« August 14, 2005 - August 20, 2005 | Main | August 28, 2005 - September 03, 2005 »
Excellent article by Scott Morrison and Dan Roberts in the Financial Times today broaching the questions few in the media/Wall Street complex will dare ask:
"Can the Dell approach no longer be relied on in the ultra-competitive conditions that are emerging within the PC business and beyond? With a new wave of low-cost Asian competitors rising and buyers demanding ever-lower prices, must even Dell bow to the prospect of lower profit margins or accept lower growth?"
Posted by dan at 08:54 AM
Jonathan Miller, president and CEO of Miller Samuel, an appraisal firm that is one of the best sources of data on New York City real estate, has started an excellent real estate blog. Check it out.
Posted by dan at 08:45 AM
My latest in Slate on the surprising strength in French stocks.
Posted by dan at 08:42 AM
Ann Zimmerman reports in the Wall Street Journal that Wal-Mart has taken an "eight-page advertising spread" in Vogue's September issue. And that's just the beginning.
"Wal-Mart's agreement with Conde Nast's Vogue spans 116 full pages of ads over more than two years, including 12 pages in the December issue."
I've as yet been unable to confirm the big rumor making the rounds at media eatery Michael's: The Dollar Store and Architectural Digest are teaming up with Annie Liebovitz to produce a special issue on fabulous cheap home furnishings.
Posted by dan at 03:12 PM
The new bankruptcy law, which takes full effect this fall, is spurring people to file in record numbers. The Administrative Office of the U.S. courts reports:
During the third quarter, April 1, 2005 to June 30, 2005, of the Judiciary's 2005 fiscal year, just prior to and in the months after the Act became law, 467,333 bankruptcies were filed. That is an increase of over 66,000 cases when compared to the second quarter filings totaling 401,149, and an 11.0 percent increase from the 421,110 cases filed in the third quarter of fiscal year 2004.
It's like they're having a going out of business sale on going out of business.
Posted by dan at 11:56 AM
I don't know if this was intentional or not. On page C5 of today's Wall Street Journal, in a section of about 15 or so brief earnings reports, the editors stacked three items on top of one another, each of which may testify to the growing exhaustion of the American consumer.
First was a disappointing earnings report from La-Z Boy Inc., with "flat sales in its core business of recliners and other upsholstered furniture." Next was a loss from Pier 1 Imports, Inc., which said same-store sales in August may fall up to 15 percent from last year. Then at the bottom was Williams-Sonoma, whose results were "hampered by weakness at its Hold Everthing stores."
Posted by dan at 09:40 AM
Joe Nocera had a great column in Saturday's New York Times on the Bancroft family, which controls Dow Jones, parent company of the Wall Street Journal. The piece splashed cold water on a New York Post report that some members of the Bancroft family were, as Nocera put it, "so unhappy with the continued underperformance that they had begun agitating for Dow Jones to be sold."
A family spokesman rubbished the rumors. Why won't they sell? It's not because the family members have chosen to make the Journal their life's work, or because they love the heaving pulse of the printing presses.
In fact, none of the family members actually work at the company. And the high-tech printing presses are pretty quite these days.
No, they don't want to sell because they're too lazy to try to achieve anything significant on their own, and they're fearful that they would lose status if they no longer owned an important newspaper. There's something horrid about self-pitying rich people, especially those who inherited their riches.
Here's Nocera's money quote.
"The fact that we own the Wall Street Journal," a family member told me some years ago, "is the only thing that keeps us rom being just another rich family."
Posted by dan at 08:54 PM
My latest "Economic View" column in today's New York Times, on productivity.
Posted by dan at 07:51 AM