Wall Street

Michele and Russell Poland's credit was shot, but they managed to buy their suburban dream home anyway. After a business bankruptcy and a home foreclosure, they turned to a rare option in this era of tightfisted banking - a subprime loan. The Polands paid nearly $10,000 in upfront fees for the privilege of securing a mortgage at 10.9% interest. And they had to raid their retirement account for a 35% down payment. Most borrowers would balk at such stiff terms. But with prices rising, the Polands wanted to snag a four-bedroom home in Temecula near top-rated schools for their 5-year-old son. By later this year, they figure, they'll be able to refinance into a standard loan.

Mark Tercek had some horribly awkward moments after he left Goldman Sachs to run a U.S. environmental charity, the Nature Conservancy. At one of his first big staff meetings, he committed a total eco no-no by drinking from a plastic water bottle. When he got to work the next day, his new colleagues had left him a batch of reusable Klean Kanteen bottles. At about the same time, he went to a big event packed with luminaries in the environmental field and found himself face to face with Russell Train, founding director of the World Wildlife Fund in the U.S. "Who are you?"

WASHINGTON - Sen. Elizabeth Warren, the newest member of the Senate Banking Committee, waited patiently for her first chance to question top financial regulators at a recent hearing on Capitol Hill. When her turn finally came after 90 minutes, Warren quickly showed she wouldn't be following the custom that a freshman senator be seen and not heard. After some pleasantries, the longtime consumer advocate and Wall Street critic lit into the heads of the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

William C. Cox Jr., the patriarch of the Bancroft clan that controlled Dow Jones & Co. for 105 years and sold it to Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. in a decision sparking a family feud, died Wednesday at his home in Hobe Sound, Fla., according to his daughter, Ann Bartram. He was 82. The cause was complications from diabetes. Cox was at the center of a protracted family dispute that ultimately led to the sale of New York-based Dow Jones, owner of the Wall Street Journal, to News Corp.

Congratulations to Mark Zuckerberg on his surprise wedding last Saturday. I certainly hope his marriage gets off to a better start than Friday's initial public offering of shares in his social networking colossus, Facebook.  Wall Street analysts are now saying the opening share price of $38 was too high for investors wary of buying into a business that delivers millions of messages and photos from college drinking parties but produces a comparatively...

True Religion Apparel Inc., the Southern California purveyor of pricey designer denim, may have gotten too small for its britches. More than half a year after putting itself up for sale amid growth struggles and fluctuating stock, the high-end-jeans seller said its board unanimously accepted an $835-million takeover offer from investment firm TowerBrook Capital Partners. The $32-a-share deal for the Vernon label represents an 8.7% premium on Thursday's $29.44-a-share closing price and a 52% increase from the stock price Oct. 9, the day before True Religion said it would explore strategic alternatives.

John S. R. Shad, who agreed Thursday to become chairman of Drexel Burnham Lambert's holding company, is a former Securities and Exchange Commission chairman known for strong convictions on ethics and free-market economics. During an SEC chairmanship that lasted between 1981 and 1987, the long-time E. F. Hutton investment banker presided over the agency's most far-ranging investigation of Wall Street corruption. He was personally shocked at the lawbreaking, friends say, and in 1987 pledged $30 million--most of his fortune--to set up a business ethics program at Harvard University.

BELVIDERE, N.J. - Amid the whir of fans and the glow of soft white light, workers tended to bright green seedlings sprouting in a giant greenhouse. Located about an hour's drive from Manhattan in the hills of northwestern New Jersey, the facility produces basil, chives, oregano and other herbs that are sold in grocery stores around New York City. But if Ken VandeVrede has his way the facility will one day be growing a much more valuable plant: marijuana. VandeVrede is chief operating officer at Terra Tech, a hydroponic equipment maker based in Irvine.

Shawn Robbins, psychic, author and mail-order entrepreneur, has turned her big hazel eyes toward Wall Street since the stock market has become so volatile. A shaky market is good for people in her line of work, she says. "For psychics," she says, "the market is boring when it's good, but now is the chance to really shine with psychic abilities. This is a good time to go to a 'reputable psychic.' "Be careful, though. This is not the time to go to Madame Ripoff on the corner with your portfolio.

Re "Facebook IPO flop drawing increased scrutiny," May 23 The best that can be said for the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's continuing attack on "insider trading" is that it makes the market safer for the professional gamblers. The worst that can be said is that it deludes a public investor into believing that he or she has a chance to win. In reality, a public stock owner will always be the last to know and can only invest long after all the speculative gains have been taken by the guys who spend all day watching the computer screens and making flash trades.

