Giving small banks a path to profitability
In the film “Master & Commander: The Far Side of the World,” Jack Aubrey, played by Russell Crowe, cleverly jokes about “choosing the lesser to two weevils.” When it comes to banking the choice is not quite so clever, but just as clear. Banks, especially those deemed “too big to fail” must go back into Read More →
NAI report: Ventura County has seen the worst of CRE woes
Ventura County’s office market is still reeling from the Countrywide collapse, according to a recently released NAI report. Office vacancy in the county is still up, and the NAI market report puts the number around 20 percent and notes that net absorption was negative through the third quarter of 2009. “Office space is tough Read More →
Green Coast summit puts iZone on map
On Jan. 21, some 80 business, community and educational leaders met to kick off a project that has evolved from a column in this newspaper into something called the Green Coast Innovation Zone. It was a rare moment when the leadership of all three counties — Ventura, Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo — were Read More →
Deckers Outdoor is on the hunt for a new home in SB County
Deckers Outdoor Corp., the maker of the Ugg boot, is looking for a new stomping ground. The shoemaker wants to move its Goleta headquarters to a new location in the greater Santa Barbara area sometime in 2012. The company’s third-quarter report showed substantial growth, and Deckers Executive Assistant Michelle Apodaca told the Business Times that Read More →
Fair pay may be key issue for our time
Does the position of state or local bureaucrat come with entitlement to a job and retirement that far exceed those in private industry? Does the job of public company CEO come with an entitlement to get fabulously rich? These are two of the most important questions of our time. My own answer to both questions Read More →
Westlake
Huitt-Zollars just nabbed a contract to provide on-call civil engineering design consulting services for the Port of Los Angeles. The Los Angeles Harbor Department awarded the Westlake Village Huitt-Zollars office a three-year contract for infrastructure projects. Jim Faul, who heads the Dallas-based firm’s Westlake Village office and will take the point on the project, has Read More →
Herb put the McMuffin on the map
Ask any mom or grandmom to name one item of fast food that’s reasonably healthy for kids and you likely will get a single answer — the Egg McMuffin. Ditto Consumer Reports or the popular “Eat This, Not That” books or diet consultants trying to cope with the obesity epidemic that plagues American families. As Read More →
