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Dollar Gains Slightly After GNP Report Meets Expectations | NEW YORK -- An unsurprising report on U.S. gross national product left the dollar only slightly higher against most major currencies in light trading.</br></br>Several traders said some of the gain came on late selling of the yen, partly on rumors that major oil-exporting nations may have agreed to cut production. The rumors, which weren't confirmed, hit the yen first because Japan is almost totally dependent on imports for its oil.</br></br>"Overall, the (GNP numbers) didn't have that much impact on the currency markets," John Baker, chief trader at Bank Julius Baer & Co., said. The Commerce Department said the U.S. economy grew at a 2.3% annual rate in the first quarter, slower than the 4.8% rate in the fourth quarter of 1987 and exactly in line with many analysts' expectations. The price deflator, an important indicator of inflation, rose at a 2.4% annual rate, slightly lower than the fourth quarter's 2.7%.</br></br>Some traders said the figures were mildly bullish for the dollar because they indicated a slight narrowing of the U.S. trade deficit and a slowing of non-farm inventory accumulation. On the other hand, some economists said the figures depicted a slower narrowing of the trade deficit than they expected. They said the apparent strength of consumer and business demand will make it difficult to slow imports.</br></br>Initially, the market seemed to view the figures bearishly, as the dollar fell to intraday lows of 1.6697 marks and 124.30 yen shortly after their release. | yes | 1 |
Fed stays its course of rock-bottom rates; Officials more upbeat about economy than at January meeting | The Federal Reserve stood by its policy of keeping interest rates at rock-bottom levels for the foreseeable future at its policymaking meeting Tuesday even as central bank officials took a more positive tone about the economy.</br></br>The Federal Open Market Committee left its target for short-term interest rates near zero, where it has been for the past 15 months. Fed officials also repeated language from previous statements that rates are likely to remain "exceptionally low" for an "extended period," which they have said means at least six more months.</br></br>The Fed will also go forward with a plan to end its support for the mortgage market at the end of March. By then, the central bank will have completed the purchase of $1.25 trillion in mortgage-backed securities, a key factor in keeping interest rates low for those buying a house.</br></br>On balance, the Fed's assessment of the economy seemed slightly better than it had been at the last policy meeting, in late January. Recent data suggest that "the labor market is stabilizing," the statement accompanying the rate decision said. At the January meeting, the Fed had said that "deterioration in the labor market is abating."</br></br>The unemployment rate has edged down in recent months to 9.7 percent, and forecasters expect the nation to have added jobs in March. | no | 0 |
The Original Culture Warriors; For lower-middle-class women serving coffee to bosses, full-time motherhood wasn't the concentration camp described by feminists. | Even as we tremble at the edge of a fiscal cliff, the culture war insists on our attention. Abortion, contraception, gay and women's rights, and welfare have all returned to shake up an election season that was supposed to be a simple economy slugfest. Robert O. Self's "All in the Family" could help explain why. Mr. Self, a professor of history at Brown University, has heroically researched the history of the culture wars from the early 1960s to the present. He offers a provocative analysis that accounts for today's alliance between small-government and social conservatives, on the one hand, and welfare-state and social liberals, on the other.</br></br>Mr. Self begins his history by describing "breadwinner liberalism" as the status quo of the early and mid-1960s. The architects of the Great Society assumed the primacy of male-earner and female-homemaker families. Labor unions fought for a family wage for their predominantly male membership, the Moynihan Report (1965) raised alarms about black male unemployment, and the first efforts at affirmative action took the form of quotas in municipal contracts for male construction workers. In all these cases "women were largely an afterthought," Mr. Self writes. Breadwinner liberalism, he argues, was based on a model of "masculine individualism": hardworking, striving, self-reliant.</br></br>By the late 1960s, male breadwinners were beset from all sides. Their antiwar sons grew their hair long and scoffed at verities about masculine honor. Gays, going public early in the decade as self-defined "homophiles," challenged presumptions about masculine sexuality. Traditional men watched anxiously as their wives brought home paychecks and as women generally demanded relief from sexual harassment, low pay and pink-collar ghettos. Men soon saw their daughters demonstrating for abortion rights. Between the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and various court decisions, it seemed as if the government, the courts and their own families all agreed: The traditional male-headed family was an anachronism.</br></br>But, the author concludes, breadwinning men weren't disappearing; they and their female supporters were just changing political parties. For many lower-middle-class women serving coffee to bosses and stocking grocery shelves, full-time motherhood wasn't the concentration camp described by feminists. They found a voice in antifeminists like Phyllis Schlafly, who almost single-handedly stopped the Equal Rights Amendment in the late 1970s. Catholic women and men organized groups to oppose abortion and were soon joined by evangelicals. Other grass-root groups emerged, some in support of Vietnam veterans and others celebrating what came to be known as family values. What was taking shape was the profound class and cultural divide that vexes our politics to this day.</br></br>In a vivid chapter, Mr. Self describes the 1972 Democratic National Convention, a pivotal moment in the reshaping of political alignments. AFL-CIO President George Meany railed that, in the party platform, "there were no steelworkers, no pipe fitters, and worst of all, no plumbers." Instead there were feminists, radical blacks, Chicanos and gays--co-conspirators in a left-wing attack on breadwinner liberalism. In reaction, a constellation of religious, white, "ethnic" and anti-feminist objectors joined forces to create "breadwinner conservatism." By 1980, with the help of a vigorous evangelical revival, these one-time Democrats helped elect Ronald Reagan president. | no | 0 |
Matter of Security: Risky Derivatives Are Huge Source of Funds For Federal Agencies --- Investors Learn the Hard Way That `U.S.-Backed' Is No Guarantee of Safety --- `A Hungry System to Feed' | Last February, just before the Federal Reserve began jacking up interest rates, a U.S. Army welfare and recreation fund invested $15 million in what looked like a sure thing: A two-year, triple-A-rated, U.S. government-agency note with a tempting initial yield of 4.75%, well above the then-prevailing rate.</br></br>But in just three months, the note's yield was reset to 0% under a complex formula, making it dead money to the investor. So far, the Army fund has taken a 7.9% paper loss on the notes, a hefty hit for a short-term note in a supposedly low-risk fund that manages cash balances for Army base golf courses and bowling alleys.</br></br>"This is not wonderful," frets fund manager Jeffrey Dalbey.</br></br>This security, known as a structured note, wasn't issued by a penny stockbroker or a widget manufacturer. It was the Federal Home Loan Bank System, a lightly supervised, Depression-era creation, which is at the center of the gathering storm about the government's role in issuing such gimmicky and risky securities.</br></br>The Army wasn't the only investor to be burned by such safe-looking securities. Structured notes issued by the Federal Home Loan Bank System and other federal agencies also played a prominent role in Orange County's bankruptcy filing last month. Similar investments blew up last year in supposedly low-risk funds run by BankAmerica Corp. and Mellon Bank Corp., among others. | no | 0 |
