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

NEWS AT A GLANCE

Singapore fund shifts to emerging markets

Singapore's $100 billion sovereign wealth fund, Government of Singapore Investment Corp., said it is shifting its assets toward emerging markets, hedge funds, and natural resources to boost returns. GIC, in its first-ever annual report, said it now has only 25 percent of its holdings in bonds, from 75 percent 25 years ago. (MarketWatch) GIC said its 20-year average annual return was 7.8 percent in U.S. dollar terms, compared with 18 percent at Singapore's Temasek investment firm and 21 percent at Berkshire Hathaway. (Bloomberg) Meanwhile, Asian policymakers from the 1997-98 IMF bailout, who were lectured by the U.S. on its superior economic model, are feeling vindicated by the looming U.S. mega-bailout. (Reuters)

Congress, Paulson nearing bailout plan

Congressional leaders and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson came closer to agreement on a $700 billion Wall Street bailout package, with Paulson agreeing to demands for some sort of oversight. Paulson is balking, however, at bipartisan demands that any firm participating in the bailout face restrictions on executive compensation. (Bloomberg) The Bush administration also opposes Democratic proposals to let judges rewrite the mortgages of bankrupt homeowners and to give taxpayers a stake in participating firms. Several lawmakers from both parties are attacking the whole plan as ill-conceived. (AP in Yahoo! Finance) Some 55 percent of Americans favor a bailout, according to a CNN poll, but most think the cost is too high. (CNNMoney.com)

Circuit City replaces CEO

Circuit City CEO Philip Schoonover stepped down under pressure, amid the consumer electronics giant's struggles with steep losses and failed sale to Blockbuster. Circuit City named board member James Marcum, brought in by activist shareholder Mark Wattles in June, as acting CEO. (The Washington Post) Circuit City shares are down 80 percent from a year ago, and never recovered from a tough price war over flat-screen TVs two years ago. Schoonover's decision to fire 3,400 experienced workers in 2007 also backfired. (BusinessWeek.com) In another shakeup, Citigroup ousted Sallie Krawcheck, the head of global wealth management and the most prominent woman on Wall Street. Krawcheck and CEO Vikram Pandit had clashed. (The New York Times)

Laughing all the way to the bank

Seattle entrepreneur Ben Huh makes a living from his "LOLcats"-based empire -- eight Web sites, anchored by silly photos of cats with deliberately mangled-language and misspelled captions. The sites, most famously "I Can Has Cheezburger," bring in 5 million users and 100 pageviews a month. And Huh is trying to expand, just as Web advertising is hitting a slow patch. His linchpin? Celebrities. His newest site, ROFLrazzi, aims to cash in on the fascination with Hollywood news. Huh's backers think he will survive the ad downturn. "Humor is one of those things that is recession-proof," said investor Geoff Entress. (Los Angeles Times)

BEST COLUMNS OF THE DAY

Paying the bailout piper

"It's difficult to quantify the costs" of the $700 billion "mother of all bailouts," says Daniel Gross in Slate, not to mention the taxpayer money put up for Bear Stearns, Fannie and Freddie, AIG , and to insure money market funds. It is "almost certain" that these bailouts will cost tens or even hundreds of billions of dollars, but it's hard to know, because nobody with any authority has said how they plan to pay for them. Some sort of bailout is probably "of vital importance to the nation's economy," but like all important national projects, we have to pay for it. And unless "the laws of mathematics are repealed," that means raising taxes or cutting spending. So, which will it be, and what are the details? Nobody's saying.

Drop the penny down a well

The U.S. Mint is "giving the 100-year-old Lincoln penny a new look," says the Los Angeles Times in an editorial, but why bother? Instead of the Lincoln Memorial, the penny's back will have images meant to evoke scenes from Lincoln's life. Lincoln, "born to poverty, knew the value of a penny back when it had real value." But it doesn't anymore, and it costs more than a penny to make each copper-covered cent. The penny has "outlived its usefulness," and it should be phased out, just like the half-penny was in 1857, and just like the penny itself was on U.S. military bases in Europe in the 1980s. Sure, there were "some complaints -- for a few months." It's time to get rid of the penny. Lincoln would agree.

GOOD DAY FOR: Drowning your troubles, as The Fifty/50 restaurant in Chicago is offering half-priced drinks for current and former employees of Lehman Brothers and AIG. The offer is good, Sundays through Thursdays, until October. "Everybody is freaking out," said co-owner Scott Weiner. "We wanted to do something to make their day a little better." (Reuters)

BAD DAY FOR: A green Christmas, after U.S. retailers are projected to have their worst holiday season since 2002. The National Retail Federation said that, due to household budgets being squeezed by the weak economy, November-December sales should rise 2.2 percent, to $470.4 billion, from last year's 4.4 percent increase. "We expect consumers to be frugal this season," said NRF economist Rosalind Wells. (CNNMoney.com)

NOTED: The $700 billion Wall Street bailout pushed by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson would push the national debt to its highest level since 1954, driving it above 70 percent of GDP. The budget deficit would also likely rise to an all-time high of more than $1 trillion next year. That in turn could depress demand for U.S. bonds. "This is sobering, absolutely sobering, even to someone who doesn't drink," said former congressional budget analyst Stan Collender. (Bloomberg)

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