indianapolis

Video: Steinberg Says `Smaller Players’ Buying Super Bowl Ads: Video

February 5, 2010

Feb. 5 (Bloomberg) — Brian Steinberg, television editor at Advertisingage, talks with Bloomberg’s Mark Crumpton and Julie Hyman about the outlook for television advertisements during the National Football League’s Super Bowl championship between the New Orleans Saints and Indianapolis Colts on Feb. 7. (Source: Bloomberg)

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Wager on Saints to Cover Spread in Super Bowl, Quant Money Manager Says

February 4, 2010

By Elizabeth Stanton Feb. 4 (Bloomberg) — Super Bowl bettors should wager on the Saints to cover the point spread against the favored Colts because gamblers overpay for teams that rewarded them more richly during the regular season, according to an investment strategist. If the National Football League were the stock market, the Indianapolis Colts would be “overvalued,” according to Steve Sapra , a strategist at Analytic Investors LLC in Los Angeles who applies the same tools he uses as a money manager to analyze football. Teams that outperformed expectations more during the regular season either won the Super Bowl by a smaller-than- expected margin or lost by a wider one in seven of the past 10 years, according to his research. The Pittsburgh Steelers’ narrower-than-expected 27-23 victory over the Arizona Cardinals last year was no exception. The Colts are at least 4.5-point favorites to defeat the New Orleans Saints in the Feb. 7 matchup in Miami, meaning bets on the Saints pay out if they win the game or lose by a smaller margin. The Colts returned 38.7 percent on bets during the regular season, compared with a 12.5 percent in so-called alpha for the Saints. Bettors probably are giving the Colts even more credit, reasoning that the team’s losses in its last two regular-season games weren’t representative of its skill, Sapra said. “Realistically, investors view the Colts as 16-0, which would’ve made their alpha even higher,” he said. “The Colts’ alpha is higher in people’s minds than it is on paper, which would be indicative of an even larger mispricing.” NFL Alpha Sapra, 37, who is head of research for U.S. equity investment strategies at Analytic Investors , began calculating NFL team alphas six years ago. In portfolio management, alpha refers to the excess return of an investment over a benchmark. Analytic Investors manages $9 billion using quantitative techniques, in which securities are selected with computer models. Sapra’s NFL alphas look at how a team performed relative to the closing Las Vegas point spread on each game. This season’s highest-alpha team, the Oakland Raiders, returned 88.5 percent to bettors. The Raiders’ alpha was the highest recorded by an NFL team this decade despite their 5-11 record because four of their wins were major upsets. The lowest-alpha team, the St. Louis Rams, went 1-15 and produced a loss of 84.6 percent. In the past six Super Bowls, the lower-alpha team has either lost the game by fewer points than the closing line predicted, won by more points, or in the case of the New York Giants’ victory over the New England Patriots two years ago, won in an upset. That means bets on the lower-alpha team made money while bets on the higher-alpha team did not. ‘True Alpha’ The Colts went 14-2 in the regular season. They won their first 14 games before losing the last two while partly resting quarterback Peyton Manning and several other starters, having already clinched home-field advantage throughout the postseason. It’s comparable to a company with strong quarterly results delaying recognition of some revenue until the next quarter in order to smooth its earnings, Sapra said. “You could argue that the Colts’ true alpha is probably higher than 38.7, which would imply that the difference between the Saints and the Colts is even greater, which would make the Saints even more undervalued,” he said. Sapra, who has a doctorate in behavioral finance, said he’ll root for the Saints “to at least cover the spread so my prediction is right, but I don’t have an economic interest it.” “Betting markets in general, and the NFL in particular, are very, very efficiently priced, meaning that it’s very difficult to make money betting on Super Bowl teams,” he said. To contact the reporter on this story: Elizabeth Stanton in New York at estanton@bloomberg.net .

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Peyton Manning Skills Needed to Avert Tax Fumble: Amity Shlaes

February 2, 2010

Commentary by Amity Shlaes Feb. 2 (Bloomberg) — President Barack Obama is offering up a budget that reflects the biggest debts and deficits in U.S. history. Rather than boggle the mind with the details of this $3.8 trillion monstrosity, plenty of people — especially Wall Streeters — would rather think about whether the New Orleans Saints will get to Indianapolis Colts quarterback Peyton Manning or what the new stand-alone AOL Inc. will report in earnings this week. This year, though, you probably want to shift your eyes from the sports screen to C-Span coverage of the House Ways and Means Committee. To forestall tax disaster, Obama and House Minority Leader John Boehner have to do more than agree to debate on the air at a GOP retreat. Otherwise taxes will go up enough to spoil a few years of football. Exactly what has changed becomes clear when you look back at attitudes of the past decades. When it came to the budget process, lawmakers always had to follow what James Lucier of Capital Alpha Partners, a Washington-based forecasting firm, calls their “Farmer’s Almanac.” From budget through resolutions through tax revisions to pay for resolutions to presidential signature, it was all quaint and obscure. The whole process itself was front and center, enough of a burden to impede truly dangerous tax increases. What if those lawmakers and the White House couldn’t even get it together to enact a budget? So much the better. That’s what happened in 1995, after Republicans took the majority in the House of Representatives and President Bill Clinton and House Speaker Newt Gingrich couldn’t agree on a deal. From that spring through autumn, when Washington shut down, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose to 5,100 from 4,100. Clinton’s sex life? Good news as well, for markets. Scandals kept Clinton so busy he didn’t have time or inclination to force through more tax increases. Tax Doom But doom this time looms. At least tax doom. If Congress generally does nothing by Christmas, taxes will go up, with the top rate on the income tax reverting to 39.6 percent from 35 percent now. If you include phase-outs of exemptions, the top rate will really be more than 40 percent. The special election in Massachusetts of Scott Brown to the Senate will charge up his Republican colleagues, but probably not enough to enable them to halt the expiration of the Bush-era cuts on the top rates. The increase in the top rates, Lucier says, “you can take to the bank.” It is already inscribed in the almanac. Inaction on the top income tax rates in 2010 in turn will affect dividends, where the rate increase will be more dramatic. The tax rate on dividends now stands at 15 percent, the same as the capital gains rate. But this special treatment likewise expires in December. Double Whammy Without new legislation, the rate will increase some 25 percentage points. That’s because dividends will again be treated, as they were historically, as ordinary income, and taxed at 39.6 percent rate. In other words, a double whammy. Some will reply that dividend taxes have been high before, without apocalypse. But it is the rate of increase that matters, rather than the absolute level. If the Senate follows its traditional pattern it may, with Brown’s help, manage to curtail the tax increase on dividends. But the operative word is “may.” Brown, after all, is inexperienced — no political Peyton Manning, not to mention a Jack Kemp . There is also the heavy task of keeping the long-term capital gains rate down. If Congress does nothing, that too will rise, to 20 percent. Busy With Scandals Middle-income earners may tell themselves it doesn’t affect them. But Congress has to be on the lookout for them too and remember to enact another patch for the alternative minimum tax. What if Ways and Means Chairman Charles Rangel is too busy with his ethics probe to get to that? This time, political scandal is a minus for markets, not a bonus. The combination of the new increases will reduce the relative competitiveness of the U.S. The best possible outcome, from a tax point of view, requires action worthy of Manning. This has to come first on the political front, followed by election of Republicans and tax- averse Democrats in sufficient numbers to support extending the current tax rates. More action then has to come from the new Congress itself: it must extend the current rates in November or December. Leaving Washington alone while it celebrates the occasional special-election victory is far from enough for the pro-growth crowd to do in 2010. This year is the Super Bowl of tax, and it’s time for our leaders to get ready to play. ( Amity Shlaes , senior fellow in economic history at the Council on Foreign Relations, is a Bloomberg News columnist. The opinions expressed are her own.) Click on “Send Comment” in the sidebar display to send a letter to the editor. To contact the writer of this column: Amity Shlaes at amityshlaes@hotmail.com

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Pfizer Mystery Drug for Alzheimer’s Awaits Validation of Russian Promise

February 2, 2010

By Michelle Fay Cortez Feb. 2 (Bloomberg) — Doctors may learn next month that Dimebon, a 27-year-old hay fever treatment and one of the most mysterious compounds yet tried to fight dementia, is poised to become their newest and perhaps best weapon against Alzheimer’s. Medivation Inc. , the start-up that persuaded Pfizer Inc. , the world’s biggest drugmaker, to help develop Dimebon, may be ready to release new research data during the first week of March, said Bengt Winblad , head of Alzheimer’s research at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm and a leader of the European trials for the product. The study may confirm a 2008 finding in Russia that patients functioned better and thought more clearly after swallowing Dimebon tablets three times a day. The data augur a make-or-break moment for San Francisco- based Medivation, which has no products on the market and has recorded losses exceeding $150 million since 2003. Pfizer, which hasn’t brought a new drug to market that generates more than $1 billion a year since the pain pill Lyrica won U.S. clearance in 2004, has pinpointed Alzheimer’s as one of six focuses of research. Doctors say millions of patients may benefit. The 183-patient Russian study, reported in the Lancet in July 2008, “showed the most effective and sustained benefit that we’ve ever seen in Alzheimer’s,” Samuel Gandy , associate director of the Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, said in a telephone interview. “There is nothing that’s currently approved that compares to it and nothing else really in the pipeline that compares to it.” Drug Failures Some patients were better after taking the drug for 18 months than they were at the start of the trial, something never previously seen with the progressive disease. Gandy, who wasn’t involved in the research, said the drug stands to win approval even if the next study “is only half as good as the original.” Few Alzheimer’s candidates beat the odds. There hasn’t been a new drug for the disease since Namenda, from New York-based Forest Laboratories Inc. , was approved in 2003, and almost a dozen drugs in mid- to late-stage testing have failed since then, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Drugs that looked exciting in early studies have turned into disappointments, while others that appeared less promising ended up successful, said Constantine Lyketsos, chair of psychiatry at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center in Baltimore. “Ultimately with Dimebon, the data will speak,” Lyketsos said. “Even if it was hugely promising and exciting, it would be a little while before it ends up on the market. My patients and families need realistic hope at this point and I’m not sure that’s realistic hope at this point.” Stock Ratings Now valued at $1.13 billion, Medivation may plunge 35 percent in Nasdaq trading if the study fails, said Ian Sanderson , an analyst at Cowen & Co. in Boston. Success may propel the stock to rise 20 percent, he said. Sanderson rates the shares “neutral.” Seven other analysts say investors should buy Medivation and one has a “sell” opinion, according to Bloomberg data. Medivation has risen 80 percent in Nasdaq Stock Market composite trading in the last 12 months as investors anticipate the study results. The shares advanced 1.6 percent yesterday, to $33.82. Pfizer shares rose 29 percent in the past 12 months, and climbed 13 cents, to $18.79, in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. Positive results would usher Dimebon into a $4 billion a year market that may almost triple by 2018, said Matthew Winton, an analyst at Decision Resources Inc. in Waltham, Massachusetts, in a telephone interview. ‘Very Excited’ Analysts said they expect Medivation and New York-based Pfizer to file for regulatory approval of Dimebon in 2011. Results from the 525-patient Connection study could move that date forward, company officials said. “We’re all very excited that we will reproduce exactly what was seen in the other trial,” said Briggs Morrison , senior vice president of Pfizer’s primary-care development group, in a telephone interview. “If that data comes together and in our conversations with regulators they feel that it’s a strong package worthy of filing, we all have a passion to get these important medicines to patients.” In its initial studies, Dimebon was effective in all five areas examined and the improvements lasted longer than the effects seen in separate research on rival therapies. If the results are confirmed, the drug may generate at least $1.6 billion in annual sales by 2015, Sanderson said. The top spot in the market is now held by Pfizer and Tokyo-based Eisai Co. ’s Aricept, which generates $2.5 billion a year. Russian Researchers Medivation acquired Dimebon, which has been used since 1983 to treat hay fever in the former Soviet Union, from a company formed by Sergey Bachurin, a researcher at the Institute of Psychologically Active Compounds, in Chemogolovka, Russia. The drug was first identified as a possible way to protect neurons when the Russian Academy of Science , in Chernogolovka, Russia, started in the early 1990s to screen libraries of compounds for their ability to block a key brain receptor. Belief in the drug was bolstered when researchers found it improved learning in brain-damaged rodents. If Dimebon beats the 70 percent failure rate seen in drug development, the results — and clearances from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and its European counterparts — may arrive before scientists pinpoint how the product works. What Patients Want Investigators once thought Dimebon combined the activity seen with the two types of drugs already approved for Alzheimer’s disease: medicines such as Pfizer’s Aricept that increase levels of a brain chemical that helps transmit messages between nerves, and drugs such as Forest’s Namenda, that block the absorption of toxic levels of another neurotransmitter. Studies dispelled that hypothesis, and what Dimebon does inside the brain remains unknown. Patients don’t care why a drug works — only if it does. “Many of my patients or their spouses say, ‘If I could at least keep my husband or wife as she is now, I would be very happy,’ ” said Karolinska’s Winblad. “In a way, that’s what you do with this drug. You prolong the time to the decline.” Dimebon is one of five Alzheimer’s medicines that may reach the market in the next decade, Winton said. The drugs, including products from Johnson & Johnson in New Brunswick, New Jersey; Elan Corp. in Dublin; Pfizer; Baxter International Inc. in Deerfield, Illinois; and Eli Lilly & Co. in Indianapolis, may spur an $11 billion market by 2018 as prices and the number of patients climb, Winton said. Approved Drugs Most of the potential Dimebon competitors reduce levels of amyloid plaque , a substance that builds up in the brain of people with Alzheimer’s. The four approved drugs, which ease symptoms for as much as six months, generated $6.3 billion in the 12-months ended Sept. 30, according to IMS Health Inc. , a research company in Norwalk, Connecticut. Scientists have now focused on Dimebon’s effect on mitochondria , so-called power plants that generate energy in cells, with laboratory studies showing it improves cells’ function and helps them withstand stress. “The data is really clear, but it is in cell culture,” Maria Ankarcrona, a Karolinska researcher, said in an interview. “Stressed cells respond more to Dimebon than normal cells.” Alzheimer’s is a progressive disease that starts with mild forgetfulness and eventually robs patients of memories and independence. It afflicts 30 million people worldwide, a number that may exceed 100 million by 2050, according to Alzheimer’s Disease International, an advocacy group based in London. Losing Lipitor Pfizer, with revenue of $48.3 billion in 2008, needs new medications to replace the sales it will lose when its biggest- selling drug, the cholesterol-lowering drug Lipitor, loses patent protection in 2011. The patent on Aricept expires at the end of this year. Pfizer paid Medivation $225 million in September 2008 to help develop Dimebon for Alzheimer’s and Huntington’s disease, and may pay an additional $500 million as the drug proceeds through the regulatory process. Pfizer is covering 60 percent of the development costs in the U.S. and will get a like portion of the profits. The Medivation development program includes five pivotal trials of Dimebon, for use alone and in combination with existing drugs, and for patients with disease ranging from mild to severe. The 183 volunteers in the first such study, in Russia, were given either Dimebon or a placebo for six months, while other anti-dementia drugs weren’t allowed. Additional Research The researchers evaluated the last patient enrolled in the 525-patient Connection study in December and are now starting to analyze the findings, Winblad said. The results should be available by early March, and Medivation and Pfizer may be able to release the findings by then, he said. Pfizer’s Morrison and Medivation CEO David Hung said the data will be released by July. “The Connection study is an important study, but it’s only one of a number of studies,” Hung said. “We have a lot of shots on goal.” To contact the reporter on this story: Michelle Fay Cortez in London at mcortez@bloomberg.net

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Analysts Hate These Five Stocks, So Buy Them Now: John Dorfman

February 1, 2010

Commentary by John Dorfman Feb. 1 (Bloomberg) — Wall Street analysts turn up their noses at Eli Lilly & Co. On a scale where 1.0 is “sell,” 3.0 is “hold” and 5.0 is “buy,” Lilly rates only a 2.9. Five analysts say to buy shares in the Indianapolis drugmaker, six say sell, and 12 duck for cover with a neutral rating. A 2.9 score might not seem too bad, but bear in mind that brokerage houses have a positive bias. They are, after all, in the business of selling stocks. The average rating for stocks on the New York Stock Exchange is 3.8. Fully 87 percent of all U.S. stocks with a market capitalization of more than $500 million score higher than 3.0. Lilly’s low rating doesn’t discourage me. In fact, I like the company. I prefer stocks that are unpopular. If most of the major brokerage houses have already endorsed a stock, where will the impetus come from for it to gain new fans? What’s more, when earnings improve or temporary problems dissipate, such stocks can garner analysts’ endorsements and attract capital. Lilly is one of five stocks I recommend this week that analysts couldn’t care less about. Like other big pharmaceutical companies, Lilly has major drugs with patents that will expire soon. Zyprexa, prescribed for patients with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, accounts for about one quarter of Lilly’s sales; its patent expires in 2011. Patent Plight Still, according to a March 2009 analysis by Zacks Investment Research, Lilly’s patent plight is less severe than that of some major competitors. Zacks estimates that Merck & Co. will see about 35 percent of its 2012 revenue exposed to generic competition and that Pfizer Inc. will lose patents on drugs accounting for 40 percent of its 2012 sales. Its genuine problems notwithstanding, I consider Lilly an excellent value at its recent price of about $36, down from a high of more than $100 a decade ago. The stock sells for only eight times earnings. The dividend yield is 5.5 percent, and the payout seems secure to me. Investors fret about what they see as scanty new-drug pipelines at all the big pharmaceutical companies. They worry too much, I think. Lilly, for example, has about 60 drugs in various stages of development. Analysts hold CNA Financial Corp. in even greater disdain. Only four analysts bother to cover the Chicago-based commercial insurer, and none recommends it; there are three “hold” ratings and one “sell.” Low Expectations CNA is unlikely to win any awards as the best-run insurance company around. It has posted losses in four of the past 10 years, including 2008. That year it paid out $105.20 in claims and expenses for every $100 it collected in premiums. Why do I favor it, then? I recommend it because it is cheap, and investor expectations are low. With the stock at seven times the past four quarters’ earnings and 0.7 times book value (corporate net worth), there is ample room for positive surprises. Consider this oddity. CNA is 90 percent owned by Loews Corp. , a New York-based corporation controlled by the Tisch family. CNA accounts for the majority of Loews’s revenue. Yet Loews has a buy rating from most analysts, while CNA is endorsed by none. Andrew Tisch and James Tisch , who are CNA directors, both bought CNA stock on the open market in November, as did Joseph Rosenberg , chief investment strategist for Loews. Pipeline Profits Another big yawn, according to analysts, is Enbridge Energy Partners LP , a pipeline partnership based in Houston. Ten analysts give it a neutral rating, with one “buy” and two “sells.” Enbridge, the biggest transporter of oil to the U.S. from Alberta’s tar sands, has made a profit each year since 1992, which is as far back as Bloomberg data on the company goes. The stock sells for 13 times earnings and currently offers a dividend yield of more than 7 percent. Next up is Lexmark International Inc. of Lexington, Kentucky, the second-largest U.S. maker of computer printers. (Hewlett-Packard Co. is No. 1.) Lexmark has earned a profit every year since 1994. The bad news on Lexmark is that sales and earnings have declined in the past five years. With the stock at nine times earnings and less than 0.6 times revenue, it seems that investors don’t expect much. Neither do analysts, who slap a 2.7 rating on the stock. Riding the Recovery The third quarter showed a glimmer of hope: Lexmark’s sales ticked up, compared with the previous quarter. I think the stock will be buoyed by the U.S. economic recovery that I believe is in progress. My final recommendation is St. Louis-based Patriot Coal Corp. It is the fourth-largest eastern U.S. coal company, with annualized revenue of about $2 billion. The company’s stock-market value is just $1.5 billion, and shares are trading for only 0.6 times revenue. Analysts give the stock a kissing-your-sister grade of 2.9. I think it is more exciting than that. In 2008, for example, the company earned a 33 percent return on shareholders’ equity, which is sparkling. Lately that profit measure has subsided to about a 19 percent return, which I still consider good. I like the stock at eight times earnings. Disclosure note: I own shares of Merck personally and for clients. A few of my clients own Pfizer. I have no long or short positions in the other stocks discussed in this week’s column. ( John Dorfman , chairman of Thunderstorm Capital in Boston, is a columnist for Bloomberg News. The opinions expressed are his own. His firm or clients may own or trade securities discussed in this column.) Click on “Send Comment” in the sidebar display to send a letter to the editor. To contact the writer of this column: John Dorfman at jdorfman@thunderstormcapital.com .

