hard on the heels of the announcement of Rupert Murdoch's News Corp's devestating financial loss comes reports of the owner of Westfield Londons woes.

Just days after Murdoch toasted Frank Lowy, Australia's richest man and owner of the largest chain of shopping centres in the world Westfield, comes news of plunging profits and the real fear the recession could undo Westfield.

Spread across the USA-Westfields are usually out of the main town shopping centres (like WalMarts :having ripped the guts out of smalltown "mum & pop" style shops ) and rely on customers driving to and being able to park.
But here-in lies there problem-customers are cutting their trips. Those with shops in the new Westfield London will find when times get hard how difficult it is to get out of a lease..they'll be bankrupted if they try.

I attended the Murdoch / Lowy love-in. I counted 4 billionaires in the room and at least a dozen multi-millionaires including new Opposition leader and former banker Malcolm Turnbull ($300M) and the PM Kevin Rudd (wife Theresa $500M).

The second richest billionaire-cardboard king Dick Pratt sent appologies. Pratt has just been fined $30M for price-fixing (but made about $400M in the process)

Hungarian born Lowy arrived in Australia penniless after WW2 (along with dozens of minor level Nazi war criminals posing as Jewish refugees-the safest haven for decades). He made a motza with Larry Silverstein after 9/11-Lowy had bought the shopping precint in the World Trade Centre days before, and he finances the settlers grabbing Palestinian land in Gaza. He's also being investigated by the US IRA over an undeclared Swiss bank account with $700M in it:unsure: