BUSINESS
April 22, 2014 | By E. Scott Reckard
California's immigrant-heavy economy looks strong through the lens of regional bank results, with two of Los Angeles' many Asian American banks near the top of analysts' national lists of bank stocks that investors should buy. According to financial information provider SNL Financial, BBCN Bancorp recently held the No. 2 slot, with six of seven analysts, or 87%, rating Koreatown's largest bank a "buy" or "outperform," meaning it would do better than...
WORLD
April 16, 2014 | By Carol J. Williams
Russia's economy has been hit hard by the Ukraine crisis, prompting finance officials to cut growth forecasts for this year to near zero and draining the country's hard currency reserves as investors flee an uncertain market, Kremlin officials disclosed Wednesday. In an address to the lower house of parliament, Economic Development Minister Alexei Ulyukayev said $63 billion had been converted from rubles to hard currencies and taken out of the country in the first quarter of this year.
BUSINESS
April 14, 2014 | By Tiffany Hsu
Americans rushed out to shop as frigid weather lifted in March, propelling retail sales at the fastest pace in a year and a half. The gauge from the Commerce Department surged 1.1% last month from February in its biggest leap since September 2012. Sales boomed 3.8% from March 2013. The strong sales, which beat economists' expectations for a 1% increase, bolstered hopes that the economy would continue to gain momentum after struggling through an especially harsh winter. "One month doesn't answer all the questions, and it's not like we have all-over-the-place exploding growth," said NPD Group analyst Marshal Cohen.
OPINION
April 9, 2014
Re "A sharing economy," Opinion, April 6 Before I read Jaron Lanier's revelatory book, "Who Owns the Future?," I might have blithely accepted the capitalistic efficiency of the sharing economy as described by Jeremy Rifkin. But consider the case of my cab driver: His professional, safe, reliable and fully insured service is getting killed by under-regulated siphons such as Lyft. Airbnb promises to do the same to hotels by exploiting unfair advantages. Who knows which industry will be next?
OPINION
April 6, 2014 | Jeremy Rifkin
Airbnb is all the talk on Wall Street. Its thirtysomething founders were nearly broke six years ago. Now it seems likely they will soon become billionaires. Their company, which connects 600,000 apartment dwellers and homeowners in 160 countries with millions of people seeking cheap lodging online, is closing a new round of private funding, and it is expected to be valued at $10 billion or more by the end of April. In one night alone during 2013, Airbnb boasted 250,000 guests staying in its members' apartments and houses.
CALIFORNIA | LOCAL
April 5, 2014 | By Christine Mai-Duc
A field of candidates - many political heavyweights and city insiders - are locked in an expensive battle to become Long Beach's newest mayor, a job that comes with expectations of reviving both the port city's economy and reputation. The April 8 election has candidates vying for city attorney and a majority of Long Beach's nine council seats, setting the stage for one of the most significant shake-ups in city politics in more than a decade. But all eyes are on the mayor's race, and with the crowded field a June runoff is likely.