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Stocks drooping: The weak jobs report won't help matters today, though so far market reaction is fairly muted. Dow is down about 80 points in early trading.
Cutting government jobs: It's not only L.A. and California that are feeling the pain. Nationwide, state and local governments trimmed 48,000 jobs in July, the biggest drop in a year. (Real Time Economics)
Federal program failing homeowners: The idea is to help people with loan modifications, but the execution by Fannie Mae has left something to be desired. From NPR:
The goal of HAMP -- the Home Affordable Modification Program -- is really quite modest: to let qualifying borrowers pay lower monthly payments for five years. But despite being designed to save the drowning, HAMP itself is barely treading water. A total of 389,021 homeowners had gotten the five-year respites as of June 30. In comparison, there have been more than 300,000 foreclosure filings in each of the past 16 months.
Venture capitalist-in-chief: By the end of next year, the White House plans to infuse more than $50 billion to thousands of clean-technology companies through tax credits, low-interest guaranteed loans, and grants. From Bloomberg BusinessWeek:
Obscured by the epic political battles over health care and financial regulation, Obama has turned the government into the chief financier of a manufacturing base for clean-energy technology. He envisions thriving new industries putting Americans to work churning out green products such as high-performance batteries, electric cars, low-energy lights, super-efficient air conditioners, wind turbines, and solar panels.
Mexicana stops selling tickets: The airline, which filed for bankruptcy protection earlier this week, will continue operating flights for travelers who already have bought tickets (assuming they're on flights that have not been canceled). It's still at an impasse with workers over wages. (USA Today)
Maxine Waters defends actions: The L.A. representative told KCRW's Warren Olney that a meeting she arranged with Treasury Department officials was not directly connected with getting bailout money for the bank that her husband was connected to. "It was not to ask for [bailout] money," Waters said. "This meeting was about what happens to those banks that had invested in Fannie and Freddy."
Boeing lays off OC workers: The company is shutting down a facility in Irvine and transferring the work to Mesa, Ariz., resulting in the loss of 160 positions (some workers will be offered jobs in Arizona). It's part of a company-wide downsizing. (OC Register)
Moving Architectural Digest: With a new editor in place, the magazine will leave L.A. for NY. The monthly had been in Los Angeles long before Condé Nast purchased it and Bon Appetit from Bud Knapp in 1993. (NY Post)
Gas price update: Still little change - an average gallon in the L.A. area rose less than a penny, to $3.129, according to the Auto Club.
Mark Lacter created the LA Biz Observed blog in 2006. He posted
until the day before his death on Nov. 13, 2013.