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Creativity pays off for firms: Business owners delay projects, seek alternate funding sources

Large Wall Street firms with a taste for bad debt aren’t the only institutions weathering a financial storm these days. In a classic case of trickle-down bad news, small businesses are suffering as well. But instead of facing a maelstrom, firms seeking expansion funds and entrepreneurs looking for startup cash are enduring a drought. Access to capital has dried up as spooked banks relentlessly tighten their loan requirements. That translates into greater scrutiny of business plans, bigger demands for collateral…

VIEWPOINT: Think you can move fast? Look at China

This month, I am making my 50th trip to China. My first trip was in 1995 to identify a possible Chinese partner for a manufacturing joint venture in Nantong. When the potential partner honored me by serving a coiled snake as one of the main dishes, I thought, “What am I doing here?” But that’s what change is all about-delving into the unfamiliar. Four years later, we had found a trusted partner, signed a joint venture agreement, located the proper…

VC firm raises $116M for second fund after knocking first one out of park

Thanks to hefty 35-percent gross returns on its $60 million first fund, locally based Centerfield Capital Partners LP has
raised nearly twice as much for its second. This month, the venture capital firm closed on $116 million from a variety of
investors. As before, Centerfield’s 50 limited partners include major Hoosier institutions. But this time, numerous big banks,
insurance companies and pension funds from outside state lines were also investors.

RETURN ON TECHNOLOGY: Is securing data worth the cost at your company?

You know, I love my business brethren. I really do. I admire their tenacity, their courage, their competitiveness. But I have to admit that we are a penny-pinching bunch, and sometimes it impinges on our ethics in ways that are a little embarrassing. An article in a Wall Street Journal blog (www.blogs.wsj.com) points out an example. Technology professionals have long groused that, while their employers talk about securing data properly, there’s rarely enough money to do the job well. Security…

Filing in legal battle over telecom company hints at criminal probe of officers

Former insiders of One Call Communications appear to be targets of a Justice Department criminal inquiry, according to a filing by the defunct company’s court-appointed receiver. Pittsburgh-based Meridian Group said it was served a subpoena Sept. 19 from the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Pennsylvania to testify before a grand jury on Oct. 21 on matters involving One Call.

Planned giving: Here’s what to consider: Many charitable techniques can help donors maximize their gifts, tax savings

If you have continuously donated money and time to specific organizations, or if you want to save some money on taxes, or maybe a little of both, planned giving might be a way to continue both of those aims. However, there are a few things to consider, such as how to set up the planned giving, what the money can or can’t be used for, who can speak for your interests after you die, and obviously how much money will…

BEHIND THE NEWS: Crisis may reshuffle city’s star stockbrokers

Turmoil on Wall Street-including Merrill Lynch’s $50 billion sale to Bank of America Corp.- could throw into play some of Indianapolis’ biggest-producing stockbrokers. Charlotte, N.C.-based Bank of America recognizes the risk and is preparing to roll out retention bonuses for its arsenal of 17,000 brokers, 136 of whom work out of the Indianapolis area. “We have the capacity to do that, and would plan to do something because it’s the crown jewel of the company,” Ken Lewis, Bank of America’s…

A&E: Be realistic: Eiteljorg show gets gritty

There are art lovers who will never, ever be able to embrace the kind of work represented in the very representational “Quest for the West” show at the Eiteljorg (through Oct. 5). Featuring Native Americans crouching at riverside, stalwart cowboys trudging through snow-covered silence, bucolic mountains, steadfast wolves (or coyotes-sorry, I’m from New Jersey), and anguished bronzes, much of the work seems to exist independent of the artists. Yes, they seem to have been there to capture the images, but…

Advisers get more bullish on ETF option: SEC decision may lead to widespread appeal of mutual-fund alternative

ETFs have been available in the United States since 1993 and are an alternative to mutual funds that trade just like stocks. But a decision earlier this year from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission could broaden their appeal even more. An ETF is a “basket” of stocks that by itself trades on an exchange just like an individual stock. ETFs contain the assets of large or small companies, real estate investment trusts, international stocks, bonds and even gold. For…

Simon Property Group exploring overseas markets

Simon Property Group Inc. has been readying its balance sheet and sizing up buyout targets in hopes of capitalizing on
a worldwide markdown on shopping-center owners.

INVESTING: King Paulson’s quest to kill the free market

Comrades, welcome to the new world order! Please, get in line so we can process your papers. Remember, in the new world, there is no pain. Your benevolent leaders have outlawed all problems. In 1984, I read ”1984,”George Orwell’s novel. I was a little young to grasp the full flavor of the book, but the theme hit a chord with me. I turned to Orwell’s “Animal Farm” a few years later, though, and that work was as clear to me…

EYE ON THE PIE: Economic turmoil hinges on ignorance

What we don’t know does hurt us. Many builders constructed houses assuming there was a continuing strong market of qualified home buyers. Some mortgage brokers and some bankers gleefully ignored or misrepresented the abilities of home buyers to sustain homeownership. Too many home buyers did not bother to learn what their obligations as homeowners would be. They didn’t know about paying property taxes or how adjustable mortgage rates could escalate beyond their capabilities to meet their monthly payments. The companies…

VOICES FROM THE INDUSTRY: Looking back in history to understand this mess

Where is the stock market headed next? It may help to look where it has been. My clients may have grown tired of hearing how the bull market of the 1990s mirrored the Roaring Twenties-maybe because they knew what came after the Roaring Twenties? You remember the history books and your parents talking about the Great Depression. The more articles you read concerning the recent market turmoil, the more this phrase appears: “Worst (fill in blank) since the Great Depression.”…

AT&T’s U-verse generates complaints as cable rival is rolled out

A baby born of Indiana telecom reform is having some teething pains. AT&T’s U-verse, Ma Bell’s high-tech answer to
cable television’s troika of video/voice/Internet service, has generated several consumer complaints to
state regulators since it was rolled out here in earnest last year. The complaints range from long installation
times to frozen television pictures that require rebooting the system or calling a technician.

VOICES FROM THE INDUSTRY: This Thanksgiving, start making plans for the future

Many of us will visit parents over Thanksgiving and the holiday might be just the time to have a hard-to-hold conversation about financial preparedness. While it can be a difficult conversation to have, its important for adult children to check in with aging parents to make sure they have a plan for retirement and estate needs. It is estimated that about 50 percent of American adults do not have a will, which can result in losing control of your financial…

VOICES FROM THE INDUSTRY: Auction-rate securities create nightmare for investors

When a littleknown corner of the financial world hit a wall in February, auction-rate securities became an investor’s worst nightmare. Auction-rate securities are long-term corporate or municipal bonds with interest rates that reset at periodic auctions. For years, the market for auction-rate securi ties operated smoothly. From 1984 through 2006, only 13 auction failures were recorded. Then, in February 2008, in the midst of a credit crunch, demand for auction-rate securities dried up, causing auctions to fail. Wall Street investment…

Hitting the BIG TIME: ‘Big Joe’ Clark building national rep as investment commentator

The Anderson money manager known as “Big Joe” got his start as an independent insurance agent in Lafayette. He had been on the job just two weeks before Black Monday struck Wall Street in October 1987. The market shed more than 22 percent of its value, the largest one-day decline in U.S. history. With no clients and no money, the 20-year-old temporarily left the insurance industry and landed a job at AT&T’s old Western Electric division, helping rewire Ball State…

You-review-it Monday

So how was your weekend?

For me, it included a run to Ball State to visit its art museum and check out the student production of the music “Violet” (a show I’ve wanted to see for years that I, unfortunately, missed…