November 2008 Archives

On Friday, I woke up at 4:15 am, and was out the door by 4:30. It was my first Black Friday experience that actually began before the store opened. Usually, I can't get up before 7 am.

While munching on an apple, I drove to Circuit City in Torrance. I parked behind the store in the only corner of the parking lot where I could find a free space.

I walked up to the end of a line of unshaven, unkempt humanity that wrapped around the building.

It was 4:45 am and people were generally in a good mood as they anticipated the deals they were going to get. A man behind me was joking with his girlfriend about putting on boxing gloves to go shopping.

The doors opened at 5 am and people began to walk in. I wanted to buy for my kids some Nintendo DS video games, which were each about $10 cheaper than usual.

Once I got inside, I looked for the games but couldn't find those for the DS. The employees were all in good spirits. A supervisor asked me what I wanted. I told him and he said to get in line and the cashier would get it for me.

After I reached the register 15 minutes later, the supervisor apologized to me and explained that the video games were in a nearby aisle and I had to get them myself. To make it up to me, he said I could go straight to the register when I was ready to pay.

I was too late to get some of the games my kids wanted, but I found two and I bought another two that I thought they would enjoy.

Then I walked to the register. The supervisor saw me and told a cashier to ring me up next. Then a young man in line shouted at me, "You weren't in line."

I explained that I had been in line and he responded, "I don't think so," and looked ready for a fight. (I'm not a fighter and it's debatable if I'm even a lover, but I'm pretty sure I could have taken that guy.)

The cashier told him that I was supposed to be at the register and told me to ignore the man. I guess people were tired and sleepy and in no mood for alleged line-cutters.

I paid for the game and then drove to Macy's at Del Amo. I easily found a parking space and walked inside. I found the rack of jackets my wife told me about. With a coupon, they were selling for $40, much lower than the $200-plus regular price. I tried some on and finally picked one I liked, a charcoal black color.

A cashier with no one to ring up walked up to me and said he could take care of my purchase at his register. That was quick.

Out of curiosity, I drove across the street to Toys R Us and quickly found a parking space. The line at the toy store wrapped around the building, and that was after the doors had been open for an hour. Madness.

So I walked next door to Staples and looked around. There was so much on sale but nothing I needed. I finally found something worth buying, a 7-inch digital picture frame for $40 (with rebate). What a bargain.

But the line to the register was long and incredibly slow. Customers were grumbling and joking about the wait. My back and left leg were starting to hurt. Relief came an hour later when my turn to pay came. Thank goodness.

Since I was there, I walked over to the Mervyns next door. I'm pretty sure I was the only man there without his wife or girlfriend in tow. I felt out of place.

I called my wife and asked what I should buy. I walked out with four shirts, two of them flannels.

Then I drove home and had breakfast. I took a nap later that day.

The deals were great and it was kind of fun, but I don't know if I'll do it again. I'm not big on shopping. But we'll see next year ... or maybe in a few weeks on the day after Christmas.

Great deals for consumers translates into a weaker economy with fewer jobs.

For stores, the holiday season may already be over

NEW YORK (AP) - The holiday shopping season begins Friday with a blitz of early morning specials. For some merchants, though, it's practically over already.

Piles of jewelry, clothing and electric drills are bypassing store shelves and heading straight to liquidators by the caseload as stores try to save as much cash as they can.

Major department stores and mall-based chains have cut prices up to 70 percent to move out mounds of excess inventory stuck in the pipeline since the financial crisis hit in September and people snapped their wallets shut.

Big moves of merchandise happen every year -- but usually after Christmas. This year stores are desperate to shed inventory even before Thanksgiving.

"The holiday season is over. The reason? It just never got started," said Marshal Cohen, chief industry analyst at NPD Group, a market research firm. "How cheap things are doesn't bode well for holiday success."

Read the whole story.

Here's the stats from this CareerBuilder.com survey:

•Research: Sixty-one percent of workers use the Internet for non-work related research and activities while they are at work. Among these workers, 37 percent said they spend an average of more than 30 minutes of their workday on non-work related online activities and 18 percent said they spend an average of an hour or more.

•E-mail: When it comes to digital correspondence, 20 percent of workers send six or more non-work related e-mails per day. Among this group, 22 percent spend more than 30 minutes during the typical workday doing so.

•Blogging: Nine percent of workers surveyed have a personal blog, and while nearly a quarter (23 percent) of them spend time blogging at work, only 9 percent of them spend 15 minutes or more blogging during the typical workday.

•Social Networking: Forty-one percent of workers surveyed have a MySpace, Facebook or other social networking page. More than one-third (35 percent) of them spend time on their social networking page during the workday with 8 percent spending 30 minutes or more.

•Instant Messaging: Twenty percent of workers use instant messenger at least once a week.

The reason is simple. Builders aren't constructing new homes in addition to the weak housing market.

New home sales fall to slowest pace since 1991

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Sales of new homes fell in October to the lowest point in nearly 18 years while the median price of a new home dropped to the lowest level since 2004.

The Commerce Department reported Wednesday that new home sales decreased 5.3 percent last month to a seasonally adjusted annual sales pace of 433,000 homes, the lowest level since January 1991, another period when the country was undergoing a steep housing downturn.

The median price of a new home sold in October fell to $218,000, down 7 percent from a year ago. It was the lowest median sales price since September 2004.

The drop in new home sales was bigger than analysts had expected and left sales 40.1 percent below where they were a year ago.

Read the whole story.

In today's Breeze.

Home prices across the South Bay fell in October compared with the same month last year.

Yet, compared with September '08, the local housing market looks to be in a somewhat better position.

The median price of South Bay homes sold in October fell 16.6 percent, to $512,500, compared with October of 2007, according to a report Tuesday by the Los Angeles-based California Association of Realtors.

However, last month's median price was higher than the $500,000 logged for September of this year. September's median price was down a more painful 27.9percent year-over-year.

The median price refers to the middle figure where half of homes sold for more and half for less.

