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On Friday we launched a new feature that gives you a measure of your performance to date and how it stacks against the entire Lending Club investor community. The Net Annualized Return measure is calculated daily as a weighted average return on invested capital and is based on actual payments received to date in your Lending Club portfolio.

This new feature leverages our transparency and gives you an up-to-date snapshot of all investors in our financial community.

This feature helps establish some interesting facts on our investor community performance as of June 7, 2009:

• The average net annualized return of all investors is 9.90% since June 2007.
• Investors in the $50,000-$60,000 range are currently achieving the highest net annualized return at 11.96%.
• Over 88% of all investors are earning a net annualized return of 6% or more.
• Over 74% of all investors are earning a net annualized return of 9% or more.

Just as a reminder the Notes are offered by prospectus, which can be downloaded here.

As always, feel free to drop us a note with your comments on these new features and share with us any additional feature ideas.

Rob

If you're looking for the perfect gift for a 2009 college graduate, you need look no further than... a time machine.

Time travel is really the most useful and, sad to say, practical gift on grads' wish lists this year. Graduating in 2009 just isn't what it used to be in the good old days of 2005. Grads who grab their diplomas this month won't have the world by the tail a month later, thanks to a bleak economy that doesn't much care for fancy book-learnin' at this point. Jobs are hard to find, companies are playing it safe, and college graduates might have more trouble than they think. Those persuasive college recruiters never told them about this.

In 2009, life for a college graduate is not at all how Boy Meets World made it seem.

"'The outlook for those of us graduating in May is pretty bad,' said Matt Ross, a Bryant University student. "Companies are hiring, but they might only be hiring one employee rather than five to 10 as they would have in the past."

Employers expect to hire 22 percent fewer new college graduates than they did a year ago, a study by the National Association of Colleges and Employers finds.

More than 46 percent of employers surveyed were unsure about their hiring plans for fall and 17 percent said they expect to further reduce college hiring in the future."

Coincidentally, enrollment in the school of hard knocks is up.

So what do you get a grad that might very soon have nothing? Here are six out-of-the-box suggestions ... seven, if you count a time machine.

Something fancy to wear.

Clothes might be the ultimate downer of a gift, especially for a twenty-something expecting an iPhone. But if you've been reading the news, you'll know that downers are very "in" right now. And besides, your new grad is going to need to look his best when it comes to the job interview meat market.

Not only that, he or she is going to need to look better than the competition, relatively speaking. To do so, a new suit and tie or a stylish business dress will do the trick. Keep in mind: these are college graduates you're catering to, many of whom spent the past four years bumming around in statement t-shirts and faded blue jeans. Anything you can get your hands on at a reputable clothes shop will be an improvement. But do make sure they know what to do with the clothes once they have them.

An online Wall Street Journal subscription.

The WSJ most definitely fits into the classification of "newspaper," and it might seem especially cruel to give a worrisome grad a gift that reminds them of a dying industry. But the Wall Street Journal is different. Not only does it skirt the perimeter of true newspaper journalism by moonlighting as finance fishwrap, it is also ahead of the curve in the e-news game, having set up a profitable pay-to-read system online.

Plus, giving the gift of knowledge is never a bad idea, and the knowledge contained in the Wall Street Journal is exactly the type of stuff fresh-faced college grads will need. Financial facts and figures, Wall Street trends, and more business than you can shake a bailout at - this is the news that will help get your grad to the top of the unemployed barrel (or maybe even out of the barrel entirely). Subscriptions start as little as $1.99 per week.

A Snuggie.

Why? Because it's a blanket with sleeves! Obviously!

An all-expense-paid trip to a seminar, workshop, or convention.

With the economy failing all around them, new graduates are only going to be able to rely on the people they know. So why not help them get to know more people?

Networking is the new nepotism for the 21st century, as jobs are filled much more often on a who-you-know basis than on a what-your-diploma-says basis. One of the best places to build a circle of acquaintances is in a trade show environment. Call it a seminar, workshop, or convention; as long as there are bigwigs from your grad's industry in attendance, it will be a valuable gift with potentially employable results.

A small investment.

Rather than splurge on a grab bag of gift cards or a Hallmark card stuffed with cash, a more lucrative gift might be a small investment in a stock or bond. With prices at an all-time low (hopefully), the going is good to get big dividends from wise investments. If you can spare a few hundred dollars now, your grad will be thankful a few years down the road when the couple hundred turns into a couple thousand. Of course, this gift depends on the world not coming to an end before then.

More schooling.

Though you don't need to foot the bill for years' worth of Master's learning, you can at least offer up some seed money to send that graduate right back where he came from: school. Let them wait out the job market blahs by encouraging another go at a graduate program of his or her choice. That way, when the economy does finally turn around, they'll have a better degree, more job prospects, and they'll totally owe you big time.

