Random Headlines

These are a couple of random headlines from both coasts.  Seems like lessons have not been learned on the political side. Lets hope the people are smarter.

Bay Area transit riders about to pay more (This is a “hidden” tax)

PDT – The cost to ride buses, ferries and trains in the Bay Area will increase Wednesday to help cash-strapped transit agencies balance their books. Fares will increase on BART, the Municipal Railway in San Francisco, AC Transit, and the Golden Gate ferry and bus system.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/06/29/BAOL18E8DK.DTL

No deal as state budget deadline nears  (this seems to be an impossible situation.  Higher taxes and less services will be the answer)

With only hours to go before a midnight deadline, California’s historic fiscal crisis remained unresolved Tuesday as lawmakers were trying to negotiate an agreement to prevent the $24.3 billion deficit from growing.

But Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger was resolute in demanding a complete budget solution, not a partial fix that would merely delay the state’s immediate cash crunch.

“I would definitely veto if they send me down the three bills that will only address only one-eighth of the budget problem,” he told reporters Tuesday afternoon outside his state Capitol office.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/06/30/MN7A18GT1L.DTL&type=politics&tsp=1

County approves new Marlins baseball stadium financing (A new what?  Have the team pay for it!)

At 1:10 a.m. Wednesday, Miami-Dade County commissioners cast the final vote on a set of last-minute changes that cleared the way for the sale of more than $300 million in bonds to pay for construction of a new baseball stadium in Little Havana.

Barring any new surprises, the early morning vote sets the stage for construction of the park, and ends the decade-long quest to build a professional baseball stadium in Miami.

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/breaking-news/story/1122310.html

Could slot machines be on their way to Miami International Airport? (Is gambling NOT what got us here? again, this is a hidden tax)

Are slot machines a cure for Miami International Airport’s financial woes?Miami-Dade County leaders think they could be.

On Tuesday, Miami-Dade commissioners voted to allow the county manager to immediately seek a permit that would give the county the ability to apply for a slot machine license from state officials.

http://www.miamiherald.com/457/story/1121940.html

Fortune: The Best Advice I ever got…

http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2009/fortune/0906/gallery.best_advice_i_ever_got2.fortune/index.html

Quotable

Giving the central bank more power was
like awarding a son a “bigger, faster car right after he crashed the family station wagon.”

Christopher Dodd,  Connecticut (D)

Capacity Utilization Making New Lows

This index is trading at all time lows.  I would think that this index needs to trend higher to believe in the “green shoots”.

News of the Dumb

Fresh out of prison on a money-laundering conviction, Marlon T. Moore tried to make a big score, federal prosecutors say.

The Miami man — aka ”X-Large Moore” — filed an income tax return seeking a refund of almost $15 trillion.

No joke. Now Moore is charged with filing false claims with the IRS and obstructing the agency’s laws.

After his release from a Florida prison in late 2007, Moore allegedly prepared bogus documents claiming that the feds owed him various amounts, including $5,950,000,000,000, $2,975,000,000,000 and $6,000,000,000,000.

”In fact, however, defendant Moore knew he was owed no such amounts,” according to a statement by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Miami.

Moore, 38, has a bond hearing on Thursday. If convicted, he faces up to five years in prison for each false claim and up to three years for impeding IRS laws.

http://www.miamiherald.com/486/story/1098944.html

Wall Street’s Toxic Message

When the current crisis is over, the reputation of American-style capitalism will have taken a beating—not least because of the gap between what Washington practices and what it preaches. Disillusioned developing nations may well turn their backs on the free market, warns Nobel laureate Joseph E. Stiglitz, posing new threats to global stability and U.S. security.

Read more on Wall Street’s Toxic Message

Working in hell for $11 a day

No pain, no gain: Many miners, just as this one on May 24, also have sores on their upper backs and shoulders due to carrying so many heavy loads. Many don’t mind the health hazards, however, because money is priority No. 1. “[H]ealth is number 10. What matters is to earn money and be working,” one miner told the Jakarta Post. Meanwhile, a 2007 study found that acidic water from the lake had contaminated nearby rivers and wells in an area where 50,000 people lived. Locals were suffering from tooth decay and bone degeneration. Agricultural production was also adversely affected.

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/story/cms.php?story_id=4954

Quotable

“In today’s market, when something is real expensive, it doesn’t mean that it is necessarily better; it just means it is more poorly sourced,”

U.S.-based luxury designer Jonathan Adler told the Reuters Global Luxury & Retail Summits in New York this week.