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Cooper Manning Finds Niche in Energy Stocks, Leaving Football to Brothers

January 29, 2010

By David Wethe Jan. 29 (Bloomberg) — Cooper Manning , who’s about to attend the third Super Bowl in four years involving a team led by one of his brothers, was looking for shelter from his family fame when he stumbled into the oil patch after college. The 35-year-old Manning, a partner at energy investment firm Howard Weil Inc. in New Orleans, passed up jobs to become a broadcaster or a sports agent because he’d be forever pegged to his younger brother Peyton Manning . The Indianapolis Colts quarterback just won a record fourth National Football League Most Valuable Player award and will lead the team against the New Orleans Saints in the Super Bowl on Feb. 7 in Miami. Cooper Manning, who is 6-foot-4, was recruited to play wide receiver at the University of Mississippi. His football career was cut short when his doctors diagnosed a congenital narrowing of the spinal canal. He said he has no regrets about how things turned out. “The energy business is kind of a good ol’ boy business,” he said in a telephone interview. “If you can drink a cold beer and make somebody laugh, you can probably get up the ranks quicker than other folks. I kind of fit in.” Manning, whose youngest brother, Eli Manning , led the New York Giants to victory in the 2008 Super Bowl, graduated with a degree in broadcast journalism. He then worked a few odd jobs on radio talk shows and traveled around the country interviewing to be a sports agent. Getting Off ‘Scholarship’ As the oldest son of Archie Manning , who starred at quarterback for the Saints in the 1970s, Cooper Manning may have had more doors open to him than the average 22-year-old. He said he decided to “get off scholarship from my parents” and took a sales job in New Orleans at a small company, Seismic Exchange Inc. After three years of selling seismic data, which oil and natural-gas producers use to help identify petroleum deposits, Manning said he heard about a job at Howard Weil in 2000. Manning, who befriended current Saints quarterback Drew Brees out of a love for “southern hospitality,” said he was due for a culture shock. He now sells energy stocks to institutional investors. “This is a pretty greedy industry,” he said. “I grew up where you weren’t supposed to talk about money. You just never mentioned it. You all of a sudden get into a business where the whole premise of all your clients, all they’re trying to do every day is generate returns and make money.” Citigroup Deal Colleagues on the 35th floor of the firm’s headquarters overlooking the French Quarter said Manning has become one of Howard Weil’s top sales people. Manning was part of a group of employees who pooled their money to buy the firm when its previous owner, Legg Mason Inc., included the unit in a December 2005 asset swap with Citigroup Inc. “He’s just one of the greatest guys you’d ever want to be on the field with,” said Andrew Rosenberg , a partner at Howard Weil. “The fact is, this is his playing field.” Manning said he doesn’t try to exploit his family’s celebrity status. One client who learned of the connection after four years of working with Manning was angry that he hadn’t told him. “It didn’t pop up,” Manning said. “If you can’t help people make money, that sort of stuff will fade pretty quick. I have a lot of clients who don’t give a hoot about football, much less Peyton and Eli.” Lighter Side “Coop,” as Manning is known to co-workers, is both a class clown and a hard worker, said Paul Pursley , president of Howard Weil. Tony Reginelli coached the two older Manning brothers at the private Isidore Newman School in New Orleans. Eli Manning, who is almost seven years younger than Cooper, played there after Reginelli retired. Peyton Manning, 33, was always “jumping on players” in the huddle and demanding perfection, Reginelli said. “Cooper comes in and he probably tells them a joke and relaxes them.” It’s no different today when Cooper and Peyton talk on the phone. “We talk about everything under the sun,” Cooper Manning said. “Maybe just touch on the game a little bit, but mostly about something to keep his mind off of it and tell him something that’s funny.” Hometown vs. Family Cooper Manning said he last saw Brees on Jan. 9, when the Saints quarterback and his wife came to his house to watch the Dallas Cowboys play the Philadelphia Eagles in the opening round of the NFL playoffs. “My kids hounded him in their full Saints gear,” Manning said. “He’s a hard guy to pull against.” As the Saints play in their first Super Bowl after more than four decades of trying to get there, family ties won’t allow Manning to root for his hometown team. “It’s a little awkward,” he said. His brothers’ success makes it all the more difficult to hide in the shadows. “With those guys getting more notoriety, it’s been a little more difficult to remain anonymous,” Manning said. To contact the reporter on this story: David Wethe in Houston at dwethe@bloomberg.net .

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New York Jets Beat Chargers 17-14, Will Play Colts for Place in Super Bowl

January 17, 2010

By Erik Matuszewski Jan. 17 (Bloomberg) — The New York Jets are one win away from the Super Bowl after beating the San Diego Chargers 17-14 to reach the American Football Conference championship game for the first time since the 1998 season. The Jets scored two fourth-quarter touchdowns at Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego and held the Chargers to fewer than 20 points for the first time this season while snapping San Diego’s 11-game winning streak. The Jets (11-7), who entered the postseason with the longest odds of any team to win the National Football League championship, will face the Indianapolis Colts on Jan. 24 for the AFC title and a trip to the Super Bowl, the National Football League’s title game, on Feb. 7. New York’s road victory as a 7 1/2-point underdog capped a weekend in which home teams won the first three divisional-round games by an average of 26 points. The Minnesota Vikings beat the Dallas Cowboys 34-3 today at the Minneapolis Metrodome as Brett Favre threw four touchdown passes. The Vikings (13-4) will visit the New Orleans Saints in the National Football Conference championship game on Jan. 24. The Saints (14-3) beat the Arizona Cardinals 45-14 yesterday, while the Colts (15-2) were 20-3 winners over the Baltimore Ravens. The Jets have won back-to-back playoff games for the first time since 1982, while Mark Sanchez became the second rookie quarterback in NFL history to win two postseason games. Joe Flacco of the Baltimore Ravens was the first, one year ago. To contact the reporter on this story: Erik Matuszewski in New York at matuszewski@bloomberg.net

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Vikings Will Play Saints for a Super Bowl Spot After Beating Cowboys 34-3

January 17, 2010

By Dex McLuskey Jan. 17 (Bloomberg) — Brett Favre threw three of his four touchdown passes to Sidney Rice as the Minnesota Vikings beat the Dallas Cowboys 34-3 to set up a meeting with the New Orleans Saints for a place in the Super Bowl. “It was convincing, to say the least,” Favre said in a televised postgame interview at the Metrodome in Minneapolis. “We’ll have to play that way in order to win next week.” Favre, at 40 the oldest quarterback to start a National Football League playoff game, completed 15 of 24 passes for 234 yards as the Vikings advanced to the National Football Conference championship game for the first time since 2000, where they lost to the New York Giants. Minnesota has played in the Super Bowl four times, losing each time. The New York Jets play the San Diego Chargers today for the right to face the Indianapolis Colts on Jan. 24 for the American Football Conference title and a Super Bowl spot. The Super Bowl, the National Football League’s championship game, is scheduled for Feb. 7 in Miami. Minnesota will play the top-seeded Saints in New Orleans for the NFC title on Jan. 24. Favre found Rice with a 47-yard pass with 4 minutes, 12 seconds remaining in the first quarter to open the scoring in Minneapolis. After Shaun Suisham kicked a 33-yard field goal for the Cowboys, Rice scored again midway through the second quarter on a 16-yard pass from Favre. Lead Widens The Vikings’ lead widened to 14 points four minutes before halftime, when Ryan Longwell made a 23-yard field goal after Dallas quarterback Tony Romo fumbled following a sack by Jared Allen on the Dallas 20-yard line. Romo was sacked another three times by Ray Edwards and lost the ball on two of three fumbles during the half. The Dallas quarterback was downed for the fifth time on the team’s opening drive of the second half and Suisham missed the 49-yard field goal attempt that followed, as the Cowboys sought to recover from a 14-point deficit for the second time in a playoff game. With 1:17 to play in the third quarter, Romo turned the ball over for the third time when he threw an interception to Ben Leber . The Vikings took over on Dallas’s 15-yard line and Longwell made it 20-3 with a field goal from 28 yards. The next Cowboys’ drive also ended with a punt after the Vikings sacked Romo for the sixth time. Minnesota led the NFL in sacks during the regular season. Seven plays later, Favre connected with Rice from 45 yards to make it 27-3 midway through the fourth quarter. Minnesota completed the scoring with 1:55 to play, when Favre found Visanthe Shiancoe for a touchdown from 11 yards. To contact the reporter on this story: Dex McLuskey in Dallas at dmcluskey@bloomberg.net

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Jets’ Sanchez Tries Imitating Flacco Not Favre, Manning Playoff Histories

January 15, 2010

By Erik Matuszewski Jan. 15 (Bloomberg) — New York Jets quarterback Mark Sanchez has a chance to accomplish something Brett Favre , Peyton Manning and Kurt Warner never did. Sanchez this weekend can become the second quarterback in National Football League history to win two playoff games as a rookie. The Jets play the San Diego Chargers on Jan. 17 for a spot in the American Football Conference championship game. One year ago, Sanchez had just decided to turn professional after his junior year at the University of Southern California. Now the 23-year-old rookie is among the eight quarterbacks still playing, a group that has combined for nine NFL Most Valuable Player awards and 29 Pro Bowl appearances. “I’ve grown up watching those guys so it’s pretty special,” Sanchez said at news conference at the team’s training facility in Florham Park, New Jersey on Jan. 13. “I’m honored to be here, but at the same time I don’t want to look back and say, ‘Man, that was cool getting to the divisional round.’ The only other quarterback left in the playoffs who hasn’t been to a Pro Bowl is Baltimore’s Joe Flacco , who as a rookie took the Ravens to last year’s AFC title game. Jets first-year coach Rex Ryan was the Ravens’ defensive coordinator last year and former New York Giants quarterback Phil Simms , now an analyst for CBS Sports , said that experience convinced Ryan that a rookie quarterback could be successful in the NFL. “Sure it helps,” Simms, who will work the Jets-Chargers game, said during a conference call. “He learned that his way, his belief in how to orchestrate a football team can still win, win big and win Super Bowls. He’s seen it and been a part of it.” Rookie Mistakes Sanchez is aiming to match the 24-year-old Flacco’s accomplishment after last week becoming the fourth rookie quarterback since 1950 to win an NFL playoff game, joining Flacco, Pittsburgh’s Ben Roethlisberger (2004) and Tampa Bay’s Shaun King (1999). After throwing 16 interceptions in his first 10 games, Sanchez helped the Jets win six of their last seven by limiting his mistakes. He didn’t throw an interception the last three games, including last week’s 24-14 playoff win over Cincinnati in which he completed 12-of-15 passes for 182 yards and a touchdown. “I don’t want to feel like I’ve figured it out,” said Sanchez. “I just think that working to eliminate turnovers has really helped.” The Jets have the NFL’s top rushing offense and best defense, so they haven’t had to rely on Sanchez’s arm to carry them to wins. He’s topped 200 passing yards in four games, and Simms said Ryan may take a few more chances through the air against the Chargers. ‘Competitive Level’ “I expect the Jets to sneak a few more pass plays in their game plan to keep it a little more balanced because the competitive level is going up,” said Simms, 54. The other playoff teams rely much more on the production of their quarterbacks: Manning, 33, in Indianapolis; Warner, 38, in Arizona; Favre, 40, in Minnesota; Drew Brees , 31, in New Orleans; Tony Romo , 29, in Dallas; Philip Rivers , 28, in San Diego and even Flacco in Baltimore. All had at least 1,000 passing yards more than Sanchez’s 2,444, with Manning and Romo topping him by 2,000 yards. Ryan said his quarterback will soon join them with awards and accolades, not to mention wins. “He doesn’t have to put it all on his shoulders and I think that’s why you see the success that he’s had,” Ryan, 47, told reporters on Jan. 13. “He’ll be a guy that goes to many Pro Bowls. He’s going to win a ton of games here.” Las Vegas oddsmakers have the Jets as 7 1/2-point underdogs against the Chargers, who have won 11 straight games. The winner will face the Ravens or Colts for the AFC championship and a spot in the Super Bowl. “Competitive guys make it to this level,” Sanchez said. “I probably won’t think about it until later on, but I hope it’s something I can reflect on and say, ‘Man, I beat some of those guys.’” To contact the reporter on this story: Erik Matuszewski in New York at matuszewski@bloomberg.net

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Haiti Survivors Face Diarrhea, Malaria Outbreaks Amid Lack of Clean Water