EuroLinks Daily View: Citigroup's Prince Under Fire; UBS's Rohner Under Pressure | Might the $5.9 billion stumble Citigroup Inc. disclosed Monday -- the cost of its part in the credit crunch -- also cost Chief Executive Charles Prince his job? In place for four years to the day and under growing pressure to turn around the largest U.S. bank by market capitalization, he has been unable to significantly lift its stock price, which has been underperforming the prices of its peers. Perhaps the 2.25% rise in the big bank's price Monday was due to more than just the reduced uncertainty about the credit crunch's impact.</br></br>Like other Wall Street firms, Citigroup has been beset by the credit-markets turmoil that sidelined many investors and is saddled with loans it had expected to sell. Its news came hours after UBS AG said it will post a third-quarter loss and make changes following $3.44 billion of write-downs in its fixed-income portfolio. But while Citigroup's massive balance sheet can easily absorb the hit, the situation has called into question its ability to manage its risk appropriately. Last month, for example, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. reported unexpectedly strong results despite the market unrest, in part due to savvy bets that the value of home loans and related securities would fall.</br></br>Not surprisingly, the news that Citigroup's third-quarter earnings will fall as much as 60% prompted a fresh round of calls for Mr. Prince to step down. After all, he had been promising a turnaround and had called 2007 a "year of no excuses." Importantly, however, Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, the largest individual shareholder in Citigroup, said Monday that he fully supports the bank's management -- including Mr. Prince.</br></br>Meanwhile, new UBS CEO Marcel Rohner, having led his bank through one of the more spectacular bloodlettings of the global credit crisis, now must work out how to shore up the bank amid the departure of key executives and the repercussions of a very bad bet on U.S. mortgages. The changes and strategy he unveiled Monday amount to a retrenchment as the Swiss bank slashes by nearly a third the assets of the investment-banking unit that has helped lead its growth in recent years. It will need to rely more heavily on its traditional money- management business and will place a pair of conservative Swiss managers in the top financial and operating posts.</br></br>--- | no | 0 |
Economic Index Falls Again | The index of leading economic indicators fell in October for the fifth straight month, suggesting that the economy may be slowing, a private research group said. The Conference Board said its main indicator of future economic growth fell 0.3 percent in October, following declines of the same size in September and August. The index is calculated by combining factors considered to be good indicators of the economy's direction, such as manufacturing, interest rates, consumer expectations, stock prices and money supply. The Labor Department said that initial jobless claims fell by 3,000 last week, to 334,000. Weekly claims have averaged 344,109 so far this year, compared with 402,000 for all of 2003, a sign businesses are holding on to workers as demand improves, the department said.</br></br>A bankruptcy judge left intact temporary 21 percent pay cuts on some US Airways workers that he imposed last month to help the airline conserve cash and avoid liquidation. Lawyers for the International Association of Machinists and Association of Flight Attendants had asked U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Stephen S. Mitchell to reconsider his ruling, saying the airline had requested steeper pay cuts than were necessary to ensure the airline's survival while in bankruptcy.</br></br>Continental Airlines said it will seek to cut $500 million a year in wages and benefits. The reductions, which would take effect Feb. 28, are in addition to $1.1 billion in cost savings the company has already identified, Continental said.</br></br>Kevin Nordick, accused by prosecutors of bilking $58 million from 15,000 investors in 60 countries, pleaded guilty to federal fraud charges related to the scheme. Investigators called the Tri-West Investment Club one of the nation's largest Internet investment scams. Nordick faces up to 20 years in prison, and sentencing has been scheduled for Feb. 4.</br></br>SBC Communications and Yahoo are expanding their alliance to market delivery of news, entertainment and other services on computers, cell phones, televisions and other devices. Details of the multiyear agreement were not disclosed. | no | 0 |
Analysis Deficit | Would you pay $15,000 for a car? Most of us would consider the question odd: It depends on which car. In the current tax cut debate, 10-year revenue costs of $350 billion and $550 billion are being debated, but the question should be: for what? President Bush's tax cut was designed to provide short-term growth insurance and enhance long-term growth. Does it deliver?</br></br>If you listen to the political rhetoric, the most controversial of the president's tax proposals is the elimination of the double tax on corporate income. This would not be the case if scientific analysis were introduced into the debate. So far, neither the administration nor the Joint Committee on Taxation has provided an element-by-element evaluation of the different proposals. Name-calling tends to break out when there is no substance to discuss.</br></br>When the Council of Economic Advisers considered the economic benefits of the president's entire proposal, the agency emphasized demand-side effects on consumer spending and investment in the near term. Using a conventional forecasting model, effects of the tax plan on job prospects, household disposable income, and incentives to invest were projected to raise real GDP by about $670 billion over the next five years. This increase in output would raise revenues by $133 billion over that period.</br></br>But even that analysis omits the long-run supply-side benefits. The dividend tax reduction has the strongest economic merits. Ending the double tax raises long-term income by increasing capital formation and improving the use of existing capital.</br></br>The first thing to track is the direct effect on investment. The dividend tax cut significantly reduces the cost of financing new investments. If businesses invest more, economic growth increases. The connection between the cost of finance and business investment is one of the least contentious areas of economic science, and cautious applications of the results from studies of tax policy and investment suggest that eliminating dividend taxation should add about a quarter of a percentage point to real GDP every year. | no | 0 |
Buying on Margin: The Interest lÛªavs | WithÛªinterest rates risingÛÓand most experts believe they are heading even higherÛÓbuying on margin can allow you to make the most of the rates,</br></br>This strategy is risky from two standpoints, First, you are leveraging your investment and can be hurt if the market goes against you. Also, the credit quality of bonds you purchase can pose a risk.</br></br>Buying.bonds on margin is similar to buying stocks on margin. The difference is that the bondÛªs coupon (the interest it pays) can help offset the interest you pay on tbe debit balance in your margin account (the money the brokerage lends you).</br></br>For instance, if you buy a listed corporate bond, you put up 25 percent of the market value or 10 percent of the face value, whichever is greater. Right now, th^interest you would pay on your debit balance is about 12 percent.</br></br>If you were to buy $100,000 in BBB-rated Chrysler Corp. bonds paying 12 percent at 93 (that is, $930 a bond), you would put up 25 percent of $930,000 ($23,250). Your debit balance, upon which you pay 12 percent interest, a the remaining 75 |iercentu>M69,750. Annually, you would pay $8,370 interest.'JJtft-you earn $12,000 a year in coupon income, so your ÛÏpositive interest carryÛ is $3,360. ThatÛªs more than the $2,790 in coupon income the same bonds would pay if you bought $23,250 worthÛª flat out. | no | 0 |
