Want an Ivy League business degree? Helps to be an Ivy League grad

When aiming for an elite MBA from the likes of Harvard and Wharton, it helps to already be Ivy League pedigreed.

The top five undergraduate colleges funneling executives-in-training into Harvard Business School’s incoming class of 2013 are Stanford, University of Pennsylvania, Yale, Columbia and Harvard itself. That top-notch cadre accounts for nearly 27% of the 918 students in Harvard's new MBA class.

Poets & Quants, a website that tracks graduate business schools, analyzed the profiles of 638 students on the Facebook page set up for the 2013 Harvard class. More than 9% of those incoming MBA students received their undergraduate degrees from -- wait for it -- Harvard.

Among Wharton’s 2013 MBA class, more students are graduates of the University of Pennsylvania, of which Wharton is a part, than any other school. One in three new MBA students at Wharton were Ivy League undergrads.

Excluding foreign schools such as the Indian institute of Technology and Oxford University, the eight Ivy League colleges educated 38% of Harvard’s business school class and 44% of Wharton’s.

Fewer than 20% of Harvard and Wharton MBA students received degrees from public schools such as UC Berkeley and the University of Michigan. Some schools though, such as West Point, the University of Florida and Georgetown, figured prominently.

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Photo: The Harvard Business School Baker Library. Credit: Kelvin Ma / Bloomberg

Southern California home sales and prices fall again in July

Home sales in Southern California fell to their lowest level for a July in four years -- though the decline from a year earlier was the smallest in 13 months. The median price was down 4% to $283,000.

The drop in sales from June was more pronounced, especially for houses that cost more than $500,000, as the job market sputtered, economic uncertainty intensified and some potential homebuyers got cold feet, real estate information service Dataquick said.

A total of 18,090 new and resale houses and condos sold in Los Angeles, Riverside, San Diego, Ventura, San Bernardino and Orange counties in July. That was down 11.9% from 20,532 in June and down 4.5% from 18,946 in July 2010, according to San Diego-based DataQuick.

“The latest sales figures look a bit worse than they really are, given this July was a fairly short month, but they still suggest some potential homebuyers got spooked,” said John Walsh, DataQuick president. “Reports on the economy became increasingly downbeat and, no doubt, some people fretted over the possibility the country would default on its obligations.”

Prices also continued to slide. The median, the point at which half the homes sold for more and half for less, has declined year-over-year for the past five months. It has been unchanged or lower than a year earlier each month since last December, when it posted a 0.3% annual increase.

“If there’s a shred of good news in the data it’s that last month’s sales weren’t much worse than a year earlier,” Walsh said. "For the first time in many months, we get an apples-to-apples comparison to year-ago sales, given that in July 2010 the market lost its crutch -- federal homebuyer tax credits.”

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Photo: Homes under construction in Southern California. Credit: Getty Images

 

Fed says banks eased standards for business loans

At least before the latest market turmoil, banks were making it a little easier for businesses to get non-real estate loans, according to the Federal Reserve.

Reporting Monday on a survey taken in July, the Fed said small businesses were less likely than larger ones to be enjoying the easier credit, but there was some benefit for them as well.

About 20% of the 55 domestic banks surveyed said they had eased standards on commercial and industrial loans for large and middle-market firms.

But only 10% reported an easing of loan terms for smaller firms.

The trends were reported in a survey of senior loan officers at banks across the country, which the Fed conducts once a quarter. 

The latest survey was taken before the currrent waves of concern about the European debt crisis and the downgrade of the U.S. debt rating by Standard & Poor's -- developments some analysts say could result in a new tightening of credit.

Demand for commercial and industrial loans was up modestly at larger businesses, the Fed said.

But on average, it added, there was "close to zero" increase in demand from smaller firms.

There also was not much change on the real estate or consumer lending fronts, although the Fed reported a modest increase in demand for credit cards and auto loans.

Many banks in the western United States have been doing more commercial and industrial lending, RBC Capital Markets analyst Joe Morford said in a report Monday.

Morford upgraded his rating on Cathay General Bancorp to "outperform," in part because of the prospect of more trade lending at the Chinese American bank.

However, Morford noted, overall growth on Cathay's loan portfolio will be slow because, like so many community and regional banks, it's still shedding soured commercial real estate loans made during the boom.

Cathay shares were up $1.09, or 9.5%, at $12.51, in afternoon trading in New York.

-- E. Scott Reckard

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Photo: The Fed's board room in Washington. Source: Federal Reserve.

 

 

Social welfare groups call for Amazon boycott

A coalition of advocates for improved health, welfare and social services is calling for a boycott of Amazon.com Inc. until the giant Internet retailer drops a referendum aimed at overturning a new law requiring it to collect sales taxes on goods purchased by Californians.

At a news conference on the steps of the state Capitol on Monday, the organization, dubbed the Think Before You Click campaign, asked Amazon shoppers to cancel their accounts with the Seattle-based company. The group has launched a website, www.thinkbeforeyouclickca.com.

"The $200 million in annual revenue that [the state of] California loses each year through Amazon's tax loophole would have been enough to prevent the $90-million cut from California's Adult Day Health Care program," said Nan Brasmer, president of the California Alliance for Retired Americans.

The members of the coalition are Health Access, the Western Center on Law and Poverty, the California Immigration Policy Center and the California Partnership, which deals with senior citizen health issues.

