BUSINESS BRIEFS
General Growth to sell 3 Mainland retail properties
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — A troubled mall operator is putting prominent retail centers in Boston, New York and Baltimore up for sale in a desperate attempt to shore up its finances.
Chicago-based General Growth Properties Inc., which also owns Ala Moana Center and Ward Centers in Honolulu, has hired a New York-based commercial real estate firm to put the well-known retail centers up for sale.
New York brokerage DTZ Rockwood LLC said Thursday it has been retained to sell off New York's South Street Seaport, Boston's Faneuil Hall Marketplace and Baltimore's Harborplace & The Gallery, all three of which are prominent tourist destinations.
The three properties combined generated about $300 million in retail sales for the year ending Sept. 30, according to DTZ's marketing materials, which bill the properties as an "unprecedented investment opportunity."
JUDGE CONFINES MADOFF TO HOME
NEW YORK — Facing a growing chorus of angry investors, disgraced financier Bernard Madoff lost his right to leave his home yesterday and was ordered to hire private around-the-clock security guards to protect him.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Theodore H. Katz approved the revised bail conditions after prosecutors sent a letter requesting them earlier in the day. The letter did not explain why the bail conditions needed to be tightened.
Madoff, 70, a former Nasdaq stock market chairman, has become one of the most vilified people in America since word broke last week that he allegedly plundered $50 billion from investors.
PAULSON CALLS FOR RELEASE OF BAILOUT
WASHINGTON — Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said yesterday that Congress will need to release the second half of the $700 billion rescue fund because the first $350 billion has been committed.
Paulson said the use of the rescue fund to provide loans to the auto industry along with all the other rescue efforts for the financial system meant that the administration has now basically allocated the first half of the largest government bailout program in history.
RISE IN STOCKPILES AFFECTS OIL PRICES
Traders locking up storage space for crude created a huge rift in prices yesterday between oil that must be delivered in several weeks and oil that can be taken in February.
The January contract for crude expired yesterday, and with stockpiles rising at the key storage facility in Cushing, Okla., the price dropped close to a five-year low as brokers and traders attempted to unload supply for whatever price they could get.
Light, sweet crude for January delivery fell $2.35 to settle at $33.87 a barrel, a level last seen in early 2004.
TRADE CASE FILED AGAINST CHINA
WASHINGTON — The Bush administration yesterday filed a trade case against China over its use of export subsidies to promote Chinese products.
U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab, in announcing the case, said China was violating global trade rules administered by the World Trade Organization in the way it operates a "famous brands" program to promote the sale of Chinese goods in other countries.
JAPAN BANK CUTS KEY INTEREST RATE
TOKYO — Japan's central bank cut its key interest rate to 0.1 percent yesterday, joining the U.S. Federal Reserve in lowering borrowing rates to nearly zero amid an ever-worsening outlook for the global economy.
The cut was widely expected and comes after the government earlier in the day lowered its economic forecast for the fiscal year through March to negative 0.8 percent from positive 1.3 percent.
