The Buzz

Looking for a stocking-stuffer?
State government might have just what you need.
That’s right.
Do your holiday shopping with the state.
The Kentucky Finance and Administration Cabinet’s Division of Historic Properties has released its 2008 Kentucky State Capitol ornament, the sixth in a limited-edition series.
“This year’s ornament features the west lunette, depicting the Treaty of Sycamore Shoals,” the announcement [...]

“We are hearing a lot of horror stories” because of the recession, says Gene Williams, a partner in Natasha’s Bistro & Bar on The Esplanade downtown. “This is actually good news.”
Natasha’s is finishing a remodeling of its physical space and a restructuring of its business to create what Williams calls a “hybrid restaurant” that is in [...]

Here’s something to chew on as you eat your next turkey sandwich at Subway: The bird you are digesting might have been a runner-up to a turkey “pardoned” just before Thanksgiving by President Bush.
But there’s more.
Your Subway turkey was raised on feed products made by Nicholasville-based Alltech, chief sponsor of the Alltech FEI World Equestrian [...]

Alltech is doing a good deed in China that ought to be recognized.
The international animal feed company based in Nicholasville is sponsoring part of the reconstruction of an elementary school that was destroyed by an earthquake on May 12.
The Xiang-E Elementary collapsed, killing more than 370 teachers and students.
Alltech is joining with the Kentucky Chinese [...]

There might be a way to profit from hedge funds even if you don’t have the money to actually be in one.
At least that’s the message you can read between the lines of an article in the Journal of Corporate Finance by University of Kentucky assistant finance professor Christopher Clifford.
Hedge funds are like unregulated private [...]

Stuart Hoffman is “110 percent certain” that the nation is in a recession.
Other economists are still avoiding the R-word on technical grounds, but Hoffman confidently declares that the United States has been in a recession “for at least the last four or five months if not longer.”
Unemployment is up, spending is down and personal incomes [...]

“Iraq is open for business,” says Maurey Bond.
He should know. He’s been working in Baghdad since February.
The 31-year-old Lexington native and University of Kentucky graduate is general manager of the Iraqi Airways International Business Center near the Baghdad International Airport.
The center is in an economic zone that also has a convention center, a 100-room hotel, [...]

BusinessWeek says Lexington has the 13th most recession-resistant economy in the nation.
Here’s why: “Lexington, home to dozens of major companies, the University of Kentucky, and horse farms, is a diverse economy with a mix of agriculture, government, health care, and education,” says BusinessWeek.
One potential weak spot is manufacturing, which employs 12 percent of Lexington’s workforce [...]

The University of Kentucky has chalked up another first — in business, not basketball.
A team from UK’s Gatton College of Business and Economics has been invited for the first time to compete in the prestigious Wall Street Journal National Biz Quiz at Ohio State University Nov. 15-16.
Only 24 universities were selected, including Southern Cal, Texas, [...]