Leasing News

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Admin./International: 10+years global ops mgmt. int. biz admin.w import/export/reg. compliance, global biz development, in, transaction P/L, global recruitment/training/staff mgmt. middle market to Fortune 20 account development. Email:ddpeterson1818@yahoo.com

Twenty five plus years experience in middle market lease/ asset based/cash flow transactions. Heavy banking and credit background, with particular expertise in structure and negotiation. Email:brown235@bellsouth.net

10+ years commercial technology lease management and financial analysis. Includes LRF negotiations, EOL buyout negotiations. Financial Spreadsheet programming analytics. Industry and research skills excellent. Email:dssr@attbi.com

23 years experience in equipment leasing. Specialty is documentation. I have my CLP and have been active in all aspects of the leasing industry. Email:donreneejohnson@juno.com

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WASHINGTON, (AP) — Rates for 30-year and 15-year mortgages edged down this week, while rates on one-year adjustable rate mortgages held steady, according to a nationwide survey released today.

Freddie Mac, the mortgage company, reported that the average interest rate on a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage dropped to 6.22 percent from 6.27 percent the previous week. This week's rate matches the lowest rate in 32 years of record keeping; the low rate was first reached in the week ended Aug. 16.

Rates for 15-year fixed-rate mortgages, a popular option for refinancing, also edged down this week, dropping to 5.64 percent, compared with 5.71 percent last week.

Rates on one-year adjustable mortgages held steady at 4.34 percent this week, unchanged from last week.

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U.S. commercial banks posted record earnings in the second quarter of $23.4 billion, 7.8% higher than the previous record set in the first quarter of this year, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. said Thursday (8/29/02).

The second-quarter earnings were $4.3 billion, or 22.8%, higher than in the same quarter of last year. The latest quarter's earnings surpassed first-quarter earnings of $21.7 billion.

Banks' return on assets rose to 1.41% in the second quarter. The FDIC said this was the second-highest level recorded. Business loans continued to show signs of trouble, but banks saw further strength in household borrowing.

"Yes, credit losses were higher this year, showing the continuing effect of the recession that began early last year," said Don Inscoe, FDIC analyst. "But this increase in credit losses was more than offset by higher net interest margins and gains on the sale of securities."

Low interest rates aided both of these improvements and boosted mortgage lending, the FDIC said.

Foreign borrowers accounted for all of the rise in non-current commercial and industrial lending, the FDIC said. Non-current business loans to U.S. borrowers fell for the first time in four years.

"The fact that the bank industry could post such strong results on the heels of the recession underscores the fact that the industry remains one of the bright spots in the U.S. economic recession," the FDIC said. "Unlike the last recession ... the bank industry is currently in a position to serve as more of a shock absorber for the U.S. economy."

The rosy results for second-quarter earnings don't have immediate implications for the Bank Insurance Fund, the FDIC's main deposit insurance reserve. The fund's ratio of reserves to insured deposits fell below the legal requirement earlier this year and raised the specter of premiums for healthy banks, who are generally exempt from fees when the funds are flush.

Total deposits rose to about $4.4 trillion in the second quarter. However, the FDIC hasn't released new data on the amount of insured deposits. That data is due on Sept. 12, the FDIC said.

The Bank Insurance Fund's reserve ratio stood at 1.24% at the end of the first quarter, just below the 1.25% required level. Across-the-board premiums would start next year if the fund doesn't improve by the FDIC's fall fee-setting meeting.

Less than 10% of banks pay premiums under the current system, which only charges banks considered "transitional" or "troubled." The number of troubled banks rose in the second quarter to 115, up from 102 at the end of the first quarter.

The total number of FDIC-insured banks fell to 7,966 in the second quarter from 8,005 in the first quarter. Total industry assets rose to $6.75 trillion at the end of the second quarter from $6.5 trillion at the end of the first quarter.

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It all begins with networking, and the second day of the eLNA Annual Networking conference it began at 7:15 with the Networking Breakfast followed by the keynote speaker. Then we're off to three breakout sessions before lunch. Even with some repeated sessions, choices had to be made between LiveCapital, Seismiq, Microsoft Business Solutions, Susan Carol Associates Public Relations, McCue Systems, APERIMUS and Microbilt.

