Who knew that the fate of world beer would one day be in the hands of the beer faithful in Rochester, New York? The tastes of this blue-collar town, along with neighbors Syracuse and Buffalo, are key in the pending acquisition of Anheuser-Busch (NYSE: BUD) by Belgian giant InBev, SA. The three cities make up half of the U.S. consumption of Labatt Blue and Labatt Blue Light. Due to the popularity of Labatt brews and Budweiser brands in upstate New York, the U.S. Justice Department worries that beer prices might rise in Rochester.

So, if the acquisition is to be approved, giving Europeans control over America's iconic beer brands, InBev is being asked to sell the Labatt USA subsidiary. Other major InBev brands, including Stella Artois, Becks, and Bass, are not considered competitive enough in any markets to reduce competition between beers and provide upward pressure on prices.

Nope, it all comes down to Rochester and its surprisingly European tastes. Who would have thought?

In the wake of Wall Street's recent tumble, several cities have started vying for New York's position as the center of worldwide finance. In Shanghai, for example, some investors have noted that, in spite of the city's relative inexperience in the world of high finance, it is swimming in cash. Tokyo, meanwhile, is working on rearranging its regulatory structure in an attempt to make its markets more attractive to international investors.

Perhaps the most interesting competitor for the throne of worldwide financial center is Dubai. Currently in the middle of a massive construction boom, the city has taken a variety of steps to make itself attractive to foreign workers, including relaxing Islamic law and creating so-called "free zones," where taxes are greatly reduced. On the other hand, Dubai has a mean humidity of over 60% and several months where the average temperatures top 100° F. Of course, if everything was based on climate, the worldwide financial center would probably be in the South of France!

While it's hard to imagine New York ceding its position at the heart of worldwide finance, the same could once have been said of Venice or London. The one constant in world history is that nothing lasts forever, and countries that fail to remain competitive do so at their peril. While we wait to see the future of New York, I'm going to try to imagine Jim Cramer in a keffiyah!

Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN) is deeply committed to offering you a huge selection of products, lightning fast service and amazing prices -- and it is willing to sue the state of New York to protect those prices.

On April 23rd, a new law took effect in New York, requiring out of state online retailers to collect sales from New York customers if they have representatives in New York soliciting sales for the company. Amazon's international affiliate marketing program means that it must collect the taxes, according to the state.

Amazon is punching back, suing New York and New York taxation and finance commissioner, Robert Megna, and Governor David Paterson, asking the state Supreme Court to overturn the law as unconstitutional. Amazon also says the law is "impermissibly vague and overbroad."

The Wall Street Journal reports (subscription required) that Amazon is defending itself on the grounds that it has no physical presence or employees based in New York, although the company's jobs site would seem to suggest otherwise. The distinction may be that the shipping facilities located in New York do constitute efforts to solicit business for the company.

In any case, New York politicians are not going to win any fans trying to make it one of the five states charging sales tax on Amazon.com transactions. The others are Kansas, Kentucky, North Dakota and Washington.

A lot of Americans are watching their homes decline in value, and many families are finding themselves upside down on their mortgages -- owing more than the home is worth.

But don't worry: if you were wealthy enough to afford New York City's sky-high real estate in the first place, you're doing quite well. New York apartments hit record highs in the first quarter -- an average of between $1.63 million and $1.72 million, depending on which data source you believe. That's a year-over-year price increase of more than 19%.

Manhattan real estate rose 13% to between $855,000 and $945,276, depending on which source you believe. But some experts say that that number is inflated by a disproportionate number of high-end properties and that prices on lower-end units are flat to negative.

In a related story, Italian businessman Luigi Zunino is looking to sell a Park Avenue apartment he hasn't yet closed on for $100 million.

According to the Wall Street Journal (subscription required), the 1907 Plaza Hotel where the unit is located is also home to Bear Stearns Chairman James Cayne and developer Harry Macklowe -- both of whom are suffering (or rather their investors are suffering) in the wake of the falling housing market.

But as long as executives who destroy value still reap large paydays, high end real estate will probably continue to do fine.

New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer, who crusaded against corporate malfeasance, apparently lived in a glass house. He should immediately resign in the wake of his near-admission that he was caught up in a reported prostitution scandal.

Spitzer made a somewhat perfunctory televised mea culpa, saying, "I apologize first and most importantly to my family. I apologize to the public, to whom I promised better... I am disappointed that I failed to live up to the standard I expected of myself."

That's just not good enough.

Spitzer, who reports allege is AKA Client 9, was captured on a federal wiretap, "confirming plans to have a woman travel from New York to Washington, where he had reserved a room," according to the New York Times, which broke the story. He was no passive victim here.

The irony here is inescapable. Spitzer made a national name for himself crusading against the evils of Wall Street. He had a knack for getting some of the biggest companies in the world including Merrill Lynch & Co. (NYSE: MER), American International Group Inc. (NYSE: AIG) to knuckle under to his demands without having to try his case in court.

