Saturday, May 19, 2012 – 11:00 a.m.
USPS delivery of campaign mail improves
Something must have happened at the USPS earlier this week.
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Archive for the ‘ Investments ’ Category
Friday, May 18, 2012 – 07:30 a.m.
Shares for the long awaited initial public offering of the social networking site Facebook were priced at $38 per share to investors able to subscribe to the intial shares.
The shares have yet to trade on the Nasdaq market this morning.
May 8th, 2012, 8:22 pm
Posted by Pat Brennan, science, environment editor
The San Onofre nuclear plant. Register photo by Ana Venegas.
Operators of the troubled San Onofre nuclear plant now say more than 1,300 steam generator tubes have been plugged in the plant’s two idled reactor units.
Tuesday, May 8, 2012 – 08:00 a.m.
San Bernardino County, Calif. – San Bernardino County’s budget woes are likely to worsen in the coming fiscal year as employee pension fund returns fail to not only deliver relief, but instead bring more pain.
The San Bernardino County Employees Retirement Association (SBCERA) has, to date, only generated a 0.6% return for its 2011-2012 fiscal year.
Will Evans, California Watch
Sunday, May 6, 2012
Leading financial firms donated $1.8 million to successful school bond measures in California over the past five years, and in almost every instance, school district officials hired those same underwriters to sell the bonds for a profit, a California Watch review has found.
The practice is especially pronounced in California, where underwriters gave 155 political contributions since 2007 to successful bond campaigns for school construction and repairs. One major underwriter, Piper Jaffray, has said it gets more requests for campaign contributions in California than in any other state where it does business.
Filed under: Business, Campaigns, Elections, Finance, In the News, Investments, Politics, State of California
By Jessica Guynn
May 3, 2012, 6:07 p.m.
California has a friend about to write a hefty personal check that could help ease the state budget crunch.
Mark Zuckerberg, the 27-year-old founder and chief executive of Facebook whose initial public stock offering in two weeks could value the company at $96 billion, will cut in the state for an estimated $189 million in cash, according to calculations from PrivCo, which researches private companies.
By E. Scott Reckard
April 27, 2012, 9:35 p.m.
Palm Desert National Bank was seized by regulators Friday and sold to Pacific Premier Bank of Costa Mesa, which promised to be open for business as usual Monday.
By Marc Lifsher
April 23, 2012, 1:10 p.m.
SACRAMENTO — Federal securities regulators sued a former chief executive and a former director of the country’s largest public pension fund, accusing them of scheming to defraud an investment firm of more than $20 million in fees.
The Securities and Exchange Commission filed the lawsuit Monday against the former CEO, Federico Buenrostro Jr., and the former CalPERS board member, Alfred J.R. Villalobos, alleging that they fabricated documents provided to Apollo Global Management in New York.
By Andrew Edwards
Created: 04/18/2012 07:10:55 PM PDT
CVB Financial, the Ontario-based parent of Citizens Business Bank, reported a $22.3 million profit for the first quarter of 2012.
Thursday, April 12, 2012 – 09:30 a.m.
As San Bernardino County continues to grapple with its ongoing budget woes and confrontations with employee unions continue to escalate, more bad news is on the horizon.
Like most public pension systems, the county’s pension fund hasn’t been able to maintain it’s investment return benchmark.
A benchmark necessary to guarantee the funds actuarial soundness.
By Dale Kasler
dkasler@sacbee.com
Published: Wednesday, Apr. 11, 2012 – 12:00 am | Page 6B
CalPERS, still retooling its massive portfolio, is trying to sell off $1.5 billion in private equity investments.
The big pension fund has hired investment banker UBS to sell the investments. Marketing efforts should begin as early as this week, said a source familiar with CalPERS’ plans but not authorized to discuss the matter.
Filed under: Business, CalPERS, Finance, In the News, Investments, Pension Funds, Real Estate, State of California
By Jon Ortiz
jortiz@sacbee.com
Published: Wednesday, Apr. 11, 2012 – 12:00 am | Page 6B
CalSTRS’ investments earned big profits last year, but the gap between its assets and its obligations to pensioners still widened, according to figures its board will discuss later this week.
Tuesday, April 10, 2012 – 09:55 a.m.
It was a baseless and blind run-up.
The stock market that is.
