Seattle's Blue Nile, Ruler of Online Diamond Retailing, Outflanked by Israelites at the Courthouse

Posted Nov. 2 at 1:57 pm by Mark Fefer

Are they real—or enhanced?

​When the big company goes after the smaller fry in court, it's usually the latter crying for mercy. Not so in the case of Seattle's Blue Nile, the dominant diamond-seller on the Internet.

The company is faced with a gloating adversary today, in the wake of an unfavorable jury verdict.

Continue reading "Seattle's Blue Nile, Ruler of Online Diamond Retailing, Outflanked by Israelites at the Courthouse"

Topics: Business, Law & Courts, and Money

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There's One Little Thing Some Parking Lot Signs Neglect to Mention: 20 Percent in Taxes

Posted Oct. 13 at 2:37 pm by Nina Shapiro

Not all parking lots are this honest

​How many people realize that they're paying nearly 20 percent in taxes when they patronize a parking lot? Not me—until one day recently when I parked at a lot near Safeco Field that advertises a $7-a-day, early-bird rate. But as I popped my credit card into the machine, the screen told me that I'd instead be paying $8.37. How could that be? A close look at my receipt revealed that the city charges 10 percent in taxes, and the state 9.5 percent.

Turns out we've had these hefty taxes for some time, although the city rate went up in July from 7.5 percent, according to mayoral spokesperson Alex Fryer. The money is designated for transportation improvements. But many parking lots include those taxes in the rate they advertise - like the one at Pier 48 I parked at today. Others like the Diamond Parking lot near the stadium do not, suggesting a lower rate than is the case. Buyer beware.

Topics: Money

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Gates Leads the Pack, Bezos in the Back: It's Forbes' 400 Richest Americans Time!

Posted Oct. 2 at 9:22 am by Damon Agnos

Congratulations on all your success; you smell terrific!

​Granted, the first wave of Washingtonians are hitting the end of their unemployment benefits. And unemployment continues to climb. But the Forbes Richest 400 Americans list must go on! And local billionaires once again make a strong showing.

Topping the list is of course the godfather himself, Bill Gates. Net worth: $50 billion. Rhree other local tech kings crack the top 30: Steve Ballmer is 14th with $13.3 billion; Paul Allen is 17th with $11.5 billion; and Jeff Bezos is 28th with $8.8 billion.

After that, it's a long drop to the next local baller. Seattle boat-building magnate John Orin Edson is 371st with a net worth of an even $1 billion. While it might sound hard to live in the shadows of the men who precede him on the list, Edson apparently isn't sweating it. Says Forbes, "Spends days flying helicopters, skiing, cruising in 164-foot yacht, Evviva." Perhaps accompanied by T-Pain.

Topics: Business, Money, and Technology

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"I Flipped Him a Benjamin"

Posted Aug. 10 at 10:43 am by Damon Agnos

​Imagine a workplace where you casually toss your boss $100 for giving an assignment to a co-worker. So it went in the Mariners' clubhouse this weekend.

The M's took 2 of 3 games from a vastly superior Tampa Bay Rays team, moving within 4.5 games of the Red Sox for the Wildcard playoff spot. It started with Ryan Langerhans' dramatic walk-off home run Friday night and ended with a masterful performance by Ryan Rowland-Smith (hereafter RRS) yesterday, which spawned this entertaining anecdote:

RRS has lately wanted to throw 100 pitches in a game, so team captain Mike Sweeney offered manager Don Wakamatsu $100 if he let RRS hit the century mark. Yesterday, RRS was throwing rocks, as The Big Lebowski's Donny might have put it, so Wakamatsu left him in—obviously because RRS was pitching well, and not because of the offer, which is mere pocket change to MLB-ers.

Nevertheless, after the game, Sweeney swung by Wakamatsu's office and "flipped him a Benjamin." Not to pick on Sweeney, who is noted for his philanthropy, but the flippant (no pun intended) exchange of large sums of money among professional athletes never ceases to amaze.

