Category Archives: business news

business news

Trump’s ‘brilliance’ questioned

I get a lot ofĀ Facebook posts from former U.S. Labor Secretary Robert Reich, who’s teaching these days at the University of California, but who remains dialed in to what’s happening politically.

Here is his latest rant … about The Donald.

“This morning I heard an apologist for Donald Trump say ‘at least heā€™s a brilliant businessman.’

“Baloney. Trump companies have filed for corporate bankruptcy four separate times. If you or I went bankrupt, all our assets would be used to repay our debts. If youā€™re a former student who canā€™t pay your student debt, or an underwater homeowner who canā€™t make a mortgage payment, you canā€™t even file for bankruptcy. But Trump has used bankruptcy and corporate laws to shield his personal fortune, allowing him to amass huge debts with little or no downside risk while enjoying all the upside gains.

“Trump also made his fortune by squeezing employees. As Bloomberg Business reports today, Trump operates one of the stingiest 401(k) plans in America. You canā€™t even join it until you spend a year as an employee, and Trumpā€™s contribution doesnā€™t kick in for six years ā€“ the slowest vesting schedule allowed under U.S. law. Between March 2009 and June 2012, Trump suspended all contributions.

“Heā€™s no brilliant businessman. He typifies the modern corporate CEO whoā€™s rigged the rules, reaped giant personal rewards, and left communities and employees stranded.”

I think in Reich’s view, Donald Trump is a legend in his own mind.

Come to think of it, that’s my view as well.

business news, local news

Are we clear now on downtown plans?

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Well, that explains it, correct?

Amarillo officials teamed up with business and civic leaders to go through downtown’s revival plans in minute detail. They explained a lot, answered questions, heard gripes and compliments. Roughly 300 residents gathered at the Civic Center’s Heritage Room to hear it all.

End of debate? Not even close.

Now, for the record, I wasn’t one of the attendees; work commitments kept me from going downtown to hear the pitch and to watch the reaction. I cannot comment specifically onĀ the details of theĀ hearing.Ā Having stipulated all of that, I’ll now tell you that I continue to scratch my head over this notion that the city is somehow conducting all this stuff in secret.

I’ve looked at some of the online comments posted on Amarillo.com; I still am amazed.

The downtown project needs a couple of starters to keep it going. One of them is that multipurpose events venue, aka MPEV and/or “the ballpark.” Without the MPEV, there likely will be no downtown hotel, which would be built and operated by a Dallas-based hotelier. Without the hotel and the MPEV, there’s no parking garage.

The project would be done.

And yet …

Some folks in high places think the MPEV is a bad idea. They’ve dislike the notion of building a convention hotel downtown without first expanding the Civic Center to make it more conducive to conventions they say are going to other cities.

Weaving through all of this is this notion that the city has done things under cover. They’ve kept vital information from the public.

From what I have heard about the daylong public meeting Wednesday at the Civic Center, nothing of the sort can be validated. Yet the cynics out there — as illustrated by some of those online comments — keep insisting the meeting was a put-up job, meant to paper over the “real issues” relating to the downtown development proposals.

The projectĀ was estimated originally to cost $113 million — give or take a few hundred thousand bucks. I understand it’s been reduced to around $92 million. It’ll be financed by private investors, who’ve been given tax inducements from city and county governments. The city will put hotel-motel tax revenue to work in helping finance the project.

Oh, and let me add as well that the tax revenue in question comes from people who come here to, uh let me think, attend conventions or other entertainment-related events.

Those tax inducements? They involve tax abatements, contrary to what one leading local — and vocal — businessman, Craig Gualtiere, said recently, do work. They actually do provide incentives for business to come to communities, set up shop, build things, hire people and provide whatever service they are in business to provide. OK, so we exempt those businesses from paying property taxes for a few years. Then they join the tax rolls. Amarillo is not creating a new invention with this device; it’s been tried and proven all across the nation.

Yes, one can overdue tax abatements, but do you really think city and county officials are unaware of that risk?

So here we are. The community has heard from the downtown redevelopment brain trust.