It is unclear if October's housing numbers represent the beginning of a turnaround where a bottom in the market is forming.

Read the whole story.

Home prices across the South Bay fell in October compared to the same month last year.

Yet, compared to September, the local housing market looks to be in a somewhat better position.

The median price of South Bay homes sold in October fell 16.6 percent, to $512,500, compared to October of 2007, according to a report Tuesday by the Los Angeles-based California Association of Realtors.

However, last month's median price was still higher than the $500,000 logged for September of this year.

Furthermore, September's median price was down a more painful 27.9 percent year over year.

The median price refers to the middle figure where half of homes sold for more and half for less.

It is unclear if October's housing numbers represent the beginning of a turnaround where a bottom in the market is forming.

On the city and community level, Torrance, Redondo Beach and San Pedro also saw lower year-over-year percentage price drops in October compared to September, according to the CAR report.

This press release/open letter came over the wire today. It's a clever way to get attention, but its premise is all wrong.

Experts say Obama should not use email bc the messages could become public record and could embarrass the new president or otherwise give him legal headaches.

This Torrance company's open letter goes the wrong direction, logically, and says Obama should use email because he can easily store the messages with this company's service. Here's the "open letter" to Obama:

An Open Letter to President-Elect Barack Obama From LiveOffice

TORRANCE, CA -- (Marketwire) -- 11/25/08 -- LiveOffice, the leading
provider of software-as-a-service (SaaS) email archiving solutions, today issued the
following open letter to President-elect Barack Obama, urging him to add another
"first" to his record by becoming the first emailing president:

Dear President-elect Obama:

As the New York Times reported recently, you've got a problem -- your email. Experts
(and according to the story, even your advisors) say that the Presidential Records Act
makes it too risky for you to keep emailing and using your trusty BlackBerry once you
take office. But you built your campaign platform around the idea of change, and we say
it's time to buck the trend and turn you into an emailing, BlackBerry'ing
commander-in-chief. We're confident it can be done.

"How?" you ask. What you need is an email archiving system that securely captures all
the messages you send and receive and preserves them in their original format. It can
even handle email messages you send from your BlackBerry. Plus, if you opt for a
software-as-a-service (SaaS) offering, you can be up and running in just a few days
(and you'll never even notice a difference in your email).

As the first emailing president, an email archiving solution can help you:
-- Increase the transparency of your administration (which you've said is a top
priority)

-- Prevent the risk of lost messages (and the subsequent bad PR -- as we saw when the
Bush administration lost "potentially millions" of messages)

-- Benefit from the efficiencies of email while protecting your messages in a highly
secure environment

As the developer of one of the first cloud-based email archiving solutions, we can tell
you from firsthand experience that being the first to do something is always buzz
worthy--and a solid email archiving system can make you the first emailing president.
That's our platform, and we're sticking to it.

Respectfully,

Your Friends at LiveOffice

... this story should make you feel a little better about your own frugality and a lot more wary about our nation's future.

Federal deficit could hit $1 trillion this year

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Budget hawks were aghast when the federal deficit hit a record $455 billion in fiscal 2008, more than double the previous year.

That figure could double again in 2009, to $1 trillion, but even balanced budget advocates are saying that may be the price we have to pay to revive the failing economy.

Read the whole story.

Space Exploration Technologies Corp., the Hawthorne-based developer of low-cost rockets, said Monday that it conducted a full mission-length firing of its Falcon 9 launch vehicle's first stage, a significant milestone for the experimental rocket.

The test was conducted Nov. 22 at McGregor Test Facility in Texas.

The test firing lasted 178 seconds, or nearly three minutes, simulating the climb of the giant rocket from the surface of the Earth towards orbit.

The company known as SpaceX said the test firing validated its design for the nine-engine Falcon 9 on the first stage.

Is anyone surprised?

U.S. Economy: Home Resales Fall, Prices Tumble Most on Record

(Bloomberg) -- Home resales in the U.S. dropped in October and prices fell by the most on record, signaling a deepening housing recession going into 2009.

Purchases of existing homes slid to an annual rate of 4.98 million, lower than forecast, a National Association of Realtors report showed in Washington. The median price fell 11.3 percent from a year earlier, the most since the group began collecting data in 1968.

Today's figures indicate a renewed downturn in an industry that showed signs of stabilizing this year, hurt by the credit squeeze and record mortgage foreclosures. That may raise pressure on President-elect Barack Obama to aid homeowners and potential buyers as he assembles a record stimulus package.

Read the full story.

Either it's poor controls by the company or someone is trying to deliberately make problems for Boeing.

Boeing halts rotorcraft output after debris found

WASHINGTON, Nov 21 (Reuters) - Boeing Co. shut down production at a military helicopter plant outside Philadelphia on Friday after a third incident involving foreign objects prompted the Pentagon to issue a corrective action against the company.

Boeing spokesman John Williamson said the company received the notice from the Pentagon's Defense Contracts Management Agency (DCMA) on Friday, which means the government will not accept any aircraft manufactured at the plant until certain requirements are met.

Boeing produces its CH-47 Chinook helicopters and MH-47G Special Operations Chinook the at the plant, as well as the fuselages for the V-22 tilt-rotor aircraft that it builds with Textron Inc's (TXT.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) Bell Helicopter unit.

Read the full story.

Also check out my take on the auto show.

Consumers a reluctant bunch at LA Auto Show

(AP) -- Small-business owner Greg Mohr was hopping in and out of cars at the Los Angeles Auto Show, but he isn't in the market to buy one. Neither are retirees Greg and Pinkie Stanley, or trucker Jorge Vidrio.

"We're in the market if the prices were more accessible," said Vidrio, 35. "Everything's so overpriced, especially for the economy that we're in."

The crowds at the show are a reluctant bunch this year. Anxious about the economy, the future of the Detroit Three automakers and the unpredictability of gas prices, few said they had any intention of buying a new car anytime soon. Those who did said they were either downsizing or looking for something with top-notch gas mileage. Nearly all had major reservations about a bailout of the U.S. auto industry.