The Elder Share | ONE OF the great feats of social engineering in the last 25 years has been a huge increase in the standard of living of the elderly. Social Security and Medicare have been the means. The elderly had a poverty rate of 25 percent in the late 1960s. It is half that now, and lower than the rate for the society as a whole, thanks mainly to increased Social Security benefits. In addition, thanks to Medicare, the elderly are now the group in society with the most comprehensive health insurance.</br></br>The problem with these programs is not the benefits they confer, but the cost. They have come to dominate, if not the government itself, most certainly its budget. Aiding the elderly is now the main thing that the federal government does; such aid accounts for fully half the budget for other than interest on the debt and defense. The share can only rise as the baby boomers retire in the years ahead - but the money to support such an expansion is not in sight.</br></br>The taxes presently in place won't cover projected Social Security costs when the boomers retire early in the next century. The Medicare trust fund will be exhausted even earlier. To protect the long-term integrity of both, Congress will sooner or later have to raise taxes or cut costs; if costs, it ought to begin a gradual process now.</br></br>The trust funds are one source of pressure on the elder-programs; the other is the budget deficit. The president and Congress took a welcome step toward reducing it last year; they need to do more. A favorite target of budget-cutters is the spending category called entitlements. Their semi-automatic growth each year is taken as proof of the indiscipline the budget-cutters mean to cure. Which is fine, but it, too, is a euphemism. Entitlements turn out to be 60 percent aid to the elderly by another name. Congress keeps threatening to impose entitlement caps in the abstract, and now there is also an entitlements commission. But entitlement-cutting is mainly a way of discussing in general and in code a subject that the politicians would do better to discuss directly.</br></br>Thus a leading budget-cutting proposal now making the rounds is to cut the cost of entitlements across the board by means-testing them. Among the proponents is the budget-balancing group called the Concord Coalition. The idea is that a hard-pressed government has no business paying benefits (or asking middle-income taxpayers to finance benefits) for people above certain income cutoffs. For recipients with incomes above, say, $40,000 a year, entitlements (including Social Security benefits and the insurance value of Medicare) would be progressively reduced, though never wiped out entirely. | yes | 1 |
U.S. News: Bernanke Backs Plan In Senate | Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke defended the central bank's plan to buy government bonds during a private gathering with U.S. senators, responding to several days of attacks from Republicans who say the Fed is causing inflation and weakening the dollar.</br></br>The Fed chairman denied the U.S. was manipulating the currency through its plan to purchase $600 billion of U.S. Treasury bonds and pointed to research by the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston which estimated the program could create 700,000 to one million jobs over two years.</br></br>Sen. Richard Shelby, an Alabama Republican, said he "wasn't persuaded" and noted that "even some Fed officials have doubts" about the central bank program. GOP lawmakers said in a letter to Mr. Bernanke released Wednesday that the Fed's move "introduces significant uncertainty regarding the future strength of the dollar and could result. . .in hard-to-control, long-term inflation."</br></br>In a sign of divisions within conservative political circles about the Fed, Tom Donohue, head of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, a frequent ally of Republicans, came out in support of Mr. Bernanke. Mr. Donohue said Mr. Bernanke had "acted in a very important way" to help economic growth and warned lawmakers "not to louse that up."</br></br>Evan Bayh (D., Ind.) said the Fed chief told lawmakers the central bank was "absolutely committed" to stable inflation. | no | 0 |
Louisiana Plans Tax Rebates for Foreign Tourists: 1 Louisiana Sels Tax Rebates For Tourists | BATON ROUGE, La., July 8ÛÓLouisiana is becoming the first state to give sales tax rebates to foreign visitors, a move designed to boost the tourism industry and create jobs in a state plagued by double-digit unemployment.</br></br>A bill signed today by Gov. Buddy Roemer authorizes the rebates. Seventeen European countries offer similar refunds.</br></br>"I think it is a fantastic concept for us in that we are the first in the nation to do it,Û said Lt. Gov. Paul Hardy, who serves as the head of LouisianaÛªs Department of Culture, Recreation and Tourism.</br></br>The program, which the state hopes to implement in early 1989, will offer the rebates only for retail sales. Hotel bills, rental cars and .restaurant and bar tabs will not be affected.</br></br>ÛÏWhile weÛªre rebating only the tax on shopping, we will get more [visitors] paying the sales tax on everything else,Û said Eugene Schrieber, managing director of the World Trade Center in New Orleans. | no | 0 |
Kocherlakota: Fed Could Do Better in Achieving Job, Inflation Goals; Official Is a Strong Advocate for Aggressive Steps to Lift Job Market's Prospects | NEW YORK--Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis President Narayana Kocherlakota said on Tuesday the U.S. central bank needs a more effective plan to boost hiring and get tepid inflation back to its official target.</br></br>"We need to do better as a committee" to achieve the hiring and price pressure mandates Congress has directed the Fed to achieve, Mr. Kocherlakota said in the text of a speech prepared for delivery before a local group in Rochester, Minn. When it comes to creating a policy that will prove more effective in driving the economy forward, the official said, "I look forward to working with my colleagues to make that happen."</br></br>But Mr. Kocherlakota stopped short in his speech of saying what he would like to see done. The official is currently a voting member of monetary-policy setting Federal Open Market Committee. At the FOMC's March meeting, he dissented against the committee's decision to stop providing numbers-based guidance about the potential timing of interest-rate rises.</br></br>Ahead of last month's meetings, the Fed said it wouldn't consider increases in short-term rates until unemployment fell well past 6.5% as long as expected inflation stayed under 2.5%. A rapid and still hard-to-explain decline in unemployment--joblessness currently stands at 6.7%--drove the Fed to shift the way it describes its expected path for monetary policy. Now, the FOMC says rate increases are off the table until a broader and vaguer set of improvements are seen in the job market.</br></br>Mr. Kocherlakota believed the change in the Fed's language weakened its commitment to push very weak levels of inflation back to the official target of 2%. He said he would have preferred for the Fed's existing guidance to have been altered, and for the rate increase threshold to have been lowered to 5.5%. | no | 0 |
