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BAE to axe 1,100 UK jobs and close siteBAE Systems, the British defence giant, today announced it will cut 1,110 jobs and close one of its aerospace sites at Woodford in Cheshire. Source: Latest Business News from Times Online | 15 Sep 2009 | 5:22 am Stock futures point toward modestly lower open (AP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Stock Markets News | 15 Sep 2009 | 4:38 am Japan Airlines aims to conclude tie-up talks soonStruggling Japan Airlines Corp. said it aims to conclude tie-up talks with foreign carriers by mid-October and announced plans to slash 14 percent of its workers under a major restructuringSource: RSS feed - channel BNewsBusiness | 15 Sep 2009 | 4:26 am NJ gov seeks to boost hiring of joblessBusinesses will be offered a $2,400 incentive to hire New Jerseyans who have exhausted their unemployment benefits. Gov. Jon Corzine is expected to announce the federally funded program...Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsBusiness | 15 Sep 2009 | 4:26 am BAE Systems plans 1,116 job cutsDefence giant BAE Systems plans to cut 1,116 jobs and close its factory in Cheshire by 2012, the firm confirms.Source: BBC News | Business | World Edition | 15 Sep 2009 | 4:23 am ITV hit as regulator keeps CRR advertising rules but considers tweaksITV shares tumbled after the Competition Commission ruled out full abolition of onerous rules over advertising.Source: Finance and Business. Latest breaking news stocks and shares from the UK and world | 15 Sep 2009 | 4:23 am Fed up with rising costs, doctors quitSome 5,000 patients suddenly found themselves without an ob/gyn last November when Dr. Tara Wah closed her practice in Tallahassee, Fla.Source: Business and financial news - CNNMoney.com | 15 Sep 2009 | 4:11 am Bank crisis lessons 'not learned'A year after Lehman Brothers collapsed, a UK think tank echoes President Obama's warnings about complacency in the banking industry.Source: BBC News | Business | World Edition | 15 Sep 2009 | 4:10 am China says data shows U.S. tire tariff not fairBEIJING (Reuters) - China unveiled data on Tuesday that showed tire exports to the United States actually fell in the first half of 2009, rebutting Washington's accusations it had breached its WTO agreements by flooding the U.S. market.Source: Reuters: Business News | 15 Sep 2009 | 4:08 am Bank of England's Mervyn King says the British economy is growing againLower energy and food prices kept a lid on inflation during August partly offsetting a rise in transport costs.Source: Finance and Business. Latest breaking news stocks and shares from the UK and world | 15 Sep 2009 | 4:06 am European carmakers ask if sales rise can lastFRANKFURT (Reuters) - News that European car sales rose for a third consecutive month in August kicked off the Frankfurt Motor Show, where automakers are showcasing "green" technology they hope will transform the industry.Source: Reuters: Business News | 15 Sep 2009 | 4:04 am Citigroup (C) May Try To Buy Back Government SharesCitigoup (C) may try to buy back some of the shares that the US government got when it bailed out the bank. Taxpayers own 34% of Citi and it may be time for the Treasury to take some profits. According to The Wall Street Journal, Citi may have to raise $5 billion as part of a transaction [...][[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]
Source: 24/7 Wall St. | 15 Sep 2009 | 4:03 am Health Savings Accounts in limboWhile Washington wrangles over health care, the nation's last big reform innovation faces an uncertain future. Health Savings Accounts, the hybrid of flex spending accounts and IRAs that President Bush created in 2003, are an afterthought in the current proposals on Capitol Hill -- with strenuous debate over whether their demise would be a disaster or a welcome end to a program that never lived up to its promise.Source: Business and financial news - CNNMoney.com | 15 Sep 2009 | 4:03 am Indications: U.S. stock futures slip before retail sales reportU.S. stock futures edged lower Tuesday on the one-year anniversary of the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy, with data to come on retail sales and wholesale inflation as well as a speech from Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke.
Source: MarketWatch.com - Top Stories | 15 Sep 2009 | 4:02 am L & L International Holdings Announces First Quarter Financial Results With 19% Revenue IncreaseSEATTLE, Sept. 15 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- L&L International Holdings, Inc. (OTC Bulletin Board: LLFH) ("L&L"), yesterday announced financial results for the...Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsBusiness | 15 Sep 2009 | 4:00 am Little rival creates big problem for OracleAs Oracle Corp. was working to get a green light from European antitrust regulators to buy Sun Microsystems Inc. earlier this year, a relatively obscure issue surfaced to help hobble the deal.
Source: MarketWatch.com - Top Stories | 15 Sep 2009 | 4:00 am PNB Remittance Centers, Inc. and AccountNow Launch Visa Prepaid CardLOS ANGELES and SAN RAMON, Calif., Sept. 15 /PRNewswire/ -- PNB Remittance Centers, Inc. (PNBRCI), a wholly owned subsidiary of Philippine National Bank, the trusted source forSource: RSS feed - channel BNewsBusiness | 15 Sep 2009 | 4:00 am The Palm Restaurant Announces 1-800-FLOWERS.COM CEO Jim McCann as Newest Brand Ambassador and SpokespersonA New Relationship Blooms for 1-800-FLOWERS.COM and the Legendary Palm Restaurant NEW YORK, Sept. 15 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- When it comes to celebrating milestones,...Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsBusiness | 15 Sep 2009 | 4:00 am Recession Teaches Americans Lesson in Retirement PlanningCOUNTRY Survey: Majority Thinking more Seriously after Watching Parents BLOOMINGTON, Ill., Sept. 15 /PRNewswire/ -- If there is good news to come out of the current...Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsBusiness | 15 Sep 2009 | 4:00 am The Pioneers of Prosperity 2009 Selects Caribbean Region's Top Entrepreneurs; Final Award Ceremony Hosted by the Prime Minister of JamaicaMONTEGO BAY, Jamaica, Sept. 15 /PRNewswire/ -- The 2009 Pioneers of Prosperity Caribbean program is pleased to announce that Bulkan Timber Works of Guyana has taken the...Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsBusiness | 15 Sep 2009 | 4:00 am Europe Markets: Europe shares lower after German sentiment readingEuropean shares edged lower on Tuesday after a disappointing sentiment reading from Germany, with autos and financials under notable pressure.
Source: MarketWatch.com - Top Stories | 15 Sep 2009 | 3:56 am Asian markets rise on Lehman collapse anniversaryAsian markets end mostly higher Tuesday, with Japanese shares rebounding from the previous session’s tumble.
Source: MarketWatch.com - Top Stories | 15 Sep 2009 | 3:55 am BAE Systems to axe 1,100 jobs in Britain: unionsBritish defence equipment firm BAE Systems will axe 1,100 jobs in Britain and close a key facility in northwestern England, trade unions said on Tuesday. The Confederation of...Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsBusiness | 15 Sep 2009 | 3:54 am ING drops on report E.U. won't approve aid dealShares in Dutch insurance and banking group ING fall as much as 6% after a report that European Union Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes is not prepared to approve a state-aid package for the firm.
Source: MarketWatch.com - Top Stories | 15 Sep 2009 | 3:54 am BAe Systems to cut 1116 jobs and close Cheshire siteBAE Systems is to cut 1116 jobs and close its facility at Woodford in Cheshire unions said.Source: Finance and Business. Latest breaking news stocks and shares from the UK and world | 15 Sep 2009 | 3:53 am The World’s Millionaires Are DisappearingThe number of millionaire households in the world dropped from 11 million in 2007 to 9 million last year, a fall of almost 18%, according to The Boston Consulting Group. The figure was worse in North America where the drop was 22%. The world’s wealthy are getting poorer and poorer at an alarming rate. The study’s other [...][[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]
Source: 24/7 Wall St. | 15 Sep 2009 | 3:51 am Ranking the rescues: Banks, autos, jobsSource: Business and financial news - CNNMoney.com | 15 Sep 2009 | 3:49 am Wall Street futures point to weaker open (Reuters)
Source: Yahoo! News: Business | 15 Sep 2009 | 3:48 am Wall Street futures point to weaker open(Reuters) - Futures for the Dow Jones industrial average, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq 100 fell 0.2-0.3 percent, pointing to a weaker start on Wall Street on Tuesday.Source: Reuters: Business News | 15 Sep 2009 | 3:48 am Wall Street futures point to weaker open (Reuters)
Source: Yahoo! News: Stock Markets News | 15 Sep 2009 | 3:48 am Inflation falls less than expected to 1.6%Inflation fell to 1.6 per cent in August - its lowest level in four years - after rising transport costs offset a decline in utility and food bills. Source: Latest Business News from Times Online | 15 Sep 2009 | 3:47 am What's in store for U.S. marketsThe rally that began in March may have marked the start of a powerful new bull market. But precious few strategists called it -- just as few foresaw back in 1999 what a lousy decade this would be for stocks.Source: Business and financial news - CNNMoney.com | 15 Sep 2009 | 3:44 am Economic Report: German investor gauge sees small Sept. riseA closely-watched gauge of sentiment among Germany’s investment professionals posts a smaller-than-expected rise in Sept.
