plus 4, Union Station Oversight panel eyes Archery Building - Brattleboro Reformer

Union Station Oversight panel eyes Archery Building - Brattleboro Reformer
A "New York New Year's Eve" slated in St. Ansgar - Mitchell County Press-News
COLUMN-Easier jawboning banks than leery borrowers: James Saft - Forex Pros
Sacramento riverfront project faces key council vote today - Sacramento Bee
Bay Area Body Shops Sponsor “Collision of the Game” On KNBR 680 ... - Earthtimes

Union Station Oversight panel eyes Archery Building - Brattleboro Reformer

Posted: 15 Dec 2009 02:00 PM PST

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BRATTLEBORO -- The history of a dilapidated building across the tracks from Brattleboro's train station is not fully known but one thing is certain -- it probably never served as a train station. That was the conclusion of Carl Fowler, vice president ...

A "New York New Year's Eve" slated in St. Ansgar - Mitchell County Press-News

Posted: 15 Dec 2009 01:03 PM PST

fivefilters.org featured article: Normalising the crime of the century by John Pilger. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

COLUMN-Easier jawboning banks than leery borrowers: James Saft - Forex Pros

Posted: 15 Dec 2009 11:58 AM PST

(James Saft is a Reuters columnist. The opinions expressed are his own)

By Jim Saft

HUNTSVILLE, Ala., Dec 15 (Reuters) - Jawbone all you like, but we are in a private sector de-leveraging, and bank lending and demand will remain weak, making interest rates unlikely to rise any time soon.

Monday's two big economic news events dovetailed neatly, if not entirely happily; Citigroup announced plans to repay $20 billion to the government and President Obama called banks together to inform them of their obligation to support the recovery.

"My main message in today's meeting was very simple: America's banks received extraordinary assistance from American taxpayers to rebuild their industry," Obama said after the meeting. "Now that they're back on their feet, we expect an extraordinary commitment from them to help rebuild our economy."

I just don't think that is how it is going to work, or really how the capital intermediation process has ever worked. Banks will make loans when they have sufficient capital, when there are good opportunities, meaning demand for loans from good risks willing to pay good rates, and when there aren't better opportunities elsewhere.

Taking one for the team is not how shareholder capitalism works, even if you lavish upon it public money.

Citigroup and the other 50-odd institutions which have repaid TARP funds have good reason to want to pay back the money -- it makes them look weak to clients and investors and ties their hands when it comes to compensation. It is also quite unnecessary to have direct government money because there is so much of the indirect kind. Washington let it be known in the spring that the largest banks wouldn't be allowed to fail, effectively underwriting their financing via that guarantee.

Further very low interest rates and a steeply sloping yield curve make for a slow but extremely sure means of recapitalization. If the average cost of funds for banks is in the 1 to 1.5 percent range and 10-year government bonds yield 3.5 percent the decision to turn down a loan application from a dry cleaning business, gym or auto parts store is not too hard.

This is not even really a story of bank heartlessness; demand is weak and households and small businesses are showing a preference for trimming their sails. The Federal Reserve Senior Loan officer survey released last month showed that demand for credit from small firms is flagging, with about six times as many banks saying demand was "moderately weaker" than those seeing it as "moderately stronger."

KEEPING THE PUBLIC MARKETS OPEN

The flow of funds data released by the Fed last week painted a similar picture; credit to the private sector continues to contract even as it continues to expand to the public sector, though at a slower rate than before. Even more striking was the gap between capital spending and internally generated funds for businesses. All through the 1950s and 60's this was barely positive, meaning that most capital expenditure was largely financed internally through profitability. Debt financing picked up a bit in the 70's and 80's and accelerated hugely in the 1990's. In the third quarter retained earnings were actually $189 billion larger than capital expenditure, showing I suppose that capital expenditure was restrained and that businesses saw the advantage of keeping their powder dry and their balance sheets trim.

The data also showed that banks continue to rebuild capital. This is totally unsurprising; what would be shocking is if they were to begin to go hell for leather again.

The fact that public capital markets remain open, at least for big companies with good credit, is a balm considering the understandable reluctance of banks to put on more risk just about now. Public markets are funded not generally by people with balance sheets but by people with targets and clients.

Even with a lot of cash still sitting idle, zero percent interest rates are doing their part to keep this sector of the credit markets functioning.

Therefore interest rates have to stay low, both to support and facilitate the rebuilding of bank capital and also to keep alive the public markets which are now doing the heavy lifting. Asset values need to be supported to make existing debt lighter and anyone with some money to lend or invest needs to be punished for keeping it liquid.

Banks will continue to rebuild capital, at least in part by lending back to the government and pocketing the difference above their funding costs. Balance sheet repair outside of banking is happening, but it is going to be a slow process and requires a real estate recovery that may be very slow in coming.

If buyers of government debt and dollars play along, interest rates will probably remain extremely low for a more extended period than many now imagine. (Editing by James Dalgleish) (At the time of publication James Saft did not own any direct investments in securities mentioned in this article. He may be an owner indirectly as an investor in a fund. You can email him at jamessaft@jamessaft.com and find more columns at http://www.reuters.com/news/globalcoverage/columns)

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Sacramento riverfront project faces key council vote today - Sacramento Bee

Posted: 15 Dec 2009 10:04 AM PST

Sacramento's vision for a riverfront development of 1,000 residences, offices and stores just south of Old Sacramento goes to the City Council tonight for approval.

Even if the council votes to move forward, construction on the 29-acre Docks project may still be years off, given the complicated, difficult nature of such urban developments and the dismal real estate economy. But city officials say tonight's vote is part of a strategy to have a next generation of downtown projects ready when the capital's real estate market turns positive.