All the presentations were great, but I was particularly intrigued by the APERIMUS presentation given by Chuck Sellman. APERIMUS is a consulting company that specializes in the "understanding and application of the concept of risk and its dynamically related counterpart, return". Chuck got us focused by presenting the "flaw of averages", and then illustrating how distribution is an important component in allowing a level of certainty in risk analysis. His presented several existing models and then gave an overview of the Interactive Lease Risk/Return Model that they are looking to develop in conjunction with select Lessors as development partners. See www.aperimus.com.

At lunch, John Semon gave an overview of what was happening with eLNA. John has structured The Network which has two key areas. One is eLNA which will focus on presenting events and conferences, and the other is The Lessors Network, one of the highest volume leasing websites - see www.lessors.com. There will be no more corporate memberships. The overall focus will be on people seriously interested in business networking online and at the conferences.

The eLNA 2002 Web Award was presented to Seismiq for their outstanding website. There were 18 nominees for this award, and Seismiq received 60% of the votes cast by eLNA members. Ken Sanders, COO, accepted the award. (www.seismiq.com )

In the Technology Leadership Roundtable on Wednesday, it was said that people considered LeasePAk to be "legacy software". I asked John McCue how a tenured company kept its image of offering "leading edge" products when so many new companies were entering the competition. His answer was that you just had to continually be out in the marketplace demonstrating your products. Almost on cue, Mitch Bakos, McCue Systems' technical visionary gave an outstanding presentation called "Technology Advances to Level the Playing Field", and the was nothing legacy about it.

After lunch, choices again had to be made between De Lage Landen, Experian, CapitalStream, APAK Group, Progeny Ventures, Vision Commerce, ExecutiveCaliber, Helios Marketing Communications and Cornerstone Software. I went to the Progeny Ventures presentation entitled "The Slingshot Syndrome" which is actually the title of a book written by the presenter, Reid Watts. Reid's subject was the failure of large U.S. corporations to develop and exploit new products and services, and he used AT&T, Lucent, IBM, and Microsoft as his examples. He also theorizes that "it is impossible for mature, established companies to compete effectively against startups in new-to-the-world products of new markets". See www.progenyvc.com/slingshot.

By mid afternoon I was starting to drag and was hoping the presentation I selected would be fast moving and informative. I have been getting the ExecutiveCaliber newsletter, so I decided to see Jeffery Taylor in person and I was not disappointed. Here was the master trainer at work. Jeffery had a great topic, handouts, a slide show, and best of all a presentation style full of passion and enthusiasm. See http://executivecaliber.ws.

The finale was the Lessors Leadership Roundtable moderated by the true graybeard of the leasing industry Larry Smircich, Managing Director of Malvern Hill Associates. The panel consisted of Rodney Darensbourg from UPS Capital, David Kuncio of CitiCapital, J. William Kell from Fleet Capital Leasing and John Beville from SunTrust. This session provided great insight into these four leading companies in the leasing industry, and was an outstanding way to end the conference.

Several comments were made during the two days that many of the presenters and participants were from the west coast, and how there are large pockets of leading edge technology on that side of the country. In view of that, and considering the wide range home states for all the participants, there is only one way to end this article.

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WASHINGTON – The economic recovery lost momentum in the second quarter, and in a fresh sign of weakness, new claims for jobless benefits last week climbed to their highest level in nearly two months.

After bolting out of the gate with a brisk 5 percent growth rate in the first quarter, the economy stumbled in the spring, growing at an annual rate of just 1.1 percent.

The Commerce Department's latest reading Thursday on gross domestic product in the April-June quarter was unchanged from its initial estimate a month ago. GDP measures the total value of goods and services produced in the United States.

For the third week in a row more Americans filed new claims for unemployment insurance. Claims rose by 8,000 last week to a seasonally adjusted 403,000, the Labor Department said. Economists were expecting claims to go down.

