If you still doubt that the next bubble will be green, check out the latest from California. Green and clean technology gigs surged 36% from 1995 to 2008, beating the state's overall 13% job-growth rate for the same period, according to Silicon Valley-based research firm Collaborative Economics. Since California's on the leading edge of this sector, many see it as a sign of things to come for the rest of the country.

As of January 2008, there were only 159,000 green jobs in California, less than 1% of the state's total, following year-over-year growth of 5%. But, during that same period, total jobs in the state dropped 1%, suggesting that jobs in sustainability just might be more sustainable. Though these may seem like small numbers, keep in mind that the green sector job market is twice the size of the state's biotech presence and two-thirds the size of the software industry.

For News Corp. (NWS), MySpace is the mistake that keeps on costing. It's bad enough that Murdoch's empire paid $500 million for the social networking platform shortly before Facebook knocked it from the premier spot in the social media beauty pageant, but now we also know that News Corp. has committed $350 million to office space for MySpace that will never be used.

News Corp is shelling out more than $1 million a month for 420,000 square feet in Playa Vista, near Los Angeles International Airport. The deal was signed in August 2008 by Peter Levinsohn, former president of the Fox Interactive Media Unit. At the time, he issued a chest-puffing memo claiming it was "the single biggest real-estate transaction in Los Angeles in the last 25 years." Fortunately, he didn't mix the word "genius" in there at all.

Existing homes are starting to move again. Last month, home resales hit their highest level in more than two years, thrashing expectations. The 9.4% increase in home resales -- which entails a seasonally adjusted rate of 5.57 million -- is attributed largely to the deadline for the first-time home buyer tax credit.

According to the National Association of Realtors, the annualized, seasonally adjusted rate is up from the 5.1 million in August and far ahead of the 5.35 million expected for September (based on economists surveyed by Thomson Reuters).

On Thursday morning, Citigroup (NYSE: C) announced that it is going to lower the number of U.S. retail outlets, limiting the banks to six major metropolitan areas. The Wall Street Journal reports that the bank will also limit its lending mainly to wealthy customers. Citigroup chose to take this step in order to control the amount of its consumer lending, limiting its transactions to credit cards and jumbo mortgages.

According to the report, Citi will release its plans in October, when we should learn that the bank will be a presence mainly in New York, Washington D.C., Miami, Chicago, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. That said, it turns out the plan could be contingent upon approval from the U.S. Government. The report notes that some Citi executives are concerned the government may not issue approval.

With "Bonus Rage" burning up the media wires, people actually seem to be forgetting about the really grim news out there. Stocks may be running up, but bonds and the credit markets show no such optimism, as the ever grim Tyler Durden at Zero Hedge points out. Since bond investors tend to be smarter than stock investors, this is an ominous warning sign in the face of the huge four day rally underway.

I found an interesting article on the Los Angeles Times' site today. For those not aware, Major League Soccer (MLS) is about to lose David Beckham, just one year after the soccer coverboy signed a five-year deal to play for the Los Angeles Galaxy. Beckham was allowed to also play for European powerhouse AC Milan, and now he doesn't want to leave.

As the story notes, this looks bad for American soccer because Beckham wanted to be " ... an ambassador for the game here and, hopefully, it is going to encourage other players to come to the States and be part of this because soccer in America can become much bigger." Well, how is that working out? Answer: so well that the ambassador is ready to leave.

How cutthroat have mortgage lenders been? I'd say on the pirates-and-vikings level, if data from Los Angeles this month is any indication. After a new law went into effect in early July requiring lenders to contact homeowners and attempt to avoid foreclosure before initiating the process, October foreclosures fell sharply, based on newly-scheduled home auctions (most foreclosures take 90 to 120 days to complete).

The law, however, only requires a 30-day waiting period to attempt to work things out, and does not ask the lenders to provide any proof of the options it considered; only a piece of paper evidencing attempt to contact the homeowner (which, it would seem, could be as limited as a phone message but would probably take the form of a registered letter). There does not seem to be any way to make sure that the intention behind the contact was to find a creative solution to foreclosure and many critics claim that the effect of the law will only be a 30-day delay.

Indeed, all observers are forecasting a rise in foreclosures for November that is roughly equal to the decline in October. Has anything been gained, other than a few weeks' of respite from homelessness and a momentary decrease in the supply of cheap homes? I doubt it.

For those of you who just can't stand the thought of running out and filling up your car with gasoline, I have a little bit of good news: gasoline prices fell again last week. According to the Energy Information Administration, the national average fell by a little over 8 cents a gallon last week.

This marks the third week in a row that prices have fallen, lowering the national average to $3.08 for a gallon of regular unleaded. While it is encouraging to see prices falling to a four-week low, prices are still up 91 cents from the start of the year.

U.S. refinery production has been the root of the problem, and although America's refineries are still running at sub 90% capacity, gasoline prices have been slightly offset by increased motor fuel imports. Analysts are expecting that more refineries will be coming back online during the remainder of this month, and if we continue to see above average fuel imports, then gasoline prices should continue to retreat.