater in the downtown area has closed.

In this respect, Jerusalem is no different, although here the trend may be exacerbated by the fact that approximately two-thirds of the population do not go to movies at all as a rule. Of course, there are some Arabs and haredim who do enjoy movies, but the bulk of theatergoers in the capital are secular and modern Orthodox Israelis.

There is a haredi film industry, but it exists only to serve the DVD market, and in east Jerusalem there are are currently no first-run theaters (although there cultural centers that do show films from time to time).

But the silent non-haredi majority here still enjoys movies, as evidenced from the turnouts at the theaters of which we can be proud: the Jerusalem Cinematheque, the Lev Smadar and Binyenei Ha’uma.

The Jerusalem Cinematheque on Derech Hebron, of course, is a cultural institution in its own right, with its 200-plus film festival in July, over 30,000 films in its archives and regular visits from luminaries of the international movie world. It’s much more than a theater. But simply as a theater, it is the best in the capital.

Following last year’s major renovation, the Cinematheque has added two new auditoriums, for a total of four (although one is only for videos). All four boast extremely comfortable seats and excellent sound systems. There is also a restaurant/café with a beautiful view of the Old City walls.

If you simply want to see a movie in a clean and attractive setting, this is the best place. And if you’re interested in films from outside the Hollywood mainstream, it’s one of the only places.

Another good choice is Lev Smadar, the only single-screen theater left in the city. Part of the Lev Cinemas chain which took over the original Smadar theater several years ago, the venue has retained its indie credibility.

Fronted by a pleasant café, it shows foreign and independent films, from both Israel and abroad. Its auditorium is clean and well-maintained although it can occasionally be a little chilly, no matter what the season.

But with a devoted staff of movie-lovers and a host of restaurants and cafes within strolling distance, it’s always popular with Jerusalemites. Another plus: The Lev movie chain attempts, whenever possible, to show films with English titles as well as Hebrew. Not so wonderful is that a construction project has closed the parking lot on Rehov Zvi Graetz, where many Smadar viewers used to park.

The Binyenei Ha’uma theaters are another good option and show movies outside the mainstream. The auditoriums are comfortable and well-maintained and there is also a café. Parking in the lot is free and rarely crowded. For some Jerusalemites, the location may be inconvenient, but this theater is an excellent option for people who live outside the city.

Let’s start with Globus. First, you’ll have to wait in long lines for the security check to park, then wade through the huge crowds that frequent the mall at almost all hours, but particularly on Thursday and Saturday nights. There are rarely more than two ticket-sellers on duty, so the lines get huge.

If you arrive five minutes before a show, you will be lucky to see the beginning of the movie (in spite of the 10 or so minutes of ads and trailers before each film). The theaters get filthy very quickly, but don’t blame the management. If the entire IDF were deployed solely to clean up after this theater’s patrons, it couldn’t handle the job.

A huge percentage of the audience, at any time of day, consists of teens, and we know teens will be teens, but both older and younger audiences have been driven out. A friend of mine left recently when a fist fight broke out in the row in front of him. Another friend reports that a boy dumped a full cup of cola over her young son’s head during a movie.

If you go to this theater, you undoubtedly have your own stories. No one turns off their cell phones, of course, so you often have to strain to hear. And if you choose to see the last show of the night, when the film ends, you will find most of the mall’s doors locked and no staff on duty to direct you to the one or two exits that are still open.

The exits that are open may not be anywhere near where you parked, so you may find yourself wandering through the parking lots, an especially nerve-wracking situation for women alone at night, and one that could easily be remedied by the management of the mall.

Rav Chen is a similarly unappealing setting to see a movie. It’s only temporary, but construction on the site obscures the entrance. The parking facilities are nightmarishly inadequate and the cars rolling out after a movie are a threat to pedestrians, who are forced to squash themselves against a wall to avoid being run over.

As in Malha, ticket lines are extremely long and slow-moving, particularly if you compare them to much better-staffed theaters in the US. Once you’re inside, it’s marginally more pleasant than Malha, with larger auditoriums.