Heller Hints That Fed Should Expand Credit: Pointed Suggestion Patinan Critical | President KennedyÛªs chief economic adviser yesterday let drop a polite warning to the Federal Reserve Board to make good its implied pledge of ample credit.</br></br>Walter W. Heller, chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, appeared before the House Banking and Currency Committee in the role of peacemaker between advocates of tight and easy money.</br></br>The perennial controversy flared anew last week when the FRB raised the rediscount rate from 3 to 3Û÷,å£ per cent to help stem the flow of funds overseas and reduce the NationÛªs deficit of international payments.</br></br>Mr. Kennedy sought to still the resultant outcry from friends of easy credit. He noted assurances ÛÏby both Treasury and Federal Reserve officials that they intend to do everything possible ... to avoid any reduction in domestic credit availability and any upward pressure on long-term interest rates while the economy operates below capacity without inflation.Û eHller repeated the PresidentÛªs statement yesterday and pointedly suggested that it may be necessary for the Fed ÛÏto allow free reserves to rise somewhat above recent levels."</br></br>The reserves of the NationÛªs commercial banks govern the amount of money they may loan to individuals and busi- | no | 0 |
Economic Aide Sees Uptrend | Sedate and scholarly Dr. Arthur Burns, the ex-Columbia professor, now chief of Presi dent EisenhowerÛªs Council of Economic A d -j visers, went to great pains in explaining to Senators why he had to testify about business recession in secret.</br></br>Dr- Burns, appearing before _ the Joint Committee on the = Economic Report, explained | = that he had been searching his E soul as to whether to testify at'Si all. The way he looked at it. he had a confidential relationship with the President. However, he had given the matter deep thought. Since Cabinet officers are expected to testify, Burns decided he, too. had an obliga tion to appear before Congress if requested. However, he had to insist that no transcript be taken of his remarks of native troops. Radford proposes sending a top United States military man, with experience in either Greece or Korea, to train Indo-Chinese natives.</br></br>This would save French lives, and, he believes, would result in some real resistance against the Chinese-equipped Communists who' since the end of the Korean war have received trainload after trainload of munitions, obviously diverted from the Korean front.</br></br>Sen. Paul Douglas (D-I1L), an ex-professor of economics at the University of Chicago, promptly challenged him. Burns then went into a lengthy explanation, pointing out that in speaking off-the-cuff, he was apt to oversimplify a complex situation or to state an idea more positively than it ought to be expressed. Therefore, he preferred to keep his remarkg informal. If a transcript were made, he said, it would make his testimony appear more formal than it actually would be.</br></br>There was also the possibility, he continued, that he might say something that would appear to be in contradiction of . the PresidentÛªs Economic Report. He hastened to assure that he didnÛªt mean he disagreed with the PresidentÛªs report in any detail. But in the course of speaking, he said, some statement of his might come out on the record that would appear to contradict the President. If that happened, lie added solemnly, and his remark were made permanent in transcript form, he would feel constrained to resign, within the hour. , | no | 0 |
Exchanges May Hold Hands --- Nasdaq, NYSE Said to Be Discussing Protecting Each Other to Avoid Freezes | With technology glitches becoming more common, the country's two stock-exchange giants are pondering a scenario some might have considered unlikely: teaming to protect one another in the event of breakdowns.</br></br>Longtime rivals NYSE Euronext and Nasdaq OMX Group Inc. are discussing a plan with other exchanges in which each company would run a backup for the other's benchmark stock-pricing data, according to people involved in the discussions. If one exchange group's feed went down, traders could turn to its competitor for data while the problem was being fixed.</br></br>The impetus is a run of recent breakdowns -- two for Nasdaq and one at NYSE. The Securities and Exchange Commission this month set a 60-day deadline for exchanges to strengthen their technology, and exchange executives have since brainstormed ways to build better backup systems.</br></br>The potential cooperation between NYSE and Nasdaq grew out of those discussions, the people said. The discussions remain in the early stages but illustrate renewed efforts within the industry to tackle its technology problems.</br></br>The talks follow a three-hour halt Aug. 22 in securities listed on the Nasdaq Stock Market, stemming from a software failure that knocked out a data feed required for brokers to ensure a stock trade executes at the best price available. The data feed, managed by Nasdaq and known as the Securities Information Processor, suffered another brief outage a week later. | no | 0 |
Existing-home sales rebound to 2-year high; FORECLOSURES, TAX CREDIT DRIVE RISE Recovery could be temporary, some analysts warn | Existing-home sales climbed 9.4 percent in September to their highest level in more than two years, fueled by demand for cheap properties and an $8,000 tax credit for first-time buyers, according to industry data released Friday.</br></br>Sales of existing homes, including condos and single-family residences, reached an annual rate of 5.57 million units in September, their highest level since July 2007, according to the National Association of Realtors. The monthly increase was the largest on records that date back to 1999 and was far better than analysts had expected. Sales were up 9.2 percent from the same period a year ago.</br></br>This is the latest sign that the housing market has begun to rebound, if only temporarily, as buyers take advantage of record-low mortgage rates and pounce on cheap foreclosed properties, analysts said. Sales have increased five of the last six months and rose throughout the country last month. In the South, which includes the Washington region, sales rose 9 percent last month. Also, the inventory of homes on the market shrank again, though analysts said it needs to come down more. It would take 7.8 months to sell all of the homes on the market at the current rate.</br></br>"The supply of used homes for sale is also steadily declining, an encouraging trend," said Mike Larson, a real estate analyst at Weiss Research, a research firm.</br></br>But analysts said the market rebound may be temporary. An $8,000 tax credit for first-time home buyers expires Nov. 30, and sales will likely flatten or fall in the following months, analysts said. The tax credit generated temporary demand as buyers who otherwise may have waited to buy a house rushed to cash in before the credit vanished, analysts said. | no | 0 |
Media: Vivendi Weighs IPO for Portion Of Entertainment Businesses | PARIS -- Vivendi Universal SA said it was considering an initial public offering of 25% to 30% of its U.S. entertainment businesses because of the rebound in stock prices, putting bidders looking at the assets on notice that it has other options should their offers be too low.</br></br>Vivendi raised the possibility of an IPO as it reported first-quarter earnings that showed declines at both its Universal Music Group unit and the U.S. television and film businesses it is auctioning.</br></br>Despite the weaker entertainment-business results, Vivendi's overall first-quarter figures were better than expected due to the strength of its telecom units. The company's net loss shrank to 319 million euros ($377.6 million) from 815 million euros a year earlier. Revenue dropped to 6.2 billion euros from 14.6 billion euros, although most of the decline was due to Vivendi's sale of its controlling interest in its utility arm last year.</br></br>Universal Music, the world's largest music company, swung to an operating loss of 28 million euros in the quarter. Vivendi Universal Entertainment, the TV and film venture being auctioned, had an operating profit of 213 million euros, down 23% from last year on a pro forma basis, which assumes the acquisition of USA Networks had occurred at the start of last year.</br></br>At least six potential buyers are expected to submit bids for some or all of Vivendi's U.S. entertainment assets on Monday, the deadline in what is likely to be the first round of a prolonged auction. Companies submitting bids are expected to include Liberty Media Corp., Viacom Inc., General Electric Co.'s NBC, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc., a group of investors led by oil billionaire Marvin Davis and another group led by Edgar Bronfman Jr. | no | 0 |
