Investments Finances

Where do you go if you're building, say, 500 homes or a strip shopping center and for some reason your lender backs out on you? Since the crash of the savings and loan industry, getting people to invest in your project or lend you money is as tough as it's ever been. The big boys will always be able to find money. But if you're a small developer, you may have to turn to somebody such as the Eaton Group in Costa Mesa, which will gladly help--for a price.

A proposed tollway intended to reduce traffic on Interstate 5 through South County might have to be financed with up to $245.9 million in junk bonds because of rising cost estimates and plans to bail out the struggling San Joaquin Hills turnpike.

Amid the furor over $6 million missing in an investment scandal, Torrance City Treasurer Thomas C. Rupert is proposing a new board to oversee city investment policy. The board would consist of five city officials, with Rupert as chairman. But some City Council members are hesitant to approve the idea, saying that more far-reaching reforms may be needed. Too much authority for investments may currently rest with the treasurer, they said.

A long, graceful curve rises skyward, dips suddenly and then resumes its ascent. The line isn't art but does tell you a lot about its value over the last century. This arc, on a graph, traces the direction of the prices for artworks at New York auctions, just as the Dow Jones industrial average tracks the stock market. Its designers hope their new index will make the fine-art market easier to understand--and invest in.

In a sign of America's shifting economic orientation from Europe to Asia, Japan unseated Britain in 1992 as the largest overall foreign investor in the United States, according to a study released Wednesday. Japan's cumulative foreign direct investment of $96.7 billion accounted for 23% of the $419.5 billion total and edged out Britain's 22.6% share, overtaking the perennial leader for the first time, the study by Arthur Andersen & Co. found.

They were born of the Great Depression, started families in the prosperous '50s, and watched the value of their homes and stock portfolios skyrocket in the last two decades. Now, the parents of the postwar baby boom generation, many of them also receiving generous retirement benefits, are poised to pass on their accumulated fortunes to less-fortunate next of kin.

At least six California counties are using risky investment strategies but not to the same extent as bankrupt Orange County, according to a report from the state auditor. Nevertheless, Auditor Kurt Sjoberg recommended last week that the Legislature impose a series of restrictions on local government investments, including limits on the use of reverse repurchase agreements. The six counties are Colusa, Placer, Monterey, San Diego, Solano and Sonoma, he said.

Tustin Councilman Jeffrey Thomas, who helped advise city officials to withdraw $4 million from an investment pool managed by Orange County Treasurer-Tax Collector Robert L. Citron, proposed a deal with at least one other county pool member that would have allowed the brokerage firm where Thomas works to manage some of its investments.

Despite being saddled with a $4-million deficit, the city of Oxnard has won a national award for the way it handles municipal city funds. Oxnard was one of seven U.S. cities honored for its investment policies by the Municipal Treasurers' Assn. of the United States and Canada, but city officials said the investments will do little to solve Oxnard's financial troubles. "Investment earnings make up about $2 million of the city's $60-million General Fund," said Rudy Muravez, director of finance.

Responding to the $7-million investment fraud scandal that has shocked the city, the City Council has authorized a detailed audit of the city's treasury and investment policies and balked at increasing even supposedly safe investments until the audit is complete. City officials say they hope the review will help spot and repair holes in the city's money management system while authorities try to unravel the misappropriation scheme allegedly masterminded by Steven D. Wymer of Newport Beach.

Hoping to raise the stakes in the contentious tobacco stocks controversy, the Board of Supervisors agreed Tuesday to send a letter to the county's retirement board urging it again to consider pulling out of such investments. "There's no question in anyone's mind that [tobacco] kills people," Supervisor Kathy Long said. "To go into a nationwide lawsuit [against tobacco] and then turn around and invest [in it] is disingenuous."

In a move rife with foreign policy implications, state Treasurer Phil Angelides is floating a plan that would bar the state's massive pension fund from purchasing stocks in Egypt, Brazil, Indonesia, Malaysia, Peru and Turkey. Angelides is calling for the investment committee of the $172-billion California Public Employees' Retirement System, of which he is a member, to strengthen its standards for investing in foreign emerging markets. CalPERS had $2.5 billion invested in such markets as of Dec.

Ventura County's $142-million-a-year child-care industry needs more public and private investment in order to keep up with increasing demands on its services, according to a study released Monday. Although supporting nearly 7,700 jobs, the county's child-care industry is plagued by low wages and high turnover and must fight a "baby-sitting" image that keeps it from being taken seriously by policymakers, says the first-ever detailed report on child care's local economic impact.

Is it possible to put a monetary value on "Hanky Panky"? How about "Louie Louie"? Or even Lou Reed and Lulu, for that matter? Musical worth can be debated endlessly, and its financial value to banks and Wall Street is largely unexplored territory. Now, a former top music industry executive is betting that there's more there than people think.

A Cal State Northridge official blamed by the administration for a $2.27-million investment loss was fired Monday and warned that even if she exercised her legal right to a demotion, she would be ousted for alleged "unprofessional conduct," her attorney said Wednesday. The fired official, Karen Hoefel, 47, has worked for CSUN since the early 1970s, most recently as director of finance and logistical support, and is three years shy of receiving substantial retirement benefits.

At least six California counties are using risky investment strategies but not to the same extent as bankrupt Orange County, according to a report from the state auditor. Nevertheless, Auditor Kurt Sjoberg recommended last week that the Legislature impose a series of restrictions on local government investments, including limits on the use of reverse repurchase agreements. The six counties are Colusa, Placer, Monterey, San Diego, Solano and Sonoma, he said.

Shortly after they were married in 1975, Bill and Hillary Rodham Clinton decided, as the First Lady described it recently, "to create some financial security for our family." Their goal, she said, was to accumulate enough money to educate their yet-unborn daughter, finance their own retirement and help their parents in times of need. That explanation of the Clintons' now-controversial financial affairs doubtless struck a responsive chord among millions of young, middle-class Americans.

At least six California counties are using risky investment strategies but not to the same extent as bankrupt Orange County, the state auditor said Tuesday. Nevertheless, Auditor Kurt Sjoberg recommended that the Legislature impose a series of restrictions on local government investments, including limits on the use of reverse repurchase agreements. He said the six counties are Colusa, Placer, Monterey, San Diego, Solano and Sonoma.

At least six California counties are using risky investment strategies but not to the same extent as bankrupt Orange County, the state auditor said Tuesday. Nevertheless, Auditor Kurt Sjoberg recommended that the Legislature impose a series of restrictions on local government investments, including limits on the use of reverse repurchase agreements. He said the six counties are Colusa, Placer, Monterey, San Diego, Solano and Sonoma.

Burned by the worst municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history, Orange County's cities, schools and special districts faced a new dilemma Tuesday: figuring out how to safely invest the $5.7 billion they will receive from the county's investment pool. At least one agency, Capistrano Bay Community Service District, plans to leave its funds in the pool, where county officials promise it will be invested in a conservative fashion--unlike the exotic financial maneuvers that caused the loss of nearly $1.