Today's New York Times reports on the checkered past of one Felix H. Sater:

At 24 he was a successful Wall Street broker, at 27 he was in prison after a bloody bar fight, and at 32 he was accused of conspiring with the Mafia to launder money and defraud investors.

Along the way he became embroiled in a plan to buy antiaircraft missiles on the black market for the Central Intelligence Agency in either Russia or Afghanistan,

My first reaction: What's a perfectly nice guy like that doing associating with a clown like Donald Trump? Mr. Satter's (he added an extra "t" to his name) employer, Bayrock Group, has partnered with Donald Trump on the construction of the Trump SoHo tower. Satter has been going around promoting potential projects involving Mr. Trump.

Check out the Times piece for more information about his interesting background and involvement with Trump.

I'm not sure what all the fuss is about. Sure, he's had his run-ins with the law, but his background can't possibly smell any worse than Donald Trump's cologne.

Thanks to Gary Weiss' blog for drawing my attention to this one.

It was less than 3 weeks ago when Alex Rodriguez decided that the middle of World Series Game 4 was the opportune time to announce he was ditching the Yankees through a clause in his contract. At the time, Howard Stern sidekick (and lifelong Yankees fanatic) Artie Lange quipped: "Don't let the free-agency door hit you on the way out" (I'm paraphrasing to keep it clean, folks).

In the wake of this stunt, our own Georges Yared referred to A-Rod as a "crybaby extraordinaire" and a "selfish, self-centered you-know-what." Georges also noted that, "The attempt to upstage the Red Sox and Rockies should not be forgiven nor forgotten by the baseball brethren." Indeed, it was a classless move, one likely perpetrated by A-Rod's agent, but certainly given the green light by the third baseman himself.

And yet, here it is mid-November, and hijo pródigo A-Rod and the Yanks are back at the table. It's all sorts of amusing, really. This morning, it hit newswires that negotiations mediated by Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) officials have resulted in a new contract for the clutch player who isn't. Reportedly, A-Rod wanted to restart negotiations with the team, but chose to use a third party (Goldman representatives) instead of his agent, Scott Boras.

If you like following the seedier side of finance, New York's "Money Issue" is worth checking out. With the headline "Dirty Money: Shady Business, in Three Parts," this features some of the best long-form financial reporting I've seen all year. We get Joe Hagan's piece on the "biggest insider-trading ring since Boesky," David France's piece on The New York Times reporter who lost his job trying to save a kid from his "career" in porn, and an interview with two drug kingpins.

For the full table of contents for the issue, check out the magazine's website.

As long as we're on the topic, I'd like to take a moment to bemoan the decline of this kind of journalism. With newspaper budgets being squeezed by declining ad revenue, few news organizations are able to devote the resources to support investigative or even just detailed reporting.

So support New York's effort -- maybe it will inspire others.

To those of you sitting at home who often think you can manage your favorite baseball team better than those actually in charge -- a position just came open.

On the heels of the New York Yankees bowing out in the first round of post-season play -- again -- Joe Torre has parted ways with the legendary club, but on his terms. Instead of being dismissed, as many fans and sports analysts were anticipating, Torre was actually given the option of a one-year contract carrying a price tag of $8 million (including incentives).

But the former Yankees skipper -- who held the title for 12 years and ranks second in the club's history for number of wins (at 1,173, trailing only Joe McCarthy) -- met Thursday afternoon with Yankee general manager Brian Cashman and owner George Steinbrenner to turn down the offer.

I have reposted here my experience on Sept. 11, 2001, archived at http://911digitalarchive.org/parser.php?object_id=19929.

That morning my boyfriend, a NYPD officer, dropped me off at work at P.S.11 (on West 21st Street), where I was an assistant teacher at the time. Shortly after my students got to their classroom, while I left to retrieve something from another floor, another staff member told me a plane had crashed. On my way back to my classroom, someone said, "You need to turn on the T.V." I heard someone else say "The World Trade Center is gone." I went upstairs and shared the news with the other teachers in my room.

I left the room again to call my boyfriend since no one's cell phone was working. He was awaiting my call desperately, as he was being called in to duty. He told me we were in a state of emergency, and that I should try to make it to my mother's place in Spanish Harlem and not come home. He promised to call me. I told him I was to remain at school until all the parents came and that my kids were still unaware of the news. Parents began streaming in, tears falling from their eyes as they tightly hugged their small children and took them home. The children in my special education class sensed our anxiety and sadness and began to ply us with questions. What was happening? Why were the parents coming so early? Was it a half-day? I simply said the train was out of service, which was true, because I didn't want to frighten the kids.