Source: MarketWatch.com - Top Stories | 15 Sep 2009 | 3:44 am iPod challenger: Microsoft's new Zune HDSource: Business and financial news - CNNMoney.com | 15 Sep 2009 | 3:43 am My sister wants to borrow moneyQuestion: My sister and brother-in-law have announced that they are broke, and want to borrow money. They went bankrupt a few years ago, but have since blown two inheritances on high-risk investments. They also borrowed extensively from our parents and never repaid the loans. Although both are college educated, neither has had a regular job for years, and now they say they can't find work. We turned down their loan request, and now my brother-in-law is threatening to never let us see my sister and nephew again. What are your feelings about loaning money to relatives, particularly when they have a history of not repaying loans? --ElaineSource: Business and financial news - CNNMoney.com | 15 Sep 2009 | 3:42 am Learning lessonsBarclays boss: How banking is learning from past mistakesSource: BBC News | Business | World Edition | 15 Sep 2009 | 3:42 am More surveyors report price risesMore surveyors said UK house prices were rising in the three months to September than those reporting falling property values.Source: BBC News | Business | World Edition | 15 Sep 2009 | 3:42 am UK inflation rate falls to 1.6%Consumer price inflation in the UK falls to an annual rate of 1.6% - the lowest level in more than four years.Source: BBC News | Business | World Edition | 15 Sep 2009 | 3:40 am Mitchell pushes Israel on settlement freezeUS envoy meets with Benjamin Netanyahu in effort to strike a deal seen as crucial to Arab-Israel peace hopesSource: Financial Times - US homepage | 15 Sep 2009 | 3:37 am World markets steady as recovery signals eyed (AP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Stock Markets News | 15 Sep 2009 | 3:35 am The Economy: Public Still Scared To DeathYou can fool some of the people all of the time and all of the people some of the time. but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time. At least that is what Abraham Lincoln believed and it seems to be proven in a new Washington Post/ABC poll. The survey shows that“Despite [...][[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]
Source: 24/7 Wall St. | 15 Sep 2009 | 3:34 am Kraft may sell assets to raise Cadbury cash: report (Reuters)Reuters - U.S. food company Kraft Foods might sell assets like Maxwell House and Oscar Mayer to finance its planned acquisition of British confectioner Cadbury , the New York Post reported, citing sources familiar with the matter.Source: Yahoo! News: Business | 15 Sep 2009 | 3:32 am Kraft may sell assets to raise Cadbury cash: report(Reuters) - U.S. food company Kraft Foods might sell assets like Maxwell House and Oscar Mayer to finance its planned acquisition of British confectioner Cadbury, the New York Post reported, citing sources familiar with the matter.Source: Reuters: Business News | 15 Sep 2009 | 3:32 am Inflation data boost poundThe pound advanced on Tuesday after UK consumer price inflation data came in stronger than expected in August.Figures showed UK consumer prices rose 0.4 per cent last month to give an annual reading of...Source: RSS feed - channel BNPaperBusiness | 15 Sep 2009 | 3:26 am China says data shows U.S. tire tariff not fair (Reuters)Reuters - China unveiled data on Tuesday that showed tire exports to the United States actually fell in the first half of 2009, rebutting Washington's accusations it had breached its WTO agreements by flooding the U.S. market.Source: Yahoo! News: Business | 15 Sep 2009 | 3:25 am Japan Airlines to cut 6,800 jobsJapan Airlines (JAL) plans to cut 6,800 jobs and pursue a tie-up with an international carrier by mid-October, its president says.Source: BBC News | Business | World Edition | 15 Sep 2009 | 3:23 am Oil rises to $69; position limit fears cap gainsLONDON (Reuters) - Oil rose toward $69 a barrel on Tuesday, lifted by a weaker dollar and an expected draw in U.S. crude stocks, but concerns that a major U.S. exchange will increase enforcement of position limits capped gains.Source: Reuters: Business News | 15 Sep 2009 | 3:22 am ITV shares fall after ad rulingITV shares fall as the Competition Commission decides to keep rules on how much the broadcaster can charge for advertising.Source: BBC News | Business | World Edition | 15 Sep 2009 | 3:19 am London shares circle year-highs after inflation dataLondon's equity markets continued to show resilience on Tuesday, as traders considered news of a slower-than-expected fall in August inflation data. The consumer price index rose 0.4 per cent on the month...Source: RSS feed - channel BNPaperBusiness | 15 Sep 2009 | 3:18 am British inflation slides to fiveyear lowLower energy and food prices kept a lid on inflation during August partly offsetting a rise in transport costs.Source: Finance and Business. Latest breaking news stocks and shares from the UK and world | 15 Sep 2009 | 3:13 am FTSE clings to 11-month highThe first anniversary of the collapse of Lehman Brothers, which triggered turmoil across the world's leading economies, did little to dampen investor sentiment as the FTSE clung to its 11-month high. Source: Latest Business News from Times Online | 15 Sep 2009 | 3:13 am The Rakoff Decision: The SEC Will Be Changed ForeverFederal District Judge Jed S. Rakoff was supposed to a approve a $33 million settlement between the SEC and Bank of America (BAC) over the issue of the financial firm making inaccurate statements regarding Merrill Lynch employee compensation. These statements were made in the B of A proxy that was sent to shareholders to approve [...][[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]
Source: 24/7 Wall St. | 15 Sep 2009 | 3:12 am UPDATE 1-Repsol cuts Bilbao refinery output by 41 pctMADRID, Sept 15 (Reuters) - Repsol has halted one of two crude distillation units at its 220,000 barrels per day Bilbao refinery, the Spanish energy firm's Petronor subsidiary said on its Web site.Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsBusiness | 15 Sep 2009 | 3:08 am RLPC-Markit unveils final list for LevX senior series 5 rollLONDON, Sept 15 (Reuters) - Markit has unveiled the final constituent list of Europe's new senior LevX index of leveraged loan credit default swaps (LCDS).Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsBusiness | 15 Sep 2009 | 3:06 am London Markets: BT Group shares advance in lackluster LondonShares of fixed-line-telecom operator BT Group gain in a weaker London on Tuesday
Source: MarketWatch.com - Top Stories | 15 Sep 2009 | 3:01 am A Voice Of Gloom At The FedJanet L. Yellen is the head of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco and a voting member of the Fed’s Federal Open Market Committee. She is highly pessimistic about an economic recovery. Yellen is under no obligation to follow the party line established by Mr. Bernanke or any other Fed official. That is a good [...][[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]
Source: 24/7 Wall St. | 15 Sep 2009 | 2:58 am UK inflation tops forecasts on the back of higher oil pricesInflation in Britain remained higher in August than City experts forecast as an increase in oil drove up transport costs across the country.Source: Finance and Business. Latest breaking news stocks and shares from the UK and world | 15 Sep 2009 | 2:54 am Watchdog refuses to scrap ITV contract rulesBritain’s competition authority today rejected ITV’s call for strict rules governing advertising to be dropped but said it would consider easing some of the restrictions. Source: Latest Business News from Times Online | 15 Sep 2009 | 2:47 am Stocks ready to slip at openU.S. stocks appeared headed for a lower open Tuesday as investors await several economic reports, including a government reading on August retail sales.Source: Business and financial news - CNNMoney.com | 15 Sep 2009 | 2:46 am Lloyds tops customer complaints against banksThe Financial Ombudsman Service today revealed Lloyds Banking Group, which is part-owned by the taxpayer, is Britain’s most complained about bank with 15,233 customer grievances lodged in the first half of this year. Source: Latest Business News from Times Online | 15 Sep 2009 | 2:24 am London stocks firm at open (AFP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Stock Markets News | 15 Sep 2009 | 2:15 am Rivals seek stake in JAL; eyeing China, Asia routesTOKYO/NEW YORK (Reuters) - Air France-KLM is in talks to invest in Japan Airlines Corp (JAL), a source familiar with the matter said, as rival suitors seek a stake in the loss-making carrier to access its China and other Asian routes.Source: Reuters: Business News | 15 Sep 2009 | 2:11 am Fujii tapped to be Japan finance ministerJapan's prime minister-designate taps fiscal conservative Hirohisa Fujii to serve as finance minister in his administration.
Source: MarketWatch.com - Top Stories | 15 Sep 2009 | 2:07 am Media Digest 9/15/2009 Reuters, WSJ, NYTimes, FT, BloombergReuters: China say data show the US tire tariffs are unfair. Reuters: A Fed policy debate has begun now that the recession is over. Reuters: The world’s wealth is down 11% and the number of millionaires has fallen Reuters: A pact between Bank of America (BAC) and the SEC was killed in court. Reuters: The US is considering selling [...][[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]
Source: 24/7 Wall St. | 15 Sep 2009 | 2:04 am Michael Jackson’s Final Legacy: A Six-Figure Novel?
ESSENCE Magazine claims that a novel authored by Michael Jackson is making the New York publishing rounds. The details: ESSENCE.com has learned exclusively that a novel written by the “King of Pop” himself is currently being shopped around to New York publishers, according to a source in the industry. The illustrated novel depicts a rock star at the height of his success who becomes disillusioned with money and fame and obsesses about death. According to the source, the book mirrors Michael Jackson’s own rise to superstardom and self-imposed seclusion, reflecting an inner torment and struggle with personal demons. Working with a collaborator, the source confirmed, Jackson conceptualized the story line, characters and even the illustrations. The book is expected to sell in the six figures. Two things come to mind: a) Is this for real?; and b) wouldn’t that be an interesting twist to the MJ story?
Source: Business Pundit | 15 Sep 2009 | 2:03 am World stocks steady, dollar above lows vs yen (Reuters)
Source: Yahoo! News: Stock Markets News | 15 Sep 2009 | 1:58 am Competition Commission rules out abolition of ITV ad regimeThe Competition Commission on Tuesday ruled that it would change the regulatory restrictions on how much ITV can charge advertisers, but refused to abolish the system, as the broadcaster had requested,...Source: RSS feed - channel BNPaperBusiness | 15 Sep 2009 | 1:56 am France to count happiness in GDPParis has urged profound changes to how national GDP is measured and says it is taking the lead in implementing new indicators of performance incorporating measures of ‘well-being’ and environmental degradationSource: Financial Times - US homepage | 15 Sep 2009 | 1:52 am Lehman: 'alarm bells should still be ringing'One year after Lehman Brothers’ dramatic plunge into bankruptcy, one of Britain’s leading policy think tanks has warned that too little has been learned from the crisis. Source: Latest Business News from Times Online | 15 Sep 2009 | 1:50 am Lehman: 'alarm bells should still be ringing'One year after Lehman Brothers’ dramatic plunge into bankruptcy, one of Britain’s leading policy think-tanks has warned that too little has been learned from the crisis. Source: Latest Business News from Times Online | 15 Sep 2009 | 1:50 am Ashmore assets fall as investors pull fundsAssets under management at Ashmore, the emerging markets fund manager, fell 34 per cent to $24.9bn for the year ended in June as clients seeking to shore up their liquidity pulled billions out of its funds...Source: RSS feed - channel BNPaperBusiness | 15 Sep 2009 | 1:44 am U.S. looking at selling Citi shares: reportNEW YORK (Reuters) - The Treasury Department is talking to Citigroup Inc about how to sell the roughly one-third stake the government acquired as part of its bailout of the bank, news agency Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with the matter.Source: Reuters: Business News | 15 Sep 2009 | 1:43 am VW's big ambitionVolkswagen aims to become the world's largest carmakerSource: BBC News | Business | World Edition | 15 Sep 2009 | 1:40 am Asia Markets And Europe Open 9/15/2009Markets is Asia were narrowly mixed The Nikkei was up .2% to 10,218. The Hang Seng rose a franction to 20,941. The Shanghai Composite was up .2% to 3,034. At the open in Europe, the FTSE rose .1% to 5,023. The Dax was flat at 5,620. The CAC was up .3% to 3,740. Data from Reuters and MarketWatch. Douglas A. McIntyre Posted [...][[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]
Source: 24/7 Wall St. | 15 Sep 2009 | 1:31 am Canberra says Telstra has to break upTelstra has been warned by the Australian government that it must separate its retail and wholesale businesses or its ability to expand its wireless broadband operations will be curtailed and competitors...Source: RSS feed - channel BNPaperBusiness | 15 Sep 2009 | 1:28 am ITV shares slide after regulator says CRR advertising rules must stay considers tweaksThe competition watchdog dashed ITV's hopes that onerous rules over advertising would be scrapped but said it was considering relaxing the regime.Source: Finance and Business. Latest breaking news stocks and shares from the UK and world | 15 Sep 2009 | 1:23 am Icahn no longer roars at Lions GateAnalysts believe the activist investor who scolded management has been quieted by the rising stock price.Those who follow the events at Lions Gate Entertainment Corp. -- including the movie and television studio's own management -- might have expected "activist shareholder" Carl Icahn to wage a proxy war by now given his growling threats earlier this year.
Source: L.A. Times - Business | 15 Sep 2009 | 1:00 am Obama warns Wall Street not to repeat its mistakesThe president, speaking on the anniversary of the Lehman Bros. collapse, says some are forgetting lessons of the financial crisis and urges passage of regulatory overhaul proposals.Amid strong signs the deep recession has ended, President Obama traveled to Wall Street on a key anniversary in the long financial crisis to deliver a blunt message -- all is not forgotten.
Source: L.A. Times - Business | 15 Sep 2009 | 1:00 am Firm distributes wines robust in black prideHeritage Link Brands of L.A. markets products of vintners in South Africa and elsewhere. The company began with the idea of helping black winemakers and spreading their inspirational stories. ...Source: RSS feed - channel BNPaperBusiness | 15 Sep 2009 | 1:00 am California tax overhaul plan almost readySpecial commission's proposal, meant to solve the state's worsening budget crises, would shift the burden off the wealthy and change how businesses are levied. But the Legislature may not go for it.A government commission hammered out the final outlines Monday of revolutionary changes it will propose in the way Californians pay taxes, including a flattened income tax that would largely benefit the wealthy and a broad business levy to replace existing sales and corporate taxes.
Source: L.A. Times - Business | 15 Sep 2009 | 1:00 am Wells Fargo fires executive accused of using bank-owned Malibu homeCheronda Guyton, a senior vice president responsible for commercial foreclosed properties, had been seen by neighbors using the Malibu Colony house lost by victims of Bernard Madoff's Ponzi scheme.Moving to contain a public relations mess, Wells Fargo & Co. fired a top executive accused of using a bank-owned Malibu beach house to entertain her family and friends.