January 14, 2010

By Tom Randall, Meg Tirrell and Michelle Fay Cortez Jan. 14 (Bloomberg) — Survivors of the earthquake in Haiti that may have killed as many as 100,000 people face deadly outbreaks of diarrhea, measles and malaria after its already fragile clean water and health-care systems were destroyed. Even before the bodies of the dead have been removed from the rubble, health officials say it’s critical in the next few days that massive containers of water be set up throughout the capital of Port-au-Prince, temporary treatment centers established and tons of antibiotics and basic medical supplies delivered. Haiti has long suffered from the highest rates of malnutrition and lack of access to basic health services in the Western Hemisphere, according to the World Health Organization . The crisis has left no health infrastructure for aid workers to build upon, and disease outbreaks may be worse than in the aftermaths of comparable natural disasters, said Thomas Kirsch, director of operations at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine’s department of emergency medicine in Baltimore. “This is such a delicate situation,” said Margaret Aguirre, a spokeswoman for the emergency response team of International Medical Corp., a non-profit based in Santa Monica, California, in a telephone interview from Port-au-Prince. “We need to bring in medical supplies ourselves. So much of the infrastructure is lost in terms of buildings and personnel. A lot of the people who normally do relief work are missing themselves.” Doctors have set up operations outside the main hospital, because the building isn’t stable, according to Aguirre. The epicenter of the 7.0 magnitude earthquake was close to the city. “There have been many, many aftershocks,” she said. Flourishing Diseases Diarrheal diseases, including cholera and e. coli, cause severe dehydration and strip the body of needed nutrients. Diarrhea will flourish as survivors struggle to find clean water and safe food, Kirsch said. Children are most susceptible to severe infections. Measles outbreaks, which sometimes follow natural disasters, may flash through neighborhoods of tightly packed courtyards where thousands of homeless residents are gathering. Measles spreads rapidly and kills 15 percent of infected children in regions with malnutrition, Thomas Frieden , director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said in an interview in December. “The health system has been eliminated, water and sanitation entirely knocked out,” Kirsch said in an interview today. “The chance of them recovering even to the low level that they were before is almost zero.” No Basic Care Half of the children in Haiti are unvaccinated and just 40 percent of the population had access to basic health care before the crisis, according to the Geneva-based WHO. After a natural disaster of this magnitude, the delivery of needed supplies is usually managed by the military, Kirsch said. In Haiti, the armed forces were dismantled in 1995. The UN typically coordinates aid from international agencies. Those efforts were complicated after the UN headquarters at the Christopher Hotel collapsed in the quake. UN Assistant Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Alain LeRoy said 14 workers in Haiti were confirmed dead, and 150 civilian and military personnel are unaccounted for. Other UN offices have also been damaged, and 10 people are missing from a compound that houses these groups. ‘Poorly Governed’ “Haiti is considered one of the most poorly governed countries in the world,” said Egbert Sondorp, a senior lecturer in public health and humanitarian aid at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. “It’s a fragile state which wasn’t very well able to provide social and health services to its population even before the earthquake.” The initial period of medical crisis, when rescuers look for people buried beneath the rubble and care for those with the most severe injuries from the earthquake, will last just a few days, Sondorp said in a telephone interview. The bigger challenge, and one that could take decades to resolve, is rebuilding the infrastructure needed to provide food, clean water and health care to citizens nationwide, he said. “It’s quite essential, as soon as you can, to come up with a proper rehabilitation plan,” he said. “You need to get people together to pool resources and do common planning that will make the conditions better.” Drugmaker Donations Drug companies are donating needed medicines and medical supplies. New York-based Pfizer Inc., the world’s biggest drugmaker, is giving medicines including the antibiotic Zithromax to fight bacteria and Diflucan for fungal infections, said Pfizer spokeswoman Tyrene Frederick-Mack in a telephone interview. GlaxoSmithKline Plc, based in London, sent antibiotics on one of the first airlifts to Haiti after the earthquake, said spokeswoman Claire Brough in a telephone interview. The drugs included Bactroban cream and ointment, Augmentin for respiratory tract infections, Zovirax for herpes virus, Ceftin and Zinacef for bacterial infections and Zantac for heartburn and stomach ulcers, she said. The company plans to extend donations once the local infrastructure is repaired, she said. Abbott Laboratories, based in Abbott Park, Illinois, is donating $1 million in grants and pharmaceutical and nutritional products. Eli Lilly & Co., based in Indianapolis, is contributing $250,000, matching employee donations, and plans to donate medicines, the company said in the statement. Death Toll Estimates The earthquake may already have killed 45,000 to 50,000 people, Victor Jackson, an assistant national coordinator with Haiti’s Red Cross, told Reuters. Haitian Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive said yesterday in an interview with CNN that “well over” 100,000 may have died, basing his estimate on reports of the number of buildings that collapsed with people inside. The Red Cross estimates as many as 3 million people may be affected by the earthquake. Haiti has a total population of 9.6 million, with about 2 million located in Port-au-Prince. The Western Hemisphere’s poorest country, Haiti has a per capita income of about $560, with 54 percent of Haitians living on less than $1 a day and 78 percent on less than $2 daily, according to the World Bank. Traumatic Injuries “Immediately we’re dealing with a very significant amount of physical trauma-related injuries which are going to be responsible for virtually all of the prompt fatalities,” said Irwin Redlener , director of the National Center for Disaster Preparedness at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health. The chance of survival plummets for someone buried under rubble after 48 to 72 hours, he said in an interview today. When those with more serious injuries are being treated, people with broken bones and other more moderate ones can get infections while they wait. “The fact that the system is overloaded spells trouble even for people with moderate injuries,” Redlener said. After the initial period, “the rubble itself creates hazards. We start seeing lots of cuts, bruises, falls,” he said. Chronic illnesses, such as diabetes or asthma, that were previously under control may become exacerbated with lack of medical care or the inability for people to obtain medicines, Redlener said. Some will develop stress-related disorders from emotional trauma. “The emotional burden of this is going to be overwhelming,” he said. Doctors Without Borders The aid group Doctors Without Borders has had more than a thousand patients in its four tented medical facilities in Port- au-Prince, according to a statement. Many people have come in with fractures, head injuries and other major trauma, and food, water and shelter materials are running low, the group said. “Basic provisions were always problematic for people in Port-au-Prince but the position is far worse now,” said Vincent Hoedt, an emergency coordinator for the group, in the e-mailed statement. “There’s a concern for people who are already weakened by injuries. There are also shortages of things like gasoline, which affects the working of all kinds of vital equipment.” Port-au-Prince had 21 public health facilities, including four hospitals, before the earthquake, according to Greg Elder, deputy operations manager for Doctors Without Borders in Haiti. Half of the city’s inhabitants lived in slums, Elder said in an e-mailed update from the organization. “It’s a really catastrophic event where absolutely no one knows really what the scope of this is in terms of casualties and fatalities,” Elder said. Flights Depart Doctors Without Borders has almost 800 staff members in Port-au-Prince and plans to send an additional 70 people to help in the next few days, including several surgical teams, Elder said. A flight will leave today with equipment to establish a 100-bed inflatable tent hospital with two operating rooms, and two surgical teams are leaving today from Miami, he said. Lester Hartman, a Westwood, Massachusetts, pediatrician and Harvard Medical School faculty member, said he expects to see greater demand for services at Mt. Carroll Clinic, which he helped establish in 2003 in the town of Juampas, about 40 miles outside Port-au-Prince. While the clinic, where Hartman is medical director, itself was unscathed by the earthquake, survivors will soon begin arriving in hill towns such as Juampas in search of food and medical services, he said. Food Supplies “There’s going to be a secondary wave of people migrating from Port-au-Prince to the towns,” he said yesterday in an interview in Boston. “They’ll come up to live with relatives and they won’t have housing or food. So people who don’t have enough food to begin with will have to split their food.” Food supplies may remain scarce because most deliveries come to the country via Port-au-Prince, Hartman said. He’s also looking for ways of bringing extra doses of antibiotics. Hartman said he may fly into the Dominican Republic capital city of Santo Domingo and drive eight hours to Juampas to avoid the chaos of Port-au-Prince. Workers in the clinic, which typically serves about 300 people each week, often see temporary migration from Port-au- Prince to hill towns during riots, Hartman said. The displacing effects of the earthquake on may last much longer, he said. “Think of it a little bit like Katrina,” he said. “People are going to need help for years.” To contact the reporter on this story: Tom Randall in New York at trandall6@bloomberg.net

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Cardinals Defeat Packers in NFL Playoff Record Win, Ravens Beat Patriots

January 10, 2010

By Erik Matuszewski Jan. 11 (Bloomberg) — The Arizona Cardinals extended their season with a 51-45 victory over the Green Bay Packers, as a defensive touchdown ended the highest-scoring playoff game in National Football League history. Karlos Dansby returned an Aaron Rodgers fumble 17 yards for a touchdown on the first overtime possession in Glendale, Arizona, capping a game that featured 96 points, 13 touchdowns, 1,024 yards and 62 first downs, all postseason records. “That’s got to be one of the best games ever played in the playoffs,” Cardinals coach Ken Whisenhunt said during a news conference. “That was really a battle, with a lot of ups and downs. This is what football and the playoffs are all about.” The Baltimore Ravens beat the New England Patriots 33-14 in yesterday’s first playoff game after taking a 24-0 first-quarter lead in Foxboro, Massachusetts. The wins by the Cardinals and Ravens complete the NFL’s second-round playoff matchups. In the National Football Conference, Arizona advances to face the top-seeded New Orleans Saints on Jan. 16 and the Dallas Cowboys visit the Minnesota Vikings the next day. The Cowboys beat the Philadelphia Eagles 34-14 two days ago. In the American Football Conference, the Ravens will visit the top-seeded Indianapolis Colts on Jan. 16 while the New York Jets face the San Diego Chargers the following day. The Jets were 24-14 winners over the Cincinnati Bengals two days ago. Cardinals Win In Glendale, the Cardinals and Packers totaled 96 points, one more than the previous postseason record set in 1995 when the Philadelphia Eagles beat the Detroit Lions 58-37. Kurt Warner , who led the Cardinals to the NFC championship last season, passed for 379 yards and five touchdowns, including two each to Larry Fitzgerald and Early Doucet . Rodgers, making his first playoff appearance for the Packers, finished with 422 passing yards and four touchdowns. All four came in the second half, when Green Bay erased a 31-10 third-quarter deficit. After Spencer Havner caught an 11-yard touchdown pass from Rodgers with 1:52 left to tie the score 45-45, Cardinals kicker Neil Rackers missed a 34-yard field goal attempt with nine seconds remaining. In overtime, Rodgers fumbled on a 3rd-and-6 play when he was hit by Cardinals cornerback Michael Adams . Dansby snatched the ball out of the air and raced for the winning score. “It was kind of like whoever was going to win the toss was going to win the game, but I really felt that our defense was going to make a play,” Whisenhunt said. “I just believed that because we missed the field goal where we had a chance to win, maybe destiny was going to smile on us.” Ravens’ First Quarter At Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, Baltimore’s Ray Rice had an 83-yard touchdown run on the first offensive play of the game to spark the Ravens’ early 24-point burst. Patriots quarterback Tom Brady had three first-quarter turnovers that led to 17 points for Baltimore. “We got off to a terrible start and never really could get back in the game,” Brady said during a news conference. “That’s the way it is in the playoffs when you play good teams. We just made too many mistakes.” Rice rushed for 159 yards, while Willis McGahee and Le’Ron McClain added rushing scores for Baltimore, which finished with 234 rushing yards. Brady threw for 154 yards, with two touchdown passes, three interceptions and one fumble as New England suffered its first home playoff loss since Dec. 31, 1978. The AFC East champions, who won Super Bowl titles after the 2001, 2003 and 2004 seasons, went 8-0 at Gillette Stadium during the regular season. “We will always remember this win,” Rice said. “It’s hard to win on the road, especially here. They expect the playoffs every year and I am sure they are expecting Super Bowl. That’s the same mentality the Ravens need to have — the ultimate goal is the Super Bowl. Beating them up here really puts us toward that goal.” To contact the reporter on this story: Erik Matuszewski in New York at matuszewski@bloomberg.net

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Colts Picked by Vegas to Win Super Bowl as Jets Biggest Long Shot at 25-1

January 4, 2010

By Michael Buteau (Corrects second-round matchups in third, seventh paragraphs, Cardinals’ division in 12th.) Jan. 4 (Bloomberg) — The Indianapolis Colts are favored by Las Vegas oddsmakers to win the Super Bowl, while the New York Jets are the biggest underdogs. The Colts have the best record among the 12 teams to qualify for the National Football League’s playoffs, at 14-2, and are 8-5 picks to claim their second Super Bowl title in four seasons on Feb. 7, according to Las Vegas Sports Consultants, which advises Nevada sports books on betting lines. Indianapolis will have a bye in the first round of the American Football Conference playoffs before facing the lowest remaining seed in the second. That could be the No. 4 Cincinnati Bengals (10-6), the No. 5 Jets (9-7) or the No. 6 Baltimore Ravens (9-7). “Indy has been the most consistent team all year,” Mike Seba , a senior oddsmaker, said in a telephone interview. “They don’t blow teams out, but they win the big games. You can play with them, but it’s hard to beat them.” The Jets, who beat the Bengals 37-0 yesterday at Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, to finish 9-7, have the longest odds of any team, at 25-1. They will be four-point underdogs for their rematch with the Bengals in Cincinnati, according to Seba. The Bengals have the second-longest odds of winding up Super Bowl champions, at 20-1. “With their defense, they can stay in any game, but they are offensively challenged,” Seba said of the Jets. “I wouldn’t be surprised if they win the first week, but I think it’s all over after that.” Chargers, Saints The San Diego Chargers, winners of the AFC West division at 13-3, also have a first-round bye and will face the higher seed of the two first-round AFC winners. The No. 3 seed belongs to the New England Patriots (10-6), who were 6-1 favorites at the start of the season to wind up Super Bowl champions and play the Ravens in the first round. The Colts were tied for third at 8-1 with the New York Giants, who didn’t make the playoffs. Neither did the defending Super Bowl champion Pittsburgh Steelers, who were the second choice in preseason odds at 7-1. The Chargers and New Orleans Saints (13-3) are tied as the second favorite at 5-2, Las Vegas Sports Consultants said, followed by the Dallas Cowboys and Minnesota Vikings, at 5-1. Favre’s Impact The Saints, who won the National Football Conference South division at 13-3, and Vikings have byes in first round. The Vikings captured the NFC North at 12-4 behind quarterback Brett Favre . “Without him, they’d be 20-1,” Seba said of the 40-year- old Favre. The Cowboys (11-5) and Vikings (12-4) are followed by the Arizona Cardinals, with odds of 10-1. The Cardinals (10-6), who won the NFC West division, host the Green Bay Packers (11-5) in a first-round matchup on Jan. 10. The Packers have 12-1 odds, tied with the Patriots, who won the AFC East. The Ravens, at 15-1, are tied with the Philadelphia Eagles, who play Jan. 9 against the Cowboys. Odds to win the Super Bowl, according to Las Vegas Sports Consultants: To contact the reporter on this story: Michael Buteau in Atlanta at mbuteau@bloomberg.net

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Ravens Clinch NFL Playoff Berth With Win Over Raiders; Jets Seek Last Spot

January 3, 2010

By Dex McLuskey Jan. 3 (Bloomberg) — The Super-Bowl champion Pittsburgh Steelers are in danger of missing the National Football League playoffs even though they ended the regular season with a 30-24 win over the Miami Dolphins. While the Steelers improved to 9-7, their postseason chances took a hit when the Houston Texans overcame a 27-13 fourth-quarter deficit to beat the New England Patriots 34-27. Pittsburgh now needs losses by the New York Jets, Baltimore Ravens and Denver Broncos to clinch one of the final two playoff spots available in the American Football Conference. The Jets and Ravens would make the postseason with wins over the Cincinnati Bengals and Oakland Raiders respectively. The Broncos could make the playoffs if the Jets or Ravens lose and they beat the Kansas City Chiefs. The Texans, who secured their first winning season by scoring 21 straight points in the fourth quarter against the Patriots, could make the playoffs with two losses among the Jets, Ravens and Broncos. The Dolphins were eliminated from contention with their loss to the Steelers, while Jacksonville Jaguars’ season ended with a 23-17 loss to the Cleveland Browns. The Indianapolis Colts, the San Diego Chargers, New England and Cincinnati had clinched AFC playoff spots before today, while the Dallas Cowboys, New Orleans Saints, Minnesota Vikings, Philadelphia Eagles, Arizona Cardinals and Green Bay Packers claimed the National Football Conference’s six berths. The playoffs begin Jan. 9. The Minnesota Vikings (12-4) thrashed the New York Giants 44-7 to end a two-game losing skid and remain in contention for the NFC’s No. 2 seed and a first-round bye in the playoffs. Brett Favre passed for 316 yards and four touchdowns as the Vikings finished 8-0 at home this season. The Philadelphia Eagles would claim the No. 2 seed with a win over the Dallas Cowboys today, while a loss would give the Vikings the second seeding. The Eagles-Cowboys matchup will also determine the NFC East Division champion. The New Orleans Saints, who already locked up the top seed in the NFC, lost today to the Carolina Panthers 23-10 to finish the regular season with a three-game losing streak. Quarterback Drew Brees was among the Saints’ starters who didn’t play. The Indianapolis Colts, the AFC’s top seed, lost their regular-season finale 30-7 in Buffalo. Peyton Manning reached 4,500 passing yards for the second time in his career before leaving the game midway through the second quarter. Manning completed 14 of 18 passes for 95 yards and an interception in his 192nd straight start, before giving way to rookie quarterback Curtis Painter . His season total is 57 yards short of the career-high 4,557 he amassed in 2004. Elsewhere in Week 17, it was Chicago 37, Detroit 23; San Francisco 28, St. Louis 6; and Atlanta 20, Tampa Bay 10. Also today, Green Bay is at Arizona, Washington plays San Diego and Tennessee visits Seattle. The Jets host the Bengals tonight in the final regular-season game at Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey. To contact the reporter on this story: Dex McLuskey in Dallas at dmcluskey@bloomberg.net

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Jets-Bengals Game Moved to Prime Time Jan. 3 Amid New York’s Playoff Quest

December 28, 2009

By Erik Matuszewski Dec. 28 (Bloomberg) — The New York Jets will play the final game of the National Football League’s regular season in prime time as they try to claim a playoff berth for the first time since 2006. The Jan. 3 game between the Jets and Cincinnati Bengals has been moved to 8:30 p.m. New York time and will be televised nationally on General Electric Co.’s NBC network. The matchup was originally scheduled to start at 1 p.m. at Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey. The Jets (8-7) would earn a spot in the NFL’s postseason with a victory over the Bengals, who have already clinched a playoff berth as the American Football Conference North Division champions. Cincinnati has a 10-5 record and is competing with the New England Patriots for the No. 3 playoff seed in the AFC. The Sunday night matchup will be the final game of the NFL’s regular season. New York sent the Indianapolis Colts to their first loss of the season yesterday and is among five teams with 8-7 records competing for the AFC’s final two playoff spots. In another time change, the Dallas Cowboys and Philadelphia Eagles will start at 4:15 p.m. on Jan. 3 instead of 1 p.m. The game, televised by News Corp.’s Fox network, will determine the National Football Conference’s East Division winner. the release. The league’s flexible scheduling creates marquee match-ups for the Sunday night games on NBC during the season’s final seven weeks. To contact the reporter on this story: Erik Matuszewski in New York at matuszewski@bloomberg.net

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Falcons Beat Jets on Late Touchdown, Damage New York’s Playoff Chances

December 20, 2009

By Erik Matuszewski Dec. 20 (Bloomberg) — Tony Gonzalez caught a six-yard touchdown pass with 1:38 left to play as the Atlanta Falcons beat the New York Jets 10-7, a damaging blow to the Jets’ chances of making the National Football League playoffs. The Falcons drove 57 yards for the winning score at Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey. The touchdown came on a fourth-down pass by Matt Ryan . On the Jets’ final drive, rookie quarterback Mark Sanchez was intercepted for the third time in the game. New York fell to 7-7 and is a half-game behind Baltimore for the final playoff berth in the American Football Conference with two games left in the NFL’s regular season. At 7-7, the Jets are tied with the Jacksonville Jaguars, Tennessee Titans, Houston Texans and Miami Dolphins. The Titans beat the Dolphins 27-24 in overtime, while the Texans defeated the St. Louis Rams 16-13. While the Falcons also are 7-7, they had been eliminated from postseason contention in the National Football Conference. The New England Patriots moved a step closer to clinching the AFC East Division title with a 17-10 win against Buffalo. Randy Moss had a touchdown catch as the Patriots improved to 9-5 with their 13th straight win over the Bills. Jerome Harrison rushed for a team-record 286 yards and three touchdowns to lift the Cleveland Browns to a 41-34 win over the Kansas City Chiefs. Harrison eclipsed Jim Brown’s single-game franchise record and his 28-yard touchdown run with 44 seconds left snapped a 34-34 tie. Josh Cribbs scored on kickoff returns of 100 and 103 yards for the Browns at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City to set an NFL career record with eight kickoff runbacks for touchdowns. In today’s other early game, Arizona beat Detroit 31-24. The New Orleans Saints lost to the Dallas Cowboys 24-17 yesterday, their first loss after a 13-0 start. The Indianapolis Colts remained undefeated three days ago with a 35-31 victory over the Jaguars, becoming the third team in NFL history to win their first 14 games. To contact the reporter on this story: Erik Matuszewski in New York at matuszewski@bloomberg.net .

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FHLBI Awards $7.2 Million in Affordable Housing Program Grants

December 11, 2009

INDIANAPOLIS, Dec. 11, 2009 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Milton J. Miller, President & CEO of the Federal Home Loan Bank of Indianapolis (FHLBI), has announced the 2009B grants totaling $7.2 million under the Bank’s Affordable Housing Program (AHP). Round B funded 15 projects to help create 432 units of affordable housing for homeownership, rental, or transitional housing.