The problem here is really when the movie is over. You are herded out through a maze of poorly marked staircases and passages that lead you to the lobby. The idea is crowd control and that makes sense - when there are crowds.

Tags: elf, film industry, films, hollywood, movie, theaters

Roger Avary’s Wolfenstein Movie Still in the Works

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It’s still in the works, Id Software CEO Todd Hollenshead told Eurogamer, with the film’s writer and director Roger Avary still writing the script.

With the writer’s strike it took so long to get underway and Roger Avary, the writer, had a commitment that was in line before working the Wolfenstein stuff, but I’ve recently been in contact with Roger and he’s actually working on the script right now,” explained Hollenshead.

Looks like Avary may have finally taken care of his run-in with the law from earlier this year. The writer/director was arrested in January under suspicion of manslaughter and DUI following a car crash with him behind the wheel. One of the passengers was killed.

Tags: ceo, movie

Focused And Ideally Aligned

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The changes, outlined in a memo to employees last week, come ahead of Motorola’s quarterly report on Thursday. The Illinois-based telecom-equipment maker is expected to report on plans to split itself into two companies, separating its troubled cellphone unit from the rest of Motorola, the home and networks mobility unit and its public-safety radios division.

The reorganization aligns these businesses into three distinct units. One unit will include the cable set-top boxes operation as well as other equipment for digital video, Internet-based video and modems. It will be led by John Burke, who currently oversees the cable set-top business, the world’s largest by sales.

The company’s networks-gear business will be divided in two. One unit, cellular networks, will focus on traditional wireless equipment sold to telecom carriers and be led by Fred Wright. The other, broadband access solutions, will focus on next-generation technologies including WiMax and LTE, which have so far produced little revenue. This unit will be led by Dan Moloney, head of home and networks mobility, until a permanent leader is announced.

Dan Coombes, who was senior vice president for wireless broadband systems, will become an adviser to Mr. Moloney.

The memo to employees noted that “these changes are not a reaction to Motorola’s separation plans or a cost-cutting measure.” The memo said “it’s time to position our business for continued success over the next five years.”

A Motorola spokeswoman said the reorganization “will ensure that Home & Networks Mobility remains agile, focused and ideally aligned to realize its growth potential.”

Tags: amp, boxes, coo, reorganization, spokeswoman, vice president

Motorola Moves to Open Up Sale Options

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The changes, outlined in a memo to employees last week, come ahead of Motorola’s quarterly report on Thursday. The Illinois-based telecom-equipment maker is expected to report on plans to split itself into two companies, separating its troubled cellphone unit from the rest of Motorola, the home and networks mobility unit and its public-safety radios division.

The reorganization aligns these businesses into three distinct units. One unit will include the cable set-top boxes operation as well as other equipment for digital video, Internet-based video and modems. It will be led by John Burke, who currently oversees the cable set-top business, the world’s largest by sales.

The company’s networks-gear business will be divided in two. One unit, cellular networks, will focus on traditional wireless equipment sold to telecom carriers and be led by Fred Wright. The other, broadband access solutions, will focus on next-generation technologies including WiMax and LTE, which have so far produced little revenue. This unit will be led by Dan Moloney, head of home and networks mobility, until a permanent leader is announced.

Dan Coombes, who was senior vice president for wireless broadband systems, will become an adviser to Mr. Moloney.

The memo to employees noted that “these changes are not a reaction to Motorola’s separation plans or a cost-cutting measure.” The memo said “it’s time to position our business for continued success over the next five years.”

A Motorola spokeswoman said the reorganization “will ensure that Home & Networks Mobility remains agile, focused and ideally aligned to realize its growth potential.”

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Getting spooky

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Gillian Anderson and David Duchovny are in the midst of a heated conversation.

Anderson and Duchovny created onscreen magic, not to mention sexual tension. Mulder believed in aliens and government conspiracies, Scully was the skeptic, and “shippers” as the series’ fans were called knew they belonged in each other’s arms. Despite the chemistry, however, Anderson and Duchovny had a notoriously prickly offscreen relationship.

