Posts Tagged: entertainment

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24
Aug 10

Home Sales Plunge 27 pct. To Lowest in 15 Years

Previously occupied home sales sink 27 pct. to lowest level since 1995 as economy weakens…………………………

…Sales of previously occupied homes in the United States fell 27 percent in July, the weakest showing in 15 years, the National Association of Realtors said Tuesday. It was the largest monthly drop in the four decades that records have been kept.

Potential buyers are hesitating because they think home prices still have further to fall. Potential sellers - those with the stomach to put their homes on the market at all, anyway - are reluctant to lower their prices.

“It really is a self-fulfilling prophecy,” said Aaron Zapata, a real estate agent in Brea, Calif. “If all buyers perceive that home prices are coming down, then they will stop making offers - and home prices will come down.”

While the standoff plays out, home sales are plummeting.

Sharp declines were recorded in each of the four regions the group tracks. Yet the pain is being felt unevenly from state to state and city to city. Some markets are rebounding even as others languish.

Sellers in sluggish markets like Las Vegas and Chicago can…

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Home Sales Plunge 27 pct. To Lowest in 15 Years

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21
Aug 10

Best Buy sends cease-and-desist for God Squad Beetle [Video]

Proving that even the Holy Father is not above trademark law in America, Best Buy’s legal department has contacted a priest over copyright infringement.

…Best Buy’s Geek Squad is a well known, highly advertised division of the electronics retailer that specializes in troubling issues with computers and other electronics devices. God Squad, on the other hand, is the name for a Catholic priest’s outreach efforts that just so happens to share a very similar logo design, and even the same Volkswagen Beetle.Unfortunately for the priest, Reverend Luke Strand, Best Buy’s trademark attorney’s realize that they must pursue the God Squad as fervently as any other individual or organization that may infringe on purpose or by accident on key trademarked names or logos. U.S. trademark law states that if a company knowingly allows others to violate their trademark filings, over time they forfeit the right to lay claim to their trademarks.As Fox 11 WJUK-TV points out, Rev. Luke Strand’s vehicle and logo use were a dead ringer for the Best Buy troubleshooting squad, and whether or not Best Buy truly wanted to pursue the holy man, they had no choice. (More after video)Best…

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Best Buy sends cease-and-desist for God Squad Beetle [Video]

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20
Aug 10

A Low Score for Credit Bureaus

How many of us have fought with Equifax, Experian or TransUnion to get errors removed from our credit reports? For five years running, my own report has included an account with American Express I’ve never had, which, of course, I keep telling the credit bureaus, to no avail.

…(Aug. 18) — When President Barack Obama signed the financial reform bill into law in July, it definitely seemed like a sign of real change. But, as it stands now, it just looks like more of the same.We all want to see Wall Street excesses reined in and a future financial collapse avoided, but, as it turns out, the new reforms do next to nothing to address one of the biggest sources of frustration and hassles for everyday consumers: the credit bureaus.ANOTHER VIEW The credit bureau industry takes accuracy seriously — preventing, finding and fixing mistakes quickly, says Norm Magnuson of the Consumer Data Industry Association.How many of us have fought with Equifax, Experian or TransUnion to get errors removed from our credit reports? For five years running, my own report has included an account with American Express I’ve never had, which, of course, I keep telling the credit bureaus, to no avail.How many of us continue to see our current status tarnished by a late payment from before Jesus was a baby? Or…

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A Low Score for Credit Bureaus

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19
Aug 10

N.J. is the first state ever charged with securities fraud

The U.S.

…TRENTON The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission charged the state of New Jersey with securities fraud for failing to tell bond investors it was underfunding its pension funds, the commission said today.

New Jersey and the SEC immediately settled the charges without fines or penalties.

The state failed to include information about benefits, including a 9 percent increase granted in 2001, in information provided to investors who bought $26 billion in bonds, the state attorney general’s office said. After the inquiry began in 2007, the state updated its disclosure practices, the attorney general’s office said.

New Jersey became the first state ever charged with securities fraud, the SEC said.

“Issuers of municipal bonds must be held accountable when they seek to borrow the public’s money using offering documents containing false and misleading information,” Elaine Greenberg, chief of the commission’s Municipal Securities and Public Pensions Unit said in a statement. “New Jersey hid its financial…

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N.J. is the first state ever charged with securities fraud

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13
Aug 10

Is Old Spice The Social Media Case Study Of The Year? Video

This was made by Weiden & Kennedy. They are the creative agency that produced the recent Old Spice campaign. They also produce all of Nike’s spots, which I think it is the greatest ad campaign in the world.

