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People like humility - it shows that you have a healthy view of life, a maturity. It shows that you can be a mensch. Instead, it was always Antonio against the world - and guess who won?
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.
June 2013
People like humility - it shows that you have a healthy view of life, a maturity. It shows that you can be a mensch. Instead, it was always Antonio against the world - and guess who won?
House Republicans have made it clear that they do not intend to consider the Senate bill - that whatever action they take, if any, will be their own. That could be a problem.
Eventually, the intolerant core of the population that represents much of the same-sex marriage opposition will die out, but that could be a while. And judging by the comments of Proposition 8 supporters, they're not going anywhere.
The monster mall operator is looking for a big tax break on its Topanga Canyon project - even though it has claimed that contributing thousands of dollars to local elected officials doesn't help to get any approvals.
Even before the recent controversies, the southern cook was not the draw that she used to be.
What's the point in delivering the news when we can ask viewers what they think about the news - and then turn those results into the news itself?
May's unemployment rate of 8.6 percent is down from 9 percent the previous month, one more indicator that the state's economy is improving at an accelerated level.
When you're trying to promote Hollywood, about the last thing you need is a headline on the Daily Mail website that reads, "Panhandlers stab woman to death on Hollywood's Walk of Fame."
The concern is that this isn't a pause, but an inflection point for further losses. There's no reason to believe we're on that road, though inflection points are never predictive events.
Here's a proposal that's hugely important for local businesses and developers, and yet it's barely gotten noticed.
Final approval is expected next week, but today's 13-1 vote pretty much assures that L.A. will be the nation's largest city to prohibit stores from using plastic bags.
The newspapers themselves, including the LAT, have been valued at up to $1 billion, but that doesn't include Tribune's financial ties to CareerBuilder and Classified Ventures, two big sources of revenue.
Actually, Miami International and JFK seem to be in worse shape, according to the WSJ. And we're not even into the summer vacation season.
The market dynamic hasn't changed much, with too many buyers chasing after too few listings and those able to make all-cash offers dominating many parts of L.A.
Having a single party controlling the legislature certainly helps things move along - as does an economy that's on the mend. Still, there's quite a bit to be concerned about.
Tax breaks are, in many cases, pretty dumb ideas, and enterprise zones could well be one of the dumbest. Does anyone seriously believe that the decision to plunk down a strip club or hamburger joint has anything to do with saving a few dollars on taxes?
How did some low-level disenchanted punk get access to such sensitive information in the first place? If there's anything good to come out of this episode, it would be a serious look at classified access.
A little bit, but barring unusual problems this summer Southern California Edison should be all right. Longer term might be a different story.
The economy wasn't exactly smoking in May, but the addition of 175,000 jobs - a bit higher than what many analysts had expected - was just enough to ward off concerns that growth was slowing down.
Sooner or later stocks will drop off significantly. Fed or no Fed, they don't go up forever. Of course, when and to what degree that happens is anyone's guess - even though everyone on Wall Street seems to have an opinion.
Pew study says the cell phone is the most quickly adopted consumer technology in the history of the world, though there are some groups being left out.
Media companies want to jack up program fees, subscribers want maximum selection at the lowest price, and there's all the competition: Netflix, Hulu, etc. For now, the cable guys are holding their own.
You might recall that the mayor-elect came out against moving the northern runway 260 feet closer to Westchester. That won him support among nearby residents, but most everybody else is okay with moving the runway,
Socal will be the first market outside Seattle, where the online retailer has been doing groceries for almost six years.
They continue to be downbeat about the recovery, even as other economists turn a bit more positive about the nation's growth prospects.
That's good news for Disney, which is starting to see more parity at its two OC theme parks. Disneyland remains the biggest draw, with attendance last year of 16 million.
Among the titles that aren't available: "The Godfather," "Citizen Kane," "The Shawshank Redemption," "Star Wars," "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest," "The Sting," "Jaws," or "Singin' in the Rain."
We're talking about the Inland Empire and other areas that bore the brunt of the real estate collapse. As in more affluent communities, prices in Riverside and San Bernardino have skyrocketed, but for somewhat different reasons.
Lawsuit is a long time coming - the city of Ontario alleges that L.A. officials have mismanaged LA/Ontario International Airport, which has seen a 40 percent drop in passengers since 2007.
Not that a Pacers victory in Game 7 wouldn't be a great sports story. It's just that a Spurs-Pacers match-up in the NBA Finals would likely produce one of the lowest-rated series in recent years.
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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