Articles

BEHIND THE NEWS: Conseco now seeks assets from Hilbert’s Haverstick

Attorneys for Conseco Inc. have a new target in their legal assault a g a i n s t f o r m e r C E O S t e p h e n Hilbert. It’s Haverstick Consulting Inc., the Carmelbased company Hilbert now leads. In court papers filed last week in Hamilton County, Conseco attorneys charge that Hilbert and his wife, Tomisue, transferred millions of dollars into Haverstick in recent years but did not receive stock of equal…

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Trucking firm to roll out own software product: Hoosier Tradewinds targets driver shortage

Carmel trucking line Hoosier Tradewinds Inc. plans to deliver an unusual product-its own software company. Tradewinds Technologies will offer an intranet portal product trucking firms can use to track everything from delivery status to driver revenue. The company will break ground by the end of next month on an 8,000-squarefoot facility at U.S. 31 and 236th Street. It also will house new corporate offices for Hoosier Tradewinds. The TIRES portal, short for Tradewinds Information Resource, will be marketed partly as…

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GERALD BEPKO Commentary: State should help insurance industry grow

GERALD BEPKO Commentary State should help insurance industry grow Everyone seems to agree that state governments must facilitate job growth and wealth creation. As pioneers in publicprivate partnerships, Indiana’s leaders have envisioned a future for Indiana that includes many partnership economi c – d eve l o p m e n t strategies. One reflection of this vision is the Central Indiana Corporate Partnership-led focus on key sectors, such as advanced manufacturing, logistics and life sciences. The priority associated with…

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ECONOMIC ANALYSIS: Consumer confidence is tricky economic indicator

We’ve see it on television almost every day, it seems. Within seconds of a dramatic event-winning a race, scoring a touchdown, or finding a lost child-the central figure is asked by an eager reporter, “How do you feel?” As an economist, I am generally squirming in my chair at this point. Not because economists have no feelings-we actually do even if we tend to express them using graphs and equations. Rather, it is because we believe the best way to…

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BULLS & BEARS: Looking long-term is key to tasting market’s fruits

If you follow the stock market and are like most people, you can’t help but be sucked in to the short-term mentality vortex. The financial channels and newspapers all focus on short-term, smallpicture events. You can’t fault them, though, since it’s their job. The big mistake many folks make is using too much of the short-term, smallpicture information to make long-term, big-picture decisions. Your mom warned you against making “snap decisions” or “rushing to judgment.” Today, largely due to the…

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Code sharing may help ATA: But analysts say Southwest Airlines unlikely to favor chairman’s international destinations

During ATA Holdings Corp.’s annual meeting in 2003, George Mikelsons told shareholders low-fare carriers must strike up alliances to weather the industry storm. He proposed code sharing that would allow passengers buying a ticket on ATA or a partner airline to fly on both and connect to potentially hundreds more destinations. Airlines would share the revenue. “If we don’t act to regroup ourselves,” ATA’s chairman warned at the time, “we’re going to be the Jonahs of aviation, swallowed by the…

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EYE ON THE PIE: Let’s explore options to finance stadium

Phinneas Phogghorn, Indiana’s third U.S. senator, was home for the holidays and in fine voice at the Dixie Donut Shoppe. “Rubbish,” the jewel of Jeffersonville intoned to his assembled admirers. “Unadulterated rubbish is all I can say about the view held by too many Hoosiers that a stadium for the Indianapolis Colts is not for the benefit of all the people of Indiana. The Colts are more than a mere symbolic representation of the state in the minds of football…

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ECONOMIC ANALYSIS: Prices recover in 2004; expect same in 2005

A few weeks of big price changes, particularly on the up side, and the armchair economists seem to really come out of the woodwork. Oil prices peaked in October at levels 40-percent higher than in July, and so did rumblings about conspiracies, windfall profits and pricegouging. To hear some lunchroom conversations, as well as the saber-rattling of some attorneys general around the country, the only thing that keeps businesses of all kinds from fleecing the American public with unconscionable prices…

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Growing convention business creates tough decisions: Mayor outlines possible solution for expanding center and adding stadium, but funding battle looms ahead

Consider Indianapolis a victim of its own success. The city’s efforts to make a name for itself as a convention destination have worked-almost too well. The Indiana Convention Center is at capacity with 40 major events a year, and two of its biggest customers are moving to roomier digs. What began as a “what if” discussion about adding space to accommodate more business has turned into a “must do” conversation about keeping what’s already here. “That’s what really drove it…

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Stressed college grads

A new poll shows college grads are worried about finding jobs â?? no surprise there, considering the sorry
state of the economy.

But the poll, taken by Edison Media Research, also shows a third of them fretting about their…

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