Economic Optimism Lifts Euro | NEW YORK -- The euro eked out an advance against the dollar as investors turned modestly optimistic about the pace of the global economic recovery, despite lingering concerns over the euro-zone debt crisis.</br></br>Unconfirmed reports of strong Chinese export figures boosted currencies closely tied to global economic growth, while Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke's cautiously optimistic tone on the U.S. economy also supported the rally.</br></br>But a late-afternoon slip in U.S. stocks threw cold water on the run-up in riskier currencies, and investors likely pared their euro holdings ahead of Thursday's meeting of the European Central Bank, said Ron Leven, currency strategist at Morgan Stanley in New York. The central bank isn't expected to increase its target rates. Still, investors will listen closely for details on how the bank is dealing with issues related to euro-zone sovereign debt.</br></br>As investors took risk off the table in late afternoon, the dollar hit an intraday low against the yen. The Japanese currency tends to strengthen when investors unwind bets on higher-yielding currencies.</br></br>By late afternoon in New York, the euro was at $1.1987, compared with $1.1947 late Tuesday in New York. The dollar was at 91.17 yen from 91.39 yen. The euro was at 109.28 yen from 109.18 yen. The U.K. pound strengthened to $1.4533 from $1.4426. The dollar weakened to 1.1478 Swiss francs, from 1.1527 francs. | yes | 1 |
Higher Bond Yields May Not Skewer Stocks; Some Traders See Long-Term Rates As Simply Returning to Normal In a Sign of a Strong Economy | STOCK INVESTORS are tearing out their hair for fear that surging Treasury-bond yields will torpedo the stock market.</br></br>But not Jim Paulsen. The chief investment strategist for Wells Capital Management, which oversees $175 billion, figures higher yields are just great for stocks.</br></br>"I've just got a sense of optimism about this thing," Mr. Paulsen says. "If you are a real stock bull, you've got to root for a higher bond yield."</br></br>That wasn't exactly how the market reacted Friday. Treasury-bond yields affect other interest rates across the economy, including those of fixed-rate mortgages and many corporate loans and bonds. Higher rates put a pinch on consumers and companies alike, and that squeezes profits. When the yield of the benchmark 10-year Treasury note jumped Friday to 4.965%, a level it hadn't seen since June 2002, stocks suffered: The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 96.46 points, or 0.9%, to 11120.04.</br></br>The fear is that higher yields mark the end of the easy-money era that has been the stock market's prime driver since 2002. Consumers will find it more expensive to buy a home or to take out a home-equity loan and buy a new car. Businesses will find new investment more costly. Investors will have to think twice before tossing more borrowed money into the stock market -- they might even take some out. Bonds and money-market funds, with their higher new rates, will draw money away from stocks. | yes | 1 |
Pro-Trade, Pro-Immigration | Tuesday night was not a good one for Republican opponents of immigration reform and free trade. Primary races in South Carolina and Utah, respectively, saw protectionism defeated and the forces of rational immigration policy prevail. And by wide margins.</br></br>Incumbent Congressman Chris Cannon of Utah, a vocal supporter of President Bush's guest-worker proposals for aliens, coasted to a 16- point victory over former state legislator Matt Throckmorton, who made immigration the central issue of the campaign.</br></br>The Throckmorton thumping is noteworthy because national anti- immigrant activists -- a motley band of population-control zealots and nativists -- were hoping to make an example of Mr. Cannon and spent tens of thousands of dollars (in a very small media market) trying to unseat him. So divisive has the immigration issue become within the GOP (see Tamar Jacoby's op-ed nearby) that the Congressman even had to ward off direct attacks from a member of his own House caucus. Tom Tancredo of Colorado set up a political action committee and Web site to bash Mr. Cannon and other Republicans trying to fix our broken immigration system.</br></br>Back in South Carolina, Representative Jim DeMint just as easily defeated former Governor David Beasley to win the Republican nomination for the Senate seat being vacated by retiring Democrat Fritz Hollings. Mr. DeMint is a free-trader in a state that not only is trailing the national economic recovery but has lost textile industry jobs to foreign competition. Nevertheless, Mr. DeMint stuck to his pro-growth principles and refuted his protectionist opponent's "fair-trade agreements" sophistry. He was rewarded with 59% of the vote.</br></br>The results in Utah and South Carolina should convince Republican candidates that immigration reform and free trade can be political winners -- even in the least likely places. Moreover, these ideals help to define the GOP as a inclusive, pro-growth, forward-looking party. | no | 0 |
Predictions of an Economic Shock for Montgomery County | Take cover. Batten down the hatches. Tighten your belts and hold on, Montgomery County. You're in for a shock and it's going to be considerable, says Blair Lee IV, a prominent businessman in the county.</br></br>"We are in a recession," Lee recently declared in decidedly bleak remarks to members of the Montgomery County Chamber of Commerce. "The 1980s are over and so are the good times," he asserted. "We've enjoyed 10 years of America's greatest boom, and now we're about to suffer the bust that comes after it."</br></br>History books call it a panic, Lee mused, putting an unusually alarming spin on the county's and the region's economic slowdown.</br></br>Perhaps even more alarming, Lee warned that Montgomery County "may be harder hit than other parts of the nation," in the current economic downturn that others, like him, are calling a recession. "The first casualty of the panic of 1990 will be the long-held myth that Montgomery County is recession-proof," Lee predicted. "We're about to find out that we're not."</br></br>Not only is Montgomery County about to discover that it isn't recession-proof, "the shock is going to be considerable," according to Lee. | no | 0 |
Euro-Zone Inflation Returns to Record Low; Slowing Price Growth Pressures ECB to Act Decisively to Head Off Deflation | FRANKFURT--Euro-zone inflation unexpectedly weakened in January, raising pressure on the European Central Bank to act decisively to prevent a debilitating period of excessively soft consumer prices, or even outright declines, that threaten to derail the region's fragile economic recovery.</br></br>The report came as Germany's conservative central bank signaled it backs additional measures to combat recent volatility in money markets. The Bundesbank favors ending the ECB's policy of draining funds from banks to offset its government bondholdings, a person familiar with the matter said.</br></br>That would raise the amount of surplus funds in the banking system, the person said, and anchor money-market rates, thus providing a more stable environment for banks to lend.</br></br>Consumer prices grew 0.7% in January from a year earlier in the euro zone, the European Union's statistics office Eurostat said Friday, well below the ECB's target of just below 2%. That was down from 0.8% in December and short of economists' expectations for a slight rise. Some economists expect it to weaken further in February.</br></br>Although January's figure wasn't far different from the previous month, it carries symbolic importance. The last time inflation fell so low, in October, the ECB responded with a surprise reduction in its key interest rate to a record-low 0.25%. The ECB meets Thursday, and while many economists expect the bank to stand pat, some say the inflation report increases the chances of immediate steps to convince financial markets that officials take the threat of deflation seriously. | no | 0 |