By Ed Mendel
Thursday, March 29, 2012
After a decade of similar below-target investment earnings, punctuated by huge losses during the stock market crash in 2008, the nation’s two largest public pension funds are looking at different futures.
The California Public Employees Retirement System, putting a new focus on risk, worries about another recession dropping pension funding levels to 40 percent or below, a “warning track” zone that could make it difficult to get back to full funding in the future.
Filed under: Budget, CalSTRS, Economy, Education, Finance, In the News, Investments, Pension Funds, Pensions, State of California
Andrew Edwards
Posted: 03/23/2012 07:03:45 PM PDT
CVB Financial Corp., the Ontario-based parent company of Citizens Business Bank, announced its addition to the S&P SmallCap 600 after the close of trading on Monday.
Investors purchase undervalued abandoned housing subdivisions
March 22, 2012 9:09 AM
Tomoya Shimura, Staff Writer
A private investor who recently bought 233 abandoned housing lots in four Victor Valley subdivisions plans to sit on them until the housing market picks up, according to a broker involved in the deal.
Filed under: Business, Cities, Economy, Finance, Hesperia, In the News, Investments, Real Estate, Victorville
By Ed Mendel
Monday, March 19, 2012
Nearly all of the nation’s larger public pension funds, 99 percent, have better investment earnings than CalPERS since the economy began a steep drop five years ago, a Wilshire consultant report said last week.
Now the nation’s largest public pension fund, a former investment leader said to have had a “herding effect” on other pension funds in one academic study, is several years into an attempted overhaul.
Agency investigates relationship between broker, Inland Energy VP
March 18, 2012 10:17 AM
Brooke Edwards Staggs
Editor’s Note:
This is part one in a two-part series looking at the SEC’s investigation into the city of Victorville. See Monday’s Daily Press for part two, looking at whether bond funds were used to make campaign contributions.
VICTORVILLE • As part of its two-year probe into Victorville, the Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating whether there were hidden financial ties between the man who led the charge on the city’s largest energy venture and the man who’s brokered more than $400 million in taxpayer-supported debt on behalf of the city.
Wall Street was abuzz Wednesday after a high-ranking Goldman Sachs executive resigned and authored a scathing essay in the New York Times about how the investment bank had lost its moral backbone. Here is a look at some criticisms hurled at Goldman in recent years and some of the harsh ways the investment bank has described its own investors.
By Sarah Halzack, Published: March 14
Goldman Sachs on Wednesday rebuffed claims made by a former company executive that the investment bank had morphed into a “toxic and destructive” environment where corporate greed trumped client interests.
In an essay published in the New York Times, Greg Smith, a Goldman executive director, bashed the Wall Street firm, including chief executive Lloyd Blankfein and president Gary D. Cohn, for allowing the company to lose its “moral fiber.”
Tuesday, February 28, 2012 – 09:30 a.m.
A few observations on the state of economic affairs.
So home prices continued falling in January.
Down another 1.1%. A number worse than forecast.
Filed under: Budget, Business, Economy, Finance, Investments, Politics, U.S. Department of Labor, U.S. Government
Another city official called to testify
February 21, 2012 1:13 PM
ShareThis| Print Story | E-Mail Story
Brooke Edwards Staggs, City Editor
VICTORVILLE • The Securities and Exchange Commission is subpoenaing more information from Victorville and has interviewed another city official as part of its two-year investigation into how bond money was spent.
Toni Momberger, Staff Writer
Posted: 02/17/2012 03:10:02 PM PST
Document: Complaint for Violations of the Federal Securities Laws
On Oct. 18 The Securities and Exchange Commission filed a complaint with the U.S. District Court against Charles Copeland and his businesses alleging several counts of fraud and breach of fiduciary duty.
By Dale Kasler
dkasler@sacbee.com
Published: Wednesday, Feb. 15, 2012 – 12:00 am | Page 6B
CalPERS is going to look again at adjusting its investment forecast, a move that could increase taxpayer contributions while ramping up the political heat on public pension funds in California.
Filed under: Budget, CalPERS, Cities, Counties, Finance, In the News, Investments, Pension Funds, State of California
Published: Wednesday, Feb. 15, 2012 – 12:00 am | Page 4A
Standard & Poor’s improved California’s bond outlook from stable to positive Tuesday, a signal that the deficit-ridden state could be in line for a ratings bump.