Let’s proceed.

business news, local news

Still wondering: How does downtown plan hurt?

Amarillo MPEV

Let’s take the long view, shall we?

The drawing here depicts what Amarillo’s downtown district is set to look like in about, oh, five years.

It shows a nifty little ballpark directly across the street from City Hall. To the west of the ballpark we’ll have a convention hotel. Next to City Hall there’ll be a covered parking garage.

City officials think all of this is doable. They believe that once the project is complete, the city will draw additional convention business, with flocks of convention-goers putting themselves up in lodging downtown and perhaps as well along Interstate 40.

Xcel Energy has broken ground on a new office complex it willĀ occupy once it vacates the 31-story Chase Tower.

City and downtown development officials are planning a daylong session Wednesday to lay out the project in detail. They’ve invited the public to take part. They want to hear everyone’s concerns; they’ll certainly accept supporting comments. They also say they intend to listen to the concerns of those who are opposed — some of them adamantly — to the downtown project.

What on God’s Earth, though, can be wrong with redeveloping a downtown district that once flourished as a gathering place for Panhandle residents, but which has languished over many years as a place that remains a business and financial center, but needs some energy?

The City Council and economic development leaders have told us until they’ve run out of breath that the downtown redevelopment will occur without spending additional property tax money. They contend that hotel/motel taxes will pay for it. The money will come from those who visit Amarillo, from folks who live elsewhere.

And even that has drawn criticism.

The projects are moving forward. Agreements have been signed. They’re finally starting to bust up some pavement to make room for what promises to be a grand new look for our downtown business district.

The price tag is around $100 million. Development leaders are securing private investors to foot a huge part of the bill. Has that quieted the critics? Oh, no. They’ve persisted in the demagoguery.

I need to ask: Are we going to forsake this investment in our city’s future because some of us just cannot believe it’s possible in little ol’ Amarillo, Texas?

How about stretching our reach just a little bit to grasp what — to my eyes — looks quite promising?

 

business news, International news

Greece: the downside of globalism

Economists have hailed the era of globalism, the interconnectedness of nations.

One nation’s failures and foibles affect others, just as their triumphs do.

Greece is in trouble — again! And the world is holding its breath.

Man, it pains me to watch what’s happening to the country of my ancestors. I’ve visited the place three times: 2000, 2001 and 2003. I’ve seen the good side of the country. My wife and I have experienced its charm, swallowed up its physical magnificence, gotten a taste of its cuisine and seen first hand the antiquities left over from when it was the “cradle of western civilization.”

Now this.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/salvation-to-catastrophe-what-might-happen-to-greece/ar-BBl1S4d

Greece owes billions of dollars to creditors. It must pay them back or else default. It joined the European Union, converted its currency, the drachma, to the euro, but the EU might kick Greece out. Germany, which has played a huge role in bailing the Greeks out, already is making plans for Greece’s default on the loans it has taken.

International financial markets are on edge. They’re teetering, putting retirement funds — such as mine and my wife’s — at risk.

Why is this all happening? Globalism.

Look, left to its own devices, Greece’s influence on the world shouldn’t be that impactful. It’s a small country. It’s a modern country. Its people are sophisticated and well-educated. But it comprises about 10.5 million citizens, contributing to a gross domestic product of $284 billion annually, which is chicken feed compared to, say, nearby Italy, with its $1.9 trillion GDP.

Still, the countries are linked by common currency, common trade practices and common pressures that ripple their way across Europe — and around the world.

Greece has made a mess of itself and the world might be forced to clean it up.

The push to join nations together in international trade arrangements and alliances by itself isn’t a bad thing. I remain all for it.

These alliances, though, depend on everyone doing what they must to ensure they hold together. Greece hasn’t done it. It continues to resist the austerity measures that others have imposed on it. Its left-wing government also is on the brink of collapse.

Doomsday hasn’t arrived in Athens. It’s getting dangerously close.

 

business news, State news

Abbott: Texas’s newest job poacher in chief

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has been called the state’s latest “job poacher in chief,” picking up where former Gov. Rick Perry left off.

