Legacy of 2008: After creating problem, Wall Street wins
Published on Friday, January 09, 2009
When was the last time you talked to your stock jockey – er, excuse us, wealth management adviser – and had a conversation about what it is that company actually does and the success they’re having at it?
Instead such discussions often turn to a company’s financial condition – which doesn’t have that much to do with a product or service but, according to Wall Street, has all to do with whether a company is a success.
Being rooted in the print publishing business we noted that fact when the Chicago-based Tribune Co. filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection this month. Immediately, the company said its newspapers and broadcast properties were producing sufficient cash flow and would continue operating. Their operations weren’t the issue. Tribune’s ownership had leveraged the company to the point that it couldn’t meet its debt payment obligations.
Locally, there have been similar kinds of reports about Lee Enterprises, publisher of Tucson’s morning Arizona Daily Star. The company, based in Davenport, Iowa, this month had to postpone filing its annual report because it was coming close to defaulting on the terms of a $306 million loan. Lee Enterprises’ independent accounting firm said that without renegotiating the terms of that loan it wanted the annual report to “include an explanatory paragraph relating to Lee’s ability to continue as a going concern.”
The fact is the Star makes money. Yes, printed daily newspapers are losing circulation – there’s not a media analyst on Wall Street that won’t harp on that. It’s just that printed newspapers aren’t making as much money as they used to. And they’re looking to develop new revenue streams through online.
The Wall Street mindset is not only affecting the media. When the Big Three U.S. automakers were pleading their case for help from Washington, D.C., the discussion was entirely focused on the financial importance of the manufacturers to the economy. Little was said about the quality of their products. And the three companies were almost always lumped together, as a basket case.
Remember the days when fans of General Motors cars were so loyal they would boast that a Chevy was better than a Ford? Or vice versa?
Then there’s the case of General Growth Properties, the nation’s second largest owner of shopping centers. Its properties include Tucson Mall, Park Place Mall and the Mall of Sierra Vista.
General Growth, based in Chicago, is a real estate investment trust rooted in the notion that synergy among retailers benefits them all. These days, though, some big retailers are facing their own financial difficulties and vacancies inside shopping centers are increasing. But the shopping center is still a successful concept.
General Growth’s destiny lies not with shopping centers but what it can do in the financial world. As things now stand, its facing $4 billion in debt payments in 2009.
It’s true that in each of these cases, somebody made a decision that has resulted in putting their their company at financial risk. Undoubtedly, though, each time somebody on the financial side was there to facilitate the transaction.
It’s a sad commentary that as we leave the economic disaster of 2008, the legacy from the year is that our government’s tactic has focused on saving the financial businesses that put the economy into a tailspin but has largely turned its back on the people who produce goods and services.
Copyright © 2009 Inside Tucson Business