Investments

These days, everybody's an environmentalist. But as the new year begins, we ask whether in this dismal market it's possible to safely invest in green companies and funds. The call to "go green" seemed to be reaching a fever pitch just a few months ago. Then-presidential candidate Barack Obama was pledging to promote industries that were environmentally minded and invest federal money in creating green technology.

Lloyd Charton recalls a fateful knock on the door. At his Dana Point home stood a cheerful man with an impressive knowledge of Charton's personal life. It was a neighbor, Dan J. Harkey. Harkey congratulated him on his retirement and asked about a recent vacation. He told him about his company, Point Center Financial Inc., which raised money from private investors and lent it to real estate developers.

As bad as California's budget crisis is for the state's $1.8-trillion economy, just wait. It could get worse. The spectacle that played out in the national media this week of a state unable to get its fiscal act together is reinforcing the notion that the Golden State is a rotten place to do business, experts say.

The Redeemed Sinner in our popular culture is a mirror-image of the Fallen Saint; each inspires the suspicion that his transformation is never quite complete -- just as the latter's halo can never be entirely sullied by waywardness, the former's sin can never be totally expiated. This thought is prompted by the saga of former white-collar jailbird Barry Minkow, 42, who got back in the news recently by taking the stock of Lennar Corp. down 20% in a single day.

The bad news is that your investments went to hell in a handbasket last year. The good news -- at least at tax time -- is that these losses may provide you with plenty of deductions that can significantly reduce your income taxes. "Nobody wants losses, but as long as you have them you might as well make some use of them," said Philip J. Holthouse, partner at the Santa Monica tax law and accounting firm of Holthouse Carlin & Van Trigt. What can you do with investment losses?

Want to buy some nice mortgage-backed securities? Probably not, these days, unless you're a speculator bottom-fishing for discount deals. But what if the mortgage bonds were backed by the government, as U.S. Treasury bonds are? What if Uncle Sam stepped in to pay the principal and interest to investors if one of the home loans backing the security went into default? That would create -- and has created -- a boom time at the Government National Mortgage Assn.

Walt Disney Co., signaling a dramatic shift in its Internet strategy, is negotiating with longtime media rivals to take an equity stake in Hulu.com, the fast-growing website where users can watch movies and TV episodes for free. In exchange, Disney would provide episodes of ABC shows to Hulu, significantly broadening the program offerings to include such hits as "Grey's Anatomy" and "Desperate Housewives."

A Los Angeles investment firm run by a well-known Southern California political operative has become ensnared in a widening probe into the fees paid to advisors who help place investments in public pension funds. Wetherly Capital Group has come under scrutiny for a $313,750 payment it made to a firm run by a New York political advisor who was arrested last month on charges of running a kickback scheme involving New York state's pension fund.

California's huge government pension fund is expected to report today a whopping annual loss of an estimated $56.8 billion, almost a quarter of its investment portfolio. The loss at the California Public Employees' Retirement System for the fiscal year ended June 30 is the second in a row for the country's largest fund. A year ago, CalPERS reported an $8.5-billion loss, as the severe recession began to take hold.

When ABC's highly anticipated new drama "FlashForward" premieres in September, HBO will probably be scrutinizing the show's ratings just as much as the alphabet network will. That's because the pay cable channel was pitched "FlashForward" and passed, but not before negotiating a nice stake in return for letting the producers shop it elsewhere.