It's time to jettison "America's Finest City" for a new moniker: "The Capital of Cognitive Dissonance." What, you ask, is cognitive dissonance? To a psychologist, it's the acute discomfort you feel when there is a …

Do you wonder why Mayor Jerry Sanders wants to spend millions of dollars annually to hire a high-priced monitor to oversee city finances? Or why he wants to study setting up a joint city/county authority …

From bubble bailout to debt deflation? That would be the most dangerous fallout from the bursting real estate bubble. The doomsday scenario isn't likely, but San Diegans must face grim facts: the steady rise in …

'Mother, this town is so corrupt/ May I probe why it rots?"/ "Yes, my darling daughter/ But don't connect the dots." The City of San Diego has paid more than $30 million to consultants like …

The San Diego Reader has located Chuck Quackenbush, the first California politician/bureaucrat to self-destruct in this century. Present and former San Diegans were involved in his plunge from grace. Quackenbush is the former insurance commissioner …

Beginning in 1927, the El Cortez Hotel was the most beautiful building in downtown San Diego as well as the watering hole of the Beautiful People. But it deteriorated and in 1978 was sold to …

Imperiously, Arthur Levitt Jr. says that San Diego suffers from a "prevailing culture of political expedience" and employs "artful manipulation" in its financial reports. Levitt should know. The $20.3 million report that his company, Kroll …

Will San Diego's vaunted industrial clusters bomb out? Hardly. But one biotech center, Scripps Research Institute, is already setting up a branch in Florida, and another, Burnham Institute for Medical Research, is expected to announce …

On March 28, 2006, Diann Shipione, the one who blew the whistle on San Diego's pension mendacity, received a letter from the City of San Diego's Audit Committee, composed of forensic accountants Kroll, Inc., and …

Outside lawyers and consultants hired by City departments are supposed to file Statements of Economic Interests listing their income and gifts from city sources, as well as stock, bond, and local real estate holdings that …

For most people, charity begins at home. For William Robert Bradley, a cofounder of Metabolife International and onetime tow-truck operator, charity begins in the tax and secrecy haven Switzerland and winds through another hot-money haven, …

The federal Securities and Exchange Commission was established in 1934 with the mission to protect the public from Wall Street. Today, it's the other way around, say critics. Now there may be a national debate …

In attempting to get records of City Attorney Mike Aguirre's 1989 divorce unsealed, the Union-Tribune has proved definitively that it doesn't read its own newspaper. On a deeper level, the missteps the newspaper has made …

You'd love to place a bet on a horse after the race is over and collect your winnings without getting caught and fitted for cement boots. Don't laugh: almost daily we're finding out that top …

San Diego needs Napoleon III. To be sure, he may have been a bastard. Literally and figuratively. Because of his mother's fondness for recreational adultery, it is not clear that he was, as claimed, the …

Most companies live by the old axiom: "Don't put all your eggs in one basket." It's the rationale for diversification -- entering disparate businesses in an effort to spread risk. But diversification carries risk too. …

'The Parsky team" is now famous -- as well as infamous -- in Rancho Santa Fe. There is another "Parsky team" in the secrecy- shrouded Caribbean tax haven of the Cayman Islands, but that's barely …

The government's Enron prosecutors exulted last month that the guilty verdicts prove "no matter how rich and powerful you are, you have to play by the rules." Some TV talking heads are rejoicing that corporate …

At Times It Was Like Shared Music, at Times Like a Skin Graft or Root Canal — Stephen Dobyns I do at a coffin sale — Dorothy Stewart A Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream Cake …

On September 15, 1962, Ellen and I got married. She was 22 and I was 26. Standing at the altar, I was thrilled as she walked up the aisle with her father to the strains …

San Diego's old financial scandals never seem to die. Decades after the principals have gone to the hoosegow and been released, the muck keeps rising to the surface. An example is Whispering Palms, a residential …

El Centro and Yuma are cooling off. No, not the blistering summer heat. That hasn't changed. The economies of those two small cities between San Diego and Phoenix have been surging the past several years, …

Las Vegas is trying to woo the Chargers. Sports reporters say there could be a roadblock: major professional sports leagues claim they are reluctant to see teams relocate to Sin City. The gambling industry might …

'We are losing the war," lamented Kris Michell, an aide to Mayor Sanders, Saturday morning, April 22, at Ortega's restaurant in Ocean Beach. That's according to my source -- to be identified in this column …

Rejoice, fans. The Padres are one dollar richer. The team's long-running malicious-prosecution suit against former councilmember Bruce Henderson was settled last month for a buck. Henderson pays that sum to the Padres. But it's dwarfed …