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Health-Insurance Costs Won’t Rise for Most in U.S., Budget Office Reports

December 1, 2009

By Alex Nussbaum Dec. 1 (Bloomberg) — The Obama Administration hailed a congressional report that predicted most Americans will pay no more for insurance coverage under health-care legislation being debated in the U.S. Senate. On average, 134 million Americans insured through large employers will see no rise in premiums and may pay 3 percent less than they would if Congress failed to pass a health-care overhaul plan, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said yesterday. Subsidies also will lower costs as much as 59 percent for 18 million people buying their own insurance. The agency released its analysis as the Senate began debating the biggest revamp of U.S. health care in four decades. Senator Evan Bayh , the Indiana Democrat who requested the study, said it proves coverage can be expanded without boosting expenses for those already insured. Republican leaders said premiums will still rise for millions of Americans. The numbers “came out better” for the Democratic leadership “than I would have expected them to,” said Robert L. Laszewski , an Alexandria, Virginia-based consultant to the insurance industry. Still, there’s a difference between lowering individuals’ insurance expenses and curbing the growth in health-care spending, he said. The legislation will provide “welcome relief on costs,” said Dan Pfeiffer , a spokesman for President Barack Obama , on the White House blog. The proposal calls for spending $848 billion over 10 years to add more than 30 million people to insurance rolls. Without Subsidies The legislation would raise premiums by 10 to 13 percent for 14 million people who buy their own coverage and make too much for subsidies, the budget office found. The subsidies are limited to people making as much as four times the federal poverty guidelines , or $88,000 a year for a family of four. This group would pay more because the legislation establishes minimum coverage requirements, the budget office said. Under the overhaul, insurers led by UnitedHealth Group Inc. of Minnetonka, Minnesota, and WellPoint Inc. , of Indianapolis, would be mandated to cover items such as maternity care and are banned from limiting lifetime or annual benefits. The budget office found most who end up paying more will do so voluntarily, said Pfeiffer, the White House spokesman. “Where the CBO does see premiums rising, it’s not because Americans are paying more for the same coverage,” he said. “It’s that they’re making a choice to purchase better plans that weren’t previously available.” 72 Percent of Services People will buy policies paying 72 percent of covered services, instead of a minimum 60 percent under the legislation and typical now, the study found. Subsidies are tied to the 70 percent coverage. The legislation, like a House-passed measure, would require that Americans get health insurance or pay a penalty and set up online exchanges for comparison shopping. The bills require insurers to accept new customers, regardless of preexisting conditions. “What was the whole idea here?” said the No. 2 Republican leader in the Senate, Jon Kyl of Arizona, in a speech on the chamber’s floor. “The whole idea of health-care reform was to reduce the cost of health care.” Senator Mitch McConnell , of Kentucky, the top Republican in the Senate, said a “bill that is being sold as a way to reduce costs actually drives them up.” Senate Republicans will work to change or kill the legislation, he said. Laszewski, the consultant, said the study is only a partial victory for Democrats because the issue of runaway health-care costs is unresolved. “If we don’t get costs down, those subsidies are going to be meaningless before too long,” he said. To contact the reporter on this story: Alex Nussbaum in New York anussbaum1@bloomberg.net .

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Saints Join Colts at 11-0 as Drew Brees Leads 38-17 Rout of Patriots

December 1, 2009

By Erik Matuszewski Dec. 1 (Bloomberg) — Drew Brees threw five touchdown passes as the New Orleans Saints beat the New England Patriots 38-17 to remain undefeated in the National Football League. The Saints and the Indianapolis Colts have won their first 11 games of the season, the first time in the NFL’s 87-year history that two teams have achieved the feat. The 2007 Patriots are the only club to go unbeaten in a 16-game regular season. Brees passed for 371 yards last night at the Superdome in New Orleans and threw touchdowns to Pierre Thomas , Devery Henderson , Robert Meachem , Darnell Dinkins and Marques Colston . “We’ve put together a special team and we’re excited about being here and being in this situation,” said Brees, who connected on 18-of-23 pass attempts against a Patriots team that had a 7-3 record. “We’re hitting on all cylinders.” Brees threw three touchdown passes during the second quarter as the Saints erased an early 7-3 deficit. He hooked up with a wide-open Henderson for a 75-yard touchdown and also tossed a 38-yard score to Meachem two minutes before halftime. The Saints’ defense had two interceptions of Patriots quarterback Tom Brady , who failed to throw a touchdown pass for the second time this season. Laurence Maroney scored both touchdowns for New England, which fell to 1-4 on the road. “It really wasn’t as competitive a game as we hoped it would be,” Patriots coach Bill Belichick said during his news conference. “They just did a better job than us in every area.” The Saints have a five-game division lead over the Atlanta Falcons heading into a Dec. 6 road game against the 3-8 Washington Redskins. New Orleans finishes its regular season with games against Atlanta, Dallas, Tampa Bay and Carolina. “It’s a great win,” Brees said in a televised interview. “We’re going to enjoy it, live in the moment a little bit and then move on to the next one. It only gets tougher.” To contact the reporter on this story: Erik Matuszewski in New York at matuszewski@bloomberg.net

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Colts Rally Past Texans to Clinch Playoff Spot, Remain Undefeated in NFL

November 29, 2009

By Erik Matuszewski Nov. 30 (Bloomberg) — The Indianapolis Colts became the first National Football League team to clinch a playoff berth, overcoming a 13-point halftime deficit to beat the Houston Texans 35-27 and remain undefeated. Peyton Manning threw three touchdown passes for the Colts, who improved to 11-0 and wrapped up the American Football Conference’s South Division title yesterday when Jacksonville lost 20-3 to the San Francisco 49ers. Indianapolis is the fourth team in 19 years to clinch a division crown by its 11th game, joining the 1997 San Francisco 49ers, 2004 Philadelphia Eagles and 2007 New England Patriots. The Colts are the first club in NFL history to come back from a fourth-quarter deficit in five straight games. “When things aren’t going the way we want them to, we don’t panic, we don’t yell, we don’t throw helmets,” Manning said during his post-game news conference. “We try to put the series behind us and move onto the next one.” The New Orleans Saints can join the Colts at 11-0 with a win against the New England Patriots tonight at the Superdome. The NFL has never had two teams open a season with 11 straight wins in its 87-year history. The Colts have won 20 regular-season games in a row overall, one shy of the league record set by the Patriots from 2006-08. Indianapolis will next face the Tennessee Titans, who have won five consecutive games since a 0-6 start. Titans Win Again The Titans beat the Arizona Cardinals 20-17 yesterday as Vince Young capped a 99-yard drive by throwing a 10-yard touchdown pass to Kenny Britt as time expired in Nashville. Young passed for 387 yards for Tennessee and Chris Johnson rushed for 154 yards and a touchdown. Johnson has run for at least 125 yards in six straight games, tying an NFL record held by Hall of Fame running backs Earl Campbell and Eric Dickerson . Brett Favre passed for a season-high 392 yards and three touchdowns as the Minnesota Vikings improved to 10-1 by romping past the Chicago Bears 36-10 in Minneapolis. The New York Jets ended a three-game losing streak with a 17-6 win over the Carolina Panthers. Darrelle Revis scored the Jets’ first defensive touchdown of the season, returning one of the team’s four interceptions 67 yards for a first-quarter score at Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey. The Jets improved to 5-6 with the win, their second in the past eight games. The Baltimore Ravens sent the defending Super Bowl-champion Pittsburgh Steelers to a third straight loss, winning 20-17 in overtime on a 29-yard field goal by Billy Cundiff . In the other Week 12 games, it was Seattle 27, St. Louis 17; Cincinnati 16, Cleveland 7; Buffalo 31, Miami 14; Philadelphia 27, Washington 24; Atlanta 20, Tampa Bay 17; and San Diego 43, Kansas City 14. Three games were played on the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday on Nov. 26. The Denver Broncos beat the New York Giants 26-6, Dallas topped Oakland 24-7 and Green Bay routed Detroit 34-12. To contact the reporter on this story: Erik Matuszewski in New York at matuszewski@bloomberg.net

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First American Flips Real Estate Stocks to Outperform Buy-and-Hold Rivals

November 25, 2009

By Charles Stein Nov. 25 (Bloomberg) — John Wenker and Jay Rosenberg , managers of First American Real Estate Fund , buy and sell stocks more often than their peers, a strategy that helped them outperform 98 percent of rivals in the past decade. The $1.1 billion fund’s turnover ratio, a measure of how often its holdings are traded, is 150 percent, according to data from Morningstar Inc . That compares with an average of 104 percent for all real estate funds. The managers returned an average of 11 percent annually in the 10 years ended Oct. 31, compared with an 8.6 percent gain for 98 U.S. real estate funds, according to Chicago-based Morningstar. They favor stocks they believe are cheap relative to potential earnings, including Vornado Realty Trust . “When we see something that is mispriced, we don’t hesitate to act,” Rosenberg, who has been Wenker’s co-manager since 2005, said in a telephone interview from Minneapolis. Future gains may be harder to come by if the commercial real estate market continues to weaken. Investors such as billionaire Wilbur Ross are forecasting further deterioration in rents and property prices because rising unemployment is lifting vacancy rates. “You have to wonder if the good news is already priced into the stocks, given the surge since March,” said Victor Calanog , director of research at New York-based Reis Inc. A national real estate recovery is still 18 to 24 months away, he said in a telephone interview. Fund Performance Real estate stocks, as measured by the MSCI US REIT Index , are down 54 percent from their February 2007 peak, even after doubling since March. The First American fund, while beating the 20-stock index every year since 2002, lost 15 percent in 2007 and 35 percent in 2008 as the industry slumped, Morningstar data show. The fund charges investors expenses of 98 cents for every $100, compared with an average of $1.46 for all U.S. real estate funds, according to Morningstar. Andrew Gogerty , a Morningstar analyst, said the fund’s gear-shifting distinguishes it from large competitors such as the $2 billion T. Rowe Price Real Estate Fund and the $1.4 billion Third Avenue Estate Value Fund, which have turnover ratios of 15 percent and 34 percent, respectively. The fund carries Morningstar’s top rating of five stars. “When you talk to these managers you get the sense they are looking around the curve to anticipate what comes next,” Gogerty said. Buy, Sell, Buy First American added to its position in Kimco Realty Corp . in the third quarter of 2008, sold shares in the fourth quarter and then bought more in the first quarter, Bloomberg data show. The New Hyde Park, New York-based company, up 58 percent since the first quarter, owns shopping centers. The moves were based on calculations of relative value , Wenker said. Wenker, 58, has a bachelor’s degree from Metropolitan State University in St. Paul, Minnesota and a master’s of business administration from the University of St. Thomas, also in St. Paul. He has worked on the fund since 1999, after a stint at Piper Jaffray, a Minneapolis-based investment bank. Rosenberg, 37, has a bachelor’s degree from the University of Wisconsin in Madison and master’s in urban planning from the University of Illinois-Chicago. He joined the fund after working at Advantus Capital Management in St. Paul, Minnesota. The duo doubled their position in Vornado Realty Trust from the third quarter of 2008 to this year’s second quarter, Bloomberg data show. Vornado is among the biggest owners of office buildings in New York. Midtown Manhattan rents dropped 25 percent from their 2008 peak, according to an Oct. 6 report by commercial broker Cushman & Wakefield Inc. Overreaction? “New York took a hit during the financial crisis but it was not as great as the stock market thought,” Rosenberg said. The New York office market will rebound as Wall Street revives, he said. The fund increased its stake in Mid-America Apartment Communities Inc. in the second quarter, Bloomberg data show. The Memphis, Tennessee-based company owns apartments in the Southeast and south-central U.S., according to its Web site. Those markets are less sensitive to the weak economy than the more volatile markets on the coasts, Wenker said. The managers aren’t predicting a quick turnaround for commercial real estate. Previous declines lasted as long as four years, Wenker said. He envisions a slow recovery of the real estate market “as we move beyond 2010 into 2011 and 2012.” Clashing Outlooks Ross told Bloomberg radio last month that the U.S. is at the start of a “huge crash in commercial real estate.” Investor Sam Zell , in a speech Nov. 19, said commercial restate may recover “pretty quickly” if interest rates stay low. The slump in the property market will play to the strength of publicly traded firms because they have access to capital at a time when private companies don’t, Rosenberg said. Public companies can use their clout to attract tenants and buy distressed assets from struggling competitors, he said. Simon Property Group Inc ., the fund’s largest holding and the biggest U.S. shopping mall owner, confirmed last week that it hired financial and legal advisers as it considers buying assets of bankrupt competitor General Growth Properties Inc. Simon, based in Indianapolis, raised money through debt and equity sales this year and has access to $3 billion in credit, according to regulatory filings. Because public companies tend to own the most desirable buildings in many markets, they have an edge luring tenants who have choices at a time of high vacancies, Wenker said. Boston Properties Inc., which owns office buildings, said in a conference call last month that it re-leased 370,000 square feet at 399 Park Ave. in Manhattan that had been occupied by Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. before its bankruptcy. Boston Properties is the fund’s fourth-largest holding, Bloomberg data show. To contact the reporter on this story: Charles Stein in Boston at cstein4@bloomberg.net .

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Giants Snap Four-Game Losing Streak Against Falcons; Colts, Saints Go 10-0

November 23, 2009

By Erik Matuszewski and Dex McLuskey Nov. 23 (Bloomberg) — The New York Giants snapped their four-game losing streak with a 34-31 overtime victory against Atlanta, while wins by the Indianapolis Colts and New Orleans Saints gave the National Football League a pair of 10-0 teams for just the third time. Lawrence Tynes kicked a 36-yard field goal on the first possession of overtime yesterday at Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, as New York (6-4) got its first win since Oct. 11. The Giants had started the season 5-0. “There are not many better feelings than being in a locker room after a win,” said Giants quarterback Eli Manning , who passed for 384 yards and three touchdowns. “Especially when you haven’t had that feeling in a while.” The Colts and Saints both remained perfect, with Indianapolis holding on for a 17-15 victory in Baltimore and New Orleans rolling to a 38-7 win at Tampa Bay. There were only two previous occasions when a pair of teams opened an NFL season with 10 straight wins: 1934 (Chicago Bears and Detroit Lions) and 1990 (Giants and San Francisco 49ers). The New York Jets’ slide continued, as rookie quarterback Mark Sanchez threw four interceptions in a 31-14 loss to the New England Patriots. It was the Jets’ sixth loss in seven games. The Kansas City Chiefs stunned the defending Super Bowl- champion Pittsburgh Steelers 27-24 in overtime, while the Oakland Raiders were 20-17 winners over a Cincinnati Bengals team that had won seven of its first nine games. Rookie Record Top draft pick Matthew Stafford tied a rookie record with five touchdown passes in Detroit’s 38-37 win over Cleveland, and Brett Favre threw four scoring passes as Minnesota beat Seattle 35-9 to improve to 9-1. It was Favre’s 22nd game with at least four touchdowns, passing Pro Football Hall of Fame member Dan Marino for the most in league history. In other Week 11 games, it was Dallas 7, Washington 6; Green Bay 30, San Francisco 24; Jacksonville 18, Buffalo 15; Arizona 21, St. Louis 13; San Diego 32, Denver 3; and Philadelphia 24, Chicago 20. Tennessee is at Houston today. At Giants Stadium, New York pulled out the victory after blowing a 14-point lead in the fourth quarter. The Falcons scored two touchdowns in the final six minutes and forced overtime on Tony Gonzalez’s 11-yard reception with 28 seconds left. The Giants won the coin flip in overtime and drove 49 yards in eight plays to set up the winning field goal. “We were miserable around here for a month,” Giants coach Tom Coughlin said during a news conference. “It’s nice to win. We didn’t necessarily start the game out all that well. We did finish it okay.” Visitors’ Loss Kevin Boss had two touchdown receptions for the Giants, who had been 0-5 against Atlanta at Giants Stadium. It’s the first time in the past 13 meetings between the Giants and Falcons that the visitors have lost. Atlanta got two rushing touchdowns from Jason Snelling , who started in place of the injured Michael Turner . Matt Ryan threw two fourth-quarter scores for the Falcons, who lost for the fourth time in five games. The Colts (10-0) held on for a two-point win over Baltimore as linebacker Gary Brackett intercepted a pass from Joe Flacco at the Indianapolis 13-yard line with 2:42 remaining. The Ravens were in position to attempt a sixth field goal when Brackett stepped in front of Flacco’s pass to running back Ray Rice at M&T Bank Stadium. Dallas Clark and Joseph Addai scored touchdowns for the Colts, who have won 19 straight regular-season games stretching back to an Oct. 27, 2008, to move within two wins of matching the Patriots’ NFL record. Peyton Manning passed for 299 yards and has now led the Colts to six consecutive wins over Baltimore (5-5). Saints’ Surge At Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida, the Buccaneers opened a 7-0 first-quarter lead before the Saints ran off the next 38 points to remain unbeaten. Robert Meachem caught two of Drew Brees’s three touchdown passes in the first half and Mike Bell had a pair of rushing touchdowns in the second half for the Saints (10-0). Josh Freeman threw three interceptions as Tampa Bay fell to 1-9. At Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, Massachusetts, Leigh Bodden had three of the Patriots’ four interceptions and returned one 53 yards for a touchdown. Laurence Maroney had two rushing scores, while Tom Brady passed for 310 yards and hooked up with Randy Moss for a four- yard touchdown as the Patriots improved to 7-3. Sanchez finished with five turnovers for the Jets, who fell to 4-6 on the season. “Without question, he made a lot of mistakes,” Jets coach Rex Ryan said. “There were some other guys that made a lot of mistakes today, but he’s got to learn from them.” To contact the reporters on this story: Erik Matuszewski in New York at matuszewski@bloomberg.net Dex McLuskey in Dallas at dmcluskey@bloomberg.net

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Giants Beat Falcons 34-31 to EndFour-Game Losing Run; Colts, Saints Win

November 22, 2009

By Dex McLuskey Nov. 22 (Bloomberg) — The New York Giants beat the Atlanta Falcons 34-31 to snap a four-game losing run in the National Football League. New York secured its first home win in three starts at Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, to improve to 6- 4, while Atlanta fell to 5-5 with the loss. The Giants won on a 36-yard field goal by Lawrence Tynes on the opening possession of overtime after Atlanta tied the game with a touchdown with 35 seconds remaining in regulation play. The Giants, coming off a bye last week, had slumped to 5-4 after winning the first five games of the season. The visitor had won the past 12 games between the Giants and the Falcons, with Atlanta leaving Giants Stadium victorious on its previous five visits. Elsewhere, the Indianapolis Colts and the New Orleans Saints remained the only undefeated teams in the league. Indianapolis beat Baltimore 17-15 and the Saints won 38-7 at Tampa Bay. In other Week 11 games, it was Dallas 7, Washington 6; Detroit 38, Cleveland 37; Green Bay 30, San Francisco 24; Kansas City 27, Pittsburgh 24; Jacksonville 18, Buffalo 15; and Minnesota 35, Seattle 9. Also today, St. Louis is at Arizona, New England hosts the New York Jets, Oakland travels to Cincinnati and Denver plays at San Diego. Philadelphia hosts Chicago tonight while Tennessee is at Houston in tomorrow’s game.

