Daily Blog: Scouting the Internet and World at large

Lending Tree suffers further decline in its core business of originating loans. As if it were a surprise the company reported a huge swing to the downside in revenue and continues to face a tough situation as the market for mortgages dries up. While I believe the company will survive, this latest announcement will undoubtedly be followed by additional cutbacks in both staff and other expenses. In a way the trimming down of Lending Tree will ultimately make it a more profitable company, if it's willing to make the right, and often tough, choices.

LendingTree swings to $508M loss in 4Q

LendingTree swung to an operating loss of $508.1 million in the fourth quarter. In the same period last year, the company's operating income totaled $7.2 million.

Revenue at Charlotte-based LendingTree, an online lending and realty-services exchange, fell 55 percent during the latest quarter to $52.1 million from $115.4 million in the year-ago period.

It appears as if Charlotte's light rail system is more popular than anyone imagined. CATS, the systems operator, stated that the number of daily riders is more than 3,000 people higher than first anticipated. Unfortunately part of that popularity may be due to some who ride the system without paying. Authorities promise to crack down on the practice and to issue citations to anyone caught without a ticket.

Light rail ticket crackdown begins

Charlotte Area Transit System officials say they have launched a crackdown today on people who are riding the Lynx light rail line without paying.

The crackdown began this morning, CATS authorities said.

The Lynx line began operating Nov. 26, but the transit system has not been checking to see if riders have been paying the $1.30 fee. CATS officials say riders will begin seeing an increased frequency of ticket-checking by CATS personnel and police, starting today.

Dark clouds loom on the horizon. While politicians and market bulls admit we've entered a slowdown, few want to come right out and declare recession is near. It's bad politically and tends to have a self-afflicting effect. Still most of us armchair economy wonks believe that the US is already in the early phases of recession and that 2008 will likely be a rough year for businesses, job growth, as well as for a newly elected president. The question that remains is whether or not anything can be done to make 2009 a year of speedy recovery as opposed to that of a slow crawl.

Services index plummets, points to recession

The U.S. services sector retrenched sharply in January to levels not seen since the 2001 recession, renewing fears about an economic slump, according to a survey released on Tuesday.

The Institute for Supply Management's index of non-manufacturing plummeted to 41.9 from 54.4 in December, its largest monthly decline on record and a far greater drop than Wall Street expected. A Reuters poll of economists had produced a median expectation of a slip to 53.0

Is it the result of some shadowy cabal or is the fifth in a series of undersea communication line cuts a highly unlikely coincidence? One thing is for certain, whoever is responsible for these lines is not only bleeding cash due to the repair effort but should also face some tough questions from the nations they provide service to.

Fifth Undersea Cable Cut

Just as ships started to arrive to repair a rash of cut fiber lines in the Mediterranean and Persian gulf, a fifth cut line is being reported by the Khaleej Times. There's plenty of conspiracy theories bouncing around out there, including claims that this is a covert effort to derail the launch of Iran's planned Petroleum Exchange. However, while the cut cables are impacting many users, claims that Iran is offline entirely are being exaggerated.