BUSINESS BRIEFS
Financial firms deserve pain, say Buffett, Munger
Advertiser Staff and News Services
OMAHA, Neb. — Billionaires Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger say the pain many financial institutions are feeling because of the credit crunch is well deserved.
The chairman and vice chairman of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. said yesterday that the financial companies that engineered subprime mortgages and the investment funds backed by those mortgages don't deserve much sympathy as they record losses now.
Buffett said the current financial crisis is a byproduct of a system that encouraged executives to "paint pretty pictures."
Munger said lots of financial institutions acted with stupidity and overreached to improve earnings in recent years.
BOA FINALIZES LASALLE PURCHASE
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Bank of America Corp. will officially mark its $21 billion purchase of Chicago's LaSalle Bank Corp. today, taking down LaSalle's green and yellow colors for the blue and red of Bank of America.
"Those red signs will be very evident in Chicago," said Liam McGee, Bank of America's president of global consumer and small business banking, in an interview with The Associated Press.
"When they walk into a former LaSalle banking center, it will look and feel like a Bank of America banking center," he said.
The nation's second-largest bank by assets bought LaSalle Bank last year, picking up the unit of ABN Amro Holding Co. as Europe's biggest banks fought over the rest of the Dutch company.
FIRM OWES $600K FOR CALIF. OIL SPILL
SAN RAFAEL, Calif. — Marin County is sending a $600,000 cleanup bill to the owners of a cargo ship that spilled thousands of gallons of oil into San Francisco Bay after clipping the Bay Bridge.
Officials said the county's expenses included $262,000 paid to a company that tried unsuccessfully to block the heavy fuel from surging into an environmentally sensitive lagoon just north of San Francisco.
Other costs included booms placed to keep oil out of creeks and marshes along the bay.
Federal prosecutors have charged the pilot of the 900-foot Cosco Busan, owned by Hong Kong-based Regal Stone Ltd., with environmental crimes and lying to the Coast Guard in connection with the November spill.
CHINESE AIRLINE OPENS PILOT SCHOOL
HONG KONG — China Southern Airlines Co., the country's biggest carrier, opened its first flight-training facility to ensure supply of new pilots for its growing fleet.
The carrier will spend $73 million on the facility at Nanyang Airport in central China, it said yesterday in a statement on its Web site. A Boeing Co. 737-300 is the first plane stationed at the school, which will eventually support training on all aircraft smaller than the twin-aisle 777.
China needs to step up pilot training as the country faces a shortfall of almost 10,000 pilots by 2010 because of the rapid growth of its airlines, the country's aviation regulator said last year.
TAHOE ESTATE LISTED AT $47M
INCLINE VILLAGE, Nev. — An estate that includes three homes, a pier and 578 feet of shoreline is the latest luxury property to hit the market at Lake Tahoe.
Current owners Greg Walsh and Ruth Page are asking $47 million for their 8.75-acre Tahoe Treasure estate in Incline Village. They purchased the property in 2000 for $32 million.
The only Tahoe estates now on the market at higher prices are Sierra Star in Incline Village for $60 million and Tranquility in Zephyr Cove for $100 million.
Listing agents Chris and Patti Plastiras of Lakeshore Realty said the luxury home market is still going strong because potential buyers are wealthy enough to be insulated from the ailing economy.
