February 2010 Archives

I recently visited the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley with my family and was bombarded with memories of what may now seem like a bygone era.

The late president was one of our most popular modern-day presidents and remains an icon of the right whose legacy continues to be felt today.

But what is his economic legacy? Reagan's name has surfaced in the debate over whom to blame for the recent financial crisis.

I discuss this debate and Reagan's time in office in my Business Casual column.

This is one of those situations where there is absolutely no consensus.

Duck! Watch out for falling home prices

(CNNMoney) Les Christie, staff writer, On Thursday February 25, 2010, 10:08 am EST

Despite signs that the real estate market might be lurching forward, prices are expected to fall further this year and next.

The average home price in the United States will fall by about 6% by September 2011, according to a joint report between Fiserv and Moody's Economy.com. And that's after plunging more than 27% in the past three years.

Read more on home prices.

After visiting Ikea, the home furnishings superstore in Carson, I realized that it has a certain cultural cache.

Read about it in my Business Casual column.

This is the main counterpoint to the seemingly prevailing narrative of a recovering housing industry. As time goes by, the backlog of foreclosures continues to grow, adding credence to the 'overhang' theory.

Foreclosure 'Overhang' Will Cause Home-Price Decline, S&P Says

(Bloomberg) -- Foreclosures will cause U.S. home prices to fall this year as lenders buck federal pressure to modify loans, according to a report from Standard & Poor's Financial Services.

"The mortgage crisis may be far from over," Diane Westerback, a managing director at the New York-based firm, wrote in today's report. "The overhang of homes heading toward liquidation suggests more delinquencies and lower home prices are to come."

Read more about foreclosures.

El Segundo-based Mattel has founded endless ways to generate buzz around Barbie.

Barbie adds computer engineer, news anchor to resume

LOS ANGELES (Reuters Life!) - Hard-working Barbie is adding two more careers to her long resume -- news anchor and computer engineer.

The two new ventures for the world's most popular fashion doll were chosen by for the first time by the public, who cast more than 500,000 votes to select Barbie's 125th and 126th careers, toymaker Mattel said on Friday.

Read more on Mattel's Barbie.

What can we learn from Toyota's recent recall problems? There are probably many lessons in the reports of Toyota technical issues that have led to injury and death.

But I see an important lesson about how our economy and society work. Read about it in today's Business Casual column.

This is hilarious. But really, won't a dog owner get tired of these canned tweets after maybe two days?

BTW Mattel is based in El Segundo.

Mattel taps into social media craze with Puppy Tweets

Twitter Inc. has gone to the dogs.

Tapping into the social media craze, toy giant Mattel Inc. is preparing to release Puppy Tweets, a high-tech toy that will allow dogs to publicize their everyday activities on Twitter via a sound and motion sensor.

Attached to a dog's collar, the plastic tag randomly generates one of 500 canned tweets when it detects barking or movement and automatically posts an update to Fido's own Twitter page.

Read more on Mattel's puppy tweets.

Despite all the attention to Toyota's sudden acceleration and braking issues in its vehicles, the world's No. 1 automaker does pretty well in quality, according to data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

Toyota was ranked 17th among automakers in the overall number of complaints per vehicle sold, according to Edmunds.com, the Santa Monica-based vehicle information service that studied the NHTSA data.

That's better than Honda, which came in at No. 16 and Subaru at No. 15.

American brands did even worse: GM (No. 11), Ford (No. 10) and Chrysler (No. 7).

However, Mercedes-Benz (N. 18) and Porsche (No. 19) did better than Toyota.

Toyota is in a huge mess with the recall of millions of vehicles over unexpected acceleration and, now, brake problems.

Can Toyota pull out of this skid?

As I explain in this week's Business Casual column, Toyota can learn a lesson about the urgency of its problems by considering my issues with a Subaru 15 years ago.

The foreclosure rate in the Los Angeles-Long Beach-Glendale area rose in December compred to a year earlier, according to First American CoreLogic, which compiles foerclosure data.

The foreclosure rate among outstanding mortgage loans in this area was 3.86 percent for December, an increase of 1.91 percentage points compared to December of 2008 when the rate was 1.95 percent.

Foreclosure activity in the Los Angeles-Long Beach-Glendale area was higher than the national rate of 3.16 percent for December 2009.

In addition, the Los Angeles-Long Beach-Glendale area's mortgage delinquency rate increased, with 11.71 percent of mortgage loans 90 days or more delinquent in December, compared to 6.78 percent for the same period a year earlier.

Will this serve as another reason for potential Toyota buyers to look elsewhere?

Toyota Price Recommendations on Kelley Blue Book Cut

(Bloomberg) Toyota Motor Corp. vehicle prices recommended by Kelley Blue Book may be trimmed as much as 5 percent after a recall to fix a defect causing sudden acceleration.

The Toyota recall prompted Kelley Blue Book, the used-auto pricing service used as a guide in private-party transactions, to lower suggested rates on involved vehicles by 1 percent to 3 percent, Robyn Eckard, a Kelley spokeswoman, said today in an e- mail. Any delay by Toyota in resolving the issue may reduce prices by 3 percent to 5 percent, she said.

Read more on Toyota's recall problems.

Too bad politics gets in the way of business so often. By angering China, did Boeing inadvertently help its European rival Airbus? I wonder if Airbus parent EADS has crossed China by selling arms to Taiwan.

Boeing may be the unintended casualty of last week's arms sale to Taiwan.

(Business Insider) Beijing responded to the $6.4 billion deal with fury, threatening to discontinue security cooperation and impose unprecedented sanctions on US firms involved, according to China Daily.

Read more on China's anger at Boeing over Taiwan sale.