Source: L.A. Times - Business | 15 Sep 2009 | 1:00 am Steven Udvar-Hazy hopes to set a new course for his jet-leasing firmThe billionaire sold International Lease Finance Corp., which he helped launch in the 1970s, to AIG in 1990. Now that the insurance giant has hit major turbulence, Udvar-Hazy wants to buy it back. ...Source: RSS feed - channel BNPaperBusiness | 15 Sep 2009 | 1:00 am Windows 7 is reduced to rainbows and unicornsMicrosoft's new ad offers convincing evidence that the software giant has no shame left.It's official. Microsoft has no shame. None. They should just stop paying rent on that storage unit where they keep their shame because they, as I said, have none.
Source: L.A. Times - Business | 15 Sep 2009 | 1:00 am China takes complaint over U.S. tire tariffs to WTOBeijing accuses Washington of protectionism. Leaders of the two countries are to meet next week at the Group of 20 summit in Pittsburgh.China's swift challenge to the U.S. decision to slap tariffs on Chinese-made tires has raised concerns over escalating tensions between the trading partners at a crucial time for the world economy.
Source: L.A. Times - Business | 15 Sep 2009 | 1:00 am Steven Udvar-Hazy hopes to set a new course for his jet-leasing firmThe billionaire sold International Lease Finance Corp., which he helped launch in the 1970s, to AIG in 1990. Now that the insurance giant has hit major turbulence, Udvar-Hazy wants to buy it back.If you've flown on a commercial airliner over the last two decades, there's a good chance you were in a plane leased from Steven Udvar-Hazy.
Source: L.A. Times - Business | 15 Sep 2009 | 1:00 am Hollywood producers are guilty of bribing Thai officialGerald and Patricia Green are convicted of bribery and money laundering related to running a film festival in Thailand. This could lead to further investigation into studios' overseas business.Hollywood may be in for tighter government scrutiny of its overseas operations.
Source: L.A. Times - Business | 15 Sep 2009 | 1:00 am Judge rejects Bank of America settlement in Merrill Lynch bonus caseThe bank was ready to pay a $33-million fine to settle the case, in which the Securities and Exchange Commission alleged that BofA misled shareholders over the bonuses. A trial is ordered for February...Source: RSS feed - channel BNPaperBusiness | 15 Sep 2009 | 1:00 am Firm distributes wines robust in black prideHeritage Link Brands of L.A. markets products of vintners in South Africa and elsewhere. The company began with the idea of helping black winemakers and spreading their inspirational stories.When Selena Cuffe sampled South African wines four years ago in Soweto, she didn't wax poetic about their rustic radiance, about plum and berry notes on the nose or hints of vanilla on the palate. That would come with time.
Source: L.A. Times - Business | 15 Sep 2009 | 1:00 am Hollywood producers are guilty of bribing Thai officialGerald and Patricia Green are convicted of bribery and money laundering related to running a film festival in Thailand. This could lead to further investigation into studios' overseas business. ...Source: RSS feed - channel BNPaperBusiness | 15 Sep 2009 | 1:00 am China takes complaint over U.S. tire tariffs to WTOBeijing accuses Washington of protectionism. Leaders of the two countries are to meet next week at the Group of 20 summit in Pittsburgh. ...Source: RSS feed - channel BNPaperBusiness | 15 Sep 2009 | 1:00 am Banks identified over complaintsBanks are "named and shamed" by the financial ombudsman to prompt them to deal better with complaints from customers.Source: BBC News | Business | World Edition | 15 Sep 2009 | 12:58 am Aussie market closes flatMELBOURNE - The Australian shares market finished flat on Tuesday after giving up earlier gains, weighed down by news of the federal government's plan to break up Telstra.The benchmark S&P/ASX200 index closed up 9.2 points, or...Source: nzherald.co.nz - Business | 15 Sep 2009 | 12:57 am Europe eclipse North America as world's richest region new survey findsEurope has eclipsed North America as the world's richest region a new survey that measures assets under management has showed.Source: Finance and Business. Latest breaking news stocks and shares from the UK and world | 15 Sep 2009 | 12:53 am Australia's Telstra to be broken upTelstra, the Australian telecommunications group, is to be broken up to boost competition as Canberra presses ahead with a US$37 billion national broadband network, it was announced today.$ Source: Latest Business News from Times Online | 15 Sep 2009 | 12:52 am China probes U.S. imports, seeks WTO talksChina goes ahead with its planned probe of U.S. chicken and auto-parts imports, but it also tries to defuse fears of a deepening trade conflict with Washington, stressing its desire for good relations.
Source: MarketWatch.com - Top Stories | 15 Sep 2009 | 12:51 am RBA remains on tightening track: minutesMinutes from the Reserve Bank of Australia's last meeting show policy makers weighing the benefits against the pitfalls of tightening policy.
Source: MarketWatch.com - Top Stories | 15 Sep 2009 | 12:49 am Inflation expected to fall to fiveyear lowOfficial figures are set to show inflation falling to its lowest level in almost five years on Tuesday.Source: Finance and Business. Latest breaking news stocks and shares from the UK and world | 15 Sep 2009 | 12:48 am Foreign investment in China risesForeign investment in China rose by $7.5bn in August, the first increase in 11 months, official figures show.Source: BBC News | Business | World Edition | 15 Sep 2009 | 12:35 am Lehman collapse: Bank of America married Merrill Lynch in haste and repented at leisureBank of America rescued Merrill Lynch on the same day Lehman Brothers collapsed into bankruptcy much to the regret of those involved.Source: Finance and Business. Latest breaking news stocks and shares from the UK and world | 15 Sep 2009 | 12:33 am Sharemarket down nearly one 1pcThe New Zealand sharemarket had another fairly quiet session today, reflecting order flows in the absence of local news.The benchmark NZSX-50 index closed down 29.047 points, or 0.928 per cent, at 3099.626, having started the...Source: nzherald.co.nz - Business | 15 Sep 2009 | 12:14 am World wealth down 11 percent, fewer millionairesNEW YORK (Reuters) - The 2008 global recession caused the first worldwide contraction in assets under management in nearly a decade, according to a study that found wealth dropped 11.7 percent to $92.4 trillion.Source: Reuters: Business News | 15 Sep 2009 | 12:03 am Lloyds Banking Group's new chairman Sir Win Bischoff to cut reliance on governmentSir Win Bischoff takes up the post of chairman of Lloyds Banking Group almost a year to the day that the bank was created in a disastrous rescue merger between Lloyds TSB and HBOS and faces an overflowing intray.Source: Finance and Business. Latest breaking news stocks and shares from the UK and world | 15 Sep 2009 | 12:00 am HP shows off new ultra-thin PCs, stylish netbookSAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Hewlett-Packard Co unveiled several new products for the important fall season, including thin and light laptop PCs and an eye-catching new netbook.Source: Reuters: Business News | 14 Sep 2009 | 11:47 pm Mortgage broker in alleged $13m dollar real-estate scamOne of the men allegedly connected to a multi-million dollar real-estate scam is still practicing as a mortgage broker.The man has interim name suppression and his lawyer said he is a "minor player".He appeared in the Auckland...Source: nzherald.co.nz - Business | 14 Sep 2009 | 11:29 pm Dollar consolidates around US70cThe New Zealand dollar was firm today around the US70c figure.Dealers said the currency was consolidating in a narrow range in the absence of major drivers.Manufacturing sales volumes rose in the June quarter, but the value...Source: nzherald.co.nz - Business | 14 Sep 2009 | 11:10 pm 5 Health-Care Stocks for the New LandscapeAfter months of histrionic headlines about socialized medicine and Congress’s continuous plodding on health care legislation, it’s not surprising that some investors have turned skittish on health care stocks. After all, reforms of any kind, some analysts say, could hurt the profits of health care companies, especially Big Pharma firms, which rely on promising but pricey blockbuster drugs. Some pros, however, have written a new prescription for health care investing, anticipating that whatever legislation emerges will create a host of new winners. They include a number of hospitals and generic-drug makers, which will see more customers solely because more people will be insured. Medical supply and research firms could come out ahead too, because the government has earmarked billions for health records and scientific studies. And many other firms still have demographics on their side—starting in 2011 the first wave of baby boomers hits age 65, and their health care needs will rise. “No company will be completely unscathed,” says Mark Oelschlager, manager of the Live Oak Health Sciences fund. “But you can find good opportunities.” Best of all for health care investors is that all the talk of reform has depressed the stock valuations of many firms. True, many drug companies aren’t growing as fast as they were a few years ago, and some insurers now have razor-thin profit margins. But the industry is still packed with steady earners paying attractive dividends. In fact, health care stocks are expected to be the biggest contributor of earnings among the firms in the Standard & Poor’s 500 index this year, accounting for nearly 20 percent of total profits, says S&P senior index analyst Howard Silverblatt. Some health care companies don’t even need any new legislation to benefit from the drive to change health care. The government earmarked $19 billion for digitizing medical records in the stimulus package passed in early 2009. That will help hospitals—many of which are still keeping patient information in big manila folders—to upgrade computers and software. That should benefit McKesson, already a leader in advanced health care information systems. The reform drive also has put a new emphasis on reining in spending, which could help firms that take costs out of the system. Hospitals, for instance, are trying to cut down on costly readmissions of patients, and companies that can help could see their business surge. One company, RehabCare Group, now runs rehab centers that can treat all sorts of patients, whether they’re stroke victims or folks recovering from hip surgery. And it’s developing systems to track their progress and make sure they don’t need a return trip to the hospital. Does this mean all health care stocks are surefire winners? Hardly. It could take years for some of the changes to shake out, and some investors admit they’re on edge. “Everyone’s on pins and needles,” says Rosanne Ott, manager of the Alger Health Sciences fund. But Ott and other pros say that with so much uncertainty hovering over the sector—and prices so depressed—it’s a good time to invest. The Picks
McKesson
Teva Pharmaceutical
RehabCare Group TWO BONUS PICKS
Express Scripts
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Source: SmartMoney.com | 14 Sep 2009 | 10:00 pm 3 Stocks Priced for Takeovers (Screens)August was on pace to be the slowest month for corporate takeovers in 14 years, until the final day of the month. That morning, Disney (DIS) announced a cash-and-stock purchase of Marvel Entertainment and its stable of comic heroes, while Baker Hughes (BHI) said it would snap up a fellow energy services firm, BJ Services, for mostly stock. Those deals, valued at $4 billion and $5.5 billion, respectively, elevated August to merely the slowest month for transactions in six years. The revival has continued into September, with Deutsche Telekom and France Telecom agreeing to combine their British wireless operations, and cheese maker Kraft (KFT) chasing (unsuccessfully so far) after chocolatier Cadbury. Optimists say managers are less fearful about the economy, and that target companies are still cheap. I say that too few companies are truly cheap, but that with the broad market up more than 50% from its March low, managers are keen on spending their companies’ reclaimed stock wealth. Whatever the case, stock investors looking to add to their holdings might want to start their search by thinking like merger pros. To that end, below are three companies with low EV/Ebitda ratios. EV is enterprise value, or the cost to buy all of a company’s shares and pay off its debt, while applying its cash to the transaction. Ebitda, which stands for earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, looks at current profits while ignoring some charges related to past transactions. The companies that follow have low takeover prices relative to their profit potential. And since the point of this screen is to find long-term holdings, not guess on takeovers, I made sure each company pays a dividend. Cardinal HealthEV/Ebitda: 4.4 A giant in the drug distribution industry, Cardinal Health (CAH) recently spun off its medical products business, CareFusion (CFN). It retains a stake in CareFusion worth more than $700 million, though, which it intends to gradually sell in coming years, boosting cash flow. In addition, Cardinal generates more than $1 billion in free cash a year—close to 11% of its market value. Consolidation among drug stores means huge chains like CVS Caremark (CVS) can negotiate for lower prices, a negative for Cardinal. But the company is working to add more independent druggists, who pay higher prices. Sales are stable at the moment and the stock is about 25% cheaper than the S&P 500 relative to forecast 2009 earnings. It carries a dividend yield of 2.6%. Cooper IndustriesEV/Ebitda: 7.7 According to the industry categorization scheme used by data companies, Cooper Industries (CBE) is a conglomerate. Increasingly, though, the label doesn’t fit. The 170-year-old firm spent the first three of the past four decades diversifying into scattered businesses, but over the past decade has pruned its manufacturing lines to electrical products and tools. Those industries have seen better days; sales for Cooper are forecast to fall 22% this year. Shares are trading at 16 times this year’s meager earnings forecast, but just 10 times what the company earned last year. Cooper owes little, which will help it weather the current manufacturing downturn. Investors who tuck shares away and wait for an economic recovery collect a 2.7% dividend. ConocoPhilipsEV/Ebitda: 3.8 Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A), Warren Buffett’s investment vehicle, lost plenty by betting on shares of ConocoPhilips (COP) last year when crude oil was well over $100 a barrel. Today’s buyers might fare better. The stock’s price is a third lower than a year ago. Based on measures like sales and earnings, Conoco is the cheapest of the major diversified energy producers. Using this year’s depressed profit forecasts, for example, Conoco trades at 13 times earnings, vs. 18 times earnings for Exxon Mobil (XOM). And Conoco comes with a much bigger dividend yield: 4.1%. SMARTMONEY ® Layout and look and feel of SmartMoney.com are trademarks of SmartMoney, a joint venture between Dow Jones & Company, Inc. and Hearst SM Partnership. © 1995 - 2009 SmartMoney. All Rights Reserved.