Read the full story.

I'm sure the PR fight will get even nastier.

Northrop Ad Aimed at Boeing Sparks Ire of Pentagon Official

(WSJ) Northrop Grumman Corp. has resumed its attacks on rival Boeing Co. after U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates sought to ease tensions over a $40 billion Air Force tanker contract by postponing the competition until the next presidential administration.

A full-page ad by Northrop in the Washington Post Wednesday prompted a rebuke from a Pentagon official Thursday. After trading broadsides with Boeing in national and Washington-area newspapers in the U.S. over the summer, Northrop had held its fire until now.

With an eye on rising fiscal pressure at the Pentagon, the ad focused on Northrop's first batch of 68 Airbus A330-based planes being $3 billion less expensive to acquire than the same number of modified Boeing 767s, which carried a price tag of $15.4 billion. Northrop attributed the detailed pricing information to an unnamed "senior DOD official."

Read the full story.

El Segundo's Boeing facility is in a different division of the company. But when one part of a company is hurting, it's never good news for the other parts of the business.

Boeing warns layoffs coming in 2009

(Seattle P-I) The Boeing Co. warned Thursday it will lay off an undetermined number of workers in 2009 as part of a broad effort to reduce costs in a worsening economy and a "more challenging business environment."

Although the aerospace giant, and world's second-biggest maker of commercial airplanes, did not say how many jobs might be lost, it did say the number would be more than the usual 4 to 5 percent lost each year through attrition.

As of the end of October, Boeing's total number of employees stood at 164,192 -- nearly half of whom are in Washington state.

Read the full story.

All about the LA Auto Show in today's Business Casual column.

Southern California's notices of mortgage defaults and trustee sales spiked 10.39% in October compared to the same month last year, according to Default Research, the Mt. Pleasant, Pa.-company.

From September 2008 to October 2008, the filings rose 24.04%.

"Senate Bill 1137 did ease the foreclosure problem in the Southern California region," Serdar Bankaci, founder of Default Research, said in a statement. "The bill, which went into effect in September, requires lenders to contact residents at least 30 days before filing a Notice of Default. By delaying the foreclosure process for families in the region, there was a relative decline in the number of Notices of Defaults and Notice of Trustee sales recorded last month."

The hardest hit cities in Los Angeles County for foreclosures were Los Angeles (1,657), Palmdale (651), Lancaster (637), Long Beach (384), Pomona (252), Santa Clarita (189) and Compton (181).

"A home that was worth $500,000 two years ago may now be worth only 375,000. The good news is that the bottom is near and there are great opportunities to make money in these markets," Bankaci said.

Many industry watchers expect Toyota Motor Corp. to finally overtake General Motors Corp. as the world's No. 1 automaker this year.

But Toyota does not seem to be ready to celebrate.

In fact, as GM, Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler LLC separately flirt with possible bankruptcy amid huge financial losses, Toyota and fellow Japanese automaker Honda Motor Co. are supporting U.S. government action to save the Detroit Big Three and the auto industry in general.

Read the full story.

Boeing Co. will lay off about 27 percent of its workers at a facility in Wichita, Kan., due to the delay of a U.S. Air Force tanker replacement program and the end of other work projects.

The Chicago-based company, which makes military aircraft, civilian jetliners and surveillance systems, said Wednesday the reduction of 800 positions at the Integrated Defense Systems facility will affect managers, and salaried and hourly workers.

The Wichita operation, a defense facility that provides limited support for Boeing's commercial aircraft business, currently employs about 3,000 people. Work at the facility includes modifying Boeing aircraft for international customers.

Among its programs are executive aircraft, refueling systems support for B-52s, and 767 international tankers.

Torrance-based American Honda Motor Co., the car maker's U.S. headquarters, said Wednesday that has certified five new green buildings under the U.S. Green Building Council's LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) standards this year.
The certifications are part of an effort to further reduce the environmental impact of Honda's operations and products in the U.S.

One of hte certified buildings is the Honda R&D America's Acura Design Studio in Torrance. That structure received a Gold rating.

These certified buildings have such features as highly reflective roof and dual-paned windows with low-emissivity glass to reduce solar heat gain, extensive use of recycled and recyclable materials in the building and energy-efficient light fixtures with motion sensors.

This could affect Boeing's competition with Airbus to be the No. 1 plane maker.

(Reuters) - Plane maker Boeing Co is reworking its entire production schedule, adding up to 10 weeks to original delivery dates for all 3,734 jetliners in its order backlog as it tries to recover from a machinists' strike, the Wall Street Journal said, citing people familiar with the situation.

Since early November, Boeing officials have been working to bring production lines back up to speed, after they lay dormant during a 58-day strike by the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, the paper said.

The process, which calls for careful coordination among hundreds of suppliers and tens of thousands of workers worldwide, could take several weeks, the paper added.

The Aerospace Industries Association honored Northrop Grumman for worker safety.

The Century City-based defense contractor won two worker safety awards, for having the lowest injury and illness rate in two categories, Aircraft Manufacturing and Aerospace Components.

Raytheon took the award for the category Missile and Space Vehicles.

If the financial crisis and recession continue for much longer, I wouldn't be surprised to see even bigger price drops.

SAN FRANCISCO, Nov 18 (Reuters) - Home sales in Southern California in October leapt 66.7 percent from a year earlier and 5 percent from the prior month as buyers jumped on deep discounts in prices, especially for foreclosed properties, MDA DataQuick said in a report released on Tuesday.

Foreclosures, which abound in some areas of Southern California such as Riverside and San Bernardino counties east of Los Angeles, accounted for half of all home resales in October in the most populous region of the most populous U.S. state, pulling the area's median home price down to $300,000.

Don't expect things to get better anytime soon.

Median home prices fall around US in Q3

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Home prices fell in a record four out of five U.S. cities in the third quarter as low-cost foreclosures flooded the market and the U.S. housing market's decline spread throughout the country.