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Browns Quarterback Brady Quinn Fined by NFL for Hitting Suggs Below Knees

November 18, 2009

By Erik Matuszewski Nov. 18 (Bloomberg) — Cleveland Browns quarterback Brady Quinn said he was fined by the National Football League for a hit below the knees on Baltimore linebacker Terrell Suggs . Quinn didn’t disclose the size of the fine, telling reporters before today’s practice that it was “a good amount.” NFL spokesman Corry Rush said the league won’t confirm any fines until the end of the week. Quinn hit Suggs in the right knee while trying to make a tackle after throwing a third-quarter interception during the Browns’ 16-0 loss two days ago. Quinn was penalized on the play, which Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis called a “cheap shot.” The 25-year-old Quinn apologized after the game and said he wasn’t trying to hurt Suggs, who will miss at least this week’s game against the Indianapolis Colts. Quinn had earlier thrown an interception that was returned for a touchdown and finished with just 99 passing yards as the Browns fell to 1-8. To contact the reporter on this story: Erik Matuszewski in New York at matuszewski@bloomberg.net

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Vivus Erection Drug Avanafil Helps Men in 30 Minutes, Company Study Says

November 18, 2009

By Rob Waters Nov. 18 (Bloomberg) — Vivus Inc ., an unprofitable biotechnology company, said its experimental impotence drug helped men achieve erections in as little as 30 minutes in a study, or about twice as fast as Pfizer’s Inc.’s Viagra. Data showing the drug, called Avanafil, acts quickly will help Vivus seek U.S. permission to enter the $3.7 billion erection-drug market in 2011, said Chief Executive Officer Leland Wilson . Vivus shares rose as much as 12 percent. Wilson said he may introduce Avanafil in early 2012. As many as 322 million men worldwide may have erectile dysfunction by 2025, according to an Oct. 19 report by the American College of Physicians. Avanafil will grab market share because it works faster than the market-leading Viagra, which takes an hour to produce results and Eli Lilly & Co.’s Cialis, which takes about two, Wilson said in a telephone interview. “Patients want on-demand therapy because when the mood is right, the mood is right,” Wilson said. “We’ve shown efficacy in 30 minutes and no one else has done that.” Vivus jumped 48 cents, or 5.6 percent, to $9.05 at 10:06 a.m. New York time in Nasdaq Stock Market composite trading, after earlier touching $9.60. The company had risen 61 percent in the year before today. Avanafil could bring in $350 million by 2015, grabbing about the same market share as Levitra, said Jason Butler , an analyst for JMP Securities in New York, in a telephone interview yesterday. The key, he said, will be for Vivus to find a partner willing to spend money on promotion. Viagra, Cialis, Levitra In 2008, Viagra, made by New York-based Pfizer, the world’s biggest drugmaker, had about half of the erectile-dysfunction market. Cialis, made by Indianapolis, Indiana-based Eli Lilly & Co . had 40 percent and Levitra, made by Germany-based Bayer AG 10 percent. “This is a hugely promotion-driven market,” he said. “Viagra and Cialis win because they have sales reps that call on doctors every day of the week and they spend a huge amount on advertising.” Vivus won U.S. approval for its first erection product Muse in 1996, two years before Viagra was cleared for sale. Muse, a product designed to push erection-boosting medicine into the urethra, was quickly displaced by the little blue pill Viagra. Muse had revenue of $18.05 million last year. Vivus also is competing to introduce a new weight-loss drug for obesity patients with Arena Pharmaceuticals Inc. and Orexigen Therapeutics Inc. , both based in San Diego. The Mountain View, California-based company has said it will seek permission from the Food and Drug Administration to sell the treatment, Qnexa, by the end of the year. Partnership Needed While Vivus needs to form a partnership with a major drugmaker to market its erectile dysfunction pill, Wilson said he may wait to make a deal until the company has completed its clinical trials and submitted its application to the FDA. “As we move forward, it will increase our value,” he said. The Vivus study compared three doses of Avanafil to placebos in 646 patients with erectile dysfunction , a condition that affects 15 to 30 million U.S. men, according to a National Institutes of Health Web site. Before the late-stage study, 12 to 14 percent of men achieved erections that allowed them to have sexual intercourse. Men taking the lowest 50-milligram dose got erections 40 percent of the time, while those taking either the 100 milligram or 200 milligram doses achieved erections 57 percent of the time, according to a Vivus statement. Men taking placebos were able to have sex 27 percent of the time. Visual Distortions None of the patients had visual distortions such as those reported rarely by some Viagra and Cialis patients who said the drug added a blue tinge to their vision, Wilson said. The visual changes on those pills cleared up within a few hours, according to an Indiana University study reported April 13. About 85 percent of patients taking the Vivus drug completed the 16-week study. The most-common side effects were headaches, experienced by 7 percent of the men, facial flushing, experienced by 4.6 percent and nasal congestion, experienced by 2.3 percent. Patients in the study were men older than age 18 who had erectile problems for at least six months and excluded those taking nitrate heart medicines. Men using these medicines are also warned not to take the erectile dysfunction drugs on the market. Trials are under way for patients whose erection difficulties are linked to their diabetes , one of the most common causes of impotence, and for men who had surgery for prostate cancer, Wilson said. Viagra works within 30 minutes to 2 hours, according to prescribing information on the drug’s label. The median time to effectiveness is 60 minutes. Cialis, when taken as needed, can work within 30 minutes to 6 hours, according to prescribing information , with effectiveness achieved after a median of 2 hours. The drug can also be prescribed for daily use. To contact the reporter on this story: Rob Waters in San Francisco at rwaters5@bloomberg.net .

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Belichick’s No-Punt Bet Gets Patriots Coach Into Freakonomics Hall of Fame

November 17, 2009

By Michael P. Regan and Eric Martin Nov. 17 (Bloomberg) — A decision by New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick that cost his team a win over undefeated Indianapolis earned him the praise of “Freakonomics” co-author Steven D. Levitt , who said the call probably was the right one. Belichick, who has led the Patriots to three Super Bowl championships, decided to go for first down on fourth-and-two from his own 28-yard line with 2:08 left and his team leading 34-28 in the National Football League game on Nov. 15. The Patriots failed to get the first down and turned the ball over to the Colts, who scored a touchdown to win 35-34 and trigger an outcry against Belichick among Patriots fans. Statistical analysis suggests that the 57-year-old Belichick made the right decision, according to Levitt, a University of Chicago economist whose 2005 book “Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything” applies economic theory to topics from drug dealing to cheating among sumo wrestlers. He wrote the book with journalist Stephen J. Dubner . “So hats off to Bill Belichick,” Levitt wrote on his New York Times blog . “This decision may have hurt his chances for the Football Hall of Fame, but it guarantees his induction into the Freakonomics Hall of Fame.” Levitt cited a study by David Romer , professor at the University of California-Berkeley, which said coaches often get too conservative on fourth downs. In an analysis of more than 700 regular-season NFL games from 1998 through 2000, teams had 1,068 fourth downs where averages suggest they would have been better off going for a first down. They kicked in 959 of those situations, according to Romer’s study. ‘Play With Numbers’ The Advanced NFL Stats blog agrees that Belichick’s decision was not as foolish as some Patriots fans claim, even when factoring in the exceptional play of quarterback Peyton Manning and his now 9-0 Colts. Fourth-and-two conversions are successful 60 percent of the time, according to the blog. A punt from the 28 typically nets 38 yards, which would have put the Colts at their own 34 with a 30 percent chance of scoring. “You can play with the numbers any way you like, but it’s pretty hard to come up with a realistic combination of numbers that make punting the better option,” a posting on the blog said. “You’d have to expect the Colts had a better than a 30 percent chance of scoring from their 34, and an accordingly higher chance to score from the Pats’ 28. But any adjustment in their likelihood of scoring from either field position increases the advantage of going for it.” The statistics are likely to do little to appease Patriots fans, as the arguments over Belichick’s decision rage from Boston to Wall Street. Art Hogan , the chief market analyst at New York-based Jefferies & Co., said he and fellow Patriots fan Craig Peckham , an equity trading strategist at the firm, continue to debate the call. “Belichick has three rings on his fingers and has been to the show however many number of times, so he kind of gets a pass for such a gutsy call,” said Hogan. “I think it was the right thing to do. But Craig disagrees with me, and that’s what makes markets. We sit together and root for the same team, and we can come up with completely divergent views.” To contact the reporters on this story: Michael P. Regan in New York at mregan12@bloomberg.net ; Eric Martin in New York at emartin21@bloomberg.net .

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Belichick’s Fourth-Down Call Brings Another Kind of Unity to Patriots Fans

November 16, 2009

By Tom Moroney Nov. 16 (Bloomberg) — Boston sports fans learned that even Bill Belichick , who directed the New England Patriots to three Super Bowl championships, can make a mistake. With 2:08 left in the game and a 34-28 lead against the Indianapolis Colts last night, the Patriots coach elected to go for the first down on fourth and two from New England’s 28-yard line. They failed, the Colts took possession of the ball and scored four plays later to win 35-34. “People are incredulous,” said Richard Johnson, 54, curator of the New England Sports Museum located in TD Garden where the Boston Celtics and Bruins play. “It’s like Laurence Olivier flubbing a line in Hamlet, very uncharacteristic for the great clock-controlling mind of football that is Belichick.” The Colts, led by quarterback Peyton Manning , remain undefeated at 9-0. The Patriots, at 6-3, still lead their division. “Of course it was the wrong call but even Babe Ruth struck out,” said Johnson who calls himself a loyal member of the “In Bill We Trust ” club. “I’m sure Beethoven wrote a bad piano sonata and Picasso made a lousy drawing.” Not all Boston fans were as charitable. “Belichick thinks he has an aura of invincibility and that’s disappeared,” said Scott Black , 62, president of Delphi Management Inc., a Boston investment firm. “That was one of the stupidest plays I’ve seen and I’ve been watching pro football since the 1950s.” Team First Belichick defended his decision at a press conference this morning at the Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, Massachusetts. He said he believed his decision to go for the first down, which would have allowed his team to keep the ball and run out the clock gave his team a better chance at winning than to punt the ball away, he said. “I put my team first,” he told reporters. For some, Belichick’s decision last night was too painful for words. Richard Schmalensee , former dean of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Sloan Business School, said he was so depressed he couldn’t comment. — With assistance from Brian K. Sullivan in Boston. Editor: Michael Sillup To contact the reporter on this story: Tom Moroney in Boston at tmorrone@bloomberg.net

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Colts Stun Patriots 35-34 to Stay Undefeated; Saints Also Improve to 9-0

November 15, 2009

By Erik Matuszewski Nov. 16 (Bloomberg) — The Indianapolis Colts stormed back from a 17-point fourth-quarter deficit to beat the New England Patriots 35-34 and remain one of two undefeated teams in the National Football League. Peyton Manning’s fourth touchdown pass, a one-yarder to Reggie Wayne with 16 seconds left, capped the comeback last night at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis. The Colts scored three touchdowns in the final 12:20 to erase the Patriots’ 31-14 lead and improve to 9-0. “It’s a great win,” said Manning, who passed for 327 yards. “It’s just one win, but it tells us a lot about our team. It’s as much adversity as we’ve faced in a couple years and we stuck together.” The Colts have won 18 straight regular-season games stretching back to last season. The Saints are the NFL’s only other unbeaten team, at a franchise-best 9-0 after yesterday’s 28-23 win in St. Louis. The 2007 Patriots were the only team to go undefeated during a 16-game regular season. This year’s squad fell to 6-3 after having a three-game winning streak snapped against the Colts. New England has a two-game lead in the American Football Conference’s East Division over Miami and the New York Jets, who lost at home to the Jacksonville Jaguars yesterday 24-22 on a 21-yard field goal by Josh Scobee as time expired. The Patriots on Nov. 22 host the Jets (4-5), who have lost five of their past six games. New York’s 3-0 start included a 16-9 home win over New England on Sept. 20. ‘Barely Breathing’ “We’re barely breathing for the playoffs,” Jets coach Rex Ryan said during a news conference. “We’re going to find out what kind of men we have in this locker room. I know New England is going to get all we have. We’ll see if it’s good enough.” The Colts fell behind 24-7 in the first half as Patriots quarterback Tom Brady tossed second-quarter touchdown passes to Randy Moss and Julian Edelman . Brady again hooked up with Moss in the third quarter to give the Patriots a 31-14 lead before the Colts mounted their comeback. Manning threw a 29-yard touchdown pass to Pierre Garcon and Joseph Addai scored his second touchdown with 2:27 remaining to pull Indianapolis within 34-28. The Colts got the ball back when the Patriots failed to convert a 4th-and-2 pass play from their own 28-yard line with two minutes left. The Colts took over when Kevin Faulk was tackled just short of a first down and needed just four plays to score the winning touchdown. “We tried to win the game on that play,” Patriots coach Bill Belichick said of his decision to go for the first down instead of punt. “I thought we could have made that yard.” ‘60-Minute Game’ The teams combined for 884 yards of offense, with Brady passing for 375 yards and three touchdowns. Moss finished with nine receptions for 179 yards for the Patriots, while Wayne had 10 catches for 126 yards and two touchdowns for Indianapolis. “We knew it was going to be a 60-minute game and it sure feels good to come out on top,” Manning said. The Saints, with seven regular-season games remaining, have already won more games than in 2008, when they went 8-8 and finished in last place in their division. The Cincinnati Bengals improved to 7-2 and took sole possession of first place in the American Football Conference’s North Division with an 18-12 victory in Pittsburgh, their second win this season against the defending Super Bowl champions. The Green Bay Packers beat the NFC East-leading Dallas Cowboys 17-7, while the San Diego Chargers extended their winning streak to four games with a 31-23 victory over the Philadelphia Eagles. Other Results In the NFL’s other Week 10 games, it was Miami 25, Tampa Bay 23; Minnesota 27, Detroit 10; Tennessee 41, Buffalo 17; Washington 27, Denver 17; Carolina 28, Atlanta 19; Kansas City 16, Oakland 10; and Arizona 31, Seattle 20. Baltimore visits Cleveland today, while the New York Giants and Houston were off during Week 10. New Orleans overcame three turnovers, including two interceptions by Drew Brees , to send the Rams (1-8) to their ninth straight home loss. Reggie Bush scored two touchdowns for the Saints and Courtney Roby returned the second half kickoff 97 yards for a touchdown to snap a 14-14 tie. “It was just a great team win for us,” said Bush. “We fought through a little adversity with the turnovers.” The Jets rallied from an eight-point fourth-quarter deficit against the Jaguars, taking a 22-21 lead on a one-yard touchdown run by Thomas Jones with 5:04 remaining. The Jaguars then drove 80 yards on 12 plays to set up the winning field goal. “We have to find a way to finish games,” Ryan said. “You fight your tail off to put yourself in a position to bounce back, take a lead, and we have to find a way to hold it.” To contact the reporter on this story: Erik Matuszewski in New York at matuszewski@bloomberg.net

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Jaguars Hand Jets 3rd Straight Home Defeat with 24-22 Win to Move to 5-4

November 15, 2009

By Dex McLuskey Nov. 15 (Bloomberg) — The Jacksonville Jaguars handed the New York Jets their third straight home defeat as Josh Scobee kicked a winning 21-yard field goal as time expired. The Jaguars improved to 5-4 with the 24-22 victory at Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey. The Jets, returning to action after a bye week, have slumped to 4-5 after opening the National Football League season with three wins. Division leader New England (6-2) is at the undefeated Indianapolis Colts tonight. The Jets fell behind less than three minutes into the game on a 33-yard touchdown run by running back Maurice Jones-Drew . New York cut the deficit with a 32-yard field goal four minutes later before rookie quarterback Mark Sanchez connected with wide receiver Jerricho Cotchery from seven yards to give the Jets a 10-7 advantage with a minute left in the first quarter. The Jaguars retook the lead four minutes into the second quarter when quarterback David Garrard capped an 11-play, 70- yard drive with an 11-yard scoring run. Jacksonville made it 21-10 three minutes before halftime when wide receiver Mike Sims-Walker caught a 26-yard scoring pass from Garrard and the Jets closed to 21-13 at halftime on a 37-yard field goal by Jay Feely . After a scoreless third quarter, New York closed within five points 16 seconds into the final quarter with a 40-yard field goal. With five minutes to play, the Jets reached the Jaguars’ 1- yard line as Shonn Greene rushed for 14 yards on 4th-and-1, and then took a 22-21 lead on the next play on Thomas Jones’s touchdown. Sanchez’s pass to Braylon Edwards on the two-point conversion attempt failed. On the final drive of the game, the Jaguars advanced 80 yards on 12 plays to set up the winning field goal. To contact the reporter on this story: Dex McLuskey in Dallas at dmcluskey@bloomberg.net

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Giants Lose Fourth Straight Game in NFL as Colts, Saints Remain Unbeaten

November 8, 2009

By Erik Matuszewski Nov. 8 (Bloomberg) — The Indianapolis Colts remained one of two undefeated teams in the National Football League with a 20-17 win over Houston, while the Tampa Bay Buccaneers picked up their first victory in almost a year. The Colts improved to 8-0 as Peyton Manning passed for 318 yards and Joseph Addai scored two touchdowns at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, Indiana. The Colts blew a 13-3 lead during the second half before Addai’s two-yard touchdown run with 7:11 left in the fourth quarter gave them the lead for good. Indianapolis and the New Orleans Saints are the only two undefeated teams left in the NFL. The Saints (7-0) host the Carolina Panthers today. The Buccaneers had been the league’s only winless team before today’s 38-28 victory over the Green Bay Packers at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida. Rookie Josh Freeman’s third touchdown pass gave the Buccaneers a 31-28 lead with 4:14 left and Tanard Jackson scored on a 35-yard interception return with 35 seconds remaining to clinch the team’s first win since Nov. 30 of last season. The Arizona Cardinals beat the Chicago Bears 41-21 as quarterback Kurt Warner tied a career-best with five touchdown passes at Soldier Field in Chicago, a week after throwing five interceptions in a loss to Carolina. Randy Moss hauled in a 71-yard touchdown pass from Tom Brady as the New England Patriots beat the Miami Dolphins 27-17 at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, Massachusetts. It was the 140th career touchdown reception for Moss, who tied Terrell Owens for second place all-time behind Jerry Rice (197). In other NFL games during Week 9 of the regular season, it was Atlanta 31, Washington 17; Cincinnati 17, Baltimore 7; and Jacksonville 24, Kansas City 21. To contact the reporter on this story: Erik Matuszewski in New York at matuszewski@bloomberg.net

