The Irish Independent reports that public sector workers were last night accused of taking advantage of the nationwide strike which all but shut down the country.
As a quarter of a million workers downed tools for the day, southern shoppers caused traffic gridlock as they flocked across the border, causing 6km traffic tailbacks into Newry.
Employers' group ISME described the strike as a "disgrace" and warned that public sector union bosses were leading their members "down a path of no return".
"We cannot say it was all public sector workers but when you see tailbacks on the very day the public sector take a day off it is fair to say that the vast majority are public sector workers," Mark Fielding, chief executive of ISME said. "If that is what is happening, it is beyond belief."
The Small Firms Association also slammed the stoppage and said it caused unnecessary widespread disruption to the economy. SFA director Patricia Callan said a lot of people chose to take the day off and if it was true that Newry was very busy as a result of the stoppage then it was "quite shocking".
Even before yesterday's massive northern trek, the cross-border shopping exodus had been a cause of serious economic concern for southern businesses as hundreds of millions of euro have been siphoned off by stores in the North.
Earlier this year one report predicted that shopping across the border would increase by about €150m to €700m this year. But the exodus has continued unabated, despite an appeal earlier this year to consumers from Finance Minister Brian Lenihan to remember their "patriotic duty".
In Newry, The Quays shopping manager Cathal Austin said yesterday's pre-Christmas business spike was more what they would expect on a southern bank holiday. "We don't have any idea whether they are public sector workers but anyone who is not working has taken the opportunity to come across to shop," he said.
Buttercrane centre manager Peter Murray described yesterday's trade as being like a Saturday. It was "like squeezing a quart into a pint pot" as the city tried to cope with the influx.
"I would have to say it seems like a direct result of the day of action. It's an ill wind," he said.
In Dublin, IKEA's north city store reported that they had been "extremely busy" yesterday with business well up on a normal weekday. A spokesperson said that the level of trade had been on a par with a Sunday.
Christmas
And on the city's southside, Dundrum shopping centre described business there as being like a Tuesday two days before Christmas.
But public sector unions vehemently denied the claims that their members had cashed in by going off shopping on the nationwide strike day. Union chief Peter McCloone branded the northern exodus accusation "absolute rubbish".
"There's been an attempt to represent what happened today as people taking the day off. Nothing could be further from the truth," he said.
Impact, the largest public sector union said it was "cynical in the extreme" to suggest they were public servants.
"If you want to find where public servants were, look at the picket lines and look who was providing emergency cover in the health services and in flood-affected areas," said a spokesman.
Secondary teachers' union ASTI described the claims as a "bit of a sideshow" to the real issue. "We have had up to 18,000 teachers on the picket lines at schools throughout the country," a spokesperson said.
The INTO said it was wrong to suggest that public servants who were on strike were using the day to cross the border to shop and the union dismissed such comments as "mischievous and misplaced".
"Clearly those who make such comments are trying to discredit the public service protest," a spokesman said.
The Irish Independent also reports that permanent property taxes, such as rates, contributed more than four times as much to UK tax revenues as they do to Irish revenues, new figures from the OECD show.
The annual revenue report shows that recurrent taxes on property in Ireland -- mainly business rates, raised over €1.2bn in 2007 -- just 2pc of total revenue, but stamp duties brought in €3bn. However, stamp duties collapsed along with the property boom.
Figures for the UK show recurrent property taxes raising 9pc of revenue in 2007. In Ireland, property taxes made up 8pc of tax revenues -- higher than the 5.4pc average in the EU 15, but with 5pc coming from stamp duties.
This 8pc total compares with 12pc of revenue coming from property taxes in the 1970s, when rates on houses and farms were still in force.
As Finance Minister Brian Lenihan complains about the high numbers not liable for income tax, the figures show taxes on personal income raising 28.4pc of revenue in 2007 -- higher than the EU-15 average.
As the economy slumped in 2008, tax revenues fell to the lowest in more than 30 years, relative to the size of the economy. The report shows the Irish tax "burden" falling below 30pc of output (GDP) for the first time since the 1970s.
When the figures are adjusted for the multinational earnings which leave the country, the tax burden rises to around 34pc of national income (GNP). This compares with an average of around 39pc in the the EU-15 and a tax take of just under 36pc in the UK.