On set during a break from filming “I Want to Believe” in Vancouver, B.C., Anderson says this time around she and Duchovny are getting on fine. Absence made the heart grow fonder, the hours aren’t as endless nor as draining, and they don’t have yet another episode lurking over their shoulders.

“There was always this natural love-hate (with Duchovny),” she says. ” ‘Hate’ is too big a word, but you know what I mean. There was always something, whether it was us coming together or us keeping our distance. Whatever it is, it’s just a natural relationship, in the history, over a period of time.

“I think that now we’ve grown up and we’re older, and we’re more appreciative of the relationship, period, and the unique experience that we had together,” Anderson says. “And we have an opportunity to continue that and foster it. We’ve always loved each other and we’re always going to be at battle sometimes.”

All that’s known is that, dealing with a difficult case, Scully seeks the help of an embittered and ostracized Mulder, a request that sets in motion a stand-alone frightfest that involves a missing agent, a psychic (Billy Connolly), a manhunt and probably a few monsters lurking in the night.

Anderson hastens to add that “I Want to Believe” is also very much about Scully and Mulder.

On the series Scully started out as a deeply religious skeptic about the paranormal. By the end, however, after almost a decade of encounters with extraterrestrials, supernatural creatures and evil of all shapes and sizes, she had been converted into something of a believer. The film, Anderson acknowledges, revisits those themes.

“I think we have to,” she says. “That’s part of one of the big premises of the film, the relationship, and what makes the relationship work is this constant fight to be right in some way.

“I think, no matter what film or what episode, you have to maintain an element of that to make it interesting.

“This isn’t a love story,” the actress says. “It can be, and there are elements of that in the intimacy of the relationship, but that can’t be in the forefront.

“What’s in the forefront is these two people’s minds and their passions, and naturally they’re going to swing in the direction they’re built for. That’s going to cause tension between them and issues.”

Anderson has kept busy since “The X-Files” ended six years ago.

On the personal front, she lives in London and is pregnant with her third child, her second with partner Mark Griffiths.

The actress smiles when asked if, after surviving nine years of “The X-Files,” she would ever consider starring in another weekly American television show.

“I’ll never say ‘never’ because things change so much over time,” Anderson says. “But it would have to be something pretty extraordinary (for me) to take that kind of time and move back to Los Angeles, where it’s likely to be shot.

Anderson, whose birthday is Aug. 9, drops “40″ matter-of-factly. More than a few actresses refuse to utter the word, of course, fearing it like a human-worm mutant or some other “X-Files” beastie.

Tags: aliens, gover, manhunt, smile, television

Hollywood Studios Join Hands In Anti-Smoking Drive

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“The anti-smoking crusade is taking another giant step forward. We have heard some depressing news that [the drop in tobacco consumption] has leveled off, especially amongst young people. So this new weapon of the DVDs comes at the perfect time, “said Schwarzenegger.

The anti-smoking campaign is a four part one to be used in upcoming movies with a rating lower than PG 13, that show smokers and runs through the end of 2009.The first of the four advertisements will run with the release of Sony’s movie “21” on DVD later this month.

Antismoking groups for years have been protesting against the glamorization of tobacco in Hollywood movies.”I personally don’t believe that we should erase cigarettes in movies . . . I think that we should remind people and kids all the time about the dangers of smoking,” said Schwarzenegger, who has been known to smoke cigars frequently both on and off screen.

The deal went through with the help of the Entertainment Industry Foundation, a group that has been against the negative impact of smoking in movies, and the cost of the advertising talent will be borne by them.

Tags: amp, dvds, entertainment industry, glam, hollywood, movie

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Fed Eyes Move To Unsecured Loans

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Fall Movie Preview

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Movie Makers Lose The Plot In Gameland

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Scenes from a movie-going town

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Roger Avary’s Wolfenstein Movie Still in the Works

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Focused And Ideally Aligned

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Motorola Moves to Open Up Sale Options

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Getting spooky

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Hollywood Studios Join Hands In Anti-Smoking Drive

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