Search

Byline: Brett Arends How do you know you sold your company for too little? You sold it to Bain Capital. Mitt Romney's former company almost never overpays. How do you […]

Byline: BRETT ARENDS The amazing thing about the real estate market is that it's never in a slump. Just ask any Realtor. "Strong?" Frequently. "Red hot?" Sometimes. And on all […]

Byline: BRETT ARENDS The tale of Texas oil industry greed that unfolded yesterday is a wonder to behold. I'm not talking about the Enron trial, but the executive pay figures […]

Byline: BRETT ARENDS Shouldn't our tax bills be itemized? If Uncle Sam wants our money, shouldn't he at least tell us where it's going, like any private contractor? After I […]

Byline: BRETT ARENDS When they tapped Joe McGuire a year ago to run Tweeter, it looked like he'd just been made captain of the Titanic - after it had hit […]

Byline: BRETT ARENDS If you're running for president in the modern Republican Party, there are two political allies you could probably do without. Ted Kennedy and The New York Times. […]

Byline: BRETT ARENDS It's three decades since Marshall Sloane took Century Bank in Medford public. But Sloane, now 80, and his family remain firmly in control. They own the voting […]

Byline: BRETT ARENDS It's no surprise that Ned Johnson waited so long to close Will Danoff's Contrafund to new investors. The move, announced on Friday, will leave a gaping hole […]

Byline: BRETT ARENDS There are four letters no investor in Boston wants to hear again. CMGI. What do they mean to you? "College Money Gone Instantly?" "Call Me a Gullible […]

Byline: BRETT ARENDS Is the local mutual fund industry in crisis? It will be if it keeps this up. The latest monthly sales figures are out, and they show February […]

Byline: BRETT ARENDS State Rep. Ron Mariano had better like a good political punch-up, because he may be about to get one. The Quincy Democrat, chairman of the Joint Legislative […]

Byline: Brett Arends Right now there is no one in the Boston financial world doing better than Kerry Healey's husband, Sean. His company, Affiliated Managers Group, Inc., does little more […]

Byline: BRETT ARENDS New York Times press baron Arthur "Pinch" Sulzberger is expected in town today, which should give him a great chance to take a close look at his […]

Byline: Brett Arends If a massive hurricane destroyed your house this summer, would your insurance company be able to pay you back? It's a question state insurance commissioner Julie Bowler […]

Byline: BRETT ARENDS Rightly or wrongly, the question being asked in the newsroom down on Morrissey Boulevard right now isn't whether there are more job cuts coming. It's how many. […]

Byline: Brett Arends We knew FleetBoston honcho Chad Gifford would be heading for a sweet retirement after he sold the Hub bank to Charlotte, N.C.-based Bank of America two years […]

Byline: BRETT ARENDS Property prices. The cost of living. Ask anyone why people are fleeing Boston, and the answers are pretty predictable. Trouble is, it isn't that simple. If you […]

Byline: BRETT ARENDS Citizens Bank chief Larry Fish earned $13.5 million in compensation last year, including $4.4 million in salary and bonus and $7.7 million from a "Phantom" incentive plan […]

Byline: BRETT ARENDS The first time I walked into the Black Rose pub near Faneuil Hall, it was the late 1970s and there was a sign posted above the bar. […]

Byline: BRETT ARENDS The Comedy Connection is considering a plan to abandon Faneuil Hall. Boston's top comedy venue, which has hosted the likes of Chris Rock, Rosie O'Donnell, Dennis Miller […]

Byline: Brett Arends State Street Corp. gave chief executive Ron Logue a $5 million special bonus last year as profits and the shares soared. But during the same 12 months, […]

Byline: BRETT ARENDS It's late Saturday night. Inside, the music is deafening. Crowds of 20-somethings are jammed elbow to elbow, swigging beers or cocktails, and shouting, yelling and shrieking to […]

Byline: BRETT ARENDS The media missed the real story about Warren Buffett's business empire this week. Speculation focused on who will take over as the head of his $136 billion […]

Byline: Brett Arends The Oracle of Omaha has rushed to the defense of Boston's Pinata. Nebraskan tycoon Warren Buffett, often called the Oracle for his pronouncements and his uncanny stock-picking […]

Byline: BRETT ARENDS If Scott Lee, the head of Wal-Mart, were really smart he would be up on Beacon Hill pounding the table for two things right now. Universal health […]

