Business and Financial Affairs

Green Jobs That Make $30 an Hour

2009-11-12T20:18:00.000-08:00

Aside from the everyday efforts you make to help the environment, such as recycling or taking the bus, wouldn't it be great if you could be well-paid to help the planet? As it happens, many environmental jobs pay around $30 an hour or more.

Fueled in part by massive federal funding for environmental projects included in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) -- better known as the stimulus bill -- green jobs have a bright future. There's a broad range of occupations that allow you to make a difference, so there is likely a green job for you no matter what your interest and skills.

Below is a list of well-paid, green gigs with their median annual salary according to online salary database PayScale.com. That figure is then broken down to an hourly rate by dividing by 2080, the typical number of working hours in a year, according to PayScale.

1. Regional sales manager. When companies create new, more energy-efficient products, it's critical that these products are accepted by customers, says Jim Cassio, career consultant and co-author of "Green Careers: Choosing Work for a Sustainable Future, and the Green Careers Resource Guide." Sales managers for environmentally conscious companies make sure better products reach their target audience. With stimulus funds going to research and development of more energy-efficient goods, particularly in batteries, growth is expected in green sales-manager jobs, says Cassio.

Regional sales managers oversee sales within an entire territory, often supervising a sales team, providing training and guidance. Many are experienced sales reps who've worked their way up to this supervisory post.

Regional sales manager: $87,200 per year / $42 per hour

2. Environmental engineer. This engineering specialty focuses on developing solutions for better water and air quality, says Laurence Shatkin, author of "200 Best Jobs for Renewing America." Other fields for environmental engineers include recycling, waste disposal and environmental cleanup. With stimulus funding for many of these areas, demand for environmental engineers is expected to rise, Shatkin predicts.

Most engineers have a bachelor's degree in engineering from a four-year institution, and participate in continuing education or graduate school to deepen their knowledge or a specialty or learn about emerging best practices in the field. Much of the work ahead, Shatkin notes, will involve devising solutions to clean up nuclear sites left over from World War II.

Environmental engineer: $68,600 per year / $33 per hour

3. Computer systems analyst. Without systems analysts, Shatkin says, "We'll never have a smart [electric] grid." Technological savvy will be needed to design systems that will allow electric transmission systems and broadband networks to operate with greater energy efficiency.

Demand is so great for this IT expertise that the Bureau of Labor Statistics forecasts nearly 50 percent growth in the field from 2006-2016, despite the fact that the existing labor force for this job is unusually young, with few analysts nearing retirement age. Most analysts have a four-year degree in computer science, information science, or management information systems.

Operating systems analyst: $63,000 per year / $30 per hour

4. Urban/regional planner. Urban and regional planners have a chance to dramatically impact the landscapes under their jurisdictions, says Shatkin. They aid governments in designing and locating schools, roads, and other infrastructure in a city or rural area, with an eye to minimizing environmental impact. They can also design zoning codes to help support environmental goals.

Schooling is rigorous -- even entry-level jobs with state, federal or municipal agencies require a master's degree in urban or regional planning or a similar field. As regulations grow more complex for meeting environmental requirements, more urban planners will be needed, he adds.

Urban/regional planner: $60,600 per year / $29 per hour

5. Hydrologist. This scientific specialty centers on using your knowledge of geology to locate and study bodies of water and suggests methods for keeping it pure, says Shatkin. Hydrologists use advanced techniques and instruments to assess water quality.

Many work for consulting firms and are often hired to solve water pollution, flooding or other water problems. Entry-level positions may be filled with candidates with a bachelor's degree in hydrologic science.

Hydrologist: $68,100 per year / $33 per hour

6. Construction project manager. A great move-up job for workers with construction experience, project managers coordinate and oversee large construction projects. The field of construction management is becoming one where environmental concerns play an increasing role, says Shatkin.

"They're using recycled materials in building new buildings," he says, "and then recycling the old building."

Construction project manager: $68,000 per year / $33 per hour

7. Nonprofit executive director. This job recently topped a list of the Top 25 Green Dream Jobs compiled by Cassio and Rona Fried, CEO of SustainableBusiness.com. Chief executives at an environmental charity or advocacy group have the opportunity to shape their groups' agenda, organizing their constituencies to improve the environment, preserve land or ocean habitat, or change environmental laws. It's a chance to use managerial, marketing, and media skills for green ends, notes Cassio.

At smaller organizations, volunteers may move up into this paying position, while larger nonprofits expect professionally trained executive directors who often have a graduate degree in either business administration, public administration, or nonprofit management.

Nonprofit executive director: $60,000 per year / $29 per hour

Source: All salary data is from PayScale.com. The salaries listed are median, annual salaries for full-time workers with 5-8 years of experience and include any bonuses, commissions or profit sharing. Hourly rates are calculated by dividing the yearly salary by 2080.

Business reporter Carol Tice contributes to several national and regional business publications.

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Regulators close Georgian bank

2009-09-27T17:20:00.000-07:00

Regulators on Friday shut down Atlanta-based Georgian Bank, the 95th U.S. bank to fail this year as loan defaults rise in the worst financial climate in decades.

In coming months, more banks are expected to buckle under the weight of commercial real estate and other loans that go sour. Those failures could imperil the insurance fund for deposits, already at the lowest point in nearly 20 years.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. took over Georgian Bank, with about $2 billion in assets and $2 billion in deposits as of July 24. First Citizens Bank and Trust Co., based in Columbia, S.C., agreed to assume the assets and deposits of the failed bank. Georgian Bank's five branches will reopen Monday as offices of First Citizens Bank.

In addition, the FDIC and First Citizens Bank agreed to share losses on Georgian Bank's roughly $2 billion in loans and other assets.

The failure of Georgian Bank is expected to cost the federal deposit insurance fund an estimated $892 million. The fund has been so diminished by the wave of collapsing banks that some analysts have warned it could sink into the red by year's end.

The fund fell 20 percent to $10.4 billion at the end of June. That's its lowest point since 1992, at the height of the savings-and-loan crisis. The FDIC estimates bank failures will cost the fund around $70 billion through 2013.

Home Based Online Business - The Greatest Shift of Wealth the World Will Ever See

2009-09-17T22:12:00.000-07:00

A home based online business...do you realize that nothing in our lifetime has ever been projected to grow and make more fortunes as fast as the Internet; and that for the first time in the history of the world what is quite simply the most phenomenally powerful, once-in-a-lifetime, tool to ever have been developed or created, has been handed to ordinary people like you and me?

We're living in the midst of what economists call the Information Age or Information Revolution, as far as Internet Technology is concerned. In most revolutions, from a historical perspective, you either had to be wealthy to start with in order to end up "mega rich" during these transitions, or you either had to be in an extremely lucky position to benefit or profit from what was taking place, i.e. you had to know someone, or know someone who knew someone (in other words, ride on someone else's coattails). The majority of people on the other hand--the average John and Jane Doe's standard of living remained the same, or became much worse.

Read more on Home Based Online Business

Networks, Advertisers Seek Better Viewer Counts

2009-09-10T19:06:00.000-07:00

Fourteen media companies said they are joining forces to fund new ways to track viewership of television programming throughout various platforms.

ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox are all involved, along with Time Warner and Viacom. Prominent advertisers Procter & Gamble, AT&T and Unilever are also included in the Coalition for Innovative Media Measurement.

The companies have all agreed to make contributions of at least $1 million combined. The coalition will give money to companies or individuals that present promising research opportunities.

Television networks have frequently grumbled about Nielsen Media Research, the company that has a virtual monopoly on counting TV viewers, the currency for a multibillion dollar advertising business.

In particular, there are worries about an insufficient ability to account for people who watch programming in different forms -- on their computers, through on-demand services and in public places. Although attempts to compete with Nielsen have failed, networks have been convinced in the past that complaints or other research initiatives prod Nielsen into updating its methods.

But Alan Wurtzel, chief researcher for NBC Universal, said the coalition simply wanted to look for innovative ideas at a time when habits and technology are rapidly changing.

