Kurland stepping down but influence continues

PennyMac Financial’s Stanford Kurland has a habit of working in mysterious ways. A veteran of Countrywide Financial, he joined that company in the late 1970s and rose through the ranks to become its president, leaving without fanfare in 2006 — just as the excesses in the mortgage market were beginning to become apparent. In 2009, Read More →
Supervisor’s defense of SOAR misleading

By John Krist In her Dec. 2 commentary criticizing a Pacific Coast Business Times article about the effect of Save Open-space and Agricultural Resources on property values, Ventura County Supervisor Linda Parks accurately but selectively quotes from Farm Bureau of Ventura County’s Land Use Policy. Her cherry-picking of a single passage from this five-page document Read More →
Lumps of coal for employers’ holiday stockings

By Jonathan Light There is great uncertainty about whether proposed federal wage and hour laws are going to be implemented in 2017, but there are plenty of other things to worry about on the employment law front in California. Regardless of the federal implementation, we won’t see much federal effect in California. Here are just Read More →
Navigating the land of Trump-portunities

By Mike Panesis Donald Trump is not my president. He is my country’s president, so we need to prepare for the next four years with him in charge. Most true entrepreneurs are constantly evaluating startup opportunities, especially during times of great change. President-elect Trump has issued an action plan for his first 100 days in Read More →
Harvesting your gains and staying on target

By John Corby One of the most important decisions confronting an investor is how much to allocate between the major asset classes: stocks, bonds, alternatives (which can include real estate and commodities) and cash. Certain asset classes have inherently higher levels of risk, so how much to assign to each will depend on the tolerance Read More →
PG&E pact will mitigate Diablo Canyon closure

San Luis Obispo County got an early Christmas present of sorts on Nov. 28. That’s when PG&E agreed to set up a $75 million fund plus an estimated $50 million to $70 million in additional payments to mitigate the impact of the closing of the Diablo Canyon nuclear plant by 2025. The agreement includes funds Read More →