Robert Levy, of auctioneer Hilco Industrial, and I had a leisurely dinner after the blockbuster auction he and Myron Bowling conducted at M & D Machine near the Baltimore Airport on May 29th. Robert slowly nursed three vodkas on the rocks as we discussed some of the highlights of his past 33 years on the stand, first with the firm his dad started 61 years ago, Norman Levy Associates, then Dovebid, and finally as President, then Managing Partner and Principal of Hilco Industrial for the last 10 years. I’ve known Robert for most of those 33 years in the rough…
Author: Lloyd Graff
WASHINGTON — The Obama administration on Monday will announce one of the strongest actions ever taken by the United States government to fight climate change, a proposed Environmental Protection Agency regulation to cut carbon pollution from the nation’s power plants 30 percent from 2005 levels by 2030, according to people briefed on the plan who spoke anonymously because they had been asked not to reveal details. The regulation takes aim at the largest source of carbon pollution in the United States, the nation’s more than 600 coal-fired power plants. If it withstands an expected onslaught of legal and legislative attacks,…
This coming Sunday I’m competing in an amateur salsa dancing contest. Unfortunately the suede bottoms on my special dance shoes had become damaged a few weeks ago so I had to scramble to find some new dance shoes. At the dance shoe store in the Andersonville neighborhood of Chicago, I couldn’t find any shoes that I loved, so one of the women working there suggested I go to a cobbler nearby called Masters Shoes Repair, where they refer many customers. Before going, I read the reviews of the cobbler on Yelp. The place had received several reviews of five stars…
It’s Memorial Day 2014 as I write this piece, and for most people it’s a day of barbecues and softball games. For me, it’s still about Vietnam and memories. And I didn’t even go. Vietnam was my war. My horror. And I didn’t even go. But my friends and classmates went. Some died there or in the skies over Laos. I check for their names when I visit the stunning Vietnam War Memorial in Washington. I do not apologize for not going to war. I signed up for the Illinois National Guard. I knew somebody who knew somebody who knew…
If President Obama approves the hot-button Keystone XL pipeline, TransCanada has plenty of work to do to build the Montana-to-Nebraska connection. This is how its engineers plan to do it. After more than four years of controversy, the Obama administration is expected to make a final decision this summer about whether the controversial Keystone XL Pipeline can be built in the United States. If the administration green-lights the project, which was proposed in 2008, it will go from hotly debated idea to a monumental engineering undertaking. The pipeline would run 875 miles from the Canadian border to Steele City, Neb., where it…
I am hardly a horse racing buff, but the story of California Chrome, winner of this year’s Kentucky Derby and Preakness, is just so Mickey Rooney, it’s irresistible. The California horse is trained by Art Sherman, who at 77 is the oldest trainer to ever win a Derby. A former jockey of little success, the 5’2” fellow’s only other appearance at Churchill Downs was in 1955 as an exercise boy for Derby winner, Swaps. He actually slept on the straw with Swaps on the horse’s four-day road trip from California to Louisville for the race. California Chrome is owned by…
On Wednesday, a week after a train loaded with crude oil from North Dakotaexploded in downtown Lynchburg, Va., dumping 30,000 gallons of oil into the James River, the Department of Transportation announced two moves to try to keep this from happening so frequently. It’s doubtful that either will make much of a difference in preventing what’s become a major safety hazard in the U.S. Under a new “emergency order,” the DOT said it’s now going to require any railroad that ships a large amount of crude to tell state emergency responders what it’s up to. That includes telling them how much…
What a day I had yesterday. My wife Risa and I went down to the Sears (Willis) Tower in Chicago to meet a new lawyer who is going to rewrite our wills. Another chance to contemplate death and decrepitude and the loneliness of life without your beloved partner. Our lawyer, a thoughtful gentle woman, guided us through the choices that people with financial assets need to consider as they ponder the future. My wife’s primary concerns were about money for old age. How would she fare without me if she lives to be 90? I must admit that I deeply…
Yesterday, a physician friend of mine explained to me the economics of doctoring while his medical technician was removing wax from my ears. He says that with Obamacare, Medicare and increasingly tough insurance firms, the office visit is now the loss leader of medicine. From a money-making point of view, the office visit only pays for a doctor if they can get a scan or a procedure out of it. That is where you can still make money if you are an office based doctor. Recently, hospitals have been buying up practices to get access to referrals, which will bring…
LONDON — Gazprom, the natural gasgiant 50.01 percent owned by the Russian government, keeps ratcheting up the bill for Ukraine, increasing the economic pressure on Kiev in tandem with military pressure along Ukraine’s eastern border. What Gazprom executives now say Ukraine owes them comes to more than $22 billion. In early March, Gazprom put the bill at less than $2 billion. How Gazprom now calculates its charges explains a lot about the way the company is used by the Kremlin for political purposes. Behind the payment demands was a warning that Gazprom would cut off gas supplies to Ukraine, which it has done…