Ron Burkle is worth $3.5 billion, according to the latest Forbes tally, which would suggest that he doesn't need to borrow money. But Burkle has $56 million in loans against his two houses, reports the WSJ's John Emshwiller. One of them is the famous "Green Acres" mansion in Bev Hills, the Renaissance-style palazzo built in the 1920s by Harold Lloyd. Burkle won't say how he's using the money, but in general rich guys love to borrow, as long as interest rates are low enough (and these days they're next to nothing). See, they can then use the money to make investments that generate a large enough return for them to pay off their loans and then some.

In April, Mr. Burkle renegotiated his $56 million in adjustable-rate mortgages down to 3.25%, which was in line with adjustable home loans of a more mortal size. Recently, his rate adjusted down to about 2.25%, based on publicly available documents. It puts Mr. Burkle's mortgage interest charge at $105,000 a month, give or take.

Frank and Jamie McCourt also like(d) to borrow. They have $28 million worth of mega-mortgages on their L.A. properties.

Their 15,000-square-foot, 10-bath L.A. manse, located in the prestigious Holmby Hills neighborhood across the street from the Playboy Mansion, was purchased in 2004 for about $20 million. For good measure, the McCourts spent $14 million to upgrade the place, including tearing out the tennis courts to install an indoor, Olympic-size swimming pool.<.blockquote>

The economy has hurt most every demographic there is, but for those who are young, less educated and black it's really bad. The October jobless rate for high school dropouts was 15.5 percent; for teenagers it's 27.6 percent. NYT's Economix has the charts.

The big insider trading case back east has been interesting not so much for the money ($20 million in a Bernie Madoff world is not even chopped liver - it's the crackers), but rather for the 007-style touches (throwaway cellphones, a ring leader named "Octopussy" and so forth). Now there is another reason: the mother's defense of her son. The site Dealbreaker, which admittedly is not too subtle in its coverage of Wall Street, reached out to Dalia Goffer, mother of Zvi and Emanuel Goffer, who are both implicated in the case. Dalia was asked if she thought the FBI had arrested the wrong guys. Her response:

"low life................go get yourself a life....................are u eating your heart..............u can't kiss my sons ass hole [sic].......................because u so sick in your brain and so low....and if u don't stop bothering me I will contact the police."

So is that yes?

Nick Martin, formerly a reporter at the former East Valley Tribune in Arizona (just shut down by parent company Freedom Communications), has some not-so-complimentary revelations about the 68K in extra pay that Tribune publisher Julie Moreno received over the last two years That includes, according to Martin, 28K just seven days before she told staffers that they would have to take a week off without pay as a "preemptive strike" to prevent future layoffs. From Heat City:

The March bonus capped off $65,456 in total extra pay for Moreno, who already was being paid a salary of about $190,000. Her bonuses all came within three months of the January layoffs of about 140 people from her newspaper. As she did on Monday, Moreno at the time blamed the layoffs on the failing financial state of the industry.

Martin discloses his connection to the story at the end of the piece, though he's clearly not the one who should be reporting this story. Too bad because it looks like there's some stuff here worth looking into. No comment from Freedom, which is also the parent of the OC Register - and in bankruptcy protection.

Stocks zigzag: The Dow is actually up a few points at last check, though the weaker-than-expected jobs report might be taking a toll in early trading.

Calpers shaping up?: The board president of the pension giant tells his fellow directors that it might not be such a great idea to have private meetings with middlemen who are getting paid huge fees for pushing investments. From the LAT:

The agency's recent woes have been a long time coming, said Edward Siedle, an expert on pension malfeasance and a former attorney with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund, he said, is experiencing a string of embarrassments after years of not policing itself. "At every level, the fund has serious issues they have not dealt with," said Siedle, who is based in Florida. "There is no excuse for a fund that size to be hit with wave after wave of revelations of wrongdoing. It shows a lack of discipline. A lack of leadership. A lack of fiduciary responsibility."

Big loss for Hanmi: One of the big L.A. banks for the Korean American market has been ordered to raise $100 million by July or face seizure. The plan is to raise capital from private investors in South Korea. Hanmi lost almost $60 million in the third quarter. (LAT)

Videogame preview: Activision Blizzard reported a profit for the third quarter, though CEO Bobby Kotick has kept expectations low for the holiday season. From the LAT:

"If the consumer materializes and spends money, we'll do well," Kotick said in an interview. "If not, things will be a challenge. And today, you really have no way of knowing what will happen. Consumers saw significant discounts last year after Black Friday, and they're waiting for it to happen again this year."

DVD wars: First Wal-Mart slashed the online prices of 10 big holiday releases to $10. Then Amazon and Target matched. Then Wal-Mart lowered its price to $9.99. All this comes after Wal-Mart launched an aggressive $10 online book promotion. From the WSJ:

The DVD battle resulted in prices that guaranteed the retailers would lose money on the movies. However, promotions to sell new movie releases close to or below cost in order to drive customer traffic are already common in retailing. Just this week, Wal-Mart was advertising "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" at less than $14, which is less than analysts believe retailers pay for such titles.

Gas prices still flat: An average gallon in the L.A. area is $3.013, a penny lower than last week, according to the Auto Club.

As you'll hear throughout the day, the jobless rate reached its highest level since 1983, quite a bit worse than had been expected. The 10.2 percent rate for October is up from 9.8 percent the previous month. The other disappointing news is the net loss of 190,000 jobs, also higher than many economists had expected. It was the 22nd straight month of job losses, although the numbers have been falling substantially. In January, 741,000 jobs were lost. This doesn't bode well for the state and local numbers, which are due out later in the month.(CNNMoney.com)

The Dow gains 203 points and is back over the 10,000 mark as investors parse whatever good news they can get their hands on. Today it was a decent showing by retailers in October, a decline in weekly jobless claims, and some positive comments by Cisco CEO John Chambers (that really pushed up tech issues). Timing is interesting - tomorrow the government reports October job numbers that will likely show a higher unemployment rate (they're talking close to 10 percent) but lower job losses. Place your bets. (Bloomberg)

Here's a story that might turn out to be a big deal, even if the technology issues remain hard to figure out. At stake is the ability of studios to stream movies, including those just being released, directly into set-top boxes and then onto your TV screen. Such a feat would be possible through something called Selectable Output Control, or SOC, which as the name suggests selectively controls what's coming into your box, something the FCC now prohibits.

The Motion Picture Association of America has been trying to get a waiver on that prohibition. The use of these controls, claims the MPAA, would somehow help control piracy, but consumer groups opposed to the waiver say there's no evidence of any such ability. Besides, the groups say, it's just a bad idea to allow studios to control what goes in and out of your box.

As you might imagine, theater owners aren't wild about this idea either. They're worried that folks will just stay home. There is currently a window between the time a movie hits the theaters and the time it's available on other platforms (DVD, video-on-demand and the like), but the studios are looking for more eyeballs and this might be the way.

The debate has been going on for some time and all the obvious interest groups have a position. The FCC is expected to rule soon on the waiver request, although I suspect there will be appeals up the wazoo. The big picture behind all these machinations is the ability of content providers to directly reach their audiences without concern about a middleman, whether it's a movie theater or a TV station. Here are stories from The Wrap, the National Journal, Broadcasting & Cable, Variety and the LAT that might help you navigate.