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Byline: Brett Arends One of Boston's top fund managers is predicting up to a 75 percent chance of a recession within the next six to 12 months. "Chances are very […]

Byline: BRETT ARENDS No, Massachusetts is not in the doldrums because we've sold Gillette Co., Hancock or Fleet. And no, it isn't because we haven't yet persuaded GM to open […]

Byline: BRETT ARENDS Two days after the fatal collapse of a Big Dig tunnel, investigators and an angry public are turning their sights on the project manager, Bechtel Group of […]

Byline: BRETT ARENDS Where on Earth is Bechtel? Most everyone else with responsibility for the Big Dig has come before the cameras to answer public questions about Monday night's fatal […]

Byline: BRETT ARENDS Now we know where the "real" Mitt Romney has been hiding for the past three years. In a house on Lake Winnipesaukee. The man who came down […]

Byline: Brett ARENDS Did the Curse of the Bambino ever really go away - or did it merely transfer itself from the team to its owners? This radical thought comes […]

Byline: BRETT ARENDS While the partisan debate over Iraq rages, U.S. Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-South Boston) has quietly filed a bill on Capitol Hill that would take steps to relieve […]

Byline: BRETT ARENDS The army of neighborhood activists trying to block the proposed "Little Dig" downtown have a secret friend in high places. Speaker Sal DiMasi. The Little Dig is […]

Byline: BRETT ARENDS Maybe it takes an Italian mayor to face down the North End. But it isn't winning Mayor Menino any applause on Hanover Street. Merchants there are angry […]

Byline: BRETT ARENDS It's time to say it: The soccer World Cup is the most overhyped event in sports. Every four years I look forward to this jamboree, and every […]

Byline: BRETT ARENDS Ken Lay's sudden death could make it harder to recover any of his Enron loot, victims of the company's collapse were warned yesterday. And even if they […]

Byline: Brett Arends Halfway through the year, and the "On State Street" portfolio is outperforming the market, yet again. Slightly. At the start of the year I asked six of […]

Byline: BRETT ARENDS I don't care how rich you are. Ten million bucks is a lot to pay to make a point. But that's what Christy Mihos says he's willing […]

Byline: BRETT ARENDS They haven't even finished the Big Dig yet, and already the jockeying is well under way for "The Little Dig." That would be the proposed Silver Line […]

Byline: BRETT ARENDS When it came to suggesting investments to his client Eleanor Finn, Hull "financial adviser" Jeffrey Gruber was certainly creative. Bonds issued by the government of Israel. Stock […]

Byline: BRETT ARENDS The Curse of Magellan strikes again. When Fidelity veteran Harry Lange took the helm of the troubled $50 billion fund last November, firm insiders applauded his early […]

Byline: BRETT ARENDS Forget Mr Six's Pandemonium. If you're looking for a terrifying roller-coaster ride that will turn you green, just buy stock in the Six Flags theme park company […]

Byline: BRETT ARENDS What's the reward for failure in Waltham these days? If you're Jack Messman, who was ousted yesterday as boss of local software company Novell, it's not too […]

Byline: Brett Arends Maybe Harvard honchos should have spoken to Larry Ellison's three ex-wives before taking one of the software tycoon's promises at face value. Instead the university has spent […]

Byline: Brett Arends Bill Gates' decision to stand down from his day job at Microsoft is only half the story. The deepening crisis in the company's stock is also threatening […]

Byline: BRETT ARENDS The remarkable thing isn't that there are so few entrepreneurs in Massachusetts. It's that there are so many. In 2004, people started no fewer than 29,720 new […]

Byline: BRETT ARENDS Sherlock Holmes fans know "Professor Moriarty" as the detective's greatest adversary. Boston's own Professor Moriarty isn't "the Napoleon of crime." But he is, perhaps, the Napoleon of […]

Byline: BRETT ARENDS Is the newspaper columnist doomed? Will future generations look back on the likes of George Will and Thomas Friedman as curiosities of a bygone age, the way […]

Byline: Brett Arends The Enron verdicts aren't as good as they look. They're better. Boston legal experts yesterday explained how the Enron Task Force, led by former Chicago prosecutor Sean […]

Byline: BRETT ARENDS With less than six months to go till election day, I have a plea for millions of my fellow citizens. Don't vote. No, really. Do yourself and […]

