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Match the headline to the lead story in the national business news publication that come out today.
1. "Embracing Illegals: Companies are getting hooked on the buying power of 11 milion undocumented immigrants."
2. "Welcome Mat. Banks Open Doors to New Cusomters: Illegal Immigrants."
A. Wall Street Journal
B. Business Week
Answers: 1-B, 2-A (subscription required.)
Posted by dan at 12:22 PM
Now that investor outrage over Worldcom has calmed down, Rep. Mike Oxley, one of the namesakes of the Sarbanes-Oxley law, can revert to doing what comes naturally: cozying up to corporations.
Sundeep Tucker and Andrew Parker write in the Financial Times.
One of the architects of the controversial US Sarbanes-Oxley legislation admitted yesterday that some of the reforms were "excessive" and could have been introduced more "responsibly".>Congressman Michael Oxley told a London conference that the legislation "was not a perfect document" because it had been rushed through in the "hothouse atmosphere" following the collapse of WorldCom.
However, he defended the right of federal lawmakers to push through investor-friendly reforms, deflecting accusations made this week that Congress was usurping the role of individual states to draw up corporation laws.
. . Mr Oxley told the International Corporate Governance Network annual conference: "After WorldCom happened it was difficult to legislate responsibly in that type of hot-house atmosphere. But I am proud of the bill. Compliance [with it] is an investment in the strength of the US capital markets."
Speaking to the Financial Times before his speech, Mr Oxley said: "If I had another crack at it, I would have provided a bit more flexibility for small- and medium-sized companies."
Posted by dan at 11:44 AM
In a good way. My take on the financial markets' reaction to the London attacks, in Slate.
Posted by dan at 03:03 PM
President Bush may model himself on Theodore Roosevelt or Dwight Eisenhower. But he's clearly more in the mold of Gerald Ford.
Posted by dan at 04:35 PM
In today's Washington Post, Jonathan Weisman writes that Democratic opposition, particularly in the House, may imperil the Central American Free Trade Agreement. It then goes on to analyze the Democrats' purported shift away from free trade--after all, plenty of Democrats supported NAFTA back in the 1990s--with quotes from plenty of New Democrats warning Old Democrats that their failure to vote for a trade pact they had no role in crafting could consign them to a permanent minority.
But Weisman buries the lede. We wouldn't have such pieces, or have such conversations, if the Republicans -- who won the Congressional elections of 2000, 2002, and 2004 on free-trade platforms -- could maintain discipline on free trade. The House Republican leadership has been remarkably successful in strong-arming reluctant members to vote for items of priority to the White House about which they weren't passionate -- the Medicare drug bill, No Child Left Behind, all the budgets.
But for too many members of the new Republican party's southern base, free trade -- at least as defined by CAFTA -- hits too close to home. Deep in the article, Weisman notes:
"Dozens of Republicans in districts dependent on the textile industry, the sugar growers or small manufacturers have already said they will vote against the bill."
That's dozens. Not a dozen, but dozens. At least 10 percent of the House Republican caucus. In the Senate, only 11 Republican Senators voted no on CAFTA--which means 20 percent of the Republican Senate caucus abandoned the party and its President.
In other words, the problem for Bush and free traders isn't that they've lost erstwhile centrist Democrats on this issue. They lost them a long time ago. And they didn't even try to bring them along. As Weisman notes:
“In a highly charged partisan atmosphere, Republicans intentionally marginalized free-trade Democrats during negotiations and then presented them with a take-it-or-leave it deal, goading them to oppose it, said the lobbyists, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to avoid harming relationships on Capitol Hill. They contend that the Republicans set the trap into which the New Democrats are walking.”
No, the problem for Bush and free traders is that they've lost Nancy Pelosi. It's that they can't win Susan Collins, Arlen Specter, Richard Shelby, Lindsey Graham, and John Thune.
Posted by dan at 07:19 AM
MBNA=Much Bling, No Appreciation
Bruce Hammonds was named CEO of credit-card company MBNA effective December 30, 2003. That day the stock closed at $23.82. Last week, MBNA agreed to be acquired by Bank of America for cash and stock: $4.125 per share in cash plus .5009 shares of Ban of America stock for each share of MBNA. At today’s prices, that values MBNA's shares at $26.58. The stock currently trades at $25.50.
Robin Sidel of the Wall Street Journal reported today that, “upon completion of the deal, Mr. Hammonds will be entitled to collect more than $125 million, according to a compensation expert and the company’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.”
That’s not a bad commission for putting the company up for sale. Oh, and here’s a chart of MBNA vs. the S&P 500 during Hammonds’ tenure. Until it was rescued by Bank of America’s bid, it was a stinker.
Another mighty blow struck against the do-nothing, pay-for-poor-performance Imperial CEO!
Posted by dan at 02:46 PM
June auto sales results are in. And the big news was GM’s big gain in sales, thanks in large part to the extension of employee-discounts to the general public. Good for GM.
But the auto companies' sales data also contained information of a more heartening trend--and one that is more likely to last. Sales of hybrid vehicles were up strongly again.
In June, Toyota racked up a record 194,875 sales, up 10% from last year. In the month, it sold 9,622 Priuses (up 119.3 percent from the year before), 2,869 Highlander Hybrids, and 2,605 Lexus 2006 RX 400h hybrids. In all, that's 15,906 units, or about 7.7 percent of Toyota's sales.
Honda's June sales of hybrid Civics, Accords, and Insights rose 53.4 percent from a year ago to 3,001.
Ford didn't say how many Escape hybrids it sold in June. But lets assume that it sold about 1,000.
Add it up, and Americans purchased 19,000 hybrid vehicles in June. Yes, that's still a drop in the bucket. Car sales were running at a 17.5 million annual pace in June, while hybrid sales ran at a 228,000 annual pace. Still, it's the trend that matters. And hybrid sales are growing far more rapidly than the overall market. Oh, and more hybrids were sold in June than their cultural and energy-consuming converses--Hummers--have been sold all year.
Posted by dan at 10:57 AM
Business Week gets hip to the Savings Glut.
Posted by dan at 07:05 AM