December 2011

Obama to ask for debt limit hilke- Treasury official

December 28, 2011

(MENAFN – Saudi Press Agency) The White House plans to ask Congress for an increase in the debt limit before the end of the week, Reuters quoted a senior U.S. Treasury Department official as …

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Will Bankrupt Toll Road Bankrupt The Feds?

December 28, 2011

When federal officials finalized a loan to a consortium building a toll road through open country in San Diego County near the Mexican border in 2003, they had high hopes for the project: the South Bay Expressway. Taking advantage of the Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act, the investors behind the four-lane highway sought to prove that the private sector had a role to play in America’s transportation infrastructure. Unlike other so-called “brownfield” acquisitions of existing toll roads like the Chicago Skyway, the South Bay Expressway was supposed to serve as evidence that private industry could build “greenfield” highways with a little help from the feds. The $140 million in federal money loaned to the highway, Bush Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta said at the time, was “a TIFIA success story, demonstrating how innovative federal financing tools can attract private investment to critical transportation projects.” Officially owned by the California Department of Transportation, the road would be leased to a group of private backers until 2042. The toll road’s backers — including an assortment of some of the world’s leading banks and the Macquarie Infrastructure Group, a major player in the burgeoning world of such so-called “public-private partnerships,” (PPPs) — expected that the then-seemingly unstoppable suburban growth near San Diego would repay their investment handsomely. Eight years later, after $635 million in construction costs, disappointing traffic revenue, the housing crash and bankruptcy, the South Bay Expressway is something less than a monument to “innovative” financing methods and private industry. Instead, the the toll road, which emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy in April, was officially sold to the San Diego Association of Governments on Dec. 21. Macquarie, the Australian infrastructure investment company, simply wrote the road off as a loss . In the meantime, the bankruptcy tested one of key provisions of the TIFIA program: the so-called “springing lien” that jumps the federal government to the head of the line of creditors looking to recoup their investments. The bank lenders on the project will all lose money, but the federal government, which saw its initial $140 million loan to the company running the toll road chopped down to $94.2 million during the bankruptcy period, says that it will still break even on the South Bay Expressway because of higher interest rates paid on its loan. “I think in the end we were able to construct a deal that was good for both the region and TIFIA,” said Marney Cox, chief economist for the new owners, SANDAG. At the same time, Cox said, negotiations over how to construct the deal in such a way that the federal government wouldn’t lose money were difficult. “To have the first one go bad on you wouldn’t have been a good sign for the program over all,” Cox said. “So I think they were trying to figure out a way to save that program from going under.” Under a new arrangement with SANDAG, the Federal Highway Administration says, it may even have a shot at making more than the original principal and interest it predicted it would when it made the loan in 2003 — as long as traffic exceeds conservative estimates. The road’s tortured history, and especially its journey through bankruptcy court, are enough to convince critics of PPPs that this is one bet the feds never should have made. “Private toll roads are backed by expectations about increased driving volume,” said Phineas Baxandall of the U.S. federation of state Public Interest Research Groups. The decision to build any road is based in part on projections of future traffic volumes, which are notoriously tricky to calculate. In the case of toll roads with private investors, however, when the government gets involved, the government’s ability to break even is dependent on how accurately those private investors have judged the market. Baxandall thinks the Federal Highway Administration should have taken a harder look at the South Bay Expressway’s traffic projections. He also argues that projects like Los Angeles’s “30/10″ expansion of its mass transit program, which promises to build 30-years’-worth of subway and transit expansions in just 10 years, are a better bet for taxpayers. “Local transit projects like LA’s expansion or Denver’s light rail program are backed by local taxes, which are more reliable and can be tweaked to produce more revenue, so they should protect federal taxpayers’ TIFIA dollars better,” Baxandall said. Proposed legislation in the Senate could do away with mass transit’s edge in the TIFIA selection process. In San Diego, critics also raised eyebrows at the $341.5 million that SANDAG, the league of municipal governments, agreed to pay for the roads. That was significantly more than the road’s assessed value of $287 million during the bankruptcy. But Cox said the company in charge of the toll road after its bankruptcy was able to convince SANDAG that its business was worth the larger amount, because of arguments that it might be able to extend its lease on the road, chop executives’ salaries and reduce its property taxes. Carolyn Chase of the San Diego chapter of the Sierra Club said it was a case of misplaced priorities. “They love freeways,” Chase said. “Honestly. When you ask to use money for a better transit system, for instance, they’ll say ‘oh no, we can’t do that.’ But when it comes to a freeway, they find the money.”

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SEC Ramping Up Efforts To Stop Hedge Fund Fraud

December 28, 2011

Memo to hedge fund managers: It’s a bad time to try to overachieve. The Securities and Exchange Commission is cracking down on hedge fund fraud, and the first places they’re looking are the firms that seem to be doing a little too well . According to a report in The Wall Street Journal , the SEC has devised a method of sorting data that highlights hedge funds whose balance sheets never seem to suffer, no matter how rocky the market gets. The WSJ notes that the agency is trying to spot the next Bernie Madoff before he or she can defraud investors of billions of dollars, the way Madoff did with his Ponzi scheme. Already, the WSJ says, the SEC has initiated four civil-fraud lawsuits based on their data review system. It’s an auspicious time for the SEC to be seen bringing the hammer down on Wall Street scofflaws, because many have criticized the agency since the height of the financial crisis for not doing more to identify and prosecute financial malpractice. In one such high-profile instance, Harry Markopolos, the fraud investigator who spent almost a decade building a case against Madoff’s wealth management firm, told the House Financial Services Committee in 2009 that the SEC was “financially illiterate” and ” captive to the industry it regulates .” The SEC has also taken heat for its failure to place a check on Lehman Brothers’ heavy over-leveraging in the months before its collapse, and for waiting until 2005 to investigate the business practices of Texas billionaire Alan Stanford, even though the agency had begun to suspect the truth — that Stanford was operating a sizable Ponzi scheme — as early as 1997. More recently, a report issued in November from the SEC’s Office of Inspector General noted that the SEC had failed to investigate a tip about another unnamed hedge fund manager allegedly perpetrating “massive fraud.” Perhaps in response to these and other criticisms, late 2011 has been a proactive period for the SEC. The agency recently touted its redoubled efforts to stamp out insider trading , and earlier this month, it sued six former executives of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac for securities fraud, claiming that the executives misrepresented the degree of their companies’ exposure to risky subprime loans during the period preceding the financial crisis.

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Dan Solin: Don’t Be Fooled by "Best Fund Manager" Lists

December 27, 2011

This is the time of year when the financial media goes into overdrive. You can expect no end of predictions for 2012. Some will be right. Others will be wrong. Those who are right will anoint themselves (or be anointed) as new “gurus” with magical predictive powers. Actually, they were just lucky. More insidious are lists of “best fund managers”. Investors rely on these lists, especially when they are created by credible sources. Morningstar is arguably at the top of the food chain in the investment research biz. According to its web page , it offers data on 330,000 investment offerings and has $167 billion under management. It operates in 26 countries. Much of the advice provided by Morningstar is excellent should be studied and followed by investors. My favorite is an article demonstrating that low fees are likely to be the best predictor of a mutual fund’s future success, which is summarized here . Morningstar, like many others, picks active fund managers who it believes stand out from the crowd. Much like the Grammy awards, Morningstar designated five “nominees” for domestic stock manager of 2011. In making these selections, Morningstar noted that the nominees “…have done an outstanding job not just this year but over the long haul to produce strong returns for shareholders.” Sounds impressive. And the nominees are: 1. Bob Goldfarb and David Pope. Sequoia Fund (SEQUX) 2. Bill Nygren. Oakmark Select (OAKLX) and Oakmark (OAKMX) 3. Don and Stephen Yacktman. Yackman (YACKX) and Yacktman Focused (YAFFX) 4. Scott Satterwhite, James Kieffer and George Serti. Artisan Mid Cap Value (ARTQX), Artisan Small Cap Value (ARTVX) and Artisan Value (ARTLX) 5. Pat English and Andy Ramer. FMI Large Cap (FMIHX) and FMI Common Stock (FMIMX). The lucky winner will be announced the first week in January. Readers of the article were encouraged to vote for their favorite. I thought it would be helpful to give you some data to guide your decision. First, I can understand the basis for picking these fund managers. Not only did they have a good year, they had a great decade. I ran the ten year returns for each of these fund managers. All of them clobbered their benchmark. The performance of the Yackmans was particularly impressive. The ten year return of their two funds was 10.78 percent and 11.63 percent, against a benchmark of only 3.93 percent. In a previous blog , I noted that stellar performance can be as easily attributed to luck as to skill. It can take many years of data for outperformance by a fund manager to have statistical significance. I ran what is called a “t-test” calculation on each of the five managers nominated by Morningstar. I used data from the inception date when the fund manager nominated began to manage the fund. I determined that I needed more years of data to determine whether the outperformance of all these fund managers was due to luck or skill. You can find details of my calculations, and an explanation of the t-test calculation here . Without this information, how would you decide which of these managers you should select to manage your funds? Worse yet, how could anyone determine which funds to include in this list of “best manager?” Wouldn’t the “best manager” necessarily be able to demonstrate investment skill? If you must vote for your favorite fund manager, follow Morningstar’s previous advice. Go with the fund manager whose fund has the lowest expense ratio. The winner would be the Yackman Fund (YACKX), with an expense ratio of 0.85 percent. A far more intelligent choice would be to ignore list of “best fund managers” altogether. You can buy low management fee index funds from Vanguard for a fraction of the expense ratio of the lowest actively managed funds. Vanguard’s Total Stock Market Index Fund (VTSMX) has an expense ratio of only 0.18 percent. According to Vanguard , this expense ratio is 84 percent lower than the average expense ratio of funds with similar holdings. This fund is managed by Gerard C. O’Reilly. He would be my pick for “best fund manager.” Dan Solin is a senior vice president of Index Funds Advisors. He is the New York Times bestselling author of The Smartest Investment Book You’ll Ever Read, The Smartest 401(k) Book You’ll Ever Read, The Smartest Retirement Book You’ll Ever Read and The Smartest Portfolio You’ll Ever Own. His new book, The Smartest Money Book You’ll Ever Read, will be available December 27, 2011.The views set forth in this blog are the opinions of the author alone and may not represent the views of any firm or entity with whom he is affiliated. The data, information, and content on this blog are for information, education, and non-commercial purposes only. Returns from index funds do not represent the performance of any investment advisory firm. The information on this blog does not involve the rendering of personalized investment advice and is limited to the dissemination of opinions on investing. No reader should construe these opinions as an offer of advisory services. Readers who require investment advice should retain the services of a competent investment professional. The information on this blog is not an offer to buy or sell, or a solicitation of any offer to buy or sell any securities or class of securities mentioned herein. Furthermore, the information on this blog should not be construed as an offer of advisory services. Please note that the author does not recommend specific securities nor is he responsible for comments made by persons posting on this blog.

