VOL. 37 | NO. 39 | Friday, September 27, 2013
REALTY CHECK
Real estate transactions are not fair, not even close to equitable. For the most part, sellers are not forced to sell, at least not here, not now, Nashville being the “It City” and all.
REAL ESTATE
Top August 2013 commercial real estate transactions for Davidson, Williamson, Rutherford, Wilson and Sumner counties, as compiled by Chandler Reports.
TERRY McCORMICK
Have the Titans turned the page on Kenny Britt? Maybe it should be asked this way: Has Kenny Britt turned the page on the Titans?
NEWSMAKERS
Pinnacle Financial Partners has elected Reese Smith III, president of Haury & Smith Contractors Inc., to its board.
BUSINESS BOOK REVIEW
He was pretty sure the job was his.
GUERRILLA MARKETING
Whether you’re in the for-profit or nonprofit world, you have a front-line sales team.
THE WORLDLY INVESTOR
The Fed has two primary job descriptions. First, keep prices stable. Second, promote an environment of economic growth that provides employment opportunities. Which is more important?
I SWEAR
My smartphone was, of course, in my pocket. Apparently, though, I’d unknowingly pressed the button that activates it. Through my judicial robe and the fabric of my trousers. The lawyer in front of me wound up his remarks. There was a longer-than-normal pause.
KAY'S COOKING CORNER
Yesterday evening, I made one of the best meals I’ve ever made. I’m not bragging, it’s just that it was delicious and I ate way too much. But I’m not the only one who thinks this.
AUTO INDUSTRY
Shares of Tesla Motors are down another 5 percent as investors in the high-flying company assess the fallout from a fire in one of its $70,000 electric cars.
NATIONAL BUSINESS
WASHINGTON (AP) — Growth at U.S. service companies slowed in September from an eight-year high in August, as sales fell sharply, new orders dipped and hiring weakened.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The number of Americans seeking unemployment benefits rose just 1,000 last week to a seasonally adjusted 308,000, hovering near six-year lows. Companies are still cutting very few jobs, however the decline in layoffs has not been accompanied by a pickup in hiring.
NEW YORK (AP) — Americans, who're increasingly optimistic about improving economic conditions, are expected to spend at a more rapid clip during the upcoming holiday shopping season than they did last year.
NEW YORK (AP) — The stock market sank to its lowest level in nearly a month Thursday as a partial U.S. government shutdown dragged into a third day.
BANGKOK (AP) — Oil prices on Thursday shed some of the prior day's gains after a report showed a bump upward in U.S. crude inventories.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Average U.S. rates on fixed mortgages fell for the third straight week to their lowest point in three months, as a decline in consumer confidence and the onset of the government shutdown forced rates down.
Hold your nose and don't spit out your coffee: Doctors have found a way to put healthy people's poop into pills that can cure serious gut infections — a less yucky way to do "fecal transplants." Canadian researchers tried this on 27 patients and cured them all after strong antibiotics failed to help.
NATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama laid the blame for the government's partial shutdown at the feet of House Speaker John Boehner on Thursday, escalating a confrontation that is running the risk of a potentially damaging clash over the nation's borrowing authority.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Republicans insisted they wanted to shut down the nation's 3-year-old health care overhaul, not the government. They got the opposite, and now struggle to convince the public that responsibility for partial closure of the federal establishment lies with President Barack Obama and the Democrats.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Taking out a mortgage. Getting married in a park. Going for a fall foliage drive. Cashing a check.
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 2
HEALTH CARE
CHICAGO (AP) - Computer glitches frustrated more Americans checking out their options under President Barack Obama's health care law, and administration officials said Wednesday the problems are mainly due to high consumer interest, not hidden flaws.
NASHVILLE AREA
NASHVILLE (AP) — Hank Williams Jr. will headline Nashville's New Year's Eve festivities, which will include multiple days of live music and football.
NATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — The stock market is closing slightly lower as investors weigh the possibility that political gridlock may keep the government partially closed for some time.
NEW YORK (AP) — The price of oil rose the most in two weeks Wednesday, on the prospect of more oil shipping between a key Midwest hub and the Gulf Coast.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. businesses added just 166,000 jobs in September, only slightly more than the previous two months. The lack of improvement in hiring, along with the threat of a prolonged government shutdown, could help persuade the Federal Reserve to delay scaling back its stimulus.
NEW YORK (AP) — As the government's partial shutdown enters a second day, most companies across the country are doing business as usual. Yet concern is rising that a prolonged shutdown would cause some work at private companies to dry up and consumers to lose faith in the U.S. economy.
NEW YORK (AP) — Shares of Re/Max jumped in the real estate brokerage's first day on the New York Stock Exchange.
ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — The state's attorney general says he's suing Wells Fargo to force compliance with terms of last year's national mortgage case settlement.
NATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama summoned congressional leaders to the White House on Wednesday as a partial government shutdown entered a second day with little sign of a breakthrough to get hundreds of thousands of people back to work. Some on Capitol Hill ominously suggested the impasse might last for weeks, but a few Republicans seemed ready to blink.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Rep. Peter King is charging that tea party-backed members of the House Republican Caucus are trying to "hijack the party."
WASHINGTON (AP) — Business leaders are taking sides with Democratic President Barack Obama after failing to persuade their traditional Republican allies in Congress to avert a government shutdown.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The roiling debate over the U.S. government shutdown is extending to Twitter, Facebook and Instagram as fed-up Americans turn to social media to register their disgust with federal lawmakers for shutting down the government.
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 1
STATEWIDE
NASHVILLE (AP) - The Great Smoky Mountains National Park, the nation's most visited, is among the more than 400 parks across the country that were closed Tuesday as a result of the federal government's partial shutdown.
HEALTH CARE
ATLANTA (AP) - On the day consumers start perusing newly launched federal online health exchanges, Republican governors who oppose President Barack Obama's insurance overhaul are mostly sitting on their hands. But the law is going into effect without them.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Hailing it as an "historic day," President Barack Obama pressed forward his flagship health care program Tuesday, inaugurating new insurance exchanges to expand access for those without coverage despite the shutdown taking hold across much of the government.
NASHVILLE (AP) - Tennesseans on Tuesday began signing up for health insurance under an online marketplace run by the federal government.
NASHVILLE (AP) — A judge won't block emergency rules covering people who dispense advice on the new health insurance exchange in Tennessee that launches Tuesday.
MUSIC INDUSTRY
DANVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Country music star Eddie Montgomery's steak house may have once been something to be proud of, but now the closed establishment is something causing him legal problems.
AUTO INDUSTRY
DETROIT (AP) — Sales fell at General Motors, Toyota and Volkswagen in September, an odd month that appears likely to snap a 27-month streak of gains for the U.S. auto industry.
FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — German carmaker BMW is recalling 176,000 vehicles over a problem with the power brake system.
NATIONAL BUSINESS
WASHINGTON (AP) — US factory activity expanded last month at the fastest pace in 2½ years, an encouraging sign that manufacturing could lift economic growth and hiring in the coming months.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. home prices climbed 12.4 percent in August from a year ago, fueled by more buyers bidding on a limited supply of houses.
NEW YORK (AP) — Investors stayed calm on the first day of a partial shutdown of the U.S. government Tuesday and sent the stock market modestly higher.
NEW YORK (AP) — The price of oil slipped to near $102 a barrel Tuesday after parts of the U.S. government were ordered to shut down because of a budget impasse in Washington.
SEATTLE (AP) — Amazon.com says it is hiring 70,000 full-time seasonal workers around the U.S. to fill orders during the holiday season.
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The digital domain is creeping off our desktops and onto our bodies, from music players that match your tunes to your heart beat, to mood sweaters that change color depending on your emotional state — blue for calm, red for angry. There are vacuum shoes that clean the floor while you walk and fitness bracelets, anklets and necklaces to track your calorie burning.
Walgreen says its fiscal fourth-quarter earnings soared 86 percent, as the nation's largest drugstore chain booked gains from inventory accounting and its acquisition of a stake in European health and beauty retailer Alliance Boots.
NATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — Congress hung "Closed" signs on a big swath of the government Tuesday and sent home 800,000 workers in what President Barack Obama labeled an "ideological crusade" by GOP lawmakers determined to gut his health care law. On Capitol Hill, House Republicans answered with a bid to restart a few favored slices of government, including national parks, while still demanding concessions on health care.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A comparison of rival House and Senate bills to fund the government:
WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal workers will still have to report to work for about four hours Tuesday even though the government is shutting down.
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 30
HEALTH CARE
NASHVILLE (AP) - Republican Gov. Bill Haslam said Monday that emergency rules covering people dispensing advice about the new health insurance exchange are not designed to hinder enrollment.
ASHLAND CITY (AP) - Republican Gov. Bill Haslam says he sees no link between the state's approach toward the new health insurance exchange and his ongoing efforts to negotiate a special deal for Tennessee for Medicaid expansion.
NASHVILLE (AP) - As the Affordable Care Act's health exchanges come online, some of Tennessee's state-sponsored insurance programs are shutting down or limiting enrollment.
NATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks are closing lower as Wall Street braces for a government shutdown.
NEW YORK (AP) — The price of oil fell Monday as a partial shutdown of the U.S. government loomed over the markets.
The world is aging so fast that most countries are not prepared to support their swelling numbers of elderly people, according to a global study going out Tuesday by the United Nations and an elder rights group.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A government shutdown would have far-reaching consequences for some, but minimal impact on others.
STOCKHOLM (AP) — Swedish flat-pack furniture giant IKEA will start selling residential solar panels at its stores in Britain, the first step in its plan to bring renewable energy to the mainstream market worldwide.
NATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican unity showed unmistakable signs of fraying Monday as the Senate swatted aside the latest tea party-driven demand to delay the nation's health care overhaul in exchange for averting a partial government shutdown at midnight.
WASHINGTON (AP) — OK, gridlocked politicians we're used to. But why padlock the Statue of Liberty?
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 27
MUSIC INDUSTRY
NASHVILLE (AP) - An improving Willie Nelson will make his festival date this Saturday in Nashville after all, and he's bringing a friend.
STATE LEGISLATURE
NASHVILLE (AP) - The Tennessee House chairman who cast a deciding vote against a bill seeking to allow supermarket wine sales in the state said Thursday that he's willing to reconsider the measure next session.
NASHVILLE AREA
NASHVILLE (AP) — The Tennessee Titans are asking fans coming to the Jets' game to bring any extra sports equipment with them Sunday. Not to play but to donate.
NASHVILLE (AP) - After years of talking about ending homelessness, a Nashville-area commission is now starting to do more about it.
MIDSTATE
NASHVILLE (AP) — John Thune, the third-ranking Republican in the U.S. Senate, is scheduled to be the featured speaker at a Rutherford County Republican Party event in November.
NASHVILLE (AP) — State business officials say the city of Lebanon is Tennessee's newest Main Street community.
AUTO INDUSTRY
NEW YORK (AP) — Seven midsize vehicles earned the top rating in a new insurance industry test of high-tech safety features designed to prevent front-end collisions.
TOLEDO, Ohio (AP) — Chrysler is bringing back about 500 idled workers faster than expected after temporary layoffs from a northwest Ohio plant that produces the new Jeep Cherokee.
NEW YORK (AP) — Toyota's top North American executive says the pent-up demand that's been driving sales of new cars will likely dry up in 2014.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Nine Japanese auto parts manufacturers and two of their executives will plead guilty and pay $740 million in criminal fines for conspiring to fix the prices of more than 30 products sold to many of the world's largest automakers operating in the U.S., the Justice Department announced Thursday.
HEALTH CARE
LARGO, Maryland (AP) — With just five days to go before Americans can begin signing up for health care under his signature law, President Barack Obama on Thursday ridiculed Republican opponents for "crazy" doomsday predictions of the impact and forecast that even those who didn't vote for him are going to enroll.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Days before the debut of new online insurance markets, a couple of last-minute technical glitches with President Barack Obama's health care law are making supporters anxious and giving opponents a new line of attack.
NATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — Exxon Mobil Corp. said Friday that it will begin offering benefits to legally married same-sex couples in the U.S. for the first time starting next week.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. consumers increased their spending slightly last month as their income grew at the fastest pace in six months. The figures point to only modest economic growth in the July-September quarter.
The budget fight may be happening in Washington, but it's investors on Wall Street who keep getting smacked.
NEW YORK (AP) — Oil fell slightly Friday, and finished the week with a decline of nearly 2 percent.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal housing agency said Friday it needs a $1.7 billion bailout from the Treasury to cover projected losses in its reverse mortgage programs which allow seniors to borrow against their homes for everyday living expenses.
TORONTO (AP) — BlackBerry said Friday that it is committed to completing a series of major changes quickly after posting a nearly billion-dollar loss and a 45 percent drop in revenue for the second quarter.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The job market is sending signs that it may be strengthening.
NEW YORK (AP) — Want a side salad with that Big Mac?
PLANO, Texas (AP) — J.C. Penney, the struggling retailer that is trying to reassure the market about its financial stability, expects to raise about $810.6 million via a public stock offering.
NEW YORK (AP) — A senior partner at a Manhattan accounting firm was arrested Thursday on charges he participated in and helped direct false bookkeeping during Bernard Madoff's historic fraud.
WASHINGTON (AP) — JPMorgan chief executive Jamie Dimon met Thursday with Attorney General Eric Holder about an investigation into the company's handling of mortgage-backed securities in the run-up to the recession.
NATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — Time running short, the Democratic-controlled Senate passed urgent legislation Friday to avert a government shutdown early next week, and President Barack Obama lectured House Republicans to stop "appeasing the tea party" and quickly follow suit.
WASHINGTON (AP) — This time, President Barack Obama says, he's not budging. This is the confrontational Obama, the "Make my day" president, betting Republicans blink to avoid a government shutdown or a first-ever default of the nation's debts.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Staring at the specter of a partial government shutdown, Sen. John McCain says he's never seen anything like the harsh partisanship pervading much of Washington politics.
WASHINGTON (AP) — More than a third of federal workers would be told to stay home if the government shuts down, forcing the closure of national parks from California to Maine and all the Smithsonian museums in the nation's capital. Workers at the State Department's Bureau of Consular Affairs wouldn't be around to process visa and passport applications, complicating the travel plans of hundreds of thousands.
WASHINGTON (AP) — With the blessing of an influential advisory panel, federal regulators are closer to letting airline passengers use their smartphones, tablets, e-readers and other electronic gadgets during takeoffs and landings.