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

NEWS AT A GLANCE

Lower fuel prices, but lower thermostats, too

Gas prices fell for the 20th consecutive day, to $3.86 a gallon, according to AAA, as declining demand tamps down oil prices. (CNNMoney.com) However, oil and natural gas prices are still high enough that heating bills this winter will likely be much more expensive than last year. Heating oil is up 36 percent from last year, for example, and that will hit Northeast residents particularly hard -- with bills rising by up to $1,500 for New England households. Fuel dealers are not offering price protection plans this year, due to volatile energy prices. And with credit tight, fuel companies are also finding it harder to hedge. "This could be the winter of our discontent," said Daniel J. Weiss at the Center for American Progress. (The New York Times)

Freddie Mac loss grows

U.S. mortgage giant Freddie Mac posted a second-quarter loss of $821 million, its fourth consecutive loss, and said it will cut its common-stock dividend by 80 percent. Freddie Mac earned $729 million a year ago, but has lost $4.6 billion since. (Reuters) Analysts had expected a much smaller shortfall. Freddie Mac's shares are down 76 percent this year, amid investor fears that it won't be able to back the $2.2 trillion in loans it owns or guarantees. Rising delinquencies, which raised credit costs, and lower housing prices and sales all hurt Freddie. "What you need for this stuff to work it's way through is for homes to get through the foreclosure process and be sold," said Credit Suisse analyst Moshe Orenbuch. (Bloomberg)

Xstrata bids $10 billion for platinum miner

Anglo-Swiss miner Xstrata made an unsolicited $10 billion cash offer for London-based Lonmin, the world's No. 3 platinum producer. The bid is 42 percent higher than Lonmin's closing price yesterday. Xstrata said it has already purchased 8 percent of Lonmin's shares. (AP in CNNMoney.com) Xstrata, the fifth-largest mining group, specializes in copper, coal, and nickel, but also entered the platinum market last year. (Reuters) Lonmin rejected the offer as "opportunistic," as platinum prices have dropped 29 percent from their record high in March. "Maybe it's an opportunistic move by Xstrata," said Constellation Capital Management analyst Peter Chilton, "and maybe Lonmin is more vulnerable now." (Bloomberg)

Moscow's hospitality crunch

Hotel rooms in Moscow are among the most expensive in the world, costing $540 a night for the average business-class room, but often above $1,000 in central Moscow. In a case of demand outstripping supply, they are also among the hardest to find. Russia is booming with oil money, and Moscow's hot real estate market is pushing the destruction of huge, modestly endowed Soviet-era hotels at the same time that business travelers flock to the city in droves. For some of them, the high rates are probably worth the money. "If you're sealing a multimillion-dollar deal, being in a shabby hotel is not going to help your cause," says Stephane Meyrat of hotel consultancy Jones Lang Lasalle Hotels. (The Wall Street Journal)

BEST COLUMNS OF THE DAY

Detroit's deathbed conversion?

As Detroit auto executives "staked their companies' futures on gas-guzzling, heavyweight behemoths," says James B. Stewart in The Wall Street Journal, they claimed they were "giving Americans the products they wanted. Really?" Then why have their U.S. market shares fallen to historic lows against Japanese rivals? The good news is that the Big Three seem to be facing reality, and Ford at least is now making small, attractive, fuel-efficient cars "that people want." The bad news is that the timetable for these "venerable companies" to save themselves is a daunting one. With their shares so low, buying GM and Ford might seem tempting, but only for "the most patient long-term investors."

Our costly low-airfare addiction

We all want cheap airfares, says Chris Pummer in MarketWatch, but "our tightfistedness" has brought the vital airline industry "to the verge of collapse." Since raising airfares would be suicide in the age of Internet fare search engines, airlines have resorted to "nickeling, diming, and fifty-dollaring buyers" with hidden "junk fees" that don't show up in Expedia. Well, cheap air travel is not "a right to which we're entitled," and if our "greed" drives airlines out of business, we deserve the fallout -- no air service. We need some sort of solution to late flights, shoddy service, and multiple stops that have made planes "Greyhound buses with wings." It will cost us, but the alternative is worse.

GOOD DAY FOR: A new vote counter, after a recount of ballots in Yahoo's board election found that vote-tabulation firm Broadridge Financial Services had improperly tallied 200 million votes against CEO Jerry Yang, Chairman Roy Bostock, and board member Ron Burkle as in favor of their reelection. The recount, requested by Capital Research Global Investors, didn't alter the results. (AP in Yahoo! Finance)

BAD DAY FOR: Remodeling, after Morgan Stanley told thousands of clients that they can't withdraw money on their home equity credit lines. Most of the clients reportedly have properties that dropped in value. Morgan Stanley and other banks are trying to lower their exposure to risks, as they reel from the subprime mortgage fallout; home equity credit lines have hit a two-decade-high level of late payments. (Bloomberg)

NOTED: A federal grand jury indicted 11 men on charges of stealing 41 million credit and debit card numbers by hacking into nine major U.S. companies, including TJ Maxx, OfficeMax, BJ's Wholesale Club, and Barnes & Noble. It is the single largest known U.S. case of identity theft, costing the companies and individuals hundred of millions of dollars. (The Boston Globe)

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