Among 152 metropolitan areas included in the trade group's survey, 120 posted declines in median home sales prices compared with a year ago, the National Association of Realtors said Tuesday. Nationally, sales fell by almost 8 percent in the third quarter compared with the same period a year ago.

Sales of foreclosures and other distressed properties made up around 40 percent of transactions in the quarter, bringing down the median price by 9 percent from a year ago to $200,500.

Sales fell in all but four states in the Realtors' group's report. The exceptions were Nevada, California, Arizona and Virginia, where buyers have been able to snap up foreclosed homes at a bargain.

"A very large proportion of distressed home sales are taking place at discounted prices compared to more normal conditions a year ago," Charles McMillan, the Realtors group's president, said in a statement.

Boeing said it plans to perform a technological upgrade for the ground-control system of the Air Force's GPS satellites.

The new technology will allow the system to operate the new Boeing-built Global Positioning System (GPS) IIF satellites in addition to the current on-orbit GPS fleet, and provide advanced encryption and data-protection capabilities, Boeing said.

The first of 12 GPS IIF satellites is scheduled to launch in the third quarter of next year.
The satellites are being built in El Segundo.

Ozone Mapping and Profiler Suite (OMPS)

Northrop Grumman's Redondo Beach-based Space Technology sector said Monday that it delivered an ozone-monitoring sensor to NASA to be integrated into the NPOESS satellite system.

The science instrument will monitor ozone from space with higher fidelity than existing instruments.

The Ozone Mapping and Profiler Suite, or OMPS, will measure the concentration of ozone in the atmosphere, providing information on how ozone concentration varies with altitude.

Northrop Grumman is the prime contractor for NPOESS, which stands for National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System.

I don't know if Cuban did it, but I've always admired him. He's a brilliant entrepreneur and built up the Dallas Mavericks into a great team.

Federal regulators on Monday charged Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban with insider trading for allegedly using confidential information on a stock sale to avoid more than $750,000 in losses.

The Securities and Exchange Commission filed a civil lawsuit against Cuban in federal court in Dallas. The agency alleged that in June 2004, Cuban was invited to get in on the coming stock offering by Mamma.com Inc. after he agreed to keep the information private.

The SEC said Cuban knew the shares would be sold below the current market price, and a few hours after receiving the information, told his broker to sell his entire stake of 600,000 shares in the search engine company before the public announcement of the offering.

By selling when he did, Cuban avoided losses exceeding $750,000, according to the SEC. At the time of the offering, Cuban was the largest known shareholder in the Montreal-based company, which later changed its name to Copernic Inc.

The SEC is seeking a court judgment against Cuban finding that he violated the antifraud provisions of the federal securities laws, an injunction against future violations, an unspecified civil penalty and restitution of the losses Cuban allegedly avoided.

Unless he is subject to an injunction, Cuban "is likely to commit such violations again in the future," according to the SEC suit.

Attorneys for Cuban in Washington and Dallas didn't immediately return telephone calls seeking comment.

Cuban, 50, also owns Landmark Theaters, a large national chain dedicated to independent films, and the HDNet cable television channel.

He is one of the richest people in the world, according to Forbes magazine, which pegged his net worth at $2.3 billion as of March 2007.

Many people say the the Big Three car makers to lie in the bed they made for themselves.

ATLANTA (Reuters) - As Congress debates legislation to help struggling automakers on Monday, many Americans said they were uneasy with the plan, arguing that while it may save jobs, it would reward companies for pursuing bad business practices.

In interviews from New York to Los Angeles, everyday Americans said the proposed $25 billion rescue plan was unfair and said it would make it harder to reform U.S. automakers.

"They need to restructure. If they get bailed out they are not going to do it," said Eric Smith, a paint contractor interviewed in Chamblee, Georgia, on the outskirts of Atlanta.

Democrats crafted the plan to help General Motors Corp, Ford Motor Co and Chrysler LLC, and hope to pass it during a post-election session of Congress starting on Monday.

The three companies, whose gas-guzzling vehicles have been losing market share to Japanese rivals for years, are lobbying for the money to help them restructure and survive the economic downturn.

The stakes rose on Friday, when Goldman Sachs suspended its rating on GM and said the automaker needs at least $22 billion in aid. Goldman also said it would be difficult for Chrysler to survive without help.

The Big Three have fell into dire straits so quickly, it's hard to believe just a few years ago they were raking in the dollars.

White House refines position on auto industry help

WASHINGTON (AP) -- With Congress returning Monday to deal with an auto industry in dire financial straits, the Bush White House stressed that it supports help, but not at the expense of the $700 billion Wall Street rescue program.

With the Senate ready to start work on assistance to the industry, press secretary Dana Perino issued a statement saying the administration "does not want U.S. automakers to fail." She complained that reporting on the White House's statements on this issue has involved "attempts to shorthand the administration's position."

Perino's early morning statement also made clear, however, that the administration steadfastly opposes drawing funds from the bailout plan to help Detroit. She said the $25 billion that Democrats favor taking from the rescue plan should come, instead, from a Department of Energy program previously approved to develop fuel-efficient vehicles.

Democrats want to use part of the $700 billion Wall Street bailout for emergency loans to help prop up the Big Three carmakers. General Motors Corp., Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler LLC are seeking an infusion of $25 billion, a figure that several Senate Democrats embraced Sunday.

Soon we may all be driving Toyotas and Hondas. Some have suggested that may not be such a bad thing.

Experts: Supplier woes put auto industry in danger

NEW YORK (AP) -- The financial woes of U.S. automakers have grabbed Washington's attention, but similar problems at auto suppliers have the potential to set off a cataclysmic chain of events in the industry if key parts makers run out of cash and fail.

As with the automakers, auto suppliers' sales have tumbled this year because of the steep drop in demand for new vehicles.

That has forced suppliers to burn through their cash reserves and slash their costs to stay in business, said Craig Fitzgerald, an automotive analyst with Southfield, Mich.-based Plante & Moran PLLP, which advises about 400 small and midsize auto suppliers.