I beg to differ on one specific point. It’s a matter of style.

http://www.texastribune.org/2015/06/11/brief-june-11-2015/

Perry made waves when he boarded airplanes and flew to states — such as California — to make a big show of luring companies away from those states and relocating in Texas. He grandstanded and pranced, donning hard hats and talking to the media about how Texas is a better place to do business than those states governed by those dreaded Democrats.

I took him to task for the manner in which he sought to “poach” those jobs.

Greg Abbott, though, is doing it differently. He’s more low-key about it.

He recently sent a letter to the head of General Electric, based in Connecticut. He told the CEO that Texas’s tax environment is much friendlier than Connecticut’s. The Texas Legislature just approved a legislation aimed at giving tax breaks to companies; meanwhile, Connecticut keeps heaping greater tax liability on business owners.

The Abbott approach is far less in-your-face than the Perry approach.

I don’t begrudge any state governor who seeks to boost his or her state’s business community by luring big-ticket firms from other locations.

The optics of such a mission, though, do matter.

 

business news, local news

A put up job? So what?

The thought did occur to me when I read about some young Amarillo residents speaking on behalf of downtown development efforts: did someone put them up to this?

A friend of mine wondered the same thing, he said so publicly, and then encouraged me — after I posted a positive-sounding blog essay about the kids’ testimony — to “stop being so naĆÆve.”

Then the thought occurred to me: so what if they were?

The young people told the Amarillo City Council that the city should proceed with efforts to remake downtown. They spoke in support of the multipurpose event venue, of efforts to reshape Polk Street, of designs to bring more entertainment downtown, adding to the district pizzazz factor.

The more pertinent question might be: do they believe what they’re saying?

I don’t recall anyone asking them if they actually believe in the $100-plus million project and the hotel-motel tax funding mechanism built into it.

I’ll continue to give them — and this project — the benefit of the doubt. I like the concept that’s been laid out and I think it has the potential of being an enormous success over the long term.

IfĀ these young peopleĀ didn’t actually want downtown Amarillo to prosper, no amount of cajoling or coercion is going to persuade them to put such views on the record.

Why not, then, just accept the young men and women at their word?

UnlessĀ someone can prove beyond a doubt that something nefarious went on — such as money changing hands — I’ll believe the young people meant what they said.

business news, local news

Age keeps getting in the way

Don’t you hate it when you show your age to a young person who doesn’t quite get the reference?

It happened to me today while I was working one of my four part-time jobs.

I was sitting in the break room at the car dealership where I work, visiting with a courtesy driver who’s about eight years older than I am.

I’m 65; he’s 73.

In walked a young salesman. We started talking about how his sales business was going.

The young man made note of how popular SUVs have become “since the price of gasoline has gotten to be so cheap.”

My courtesy driver friend and I exchanged looks —Ā and then laughed out loud.

I told my young salesman friend that he was “talking to two fellas who remember when gasoline sold for about a quarter a gallon.” My courtesy driver friend mouthed the words “19 cents.”

My young friend, who’s 26 years of age, took note of when gasoline “first hit a buck 50.”

So, there we have a clear definition of what I’ve termed the “new normal” at the gasoline pump.

When gasoline sells for $2.50 per gallon for regular unleaded and that’s considered “cheap,” well, that signals a new way — in my view at least — of assessing the relative price of a common commodity.

I reminded my good friend — the young man — that when gasoline hit $1.50 per gallon, some of us became apoplectic.

I don’t think he quite got it. My other friend — the older one — surely did.

 

business news, local news

Downtown hotel design gets ‘certified’

This is one of the more fascinating steps so farĀ in the quest to rebuild downtown Amarillo.

The proposed convention hotel has received something called a “certificate of appropriateness.”

The downtown design committee has signed off on the concept for the looks of the proposed Embassy Suites hotel that will be built near the Civic Center, the proposed multipurpose event venue — aka MPEV — and a multi-story parking garage.

It’s all coming together, the city and its design consultants say.

The design panel needed to ensure that the hotel fit the city’s aesthetic standards.

