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Merrill Lynch Paid $121 Million to Top Four Bonus Recipients
Tweet Share on Facebook February 12, 2009 Comment (12)
Merrill Lynch dished out a combined $121 million to the top four bonus recipients at the firm, right before Merrill was acquired by Bank of America Corp. Sheesh. Talk about shady timing.
Attorney General Andrew Cuomo has been investigating the last-minute timing of the bonuses and presented his findings earlier this week to Democratic Massachusetts Rep. Barney Frank.
"One disturbing question that must be answered is whether Merrill Lynch and Bank of America timed the bonuses in such a way as to force taxpayers to pay for them through the deal funding," Cuomo wrote in a February 10 letter to Frank. The letter became public yesterday, the day that the chief executives from the eight largest U.S. banks faced the ire of lawmakers at a committee hearing in Washington.
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Struggling Starbucks Offers Breakfast 'Pairings'
Tweet Share on Facebook February 11, 2009 Comment (7)For years, Starbucks has thrived on an image of selling gourmet, premium products. The Seattle-based coffee chain has probably raked in millions of dollars in free advertising from photos of celebrities holding its drinks. But now, Starbucks is struggling to keep customers affected by a deepening recession and will offer breakfast "pairings" next month. Sounds more like McDonald's, actually.
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District Hotels Raked in $95 Million in Inauguration Room Revenue
Tweet Share on Facebook February 10, 2009 CommentD.C. area hotels were the big winners in the four days leading up to and including the presidential inauguration, raking in $94.8 million in room revenue, according to the city's tourism arm, Destination DC. More than half of that revenue came from the 110 hotels within the District. The numbers, compiled by Smith Travel Research of Tennessee, do not include revenues for food, beverages, and other nonhotel sources.
Occupancy rates hit 98 percent in D.C. on January 19. Visitors paid an average of $605 per night to stay in a D.C. hotel on inauguration night and about $300 per night outside of the District. That's more than three times the average room rate in January 2008.
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MTV's "True Life" Opens Its Eyes to the Recession
Tweet Share on Facebook February 9, 2009 Comment (2)MTV has never been shy about endorsing the luxe life. The Hills, The City, My Super Sweet Sixteen, Daddy's Girls, and Cribs are just a handful of shows pandering to the young and affluent. The cable television network, known more for its reality shows than playing music videos, seems to have finally opened its eyes to the deepening global recession. It's actually happening!
The 405 Club, a site for New Yorkers collecting unemployment benefits, received a request from one of the producers of MTV's True Life —which produces hourlong documentaries on tough topics like steroid use and anorexia—to spread the word about a show potentially called I Can't Afford My Lifestyle.
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It Takes 6 Figures to Be Middle Class in New York City
Tweet Share on Facebook February 9, 2009 Comment (11)Not everyone's "hearting" New York these days. Stratospheric rents, lengthy commutes, and exorbitant living costs are just some of the culprits driving the middle class out of the Big Apple, according to a study released by the Center for an Urban Future.
A person living in Manhattan needs to earn $123,322 a year to be considered middle class, the equivalent of a $72,772 salary in Boston and a $50,000 salary in Houston, the study says.
America is already facing foreclosures, a rapid decline in housing sales, and massive layoffs. Couple those conditions with the fact that expenses in New York have risen faster than wages, and you've got your mass exodus. The city, of course, has never been cheap, and even when times are good, NYC can hardly support a middle-class lifestyle. About 150,000 residents fled the five boroughs for other locales in 2006, compared with a loss of 141,047 in 1993, when the city was in much worse shape economically, the study says.
New York has always been a city of aspiration. Now it's on the verge of losing that status. Some of the findings shed light on how this happened:
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Valentine's Day Sales Slow Down This Year, but Not by Much
Tweet Share on Facebook February 5, 2009 Comment (2)Love is in the air, but cash gets a slight squeeze. Consumers plan to spend an average $102.50 on Valentine's Day gifts and merchandise, versus $122.08 per person last year, according to the National Retail Federation's 2009 Valentine's Day Consumer Intentions and Actions survey. Total Valentine's Day spending is expected to reach $14.7 billion.