The state’s A-minus rating is S&P’s lowest among U.S. states.
February 3rd, 2012, 5:00 am
Posted by Tony Saavedra, Register investigative reporter
The Orange County Employee’s Retirement System ended 2011 with an investment return of 0.74 percent — that’s 7 percent less than projected.
But OCERS officials, though concerned, say it is too early to panic. For one thing, says CEO Steve Delaney, the 20-year average is 7.9 percent on investments, right where the system needs to be.
By Dale Kasler
dkasler@sacbee.com
Published: Friday, Feb. 3, 2012 – 12:00 am | Page 6B
By lowering its investment forecast by another quarter point, CalSTRS made a bow toward economic reality – but also may have complicated efforts to shore up its finances.
The teachers’ retirement board agreed Thursday to reduce CalSTRS’ official investment forecast to 7.5 percent, down from 7.75 percent. It was the second cut in 14 months, after the $144 billion fund left the forecast untouched for 15 years.
In a volatile investment climate, following a year in which CalSTRS’ portfolio earned just 2.3 percent, board members took their consultants’ advice and went with the lower number.
“I think it’s best that we be conservative,” said Terry McGuire, representing board member and state Controller John Chiang.
The board of the California State Teachers’ Retirement System voted 9-1 to reduce the forecast. The lone dissent came from Pedro Reyes of the Department of Finance. The higher forecast “is not unreasonable,” he argued. “Let’s stay where we are right now, (and) visit this in another year.”
By cutting investment projections, the board instantly ballooned CalSTRS’ funding gap – the estimated shortfall of assets available to meet the pension fund’s long-term needs. The gap will grow by nearly $6 billion, or roughly 10 percent.
That could create problems in the Legislature, which must OK changes in how CalSTRS is funded.
CalSTRS gets around $5.6 billion a year from the state, school districts and teachers. The pension fund had already calculated that it needed another $4 billion a year to eventually get healthy. With the lower investment forecast, those needs grow by another $500 million a year.
While CalSTRS is pushing for more money, many Republicans want to erase funding shortfalls for public pensions by reducing benefits. Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown wants to give newly hired employees a combination traditional pension and a 401(k)-style program.
Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2012/02/03/4235828/calstrs-gap-rises-as-return-forecast.html#mi_rss=Business#storylink=cpy
Filed under: Budget, CalSTRS, Economy, Finance, In the News, Investments, Pension Funds, Pensions, State of California
By Dale Kasler
dkasler@sacbee.com
Published: Wednesday, Feb. 1, 2012 – 12:00 am | Page 6B
CalSTRS is thinking of cutting its investment forecast for the second time in barely a year, a move that acknowledges the increased financial strain on the pension fund.
The teachers’ retirement board on Thursday will consider a recommendation from its actuarial consultant to cut the forecast by a quarter point, to 7.5 percent.
Filed under: Budget, CalSTRS, Economy, Education, Finance, In the News, Investments, Pension Funds, Pensions, State of California
Monday, January 30, 2012
By Ed Mendel
The nation’s two largest public pension funds last week reported slim annual investment earnings, CalPERS 1.1 percent and CalSTRS 2.3 percent, as experts continue to say hitting their long-term earnings target, 7.75 percent, will be difficult.
While CalPERS reported weak earnings in 2011, a prominent private-sector investment manager, Robert Arnott of Research Affiliates, told the board last week he thinks the most they can expect from stocks and bonds next decade is 4 percent.
Filed under: Budget, CalPERS, CalSTRS, Cities, Counties, Economy, Finance, In the News, Investments, Local Government, Pension Funds, Pensions, State of California
By Jim Steinberg Staff Writer
Posted: 01/24/2012 08:43:11 PM PST
The Fontana and Rialto city councils scrambled on Tuesday night to approve measures paving the way for a Feb. 1 deadline for the dissolution of their redevelopment agencies.
Meanwhile, because of the complexity of what needs to be accomplished in a short time frame, two bond-rating agencies have taken negative actions toward billions of dollars in California bonds secured by redevelopment tax increment revenue.
Filed under: Budget, Business, Cities, Finance, Fontana, In the News, Investments, Local Government, Redevelopment, Rialto, State of California
It falls short of the 7.75% average that actuaries say CalPERS needs to meet obligations. Calendar-year results are just indicators — the public pension fund’s fiscal year ends in June.