Last week's increase pushed claims over the 400,000 mark, a level associated with a weak job market, to their highest point since July 6, when claims hit 407,000. That's also the last time claims climbed over 400,000.

"It's unnerving," said economist Richard Yamarone of Argus Research Corp. "Right now the economy is in desperate need of a labor market revival, and these data don't suggest that is in the cards."

The number of unemployed people continuing to collect jobless benefits jumped by 90,000 to 3.6 million for the week ending Aug. 17, the most recent period for which the information is available. That suggests not a lot of hiring is going on, economists said.

The nation's unemployment rate – now at 5.9 percent – could hit 6.3 or 6.5 percent by the fall, economists said.

On Wall Street, the Dow Jones industrial average closed down 23.10 points at 8,670.99.

Analysts believe the economy picked up a bit in the current quarter, with some estimates ranging from growth rates of around 2 percent to 3 percent. They said economic growth would have to be stronger for businesses to vigorously add to their payrolls and trigger a hiring wave.

For the second half of this year, some economists are predicting sluggish to moderate economic growth. The shape of the recovery ultimately will be determined by consumers and the willingness or reluctance of businesses to spend and invest in the months ahead.

The economy's struggles pose a challenge for President Bush and will be a key topic for voters heading into the November elections.

The Federal Reserve, hoping to give a boost to the recovery, has held short-term interest rates steady all year long.

Businesses, concerned about accounting scandals and economic uncertainties, have been wary of making big commitments to hiring and capital investment, factors restraining the recovery.

The GDP report showed that after-tax profits of U.S. corporations increased at a rate of 1.7 percent in the second quarter, down slightly from a 2 percent growth rate in the first quarter.

Economist Joel Naroff called the profits picture decent, hoping businesses would become more inclined to invest. "That will require a change in corporate attitudes from the wait and see to the let's get going," he said.

So far, eroding consumer confidence, the roller-coaster stock market and a stagnant job market haven't caused consumers to dramatically scale back spending. That's because those potentially negative factors have been offset by positive ones, including low interest rates and a refinancing boom that has left people with extra cash.

Retail sales were solid in July, helped out by free-financing for cars, and home sales for the month were strong.

While more recent back-to-school sales have been sluggish, that should be offset by what economists expect will be robust auto sales for August. Consumers are the mainstay of the economy because their spending accounts for two-thirds of all economic activity.

"There's a lot of pressure on consumers to keep the economy going," said economist Clifford Waldman of Waldman Associates.

In the second quarter, consumer spending grew at a rate of 1.9 percent in the second quarter, down from a 3.1 percent growth rate in the first quarter.

Businesses in the second quarter cut spending on plants, office buildings and other structures at a rate of 17.7 percent, a deeper cut than initially estimated. But investment in equipment and software, after six straight quarters of decline, increased at a rate of 3.1 percent in the second quarter, stronger than previously estimated.

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It’s that time of year again-vacations are just about over, fall wardrobes have been selected, and the modern equivalent of the pencil box (do you remember that?)- the PC or Laptop has been purchased or upgraded for the kids, in preparation for the new academic year.

One would think this level of consumer spending would provide a needed boost to the economy. Unfortunately, this may not have occurred. Or has it?

For example, recent government statistics indicated that capital spending fell again in the second quarter of this year, which was the seventh consecutive quarterly drop. However, real GDP has advanced for three quarters in a row and capacity utilization although still low, has slowly begun to rise.

What is even more optimistic is that capital goods orders, excluding non-defense aircraft has risen (again very modestly) the last two quarters. Another good omen is the increase in corporate cash flow. The rationale is when cash flow is increasing, companies are usually willing to boost capital outlays. The good news here is over the last four quarters, gross cash flow has risen by 11.7%(According to the Bureau of Economic Analysis, US Dept. of Commerce).

Orders for new high-tech equipment continue to show weakness, based on absolute dollar amount. However, it must be remembered that the prices for many of these products decline, specifically on a price/performance measurement. Thus, real orders may be rising even though current dollar figures may not reflect it.

We often marvel at the advances in technology, but sometimes we forget the implications.

