Results tagged “economiccrisis”

Despite signing up pledges from a roster of prominent donors whose company names have become synonymous with the financial collapse of the last year, the National September 11th Memorial has managed to keep its finances in good health. More than 15% of the $350 million the memorial announced raising a year ago was promised by financial firms like Merrill Lynch, Bear Stearns, Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase, Barclays and AIG and most have remained on target with their contributions. Notably, the Starr Foundation, which was created by AIG's founder and holds a lot of AIG stock, has given $20 million of its promised $25 million. The only one that dropped off dramatically was Lehman Brothers, who went from a $5 million pledge to a $1 million donation. The memorial's chairman Mayor Bloomberg said, "The creation of the memorial is uniquely important to New Yorkers, and the fact that the city’s corporate citizens are honoring their commitments to it despite the downturn is a reflection of that.” Bloomberg himself has already made good on a $15 million pledge.

With more patrons opting to go to museums on their free days or only paying the minimum suggested donation on others, local museums are being thrifty themselves by dipping into their own collections for upcoming shows. WCBS 2 points to the Brooklyn Museum's recent exhibition of Coptic and Pagan sculpture and the MOMA's fall presentation of Claude Monet's water lilies series as shows that draw largely or entirely from the museums' own respective holdings. The Brooklyn Museum recently just raised its rates after recent months have seen an increase in visitors on their free First Saturdays by almost 50% to over 10,000. A spokesman for the Met doesn't think cutbacks will get too dramatic saying, "There's no thought of changing hours, closing galleries, aborting the schedule.'' The president of the Association of Art Museum Directors added, ''Although all nonprofits and profits are struggling, we do have a curious place in this reality.''

In a move that "caught Detroit and Washington by surprise," the Obama administration asked GM CEO Rick Wagoner to resign. Edmunds.com CEO Jeremy Anwyl tells Bloomberg News, "The bailout loans aren’t hugely popular and that’s creating an issue for Obama. One way to make the loans more palatable is to be able to say the person responsible is no longer with GM." GM, which had losses of nearly $31 billion last year, received $13.4 billion last year and wants another $16.6 billion. Chrysler, which hopes for another $5 billion of aid, was told it must complete an alliance with Italian automaker Fiat in the next 30 days. The Wall Street Journal explains, "After over a month of analysis, the administration's auto task force determined that neither company had put forward viable plans to restructure and survive." With this news, stock futures have fallen over worries about auto industry bankruptcies.

If there's one thing late night talk shows love to rip apart more than self-righteous hypocrisy, it's guests who cancel on them at the last minute and give them an excuse to take off the gloves and do it. Last night just that went down on The Daily Show when CNBC's Rick Santelli backed out his scheduled appearance on the show and prompted Jon Stewart to spend the first eight minutes of the show tearing CNBC to shreds.

In the near-year that Governor Paterson has been residing in the Executive Mansion, his expenditures for the place are up 14% compared with the amount spent over the same period by his predecessor Eliot Spitzer for maintenance, preservation and the day-to-day functioning of the mansion. Since Paterson has been there, his staff has spent just under $62,000 on equipment and furnishings such as furniture, linens and wine glasses. The News points out that the tally even included a $200 toaster. (But it's not any toaster, it browns four slices of bread at once.) The Post says that Paterson officials pointed out that most expenses came before the governor declared a budget crisis and ordered agencies to slash unnecessary spending. The governor came under fire in November when it was revealed that he purchased a $20,000 Turkish rug from a major campaign contributor of Spitzer's.

The last we checked, Mayor Bloomberg was the only major politician in New York who is running for reelection in a little over nine months from now. But you don't have to be a weatherman to know that the wind has really been blowing in the direction of Albany lately, with local media painting the picture that it's Governor Paterson who's the one in trouble when it comes to reelection—despite the fact that there are more months between now and the 2010 race than Paterson has even been in office for.

Yesterday was the release of the annual report of cost-cutting suggestions filed by the Independent Budget Office, the nonpartisan, publicly agency, whose report shows both the pros and cons of certain suggested measures. While many of the ideas are bureaucratic pipe dreams, this could be the year that the city takes the IBO up on some of its offerings with the city in a budget crunch resembling nothing from recent years.

50,000 New Yorkers are about to face a grim reality in just a few days when their unemployment benefits expire and they no longer can collect weekly checks. Congressional extensions have allowed many to collect far beyond the usual six months those laid off receive. But New Yorkers are missing out on another seven weeks of benefit extensions that other states are receiving because our unemployment rates are actually better than half the nation's. The Times says that this leaves our commissioner of labor, M. Patricia Smith, "in the odd position of rooting for a higher jobless rate." To make matters worse for locals out of work, New Yorkers' weekly unemployment checks max out at $405, over $150 less than those of New Jersey and Connecticut residents.

If the debate over extending term limits didn't make the point clear enough, Mayor Bloomberg wants us as New Yorkers to look at ourselves in the mirror during this time of crisis and ask ourselves, "Can we as a city survive without him?"

Republican presidential candidate John McCain said he was suspending his campaign tomorrow and asked for Friday's much-anticipated debate with Democratic candidate Barack Obama be delayed, so he can work on the bailout plan in Washington D.C. He said he contacted Obama's campaign and emphasized that partisan differences must be put aside for a solution (not counting that both Democrats and Republicans have problems with the plan).