San Diego Unemployment Soars to 9.3%. County Loses 44,600 Jobs over Year
The San Diego County unemployment rate zoomed to 9.3% in March, up from a revised 8.9% in February, and far above the 5.2% of a year ago, according to the California Employment Development Department. The county lost 300 non-farm jobs …
Pension Pros Warn That Hocus-Pocus Could Be Used to Lower Annual Payment to System
Mayor Jerry Sanders has named three new members of the San Diego City Employees' Retirement System. Three veterans are stepping down. Accountant April Boling warned a meeting of the City of San Diego Retired Employees' Association April 14 that, "As …
Icahn, Other Big Shareholders Want Amylin's Chairman Cook to Step Down
Billionaire corporate raider Carl Icahn today (April 15) called for the chairman of biotech Amylin Pharmaceuticals to step down. Icahn owns about 9.43% of Amylin. Eastbourne Capital owns 12.5%. Icahn claims that Eastbourne and Howard (Ted) Greene, a co-founder of …
SDCERS Board Member Who Spoke Up, Pressed for Full Disclosure, Jettisoned by Mayor
William J. (Bill) Sheffler, the board member of the San Diego City Employees' Retirement System who pressed the staff and his colleagues for transparency and full disclosure, has been dropped from the board. He got a call from Jay Goldstone, …
Brandes Extremely Bullish. But Is That Comforting?
Brandes Investment Partners in its first quarter message to investors says it is "unflinchingly enthusiastic about the values we are finding" in the stock market. Today will be looked upon as one of history's "most timely and rewarding periods to …
Charlotte Russe Is One Bright Spot among Nation's Ailing Retailers
Stock of Charlotte Russe, which sells fashion merchandise to women in their teens and early 20s, is up 14.63% this morning (April 9) on the basis of better-than-expected results. The company, which has 487 stores, announced Wednesday that its adjusted …
City's Pension Fund Returns Compare Poorly with Those of Peers
The San Diego City Employees' Retirement System may get away with telling the Union-Tribune that it is doing relatively well, but the boasts are belied by the system's own numbers. SDCERS' report for the year ended December 31, 2008, shows …
Two Dozen Charged with Operating Largest Real Estate Scam in Local History
The U.S. attorney's office today (April 7) unsealed an indictment charging 24 individuals with running a mortgage fraud scheme involving 220 properties that collectively sold for $100 million. One of the lead defendants, Darnell Bell of Chula Vista, is currently …
Entrepreneur Who Bribed SPAWAR Employee Gets Two Years
Pamela Banks, who paid off a SPAWAR (Space and Naval Warfare Systems) employee or his spouse between $70,000 and $120,000 in return for contracts was sentenced today (April 6) to two years in prison. She paid a 30 percent kickback …
Pay Drops for 200 Chief Executives -- but Not the Two in San Diego
The Sunday (April 5) New York Times lists compensation for 200 chief executive officers in 2008. Their median pay went down 9 percent and average down 5 percent. This was decidedly not true for San Diego's two CEOs on the …
Recent Good News Really Isn't So Great, Say Two Pros
The stock market has moved up 20.35 percent in the last four weeks -- the biggest percentage gain since 1933. Bulls are exultant. But gains or losses that are the biggest since the Great Depression aren't so confidence-inspiring. Last fall, …
Overwhelming Majority of Lifeguards Want to Leave MEA, Join Teamsters
More than 70 percent of lifeguards have signed a petition to leave the Municipal Employees Union and affiliate with the Teamsters, according to Ed Harris, a lifeguard who is working on organization issues. The lifeguards went to the City's labor …
Total Bailout Bill to Date: $12.8 Trillion
The U.S. government and the central bank, the Federal Reserve, have spent, lent or committed $12.8 trillion to battling the current downturn, the longest recession since the 1930s, according to Bloomberg News. The total annual output of goods and services, …
Parent of Chicago Sun-Times Files for Bankruptcy
Sun-Times Media Group today (March 31) filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, and intends to continue operating. The paper has a weekday circulation of 300,000 and Sunday of 250,000. The company operates 59 papers. In December, Chicago's Tribune Co., which includes …
San Diego Real Estate Values Back to August 2002 Levels
San Diego metro real estate values have now plunged 40.8 percent from their peak in November of 2005, according to data from Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller, released this morning (March 31). Local prices are back to their August 2002 levels. Indices …
Arena Pharmaceuticals' Stock Plunges on Disappointing Results of Weight Loss Drug
Here's the skinny on biotech Arena Pharmaceuticals' experimental weight loss drug, Lorcaserin: Wall Street thinks late-stage study results don't measure up. The stock is down 27.56% today (March 30) to $3.26. Last week it had climbed from $4.20 to $4.50 …
Lead Indicators of San Diego Economy as Gloomy as Ever
Pundits are desperately looking for positive signs for the national economy, but San Diego can't offer any. The lead indicators of the San Diego economy, compiled by Alan Gin of the University of San Diego, continue the dismal drumbeat. The …
Shed a Tear: Top Hedge Fund Managers' Average Pay Dropped 48% Last Year -- to $464 Million
The people who run the 25 top-performing hedge funds had to live on a mere $464 million average income last year, according to Alpha Magazine. That was down from the average $892 million they made in 2007. Could you take …
Citigroup Employees in Company's Stock Plan Sue in District Court
Citigroup employees who participated in the ailing company's stock purchase plan filed a suit in district court yesterday (March 24), charging that the financial services firm concealed its exposure to toxic subprime-related and derivative products. The suit, filed by lead …
Two Nobel Economists Denounce Geithner Plan for Lining Wall Street Pockets
Nobel Prize-winning economists Joseph Stiglitz and Paul Krugman today (March 24) lambasted the plan by Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner to take more than $1 trillion of smelly assets off banks' books. The plan would use massive amounts of taxpayer funds …