Toll
The report shows the recession taking its toll on tax receipts across the OECD. Tax burdens were unchanged between 2006 and 2007, and fell in 2008 by around half a per cent of GDP.
The biggest falls were in the three most damaged economies of Ireland, Spain and Iceland. Tax ratios in Iceland fell to 36pc of GDP from 40.9pc in 2007; and to 33pc from 37.2pc in Spain.
Tax receipts often fall faster than GDP in a recession and many OECD countries also cut taxes in late 2008 and early 2009 to support demand following the financial crisis, the OECD said.
"Governments acted decisively in 2008 and 2009," OECD Secretary General Angel Gurria said. "But falling tax receipts underline the challenge they will face, once the recovery is secured, in maintaining sound public finances."
The Irish Times reports that State-owned Anglo Irish Bank plans to restructure itself as a business lender after ruling out liquidation or winding down the entire bank over a prolonged period.
The bank believes these options would have “a severely negative and long-term consequence” for the financial system.
The bank’s chief executive, Mike Aynsley, told staff that Anglo planned to divide the bank into a good bank and bad bank in “a radical corporate restructuring” and that the bad element of the bank would be run down over time.
The splitting of the bank would follow the transfer of €28 billion in property and associated loans to the State’s National Asset Management Agency (Nama), which will leave behind loans of €44 billion.
“Having considered numerous scenarios to stabilise the bank, we have concluded that the interests of all stakeholders can be best served through a radical corporate restructuring, resulting in a hybrid solution of winding down ‘old Anglo’ and the creation of a ‘new bank’,” he said in an e-mail to staff.
Old Anglo would become an asset run-off company that will focus on managing legacy issues and a portfolio of troubled loans, said Mr Aynsley.
“Old Anglo would not engage in any new lending or deposit-taking activities and would be wound up on an orderly basis over time.”
Anglo’s new bank would “support loan growth to the business sector as the market recovers, contributing to the stimulus required for the Irish economy and acting as a platform that assists the Irish financial system as it rebuilds and grows”, Mr Aynsley said.
The Irish Times understands that Anglo intends to make further external appointments to key long-term senior roles, but that internal managers may be appointed to a number of positions within the 10-strong interim management team over the next three weeks.
Mr Aynsley said very good progress had been made on setting up a new management team at the bank and he was close to announcing a number of key appointments.
“Some will be internal, but a number of the key positions will be external hires,” he said.
“Many of the positions require Financial Regulator sign-off and approval is being sought – when received I will be in a position to announce specific appointments,” he added.
The restructuring plan is expected to involve additional Government capital injections to cover both rising loan losses within the bank as well as new investment into Anglo’s new bank division.
Under EU guidelines the bank was “required to consider all strategic options including liquidation, wind down, stabilising the bank and consideration of far-reaching restructuring,” said Mr Aynsley.
“The bank and its advisers have concluded that both liquidation and wind-down scenarios would have a severely negative and long-term consequence for our numerous stakeholders and the entire Irish financial system.”
Anglo hired accountants KPMG to cost the various options facing the bank including liquidation and continuing as a going concern.
Mr Aynsley did not disclose the cost of the options to bank staff.
KPMG concluded that Anglo continuing as a going concern was the least expensive option for the State as winding down the entire bank over a five-year period may damage the wider economy and property valuations within Nama’s planned 11-year lifespan.
Anglo’s restructuring plan and the Government’s €4 billion capital injection have to be approved by the EU Commission under state aid rules. The bank must prove that it has a viable future or else show plans to be wound down.
The bank is to submit the plan to the commission on November 30th and then “conduct an initial fact-finding process”.
Once completed, negotiations with the commission will begin “and as a consequence of these discussions, details within the plan may change”, said Mr Aynsley.
Anglo does not plan to wind down the bank’s operations in the UK and US where it has loans of €18.7 billion and €10.3 billion respectively. Mr Aynsley said that Anglo intended that the new bank would “focus on maximising the value in existing portfolios and pursuing opportunities that link with our core Irish business”.
The Irish Times also reports that the 2008 accounts of the Dublin Docklands Development Authority are expected to be published tomorrow and to show a hole of approximately €50 million.
The accounts are expected to show writedowns in the value of properties of about €186 million, and an operating loss of about €27 million.
These and other factors will mean the €177 million surplus that was on the authority’s accounts at the end of 2007 will disappear, and be replaced by a net liability of €50 million.
