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Stocks taking hit: And it's not just the jobs report. Debt talks in Europe have derailed over something or other. Dow is down more than 200 points.
How bad was jobs report?: Well, let's put it this way: Average job growth over each of the past three months is 35,000. That's near-stagnation. Here's the take by Wharton Prof. Justin Wolfers:
There's not a lot of news here. The economy is very very weak. Probably not shrinking. And definitely not growing fast enough to reduce unemployment. But we knew that yesterday. The Fed has been behind the curve on all of this, so it does substantially increase the chances of monetary easing in September.
U.S. to sue banks over mortgages: They're accused of misrepresenting the quality of mortgage securities that were assembled and sold during the housing bubble. From the NYT:
The suits will argue the banks, which assembled the mortgages and marketed them as securities to investors, failed to perform the due diligence required under securities law and missed evidence that borrowers' incomes were inflated or falsified. When many borrowers were unable to pay their mortgages, the securities backed by the mortgages quickly lost value. Fannie and Freddie lost more than $30 billion, in part as a result of the deals, losses that were borne mostly by taxpayers.
Less travel for holiday weekend: Look for a small overall decline from last year, though car travel will increase slightly, according to the Auto Club.
Gas prices still heading higher: Wowser - An average gallon of regular in the L.A. area jumped almost 14 cents over the last week, to $3.867, according to the Auto Club. Refinery issues are being blamed.
AEG exemption bill gets lukewarm response: Most of L.A.'s delegation supports a proposal to expedite any legal challenges to the developer's downtown stadium plan, but lawmakers from the rest of the state aren't as enthusiastic. From the LAT:
"Why are we doing it for this one instance?" asked state Sen. Juan Vargas (D-San Diego), a Chargers fan. "Why not do it for a lot of projects that are large and will bring a lot of jobs? And why didn't we get [the bill] earlier? Why wasn't this done a month ago, two months ago, so people could get a chance to look at it?" A final bill was being frantically drafted Thursday evening, with just five more business days before the end of the legislative session.
Brown not excited about Amazon jobs proposal: The governor doesn't want to forfeit the $300 million in annual tax revenue that Amazon would be forced to collect from California customers. The company has offered to build at least two distribution centers and hire up to 7,000 workers if the state postpones implementation of the sales tax until 2014. (LAT)
Democrats propose business-friendly measures: Seems like pretty tame stuff: One bill would require new state regulations that have a significant cost to the economy to undergo cost assessments. (SF Chronicle)
California gets top rating: This is for the upcoming $5.4 billion sale of revenue anticipation notes that will be used to pay off a bank loan the state took out in late July. Good news for taxpayers because it won't cost as much to borrow the money. (LAT)
Rupert Murdoch gets big raise: Scandal? What scandal? The News Corp. CEO made $33.3 million in the latest fiscal year, up from $22.7 million a year earlier. His son James picked up about $18 million. (THR)
Mark Lacter created the LA Biz Observed blog in 2006. He posted
until the day before his death on Nov. 13, 2013.