By Marc Lifsher, Los Angeles Times
January 24, 2012
Reporting from Sacramento— The nation’s largest public pension fund, the California Public Employees’ Retirement System, posted a 1.1% return on its investment portfolio in 2011, Chief Investment Officer Joseph Dear told his board.
The 2011 performance was well below the estimated average annual return of 7.75% that the fund’s actuaries say is needed to meet current and future obligations to its members.
Filed under: Budget, CalPERS, Cities, Counties, Economy, Finance, In the News, Investments, Local Government, Pension Funds, State of California
January 19, 2012 12:43 PM
Brooke Edwards Staggs, City Editor
VICTORVILLE • A recent default on debt payments triggered one of the top credit rating agencies to downgrade $51 million in Southern California Logistics Airport Authority bonds another two notches, with Moody’s Investor Services predicting the airport won’t catch up on debt payments until 2029.
Bank company rakes in $81.7M
Andrew Edwards, Staff Writer
Posted: 01/19/2012 09:00:39 PM PST
ONTARIO – CVB Financial, parent company of Citizens Business Bank, earned its largest ever reported profit in 2011 – $81.7 million.
The amount signifies an increase from the $62.9 million profit earned in 2010.
Published: Tuesday, 17 Jan 2012 | 7:06 AM ET
By: Reuters
Rating agency Fitch said on Tuesday that Greece would default on its debt, although it said that such a default was likely to take place in an orderly manner.
January 17, 2012 – 6:38 p.m.
By David Oakley
Portugal is trading in default territory after investors offloaded the country’s bonds this week amid rising fears of contagion. Worries are mounting that the private sector and Greece will fail to agree a restructuring package for Athens’ debt.
Published: Tuesday, 17 Jan 2012 | 1:05 PM ET
By: AP
The largest banks must show how they would break up their assets if they were in danger of failing, under a rule approved Tuesday.
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp voted to require banks with $50 billion or more in assets to submit so-called living wills. Seven banks with more than $250 billion in assets will have to show their plans by July. The other 30 affected by the rule have until 2013.
By Ed Mendel
Monday,January 16, 2012
Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign is putting the spotlight on private equity, which public pension funds such as CalPERS and CalSTRS helped flourish and now need for better-than-average earnings.
Romney became wealthy while leading Bain Capital, a private equity firm he said created “tens of thousands of jobs” by buying and then selling troubled or stagnant companies after making them efficient, better managed and able to grow and prosper.
Filed under: Business, CalPERS, CalSTRS, In the News, Investments, Pension Funds, Politics, State of California
Signs point to Facebook going public in 2012. If Mark Zuckerberg’s social network has a successful IPO, it could mean hundreds of millions of dollars in taxes get pumped into California’s coffers. (David Paul Morris, Bloomberg / September 22, 2011)
By Anthony York, Los Angeles Times
January 15, 2012, 9:42 p.m.
Reporting from Sacramento— The future of California’s public schools, universities and health programs could be linked partly to the fictional town of FarmVille.
The popular virtual world is the creation of Zynga, a San Francisco online game company that raised $1 billion in an initial public stock offering last year. Because California receives much of its income from capital gains taxes, such moves by businesses like Zynga can mean hundreds of millions of dollars for state coffers.
By Keith Jenkins and Anchalee Worrachate – Jan 3, 2012 2:22 AM PT
Governments of the world’s leading economies have more than $7.6 trillion of debt maturing this year, with most facing a rise in borrowing costs.
Led by Japan’s $3 trillion and the U.S.’s $2.8 trillion, the amount coming due for the Group of Seven nations and Brazil, Russia, India and China is up from $7.4 trillion at this time last year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Ten-year bond yields will be higher by year-end for at least seven of the countries, forecasts show.
Filed under: Budget, Business, Economy, Finance, In the News, Investments, Politics, U.S. Government
Bank of America is demanding that some small-business customers pay off their credit line balances all at once instead of making monthly payments.
By E. Scott Reckard, Los Angeles Times
January 3, 2012
Bank of America Corp., under pressure to raise capital and cut risks, is severing lines of credit to some small-business owners who have used them to stay afloat.
Andrew Edwards, Staff Writer
Posted: 01/01/2012 06:03:33 AM PST
ONTARIO – CVB Financial Corp., the parent company of Citizens Business Bank, ended 2011 on positive notes, appearing to have recovered from much of the tumult that hit the Inland Empire’s largest locally based financial institution the previous year.