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Two Directors Resign From Board Of Struggling Company

December 27, 2011

Two Eastman Kodak directors resigned from the board last week, the struggling photography company said in a filing with U.S. regulators on Tuesday. Both directors – Adam Clammer and Herald Chen – were representatives of private equity firm KKR & Co on Kodak’s board. Kodak said Clammer and Chen notified the company of their resignations on December 21. Kodak did not give any further details as to why the directors resigned, and a spokesman was not immediately available for comment. Kodak earlier this year drew down on its revolving credit facility and on November 3 told investors that it may need to issue new debt or complete a multibillion-dollar patent sale to survive the next year. Kodak has hired Jones Day, a law firm known for restructuring cases, as well as restructuring firm FTI Consulting, but has denied that it intends to file for bankruptcy. It has been struggling to cope with the collapse of its film business. (Reporting By Michael Erman, Additional reporting by Greg Roumeliotis; Editing by Gary Hill) Copyright 2011 Thomson Reuters. Click for Restrictions .

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More Than One-Third Of Layoffs At One Big Bank To Hit NYC

December 27, 2011

More than one-third of job cuts at Morgan Stanley will likely hit workers in New York City. Nearly 600 of the 1,600 job cuts that Morgan Stanley announced last month will probably come from New York City, according to a regulatory filing cited by Bloomberg. The Morgan Stanley layoffs are just one part of a wider trend; Wall Street firms have said they will eliminate more than 200,000 jobs around the world this year. Thomas DiNapoli, the New York State Comptroller estimated earlier this year that 10,000 New York-based employees of the securities industry will lose their jobs by 2012, according to The New York Times . Bank of America announced in September that it would slash 30,000 jobs over the next few years to save $5 billion. Since the announcement, BofA employees have been flooding rival banks with resumes , Reuters reported last month. Still, they may be hard-pressed to find a job. Citigroup is planning to cut 4,500 jobs over the next few quarters, while Barclays said in August that it would slash 3,000 jobs. UBS plans to reduce its workforce by one-tenth over the next five years. Though financial industry workers may be plagued by constant layoff announcements, those who survive will likely be handsomely rewarded. Seven big banks’ pay data indicate that Wall Street compensation is on track to exceed 2010 levels , according to an analysis from the Public Accountability Initiative. New hires are also raking it in. Banks also boosted their use of “guaranteed bonuses” — or the practice of guaranteeing employees a bonus before they’ve ever made a trade — in 2010, The Institute for International Finance found. Wall Street workers seem prepared for a boost. Most financial industry employees say they expect to get the same or higher bonus as what they got last year. Still, if last year’s pattern holds true, the workers may not get their wish. Wall Street bonuses dropped 9 percent in 2010 .

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Rising Green Movement Launches Counter-Attack Against Shale Oil Boom

December 27, 2011

* Green groups seen slowing development * Success in fighting pipeline energizes efforts * Shale oil and gas industry on defensive By Ayesha Rascoe WASHINGTON, Dec 27 (Reuters) – A resurgent green movement is launching a multi-pronged counter-attack against the shale oil and gas boom in the United States that could slow, though ultimately not stop, development. Building upon their unexpected success in the battle against the Keystone XL pipeline, a renewed onslaught from environmentalists is putting the shale industry on the defensive while adding to costs, limiting expansion and potentially scuttling major projects. “I think it’s the totality of what’s going on all at once, that’s the biggest concern,” said Barclay Nicholson, a lawyer for the Washington-based Fulbright & Jaworski law firm, which has represented companies involved in shale development. With new oversight pending from federal and state authorities and lawsuits, Nicholson said critics of shale development have a plethora of avenues to fight back. Environmentalists, alarmed at what they see as unchecked industrialization of rural areas, say they are working to secure more regulation of the rapidly growing shale industry to protect fragile areas from damaging practices. PIECE MEAL APPROACH After legislation aimed at addressing climate change failed to make it into law last year, green groups have been forced to take a more piece meal approach to energy policy. That strategy worked well against TransCanada’s proposed Canada-to-Texas Keystone XL pipeline, which environmentalists successfully turned into a potent symbol of the threat of carbon-intensive oil sands crude. In November the Obama administration delayed the project, once described as a “no brainer” by Canada’s Prime Minister Stephen Harper, after a wave of protests erupted in Washington and on the campaign trail. The decision was like a shot of adrenalin for the green movement and groups are planning more creative and high profile efforts to fight a range of energy projects. Republicans in Congress maneuvered to keep Keystone alive by including a provision in tax legislation that would force the White House to make decision on the project within 60 days. But green groups have vowed to fight on and the administration has already said it cannot approve the project because of the time needed to study new routes. “For the moment we’re stuck fighting one pipeline, one gas well at a time,” said Bill McKibben, who rose to prominence with his staging of huge protests against Keystone and is now using his influence to attack the fracking bonanza. FRACKING IN THE SPOTLIGHT Oil and gas companies are using advanced drilling techniques to unlock vast stores of shale fuel across the country, which is bringing legions of rigs, trucks and workers to areas unused to such activity. The companies employ the controversial “fracking” drilling process, that involves fracturing rock formations by shooting vast and often secret cocktails of water and chemicals deep underground to free a trove of hydrocarbons. The oil and gas industry argues that the fracking technique has been used safely for years and advances in the practice have set off a revolution that is creating jobs and boosting U.S. energy security. But, environmentalists warn against downplaying their concerns about fracking. “I’m not sure that they really want a Keystone XL fight on their hands, because the public is strong and they’re not going to back down on this issue,” said Deb Nardone, director of the Sierra Club’s natural gas reform campaign, which formally launched this year. Worries about shale output have already prompted the Environmental Protection Agency and the Interior Department to begin crafting new regulations that address issues such as wastewater disposal and disclosure of chemicals. Green Groups have made headway with their appeals in New York, where authorities have imposed a temporary moratorium on shale drilling. Environmentalists also cheered a decision by regulators to delay a vote on lifting a ban on shale drilling in the Delaware River basin that affects the states of New York, Pennsylvania, Delaware and New Jersey. John Sachs, a director at energy investment bank Taylor-DeJongh, said the economic and domestic energy benefits of access to cleaner burning natural gas will ultimately win out, but green groups may be able to make inroads in some areas. “It may slow down some of the development in some states,” Sachs said. He said such delays would not necessarily be negative for development, because it would allow industry and regulators to address some of the public concerns. CHANGING THE MAP American Gas Association president Dave McCurdy recently told reporters that while there were some legitimate concerns about development, the problems were manageable. “None of those are going to halt the production of shale gas in this country,” McCurdy told reporters earlier this month. “It is changing the political and economic map.” Still, the expansion of shale production has spawned dozens of local groups and activists focused on combating development. Scott Ely, a resident of the small town of Dimock, Pennsylvania, very much at the epicenter of the fight over shale production, said he is trying to spread his story. Green groups have rallied in support of Ely and 10 other families in Dimock that say their water was contaminated after Cabot Oil and Gas began drilling in their area. Cabot has denied responsibility. “As far as the oil industry goes, this is a machine you’re probably not going to be able to stop because the world needs its gas,” Ely said in Dimock in December where supporters in a publicity event delivered fresh water to the families. “But because of what we did three years ago, when we started coming out, they’ve already started making changes in the way they operate.” (Reporting By Ayesha Rascoe; Editing by Bob Burgdorfer)

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Treasury Dept. Declines To Name China As Currency Manipulator

December 27, 2011

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration on Tuesday declined to label China a currency manipulator after seeing recent increases in the value of the yuan compared to the dollar. The decision angered some manufacturing groups, which have accused Beijing of artificially holding down the value of its currency to gain trade advantages. A cheaper yuan makes Chinese goods less expensive when they are shipped to the United States. It also makes U.S. goods more expensive in China. Both could increase the U.S. trade deficit with China, which is on pace to hit a record high this year. The Treasury Department said the yuan has appreciated 12 percent against the dollar in the past 18 months, after adjusting for inflation. In addition, the department said in a semi-annual report that China promised at two high-level meetings last month to make the yuan’s exchange rate more flexible. Still, yuan is “substantially undervalued” and its appreciation “is insufficient and more progress is needed,” the report noted. The department will “press for policy changes that yield greater exchange rate flexibility” and “level the playing field.” The currency report evaluates exchange rate policies of all major U.S. trading partners. It was scheduled to be released on Oct. 15, but the administration delayed its release until after last month’s meetings. Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, a leading candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, has criticized the administration for refusing to cite China for manipulating its currency. Romney said in October that, if elected, he would take that step on his first day in office. That could lead to trade sanctions against China. Scott Paul, executive director of the Alliance for American Manufacturing, also questioned the decision. “I’m disappointed that President Obama has now formally refused six times to cite China for its currency manipulation, a practice which has contributed to the loss of hundreds of thousands of American manufacturing jobs,” Paul said. Paul urged the House to pass legislation approved by the Senate that would make it easier to cite China for unfairly manipulating its currency. Many manufacturers argue that China’s currency is undervalued by as much as 40 percent. House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, has opposed the measure. China has recently taken action that could result in the yuan appreciating without prodding from the U.S. China and Japan agreed this week to accept the others’ currency when trading. Currently, they each convert their currency to dollars. That has made trade between the two Asian economic giants more expensive. The change could reduce the importance of the dollar in Asia, the world’s fastest-growing region. But it could also help the yuan trade more freely on international markets, which could result in it appreciating against the dollar.