Meanwhile, banks and other credit providers have become dead-set against lending to any company in the faltering automotive industry, making it difficult and expensive for suppliers to get needed financing.

But if the companies at the bottom of the supply chain don't find a way to recapitalize, Fitzgerald warned, numerous bankruptcies and liquidations among the small companies will set off a string of parts shortages that could reach all the way to the vehicle assembly line.

The resulting disruptions could negate any help the government might give General Motors Corp., Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler LLC.

The new F-35 Lightning II fighter jet, part of which is being engineered in El Segundo and built in Palmdale, achieved a milestone by flying at the speed of sound for the first time, according to Lockheed Martin Corp., the plane's prime contractor.

The aircraft, formerly known as the Joint Strike Fighter, accelerated to Mach 1.05, or about 680 miles per hour.

See the photo.

This may change if the auto industry continues to dive.

Toyota says no change to Mississippi plant opening

TOKYO (AP) -- Toyota Motor Corp. said Friday that for now it is sticking with plans to open its new Mississippi plant in 2010 despite media reports that Japan's top automaker is mulling a delay.

"As we said during our second-quarter financial results announcement, as an emergency profit improvement measure, we are reviewing all future production projects," said Toyota spokesman Paul Nolasco. "However, no decisions have been made yet."

The Nikkei financial daily reported Friday that eroding North American sales had forced Toyota to consider postponing the start of production to 2011 or later.

Earlier this month, Toyota said its net profit for the July-September quarter plunged 69 percent. The car maker also downgraded its full-year profit forecast to 550 billion yen ($5.5 billion) -- about a third of last year's result.

Executive Vice President Mitsuo Kinoshita said after the earnings release that the company had convened an "Emergency Profit Improvement Committee" to cut costs and maximize revenues. Toyota is also assessing its manufacturing operations by "re-examining aspects such as the timing and scale of new projects," he said.

The Blue Springs, Mississippi, facility is slated to make the popular Prius hybrid amid strong demand for fuel-efficient models. Toyota had initially looked to build the Highlander sport utility vehicle at the plant but altered its plans in July as part of a restructuring of its North American manufacturing operations.

Shares of Toyota rose 3.9 percent to 3,200 yen on the Tokyo Stock Exchange Friday, in line with broader market gains.

Could is bad new for Starbucks, good news for all you Starbucks-haters.

LONDON (Reuters Life!) - What the global financial crisis means to the international coffee trade is as simple as deciding whether to drink it in a cafe or your own kitchen.

Industry experts said on Thursday that a growing cafe culture -- which has seen affluent consumers spending top-dollar for the beverage in premium restaurants -- has come under pressure as consumers look to tighten their household budgets.

Read the full story.

Today's Business Casual column.

These tips are from Chicago psychologists Dr. Carolyn Friend and Dr. James Weiner.

1. Take a deep breath. This simply means that now is the time to get your emotions under control as much as you possibly can. Your financial and personal worlds may be in great upheaval, but now is the time for clear-thinking. Remember, you can only make wise decisions when you are thinking above the chaos.

2. Take a vacation from the news. Once you get your emotions under control the best you can, take a break from those things that are feeding into your anxiety. Watching hour after hour of hysteria-filled financial news reports or reading hundreds of on-line news stories with gloom-and-doom headlines only reinforce your fear and anxieties. Give yourself a goal: See how the market opens, and then see how it closes. Better yet: See how the market opens on Monday, and then see how it closes on Friday and avoid anything in between, if possible.

3. Gather facts and information. Decide on exactly what information you need day-to-day to make an informed decision and what your sources will be. Do you need to consult your financial advisor, consult the stock ticker? How often do you really need to gather information? Decide this before you begin and stick with it. Don't be swayed by your fear or anxiety. Knowledge is not only power, but it reduces fear and anxiety to much more manageable levels.

4. Use what you already know. Be confident that your past experiences will guide you to the right decision for you today. This financial crisis is just like past upheavals you have lived through. Apply your guiding principles. These will help direct your actions.

5. Devise a plan. Now that you've gained a fresh perspective and gathered your facts, it's time to develop a strategy. Make a plan incorporating three different scenarios based upon the information you have gathered. Look at the financial challenges from as many different perspectives as possible before solidifying your final plan of attack. Knowing you have a plan and a couple of back-up plans will not only relieve your fear and anxiety, but it will also give you the foundation for the next step.

6. Discuss your options. Stop fear and anxiety from running rampant. Talk. Let your family know the facts of the situation (make sure your discussions are age appropriate) and what you plan to do about it. Also, discuss with your co-workers, if necessary, what your course of action is and why you chose this path. Keeping everyone in the loop builds stronger relationships and reduces panic.

7. Make the move. You've attained a sense of clarity, taken a quick break, gathered information, devised a plan, discussed your options with the people around you. Now, it's time to make the move. Implement your plan, quickly and decisively - and stick with it. Unless there is a major shift in the markets or new information has come to light, stick with this plan as long as possible. You'll feel in control and more confident about your financial and personal future.

Redondo Beach-based Northrop Grumman Space Technology said Thursday that it is ready to take orders for the Firestrike laser, a ruggedized high-energy, solid-state laser for the battlefield.

The Firestrike is a 15-kilowatt fieldable laser that can also served as a "building block" for a more powerful laser.

Because of a deep slump in U.S. auto sales, Toyota Motor Corp is considering delaying plans to start operating a production plant it is building in Mississippi, according to Japan's Nikkei financial daily report.

According to Reuters news agency, the paper reported that the plant, which would product the Prius hybrid, was scheduled to start operations in 2010, but will now delay that start until 2011 or later, the paper said.

A look at Fresh & Easy one year and 100 stores later.

Read the full story.

California is benefiting from a state foreclosure law. But will the law only slow down the inevitable?

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. foreclosure activity in October rose 25 percent from a year earlier, although filings in California fell by double-digit percentage points for the second consecutive month due to a state law slowing the foreclosure process, according to a monthly report by RealtyTrac.

