Investors

To help pay for the construction of the long-awaited connection between the Pennsylvania Turnpike and I-95, turnpike officials plan to borrow $200 million from wealthy foreign investors. The investors, expected to be primarily from China, could get green cards for themselves and their families to live in the United States in exchange for their money. The complex deal is being brokered by officers of a prominent and politically connected Philadelphia investment management company.

Investors who sued the federal government in 1993 for breaking its promises in its seizure of Meritor Savings Bank won a judgment yesterday of $371.7 million, but it could be several more years before they see the money. U.S. Claims Court Judge Loren A. Smith wrote that Meritor investors have strong arguments to receive an additional $402 million, but said he would leave that question to an appeal of his award. Justice Department spokesman Charles Miller said the government was still reviewing the decision, and hasn't decided how to respond.

Many financial advisors have the same advice for nervous investors unhinged by the stock market's wild mood swings in recent days: Take a deep breath. Come in off the ledge. Don't panic. "The worst thing somebody can do is to sell into a panic," said Alexander F. Cabot, an analyst for the Wiley Group, a Conshohocken wealth advisory firm. Thursday's 500-point Dow plunge, followed by Friday's whipsaw ride between positive and negative territory, might induce the risk-averse to head for the exits.

After months of uncertainty about the future of the money-losing Claridge Hotel & Casino, it appeared yesterday that buyers with sufficiently deep pockets and a willingness to risk what's in them will buy the gambling hall. Al Luciani, who as a state assistant attorney general drafted the New Jersey Casino Control Act, said he and four investors have an exclusive agreement, good for the next two weeks, to negotiate for the purchase of the Claridge. Luciani said he is confident a definitive agreement can be negotiated "in a few days.

A Haddon Heights man pleaded guilty in federal court in Camden yesterday to scamming millions from investors who believed his company had a government defense contract to ship military equipment overseas. Instead, prosecutors said, Glyn Richards was operating a classic Ponzi scheme, in which investors were promised quick returns on their money. Richards told people who invested in his Audubon company, All Freight Logistics, that they would receive a 44 percent return within a few months, according to court records.

Real estate investors are increasingly ignoring Groucho Marx's dictum that it's not worth joining any club that would have you as a member. In fact, interest in real estate investing clubs is on the rise, leaders of area groups said last week. The clubs have been around for years, hitting peak popularity in the early to mid-1980s, when disciples of such real estate gurus as Albert Lowry and Robert Allen regularly gathered to worship before the no-money-down altar. But the flock has dwindled over the last two years, as the prophets fell from financial grace amid much bad press, said Richard R. Hamilton, president of the Indiana Real Estate Club and director of properties for Mark O. Haroldsen Inc. of Salt Lake City, which advises clubs all over the country.

WHEN INVESTING, it's smart to seek out companies with competitive advantages. But you can develop your own competitive advantage over other investors by reading. Here are two highly regarded classics for your own bookshelf or for holiday-gift-giving consideration: *  One Up on Wall Street by Peter Lynch (Simon & Schuster, $16). Arguably the most engaging investment book ever written. If you've never read it, stop everything and pick up a copy. It could change your life. Advocating buying great companies for the long term, Lynch believes that "any normal person using the customary 3 percent of the brain can pick stocks just as well, if not better than the average Wall Street analyst.

Whether wary of making the wrong move or weary of market uncertainty, small investors seemed to sit tight yesterday and wait out what some had feared would be the Black Monday of 1989. It was a shrewd move. History did not repeat itself. Rather than dropping 508 points as it had on Oct. 19, 1987, the Dow Jones industrial average, after taking an early-morning plunge, rose 88.12 points by the time the bell ended trading in the stock market. Retail brokers had feared that a nasty nose dive yesterday and memories of the market's erratic behavior in the year after the 1987 crash would destroy any chance they had of wooing small investors back to the market.

Today, fewer than half of the 60 million employees with long-term investment accounts have held them 10 or more years. Over the next decade, another 30 million will reach that level. Seen in that light, the 2000 election was a mere breaker to a looming tidal wave of investor sentiment.. . . Compared to participants in work-based plans, portfolio owners with individual stocks develop a capitalist ideology rapidly. [The Zogby poll] found that this cohort, after one to five years, is already 43 percent Republican (vs. 34 percent Democrat)

Morton Mitosky, 91, a Philadelphia lawyer known for his ability to pick financially successful Broadway shows for himself and other investors, died Friday at Cabrini Hospital Hospice in Manhattan of complications from a 1997 stroke. He had lived in Ventnor, N.J., for nearly 30 years and also had a residence in Manhattan. As a lawyer, he maintained offices in Philadelphia and New York for many years. Mr. Mitosky remained active in theater investments, as well as several Hollywood projects, until his stroke.