Source: SmartMoney.com | 14 Sep 2009 | 10:00 pm The Crash: How People Are Coping a Year Later (On the Street)Lehman Brothers, once the fourth-largest investment bank in the U.S., filed for bankruptcy a year ago today. The bank’s collapse triggered a massive selloff in the stock market and cut many investment portfolio values in half. It also marked the beginning of the biggest financial crisis to affect Main Street since the Great Depression. As the unemployment rate rose to its highest level in 26 years, millions of Americans lost their homes to foreclosure and turned to unemployment benefits to make ends meet. Although many chose to cut back on spending, saving money became more difficult, as people struggled to hold on to their jobs and salaries remained stagnant. Many older Americans delayed their retirement after watching their funds plummet with the stock market. SmartMoney.com spoke with a variety of people – a financial consultant, a teacher, an environmental advocate, service workers and students – to get a sense of how Americans’ lives have changed over the last year. Here are their stories. See the video below.
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Source: SmartMoney.com | 14 Sep 2009 | 10:00 pm How the Crash Changed Lives: Readers' Tales (On the Street)It’s an anniversary that hardly anyone would celebrate. But when it comes to the crash of 2008, marked by the collapse of Lehman Brothers, one thing is certain: No event in recent history changed the lives of Americans quite as much. Recently, we asked SmartMoney.com readers to tell us on how the crash changed their lives. We received many letters, each with a unique story, but all with one underlying theme: taking charge of your financial life. Some of you dumped your broker and started managing your own portfolio, others took on more work for less pay; many curbed their spending and focused on building an emergency fund. Here’s a sampling of what readers wrote:
TWICE BURNED : Alan Martin, Fairfield, Iowa In March 2008, Alan Martin, 53, was working as the vice president of sales at a business services consultancy in Fairfield, Iowa. When his company’s line of credit was cut in half, Martin was laid off, and today he is still unemployed. It helps that his wife has gone back to work, earning $8 an hour as a school assistant, “but it is nowhere near the $150,000 a year earnings that I would normally expect,” Martin writes. “We have cut our spending considerably with no eating out, delayed all maintenance on the house, no luxuries, limited vacations and a strict budget.” He worries about health-care coverage — for something affordable, the couple took a policy with a $10,000 deductible — and the long-term ramifications of being jobless. “The lack of employment is now impacting my Social Security entitlement and will cause a double whammy of lower savings and lower benefits when I retire,” he writes. Making his financial situation even worse, Martin paid $20,000 to start a business and another $5,000 to a recruiter. Both plans turned out to be scams. “Now, I refuse to talk to anyone who wants payment upfront, but I still get a lot of calls from people trying to take advantage of the unemployed,” he says. “Madoffs exist everywhere, secure in the knowledge that the law does not apply to them, regardless of any ethical consideration.”
ROLLER COASTER: Jeff Holmes, Worcester, Pa. Jeff Holmes of Worcester, Pa., uses two words to describe his life after the crash: roller coaster. “My outlook changes on a daily or weekly basis with the changes in both the stock market and my job,” writes Holmes, whose employer in the past year has declared bankruptcy and closed the facility where he works. Though Holmes has been assured of keeping his job, for now, he is job hunting and believes he has “some time to be choosy.” In the meantime, Holmes has begun building up an emergency fund, set up spread sheets to keep track of his finances and “ has tried to reduce discretionary spending and pay off some debts,” he writes. But Holmes has also made some short-term financial decisions with questionable long-term consequences. To build up the emergency fund, he has “reduced or eliminated contributions to my 401k and reduced my withholding for taxes,” he writes. As a result, he may have to retire with a smaller nest egg, not to mention that by not contributing to his 401(k) in the past six months he has likely missed on the market’s 50% gains since the March 2009 lows.
TWO MORTGAGES: Terri Koller, Gardners, Pa. Before the market crashed, Terri Koller had been planning to sell her home in Gardners, Pa., and buy a small farm where her children could raise horses. Unfortunately, “when we finally found the perfect place, the housing market was so bad that the only way to sell our current house was to all but give it away,” she writes. Instead, the family rented their home, but that plan backfired when the tenant failed to make rent payments. Now, the Kollers are saddled with two mortgages. “I think the worst part of the meltdown is the greedy people who caused it are still skipping around with smiles on their faces and money in the bank, while many of the people who just tried to make a decent living for themselves and their families lost everything. Homes, jobs, retirement, savings,” Koller writes. “The old saying was proved true: The rich keep getting richer and the poor keep getting poorer.”
BLESSED: Carol Kujawa, Everett, Wash. After Carol Kujawa’s company laid off workers in November 2008, her employer told her she would have to take on part of a former colleague’s job -- essentially doing more work for less pay. She was also required to take two weeks’ unpaid leave this summer, as did all of her co-workers. Yet, Kujawa views both instances as a blessing in disguise. “I acquired new skills in short order, which make me more valuable to my company,” she writes. Kujawa adjusted the percentage contributions to her 401(k) toward bonds and away from stocks for a while, but continues to contribute 15% of her wages, and gets a match from her employer. “In the end, I am very thankful that I work for an excellent company, and I really appreciate my job,” she writes. “I count my blessings daily.”
MORE SELF-RELIANT, Chad Ahr, Amsterdam, N.Y. After the market crash, Chad Ahr, like many consumers, began to question the wisdom of paying for professional investment advice. Ahr, who lives in Amstedam, N.Y., started by taking over his self-directed IRA, saving the $500 quarterly fee. He has since left most of his positions intact and bought some exchange-traded funds. “I realize it was my fault,” writes Ahr. “I told my broker I wanted to stay all in, up till the day I left him. I am much wiser and almost whole.”
UP $110,000 : Douglas Tomlinson, Olathe, Kan. Like Ahr, Douglas Tomlinson of Olathe, Kan., decided to manage his own funds. His first order of business: selling an annuity, valued at $280,000, in October 2007, but had dropped in value to $150,000. To minimize the penalties, Tomlinson waited until February 2009 to sell, and received $124,000 after he closed the account. “I took the original investment of $100,000 and went to buying stocks myself starting on March 1, 2009,” he writes. “As of today, I have more than doubled my money and I’m up about $110,000. I look to have all of my money recouped by the end of this year and continue forward with my portfolio. I will now be in a better financial position and can fall back on this money when needed for emergencies. I have a continuous stream of income with dividends and stock options, which makes it easier to manage the ups and downs in the market.”
SMARTER FOR IT: Marc Brown, Alpharetta, Ga. Marc Brown of Alpharetta, Ga., writes that he extracted some invaluable investing lessons from the crash. Here are a few: “Invest in what you know, … buy quality and minimize risk, … stocks are not the only way to make money, and most importantly… never forget how you felt when things were at their worst so you do not put yourself in the same position again.” SMARTMONEY ® Layout and look and feel of SmartMoney.com are trademarks of SmartMoney, a joint venture between Dow Jones & Company, Inc. and Hearst SM Partnership. © 1995 - 2009 SmartMoney. All Rights Reserved.