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Real Estate Price Plunge Turns American Homeownership Into Perilous Path

November 3, 2009

By Kathleen M. Howley Nov. 3 (Bloomberg) — Kajal and Vishal Dharod paid $559,000 in 2006 for a new four-bedroom house built in Rancho Cucamonga, California. Today, it’s worth about $360,000. “We don’t know how we can come back from a loss like that,” said Kajal Dharod, 29, a first-time homeowner with a $4,200-a-month mortgage. “Buying the house was a mistake.” American homeownership, once considered a path to wealth, is now leading to disillusionment. Home prices in the last four years have been the most volatile on record, swinging from a gain of 12 percent in 2005 to an estimated 13 percent loss this year, according to the National Association of Realtors. Those gyrations have embittered many property owners and potential buyers , said Nicolas Retsinas , director of Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies in Cambridge, Massachusetts. “We always talk about homeownership as being the American dream, but during the last decade people forgot it’s shelter and started thinking of it as a fast way to make or lose money,” said Retsinas. “The quicker we move back to seeing real estate as a place to live, a place to put down roots, the quicker the housing recovery will strengthen.” Home-price growth in the next decade probably will average about 3.5 percent a year, based on Retsinas’s estimate of increases of about 1.5 percent above inflation and the Federal Reserve’s long-term inflation forecast of about 1.7 percent to 2 percent. On that basis, it could take a decade or more for the Dharods to recover from the 36 percent loss on their home. Cities Gained While median home prices increased 83 percent in the decade preceding the recession, according to the National Association of Realtors, the gain was far higher in the most populous cities. In New York, prices increased 146 percent. In San Francisco the jump was 160 percent, and in Los Angeles it was 205 percent, according to S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price indices. Even in cities where the increases weren’t as steep, the U.S. embraced the idea of the “ ownership society ” advanced by former President George W. Bush in speeches including his 2005 inaugural address at the apex of the housing boom. As homeowners watched real estate values surge, many began using their residence for debt repayment, college tuition, or vacation money, said Mark Goldman, who teaches real estate courses at San Diego State University. Homes became the linchpin for retirement planning, he said. The U.S. personal savings rate in 2005 dropped below zero for the first time since 1933, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis in Washington. Spending Spree “Everyone expected their house would increase in value and they could cash out their equity to fuel their spending,” said Goldman. In mid-2006, home prices began a 28 percent decline after reaching a peak that was almost four times the U.S. median household income. Unable to refinance, subprime borrowers started defaulting on mortgages as their rates adjusted higher and their payments ballooned. The slump in the value of bonds backed by mortgages sparked a global recession. The U.S. homeownership rate fell to a nine-year low of 67.3 percent in 2009’s first quarter, even after Congress passed an $8,000 first-time homebuyer tax credit in February that was retroactive to Jan. 1. U.S. sales of houses and condominiums dropped to an annual pace of 4.49 million at the beginning of 2009, the lowest on record, according to data from the Chicago- based Realtors group. “It will be a long time before people think of owning a home as a good investment again,” said John Vogel , a professor at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire. “A lot of what drives housing is psychological, and right now there’s a distinct lack of confidence in real estate.” Economy Accelerating In a Sept. 23 statement, Fed policy makers signaled for the first time since August 2008 that the U.S. economy is accelerating. The world’s largest economy expanded at a 3.5 percent pace from July through September, according to an Oct. 29 government report. Household purchases climbed 3.4 percent, the most in two years. Recoveries aren’t what they used to be. The average increase in the U.S. median single-family home price was about 6 percent in the first year of economic expansion following the last six recessions, using data from the National Bureau of Economic Research and NAR. The 2010 gain in existing home prices is forecast to be 0.8 percent, according to the Washington-based Mortgage Bankers. More Losses Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac , the government-run mortgage buyers, are predicting losses will continue. Washington-based Fannie Mae estimates home prices will retreat 1.7 percent in 2010, and McLean, Virginia-based Freddie Mac puts the drop at 1.5 percent. The U.S. cities with the best prospects for home-price growth over the next five years are Seattle, San Jose, San Francisco and Washington, according to Steve Blitz , president of Pangea Market Advisory in New York, an economic forecasting firm. They have a “scarcity of housing and strong economies,” Blitz said. Miami, where prices have tumbled 47 percent since a 2006 peak, is No. 5, Blitz said. “Latin American currencies are going to do very well versus the dollar, and Miami is seen as the capital of Latin America,” said Blitz. “Its long-term economic prospects are good, so its current oversupply will be worked off.” San Diego Other cities on his list are San Diego, Phoenix , Las Vegas, Los Angeles, and, at No. 10, New York. While home prices may see additional declines in some of those cities over the next year, their long-term prospects are good, Blitz said. “If you buy a home in Beverly Hills or an apartment on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, over the next five and even 10 years you are going to do very well,” Blitz said. “The greatest threat to price growth in the New York area would be the diminution of Manhattan as a trading capital, and I don’t see that happening.” The 10 cities where real estate prospects are the worst, Blitz said, are: Detroit; Cleveland; Milwaukee; St. Louis; Tampa, Florida; Sacramento, California; Indianapolis, Indiana; Atlanta ; Columbus, Ohio; and Minneapolis. Some are losing population and others don’t have economies strong enough to absorb an oversupply of available properties. Gains Return “It’s not just a question of sales and inventory — price growth also is based on population patterns, income growth and employment,” Blitz said. While prospects are grim in some areas, it wouldn’t be the first time prices made a comeback. The median U.S. home value tumbled 39 percent during the 1930s to $2,938 from $4,778 at the start of a decade dominated by the Great Depression, according to the Census Bureau . Within 10 years the loss was erased, as servicemen back from World War II began buying houses financed with G.I. Bill benefits. The median home value increased to $7,354 by 1950, an average gain of 6.2 percent each year during the 1940s. In the 1950s, home values surged an average of 15 percent a year, according to the Census. In the 1960s, the pace dropped to 4.3 percent before jumping to 18 percent a year in the 1970s, boosted by a U.S. inflation rate that reached 13 percent. In the 1980s, the average annual increase was 6.8 percent. The pace dropped to 5.1 percent during the 1990s. Homebuilders Gain If NAR’s forecast for a median home price of $172,700 this year is correct, it would put the average annual increase at 2.5 percent during this decade even with the collapse of prices. The Standard & Poor’s Supercomposite Homebuilding Index of 12 companies gained 43 percent from January through Sept. 16 as the homebuyers’ tax credit boosted August new-home sales to a 2009 high. In September, sales dropped 3.6 percent as time ran out to complete homes by the tax credit’s Nov. 30 deadline, the Commerce Department said last week. Resales rose to a 5.57 million annual rate in September, the highest in more than two years, NAR said in an Oct. 23 report. The median price fell 8.5 percent from a year earlier, 2009’s smallest decrease. Even so, some Americans who have never held property aren’t convinced that $8,000 from the government will make buying a home a good investment. Mian Raman, 40, said he won’t buy, for now, even though the U.S. tax code provides perks such as mortgage interest as a deduction. “If I buy a $300,000 home now to get the tax credit and prices drop by even 3 percent next year I’ve lost that $8,000 and more,” said Raman, owner of used-car dealerships in Boston’s Jamaica Plain neighborhood, where he rents an apartment, and Revere, Massachusetts. Homes as Commodities No matter how much money the government puts into the housing market to stimulate sales, a recovery won’t be on firm ground until people stop viewing homes as commodities, said Joe Carson , head of global economic research at AllianceBernstein LP in New York. “After every major bust there is a rethinking of that asset class,” Carson said. “I think people will change their views about real estate and begin to look at it as a long-term investment that provides shelter, rather than a way to make a quick buck.” After losing almost $200,000 in the value of her home, Dharod in Rancho Cucamonga said she has had many sleepless nights. “We should have rented an apartment rather than doing what we thought was the right thing and putting everything we had into the house,” Dharod said. To contact the reporter on this story: Kathleen M. Howley in Boston at kmhowley@bloomberg.net .

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Cigna, Health Insurers Overstate Revenue Spent on Care, Rockefeller Says

November 3, 2009

By Alex Nussbaum Nov. 2 (Bloomberg) — Cigna Corp. ’s reports on the amount of premium revenue the insurer spent on members’ health benefits revealed “inconsistencies,” Senator Jay Rockefeller said in a letter to the company. The six largest for-profit insurers, including Cigna, UnitedHealth Group Inc. and WellPoint Inc. , spent 74 percent of individual policyholders’ premiums on health-care costs, Rockefeller, a West Virginia Democrat and chairman of the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, said in the letter sent today. Companies spent 80 percent of premiums they collected to treat members on small-business policies. Congress is debating the biggest changes in about 50 years to the U.S. health care system to expand insurance coverage and contain costs. With $500 billion in subsidies proposed to help the uninsured buy policies, “it is critical that consumers have a guarantee that the overwhelming majority of subsidy dollars are going toward actual medical care,” Rockefeller said. The figures Rockefeller found are less than the amounts the insurance industry has claimed in the past and “equate to billions of dollars that the health insurance industry claims to spend providing health care, but actually uses to bolster its profits or pay non-benefit expenses,” he said in his letter. Philadelphia-based Cigna failed to disclose that it sells policies in the small-group and individual market when asked by Rockefeller’s committee, the letter said. Cigna Response Cigna is reviewing the letter, said Chris Curran , a spokesman, in an e-mail. The company on Oct. 2 provided the committee with data on the percentage of premium dollars spent on care, known as its medical-loss ratios, Curran said. That data included information on policies for employers and individuals, he said. “While we do not separate the small business MLR from our employer segment, it accounts for only one-half percent of our employer membership,” Curran said. Rockefeller’s letter singled out Cigna for questions about its reporting. The figures used for the industry as a whole were based on what insurers have previously reported publicly for their medical-loss ratios. Medical loss ratios are “not an accurate measure of the efficiency or effectiveness of a health plan,” said Robert Zirkelbach , a spokesman for America’s Health Insurance Plans, the industry trade group in Washington. “Some of the administrative expenses are for programs and services that will actually help to lower the cost” for members, he said today in a telephone interview. That includes efforts to combat fraud or for wellness programs to keep members from getting sick, Zirkelbach said. The committee looked at premiums and expenses from UnitedHealth, based in Minnetonka, Minnesota; WellPoint, of Indianapolis; Aetna Inc. of Hartford, Connecticut; Humana Inc. of Louisville, Kentucky; and Coventry Health Care Inc. of Bethesda, Maryland. To contact the reporter on this story: Alex Nussbaum in New York anussbaum1@bloomberg.net .

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Ford Workers Reject Contract changes

October 31, 2009

DETROIT — Ford Motor Co. workers have overwhelmingly rejected contract changes that would have allowed the automaker to cut labor costs, leaving Ford at a disadvantage to its Detroit rivals as it continues its struggle to return to profitability. The United Auto Workers union had given local unions until Monday to complete voting. But a person briefed on the voting said Saturday that the contract changes have been rejected by large margins. The person asked not to be named because the UAW hasn’t announced the results yet. The UAW and Ford agreed to the contract changes several weeks ago, but Ford workers needed to ratify them. Ford has 41,000 UAW-represented workers. Two large union locals in Kentucky and Ford’s home city of Dearborn rejected the contract Friday, sealing its fate. Those unions together represent 13,000 Ford workers. Exact tallies weren’t available, but at least 12 UAW locals representing about 27,500 workers so far have vetoed the deal, many overwhelmingly. Only about four locals with a total of 7,000 members favored the pact. Ford sought the deal to bring its labor costs in line with Detroit rivals Chrysler Group LLC and General Motors Co., both of which won concessions from the union as they headed into bankruptcy protection earlier this year. Under pattern bargaining, the three automakers usually match pay, benefits and other contract provisions. But workers weren’t convinced they should make more concessions, since Ford avoided bankruptcy and is considered healthier than its rivals. At least two Wall Street analysts are predicting that Ford could report a profit Monday when it announces third-quarter earnings. Rocky Comito, president of UAW Local 862 in Louisville, said Friday that workers felt they were being asked to sacrifice more than the company’s executives. Ford CEO Alan Mulally made $17.7 million last year, although that was down 22 percent from the year before. “Some want to see management give more at the upper level,” Comito said. Ford was offering workers a $1,000 bonus if they ratified the contract. But the contract also would have frozen entry-level pay, changed some work rules and limited workers’ ability to strike. A message seeking comment was left Saturday for the UAW. UAW President Ron Gettelfinger said Friday that there wouldn’t be a revote if the contract changes failed. “If it fails, there would be no reason to go back to the bargaining table,” Gettelfinger said at a community event in Detroit. “We have a democratic process in place. People have a right to express themselves. We recognize there’s a lot of misinformation about it out there, but that is what it is.” Factory-level union leaders have known for several days that the deal would be defeated, said one Detroit-area official who asked not to be identified because the voting is not completed. The union did a poor job of explaining the need to preserve jobs and keep Ford competitive with GM and Chrysler, the official said. He doesn’t believe members will approve any more changes until the 2011 contract, which will leave Ford at a disadvantage and has the potential to knock the company from its position as the strongest financially of the Detroit Three. “Our goal should be to keep Ford Motor Co. going in the right direction,” he said. Gary Chaison, a professor of labor relations at Clark University in Worcester, Mass., said the vote was a slap to UAW leadership. It’s extremely rare for union members to oppose the union’s recommended vote. Chaison said the vote damages the reputation of UAW Vice President Bob King, the chief Ford negotiator, who has been mentioned as a successor to Gettelfinger when the union elects a new president in 2010. “The sign of a good leader is that you can agree to something and then sell it to the membership,” Chaison said. Chaison said Ford asked for too much too soon after workers already agreed to concessions earlier this year. He also said Ford lacked credibility because its financial situation wasn’t as dire as GM’s or Chrysler’s. “They made such a strong case about not going to bankruptcy court and turning the corner, so they couldn’t go to the workers and say, ‘We need this to turn the corner,’” he said. The no votes came even as Ford reached a similar cost-cutting agreement with the Canadian Auto Workers union Friday. The CAW has agreed to cuts in benefits in exchange for product guarantees, but that agreement must be ratified by Canadian workers. In addition to the plants in Louisville and Dearborn, workers at factories in Chicago; Claycomo, Mo.; and Livonia, Plymouth, Sterling Heights, Flat Rock, Ypsilanti Township, Mich., rejected the deal. Locals in Wayne, Mich.; Cleveland; Indianapolis and St. Paul, Minn., voted in favor. ___ Associated Press Writers Corey Williams in Detroit and Janet Cappiello Blake in Louisville contributed to this report.

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Video: In-Depth Look – Back-Door Taxes

October 26, 2009

Paying Attention – $331 Million Spent to End Interest Rates in Indianapolis, Philadelphia, Miami, Oakland, and California

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Saints Move to 5-0 With 48-27 Win to Send Giants to First Loss of Season

October 18, 2009

By Dex McLuskey Oct. 18 (Bloomberg) — Drew Brees threw four touchdown passes as the New Orleans Saints sent the New York Giants to their first defeat of the season to remain unbeaten after five National Football League games. The Saints won 48-27 behind seven touchdowns from seven different players at the Superdome in New Orleans to end New York’s best start to the season since 1990. The victory took the Saints to 5-0 for the third time since they entered the league in 1967. The team last won its first five games in 1993, before going on to finish 8-8. “It felt good,” Brees told Fox in a televised interview. “Our guys played great offensively and defensively.” New Orleans entered the matchup averaging a league-high 36 points a game and ranked third in the NFL in offense with an average of 414 yards, while the Giants’ defense had allowed a league-low average of 211 yards a game and 105 passing yards, also an NFL-best mark. The Saints finished with 493 yards of total offense, the most New York has given up since conceding 567 yards at San Diego on Oct. 19, 1980. The Giants fell to 5-1, missing their first 6-0 start since 1990, when they won their first 10 games before going on to win the Super Bowl. The Giants, Saints, Indianapolis Colts, Minnesota Vikings and Denver Broncos began today undefeated, the most through the first five weeks of a season in NFL history. Brett Favre’s Vikings improved to 6-0 by beating Baltimore 33-31 in Minneapolis today as Ravens kicker Steven Hauschka missed a 44-yard field goal attempt as time expired. Minnesota entered the fourth quarter leading 20-10 and conceded 21 points to trail 31-30 with 3 minutes, 44 seconds left. Ryan Longwell made a 31-yard field goal with two minutes remaining to put the Vikings back in front. The Broncos are at the San Diego Chargers tomorrow, while the Colts have a bye this week. Elsewhere in Week 6, it was Houston 28, Cincinnati 17; Green Bay 26, Detroit 0; Pittsburgh 27, Cleveland 14; Carolina 28, Tampa Bay 21; Kansas City 14, Washington 6; and Jacksonville 23, St. Louis 20 in overtime. Later today, Philadelphia is at Oakland; Arizona visits Seattle; New England hosts Tennessee; and Buffalo travels to the New York Jets. In the late game, Atlanta hosts Chicago. To contact the reporter on this story: Dex McLuskey in Dallas at dmcluskey@bloomberg.net

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Adam Vinatieri of NFL Colts Injures Kicking Knee, Out at Least Four Weeks

October 14, 2009

By Jay Beberman Oct. 14 (Bloomberg) — Indianapolis Colts kicker Adam Vinatieri has undergone arthroscopic surgery on his right knee and will miss four to eight weeks, the team said. Vinatieri, 36, made the winning field goals for the New England Patriots in the 2002 and 2004 Super Bowls. He signed with Indianapolis in 2006. The Colts have added 19-year veteran Matt Stover to the roster, replacing Vinatieri.