Gift-giving for grads in 2009 might be the high point between the time they grab their diploma and the time that employment comes knocking. If so, you need to make their graduation gift count. And you only get one chance ... that is, unless you know where to buy a good time machine.

Planning on taking a trip this summer? One summer ago, gas prices were at an all-time high, stay-cations were all the rage, and the annual summer getaway seemed like something out of a 1950's-era Norman Rockwell calendar. What a difference a year makes.

Now, instead of skyrocketing fuel and agoraphobic family outings, the culture of the summer vacation has changed completely. Gas prices have come down by nearly half of their previous highs. Hotels and resorts are desperate to gain customers. License plate bingo is now available as an iPhone app. There's nothing standing in the way of mom and pop throwing the kids in the car and heading off toward some random national landmark… Oh yeah. There is that whole recession thing.

But even a recession can't keep down an adventure-seeking, fanny-pack-toting American this summer. There are recession-proof ways of beating the work week blues, even for those people whose work weeks have suddenly involved a lot less work. Cheap alternatives to travel are everywhere nowadays, and most of the credit should go to auction-style vacation websites like Priceline.com and Hotwire.com.

Here's how they work: Hotels, airlines, and rental car agencies invariably have leftover inventory that doesn't sell, be it rooms or seats or smelly old Dodge Neons. Their solution is to hand the selling duties over to these auction websites so that they can move some of their stale services. The auction sites, in turn, ask customers to bid on certain packages in their destination city, and then the sites take the highest bidder. It works for the hotels, flights, and rentals because it doesn't let off the appearance of desperation or price-cutting. It benefits the auction sites because, well, people are giving them money. And it benefits Joe Vacationer because he just got a room in a five-star hotel for $179 a night.

Ah, but what would a deal be without a catch? The auction sites are great, but you have to be prepared to deal with the consequences of a decision. Purchases are nonrefundable. Actual hotel, plane, and rental names are not revealed until after you sign on the dotted line. It's a big commitment to make, but it's also a big savings to be had.

The New York Times agrees:

“With published rates already so low, travelers are finding that opaque travel deals are even better than in the past. According to Brian Ek, a Priceline spokesman, users can save 40 percent on airfare (“up to 60 percent at the last minute”), as much as 50 percent on a hotel room and up to 30 percent on a rental car.”,

But which auction site gives you a better bang for your buck? The answer might depend on what you're looking for.

Bidontravel.com has a thorough post on the differences between the two sites, and its breakdown gives the price edge to Priceline but the security edge to Hotwire. For instance, bidding blindly on a hotel for Priceline might net you a lower price, but your hotel is likely to be chosen from a wider area and there's no guarantee of where your price will land. Hotwire on the other hand lets you see the price beforehand and narrows its neighborhoods to a greater extent.

"I always compare them," travel expert Don Nadeau says, "and go with the one that gives the most quality for the money on the dates I need. You should be satisfied with either company, as long as you realize that you can’t change anything once you’ve paid and you won’t get a refund if your plans change."

Putting the two services to the test with a flight reservation supports the theory of low price versus security. Let's say you live in San Francisco and want to fly out to New York to surprise your mom for Mother's Day (replace "mom" with Derek Jeter and "Mother's Day" with Yankees game, if you'd like). Getting started on both Priceline and Hotwire is simple. The home page of each site will have you surfing curiously through prices in an instant.

The price results offer a bit more separation, though. Hotwire's featured rate is $247 round trip through something called a "Hotwire Hot Rate," which Hotwire maintains is code for a good deal on a good airline. The Hot Rate doesn't tell you for sure how you'll be flying, though. Its other prices are mostly no more than $20 over the $247 price, and they do reveal the identities of the airlines. Several United flights made the list.

Priceline's results are noticeably lower than Hotwire's. The lowest price on Priceline is $218 (plus $20 in fees and taxes) for a roundtrip ticket on a number of different carriers - Delta, American, Virgin, and U.S. Airways. The price point sure is nice. But details for Priceline's trips are a little more sparse and a lot less guaranteed than they were on Hotwire's. In one instance, the listed price of $218 was placed immediately above a price for a nonstop flight at $528. Was the lower priced fare making a stop on the LOST island or something?

Still, working with either website can certainly cut down on the expenses of travelling. And if an auction site doesn't tickle your fancy, there are still many other options to choose from, too. Places like Orbitz, Expedia, and Travelocity claim low-price travel as well.

This summer, there really is no excuse not to hit the road or fly the friendly skies for a little R&R. Gas prices are low. Travel destinations are desperate to have you. And online travel sites have rendered the recession moot…. Well, maybe "moot" is the wrong word. You might have to settle for the three-star hotel at the two-star price.