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Phone Activations Were Up 350 Percent On Christmas

December 27, 2011

‪ ‬ By Tricia Duryee, A Gift to Developers: A Quarter of a Billion Apps Downloaded on Christmas via All Things D A record-number of new devices activated on Christmas morning is leading to a tidal wave of new mobile application downloads. Apple’s App Store is on pace to exceed 10 billion downloads this year alone, which is twice the number it recorded over the three previous years combined. The Android Market is also setting records. Over the past seven months, it has achieved more than 7 billion downloads, which more than triples its life-to-date downloads of 3 billion reached in May 2011. At those rates, both operating systems are generating roughly one billion downloads a month, or the equivalent of 33 million a day. The data was reported by Flurry Analytics, which creates tools that thousands of developers use to track usage of their mobile applications. Christmas Day was one of the big catalysts for achieving huge end-of-the-year records. Flurry found that application downloads more than doubled on Christmas compared to the average number of downloads occurring during the first 20 days of December. On Dec. 25, it registered 242 million app downloads, jumping more than 125 percent over an average day. In addition, because of its insight into application usage, Flurry is also able to see the number of new devices activated. Phones and tablets are always a hot Christmas item and this year was no exception. On the average day in December, 1.5 million phones were activated, but on Christmas, 6.8 million were activated, representing a 353 percent spike. Last year, Christmas held the previous single-day record with 2.8 million device activations. A Gift to Developers: A Quarter of a Billion Apps Downloaded on Christmas via All Things D Also on All Things D: EA Star Wars Game Off to Forceful Start in Quest to Catch World of Warcraft Supply Chain Chatter Has Two Apple TVs Targeted for Midyear Launch Jildy, Whose Patents Google Owns and Facebook Licenses, Launches Its First App

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Did Sears Withhold Information To Get Tax Deal From Cash-Strapped State?

December 27, 2011

Just weeks after signing a bill that gave Sears millions of dollars in tax incentives to stay in Illinois , Governor Pat Quinn reacted to the news that the company plans to close up to 120 stores across the country due to poor holiday sales . “I’m never happy to hear that a company isn’t doing well,” Quinn said Tuesday, according to NBC Chicago. “This is a nationwide story. Those stores are not all in Illinois. I hope not too many of them are Illinois, but their headquarters is in our state and we’re happy about that.” For years, Sears has been threatening to move its Hoffman Estates-based headquarters elsewhere , and lawmakers in Springfield have consistently gone out of their way to make them stay. The latest package was criticized by the Occupy Chicago movement, along with other Illinois residents who called the $330 million package corporate welfare. “You have to defend yourself. If Ohio is offering $400 million to Sears, a company that has thousands of employees in Illinois, we will defend ourselves with a reasonable, adequate, approach,” Quinn said in early December, according to the Associated Press. “That’s what you have to do in 21st Century America to make sure your state and your businesses have support.” Sears, along with the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, said they would leave the state if Illinois lawmakers did not pass the tax break package that was approved on Dec. 12 and 13. The package gives Sears a $15 million tax break over the next 10 years. While Quinn hoped news of the Sears store closures would not hurt Illinois, one Illinois lawmaker said he felt “betrayed” by the Sears announcement , and said the company should have been honest with the state while the tax package was being considered. “It wasn’t a good Christmas or Hanukkah gift for the people of the state of Illinois,” State Sen. Ira Silverstein (D-Chicago) told the Chicago Sun-Times . “We gave them a very nice package and then for them to pull this off two days after Christmas — people are, you know, in holiday mode. It’s really upsetting and I think some questions have to be answered whether they knew they were going to do this at the time we voted on it several weeks ago.” While Quinn defended the practice of offering tax incentives to keep businesses in the state, some experts say it doesn’t do much in terms of generating jobs or retaining existing positions. If Sears did decide to leave, Illinois would lose about 6,000 jobs, the AP reports . But whether keeping the company here will help in the long-term is unclear. “One of the unintended consequences of this whole thing is you are going to see a lot more midsize businesses feeling like they’re getting screwed by the state,” site-selection consultant Brent Pollina told the AP. “They’re carrying the tax burden. The state doesn’t care about them at all.” Illinois officials have also acknowledged that the tax-relief package will lead other businesses to ask for the same deal. “What’s going to stop the next big company from putting a gun to our head with the same type of threat?” Rep. Mary Flowers said after the House rejected the original tax break deal. Silverstein told the Sun-Times that the whole thing has taught lawmakers a lesson about tax incentives. “Hindsight’s 20-20 — you’re 100 percent right,” Sliverstein told reporters. “We don’t have that much control. But when we give a package of incentives like this to try and keep a corporation here in Illinois they should at least tell us what they’re going to do — not so much in the far future, but in the near future. We passed this package . . . two weeks ago and all the sudden, they pull this on us.” Sears has yet to announce which stores will be closed, and is reportedly expected to generate $140 million-$170 million in sold inventory and building sales. The company is confident it can bounce back, but some retail experts aren’t so sure. “There’s no reason to go to Sears,” New York-based independent retail analyst Brian Sozzi told the AP. “It offers a depressing shopping experience and uncompetitive prices.”

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BofA May Get To Move Its $8.5 Billion Settlement Back To State Court

December 27, 2011

(JONATHAN STEMPEL, Reuters) – An appeals court on Tuesday granted an appeal of a controversial ruling that moved consideration of Bank of America Corp’s $8.5 billion settlement over mortgage debt to federal court. The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York said it plans to rule within a 60-day period on whether U.S. District Judge William Pauley in Manhattan correctly took the case from a New York state court. It asked the parties to address several issues, including whether the settlement qualified as a “mass action” allowing federal court review. “We have jurisdiction to determine our jurisdiction,” the 2nd Circuit said in a two-page order. The settlement announced in June was intended to resolve claims by investors in 530 mortgage securitization trusts with $174 billion of unpaid principal that the home loans underlying their investments were toxic or underwritten poorly. Bank of New York Mellon Corp as trustee negotiated the accord with 22 institutional investors including BlackRock Inc and MetLife Inc, and sought approval in a New York state court. But other investors that were not part of the talks but would be bound by the outcome, including a group called Walnut Place, complained that the $8.5 billion payout was too low. Moving the case to federal court could make it easier for these investors to back out, or negotiate higher payouts. In taking jurisdiction, Pauley on October 19 said the case implicated “paramount federal interests” such as the integrity of nationally chartered banks and the vitality of financial markets. Bank of America had intended the accord to address much of its remaining legal liability from its 2008 purchase of the mortgage lender Countrywide Financial Corp. The 2nd Circuit also granted the Charlotte, North Carolina-based bank’s request to file papers supporting requests for an appeal. The cases are Bank of New York Mellon v. Walnut Place LLC et al, 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, Nos. 11-4554 and 11-4571. (Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Tim Dobbyn) Copyright 2011 Thomson Reuters. Click for Restrictions .

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Kent Smetters: Risk Less and Prosper

December 27, 2011

The new investor book, Risk Less and Prosper , by famed Boston University finance professor Zvi Bodie and leading financial advisor Rachelle Taqqu, is a good read for those of you who are skeptical of investing in today’s stock market. But it is a must-read for those of you who actually think that you know what you are doing. Nobel prize winner Robert Merton wrote the book’s forward. Bodie and Taqqu challenge much of the conventional wisdom about investment advice. The biggest myth they explore is that stocks are less risky the longer that you hold them. While very few economists really ever believed this idea, it is widely practiced by financial advisors. That’s unfortunate. In fact, recent research by my colleague Robert Stambaugh at Wharton and Lubos Pastor at Chicago demonstrates that the expected return to stocks is so uncertain that longer-horizon investors should maybe hold fewer stocks. Besides challenging “what” to invest in, Bodie and Taqqu also challenge “how” to think about investing altogether. Most investment advice pitched by financial advisors is terribly naïve, even if supposedly based on “modern portfolio theory.” In essence, most financial advisors construct investments based on a client’s “risk tolerance” that is judged by asking them a series of hypothetical questions. Once created, this same portfolio is then applied across almost every potential goal of the client including, for example, a wedding next year, a house down payment, college, cars, vacations, and even retirement. This simpleton procedure is the basis of calculations by almost all popular software packages being used today by financial advisors. Instead, Bodie and Taqqu argue for a more real goal-based approach. Each goal should be matched with its own appropriate investment. Basic living expenses during retirement should be financed by low-risk investments, for example, Treasury inflation protected securities held in tax deferred retirement accounts. Only less important goals should be financed by taking on more risk. Of course, the Bodie and Taqqu approach would require additional saving and sacrifice today since the expected returns to safe investments are lower than risky equities. But don’t let appearances deceive you: the larger expected return to equities is simply a reward for taking on more risk. Any advisor who tells you otherwise is selling you fool’s gold. As a professor, I like Risk Less and Prosper because it forces academics to think more critically about the variety of different risks and priorities that exist in the real world. As an actual practitioner — I closely advise Veritat Advisors — the book is consistent with how we generally think about risk management. (Disclosure: Zvi Bodie serves on Veritat’s board of advisors.) For you as the reader, this book will give you the confidence to start taking control of your financial life again by avoiding a lot of dumb risks and marketing pitches along the way.

