Remember when Brooklyn was a fetid nightmare of hookers and woe? Mildred Furiya does, because when she bought her four-story townhouse on State Street near Brooklyn Heights in 1967 for $16K "the block was a hangout for vagrants and a boarding house across the street was home to a group of prostitutes." Now it's home to a slew of coffeeshops, parents pushing fancy strollers and the all-important seal of gentrification: Dallas BBQ. Now, the 89-year-old Furiya is getting out of dodge and selling their home for a cool $1.895 million. As the Post reports, that's an 11,744 percent profit! Goodbye, residents-who-keep-neighborhoods-interesting! more ›

A financial firm once headquartered in the World Trade Center is seeking to commodify its loss of employees from the 9/11 attacks. Cantor Fitzgerald’s death toll after the terrorist attack was around 650 (about two-thirds of its work force), and it says that the slashed personnel has had severe financial repercussions. It's requesting $1 billion extra in damages from American Airlines, whose plane crashed into the WTC's north tower. (Originally it requested just $102.5 million to make up for lost profit, but upped the number last year, according to a filing in Manhattan federal court.) The Post reports that American Airlines will fight the “dramatic increase” on the ground that it’s a "disguised wrongful death claim" with no basis in law. more ›

With millions of cars recalled, Toyota has played the model apologist, but new documents suggest the auto giant has been putting profit before safety. In papers released today, company officials boast about having saved $100 million by bargaining with the government to recall only a limited number of floor mats in Camrys and Lexuses. It also lists millions saved "by delaying safety regulations, avoiding defect investigations and slowing down other industry requirements," according to the Daily News. more ›

Jeffry Picower, the friend of Bernard Madoff who allegedly saw up to a 950% return on his investments with the Ponzi schemer and was being sued for $7 billions in clawbacks, was found dead in his Palm Beach home. The AP reports, "The Palm Beach Police Department said Picower was found at the bottom of his Palm Beach home's pool Sunday afternoon by his wife and could not be revived by Palm Beach fire rescue workers." more ›

The NY Times has a depressing front page article on what Wall Street is eyeing as its next big thing—bundling life insurance: "The bankers plan to buy “life settlements,” life insurance policies that ill and elderly people sell for cash — $400,000 for a $1 million policy, say, depending on the life expectancy of the insured person. Then they plan to “securitize” these policies, in Wall Street jargon, by packaging hundreds or thousands together into bonds." more ›

Today, on the eve of the G8 meeting in Italy, Pope Benedict issued an encyclical letter discussing the economic crisis, specifically noting the problems with greed. He wrote, "Profit is useful if it serves as a means toward an end. Once profit becomes the exclusive goal, if it is produced by improper means and without the common good as its ultimate end, it risks destroying wealth and creating poverty." more ›

Feel better, American taxpayers: Citigroup, which received $45 billion in bailout money, has reported a first quarter profit of $1.6 billion. However, Dealbook reports, "The earnings were helped by an accounting change that allowed the bank to post a one-time gain of $2.5 billion... Under the rule, companies are allowed to record any declines in the market value of their debt as an unrealized gain." ( You may remember that besides a $20 billion infusion from the government in November, it was only in February when the U.S. increased its stake in Citi to about 36%.) Some analysts are still worried about the financial firm's ability to retain top executives as well as their credit-default swaps. Citi's stock is up in pre-market trading. more ›

Guess which restaurant icon isn't sweating the economic downturn? One Ronald McDonald, Esq. (pictured here with a fan). McDonald's reported a 5.4% sales increase nationwide last month (compared to last January). The big business is largely attributed to the impeccable quality of the chain's cuisine, as well as its inviting, romantic ambiance. Also, the economy; diners like Tristan Engram, a 22-year-old OTB employee in from Brooklyn, tell the Post he's been slumming it at Mickie D's because the fancier T.G.I. Friday's is now beyond his reach. Which now means the Wall Street execs will have to jockey for the best tables. But besides the value menu, McDonald's has also aggressively expanded into the fancy latte arena formerly dominated by Starbucks; this week the franchise will try to wring some brand loyalty from fashionistas as the official coffee of Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week, serving "espresso-based beverages" at the "exclusive McCafé lounge" in the tents. more ›

Former Gov. Eliot Spitzer seems to have turned the corner after resigning from his Albany office in the middle of a prostitution scandal. And instead of whiling away his summer at the beach, the Steamroller is planning on establishing an investment fund that will focus on turning people's failed dreams into cold hard cash for himself. more ›

The Trinity School, a private school on the Upper West Side that charges annual tuition of $30,000 a year, is prepared to cash in on the rise in property values by opting out of the Mitchell-Lama housing program. That program was designed to reserve housing for middle-class tenants in New York through government subsidized loans and tax breaks. The disparity in below-market rents required by Mitchell-Lama and the value of the building that houses the... more ›