Business News Online

Attention all car buyers: The era of cut-rate financing, generous cash-back offers and big discounts is coming to an end.

With the effects of the earthquake in Japan rippling through the industry and causing shortages, prices are rising for both new and used cars, and fewer models and options will be available come summer, especially for the hybrids and fuel-efficient vehicles that Japan produces.

That’s prompted many experts to voice something rarely said in the sales-happy auto industry: With consumers facing the toughest market in recent memory, if you can, put off purchases until things sort out, probably early next year.

“If you don’t have an immediate need, you are probably better to wait and figure out where the market is headed,” said Jesse Toprak, an analyst with auto information company TrueCar.com.

Toprak concedes his reluctance to give such advice. TrueCar collects referral fees for new-car sales to visitors to its website.

Yet he’s not a lone voice.

“If people were paying attention they would have bought in March and April. Read more…

LinkedIn, the first major US social network website to go public, saw its shares more than double as they debuted on the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday to a bidding frenzy from investors.

Shares in LinkedIn had been priced at $45 before the flotation but reached $112 at one point — an 150% increase that valued the firm at $10-billion.

LinkedIn’s stellar NYSE debut is the clearest sign yet that stock markets are in the grip of a new technology and digital media bubble, fuelled by the ever-larger valuations of social media companies.

The business networking site, founded by the internet entrepreneur Reid Hoffman in 2002, raised $353-million with its initial public offering on Wednesday evening, which valued the firm at $4,3-billion. The firm last week said it was looking to raise $175-million with the IPO.

The flotation makes the firm easily the highest-valued US internet site since Google went public in 2004. LinkedIn has about 100-million users and turned a profit of $15,4-million on revenues of $243-million in 2010. Read more…

If you’re starting a business where you don’t need any additional small business financing, that’s great. You’re free to concentrate on getting your new business up and running.

But if you do need it, a lack of small business financing can keep your idea for starting a small business stuck at the starting blocks.

The South Bend common council is taking a harder look at whether the Ireland Road Wal-Mart can begin selling guns.

Council president Derek Dieter, a city police officer, said he wants more information on the store’s proposed sales of assault weapons ammunition. In particular, the store has proposed selling .223-caliber three-rounds, which is used in high-powered rifles such as the A.R.-15, Dieter said.

Dieter said he has asked the council’s attorney, Kathy Cekanski-Farrand, to research whether the city can restrict the sale of certain types of ammunition.

Wal-Mart needs a special exception to the city’s zoning code to begin selling guns. The s Read more…

The Craft Ale House staff will help you choose a beer that will complement their menu offerings. Mercury file photo

Craft Ale House owners Gary and Melissa Fry are pictured inside the 708 W. Ridge Pike pub they opened in December 2008. Mercury file photo

LIMERICK — What better way to celebrate American Craft Beer Week, May 16 to 22, than to visit an area establishment that promotes craft beer every day.

Craft Ale House, which opened at 708 W. Ridge Pike in the last days of 2008, has made it so that fine beer connoisseurs no longer need to foam over having to travel far and wide to indulge their passion.

Craft by draft is not only readily available here, it reigns supreme.

From ales to lagers, the 16 flavorful artisan beers on tap provide an endless, aromatic flow that changes regularly, and are only a fragment of a supply that includes hundreds of bottled brews.

Walking into Craft Ale House, with its rich woodwork and welcoming spirit, it’s immediately apparent that owners Gary and Melissa Fry tapped into the pub aesthetic they always had in mind during their long search for the right location.

Not bad for first-time restaurateurs who squinted and saw the potential in a drastic upgrade of a deli-convenience store that others might well have missed.

“I came here for lunch to grab a sandwich in the summer of ’08 and the sign out front said it was available,” Gary recalled. “

Read more…

If you don’t want to deal having to remember to cancel your card, the regular non-Preferred is now offering 25,000 points worth $250 cash after you spend $3,000 in purchases within the first 3 months, and there is no annual fee in the first year or subsequent years. The non-preferred used to give out their bonus with no minimum purchase requirement, so personally I’d rather take the extra $250 via the Preferred.

Ideas for reaching the purchase limit without spending more money that you would otherwise include: prepaying any monthly bills like utilities and let the credit go down over time, pay your 6-month auto insurance or home insurance bills via lump sum, that don’t expire and then spend them gradually, from places you will shop at eventually through PlasticJungle or similar (Home Depot, Target, etc.), buying $1 coins from the US Mint (you’re basically buying cash), or buying grocery store gift cards (Safeway cards at Safeway). Basically just shift your usual expenses.