Entries from February 2009
Ouch. Joel Kotkin in Newsweek trashes the governor, legislature, and I suppose all of us Californians, since we elected them.
Sadly, Kotkin’s right.
ECONOMY
Death of the Dream
California has come back before, but ‘hysterical greens’ aren’t helping.
Published Feb 21, 2009
From the magazine issue dated Mar 2, 2009
For decades, California has epitomized America’s economic strengths: technological excellence, artistic creativity, agricultural fecundity and an intrepid entrepreneurial spirit. Yet lately California has projected a grimmer vision of a politically divided, economically stagnant state. Last week its legislature cut a deal to close its $42 billion budget deficit, but its larger problems remain.
California has returned from the dead before, most recently in the mid-1990s. But the odds that the Golden State can reinvent itself again seem long. The buffoonish current governor and a legislature divided between hysterical greens, public-employee lackeys and Neanderthal Republicans have turned the state into a fiscal laughingstock. Meanwhile, more of its middle class migrates out while a large and undereducated underclass (much of it Latino) faces dim prospects. It sometimes seems the people running the state have little feel for the very things that constitute its essence—and could allow California to reinvent itself, and the American future, once again.
Ouch!
It almost seems like a satire, except it’s all true. (Though I’m not completely sure about the ‘hysterical greens’ which may really be a case of herd-following legislators incapable of carefully analyzing the impacts of legislation before voting on it. Oh! We’re California! I forget, that’s the normal operation of our state government.)
Paul
Categories: News and Information · Opinion · Uncategorized
Tagged: Pasadena, Pasadena Chamber, economy, recession, Chamber of Commerce, business, Pasadena business, taxes, marketing, stimulus, California, Governor Schwarzenegger, kotkin, Newsweek
A former president of Pasadena Beautiful, flanked by a dozen or so supporters, called passionately for a boycott of one of Pasadena’s iconic retailers at public comment during last night’s Pasadena City Council meeting. Why try to put one of Pasadena’s mainstays out of business? Because the store supported the fifteen year-old Playhouse District streetscape plan that calls for, among other things, cutting down 30 or so ficus and carrotwood trees and replacing them with twice as many palms and ginkos.
Regardless of the reason, is it really in our community’s best interest to thwart the economic vitality of any member of our local business community over an issue such as this? And this isn’t the only instance. It’s rumored that a local children’s institution has urged it’s friends to boycott a local business district over perceived lack of support for an annual event.
Who loses in all this? If Pasadena Beautiful, an organization that relies on donations from local people for its survival, loses support from local businesses because those businesses are offended by the stridency of a former PB president is that justified? If advertisers in the local newspapers choose another venue for their ad dollars because their local editor is fomenting anger over Playhouse District tree removals, who is the real loser?
Actually, without Pasadena Beautiful, Kidspace Museum, Vromans and the Star-News, we all lose. Not just because the local store, children’s service and newspaper have to cope with even more difficult economic realities, but because people in Pasadena can’t agree to maintain a civil, respectful and appropriate level of discourse.
There will always be competing interests on any issue, but the discourse needs to remain on a level that requires respect (and prudence).
Where is the voice that reminds the Pasadena Beautiful president emirita that she can have more of an impact on climate change by not running her air conditioning in the summer than those 30 trees could manage? Where is the voice reminding the newspaper editor that the institution that writes his paycheck kills more than 30 trees every day. (AND it makes no difference if the trees are grown specifically for that purpose or not, they still die to publish the newspaper.)
In Pasadena, trees are an emotional issue, but so is the continued vitality of a local retail institution that has survived in the face of tremendous pressure from the changing marketplace. Remember, this is an institution that has been vital to the growth, development and identity of Pasadena — AND it is owned by a family that has been integral to the growth and development of Pasadena as a city we all cherish.
How many give-back dollars have gone to support Pasadena Beautiful, I wonder? How many book fueled ad dollars have found their way into reporters’ and editors’ pockets through payroll checks?
Calling for a boycott in this instance is a shame, pure and simple. Those who would advocate doing so should think long and hard about their priorities — and consider the long-term effects and implications of what they are suggesting.