''The notion that this is about Nielsen is just a misunderstanding of why we got together,'' Wurtzel said.

Nancy Tellem, president of CBS Paramount Network Television Entertainment Group, said the coalition hopes Nielsen will be part of the solution.

Nielsen did not immediately respond to e-mail and telephone messages seeking comment Thursday.

Sources: NY Times TV Measurement

What You Need to Know About a Short Sale

2009-08-24T00:12:00.000-07:00

When the owner can't afford to keep paying the mortgage there is a the possibility of a short sale. The home will be sold at a much smaller price. This is not the ideal way to make a sale but it's an alternative to bankruptcy.

If a person accepts a short sale that means that he is agreeing to receive less than the total amount due. It's important to know that not all sellers qualify for a short sale. The lawyer can help you figure out if you can have a short sale or not.

Before deciding to purchase a short sale you should obtain first legal advice from a real estate lawyer. Also is important to discuss with your accountant the tax ramifications. It's possible that all the debts forgiveness will be considered as income.

The first step is to submit a letter of authorization which must include the property address, the loan reference number, your agent's name and contact information. If you do this you will receive better cooperation from the closing agent or the lawyer.

Your lawyer or agent should prepare a preliminary net sheet. This will show the sales price and all the costs of the sale. If you find it impossible to calculate all these fees they will be able to make a clear list for you. If you don't understand anything feel free to ask. Read more

Where to Invest Money - Find Out Now

2009-08-22T06:51:00.000-07:00

Have you ever wondered where to invest money that you have accumulated throughout your lifetime? If you have, then you are not alone. Today, thousands or even tens of thousands of individuals situated in the United States and all over the world are wondering the same. It is very difficult to make this decision since there are now numerous ways and means in investing ones money. There are so many businesses out there where you can invest your money. The most popular among these investing procedures is "stock investing".

Stock investing mainly focuses on the trading of stocks in the stock market. Trading stocks involves both the buying and selling of stocks. In order to gain the highest possible profit, stocks are bought at the cheapest or lowest price attainable. The investor will then wait for the right time when these stocks will be at the highest or most expensive price before actually selling it. The key in order to be able to buy at the cheapest and sell at the most expensive is to know the "fluctuation" of the prices. These fluctuations can be predicted by using the tried and tested stock market formulas that have been widely used since the last five decades.

The stock market must be taken into account as a whole. Therefore, a suitable and complete market analysis must be conducted in order to have adequate data and information of the stock market as a whole. This can be done with the aid of numerous stocks trading software widely that is widely available in the market as of today. All of the necessary computations together with the charts and tables that are needed in order to predict the market trend and the much anticipated "fluctuation" will be done by this kind of software. Time, effort and energy are thus saved whilst having accurate data and information at the same time.

Short Sale Info You Must Know

2009-08-21T01:22:00.000-07:00

So, you are looking for a house and you fell in love with a home that is offered as a short sale. What does that mean for you? What is a short sale and what is the difference between a short sale and a foreclosure?

To sum it up, a foreclosure happens when mortgage payments are not made and the banks takes over the home. The bank takes over not only the home, but also the title to the home and evicts the person who used to be buying the house. For this reason foreclosed homes are usually empty.

A short sale happens before a forclosure. Its when the home owner has fallen behind on their payments or they can see it coming in the near future, and they think that if only they could sell the house, not only would they be saved from a total foreclosure, but they may end up with some money in their pocket also. So they list the home and it doesn't sell. So they lower the price, again and again, until finally, they can't lower it anymore and pay all of the realtor commissions, closing fees, and the bank. So someone needs to start cutting their pay. Realtors aren't in the business of working for free, so they may give a little and the bank ends up giving the most. Since the bank will be taking a loss, they now get involved with negotiating the deal. In fact, they can really stick their nose in things now.

When you submit an offer on a short sale, it goes straight to the bank and they decide whether they will accept it or not. This can take up to four months of your offer sitting on a desk, thousands of miles away. Unfortunately, its out of everybody's hands at this point. The seller can't do anything, neither can the realtors, the lender or you, the buyer.

At this point you are just waiting to find out whether you even have an offer or not. Sometimes the bank is considering multiple offers, which makes the game even more confusing for the buyers.

What kind of deal are you going to get? Will it be pennies on the dollar? Probably not. The bank has a good idea of what the home will appraise for, and they don't want to loose any more money than they have to. So the probability of them lowering their payoff, while giving you the equity, is pretty slim. Read More

Get Rich Slow in Real Estate?

2009-08-21T01:07:00.000-07:00

So much about building wealth in real estate today assumes you wish to make a quick profit. Buy low, improve the property, put it on the market right away, sell it and make a quick profit. While that sounds good, things may not go the way you planned and you could end up losing money.

The reason for that is because real estate is really not designed for get rich quick schemes. It's a long term investment. Those who look at it that way usually outperform those that don't. Just look at how many have lost their fortunes during this recent real estate market downturn!

Instead, I'd like to offer an alternative based upon many people I've met growing up. These people didn't have super-high paying jobs. Most didn't have college educations. Most of these people had blue-collar jobs, carpenters, painters, etc. Yet all of them retired quite wealthy and with plenty of money. They did much better than those who pursued what was considered to be the conventional way to wealth.

Here's how they did it: They would buy a house that needed work and was priced below-market. They would move in and do repairs over a period of about 5-10 years. By this time they paid off the house in full. Since they didn't earn a substantial salary, that means they were very disciplined and took any extra money they had and used it to pay down the mortgage. They disliked interest because interest on money borrowed didn't help them build equity in the property. Once the property was paid off and fixed up, it was now ready for a tenant who would gladly pay top market rent for such a nicely updated property.

Next they would buy another property and do it all over again. By the time they retired, they owned five to ten free and clear units. Imagine if you took today's rental value and multiplied it by five or ten. You can see that this method provides plenty of income. And here's the best part: Rental income grows with inflation. This ends that problem I see so often with retirees: When they retire, their retirement income is abundant. But just five years down the road it no longer is enough forcing the retiree to seek other sources of income. Not so if you follow the plan I've just described. Obviously, you set aside some of the rental income in a fund to continually take care of the property when repairs are needed.

But here's the little known benefit to the get rich slow plan: When the real estate market gets slow, or if a tenant cannot pay the rent, because the property is owned free and clear it's not a huge financial drain. Investors who use this plan do great in either fast or slow real estate markets and very seldom see a collapse of their real estate holdings as is so common with the get rich quick folks.

If times really get tough, you can either borrow against the equity in the property or sell it outright. And because the property is owned free and clear, there are selling options not available to those who have to pay off a loan. For example you may be able to carry the financing for the buyer. That one option alone can open the door to more potential home buyers leading to a higher sales price.

It's rare, however to see the get rich slow people ever sell their properties, though. That's because whenever you sell, you trigger tax consequences. If you buy but never sell, taxation on your sales profits won't be an issue. Read more

Michael Jackson business partner warns Santa Barbara residents

2009-07-01T00:51:00.000-07:00

A businessman who set up a joint venture with Michael Jackson to take ownership of Neverland Ranch has written an an open letter to Santa Barbara residents warning them that mourners are about to converge on their community, according to press reports. Thomas J. Barrack Jr. told residents that they must "prepare to accommodate Michael's family's wishes as they contemplate the location of his final resting place and their own return to the tranquil grounds of the Michael Jackson family compound." A viewing of Jackson's body is set to occur Friday at the 2,500-acre ranch within the Santa Barbara County limits.

read more News Brief (news-briefs.ew.com)

House Approves Higher Business Tax Exemption

2009-05-04T19:08:00.000-07:00

By chron.com ---->

Thousands of small Texas companies would get a two-year break from the state business tax under a measure preliminarily adopted in the House on Monday.

The new tax, which businesses are currently paying for just the second time, was designed to fix the state's franchise tax and school funding system. But small businesses have complained that the tax is hitting them especially hard.

