BUSINESS BRIEFS
Missing money manager still alive, officials believe
Advertiser News Services
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TAMPA, Fla. — A missing hedge fund manager who owed investors a $50 million payout told his wife in a note he felt guilty about mismanaging people's money, and threatened to kill himself, according to a sheriff's report released yesterday.
However, the Sarasota County Sheriff's Office said it believes Arthur G. Nadel planned his disappearance and that it was ending its search for him.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation will continue to investigate complaints from investors who were expecting Nadel to deliver the $50 million redemption on Jan. 15, the day after he disappeared.
The Florida financier's car was found at a Sarasota airport, and police said they believe Nadel left on his own volition.
FIAT DEAL MAY BE TOO LITTLE, TOO LATE
DETROIT — Fiat's deal to take a 35 percent stake in Chrysler could bring badly needed small cars to the struggling U.S. automaker's showrooms, but the Italian company will not provide any immediate cash — and the help may already be too late.
For Fiat, which also makes Lancia and Alfa Romeo vehicles, the deal announced yesterday provides access to Chrysler's underused factory capacity in the U.S. and an instant distribution network to re-enter the American market, something that Fiat has wanted to do for years.
Still, Chrysler faces 2009 with a critical cash shortage, limited fuel-efficient offerings, a model lineup that is not selling well and a two-year wait for the Fiat partnership to bear fruit.
HOUSING LIKELY TO BOTTOM OUT IN '09
LAS VEGAS — The nation's housing market will not look much better at the end of this year than it does now, but "we do expect '09 will be the bottom," the chief economist for the National Association of Home Builders said yesterday.
David Crowe, speaking at the International Builders Show in Las Vegas, said housing starts are expected to fall another 30 percent in 2009 and new-home sales will drop 14 percent. But he said he expects the trough of the market to occur sometime in the middle of the year.
"We should come out of 2009 on an upswing. It won't be strong, and we will still have home price declines throughout the year, but it will be an upswing," he said.
Weighing on housing market forecasts is the continued decline in employment.
Frank Nothaft, chief economist for mortgage agency Freddie Mac, said he expects unemployment will jump to 8.7 percent by the end of 2009, up from 7.2 percent today.