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Winter Energy Saving Tips To Cut Costs And Stay Warm

December 27, 2011

With the warmth of spring months away and parts of the U.S. getting battered by winter weather , maintaining your home in the cold is crucial. There are several easy, but important steps you can take to not only make sure your home stays warm, but also to help cut down on heating costs. As an added benefit, making your home heating more efficient will also help to save energy, which is better for everyone in the long run. Be sure to also check out these tips on purchasing energy efficient light bulbs . Don’t forget to take care of yourself too, this winter. Check out these tips for curing dry winter skin naturally . Tips and captions courtesy of the EPA and Edison Electric Institute as marked.

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Richard Geldard: Romney’s War on "Entitlement"

December 27, 2011

It’s an old theme by now, going back to Reagan and his war on welfare, but this time it’s Romney’s war on entitlement. His new campaign refrain is to blame the poor for feeling “entitled,” for saying, “They owe me, I’m entitled,” while they sit back with their big screen HDTVs, their delivery pizza, laughing at the poor suckers who are getting up at six and working for a living. It’s Reagan’s campaign theme from 1980: “Send the welfare bums back to work.” This season’s entitlement theme came from a Tea Party sign that read “You Are Not Entitled To What I Earn.” Romney’s handlers took that sign and are running with it, refining Reagan’s equally blunt slogan with more subtle rhetoric : Will the United States be an Entitlement Society or an Opportunity Society? In an Entitlement Society, government provides every citizen the same or similar rewards, regardless of education, effort and willingness to innovate, pioneer or take risk. It’s an obvious distortion of langauge to say that the government provides every citizen the same or similar rewards. “Rewards?” Really? What is he talking about? As a Senior Citizen I have both Medicare and Social Security, one I pay something for and the other I earned by 40 plus years of teaching. It’s not a reward in any shape or form, and I resent the implication. Also, at one point in my life I needed unemployment insurance for a short time, and that wasn’t a reward either. It was help I needed to provide for my family until I could find another position. Romney wants to blame entitlements for our debt crisis and then to tout opportunity as the path to recovery. Well let’s look at opportunity as a theme. I’m all in favor of “America as Opportunity,” but Romney isn’t talking about real opportunity. He won’t talk about what opportunity requires: (1) guaranteeing a level playing field for all citizens to work hard and find success; and (2) having health care for all so that illness doesn’t prevent a person from fulfilling his or her dreams; (3) providing a quality and affordable education for every citizen so that he or she can successfully enter into and succeed in an innovative marketplace; and (4) it means making sure that our vanishing middle class can recover and be the true strength of American leadership in the world. Then and only then will “America as Opportunity” be realized. Every reasonably educated person knows full well what the word “entitlement” signifies to the impressionable electorate, and Romney will use a negative spin to strike fear and loathing into the hearts of those who resent paying taxes to help those who need support and a real opportunity to get ahead. Killing so-called “entitlements” is not a plan for American recovery. Putting the middle class on a solid economic footing is the key to recovery, and that will take a combination of higher taxes for the wealthy and renewed investment, which means getting mountains of cash off the sidelines and into the game and then creating a culture where all Americans have a chance to fulfill their dreams.

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Gene Marks: What Did I Get for Christmas? More Taxes!

December 27, 2011

Wow, what a relief, huh? No, I’m not talking about finally getting rid of the in-laws now that Christmas is over. I’m talking about the last minute deal reached last week by Congress to extend the payroll “tax break” for another couple of months into 2012. And just in the nick of time too. Thankfully, we could all enjoy our cooked goose, latkes or whatever we’ve been eating this holiday season with the knowledge that our taxes will remain the same… at least for the short term. And I mean the very short term. Small business owners know that the reprieve we received was just that. A reprieve. Like the in-laws, taxes are returning. So now that the relatives have packed up and gone home, maybe it’s time to spend a few hours with someone even more important to you and your family. Like your accountant. Are you seeing your accountant this holiday season? Given what’s going on in Washington these days I think that’s the one person we all need to spend a little time with before we go back to work in January. What do these guys like to do? I don’t know. Something boring, I guess. Like watching C-SPAN. Or playing a little chess. Or going to see the new Sherlock Holmes movie. Believe it or not, I’m a Certified Public Accountant. I know, when you saw my picture you were thinking professional hockey player, right? But really, I’ve held the certificate for almost twenty-five years. I take 80 hours of continuing professional education credits every two years. But here’s the thing: I’m really not a very good accountant. In fact, I’m really a lousy one The good news for the accounting profession is that I haven’t practiced public accounting in twenty years I’ve never been very good at doing tax returns and accounting work. For me, if it was close enough… it was good enough. You don’t want to hire me to do your accounting work, OK? This is why I’ve stuck to technology. It requires less details And besides, there are plenty of other, great CPAs out there believe me. But you don’t have to be a CPA to know one thing. The payroll tax reprieve is just temporary. And like it or not, taxes (and not just payroll taxes) are about to rise. A lot. There are some laws on the books now that are going to affect us all. This is reality. Don’t like it? Tough. Take it to the polls. But for now, it’s fact. And smart business owners I know have put aside their emotions, politics and their frustrations and are dealing with the facts at hand. So what are these facts? Fact one is that in 2012 there won’t be much of a tax increase. Even if that dreaded “payroll tax” cut expires the rates will revert back to the original 6.2% that we were paying up to 2011 when the tax was “temporarily” reduced to 4.2% as part of one of those stimulus plans (there were so many I can’t even keep track). I know we were enjoying paying a rate two percentage points lower than normal. And if the cut is allowed to expire then someone earning $50,000 per year will pay about $1,000 more in social security taxes. But hey, that’s cool. Even if the tax goes back up, it’s just returning to what we’ve all used to been paying for the past umpteen years. It’s all good too, because it’s funding our social security retirement fund so Boca… here I come! But there is an added burden in 2012 that small businesses will need to address. We will need to begin reporting on each employee’s W-2 how much health benefits were paid on their behalf. Are you preparing for this? Remember, these things have to be filed by January 31 so we better be. Talk to your accountant. Or your payroll company. Or your therapist. And if you don’t have a therapist yet, you may well be needing one. Because soon the fun will really start. In 2013 a new unearned income tax will affect anyone making over $200K (or $250K for families). Pay up, you disgustingly filthy rich people. You know who you are! That tax is 3.8% on interest, dividends and capital gains. A portion of your capital gain on your home may be taxable too so watch out. Also in 2013 we’ll be seeing a rise in our Medicare taxes. Right now 1.45% is deducted from our pay. That will go up to 2.35% If you’re self-employed you’ll see your Medicare tax rate go up from 2.9% to 3.8%. Wait! Not done. Also in 2013 there will be a change in itemized deductions. Right now itemized deductions are limited to expenses over 7.5% of adjusted gross income. In 2013 that floor goes up to 10% of adjusted gross income. Which means that more of our expenses become un-deductible. This is related to the 2010 healthcare legislation. That legislation is real. Don’t be fooled because it’s being contested in the courts and the Supreme Court will weigh in on its constitutionality. We don’t know if it will pass that test. But for now it’s law. Smart business owners are assuming that it’s going to happen as planned. So they’re making their plans now. By the way the healthcare legislation will, in 2014, cause another tax. That’s the mandate. For individuals that don’t get health insurance they will be fined the greater of $695 or 2% of their adjusted gross income. For companies with more than 50 employees that don’t provide healthcare insurance they will be fined $2,000 per employee. Pretty impressive, me throwing around all these numbers, huh? Well, let’s just take a quick time out while I provide you with another important disclaimer: please don’t trust me. I’m pretty sure this is all correct I got these numbers from the internet which always has correct information. But just in case of the highly remote chance that maybe, just maybe, I’m screwing something up here please check with your accountant first. Remember my previous warning from above. Now where was I? Oh yes. More taxes on the horizon. Like the Alternative Minimum Tax For the life of me, I could never understand how this was calculated. I’m convinced the complexity of this rule is a well-designed scheme between the IRS and the accounting profession to boost employment. But I’ve never been able to prove this. The AMT was designed to tax people who were smart enough to get around paying all the normal taxes they owed. Every year the government takes pity on these people and defers parts of this rule. But not anymore. The current AMT laws come to an end at the beginning of 2012 too. Apparently there are like twenty million people who will be affected by this. They’ll be paying higher taxes. My advice? Die. Preferably soon. There’s a lot of upside here. Firstly, you don’t have to listen to that kid crying behind you on your flight to Chicago. Secondly, you no longer have to feel inadequate every time that commercial comes on where the boyfriend half your age is buying his girlfriend a new Lexus with a red bow on top for Christmas. That would be a huge relief. And if you’re going to take this advice then you might as well die before 2013. Because if you go now, you’ll save your loved ones big bucks on estate taxes. Currently, your first $5 million of assets are excluded from tax. But after January 1, 2013 the exclusion falls to only $1 million. Dying before 2013 is not a bad tax planning strategy. If you don’t plan on dying, then get ready for the biggest tax increase of them all. That one comes from our former President Bush. Remember all those tax cuts he enacted? Well, they’re about to expire in 2013. And the current government has no plans to stop that. So for those disgustingly filthy rich people earning more than $175,000 per year they’ll be seeing their taxes rise more than 10%. The top tax rate will go from 35% to 39.6%. Will this all happen? Right now, it’s the law. Sure, there’s an election year coming up. If there’s a new President there may be some changes. But the mood in Washington now is that the money to pay down our huge deficits has to come from somewhere. So it’s likely to come in the form of new taxes. Many business owners are preparing for that fact right now. They’re accelerating income where they can, so that they can pay less taxes now than pay higher rates later. And they’re spending a little quality time with their accountants this holiday season. Doing things that accountants like to do. Like shuffleboard. And watching freight trains. I know, sounds boring. But it could be worse. You could be paying a lot more in taxes. Or stuck with my in-laws for a long weekend.