After a chorus of complaints from the business community, the plan by Rep. Rene Oliveira would temporarily increase the exemption to include businesses making $1 million or less. The exemption currently stands at $300,000.

"Because Texas and the United States are currently in a severe recession, what we have done here is provided some temporary relief," said Oliveira, D-Brownsville.

But increasing the exemption would cost the state more than $172 million in lost revenue at a time when state revenue is already plummeting.

Lawmakers agreed to make the increased exemption temporary, "in recognition that when we return in the next biennium, estimates are we may be as much as $12 billion in the hole," Oliveira said. "If that is true, we will have to revisit this."

The Legislature adopted the business tax under court order in 2006 to help cover the $14 billion cost of reducing school property tax rates. But the revenue from the business tax, known as the margins tax, has fallen more than $1.5 billion short of projections.

Under the tax structure, companies are taxed at 1 percent — 0.5 percent for retailers — of gross receipts. Companies can deduct for costs of goods or employee benefits like salary and health care.

Businesses also are lobbying for a measure that would ease their tax burden in years when they're not profitable. But, in recognition of the looming state budget quagmire, more than a dozen proposed amendments to the plan were withdrawn and the legislation was adopted without changes.

The new business tax was intended to overhaul the state's old franchise tax, which was so full of loopholes it was widely considered an optional tax.

Lawmakers spent years trying to fix it, but stumbled over how to structure a new tax within legal constraints that would apply equally to different business structures.

Dr Pepper Snapple

2009-03-26T05:35:00.000-07:00

Dr Pepper Snapple Group Inc. said Thursday that it lost $621 million in the fourth quarter as it wrote down assets and spent heavily on restructuring and severance, but its adjusted profit was better than Wall Street expected.

The seller of drinks such as A&W, Squirt and Hawaiian Punch lost $2.44 per share in the quarter that ended Dec. 31, compared to a profit of $138 million, or 54 cents per share, a year earlier.

Revenue fell to $1.38 billion from $1.39 billion.

The Plano, Texas-based company was spun-off from Cadbury Schweppes PLC in May 2008.

Without the one-time costs, the company earned 39 cents per share, beating a consensus profit estimate of 37 cents per share. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters typically exclude one-time items.

The company said it expects 2009 profit of $1.59 to $1.67 per share, excluding a 12-cent per share gain related to the termination of a contract with Hansen Natural Corp. It expects full-year revenue to decline by 2 percent to 4 percent.

In 2008, Dr Pepper Snapple lost $312 million, or $1.23 per share. That compares to a profit of $497 million, or $1.96 per share, in 2007. Revenue rose slightly to $5.71 billion from $5.7 billion.

Excluding one-time charges, the company earned $1.85 per share in 2008. Analysts had expected $1.82 per share.

Financial Regulation

2009-03-25T01:48:00.000-07:00

The Obama administration is preparing an overhaul of U.S. banking rules that would force financial companies to keep more cash on hand in case their trading bets go wrong.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner told lawmakers yesterday that changes will include “strong oversight, including appropriate constraints on risk-taking.” Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said the case of American International Group Inc. showed the “intense problem” of trading with insufficient capital to guard against losses.

Former 1970s radical returns to her Minnesota home

2009-03-20T01:23:00.000-07:00

Former 1970s radical Sara Jane Olson is expected to check in with her probation agent on her first full day back in Minnesota.

The 62-year-old Olson arrived in Minnesota on Wednesday evening after serving seven years in a California prison for crimes committed with the Symbionese Liberation Army.

Ramsey County Community Corrections spokesman Chris Crutchfield says he expects Olson to check in with her agent in person at a community corrections office by the end of the business day Thursday.

Olson spent more than 20 years in hiding in St. Paul. While she was a fugitive, she discarded her birth name of Kathleen Soliah and assumed a new persona as a housewife, mother, community volunteer and actress.

United Technologies to cut 11,600 jobs worldwide

2009-03-11T23:28:00.000-07:00

United Technologies Corp., the world’s largest maker of elevators and air conditioners, said it will cut 11,600 jobs worldwide to cope with the global economic slowdown.

The Hartford, Connecticut-based conglomerate (UTX) is also lowering its 2009 profit forecast. The cuts are part of an expanded $750 million restructuring program.

The company, which owns Pratt & Whitney jet engines and Sikorsky helicopters, cut its 2009 earnings per share forecast to between $4 per share and $4.50 per share, down from its December outlook of $4.65 to $5.15. Analysts, on average, had expected $4.60.

United Technologies also reduced the amount it would spend on share repurchases by half this year to $1 billion. Last month, Pratt & Whitney Canada announced plans to lay off up to 1,000 employees because of falling business jet orders.

Daily Contributor

Nine-Year-Old Writes Hit iPhone App

2009-02-10T01:16:00.000-08:00

Nine-year-old Lim Ding Wen.

This young prodigy from Singapore is fluent in six programming languages, according to a BBC report this week, and his newest creation, an iPhone drawing game called Doodle Kids, has racked up over 4,000 downloads in just two weeks. He wrote it for his younger sisters, who love to draw.

Doodle Kids, which lets players sketch with their fingers on the iPhone's screen and shake it, Etch-A-Sketch-style, to clear, has already racked up a healthy three-and-a-half star rating on the App Store. One reviewer commented: "Awesome app!...Amazing that something like this was made by a 9 year old".

Senate Approves $15,000 Tax Credit for Homebuyers

2009-02-04T17:21:00.000-08:00

The Senate voted Wednesday night to give a tax break of up to $15,000 to homebuyers in hopes of revitalizing the housing industry, a victory for Republicans eager to leave their mark on a mammoth economic stimulus bill at the heart of President Barack Obama's recovery plan. The tax break was approved without dissent and came on a day in which Obama pushed back pointedly against Republican critics of the legislation even as he reached across party lines to consider a reduction in the spending it contains.

"Let's not make the perfect the enemy of the essential," Obama said as Senate Republicans stepped up their criticism of the bill's spending and pressed for additional tax cuts and relief for homeowners. He warned that failure to act quickly "will turn crisis into a catastrophe and guarantee a longer recession."

Democratic leaders have pledged to have legislation ready for Obama's signature by the end of next week.

While they concede privately they will have to accept some spending reductions along the way, conservative Republicans failed in their initial attempts to force deep cuts in the bill.

Sen. Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., who advanced the homebuyers tax break, said it was intended to help revive the housing industry, which has virtually collapsed in the wake of a credit crisis that began last fall.

The proposal would allow a tax credit of 10 percent of the value of new or existing residences, up to a $15,000 limit. Current law provides for a $7,500 tax break but only for first-time homebuyers.

Isakson's office said the proposal would cost the government an estimated $19 billion.

Democrats readily agreed to the proposal, although it may be changed or even deleted as the stimulus measure makes its way through Congress over the next 10 days or so.

Other GOP attempts to change the measure went down to defeat. The most sweeping of them, by Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., failed on a mostly party-line vote of 36-61. It would have replaced the White House-backed legislation with a series of tax cuts on personal and business income and capital gains at the same time it made cuts passed during the Bush administration permanent.

"This bill needs to be cut down," Republican Mitch McConnell of Kentucky said on the Senate floor. He cited $524 million for a State Department program that he said envisions creating 388 jobs. "That comes to $1.35 million per job," he added.

After days of absorbing rhetorical attacks, Obama and Senate Democrats mounted a counteroffensive against Republicans who say tax cuts alone can cure the economy.

Obama said the criticisms he has heard "echo the very same failed economic theories that led us into this crisis in the first place, the notion that tax cuts alone will solve all our problems."

"I reject those theories and so did the American people when they went to the polls in November and voted resoundingly for change," said the president, who was elected with an Electoral College landslide last fall and enjoys high public approval ratings at the outset of his term.

Obama did not mention any Republicans by name, and most have signaled their support for varying amounts of new spending.

Even so, the president repeated his retort word for word in late afternoon, yet softened the partisan impact of his comments by meeting at the White House with senators often willing to cross party lines.

