The New York Times Co. (NYT) seems sickened with troubles at its Boston Globe unit. A day after its largest union filed with regulators to contest a 23% pay cut, the parent body reportedly initiated efforts to sell the 137-year-old newspaper.

The Boston Globe reported in its Wednesday edition that the Times Co. has hired investment bank Goldman Sachs Group Inc. to approach potential buyers for the struggling broadsheet and will seek bids through the next few weeks.

A representative of the Times Co. said, "Because we have achieved the $20 million in savings we needed, we do not foresee closure at this time and are focused on executing The Globe's turnaround plan."

The largest labor union Boston Newspaper Guild rejected $10 million in concessions aimed at cutting costs at the newspaper earlier this week. The Times Co. has however been able to get major

...

China’s New “Manifest Destiny”

Tony Daltorio, The Investment U Research Team

During my years of experience in the markets, I have found that the consensus opinion on Wall Street is often misguided, incorrect and downright wrong. Today the Wall Street “herd” is moving in the wrong direction again – they’ve missed the real story on China.

The conventional wisdom on Wall Street that China is an export-dependent, coastal-river-delta-driven economy no longer matches the realities in China. China’s economic growth is increasingly being driven from within.

And we need only to look at our own history to understand how…

In the nineteenth century, the United States relentlessly expanded across the North American continent and fulfilled its “manifest destiny.” Over this time period, the United States economy underwent a transition from export-oriented growth to a greater reliance on inner economic

...

The U.S. news media has convinced many investors that oil consumption is falling because of the global recession. While that may be true, it’s a disservice to millions of investors because production is declining at a pace that’s actually three times faster. And that suggests higher oil and gasoline prices in coming months - perhaps as much as 50% - 70% higher, or more - particularly if a U.S. economic recovery is truly in the offing. To really see what I’m talking about, let’s start with a close look at consumption. I’m asked about this frequently in my global wanderings, most recently at the Las Vegas Money Show last week. For months we’ve been hearing about a drop in global demand. It’s a popular story and one that sounds credible: After all, it seems logical to assume that during economic chaos, consumers and businesses alike will ...

After a week of heated discussions, the New York Times Co. (NYT) finally negotiated a deal with Boston Globe's largest union on Wednesday that could avert closing of the 137-year old newspaper.

While exact terms of the agreement were not disclosed, news sources said it involved large pay cuts, unpaid layoffs and changes to the system of lifetime job guarantees that protect about 300 people in the Boston Newspaper Guild. This was the last of the seven unions involved in negotiations with the Times management and responsible for $10 million in concessions.

Like other newspapers, the Globe has also been hurt in recent times due to slumping advertising revenue and circulation figures as an increasing number of readers prefer the Internet over printed publications. With an expected loss of $85 million this year, the Times Co. threatened to shut down the paper within a month if

...

The New York Times Co. (NYT) temporarily rested threats to close its Boston Globe publication after reaching cost-cutting agreements with six of the seven employees' unions for a targeted $20 million in concessions.

However, talks with the Boston Newspaper Guild, which is the largest union at the Globe, are yet to be resolved. Negotiations were cut short on Monday morning after the union's leaders walked out of a meeting.

The Guild had detailed $10 million in concessions, which were rejected before the Sunday deadline. It now seems that lifetime job guarantees for some veteran staffers that the paper wants to remove but the Guild considers non-negotiable, is the bone of contention. The talks are expected to resume later this week.

The 137-year old publication has negotiated with unions representing mailers, drivers, pressmen and machinists to avert shutdown of the mainstay of New England consumers. The

...

The advance release for 2009Q1 GDP will come out on April 29. Until then, we have some readings from the monthly GDP nowcasts, two of which were released on April 15. e-Forecasting identifies a 9.6% decline in first quarter GDP. Macroeconomic Advisers (whose monthly estimates only extend to February) writes "Our latest tracking estimate of a 5.1% decline in GDP in the first quarter includes a 1.2% decline in monthly GDP in March, reflecting a partial reversal in net exports and weakness in PCE and inventory investment." A lot hinges, then, on what happens to net exports.

Today, the Chicago Fed released the Chicago Fed National Activity Index (CFNAI). The CFNAI is based upon the common factor approach to combining the information in 85 series, as laid out by Stock and Watson (1999). Overlaying the CFNA level against the m/m annualized growth rates of the

...

Even though it just posted its third-highest annual profit ever, investors hammered shares of U.S. industrial giant General Electric Co. (GE) last week on a triple play of bad news: Its first dividend cut in 71 years. Speculation over a possible credit-ratings downgrade. And growing worries that the once-unthinkable was becoming possible - a corporate bankruptcy that would put GE on the growing list of onetime Corporate America heavyweights that are now taking government bailout money. GE’s biggest worries revolve around the company’s gigantic financial-services unit, GE Capital Corp., and whether it has adequate capital to counter an expected rise in delinquencies on its loans. Investors are also concerned about GE Capital’s accounting methods and how the company is valuing its vast real estate portfolio. "Probably the biggest controversy surrounding GE right now is what the fair value of (GE Capital’s) ...

HST Global, Inc., an integrated biotechnology health and wellness company, announced today that it has commenced a project with EBITDA Capital, LLC for both shareholder participation and health and wellness center operations within Saudi Arabia.

EBITDA Capital, LLC will begin working with their contacts and clients within the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Key clientele within the Royal Family have shown interest in becoming shareholders in HSTC. They are also interested in operating a health and wellness clinic based within the Gulf Cooperation Council Countries (GCC). If one (or several) were to be built, they would include both for-profit and non-profit treatment facilities in support of HSTC’s late stage cancer applications. The company would be responsible for the training, maintenance and management development in these clinics.

Mr. Chet Noblett, Managing General Partner of EBITDA, is facilitating the initial negotiations and is leveraging his long

...

Sector 10 is an up-and-coming company that has taken the business of safety to another level. The company is working to redefine the emergency response paradigm from centralized equipment staging to onsite pre-deployed resources. Sector 10 is the only emergency response systems company so strongly emphasizing pre-deployed resources as the way to save lives, avert injuries and reduce liability.

While the young company has made its mark in the United States, Sector 10 is starting to become an international power in the marketplace. Sector 10 has a mission to bring premier capabilities to where their clients need them. Currently, 25 countries have called Sector 10 with interest in the array of services offered by the company. In a time when the emergency response paradigm is so integral to success and safety of the world, there have never been more opportunities for Sector 10 to position themselves to meet the needs of

...

Remember when America was going to hell in a hand basket if Congress didn’t pass Hank Paulson’s bailout bill? Well, guess what? Congress did pas the bill, and the markets have been sliding ever since. Justice Litle says that’s because Pualson’s bill was a fudge…and a poorly sold one at that.

This from Taipan Daily:

Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson didn’t want things to go this way.

As the ex-head of Goldman Sachs and a die-hard free-markets advocate, he didn’t want to become a de facto socialist (buying stakes in the banks) any more than George Bush did.

But he and Bush have no one none to blame but themselves (and maybe Greenspan) in being forced to swallow this bitter pill.

Commitment to principle is worthless without the substance and the means to defend it.

As the banking crisis unfolded — a crisis of Wall Street’s making,

...