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Write a column about how to deal with panhandlers and you're certain to get heated responses on all sides. So it was with Liz Pulliam Westons's column for MSN Money. She presents a pretty even-handed look at the dilemma, but was nonetheless inundated with comments. A few samples: This article is ridiculous. If you cannot pull out even a buck to hand to one or two people who have been left out by our system,...
LA Biz Observed archive
Mark Lacter covered business, the economy and more here from 2006 until his death on Nov. 13, 2013.
The entire LA Biz Observed archive — more than 10,000 blog posts by Mark —
remains online and available.
July 2006
Not that this is exactly surprising, but Oren Aviv, the new head of the Disney film studio, seems willing to give Mel Gibson the benefit of the doubt. In a statement to Kim Masters for a piece in Slate, Aviv says, "I've worked with Mel on several films over the years and we have a great relationship. We all make mistakes and I've accepted his apology to what was a regrettable situation. I wish him...
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and British Prime Minister Tony Blair are being joined this afternoon by two-dozen CEOs to talk about climate change and how to accelerate development of clean-energy technologies. Among the CEOs on hand is Lord John Browne of BP PLC, whose Long Beach facilities are hosting the event. Among those not attending: President Bush's top environmental adviser, James Connaughton. The White House is citing a scheduling conflict. In case you forgot, the Bush...
The company only says that the SEC is looking into past options practices. Most likely, it will center on whether there was any backdating of options for the benefit of its executives. The Santa Monica-based company said in a filing that it has launched its own inquiry into options practices. Some analysts and shareholders have suspected that there may have been a little funny business with the way Activision handled its options, so the disclosure...
That's the word filtering through various game sites this morning - and just picked up by CNET. The buzz is that the annual Electronic Entertainment Expo, or E3, which draws more than 60,000 people to the Los Angeles Convention Center, will drastically be cut back and move to another location. One reason behind the supposed downsizing is the cost to exhibitors. The Entertainment Software Association is supposed to announce the changes today. This would be...
Big defense news: Both Northrop Grumman Corp.'s navigation-systems division in Woodland Hills and Wyle Laboratories Inc., a test-and-research company in El Segundo, are up for sale, the Wall Street Journal (subscription required) is reporting this morning. Citing unnamed sources, the Journal said that the Northrop unit could fetch between $800 million and $1 billion, while Wyle might go for under $400 million. Northrop has been gradually selling off some of its smaller units. Gibson backlash?:...
Maybe Tribune Co. can still get its stock back up. Maybe it could stem circulation woes and sluggish revenue growth and disappointing earnings. Maybe it could even resolve its differences with the Chandlers. Somehow, though, I doubt it. Saturday’s intriguing L.A. Times story about the continued interest by billionaires Eli Broad, Ron Burkle and David Geffen, coupled with Tribune’s noticeable softening about a potential sale, suggest that the paper eventually will be put on the...
Newsroom employees at the Santa Barbara News-Press who want to unionize are asking subscribers to cancel their subscriptions if the union is not recognized. It's the same group that wants to be represented by the Graphic Communications Conference of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. Hundreds of readers have cancelled their subscriptions since the mass resignations of the top editors earlier this month. Organizers are asking subscribers to fill out the cards and send them to...
Forget that lackluster GDP report this morning -- the housing market might not be as bad off as we're being led to believe. That's what Business Week's Toddi Guntner is saying on her blog. Well, she isn't saying it, Michael Youngblood is. Youngblood, managing director of asset-backed securities research at Friedman Billings Ramsey & Co. in Arlington, Va., has California showing a 24.1 percent jump in median year-over-year home prices in the first quarter of...
It might surprise you. Fortune magazine ranks the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences as the place to go for marketable experience (even if the positions are unpaid). This year, there were 777 applicants for 32 slots. The screening process includes an essay, four letters of recommendation and an on-camera interview. Once in the program, the students work for Fox TV, E! and The Disney Channel. Also on Fortune's list of best companies/organizations to do...
IHOP spokesman Patrick Lenow gets the day's candor award for telling the New York Times that the Glendale-based pancake chain features unhealthy, high-calorie offerings because, well, that’s what the customer wants. “In focus groups, it’s hard to find healthier products that people are really going to get excited about,” he said. IHOP’s research and development department comes up with things like the “cinfully delicious” Cinn-A-Stacks, stacks of pancakes or French toast smothered with “luscious cinnamon...