His first visitor was Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, a moderate GOP lawmaker. Later he met with Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Ben Nelson, D-Neb.

"I gave him a list of provisions" for possible deletion from the bill, Collins told reporters outside the White House. Among them were $8 billion to upgrade facilities and information technology at the State Department and funds for combatting a possible outbreak of pandemic flu and promoting cyber-security. The latter two items, she said, are "near and dear to her," but belong in routine legislation and not an economic stimulus measure.

Collins and Nelson have been working on a list of possible spending cuts totaling roughly $50 billion, although they have yet to make details public.

Massive Stimulus Package

2009-02-02T23:30:00.000-08:00

Australia launches massive stimulus package

Australia launched a 42 billion dollar (26 billion US) stimulus package Tuesday and slashed interest rates to a 45-year low in a bid to battle the global economic crisis, which has choked growth.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said the massive stimulus package was aimed at nation building and supporting up to 90,000 jobs "in the face of the unfolding national and international economic emergency."

The government faced a "stark choice -- to act or fold its arms and let the free market rip," the centre-left Labor Party leader said. "The government has resolved to act and will continue to act."

The package includes spending of 28.8 billion Australian dollars on schools, housing and roads over four years, tax breaks for small businesses and cash handouts of 12.7 billion dollars to eligible workers, farmers and students.

Up to 950 dollars would be paid to workers earning 100,000 dollars or less, supporting up to 8.7 million individuals, the government said in a statement.

Similar amounts would be paid to single-income families, drought-affected farmers and others in need from March.

The government slashed its economic growth forecast by half, upped its estimate of job losses and warned the budget would plunge 22.5 billion dollars into deficit instead of achieving the 21.7 billion surplus predicted last May.

Gross domestic product growth is now expected to be 1.0 percent in 2008/09 and 0.75 percent the following year, compared with respective forecasts of 2.0 percent and 2.25 percent made just three months ago.

The unemployment rate is expected to surge to 7.0 percent in 2009/10 from 4.5 percent in December, the government said.

The latest stimulus package follows a pump-priming exercise in December which fed 10.4 billion dollars into the economy, targeting pensioners and others in a bid to boost consumer spending.

Adding to the new measures, Australia's central bank slashed interest rates by one percentage point to a 45-year low of 3.25 percent Tuesday, the latest in a series of aggressive cuts.

Reserve Bank governor Glenn Stevens said the board had taken the stimulus package into account in making its decision.

"The combination of expansionary monetary and fiscal policies now in place will help to cushion the Australian economy from the contractionary forces coming from abroad," he said.

The International Monetary Fund predicted last week that the Australian economy would contract by 0.2 percent in 2009 if no further measures were taken.

Preparing the way for the budget deficit announcement, Rudd on Monday said the global economic crisis and China's slowdown would punch a 115-billion-dollar hole in tax receipts over the next four years.

Demand in China and other Asian countries for Australian resources such as coal and iron ore has underpinned an economic boom for a decade.

Trade unions welcomed the stimulus plan but said more needed to be done to protect jobs.

Some analysts said the government could be too optimistic in forecasting that Australia would avoid a recession.

"They're unrealistic on their growth numbers but politically it's unpalatable to come out and say we're in recession," JP Morgan chief economist Stephen Walters told Dow Jones Newswires.

Katie Dean, a senior economist at Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Ltd., said the package may help avert a technical recession in the first half of 2009, but the long-term outlook was "still clouded".

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Amazon Stock Soars on Strong Profit and Outlook

2009-01-29T16:37:00.000-08:00

Amazon.com Inc. said Thursday that its fourth-quarter profit rose 9 percent and easily surpassed analysts' forecasts. Those results, plus an optimistic forecast, sent its shares soaring 13 percent in extended trading.

In December, Amazon called the holiday season its "best ever," and the earnings report backed up the idea that the online retailer is not being seriously hurt by cutbacks in consumer spending. Amazon said its revenue in the current quarter should be between $4.53 billion and $4.93 billion, while analysts are expecting $4.57 billion.

Shares of the Seattle-based company shot up $6.60 or 13.2 percent, to $56.60 in after-hours trading following the release of the earnings report. The stock had fallen 36 cents to finish regular trading at $50.

Amazon said its profit in the fourth quarter was $225 million, or 52 cents per share, compared with $207 million, or 48 cents per share, in the same quarter last year. Analysts, on average, had been expecting 39 cents per share, according to Thomson Reuters.

Revenue rose 18 percent to $6.7 billion, exceeding analyst estimates for $6.4 billion. If not for the strengthening dollar, which diminishes the value of sales in other currencies, Amazon said its revenue would have risen 24 percent.

Sales of items like books, CDs and DVDs climbed 9 percent to $3.64 billion, and sales of electronics and other merchandise rose 31 percent to $2.89 billion.

The recession's effects may have shown up in one key figure — Amazon's gross profit margin. It declined to 20.1 percent, from 20.6 percent in the fourth quarter of 2007.

In a conference call with reporters, Chief Financial Officer Tom Szkutak said the fall could be attributed in part to price cuts.

Retailers were especially hungry for consumer dollars during the holiday quarter: According to data from comScore Inc., Web retail sales alone fell 3 percent to $25.54 billion from Nov. 1 to Dec. 23, and probably fell 4 percent to $36.38 billion in the fourth quarter.

RBC Capital Markets analyst Stephen Ju said the drop in Amazon's gross margin was expected, given the discounting going on at its competitors. "They need to keep up — that's how they operate," he said.

Jeffrey Lindsay, an analyst with Sanford C. Bernstein, said he was "pleasantly surprised" by Amazon's results and that they indicate that the shift among consumers toward buying more items online is definitely holding up.

"People may be spending less in general, but they're spending a lot more of it online. Amazon has benefited from that to a very large extent," he said.

Amazon also said revenue from shipping — which includes revenue from Amazon Prime, its membership-based two-day shipping program, and Fulfillment by Amazon, which is its third-party shipping program — rose less than 1 percent to $266 million.

The company's net shipping cost rose as well, though, climbing 32 percent year over year to $242 million.

During the quarter Amazon made 45,000 additional book titles available for its wireless electronic reading device, the Kindle, for a current total of 230,000. The company has not released sales figures for the Kindle device, and is widely believed to be releasing a new version in early February.

For the full year, Amazon earned $645 million, or $1.49 per share, on $19.2 billion in revenue. The company earned $476 million, or $1.12 per share, on revenue of $14.8 billion during 2007.

Source: Yahoo Tech

Struggling Sprint Nextel to Eliminate 8,000 Jobs

2009-01-26T21:23:00.000-08:00

Faced with persistent subscriber losses and questions about its long-term prospects, Sprint Nextel Corp. is slashing its already shrinking work force by 8,000 people as it seeks to cut annual costs by $1.2 billion.

The layoffs, announced Monday, are just the latest attempt by the nation's third-largest cell phone carrier to right its financial ship in the face of tough competition and a brutal economy. They come slightly more than a year after the company cut 4,000 jobs and closed 125 retail centers as Chief Executive Dan Hesse, then new on the job, aimed to show he was serious about streamlining operations.

Sprint said it expects the latest round of layoffs, which represent a 14 percent reduction of its 56,000 employees, will be largely completed by March 31. The company said it will take a first-quarter charge of more than $300 million for severance and other costs.

About 850 of the layoffs are voluntary, through employees taking buyouts. They will make up about $45 million of the total severance costs, the company said in a securities filing.

In addition to the cuts, Sprint said it will suspend its 401(k) match for the year, extend a freeze on salary increases and suspend a tuition reimbursement program.

"Labor reductions are always the most difficult action to take, but many companies are finding it necessary in this environment," Hesse said in a news release. "Our commitment to quality will not change."

Sprint shares rose 3 cents, or 1.2 percent, to close at $2.49 on Monday.