Foreclosure filings -- default notices, auction sales notices and bank repossessions -- rose by 5 percent from September to 279,561 in October, according to Irvine, California-based research firm RealtyTrac.

That means one in every 452 U.S. housing units received a foreclosure filing in October, the firm said in its report released on Thursday.

The California law, which requires lenders to contact homeowners and explore options to avoid foreclosure before initiating the process, took effect in early September and drove the state's foreclosure activity rates down, at a pace of 31.6 percent from August to September and 18 percent from September to October.

Read the full story.

Here's an interesting article on the subject.

(Salon) Why bail out the car companies when they bailed out on us?

General Motors and Ford burned through a stunning $14.6 billion in cash last quarter. G.M.'s stock has sunk so low that you could buy the entire company for $2 billion. Bankruptcy seems all but inevitable.

Read the full story.

At least someone other than oil companies is confident about the future.

FedEx maintains long-term profit, sales goals

NEW YORK (AP) - FedEx Corp. on Wednesday reaffirmed its long-term plans to grow revenue by 10 percent and earnings per share by 10 to 15 percent per year.

In fiscal 2008, the package delivery company reported a profit of $3.60 per share on revenue of $37.95 billion.

In a copy of its Corporate Citizenship Report obtained by The Associated Press, the package delivery company also said it aims to cut aircraft carbon dioxide emissions and increase truck fuel efficiency by 20 percent over the next 12 years.

Since 2005, FedEx has cut carbon emissions across its air fleet by about 4 percent per available ton mile and driven nearly 14 percent in vehicle fuel efficiency improvements.
Initiatives to reduce fuel consumption include fleet upgrades, flight planning adjustments and efficiency improvements.

Shares fell $1.54, or 2.3 percent, to $64.96 in afternoon trading.

And in Socal, no less.

NEWPORT BEACH - Downey Financial Corp., a Newport Beach-based mortgage lender, says it could be seized by regulators if it can't get an infusion of capital by the end of the year. Following the company's grim warning Tuesday, its stock fell 99 cents to below 46 cents a share, the Los Angeles Times reported. The stock is down 99 percent in the last year. Downey so far hasn't seemed a likely candidate for government help because the Treasury is aiming its massive financial bailout at lenders that have the best prospects for survival. The bank was a big player in the market for so-called option ARMs -- risky adjustable-rate mortgages that gave borrowers the option to pay so little each month that their loan amounts grew, according to The Times. Heavy defaults on such mortgages are the cause of Downey's problems. In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission late Monday, Downey noted it had been ordered by regulators to maintain specific levels of capital as a cushion against losses, The Times reported.

With inflation so high, every little bit helps.

Oil slips to $59 on global growth pessimism

VIENNA, Austria (AP) -- Oil prices slipped to $59 a barrel Wednesday as investors grappled with the prospect that global growth next year will slow more than originally feared, cutting demand for gasoline and other crude products.

Expectations that a snapshot of the U.S. inventories will also show reduced consumption of oil and derivatives also acted as a drag on the market.

Light, sweet crude for December delivery was down 32 cents to $59.01 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange by afternoon in Europe. The contract overnight fell $3.08 to settle at $59.33, the lowest closing price since March 2007.

The steep price declines of the past half year may be temporary. The International Energy Agency -- the energy monitor for the world's industrialized nations -- has nearly doubled its forecast for the price of oil over the next 20 years, because of rising demand in the developing world as well as surging costs of production as oil needs to be sourced from more expensive offshore fields and state-run companies.

Call me crazy, but I'm hoping oil goes down to $30 a barrel.

Gasoline continues plunge; crude tumbles below $60

HOUSTON (AP) -- Retail gasoline prices dipped for a 17th week since July 4, falling below $2 a gallon in a number of states and approaching $1.50 at some service stations. The price of crude fell again too, hitting a 20-month low.

While consumers, worried about a weak job market and slumping investments, are grateful for the price relief, economic reports increasingly suggest they're hanging onto whatever savings they see at the pump.

Retail gasoline prices fell overnight to a national average of $2.22 a gallon, dragged down by the falling price of crude, which now costs 60 percent less per barrel than it did in mid-July. The average price for regular unleaded gasoline has fallen nearly 32 percent in the last month.

Light, sweet crude for December delivery fell $3.08 to settle at $59.33 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, the lowest closing price since March 2007. Prices had dipped a dollar below that earlier in the day.

This will reduce inflation.

Oil falls to $60 as China spending optimism wanes

(AP) Oil prices fell to near a 20-month low of $60 a barrel Tuesday as hopes waned that a huge Chinese spending plan will do much to avert a prolonged slowdown in the global economy.

Light, sweet crude for December delivery was down $1.95 to $60.46 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange by midday in Europe. Earlier in the session, it fell as low as $59.32 before rebounding.

The contract overnight rose $1.37 to settle at $62.41.

In London, December Brent crude fell $1.84 to $57.21 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange.

Oil closed at $60.77 on Nov. 6, the lowest closing price since March 2007, and has fallen about 59 percent since reaching a record $147.27 in mid-July.

Don't give up even though these numbers are dismal.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Fannie Mae on Monday posted a $29 billion loss in the third quarter as it took a massive tax-related charge, and said it may have to tap the government's $100 billion lifeline in coming months.

The mortgage finance company, seized by federal regulators more than two months ago, posted a loss of $13 per share for the July-September quarter, mainly due to a $21.4 billion non-cash charge to reduce the value of tax assets. That compares with a loss of $1.4 billion, or $1.56 a share, in the year-ago period.

I doubt this will be resolved before Christmas.

Riverside (AP) -- The maker of Barbie dolls is taking the next step in its lengthy quest to sweep the rival Bratz line from toy store shelves, after winning $100 million in a copyright infringement lawsuit earlier this year.

Attorneys for El Segundo-based Mattel Inc., the world's largest toy maker, are scheduled to appear before U.S. District Judge Stephen Larson on Monday and ask him to ban competitor MGA Entertainment Inc. from making the pouty-lipped Bratz dolls. They also want all Bratz products impounded and destroyed.