A number of factors implicit in the use of high tech equipment are causing some optimism regarding new equipment orders in this sector for ‘03.

3) Facilitation of access to the Internet, e-commerce and corporate intranets, and

4) Increased acceptance and enhanced comfort with these “gizmos”, reflected in increased usage.

While all of this is good news, several other equipment sectors continue to retard overall growth in capital spending. These include outlays for new commercial construction as well as spending on utility construction.

To add to the negative news, the Conference Board released a report stating that consumer confidence in August dropped to a nine-month low, as slow job creation led Americans to scale back expectations for the pace of economic recovery. However the less confident consumer continued to spend, as the Commerce Dept. reported that US orders for durable goods rose more in July than at any time in the last nine months as demand increased for computers, cars and aircraft.

As the above information reflects, there is a slightly positive trend. However, trying to discern a definitive direction from all of this economic data is next to impossible. Simultaneously, we often seem to have contradictory good and bad news-whether it’s a report about consumer confidence, consumer spending, et. al.

Perhaps what we need to do is take a step back and come to grips with a new reality: the recovery is upon us, but it is not a dynamic, double-digit, grand slam home run type of recovery. Rather, it is a slow, uncertain, micro-step type of recovery, likely to take two steps forward and one step back. It is probably only in retrospect that we will know the economy has fully recovered, especially if it continues at its current rate. Stay tuned.

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Labor negotiations between the International Longshore and Warehouse Union and the Pacific Maritime Association resumed Monday. Negotiations were put on hold Aug. 13 after the death of ILWU President Jim Spinosa's father.

As the "big table" negotiations continue, the ILWU Safety Committee and its PMA counterparts are working on safety codes for dockworkers. While the union safety committee is focusing on three main issues - diesel emissions in the workplace, defibrillators and port security, they say employers insist on discussing floating the load, mounting and dismounting of equipment, and how to place and remove cones during a bombcart operation.

The ILWU Safety Committee feels the employers are focusing on these issues to lay the legal groundwork to selectively punish workers and to controvert injury claims.

The union has accused employers of violating the negotiating process by making a flyer about the issue of mounting and dismounting equipment and sending it out attached to ILWU members' paychecks. In updates to its members, the union reminds its members to get their information from the union and to be suspicious of anything the employers put out, especially during these contentious negotiations.

The ILWU Safety Committee also is raising the matter of the employers' obligation to issue safety shoe vouchers by July 1. The union says employers have responded that since there is no new contract they are not required to provide the vouchers. However, the union maintains that since they have been working with a contract renewed day-to-day, the voucher requirement is still in effect. The union committee says it will continue to press this point.

More than 200 leaders of dockworker unions worldwide have pledged support for the ILWU in its bargaining with the shipping and dock working companies of the Pacific Maritime Association and signed a letter to President Bush demanding he stop interfering in the negotiations. At its annual Congress, held in Vancouver, British Columbia over the weekend of Aug. 17, the International Transport Workers Federation Dockers Section, representing 400,000 port workers in the sea transportation industry in 170 countries, passed a strongly worded resolution committing themselves to a successful conclusion to the ILWU's negotiations.

The docker union leaders also sent a letter to Bush telling him in part, "Negotiations on the future of the longshore industry and issues such as job security and technological change should take place through free collective bargaining between employees and management, without heavy-handed intervention by government officials at the request of corporate executives."

The ITF's support came just days after the Aug. 16 joint state legislative hearing on federal intervention into the port labor negotiations. Hundreds of longshore workers and their supporters packed the Banning Landing Community Center for the hearing. Before introducing the first witnesses, State Sen. Richard Alarcon (D-Sylmar, CA), chair of the Senate Labor and Industrial Relations Committee, said, "When Bush got involved in the negotiating process, we felt it was absolutely necessary to hold this hearing. It's an inappropriate use of federal power. It's unconscionable to use concerns about September 11 to block the collective bargaining process. That's the right of American workers."

State Rep. Paul Koretz (D-West Hollywood, CA), chair of the Assembly's Labor and Employment Committee, also opened by criticizing Bush interference in the bargaining. "This administration sees legal union activity as a threat," he said.