In the end, we are talking about a couple of dozen trees here. Nobody dies.
Paul
Categories: News and Information · Pasadena Chamber Events · Playhouse District · Trees · Uncategorized
Tagged: business, Chamber of Commerce, Kidspace, Pasadena Beautiful, Pasadena business, Pasadena trees, Playhouse District, Trees, Vromans
Pundits will argue for days about whether President Obama’s speech tonight was a success. Already (45 minutes after the conclusion) opinion is breaking the predictable way. Republicans think it’s vague and Obama lacked substantive details about how he will address any of the issues mentioned. (I have to admit curing cancer in out liufetime seems a difficult task to accomplish.)
The LA Times’ take:
‘We will rebuild, we will recover, and the United States of America will emerge stronger than before,’ he says in his first such address.
By Mark Silva, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
6:51 PM PST, February 24, 2009
Reporting from Washington — President Barack Obama, striving to hold public support for massive government intervention in a staggering economy, vowed tonight that an embattled nation “will emerge stronger than before.”
With his first formal address as president to a joint session of Congress — and speaking also to a national television audience — Obama attempted to add a new dimension to the debate over what the government can offer for a financial crisis that has gripped the nation in a worsening recession: a sense of hope.
“While our economy may be weakened and our confidence shaken,” the president said in his prime-time address, “though we are living through difficult and uncertain times, tonight I want every American to know this: We will rebuild, we will recover, and the United States of America will emerge stronger than before.”
I think it was a good speech. I think Obama touched on very important issues. I didn’t hear a lot of details, but I’m not sure it’s realistic to expect an address such as this to give a line by line action plan to address issues. I do think the President talked about dealing with very important problems. I also appreciate that he mentioned charter schools and familial responsibility in the context of education reform.
He also talked about business, and small business, being vital to the economic recovery.
The New York Times’ take:
Obama Assures Nation: ‘We Will Rebuild’
Doug Mills/The New York Times
President Obama told Congress, “Now is the time to act boldly.”
Published: February 24, 2009
WASHINGTON — President Obama urged the nation on Tuesday to see the economic crisis as reason to raise its ambitions, calling for expensive new efforts to address energy, health care and education programs even as he warned that more money might be needed to bail out banks.
In his first address to a joint session of Congress, Mr. Obama mixed an acknowledgment of the depth of the economic problems with a Reaganesque exhortation to American resilience and an expansive agenda with a pledge to begin paring down a soaring budget deficit.
“While our economy may be weakened and our confidence shaken, though we are living through difficult and uncertain times, tonight I want every American to know this,” Mr. Obama said. “We will rebuild, we will recover, and the United States of America will emerge stronger than before.”
He was greeted in the House of Representatives chamber with gregarious applause, particularly from Democrats who hold a strong majority. Yet even Republicans leaned in close to Mr. Obama as he passed by them in the narrow aisle and made his way to the speaker’s dais at the front of the room.
And from London Times:
President Barack Obama: America faces ‘day of reckoning’
Obama’s speech in full
President Obama declared on Tuesday night that America faced its “day of reckoning” as he sought to convince voters and hostile Republicans in a primetime address to Congress that he can pull the nation out of its economic crisis.
Mr Obama’s speech, delivered to a joint session of the House and Senate with all the pomp and ceremony of a State of the Union address, was the most detailed vision of how he intends to steer America out of the deepening recession that is triggering soaring unemployment and profound national anxiety.
In excerpts released by the White House before the address, Mr Obama decried what he described as an age of greed and irresponsibility, where “short-term gains were prized over long-term prosperity; where we failed to look beyond the next payment, the next quarter, or the next election.”
Interesting what the different papers emphasize in the headlines.
Paul
Categories: Uncategorized
From the LA Business Journal.
Posted date: 2/2/2009
Tale of Two Cities
West Hollywood moves to ease burdens on business, while Beverly Hills to vote on boosting taxes.