The motion for an injunction was filed after a federal jury ruled that Bratz doll designer Carter Bryant came up with the edgy concept while working for Mattel.

This episode should repeat itself many times over the coming months as the financial crisis works its way through the economy.

(CNS)- All four Security Pacific Bank branches in Los Angeles reopened today as branches of Pacific Western Bank under an acquisition engineered by federal officials after Security Pacific was declared to be perilously undercapitalized, officials said. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. was named the receiver of Security Pacific Friday after its closure by the California Department of Financial Institutions.

The FDIC then announced it had entered into a purchase and assumption agreement with Pacific Western Bank of Los Angeles to assume all deposits of Security Pacific.
In a statement this morning, PacWest Bancorp, parent of Pacific Western Bank, said its subsidiary "has opened the four former Security Pacific Bank branches in Southern California as Pacific Western Bank branches."

Customers of the failed bank will automatically become depositors of Pacific Western, and their money will continue to be insured by the FDIC.

"All branches of Security Pacific Bank will reopen on Monday with no disruption in service," according to an earlier California Department of Financial Institutions statement.

It's because of their low prices.

McDonald's same-store sales rise 8.2 percent

NEW YORK (AP) -- Consumers worldwide who are watching their spending bought more burgers and chicken breakfast biscuits at McDonald's in October, leading to a big rise in sales at established locations for the fast-food leader.

McDonald's Corp. said Monday its global same-store sales jumped 8.2 percent during the month. That beat the company's own prediction for a rise similar to the one it recorded in its last quarter, when same-store sales, or sales at locations open at least a year, jumped 7.1 percent worldwide.

The results were a bright spot in what was a dismal month for most restaurant operators. Many sit-down chains have reported steep declines in same-store sales during October as consumers grew more anxious about the possibility of a prolonged recession.

Read the full story.

It's all part of the negotiating process.

(Seattle Times) Boeing presented its initial full contract offer to engineering union officials Thursday, including pay and pension increases. Details were not publicly released by either side, but union officials reacted negatively.

Ray Goforth, executive director of the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace (SPEEA), in a statement called the Boeing proposal "an offer that completely misses the interests of our members."

Read the full story.

All in today's Business Casual column.

Who didn't see this coming?

NEW YORK (AP) -- Toy maker Mattel Inc. said Thursday it is cutting about 1,000 positions worldwide in response to the economic downturn.

The El Segundo-based company, which makes Barbie, American Girl and Fisher Price products, among others, said the positions amount to 3 percent of its worldwide work force and will reduce its professional and management staff by 8 percent. About 70 jobs cuts are at the company's Fisher Price unit, based in East Aurora, Ill.

Mattel said the cuts will come from a combination of layoffs, attrition and retirements.

The company said the move was part of an attempt to analyze its cost structure and make changes to boost productivity. The recent economic slowdown "amplified" the need to address the company's structure and streamline its global work force, Mattel representative Lisa Marie Bongiovanni said in a statement.

Toy makers have been battling high costs for commodities such as resin and have had to pass some of the costs on to consumers via higher selling prices.

Last month, Mattel reported fiscal third-quarter profit edged up less than 1 percent to $238.1 million, falling short of analyst expectations. Sales rose 6 percent to $1.95 billion.
Expenses for advertising, promotions and other selling and administrative expenses all rose during the quarter.

Needham & Co. analyst Sean McGowan said Thursday that Mattel's move is not that surprising considering toy makers have been facing higher costs for about two years.

"I don't think its a sign that things are suddenly worse," he said. "Companies have to do things like this. I'm not reading much into it."

Mattel shares fell 40 cents, or 2.7 percent, to $14.58 in afternoon trading, amid a broader market tumble.

Not every company is doing badly in this economic downturn.

DirecTV 3Q profit up on strong demand for services

NEW YORK (AP) - DirecTV Group Inc. said Thursday its third-quarter earnings rose 14 percent as capital expenses fell sharply and customers spent more on premium services.

The El Segundo-based satellite television operator said net income rose to $363 million, or 33 cents per share, from $319 million, or 27 cents per share, in the year-ago period.
The result came in 2 cents short of the average estimate from analysts polled by Thomson Reuters.

Revenue rose 15 percent to $4.98 billion from $4.33 billion, boosted by a 49 percent increase in Latin America to $658 million.

U.S. customers paid more for services such as digital video recorders and high-definition channels, helping domestic revenue rise 11 percent.

"In an increasingly challenging economic and competitive environment, we're continuing to see strong consumer demand for DirecTV's unique and differentiated content," Chief Executive Chase Carey said in a statement.

DirecTV's spending on equipment that it leases to customers fell 33 percent to $279 million from $417 million a year ago.

The company added 156,000 net new subscribers, a decrease from last year as more customers defected to other services. Gross additions declined because a distribution agreement with phone company AT&T Inc. ended in April.

Shares fell $1.25, or 6 percent, to $19.55 in morning trading. In the past year, the stock has ranged from $17.70 to $29.10.

For example...

Planned job cuts highest in 5 years

October was another awful month for jobs. Two key employment reports released Wednesday showed the largest number of planned job cuts in nearly five years, with private sector jobs falling by the largest amount in nearly seven years.

Job cut announcements by U.S. employers soared to 112,884 in October, up 19% from September's 95,094 cuts, according to outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc. That was the highest number of pink slips handed out since January 2004. Layoffs last month were up 79% from October 2007, when 63,114 job cuts were announced.

Separately, payroll manager ADP said Wednesday that the private sector lost a seasonally adjusted 157,000 jobs last month - more than six times September's decrease and the largest drop since December 2001.

The Department of Labor's monthly unemployment report on Friday is expected to show that 200,000 jobs were lost in October and that the unemployment rate grew to 6.3% from 6.1% a month earlier.

But Why? Is it because investors expect Barack Obama and the Democrats to win? Or because they're glad that the election is finally over and our country can go on to deal with other issues like our sagging economy?