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Baucus Tries to Deflect Health-Care Industry Attack in Pivotal Panel Vote

October 13, 2009

By Nicole Gaouette and Lizzie O’Leary Oct. 13 (Bloomberg) — Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus fought to hold together an industry coalition in support of revamping U.S. health care after insurers waged a late attack on his panel’s proposal. The Montana Democrat’s committee is set to vote today on a plan to curb rising medical costs and cover tens of millions of uninsured Americans at a cost of $829 billion over 10 years. A health-insurance industry study , released two days ago, found the plan would more than double premium costs. Doctors, medical-device makers and one of two hospital groups still voiced support for overhaul efforts after the trade group America’s Health Insurance Plans released its study Oct. 11. Democrats hold 13 of the finance panel’s 23 seats. Baucus said last week he has the votes to pass the measure. The American Medical Association “will stay constructively engaged in the legislative process to ensure that the final bill improves the system for patients and their dedicated physicians,” said James Rohack , president of the Chicago-based group, the largest organization for doctors. Advamed, the trade association for device makers including Abbott Laboratories and Johnson & Johnson , “supports broad- based health care reform that will ensure all Americans have access to quality, affordable health care,” Advamed spokeswoman Wanda Moebius said in an e-mail. White House Agreement Doctors and device makers are among the five groups that joined insurers on a White House stage in May to pledge support for a health-care overhaul. Drug manufacturers, hospitals and a union also participated in the agreement, brokered with the Finance Committee as well. Senate leaders were wooing Olympia Snowe of Maine, who is viewed by Democrats as the one Republican on the panel who may support the measure. Baucus delayed a vote for months while trying to win Republican support. Health-care accounts for one- sixth of the U.S. economy. President Barack Obama said Oct. 10 that the effort at a revamp is at a “historic moment.” The medical association and Advamed said previously they have disagreements with measures before Congress, as Democratic lawmakers try to advance Obama’s top domestic priority: extending insurance coverage to tens of millions of Americans while controlling the increase in health-care costs. The measure from the finance panel, the last of five congressional committees to consider an overhaul proposal, received a boost last week when the Congressional Budget Office gave the $829 billion cost estimate. Republicans and some Democrats had voiced concern that the legislation would cost too much and widen the federal budget deficit. Limiting Deductions The finance panel’s version is the only one to exclude the choice of a government-run health plan to compete with private insurers as a way to foster competition and hold down costs. The industry opposes the so-called public option. The finance panel measure would tax insurers on their most- expensive plans and limit deductions for executive pay at companies including WellPoint Inc ., the Indianapolis-based insurer that is the largest by enrollment. Doctors have complained about provisions in the legislation, including a measure that would penalize physicians in the top 10 percent of spenders. Device makers “vigorously oppose” a tax provision in the Senate Finance bill that would require them to pay $40 billion annually, Moebius said. The American Hospital Association considers the finance panel’s measure to be “an important bill containing much we support,” said Rich Umbdenstock , president of the trade group, in a posting on its Web site. “But achieving higher coverage targets is vital.” Hospitals Complain The Federation of American Hospitals , the Washington group for investor-owned hospitals including Tenet Healthcare Corp., declined to comment yesterday. The hospitals, which agreed to contribute $155 billion in savings over 10 years toward an overhaul effort, previously said not enough new people would be covered by the finance committee’s version. The measure “does not meet the standard of coverage that our agreement is based on,” said Chip Kahn , president of the federation, in an interview last week. America’s Health Insurance Plans , based in Washington, complained that the tax provisions in the Senate Finance bill would send coverage costs soaring. The industry’s report from two days ago found that the measure would raise the cost of private health insurance by 111 percent by 2019, or $4,000 for a family. Current law would raise costs by 79 percent, it found. “We have a lot of experience at the state level with taxes and have a lot of experience with how they directly add to the cost of care,” said Karen Ignagni , the group’s chief executive officer, in a conference call. “What is the impact with all of these factors interacting in the future? It will get all benefit plans to a higher level faster.” White House Meeting The issue of executive compensation for health insurers was raised at a meeting last week between Ignagni and White House officials, Dan Pfeiffer , White House Deputy Communications Director, said in an e-mail. Ignagni met Oct. 7 with National Economic Council Director Lawrence Summers and Nancy-Ann DeParle , director of the White House Office of Health Reform. An amendment to the Senate Finance Committee bill would limit tax deductions for pay of top insurance-company executives. “This has nothing to do with the report that was released,” said by Robert Zirkelbach , a spokesman for Ignagni’s group. ‘Other Stakeholders’ Ignagni suggested that other health-care industries and professionals could do more to bring down the costs of an overhaul, without offering specifics. The industry would like to see the number of Americans covered by overhaul legislation rise closer to 100 percent. The Senate finance panel legislation would cover 94 percent of all Americans, the Congressional Budget Office said. The industry commissioned the study from the consulting and accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP because of “concern about the workability of the legislation,” Ignagni said. The White House and congressional Democrats fired back. “I was disappointed to see that the health-insurance industry had contrived a report like this at the last minute, right on the eve of a historic vote,” DeParle said yesterday on PBS’s “Newshour with Jim Lehrer .” The study was “selective” and “ignores some key policies,” such as the creation of health-insurance exchanges to save costs, she said. ‘Impediment’ to Reform Senator John D. Rockefeller , a West Virginia Democrat on the Senate finance panel, dismissed the report as “misleading” and said it underscored the need to have a public insurance option to compete with private insurers. “The industry stands today as the greatest impediment to real health-care reform,” Rockefeller said in a statement. The overhaul measures pending in Congress share some common ground. They require that Americans get insurance, with varying penalties for failing to do so. They also encourage greater use of preventive care, electronic records and research on the effectiveness of treatments. Under all the plans, insurers would have to accept new clients, regardless of preexisting conditions. To contact the reporters on this story: Nicole Gaouette in Washington at ngaouette@bloomberg.net ; Lizzie O’Leary in Washington at Loleary2@bloomberg.net .

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Giants Rout Raiders for 5-0 Start; Broncos, Colts, Vikings Stay Unbeaten

October 12, 2009

By Erik Matuszewski Oct. 12 (Bloomberg) — Eli Manning threw two touchdown passes in limited action, helping the New York Giants rout the Oakland Raiders 44-7 to remain one of the five undefeated teams in the National Football League. The Giants are 5-0 for the first time since 1990, a season that culminated in a Super Bowl victory over the Buffalo Bills. The Denver Broncos, Indianapolis Colts and Minnesota Vikings also won yesterday to improve to 5-0, while the 4-0 New Orleans Saints had a bye week. Nursing a heel injury sustained during a Week 4 win in Kansas City, Manning led the Giants to touchdowns on their opening four possessions for the first time since 1993. He was replaced by David Carr just before halftime as the Giants rolled to the 37-point victory in East Rutherford, New Jersey. “It was picture perfect,” Manning said after completing eight of 10 passes for 173 yards and touchdowns to Mario Manningham and Hakeem Nicks . “Just get in there, score quickly, score a lot, get a big lead, and then be able to rest it. It turned out really well.” The Giants, who started 10-0 in 1990, visit the unbeaten New Orleans Saints on Oct. 18. The Broncos beat the New England Patriots 20-17 in Denver as Matt Prater kicked a 41-yard field goal on the first possession of overtime. The Vikings also improved to 5-0 as Adrian Peterson rushed for two touchdowns and Brett Favre threw for another in a 38-10 win over the St. Louis Rams, while the Colts beat the Tennessee Titans 31-9 as Peyton Manning passed for 309 yards and three touchdowns. Cowboys’ Record Elsewhere in Week 5 of the NFL, the Dallas Cowboys beat the Kansas City Chiefs 26-20 as wide receiver Miles Austin caught 10 passes for a franchise-record 250 yards and two touchdowns. Cincinnati’s Cedric Benson became the first running back to rush for more than 100 yards against Baltimore since 2006, with 120 yards in a 17-14 win that puts the Bengals in first place in the American Football Conference’s North Division. In yesterday’s other NFL results, it was Pittsburgh 28, Detroit 20; Philadelphia 33, Tampa Bay 14; Carolina 20, Washington 17; Atlanta 45, San Francisco 10; Arizona 28, Houston 21; Seattle 41, Jacksonville 0; and Cleveland 6, Buffalo 3. The New York Jets visit the Miami Dolphins today. At Giants Stadium, Ahmad Bradshaw had touchdown runs on the first two drives as New York jumped out to a 14-0 lead. Manning opened the second quarter with a 30-yard touchdown pass to Manningham and tossed a nine-yard scoring pass to Nicks following a fumble by Raiders quarterback JaMarcus Russell . The Giants led 31-7 at halftime, their most points in the opening half of a regular season game since 1985. Their 24-point halftime lead was their largest in seven years. 483 Offensive Yards New York finished with 220 rushing yards and gained 483 yards of total offense to 123 for the Raiders, who fell to 1-4. “You watch them on film and you know they’re good, but it’s different when you come out and they’re actually hitting everything like that,” Raiders All-Pro cornerback Nnamdi Asomugha told reporters. Peyton Manning threw for more than 300 yards for the fifth time in as many games as the Colts dropped the Titans to 0-5 in Nashville, Tennessee. Manning moved past Fran Tarkenton for the third-most touchdown passes in NFL history with 345 and has led Indianapolis to 14 straight regular-season wins. In Denver, the Broncos held the Patriots scoreless after halftime, giving rookie coach Josh McDaniels a win against his former team. McDaniels, 33, was New England’s offensive coordinator the previous three seasons and hasn’t lost since replacing Mike Shanahan . Kyle Orton passed for 330 yards and two touchdowns for the Broncos, who sent Patriots quarterback Tom Brady to the first overtime loss of his career. New England dropped to 3-2. To contact the reporter on this story: Erik Matuszewski in New York at matuszewski@bloomberg.net

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Home Sellers in U.S. Cut Asking Prices by $28 Billion as Recovery Stalled

October 8, 2009

By Daniel Taub Oct. 8 (Bloomberg) — U.S. home sellers cut their asking prices by a total of $28.4 billion to attract buyers as the real estate recovery stalled, Trulia Inc. said. The average discount was 10 percent as of Oct. 1, the San Francisco-based real estate data provider said today. Homes listed for more than $2 million were cut the most, with owners taking an average of 14 percent off the original price. Luxury homes accounted for 25 percent of all of the reductions. Sales of existing U.S. homes unexpectedly fell in August for the first time since March, according to the National Association of Realtors, signaling the recovery will be slow to gain speed. The median price dropped 12.5 percent from August 2008. “Consumers have to be slashing the prices of the homes they list,” Pete Flint , chief executive officer of Trulia, said in an interview. There’s a “significant inventory” of homes for sale. “You’re still going to see further price declines before the market stabilizes in 2010.” Half of the 10 states with the highest percentage of discounted homes are in the Northeast: Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Hampshire and New Jersey. A third of residences for sale in those states were reduced at least once, Trulia said. New York, California and Florida accounted for 35 percent of the total value of price cuts nationally. In Nevada, Idaho, Arizona, Wyoming, Hawaii, Utah and California, sellers have dropped an average of 13 percent off the original price, according to Trulia. Three Million Homes Closely held Trulia collects data from brokers and agents, third-party providers and multiple-listing services . For the survey, it looked at homes for sale as of Oct. 1 — about 3 million properties, excluding foreclosed homes and undeveloped land — and calculated how many had previously been listed for a higher price. Some were lowered more than once. Among the 50 largest U.S. cities, those with the biggest percentage of discounts were Memphis, Tennessee; Minneapolis; Portland, Oregon; Indianapolis; and Baltimore, according to Trulia . Prices were cut on 36 percent of homes for sale in those cities. Baltimore had the biggest discounts of that group — an average of 11 percent. According to a separate survey released today by real estate data service Zillow.com , U.S. buyers paid a median $6,525, or 3 percent, less than the final listing amounts on properties bought in August. Buyers in the Vero Beach, Florida, area had the most negotiating power, paying a median $20,974, or 8.9 percent, less than the last asking price, Seattle-based Zillow.com said. To contact the reporter on this story: Daniel Taub in Los Angeles at dtaub@bloomberg.net .

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Saints Send Jets to First Loss; Giants, Colts, Broncos Remain Undefeated

October 4, 2009

By Erik Matuszewski Oct. 4 (Bloomberg) — Eli Manning threw three touchdown passes as the New York Giants improved to 4-0 with a 27-16 win over the Kansas City Chiefs, while older brother Peyton helped the Indianapolis Colts remain undefeated. The Saints also stayed perfect after beating the New York Jets 24-10 in New Orleans. The Saints’ Darren Sharper returned an interception 99 yards for a score, one of two touchdowns for the Saints defense in the second quarter. Remi Ayodele recovered a fumble in the end zone for the second score after Will Smith sacked Jets quarterback Mark Sanchez . Two of Eli Manning’s scoring passes went to Steve Smith , who had 11 receptions for 134 yards at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, Missouri. Hakeem Nicks also had a touchdown catch for the Giants, who are 4-0 for the second straight year. The Chiefs were outgained 429-193 in total yardage to fall to 0-4 for the first time since 1980. Also today, Peyton Manning threw for 353 yards and two touchdowns as the Colts beat Seattle 34-17 in Indianapolis to improve their record to 4-0. Manning’s 342 career touchdown passes are tied with Fran Tarkenton for the third-most in National Football League history. The New England Patriots used a late defensive stop to prevent Baltimore from starting 4-0, beating the Ravens 27-21 in Foxboro, Massachusetts. Tom Brady rushed for one touchdown and threw for another score to lead the Patriots (3-1). In other results in Week 4 of the NFL’s regular season, it was Washington 16, Tampa Bay 13; Houston 29, Oakland 6; Jacksonville 37, Tennessee 17; Chicago 48, Detroit 24; and Cincinnati 23, Cleveland 20 in overtime. Giants Win In Kansas City, the Giants took control from the start as the Chiefs’ Jamaal Charles fumbled the game’s opening kickoff. Eli Manning tossed a 3-yard touchdown pass to Smith five plays later and the Giants extended their advantage to 17-3 by halftime. Manning and Smith hooked up again for a 25-yard score early in the second quarter. New York led 27-3 in the fourth quarter before Manning left with a bruised heel. He was replaced by backup David Carr . At Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, the Patriots held on for a 6-point victory as Baltimore’s Mark Clayton dropped a fourth- down pass with 28 seconds left at New England’s 14-yard line. The Ravens, seeking their first 4-0 start since 2006, turned the ball over on downs their final two possessions. Baltimore’s Joe Flacco passed for 264 yards, two touchdowns and one interception. Brady had 258 passing yards for the Patriots, while Randy Moss had his first touchdown catch of the season. To contact the reporter on this story: Erik Matuszewski in New York at matuszewski@bloomberg.net

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As Layoffs Persist, Good Jobs Go Unfilled

October 4, 2009

In a brutal job market, here’s a task that might sound easy: Fill jobs in nursing, engineering and energy research that pay $55,000 to $60,000, plus benefits. Yet even with 15 million people hunting for work, even with the unemployment rate nearing 10 percent, some employers can’t find enough qualified people for good-paying career jobs. Ask Steve Jones, a hospital recruiter in Indianapolis who’s struggling to find qualified nurses, pharmacists and MRI technicians. Or Ed Baker, who’s looking to hire at a U.S. Energy Department research lab in Richland, Wash., for $60,000 each. Economists say the main problem is a mismatch between available work and people qualified to do it. Millions of jobs with attractive pay and benefits that once drew legions of workers to the auto industry, construction, Wall Street and other sectors are gone, probably for good. And those who lost those jobs generally lack the right experience for new positions popping up in health care, energy and engineering. Many of these specialized jobs were hard to fill even before the recession. But during downturns, recruiters tend to become even choosier, less willing to take financial risks on untested workers. The mismatch between job opening and job seeker is likely to persist even as the economy strengthens and begins to add jobs. It also will make it harder for the unemployment rate, now at 9.8 percent, to drop down to a healthier level. “Workers are going to have to find not just a new company, but a new industry,” said Sophia Koropeckyj, managing director of Moody’s Economy.com. “A fifty-year-old guy who has been screwing bolts into the side of a car panel is not going to be able to become a health care administrator overnight.” It’s become especially hard to find accountants, health care workers, software sales representatives, actuaries, data analysts, physical therapists and electrical engineers, labor analysts say. And employers that demand highly specialized training – like biotech firms that need plant scientists or energy companies that need geotechnical engineers to build offshore platforms – struggle even more to fill jobs. The trend has been intensified by the speed of the job market decline, Koropeckyj said. The nation has lost a net 7.6 million jobs since the recession began in December 2007. Yet it can take a year or more for a laid-off worker to gain the training and education to switch industries. That means health care jobs are going unfilled even as laid-off workers in the auto, construction or financial services industries seek work. “So we have this army of the unemployed” without the necessary skills, Koropeckyj said. Sitting in his office overlooking the Clarian Health complex, Jones leafed through some of the applications he’s received. One came from a hotel worker who listed his experience as, “Cleaning rooms; make beds, clean tubes, vacuum.” Another was from a fitness instructor whose past duties included signing up gym members. Many of the jobless seem to be applying for any opening they see, Jones said. “You just don’t have the supply to fill those particular positions,” he said of the more than 200 “critical” jobs he needs to fill at Clarian, including nurses, pharmacists, MRI technicians and ultrasound technologists. Contributing to the problem is that in a tough economy, employers take longer to assess applicants and make a hiring decision. By contrast, “in a healthier economy, you don’t wait around for the perfect person,” said Lawrence Katz, a professor of labor economics at Harvard. To be sure, employers in most sectors of the economy are having no trouble filling jobs – especially those, like receptionists, hotel managers or retail clerks, that don’t require specialized skills. But as more jobs vanish for good, the gap between the unemployed and the requirements of today’s job openings is widening. Throughout the economy, an average of six people now compete for each job opening – the highest ratio on government records dating to 2000. Sifting through applications for jobs at the U.S. Energy Department’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Washington state, Baker said he sees “people that have worked in other areas, and now they’re trying to apply that skill set to the energy arena.” “Unfortunately, that’s not the skill set we need.” The jobs opened up after the lab received federal stimulus money to research energy-efficient buildings. Baker needs employees with backgrounds in city management and a grasp of the building codes needed to design energy-efficient buildings. Yet even a salary of $140,000 for senior researchers isn’t drawing enough qualified applicants. Baker said he’s getting resumes from well-educated people, including some from information technology workers who want to enter the green-energy field. But he said it could take a year to get an unqualified employee up to speed on all the building codes they need to know. “We’re running out of people to train” new employees, he said. “We simply cannot attract enough (qualified) people.” The lab has hired a recruiter for the first time to fill dozens of positions. Rob Dromgoole, the recruiter, is going so far as to make cold calls to college professors. He’s also visiting academic conferences to pitch jobs. The trend has left jobseekers like Joe Sladek anxious and frustrated. Sladek’s 23 years in the auto industry haven’t helped his efforts to land a job in alternative energy since he was laid off a year ago. As a quality control engineer for auto supplier Dura Automotive Systems Inc. in Mancelona, Mich., he made about $75,000. Sladek would review technical reports to make sure the factory’s auto parts matched the specifications of clients like General Motors and Toyota. He hoped to parlay that experience into a similar job at a factory making windmill blades or solar panels. Several factories were hiring, and Sladek landed a few interviews. But he never heard back. At PricewaterhouseCoopers in Chicago, there’s a shortage of qualified applicants for management jobs in tax services, auditing and consulting. Rod Adams, the company’s recruiting leader, said huge pay packages on Wall Street siphoned off lots of business school graduates earlier this decade. “That made our pipeline more scarce,” he said. Some of the openings at PricewaterhouseCoopers pay around $100,000 and don’t even require graduate degrees – just specialized accounting certifications or other credentials. Formerly successful bankers or hedge fund managers don’t necessarily qualify. “We’ve gotten a lot more resumes, but they haven’t been the right people,” Adams said. ___ Associated Press reporters Christopher S. Rugaber in Washington and Mike Smith in Indianapolis contributed to this report.

