Home prices showed the smallest annual decline in almost three years in January, indicating there are surprising areas of strength in the housing market.

The Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller 20-city home price index fell just 0.7 percent from last year on a seasonally adjusted basis. The index reading of 146.32 was almost in line with analysts expectations, according to a survey by Thomson Reuters.

Better still, prices rose 0.3 percent from December to January, the eighth consecutive monthly gain. Among the 20 cities in the index, 12 rose.

The index is up nearly 4 percent from its bottom in May 2009, but still almost 30 percent below its May 2006 peak.

Still, there are signs that last year’s housing rebound won’t last. Home sales sank during the winter, and government incentives that have propped up the market are ending.

Another reason for the positive news is simply that the Case-Shiller index measures a three-month average of home prices. So January’s report includes November’s strong home sales.

The Investment Counsel Company today announced that Goldline Research, for the fourth consecutive year, has named the firm in the March 29, 2010, issue of Forbes as one of the 10 leading wealth managers in the Western United States.

Goldline Research said that there are approximately 5,400 Registered Investment Advisers in the Western United States, and to identify those leading managers in that region, it engaged in an in-depth, multi-month research process.

The Investment Counsel Company was founded by Randy Garcia, Chief Executive Officer, in 1987 and presently has $705 million under management. With 14 employees, ICC is the oldest and the largest independent investment management consulting firm in Nevada.

Mr. Garcia, who was recently named the top financial advisor in Nevada by Barron’s, said, “It is a great honor to have The Investment Counsel Company placed among the 10 leading wealth manager list in the West by Goldline Research in Forbes. The expertise of our firm is and always has been a team effort with a single objective: to provide our clients the best possible opportunity to achieve their investment goals and to do so in what we believe is the most professional manner extant.”

About The Investment Counsel Company

The Investment Counsel Company, Nevada’s first independent investment management consulting firm, provides superior investment guidance, perspective and judgment to affluent families, corporations, foundations and endowments who expect and value the highest standard of integrity and personalized, competitive service.

State Personal Income declined an average 1.7 percent in 2009, according to estimates released today by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. The annual percentage change in state personal income ranged from -4.8 percent in Nevada to 2.1 percent in West Virginia (one of six states with a personal income gain in 2009). Inflation, as measured by the national price index for personal consumption expenditures, fell to 0.2 percent in 2009 down from 3.3 percent in 2008.

Effective crisis or emergency communications planning is an absolute requisite of any company’s comprehensive communications program for both corporate and economic survival, as well as humanitarian reasons.

Unfortunately, this sort of planning, because of its perceived complexity, is generally developed with little regard for what realistically can be accomplished, or it falls into the ad hoc category and is effected ineffectually on the fly.

The fact of life is that depending on the hazard or situation, a company will at some time be called upon to issue an evacuation notice, respond to public or press inquiries regarding financial irregularities, discuss legal, health or environmental matters, explain system failures or contend with questions on losses of dollars or proprietary information….to name just a few of those vicissitudes that might become somewhat nettlesome at any time.

Both internal and external publics will want to know who, what, where, when, why and how when it comes to casualties, property damage, accompanying incidents or lawsuits, descriptions of events, acts of heroism or cowardice, resumption of work and financial implications.

When the telephone rings, however, its generally too late to plan a response, determine who will serve as spokesperson and decide how much information should be disseminated and when.

The sheer size of crisis communications planning can be reduced by grouping types of events into situational categories:

• An ordinary event involving a senior manager, e.g. the death of a chief executive officer.
• An extraordinary event, e.g. the 1992 Southern California earthquake.
• An event in and of the company that the company has caused, e.g. a valve indicator misread results in a toxic waste spill.
• An event in, but not of, your organization, where the company is a victim, e.g. a hostage situation.
• A regulatory event, e.g. an insider trading investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission.
• A financial event, e.g. a hostile takeover attempt.

The aforementioned represent a few of the more generalized situations that can occur. In all, flexibility is essential, an regardless of the categories used to plan, all crisis communications plans follow a reasonably simple logic.

First, what vulnerabilities create demands for information of what kind? Second, who must be talked to and in what order? Third, who will do what to whom by when to carry out the established communications objectives? Fourth, whose help will be required to develop and implement activities, internal coordination, public relations liaisons and mutual aid agreements? Fifth, how will the plan be tested and improved over time? And sixth, when will dissemination occur? Is there a commitment to communicate effectively during emergencies? Has a general policy statement on crisis communications been prepared and approved by senior management?

The first action determining the quality of crisis communications activities will be the alacrity and propriety of notifications. Although dispatch is important, establishing priorities and protocols is absolutely critical.

Most often the order of notification priority should be:

• Those who should respond, i.e. police, fire, emergency medical teams, the company’s crisis management team.
• Those who must comment, i.e. spokespersons, headquarters units, local government officials.
• Those with a special need-to-know, stock analysts, customers and suppliers, employees, victims and their families and union representatives.
• The broadcast and print media.
• The general public.

News media notification, of course, is quite different than notification given other audiences. During crises or disasters, the media usually gets word of the event and winds up contacting the company, thus placing the communications team in a reactive, rather than proactive position.

The communications team’s reaction must be a joint venture combining the expertise the public relations department, senior management, and security and technical operational experts, if required.

Working with the media during a crisis is clearly critical. Whether assigned to a metro or city desk, or the business page, most reporters are generalists and therefore must be backgrounded in highly complex, technical or scientific information before they can even ask appropriate questions to report the news in layman’s terms.

Wherever possible, glossaries of technical terms, charts, graphs and visual depictions should be prepared in advance. With respect response precision, particularly at the outset, it is important to recognize that it is acceptable to say “This is what we know…this is what we do not know…This is what is ambiguous.” Read the rest of this entry »

New orders for manufactured goods in January increased 1.7 percent to $378.4 billion.  Shipments rose 0.3 percent , unfilled orders increased by $0.1 billion following fifteen consecutive monthly increases and inventories increased 0.2 percent from December 2009.

Stern And Company
Strategic Communications
http://www.sdsternpr.com
info @ sdsternpr.com