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ECONOMIC ANALYSIS: Talk of corporate greed falls flat with this economist

It is an election year again, and talk of corporate greed, that stalwart in the lexicon of electioneering, once again fills the airwaves. An economics columnist usually wouldn’t write about matters of sin. But attacks on greed always seem to have a policy message attached, and that is a big problem for all of us. Formally, corporations cannot be greedy. Corporations, not being human, cannot feel the weight of sin and so do not exhibit greed any more than they…

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What ails Brown County?

What Hoosier hasnâ??t been to Brown County for the fall colors, to shop in Nashville or tromp on the trails
at Brown County State Park?

Yet, as IBJ correspondent Jonathan Hiskes reported in this weekendâ??s edition, prosperity is coming harder and…

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Legislators tackle range of business-related measures:

Property tax reform took center stage during the just-completed session of the Indiana General Assembly. But lawmakers also grappled with a host of other measures with business implications. A roundup appears below. ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION ENFORCEMENT One of the session’s most divisive issues-whether to penalize companies that hire illegal immigrants-died during the waning hours. Under the legislation, introduced by Sen. Mike Delph, R-Carmel, companies could have had their business licenses suspended, or revoked after three instances. The Senate and House passed…

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Local bankers surprised by Bear bailout: Observers hope firm’s sudden sale signals peak of financial turmoil

The local president of Milwaukee-based M&I Bank, Reagan Rick, got the shocking news while waiting for a plane at Boston Logan International Airport. It came in a text message from Robert Warrington, the former CEO of First Indiana Bank, the Indianapolis bank M&I acquired last year for $529 million. Warrington told him 85-year-old New York-based investment bank Bear Stearns Cos. had been sold to JP Morgan Chase Co.-with backing from the Federal Reserve-for a mere $2 per share. “The degree…

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Foreclosures keep ’em busy: Bankruptcy attorneys, credit counselors seeing surge in clients

Many consumer bankruptcies typically can be traced to a divorce, job loss or medical issue. Now another perpetrator-subprime mortgages-is entering the fray. The fallout from the housing crisis, coupled with a weakening economy, is contributing to a rise in bankruptcy filings nationwide. They spiked more than 30 percent in January compared with the same time last year, according to the Virginia-based American Bankruptcy Institute. With more than 1 million subprime mortgages due to reset this year, ABI Executive Director Samuel…

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Indiana’s forgotten corridor

Draw a line from Richmond in east-central Indiana toward the Chicago area, and youâ??ll find some of the
most
depressed space in the state.

The stretch includes the once-mighty manufacturing centers of Anderson, Gas City, Muncie, Kokomo and Logansport.
Factories and…

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Valuing the FFA convention

The National FFA put out a release today saying its national convention in Indianapolis in October created
a $40 million impact. Lump out suppliers from outside the area, and the local impact amounted to $34.5 million.

Global Insight Inc., a respected…

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Ticket to the middle class

Forget outsourcing. A Michigan research group says the larger problem for manufacturing will be finding enough
domestic workers to navigate the complexities of modern factory floors.

The Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor contends in a recent report that while…

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VOICES FROM THE INDUSTRY: New tax break makes Indiana more attractive than ever

Rapid growth in the high-tech fields of biotechnology and life science has made Indiana a shining example of how promoting emerging industries can transform an agricultural and manufacturingbased economy into a national leader in innovation. It has done so by creating an environment in which knowledge-based businesses can thrive. Building on this success, Indiana continues to position itself as a leader in emerging technologies. A new tax law that took effect this year will present another major step toward this…

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INVESTING: Dear Fed boss Bernanke: Read this and take heed

I know you have a good heart. Evidence is beginning to mount, however, that we are sliding down a path we cannot easily climb back up. In the vernacular of my old hood, Ben you are killing us! The world is faced with two problems, massively slowing growth and accelerating inflation. You picked the slowing growth side to attack head on. You and your back-room cronies slashed interest rates from 5.25 percent in August to 3 percent now, with more…

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Tech innovator tries entrepreneurship again: iGoDigital software already used by major retailers

