Supply of Grads in Demand

Everyone seems concerned about the kind of education students are getting in Southern California high schools. But what of the education students used to get?

It’s not an unreasonable question, given that local high school graduates now wield considerable influence over the nation’s economy and business.

Economist Jerry L. Jordan (Reseda High) was just named president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, where he has an influential role on a key Fed committee. Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Richard C. Breeden graduated from now-defunct Aviation High in Redondo Beach.

Then there is Michael J. Boskin, the Administration’s top economist, who is a graduate of Hamilton High School in Los Angeles. Boskin was a sprinter on Hamilton’s track team. No doubt he’s hoping the economy won’t pull up lame as it recovers.

Keeping Score

A new ad on the side of RTD buses notes that Los Angeles boasts eight professional sports franchises, compared to a lowly one for Portland (basketball’s Trail Blazers).

It’s all part of the “L.A. Means Business” campaign by the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp. touting the city’s virtues to businesses who may be thinking of fleeing for friendlier parts.

For anyone who lost count, the local eight are the Dodgers, Raiders, Clippers, Lakers, Kings and Strings (a professional tennis team). Add the quasi-Los Angeles Rams and Angels and you get eight.

But the ad is already outdated. The new Los Angeles Wings team of the semi-obscure Arena Football League gives us nine franchises. If that isn’t enough incentive to stay in town, consider that TV’s muscle-bound “American Gladiators” competition is taped in Studio City.

The Line

You can’t keep a good line down.

In the just-published book “House of Cards,” about American Express, writers Jon Friedman and John Meehan conclude by asking, “If American Express were a person, and not this giant, floundering corporation, would it be eligible for one of its own precious green cards?”

The line is remarkably similar to the opening of a story on American Express by Bill Saporito that appeared in Fortune magazine last November, titled “The Bill is Due at American Express.” It reads: “If American Express Co. were a person, it probably wouldn’t be eligible for one of its own cards.”

That’s not all. “House of Cards” cites as reasons “AmEx’s faltering earnings, lousy credit picture and tarnished reputation,” while the Fortune article asks who would give a card to “a corpus with an erratic earnings record, an inability to handle debt and an increasingly questionable reputation vis-a-vis its peers?”

Asked about the similarities, Carol Perfumo, publicist at “House of Cards” publisher G. P. Putnam’s Sons, said the line was something heard frequently on Wall Street last year when American Express was stumbling.

Briefly . . .

Too late for Tsongas: A local public relations and marketing association is holding a meeting in San Pedro to train people “to speak in sound bites’ . . . Financier Michael Milken, who says he detests use of the word junk to describe the high-yield bonds he made famous, uses it 31 times himself in his recent Forbes jailhouse interview . . . Help wanted: KCBS-TV Channel 2, whose image took a beating with reports of upheaval in its news department, is looking for someone to help promote the station.