Source: SmartMoney.com | 14 Sep 2009 | 10:00 pm Advertising: Waiting for a ReboundSTARTING IN SPRINGTIME, THE OUTLOOK for advertising suddenly began to get a whole lot brighter. Rays of light appeared in May in the form of Macy's chief financial officer noting that the big department-store chain was much better able to project sales than it had been six months previously. Another glimmer: Software giant Microsoft revealed in May that it would spend $100 million to promote Bing, its new search engine competing against mighty Google . A sign the darkest days were past came when General Motors filed for bankruptcy in June, but noted that it would stop slashing its advertising budget. Indeed, soon after emerging from bankruptcy in July, the world's second-largest car maker, and one of the country's top-10 advertisers, announced that its ad budget for 2009 and 2010 would rise significantly. Since then, Procter & Gamble, the country's top advertiser, has said it would boost spending on its brands, and Yahoo! , for the first time in years, plans to spend serious money -- $75 million -- to promote itself. No wonder there's widespread agreement that the second quarter likely marked an end to what's been a wrenching slide in advertising, the biggest downturn in the industry since the 2001 recession. Maurice Levy, head of France's Publicis Groupe, the No. 2 advertising company in the world, declared after his company reported first-half results, "I firmly believe, and all the information I have on hand shows that the second quarter will be the lowest point." Rupert Murdoch, chief executive of media giant News Corp. (NWSA), publisher of this magazine, has also offered his opinion that the worst of the economic downturn is past. Total spending on advertising, indeed, improved slightly in the second quarter, falling by 12% to 13% compared with a decline of 14% in the first, which included the two worst months -- January and February -- since the brakes slammed on the economy in October, according to TNS Media Intelligence, which monitors media spending from its base in Manhattan. SKIES ARE CLEARER IN THE ADVERTISING industry, yes, but they are not exactly what you would call sunny. Truth is, while the worst may be over, and there are pockets of clear strength, better days may take a while to arrive, as consumer demand, vital to ad growth, remains soft. Some savvy observers see no meaningful growth in total advertising until 2011. Indeed, as the first anniversary of the recession approaches, investors shouldn't confuse better year-over-year comparisons with a strong rebound. When at last a revival takes hold, it will likely not bear much resemblance to past recoveries. While advertising's growth historically has exceeded that of gross domestic product by two to four percentage points during expansions, the industry has barely kept pace with economic expansion since 2001, according to Veronis Suhler Stevenson, a private-equity firm that concentrates on the media and communications industries and publishes the comprehensive Communications Industry Forecast. The gap between growth in advertising and GDP is expected to widen significantly. In fact, overall ad spending is projected to decline three years in a row through 2010, something that hasn't occurred since the 1930-33 period in the Great Depression. Much of this can be explained by the continuing shift from traditional media outlets like newspapers and broadcast TV to alternative media platforms as a less expensive and more effective way of targeting customers, with the most buoyant growth seen in such areas as cable television, Internet and "branded entertainment" like product placement and event sponsorship. In the five years through 2013, Veronis Suhler projects that spending on alternative advertising will post a compounded annual growth rate of 12.3% and expand its market share of all ad spending to 32.3% from just 5.9% five years ago. Traditional advertising, on the other hand, will show a compounded annual decline of 3.3%, bringing spending levels below where they stood in 1997. In this environment, the winners are likely to be companies along the lines of Salesforce.com (CRM) with its expertise in customer-relationship management, cable outfits such as Discovery Communications (DISCA) and Cablevision (CVC), media companies such as Time Warner (TWX), Viacom (VIA.B) and Disney (DIS), and search engines such as Google (GOOG). One striking sign of the new order: The Internet now holds greater sway over advertising budgets than radio, and it is set to overtake magazine spending this year, according to ZenithOptimedia, a division of Publicis Groupe. As a result, Publicis and other ad agencies are throwing more weight behind digital media, which has been one of the few areas that has held up well and delivered solid growth in the current downturn. As part of its digital strategy, Publicis recently announced it would buy the French customer-relationship-management program of Unilever (UL), one of its biggest clients, and use it to showcase Unilever's brands and promote more interaction with customers. Procter & Gamble, in announcing its intentions to boost spending on advertising, noted that it, too, would place more emphasis on digital media. Ad agencies as a group, however, are reeling from both the changes in the industry and the severity of the global recession. Interpublic Group (IPG), WPP Group (WPP.UK), Omnicom Group (OMC) and Publicis (PUB.France) continue to restructure as a result of shrinking revenue and profits. While the worst may be over for the agencies, the environment is still risky enough that investors may be wise to focus on other segments of the ad world. As Larry Haverty, veteran retailing and entertainment analyst and manager of the Gabelli Global Multimedia Trust, puts it: "I'd prefer to bet on the companies selling stuff, rather than those specializing in the art of trying to sell stuff." FOR A SENSE OF THE NEW ADVERTISING dynamic, one only has to look at Mad Men, the stylish and noirish hit TV drama about Madison Avenue in the early 1960s, on the AMC channel, part of Cablevision's Rainbow Media Holdings division. To reach what's considered the most upscale audience in television, BMW signed on as the sole sponsor for the premier episode of the third season; 4.5 million viewers tuned in. AMC also teamed up with retailer Banana Republic to promote the show in window displays at 500 stores across the country, with Banana Republic giving away an iTunes download of the pilot episode with any purchase. There's a Website devoted to the show, an iPhone application and a Facebook page. In all, it's a huge change from the era chronicled by Mad Men, where an advertiser simply would have bought some time on the show. Says Charlie Collier, president and general manager of AMC and a former advertising executive: "We are so clearly a multi-platform media company, not just a television company." That's increasingly necessary, in the face of changing consumer habits. "No longer are newspaper and magazine subscription purchases and network prime-time viewing the norm," says John Suhler, the co-founder and president of Veronis Suhler Stevenson. "Instead, they are declining, and consumers are spending more time with media which they support and pay for, as opposed to ad-supported media. This development is a culmination of two decades of secular shift toward consumer-controlled media, and shows no sign of slowing." In the past year, for the first time since Suhler's outfit began tracking it in 1986, advertising shrank to the smallest of the four communications sectors the company follows, signaling a major shift in the spending patterns of Corporate America. Once the dominant category, garnering 35% of communications spending in the 1970s and '80s, advertising has dwindled to 20% of the pie. The biggest piece is now "institutional end user," covering everything from Bloomberg to education and training services. Still, some areas of advertising are well-positioned for strong growth. Annual ad revenues for cable television should climb 7.1%, on average, through 2013, according to Veronis Suhler Stevenson. Out-of-home media, which includes billboards and elevator and media video screens, could see 4.9% annual gains. Pure-play Internet could be up 10.6% a year, while pure-play mobile climbs 33% and entertainment media, 27.4%. In contrast, spending on broadcast television is expected to slide by 2% in the five-year period of 2008-13. Broadcast and satellite radio will contract by 3.6%, newspaper spending will fall another 8.9%, on average, and spending on consumer magazines will drop by 5.4%. WITH THE OVERALL ECONOMY stabilizing and economic growth seen at 3.2% in 2010 -- a year that brings us the Winter Olympics in February, the World Cup soccer tournament in June and midterm elections with some hotly contested political races in key states -- the knee-jerk reaction among investors would be to start positioning themselves in the traditional areas of the economically sensitive advertising sector. This time around, that might not pan out. "Unlike prior recessions, where advertising was always cyclical and always dipped and always came roaring back, our take is that for newspapers, magazines, radio and broadcast television, this time it's not," says Jim Rutherfurd of Veronis Suhler. "Those areas are in permanent decline." "The rate of decline has stopped falling, and we feel positive because we've stopped banging our head so hard against the wall," says Brian Wieser, global director of forecasting at Magna, a division of Interpublic Group's Mediabrands, "but we are still banging our head against the wall." Wieser, who inherited Magna's forecasting mantle from longtime dean Bob Coen earlier this year, is among the most pessimistic prognosticators. Like many, he expects the first half of 2009 to stand out as the worst period of the recession, with advertising revenue 18% below that in the corresponding 2008 stretch. For the full year, he estimates that ad revenue will be 14% lower than in 2008, at $161 billion. But he sees no growth until 2011, excluding the temporary lifts from political or Olympic campaigns that loom large in most outlooks for 2010. Even factoring in spending on elections and the Olympics, Wieser projects revenues generated by advertising to be flat in 2010. As long as personal consumption and industrial production remain in a slump, so will advertising. Wieser agrees that the strongest areas in advertising will be "marketing services," which includes e-mail promotions and event sponsorships, cable television and paid online search engines. National advertising is growing at the expense of local advertising, and Wieser cites entertainment companies with cable properties, such as Viacom, E.W. Scripps (SSP), Turner Networks and Discovery Communications as well-positioned to deliver specific audiences on a national level to meet advertisers' needs. He notes that the amount spent on advertising by large companies has more or less held constant since 1994, while the number of advertisers has doubled. He notes, too, that many companies have shifted money that might have gone to traditional advertising to other forms of marketing. Hershey (HSY), for example, in 1984 spent $100 million on advertising and $100 million on promotions. In 2008, the chocolate maker spent $120 million on advertising and $500 million on promotions. Not too sweet for old media. "There's no doubt in my mind that we've seen the bottom in advertising, but the recovery is likely to be tepid," says Gabelli's Haverty. The cash-for-clunkers program may have been successful, but auto dealers won't invest heavily in advertising until they've restocked inventories, for one thing. And even though General Motors plans to increase spending on ads (some with its chairman as pitchman), it will be from a lower base and on fewer brands. Financial-services firms are more cautious and there are fewer of them around, thanks to consolidation. Pharmaceutical companies are refraining from taking too high a profile amid the debate on health-care reform. Travel-related advertising is still in the dumps. And film advertising won't kick in in a meaningful way until late in the year in advance of James Cameron's 3-D epic-adventure film Avatar from 20th Century Fox. "Things are better, but not at a level anyone can feel particularly good about," Haverty says, noting that pockets of strength include videogames with a string of new releases, including Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 and Beatles: Rock Band, which, like movies, are advertised on TV, in magazines and, of course, online. And retailers are in better shape and could respond quickly if demand picks up. Haverty recommends sticking with the companies that are best-positioned to reap some of the benefits of the accelerating trends. For him, Yahoo! (YHOO) stands out for the incremental cash flow it will receive through a pact it recently made with Microsoft for online search. Trading at six times cash flow, it's a cheap advertising stock. Its high-performing Asian assets alone, ex-cash, are worth about 45% of the total value of the company. Discovery Communications is also a standout, notable for its reality shows like the Deadliest Catch series and Animal Planet. It has been able to offer programming that attracts advertisers, and it's posted revenue growth in a tough environment, a feat credited to its highly respected ad honcho, Joe Abruzzese, whom Discovery lured away from CBS Television Networks in 2002. CERTAINLY, MEDIA STOCKS are starting to get some more attention. In Barron's latest survey of Wall Street investment strategists, two noted their allure. RBC's Myles Zyblock favors the group, which has been heavily shunned, because of earnings improvements and the likely benefits from the Winter Olympics, the World Expo in China, the World Cup and the midterm elections. Media stocks also appeal to Larry Adam, chief investment strategist at Deutsche Bank, who views them as a way to bet on an improving economy six to nine months from now. Adam suggests an exchange-traded fund, the Powershares Dynamic Media (PBS) fund, is a way to gain exposure to companies such as Disney, Google, Time Warner and Viacom, among others. Media companies rallied nicely Thursday after Goldman Sachs analyst Mark Wienkes raised his rating on the group to Attractive from Neutral, pointing out that advertising revenue at cable networks is expected to increase 6% from the level a year ago, as national advertising outpaces local advertising. Wienkes' favorite is Time Warner because of its HBO, TNT and TBS cable networks, which stand to gain from strength in national advertising. He noted, too, that Time Warner trades at a discount to the entertainment group. Indeed, for all the losses suffered by newspaper, magazine and broadcast TV advertising, other parts of the ad industry look more than ready to shine. According to Veronis Suhler Stevenson, cable television and entertainment media will help make the broader communications sector the third-fastest growing segment of the U.S. economy in the next five years, behind mining and construction. For investors, the message couldn't be clearer: Out with the old, in with the new. SMARTMONEY ® Layout and look and feel of SmartMoney.com are trademarks of SmartMoney, a joint venture between Dow Jones & Company, Inc. and Hearst SM Partnership. © 1995 - 2009 SmartMoney. All Rights Reserved.