The authority, and its recently appointed chairman, Prof Niamh Brennan, are expected to ask the Government for financial help and to say they believe the authority can be returned to viability.
The writedowns include the authority’s 26 per cent interest in the Glass Bottle site in Ringsend, bought three years ago at the height of the boom by a consortium that included the authority, Bernard McNamara and Derek Quinlan, for €412 million. In the Dáil yesterday, Minister for the Environment John Gormley said the site now had a “red book” valuation of €50 million.
He said that represented an 85 per cent drop in value. The Minister said two corporate governance reports were pending, one on planning and one on the authority’s finances.
Pressed by Fine Gael environment spokesman Phil Hogan about bringing the authority under the remit of the Comptroller Auditor General, Mr Gormley said he would keep it under review but it required a change in legislation.
Mr Hogan described the authority as “one of the biggest scandals we’ve seen for a long time” and said the regeneration of the docklands had been “hijacked by greedy bankers and developers” without any oversight.
He asked what the cost to the taxpayer would ultimately be “for the lack of proper governance practices and the type of irresponsible deals that were done in the Dublin docklands area in the last number of years”.
Mr Gormley said he had taken “decisive action” in appointing a new chairman and he had asked her for a report on corporate governance in the authority.
The Irish Examiner reports that Irish Life and Permanent could face lawsuits and fines stemming from its role in the Anglo Irish bank scandal as it plans a new structure.
The Financial Regulator is probing Irish Life after it said earlier this year that it had made "wrong" deposits with Anglo, which are being investigated.
In plans detailing the setting up of a new holding company, IL&P said that depending on the outcome of any investigations, enforcement authorities may seek to impose substantial fines and penalties.
An IL&P spokesman said: "In a prospectus, it’s prudent to include all risk factors, hypothetical or not.
"We are not speculating on whether fines will be imposed or how much they might be if they are imposed."
In September last year, the last day of Anglo Irish’s fiscal year, Irish Life deposited €4 billion overnight with Anglo. That transfer was made after Anglo deposited the same amount "as collateral" with Irish Life.
IL&P sent a document to shareholders yesterday outlining plans to create a new holding company which is expected to list on the stock exchange in the middle of January.
The bank said the current corporate structure of the group is a product of "historic legislative constraints".
It said the current structure is not best suited to serve the group and its members as the financial services sector in Ireland changes.
IL&P said that the main disadvantage of its current status is that it is both a holding company for life assurance and investment management as well as being a licensed bank.
"A more desirable structure would see a new listed holding company whose sole function would be to act as the group’s holding company," IL&P said.
"This proposed new structure will do that and offers the further opportunity, as appropriate, to restructure the life assurance, investment management and/or the banking businesses in a prompt and flexible manner in response to possible changes in the financial services environment," it added.
IL&P Group Holdings will have the same capital structure, board and management team as IL&P and there will be no changes to corporate governance and investor protection measures. The group will also have a dual primary listing on both the ISE and the London Stock Exchange.
The publication of the document and prospectus precedes an extraordinary general meeting (EGM) due to be held on December 17.
The Financial Times reports that Royal Bank of Scotland and HBOS came within minutes of closing cashpoints and normal business operations, the Bank of England confirmed on Tuesday, revealing that it extended £61.6bn in emergency funds to the banks at the height of the financial crisis last year.
Paul Tucker, the Bank’s deputy governor, told the Treasury select committee: “If we hadn’t have done it, the [economic] cycle would have been a lot worse ...This was a dire emergency.”
The Bank began what Mr Tucker called a “classic lender of last resort operation” on October 1 2008. The sums lent by the Bank rose to a peak of £61.6bn before being repaid by January this year, after taxpayers guaranteed other forms of banks’ funding and injected capital into both banks.
HBOS, now part of Lloyds Banking Group, accessed the emergency lending on October 1 last year. Ireland had a day earlier guaranteed the liabilities of its entire banking system, a move that threatened disastrous knock-on effects for wholesale funding of European banks.
The banks and the authorities decided to keep the Bank’s operation secret. Alistair Darling, chancellor, said he had shared the Bank’s assessment that disclosing details of the lending to the two banks “would seriously jeopardise the financial stability of the system as a whole”.
