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Stocks open lower: Dow is down about 10 points in early trading. A year ago at this time, the index was over 11,000; today, it's around 9500.
On the Lehman anniversary: President Obama speaks in NY today to argue for sweeping regulatory changes, something that's gotten lost in the shuffle in the past year. From Reuters:
Obama's wide-ranging economic address in New York will also discuss plans to unwind the government's involvement in the financial sector and call upon Wall Street firms to take responsibility and avoid reckless behavior. He is to speak at 9:10. Gaps in the regulation of U.S. banks and capital markets have been blamed for the subprime mortgage crisis and global financial chaos triggered after Lehman filed for bankruptcy on September 15, 2008.
Avoiding disaster:: The WSJ's David Wessel says that in hindsight, both governments and central banks deserve credit for preventing financial catastrophe.
On the question of which of dozens of extraordinary interventions -- rock-bottom interest rates, surging government spending, billions of taxpayer dollars injected into banks, sweeping government guarantees -- made the biggest difference, there's less agreement. "It was a period of tremendous experimentation," says Columbia University economist Frederic Mishkin, who left the Fed board in August 2008. "When you're faced with a crisis of this magnitude, if you take the view that every measure that we take has to be exactly right, you don't do anything."
But not much has changed: The big surprise, says the NYT's Alex Berenson, is that Wall Street marches on, relatively unfettered:
Backstopped by huge federal guarantees, the biggest banks have restructured only around the edges. Employment in the industry has fallen just 8 percent since last September. Only a handful of big hedge funds have closed. Pay is already returning to precrash levels, topped by the 30,000 employees of Goldman Sachs, who are on track to earn an average of $700,000 this year. Nor are major pay cuts likely, according to a report last week from J.P. Morgan Securities. Executives at most big banks have kept their jobs. Financial stocks have soared since their winter lows.
No word on Pang: Cause of the OC financier's death on Saturday will not be released until the results of toxicology tests are known, though a family spokesman said it related to a heart ailment. Pang has been accused by federal authorities of a massive fraud.(Reuters)
Disney announces updates: The Mouse House plans to modernize its Star Tours rides - including the use of 3-D effects - and greatly expand Fantasyland at Walt Disney World in Florida. No price tag offered. (NYT)
Disney, unions clash: Unite Here Local 11 is critical of the company asking 2,100 employees of three hotels to pay a share of their health care premiums. Disney accuses Local 11 of putting more time into protests (including one last week) than in bargaining. (LAT)
Desperation time at Mercury News: Things have gotten so bad that columnist Mike Cassidy is asking readers for ways to keep the struggling daily afloat:
Silicon Valley is filled with brilliant minds and good hearts who want better things for this newspaper. Tell us: What is it that draws you subscribers to the Mercury News every day? What would get you non-subscribers to join those who do subscribe? What would you pay for on the Web? Are there benefits print subscribers should receive that Web users don't? What are the potential new business models? Anyone?
Mark Lacter created the LA Biz Observed blog in 2006. He posted
until the day before his death on Nov. 13, 2013.