People will continue to spend on traditional Valentine's gifts, including jewelry, flowers, and greeting cards. Sixteen percent will purchase jewelry, compared with 16.6 percent last year, and 35.7 percent will buy flowers versus 35.9 percent in 2008. "A bad economy won't stop Cupid this Valentine's Day, but it might slow him down," said NRF President and CEO Tracy Mullin.
According to the survey, the majority of people (90.8 percent) will spend the most on their spouse ($67.22), with other family members such as children getting about one fifth of their budget ($20.95). Consumers will also spend on friends ($4.74), children's classmates/teachers ($3.59), coworkers ($1.94), and pets ($2.17).
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Degas Ballerina Bronze Sold for $19.2 Million
Tweet Share on Facebook February 4, 2009 Comment (3)A rare sculpture of a young dancer by French Impressionist Edgar Degas sold for a record 13.3 million pounds ($19.2 million) yesterday at Sotheby's auction house in London. It was expected to sell for up to 12 million pounds ($17 million). Collector and philanthropist Sir John Madejski paid 5 million pounds for the statue at the British auction house in February 2004. The bronze cast was one of only 10 remaining in private collections.
La Petite Danseuse de Quatorze Ans, or Little Dancer of Fourteen Years, a bronze figure of a young ballerina with her chin tilted up and hands clasped behind her back, was bought by a private bidder in Asia. The record sale price for a Degas statue made it the top lot in Sotheby's auction of Impressionist and modern art, which earned a total of 32.5 million pounds ($46.2 million). Twenty-two of the 29 lots found buyers, proving that the art market can still attract wealthy buyers, even during a recession.
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Degas Ballerina Bronze Expected to Sell for Up to $17 Million
Tweet Share on Facebook February 3, 2009 Comment (2)An iconic sculpture of a young ballet dancer by French Impressionist Edgar Degas could sell for up to 12 million pounds ($17 million) when it's auctioned off in London today, according to British auction house Sotheby's. The bronze cast is one of only a handful remaining in private collections. The sale represents an incredible opportunity to acquire a rare piece of Impressionist art.
La Petite Danseuse de Quatorze Ans, or Little Dancer of Fourteen Years, is a bronze figure of a young ballerina with her hands clasped behind her back and her head tilted up. Degas's model, the daughter of a Belgian tailor and laundress, was a ballet student in the Paris Opéra named Marie van Goethem. Degas used many of these dancers as a source of inspiration.
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5 Green Luxury Hotels for Ecoconscious Travelers
Tweet Share on Facebook January 29, 2009 Comment (3)It's a simple fact: Most hotels wreak havoc on the environment. Take the daily washing of sheets, towels, and tablecloths; an endless supply of tiny soaps, shampoo, and other bath accessories; and lights, air conditioning, or heat left on continuously. These are just a few of the crimes that hotels commit, gobbling up water and energy and generating massive amounts of paper, food, metal, plastic, aluminum, and glass waste.
But some hotels are taking great strides to becoming greener. A "green" hotel uses resources wisely, and conserves and preserves by saving water, reducing energy use, and cutting down on solid waste. Incorporating these waste reduction techniques into hotel operations is a win-win for the environment and the hotel. Not only will greener hotels save resources and reduce pollution, they will also cut down on operating costs while increasing profit margins. U.S. News takes a look at five green and sustainable luxury hotels:
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Domino Magazine Is Dead
Tweet Share on Facebook January 28, 2009 Comment (105)
Domino magazine and its website will cease publication, Charles Townsend, president and CEO of Condé Nast, announced today. The announcement comes on the heels of naming Bill Wackermann as "publishing director" of the shelter magazine.
That was a bust. Domino, which offers advice on decorating, do-it-yourself projects, gardening, and party planning, will publish its final issue in March.
Take a magazine built around peddling products, couple that with a deepening recession in which people are less likely to purchase things, and you've got a recipe for failure. "This decision to cease publication of the magazine and its website is driven entirely by the economy," Townsend said. "Although readership and advertising response was encouraging in the early years, we have concluded that this economic market will not support our business expectations."
Domino was launched in April 2005. The magazine's current rate-base is 850,000.
