Cable competition can't stop rate hike
Competition does not appear to be holding down cable rates. Comcast Corp. is boosting customer bills in the Philadelphia area an average of 3.8 percent this year, which is slightly more than last year, the company said.
Competition does not appear to be holding down cable rates. Comcast Corp. is boosting customer bills in the Philadelphia area an average of 3.8 percent this year, which is slightly more than last year, the company said.
And Verizon Communications Inc. is raising the introductory rate on its most popular TV service about 12 percent.
Comcast's higher cable prices will vary by product category and region. Customers who order the company's phone and high-speed Internet will not see any changes in 2008, Comcast said.
But for those who subscribe to the usual expanded basic package of channels in Pennsylvania, the rate increase is 4 percent to 5 percent, according to bills and pamphlets the company has sent to customers. See:
http://go.philly.com/COMPETE20
Last year's rise in consumer prices was biggest since 1990
Higher fuel, food, metals and medical costs, and the dollar's decline against foreign money, boosted U.S. consumer prices 4.1 percent last year, the biggest annual jump since 1990, the Labor Department said in its Consumer Price Index report.
Economic growth slowed from mid-November into early January, dragged down by weak home and car sales, the Federal Reserve reported in its Beige Book survey.
In the Philadelphia area, consumer sales rose modestly as they did in parts of the Midwest, but they were disappointing everywhere else, the Fed said.
Philadelphia had a stronger Christmas shopping season than most parts of the country, according to the Fed. Philadelphia was also among the industrial centers reporting higher demand for its factory exports. See:
» READ MORE: http://go.philly.com/PRICES20
Sovereign: Credit crunch took $1.6 billion toll in Q4
Sovereign Bancorp Inc. warned that the nationwide downturn in the credit and capital markets took a $1.6 billion toll on the company in the 2007 fourth quarter. About $800 million of the total charge the company will record was from the impairment of goodwill booked in the June 2006 purchase of Independence Community Bancorp, of Brooklyn, for $3.64 billion.
Sovereign, whose corporate headquarters is in Philadelphia, said difficult economic conditions resulted in disappointing revenue and deposit growth at Independence.
Additional goodwill write-downs, totaling $600 million, came from the faltering consumer-credit market, lower valuations for banks, and Sovereign's decision to stop making car loans in the Southeast and the Southwest. See:
» READ MORE: http://go.philly.com/SOVEREIGN20
State closing deal to move workers from Spring Garden
State officials were in Philadelphia negotiating final details of the move of 1,000 state employees to the former Strawbridge & Clothier on Market Street and a second building a block away on Arch.
The state office building at Broad and Spring Garden Streets is being sold to developer Bart Blatstein's Tower Investments Inc. for $25.2 million. Blatstein plans residential units and new stores.
State Department of General Services Secretary James P. Creedon said the sale and move would save taxpayers more than $30 million over the next 20 years, compared with the cost of improving systems at the state building, which dates to 1959.
Gov. Rendell's office said the state would take 212,000 square feet of office space at the old Strawbridge's for the state Department of Public Welfare and 11 other state agencies. The Labor Department and two other agencies will move into 49,000 square feet at 801 Arch. See:
» READ MORE: http://go.philly.com/BUILDING20
Coming tomorrow
BGP Properties is staying strong in a challenging credit environment.
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