Byline: BRETT ARENDS Manu Daftary looked prescient when he moved 28 percent of his Quaker Strategic Growth Fund into cash ahead of this month's meltdown. The move was first revealed […]

Byline: BRETT ARENDS Would it really be so bad if Massachusetts became the "Las Vegas of gay marriage"? Mitt Romney used the phrase disparagingly a few weeks ago, as if […]

Byline: BRETT ARENDS Until a week ago, he was the man in charge. A CEO with 10,000 employees worldwide. The company founder's son. The heir to a fortune worth hundreds […]

Byline: BRETT ARENDS When the penthouse at 51 Commonwealth Ave. went on the market two years ago, it was a symbol of the sky-high real estate market. At $14.5 million, […]

Byline: Brett Arends We've seen bull markets and bear markets. Now, according to one of Boston's most powerful fund managers, we have a "Wile E. Coyote" market. In other words, […]

Byline: BRETT ARENDS It's been a busy time in the online brokerage world. ETrade just bought Harrisdirect and BrownCo. TD Waterhouse merged with Ameritrade. Business is booming, and these are […]

Byline: BRETT ARENDS Anyone driving a fuel-efficient hybrid vehicle should be allowed to use the High Occupancy Vehicle lane coming into town, even if they're driving on their own. There, […]

Byline: BRETT ARENDS The usual criticism of the Boston investment community is that it's too staid and conservative. But that's not a charge anyone is likely to level at Brian […]

Byline: Brett Arends It isn't easy being a joint venture between two major companies such as Boston law giant Bingham Dana and Baltimore fund management powerhouse Legg Mason. So after […]

Byline: BRETT ARENDS It was a busy Friday morning in the downtown offices of Flunky & Hack, public relations advisers to the stars. Get me the Kennedy Playbook, the senior […]

Byline: BRETT ARENDS For decades, people in downtown Medford have been able to stop into a small soup and sandwich shop on Riverside Avenue and sit down for a bite […]

Byline: BRETT ARENDS How much of the continental USA would we need to cover with solar panels to supply all our energy? A third? A half? Texas? The answer, according […]

Byline: BRETT ARENDS So a husband comes home one night with lipstick on his collar and smelling of perfume. And in response to the inevitable question from his wife, he […]

Byline: BRETT ARENDS The amazing thing about William Swanson's "Unwritten Rules" isn't that the Raytheon honcho copied some of them from somebody else. It's that he had to. Among his […]

Byline: Brett Arends Green is good for Boston fund shop Winslow Asset Management. While the big downtown firms hemorrhage clients, little-known Winslow is raking in hundreds of millions of dollars […]

Byline: BRETT ARENDS When Washington, D.C. unites behind a policy like ethanol fuel, there's one question to ask. Who's working an angle? Say hello to midwestern farmers, and big agribusinesses. […]

Byline: Brett Arends Does Boston contain a secret army of urban professionals that the city doesn't know about? Real estate developer Tony Pangaro is betting $192 million on it. His […]

Byline: Brett Arends They took Babe Ruth. They took Johnny Damon. And now New Yorkers are trying to get their hands on another Boston institution. Pizzeria Regina. A mysterious Manhattan […]

Byline: BRETT ARENDS Have you heard about the Texas oilman and generous Republican donor who has just made half a billion dollars from skyrocketing gasoline prices? I'm not kidding. It's […]

Byline: BRETT ARENDS While clients flee the likes of Fidelity and Putnam, Boston's hottest fund manager, Chuck Clough, is raking it in. This week he's closing the book on yet […]

Byline: BRETT ARENDS The nearly 2,500 people who work at Sun Microsystems' campus in Burlington wake up this morning to a new era. Scott McNealy, their legendary and controversial CEO, […]

Byline: BRETT ARENDS A Mustang convertible. A Jaguar XKR. Above all, a $ 260,000 Aston-Martin Vanquish. So it's a shock to see just how badly the company is doing. Last […]

Byline: Brett Arends Phew! Fidelity's top fund managers breathed a huge sigh of relief yesterday as Google Inc. got back on track with its latest quarterly numbers. The stock jumped […]

Byline: BRETT ARENDS These remarkable photos show how robots built here in Massachusetts are helping fight the insurgency in Iraq and save U.S. soldiers' lives. They were taken from footage […]

Byline: BRETT ARENDS From here on Elm Street, in downtown Manchester, it's hard to see what the fuss is all about. OK, so it takes an hour to get from […]