Or maybe it's because election days are full of excitement, anticipation and hope. And those emotions boost investors' moods.

NEW YORK (AP) -- Wall Street was enjoying an Election Day rally Tuesday, surging as investors brushed off weak economic data and looked forward to putting the uncertainty of the presidential voting behind them. The Dow Jones industrial average soared more than 300 points, and the other major indexes rose well over 3 percent.

The Commerce Department said factory orders fell 2.5 percent in September from August levels, much worse than the 0.7 percent drop analysts predicted. But investors generally expect data from September, and even October, to be extremely weak, as credit markets began to seize up in mid-September. Analysts believe much of the bad news is already factored into stock prices.

Just over a month after its first successful rocket launch, Space Exploration Technologies Corp. plans to market a new spacecraft it is developing.

Known as SpaceX, the Hawthorne developer of experimental low-cost rockets said Monday that it will commercialize a version of a free-flying reusable spacecraft it is making for NASA.

SpaceX has invited government and commercial representatives to a workshop on Thursday to introduce the DragonLab spacecraft concept.

The vehicle will be similar to the Dragon, which the company is developing to ferry cargo and people to and from the international space station.

During the workshop, SpaceX also hopes to learn about potential customers' needs in space transportation.

Would-be clients for the DragonLab include universities, biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies, the Department of Defense as well as NASA.

Possible DragonLab applications include conducting microgravity experiments, deploying small spacecraft into orbit and recovering pressurized payloads -- needing environmental control -- and unpressurized payloads, which can survive in the vacuum of space.

"There's been a wide range of different sectors, many of whom are within NASA and the DoD, many of whom are losing the opportunity to fly in space with the space shuttle ending in 2010," Max Vozoff, product manager for Dragon and DragonLab, said in an interview.

The DragonLab would be launched into orbit from a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with a payload up to 13,200 pounds.

Toyota Motor Corp. said it will continue its zero-percent financing incentive for another month after posting another steep sales drop.

Toyota Division General Manager Bob Carter says the Japanese automaker will continue offering zero-percent financing nationwide on 11 models through the end of November, but the company's marketing approach will become more regional in nature.

Toyota on Monday reported a 23 percent decline in October U.S. sales, but that's less severe than the drops of 30 percent or more reported by its Detroit rivals. Carter attributed Toyota's better-than-average performance in part to the success of the financing deal.

Circuit City's Hawthorne and Torrance stores are not among the 155 locations the electronics retailer plans to close. But Compton is.

Here's the California Circuit City stores to close:

- CITY OF INDUSTRY
- COMPTON
- CONCORD
- DUBLIN
- ESCONDIDO
- FAIRFIELD
- FONTANA
- FOOTHILL RANCH
- ST FREMONT
- MERCED
- MIRA LOMA
- MORENO VALLEY
- MORGAN HILL
- MURRIETA
- PALO ALTO
- PITTSBURG
- POMONA
- RICHMOND
- RIVERSIDE
- SAN RAFAEL
- SANTA BARBARA
- SANTA MARIA
- THOUSAND OAKS
- VISTA

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The stock markets' slide may have hurt your investments. But some of the world's richest men have lost even more. What's that saying about the larger they are, the harder the fall?

According to the AP, from the start of the year through the close of trading Oct. 29, here's how some billionaires have fared..

- Warren Buffett has seen the value of equity in his company, Berkshire Hathaway, fall by about $13.6 billion, or 22 percent, so far this year, to leave his holdings valued at $48.1 billion.

- Oracle founder and CEO Larry Ellison has seen his equity stake fall by $6.2 billion, or about 24 percent, to $20.1 billion.

- Microsoft's Steve Ballmer's company equity fell by $5.1 billion to $9.4 billion.

- Amazon.com's Jeff Bezos's equity fell by $3.6 billion to $5.7 billion.

- News Corp.'s Rupert Murdoch lost $4 billion with a current net worth of $3 billion.

Read the full story.

It took a long, long time to resolve, not a good thing during an economic downturn.

Machinists union ratifies pact with Boeing

(AP) SEATTLE - Machinists union members ratified a new contract with The Boeing Co. on Saturday, ending an eight-week strike that cut the airplane maker's profits and stalled jetliner deliveries.

The vote by members of the union, which represents about 27,000 workers at plants in Washington state, Oregon and Kansas, was about 74 percent in favor of the proposal five days after the two sides tentatively agreed to the deal and union leaders recommended its approval.

The workers are expected to return to Boeing's commercial airplane factories, which have been closed since the Sept. 6 walkout, starting Sunday night.

Read the full article.

Good news for South Bay jobs. Others may criticize this view, noting it could be bad news for peace efforts.

(AP) With the government spending hundreds of billions of dollars to fight wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, most big defense-related companies should also be able to withstand recessionary pressures.

Military spending has soared about 40 percent during the Bush administration, pushing up the stocks of General Dynamics Corp. and its competitors. The company's chief executive, Nicholas Chabraja, has pointed to General Dynamic's backlog of orders -- totaling $60.5 billion at the end of the quarter -- as a sign of the company's long-term strength.

Rivals such as Northrop Grumman Corp. and Lockheed Martin Corp. also have contracts that stretch decades into the future, as well as large cash reserves.

Analysts caution, though, that long-term problems loom for the sector. Both presidential candidates have called for reforms on how defense contracts are awarded, and many analysts see the government's $700 billion bailout plan as a crimp on future spending.

It seems "nearly impossible" that future military budgets "will remain unscathed by the current fiscal reality," Ronald Epstein, a Merrill Lynch analyst, wrote in a recent note.

JSA Research analyst Paul Nisbet said that even a partial withdrawal from Iraq would hurt ammunition manufacturers such as Alliant Techsystems Inc. and General Dynamics. Democratic candidate Barack Obama has also expressed skepticism about the level of spending on missile defense -- a revenue generator for Raytheon Co. and Boeing Co.

By contrast, Nisbet said companies such as Boeing and Goodrich Corp. are better positioned to weather defense cuts because much of their business involves the private aviation market.

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