MOST NOTEWORTHY: AmeriCredit (ACF), LTX Corp (LTX) and Foot Locker (FL) were today's noteworthy downgrades:

• Goldman cut AmeriCredit (NYSE: ACF) shares to Sell from Neutral to reflect the challenging rate and credit environment.

• Friedman Billings has concerns about LTX Corp's (NYSE: LTX) largest customer, Texas Instruments (TXN), losing market share in the handset baseband market, which has already impacted Texas' equipment test orders from LTX. Friedman Billings cut LTX Corp to Market Perform from Outperform.

• Foot Locker (NYSE: FL) was downgraded to Neutral from Overweight at JP Morgan, citing the disappointing Q2 results...

OTHER DOWNGRADES:

• Genesco (NYSE: GCO) was cut to Neutral from Positive at Susquehanna.

• Soleil downgraded Sonic Solutions (NASDAQ: SNIC) to Hold from Buy.

• Raymond James downgraded New York & Co (NYSE: NWY) to Underperform from Sell.

Analyst summaries provided by TheFlyOnTheWall.com (subscription required).

Sun Microsystems (NASDAQ: SUNW) volatility elevated into 9/5 financial analyst meeting.

SUNW is flat at $4.86. SUNW, which will change its symbol to JAVA on 8/27, will have an analyst meeting in New York on 9/5/07. The company has announced a $3 billion stock buyback on 5/16/07. SUNW recent market cap is $17.3 billion. SUNW over all option implied volatility of 45 is above its 26-week average of 38 according to Track Data, suggesting larger price risk.

Rackable Systems (NASDAQ: RACK) volatility flat on renewed buyout chatter.

RACK, a provider of servers and storage products, is recently up $0.65 to $12.62 on unconfirmed and renewed deal speculation. SUNW & DELL have been frequently chattered as interested in RACK. RACK call option volume of 2,690 contracts compares to put volume of 250 contracts. RACK September option implied volatility is at 47, October is at 51 and December is at 56, above its 26-week average of 55 according to Track Data, suggesting non-directional and less price risk.

Daily options Update is provided by Stock Specialist Paul Foster of theflyonthewall.com.

Is the most-storied franchise in baseball history for sale? The New York Times Dealbook speculates that with YES, the Yankee's television network currently up for sale, that the team itself might not be too far behind. Much of the speculation is based on a recent article in Fortune magazine. There are rumors that owner/lunatic George Steinbrenner's health is deteriorating, and he has been less openly crazy than in the past. (Full disclosure: I am a die-hard Red Sox fan, and one of the highlights of my life was watching Jason Varitek stuff his mitt in A-Rod's face.)

According to Fortune:

The topic of a sale "comes up all the time" in conversations with the other partners, says Yanks minority owner Edward Rosenthal, a retired steel executive. Adds another Yankees limited partner: "If I were handicapping it, I think we're looking at a sale of the team within three or four years."

The Yankees are estimated to be worth around $1.5 billion, but with hedge fund/private equity managers lining up to cash out their stakes with IPOs, it seems like it could go for even more -- perhaps a lot more.

Assuming The Boss's health is OK, that still raises the question: How much longer before he gets sick of losing?

Bear Stearns-(NYSE-BSC) volatility Elevated at 56; above 26-week average of 31. BSC is recently down $5.78 to $115.49. BSC August & September option implied volatility of 56 is above its 26-week average of 31 according to Track Data, suggesting larger price movement.

Lehman Brothers Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: LEH) volatility Elevated at 55, above 26-week average of 30. LEH is recently down $2.47 to $59.56. LEH call option volume of 16,716 contracts compares to put volume of 18,651 contracts. LEH August & September option implied volatility of 55 is above its 26-week average of 30 according to Track Data, suggesting larger risk.

Volatility Index S&P 500 Options-VIX up 1.34 to 24.86.

Daily options Update is provided by Stock Specialist Paul Foster of theflyonthewall.com.

For the past couple of months I have written a lot about the weak real estate market, almost all of which has been negative, but don't tell that to Somerset Partners LLC. It was announced today by the Wall Street Journal (subscription required) that the New York-based private-equity firm won the bidding on an office building in New York City that represents that highest per square foot price of any building in the history of the country!

The property in question is located at 450 Park Ave. and went for a whopping $510 million dollars. If you were to break that price tag down to a per square foot basis you are talking about $1,589 a square foot. Not too shabby in a country with a weak real estate market.

The building last changed hands back in 2002 when the price went for $492 a square foot for a total cost basis of around $158 million. Not a bad investment to say the least. We are talking about a $352 million profit over the last five years, representing a little over a 222% percent change! Not too shabby at all.

With prices falling for the housing market, many analysts had been expecting that the trend would carry over into high-end office developments as well. This just does not seem to be the case. The previous record for the most expensive per square foot office buildings was set just a month ago when Italian based Gruppo Zunino agreed to pay $1,476 a square foot for New York's 660 Madison Ave.