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Farmers Group, Inc. Names Peter Teuscher Chief Investment Officer Effective January 2012

December 27, 2011

LOS ANGELES, CA–(Marketwire – Dec 27, 2011) – Farmers Group, Inc. has appointed Peter Teuscher to fill the post of Senior Vice President & Chief Investment Officer effective January 1, 2012. Teuscher will replace Laszlo Heredy, who has been Farmers Group, Inc. Chief Investment Officer since 2000 and who is retiring at the end of 2011.

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Why Lindsay Lohan Landed On Grover’s ‘Naughty’ List

December 27, 2011

Grover Norquist targeted actress Lindsay Lohan for “costing all taxpayers so much money” on Americans For Tax Reform’s annual “Naughty and Nice List.” In an interview with Newsmax released Sunday , Norquist expanded on the “naughty” on his organization’s list. “Oh dear, there’s so many. I mean, [President Barack] Obama for killing too many jobs. Lindsay Lohan for costing all taxpayers so much money every time she goes to court — or forgets to go to court. We have Frank Wolf, a Republican who called for 2 trillion dollars in tax increases — that was unfortunate,” he said. He added the super committee to the list for trying to raise taxes. (Video above via Newsmax .) Rep. Frank Wolf (R-Va.) blasted Norquist on the House floor last October for being “a roadblock to realistically reforming our tax code” because of the ATR Taxpayer Protection Pledge not to raise taxes. Wolf added that he didn’t “support raising taxes on the American people.” On Norquist’s “nice” list were New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R). He expanded on the super committee: “I think at the end of the day that super-secret committee did us a favor by not supporting a tax increase, but I’m not sure how much credit we want to give them for that,” referring to the fact that the bipartisan committee made up of 12 members of Congress failed to come up with an agreement to cut the deficit. Norquist also attacked Occupy Wall Street protesters. “They’ve really done a good job of reminding the American people that there are people out there who think they should make a living off of your work,” he said. “They don’t spend their days looking for work. They just spend their days being mean to policemen and blocking traffic for people who do go to work. And then they whine and have demonstrations demanding that everybody pay them welfare.” At Americans for Tax Reform’s annual holiday party, partygoers were greeted by a cartoon , first published in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette , showing Norquist as Santa Claus. “He’s making a list, checking it twice, gonna find out who’s naughty or nice!” said the first of two passerby in the cartoon. “That’s Grover Norquist!?” said the second.

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Patrick FitzGerald: The Social Entrepreneur’s Dilemma

December 27, 2011

So you have an idea that’s going to save the world or at the very least alter a small portion of it in a positive way. Congratulations, the trends seem to be in your favor. Be it environmental, educational, or philanthropic, the rise in “social” entrepreneurship in the past decade has been astounding. In addition, most large-scale corporations have embedded the notion of doing good into their bottom line and most MBA programs now have core classes dedicated to the topic. Yet, in order to make a potentially game-changing idea a long-standing reality, it is highly recommended that social entrepreneurs look at their business model and ask a very simple question: Could my company be a profitable one? Bizarrely enough, the notion of creating a for-profit social enterprise is still considered unwise, unlikely and for some, just unethical. The mission should supersede all and thus, the bottom line is subject to it. Granted, there are hundreds of wonderful and awe-inspiring non-profits out there which change the world we live on a daily basis. There is certainly nothing but the utmost respect for these entities. But before going down that road, all potential social entrepreneurs should wrestle with and fully explore the possibility of creating a for-profit company. I first encountered this dilemma while founding my first company, Recyclebank , in 2003. As my co-founder was deeply passionate about the environment, he correctly posited that Recyclebank’s goal of rewarding and incentivizing green actions would do wonders in the newly burgeoning social enterprise scene. Yet, it took some wrestling to convince him and others that the message would reach more people and frankly, more of the less environmentally inclined, if it was a for-profit. While Recyclebank’s for-profit business model engendered a few double takes in the early days (I vividly recall being told by a prominent environmental agency that it wouldn’t be “fair” to other environmental entities), certainly the company’s venture capital investors and more than three million members have created a sustainable business model in more ways than one. Looking at the car-sharing world further proves the point. Long before Zipcar went public earlier this year, there were a handful of analogous companies nationwide whose purpose was clear: reduce pollution through car sharing. The majority of these startups were non-profit and many achieved great successes initially. Yet, while these competitors were busy lobbying for government grants or looking for corporate donations to fuel their expansion, Zipcar’s access to the capital markets allowed them to spread more rapidly, market their message more broadly, and partner more effectively with customers. The environmental goal remained the same, but Zipcar’s dominance over the market and recent IPO can, in many ways, be traced back to its dedication to financial returns. Similarly, the global reach of Terracycle , whose purpose is to eliminate waste by repackaging it into consumer goods, has shown that the investment community is eager to back financially sound but mission-based startups. With operations in 18 countries, a decade of growth behind it, and millions of tons of waste diverted from landfills, it’s fair to say that Terracycle’s for-profit model has served the world at large well. Recent startups like ElectNext , Pledge4Good , and Malo Traders are tackling the political, charitable, and African hunger arenas, respectively, with like minded for-profit attitudes. Ultimately, before launching a social mission-based startup, be sure to ask these three questions (the above companies likely did): Is it absolutely imperative that we be a non-profit? Just because your industry may historically produce non-profits or is chock full of them, does not automatically mean you should paint your company with the same brush. Does my customer care whether we are non or for-profit? In the case of car-sharing, the answer was clearly no. Customers cared about reducing their car ownership in a convenience and cost effective way. Can it be profitable? Without question, this is every startup’s crystal ball equation. Yet, if the social enterprise can be a significant and realistic revenue generator over a sustained period of time, then make it so. Keep in mind to underplay the potential for advertising revenue, though. If it’s not core to the business, this will be a hard sell to potential investors. The world needs many more social entrepreneurs for sure, and while it may seem counter-intuitive, it never hurts to ask these questions. After all, it is actually possible to serve two masters: the mission and the bottom line.

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Ann Brenoff: Long-Term Caring Means Insurance

December 27, 2011

This may scare the bejesus out of you. And I hope so. Lately, I’ve been spending too much time in the company of boomers who act like we’re invincible. According to a Met Life survey of long-term care costs , it will take more than $87,000 to spend a year in a nursing home, $42,000 for an assisted living place (plus a myriad of extras if you actually need any assistance with your living) and a death-defying $184,000 a year for home health aides working around the clock in eight-hour shifts if you delusionally think you can keep Mom or Pop at home. Oh, and p.s.: Eight out of 10 people over 85 will need this kind of help. Got that much cash? Didn’t think so; few of us do. What the Met Life study doesn’t say — this is the company whose spokesman is Snoopy, right? — is that getting old is not only hard on the body, but staying alive when the parts start to fail can seriously suck. And a lot of us are now learning this the hard way as we care for elderly parents and relatives who didn’t bother getting long-term care insurance. What were they thinking? That we’d let them die peacefully in their sleep? Sorry, but modern medicine doesn’t really allow for that. We bestow the civility of a compassionate death on our house pets, but insist on employing the full arsenal of the big medicinal guns for the humans we purport to love. No, this isn’t an ode to the memory of Jack Kevorkian, just a friendly reminder that long-term care is an insurance benefit you are more likely to find useful than life insurance since life insurance requires that we actually allow someone to die before a nickel is paid out. So make your own choice here, or better still, as a gift to your children, get yourself a living will and just ponder these numbers, brought to you courtesy of the Long Term Care National Advisory Center. http://www.longtermcareinsurance.org/ By 2030, one in five Americans will be a senior citizen and estimates are that those needing long-term care insurance will skyrocket to more than 23 million Americans. And each one of them is looking at a projected long-term care costs of about $300,000 a year. Those who merely need an assisted living arrangement — where your mom rents an overpriced room in a place and is supposed to be able to make her own way down to the communal dining room — can expect to spend an additional $352 a month on help getting dressed in the morning and another $307 a month for help getting in and out of the shower. Set aside another $530 a month on top of that if she needs help eating or suffers incontinence or needs a helpful arm to get up off the couch. Medication monitoring? Another $370 a month for when the little calendar pill boxes don’t do the trick anymore. Here’s the real catch: While it may be too late for your 80-year-old mother who didn’t take out a policy when she was younger, it likely isn’t too late for you — assuming you are still healthy and can accept the idea that even though you look and feel terrific today, you may not down the road. The insurance isn’t cheap though and as the boomer bulge ages, is getting even less so. The average new policy costs 25% to 30% more than it did five years ago, says the American Association for Long-Term Care Insurance. While no one likes writing a check with a lot of zeroes in it, without a policy, the alternative is that you’ll pay out of pocket until you’ve nearly exhausted your assets and can qualify for Medicaid. That or become a burden to your kids, and too many of us already know what that feels like.