Court Asked to Intervene in NASD Case; Justice Department Accuses Association of Delaying Its Investigation | The Justice Department today escalated a nine-month battle with the National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD) over release of documents about the Nasdaq Stock Market by asking a federal court here to intervene.</br></br>Justice Department lawyers investigating alleged anticompetitive conduct by Nasdaq market makers accused the beleaguered and understaffed association of playing "a waiting game that clearly will continue until this court compels compliance."</br></br>The department said it issued a civil investigation demand on Jan. 20 for what it called a limited look at "conduct among Nasdaq market makers, including possible collusion, boycotts and refusals to deal." Both the Justice Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission are trying to investigate claims that small investors suffer because Nasdaq's rules are written for the benefit of professional traders.</br></br>Marc Beauchamp, a spokesman for NASD, said the association was surprised by the department's filing of the court petition because "we have turned over in excess of half a million pages of documents and have met both formally and informally with the department to answer any of its concerns and questions."</br></br>NASD attorney F. Joseph Warin called the action against the association, which regulates stock brokers nationwide under a congressional charter, "unjustified and unnecessary." The Nasdaq Stock Market, the target of the department's investigation, is run by the NASD and handles trading in shares -- including those of many rising young computer and electronics companies -- not listed on older, larger stock markets. | no | 0 |
A Big Boost for Buyers Seeking Jumbo Loans | New money is about to flow into a part of the real estate market that has been squeezed hard by the credit crisis: mortgages too large to be purchased or backed by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac or the Federal Housing Administration.</br></br>Higher-cost areas throughout the country traditionally have depended on the ready availability of "jumbo" mortgages to finance houses. Such neighborhoods are heavily concentrated in California, portions of Florida and the Northeast, including the Washington region. With the collapse last year of the private mortgage bond market on Wall Street, home buyers, builders and refinancers who relied on jumbo financing were left with few sources -- except with punitively high interest rates and huge down payments.</br></br>Now, though, major banks are heading into the jumbo segment, originating big loans at affordable rates -- not for Wall Street bond traders, but for their own investment portfolios.</br></br>Bank of America, the country's largest mortgage lender, is rolling out a large program to finance jumbo loans between roughly $730,000 and $1.5 million, with fixed 30-year rates starting in the upper 5 percent range. The loans will be available through the bank's retail network and also through its Countrywide Home Loans subsidiary. After April 27, Countrywide will be rebranded -- shedding the name it has had since 1969 -- and morph into Bank of America Home Loans. Bank of America acquired Countrywide, once one of the biggest subprime lenders, last year.</br></br>Barbara Desoer, the bank's head of consumer real estate operations, said there's "a real need" for capital in the jumbo arena, where interest rates last fall sometimes exceeded conventional loan rates by three to five percentage points -- if financing was available at all. | no | 0 |
BofA and Caterpillar Both Fall More Than 3% | Author: Donna Kardos Yesalavich</br></br>NEW YORK--Stocks fell, with Bank of America, Caterpillar and Alcoa among the decliners as investors continued to worry about European sovereign debt, while data on U.S. consumer spending also sparked concerns about the economic recovery.</br></br>The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 115.48 points, or 1.16%, to 9816.49, its lowest close since Nov. 4. The Dow is now below the intraday low it hit during the May 6 "flash crash."</br></br>Bank of America was the Dow's worst performer, falling 52 cents, or 3.4%, to $14.83. Unit Countrywide Home Loans agreed to pay $108 million to settle federal charges it collected excessive fees from homeowners struggling to keep their homes. The bank didn't admit or deny the allegations.</br></br>Caterpillar slid 1.93, or 3.3%, to 55.83. Caterpillar exports to Europe, and investors are concerned about how its profitability may be impacted by currency translations given the euro's weakening against the dollar. Monday, the dollar gained 0.41% versus the euro to its highest level since March 2006. | yes | 1 |
A Peek at Trucking Data, and Then the Stock Surged; Glimpses of Key Figures Can Aid Investors in Truck Stocks, Soybeans, Bed Makers and Others | Just before the stock market closed March 4, an industry-research firm emailed a monthly report on commercial-truck orders to hedge funds and other subscribers that pay the group $1,700 a year for the exclusive service.</br></br>The early peek was worth the expense. The next day, after the bullish truck numbers were reported in the media, shares in truck makers surged, generating a tidy profit for investors who traded on the report in the late moments of the previous session.</br></br>Even as federal, state and congressional investigators examine the preferential release to investors of broad economic data--such as the University of Michigan consumer-sentiment survey--some investors tap numerous other more narrowly focused and less well-known industry indicators ahead of the rest of the investing public.</br></br>The activity is widespread and legal. Federal securities law doesn't prevent investors from trading based on nonpublic information they have legally bought from other private entities.</br></br>Investment firms can pay anywhere from a few hundred to many thousands of dollars a year for access to a variety of specialized reports, ranging from an index that tracks monthly billings by architecture firms to a weekly report on oil inventory. | yes | 1 |
WASHINGTON IN BRIEF | The U.S. Postal Service posted a $1.7 billion loss for the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, despite productivity gains, chief financial officer Richard Strasser said yesterday.</br></br>The Postal Service delivered mail to 1.7 million new addresses with fewer workers and work hours than last year. It has cut 22,500 jobs in the last two years. But mail volume declines, a delay in carrying out the latest rate increase, and costs associated with the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks contributed to the loss, he said.</br></br>Despite the deficits, the Postal Service is awarding $124.5 million in "pay for performance" bonuses to 52,000 supervisors and managers who have met various productivity and safety targets, Strasser said. The bonuses average $1,500 per participant, he said.</br></br>Osama bin Laden, al Qaeda, the Taliban, Afghanistan and Iraq are named as defendants in a public interest law firm's $210 million lawsuit in U.S. District Court here on behalf of the estate of a woman killed in the World Trade Center attack.</br></br>Drawing on media reports and recent books by journalists, the conservative law firm Judicial Watch said Mohammad Atta and other Sept. 11 terrorists had met with Iraqi officials and that bin Laden had run a training camp near Baghdad. | no | 0 |