Topics: Money and Sports

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Anna Nicole Smith Case Comes to Seattle

Posted June 9 at 4:20 pm by Rick Anderson

The traveling road show known as the Anna Nicole Smith case comes to Seattle in two weeks, with oral arguments set before a panel of U.S. 9th Circuit Court judges here. The late Playboy Playmate of the Year and reality TV star lost her bid to grab millions from the estate of her late husband J. Howard Marshall II, starting in a Texas probate court in 1995. She died in 2007 but the case has a life of its own, having traveled through federal bankruptcy court in California, the 9th Circuit, and the U.S. Supreme Court. Now it's baaack before the 9th Circuit for a new hearing and coincidentally has been scheduled to be heard by the court's own traveling panel of judges on their regular June 25 stop here.

Writer and legal commentator Horace Cooper says the case, Marshall v. Marshall, has serious precedent-setting implications for the future of estate planning and the law, but there will be the likely sideshow of tabloid media hot on the heels of Smith's survivors, Howard K. Stern and Larry Birkhead and his daughter Dannielynn, who are seeking a cut of Howard Marshall's assets. "This may be normal in LA, but Seattle is not that kind of town," thinks Cooper. "The media should be more focused on the lengths Smith's legal team has taken to try to squeeze a dime from [Marshall's] estate. He left the estate to his son Pierce and never promised Smith anything in his written will. He gave her millions of dollars in homes and gifts before he died."

Topics: Money

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Seattle Loves Its Celebrity Dish

Posted April 30 at 12:27 pm by Mark Fefer

Tom Robbins once told Tim Egan of the New York Times that one of the reasons he likes the Pacific Northwest is because "it lacks a celebrity culture." Well, maybe. But it turns out, we sure do love us some celebrity dish.

Seattle Rep just announced that Carrie Fisher's Wishful Drinking —which our reviewer Kevin Phinney said serves up celebrity obsession and public meltdown "by the metric ton"—is heading to Broadway. And not only that, Fisher's performance, which closes on Sunday, has given the Rep "its strongest sales since Lily Tomlin brought her one-woman show, The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe, to the theatre in 2000."

Yeah, the most literate city in America may pretend it's too busy reading Tom Robbins to lap up the celebrity slop. But the ticket sales say otherwise!

Topics: Arts & Culture and Money

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Are You Ready for National Tourism Week?

Posted April 29 at 4:35 pm by Mark Fefer

Well, so is the Seattle Convention and Visitors Bureau! (It starts Sat. May 9.) They've got a form letter all set up for you to send to your state and local elected officials, letting them know how critically important tourism is to our local economy. The bureau has also put up wall-size versions of its "Why Tourism Matters" advertising campaign, launched last year, in the window displays of the now-empty Adidas store at 5th and Pike.

Continue reading "Are You Ready for National Tourism Week?"

Topics: Economy, Money, and Port of Seattle

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As New Orleans Learns, Paul Allen Is Most Definitely ON A BOAT!

Posted April 22 at 4:01 pm by Damon Agnos

Tatoosh, a favorite party spot of the Globe. Photo by Oxam Hartog (CC License 2.5)

Actually, at 301 feet, it's technically a yacht (I guess there's a difference), but that doesn't fit the song. Brier Dudley directs us to an entertaining article (with a great slide show) on how Paul Allen's super-yacht, Tatoosh, is creating a big ruckus in the Big Easy. Apparently, tourists and locals are crowding the banks of the Mississippi to gawk at the massive pleasure craft.

Tatoosh is only the world's 26th largest super-yacht; by contrast, the Allen-owned Octopus ranks 8th, and third among those privately owned. (The others belong to heads of state). Still, Tatoosh has its own movie theater, lobster tank, swimming pool, and helicopter landing pad. But it's not yet complete; Allen said he's still waiting on the city for its streetcar.

Topics: Money

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If You Wanna Balance Seattle's Budget

Posted April 17 at 1:45 am by Don Ward

The Mayor's office announced that Greg Nickels has come up with solutions, yes solutions, on how to "re-balance the 2009 general fund budget". What those solutions are will be announced to the three reporters still left in the Seattle-area during a press conference at City Hall this morning.

Although it is against the dignity of a journalist to speculate what belt-tightening measures will take place, below are a handful of revenue generating schemes that may or may not be brought up...

Continue reading "If You Wanna Balance Seattle's Budget"

Topics: Money

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Trendspotting: Panning for Grillz?