IT'S complicated. That describes a lot in life, but when it describes government schemes to get money, especially for public works like roads, we get nervous. And a new scheme being pursued by the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission that will award green cards for foreign investment is complicated and troubling on many fronts. In order to pay for a connector between the Pennsylvania Turnpike and Interstate 95, according to a report in the Inquirer , the commission will borrow $200 million from overseas investors who, in exchange, will get one green card for every $500,000 invested under a U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services visa category called EB-5 that leads to permanent residence in two years.

To help pay for the construction of the long-awaited connection between the Pennsylvania Turnpike and I-95, turnpike officials plan to borrow $200 million from wealthy foreign investors. The investors, expected to be primarily from China, could get green cards for themselves and their families to live in the United States in exchange for their money. The complex deal is being brokered by officers of a prominent and politically connected Philadelphia investment management company.

Ahead of the key Federal Reserve meetings Tuesday and Wednesday, bond investors are asking themselves a hard question: What will happen when inflation and interest rates inevitably rise and bond prices fall? The Fed, to a large extent, has kept interest rates at rock-bottom levels, so bond investors are holding their collective breath to see what the agency decides next. If rates rise, the market value of government bonds in particular - and all bonds in general - could be hurt significantly.

Three private equity firms have contacted Children's Hospital of Philadelphia during the last six months about partnering to open urgent-care centers, Steven Altschuler, the hospital's chief executive, said Thursday. Urgent-care centers are increasingly common, staffed by doctors and touted as a way to keep people out of emergency rooms for relatively minor ailments. "I'm not that smart," Altschuler said at the Philadelphia Health Care Expansion Summit in Center City, "but I figured there must be money to be made, because [private equity firms]

Mayor Nutter and other top city officials met privately Thursday with dozens of prospective investors in an apparent effort to promote the city's borrowing efforts. The two-day Philadelphia Investor Conference opened at the Comcast Center with panel discussions highlighting the city and regional economies and the prominent roles of health care and higher education. It was scheduled to continue Friday with tours of the city and its three capital-intensive subsidiaries, the Water Department, Philadelphia International Airport, and the Philadelphia Gas Works.

NEW YORK - An investor who helped launch Anthony Bosch's Biogenesis of America has been trying to sell purported documents from the closed antiaging clinic to Major League Baseball and players, several people familiar with the matter said Friday. MLB has bought some of the documents, the people said, all speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the situation. MLB has been investigating the clinic for allegedly distributing banned performance-enhancing drugs to players.

In 2012, Investors Bancorp Inc. barely had a market share in terms of deposits in the three South Jersey counties that are part of the Philadelphia region. Now, Investors Bank is poised to be the ninth-biggest holder of deposits in Burlington, Camden, and Gloucester Counties after announcing two acquisitions in the last four months. It would squeeze between Susquehanna Bank (No. 8) and Citizens Bank (No. 10). In December, the Short Hills, N.J.-based bank holding company said it would acquire Roma Financial Corp.

NEW YORK - The U.S. stock market marched past another milepost Thursday on its long, turbulent journey back. The Standard & Poor's 500 closed at a new high, three weeks after the Dow Jones industrial average surpassed its own closing record. The S&P rose 6.34 points to close at 1,569.19, a gain of 0.4 percent, beating by four points its previous record of 1,565.15, set on Oct. 9, 2007. The index is still shy of its all-time trading high of 1,576. Reaction on Wall Street was more of a dull buzz than a victory cry, with analysts warning clients not to get excited.

NEW YORK - Investors just can't get past Europe. Renewed worries about the long-running debt crisis weighed on the Dow Jones industrial average Wednesday and held the Standard & Poor's 500 index back from reaching an all-time high. Investors are watching to see whether Cyprus can shore up its banking system. They are also keeping an eye on Italy, where political parties are struggling to form a new government in the eurozone's third-largest economy. The Dow fell 33.49 points to close at 14,526.16, a loss of 0.2 percent.

NEW YORK - As the title character of Matilda prepares hair dye to exact revenge on her nasty dad and his pompadour, she sings in a tribute to naughtiness: "Just because you find that life's not fair, it/ Doesn't mean you just have to grin and bear it. " The precocious schoolgirl has the telekinetic ability to manipulate chalk on a distant blackboard. Perhaps more important, she sold more than $12 million worth of tickets ahead of her show's April 11 Broadway opening night. A horde of investors grinned through unusually tough terms dictated by the lead producer, the Royal Shakespeare Company, for a stake in the musical, now in previews at the Shubert Theatre.