Southern California Logistics Airport seen in Victorville Thursday, July 28, 2005./STAFF PHOTO
A technical payment mistake hits the city and the Southern California Logistics Airport
BY KIMBERLY PIERCEALL
STAFF WRITER
kpierceall@pe.com
Published: 28 December 2011 08:29 PM
Victorville has defaulted on two of several municipal bonds used to make improvements to the Southern California Logistics Airport, according to letters from the Bank of New York Mellon.
Filed under: Business, Cities, Economy, Finance, In the News, Investments, Local Government, Victorville
December 27, 2011 6:15 PM
Brooke Edwards Staggs, City Editor
VICTORVILLE • The city has defaulted on two bonds after trying to use restricted funds for a $535,000 payment due Dec. 1, according to a notice from the Bank of New York Mellon.
As a result, if a majority of bondholders agree, the bank notice states they could demand full and immediate payment of the outstanding balance on $173 million in bonds taken out in 2007 and 2008 for improvements at Southern California Logistics Airport.
By Ed Mendel
Monday, December 19, 2011
Over the last 10 years CalPERS investment earnings are below the median among institutional investors. Are money managers being paid for poor performance?
In a feisty farewell last week, an outgoing CalPERS board member, Lou Moret, called attention to the below-median earnings as Wilshire consultants delivered a quarterly earnings report.
Daniel Borenstein
By Daniel Borenstein
Staff columnist
California taxpayers should ask themselves, in the words of Clint Eastwood’s famous movie character, “Do I feel lucky?”
We’re not staring down the barrel of “Dirty Harry” Callahan’s gun wondering whether there’s a bullet in the chamber. Instead, we’re gambling our financial future on whether public pension fund investments will surpass reasonable expectations.
Filed under: Budget, Economy, Finance, In the News, Investments, Pension Funds, Pensions, Politics, State of California, Unions
By David Glovin and Joshua Gallu
December 16, 2011 9:58 AM PT
Daniel Mudd, the former chief executive officer of Fannie Mae, and Richard Syron, ex-CEO of Freddie Mac, were sued by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for understating by hundreds of billions of dollars the subprime loans held by the firms.
The State Worker
Chronicling civil-service life for California state workers
December 13, 2011
California’s three largest pension systems have promised $500 billion beyond their current ability to make those payments to retirees, according to a study released to today by Stanford University Professor and former Democratic Assemblyman Joe Nation and a student researcher.
The Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research issued the report, documenting what it claims is the state’s deepening pension crisis. California Common Sense, an organization dedicated to engaging the public in “data-driven discourse” is also behind the report.
State Treasurer Bill Lockyer
PolitiCal
On politics in the Golden State
December 13, 2011 | 3:27 pm
The debate over pension reform in California reached a boiling point Tuesday.
State Treasurer Bill Lockyer resigned from a pension advisory panel to protest a study it was affiliated with that called for reducing retirement benefits for current public employees and overhauling the boards that oversee the public pension systems.
Filed under: Bill Lockyer, Budget, Economy, Finance, In the News, Investments, Pension Funds, Pensions, State of California
By Dale Kasler
dkasler@sacbee.com
Published: Wednesday, Dec. 14, 2011 – 12:00 am | Page 6B
CalPERS reported a $695 million profit from one of its investments Tuesday.
The California Public Employees’ Retirement System said it earned the money from an investment fund that closed down after a 10-year run that ended when it sold its last asset.
Filed under: Business, CalPERS, Finance, In the News, Investments, Pension Funds, Real Estate, State of California
Thursday, December 1, 2011 – 10:00 a.m.
All the misplaced euphoria over the recent drop in weekly first-time unemployment numbers, along with the Fed loaning the European Union (EU) some $600 billion, seems a little suspect.
The Fed is doing nothing more than manipulating markets in the short-term, with money it really doesn’t have.
Filed under: Business, Economy, Federal Reserve System, Finance, In the News, Investments, Real Estate, U.S. Government
November 30, 2011 | 4:57 pm
Gov. Jerry Brown’s proposal to overhaul public pensions in California may face legal hurdles and create some new costs, according to officials with the state’s two largest public retirement systems.