Eric Tobias, the IT architect behind Carmel-based online battery supplier Technuity Inc., now is energizing another startup, Indianapolis-based iGoDigital, a fast-growing player in “recommendation” software for retailers. Tobias, 31, was chief technology officer of Technuity, which distributes batteries, carrying cases and electronics accessories. He left the company, once known as Batteries.com, after it was acquired in November by Hauppauge, N.Y.-based Audiovox Corp. for $16.5 million, plus the repayment of $4 million in debt. The deal added $30 million to Audiovox’s…

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STATEHOUSE DISPATCH: Lawmakers left lots of touchy issues for waning days

As we prepared this column at midweek, there still was no certainty about a property tax relief and reform package resulting from the regular session, set to adjourn sine die March 14. While some lawmakers were proclaiming no hope of enacting a package before time expired in the regular session, others were seeing movement toward a plan that was structured largely along the lines of the original package offered by Gov. Mitch Daniels. Democrats altered strategy as the scheduled adjournment…

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RETURN ON TECHNOLOGY: Just when you thought airport lines couldn’t get any longer

This isn’t a column about business technology per se, but I couldn’t resist the temptation to write about a half-dozen states thumbing their noses at the federal government and potentially backing up travel this spring at airports all over the country, including some of the world’s busiest, all over a piece of plastic. After the tragedy of 9/11, one of the 9/11 Commission’s recommendations was to create a hard-to-fake identity card for Americans. In 2005, Congress passed a huge defense…

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Importing workers to Indianapolis

Hereâ??s something that might surprise you, considering that Indiana is sometimes viewed by people outside the
state as insular and unwelcoming to strangers.

Indianapolis has a higher percentage of income earners at least age 15 who were born in another state…

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Newcomers to suburban counties

Lots of people are flocking to the eight suburban counties that surround Indianapolis, a new report from
the Indianapolis Private Industry Council says.

More than 16,000 showed up in 2005 alone, said the report, which tracks the work force.

But the council…

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Local IKEAphiles in mourning

So much for IKEA dropping one of its stores in the Indianapolis area anytime soon.

A store opening today in a Cincinnati suburb is about as close as Indianapolis is going to see, at least
for a while, IBJ Associate…

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INVESTING: Process of deleveraging creating lots of carnage

The deleveraging of America continues with unpleasant consequences for consumers and investors who are overextended. One problem with a mass deleveraging is that the repeated selling of an asset to repay a debt burden leads to further declines in the price of that asset. That, in turn, forces others to sell, as the lower asset values no longer support their debt obligations. It’s otherwise known as a vicious circle. The Federal Reserve, the U.S. Treasury and Congress are scrambling to…

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Finish Line escapes one crisis, but challenges abound: Indianapolis-based athletic-wear retailer now shifts its attention to reinvigorating sales after prolonged slump

Executives at locally based The Finish Line Inc. felt a weight lifted after escaping a potentially ruinous attempt to acquire Genesco Inc., a company more than twice its size. But there’s no time for rest: They now must focus on a core business that was floundering even before Finish Line bid $1.5 billion in June 2007 for the Tennessee-based parent company of mall chains Hat World, Lids and Journeys. Finish Line this month reported its eighth consecutive quarter with declining…

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NOTIONS: Variations on the theme of March Madness

March Madness is upon us-that glorious season born in a Springfield, Mass., peach basket and now headquartered, literally and spiritually, in the Hoosier state. That means, of course, high-pressure conference tournaments; Big Dance brackets and pairings; controversial selections and exclusions; friendly wagers; blowouts; upsets; scoring runs; dry spells; lead changes; come-frombehind victories; heartbreaking defeats; and last-second, game-winning three-pointers. But in only the first week of the third month of the Gregorian calendar, it’s clear-from personal life, to the recession (er…

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EYE ON THE PIE: Waiting for evidence of recession

Save the date: March 27. That’s when the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis will release the latest data on Indiana’s economy. At that time, we’ll get the first estimate of personal income for the last three months of 2007, plus revisions of previous quarters. If there is a recession, that’s where we will see the first clear indications. If? Yes, it is still not clear if there is a recession because the data, our photos of economic performance, are not…

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