^å¡ÛBuSmESS & FINANCE | NEW YORK, Jan. 26 ÛÓThe first rupture in McGraw-Hill Inc.Ûªs united stand against a takeover bid by American Express Co. surfaced today.</br></br>Donald C. McGraw Jr., a member of McGraw-HillÛªs board and a major shareholder, cabled his cousin, chairman Harold L. McGraw Jr., telling him to ÛÏchangeÛ his opposition to the American Express proposal.</br></br>Donald McGraw and the rest of the McGraw-Hill board last week unanimously rejected a $34-a-share bid by American Express for the 24.5 million outstanding shares of the large company that, among other things, publishes Business Week magazine, operates Standard &</br></br>Wall Street analysts have said that American Express can be expected to sweeten its $34 offer, which is worth about $880 million. In his telegram, Donald McGraw urged his cousin to seek such a sweeter deal.</br></br>Donald McGraw advised Harold McGraw to stop fighting the proposed takeover and instead ÛÏnegotiate with the top management of American Express and such other bidders as may offer to acquire the stock of McGraw-Hill at a higher price.Û | no | 0 |
Aerospace Firms Feeling Pressure On Their Profits --- Lockheed, Northrop Warn Of Lower Net; Boeing Foresees Tough 1999 | After six years of industry consolidation, an array of production and sales problems continue to bedevil leading aerospace and defense companies. Two companies, Lockheed Martin Corp. and Northrop Grumman Corp., are warning that their fourth-quarter earnings will drop below year-earlier levels. Boeing Co., which has struggled all year, is expected to do better in the quarter than it did in the year-earlier quarter but is warning of problems this year. Only Raytheon Co.'s prospects look brighter.</br></br>Boeing and Northrop Grumman, whose fortunes are partially tied to the Seattle plane builder, have both warned of 1999 profit shortfalls of as much as 25% and 20%, respectively, below Wall Street expectations, because of Boeing's miscalculation of the Asian economic crisis. The region's collapsing demand for jetliners -- especially the 747-led Boeing to announce sharp production cutbacks that will pressure margins in its commercial-jetliner division, which accounts for 60% of revenue.</br></br>For the quarter, however, analysts estimate that Boeing earned about 42 cents a diluted share, compared with a loss of 51 cents a share a year earlier, when the company struggled not with Asian fallout but with a costly production bottleneck at its Seattle-area assembly lines. Also in the year-earlier quarter, Boeing posted a one-time $1.4 billion pretax charge to phase out two jetliner models it inherited in its 1997 merger with McDonnell Douglas Corp.</br></br>Northrop Grumman, which derives about 12% of its revenue from building jetliner parts, most notably for the 747 jumbo jet, last week posted a $105 million charge stemming from increased costs to complete the fuselages because of Boeing's cutbacks. Additionally, Northrop Grumman, Los Angeles, posted a $20 million charge related to delays in a separate defense-electronics program. As a result, the company likely earned 90 cents a diluted share, compared with $1.71 a share in the year-earlier quarter, analysts say.</br></br>Northrop Grumman's smaller charge, for the test delay, was typical of problems among the largest defense contractors. Although encouraged by the Pentagon amid stagnating procurement budgets, "It would appear that the whole round of consolidation of all four companies, which has proceeded in quite a hurry, may be a factor" in programs that go awry as the companies struggle to digest their acquisitions, said Paul Nisbet, an industry analyst at JSA Research in Newport, R.I. | no | 0 |
SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 1984 | RESIDENT REAGAN'S aides, according to a report in this newspaper yesterday, have now decreed that there has been enough emphasis on religion in the Republican campaign and that itÛªs time to shift the focus to other issues. The implausible. statement from campaign director Edward J. Rollins that religion ÛÏis not a campaign theme of oursÛ comes just before Democratic presidential candidate Walter Mondale is expected to hit Mr. Reagan for what he has been saying, and suggests administration anxiety at the hostile reaction so many Û÷people have had to the Reagan campaignÛªs dalliance with evangelism so far. We see no reason for anyone to fall silent on the subject now just because, Reagan strategists are having a case of nerves. As theologian Harvey Cox says on our Tppic A page today, this is not something that, once raised, can be easily or rightly dismissed.</br></br>Republican strategists have made no secret that theyÛare targeting the evangelical Christian vote this year!' They are especially interested in detaching white -southerners of fundamentalist and evangelical religious views from their traditional Democratic allegiance-and bringing them into the Reagan and Republican ranks. They are working with evangelicals to register hundreds of thousands of new Reagan voters! They want their party and their candidate to be uniquely identified with the traditional religious views^ and moral standards which are the central focus of the lives of so many Americans.</br></br>The Reaganites are not the first to play this political game. Jimmy Carter stressed his status as a born-again Christian in 1976, and black ministers played a critical role in Jesse Jackson's campaign this year, raising money and registering voters. But, as the ultimate political fates of the Carter and Jackson candidacies suggest, there are dangers in a religious strategyÛÓas the Reagan campaign is evidently coming to realize. Claiming that oneÛªs own cause uniquely embodies morality or religious tradition may attract some voters, but it will repel others. Will the hot-tubbers of California or the affluent suburbanites of the industrial states rally to a standard raised aloft by the Rev. Jerry Falwell?</br></br>Claiming that oneÛªs cause is uniquely moral also invites special scrutiny and counterattack. To the extent that Mr. Reagan has used these grounds to criticize Mr. Mondale (the son of a minister) and Rep. Geraldine Ferraro (who attends Mass faithfully), he is likely to generate assaults on his own various failures to follow a strictly religious or moral way of life.</br></br>Finally, identifying your political cause with a particular set of beliefsÛÓas Mr. Reagan has, up until now anywayÛÓsends a message to those who donÛªt share them not only that their support isn't wanted but that there may be little room for them in the candidateÛªs vision of America. | no | 0 |
Senate Clears Bill Broadening SEC Regulatory Power | WASHINGTON -- The Senate passed a compromise bill that broadens the Securities and Exchange Commission's ability to gather Wall Street information and for the first time sets guidelines for how the agency can curb forms of program trading.</br></br>The measure, passed by voice vote, is the first Senate-approved legislation to include provisions about program trading, in which computers help trade baskets of stocks and futures on those stocks. The bill, which is expected to breeze through the House in the next few days and be signed by President Bush, also gives the SEC the clout to close down the stock market in periods of extreme stress, provided the president doesn't oppose such a move. Currently only the president can order such a closure.</br></br>Much of the SEC-sponsored bill is direct fallout from the 1987 crash. The bill was first proposed by the SEC under Chairman David Ruder in 1988 but progressed slowly after being introduced in March 1989. It then was jump-started by the market drop in October 1989 and Drexel Burnham Lambert Inc.'s collapse earlier this year, and reflects reactions to those drops and the Drexel bankrupcty filing.</br></br>One section of the bill, for example, would allow the SEC to set up record-keeping procedures for large securities transactions. After the 1987 crash, the SEC complained that it didn't have sufficient information to determine risks to the overall financial system.</br></br>The bill also would allow the federal regulators to strengthen the clearance and settlement system for stocks, options and futures, again in an effort to reduce risks to the financial markets. | no | 0 |