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Tiffany Williams: Protecting Guest Workers in the United States

December 27, 2011

As the director of a project focused on the rights of migrant workers, I have been closely following the situation at the Hershey’s Chocolate packing plant in Palmyra, Pennsylvania. Earlier this year, exchange students on J-1 visas faced threats and retaliation from their recruiting agency, the Council for Educational Travel (CETUSA) when they came forward to report exploitative conditions that violated federal worker protection laws and State Department regulations. The J-1 visa “summer work travel program,” of which these students were a part, is intended to provide foreign college students with cultural immersion and the opportunity to “live and work in the United States,” yet the students at the Hershey plant reported such restrictive work and living environments that there was no opportunity to do more than survive. In August, the students filed a complaint with the State Department that contained serious allegations of intimidation and retaliation by their agency, the Council for Educational Travel (CETUSA). Shortly after, a human rights delegation , comprised of professors and practitioners with expertise in labor and employment law, and international human rights, expressed serious concerns about students’ accounts of deception, coercion and threats from their recruiting agency. They called on the State Department to conduct an objective and expansive investigation of the sponsor. The New York Times reported on their plight in October, noting that “CETUSA failed to heed many distress signals from students over many months, and responded to some with threats of expulsion from the program.” For example, the company threatened to revoke a student’s visa when he complained to the State Department. For the last 13 years, my project, Break the Chain Campaign at the Institute for Policy Studies has focused on human trafficking of nannies and maids within the A-3/G-5 visa program, which include household workers for diplomats and employees of international organizations. Our work has shown the significant impact that improved oversight, education of workers and enforcement of consequences could have on curbing exploitation. We believe the key to successful improvements in this program has been collaboration with anti-trafficking service organizations and grassroots advocates who can share on-the-ground experiences with policymakers. There are still extensive improvements needed, particularly with worker education, but the progress has given us hope. The State Department recently announced they would be completing a thorough review of the J-1 visa program. But as of this writing CETUSA is still sponsoring high school and college students on J-1 visas who plan to come to the United States. That’s why the National Guestworker Alliance , the workers’ rights group supporting the students, is now calling on the government to immediately suspend CETUSA from the program. Yet CETUSA is only one of many recruiting agencies. And A-3, G-5, and J-1 visas are only a few of the many visas with inherent weaknesses that leave participants vulnerable to exploitation by sponsoring individuals or agencies due to a weakly regulated sponsorship and penalty process. The H-2A program for agricultural guest workers, H-2B program for non-agricultural guest workers, and the H-1B program for teachers, scientists and other “specialty” guest workers are other examples. Consider these other cases of guestworker exploitation in the United States. In April this year, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission filed a suit against the company Global Horizons for exploiting 400 Thai farmworkers working in Hawaii and Washington State. A company called Signal exploited more than 500 guest workers from India in shipyards after Hurricane Katrina. The Southern Poverty Law Center made history in December when it successfully brought a class-action human trafficking lawsuit on behalf of 350 Filipina teachers in Louisiana who came there with H1-B visas. It’s the first time the Trafficking Victims Protection Act has been used to protect a group rather than an individual. In this case, the trial next July will center on the allegations that the teachers were brought to the United States by labor contractors who extorted huge fees and confiscated their passports, effectively subjecting the teachers to forced labor. Workers’ rights advocates, alongside anti-human trafficking advocates, have been urging the U.S. government to thoroughly review visa programs that depend on foreign labor contractors in order to minimize the vulnerability of workers to human trafficking and exploitation. Various drafts of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act, notably the House version of the bill considered in 2008, have included extensive proposals for such regulations and remedies for victims, yet the U.S. government continues to fail in implementing serious protective reform. While some contend that our economy depends on cheap foreign labor, no one would argue that our economy requires the severe wage exploitation, fraudulent contracts, restriction of movement and the (sometimes violent) retaliation after complaints that we have seen repeatedly with these visa programs. It’s long past time for the federal government to make meaningful changes to protect guest workers.

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Greek Retailers See Worst Holiday Season In Decades

December 27, 2011

ATHENS (Reuters) – Greece’s stores had their worst Christmas in decades, with retail sales dropping by 30 percent compared with the same period last year as the economic crisis shattered consumer confidence, the ESEE retail federation said on Tuesday. “Nine out of 10 Greeks are less generous, not out of choice but out of necessity,” ESEE said. “Retailers endured a Christmas gloom that chipped away any optimism they had before the holidays.” The sharp drop in sales came despite widespread discounts by retailers in the run-up to Christmas. Greeks have been suffering wage and pension cuts, rising inflation and a recession now into its fourth year, which has slashed living standards and forced them to cut spending. Clothing and footwear sales dropped 40 percent, electrical goods by 30 percent, and sales in the food and drinks sector by 15 percent compared with the same period last year, ESEE said. (Reporting by Karolina Tagaris, editing by Jane Baird) Copyright 2011 Thomson Reuters. Click for Restrictions .

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MF Global Fallout Fueling Calls For Reforms In One Trading Sector

December 27, 2011

CHICAGO (Reuters) – Agricultural bankers and other players in the world’s grain markets say fallout from the collapse of giant broker MF Global is changing cash grain trading and fueling calls for alternatives and reforms. Trading changes include more “back to back” transactions and more direct contracting by farmers to end users, eliminating middlemen like MF Global, merchandisers say. Bankers and traders also say anger with lack of oversight by the Chicago Mercantile Exchange’s clearing house regarding MF Global’s supposedly secure customer accounts is rampant, spurring calls for more regulation of a traditionally close-knit, clubby and “self-regulating” industry. Proposals have included the idea of setting up a separate “insurance fund” to hold the so-called “segregated” accounts that futures commission merchants (FCM’s) now hold and account for with the exchange clearinghouse, which is supposed to “mark to market” every trade every day to assure adequate capital. Up to $1.2 billion in such segregated customer funds are still missing eight weeks after MF Global collapsed into bankruptcy after a revelation it had made a $6 billion bet on European sovereign debt that went sour. “I don’t think people are satisfied with CME’s response. What the banks thought was rock solid isn’t as rock solid any more,” said Lance Holden, senior vice president with Wells Fargo Bank, the largest private lender to agribusiness that had customers who lost funds with MF Global. CME Group chief operating officer Bryan Durkin told a packed meeting of the National Grain and Feed Association this month, echoing earlier testimony by CME executives to Congress, that MF Global was the culprit, not CME’s clearing house. “This was the failure of a firm. A firm that broke the rules, not the failure of any clearing house. At CME, we met our obligations,” Durkin told the gathering of 700 farm bankers, grain traders, brokers and farmers in Chicago. “We believe all customers affected should have their full balances and property returned by MF Global. Until then, we will not consider the process complete,” Durkin said. CME, looking to line up with its futures-trading customers and the banks like Wells Fargo who finance them, has pledged at least $550 million to the court trustee now sorting out the MF Global mess to help make good customers who were victimized. But CME will need to do more, grain traders said. “We want to get the confidence back and restore confidence with the lenders too,” said Diana Klemme, vice president of Grain Services Corp in Atlanta, which advises grain buyers and sellers on marketing and risk strategies. “In the end the loss of even a dime by users of the system will have a chilling impact,” said Jeff Hainline, president of Advance Trading, an Illinois brokerage with many farmer and farm cooperative clients. VOTING WITH THEIR FEET As the CME’s regulator, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, as well as Congress and the bankruptcy court try to sort out accountability for the missing funds, many farmers and grain traders have backed off using CME’s grain futures, the world pricing and risk-management benchmark for decades. “We are watching closely how these events play out to figure out what do we need to ask more of from a counter-party risk standpoint,” said Sam Miller, senior vice president of agricultural banking at M&I Bank in Appleton, Wisconsin, who had customers who lost money with MF Global. Miller said he’s seeing more interest among bank customers to sell commodities directly to end-users but they are looking at all their choices — over-the-counter privately negotiated deals, options markets, and back-to-back deals where purchases and sales are done simultaneously. “We do see more contracts between a seller and somebody who is actually going to use the product,” Miller said. “There are some real concerns about figuring out just what happened and how we make sure the situation never repeats,” said NGFA Treasurer and director of marketing Todd Kemp. “Of course, the number one issue among customers right now is return of supposedly segregated funds to customers.” Kemp said NGFA members, which include more than 1,000 firms who buy and sell grain, will find it hard to market grain without the CME. But confidence has been deeply shaken in the CME and the FCM’s who hold customer funds, he said. “Our task in that respect is to re-establish confidence and examine changes that might help ensure safety of customer funds in the future,” he said. “Some have suggested that we might look at changes in which entity holds customer funds. “Instead of the FCM, should the clearinghouse or exchange, or maybe some independent third party, hold the funds? Should we look at extending some form of insurance to commodity accounts?” Kemp said. “Our Risk Management Committee will begin those discussions soon.” Oversight and accountability must be addressed, he added. “NGFA historically has not been an organization that believes in more government regulation. However, it’s clear that in some way customer protections need to be improved,” Kemp said. Even bankers may seek more regulation — of brokers. “Futures trading is supposed to be riskless from the transaction side. If you’ve got outside risk, people may use different types of products,” said Holden of Wells Fargo. Grain elevators, farmers and others using futures markets to hedge price risk often borrow 90 percent or more of the value of their crops or livestock to finance futures trades. The government-linked Farm Credit System (FCS), for example, lent some $6 billion to make sure grain elevators could make margin calls when grain prices plummeted in 2008. So grain traders are closely watching the stance of CoBank, the Denver-based FCS bank with $62 billion in assets and one of the biggest lenders to U.S. grain elevators. “CoBank has not changed its credit policies in light of the events at MF Global.” Lori O’Flaherty, chief credit officer for CoBank, told Reuters in an interview. “But the failure of this institution highlights the need for close monitoring of counterparty risk, both by banks and their customers, during these volatile economic times.” Bankers said CME will also remain squarely in the grain industry’s sights, as an institution that must re-earn trust. “CME — all of the exchanges have been focused on contracts, more growth, all these hedge funds, private equity funds that are getting into these markets. They are focused on that instead of their base business,” Holden said. “That something like missing segregated funds could happen — that’s a big miss.” (Editing by Peter Bohan, Leslie Gevirtz) Copyright 2011 Thomson Reuters. Click for Restrictions .

