SEC acts further against Metropolitan
Collapsed Metropolitan Mortgage & Securities Co., once a $2.7 billion conglomerate, has had its right to issue and trade stock terminated by the Securities and Exchange Commission, the agency announced Friday.
The SEC said it had revoked the registration of Met Mortgage’s securities because the company had failed to file annual and quarterly financial reports on time for several years.
The Spokane-based company, which had been a conglomerate of insurance companies and investment services, filed for bankruptcy protection in February 2004. Its collapse cost more than 10,000 investors a total $450 million.
The SEC previously had filed civil fraud charges against several former Met Mortgage executives, accusing them of filing false financial statements, keeping inaccurate books and engaging in circular real estate deals to create an illusion of profitability.
Readers to get RELISH, a food magazine
Spokesman-Review readers will see a new product inserted in their paper next Wednesday – RELISH, a food magazine.
RELISH features articles on food, cooking and entertaining, including recipes, cooking techniques and the latest in kitchen gadgets. It’s published by Publishing Group of America, the same company that produces American Profile, which The Spokesman-Review now carries on Saturdays.
RELISH will be carried in the paper on the first Wednesday of each month, complementing the weekly Food section produced by Spokesman-Review staff.
Economy slows late in 2005
The economy slowed to a near crawl in the final quarter of 2005, a listless showing that was the worst in three years. However, growth was respectable for the year and is expected to perk up again soon.
Gross domestic product clocked in at an annual rate of just 1.1 percent from October through December. That marked a loss of speed compared with the third’s quarter’s brisk 4.1 percent pace, the Commerce Department reported Friday.
Belt tightening by consumers, businesses and the government figured into the fourth-quarter’s slowdown.
GDP, which measures the value of all goods and services produced within the United States, is the best barometer of the economy’s fitness.
Even with the feeble finish, the economy logged growth of 3.5 percent for all of 2005 — a year when the country coped with fallout from lofty energy prices and the devastating Gulf Coast hurricanes. Analysts called the GDP figure for all of 2005 solid, although it was down from 2004’s 4.2 percent gain.
“Considering the impact of the hurricanes and record heating bills last year, the economy continues to show remarkable resilience,” said Bill Cheney, chief economist at John Hancock Financial Services.
Looking at the fourth quarter, economists felt the slowdown was more of a temporary setback rather than a harbinger of a sustained period of economic troubles ahead.
“The economy hit a pothole in the fourth quarter. I’m not at all worried about the health of the economy,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Economy.com.