The Overland Park, Kan.-based company has struggled since acquiring Nextel Communications Inc. in 2005. Technical problems, poor efforts to consolidate the two companies and stiff competition for feature-rich phones, such as the Apple Inc. iPhone on AT&T's service, have led many subscribers to switch.

As of Sept. 30, Sprint had 50.5 million subscribers, down 3.5 million from a year earlier. The falloff contributed to the $1.18 billion net loss that Sprint posted through the first three quarters of 2008.

"Given the current state of operations, (the layoffs were) probably the right thing for them to do," said analyst Christopher King at Stifel Nicolaus.

He doesn't see Sprint as a bankruptcy candidate, at least not for two years. "But certainly as you get into 2011, depending on how their operations shake out over the next couple of years, there could potentially be some concerns there," he said.

Another analyst, John Hodulik at UBS, wrote in a research note Monday that it might be difficult for Sprint to turn the tide of subscriber losses, given that nearly everyone already has a cell phone and few people switch between the major carriers.

The company's layoff announcement comes a month after AT&T Inc. announced it was cutting its work force by 4 percent, or 12,000 jobs, to deal with the effects of the recession and the continued erosion of its traditional wireline business. However, AT&T's wireless arm has been gaining subscribers, as have Verizon Wireless and T-Mobile USA.

Sprint Nextel has had some bright spots. It recently announced a new $50 per month unlimited voice and data plan under its Boost prepaid brand, which doesn't require customers to be tied to contracts. Analysts expect it to attract many people who can't qualify for or don't want to sign two-year contracts.

Also, Sprint will soon be the exclusive seller of the Palm Pre smart phone, a touch-screen device expected to rival the iPhone. The Pre is set to debut in the second half of this year.

Sprint spokesman James Fisher said the company hasn't determined how the newest layoffs will be divided between divisions or geographic locations, including suburban Kansas City, where it is the area's largest private employer.

But he said the company will likely avoid significant reductions in its customer service and network quality divisions, where Sprint has tried to improve in recent years.

One executive-level casualty is Kathy Walker, the company's chief information and network officer, who is leaving as of March 31.

Jeff Kagan, an Atlanta-based wireless analyst, said in a report that while Sprint's cost-cutting efforts are notable, they can't save the company on their own. He discounted the effect of the economy, since Verizon Wireless and AT&T have continued to do well.

"If the economy recovered tomorrow I think Sprint would continue to suffer," Kagan wrote.

Sprint also announced Monday it will release its fourth-quarter earnings on Feb. 19, more than a week earlier than originally scheduled.

Job-Killing Recession Racks Up More Layoff Victims

2009-01-26T19:14:00.000-08:00

The recession is killing jobs at an alarming pace, with tens of thousands of new layoffs announced Monday by some of the biggest names in American business — Pfizer, Caterpillar and Home Depot.

More pink slips, pay freezes and other hits are expected to slam workers in the months ahead as companies desperately look for ways to survive.

"We're just seeing the tip of the iceberg — the big firms," said Rebecca Braeu, economist at John Hancock Financial Services. "There's certainly other firms beneath them that will lay off workers as quickly or even quicker."

Looking ahead, economists predicted a net loss of at least 2 million jobs — possibly more — this year even if President Barack Obama's $825 billion package of increased government spending and tax cuts is enacted. Last year, the economy lost a net 2.6 million jobs, the most since 1945, though the labor force has grown significantly since then.

The unemployment rate, now at a 16-year high of 7.2 percent, could hit 10 percent or higher later this year or early next year, under some analysts' projections.

Obama called on Congress Monday to speedily enact his recovery plan, warning that the nation can't afford "distractions" or "delays."

With the recession expected to drag on through much of this year, more damage will be inflicted on both companies and workers.

The mounting toll was visible Monday as roughly 40,000 more U.S. workers got the grim news.

Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer Inc., which is buying rival drugmaker Wyeth in a $68 billion deal, and Sprint Nextel Corp., the country's third-largest wireless provider, said they each will slash 8,000 jobs.

Home Depot Inc., the biggest home improvement retailer in the U.S., will get rid of 7,000 jobs, and General Motors Corp. said it will cut 2,000 jobs at plants in Michigan and Ohio because of slow sales.

"We are seeing no improvement in labor market conditions," said Sal Guatieri, senior economist at BMO Capital Markets Economics. "This year could be as bad as last year in terms of layoffs."

In response to deteriorating business conditions, Caterpillar Inc., the world's largest maker of mining and construction equipment, disclosed nearly 20,000 job cuts, most of which already have been made. They include 5,000 new layoffs of white collar workers, which will occur globally by the end of March.

Earlier actions included the elimination of 2,500 Caterpillar workers through a buyout offer announced in December, the termination of about 8,000 contract and temp agency workers, and the reduction of 4,000 full-time factory workers through firings and buyouts.

Texas Instruments Inc., which makes chips for cell phones and other gadgets, will cut 3,400 jobs due to slumping demand. The Dallas-based company said Monday it will slash 12 percent of its work force — 1,800 jobs through layoffs and another 1,600 through voluntary retirements and departures. And Brooks Automation Inc. said it plans to get rid of 350 jobs, or 20 percent of its work force. It will be the second round of cuts for Brooks, which makes software and equipment for chip manufacturers.

Oilfield services provider Halliburton Co. said it will eliminate jobs in markets particularly hard hit by the recession, though it didn't provide details. Its larger rival Schlumberger Ltd. said last week it will cut up to 5,000 jobs worldwide in the first half of 2009 and consider further reductions this spring.

The flurry of layoffs comes on the heels of similar action by big-name companies just last week.

Microsoft Corp. said it will slash up to 5,000 jobs over the next 18 months. Intel Corp. said it will cut up to 6,000 manufacturing jobs. And United Airlines parent UAL Corp. said it would get rid of 1,000 jobs, on top of 1,500 axed late last year.

And there's no end in sight. In a survey by the National Association for Business Economics, 39 percent of forecasters predicted job reductions through attrition or "significant" layoffs over the next six months, up from 32 percent in the previous survey in October. Around 45 percent in the current survey anticipated no change in hiring plans. About 17 percent thought hiring would increase.

A new report by the placement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas found that companies are often turning to a creative combination of measures to cut costs — beyond layoffs. Those measures include pay freezes or reductions, forced vacations, travel cutbacks and the elimination of year-end bonuses.

"Many companies cannot cut their payrolls as deeply as they have in previous downturns, simply because they did not do as much hiring during the most recent expansion," said John Challenger, president of the firm. "As a result, they are forced to find alternative ways to keep costs down."

Not all the economic news was as grim Monday. Sales of previously owned homes and a separate barometer of economic activity each logged unexpected gains in December. But economists didn't view them as signs of improvement.

"Keep the party hats in boxes and the Champagne in the cellar," said Bernard Baumohl, chief global economist at the Economic Outlook Group. "It's one month's set of data and they tell us little about the future."

Economists said the uptick in home sales was due to sinking prices spurring buyers. In the other report, a government-influenced balloon in the nation's money supply largely affected the outcome.

Wall Street closed moderately higher. The Dow Jones industrials rose 38.47,or 0.48 percent, to 8,116.03, after briefly moving into negative territory.

The National Association of Realtors said sales of existing homes rose 6.5 percent to an annual rate of 4.74 million last month. Buyers took advantage of dramatically lower prices, especially in distressed states like California, Florida and Nevada, where foreclosures are soaring.

The nationwide median sales price sank to $175,400, down 15.3 percent from a year ago. That marked the biggest annual drop on records going back to 1968. The median is the middle point, where half the homes sell for more and half for less.

For all of last year, existing-home sales totaled 4.9 million, down more than 13 percent from the previous year, and the lowest since 1997.

Meanwhile, the Conference Board's monthly forecast of economic activity rose 0.3 percent in December. But that pickup was influenced mainly by federal efforts to ease the credit crisis, which caused the supply of money to expand. If the jump in the money supply were excluded, the board's index would have dropped sharply, economists said.

The national economy, meanwhile, is continuing to backslide.

