« November 26, 2006 - December 02, 2006 | Main | December 10, 2006 - December 16, 2006 »
A Florida Indian tribe is buying Hard Rock Cafe. Money quote:
"You’re here for a special day in Seminole history,” said Max B. Osceola Jr., a Seminole council representative. “Our ancestors sold Manhattan for trinkets. We’re going to buy Manhattan back, one burger at a time.”
Posted by dan at 09:19 AM
In all the hoo-ha surrounding the recent report of the Committee on Capital Markets Regulation, the self-defeating insistence by U.S. exchanges and investment bankers that they must pay exceedingly high wages and charge high commissions has generally been overlooked. Apparently, the grandees never stopped to consider that in a global market, U.S. firms may have to compete on price. The message seems to have been lost on the NASDAQ. Aaron Lucchetti and Kara Scannell report:
Nasdaq Stock Market Inc. is trying to revolutionize global markets with a bid to buy London Stock Exchange PLC. It also is creating a stir at home with a plan to raise fees for companies that list their shares on the exchange.Nasdaq's move is part of a broader effort by stock exchanges to increase profits since becoming publicly traded companies. NYSE Group Inc., operator of the New York Stock Exchange, which went public in March, announced Nov. 30 that it was removing trading-fee caps so its profit could increase as trading volume increases. Both NYSE and Nasdaq are trying to make more money off data they sell based on investors' trading activity.
It is a rapid change for companies once known for an almost government-like approach to their operations. "They used to be like the water company," said Jamie Selway, head of White Cap Trading, a New York brokerage firm. "Now they're raising rates" and looking at themselves as businesses that need to expand. . . .
Nasdaq plans to raise listing fees for the bulk of its 3,200 companies. With the added fee comes use of Nasdaq's new investor-relations and press-release-distribution services. In response, about two dozen companies have so far filed letters urging the Securities and Exchange Commission to deny Nasdaq's fee increases. Four have written to support the plan.
Posted by dan at 09:14 AM
Indian outsourcing companies, who capitalize on labor arbitrage between the West and India, are practicing labor arbitrage. The Wall Street Journal reports:
"India's Satyam Computer Services Ltd. said it is setting up a 2,000-seat software-development and services campus in Malaysia to offset rising wage costs and attrition at home."
Posted by dan at 09:12 AM
Howard Stern may be the king of all media. But this morning, at least, your humble scribe shows signs of near-hegemony in the nation's leading newspapers.
To wit: my Economic View column in today's New York Times, which argues that when it comes to a health care system that is fully funded by the government and taxpayers, we're already about half way there.
And a column in today's Washington Post "Outlook" section, on how the media orgy of conventional wisdom about the presumed hostility of the new Democratic Congressional majority toward free trade has overlooked the myriad ways in which Republicans, all by their lonesome, have sandbagged the cause of free trade. (A purely online version, with slightly more lively language, appeared in Slate on Saturday.)
Posted by dan at 08:22 AM