Source: SmartMoney.com | 14 Sep 2009 | 10:00 pm 5 Reasons to Convert to a Roth IRA (Consumer Action)After waiting nearly four years, a new group of American workers is about to have access to the Roth Individual Retirement Account (IRA). Beginning in January 2010, most individuals who have a modified adjusted gross income (MAGI) of more than $100,000 will be able to convert a portion of their retirement savings from their traditional IRA or 401(k) into a Roth IRA. The change was signed into law by President Bush in May 2006 as part of a $70 billion tax cut. With a Roth IRA, participants are taxed on their contributions, but they can make tax-free withdrawals once they hit age 59 1/2 (although they must have held the account for at least five years). Before the new regulation, the plan worked best when the person contributing to the account was in a lower tax bracket than they expected to be in the future, when they started withdrawing money for their retirement. That way, they wouldn't have to pay much in taxes upfront, says Pamela Hess, the director of retirement research at Hewitt Associates, a human resources services company. But now, the Roth IRA could be appealing for a wider variety of savers. Higher-earning individuals will soon be able to convert to a Roth IRA. People who find themselves unemployed or making less – and are suddenly in a lower tax bracket – should also consider rolling over existing retirement accounts into a Roth IRA. Legislation in Congress could change the landscape of IRAs, as well, making them the default retirement savings option for many Americans. President Obama’s financial regulatory reform legislation includes a proposal that would require employers to set up automatic-enrollment IRAs, retirement accounts that allow for tax-deductible contributions. If the measure passes, companies that don't offer a tax-deferred retirement-savings plan would make employee contributions into IRA accounts through direct payroll deposits. Here are five reasons to consider converting to a Roth IRA soon: Income rules eliminated next yearHigh-income earners will have a momentary shot at taking advantage of the Roth IRA's perks. In 2010, most people will be able to convert a portion of their traditional IRA or 401(k) into a Roth IRA, regardless of their income. Now, conversions are only an option if your MAGI – not including additional taxable income triggered by the conversion itself – is $100,000 or less. Married individuals who file their taxes separately are ineligible regardless of their income. (To contribute, as opposed to convert, to a Roth IRA, single filers need a MAGI of below $120,000, and those who are married filing jointly need an MAGI below $176,000. The maximum contribution is $5,000 a year – or $6,000 for those who are at least 50 by year-end.) But don’t stall. This $100,000 restriction will be lifted only for 2010. Spread the conversion tax hit over two yearsAnother new perk coming next year: deferred taxes. Those who convert to a Roth IRA in 2010 can spread their tax liability out across 2011 and 2012, thereby reducing some of the immediate tax hit, says Petra Campos, a retirement director for Charles Schwab. They’ll pay half the income they convert in 2011 and the other half in 2012 at whatever tax bracket they’re in during those years, says Sheryl Garrett, a fee-only certified financial planner. Shrinking retirement portfoliosSeeing your traditional IRA or 401(k) shrink by 30% in a year isn’t much to smile about, but if you convert a portion of these accounts to a Roth IRA now, you’ll pay less in taxes. When you convert part of your IRA or 401(k) balances to a Roth IRA, you pay taxes on the amount being converted. Because account balances have shrunk, your taxable balance is likely to be considerably lower today than it was when the market was stronger. In effect, this is an opportunity to use the market downturn to your advantage, says Linda Robertson, a Philadelphia-based financial planner with Financial Finesse, a financial education company. Potentially higher tax ratesAll of those stimulus package initiatives and government bailouts are going to cost money. As a result, today's tax rates might be the lowest you'll see for the rest of your life, Robertson says. “The consensus is that we may see taxes rise – but no one knows how much,” she says. If you are considering converting to a Roth IRA, you should get a move on, especially if you're young or the victim of a wage cut or layoff and are in the 10% or 15% tax bracket. In a year or two, you may be in a higher tax bracket because of a new job or salary increase, so it's best to take advantage of your low tax rates now, Garrett says. Estate-planning benefitsFor those concerned about reaching their 80s or 90s with enough cash to leave to their children, the Roth IRA offers some generous estate-planning benefits. When a traditional IRA or 401(k) is passed on to a beneficiary, the beneficiary has to pay taxes on whatever is left in that nest egg based on their own tax bracket – not the tax bracket of the original account holder. With a Roth IRA, the beneficiary acquires the account without having to pay taxes on the cash that’s left. (The original holder had already paid taxes on the contributions.) The Roth IRA also doesn’t require minimum withdrawals, so you could leave the entire nest egg untouched for a beneficiary, Campos says. Typically, traditional IRAs require minimum withdrawals by age 70 1/2. SMARTMONEY ® Layout and look and feel of SmartMoney.com are trademarks of SmartMoney, a joint venture between Dow Jones & Company, Inc. and Hearst SM Partnership. © 1995 - 2009 SmartMoney. All Rights Reserved.
Source: SmartMoney.com | 14 Sep 2009 | 10:00 pm Citi explores sale of government stakeThe troubled financial group has asked its investment bankers to study options to facilitate a sale of the state’s 34 per cent holding, which has risen in value by $10bnSource: Financial Times - US homepage | 14 Sep 2009 | 9:38 pm Dairy farm sales collapse to zero in AugustNot a single New Zealand dairy farm changed hands in August as overall farm sales fell again during "a seasonally quiet period", figures released by the Real Estate Institute of New Zealand (REINZ) show.There were 51 farm sales...Source: nzherald.co.nz - Business | 14 Sep 2009 | 9:30 pm Auckland hotels reduce room ratesAuckland hotel room rates fell 40 per cent in United States dollar terms over a year, the third largest fall in a worldwide index of hotel rates.Overall a 17 per cent fall in global prices was recorded in the Hotels.com survey...Source: nzherald.co.nz - Business | 14 Sep 2009 | 9:00 pm 'Too soon to be certain' of economic recoverySYDNEY - The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) believes it is "too soon" to be certain that the global economy is on the road to recovery, the central bank's latest board minutes show.The RBA left the cash rate unchanged at three...Source: nzherald.co.nz - Business | 14 Sep 2009 | 8:15 pm U.S. looking at selling Citi shares: report (Reuters)Reuters - The Treasury Department is talking to Citigroup Inc about how to sell the roughly one-third stake the government acquired as part of its bailout of the bank, news agency Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with the matter.Source: Yahoo! News: Business | 14 Sep 2009 | 7:45 pm Obama urges Wall Street co-operationUS president seeks to capitalise on the first anniversary of the Lehman bankruptcy by urging Wall Street to co-operate with Congress to enact financial reformSource: Financial Times - US homepage | 14 Sep 2009 | 6:18 pm Darling prepares to make banks write ‘living wills’ in case disaster strikesAlistair Darling is drawing up legislation to make sure that big financial institutions write “living wills” — plans to wind themselves up in case of bankruptcy. Source: Latest Business News from Times Online | 14 Sep 2009 | 6:12 pm Prince of Wales accused of using charity as architecture lobby firmThe Prince of Wales’s architecture charity is under investigation by regulators after a complaint that it is acting as his “private lobby firm”. Source: Latest Business News from Times Online | 14 Sep 2009 | 6:00 pm Ports of Auckland gets $70m from region, repays debtPorts of Auckland, New Zealand's biggest container port, is getting an infusion of funds from its shareholder, the region's investment company, of as much as $70 million, allowing it to repay debt and strengthen its balance sheet...Source: nzherald.co.nz - Business | 14 Sep 2009 | 6:00 pm 'My portfolio is down less than 15%'Source: Business and financial news - CNNMoney.com | 14 Sep 2009 | 5:54 pm Banker fired for parties in bank-owned homeWhat happens if you use one of your bank's foreclosed properties -- particularly one in swanky Malibu beach -- for your own parties? You get fired.Source: Business and financial news - CNNMoney.com | 14 Sep 2009 | 5:48 pm BofA-SEC bonus pact rejected (Reuters)
Source: Yahoo! News: Stock Markets News | 14 Sep 2009 | 5:41 pm BofA-SEC bonus pact rejectedNEW YORK (Reuters) - A federal judge rejected Bank of America Corp's $33 million settlement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission over Merrill Lynch & Co bonuses as a contrivance, and New York's top legal officer prepared to sue senior bank executives.Source: Reuters: Business News | 14 Sep 2009 | 5:41 pm BofA-SEC bonus pact rejected (Reuters)
Source: Yahoo! News: Business | 14 Sep 2009 | 5:41 pm Podcast: Planet Money Live
Alice Rivlin and Martin Bailey of the Brookings Institution at the Planet Money/Pew Charitable Trusts debate. (Katie Hayes/NPR) On today's Planet Money: We team up with the Pew Charitable Trusts for an intense debate on financial regulatory reform. - Bob Litan and Scott Talbott duke it out over what to do with financial institutions that are too big to fail. - Adam Levitin and Diane Casey-Landry sound off on a proposed Consumer Financial Protection Agency. - Darrell Duffie and Mark Brickell dispute the future of derivatives. With special appearances by Alice Rivlin, Martin Bailey, Charles Calomiris, Peter Wallison and Adam's dad, Jack Davidson. Bonus: After the jump, a listener calls co-pay assistance cards "the dumbest system I've ever seen." Download the podcast; or subscribe. Intro music: TV On The Radio's "Wolf Like Me." Find us: Twitter/ Facebook/ Flickr. Luke P. writes: I had a high deductible HSA and was paying $75 a month for Lipitor. Then I got sent a Lipitor co-pay assistance card (didn't even ask for it). I think at some point, the price of Lipitor went up last year in PA anyway, but the card did lower my checks by $10, which was fine. I also started getting a lot of marketing materials about Lipitor specifically and heart health in general. Stuff to make me more brand loyal. Recently, my wife got a job as a teacher that provides insurance. Now, the co-pay card takes care of everything out-of-pocket. I literally went from writing almost $1000 of checks for Lipitor a year, to getting it "free." This is the dumbest system I've ever seen. If their plan to make me brand loyal works, and I stick with Lipitor instead of switching to the generic in a year or so, the taxpayers in my wife's school district will be paying a "stupid tax" of $1000/yr. There can't be supply and demand in a system where the demand (to stay alive) is infinite. This is exactly the reason why we have regulated monopolies for utilities in this country. » E-Mail This » Add to Del.icio.us Source: NPR Blogs: Planet Money | 14 Sep 2009 | 5:34 pm Court rejects SEC settlement with BofAA US federal judge issued a sharp rebuke to the Securities and Exchange Commission by throwing out a $33m settlement between the regulator and Bank of America, calling the agreement “cynical” and setting the stage for a trial next yearSource: Financial Times - US homepage | 14 Sep 2009 | 5:31 pm It's payback time, Obama tells banksNEW YORK - US President Barack Obama went to Wall Street to tell the nation's bankers that they "owe a debt to the American people" and must stop getting in the way of reforms needed to prevent a repeat of the credit crisis.Exactly...Source: nzherald.co.nz - Business | 14 Sep 2009 | 5:30 pm Write-Offs: 09.14.09$$$ Andrew Cuomo considering filing charges on Ken Lewis and Co's asses. [WSJ] $$$ Dylan Ratigan: Americans Have Been Taken Hostage [HuffPo] $$$ For sale: The Lehman Anniversary Bundle [Cityfile] $$$ Matthew Goldstein: UBS' days of wine and CDOs [Reuters] $$$ "Oh my God, if those [Wall Street] institutions don't get what they want, we're all going to be fighting for rat meat in the streets." Has anyone ever actually thought this? [The Hill] $$$ How to get a loan if you're a prostitute or her "banker boyfriend/pimp" 
 Sponsored Topics: Wall Street - Ken Lewis - Andrew Cuomo - Huffington Post - Wall Street Journal Source: Dealbreaker | 14 Sep 2009 | 5:15 pm Dallas Has A Thing Or Two To Learn About Greasing Palms
Sponsored Topics: New York - Google Maps - Weather Channel - Google - California Source: Dealbreaker | 14 Sep 2009 | 5:13 pm Judge rejects SEC-BofA deal; Cuomo preps charges (AP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Stock Markets News | 14 Sep 2009 | 5:11 pm Mixed quarter for manufacturing sectorManufacturing sales volumes rose in the June quarter, but the value of sales fell as a result of lower prices.Seasonally adjusted, manufacturing volumes rose 1.8 per cent from the March quarter but values were down 4.8 per cent,...Source: nzherald.co.nz - Business | 14 Sep 2009 | 5:00 pm GE boosts solar power productionGeneral Electric aims to ramp up production of solar power panels by early next year in a crucial step in the company’s bid to transform its initial investments in the renewable energy field into a multibillion-dollar business.Source: Financial Times - US homepage | 14 Sep 2009 | 4:42 pm WFC Employee Fired For Putting Forcelosed Home To Good Use