Many analysts predict the economy will have contracted at a pace of 5.4 percent in the fourth quarter when the government releases that report Friday. If they are correct, that would mark the worst performance since a 6.4 percent drop in the first quarter of 1982. The economy is still contracting now — at a pace of around 4 percent, according to some projections.

Source: Yahoo news on Business

10 Great Cities for Salary Growth

2009-01-25T21:02:00.000-08:00

We all want to know what's going to happen with the job market in 2009, especially where salaries are concerned. Is a raise in your future? It might just come down to where you live.

Yet the most recent and complete numbers for salary growth in metropolitan areas are from 2007, and with everything our economy has been through in recent months -- unstable markets, major businesses collapsing, and an official announcement of a U.S. recession -- those numbers seem all but obsolete.

So, how do you know which city might offer you a salary boost? According to Laurence Shatkin, author of the recently published "150 Recession-Proof Jobs," there is a pattern to discover in the places that do well in a recession. Industries such as basic health care, education, transportation services and government jobs stay strong in a recession because they cater to more basic societal needs. These industries will frequently concentrate in the same areas -- quite often state capitals -- maintaining job growth and wage increases, while other areas suffer more.

Below are some profiles of the top-performing large cities of 2008 and their 2007 statistics on personal income growth, according to the Bureau of Economic Research. Looking at these numbers and how "recession-proof" their main industries are will hopefully give an idea how well they'll continue to perform into 2009.

Austin-Round Rock, TX - pop. 840,066 - 7.7% avg. salary increase
Building off of an already robust government labor sector, the University of Texas at Austin is a huge source of innovation. The area has been using UT's excellent programs from bioengineering to pharmaceutical research programs to invigorate both the technology and burgeoning pharmaceutical industries.

Bakersfield, CA - pop. 315, 837 - 6.6% avg. salary increase
Oilfields and other natural resources created a lot of opportunity for growth around this city recently, and increased demand for services has spurred along the education and health-care sectors. Wages grew here much faster than the national average in recent years, and though that rate is expected to taper, nearby Edwards Air Base and Chevron should help to stabilize the economy and maintain a decent wage growth for transportation and logistics jobs.

Charleston-North Charleston-Summerville, SC - pop. 245,472 - 8.1% avg. salary increase
The Medical University of South Carolina gives weight to this area's healthcare industry and is inspiring recent investment in the biosciences. This adds to Charleston's already strong transportation/logistics industry -- the Port of Charleston is among the most efficient ports in North America, and that should keep business rolling and wages rising.

Huntsville, AL - pop. 171, 327 - 6.4% avg. salary increase
Yet another city whose strong and growing economy is due to the technology industry, Huntsville's U.S. Army post is also expected to grow over the next few years. In addition, it has just opened the doors to HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology which should only encourage more growth in jobs and wages in 2009.

McAllen-Edinburgh-Mission, TX - pop. 197, 183 - 7.1% avg. salary increase
Call centers established by Convergys and T-Mobile in this area have created a healthy chunk of jobs recently. The area has also strengthened its home healthcare industry, which is now the second largest employment sector after state and local government. Drawing off these "recession-proof" industries gives hope that wages will continue to grow.

Orlando-Kissimmee, FL - pop. 289,684 - 5.2% avg. salary increase
The health-care industry has been the impetus behind this area's growth, so odds are that the downturn won't hit this area very hard. The Burnham Institute for Medical Research and a new medical school at the University of Central Florida are expected to attract other industries to the area, particularly high-tech firms, all of which point to good chances for wage growth.

Provo-Orem, UT - pop. 210,670 - 9.7% avg. salary increase
Benefiting from the innovative brain-power of Brigham-Young University, the information service industry in this city has been fueling rapid growth over the last five years. Business investment in the tech sector remains strong, which should help Provo-Orem ride out the ,slowdown in good form.

Raleigh-Cary, NC - pop. 375,806 - 8.7% avg. salary increase
State government employment gives this capital city a sturdy backbone for economic security. High quality educational centers (North Carolina State; University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill) inject creative brainpower into Raleigh's thriving tech companies and its growing biopharmaceutical sector -- all good signs for strength in the coming year.

Salt Lake City, UT - pop 180,651 - 9.2% avg. salary increase
Like Raleigh, Salt Lake City boasts great tech and government jobs. In addition, health care (Intermountain Health Care) and education (University of Utah) add extra spark to SLC's economic fire. Based on this, expectations are high that wage growth will remain comparatively strong.

Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA - pop. 912,077 - 8.4% avg. salary increase
Microsoft and Boeing are the main jolts of force behind this area's continued growth. Looking into the future, with the heightened interest in green technology, Boeing's push for a more fuel-efficient commercial aircraft will likely reap great rewards. Strong health-care and research institutions also keep paychecks growing in slower economic times.

Writers Praise Barack Obama's Inaugural Address

2009-01-20T17:08:00.000-08:00

More novel than short story; more ballad than poem -- most writers agree that restraint and plain speaking were the qualities that distinguished President Obama's inaugural address. Long on plot (and it will thicken), it did what literature does best: the backward glance, the standing on shoulders, the salute to ancestors and other sources of wisdom.

"He is our first (in the best sense of the word) aristocratic president," said author and journalist Malcolm Gladwell. "Bush was a buddy. Clinton was the kindly uncle. Obama is a prince."

And yet, Obama is also a writer, and writers were not at a loss for words. Author Ron Carlson was watching the president's syntax. "What courage," he said, "to use a complex sentence talking to a million people! By expecting the best of us, he just might get it."

Nonfiction writer Mark Kurlansky said the speech "was the most sophisticated view of the world and our role in it of any inaugural address in history."

Others felt the call to action. "With an Obama speech, listening is sometimes enough," said Pulitzer Prize-winner Thomas Powers, "but not this time. The inauguration speech is one we ought to read. It strikes me as clear and determined and grounded in confidence that of course we are still in the middle of the American story, not nearing the end."

Author Susan Straight watched the speech with her two mixed-race daughters. Afterward, they discussed their ancestors, the women in their family who never had birth certificates. "We talked about how hard these women had worked, orphaned and enslaved and desperate, to keep their children alive and get them educated."

Other writers praised the absence of the first person singular. "The word that stood out the most for me," said author Marisa Silver, "was the word 'we.' Taking the 'I' out of the equation makes us keenly aware of the power and responsibility that we, each of us, have to make differences."

USC professor Leo Braudy was moved to think about the difference between general forces in history and the force of the individual, particularly someone who, like Obama, embodies past polarities. "This is how history moves," he said. "It's all well and good to talk about the rise of liberalism or the fall of communism, but really it's the individual who carries these forces within him and is able to move history forward."

Some, like memoirist Patricia Hampl, praised Obama's plain speaking. "I was glad," she says, "that he denied himself rhetorical flourishes and gave a speech as refined and restrained in its power so that political language itself was restored to its greatest value -- saying what the speaker means."

Historian Mike Davis also praised Obama's restraint, calling it a "brilliantly modulated speech that perfectly showcased Obama's gravitas while revealing as little as possible of his actual passions. Hopefully we can now take a break from patriotic celebrations and incantations of 'hope' and return to rescuing the survivors from the wreckage of the Bush era."

Clinton speechwriter and author Ted Widmer liked the obvious lack of "elaborate, orotund, speechwriter language," the "tight language, short sentences and strong images," and the many references to past presidents, although he noted the absence of Lincoln quotes.

Novelist Stacey D'Erasmo had some writerly observations. She was struck by how much Obama looked "like an ordinary man on his way to work, alone. When he looked down during the various opening remarks, he actually looked like he was thinking." She felt she was observing his transformation: "We know that we are watching him become something else, something we can't, entirely, understand. Subtly, we want him to explain it to us: What does his power mean?"

In pre-speech commentary, Reagan speechwriter Peter Robinson (famous for penning the phrase, "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall") told a reporter, "Writing is writing. It's a job." A good inaugural speech, he said, contains expectations, while allowing people to fully enjoy the moment.