The Bank and the Treasury said they were releasing the information now because there was no longer any need for secrecy. But Michael Fallon, a Conservative committee member, was “outraged” by the delay in disclosure. While accepting a need for secrecy “for a few days”, he said there was no reason to keep the loans secret for a year.
The success of the lending programme contrasted with the Northern Rock crisis in 2007 when news of emergency lending leaked and led to a run on the bank. The Bank refused to disclose the operational procedures used. But it is likely that the Treasury issued short-term bills to fund the emergency liquidity. Bankers said on Tuesday's disclosure could be seen as a sign the Bank believed that the financial crisis was over.
According to the Bank, use of the facilities peaked at £36.6bn for RBS on October 17 last year and at £25.4bn for HBOS on November 13.
At the peak of emergency borrowing the two banks provided the Bank with collateral in the form of residential mortgages, personal and commercial loans and UK government debt valued at £100bn.
The banks were charged fees for use of the facilities.
The FT also reports that a lawyer representing William Browder, the foreign investor who was barred from Russia, has died in a Moscow jail amid an escalating war between the activist investor and the Russian government over claims of tax fraud and corruption.
The death of Sergei Magnitsky, 37, on Monday night will reignite questions over Moscow’s campaign against Mr Browder’s Hermitage Capital Management, once Russia’s biggest foreign portfolio investor, just as it seeks to entice investors back into the country.
Mr Magnitsky and his lawyers had filed numerous complaints that he was being denied medical treatment for pancreatitis, which developed after he was detained late last year on charges of tax evasion as part of a probe against Hermitage.
Hermitage said on Tuesday that Mr Magnitsky’s lawyers had been told that he died of a ruptured abdominal membrane just days after a court in Moscow ruled to extend his detention.
Mr Magnitsky’s colleagues accused the police on Tuesday of deliberately worsening the conditions he was being held in during his detention at the notorious Butyrka jail, to force him to testify against Hermitage.
“The police killed him,” said Jamison Firestone, managing partner at Firestone Duncan, the Moscow law firm where Mr Magnitsky worked.
“I don’t know whether they intended to kill him or put too much pressure on him . . . but they wanted him to fabricate evidence to make their case stronger against Hermitage ... These officers would tell him he could be released if he gave the right testimony.”
The interior ministry denied the claims, saying that the case against Mr Magnitsky was solid and that they had no interest in causing his death because they had hoped to convict him when he was brought to trial.
It said Mr Magnitsky’s cause of death had yet to be determined, but that a preliminary investigation showed he had died from toxic shock and heart failure.
It said the prison authorities had done all they could to help Mr Magnitsky and she denied that he had complained of health problems previously, despite written complaints seen by the Financial Times.
Mr Browder, an activist investor who crusaded against corruption in Russia’s blue chip companies, was barred from the country in 2005 on grounds of national security.
After the Russian authorities launched a tax investigation into Hermitage, Mr Browder responded with his own probe, uncovering what looked to be a huge tax fraud that he says began when interior ministry officials raided his fund.
Mr Magnitsky was arrested shortly after he testified, naming officers of the interior ministry involved in the seizure of the companies, Hermitage said.
Mr Magnitsky was “brave enough to stand up and point out corruption going on in the police force. He shouldn’t die in vain,” Mr Browder told the Financial Times on Tuesday.
The New York Times reports that airports big and small will be packed on Wednesday, just as they are every year on the day before Thanksgiving.
But the long lines and frayed nerves actually started last week, as many penny-pinching travelers booked earlier, and less expensive, flights.
As a result, what used to be a quick holiday trip home is now stretching to a week or more.
“I took my boys out of school for a couple days because it was so much cheaper,” said Peggy Edwards, who flew into New York last Friday from Atlanta with her two sons, and figured she saved at least $100 on each fare by flying earlier.
“That’s why we decided to make a week of it, to get our money’s worth,” she added.
Executives at several major airlines said they noticed the shift this year, with the crush starting several days earlier than usual.
And the airlines, because of the way they set airfares at peak times, gave deal-seeking travelers plenty of reasons to hunt for cheaper alternatives to flying right before the holiday.
Rick Seaney, the chief executive of FareCompare.com, a travel Web site, said passengers could have saved up to half off airfares this week by flying the Friday before Thanksgiving and returning the Monday after.
Mr. Seaney said the poor economy prompted many travelers to seek the lowest fares, even if it meant adjusting their travel dates.