I’ve seen the renderings of what the complex is going to look like. They are impressive, to say the least.

The funding of the project remains as stated: hotel-motel tax revenue will fund it, along with tax breaks granted by the city and, presumably, by Potter County, given that the district lies inside the county line.

Some skeptics remain out there, thinking nefarious thoughts about who did what to and forĀ whom and whether it’s all on the up-and-up. I’m not one of them.

I continue to embrace the concept as it has been presented. I will continue to hold onto my faith that the city’s funding formula will hold up and I will continue to hope for the very best that the city — along with the developers and investors it is trying to recruit — will deliver the goods as promised.

Just make sure, folks, that it’s all, um, appropriate.

business news, political news

Government is no business

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I just have to share this tidbit from a friend and fellow blogger.

Jon Talton writes a blog called “The Rogue Columnist.” This is what he said about Carly Fiorina, a recently declared Republican candidate for president of the United States of America.

“So wealthy Republican Cara Carlton Sneed, aka “Carly Fiorina,” is running for president. She represents everything wrong in an America run by oligarchy, including running venerable Hewlett Packard into the ground and laying off tens of thousands of people.

“The two businessmen who became president were Warren G. Harding and George W. Bush. In fact, government can’t and shouldn’t be run like a business. A business, especially a big business today, seeks only its own growth and increasing stock price. Too many of its leaders, Fiorina included, are sociopaths with no notion of the public good. So she’ll fit right with the Republican contenders.

“It tells us something that this supposed titan of technology forgot to register her domain name.”

Here’s the link to Jon’s blog. http://www.roguecolumnist.com/rogue_columnist/

President Harding’s administration was tainted by scandal and near-impeachment because of the “business” he conducted while serving as president from 1921 until his death in 1923. Does the name “Teapot Dome” ring a bell?

President Bush? Well, I don’t recall him espousing too loudly his “business acumen” after he was elected in 2000, although he seemed to take his eye off the financial sector as it was lending lots of money to folks who couldn’t repay the loans, which likely contributed to the economic collapse that occurred near the end of his presidency in 2008.

Jon is right about government being run like a business. It can’t be done. Government’s mission is to “serve the people.” The core mission of every business in America — if not the planet — is to make money.

These missions, as near as I can tell, are mutually exclusive.

 

business news, national news, political news

Welcome aboard, Carly Fiorina

The Republican Party’s presidential field has grown by one — or maybe it’s two — candidate.

Carly Fiorina is running for president next year. She is citing her business experience as the reason for electing her.

She knows the ins and outs of the economy, she says.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/republican-former-ceo-fiorina-enters-white-house-race/ar-BBj9cdO

I’m your woman, Fiorina notes.

Is she? Well, she served as CEO of Hewlett-Packard, the giant techno-firm. Then the company got into some financial trouble. It merged with Compaq and the HP board decided Fiorina was leading the company in the wrong direction, or something like that.

She was forced to resign.

Fiorina, though, portrays her tenure at HP as a success, although it’s a bit of a reach to come to that conclusion. The company jettisoned a lot of jobs. Still, the says the company’s stock value grew during her time in the HP driver’s seat.

Her political career? She was a key adviser to Sen. John McCain in 2008 during the GOP nominee’s losing bid for the presidency. Fiorina then ran for the U.S. Senate in 2010 … and lost that race too.

Oh, but she says she’s not a “professional politician.” Actually, she is, by virtue of her running now for elective office for the second time in five years. Hey, I’m not quibbling, just stating what I understand to be the definition of the term “politician.”

Fiorina’s personal story is gripping. She’s a cancer survivor and she has endured the tragedy of losing a stepdaughter to drug abuse. Those events surely have steeled her for the tough campaign that awaits.

I heard this morning that Ben Carson is about to join the Republican field, so he’s going to take a bit of the attention away from Fiorina, whose poll numbers are pretty low as it is.

I’m now going to wait for her Republican debate opponents to ask her to explain how herĀ checkered business record commends her for the job of running a multitrillion-dollar enterprise called The Federal Government.