As many writers will tell you, this is what writing can do: make the complex sound like plain speaking, contain and channel the emotions, create a kind of bridge from the heart to the mind.

"Here's a guy," Ron Carlson said with obvious admiration, "capable of his next idea."

Read on LA Times

America's Weakest Housing Markets

2009-01-12T18:03:00.000-08:00

Last year was brutal for real estate markets in Florida, California and Arizona. This year won't be much better.

In Palm Bay, Fla., a 563,000-person metro area on the central Florida coast, it's not just lush palm trees dotting the landscape--foreclosure signs are all over.

Partly to blame? The area's median home sale price has fallen by half since 2006, from $238,000 to $110,000, according to Trulia.com, an online real estate data provider. This has left many homeowners owing more on their mortgages than their homes are worth.

As a result, almost 1,800 homes are in the process of being repossessed by lenders--twice as many houses as were sold in the six months between May and November.

And more foreclosures are inevitable as homeowners cut their losses and walk away from their mortgages. There are already so many empty homes that the city passed an ordinance two months ago requiring lenders to identify which abandoned properties they owned.

Farther south in Miami, it's a similar story. Online real estate data provider Zillow.com estimates that 96% of Miami's houses are losing value. Median sales prices were 22% lower than last year in the third quarter.

Out West, in Las Vegas, a crushing 98% of homes are losing value and foreclosures account for 45% of all transactions, according to Zillow.

All three top a list of the country's top 25 worst housing markets in 2009. Provo, Utah, and Fort Lauderdale, Fla., round out the top five.
Behind the Numbers

To find them, we asked Moody's Economy.com to compile a list of the country's real estate markets that are furthest from recovery. Moody's looked at the country's Census-defined metro areas--including metropolitan and micropolitan statistical areas--with populations over 500,000 and prepared forecasts through 2011. They then compared them with prices in the second quarter of 2008, the latest figures available, to calculate how far prices will likely fall before reaching bottom.

In Palm Bay, real estate values are expected to fall another 41.4% before bottoming late next year. Miami could be in for a similar decline, and Fort Lauderdale is forecast to drop another 30%.

There are more familiar names on the worst-off list: Los Angeles and Phoenix where foreclosure signs and half-built exurbs serve as constant reminders of the real estate frenzy that lead to this crisis.

In Las Vegas, where speculation moved out of the casinos and into the property market, prices have another 43% to lose, according to Moody's.

In Phoenix, too many houses and too much speculation sent property prices into a tailspin two years ago. But the bottom may be in sight late this year--after another 31% drop.

Tucson, Ariz., also looks like it's close to flattening out--after an estimated 33% fall by the end of next year.

For other towns on our list, there's still plenty of time to get 'em while they're cold. Most of these troubled markets--including Santa Ana, Calif.,Orlando, Fla., and Jacksonville, Fla.,--won't even start to recover until next year or the year after.

That's even though real estate prices, on average, across the country should hit bottom by the end of this year, according to Moody's forecasts, after an average 15% drop.

It's not just the cities already facing massive foreclosures that are poised to further stumble; this year the gloom is spreading to the country's second-home markets.

Many of these places were doing well until recently as retiring boomers and investors bought property where they played. But the market for second homes followed Wall Street into a deep dive last year. Because the downturn hit many of these markets late, the worst is yet to come.

Just over a year ago, for example, property prices in Salt Lake City were still rising, even though they were falling just about everywhere else.

By the third quarter of 2007, the median home sold for $247,000 versus $203,000 in 2006. Prices haven't fallen much yet; the median price in late 2008 was $230,000, according to the National Association of Realtors.

But Salt Lake City, which is surrounded by some of the best ski resorts in the West, is just starting to feel the effects of the drop-off in second-home buying. Prices are set to fall 29% over the next two years, according to Moody's forecasts.

Provo, Utah, and Boise City, Idaho, are also headed down with the drop in nearby ski home sales, says Mark Zandi, chief economist for Moody's Economy.com.

Honolulu hurt by the drop in buyers from Asia and California, is beginning a long and slow descent, with real estate prices forecast to drop 31% before hitting bottom in 2011.

There is another region where the worst may be to come: New York City-area metros. Housing values in Newark, N.J., could fall 26%.

Likewise, Edison, N.J., is also among the mid-sized metro areas expected to see the steepest drops this year. But the worst could be over by the end of 2009 for New York's satellite cities.

Manhattan, now at the epicenter of the financial crisis, is noticeably absent from the top 25 weakest markets list. So far, the city has been isolated from the popping bubbles in the rest of the country.

Property prices were rising in Manhattan until early last year. Zandi believes Manhattan could be spared a steep drop. He expects a fall of around 20%. Even if big bankers lose their bonuses, "Manhattan is still supported by international demand," he says.

That prediction may prove conservative. The value of new contracts signed have already dipped 15% to 20% in the fourth quarter, according to a Beige Book report from the U.S. Federal Reserve last month.

The report said much of the activity came from "desperate sellers," so it may not be a fair gauge of where prices will go from here.

Of course, that depends on how many more sellers become desperate.

Kennedy Center honors Streisand, Freeman, Daltrey

2008-12-07T21:11:00.000-08:00

WASHINGTON – Barbra Streisand is visiting the White House but says she'll play nice. Streisand, a vocal critic of President George W. Bush, was a guest Sunday at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue during one of Washington's few A-list events.

"Art," she said, "transcends politics this weekend."

The singer and actress this year is a recipient of the Kennedy Center Honors, along with Morgan Freeman, country singer George Jones, dancer and choreographer Twyla Tharp and musicians Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey of The Who.

The honors recognize individuals who have had an impact on American culture through the performing arts, part of the living memorial to President John F. Kennedy.

"I'm really excited and I'm touched" about being selected as an honoree, Townshend said.

Musician B.B. King wore his Kennedy Center honoree medal from 1995 to the event.

"I'm here because of one of my idols called Morgan Freeman," he said.

Jones said there were no strained moments between Streisand and Bush during the reception.

"Everything went so smooth," he said.

After the reception, the group traveled with the president and first lady Laura Bush to the performing arts center for a gala in their honor.

The gala will include the young singer-songwriter Ne-Yo singing Streisand's 1965 hit "Lover, Come Back to Me."

"Barbra Streisand is the epitome of emotion in music. You feel every word, that's something that artists in my day and age don't really pay attention to," he said.

Musician Rob Thomas said he would sing The Who's song "Baba O'Riley" during the tribute for Townshend and Daltrey.

"These are people who have influenced everyone," he said. "It's not just their music, it's their attitude."

The Kennedy Center Honors come just a month after the presidential election. Streisand, 66, was one of the most outspoken honorees on politics during the campaign season, saying the past two elections had been "stolen." On the day after the Obama's win, she was riding high.

"November 5th ... what a day ... a new day ... finally (Martin Luther King's) words ring true," Streisand, a longtime Democrat, wrote on her Web site. "I am so proud of our country."

At a State Department dinner for the honorees Saturday night, Streisand said, "It's just great to be honored by one's own country."

Jones, who earned the nickname "No Show Jones" for performances he missed during his wild days, promised to show up this time. As he entered the reception, the 77-year-old said, "I'm in a daze" about being an honoree.

Performers from New York, Nashville and Hollywood will salute the honorees with surprise tribute performances Sunday evening. The show will air Dec. 30 on CBS.

Tickets to the gala sell for as much as $4,000. Last year, the event raised $5 million to support Kennedy Center programs.

The awards were presented Saturday night at a State Department dinner hosted by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. She addressed each honoree, beginning with Freeman, who once played the president in the movie "Deep Impact."

"I know that when you played the African-American president of the United States, most people thought that would happen when a comet hit," Rice said, drawing laughs and cheers. "But wonder of wonders, fiction has become true."

Freeman, 71, who starred this year in "The Dark Knight," also made headlines after suffering broken bones in a Mississippi car crash in August. On Saturday, the Oscar-winning actor said he was still recovering from nerve damage in his left hand and wore a glove to control the swelling.