DreamWorks Animation has a bunch of cavemen to thank for getting some fresh Wall Street love. Analysts responded positively to news that the Glendale studio had scored with its prehistoric feature "The Croods," which helped drive first-quarter profit to $5.6 million. The results sailed past Wall Street expectations. The unexpectedly good numbers coming from DreamWorks triggered investors to snap up the company's stock. After closing at $19.28 on Tuesday, shares climbed 7% in after-hours trading after the studio reported financial results.

How strange to think that Vicki Macchiavello's decision to buy an iPhone after years of using a BlackBerry could be bad news for Apple. And yet, because the Oakland resident opted to buy a cheaper, older iPhone 4 rather than the latest, pricier iPhone 5, she represents a trend that has become a growing concern on Wall Street. In recent months, such an unusually large proportion of consumers are opting to buy older iPhone models that some analysts have begun to wonder whether Apple has lost its ability to create new versions that have enough dazzle to justify their high prices.

Think Wall Street interns are the best paid? Think again. A recent survey by Glassdoor.com found that the highest-paid interns work for technology and oil companies. Taking the top spot is VMWare, a Palo Alto company that specializes in cloud computing. Its interns earn a monthly base pay of $6,704. Quiz: How much do you know about Google ? Assuming an intern works 40 hours a week, that translates to about $39 an hour. Not too shabby. Interns at EBay, the online auction retailer, were the next best paid, making $6,500 a month.

WASHINGTON -- Two lawmakers on Tuesday introduced legislation to break up banks that are deemed too big to fail, arguing taxpayers should not be faced again with bailing out firms that have become even larger since the financial crisis. "We have a situation now where Wall Street banks are not only too big to fail, they are too big to jail," said Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), noting that Atty. Gen. Eric H. Holder Jr. recently said it was difficult to bring criminal charges in cases involving gigantic financial firms because of the risk to the economy.

WASHINGTON -- The Senate on Monday confirmed Mary Jo White to chair the Securities and Exchange Commission, placing a tough former prosecutor in the role as Wall Street's top watchdog. White was confirmed by a unanimous voice vote in the Senate, an indication of broad bipartisan support. The Senate Banking Committee voted 22-1 to approve her nomination last month, with the only no vote coming from Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio). Brown has been critical of federal officials in general for not being tougher on Wall Street.

NEW YORK - Preet Bharara, the man dubbed the new sheriff of Wall Street, notched another arrest in the government's vast insider trading probe. This time the top federal prosecutor in Manhattan nabbed a top portfolio manager at one of America's biggest hedge funds. SAC Capital Advisors' Michael Steinberg was led out of his Park Avenue apartment building in handcuffs early Friday morning. It's a major arrest at a fund that has long drawn government scrutiny. Bharara, 44, has carved out a reputation for being a tough prosecutor who has overseen some of the most high-profile white-collar criminal cases since the 1980s.

High up a steep Sierra hillside that rises behind this Mother Lode town, past where the paved road runs out, tucked into a shadowy gulch covered with pines and cedars -- and far, far away from the financial calamities rocking Wall Street -- this was where Perry Cottingham could be found last week, engaged in that most seminal of California enterprises, mining for gold. Here was a man happy in his work.

Occupy Wall Street protesters commemorated the one-year anniversary of the 99% movement Monday, marching down the streets of Manhattan's financial district wearing masks and party hats. Though some protesters were arrested, it was a muted affair in comparison with the demonstrations that took place while OWS was headquartered in New York's Zuccotti Park for several months.   In a Times story by Tina Susman and Andrew Tangel about today's demonstrations , Wall Street worker Robert Nicholson is quoted as saying: "I think they're idiots.

NEW YORK -- The broad Standard & Poor's 500 index broke a half-decade-old record, another sign of stocks' continuing rally this year. The S&P 500 added 6.34 points, or 0.41%, to 1,569.19 Thursday, the last trading day of the first quarter. The S&P 500 fell short of its all-time intra-day high of 1,576.09, however. The index reached its previous all-time closing of 1,565.15 on Oct. 9, 2007, only weeks before the Great Recession officially began. The next year's financial crisis led the stock market to its low in March 2009.

BELVIDERE, N.J. - Amid the whir of fans and the glow of soft white light, workers tended to bright green seedlings sprouting in a giant greenhouse. Located about an hour's drive from Manhattan in the hills of northwestern New Jersey, the facility produces basil, chives, oregano and other herbs that are sold in grocery stores around New York City. But if Ken VandeVrede has his way the facility will one day be growing a much more valuable plant: marijuana. VandeVrede is chief operating officer at Terra Tech, a hydroponic equipment maker based in Irvine.