Luxury sellers tap new doors for raw materials

GREAT quotes from some of retails best.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – From breeding their own crocodiles to tapping new low-cost centers for raw materials, luxury retailers are stepping up efforts to improve sourcing of goods, labor and expertise in the global economic slowdown.

As economic woes deprive high-end retailers of the luxury of raising their prices, many are focusing on smarter sourcing initiatives to manage costs better.

“In today’s market, when something is real expensive, it doesn’t mean that it is necessarily better; it just means it is more poorly sourced,” U.S.-based luxury designer Jonathan Adler told the Reuters Global Luxury & Retail summits in New York this week.

“Labor is the most expensive thing for us,” Parmigiani Fleurier Chief Executive Jean-Marc Jacot said.

“If you have to cut staff, it then takes three-to-four years to restart a team,” Jacot said.

“Since then, we’ve kept everybody (craftspeople) on because we know we need them with the ‘Ghost’ (car) coming, and also because we know they are highly skilled and highly qualified and it’s much better for us to retain than not,” Purves said.

http://www.reuters.com/article/GlobalLuxury09/idUSTRE55B24620090612

WHO poised to declare flu pandemic

The World Health Organisation was set to declare a global influenza pandemic on Thursday, the first in more than 40 years, after weeks of delay for fear of causing unnecessary public alarm.

The UN health agency says the new H1N1 swine flu strain remains “moderate” in its effects and is expected to maintain its recommendations against travel bans and other restrictions.

It may also hold fire on a decision to switch vaccine production from seasonal influenza to the pandemic strain, though company preparations to produce an H1N1 vaccine are already under way.

WHO says anti-viral medicines such as Tamiflu have so far proved effective for the minority of patients needing treatment.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/f0fba872-5685-11de-9a1c-00144feabdc0.html

QUOTABLE

“I don’t know anything about cars,” “A business is a business, and I think I can learn about cars.  I’m not that old, and I think the business principles are the same.”

Edward Whitacre, 67, (NEW GM CEO) said yesterday in an interview after his appointment.

Survey: Miami-Dade residents open their wallets to homeless

BY PERRY STEIN

pstein@MiamiHerald.com

Street panhandlers in Miami-Dade County may be getting more than $40 million a year from local residents who toss them loose change, according to a survey to be released Tuesday afternoon

The survey, conducted by New York-based pollster Zogby International, was commissioned by the Miami-Dade Homeless Trust, which counts the county’s homeless population twice a year and administers millions of dollars annually for homelessness programs.

”We’re thrilled and humbled with the level of generosity that the people who live in Miami-Dade are showing toward the homeless,” Homeless Trust Chairman Ron Book said in a statement. “This and the other data we’ve collected through this survey have given us a clearer picture if not an outright mandate that Miami-Dade wants a better, more effective way to give to the homeless.”

Quoteable

“I don’t think we can go back to the way it was. We’re going to need to see very, very substantial change.”

-Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner

Swine Flu Rivals 1957 Pandemic’s Severity, Study Says

May 11 (Bloomberg) — The swine flu strain that has sickened people in 30 countries rivals the severity of the 1957 “Asian flu” pandemic that was as much as four times deadlier than typical seasonal flu, scientists said.

About four of 1,000 people infected with the new H1N1 strain in Mexico by late April died, according to a study published today in the journal Science that was led by Neil Ferguson of the Imperial College London. The 1957 pandemic killed about 2 million people, while seasonal flu epidemics cause 250,000 to 500,000 deaths each year, according to the World Health Organization.

Scientists are trying to determine whether swine flu will mutate and become more deadly as it spreads to the Southern Hemisphere and back. The virus is more contagious than seasonal flu, the Geneva-based WHO said today in a statement on its Web site. A “moderate” pandemic like the 1957 Asian flu could kill 14.2 million people and shave 2 percent from the global economy in the first year, the World Bank said in October.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aK_YmSVuTa_w&refer=home

Goldman to pay $60 mln in subprime settlement

By the time the dust settles I would expect GS to be neck deep in litigation.

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley on Monday said her office has reached a $60 million settlement with Goldman Sachs Group Inc. related to the investment bank’s role in securitizing subprime mortgage loans.

http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/Goldman-pay-60-mln-subprime/story.aspx?guid=%7BD6BD5788%2D41D5%2D49F2%2DA78E%2D0CD9711B0186%7D