Kennedy Center Chairman Stephen Schwarzman hailed the "extraordinary genius and tenacity" of the 2008 lifetime achievement award recipients.

Dancer Damian Woetzel hailed Tharp, 67, for "taking a dance and treating it like music." Her work has helped define modern dance, contemporary ballet and Broadway musicals.

Past honorees, including Clint Eastwood, Elton John and Sidney Poitier, made nominations for the awards, along with members of the Kennedy Center's national artists committee, including Glenn Close and Reba McEntire.

Source: Yahoo Entertainment News

The 10 Top American Givers

2008-11-27T18:45:00.000-08:00

Many of America's ultra-rich continued to give big donations to charity in 2008, despite the worst financial crisis in decades. In the past year, seven philanthropists gave north of $200 million and nine gave more than $100 million to causes ranging from wilderness preservation to fighting malaria. Warren Buffett and Bill Gates remain far and away the biggest givers overall, but two of 12 newcomers to the list pledged to give more than $1 billion away: William Barron Hilton, co-chairman of the Hilton hotel chain who pledged late last year to give away 97% of his wealth -- some $1.7 billion -- to his family's humanitarian foundation and Peter G. Peterson, co-founder of the investment firm Blackstone Group, who gave $1 billion this year to establish a foundation that promotes fiscal responsibility. Read their stories -- and those of the 48 other philanthropists on BusinessWeek's list -- here.

1. Warren Buffett

Berkshire Hathaway CEO
2004-08 Giving* $40,655 million

Buffett's $31 billion commitment to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, announced in June 2006, resonated throughout the philanthropic community. The giving is aimed at funding education and global health initiatives. This year the commitment to the Gates Foundation still resonates, inspiring other donors with a new model of philanthropy. Buffett, the world's second-richest man, also earmarked billions for the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation, the Howard G. Buffett Foundation, and the NoVo Foundation -- independent family foundations that support causes ranging from reproductive health to worldwide conservation.

For more, visit the Warren Buffett Philanthropy

2. Bill & Melinda Gates

Microsoft co-founder
2004-08 Giving* $2,625 million

Bill and Melinda Gates give through their massive Seattle-based family foundation, which says it is "committed to ensuring all people have the opportunity to lead healthy, productive lives." With an endowment of nearly $36 billion, the foundation works with partners to give people a chance to lift themselves out of hunger and extreme poverty in developing countries and, in the U.S., to ensure that all people have the opportunities they need to succeed in school and life. Its endowment is eventually expected to double, thanks to a long-term $31 billion gift from investor Warren Buffett, which pays out in installments. Recent initiatives include $100 million in micro medical-research grants; a $164 million grant to the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa; and $125 million to fight global tobacco use as part of a $500 million partnership with New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

For more, visit the Gates Foundation.

3. George Kaiser

Oil and gas, banking, investments
2004-08 Giving* $2,377 million

Kaiser's focus remains on early intervention in the cycle of poverty. Giving through his Tulsa-based foundation provides services that include early childhood education, pre-natal health care, public health, in-home parenting, and secondary education, as well as more generalized safety net services that deal with the symptoms of poverty. More recent initiatives have focused on women's incarceration, secondary schools, and reserving land to create an arts and entertainment district in Tulsa. The biggest payout may be yet to come: Kaiser has said he plans to increase his gifts "until I die with one dollar left, assuming I can get the timing just right."

For more, visit the George Kaiser Family Foundation.

4. George Soros

Investor
2004-08 Giving* $2,214 million

Soros distributes $400 million or more each year through his charitable network, which aims to foster open and democratic societies around the world. This year Soros gave some $535 million to dozens of initiatives, including education in Liberia, microfinance in India, and mental health in Moldova. In 2005 he gave an extra $200 million for his Central European University, a graduate school he helped found in Budapest in 1991. An immigrant from Hungary who made his first billion dollars in England, Soros has given nearly $7 billion to support his network of foundations in more than 60 countries.

For more, visit the Open Society Institute.

5. William Barron Hilton

Heir and former CEO of Hilton Hotels
2004-08 Giving* $1,700 million

New to list Following in his father's footsteps, Hilton late last year announced his intention to leave 97% of his wealth to charity after his stakes in Hilton Hotels and Harrah's Entertainment were bought out by private equity groups for billions. Hilton's fortune will go to his family's foundation, the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, which works to alleviate the suffering of the world's most disadvantaged, with an emphasis on children and support for the work of Roman Catholic nuns. Grants go to causes such as stopping trachoma, the world's leading cause of preventable blindness in Africa; helping homeless families in the U.S.; and providing clean water in Mexico.

For more, visit the Hilton Foundation.

6. Walton Family

Family of Wal-Mart founder

2004-08 Giving* $1,380 million

The world's richest family is also one of the most united when it comes to philanthropy. The secretive Waltons commit the bulk of their gifts through the Walton Family Foundation, which supports a variety of charitable causes. Their areas of focus: K-12 education reform, quality-of-life initiatives in northwest Arkansas (home to Wal-Mart), economic development initiatives in the Mississippi Delta region of the U.S., and most recently, marine and fresh water fishing sustainability initiatives.

For more, visit the Walton Family Foundation.

7. Herbert & Marion Sandler

Golden West Financial co-founders
2004-08 Giving* $1,329 million

The Sandlers have given away more than $1 billion to the Sandler Foundation, which works to strengthen progressive causes, such as: exposing corruption and abuse of power; advocating for vulnerable and exploited people and environments; and advancing scientific research. Last year, for example, the foundation committed $10 million a year to launch and sustain ProPublica, an independent non-profit newsroom, under the leadership of former Wall Street Journal Managing Editor Paul Steiger, that produces investigative journalism in the public interest. The foundation also helped establish the liberal think-tank Center for American Progress with a $50 million gift in 2004.

For more, visit the Sandler Foundation.

8. Peter Peterson

Blackstone Group co-founder
2004-08 Giving* $1,168 million

New to list Using his proceeds from Blackstone Group's IPO, Peterson donated $1 billion to establish the Peter G. Peterson Foundation this year. The focus: to encourage greater fiscal responsibility in the U.S. The foundation has already purchased, promoted, and distributed the documentary I.O.U.S.A. to educate Americans about swelling national and personal debt. (The film is likened by many to Al Gore's documentary on global warming, An Inconvenient Truth.) The former Commerce Secretary's timing was uncanny as the financial crisis underscored his urgent message about excessive spending.

For more, visit the Peter G. Peterson Foundation.

9. Donald Bren

Real estate developer
2004-08 Giving* $908 million

Using property and wealth from his real estate business, Bren has given more than $1 billion, much of it to support education. Bren's commitment to schooling runs the gamut from students to principals to school districts to university scholars on his Irvine Ranch. This year Bren gave $8.5 million to THINK Together after-school programs, one of the largest private donations to after-school programs in California history. In 2007 gifts included $20 million for a new law school at University of California at Irvine and $3 million in annual grants, teacher recognition, and student scholarships. In 2006 he gave a $20 million gift to fund elementary fine arts, music, and science programs at schools in Irvine, Calif.

For more, visit the Donald Bren Foundation.

10. Michael Bloomberg

Bloomberg founder, NYC Mayor
2004-08 Giving* $903 million

This year, Bloomberg added a $250 million, four-year commitment to his Initiative to Reduce Tobacco Use, which was established in 2005 and has received more than $375 million from the New York City mayor. The new money is in partnership with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Late last year, Bloomberg's Family Foundation gave $9 million to promote global road safety, among others on the mayor's long list of charitable causes each year. Dedicated to making strides in education, he has also committed $100 million to alma mater Johns Hopkins University and purchased a townhouse on the Upper East Side for his future foundation. Bloomberg gave $10 million to the World Trade Center Foundation. Since 1997, Bloomberg has pledged more than $1.5 billion to charities and initiatives.

For more, visit the Bloomberg Philanthropies.