According to a state tax collection agency, the Board of Equalization, California fails to collect about $1 billion a year in sales taxes from Internet purchases. As a result, online sellers, such as Amazon and Overstock.com, enjoy an unfair but significant advantage over other major California businesses that operate actual stores and collect sales tax that's remitted to the state.

Amazon, however, is refusing to comply with a new law by collecting those same sales taxes, calling it unconstitutional and a barrier to interstate commerce. The company currently is gathering signatures for a proposed referendum that would ask voters next year to overturn the sales tax law that took effect on July 1.

Amazon should not be allowed to flout the California law at a time when billions of dollars in social, health, welfare and education spending have disappeared, the activists said.

"Over the last four years, California has cut more than $15 billion from essential health care and human services programs. These cuts have cost our state much needed jobs and have shifted responsibility for balancing the budget deficit on to the backs of the state's most vulnerable residents," said Jessica Lehman of the Community Resources for Independent Living, which provides assistance to the disabled.

"In that same time, Amazon.com and other online retailers have made billions in profits. If Amazon is not not willing to contribute to California, then why should we continue to contribute to Amazon?"

A spokesman for Amazon's referendum campaign did not address the call for the boycott. But Ned Wigglesworth of the "More Jobs Not Taxes" campaign criticized the California law for its potential to "kill [Internet-related] jobs when we need them for our economic recovery."

Boycott efforts toward Amazon, no matter how well intentioned, might have trouble getting wide public support, said industry analyst Jordan Rohan of Stifel Nicolaus in New York City.

"I'm not sure if the emotional appeal is enough to keep people from saving money," he said. "I don't know how much traction they're going to have on that..."

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Photo: Amazon production distribution center. Credit: Ross D. Franklin / Associated Press

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cheaper to rent than to buy condo in L.A.

In much of the nation, it’s cheaper to buy a condominium than to rent an apartment. But not necessarily in Los Angeles.

Despite the steep drop in housing prices, it still makes sense for many Angelenos to rent rather than buy, according to an analysis by real-estate website Trulia.com.

Trulia calculated a ratio that compared the median list price of two-bedroom condos with the median rental cost of similarly sized apartments.

It’s cheaper to buy in cities with ratios of 15 to 1 or less, and cheaper to rent in cities with ratios of 21 to 1 or more, according to Trulia. It’s generally cheaper to rent in cities with 16-1 to 20-1 ratios, although in some situations it could make financial sense to buy. In Los Angeles, the ratio was 19 to 1.

It’s cheaper to buy than rent in Sacramento (ratio: 8 to 1), Long Beach (12 to 1) and San Diego (15 to 1), according to Trulia.

Across the rest of the nation, it’s cheaper to buy in about three-quarters of U.S. cities.

According to Trulia, the median monthly rent is $2,100 in Los Angeles. That compares with the median monthly condo cost (including property tax and home insurance) of $2,438.

Potential buyers should consider several factors before jumping in, according to Trulia.

First, make sure your job is secure and your income is steady. Next, make sure you’ll stay in the home seven to 10 years (in case the price falls after you’ve bought).

Finally, have eight to 12 months of mortgage payments in an emergency fund -– to make sure you can keep paying the mortgage in case your job isn’t as secure as you think it is.

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Photo: Los Angeles Times file

Stocks rise for third straight session

Stocks rose Monday for the third session in a row, helping to erase all the losses that were sustained last week after Standard & Poor’s decided to bump the United States down from its AAA rating.

The Dow Jones industrial average ended the day up 213.88 points or 1.9%, at 11,482.90. That is 38 points higher than where the blue-chip average closed Aug. 5, just hours before Standard & Poor’s announced its move. The average is still down 10.4% from the highs reached in April.

The broader Standard & Poor’s 500 index was up Monday 25.68 points, or 2.2%, to 1,204.49.

Investors were encouraged by a number of big deals that were announced over the weekend, including Google Inc.’s purchase of Motorola Mobility Inc. and Time Warner Cable Inc.’s bid to buy Insight Communications.

Some investors also said they were buying stocks that looked cheap after the panicked selling that took place over the last three weeks.

The optimism was enough to overshadow a disappointing report from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, which showed a decline in manufacturing in the New York region in August.

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Who Pays the Supercommittee?

The 12 members of the “supercommittee” that will try to develop yet another bipartisan fiscal policy proposal have now been named. What types of spending programs and tax breaks should we expect these members to care about most?

It might help to look at which industries and individuals give them the most money.

CATHERINE RAMPELL

Dollars to doughnuts.

MapLight, a nonpartisan research organization, has compiled donation profiles for each of the 12 members, using data from the Center for Responsive Politics.

Dollars to doughnuts.

Over the last decade the top donor, by far, was the legal industry, followed by securities and investment:

Top 10 Industry Contributors to Supercommittee Members

The individual organizations that gave the most money — including both PAC money and employee donations — were the Club for Growth, followed by Microsoft.

Top 10 Organization Contributors (PACs and Employees) to Supercommittee Members

As all good economists know, incentives matter: Politicians (like all people) are generally reluctant to bite the hand that feeds them.

Given that the antitax group Club for Growth is at the top of the list of organizational contributors, for example, we might not be surprised to find that many of the committee members are dead-set against raising taxes.

Likewise, donations from the securities and investment industry might indicate that legislators could be reluctant to eliminate the lower tax rate for “carried interest,” which primarily benefits investment managers. Donations from the real estate industry might mean the mortgage interest tax deduction, whose elimination many economists support,  could also be relatively protected.

How else might we expect the sources of these donations to shape how committee members think about fiscal policy?