Speaking of the counter, isn't it the ugliest counter you've ever seen? 
It's definitely ugly and ridiculously out of place. But I remember some of the web site hit counters from the early 90's that were far more ugly. They were also just as pointless. Why does it matter to Joe Investor how many loans were listed in the past week when he got 5-10? That's what matters to him. A plain text counter would have served the same purpose. I see no reason to attract attention to a number that has so little bearing on one's own account. This is similar to the bit on a game show where they say "Here's what you DIDN'T win..." A chart showing volume over time I can see being mildly more useful.
One of the ugliest counters I've seen in the non-web world has got to be the old McDonald's "xx Billion Served" on the signs. The clip-on numbers' font never matched, sometimes the color was different, and the numbers were usually so weathered that they ended up looking old. You don't see many of those these days.