The joint committee heard witnesses from labor, management and the community, followed by an open forum. Labor witnesses included Los Angeles County Federation of Labor Executive Secretary-Treasurer Miguel Contreras, ILWU Legislative Action Committee co-chair Peter Peyton, ILWU Longshore Local 13 President Ramon Ponce de Leon, Teamsters West Coast Port Organizer Gary Smith and International Association of Machinists Lodge 1484 President Kevin Kucera.

Contreras denounced the administration's intervention into the negotiations as part of an anti-worker policy. "From day one Bush had an agenda to crush unions," he said. "No president should be allowed to rob American workers of their best weapon - the right to strike."

PMA chief Joe Miniace also declined to appear. He sent Jack Suite, PMA's director of contract administration, instead. Suite claimed the government's concern with the contract talks was understandable.

Suite said the PMA had not encouraged the Bush administration to intervene and he denied PMA ever had talks with the government about the threats made to the union. But when State Rep. Koretz asked if PMA would directly ask Bush to stay out of the negotiations, Suite would make no commitment.

The day before the hearing, longshore workers crashed a grand opening party held by Maersk Sealand, one of the largest shipping companies in the world, to celebrate the opening of Maersk's new facility in the Port of Los Angeles. Nearly 2,000 "fired-up" longshore workers and their supporters crashed the bash, demanding Maersk drop its push for concessions from the union.

"Today we are beginning phase two of our bargaining, making the companies accountable," said Dave Arian, the alternate negotiator for Local 13. "Maersk says they've been good to us. But if they're our friends, where's our maintenance of benefits?"

Maersk built a wall of containers between the rally site and the party, but the demonstrators roared their demands loud enough to be heard, "What do we want? CONTRACT! When do we want it? NOW!" Two small planes flew low overhead and eight boats cruised near the new docks, all carrying banners reinforcing the message reading, "ILWU wants a contract now."

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WASHINGTON (AP) - Hard times on Wall Street have spawned more con artists who prey on shaken investors with promises of easy money, state securities regulators said Monday.

Scams involving unscrupulous stockbrokers and financial analysts with conflicting interests are for the first time among the top 10 investment frauds listed by the North American Securities Administrators Association. Fraudulent oil and gas investments and schemes involving charitable gift annuities also joined the annual list.

10. Equipment leasing. While the majority of equipment leasing deals are legitimate, thousands of investors have been scammed by individuals selling interests in payphones, ATMs or Internet kiosks. In a typical equipment leasing scam, a company sells a piece of equipment through a middleman. As part of the sale, the company agrees to lease back and service the equipment for a fee. Investors are promised high returns with little or no risk. But state regulators say high commissions paid to salesmen and promised returns that are unrealistically high doom many projects. In North Carolina, regulators took action against an individual who sold an Internet kiosk to an investor for $24,950, promising a 17 percent return. The individual had previously sold payphone leases to investors from a company that later filed for bankruptcy.

The thing to watch out for is the 60 Minutes on what some of us actually do that

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Online consumer purchases, excluding travel, will rise 27 percent during the holidays, and despite the dot-com shakeout, online spending is on track to account for 8 percent of consumer retail purchases by 2007, according to forecasts out this week.

A month after restructuring the company's financial unit into four divisions, GE chairman Jeffrey Immelt announced Thursday that the company's lighting and appliance businesses would be merged.

Immelt, who took over after Welch ended a lengthy career as GE's chairman and retired last year, said the new GE Consumer Products division would "provide more cost-effective and pointed approaches to supporting all of our customers' needs."

"We want to create a simpler, more efficient business that will be competitive across all product lines," he said.

WASHINGTON (AP) The rate of summer employment for teens has hit a 37-year low, says a Northeastern University researcher who attributes the decline at least partially to the troubled economy.

CHICAGO (AP) United Airlines said Thursday it is asking its employees to approve cutting its labor costs by $1.5 billion annually over the next six years as part of its emergency restructuring plan.