Posted April 2 at 12:13 pm by Damon Agnos

Do you have a grill? Do you need money? Local jeweler Porcello Estate Buyers has just the solution for you!

The jeweler sent out a press release this week declaring that, in light of high gold prices, "There's a new Gold Teeth Rush sweeping the nation". Our favorite part of the press release? The non-sequitur conclusion:

There are people like Cash Money Records CEO/CO-Founder Bryan "Baby" Williams, aka Birdman that had a $250,000 platinum with white gold-plated and diamond-encrusted crowns replaced with a $500,000 set of 18-karat white gold with some platinum crowns set with ascher-cut diamonds.

Continue reading "Trendspotting: Panning for Grillz?"

Topics: Economy and Money

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Give Us Your Disgruntled, Moneyed Masses

Posted March 19 at 8:25 am by Damon Agnos

We've made a lot of fun of our elected officials for being scared of taxes, but Rich Karlgaard, the aptly-named publisher of Forbes Magazine, says that that fear—combined with Barack Obama's budget—will drive the country club set our way:

The U.S. could see a huge outflow of educated, productive, upper-middle-class families from the high-tax urban blue states to more congenial places.

Investment implications? Look at two vibrant states that have no income taxes and have reasonable house costs. One is Washington State, especially in the urban centers of Seattle, Tacoma and Spokane, as well as in Vancouver, Wash., a suburb of Portland, Ore., which is the perfect tax arbitrage: no income tax in Washington, no sales tax in Oregon.

For what it's worth, Karlgaard also says that by raising taxes on households making $250,000 or more a year beginning in 2011, Obama is declaring "war on churches", jeopardizing missions to the developing world, and that as a result, "far away, children will die." Which kind of reminds us of this.

Topics: Money

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St. Patrick's Day Battle: Leprechauns and Sharks vs. Caterpillars

Posted March 17 at 11:36 am by Damon Agnos

St. Paddy's Day may be a time to drink beers and fill out your tournament bracket, but it's also a time to dress up like a leprechaun or a loan shark and protest predatory lending. A group called the Alliance to Prevent Predatory Lending will be holding two events at the state capitol today to call for tighter regulation of pay-day lenders. (On a related note, read Laura Onstot's revisionist profile of industry leader Money Tree—whose iconic caterpillar is pictured below.)

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Topics: Money and State of Washington

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Is Emmert Worth $900,000?

Posted Feb. 18 at 10:24 am by Nina Shapiro

State university presidents, including University of Washington's Mark Emmert (shown above at a happier occasion), warned legislators yesterday that proposed budget cuts would devastate their schools. UW alone would have to lay off up to 800 faculty and staff, according to Emmert. Here's one other thing the UW should do: cut Emmert's salary.

Continue reading "Is Emmert Worth $900,000?"

Topics: Economy, Education, Money, and Politics

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Make It Rain, Old Man

Posted Feb. 5 at 4:20 pm by Damon Agnos

Managing partner John Gose accepts the Washington state lottery's giant check on behalf Josal Partners.

A business called Josal Partners won $6.8 million in the Washington State Lottery on Monday. They bought the ticket at a West Seattle 7-11 that also produced an $11 million winning ticket in 1994.

The partners plan to use the money for "paying off debts and providing education for children and grandchildren" and maybe buying a new truck.

Topics: Money

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Seahawks, Trail Blazers Co-Founder Among Madoff's Victims

Posted Feb. 5 at 8:40 am by Damon Agnos

Last week, the New York Times' Nicholas Kristof published a list of foundations that had investments with Bernie Madoff. Two local foundations were listed—the Kaleidoscope Foundation and the Kevin and Patrice Auld Foundation.

But a list of Madoff's clients (pdf) released yesterday adds an even bigger local philanthropist to the list—real estate developer and investor Herman Sarkowsky, whose Sarkowsky Foundation is listed on page 132. Sarkowsky was a co-founder of the Seahawks and Portland Trail Blazers, is a thoroughbred horse breeder, and has served on numerous local boards, even chairing those of Children's Hospital and the Seattle Art Museum. He was also previously the president of the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle.

Continue reading "Seahawks, Trail Blazers Co-Founder Among Madoff's Victims"

Topics: Crime & Punishment and Money

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