Filed under: CalPERS, CalSTRS, Finance, In the News, Investments, Jerry Brown, Pension Funds, State of California
Thursday, December 1, 1011
By Ed Mendel
Gov. Brown yesterday appointed two CalSTRS board members with decades of experience in law and financial firms, a first step toward an ambitious pension reform plan he issued in October to end abuses and cut costs.
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke (Image by Getty Images via @daylife)
Wednesday, November 30, 2011
Wall Street enjoyed a big jump Wednesday morning, after a coordinated action by central banks around the world to provide more liquidity to the global financial system.
The U.S. Federal Reserve, after a similar effort in September, will “lower the pricing on the existing temporary U.S. dollar liquidity swap arrangements by 50 basis points so that the new rate will be the U.S. dollar overnight index swap (OIS) rate plus 50 basis points.”
Filed under: Business, Economy, Federal Reserve System, Finance, In the News, Investments, U.S. Government
Wednesday, November 30, 2011 – 02:00 p.m.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed nearly 500 points on Wednesday on news the U.S. Federal Reserve will drop the rate foreign banks pay it to exchange the euro for the U.S. Dollar.
In other words, a promise to artificially print more money by doing nothing more than pushing buttons on a computer.
The move up, once again, brings stocks to the unchanged level for the year.
Filed under: Business, Economy, Federal Reserve System, Finance, In the News, Investments, U.S. Government
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
By David Henry
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Standard & Poor’s reduced its credit ratings on 15 big banking companies, mostly in the Europe and the United States, on Tuesday as the result of a sweeping overhaul of its ratings criteria.
Tuesday, November 29, 2011 – 01:55 p.m.
AMR Corp., parent of American Airlines filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Tuesday.
The airlines stock is trading at just 26 cents per share this evening.
$ 7.7 Trillion Loan!
By Bob Ivry, Bradley Keoun and Phil Kuntz – Nov 27, 2011 4:01 PM PT
Bloomberg Markets Magazine
The Federal Reserve and the big banks fought for more than two years to keep details of the largest bailout in U.S. history a secret. Now, the rest of the world can see what it was missing.
Filed under: Business, Economy, Federal Reserve System, Finance, In the News, Investments, U.S. Government, U.S. Treasury
Money & Company
Tracking the market and economic trends that shape your finances.
November 27, 2011 | 9:43 pm
Throwing more logs on the Eurozone fire, Moody’s Investors Service said early Monday that the continent’s debt crisis now is “threatening the credit standing of all European sovereigns.”
Published: Friday, 25 Nov 2011 | 1:10 PM ET
By: JeeYeon Park
CNBC.com Writer
Stocks closed in negative territory in thin, shortened trading Friday as investors were reluctant to go long ahead of the weekend and amid ongoing worries over the euro zone.
The Dow and S&P posted their worst Thanksgiving week since the Great Depression on a percentage basis.
Friday, November 25, 2011 – 11:45 a.m.
U.S. stocks ended lower for the seventh trading session in row on Friday,
While investment analysts cry that “Stocks are cheap.”, “It’s a buying opportunity.”, “I like stocks here.”, and “Investors shouldn’t panic.”, the markets continue to recede.
Even the recent trading range doesn’t look too warm and fuzzy.
Filed under: Business, Economy, Federal Reserve System, Finance, In the News, Investments, U.S. Government, U.S. Treasury
BY DARRELL R. SANTSCHI
STAFF WRITER
dsantschi@pe.com
Published: 23 November 2011 06:25 PM
The Yucaipa City Council has agreed to refinance bonds that paid for flood control improvements in the Chapman Heights housing and commercial development.
November 23, 2011 6:17 PM
Brooke Edwards Staggs
VICTORVILLE • The city is $7.5 million short to make its annual debt payment due Dec. 1 — a shortfall that could trigger default and further downgrades on the already precarious bonds.
Filed under: Budget, Cities, Finance, In the News, Investments, Legal, Local Government, Victorville
November 22, 2011 | 5:02 pm
California’s giant public pension fund and 15 other large investors settled lawsuits accusing former mortgage goliath Countrywide Financial Corp. of costing them billions of dollars in stock losses by failing to disclose the severity of the risks posed by the easy-money loans the Calabasas lender handed out during the housing boom.
Monday, November 20, 2011 – 11:15 a.m.
As expected, the so-called debt-reduction supercommittee, officially known as the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction, ended with a loud thud this morning.