Sponsored Topics: Wells Fargo - Vice president - Malibu California - CherondaGuyton - United States Source: Dealbreaker | 14 Sep 2009 | 4:34 pm Brussels to pore over Magna dealThe European Commission is to scrutinise German backing for the takeover of General Motors’ European operations amid concern that planned job cuts could be influenced by political factors, hitting plants in the UK and Belgium disproportionately hardSource: Financial Times - US homepage | 14 Sep 2009 | 4:28 pm Sarkozy Calls For House Cleaning And Leisure To Help Define Economic Progress
This type of explanation must be getting pretty familiar to Sarkozy. Three weeks ago he was calling for an end to the dollar as the world's chief reserve currency and reigniting the debate for a supranational competitor to the US dollar. Some easy substitution work on Tilford's take on GDP can shed some light on the currency issues as well:
Sponsored Topics: Joseph Stiglitz - Economic - Nicolas Sarkozy - Gross domestic product - London Source: Dealbreaker | 14 Sep 2009 | 4:11 pm Senator Reed Says Not Enough Afghan Troops, Trainers: VideoSource: Bloomberg - All Podcasts | 14 Sep 2009 | 4:08 pm Ben-Eliezer, Gelvin Discuss Middle East, Iran: AudioSource: Bloomberg - All Podcasts | 14 Sep 2009 | 3:58 pm Geisst, James Discuss Financial Market Regulation: AudioSource: Bloomberg - All Podcasts | 14 Sep 2009 | 3:55 pm The Dow Jones industrials' moves since Lehman fall (AP)AP - How far the Dow Jones industrial average has fallen or advanced each trading day since Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Sept. 15. Since Lehman's fall, which touched off a paralysis of the credit markets and deepened the recession, the stock market has gone through an extended period of volatility before kicking into a big rally starting this spring. The numbers are the closing levels for the Dow:Source: Yahoo! News: Business | 14 Sep 2009 | 3:54 pm The Dow Jones industrials' moves since Lehman fall (AP)AP - How far the Dow Jones industrial average has fallen or advanced each trading day since Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Sept. 15. Since Lehman's fall, which touched off a paralysis of the credit markets and deepened the recession, the stock market has gone through an extended period of volatility before kicking into a big rally starting this spring. The numbers are the closing levels for the Dow:Source: Yahoo! News: Stock Markets News | 14 Sep 2009 | 3:54 pm Whalen Says U.S. Must Regulate Risks Taken by Banks: AudioSource: Bloomberg - All Podcasts | 14 Sep 2009 | 3:49 pm Tilman Says Role of Risk in Markets Has Changed: AudioSource: Bloomberg - All Podcasts | 14 Sep 2009 | 3:48 pm Jersey Sees `Exceptionally’ Low Inflation for 3-5 Years: AudioSource: Bloomberg - All Podcasts | 14 Sep 2009 | 3:46 pm Around The Web: Reaction To The President's SpeechBy Caitlin Kenney Adam Davidson shared his views on President Obama's speech today on Talk of the Nation. Here's reaction from some of our other favorite econ watchers: Felix Salmon of Reuters keyed in on the Consumer Financial Protection Agency and this quote from the speech: "If taxpayers ever have to step in again to prevent a second Great Depression, the financial industry will have to pay the taxpayer back -- every cent." The financial industry. This is big, and important. Because what it does is it turns the whole industry -- every bank, every banker, every hedge fund manager -- into a mini-regulator, the eyes and ears of the systemic-risk regulator. All too often, those with eyes to see try to monetize their insights, rather than sounding a more general alarm. But if they ultimately end up paying for the cost of any bailout, they might stop just quietly putting on short positions, and start taking their analysis to the Fed instead. Which, under Obama's plan, will have the ability and authority to put an end to activities which pose major systemic risk. I'm still pessimistic that any of this is going to actually happen, and I stand by my original criticisms of the plan. Ezra Klein of The Washington Post dug into the choice of venue: The anniversary of Lehman's collapse could have been used to remind the public of their anger and the Congress of the potential consequences for inaction. Instead, Obama chose to speak to the traders, asking them to not only cooperate with Congress, but begin the process of reform on their own. He took an opportunity to score some political points in full view of the public and used it instead to start a conversation with the people he means to regulate. The legislative effort seems likely to follow a fairly similar path, which is to say it's going to primarily be a conversation between financial elites and political elites. More reactions and video of the speech, after the jump. Megan McArdle of the Atlantic takes issue with the plans for too big to fail institutions: As for the notion that we will finally put together a system that will make the whole industry pay if its members require a bailout . . . that sounds hopeful, but there's a catch. The problem is, the time at which you realize that you need the money to pay for the massive bailout is the time at which you have a lot of weak companies that could be tipped over the edge by the additional levy, which is why the PBGC has been underfunded for as long as I've been writing about it. The problem is even more acute in the financial system. Your best shot is at trying to structure firms that can withstand a crisis, and quickly shutter those that can't. The problem with that is that this was the mandate we gave our regulators before September 2008. Justin Fox of Time felt the speech was, well, nothing new: Now I'm a big fan of moderation and prudence. And I really liked lines from the speech such as this one:
"[I]t is important to note that the very absence of common-sense regulations able to keep up with a fast-paced financial sector is what created the need for that extraordinary intervention. The lack of sensible rules of the road, so often opposed by those who claim to speak for the free market, led to a rescue far more intrusive than anything any of us, Democrat or Republican, progressive or conservative, would have proposed or predicted." Will such arguments be enough to put financial reforms back on track? I really can't tell. This kind of complicated stuff is hard to push through Congress, and the Obama team's No. 1 legislative priority is clearly health reform. The moment of greatest urgency on these matters has passed. Normalcy is breeding complacency. And what did the Planet Money Twitter crowd have to say? Obama shudv started w/ finance, not health care. Americans have been waiting for action on this, not more talk. Obama's speech lacked talk on exec comp, the primary contributing factor to creating bad incentives. I get discouraged when I hear the Prez speak of responsibility while more WS hijinks occur. Bonus: Obama's speech in word cloud form. » E-Mail This » Add to Del.icio.us Source: NPR Blogs: Planet Money | 14 Sep 2009 | 3:44 pm How the major stock indexes fared on Monday (AP)AP - Stocks bounced back from early losses Monday to put up moderate gains as traders funneled money into utility and financial stocks. Stocks slid at the open following a drop in overseas markets on worries that a trade war would erupt between the U.S. and China. But the market recovered from an early dip as investors seized on the opportunity to inject new money into shares.Source: Yahoo! News: Stock Markets News | 14 Sep 2009 | 3:44 pm Waste Management Cut to `Neutral’ at Credit Suisse: AudioSource: Bloomberg - All Podcasts | 14 Sep 2009 | 3:44 pm Obama's other fight: Fixing bank rulesJust a month after taking office, President Obama asked Congress to move fast to reform the "outdated" system of financial oversight and install "tough, new common-sense rules of the road" for Wall Street.Source: Business and financial news - CNNMoney.com | 14 Sep 2009 | 3:40 pm Phelan Favors Gold ETFs as Prices Continue to Rise: AudioSource: Bloomberg - All Podcasts | 14 Sep 2009 | 3:40 pm Update: Do NOT Bid On Lenny Dykstra's Balls
Sponsored Topics: Lenny Dykstra - Law - Bankruptcy - Gated community - United States Source: Dealbreaker | 14 Sep 2009 | 3:33 pm Martha Stewart Lands at Home Depot (MSO, HD, SHLD, M)Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia Inc. (NYSE: MSO) has a new exclusive product lineup partner. We still want to know where Martha will end up after the K-Mart deal she has with Sears Holdings (NASDAQ: SHLD) expires, although a new partnership unveiled today does not specifically address that question and does not sound “exclusive” despite the [...][[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]
Source: 24/7 Wall St. | 14 Sep 2009 | 2:40 pm Dick Parsons Issues Update
While stopping short of a Broadway Joe-like guarantee that Citi will, unequivocally, exit TARP on an infinite time horizon, fans of the second derivative can take heart in Parson's less bad prognosis from 'hope to exit TARP' to 'every confidence to exit TARP'.
Sponsored Topics: New York - Bloomberg Television - DickParsons - Citibank - Richard Parsons Source: Dealbreaker | 14 Sep 2009 | 2:30 pm Judge rejects deal between SEC, BofA over bonusesNEW YORK -- A federal judge today rejected a $33 million settlement between the Securities and Exchange Commission and Bank of America Corp., saying the SEC's accusations of inadequate disclosure by the bank over bonuses paid at Merrill Lynch must now go to trial.
Source: L.A. Times - Business | 14 Sep 2009 | 2:18 pm Eli Lilly to cut 5,500 jobs by 2011Eli Lilly plans to cut 5,500 jobs, nearly 14 per cent of its workforce, by the end of 2011 as part of a restructuring by the drugs group to cut annual costs by $1bnSource: Financial Times - US homepage | 14 Sep 2009 | 1:57 pm Done Something Stupid? Wikipedia Can Make it Even Worse…After Kanye West stole Taylor Swift’s mic during the MTV Music Awards, he faced a backlash of epic proportions. Here’s just one example (since removed by Wikipedia editors)…
Source: Business Pundit | 14 Sep 2009 | 1:55 pm SEC: protecting long-term investors a priority (Reuters)Reuters - The first responsibility of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is to protect long-term investors if their interests conflict with short-term traders, the head of the SEC said in a letter revealed on Monday.Source: Yahoo! News: Stock Markets News | 14 Sep 2009 | 1:43 pm Attention Failed Senior Executives
Sponsored Topics: Bank America - John Thain - Financial services - American International Group - Business Source: Dealbreaker | 14 Sep 2009 | 1:37 pm Alan Schwartz Still Believes Liquidity At Bears Stearns Was Not A Problem Prior To Short Sellers Laying Siege To The BuildingEmbedded video from CNNMoney.com Video
Sponsored Topics: Lehman Brothers - Hedge fund - Business - Bear Stearns - Alan Schwartz Source: Dealbreaker | 14 Sep 2009 | 1:06 pm Judge Calls Settlement Over Merrill Lynch Bonuses 'Inadequate'By Caitlin Kenney A federal judge has overturned a $33 million settlement between Bank of America and the SEC over bonuses paid to Merrill Lynch executives. Bank of America acquired Merill late last year -- the bonuses were paid just before the two merged. U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff called the settlement a "trivial penalty for a false statement that materially infected a multi-billion-dollar merger." From the New York Times: The judge also criticized the S.E.C., which has been trying to step up the profile of its investigations unit. The judge quoted Oscar Wilde's "Lady Windermere's Fan" in the end of his ruling to say that a cynic is someone "who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing." The proposed settlement, the judge continued, "suggests a rather cynical relationship between the parties: the S.E.C. gets to claim that it is exposing wrongdoing on the part of the Bank of America in a high-profile merger; the bank's management gets to claim that they have been coerced into an onerous settlement by overzealous regulators. And all this is done at the expense, not only of the shareholders, but also of the truth." The SEC had accused Bank of America of misleading shareholders about bonuses paid to Merrill Lynch employees. Judge Rakoff ordered the two sides to prepare for a trial to begin before February 1. » E-Mail This » Add to Del.icio.us
Source: NPR Blogs: Planet Money | 14 Sep 2009 | 12:58 pm The President Does Not Approve This Message
Well, it’s here. Call it Black Friday for publishing. Some say that the Kennedy memoir, Dan Brown’s new book, and Oprah’s pick could make this week a record breaker for book sales. But one book in particular won’t be getting an extra special boost – a Presidential boost. ShelfLife reports that a quote from President Barack Obama has been removed from the book jacket of Hard Work: A Life On and Off the Court. The memoir, penned by University of North Carolina basketball coach Roy Williams is scheduled to be published in November. According to ShelfLife, the quote was to be:
The quote was apparently never meant to appear as a blurb for the book and publisher Algonquin’s legal team advised them to remove the statement from the book jacket because sitting presidents cannot make commercial endorsements. And how exactly does that work when one has their own products (books) to sell? Apparently, too, new printings of Joseph O’Neill’s Netherland have been stickered with a quote pulled from an Obama interview:
What do you think? I mean, he said it. It’s a matter of record. And what’s the difference between a publisher quoting a Newsweek article and the nightly news covering Obama’s vacation reading list? Gee, I wonder which sold more books. I’m not sure where I stand on this, but if Obama shows up on any of those romance novel covers, I’ll be stocking up! Image Credit: Chris Owens, Flickr
Source: Business Pundit | 14 Sep 2009 | 12:55 pm Is Facebook’s Fan Check Application a Virus? Hackers Want You to Think So.