“Everybody’s looking at every dime,” Mr. Seaney said. “They’re all worried about their jobs.”
Two years ago, before the recession, budget-conscious travelers were willing to spend up to $375 round trip to fly home. This year, Mr. Seaney said, many people balked at anything more than $240.
Many people are indeed staying home, or driving. Air travel is expected to fall 6.7 percent this holiday from last year, according to AAA, the travel group, which predicts 2.3 million people will fly this week.
The airport crowds late last week surprised many travelers.
“It was mobbed today,” said Linda Moxley, who decided to save money by flying with her family into New York last Friday from her home near Atlanta.
“Big surprise,” she added. “Very crowded.”
For the airlines, the new booking pattern they have had to prepare for is a marathon rather than a sprint. With so many people flying, disruptions can worsen the ripple effects. A snowstorm can snarl Midwest travel, or bad weather can cause traffic jams at New York’s airports, as it did Tuesday when low clouds caused a slowdown in air traffic.
“It’s just a question of when,” Donald R. Dillman, a vice president at United Airlines in charge of the company’s vast operations control center near O’Hare Airport here, said of flight cancellations. “But we can be ready.”
For United, holiday preparations began in October, when teams across the airline and at its five hub airports began daily briefings on the holiday schedule.
Since last week, those briefings have been more frequent — up to three a day — among executives, airport officials and staff at the operations center, a sprawling, darkened room where 250 flight controllers, schedulers, meteorologists and planners stare at multiple screens on each desk.
They track every United plane in the sky and every flight that is scheduled to take place during the day, feeding information to smaller command centers at each of United’s hubs.
United has little wiggle room in its operations, given how many routes it cut and planes it grounded to save money as the industry has struggled with high fuel costs.
Full planes make the task of managing the Thanksgiving holiday even harder. A cancellation could mean passengers could be stuck for hours, or even overnight (international travelers can even be held up for days).
This year, the airline has put three big planes on standby — a Boeing 747, a 767 and a 777 — that it can use on short notice, said Joseph C. Kolshak, United’s senior vice president for operations.
United is also introducing a new winter storm policy. If it can give them enough warning based on weather patterns, it will notify passengers 12 to 24 hours ahead of their flights, and offer to rebook them on later trips, letting them stay home rather than be stranded at airports.
Mr. Dillman said the bargain-hunting Thanksgiving travelers actually increased the airline’s chances of running a smoother operation.
“The earlier you go, the more choices you’ll have” in the event of a delay. He has his own advice for Thanksgiving 2010: “Avoid Sunday at all costs.”
The airline has added staff to the 8,700 people who work for United at its O’Hare operations, in every area, like customer service, baggage handling and even the outside companies that provide services like wheelchairs, fuel and catering.
During the holidays, when there can be as many as 112 flights an hour, infrequent travelers — who are unfamiliar with check-in kiosks, security procedures and airport layouts — can slow the routines.
“Our goal is to get them through the lobby as quickly as possible and to their aircraft as quickly as possible,” said Terry Brady, a United vice president who heads the airline’s operations at O’Hare.
Some travelers are hoping to devise new ways to beat the crowds. But given how crowded planes are this year, they seem to be lowering their expectations.
Shakema Wilson flew to New York last Friday from Atlanta with her daughter — “to beat the traffic and all the congestion going on with the airline industry,” she said.
She plans to fly back on the day after Thanksgiving.
“We’re coming back on ‘Black Friday,’ ” she said. “It’s going to be a rush, I think.”
The NYT also reports that home prices are enduring an early winter chill, raising the odds that the economy may suffer another jolt while it is still weak.
Two price indexes released Tuesday indicated that the momentum the housing market showed over the late spring and summer is faltering, even as the government said the economy grew at a slower pace in the third quarter than previously reported.
The Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller home price index, a closely watched measure of the housing markets in 20 metropolitan areas, barely rose in September, rising 0.3 percent from August on a seasonally adjusted basis. Prices fell for the month in nine cities in the index, including Boston, New York, Seattle and Charlotte, N.C.
A report from the Federal Housing Financing Agency showed that prices were flat in September from August.
Real estate, which has traditionally brought the economy out of recession, seems increasingly likely this time to hold it back. The housing market’s epic boom early this decade has turned into an epic bust whose effects may take years to shake off.
