Entries
Chargers Fans, Relax; There's Not Much Money for Sports, Says Wall Street's Journal
Today's (Oct 14) Wall Street Journal has a story headlined, "As Economy Weakens, Sports Feel a Chill." With other pressing economic needs taking precedent, there is not money for pro sports, including public subsidation thereof. The Florida Marlins' planned new …
Is Socialism Seductive? Or Was Today's Huge Rally More of a Technical Bounce?
The U.S. stock market shot up more than 11 percent today -- a historic one-day bounce. Of course, it was coming off Wall Street's biggest one-week plunge last week, and stocks are nowhere near where they peaked before this bear …
Asian Markets, U.S. Futures Rise Sunday Evening, Responding Positively to Worldwide Plans To Pour Liquidity into Banks
In early trading Monday morning in Asia (Sun.evening Oct.12 in the U.S.), stock markets reacted positively to plans of major nations to guarantee loans between banks and recapitalize them. U.S. stock market futures were up 2 to 3 percent, although …
Brandes Takes Another Bath; This One Is in Royal Bank of Scotland
San Diego's Brandes Investment Partners, which has been losing money on major holdings, and also losing clients, has a big position in another loser, Royal Bank of Scotland, according to a June 30 filing. At that date, Brandes was the …
NBC Reports Moores Wants To Sell 49 Percent of Padres As Part of Divorce Settlement
NBCSanDiego.com is reporting that Padres majority owner John Moores wants to sell 49 percent of the team as part of a divorce settlement with his wife Becky. She filed for the divorce earlier this year after 44 years of marriage. …
Liquidity Flood Is Not Getting Stock Market Drunk. One Reason Is Fear of Banking System Insolvency
The Federal Reserve joins with world central banks to slash interest rates, which are already very low. The Fed is buying commercial paper -- short-term debt that companies use to finance day-to-day operations. Now the government is thinking of taking …
Superb NY Times Story Tells How U.S. Economic Leaders, Particularly Greenspan, Failed To See Possibility of Derivatives Chain Reaction
On the front page of the New York Times today (Oct. 9) is a story that is MUST reading. It tells how U.S. economic leadership, particularly former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, failed to see how financial derivatives could cause …
For First Time in Ten Years, Consumers Pay Off Debt. This Will Probably Result in Contraction, but Is Actually Positive
For the first month since January of 1998, American consumers in August paid off more debt than they took on, according to a report from the Federal Reserve. If the trend continues, the economy will almost certainly contract -- something …
SEC Should Discipline Three Officials Who Interfered with Gary Aguirre's Insider Trading Investigation, Says Inspector General
The Securities and Exchange Commission's inspector general has concluded that the SEC should consider disciplining three officials who kept San Diegan Gary Aguirre, formerly of the SEC staff, from interviewing a top Wall Street official in an insider trading investigation. …
Stocks Down 3% to 4%, after Plunging 8%. Markets Take Bath Overseas, Too
As the credit crisis spreads throughout Europe, Russia, Asia and emerging markets, U.S. stocks plummeted between 3% and 4% today (Oct. 6), after being down 8% at one point, recovering near the session close. The Russian market has been beaten …
Union-Tribune Circulation Continues To Plummet As Skepticism About Sales of Metro Dailies Increases
For August of this year, the Union-Tribune's daily circulation plunged to 266,765 from 283,437 in August of 2007, according to internal numbers given to employees. Sunday circulation declined to 332,342 in August of 2008 from 355,598 a year earlier. In …
San Diego Home Prices Down 25% Over Past Year, 31.2% from Peak
Single-family home prices continue to decline, according to Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller data released this morning (Sept. 30). Over the past 12 months, the index of San Diego homes declined 25%, fifth worst among metro areas in the compilation of 20 …
House Was Right to Reject Deceptive Wall Street Bailout. One That Comes Later This Week Must Protect Taxpayers
The concepts of democracy and free markets were the winners today (Sept. 29) when the House voted narrowly to reject the socialistic banking bailout package that was heavily- and deceptively-loaded in Wall St.'s favor. Voters were astutely, overwhelmingly against it. …
USD's Partnoy Says Government Should Buy Actual Mortgage Loans, not Derivatives
University of San Diego law professor Frank Partnoy, whose 1997 book, F.I.A.S.C.O., originally exposed the danger of derivatives, this morning (Sept. 27) offers a practical and equitable solution to the current mess in an op-ed in the New York Times. …
Report: Chinese Regulators Told Country's Banks To Stop Interbank Lending to U.S. Institutions
Finally, there has been a report that makes sense in this move to socialize the U.S. financial system. The South China Morning Post has reported that Chinese regulators told the country's banks to halt interbank lending to U.S. financial institutions …
Paulson Raked in $27 Million a Year While Heading Goldman, Says Expert Graef Crystal, Who Opposes the $700 Billion Bailout and Also Opposes Compensation Controls
Wonder why Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson is resisting pay controls on financial companies that turn over their toxic mortgage paper to the government? Well, Paulson gobbled up $27 million a year in 7.5 years as head of Wall Street's Goldman …
Reporters Say They Have Seen Singleton at U-T. But Will His MediaNews, with Hearst, Be A Buyer?
William Dean Singleton, founder of Denver-based MediaNews Group, has been prowling the halls of the Union-Tribune, reporters say. MediaNews owns or runs other S. Cal. papers such as the L.A. Daily News, Long Beach Press-Telegram, Pasadena Star-News and Daily Breeze …
Biotech Sequenom Stock Up 32% on Optimism for Down Syndrome Test
Shares of biotech Sequenom are up 31.57 percent this morning (10 a.m. Sept. 24) to $27.05, a six-year high, after the company reported additional positive results for a test for Down syndrome. Some say the test will be able to …
Blog Satirist Says Paulson's Plan for Wall St. Bailout Resembles Nigerian Letter
The political blog Daily Kos today (Sept. 24) picks up a delicious piece of satire originally printed in another blog, boingboing. Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson's outrageous scheme for bailing out Wall St. from years of an addiction to gambling with …
KLSD-AM Admits On-Air Personality Rigged Arbitron Ratings
On Friday afternoon, Bob Bolinger, president/market manager of Clear Channel in San Diego, admitted to members of the local advertising community that three family members of an on-air personality of KLSD-AM (XTRA Sports 1360), a sports talk station, filled out …