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JAMES C. PERKINS JR. at the Louis Vuitton store on 5th Ave. Photography: Brian Bradley

“The world’s biggest luxury-goods group is benefiting from a flight to quality, but the recession is also prompting questions about the company’s breadth and balance.”

At Economist.com

Amid this turmoil, LVMH is performing relatively well (see chart 1). It has benefited from an established pattern in the luxury industry: when people have less, they spend what they do have on the best quality. Shoppers are going for fewer, classic items—one Burberry raincoat, rather than three designer dresses, or a single Kelly bag by Hermès, a French luxury-goods group, instead of four bags from various lesser designers. For this reason, says Yves Carcelle, chief executive of Louis Vuitton and president of fashion and leather goods for LVMH, “Vuitton always gains market share in crises.”

Peter Schiff, president of Euro Pacific Capital and author of Crash Proof 2.0 agrees with my sentiments on the markets. I like his money style. Suits we’ll have to talk about.

“If the Fed really thought the economy was sound, why does he have it on life support? If he pulls the plug, our sick economy is going to die.”

Although the Fed never said the economy is “sound”, Schiff is referring to the FOMC’s renewed pledge that “economic conditions are likely to warrant exceptionally low levels of the federal funds rate for an extended period.”

Nothing that’s occurred in the past six months has changed Schiff’s view that America’s economy is headed for disaster. In fact, he’s even more convinced a true “currency crisis” awaits, and that China will soon stop enabling our reckless borrowing, the basis our “phony” economy. The coming collapse of the dollar and bursting of the Treasury bubble will have devastating consequences for ordinary Americans, and any investors based in dollars, he says. - at Yahoo Finance

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JAMES C. PERKINS JR. in front of one of his paintings. This market allows time for a portfolio manager to catch up on painting. Photography: Brian Bradley

Last week it was Baron’s, this week it is the WSJ running a story that is in line with my opinion of the markets.

“And a rising stock market does not necessarily mean the economy will keep getting better. The current rally ignores some ominous economic trends. Bank lending has slumped, and so, too, have long-term Treasury yields. Neither is a happy omen. And of course, in the real economy, the pain continues. Unemployment has risen to 9.7%, even as Wall Street has rallied.

“The boring truth about Dow 10000? This is a dull stock market for investors-in-waiting. Shares overall are somewhat expensive, although not by crazy amounts.

“According to FactSet Research, the U.S. market overall is nearly 17 times likely earnings. That’s above long-term averages of maybe 14 times earnings.”

“The Dow Will Hit 10000 Soon. So What?”

WSJ

by Brett Arends

Fri, Sept. 20 2009

by Brett Arends

Before we get started I love reading my favorite magazines and newspapers, on paper at a cafe. There is something just not right about all the laptops. If you are writing, I get it, I’ve done it, but there are occasions to not be on your cell phone, iPod, and to leave your computer at home.

Nonetheless, finally, publishers are realizing that even if you don’t publish something on paper, the R&D that their organization funds to pay for writers, editors, and a circulation whether on-line or a news stand is holds it value even when it is printed with 1’s and 0’s instead of ink.

If they did not feel inclined to give away free newspapers, they should have never given away free newspapers.

“SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — With their advertising revenue drying up, newspaper publishers spent much of the spring and summer debating whether to cut off free online access to some of the material they run in their shrinking print editions.

It looks like the talk will turn to action this fall, when some large newspapers are expected to put up Internet toll booths.

They’ll be testing readers’ willingness to pay for information and entertainment that mostly has been given away online for the past 15 years. That happened largely because most publishers could afford to subsidize their Web sites with profits from their print franchises. But now those profits have crumbled, just as the prices for online ads are tumbling, too.

A recent study by the American Press Institute found 58 percent of the responding newspapers are considering online fees. Of that group, 22 percent expect to introduce the fee before the end of the year. The findings drew upon 118 interviews of newspaper executives in the U.S. and Canada.

The free-to-fee transition likely will occur in tentative steps rather than bold leaps that would lock all online content behind a pay gate. Publishers are taking this cautious approach because they are still trying to devise online payment plans that will generate more revenue without alienating too many of their readers.”

By Michael Liedtke, AP Business Writer
On Sunday September 20, 2009, 8:10 pm EDT

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JAMES C. PERKINS JR. jacket: marc jacobs, scarf: dries van noten, tee: james perse, jeans: dior homme, glasses: tom ford, key chain bottega veneta. Photography: Brian Bradley

GO CHERYLE!

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http://abclocal.go.com/wls/video?id=7018293

ABC News

By Charles Thomas

September 16, 2009 (CHICAGO) (WLS) — Chicago Urban League president Cheryle Jackson kicks off her campaign for Senate.

Cheryle Jackson, the head of the Chicago Urban League, will be a candidate for the Democratic nomination.

Cheryle Jackson has never held public office and in recent elections those without that experience have failed when trying to win an Illinois US Senate seat. But Jackson hopes some other factors will make the difference.

The first thing Democratic party voters will notice about Cheryl Robinson Jackson is that she’s the only woman in the race. Her campaign signage has a definite feminine color and look about it and she’s going all out to make herself the favorite of female voters who make up 53 percent of the statewide electorate.

“If it takes a woman to be in Washington to fight for parity and make certain that we don’t lose ground and speak up boldly on behalf of that, then I’m happy to be that woman,” said Jackson.

“I think, while certainly women will be glad that we will have a woman who is sensitive to these issues, there will be a lot of good reasons for supporting her other than that,” said Ann Breen-Grecko, Cook County Democratic Women.

Jackson, who began her leave of absence as Chicago Urban League president on Tuesday, is running against Illinois treasurer Alexi Giannoulias, former Chicago inspector general David Hoffman and lawyer Jacob Meister.

Jackson also is the only African-American candidate in the race for the seat held during the 1990s by Carole Mosely Braun and during the past six years by Barack Obama and Roland Burris, each of them during their terms, the only black voice in the US Senate.

“The race factor plays a part. But it doesn’t play the part. It’s not the major part. It’s whether or not Cheryle Jackson is qualified,” said State Sen. James Meeks, (D) Chicago.

“When you dig one grave be careful you don’t fall in. And the Democrats dug a grave in terms of Roland and now we have fallen in as the Democratic party because the Republicans are going to take this race. It has nothing to do anymore with black or white,” said Delmarie Cobb, political consultant.

From 2003 until 2005, Jackson worked as the communications director for Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich. She was asked how she’ll distance herself from Blagojevich.

“Already have. I left the first term,” said Jackson.

Jackson says she’ll hit the road in campaign statewide in the coming weeks. But her supporters agreed her base will be in Chicago’s African-American community and among female voters. She hopes that combination will give her at least the push she’ll need to win the primary in February.

(Copyright ©2009 WLS-TV/DT. All Rights Reserved.)

STYLE.COM sent model-turned-photographer ASTRIS MUNOZ into the streets during New York’s Fashion’s Night Out aimed to give consumers extra inspiration to shop.

ATM LOVE 2.1 Photography: James C. Perkins Jr. & Brian Bradley

ATM LOVE 2.2 Photography: James C. Perkins Jr. & Brian Bradley