If you’ve encountered a virus in Facebook’s Fan Check application, you’re not alone. Legions of people have speculated that Fan Check, an application that tracks your friends’ Wall and photo activity to determine whether they’re your “fan” (or stalker), is actually a virus. According to NetworkWorld, Fan Check is not a virus. However, hackers have taken advantage of users’ fears by proliferating Fan Check “removal” sites that actually put malware on your computer. PCWorld describes how googling a solution to the Fan Check virus could actually make your situation worse: The scammers are trying to capitalize on the concern that many Facebook members have about the application. At this point it’s unclear whether it’s problematic itself or not. …as Facebook members use popular search engines to find antivirus information about Fan Check, they are getting results that point to sites that can infect their computers with malware. “The phrase ‘Facebook Fan Check Virus’ is currently a hot trending topic on Google, with many net users searching for information. However, hackers have set up websites pretending to be about the ‘Facebook Fan Check Virus,’ but which really host fake anti-virus software which display bogus warnings about the security of your computer in an attempt to get you to install fraudulent software and cough-up your credit card details,” Graham Cluley, a senior technology consultant at Sophos, wrote on Monday in his blog.
Source: Business Pundit | 14 Sep 2009 | 12:53 pm Presented By:Source: Dealbreaker | 14 Sep 2009 | 12:48 pm Judge Gets Poetic On Bank Of America & The SEC
If the SEC is going to seal the deal they need to understand the new landscape. Shareholders don't pay for this sort of impropriety; multi-billion dollar taxpayer-funded bailout money does.
Sponsored Topics: Bank of America - US Securities and Exchange Commission - SEC - Business - Oscar Wilde Source: Dealbreaker | 14 Sep 2009 | 12:48 pm Englander Says U.S. Unlikely to Lead in Global Recovery: AudioSource: Bloomberg - All Podcasts | 14 Sep 2009 | 12:24 pm Bank Of America (BAC) And The SEC: No Justice, No PeaceFederal District Judge Jed S. Rakoff was supposed to a approve a $33 million settlement between the SEC and Bank of America over the issue of the financial firm making inaccurate statements regarding Merrill Lynch compensation. These statements were made in the BAC proxy that was sent to shareholder to approve the Merrill buyout. It turns [...][[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]
Source: 24/7 Wall St. | 14 Sep 2009 | 12:24 pm Kotok Sees Great Concern for Dollar Weakness: AudioSource: Bloomberg - All Podcasts | 14 Sep 2009 | 12:22 pm China turns to WTO in trade disputeBarack Obama’s decision last week to impose emergency tariffs on Chinese tyres has fuelled an increasingly familiar Sino-US war of words over tradeSource: Financial Times - US homepage | 14 Sep 2009 | 12:12 pm The Return, Maybe, of New UNG Baskets (UNG)United States Natural Gas (NYSE: UNG) has been accused of, and still appears to be, the tail that wags the dog in the world of speculative instruments and a single commodity market. It is such a large portion of front-month contract trading that it has dominated trading on many days in the natural gas market. [...][[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]
Source: 24/7 Wall St. | 14 Sep 2009 | 11:01 am Listen: Special Coverage of President Obama's Speech On The EconomyListen to President Obama's speech on the economy live on npr.org or on your local NPR station. After the speech, Adam Davidson will be analyzing the president's remarks with Talk of the Nation's Neal Conan, NPR's White House correspondent Scott Horsley and political correspondent Mara Liasson. » E-Mail This » Add to Del.icio.us Source: NPR Blogs: Planet Money | 14 Sep 2009 | 11:01 am Eli Lilly to Cut 5,500 Jobs by 2011
Eli Lilly will reduce its workforce by 13.5% in the next two years, to cut costs when its patents expire. MarketWatch has more: Early Monday, Lilly said that it plans to whittle down its global ranks to 35,000 employees by the end of 2011, a move that should help reduce its cost structure by about $1 billion. Lilly currently has about 40,500 employees worldwide. In a statement, Lilly attributed the move to the expected loss of market exclusivity for several key products, beginning in 2011. Lilly’s top-selling product, the antipsychotic Zyprexa, is slated to lost patent protection in 2011. The drugmaker is expected to lose protection for its second best-seller, the antidepressant Cymbalta, around 2013. Also slated to lose protection over the next few years are the osteoporosis drug Evista, insulin product Humalog, and lung cancer treatment Alimta. Each drug generates annual sales of over $1 billion. As part of the cost-savings initiative, Lilly also said it plans to reorganize the company into five units: oncology, diabetes, established markets, emerging markets and animal healthcare. AdvanceIndiana has more on the people likely to be most affected by the cuts: …many of the cuts could come in Indianapolis where the company employs 13,500 at its corporate offices, labs and manufacturing facilities. Lilly has already reduced its workforce by several thousand through attrition over the last several years. The City of Indianapolis gave tens of millions of dollars in tax abatement incentives to the company during the administration of Mayor Bart Peterson, who is now a senior vice president with Lilly, based on investment and employment promises made by the company.
Source: Business Pundit | 14 Sep 2009 | 10:51 am Greyhound bus service comes to U.K.The Greyhound bus service has arrived in Britain, and it may look a bit different from its American counterpart. Stephen Beard reports.Source: Marketplace | 14 Sep 2009 | 10:44 am Prioritizing which loans to pay off firstThere are strategies for lowering your debt faster, but most people don't know what they are. Behavioral economist Dan Ariely talks with Kai Ryssdal about the irrational ways people deal with debt.Source: Marketplace | 14 Sep 2009 | 10:44 am New York launches business incubatorsNew York is trying to give its entrepreneurs a leg up. Mayor Michael Bloomberg just opened the Big Apple's first city-funded startup incubator. Ben Calhoun reports.Source: Marketplace | 14 Sep 2009 | 10:44 am Tires drive wedge between China, U.S.China is accusing the U.S. of violating trade rules after the Obama administration announced it would hike tariffs on Chinese tire imports. Scott Tong reports.Source: Marketplace | 14 Sep 2009 | 10:44 am Sarkozy: GDP is a limited measureFrench President Nicolas Sarkozy is calling for countries to adopt new ways of measuring well-being because he considers gross domestic product to be obsolete. Alisa Roth reports.Source: Marketplace | 14 Sep 2009 | 10:44 am Is there still time for sweeping reform?University of Missouri Professor William Black talks with Kai Ryssdal about what kind of financial system reform we've seen so far, what changes the president is proposing, and what happens if no reform comes about.Source: Marketplace | 14 Sep 2009 | 10:44 am What Obama wants for financial reformNearly a year after Lehman Brothers came crashing down, President Obama urged Congress to move on stalled regulatory reforms of the nation's financial system. John Dimsdale reports.Source: Marketplace | 14 Sep 2009 | 10:44 am Lehman woe proved timely for BarCapIf there is one distinct winner to have emerged from the wreckage of the Lehman collapse and the financial turmoil that ensued, it is the investment banking arm of the UK bankSource: Financial Times - US homepage | 14 Sep 2009 | 10:39 am Intuit buying Mint.com for 170 mln dlrs (AFP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Business | 14 Sep 2009 | 10:34 am Computer Associates Buys NetQoS for $200m Cash
New York-based Computer Associates (CA) today announced that it will acquire network management software company NetQoS for $200 million cash. The Washington Post has the details: If the deal goes through, it will be CA’s biggest acquisition in three years (since it bought Wily Technology for $375 million in January 2006). The acquisition is expected to be completed by the end of the calendar year, pending regulatory approvals. According to the announcement, NetQoS’ solutions will extend CA’s capabilities in areas such as network and systems management, application performance management and cloud management. Founded ten years ago, NetQoS has over 1,000 active customers worldwide, including many in the Fortune 100. With annual revenue of $56 million in 2008, NetQoS’ revenues have experienced a 58 percent CAGR over the past five fiscal years. The IT M&A buffet continues. Who’s next?
Source: Business Pundit | 14 Sep 2009 | 9:33 am Letter: 'Co-pays Create Perverse Financial Incentives'Shane Ward writes: I just finished listening to your podcast for Friday, Sept. 11 and felt compelled to comment. It struck me as very out of character for you to uncritically accept the WSJ thesis that co-pays are a beneficial cost containment mechanism for the insurance companies and the evil pharma company copay cards undermine that altruistic effort For full disclosure, I'm a lawyer for a biotech company and have spent a fair amount of time over the last several years drafting the fine print for co-pay cards and similar programs for several companies. I don't think that necessarily biases me, but you be the judge. In contrast to the WSJ thesis, my experience is that co-pays themselves are a blunt instrument that insurers use indiscriminately, often creating perverse financial incentives. I think that dynamic is most simply demonstrated with an example: chronic hepatitis B (CHB). Hepatitis B is a serious viral disease that is uncommon in the overall US population but endemic to several Asian communities. Most infected patients are asymptomatic but if untreated the disease frequently progresses to hepatocellular carcinoma and/or cirrhosis, liver failure and death. There are currently 5 oral antivirals approved to treat this disease; 1 of those (Lamivudine) is generic. Each of these drugs must be taken chronically, often for the rest of the patient's life. Lamivudine is an older drug that is not recommended by any treatment guideline because a high percentage of treated patients will develop resistance by 1 year and that often results in cross-resistance that makes 2 of the remaining 4 drugs ineffective. Based on a standard insurer's co-pay structure (say $5 for generic and $25 for brand), CHB patients are financially incentivized to (1) delay treatment as long as possible and (2) if they start treatment choose generic lamivudine. These two choices save money for the insurer over the short term -- fewer and cheaper drugs to buy -- but impose dramatically greater costs on the overall health care system in subsequent years. Delaying or avoiding treatment will result in substantial numbers of liver cancer cases necessitating extremely expensive surgery, chemotherapy, transplants and premature deaths. Using generic Lamivudine creates harder to treat multi class resistant patients. The morbidity and mortality costs may be born by the insurer who set the copay, but may also be imposed on a different insurer (if the individual changes jobs over the intervening years) or on the government (if the patient becomes Medicare or Medicaid eligible). Of course, in CHB or a similar therapeutic area (which includes the vast majority of them, heart burn and cholesterol drugs aside) a copay card that changes that incentive structure reduces overall health care costs and benefits the public health. It does however result in higher short term drug acquisition costs for the insurer, so they still don't like it. » E-Mail This » Add to Del.icio.us Source: NPR Blogs: Planet Money | 14 Sep 2009 | 8:58 am President Obama Heads To Wall Street. Plus: The U.S. China Tarriff ClashBy Caitlin Kenney Good morning! Here's what we're reading today: President Obama is making his way to Wall Street today on the anniversary of the collapse of Lehman Brothers. The president's remarks will focus on efforts to wind down emergency lending initiatives started in the wake of the economic collapse. Also today, the Treasury Department will also release a 33 page document detailing their future plans, called "The Next Phase." (Bonus: The New York Times has an interactive graphic detailing bailout costs to date.) The U.S. and China have engaged in a tariff battle over tires and chicken. The New York Times reports that China's commerce ministry is now investigating "certain imported automotive products and certain chicken meat products originated from the United States to determine if they were being subsidized or 'dumped' below cost in the Chinese market." The announcement follows President Obama's decision on Friday to levy tariffs of up to 35 percent on tires from China. Russia's central bank has lowered its main interest rates by a quarter point and is planning future rate cuts. The bank reportedly wants to return the refinance rate to the all-time low of 10 percent in reached in June 2007. Russia's economy is facing a severe slump, the country's output dropped a record 10.9 percent last quarter. » E-Mail This » Add to Del.icio.us Source: NPR Blogs: Planet Money | 14 Sep 2009 | 8:03 am Are Britain's Scrooges Slowing Recovery? (BusinessWeek)BusinessWeek - Paul Coletti is always on the lookout for a deal. In February the 39-year-old BBC producer took advantage of historically low interest rates to refinance the mortgage on his two-bedroom flat. The accelerated monthly payments are 30% higher than they were before, leaving him less spending money to buy the indie rock albums he collects. But Coletti doesn't mind. "Now is the time to be paying off capital," he says.Source: Yahoo! News: Business | 14 Sep 2009 | 6:08 am I Wish There Were More Signs Like This One
Source: Business Pundit | 14 Sep 2009 | 6:00 am
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