Byline: BRETT ARENDS Can we stop pretending that the Oscars represent any kind of meaningful verdict on the year's best movies? In their sorry, 78-year life the Academy Awards have […]

Byline: BRETT ARENDS Would that your bad year turns out as well as Ned Johnson's. Last year Fidelity Investments suffered a humiliating and unprecedented scandal at its trading desk, turmoil […]

Byline: BRETT ARENDS Congratulations to Senate President Robert Travaglini for hustling through his health-care reform bill, although it can probably now be filed vertically - in a wastepaper bin. "Oh, […]

Byline: Brett Arends With a fortune estimated at $12 billion, Fidelity heiress Abby Johnson probably doesn't have to worry about putting her two kids through college. Nor do any of […]

Byline: BRETT ARENDS It's a fair bet that Danny Lewin would have enjoyed this. Lewin was the MIT grad student who helped found Cambridge Internet company Akamai and served as […]

Byline: BRETT ARENDS Oh, great. Now we're falling behind London, too. England's capital plans to have a WiFi, or wireless Internet, network up and running by the summer across its […]

Byline: BRETT ARENDS Hub businessmen Scott Baker and David Laird owned and ran the "Planet Fitness" chain of health clubs around Boston before selling out a few years ago. It […]

Byline: Brett Arends LONDON - Crispin Odey is making a good run at becoming the Warren Buffett of Europe. His hedge fund, Odey European, has produced a spectacular 500 percent […]

Byline: BRETT ARENDS Tom DeVesto has a different take on the "offshoring" issue. DeVesto, the entrepreneur once behind Cambridge SoundWorks, says modern Americans don't want manufacturing jobs anyway. Speaking "as […]

Byline: Brett Arends Ned Johnson continues to face trouble at the Magellan fund - months after hoping he'd solved the crisis by losing manager Bob Stansky. New figures show clients […]

Byline: BRETT ARENDS Mayor Menino doesn't need 22 hacks and six months to start turning Boston into a WiFi city. He just needs two techies, a box of cheap WiFi […]

Byline: BRETT ARENDS NBC has forked out over $700 million to bring us the Winter Olympics, which begin tonight. And reports and rumors have been swirling for weeks that the […]

Byline: BRETT ARENDS If you walk into Houghton Mifflin's headquarters on Berkeley Street any time soon, I have four words of advice. Don't mention the monkey. People at the Hub […]

Byline: Brett Arends The state pension fund just had another banner year, soaring 12.7 percent to a record $40.2 billion. It's a shame most of us aren't in it. The […]

Byline: BRETT ARENDS Wall Street's the sort of place where traders angrily demand $1 million bonuses and then complain that shop workers got a raise of 7 cents per hour. […]

Byline: BRETT ARENDS It's tempting to ask what Massachusetts bankers thought they were doing when they decided to hand out federally guaranteed "terrorist relief" loans to dentists, liquor stores and […]

Byline: BRETT ARENDS A mysterious "Valentine's Day" message on an Internet bulletin board held the key to a Massachusetts insider-trading scandal, federal authorities say. Dracut business and real estate owner […]

Byline: BRETT ARENDS I just met Jim Cramer of TV's "Mad Money." And yes, he really is like that. Cramer's in town to film his wild CNBC stock market program […]

Byline: Brett Arends We're going to hear a lot of spin from both sides tonight on the state of the union. So I decided to check in ahead of time […]

Byline: BRETT ARENDS Count me out of the eulogies for Alan Greenspan. The Fed chief leaves tomorrow after 18 1/2 years at the helm. And not since Shane has an […]

Byline: Brett Arends This was what Boston wanted to hear. Procter & Gamble boss A.G. Lafley flew into town yesterday, slapped the right backs, and reaffirmed his company's commitment to […]

Byline: BRETT ARENDS The last thing a medical company like Boston Scientific needs is questions about its executives' ethics. Which makes you wonder what CEO Jim Tobin, founding chairman Pete […]

Byline: Brett Arends John Henry's hedge funds suffered fresh, disastrous losses of more than $400 million last month, new figures reveal. His investment company admits it lost almost one dollar […]

Byline: BRETT ARENDS SAN FRANCISCO - If you think morning commuters on the T already look zoned out just listening to their iPods, wait until they're wearing video goggles and […]

Byline: BRETT ARENDS SAN FRANCISCO - Muslims have the Hajj. Catholics have Easter Mass at St. Peter's. And the Appleheads? They have the Steve Jobs keynote speech at Macworld. They […]