Monday, November 20, 2011 – 11:00 a.m.
One things for certain.
The sluggish stock market and record low interest rates has been and will continue to be a bad recipe for California government pension funds.
Filed under: Budget, CalPERS, CalSTRS, Cities, Counties, Economy, Finance, In the News, Investments, Local Government, Pension Funds, Pensions, State of California
By Dakin Campbell – Nov 17, 2011 4:30 AM PT
U.S. banks face a “serious risk” that their creditworthiness will deteriorate if Europe’s debt crisis deepens and spreads beyond the five most-troubled nations, Fitch Ratings said.
Information is sought on the mortgage giants’ roles as landlords who own thousands of foreclosed properties in California. Also sought are details of their mortgage-servicing and home-repossession practices, a source says.
By Alejandro Lazo and Jim Puzzanghera, Los Angeles Times
November 16, 2011, 6:27 p.m.
Reporting from L.A. and Washington— Investigators with the California attorney general’s office have subpoenaed information from mortgage titans Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac as part of a wide-ranging inquiry into lending and foreclosure practices in the state.
Filed under: Business, Economy, Finance, In the News, Investments, Kamala Harris, Law Enforcement, Legal, State of California
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
By Terence P. Jeffrey
November 16, 2011
Subscribe to Terence P. Jeffrey’s posts
(CNSNews.com) – At the close of business on Tuesday, the debt of the federal government exceeded $15 trillion for the first time–with the largest single owner of the publicly held portion of that debt being the Federal Reserve.
Filed under: Business, Economy, Federal Reserve System, Finance, In the News, Investments, U.S. Government, U.S. Treasury
Wednesday, November 16, 2011 – 01:50 p.m.
Rumors have started circulating on Wall Street this afternoon surrounding the solvency of investment banks Jeffries & Co. and Morgan Stanley.
The stock of the two companies was pounded today after a report from Fitch Ratings stated that U.S. financial institutions may be exposed to problems impacting European Unions banks.
Wednesday, November 16, 2011 – 01:45 p.m.
Members of the United States Congress trade stock and stock options based on inside information.
Reports say that those members who engage in the unethical practice beat the market by 12%.
Filed under: Business, Campaigns, Democrats, Elections, Finance, In the News, Investments, Politics, U.S. House of Representatives, U.S. Senate
Wednesday, November 16, 2011 – 09:50 a.m.
The price of crude oil blew past the $100 per barrel mark Wednesday morning.
A renewed damper on an already anemic economy.
Tuesday, November 15, 2011 – 01:00 p.m.
The head in the sand mentality continues.
The collapse of Greece rocked financial markets. Then the markets recovered.
The approaching collapse of Italy is realized and the markets dip. Then the markets recovered.
Filed under: Budget, Business, Economy, Finance, In the News, Investments, Politics, U.S. Government
U.S. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi
Carolyn Lochhead, Chronicle Washington Bureau
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
Washington — House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi’s office accused the news program “60 Minutes” of omitting key information from its report Sunday on how members of Congress use privileged information to profit from stock trades.
Bank of America abandoned its $5 a month debit card usage fee in late October amid a firestorm of criticism.(Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
By ERIC DASH
Published: November 13, 2011
Even as Bank of America and other major lenders back away from charging customers to use their debit cards, many banks have been quietly imposing other new fees.
By Ryan Teague Beckwith
Roll Call Staff
Nov. 13, 2011, 8:49 p.m.
Updated: 10:30 p.m.
Members of Congress may be personally profiting from insider information they gather while legislating, according to a “60 Minutes” report that aired tonight.
By Loretta Kalb and Phillip Reese
lkalb@sacbee.com
Published: Sunday, Nov. 13, 2011 – 12:00 am | Page 1A
Last Modified: Sunday, Nov. 13, 2011 – 12:14 am
Targeted for extinction and running out of time, California’s redevelopment agencies earlier this year embarked on a wave of costly borrowing unequaled in their history.
When the dust settled, the agencies with a mission of helping economically galvanize California’s urban areas had incurred a record $1.2 billion in new bonded indebtedness secured by property tax growth, according to a Bee analysis of records from the California State Treasurer’s Office.
The money didn’t come cheap.
Filed under: Cities, Counties, Economy, Finance, In the News, Investments, Redevelopment, State of California