A few months from now, Sung Won Sohn will be handing out grades to students as the newly named Martin V. Smith professor of economics at California State University, Channel Islands. But the straight-talking former Wells Fargo economist, and former bank president, wasn’t afraid to give California’s economy a C-minus at best during a chat Read More →
Wine and nonprofits: the best pairing on the Central Coast
The era of charity golf tournaments and awkward hotel dinner fundraisers are as out of style as knee-high argyle socks. Today’s Central Coast nonprofits have tapped into a resource overflowing with classy products, unique facilities and people with time to donate: local wineries. With vineyards flushed with budding grapes, many tri-county wineries are pairing up Read More →
Caruso
With his recent threats to walk away from the project, Rick Caruso risks becoming the third in a string of successful and powerful developers who tried and failed to rebuild Montecito’s historic Miramar Hotel. Which raises an interesting question: Who would buy it then? Matt Middlebrook, vice president of Caruso Affiliated, laughed heartily in response Read More →
Let
For the past seven years, our federal government has been on a debt-and-deficit binge. What has financed this binge is an ill-conceived policy of offering massive incentives to big businesses, which in turn have done little to create shareholder wealth or good-paying jobs. We have handed out lucrative contracts to defense firms, massive subsidies Read More →
Coming up for Copeland: San Luis Obispo
Since the city of San Luis Obispo’s property in its historic Chinatown district was approved for sale to Copeland Properties for $3.7 million, curious community members are eager to find out what’s next for the long-awaited project. Tom Copeland’s company is expected to submit a revised design for its mixed-use project – which should Read More →
The spirit of entrepreneurship is alive and kicking
One of the reasons why Americans seem to be discontented with the economy is that many of our largest companies seem to have lost the ability to do what Intel and others did so effectively for decades – leapfrog the competition through superior strategy. It’s certainly depressing to see that the hybrid automotive technology, which Read More →
GRT gets the most out of natural gas
Santa Barbara-based Gas Reaction Technologies, or GRT, doesn’t do alchemy, but it comes pretty close. The company, founded in 1999, has invented a process that turns natural gas that otherwise would be wasted into gasoline and other useful products. The initial advances were discovered at GRT and the University of California, Santa Barbara. On July Read More →
