Weekly Economic Update | LAEDC

THIS WEEK’S HEADLINES:

• Corporate Profits Up Again in Second Quarter 2011
• California Home Sales Up in July
• California New Home Construction Declines in July
• Nonresidential Construction – Up 12.8% in July
• Airport Figures
• Bank Profits: In the Black Again!
• First Drop in Number of Problem U.S. Banks Since 2006
• Global Economic Monitor
• Events of Interest
• August 31, 2011: Global Economic Insights: The Financial Impact of the Great East Japan Earthquake and the Debt-Laden U.S. and European Economies
• September 29, 2011: Los Angeles NABE Luncheon with Dr. Marcy Zwelling, Economist and Healthcare Professional
• SAVE THE DATE! November 3, 2011: The 16th Annual Eddy Awards®
• November 10, 2011: 23rd Annual Southern California Visitor Industry Outlook Conference

iPad scammers swindle $180 from South Carolina woman – latimes.com

Examine your purchases carefully. Thanks to Dan Williford for the article. – Ed.

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Education Management Corporation Accused of Widespread Fraud – NYTimes.com

The complaint said the company had a “boiler-room style sales culture” in which recruiters were instructed to use high-pressure sales techniques and inflated claims about career placement to increase student enrollment, regardless of applicants’ qualifications. Recruiters were encouraged to enroll even applicants who were unable to write coherently, who appeared to be under the influence of drugs or who sought to enroll in an online program but had no computer.

Yet another example of why we should privatize education – Ed.

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To Spread Your Brand On Facebook, Don’t Target Your Fans–Target Their Friends | Fast Company

Facebook and ComScore have teamed up for a new service, Social Essentials. It offers unprecedented insights into the influence of brands on social media, complete with detailed credit card behavior, and findings suggest it’s not really your brand’s fans you need to worry about–it’s their friends.

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Brains And Bots Deep Inside Yahoo’s CORE Grab A Billion Clicks | Fast Company

The company started work on a powerful personalization algorithm four years ago. Now it’s paying dividends. The system generates 45,000 totally unique versions of the Today module every five minutes. (All five screenshots in this post were taken within minutes of each other, using different Yahoo accounts.)

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The vanishing checkout lane: will today’s point of sale satisfy tomorrow’s retail customers? | usfst.com

The retail point of sale is fundamentally changing. It is moving from traditional checkout lines to wherever the customer may be: shopping on the Internet, walking a store’s aisles, traveling or lounging on the beach. Are you prepared for what this means to capturing and retaining customers?

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Police Say They Can Detain Photographers If Photographs Have ‘No Apparent Esthetic Value’ | Techdirt

Apparently the police in Long Beach, California, have a policy that says if a police officer determines that a photographer is taking photos of something with “no apparent esthetic value,” they can detain them.

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Long Beach was my hometown for about 20 years and I can tell you it’s not a good idea to mess with any cop in that town – Ed.

It’s Time to Purge the Word Entrepreneur | Duct Tape Marketing

I believe there are really only two kinds of small businesses – healthy ones and unhealthy ones.

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Paint With Your Eyes? | money.cnn.com

In the future, an artist may be able to paint a surface miles away using nothing but his or her pupils, a pair of glasses and custom software.

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‘Torrent of abuse’ hindering ME (chronic fatigue) research | BBC

“It’s direct intimidation in the sense of letters, emails, occasional phone calls and threats,” says Professor Simon Wessely, of King’s College London, who has received a series of death threats and threatening phone calls, and now has his mail routinely scanned for suspect devices.

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Groupon’s Revised S-1 Offers Hints At Its Profitable Future | Fast Company

The coverage of Groupon’s revised S-1 filing Wednesday mostly focused on the deep red numbers splashed across the company’s balance sheets. And rightly so. Because as much money as the company is bringing in, it’s still a ways from making a profit.

And yet, sprinkled among the revisions to the document were other interesting tidbits–ones that speak to where the company is going. And, if looked at in the right light, they could hint at a more promising future than some might think.

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July California Tax Revenues Plunge More Than 10% Below Expectations | ZeroHedge

The first rule is...

…we once again get a reminder that life in the real economy, there were people can not just print their way out of trouble, practical issues such as reality still matter.

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Infographic Of The Day: Why Should You Care About Typography? | Co. Design

There’s also the very keen nugget of wisdom that 95% of graphic design is actually typography.

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Kidnappers Introduce Victim’s Girlfriend To Wife | WPLG Miami

Before leaving, the robbers brought the man’s girlfriend into the home and introduced her to his wife, according to investigators. The robbers then left them all together in the house and took off.

So busted….Ed.

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Twitter TownHall Reveals That GOP ‘Debates’ Require No More Than 140 Characters | Fast Company

The Twitter event was, by any measure, a sound representation of modern presidential debating–which inadvertently speaks volumes about how little substance there is in so-called “debates.” The sorry truth is that the constraint of 140 characters did not oversimplify the arguments put forth by these candidates at all.

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