Today in Globe Business
Critics say utility plan may leave some in the dark
Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley, state energy officials, and community advocates are fighting a utility company plan they say threatens electrical service for hundreds of low-income families.
Western Massachusetts Electric Co. is proposing to state regulators a pilot program for 600 to 800 low-income households in the Springfield area that would have some customers pay for electricity in advance. Others would be charged a premium for any power beyond what the company called the “basic’’ necessities of “clothes washing, water heating, cooking, refrigerators, and freezers.’’
Company officials say the plan, which they acknowledge as “provocative,’’ is designed to reduce energy use. Critics say it could leave low-income customers in the dark, despite state laws designed to protect consumers from utility shutoffs.
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State won't review old loans
The state Division of Banks, which recently found hundreds of Massachusetts mortgage industry employees had criminal records or serious financial problems, said it has no plans to investigate whether loans handled by those workers involved fraud or took advantage of borrowers.
“This type of review is not practical,’’ said Jason Lefferts, a spokesman for the agency, “as [mortgage loan] originators tend to change employers quite often, and do not maintain possession of the loan files, which stay with the employing company.’’
Until recently, felons or people with poor credit were not explicitly prohibited from working as loan officers for lenders or mortgage brokers. But a state law that took effect last summer requires anyone who initiates a residential loan to be licensed. In the first year of the new system, the state rejected nearly one-fourth of the 7,747 applicants. Many had bad credit or criminal records, including felony convictions for bank, insurance, or securities fraud.
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The emissary from Google came bearing a PowerPoint presentation.
As the Ocean Spray team at ad agency Arnold Worldwide squeezed into a small conference room in its Boston headquarters, Jim Norton, Google’s Boston agency team manager, plugged in his laptop. “We want to help you any way we can,’’ he said.
That’s a surprising pitch from Google, which fueled its spectacular growth with small ads placed by users, not professionals. But now the Internet search giant is wooing the agencies that direct the advertising budgets of the world’s largest companies.
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Microsoft offering a Web-based version of Office
Microsoft Corp. is moving a limited version of its popular and lucrative Office software suite to the Internet - a direct challenge to archrival Google Inc. and its online office productivity suite, Google Apps. The move could undercut sales of the traditional version of Microsoft Office, one of Microsoft’s most profitable products.
Roger Kay, software industry analyst with Endpoint Technologies Associates Inc. in Wayland, said Microsoft is trying to stay competitive as many vital computing activities are moving online. “They’re going to get at least their share as more and more of the market turns in that direction,’’ said Kay. “Microsoft is trying to get early stakes in the ground.’’
The Microsoft Office suite contains the document software Word, the spreadsheet program Excel, the presentation software PowerPoint, and Outlook, a personal calendar, address book, and e-mail program. First released for Apple Inc.’s Macintosh computers in 1990, Microsoft Office is by far the most popular program of its kind. Although Microsoft does not break out the exact revenue it receives from sales of Office, the company’s Business Division, which oversees the Office product line, generated just under $19 billion in revenue and $12 billion in profit in 2008.
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BOSTON CAPITAL: Bonds take the lead
Bond mutual funds, wallflowers of the investment world, are this year’s runaway leaders in the only popularity contest that matters to the money management business.
Six months of money flow numbers don’t lie. Bond funds are running circles around stock mutual funds week after week and month after month when it comes to attracting new money from investors, routinely pulling in at least twice as much as stock funds in weekly estimates published by the Investment Company Institute, the mutual fund industry’s trade association. Fund sales usually work the other way around.
Common sense can explain a lot of that. But some of the numbers may suggest something important and long-lasting.
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