Results tagged “profit”

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."

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."

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."

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.

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.

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.

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...