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As Demand For Rentals Rises, 2012 Will Be ‘The Year Of The Landlord’

December 27, 2011

(MARGARET CHADBOURN, Reuters) – Brian Keith is busier than ever as the architecture firm he works for rushes to wrap up work on a 300-unit apartment complex in Dallas. The project is one of dozens the firm, JHP Architecture, has on its hands — a surge of business driven by a rise in demand in the United States for rental properties. The increased demand has forced JHP to expand, and it expects to keep hiring at least through the first quarter. “We’re seeing overall work come back and there’s a backlog of contracts to go through,” said Keith, director of urban design and planning at JHP. “There’s strong interest in multi-family units and plenty of pent-up demand.” With U.S. unemployment at a lofty 8.6 percent, home foreclosures rising and property prices under pressure, more and more Americans have given up the dream of owning, opting instead to rent, a shift that is remaking the face of the U.S. housing industry. The percentage of Americans who own their home dropped from a peak of 69.2 percent in late 2004 to a 13-year low of 65.9 percent in the second quarter. It edged up to 66.3 percent in the third quarter of this year. On the flip side, the percentage of rental properties that are empty fell to 9.8 percent in the third quarter from 10.3 percent a year earlier. In a recent report, Oliver Chang, an analyst at Morgan Stanley, dubbed 2012 “The Year of the Landlord.” “Rents are rising, vacancies are falling, household formations are growing and rental supply is limited,” the Morgan Stanley report stated. “We believe the demand for rental properties will continue to grow.” Groundbreaking for new housing jumped 9.3 percent in November to the highest level in 19 months, fueling optimism that the battered housing market was regaining its footing. The gains, however, were almost solely in multifamily housing. Groundbreaking for structures with five or more units shot up more than 30 percent from October to now stand at nearly double the year-ago level. Prices reflect the shift in demand. Rental costs are up 2.4 percent over the last year, compared with an increase of just 0.6 percent in 2010. Steve Blitz, senior economist at ITG Investment Research, says the lure of higher returns is spurring the development of apartment buildings. He argued the next “boom” in residential construction has already started. “The reason rents were rising is that through the past 15 years there has been an under-building of rental properties because typical renters were increasingly able to garner cheap financing to buy a house,” he wrote in a research note. While the rise in demand is great news for builders and developers, it remains unclear what the pick-up in homebuilding will mean for the economy as a whole. “Residential construction will be a plus to GDP in 2012, but house price declines will be a negative. So net, net housing will be neutral or a small drag on the economy,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics. At its peak at the end of 2005, homebuilding accounted for about 6.2 percent of overall economic activity. Now, it is only about 2.4 percent. U.S. housing starts in April 2009 hit their lowest level on records dating to January 1959. While multifamily starts have given them a lift, 2011 may be the weakest year ever for construction of single-family homes. “Business is slightly down from last year,” said Bill Zach, a third-generation homebuilder. His family business, the Zach Building Co. in the Milwaukee, Wisconsin, area, is mainly focused on single-family units. To Zach, that his firm is still in business when so many of his competitors have gone bust represents some success. “It used to be my competition was every guy that owned a pick-up truck and called himself a builder. Hundreds of them,” Zach said. “That’s no longer the case, those guys are dropping by the wayside.” But there are signs of a turn and signals that the housing market may be close to finding a bottom. The Architecture Billings Index, a gauge of future construction, picked up last month, breaking above the 50 level to signal growth in billings. And the stock of homebuilders, as measured by a Dow Jones index, has shot up more than 30 percent since early October. “Residential construction is finally beginning to rise from its post-recession lows,” said Joseph Lavorgna, chief U.S. economist for Deutsche Bank. “The true test for starts and (building) permits, as well as most of the sales metrics, will come during the spring buying season.” (Reporting by Margaret Chadbourn; Editing by Tim Ahmann and Leslie Adler) Copyright 2011 Thomson Reuters. Click for Restrictions .

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Action Products Welcomes Two New Board Members

December 27, 2011

NEW YORK, NY–(Marketwire – Dec 27, 2011) – Action Products International, Inc. ( PINKSHEETS : APII ) today is announcing the addition of Martin Jensen and Greg Miller to the company board of directors.

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Scott Faris Joins the Board of LightPath Technologies

December 27, 2011

ORLANDO, FL–(Marketwire – Dec 27, 2011) – LightPath Technologies, Inc. ( NASDAQ : LPTH ) (the “Company,” “LightPath” or “we”), a global manufacturer, distributor and integrator of patented optical components and high-level assemblies, is pleased to announce the election of M. Scott Faris to its Board of Directors as a Class II member. Mr. Faris will serve for the remainder of the Class II term, which expires on the date of the Company’s 2013 Annual Meeting of Stockholders. Mr. Faris qualifies as an independent director.

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Southwest Flight Attendant Union Reaches Seniority Deal

December 27, 2011

DALLAS — Southwest Airlines Co. flight attendants are the latest group of workers to agree on how they will integrate their seniority with that of workers at AirTran Airways. The agreement, announced Monday, must be ratified by members of the Transport Workers Union Local 556, which represents roughly 10,000 Southwest flight attendants, and the Association of Flight Attendants Council 57, which represents about 2,400 at AirTran, the airline and the unions said. The unions said the pact provides seniority enhancements and job security for Southwest flight attendants and boosts wages and benefits for AirTran flight attendants. Southwest Airlines also will open an Atlanta flight attendant base. Dallas-based Southwest bought AirTran in May. The airline’s flight instructors and mechanics are to vote soon on seniority agreements.

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James Marshall Reilly: 8 Ways To Successfully Start Your Own Business

December 27, 2011

Where do jobs come from? According to Kaufman Foundation research, a high percentage of newly created jobs come from young, small companies. Even excluding startups, the Kaufman Foundation reports that two thirds of the 12 million jobs added to the U.S. economy in 2007 were at firms less than five years old . One of the inherent problems with new companies serving as the main source of job creation is that new businesses fail at an enormously high rate. Depending on which research you pull from, somewhere between 50% to 80% of new ventures don’t make it to year five . Which means that a large percentage of the new jobs created by young firms are also lost within a few years. Even more problematic than the high failure rate of young companies is the fact that each individual small business hires only a handful of new employees. What this means is that for a broad-based recovery in employment to occur we not only need new small companies to sprout up, but we need a lot of them. The fact that historically there is an increase in startup ventures when unemployment rises suggests that at least some new businesses are being formed solely due to the recession. Which raises an interesting question. Is high unemployment a necessary, albeit painful, part of the economic cycle that leads to innovation and growth? If we reframe high unemployment as an economic growing pain that create jobs while serving as a catalyst for the development of new products, services and technologies, it becomes clear what we should be doing. Starting companies. And lots of them. So how exactly do you become an entrepreneur? Here are some tips I cover in my new book, “Shake the World” [Portfolio Hardcover, $25.95] .

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Major Retailer To Close At Least 100 Stores

December 27, 2011

NEW YORK — Sears Holdings Corp. plans to close between 100 and 120 Sears and Kmart stores after poor sales during the holidays, the most crucial time of year for retailers. The closings are the latest and most visible in a long series of moves to try to fix a retailer that has struggled with falling sales and shabby stores. In an internal memo Tuesday to employees, CEO and President Lou D’Ambrosio said that the retailer had not “generated the results we were seeking during the holiday.” The company has more than 4,000 stores in the U.S. and Canada. Its stock fell $7.88, or 17 percent, to $37.97 in premarket trading. The company’s revenue at stores open at least a year fell 5.2 percent to date for the quarter at both Sears and Kmart, the company said Tuesday. That includes the critical holiday shopping period. Sears Holdings said the declining sales, ongoing pressure on profit margins and rising expenses pulled its adjusted earnings lower. The company predicts fourth-quarter adjusted earnings will be less than half the $933 million it reporter for the same quarter last year. Sears Holdings also anticipates a non-cash charge of $1.6 billion to $1.8 billion in the quarter to write off the value of carried-over tax deductions it now doesn’t expect to be profitable enough to use. Sears said it will no longer prop up “marginally performing” stores in hopes of improving their performance and will now concentrate on cash-generating stores. “These actions will better enable us to focus our investments on serving our customers,” D’Ambrosio said. The weaker-than-expected performance reflect what analysts say is a deteriorating outlook for the retailer. The results point to “deepening problems at this struggling chain and renewed worries about Sears survivability,” said Gary Balter, an analyst at Credit Suisse. “The extent of the weakness may be larger than expected but the reasons behind it are not. It begins and some would argue ends with Sears’ reluctance to invest in stores and service.” The company has seen rival department stores like Macy’s Inc. and discounters like Target Corp. continue to steal customers. It’s also contending with a stronger Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world’s largest retailer, which has hammered hard its low-price message and brought back services like layaway, which allows financially stressed shoppers to finance their holiday purchases by paying a little at a time. The tough economy hasn’t helped, either. Middle-income shoppers, the company’s core customers, have seen their wages fail to keep up with higher costs for household basics like food. But the big problem, analysts say, is Sears hasn’t invested in remodeling, leaving its stores uninviting. “There’s no reason to go to Sears,” said New York-based independent retail analyst Brian Sozzi, “It offers a depressing shopping experience and uncompetitive prices.” Sears Holdings Corp., based in Hoffman Estates, Ill., said that the store closings will generate $140 to $170 million in cash from inventory sales. The retailer expects the sale or sublease of real estate holdings to add more cash. Sears Holdings appeared to stumble early in the holiday season, as it opened its Sears, Roebuck and Co. stores at 4 a.m. on Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving. Rivals including Best Buy Co., Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Toys R Us opened as early as Thanksgiving night. Sears stores had opened on Thanksgiving Day in 2010. Kmart has been opening on Thanksgiving for years. A hint that trouble might be brewing came in mid-December when Sears Holdings unexpectedly announced that 260 of its Sears, Roebuck and Co. locations would stay open until midnight through Dec. 23. Kmart’s 4.4 percent decline in revenue at stores open at least a year was blamed on diminished layaways and a drop in clothing and consumer electronics sales. Part of Kmart’s layaway softness likely stemmed from competitive pressure. Wal-Mart had said that its holiday layaway business had been popular. Toys R Us expanded its layaway services to include more items. Kmart’s grocery sales climbed during the period. Sears cited lackluster consumer electronics and home appliance sales for its 6 percent dropoff. Sears’ clothing sales were flat. Sales of Lands’ End products at Sears stores rose in the mid-single digits. Sears Holdings said it also plans to lower its fixed costs by $100 million to $200 million and trim its 2012 peak domestic inventory by $300 million from 2011′s $10.2 billion at the third quarter’s end. D’Ambrosio acknowledged in his internal memo that criticism over Sears Holdings’ performance was likely to come, but that the company was prepared for the days ahead. “We will bounce back and become stronger than ever,” he said.

