Debt trumps savings

Forget deleveraging: Nearly half of all American families carry a credit-card debt load that exceeds their stash of emergency cash.As 2013 unfolds, Americans are also feeling more insecure about their finances. Worries about job security, savings, debt and overall financial health are on the rise, according to new research by the personal finance website...

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Business briefs

Bid for KingsThe NBA has received an official offer from 24 Hour Fitness founder Mark Mastrov and billionaire Ron Burkle to buy the Sacramento Kings and keep the team from moving to Seattle.Fraud queenA former Chicago lawyer, Donna Guerin, who participated in what authorities have called the largest tax fraud in history, has been sentenced in New York to...

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New York’s clueless GOP

Ever since the American voter gave Mitt Romney a drubbing in the November election, the best minds in Republican circles have been debating how to revive the battered GOP brand. You might think this would be a special priority for New York City, where Romney captured just 18 percent of the vote. You might think in a sluggish economy, there’s an opening...

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Vornado ceo out, roth in

Michael Fascitelli, the dynamic chief executive officer of Vornado Realty Trust, is stepping down to “take a break” from the company after four year atop the firm.Chairman Steve Roth, who served as CEO for 20 years until Fascitelli took over in 2009, will step back into the chief executive role.Both moves take effect on Apr. 16 and Roth said he expects...

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Bond brawl

It’s not quite Bush v. Gore 2.0, but the two legal protagonists of that epic showdown before the Supreme Court will be back at it today.Lawyers Ted Olsen and David Boies will appear before a Manhattan US appeals court to argue over how $1.44 billion in Argentina debt should be paid.Olsen represents billionaire hedge fund magnate Paul Singer, who claims...

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The devious diva

Talk to the dial tone, Martha.The CEO of Macy’s said he was so shocked when Martha Stewart phoned him to admit she had cut a secret deal with JCPenney that he hung up on her.“I don’t remember hanging up on anyone in my life,” Lundgren testified yesterday in a Manhattan Supreme Court trial over Stewart’s Penney pact, which she cut despite a preexisting licensing...

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Total Kimfestation

You can run, but you can’t hide — from Kim Kardashian, that is. She’s everywhere, famous for being a professional celebrity who’s never really “done” anything to speak of.It’s a falling Star — and not because of media cross-currents eating away circulation — but because it keeps chronicling the likes of KK as an anointed queen of pop culture. Even the checkout-aisle...

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The week's winners and losers

WINNERSDAVID EINHORNHedgie seeking to return some of Apple’s $137 billion to investors wins big court ruling.MICHAEL CORBATCitibank CEO rakes in $11.5M pay package. Not bad for 4 months’ work.LARRY PAGEMore good news for Google CEO: Analysts project $1K share price.LOSERSJAMIE DIMONJPM CEO/chairman fights move to split the 2 jobs in wake of London Whale...

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Suisse M&A big cheese

Swiss financial giant Credit Suisse and relative newcomer LionTree Advisors are putting up some surprisingly strong numbers early in Wall Street’s investment banking leagues.LionTree, run by former UBS rainmaker Aryeh Bourkoff, is ranked seventh on the coveted merger and acquisition rankings in the US, with some $18.2 billion in transactions, including...

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Closing in on catsup culprits

The Securities and Exchange Commission was informed that a trader who conducted allegedly suspicious transactions of Heinz was a “private wealth client” of Goldman Sachs, according to court documents.Goldman Sachs informed the SEC that it does not have “direct access” to information about the owner of the account, which is based in Zurich, according to...

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Secret’s out

Jennifer Gould Keil GIMME SHELTER Want to live like a Victoria’s Secret supermodel? It’s not as expensive as you might think.Runway-strutting Angel Lindsay Ellingson, who’s also modeled for Chanel and Dolce & Gabbana, has put her one-bedroom co-op on the market for $589,000. The 650-square-foot unit is in Gramercy Park Towers...

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Poupon’s ‘pardon,’ part deux

Grey Poupon’s famous “Pardon Me” TV commercial is returning for a moment of Oscar glory.After a 16-year hiatus, the mustard that mocked its own stuffy image in one of TV’s most famous commercials will once again take to the airwaves during the Feb. 24 Academy Awards show. The spot comes as Kraft Foods looks to boost sagging sales of the Dijon mustard, which...

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Times talks: Tesla test tellingly tainted

Tesla CEO Elon Musk is still fast — but far less furious. After his dust-up with the New York Times, the paper’s public editor, Margaret Sullivan, offered her take on the now infamous Tesla test drive and found that the reviewer came up short.In a blog posting yesterday, Sullivan said the reporter, John Broder, didn’t always use “good judgment” and that...

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Business briefs

Fb pulls a GEFacebook, which turned a $1.1 billion profit in 2012, took a page out of GE’s playbook when it did not pay a dime in federal and state income taxes, according to Citizens for Tax Justice. Facebook will get a $429 million refund.Headwinds US stocks could struggle to extend their seven-week winning streak as the quarterly earnings period draws...

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Consumer confidence treaded water in Jan.

Consumer confidence didn’t fall in January, but it remains low, according to the Discover US Spending Monitor.The survey found that only 31 percent of respondents thought the economy improved in January, which was almost the same as the December number. And just 15 percent of those polled thought the economy was good or excellent, the same number as the...

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Walmart sweats Feb.

Walmart Stores had the worst sales start to a month in seven years as payroll-tax increases hit shoppers already battling a slow economy, according to internal e-mails obtained by Bloomberg. “In case you haven’t seen a sales report these days, February MTD sales are a total disaster,” Jerry Murray, Walmart’s vice president of finance and logistics, said...

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Time Inc. magazine deal may fetch a bit less

Keith J. Kelly MEDIA INK Time Warner’s talks to spin off most of the Time Inc. titles into a new publicly traded company controlled by Meredith Corp. were quietly started last fall, sources said. Now that they are out in the open, insiders expect the pace of negotiations to pick up with a final deal hammered out within 30 days....

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Buy hard

Jennifer Gould Keil GIMME SHELTER Bruce Willis is back on movie screens with “A Good Day to Die Hard” and he’s back on the Upper West Side, too.Willis, who once lived on Central Park West with then-wife Demi Moore, is in contract to buy a co-op at the famed El Dorado building at 300 Central Park West for $8 million. The three-bedroom,...

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Brill sold to tune of $185M

Lois Weiss BETWEEN THE BRICKS Eric Hadar has signed a contract to buy the Brill Building at 1619 Broadway for $185 million.The sellers are Ofer Yardeni and Joel Seiden’s Stonehenge Partners, along with Invesco of Texas.Hadar and Abraham Merchant and Richard Cohn of Merchants Property Group, signed a contract to buy the building...

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Bus strike: ayor Mike wins

Michael Benjamin This afternoon, it will be checkmate for the school-bus strikers. The strike essentially ends — thanks to the Bloomberg gambit.The mayor played it perfectly, and willingly sacrificed pieces to achieve his endgame.At midday today, the Office of Pupil Transportation will open the bid packages for the K-12 school-bus routes....

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