Already, a $4.5-million riverfront promenade extension from O Street to the development site's northern R Street boundary is under construction and scheduled to be completed in February. The city owns most of the land, although the state and PG&E also own parts.

"Our primary goal in this economy is to get everything shovel-ready, to get plans approved, line up funding for infrastructure and be ready when the market returns," said Beth Tincher, senior project manager with the city's Economic Development Department.

At its 6 p.m. meeting, the council will vote both on zoning changes and an environmental impact report for the project.

The Docks is a longtime venture between the city and San Francisco-based Kenwood Investments LLC and two other Bay Area partners. They plan to spiff up a stretch of underused, industrial acreage along Sacramento's riverfront with residential and office buildings ranging from two to 24 stories. Kenwood, a specialist in urban infill projects, mostly in the Bay Area, manages the 400-acre redevelopment of Treasure Island in San Francisco Bay.

Kenwood Managing Member Darius Anderson couldn't be reached Monday.

Sacramento City Councilman Rob Fong, who represents the sliver of shoreline overlooking the river and Raley Field in West Sacramento, called tonight's vote a "pretty big step toward getting this done. We'd love to highlight that part of our riverfront."

Kenwood has had exclusive negotiating rights for the riverfront site since 2006. Though the idea of improving the riverfront corridor has been around since the 1980s, the current vision dates to the city's 2003 Sacramento Riverfront Master Plan.

The California Auto Museum is among those anxiously watching the outcome of development plans. It has leased a city-owned site at the development area's southern tip for more than 20 years.

Executive Director Karen McClaflin said the auto museum prefers a 1980s development vision that imagined other museums and more tourist-oriented and cultural monuments along the strip of riverfront that it occupies.

"For a lot of people, including us, it feels like to tie up the riverfront with office and residential doesn't really make a lot of cultural amenities for the city," she said.

McClaflin said the museum's board of directors prefers to keep the museum at its current location, even as it explores other regional sites. The city and the museum are tentatively exploring a new five-year lease at the site.

Another obstacle to developing the site – a large underground storm drain reservoir – can be overcome with a $30 million plan to repair and cap it with a park, Tincher said. A source of money, however, remains unidentified, she said.

City staffers also will ask the council tonight to extend exclusive negotiating rights with Kenwood for 4 1/2 more months. The developer will use the time to conduct a new market study and negotiate specific terms with the city about sharing infrastructure costs. Tincher said it will cost approximately $10 million to build streets and utilities.

Call The Bee's Jim Wasserman, (916) 321-1102. Read his blog on real estate, Home Front, at www.sacbee.com/blogs.

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Bay Area Body Shops Sponsor “Collision of the Game” On KNBR 680 ... - Earthtimes

Posted: 15 Dec 2009 09:57 AM PST

Chilton Auto Body mixes pleasure and preparation as they remind consumers it's a good thing to know where to find a trusted auto body shop when the need arises.

(PRWEB) December 15, 2009 -- Auto accidents cause so much anxiety and happen so infrequently, it's easy to put them out of mind until that fateful moment. That leaves consumers largely unprepared for the issues they have to confront when an accident finally does occur as they deal with the insurance company and the auto body repair shop. Filing the insurance claim, determining who's at fault, police reports and witness statements, collision repair estimates, rental cars, and the list goes on. And it all has to be done in a matter of days.

At the root, it's just about finding a business you can trust, but few consumers even know where to start looking.

With that in mind, Chilton Auto Body has taken to the airwaves to give consumers a gentle reminder in a fun way as they sponsor "The Collision of the Game" on KNBR's broadcast of the San Francisco 49ers' football game. Each week the broadcast team of Ted Robinson, Gary Plummer select the best hit of the game along with a sponsor message from Chilton Auto Body.

Chilton Auto Body owner Mike Chilton says "We wanted to be a part of our customers' real lives, not just when they have an accident. We think it will make them more comfortable when they do have an accident, knowing someone who has been part of their community. When you know a business you can trust, a lot of the stress just evaporates."

"Because they are already familiar with us," added sales manager Ken Kettell, "we hope they won't hesitate to pick up the phone or to visit us in person or on line. We're here to help and give advice that can help them get their life back to normal sooner. After all, we've been doing this for more than 40 years."

About Chilton Auto Body Chilton Auto Body has been family-owned since its founding in 1969. Over the past four decades Mike Chilton has grown the company to four Bay Area locations by focusing on expert collision repair and sensitive customer service. They've been a part of the San Carlos, Burlingame, San Francisco, and San Rafael communities for more than 40 years.

Chilton Auto Body's primary goal is to take the worry out the auto body repair experience by refining the insurance claims experience, developing efficient insurance relationships with major insurance companies, and championing technician training and certification and earth-friendly paint systems.

Chilton Auto Body has facilities at the following convenient locations: Chilton Auto Body – San Carlos 361 Quarry Rd. San Carlos, Ca 94070 (650) 591-7700 Serving San Carlos, Redwood City, San Mateo, Belmont, and Foster City

Chilton Auto Body – Burlingame 1028 Carolan Ave. Burlingame, CA 94010 (650) 696-9200 Serving Burlingame, San Mateo, San Bruno, Millbrae, and South San Francisco

Chilton Auto Body – San Francisco 320 10th St. San Francisco, CA 94103 (415) 861-0921 Serving the San Francisco districts of South of Market, Tenderloin, Mission, Hayes Valley, and Potrero

Chilton Auto Body – San Rafael 36 Front St. San Rafael, CA 94901 (415) 456-7969 Serving San Rafael, San Anselmo, Greenbrae, Novato, and Mill Valley

Or visit the website at: http://www.chiltonautobody.com

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Source : PRWeb

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