Jerry Sanders, the ex-police chief who became mayor, is already playing good cop/bad cop. He's the good cop, presenting a "feel good" budget that doesn't hurt anybody or anybody's pocketbook but is based on a …

Flexing its muscles, working in secret, and stifling dissent, San Diego in the early to mid-1990s tried to assert water independence. It got hosed. The San Diego County Water Authority wound up paying 50 percent …

The City coughs up more than $15 million annually to support a ballpark that was supposed to pay for itself. That expense would be $3 million to $5 million a year less if city hall …

'If Arthur Levitt approaches his job in San Diego as he did his position at the Securities and Exchange Commission, the people of San Diego will be left with a pile of adoring press clips, …

Wall Street seems to be saying "Lights out!" to daily newspaper chains, but David Copley -- although almost certainly not the billionaire he is touted to be -- can still pay his utility bill. Stocks …

See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil. According to a poll taken three months ago, 63.4 percent of city residents believe thatpolitics and government are no more corrupt here than in any other …

In the not-so-divine comedy of investing, short sellers (often simply called "shorts") usually get the short end of the shtick. Whether they are right or wrong, they are reviled because they bet stocks will go …

What's the difference between a 95-pound ballerina and a 350-pound offensive lineman? A public subsidy to the ballerina can pay for itself, as incoming tourist dollars more than offset the cost of the handout. That …

While working 30 years for the City's Water Department, Yvonne Paczulla wrote an in-house column with news of births, marriages, and other domestic matters. She called it Under Water. She didn't realize how prescient she …

'Who is Woody Norris? Quite simply, Woody Norris is a visionary, a futurist." Those are the opening words of the website www.woodynorris.com. It is exaltation and exultation, paean and panegyric -- all for Elwood (Woody) …

If you see some silk-suited slicker snooping around your favorite taco shop, he's probably from Wall Street. The investment community has gone gaga over so-called fast-casual Mexican restaurants, and two San Diego-based public companies, Jack …

In his 56 years, James T. Waring has worn many hats: real estate developer, attorney, high-tech investor, environmentalist, and close advisor to a Las Vegas mobster's wealthy daughter. Waring was also involved with the late …

In the Old West, nimble-fingered gamblers -- often called bunco steerers -- would ride into town and set up rigged games of chance. After fleecing locals, they would vamoose, often pursued by a posse swinging …

The public thinks of pro sports as a game -- an athletic contest. The billionaire pro sports owners consider it a game too -- a high-stakes poker game, with the mainstream media helping the team …

San Diego's saplings creaked and twisted in some howling winds last year. These sons of sturdy patriarchs may not have balmy weather this year, either. Last year, Paul Jacobs took control of a magnificent fief: …

Ethicists often examine the "do" contract -- "you do me and I'll do you." The advertising salesman sells an ad to a company, and lo and behold, the paper's business page shortly carries a puff …

In corporate slang, the garment industry is lovingly called "the rag trade." But in recent years, the rag trade has been ragged: people at all income levels haven't been spending as much of their disposable …

Father Joe Carroll and his charity venture, St. Vincent de Paul Village, have deservedly good names. But if the promotion-minded Father Joe strays too far, he risks besmirching those reputations. It could happen in North …

Centre City Development Corporation's board members -- all connected with the real estate industry in their professional lives -- are constantly running into potential conflicts of interest. But there is a broader issue: this developer-friendly …

San Diego wheeler-dealers dumping their stocks just can't get away -- whether to the Turks and Caicos Islands, a Caribbean tax haven, or to Wilmington, Delaware, a corporate "lax" haven. Padres majority owner John Moores, …

Pointing to his hometown's dismal experience, San Diegan Carl DeMaio is urging members of Congress to pass legislation imposing federal standards on government pension programs. Others hoot at such a notion: they note that federal …

'I'm not going to get into a pissing contest with Nancy Graham," barks Joel Daves, who followed her as mayor of West Palm Beach, Florida. Good advice. Graham, who was the first chief executive after …

In August of last year, San Diego stock swindler Ronald D. Brouillette Jr. -- trying to get sprung from jail -- told a judge that he had a bundle of bucks stashed offshore. It wasn't …

The Union-Tribune has two problems with its circulation: quantity and quality. The numbers are sinking, but they're also artificially bloated, according to two Wall Street media analysts. The analysts rate 50 major metropolitan newspapers for …

The "M.D." in Harry E. Gruber, M.D., should stand for Mach Dollar. In the past, he has amassed dollars at Mach speed as companies he helped found went public and then were sold quickly for …