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New York Giants Improve to 4-0 With 27-16 Win Over Chiefs; Patriots Win

October 4, 2009

By Erik Matuszewski Oct. 4 (Bloomberg) — Eli Manning threw three touchdown passes as the New York Giants improved to 4-0 with a 27-16 win over the Kansas City Chiefs, while older brother Peyton helped the Indianapolis Colts remain undefeated. Two of Eli Manning’s scoring passes went to Steve Smith , who had 11 receptions for 134 yards at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, Missouri. Hakeem Nicks also had a touchdown catch for the Giants, who are 4-0 for the second straight year. The Chiefs were outgained 429-193 in total yardage to fall to 0-4 for the first time since 1980. Also today, Peyton Manning threw for 353 yards and two touchdowns as the Colts beat Seattle 34-17 in Indianapolis to improve their record to 4-0. Manning’s 342 career touchdown passes are tied with Fran Tarkenton for the third-most in National Football League history. The New England Patriots used a late defensive stop to prevent Baltimore from starting 4-0, beating the Ravens 27-21 in Foxboro, Massachusetts. Tom Brady rushed for one touchdown and threw for another score to lead the Patriots (3-1). In other results in Week 4 of the NFL’s regular season, it was Washington 16, Tampa Bay 13; Houston 29, Oakland 6; Jacksonville 37, Tennessee 17; Chicago 48, Detroit 24; and Cincinnati 23, Cleveland 20 in overtime. Giants Win In Kansas City, the Giants took control from the start as the Chiefs’ Jamaal Charles fumbled the game’s opening kickoff. Eli Manning tossed a 3-yard touchdown pass to Smith five plays later and the Giants extended their advantage to 17-3 by halftime. Manning and Smith hooked up again for a 25-yard score early in the second quarter. New York led 27-3 in the fourth quarter before Manning left with a bruised heel. He was replaced by backup David Carr . At Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, the Patriots held on for a 6-point victory as Baltimore’s Mark Clayton dropped a fourth- down pass with 28 seconds left at New England’s 14-yard line. The Ravens, seeking their first 4-0 start since 2006, turned the ball over on downs their final two possessions. Baltimore’s Joe Flacco passed for 264 yards, two touchdowns and one interception. Brady had 258 passing yards for the Patriots, while Randy Moss had his first touchdown catch of the season. To contact the reporter on this story: Erik Matuszewski in New York at matuszewski@bloomberg.net

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Stacie Ritter Cries `Shame’ at Insurers Winning Washington’s Health Game

September 30, 2009

By Heidi Przybyla Sept. 30 (Bloomberg) — Stacie Ritter stood outside health insurer Cigna Corp’s Philadelphia headquarters clutching photocopies of her four-year-old, cancer-stricken daughters as she shouted “shame.” Ritter, 35, along with thousands who protested outside the offices of major health insurers last week, gives voice to the complaint that companies may reap billions from health-care overhaul even as they deny treatments. She says her identical twins, Madeline and Hannah, now 11, were denied hormone therapy prescribed by her endocrinologist. Cigna Communications Director Chris Curran says two other endocrinologists determined the girls don’t need the drugs. Both President Barack Obama and U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi , a California Democrat, have cited similar anecdotes in pushing for a government option that would compete against insurers like UnitedHealth Group Inc. Pelosi has called insurers such as Cigna and WellPoint Inc. “villains” and “immoral” and Obama singles out the industry for scorn in almost every health-care speech. Yet the condemnations may carry little consequence. It may be the private insurers who emerge as winners in the health-care overhaul. Yesterday the Senate Finance Committee voted against creating a so-called public option, a victory for insurance companies that have made defeating the provision their chief aim. ‘Biggest Winners’ Health insurance companies “could well be the biggest winners here,” said Robert Laszewski , an Alexandria, Virginia- based consultant to health insurers and other companies. “It’s an incredible irony,” he said. Wendell Potter , Cigna’s communications director until he left last year to become a critic, says the industry is close to achieving its two major aims: defeating the public option and winning a mandate that would require all adults to purchase health insurance. “It would be an enormous gift to the industry,” said Potter. Defeating the public option is “the big prize” because such a plan would force them to lower their rates, he said. Under legislation proposed by Senator Max Baucus , a Democrat from Montana who is chairman of the Finance Committee, the companies also are likely to pass many of the new taxes on to consumers, while getting millions of new customers subsidized by the government, amounting to about $450 billion in new revenue, said Laszewski. Rising Rates? A Sept. 23 Goldman Sachs report said most of a proposed $6.7 billion industry fee on insurers would be “passed through to purchasers,” raising rates by about 1 percent. A Sept. 23 letter to Baucus from Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association said the effect would be “much more significant.” The companies reject the notion that they haven’t given up a lot and point to concessions including a ban on rejecting new customers with preexisting conditions, restrictions on their ability to set premiums, and a series of new taxes that could total $336 billion over ten years. “We have some significant concerns with what is being proposed,” said Robert Zirkelbach , spokesman for America’s Health Insurance Plans. The Standard & Poor’s index of 13 managed-care companies has dropped 4.85 percent over the past month, with industry leaders like WellPoint of Indianapolis and UnitedHealth Group Inc. of Minnetonka, Minnesota, among the biggest losers. Switching Providers The rally outside Cigna Sept. 22 was part of coordinated protests at offices of major insurers including WellPoint, Aetna Inc. in Hartford and UnitedHealth. Ritter, from Manheim, Pennsylvania, says Aetna, her former insurance company, had been covering the drugs until her husband’s company switched to Cigna, which denied the hormones. The late Dr. Thomas Moshang, former head of endocrinology at Children’s Hospital in Philadelphia, prescribed them after determining the girls were not growing properly. Ritter said state law made it difficult to pursue a lawsuit. Madeline and Hannah now receive the drugs through a grant from Eli Lilly & Co ., the manufacturer. Cigna says it is the first time it’s hearing of Ritter’s concerns. The endocrinologists who reviewed the case found “no need for the drug,” said Curran , the spokesman. He later clarified that it’s the first time Cigna had heard “she did not agree with our decision.” Beaten Down The bills moving in the House and Senate would most likely establish an independent review process for claims denials, said Karen Pollitz , a professor at Georgetown Health Policy Institute in Washington. Still, it’s unclear if those mechanisms will help families like the Ritters. “Insurers will always have an incentive to avoid the cost,” said Pollitz, saying only a tiny percent of those who get hurt or encounter serious problems pursue formal appeals. Ron Pollack , executive director of Families USA , an advocacy group for health-care consumers, said the public must also consider that the companies have agreed to end discrimination against preexisting conditions, health premiums based on health status or gender and lifetime caps. “These things, which everybody takes for granted, are significant advances that will require insurance industry change,” he said. “Just because they feel it’s a net benefit to them does not mean it’s not a net benefit also to America’s families.” While Laszewksi says the major corporate stakeholders, including hospitals and drug companies, are making about $400 billion in concessions, “We are not even talking about 1 percent of what the health-care system is going to cost over the next ten years,” he said. To contact the reporter on this story: Heidi Przybyla in Washington hprzybyla@bloomberg.net .

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Senators Clash Over Public Health Insurance Option Before Panel Vote Today

September 29, 2009

By Laura Litvan and Kristin Jensen Sept. 29 (Bloomberg) — The Senate Finance Committee began its fifth day of debate over health legislation, with Chairman Max Baucus poised to join Republicans in voting against a proposed government program to compete with private insurers. The “public option” is the biggest flashpoint in the deliberations over how to revamp the U.S. medical system, with many Democrats arguing that it’s essential to reining in costs by providing competition to private insurers. Republicans oppose the plan, saying it will undercut the companies. “Why would we not do this?” said West Virginia Senator Jay Rockefeller , who proposed adding a public option to legislation put forward by Baucus, a Montana Democrat. “People come second and the profits come first if we’re against this.” Baucus’s panel, the last of five to draft a measure, plans to vote today on the amendment. New York Democrat Charles Schumer intends to introduce another amendment on the issue and said he’ll also raise it on the Senate floor. Rejection by the Senate would set up a showdown with the House, where three committees have already included the option in legislation. Schumer said last week the idea is an “underdog” on the finance committee. Baucus left it out of the proposal he released earlier this month because of opposition from Republicans and some conservative Democrats. Today, Baucus said insurance companies are already facing a host of new standards in his proposal, including a requirement that they issue policies to all who need them and restrictions on the different premium charges they can place on the youngest and oldest policy holders. They would also have new competition from nonprofit cooperatives. Feet to Fire “It does hold insurance companies’ feet to the fire,” he said of his proposal. Rockefeller said his amendment would probably save $50 billion over 10 years and reduce costs for families, not focus on profits for insurers such as Philadelphia-based Cigna Corp. Senator Charles Grassley of Iowa, the top Republican on the panel, countered that a public option would be “a slow walk toward government-controlled, single-payer health care.” Baucus originally intended to finish up his panel’s work in three days. As this morning began, he said the finance committee had already considered 60 amendments and was holding the longest “mark-up” of a measure in 15 years. The panel later will take up issues such as how to pay for the health-care legislation, which carries an estimated cost of about $900 billion over 10 years. Baucus’s plan, the basis for the panel’s work, includes a tax on high-end, or “Cadillac,” insurance plans, an idea also gaining traction in the House. Stocks Down The insurance industry opposes new taxes as well as the public option, saying it would disrupt coverage. The Standard & Poor’s index of 13 managed-care companies has dropped 7.8 percent in the past month, with industry leaders WellPoint Inc. of Indianapolis and UnitedHealth Group Inc. of Minnetonka, Minnesota, among the biggest losers. During that same period, the S&P 500 index has gained 2.9 percent. If the finance panel passes its legislation , Senate leaders must combine the measure with one passed by the Senate health committee and then schedule a chamber vote. It would have to be merged with a House version before more votes. House leaders are trying to combine versions of the health-care legislation approved by three committees in that chamber. Democrats are debating whether the public option should be allowed to peg the reimbursements it gives to providers to the lower rates paid by Medicare, the government program for the elderly. Baucus’s panel has drawn the most attention on the issue in Congress because it’s the only one with a proposal that may still get Republican support; it also won praise from the White House. Last week, Baucus thwarted challenges to his plan from both parties. “They defeated all of the crippling amendments,” said former Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle , a Bloomberg Television contributor, in an interview this morning. “They showed the cohesion they’re going to need all the way through this process to get the job done.” To contact the reporters on this story: Nicole Gaouette in Washington at ngaouette@bloomberg.net ; Laura Litvan in Washington at llitvan@bloomberg.net

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Giants Spoil Cowboys’ Home Opener 33-31 Before Record NFL Crowd: Jets Win

September 21, 2009

By Erik Matuszewski Sept. 21 (Bloomberg) — The New York Giants silenced more than 100,000 fans by beating the Dallas Cowboys 33-31 on a 37- yard field goal by Lawrence Tynes as time expired in the first regular-season game at the Cowboys’ $1.15 billion stadium. Eli Manning threw two touchdown passes and the Giants’ defense intercepted Tony Romo three times last night in Arlington, Texas. Bruce Johnson returned one of the interceptions 34 yards for a touchdown in a game that featured nine lead changes. The crowd of 105,121 was the largest for a regular-season National Football League game. Five of the past six teams to open new NFL stadiums have lost their season openers. The Giants’ win gives both of New York’s NFL teams a 2-0 record for the first time since the 2000 season. The Jets yesterday snapped an eight-game home losing streak against the New England Patriots as rookie quarterback Mark Sanchez threw the only touchdown in a 16-9 victory. The Jets outscored New England 13-0 in the second half at Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, ending Patriots quarterback Tom Brady’s 21-game regular-season winning streak. “We’re a football team that should be respected,” Jets coach Rex Ryan said at a news conference. “Sometimes we talk a little bit, but only because we have confidence in our football team. We have to go out and show it every week.” Favre Record Brett Favre , who played for the Jets last season, had two touchdown passes to help the Minnesota Vikings improve to 2-0 with a 27-13 win over Detroit. It was the Lions’ 19th straight loss dating back to the 2007 season. Favre also set an NFL record with his 271st consecutive regular-season start, breaking the mark he shared with former Vikings defensive lineman Jim Marshall , whose streak ran from 1961 through 1979. The New Orleans Saints are also 2-0 after beating the Philadelphia Eagles 48-22 behind three touchdowns by Drew Brees , whose nine scoring passes through two games ties an NFL record set by St. Louis’ Charley Johnson in 1965. Also 2-0 are the Atlanta Falcons, San Francisco 49ers, Baltimore Ravens and Denver Broncos. The Falcons beat Carolina 28-20, the 49ers topped Seattle 23-10, the Ravens outscored San Diego 31-26, and the Broncos shut down Cleveland 27-6. The Chicago Bears beat the defending Super Bowl champion Pittsburgh Steelers 17-14 on a 44-yard field goal by Robbie Gould with 15 seconds left to play. Pittsburgh’s Jeff Reed missed two fourth-quarter field-goal tries. In the NFL’s other Week 2 results, it was Oakland 13, Kansas City 10; Houston 34, Tennessee 31; Cincinnati 31, Green Bay 24; Washington 9, St. Louis 7; Arizona 31, Jacksonville 17; and Buffalo 33, Tampa Bay 20. The Miami Dolphins host the Indianapolis Colts tonight. Giants, Jets Win At Cowboys Stadium , Manning drove the Giants 56 yards in the closing minutes for the winning field goal. It was the 12th fourth-quarter or overtime comeback for Manning, who finished with 330 passing yards. Mario Manningham and Steve Smith each had 10 receptions for more than 100 yards and a touchdown. “They played outstanding,” Manning said of his wide receivers in a televised interview. “They’re explosive, they worked hard, they’re competitors and they showed that. We’ve got to keep it going and they can make some fun plays for us.” While Romo was held to 127 passing yards and had the three turnovers, the Cowboys rushed for 251 yards and three touchdowns. Romo scored on a 3-yard run, Marion Barber had 124 rushing yards and a touchdown, and Felix Jones ran for 96 yards and a score. Jones’s 7-yard touchdown run with 3:40 left in the fourth quarter had given Dallas a 31-30 lead. All-Time Lead In East Rutherford, New Jersey, the Jets recorded their first victory over New England at Giants Stadium since Sept. 11, 2000, and took a 50-49-1 lead in the teams’ all-time series. Sanchez finished with 163 passing yards and had a 9-yard scoring pass to Dustin Keller on the Jets’ first drive of the second half. The touchdown came two plays after Sanchez, the Jets’ top choice in April’s NFL draft, opened the third quarter with a 45-yard pass to Jerricho Cotchery . The Jets held Brady to 216 passing yards and intercepted him once in becoming the first NFL team since 2006 to not allow a rushing or passing touchdown through the first two games. “I’m getting more and more comfortable with the game plan each passing week,” Sanchez said. “We’re not done by any means.” To contact the reporter on this story: Erik Matuszewski in New York at matuszewski@bloomberg.net

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U.S. Mall Pioneer and Simon Property Group Founder, Melvin Simon, Passes

September 16, 2009

Simon Property Group lost one of its founders, Melvin Simon, on Sept. 16, 2009. The mall industry pioneer died at age 82. Simon served in the Army in the mid-1950s at Fort Benjamin Harrison in Indianapolis and with a Bachelor’s Degree in Accounting…

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Health-Care TV Ads `Go Over the Cliff’ to Sway U.S. Public on Obama’s Plan

July 25, 2009

By Jonathan D. Salant and Nicole Gaouette July 25 (Bloomberg) — The 45-year-old divorce mediator stares into the camera and says she would have died waiting for treatment of a brain tumor in her Canadian homeland

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Health-Care TV Ads `Go Over the Cliff’ to Sway U.S. Public on Obama’s Plan

July 25, 2009

By Jonathan D. Salant and Nicole Gaouette July 25 (Bloomberg) — The 45-year-old divorce mediator stares into the camera and says she would have died waiting for treatment of a brain tumor in her Canadian homeland. The message: Americans will face the same peril if President Barack Obama gets away with his plan to overhaul U.S. health care

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Obama Wrangles With Own Party Over Price Tag of Health-Care Overhaul Plan

July 22, 2009

By Kristin Jensen and Nicole Gaouette July 22 (Bloomberg) — President Barack Obama and congressional Democratic leaders are trying to mend fissures within their own party over plans to overhaul U.S. health care. A rebellion over the cost of the legislation prompted Obama to summon some Democrats to the White House for talks as a congressional committee delayed drafting its bill and Republicans sought to capitalize on the friction. Negotiations over the most sweeping changes in health care in more than four decades have proven so difficult that House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer left open the possibility Congress may fail to meet Obamaâ€™s August deadline for legislation.

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