By Jennifer Yousfi Managing Editor After posting four consecutive quarterly losses, CIT Group Inc. (CIT) took a step in the right direction yesterday (Tuesday), announcing it struck $1.8 billion in separate deals with Lone Star Funds and a subsidiary of Warren Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (BRK.A, BRK.B). Dallas, Tex.-based Lone Star will acquire CIT’s home lending business, which has $9.3 billion in assets and related servicing operations, for $1.5 billion in cash and the assumption of $4.4 billion in outstanding debt, MarketWatch reported. In an unrelated deal, Vanderbilt Mortgage & Finance Inc. will pay $300 million for CIT’s prefabricated home loan portfolio. Vanderbilt is the wholly owned financial subsidiary of Clatyon Homes Inc., which was purchased by Berkshire Hathaway in August 2003. “These sales complete our exit from all home lending businesses, removing the uncertainty surrounding this asset class, ...

The footwear industry should delight business management academics and stock aficionados alike. Even poor countries have masses of people who need at least one new pair every year. Children are top customers, though parents may overrule brand choices. Linkages between designers, materials of fabrication, and customer segments are tantalizingly complex.

Competition is surprisingly light for a product category that all of us need. There are fewer than 20 significant stocks in which one can trade in North America. Theoretically, there should be no forbidding barriers to industry entry. Most stocks in this industry have June 2008 market capitalization levels below $1 billion. The over-bearing dominance of less than a handful of top brands is most unusual for an open economy. This must also be the reason for the entire industry remaining significantly and consistently ahead of the S&P 500 for the 100-day period ending early June 2008.

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