Apr
23
The most shocking fact about the new Yankee Stadium in New York’s Bronx isn’t its $1.5 billion cost. No, it was the opening day top single ticket price of $2,625.
If, as leftist demagogues like to say, we’re “two Americas” now, surely one of the divides is between sports fans and non-sports fans.
A non-fan cannot understand how someone could shoot the price of 1,000 shares of General Motors (more!) on a ballgame. In a recession, too. But that’s a non-sports fan. To a sports fan, fighting traffic and crowds to get there on April 16, 2009, was being part of “history.” He or she would also spend the equivalent of a 401(k) contribution on a souvenir jersey.
The world’s most advanced ballpark sets a new standard of some sort. It includes shopping facilities and a team museum, plus what a news report calls “exquisite dining, private clubs, conference rooms, martini bar — and a farmer’s market!” If the game bores you, buy fruit and vegetables. Or hold a conference. Players’ amenities include indoor parking, a sauna, a pool, and at each locker a laptop computer. Read more..
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Feb
12
An engraving of the opening race at Jerome Park on June 8, 1868. For 135 years, New York City has been dutifully paying 7 percent annual interest on bonds which financed construction of a road to the park, now a reservoir in The Bronx. On March 1, the owner of one of them is entitled to come forward and collect its face value: $1,000Anyone who has failed to keep track of a winning lottery ticket for all of 12 months may want to consider the efforts of 39 bondholders who have been safekeeping valuable, tissue-thin, New York City securities since shortly after the Civil War.
Next month, one of the bonds, issued in 1868 and thought to be one of the oldest active municipal bonds in the country, will come due. And the city stands ready to retire the debt incurred when Winston Churchill’s grandfather came up with the idea of building a road to one of the nation’s first racetracks, which he had opened in what is now the Bronx.
For 135 years, New York City has been dutifully paying 7 percent annual interest on the bonds, which financed construction of the road. On March 1, the owner of one of them is entitled to come forward and collect its face value: $1,000. Read more..
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Feb
10
The early verdict on the Geithner plan: Too little, too little.
Markets are down, having had an adverse reaction to Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner’s presentation detailing the Obama Administration’s plan to pull the financial system out of its current morass, which many say is still too light on specifics. Certain facets of the plan resemble those that were entertained in the previous administration — with the exception of a stress-testing mechanism to determine which financial firms need assistance.
Some of the decline can potentially be attributed to the market selling the news. And one cannot help but think that expectations were probably a bit too high, even after various newspaper reports seemed to suggest that the administration was trying to soft-pedal investor hopes for a grand re-think.
Still, interviews with market participants suggest disappointment that the plans don’t go further in terms of detailing how the Treasury will move from Point A to Point B. The chief problem as many see it is that the speech, coupled with other leaked reports about the plans, is one long preamble — lots of references to intentions, being “prepared to commit,” and other lofty statements of purpose. It’s not
“Our objective is to use private capital and private asset managers to help provide a market mechanism for valuing the assets,” Mr. Geithner said. “We are exploring a range of different structures for this program, and will seek input from market participants and the public as we design it.” The Chicago Board Options Volatility Index rose to 47.15 on the day, up 8%. Read more..
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Dec
16
Daniel Meyers monitoring scanners for the Breaking News Network, a subscription-based service used mainly by news outlets.
A giant crane topples on the East Side of Manhattan and seven people are killed. A steam pipe explodes near Grand Central Terminal, leaving one passer-by dead, injuring dozens of others and forcing a number of businesses to close. A fire rips through a home in the Bronx, killing 10 members of two immigrant families from West Africa.
Most people got news of these major New York stories from television, radio, the newspaper or, more and more, the Web.
But some of the first hints that something big was happening came from a series of transmissions from outside the five boroughs. Those messages came from a strip mall in New Jersey and were sent to pagers and computers in newsrooms in New York City and beyond.
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