ATLANTA (AP) Members of the Teamsters union have approved a new six-year contract with United Parcel Service that covers more than 200,000 employees of the Atlanta-based package delivery company.

WASHINGTON (AP) Despite round-the-clock repair work, Amtrak enters the long Labor Day weekend traditionally one of its busiest with more than half its high-speed Acela Express fleet still out of service.

SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) Sun Microsystems Inc. said Thursday it expects to land in the ``bottom part'' of its revenue target range for the current quarter.

Oakland, CA (Sports Network) - Madre Hill carried the ball 12 times for 83 yards and a touchdown as the Oakland Raiders pounded the Arizona Cardinals, 31-3, in the final pre-season contest for both teams. Marques Tuiasosopo completed 11-of-16 passes for 156 yards for the Raiders, who finished 2-2 in the pre-season and will open the regular season next Sunday at home against Seattle.

The Cardinals, who were 1-3 in exhibitions, gained just 153 yards of total offense and were 0-for-12 on third-down conversions. Arizona begins the regular season next week in Washington.

Oakland's starters played briefly in the first quarter, including quarterback Rich Gannon, who was 0-for-2.

The Raiders went to work after Bill Gramatica's 48-yard field goal early in the second quarter gave the Cardinals a 3-0 lead.

Sebastian Janikowski booted a 36-yard field goal to knot the score with 7:32 left in the half and Oakland took a 10-3 lead just 1:31 later.

The Raiders started deep in Arizona territory after a fumble and Tuiasosopo found Reggie Barlow in the end zone for a 12-yard TD strike. It was Oakland's first touchdown pass of the pre-season.

BLUE JAYS 7, YANKEES 4

Yanks Lose While They Wait

TORONTO, Aug. 29 — Before he left the Yankees' clubhouse tonight, Mike Stanton searched the room for teammates. He was carrying a folded stack of Toronto Blue Jays stickers on which was written the phone number for an 11 p.m. players' association conference call.

Stanton handed out a sticker to a couple of stray teammates and left to catch a cab to the team hotel. Stanton did not know if he would return to the clubhouse on Friday or if he would fly home to wait out a strike.

In the majors' final game before the strike deadline, fans threw foul balls back onto the field and chanted "Don't Strike! Don't Strike!'' as the Anaheim Angels beat the Tampa Bay Devil Rays 6-1 Thursday night. When the game ended, some in the crowd of 18,820 threw debris onto the field.

With the specter of a strike hanging over baseball, the Giants found it hard to talk about Thursday's 10-6 win over the Colorado Rockies. "We're fighting for a playoff spot, and this cheapens the thrill of beating a good team," Kent said. "And I think the Rockies are a good team. Guys really aren't focused on the wins. They're focused on whether we're going to play (Friday)."

Barry Bonds hit his 40th homer of the season and Kent went deep twice.

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Wuerffel, Redskins Humbled by Pats in Preseason Finale: Patriots 28, Redskins 14

Washington's 8-8 year, Marty Schottenheimer's first and last season with the Redskins.

The Washington Redskins had their worry-free ride through the exhibition season ended and their starting quarterback competition turned upside down last night. Coach Steve Spurrier named Shane Matthews the team's starter for the regular season opener after Danny Wuerffel lost the job by suffering through a three-fumble, five-sack first half while the Redskins lost to the New England Patriots, 28-14, at FedEx Field for their first defeat in five preseason games.

"I just really feel that right now there's less pressure on Shane to go play," said Spurrier, whose club opens the regular season in nine days at home against the Arizona Cardinals. "Danny struggled in this ballpark. Right now, Shane looks to be our best player to go play, simple as that. Maybe four or five weeks from now, if he's banged up a little bit or something changes, it may be Danny. It may be his turn, but who knows?"

Spurrier acknowledged that Wuerffel was the front-runner entering the game. But Wuerffel was in charge for a first half in which the Redskins managed only 62 total yards. They fumbled four times, although they recovered all of them, and punted six times while falling behind, 21-0. Wuerffel also had struggled in his previous preseason start at home against the Pittsburgh Steelers.

"Danny hesitated on some throws," Spurrier said. "They popped him, and he usually fumbled. . . . I asked him, 'Why are you fumbling all the time?' And he said, 'I don't know.' . . . If Danny played extremely well that first half, maybe he would have been comfortable to go out there that first game. But right now, he's not our best one to go play, in my opinion."

Said Wuerffel, who completed 7 of 13 throws for 58 yards: "We've been saying all along you have to make the most of every opportunity. You never know which one is the most important. It was real frustrating that we couldn't move the ball and get the ball in the end zone. It's a long season. Everyone has to be ready to play. I'm pretty disappointed. As a competitor, you want to be in there. But you have to see the big picture for the team."

Matthews took over in the third quarter and connected on 8 of 9 passes for 104 yards. He threw an interception, but rebounded with a 37-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Darnerien McCants to get the Redskins on the scoreboard late in the third quarter.

"I'm not getting caught up in all that," Matthews said when asked whether he felt that he clearly had won the quarterback competition. "The way Coach Spurrier is with quarterbacks, I could be out of there after the first series against Arizona."

Matthews, like Wuerffel, played for Spurrier at the University of Florida. Matthews has the heftier NFL résumé, having made 15 starts for the Chicago Bears the past three seasons, and entered training camp saying he expected to emerge as the starter. But Wuerffel, until last night, had appeared more comfortable in Spurrier's offense.

"This is the first time I've seen Danny struggle like this," Spurrier said. "It was a combination of not very good plays, [poor] pass protection and Danny struggling. We all shared in that miserable first half. . . . Shane seems to play a little bit better in this ballpark for some reason than Danny. I don't know why. There's not a huge difference in them, but for some reason Danny really struggled [last night]. It wasn't all Danny's fault."

Matthews played for Spurrier at Florida between 1990 and '92 and remains the only quarterback that Spurrier never has benched, according to the coach. Spurrier reiterated that both Matthews and Wuerffel could receive significant playing time during the season. But as a competition that began with Matthews, Wuerffel and Sage Rosenfels, who was traded to the Miami Dolphins for a seventh-round draft choice, vying for the starting job wrapped up late last night, Spurrier said that Matthews will play as long as he produces.

"The way we do it, the first quarterback goes and as long as he's playing well -- he's not doing anything too, too bad -- he'll stay in there," Spurrier said.

Rookie quarterback Patrick Ramsey played the fourth quarter, throwing an interception but adding a five-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Chris Doering with just more than two minutes to play. The Redskins amassed a record 164 points in winning four of five exhibition games, but had a bad night all around against the defending Super Bowl champions.

The Redskins plugged newly acquired right guard Brenden Stai into their starting offensive line, but the unit could not keep Wuerffel from being harassed constantly. The special teams surrendered two long punt returns, and the Redskins lost rookie tight end Robert Royal to an ankle injury. Royal called the injury a high ankle sprain and said he hoped to return within a few weeks. But the club already has lost veteran Walter Rasby for a month because of a knee injury, leaving Zeron Flemister and Leonard Stephens (Howard University) to split most of the tight end duties.

The Patriots got a one-yard touchdown run by tailback Antowain Smith and a pair of scoring passes -- of 13 and two yards -- from backup quarterback Damon Huard to rookie tight end Daniel Graham. The second of those victimized Redskins rookie cornerback Rashad Bauman, who also permitted a 36-yard touchdown pass from rookie quarterback Rohan Davey to wide receiver Fred Coleman on the first play of the fourth quarter.

Even when the Redskins did something right, it turned out wrong. Defensive end Ladairis Jackson intercepted a tipped fourth-down pass on the opening drive of the second half, but fumbled at the end of the play to give the ball back to New England.

"It was disappointing the way we played the first half of both of the games here at FedEx Field," Spurrier said. "We came out of the box very poor. No excuses. They were just better than us. . . . New England's defense dominated us in the first half. We didn't do much at all. . . . We're still a pretty good team. But we're not as great a team maybe as a lot of people think. . . . We sort of know where we are. Maybe we'll look back and say this was good for us."

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