Spending spree … or straight to savings?

Two months ago, the LI Biz Blog asked readers how they plan to spend the rebate checks coming from the federal government.
We weren’t the only ones.
Rep. Steve Israel did the same thing, getting responses from 6,800 members of his congressional district.
When we asked, most you who commented said you would use it pay off credit [...]

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Get used to the LIRR, just as it is

More bad news, thanks to the puttering economy.
The Long Island Rail Road has decided to take its service improvement plans off the tracks. The Metropolitan Transit Authority, which runs the LIRR, said it did not collect enough real estate taxes due to the slowdown in the market. Those taxes are usually used to fund improvement [...]

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How the whole mess hits you

Prices are rising, but how will that really affect you?
Consider these, the 12 Reason to Fear Inflation, according to Forbes.

Eggs have risen 15 percent since 2004
Coffee rises at 6 percent a year
College tuition also rises at 6 percent a year
Milk, again, will rise at the rate of 6 percent a year.
And white bread will rise [...]

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LI Bizcast: The economy and affordable housing

Our latest podcast is live.
In this edition of LI Bizcast, host David Reich-Hale talks about James Carville, Sean Hannity and Tim Russert’s recent trip to the Long Island Association. He speaks about what the news personalities had to say.
But Reich-Hale also spoke with Long Island businesspeople at the event about one issue: the economy. And [...]

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How will you spend the rebate?

President Bush signed an emergency economic stimulus plan yesterday, which means most of us are only a couple of months away from finding rebate checks in our mailboxes. But what are we going to do with them?
Obviously, it’s your choice, but the government hopes you’ll run out and spend the money, giving the economy a [...]

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Nassau, it’s not that bad

The credit crunch is hurting the entire country, as home prices slip and sales slow down in places from Caribou, Maine to San Bernardino, Calif. — and everything in-between.
But Nassau County doesn’t have it that bad, according to a feature in USA Today.
Sales are down 0.9 percent last month in Nassau, compared to 21.6 percent [...]

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Is bulk better in times of turmoil?

Today’s grim news on the economy is this: Many retailers posted weak sales in January, including Wal-Mart and Limited Brands, operator of The Limited, Express, Victoria’s Secret and Bath & Body Works.
But there was one retailer that saw its sales rise in a usually slow post-holiday month: Costco, which sells products in bulk or plus-sizes [...]

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Starbucks, still expensive, minus the eggs

We’ve known that the economy, which is as weak right now as coffee made out of whole beans, is hurting sales at the everywhere coffee chain, Starbucks.
The problem: Not only are people cutting spending altogether in the wake of high energy costs and rising prices, they’re saying no to a coffee pit stop that can [...]

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DiNapoli shares his plan with the LIA

State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli outlined his “2007 Economic Trends Report” at the Long Island Association’s annual Executive Breakfast held this morning at the Crest Hollow Country Club in Woodbury. The politician also spoke about a few of his budget reform ideas.
The former assemblyman, in his report, showed that wages on Long Island in 2006 grew [...]

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Slowdown in Nassau sales tax

To state the obvious, people are about as confident in the economy today as they are a magical blue whale will make a castle out of sea shells in the Sound and from his tower fire jellyfish at any unlucky energy company that tries to build a floating liquid natural gas barge out there. Or [...]

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It’s not so bad

The real estate market is in a midst of a collapse that will leave Long Islanders holding the bag on debt that easily outweighs the worth of their home. Isn’t that right?
Not so fast my friend.
Forbes on Monday released a list of best places for real estate deals - and wouldn’t you know it - [...]

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Blue Christmas

Malls are already decking the halls with holiday decorations, but economists are predicting a less-than-jolly holiday season.
Long Island’s Irwin “The Grinch” Kellner, writing for MarketWatch, said this season will have all the “merriment of a funeral.”
Here are a few graphs from his column:

October was only hours old when one big-box retailer announced that it [...]

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LI Bizcast: Recession obsession

The newest edition of LI Bizcast is live with our reporters’ notes on this week’s feature stories.
First, finance reporter Laura Theis explains why Long Island’s top economists think a recession might be on the way. If it is, our region could be hit hard.
Next, real estate ace David Winzelberg gives us the breakdown on why [...]

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Raising the roof is old hat here

Los Angeles is suffering from low vacancy rates in commercial space, but one California company has an uplifting idea to address the problem.
Marty Schiff, chief executive of Miami-based Rooflifters Inc. will tell members of the Los Angeles Economic Development Council that his business can raise the roofs of these buildings in order to add [...]

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Now you’ll want to captain a ferry

How many of you are enchanted by your morning commutes, the back-and-forth, never-changing trips, the traffic and the landmarks that lose another piece of their wonder each day they streak across your windshields?
I’d imagine the trip has just become part of the routine.
Not for the captain of the Bridgeport/Port Jefferson Ferry. According to a poetic [...]

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Synonymous with bass-ackwardness?

In my exhaustive Internet searches for relevant info to blog on I often find Long Island linked with low-brow stereotypes portraying our region’s people, and particularly our young crowd, as an uninspired batch of goombahs blinded by strip malls, mixed drinks and high fashion.
However, that base typecasting is barely worth mention, as the comments are [...]

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It’s good to be 53 … and falling

Now don’t gloat, but Long Island is the 53rd best place to work. Last year, it ranked 47th.
Forbes Magazine released its Best Cities for Jobs table on Feb. 16, unveiling Long Island’s year-over-year drop.
But the good news is the Nassau-Suffolk region holds the number two spot when it comes to median household income, beat only [...]

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30 fired in Hauppauge

Hutting Building Products is closing its distribution facility at 110 Plant Ave. in Hauppauge. As result, 30 people will be let go, with some severance paid them, the company’s release implies.
John Gouin, who was referred to me when I called the Hauppauge office, gave a staunch “no comment” regarding the layoffs.
But the company did offer [...]

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Leasing rules on LI

According to GrooveCar, a Hauppauge lender of auto loans, more Long Islanders lease cars than buy them.
The company surveyed 140 local car and truck dealers and found 51 percent of customers lease their vehicles. That’s well above the national average of between 18 and 20 percent.
Frank Rinaudo, vice president and director of dealer development at [...]

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Fun with words: Stretching the dollar

Ron Terenzi’s presentation to the Long Island MidSuffolk Business Action had everything you’d expect from a sales pitch: Essentially, it’s all sunshine and happiness in Pirates Landing.
And despite a few interruptions from well-known Island real estate mogul Marie Zere, who couldn’t help but interject with her own Riverhead’s-a-bastard-to-work-with stories, Terenzi laid out a good-looking plan [...]

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Index on the IMAX

Our region’s situation is so grave it took the largest movie screen on Long Island to display it.
The Rauch Foundation unveiled the 2007 Long Island Index, a compilation of regional economic indicators, this morning on the IMAX screen at Cradle of Aviation Museum in Garden City and the indications were, well, … not good.
Here’s how [...]

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Sondock’s cents

Here’s what Cliff Sondock of the Land Use Institute, had to say about Levy’s and Suozzi’s high hopes for their county’s projects, The Hub and Yaphank.
It would be naive to think that 2 projects, both orchestrated by county government will alleviate Long Island’s economic problems. At some point business and government leaders need [...]

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