The Wall Street Journal (subscription required) has a front-page profile of Dole Food Co. owner David Murdock, focusing on his crusade for good health. That includes, according to the Journal, “quizzing visitors about their eating habits and politely pressing on them Dole's glossy, 516-page ‘Encyclopedia of Foods.’ The L.A.-based Murdock says that the secret to a long and healthy life lies in eating more of the fruits and vegetables his company grows in 94 countries...
Sluggish GDP: The nation's economy slowed noticeably in the second quarter, while inflation shot up -- not a good combination. For the April-June period, the gross domestic product grew at an annual rate of 2.5 percent, compared with 5.6 percent in the first quarter. There will be several revisions before the final second quarter is put to bed, but economists are already saying that the effects of softening home sales and rising energy prices are...
Is the L.A. City Council prepared to follow Chicago’s lead and demand that big-box retailers pay a living wage of at least 10 bucks an hour? Uh, not likely. Actually, local living wage proponents have focused their efforts on cutting deals for individual projects that require developers to hire workers at a “living wage” of almost $9 an hour with health benefits and $10 without. Those deals have included work in Hollywood and at Staples...
The Economist takes a look at this summer’s power problems in the United States and concludes that the blackouts in California, St. Louis and New York may involve more than increased demand due to the hot weather. What appears to be at play is a breakdown of the nation’s entire electricity supply. On California: The state's powerful NIMBY tendency has long ensured that it is undersupplied with electricity; and a botched deregulation, exacerbated by the...
The Field Poll on immigration presents Californians as sympathetic to the plight of workers who came into the United States illegally. It also makes them look hard-nosed. The poll found that 70 percent of California voters want Congress to strengthen border security, while 80 percent would allow the 12 million illegal immigrants to stay in the U.S. and apply for citizenship – provided that they have a job, have learned English and paid back taxes....
Global resolution: More than two dozen financial firms, including Merrill Lynch and Goldman Sachs, reached a $99 million tentative settlement with investors who bought securities of Global Crossing Ltd. The investment banks were targeted for their role as financial advisors to Global Crossing and its Asia Global Crossing unit, which issued debt and equity in 2000 and 2001. No relief at the pumps: Expect gasoline prices to remain pretty much where they are until Labor...
L.A. lawyer John Marder, whose writer clients have accused the studios of stealing their ideas, gets profiled in Thursday’s New York Times. Marder won a federal appeals court decision that makes it easier for writers to sue. The decision, based on a 2004 case involving Miramax, held that anyone who considers an idea offered for sale can’t rely on the federal Copyright Act in fighting thievery claims. As Marder declared to the Times, “I’ll fight...
If L.A. sports fans only support winners, why do the Dodgers keep drawing so well? Through 52 home games, attendance has averaged a healthy 45,381 per game, compared with a little over 46,000 last year. These days, the team is in last place after having lost 12 of its last 13 games. Actually, Dodger attendance has proven to be amazingly reliable over the years, no matter how the team happens to be doing in any...
The Federal Reserve district in San Francisco, which covers Southern California, reports a decline in the rate of growth over the past six weeks, according to the Fed’s Beige Book of economic activity. Weakening consumer spending and a softer housing market were themes in all 12 Fed districts, although the numbers point to a gradual decline. That’s in step with other economic numbers being released (slower housing and auto sales are mostly to blame). What...
Maybe it's just wishful thinking, but we might be approaching "celebrity fatigue," at least when it comes to the fashion business. The Wall Street Journal (subscription required) notes that the big-name designers are using more professional models instead of high-priced actors and actresses. Here's a snippet: A-list entertainers are so overexposed that "there is a major lack of trust," says Milton Pedraza, chief executive of the Luxury Institute, a New York consulting firm. It also...
This morning's New York Times overview on L.A. security guards seeking union representation is a reminder that contracts are due up in a number of industries. That includes the hotel workers, whose contract sets to expire this fall. You remember that last year the union, Unite Here, pushed to have its hotel contracts expire throughout 2006 in several major cities. The idea was to gain more leverage against the big chains like Starwood, Hyatt and...
