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New Hires/Promotions in the Leasing Business
and Related Industries

J.R. Boyd was hired as Finance Manager, H.I.L. Financial, Greater Phoenix area. He is located in Peoria, Arizona. He began his career at Partners Capital Group, Account Executive, May, 2021, promoted January, 2022, Senior Account Executive, promoted Vice President of Sales (September, 2022 - July, 2024).
https://www.linkedin.com/in/l3oycl/

Jaxon Tige Keller was hired as Intermediary Relations Manager, Orange Funding, Lehi, Utah. He is located in Saratoga Springs, Utah. Previously, he was Mid Market Account Executive, Xometry
(October, 2022 - August, 2024); National Account Executive, Mazuma Capital Corp. (August, 2019 - August 2022).
Full Bio:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jaxon-tige-keller/details/experience/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jaxon-tige-keller/

Lee Ritter, CLFP, was hired as Sales Business Development at KLC Financial, Minnetonka, Minnesota. He is located in Walled Lake, Michigan. He was self-employed, formally at Channel starting October, 2021, promoted Senior Vice President of Sales, West (January 2023 - November, 2023); Regional Finance Manager, Stryker (April, 2019 - October, 2021). Full Bio:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/lee-ritter-clfp-6078868/details/experience/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/lee-ritter-clfp-6078868/

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Register for ELFA Annual Convention
Monday, August 19, for Early Bird
for Conference and Book Your Hotel

All participants must be registered in advance. Registration is mandatory to attend convention and spouse functions. Registration is for the entire convention. No partial registration is available. Only individuals registered and wearing a badge may attend convention events. The full registration fee is payable in advance in U.S. funds.

No registrations will be considered complete until payment is received.

Registration Online

https://www.elfaonline.org/log-in?ReturnUrl=https://cvdata.elfaonline.org/cvweb/cgi-bin/Registerdll.dll/RegistrationForm?sessionaltcd=CONV2024

IMPORTANT DEADLINE DATES:

Monday, August 19: Last day to receive the Early bird discount on your convention registration.

Monday, October 2: Last day to receive the special ELFA convention rate for your accommodations at the JW Marriott Austin.

Monday, October 14: Last day for to cancel golf and pickleball registrations.

Monday, October 14: Last day to cancel convention registration and receive a refund minus $100 cancelation administrative fees. There are no refunds of registration fees after this date.

First-Time Attendee
This fee is for any individual who has NEVER attended an ELFA Annual Convention in the past but currently works for an ELFA member company. This applies even if your current company has sent others to the Annual Convention previously.

Spouse/Companion Registration Fees
A spouse/companion attending any portion of the convention or social functions must be registered and pay the appropriate spouse/companion fee (package 1, 2 or 3). If he/she is employed in equipment finance, the full attendee registration fee is due.

• All questions about registration for the ELFA Annual Convention should go to Janet Fianko at jfianko@elfaonline.org

New members will receive a discount (the difference between the non-member and member registration fee) credited towards their dues if they attend a conference as a non-member, pay the non-member registration fee, and subsequently join the ELFA within 60 days.

Bruce Kropschot, Senior Managing Director, The Alta Group, will be covering the ELFA Convention, as he has done for  Leasing News for many years.

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Leasing and Finance Industry Help Wanted
Excellent Compensation/Marketing Support
Plus other openings for successful, growing funders

Three Reasons Why You Didn't Get
Feedback From Your Interview
By Ken Lubin, ZRG Partners, Managing Director

I get the question all the time, "Why didn't I get feedback from my interview? Isn't it common courtesy." Believe me as a recruiter, I rarely get feedback from the hiring manager, most companies and hiring managers want to talk about the person they are going to hire, not those they are not.

Having sent thousands and thousands of people on interviews this is a common question “Can you please provide me with any feedback from the interview and tell me what I did right or wrong?” I also see posts, threads, and such bashing recruiters, companies and hiring managers saying, “I never got feedback, isn’t it common courtesy to tell me what I did wrong? They didn’t reach out or respond after I went on an interview” Hopefully I can shed some light on this.

There are 3 main reasons why you don’t get feedback.

• Chances are you know why you didn’t get the job, so why do you need someone to tell you.  It is like an athletic performance. When you got 2nd place most know why. Just remember 2nd place is the first loser; it sounds bad, but there are no statues (or Job Offers) for those who got second. Also if you gave it your all, be proud that at you laid it all on the line and, if you didn’t get the job, take it as a learning experience: you didn’t fail, you just learned.

• You don’t get a response because we live in such a litigious world that if the (company, hiring manager, recruiter) says something you don’t want to hear it can open a whole can of worms and it just isn’t worth it.

• You didn’t ask. We live in world where unemployment is so low and companies are focused on hiring the right person for the job and if you weren’t the right fit, you are an afterthought. The only way to possibly get feedback if to ask for it and then you may or may not get it.  Unfortunately companies are looking out for themselves and their stakeholders, not to make you feel good.

We are all busy, have limited time, and are expected to deliver results.  You get hired for one of 3 reasons: you save the company money, you make the company money, or you can solve a problem, which circles back one of the previous two reasons. If you don't do any of these the feedback is simple, you didn’t fill what they were looking for.

