It’s never fun bringing bad news, but we’ve got problems right now. Things aren’t looking any better for our local economy. Sure, the downtown mall rebricking is complete and under-budget, but between unemployment rates, general business activity, a slow real estate market, mall vacancies and increases in welfare recipients, our recession looks like it’s getting worse, not better in the near term. I talk about each in detail after the break…
A sign reading “Halsey Minor’s Big Failed Erection” bravely sits underneath the inactive Landmark Hotel construction site. Some prankster(s) plastered these signs across the entire front facade of the Landmark Hotel site. With a bankrupt construction bank and lawsuits between Minor and his development partner, Danielson, it looks like we aren’t going to experience a Charlottesville luxury hotel anytime in the near future.
The Securities and Exchange Commission has alleged that a Charlottesville resident, John Donnelly and his companies (Tower Analysis, Inc., Nasco Tang Corp., and Nadia Capital Corp.) are “conducting a multi-million dollar Ponzi scheme. The Commission also filed an application for an ex parte temporary restraining order, asset freeze, and other emergency relief against Donnelly and his entities.”
The allegation states that since 1998 at least $11 million has been taken from 31 individuals who were sold investments in various funds. According to the complaint, despite representations to investors that he had generated annual returns of as much as 22%, Donnelly has done almost no securities trading, and none since 2002. The complaint alleges that instead of using investor funds to execute trades, Donnelly used investor funds to repay other investors, and paid himself approximately $1 million in salary and fees during the last three years alone.
A ponzi scheme is a fraudulent investment operation that pays returns to investors from their own money or money paid by subsequent investors rather than from profit.
Updates will follow as we learn more…Please let us know if you have any details.
Full allegation after the break…
We’ve heard of issues with the Daily Progress, which, despite what you may think is actually a relatively healthy business. Birdies explain that the parent company, Media General is actually weighing down our local newspaper. Besides that, there are pretty strong signs that local media is suffering. Anyone notice the rags recently? They are a whole lot thinner. Advertisers get 2-for-1 deals and aren’t spending like in the past.
We’ve aware of the economic issues, but media has remained relatively secure (or so it seems). The word is that media companies are in the shitter and aren’t talking about it. We know some guys are really hoping cVillain goes under. In fact those rumors were spread six months ago, and guess what, like a hungover stepchild coked up and chugging coffee, we’re still here, bitches. Let’s turn the tables and speculate…
[pic from mugley]
Ok, sure, stocks are worth 50% of their peak, you can’t get any loans from the bank and your job is at risk. Isn’t it somewhat ironic that the things that are making you unhappy are immaterial, abstract and meaningless in the long run. Sure, there are some real world effects, but for the most part, life is still pretty good. Maybe you can’t afford Mas twice a week right now or maybe you need to not go on vacation, but who cares? You live in Charlottesville (still the greatest city in the world), you can afford to go to the grocery store and guess what… things will get better.
It’s the unhappy people who contribute to even more depressing times. So, get on the horse, show a little love and be happy for what you’ve got!
Browsing the web today I landed on this BusinessWeek article describing H1B Visa fraud. The commentary is insanely racist…for 600+ comments! Here are a few of the extremely well written comments that make me very proud to be an American:
And the great tongue in cheek response:
“not ridiculous Feb 23, 2009 2:35 AM GMT
are H1B-Muslim Indians ok? or H1B-Christian Indians? what abt H1B-Buddhist Indians?”
I get it, we are all sensitive about losing our jobs and seeing the economy in the general pooper, but that doesn’t mean its ok to throw out the moral fiber this country is made up of. These are educated people (I assume, who else reads BusinessWeek?) and they sound like tyrants. I hope this type of sentiment hasn’t hit cville, do we even have that large of an H1-B presence here? These are the kinds of words you use in a police state circa 1937…
Bailout? Government promoting bad behavior? How many of you want to pay for your neighbor’s mortgage?
Thanks for the birdie that sent this in.
Yesterday it was GE Fanuc, today it’s the Daily Progress and its parent company, Media General. The Charlottesville newspaper has decided require a mandatory 10 unpaid days off for employees with four of those days occurring before the end of the month.
[via DP] [pic from Chris Harley]
This is bad news. GE Fanuc, Charlottesville’s 17th largest employer will furlough half of its employees, or roughly 300 people, for a two week period starting next week.
While layoffs on the scale of hundreds of employees at a time have yet to effect Charlottesville, this is the first sign that things will hurt. Furlough, in this case, means that GE will continue to pay for benefits of these employees but not pay salary. If GE Fanuc is having problems paying half of its employees, then surely layoffs should be expected.
Sorry for everyone involved in this, but things will get worse. We’ve been watching the labor market conditions and it looks like (doing very unofficial math) unemployment in the Charlottesville MSA could be over 5% by this time. Thoughts?
[pic from b-tal] [via Daily Progress]
Susan Carkeek, head of U.Va. Human Resources just released word that new postings for non-essential staff positions have been frozen to external candidates. Basically, if need be, candidates for positions will be moved from one department to another internally. Teaching and research faculty postings are exempt to this (but really, they only make up a small portion of the university’s total full time employees). I think this comes as no surprise to most people at the university considering the current academic climate. I think that one can reasonably assume that layoffs and forced retirements may be coming next. The university has repeatedly issued emails stated they plan not to lay off staff, but the emails have become less and less committal to the issue. The official HR line is that forcing retirements of staff that have been here 30+ years would not save the university money, which is hardly true at all. This is a pretty big deal since layoffs have not occurred in any of the financial crises of the last 40 years and U.Va. is the biggest employer in Charlottesville.
The text of the email is as follows:
Dear Colleagues:
I write to you with two pieces of news related to hiring at the University –
one item on new procedures for posting positions, and the other regarding new
employee orientation.First, in order to more closely manage our staffing levels and ensure that only
the most critical positions are filled, only essential positions will be posted.
On the administrative side, Vice Presidents are approving postings; on the
academic side, the EVP/Provost has delegated that responsibility to the deans.
»Read More