L’Orangerie closes: Corie Brown in the Times gets word on the sale of L.A.’s most storied French eatery to Nobu Matsuhisa, who pretty much pioneered high-end Japanese dining. L’Orangerie will remain open until Dec. 31, and after that it will be turned into a new Nobu. The new 310: This is the day that folks in the 310 area will need to dial 1 plus 310 and then the number. Many businesses have been spending...
How exactly will MySpace integrate enough advertising on its social networking site to make Web 2.0 economics work? Ross Levinsohn, president of Fox Interactive Media, the News Corp. unit now running MySpace, is looking at something called behavior marketing to break through. The idea, as he explains to Business 2.0, is using video and interactivity instead of traditional advertising. He discusses how Wendy’s recently created a MySpace page featuring a four-sided white smiley face called...
Downloading ‘Jetsons’: Warner Bros. Television has cut a deal with Apple Computer to place several of its shows on the iTunes Music Store. Shows include “Friends,” “the Jetsons” and “The Flinstones.” Also included are some of the most popular sketches from “MADtv” and the never-before-seen pilot episode of “Aquaman.” Office Deal: Tishman Speyer has bought the Continental Grand Plaza II class A office building in El Segundo from MetLife Real Estate Investments for $82 million....
Even if we manage to sneak through the current power troubles without that dreaded Stage 3 alert, there’s the rest of the summer to worry about. Business Week offers some ideas for small business owners on how to prepare for the worst....
Utilities have been treating their power lines like some business owners treat their antiquated computer systems: Yes, they should be replaced, but it’s a monstrously expensive proposition, and hell, they somehow manage to get the job done. So let’s save our money and hope for the best. This week, we’re learning about the vulnerability of such a strategy. Both the Department of Water and Power and Southern California Edison admitted that parts of their systems...
The weeks of negative media attention being given to that ever-so-humble director, M. Night Shyamalan, seem to be cresting with the relatively weak box office results over the weekend for his “Lady in the Water” – and yet I must admit having a good time with Patrick Goldstein’s Hollywood column as he gets in a few well-struck punches. Most of them come straight from Michael Bamberger’s new book, “The Man Who Heard Voices,” which could...
Oh brother, yet another blog. Just what the world needs. But this time, the subject is business. L.A.-area business, to be exact. It’s terrain that gets woefully little attention within the local media, unless gasoline prices start taking off or the monthly home sales numbers are released. Then, suddenly, business is a big deal. Actually, it’s a big deal seven days a week because what we’re really talking about is money, a subject all of...
Those quarterly numbers on venture capital funding always get widespread coverage, even if some of the results don’t necessarily jive with what everybody thinks is happening. Such is the case with the second quarter when L.A.-area venture capital investments nosedived 84 percent from the previous three months. What’s especially weird is that venture investments in the Bay area and Orange County hit five-year highs. The explanation is that investments for entertainment-related start-ups dried up in...
Everybody wants to be the next MySpace and Facebook – except there are different slants to the social networking idea. MTV is about to launch a Web site and TV channel called Flux (where do they come up with these names?) that allow users to upload their own clips, send onscreen messages using cell phones and choose which music videos they want to see. This seems to be a mix of two popular areas –...
Is the widening gap between L.A.’s very rich and very poor such a bad thing after all? The Los Angeles Times presents a woe is us assessment of the disappearing middle class, citing a Wayne State University study that finds greater Los Angeles to be the most economically segregated region in the country. George Galster, a Wayne State professor, told the paper: “I think that poses real challenges to any society, politically and socially.” That’s...
How do you profile someone who doesn’t want to be profiled? Los Angeles Times reporter Glenn Bunting gives it the old college try in his 7,560-word overview on the Denver industrialist – and arguably L.A.’s most influential businessman (certainly the most influential one who doesn’t live in town). Anschutz, of course, is responsible for Staples Center, the upcoming entertainment center next to Staples and the Home Depot Center in Carson. He also produces family-oriented movies....
Mark Lacter
Mark Lacter created the LA Biz Observed blog in 2006. He posted until the day before his death on Nov. 13, 2013.The multi-talented Mark Lacter
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