Ken Lubin
Managing Director
ZRG Partners, LLC
Americas I EMEA I Asia Pacific
C: 508-733-4789
klubin@zrgpartners.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/klubin

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Which Categories Have Been
Hit the Hardest by Inflation: Chart

This chart shows how quickly consumer prices in different categories have risen in the United States since February 2020.

Despite inflation cooling to the lowest level in more than three years in July, there's no way around the fact that consumer prices in the United States have risen sharply over the past three years, as several factors came together to form a perfect storm of inflationary pressures. Since February 2020, the last month before the Covid-19 pandemic disrupted the global economy, the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) has increased 20.9 percent.

 Assuming the Fed’s targeted 2-percent inflation rate, prices would only have increased by 9.1 percent during that period, illustrating how severe the recent inflation surge has been. More importantly though, prices are going to remain elevated even if inflation returns to its target level of 2 percent, meaning that the effects of the inflation crisis will linger.

Not all prices are created equal, however, and while some expenditure categories have seen prices rise even more steeply than 20.9 percent since February 2020, others have barely budged. As our chart shows, the Consumer Price Index for Transportation, which includes new and used vehicles, airline fares, gasoline and others transportation-related goods and services, has risen most quickly since February 2020. At the other end of the scale, prices for education and communication, including for example tuition, postage and telephone services, increased by just 5.2 percent over the same period.

Other expenditure categories with above-average price increases since the start of the pandemic are food and beverages as well as housing, which are up 25.2 and 23.7 percent since February 2020, respectively. Prices in recreation, apparel and medical care have seen more modest increases over the past four and a half years.

Source: Statista

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Is the U.S. Finally Getting “All Aboard”
with Electric Trains?

Electric Trains Photo
(Image: Inside EVs)

California has two new all-electric commuter trains operating along a major corridor. It could be a sign that the U.S. is finally ready to catch up to the rest of the world in electrifying its rolling stock.

The two new trains are operated by Caltrain. California Governor Gavin Newson and House Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi were on hand to take the inaugural ride, which took place on Saturday. The trains were put into regular service the following day, running along the route between San Jose and San Francisco.

It shouldn’t come as any shock that the U.S. is lagging behind the rest of the world in introducing electric trains. While plenty of light rail lines operate using electric power, almost all the nation’s heavy rail lines run on diesel fuel.

India is on the cusp of electrifying 100 percent of its rail lines, while China is nearing three-quarters of its network. Over 57 percent of the rail system in the European Union is electric. The U.S., which has historically prioritized personal cars over high-volume passenger trains, now can boast that it has two electric trains — and more on the way.

Matthew W. Daus, Esq.
Partner and Chairman, Windels Marx Transportation Practice Group

Source: The Verge
https://www.theverge.com/2024/8/12/24218547/caltrain-electric-train-us-lags-behind-india-china-eu

 

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Watch at Home
by Fernando Croce, Leasing News Movie Reviewer

New streaming releases offer absorbing drama (“The Bikeriders”), sprawling vistas (“Horizon: An American Saga—Chapter 1”), blockbuster action (“Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes”), lurid horror (“MaXXXine”) and elegiac remembrances (“Pictures of Ghosts”).

The Bikeriders (Peacock): Director Jeff Nichols (“Take Shelter”) returns to some of his recurring themes, destructive masculinity and changing times, in this absorbing drama set in the mid-1960s and early 1970s. Kathy (Jodie Comer) is the wife of Benny (Austin Butler), a member of a Chicago-based motorcycle gang named The Vandals. Their love has serious competition from Johnny (Thomas Hardy), the gang leader who wants to be Benny’s mentor as The Vandals expand their territory. As the biker brotherhood rises and falls, however, Benny and Kathy feel the strength of their bond tested. Combining intensity with understatement, Nichols offers a deconstruction of the bad-boy image at a time when America was at a cultural crossroads. Done with poignancy and surprising humor, the film benefits from an evocative atmosphere and strong performances.

Horizon: An American Saga—Chapter 1 (Amazon Prime, Apple TV): One of the last Hollywood figures to take the Western seriously, Kevin Costner returns to the genre as both star and director in this ambitious, sprawling portrait of 19th-century life on the frontier. Following a large cast of characters in the years leading to the Civil War, the film braids together several narratives around the budding town of Horizon. Frances (Sienna Miller) is a settler who’s taken in by a Cavalry officer (Sam Worthington) after an Apache raid. Elsewhere, runaway Ellen (Jena Malone) hides from a murderous family while horse trader Haynes (Costner) guns down another man over a prostitute named Marigold (Abbey Lee). The first entry in a four-movie project, Costner’s film sets up a saga of audacious grandeur.

Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes (Amazon Prime, Hulu): The franchise’s blend of exciting action and suggestive subtext remains strong in this sequel to “War for the Planet of the Apes,” from director Wes Ball (“The Maze Runner”). Taking place in a distant future where feral humans exist in the shadows of intelligent apes, the story focuses on Noa (Owen Teague), a privileged young chimpanzee whose sheltered existence is shaken by perils and discoveries. While on a journey to free his friends from a tyrannical ape called Proximus Caesar (Kevin Durand), Noa learns about the past and forges an unlikely alliance with Mae (Freya Allan), a mysterious human with plans of her own. Though not as sweeping as earlier entries, the film still packs blockbuster entertainment with thoughtful intrigue.

MaXXXine (Amazon Prime, iTunes): After tackling the 1970s (“X”) and the 1910s (“Pearl”), director Ti West jumps to the lurid 1980s in the third installment of his gruesome trilogy. Mia Goth returns as Maxine Minx, her character from “X,” who’s left Texas for the bright lights of Hollywood, hoping to ditch adult movies in favor of mainstream roles. She’s about to get her big break as the lead in a horror film, when a slew of murders threatens her new identity as well as her life. Hounded by a pair of police officers (Michelle Monaghan, Bobby Cannavale) as well as a seedy private detective (Kevin Bacon), Maxine realizes she must take matters into her own hands. Fans of the previous collaborations of West and Goths should relish their latest gleeful offering.

Pictures of Ghosts (Criterion): Talented Brazilian filmmaker Kleiber Mendonça Filho (“Bacurau”) pays fond tribute to a nation’s developing cinephilia in this personal, affecting documentary. The setting is the town of Recife, where Mendonça Filho grew up and where he discovered cinema, a place of movie houses large and small that have since vanished. Looking for the crumbling buildings and talking to those who were there, from owners to projectionists, the director weaves childhood memories into a larger view of urban gentrification and the place of cinema (or of art in general) in a changing society. Mixing home movies, archival footage and interviews, the film is a melancholy look at things we hold dear lost to time, a look at a fragile heritage both private and national. With subtitles.

Fernando Croce is a nationally recognized film reviewer and has been contributing to Leasing News since 2008. His reviews appear each Friday.

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Clear the Shelters
Heat, Rain, Flooding

Here is an example:
https://www.hssv.org 

Many cities in the United States are pleading for assistance due to the weather conditions. Use a search engine to find the open shelter program due to the terrible weather.

News Briefs

Prime Capital Ventures had $50 million
    in outstanding loans when it collapsed
https://www.timesunion.com/business/article/prime-capital-ventures-50-million-loans-19651900.php

Former Prime Capital Ventures client says
    he never got $7.8 million loan
https://www.timesunion.com/business/article/former-prime-capital-ventures-client-details-lost-19656225.php

Surprise jump in retail sales
    casts aside recession fears
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2024/08/15/retail-sales-consumer-spending-walmart

Plan to Build Thousands of Apartments
    Will Transform the East Bronx
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/15/nyregion/bronx-rezoning-housing-apartments.html

 

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New workforce terms CFOs and Other Top
   Executives should know before the 4Q
https://www.cfo.com/news/13-new-workforce-terms-cfos-should-know-before-q4/723831/

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Sports Briefs---

Jim Harbaugh wants Colin Kaepernick on Chargers,
    not as a quarterback, but as a coach
https://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/sports/kaepernick-nfl-chargers

Wife of 49ers star rips 'completely loaded'
    Fox News headline about her
https://www.sfgate.com/49ers/article/kristin-juszcyzk-blasts-fox-news-kamala-harris-19658387.php

College football preview: Your guide to the
    momentous changes for the 2024 season
https://www.eastbaytimes.com/2024/08/15/college-football-preview-your-guide-to-the-momentous-changes-for-the-2024-season

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California News Briefs---

Gov. Newsom unveils plan to require oil companies
    to maintain minimum fuel reserves
https://www.eastbaytimes.com/2024/08/15/gov-newsom-unveils-plan-to-require-oil-companies-to-maintain-minimum-fuel-reserves/

Can high-demand California and the US install
enough EV chargers by 2030?
https://www.eastbaytimes.com/2024/08/15/college-football-preview-your-guide-to-the-momentous-changes-for-the-2024-season/

Boise Fire hits 10,000 acres with no
containment in Humboldt County
https://www.sfgate.com/california-wildfires/article/boise-fire-no-containment-humboldt-county-19659456.php

Billionaire MLB owner accused of stealing
sand from wealthy Calif. beach
https://www.sfgate.com/sports/article/brewers-owner-mark-attanasio-sand-stealing-malibu-19656594.php

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Gimme that Wine

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJnQoi8DSE8

3 common wine myths debunked
   Beware of these three wine myths.|
https://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/lifestyle/wine-myths-debunked/

Willamette Valley Vineyards Offers the First Taste
   of its 2023 Whole Cluster Pinot Noir in Over
17,000 Reusable Revino Glass Bottles
https://www.winebusiness.com/news/article/291266

The Promise and Pitfalls of Glass Bottle Recycling
  Wine and spirits bottles had been exempt from
California’s bottle deposit return
https://distilling.com/distillermagazine/walking-on-broken-glass/

Quintessential Pays Tribute To Robert Pepi Jr.
Honors Veteran Napa Winemaker
https://www.winebusiness.com/news/article/291240