By HOWARD FINE
Los Angeles Business Journal Staff
Two of L.A. County’s best-known cities are taking diametrically opposed approaches to the recession, as their mayors explained at a recent breakfast organized by the Westside Urban Forum, which organizes monthly discussions on subjects of local interest.West Hollywood Mayor Jeffrey Prang said his city is close to enacting an “economic hardship package,” aimed at helping businesses cope with the difficult times. The package will include streamlining of permit applications, waiving some fees paid for permits and other city services, and easing up on advertising restrictions.
But Beverly Hills Mayor Barry Brucker was not in a position to offer carrots to business. That’s because in November the Beverly Hills City Council, in a desperate search for extra cash to avoid cutting services, decided to ask voters to approve Measure P, which would raise a number of taxes on business, especially on the city’s numerous medical groups and law firms. The March 3 ballot measure would also impose a 10 percent tax on private parking lots and would boost the levy on oil pumped from underneath the city.
It’s not likely to make business people as happy as West Hollywood’s approach.
“The city of Beverly Hills may have put its foot on a land mine with this ballot measure,” Brucker said.
West hollywood takes an immediate and proactive approach to supporting its local economy. What a novel notion!
Categories: News and Information
Tagged: Pasadena, Pasadena Chamber, economy, recession, Chamber of Commerce, LA Business Journal, business, Pasadena business, taxes
Chamber Sponsors FREE Workshop on Internet Marketing
On March 20th, from 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m., the Pasadena Chamber of Commerce, in conjunction with the local chapter of the American Red Cross, presents Dynamic Marketing in the Wired World: a practical approach to using the internet to grow your business. Presented by experts, the free workshop is designed to be a practical, hands-on experience that will enhance the participants understanding of state-of-the-art internet marketing tools and techniques. Jim Locke of Axon Tech and John Locke of FeedFactoryPro.com will discuss and demonstrate how small and medium sized businesses can take advantage of everything from blogs and web sites to social and business networking opportunities to grow and enhance business.
Participants are encouraged to bring their laptop computer since practical demonstration and applications can be implemented during the workshop. You are not required to have a computer to participate, however.
The Internet Marketing Workshop will take place at the American Red Cross headquarters at 430 Madeline Drive in Pasadena. There is not charge to attend this dynamic workshop, though a donation to the Red Cross would be appreciated.
Due to limited space and the hands-on nature of the workshop, attendance is strictly limited to the first 50 people to register.
For information or to r.s.v.p., please call the Chamber office at (626) 795-3355 or email here.
Categories: Pasadena Chamber Events
Tagged: advertising, business growth, business networking, Chamber of Commerce, internet, local solutions, marketing, member service, Pasadena Chamber, social networking, technology, Workshop
As the London Times expounds:
From The Times
February 16, 2009
Tax cuts and public spending are needed to counter recession, but the US Administration should guard against uneconomic projects and protectionism.
The US Senate approved President Obama’s proposals last week for a huge fiscal stimulus to the economy. The total package amounts to $787 billion in tax cuts and public spending. President Obama is expected to sign it into law tomorrow.
Fiscal expansion is right and urgent, and it needs to be big. The economy is contracting alarmingly: the IMF projects negative US GDP growth of 1.6 per cent this year. As private consumption and investment collapse, with inevitable collateral damage to the global economy, government must fill the gap. There are problems with this package, though, and the Administration must move quickly to defuse them.
First, a fiscal stimulus will work only if it is combined with other measures. In criticising the proposals, Republican senators have argued that Japan likewise attempted a fiscal boost in the 1990s but succeeded only in squandering vast sums and increasing public debt. The US, they argue, risks making the same policy mistake.
The Japanese experience does contain important lessons. The bursting of a property and stock market bubble plunged Japan into a decade-long recession that vast public spending proved unable to reverse. The lesson is not, however, that fiscal policy is useless. It is that monetary conditions must also be loose enough to encourage private spending, and that the financial crisis that has created the recession must be tackled directly. In Japan in the 1990s bankers refused to recognise bad debts but kept them on the books – thereby worsening the downward spiral in asset prices. There is much public anger in the US and Europe towards the banks, but at least they are writing down bad debts and replacing executives who have plainly failed. That process must be stepped up.