…The Recent Old Spice Campaign Was Genius!
This was made by Weiden & Kennedy. They are the creative agency that produced the recent Old Spice campaign. They also produce all of Nike’s spots, which I think it is the greatest ad campaign in the world. Check out this informative video about the amazing success of the recent Old Spice campaign.

I found this video on my friends twitter page: http://twitter.com/madcao…

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Is Old Spice The Social Media Case Study Of The Year? Video

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13
Aug 10

Wall Street bonuses going up

Wall Street bonuses are likely headed up this year.

…on Thursday, August 12, 2010 2:01 PMWall Street bonuses are likely headed up this year. Are you at all surprised?It’s hard to imagine any other industry that could freely hand out whopper bonuses despite being under such scrutiny by regulators and the public. And yet it happens over and over again on Wall Street. Find a better broker and trade online One study says bonuses at financial firms will be up from last year, but still won’t reach the record amounts paid out in 2007, according to Reuters. The average compensation at banks is headed up for the second straight year as well.So apparently no one’s paying much attention to Kenneth Feinberg, the U.S. pay czar who just said banks had made “ill-advised” executive payments in recent years. Post continues after video:…

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Wall Street bonuses going up

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12
Aug 10

GM CEO Whitacre says he’s stepping down Sept. 1

DETROIT General Motors Co.

…T Inc., often said in a folksy Texas drawl that he knew little about cars. But he shook up the company with a number of managerial changes, including luring Chief Financial Officer Chris Liddell from Microsoft Corp. He also combined sales and marketing responsibilities and consolidated control of GM’s core North American market under one executive.Whitacre said the board was aware of his plans the day he accepted the CEO job, and he predicted a smooth transition.”I believe we’ve accomplished what we set out to do,” Whitacre said. GM reported its second straight quarterly profit on Thursday.A U.S. Treasury spokesman said Whitacre’s decision to step down wasn’t influenced by the government, which owns 61 percent of GM. The department is grateful for Whitacre’s leadership and considers Akerson “proven and well-respected,” the spokesman said. The Treasury Department appointed Akerson to GM’s board following GM’s emergence from bankruptcy protection.Steven Rattner, the former head of the Obama administration’s…

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GM CEO Whitacre says he’s stepping down Sept. 1

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12
Aug 10

Rep. Maxine Waters Faces Ethics Trial

As chairman and chief executive of OneUnited Bank, Kevin L. Cohee sought to build a company that was about more than just money. He promoted the bank, now at the center of a House ethics case against Rep.

…Customers ought to focus on “real connections, real relationships,” Cohee urges in a recording on the bank’s Web site. Avoid “people who want to be with you based on the things that you have.”

“Do you really need a Mercedes-Benz?” he asks. “Houses don’t make you, cars don’t make you.”

Cohee, 52, took a somewhat different view in his own life. His bank bought or leased luxury real estate he used and, until federal regulators complained in 2008, paid for his Porsche. Cohee’s East Coast spread was an $880,000 condominium on Miami Beach’s Ocean Drive, and out west the bank leased a $26,500-a-month mansion for him on Palisades Beach Road in Santa Monica, Calif., owned by Bruce Springsteen’s drummer, Max Weinberg.

A battle of lawsuits over the house — Cohee complained that he had to ship in “a huge bar, a desk, a chandelier,” and Weinberg accused him of installing secret surveillance cameras in the master bedroom — led Cohee and his wife, through a corporation they formed, to buy the house for $6.4 million…

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Rep. Maxine Waters Faces Ethics Trial

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11
Aug 10

Yogurt company is fastest growing food franchise in US

Menchie’s Yogurt, Inc. is the fastest-growing growing franchise in the food industry.

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Yogurt company is fastest growing food franchise in US

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9
Aug 10

Job losses: Charting the "Great Recession" | OregonLive.com

Chart shows just how far the current economic downturn diverges from previous recessions, at least in terms of job losses.

…Blogster Bill McBride caused spilled coffee and corn flakes far beyond his California home Friday when he posted this graph. It’s a depiction of how far the current economic downturn diverges from previous recessions, at least in terms of job losses. McBride, a retired corporate executive, writes a blog called Calculated Risk. He used U.S. government data to assemble the graph, which shows job losses in percentage terms. The chart tracks the percent job losses over time, relative to peak employment. “For the current employment recession,” McBride wrote, “employment peaked in December 2007, and this recession is by far the worst recession since World War II in percentage terms.” The sinking red line, and its persistence, jangled nerves of Calculated Risk followers including Bill Valentine, an investment advisor in Bend. Valentine was up early Friday as usual to watch the markets, and to get national unemployment figures released that day. To Valentine, the graph illustrates the enormity of what economists…

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Job losses: Charting the "Great Recession" | OregonLive.com

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