The housing market is confronting an abundance of inventory, high unemployment, fearful consumers and devastated family balance sheets.
“There is no clear, easy way out for housing,” said John Silvia, chief economist at Wells Fargo. “Contrary to my hopes, housing prices and the housing market in general will weaken again.”
He forecast a new decline in prices of as much as 10 percent, which he expected to shave a half-point off the nation’s economic output just as it emerges from the recession.
In its report on Tuesday, the Commerce Department said the economy grew at a 2.8 percent annual rate in the third quarter, down from the 3.5 percent rate reported last month.
The revised number, based on more complete data, was in line with analyst expectations. It was larger than the typical adjustment, underscoring the erratic nature of the recovery. But although growth was slower, the third quarter ended the longest economic contraction since World War II, with the economy expanding for the first time in a year.
Little of this recovery is reflected in housing prices, which are limping despite improved sales volume.
The Case-Shiller index, which covers about 45 percent of the United States housing market, is a three-month moving average. Since July and August were relatively strong, the weak September report could indicate a plunge in prices.
The Federal Housing Finance Agency uses data from the government mortgage agencies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which until recently were limited to loans below $417,000. Its index tends to swing less widely than Case-Shiller.
The two housing price reports lag, by a month, the figures on the volume of home resales, which were issued Monday for October. Home resales jumped 10.1 percent to the highest level in two years, better than analysts had expected.
Much of the increase was attributed to the $8,000 first-time buyer’s tax credit, which had been set to expire Nov. 30 but has been renewed through spring. Buyers who have already owned a home are now eligible for a $6,500 credit.
While brisk sales volume should, in theory, push up prices, Maureen Maitland, the vice president for index services at S.& P., said the oversupply of inventory was acting as a brake. “You can look down the street and have 10 houses to choose from,” she said.
About 3.57 million used homes are for sale, a number that has been declining but is still higher than the historic average. It represents seven months of inventory at the current sales rate.
Ms. Maitland speculated that the housing market might follow a “W” pattern, as the price lows plumbed last spring are tested again this winter.
“There is going to be more moderation and downturn in the coming months,” she said.
While that might be good for prospective buyers, it would put more stress on would-be sellers and everyone who looks to his or her house to measure net worth and ability to spend.
Consumers are much poorer than they were, and are acting accordingly. Consumer spending in the third quarter increased 2.9 percent, less than the 3.4 percent originally reported.
That number worried some economists, who said it was below healthy margins and even lower than growth levels in 1983, when joblessness was as high. Consumer spending makes up about 70 percent of the economy.
Julia Coronado, senior United States economist at BNP Paribas, said the revised figures suggested economic renewal would be mild indeed.
“It’s going to be a very gradual pace of recovering instead of a roaring return to business as usual,” she said. “The G.D.P. number highlights this recovery is different from prior recoveries.”
Also released Tuesday was the S.& P./Case-Shiller National Home Price Index. That index covers a broader segment of the market, about 75 percent, but is released quarterly, rather than monthly.
The national index showed an 8.9 percent decline in the third quarter of 2009 from the third quarter of 2008, a substantial improvement over the 14.7 percent decline in the annual rate of return in the second quarter of 2009.
Despite such improvements, it will be a long time under the most favorable circumstances before housing recovers what it lost. The 20-city composite index is off nearly 10 percent in the last year and 29.1 percent since its 2006 peak.
Prices in Las Vegas have declined for 37 months and are down more than half from their peak. At the other extreme is Dallas, which did not have much of a boom and thus did not have so far to fall. Prices there are only down about 5 percent.
Florida has been ravaged almost as much as Las Vegas. About a quarter of its homeowners with mortgages are late with payments. But even there, some people are still buying.
“They’re not buying as investors, they’re buying as homeowners,” said Grant Stern of Morningside Mortgage Corporation in Bay Harbor Islands, Fla., near Miami Beach. “Nobody expects a 50 percent gain. Flat is the new up.”
One of Mr. Stern’s clients is Howard Roth, who recently moved to Florida from Oakland, Calif., where he lived in an apartment. He closed on a house in Boca Raton on Monday.
“I wanted a dog, and a yard for a dog,” Mr. Roth, a 61-year-old retiree, said. The turmoil in the market did not faze him.
“America always bounces back,” he said. “Somebody’s got to make a move.”
