Harold Maass of The Week The Best of Today's Business

NEWS AT A GLANCE

The fragile Corn Belt boom

While the rest of the U.S. has been mired in gloomy financial news, the Plains states have been enjoying a surge of prosperity. Buoyed by high corn and soy prices, the housing market is holding up well, banks are lending, and employers keep hiring. That means that federal moves to stimulate the economy are unnecessary there, at best, and possibly helping to inflate regional bubbles. (The Washington Post) There are also signs the prosperity may not last. "Investors have been stung of late in farm equipment and fertilizer stocks, but more pain could be coming," says Citigroup strategist Tobias Levkovich, as inflated prices in "what has been dubbed the 'dot-corn' stocks" look due for a correction. (Bloomberg)

EBay moves away from auction model

Online auction pioneer eBay is changing its selling-fee structure to emphasize fixed-price sales over bidding, in an acknowledgment that many online buyers are losing interest in auctions. The change is aimed at making eBay more competitive with online retailers such as Amazon. (The New York Times) The new cost for placing "Buy It Now" listings, effective Sept. 16, will be 35 cents for a 30-day run, from between 35 cents and $4 for a seven-day listing. (The San Jose Mercury-News) The move to fixed pricing is "very opportunistic, but also in line with what their customers are telling them they want," said Patti Freeman Evans at Jupiter Research. (Reuters)

HP beats expectations

Hewlett-Packard, the world's largest technology company, reported a 14 percent rise in quarterly profit, to $2 billion, beating Wall Street expectations. The company's printer division, which brings in a quarter of its revenue, had weak results, with a drop in printer sales barely offset by rising revenue from printer supplies. (The New York Times) Laptop sales rose 25 percent, though, and HP also had strong overseas sales, benefiting from the weak dollar. (AP in Yahoo! Finance) Including earnings reports from IBM and Cisco, "the latest round of results means big-cap information technology companies are going to make it through the rest of the year," said Cowen & Co. analyst Louis Miscioscia. (Reuters)

The price of the gold medal

Olympic gold medals contain only about 0.19 ounces of gold, used to coat a silver disc underneath. That means that at gold's current price of $803 an ounce, Michael Phleps could sell his eight gold medals for about $1,728 in scrap metal. But of course, the medals are worth more than their face value. In 2004, for example, Polish swimmer Otylia Jedrzejczak sold her gold medal at auction for $82,599. And since then, gold prices have more than doubled. "I wish these hard-working athletes got 'the real thing'," said analyst Jon Nadler at Kitco Bullion Dealers. "But the medals are worth more than their weight in gold anyway." (MarketWatch)

BEST COLUMNS OF THE DAY

The end of faking the good life

With easy credit drying up, we may be nearing the end of "the standard-of-living bubble," says Fortune's Geoff Colvin in CNNMoney.com. With real incomes stagnant for the past several years, we've been "pretending that our living standard is still rising" by borrowing on credit cards. Americans started putting plastic in real ATMs when "the home-equity ATM" stopped dispensing cash, but credit card debt is the most expensive type on the menu. Well, credit card debt gets securitized just like mortgages, and banks are deeming those securities increasingly risky. When the card window closes soon, it's hard to see where we can turn next "to fake living the good life." Maybe we'll find it isn't so bad to live within our means.

How the credit crisis will hit you

"The credit crunch is the one area that many consumers think they can sidestep if their financial situation is not perilous," says Chuck Jaffe in MarketWatch. But "credit crunch" is more than a new household word -- it's also a household problem, and in ways "many consumers don't immediately see." First, credit spreads -- the difference between interest rates a bank charges and benchmark rates -- are growing wider, and will stay that way, making financing harder. Punitive fees will "go from bad to worse," even for the best customers. It will be harder to get a top credit score, leaving more people with "second-level deals." And for all but the top scorers, expect bigger upfront payments and more paperwork.

GOOD DAY FOR: Faith trumping reason, as Chicago Cubs' fans are buying options on playoff and World Series tickets, even though the Cubs haven't made it to the World Series since 1945. Lowell Bike, for instance, has paid $1,700 for nosebleed seats for two hypothetical playoff and one World Series games. On EBay, a seller is listing eight tickets to the first game of a Cubs World Series for $59,999. (MarketWatch)

BAD DAY FOR: Crying over pay cuts, after News Corp said in a regulatory filing that CEO Rupert Murdoch's total compensation this year will drop 14 percent, to $27.5 million, on a base salary of $8.1 million. News Corp President Peter Chernin is also seeing a pay cut, to $28.8 million in total pay, from $34 million. (Reuters)

NOTED: Britain's antitrust regulator said that BAA Ltd., the owner of London's Heathrow airport, is providing poor service and should sell its two other London airports, Gatwick and Stansted, and Scotland's Glasgow airport. BAA, owned by Spain's Grupo Ferrovial, has a near-monopoly on air travel in southeast England, and the U.K. Competition Commission and some British politicians say that has contributed to widespread, ire-inducing flight delays. "This is a ruthless assessment that many will welcome," said Howard Wheeldon at BGC Partners in London. (Bloomberg)

This column was written by Peter Weber and edited by Harold Maass of TheWeekDaily.com.