Wednesday morning headlines

State of the market: To cut or not to cut - that is the question. After lots of buzz on Tuesday about an interest rate cut being imminent, "Fed officials" (whoever they are) are telling the WSJ that they're cautiously optimistic the steps they've taken so far will do the trick. They cite stable stock prices (the market is up solidly in early trading) and a pickup in the issuance of jumbo mortgages. Just two 37 economists surveyed by USA Today expect the Fed to cut rates before next month. As you might imagine, not everyone is quite that encouraged; some even believe that only a sharp cut in rates will pump more life into the credit markets. It sounds like a wait and see kind of thing.

Brokerage woes: Shares of L.A.-based CB Richard Ellis are up three percent this morning after a WSJ story had analysts saying that the stock’s 30 percent plunge over the last five weeks was an over-reaction. CB Richard is another victim of the credit mess; it's just become a lot tougher to get financing, so that puts a squeeze on property sales. It also raises concerns about leasing in case the economy really goes south. (WSJ)

Price on bootlegging: Music piracy is costing the U.S. economy more than $12 billion in revenues and 71,000 new jobs each year, according to a report by the Institute for Policy Innovation. Those are reasonable sounding numbers but who the heck really knows? (The group says calculations were based on formulas established by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis.) Of the losses, $3.7 billion were the result of illegal downloads and file-sharing. (Variety)

Counterfeits and piracy: The percentage of cases has risen in the past year, and it's costing L.A.-area businesses $5.2 billion and 106,000 jobs, according to federal officials. The numbers were part of a week-long dog-and-pony show that has the feds pointing out the economic costs and health threats posed by counterfeit and pirated goods. From the LAT:

The seized counterfeit goods on display at a U.S. Customs and Border Protection warehouse in Long Beach included laughably amateurish "Dinacell" batteries. But they also included Lancome skin cream containers that were nearly impossible to distinguish from the real thing: pseudo pharmaceuticals, bogus Donald Duck dolls and phony Air Jordan basketball shoes in boxes that promised a portion of the sales proceeds would go to charity. Officials said that all the counterfeit goods on display came into the U.S. through the Los Angeles-Long Beach port complex -- the nation's busiest -- and that the ports are a focal point of enforcement efforts by Customs and Border Protection.

Wages rising: Foreign-born Latino workers accounted for 36 percent of workers earning less than $8.50 an hour in 2005. That doesn’t sound great, but it’s an improvement over the 42 percent in 1995, according to the Pew Hispanic Center. In the same period, the portion of foreign-born Latinos earning from $8.50 an hour to $16.20 in 2005 grew by about 5 percentage points. New arrivals are older, better educated and more likely to be employed in construction than agriculture. Legal and illegal workers were not differentiated. (LAT)

Sports radio switch: Spanish-language broadcasts of Dodger games will move from KWKW (1330) to KHJ (930) beginning next season. KWKW, in turn, will become the Spanish-language flagship for the Angels and the Galaxy. The Dodgers apparently didn't want to be preempted by soccer, so that's why the team is switching stations. The Angels were more accommodating. (LAT)

Eisner gets Topps: I thought this story would never end. San Diego-based Upper Deck Co. finally withdrew its offer to buy rival Topps Co., maker of baseball cards and Bazooka bubble gum. Topps has recommended that shareholders approve the sale to a group of investors that includes former Walt Disney Co. CEO Michael Eisner. The Eisner deal generated a lawsuit that accuses Topps directors of breaching their fiduciary duty by agreeing to sell the company at a price that was too low. (AP)