Up until recently, music fans were charged the same exact price for the teenage crooning of Hannah Montana as they were for the timeless compositions of Ludwig Von Beethoven. Travesty? Not exactly. Cruel joke? Only kinda. Economic opportunity? Bingo.

Where most see a chasm of fundamental musical elements, online mp3 retailers and music labels saw a chance to squeeze a few extra cents out of crazed consumers. iTunes announced recently that it would be introducing pricing tiers across its catalog of songs, and other retailers like Walmart and Amazon quickly followed suit. Meanwhile, music labels placed their hands together, twiddled their fingers, and sneered, "Excellent."

It appears that the different pricing levels will be driven by consumer demand, in much the same way that record stores use the practice of charging more for their best-selling items. In online music stores like Apple's iTunes, the more popular songs will see their price jump over $1.00 apiece to $1.29. The mediocre masses in the middle will most likely remain at their current prices, and the less known tunes will essentially hit the bargain bin with prices slashed, in some cases, under 70 cents per song. For example, there's a good chance that some day consumers will be paying $1.29 for Eminem's latest, $0.99 for a track from indie group She & Him, and $0.69 for Christian cover band Apologetix's "Should I pray or should I go now?" Apologetix fans, rejoice.

What remains to be seen is how consumers will react to the changes. iTunes, Walmart, and Amazon have to be cognizant of the torrent cottage industry that many people use to get their songs for the low, low price of free. The spawn of Napster still exists in a very real way, and raising mp3 prices too far might drive whatever demand there was for another Limp Bizkit album straight to Bit Torrent for the free version.

However, the decision to raise music prices was most likely not made with these file sharers in mind. Rather, it was made with blindly loyal consumers in mind.

Apple, Amazon, and Walmart have created a customer base that is loyal to mp3 purchasing. Whether motivated out of guilt, simplicity, easiness, or vicarious justice, these shoppers are in a habit of getting their tunes from the same place. And they aren't going to mind an extra dime here or an extra quarter there. Or so the sellers hope.

One place that surely doesn't mind the higher prices is the music industry, and in particular the Mr. Burns-y music labels. In an article that appeared on Information Week, Antone Gonsalves claims that labels have been clamoring for a different pricing structure for online music, but they have only recently gotten Apple on board. As the (far and away) market leader, Apple's iTunes was key to changing the culture of online music shopping, and now more players on board, the music landscape is sure to be much different.

La La Media, which sells tunes and also offers streaming music over the Web, called the change an "industry shift."

"You will see much more variable pricing by all music retailers, with the price moving higher on some tracks and lower on others," the company said in its blog.

Music labels are happy. Online music retailers are happy. But only time will tell what consumers think of this.

Savvy shoppers may have already made up their mind, as the increased prices might drive business to cheaper alternatives. Assume that someone is out to buy the new Britney Spears album. In the good old days of, well, a couple days ago, this person could jump onto Amazon or iTunes and grab a whole album for right around $10.00. Most of the time this would beat the store prices by a couple bucks, and it would be a much easier, hassle-free experience.

But with the higher music prices for popular artists, Brit-Brit's new album will not be so cheap online. Throw in the new online markup of around 30 percent for popular artists, and the tides have suddenly turned from online mp3s being the clear winner to big box retailers looking mighty fine. Chances are good that the higher prices of certain songs will drive savvy shoppers off of web pages and into stores.

Others who are used to buying songs for just under a dollar might be a little more gun shy when decision time rolls around. It's one thing to mindlessly add $0.99 tunes to an iPod, but when the price jumps over the $1.00 threshold, all bets are off. The psychology of 99-cent pricing is a tried and true business tactic. Messing with that might mean trouble.

"Most consumers are aware of `99' prices and why firms use them to make prices look cheaper," says Vicki Morwitz, a marketing professor at New York University's Stern School of Business and co-author of the research. "But because of the way the human brain reads, processes and codes numbers, we're still influenced by them."

There's no telling for sure how the common consumer will respond to an increase in digital pricing, but at least there is a silver lining for a certain portion of the public. Those who enjoy under-the-radar music couldn't have asked for better news. Instead of paying the 99-cent price along with everyone else browsing and buying on Top 40 lists, this eclectic bunch will be able to get their music on the cheap. At the very least, Apple's decision should drive more purchases from this group of buyers.

As for the rest of the music-loving public, the jury's still out. Online music retailers have a lot of things going against them, from greater competition to price-point psychology (and don't forget about the timing; it is a recession, after all). Only time will tell if the tiered system is one that consumers will figuratively and literally buy into.

Expect the unexpected when it comes to business in this economy. Case in point, Amazon and EBay.

Two of the web's premier online stores are going in opposite directions, both in the sense that their revenue and income are increasingly dissimilar and that they are producing opposite results from what conventional wisdom might expect.