Are they saying, “No high speed train to Vegas?”
Paul
Categories: News and Information
Tagged: economy, London Times, Obama, recession, stimulus, taxes
Thank you Rosa Brooks and the LA Times:
Wall Street’s crybabies
For some, the economic crisis means they can’t buy groceries. For those who can’t learn to live on $500,000 a year, it’s just too bad.
Rosa Brooks
February 12, 2009
You “can never be too rich or too thin,” said the Duchess of Windsor, who was wrong on both counts.
As the economic crisis deepens, many Americans may soon discover what it means to be too thin, an insight that until now has been largely reserved for denizens of the developing world. This is changing. In January, U.S. food banks saw a 30% increase in the number of people who couldn’t afford to buy enough food on their own, but 70% of food banks reported that they lacked the resources to feed those extra mouths. (Call it the Economic Crash Diet.)
Meanwhile, other Americans are shocked to discover that the rest of us think they’re too rich. Listen to the chorus of Wall Street whining that greeted President Obama’s proposal to cap executive pay at firms that take federal bailout money. (A measly $500,000 salary? Who can live on that?)
But yes, Wall Street, it is possible to be too rich.
It is also possible that people who have no food on their table are having a very difficult time understanding Wall Streeters whining that they may have to forgo the $1 million bonus since our taxpayer dollars were required to keep your bank afloat.
In Britain, they’re recognizing the same problem and taking steps to stop bonus payments to those responsible for the recession.
The London Times reports:
Philip Webster, Political Editor
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The era of big bonuses for bankers seems almost certain to end after ministers joined ranks in condemnation of the payments.
The Government’s position hardened yesterday after David Cameron, the Tory leader, proposed that bonuses in taxpayer-funded banks be capped at £2,000. Sources close to the Prime Minister said that a cap on such payments could not be ruled out.
The pressure for new curbs increased after reports that Lloyds planned to pay out £120million in bonuses for last year. On Friday the bank gave warning that its subsidiary HBOS had lost £10billion – £1.6billion more than expected.
Stephen Timms, the Treasury Financial Secretary, warned that ministers would look “very, very carefully” at the Lloyds proposals. They would be scrutinised to make sure that they “do not amount to reward for failure,” he said. UKFI, which manages the taxpayer interest in the part-nationalised banks, will have urgent talks with Lloyds this week, emphasising that any bonus plans must bear relation to trading results and political opinion, officials said.
Tony McNulty, the Employment Minister, said that while junior bank staff should be protected, executives responsible for the mess the banks were in “should not get a penny”.
Somewhat closing the barn door after the horses have fled, but…
Paul
Categories: Uncategorized
Discretionary spending is down everywhere. Restaurants are particularly vulnerable. If you wnat your favorite place to still be open this summer, make sure you keep going, even if you don’t spend as much as you used to.
From the LA Times:
Cost-conscious customers wreaking havoc on ailing restaurants
Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times
Customers are offered doughnuts as they wait to enter a Denny’s in Monrovia and take advantage of the Grand Slam breakfast promotion this month. Same-store sales at the chain’s company-owned and franchised restaurants dropped a combined 6.1% in the fourth quarter, while guest counts fell 7.5%.
Pricey entrees, appetizers, desserts and alcohol are now a no-no for many who dine out. Eateries that already have shrunk portions, cut staff and closed unprofitable stores might not survive.
By Jerry Hirsch
February 13, 2009
From the corner diner to elegant Westside eateries, restaurants in Southern California are shrinking portions, slashing wine prices, cutting employee hours and reducing staff. Some chain restaurants and fast-food purveyors are shutting unprofitable branches, and experts say some may not survive.
Many large dinner-house chains are reporting some of the largest drops in same-store sales — an important measure of a retailer’s financial health — in recent history.
After the stock market closed Thursday, Southern California chains Cheesecake Factory Inc. and California Pizza Kitchen Inc. both reported plunging same-store sales and profits.