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Seoul Shares Down 0.46 PCT in Monday Morning Trade

December 27, 2011

(MENAFN – Qatar News Agency) South Korean stocks traded 0.46 percent lower late Monday morning on widening losses in heavy machineries and utilities, analysts said. The benchmark Korea Composite …

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China’s Retail Market to Be World’s Largest by 2015: Report

December 27, 2011

(MENAFN – Qatar News Agency) China’s retail market will likely become the world’s largest by 2015, surpassing the United States, helped by the government’s moves to boost domestic consumption, a …

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Glenn Llopis: What Does Leadership Look Like?

December 27, 2011

What did leadership in America look like in 2011? We know what it should be. Leadership in America should be about holding everyone accountable to the highest standard of community and commerce. It should represent a voice that is diverse in its spirit, attitude and ownership. A voice that inspires us all to take action for the betterment of a healthier whole; where we can all stand for something that makes us feel that we have each other’s back and that we are pulling for one another’s advancement. As a young man, I remember how President Reagan inspired the country. Reagan was authentic and whether you believed in his policies or not, you believed in him as a person. He made you feel proud to be an American. Reagan delivered a message as if it were a two-way conversation. Many agreed with him, many did not; but all acknowledged his capacity for leadership. So, what did leadership look like in 2011 in the US? It appeared to be a combination of sensationalism and entitlement. Think about the following: Joe, Herman, Newt, Arnold, Tiger, Donald, and Sarah — just to name a few. The fact that we can refer to them by their first name says it all. Today, the people are not paying attention. All the noise around us has made it difficult for people to understand the intentions of our leaders and of our own personal responsibility for leadership. We are losing our leadership identity. We need leaders who can cut through the noise and remind us of what we are about – and what our personal responsibility is. As we head into 2012, and as more and more Gen Yer’s get ready to take over the leadership of America, who are their role models and what will define their approach, style and attitude? Mark Zuckerberg and Lady Gaga? How can we help this new generation of leaders? It’s time for us all to step back and ask ourselves the question: what is my leadership responsibility and how can I act in 2012 to make this country a better place to live in?

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Japan’s industrial production declined in November

December 27, 2011

The Japanese economy released a various data for a multiple indices today, where most of the issued data have a significant relevance and influence on the Japanese economy, as most of the issued …

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Disgraced Former Journalist Fights To Become California Lawyer

December 27, 2011

SAN FRANCISCO — A former journalist who became the subject of a Hollywood movie after he was caught fabricating articles in the late 1990s is fighting to become a lawyer in California over the objections of a state bar committee. Stephen Glass, whose ethical missteps at The New Republic and other magazines were recounted in the film “Shattered Glass” and an autobiographical novel, has challenged the bar committee’s decision to deny him a license to practice law, the San Francisco Chronicle ( ) reported Monday. http://bit.ly/sfh2je Glass attended law school at Georgetown University and passed California’s bar exam in 2007. His application for an attorney’s license was turned down by the state’s Committee of Bar Examiners, which judged him morally unfit for his new profession. But an independent state bar court ruled in Glass’s favor in July and the California Supreme Court has since agreed to hear the committee’s appeal. No date for oral arguments has been set. The bar association’s lawyers said in written filings that even though Glass’ transgressions occurred when he was in his 20s, his attempts at atonement were inadequate and in some cases coincided with the publication of his novel. They faulted him for never compensating anyone who was hurt by his falsehoods. Law and journalism “share common core values – trust, candor, veracity, honor, respect for others,” Rachel Grunberg, a lawyer for the State Bar of California, told the Chronicle. “He violated every one of them.” The bar court that overruled the committee in July was persuaded, however, that Glass was genuinely repentant and had been rehabilitated. His appeal included character references from 22 witnesses, including two judges who had employed him, two psychiatrists, and Martin Peretz, who owned The New Republic when Glass’ deception occurred. In his own statement to the bar, Glass said he was “greatly ashamed and remorseful about my lying” but “forthright and candid about my years of misconduct.” Glass tried to become a lawyer in New York after he passed that state’s bar exam in 2003, but withdrew his application when his request for moral character approval from the New York bar languished. Now 39, Glass works as a law clerk at a Beverly Hills firm. His lawyers did not immediately respond to telephone and email messages for comment Monday.

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US Sears to shut around 100 Kmart, Sears stores

December 27, 2011

(MENAFN) Sears Holdings’ CEO, Louis D’Ambrosio, said that due to poor holiday sales, the firm would shut between 100 and 120 Sears and Kmart stores, reported AP. D’Ambrosio added that Sears would …

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Greece’s sales plunge 30% in Christmas

December 27, 2011

(MENAFN) The National Confederation of Greek Commerce said that sales this Christmas plunged around 30 percent, recording the worst performance in years, reported Associated Press. The …

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EURUSD: Looking to Add to Short

December 27, 2011

I initially sold EURUSD at 1.3526 and revised my stop-loss to the breakeven level after the pair met our first objective at 1.3144. Prices are now showing a bullish Three Inside Up candlestick …

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Japan’s cabinet approves USD1.16tr draft budget

December 27, 2011

(MENANF) Japan’s Finance Minister, Jun Azumi, said that the country’s cabinet gave its approval for 2012′s draft budget of USD1.16 trillion, reported Times of Oman. Azumi added that the …

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Profits at Chinese companies slow in 2011

December 27, 2011

(MENAFN) A report, issued by China’s National Bureau of Statistics, showed that industrial companies’ profits slowed, another signal of a slowing economy growth, Bloomberg reported. China’s …

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Uncertainties brought more losses in Asia amid thin trading 

December 27, 2011

In the final week of this year, trading is expected to remain quiet with thin volumes, as the remaining investors await the release of the US consumer confidence amid continued concerns about the …

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Thin trading amid the year-end holidays, eyes on U.S. consumer confidence

December 27, 2011

Amid the year-end holidays movement in markets are within narrow ranges, where the volume is expected to increase gradually after the beginning of the new year. The main focus today will be on U.S. …

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S. Korea’s SK Telecom wins regulator for Hynix stake buyout

December 27, 2011

(MENAFN) South Korea’s Fair Trade Commission approved for SK Telecom Co. to acquire a 21 percent stake in Hynix Semiconductor Inc., Bloomberg reported. The antitrust regulator’s approval will …

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Turkey’s CB to sell USD50m in daily auctions

December 27, 2011

(MENAFN) Turkish central bank said that it would start selling USD50 million a day in daily dollar sale auctions until the next monetary policy committee meeting, reported Gulf News. The bank …

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Anonymous claims hacking US’ Stratfor

December 27, 2011

(MENAFN) Anonymous, the hacking movement, claimed earlier this week that they were able to hack their way into Stratfor, the US security think and tank, reported AP. Anonymous claims that the …

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Kim Jong II’s death drives S. Korea consumer sentiment down

December 27, 2011

(MENAFN) Following North Korea’s Kim Jong II’s death this month, consumer confidence in its neighbor South Korea declined to a three-month low, Bloomberg reported. Bank of Korea said that …

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Daewoo’s 2012 new orders to drop 23%

December 27, 2011

(MENAFN) Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co said that due to oversupply of vessels and dropping rates, in 2012, new orders would be forecasted to fall 23 percent from 2011′s USD14.3 billion …

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Spain- Economy to continue shrinking: Govt

December 27, 2011

(MENAFN) Spanish Economy Minister, Luis de Guindos, announced that the country would suffer again from an economic recession in the first quarter of 2012, reported AP. The minister elaborated …

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Afghanistan signs deal with China’s National Petroleum Corporation

December 27, 2011

(MENAFN) Afghanistan’s Minister of Mines, Wahidullah Shahrani, announced that the country would ink an agreement with China-based National Petroleum Corporation which allows the latter to produce …

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Iran’s private sector to invest USD571m in Armenian energy projects

December 27, 2011

(MENAFN) Iran’s Energy Minister, Majid Namjou, said that a consortium of the Iranian private sector would invest USD571 million in two Armenian energy projects, reported Tehran Times. Namjou …

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Toyota launches world’s most fuel-efficient hybrid car

December 27, 2011

(MENAFN – Gulf Times) Toyota Motor Corp yesterday launched the world’s most fuel-efficient hybrid car, as the company looks to fight off competition from pure electric vehicles. The compact car, …

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Man Dies in Attack on Busy London Shopping Street

December 27, 2011

(MENAFN – Khaleej Times) Police say they are investigating the stabbing death of a young man on a London street crowded with shoppers. Metropolitan Police say the man – believed to be in his late …

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