Let's begin with the former. In fourth quarter earnings reports released at the end of January, Amazon and EBay were headed different ways - Amazon decidedly going up and EBay going south. Amazon's fourth quarter revenue was up 18 percent and its income rose nine percent. On top of that, industry experts predict a rise in first quarter revenue and a relatively rosy outlook for the Seattle-based e-store.

Its online counterpart didn't fare nearly as well. EBay took a drop of seven percent in revenue and a plunge of 31 percent in income. It lost customers at a rate of three percent from totals last year, and it may struggle to keep revenue losses from falling even further in the first quarter of the new fiscal year.

With these figures for Amazon and EBay in mind, it is interesting to note the expectations for each business in the current state of the economy. In Amazon's case, retail businesses nationwide are struggling immensely, and it would have been understandable if some of the consumer hibernation had an impact on Amazon's figures. With the population getting thrifty when it comes to retail purchases, Amazon was expected to feel a hit.

EBay, it stood to reason, should have found renewed life as gun-shy citizens turned to cheaper means of acquiring the toys they used to splurge on. Ebay's auction-style market seemed perfect. People could unload the items they found excessive and pocket some much-needed money. Those in search of a good deal would have a bevy of options on Ebay's pages to scrimp and save.

Only none of this happened the way anyone expected. Amazon rose; EBay fell. And experts scrambled for an explanation.

The best they could come up with was that Ebay's user experience did not meet the needs of a consumer base that preferred traditional, dependable e-commerce like that found at Amazon. EBay excels in offering a wide variety of products (thanks to third party sellers), but they lack the polished, direct selling style of their competition. Buying a product on EBay has risk associated. Granted the risk may be negligible depending on the quality of the third party seller, but even an ounce of negligible risk - for instance, in the condition of the product, the speed of the shipping process, or the possibility of a scam - is more risk than one would find buying items off Amazon. Plus, when you throw in Amazon's customer service, competitive pricing, discounts, and convenient shipping, the Amazon experience would appear to come out the clear winner.

To test this phenomenon, I went shopping on EBay and Amazon, curious at what I might find. I consider myself a relatively unbiased participant: I don't have a preference for either site, and I shop online with fair infrequency. My object of desire: a Dark Knight Blu-Ray DVD.

Searching Amazon's site was a breeze. Other than a distracting Kindle letter on the front page, I was able to type in my search parameters (Dark Knight blu ray), and my movie was the first result on the next page.

Ebay's experience was a little more stressful. The searching was easy. I typed in the same "Dark Knight blu ray" text (both sites had a helpful auto-complete feature), but the results I was given came across as horribly confusing. The first result was a 500GB PS3 for $400.00. I did not want this. There were multiple listings of this PS3 throughout the page, but I found myself overwhelmed by the amount of Dark Knight DVDs that were for sale, too. Telling them apart was a chore. I finally decided on one that had a "Buy it Now" option because I did not have time to wait a day and a half for an auction to end.

I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of consumers just give up on EBay at this point. I nearly did. Pressing forward to the product pages only further served to test my patience.

Both Amazon's and Ebay's pages were busy with ads and links and information I was pretty sure I didn't need to know. This was the first thing I noticed. The second thing I noticed was the price. Amazon's Dark Knight cost $23.99, marked down from $35.99 for a savings of $12.00, Amazon made sure to tell me (I appreciated Amazon's doing the math for me). Ebay's price was a plain-and-simple $15.26. Point, EBay.

At face value, EBay won the price battle, but below the surface there was doubt brewing in my wary consumer thinking. Why was Ebay's price so much cheaper? Is there a problem with the item? Am I sure I'm even buying the right thing? And why $15.26? Who sells stuff at such a specific price? The whole EBay page just seemed fishy with seller rankings and graphics and logos that I didn't understand. Amazon explained why its price was so cheap. EBay just left me to wonder.

I continued through on both websites, clicking the "Buy it now" link on EBay and the "Add to shopping cart" button on Amazon. Ebay's page redirected me to a sign-in screen. Amazon's added my item to a cart and suggested other movies I might want to try. Point, Amazon.

The checkout process for each was similar enough that there was no clear-cut favorite. But the overall story was different.

Amazon won, and the only thing keeping it a game for EBay was the price. Had Amazon's Dark Knight been five dollars cheaper, my decision would have been a no-brainer.

After seeing both online stores firsthand, I can see how Amazon's style might succeed in a down economy while Ebay's might suffer. Amazon seems more organized, more reputable, and it appeals to a consumer experience in more ways than EBay does. If I had been looking for a rare collectible or a secondhand item, I may have had more success on EBay. But when the buying comes down to a group of similar products at similar prices, Amazon takes the cake.

And it's no surprise anymore why they're taking the market share, too.