“It is a very tough environment out there,” said Richard Rosenfield, co-chief executive of CPK.
If the chains are feeling it, imagine what it’s like for the local eatery that doesn’t have dozens of others to take up some of the corporate slack.
The best way to ensure your favorite place remains open is to keep patronizing it.
Categories: Uncategorized
From the New York Times:
White House Says Stimulus Won’t Be a Quick Fix
By J. DAVID GOODMAN
Published: February 15, 2009
As President Obama prepares to sign the $787 billion stimulus bill, administration officials sought to temper expectations, warning that the economy has not yet reached bottom and that increased economic activity as a result of the legislation would “take time to show up in the statistics.”
Mr. Obama is spending the holiday weekend in Chicago and is expected to sign the bill on Tuesday in Denver, kicking off another campaign-style trip to drum up support for the stimulus package.
“There will be signs of activity very quickly,” David Axelrod, the White House senior adviser, said on “Fox News Sunday.” “But it’s going to take time for that to show up in the statistics. The president has said it’s likely to get worse before it gets better.” He added that the economy would most likely not begin gathering steam until the second half of the year.
Robert Gibbs, the White House press secretary, echoed that sentiment on CNN’s “State of the Union,” saying that while the stimulus package will put the country on the right track, “it is safe to say” the economy has not reached bottom.
Lindsay Graham, one of the Republican senators who voted against the stimulus bill, said the nationalization of the banking industry should not be taken off the table as Congress looks for ways to shore up the teetering financial system. “This idea of nationalizing banks is not comfortable,” Mr. Graham, who is from South Carolina, said on ABC’s “This Week With George Stephanopoulos.” “But I think we have gotten so many toxic assets spread throughout the banking and financial community throughout the world that we’re going to have to do something that no one ever envisioned a year ago.”
Republicans, bolstered by their coordinated opposition to the package, remained on the offensive over the weekend. On CNN, Senator John McCain continued to brand the stimulus bill a “generational theft,” and accused Mr. Obama of not reaching across the aisle despite promises of bipartisanship. The measure gained the votes of only three moderate Republican senators in the Senate. No Republicans voted for it in the House.
“Let’s start over now and sit down together,” Mr. McCain said.
Categories: Uncategorized
There’s really nothing to say about a legislature and governor that can’t reach a compromise to avert California’s insolvency.
On the brink of financial collapse, state lawmakers struggle with budget passage
Rich Pedroncelli / Associated Press
MESSAGE: A Valentine’s Day sign on the Capitol office door of Assemblyman Jared Huffman (D-San Rafael) urges legislators to reject the proposed state budget plan.
Gov. Schwarzenegger and legislative leaders try to garner a final Republican vote needed for the plan to pass the Senate. GOP support in the Assembly may slip away if deal takes too long.
By Evan Halper and Jordan Rau
3:18 PM PST, February 15, 2009
REPORTING FROM SACRAMENTO — Lawmakers continued struggling to pass a budget this afternoon after working nearly around the clock to end a three-month impasse that has brought California to the brink of fiscal collapse.
An all-night legislative session failed to yield enough Republican votes for the spending plan, as GOP legislators troubled by the tax hikes it contained demanded last-minute concessions.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and legislative leaders had spent the early morning hours scurrying to round up a final Republican vote believed to be needed for the plan to pass the state Senate. Lawmakers and staff had said there was enough GOP support in the Assembly for approval of the plan in that house.
By this afternoon, however, there was concern that the Assembly’s Republican votes could melt away if the stalemate dragged on.
Republican and Democratic leaders had expressed confidence late Saturday night that the Legislature would finally break its three-month logjam and approve a bipartisan proposal to close what is projected to be a $41-billion deficit by the middle of next year.
Where is the leadership in Sacramento? In any other emergency, someone would have stepped in by now and forced a compromise. Here in California, I guess we’re just so used to absurdist comedy from state level elected officials, we just shrug our shoulders and shake our heads.
If it weren’t so sad, I’d think we are living in a Marx Brothers movie.
Paul
Categories: Uncategorized