Patman Hits Burns On Audit Lobbying | The chairman of the House Banking Committee -yesterday charged Arthur F. ÛÏBurns, chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, with improprieties in lobbying against a bill which would require a government audit of the FedÛªs operations.</br></br>Rep. Wright Patman (D-Tex.) said in a letter to Burns that he understood the Fed chairman contacted a bank lobbying group ÛÏto enlist their support against the bill.Û He said he questioned ÛÏthe propriety of the Federal Reserve Board chairman, as a bank regulator, engaging in such activities.Û</br></br>In a quick reply to Patman, Burns denied that he had ever contacted a bank lobbying organization. *T hasten to add, however, that I certainly have not discouraged people who 'share my concern about your proposal from making their viewsÛ known.</br></br>The organization in question is the American Bankers Association, which represents nearly all of the 13,-000 commercial banks in the country.</br></br>An ABA official said last night that the initial contact between the Fed and the bankers came after a press conference in Chicago on Oct. 7 in which then ABA president Eugene H. | no | 0 |
Market Gives Ground in Moderate Trading: U.S. Smelting Hops $6.25 | NEW YORK, Fob. 19 (AP)ÛÓA general decline of blue chips, combined with big gains by a few specially situated issues, highlighted today the sharpest stock market decline of this month. Trading was moderately active.</br></br>The news background did nothing to enliven optimism. Housing starts in January fell to an 11-month low after seasonal adjustment. Word that some Soviet troops will be withdrawn from Cuba merely focused attention on that trouble spot. Various objections to President KennedyÛªs tax program were aired before the House Ways and Means Committee.</br></br>The Dow Jones industrial average dropped 2.13 to 686.83. The Associated Press average of 60 stocks fell 1.2 to 258.7 with industries off 1.4, rails off .1, and utilities off 1.3.</br></br>U. S. Smelting was the most active stock, its rise of 6Vi putting the final price at 87% on turnover of 85,000 shares. This thinly distributed issue has attracted attention because of a looming proxy fight. Brokers said, however, that todayÛªs unusual rise was probably due to short covering.</br></br>How much of a ÛÏsqueezeÛ there is on the ÛÏshortsÛ in U. S. Smelting should be clearer tomorrow when the New York Stock Exchange will announce its monthly short interest totalÛÓthe aggregate short sales in the various stocks. | no | 0 |
London prices hurt by British Gas's drubbing; Tokyo shares slide, pressured by rising rates | London stocks fell to their lows, after a British regulator ordered British Gas to cut its natural-gas prices. Tokyo shares slid 1.2% Monday in trading dominated by selling to unwind arbitrage positions amid caution because of rising long-term interest rates in Japan. Sao Paulo prices rallied to a 19-month high.</br></br>World-wide, stock prices rose in dollar terms. The Dow Jones World Stock Index climbed 0.64 point to 140.01, reflecting higher markets in the Americas and the Asia/Pacific region, excluding Japan. The Europe/Africa region declined.</br></br>Semiconductor stocks were the top gainers in the Dow Jones World Industry Groups, closing at 347.91, up 10.32, or 3.06%, with Analog Devices of the U.S. posting a 7.73% gain. Gas utility stocks trailed at 87.25, down 2.51, or 2.80%, with British Gas of Britain sliding 12% in local currency.</br></br>In London, the Financial Times-Stock Exchange 100-share index dropped 15.2 points to 3739.2, near the intraday low of 3738.0, after notching a session peak of 3760.9. The FT 30-stock index declined 18.1 points to 2794.5. Provisional volume was 582.9 million shares, compared with 633.2 million shares on Friday.</br></br>London dealings were dominated by a big sell-off of British Gas shares, which plummeted 27 pence to 228 pence ($3.47), after Britain's gas-market regulator, in a move aimed at reducing consumer prices by 10%, ordered the company's Transco unit to cut its prices to suppliers between 20% and 28% starting next April. British Gas said this could slash its annual revenue at least $993 million and cause it to eliminate 10,000, or 20%, of its 49,000 jobs. The regulatory agency and the company are to hold talks, which could take two months, on final proposals for the curbs, and if they can't agree, British Gas vowed to take the case to the government's antitrust commission. The British Gas stock slide, which wiped almost #1.2 billion ($1.82 billion) off its market capitalization, knocked about 7.5 points off the FT-100 index, with an additional three points of the total drop attributed to several big companies' going ex-dividend. Many investors bowed out, awaiting today's U.S. consumer-price data and this week's earnings reports by some big British companies. | no | 0 |
Stocks Rally Moderately on Small Volume: News Background Is Good | NEW YORK, Feb. 1 (AP)ÛÓThe stock market got up off the floor today, making a moderate recovery, after a bad series of beatings. It was the first time in four weeks that "blue MondayÛ was not observed with a sharp decline.</br></br>2,820,000 shares compared with 3,080,000 in Friday's sharp retreatÛÓthat it had little air of conviction about it.</br></br>Steels and motors were active leaders in the advance. A number of assorted chemicals, electronics and rubbers rose as industrial stocks carried the ball.</br></br>It looked like a technical recovery to market analysts although the news background was generally good. Automakers reported big increase in production. Less pressure for an increase in the basic bank interest rate was noted.</br></br>The market advance, however, was patchy. A number of high quality as well as speculative issues which have lost a lot of ground, recovered a good part of it. | no | 0 |
U.S. News: Gates, Buffett Goad Peers To Give Billions to Charity | Corrections & Amplifications</br></br>The name of the company MacAndrews & Forbes Holdings was misspelled as McAndrews & Forbes in a Thursday U.S. News article about a philanthropic challenge issued by Warren Buffett and Bill Gates.</br></br>(WSJ June 18, 2010)</br></br>(See related letter: "Letters to the Editor: Job Creation Is the Very Best Charity" -- WSJ June 24, 2010)</br></br>Warren Buffett and Bill Gates called Wednesday on their billionaire peers to give away half of their wealth. | no | 0 |
ROUNDUP Fairchild Industries to Sell | o Fairchild Industries Inc. of Chantilly, which announced plans this summer to sell its aircraft manufacturing operations in a corporate restructuring, said yesterday it is selling its composite bonding center in Hagerstown to Rohr industriesInc., an international aerospace supplier.</br></br>The announcement came after members of the United Auto Workers Union Lbcal 842 voted Sunday tp ratify a five-year agreement with Rohr, based in Chula Vista, Calif.'</br></br>Terms of the sale were not announced. The bonding center, specialise in the. manufacture of metal and fiberglass composite bonded aircraft parts, 3s the 'last of Fairchild's iaircraft manufacturing Operations to be sold, said Deborah Tufcker, a spokesman for Fairchild, a Interest rates on shortterm Treasury securities edged down in yesterdayÛªs auction after a sharp jump in rates last week.</br></br>The Treasury sold $6.4 billion in three-month bills at an average discount rate of 6.49 percent, down from 6.79 percent at a delayed auction held last Thursday. Another $6.4 billion was sold in six-month bills at an average discount rate of 6.96 percent, down from 7.07 percent at ThursdayÛªs auction.</br></br>The rates this week on three-month bills were the lowest since Sept. 14, when they averaged 6.32 percent. The rates on six-month bills were the lowest since 6.83 percent at last MondayÛªs auction. | no | 0 |
Blue Chips Favored **åÇ,**% * * såÈ= ijc * * * 4c ***** * | NEW YORK, June 17 UP)ÛÓThe stock market today carved out its fourth straight new 1958 high in active trading.</br></br>Leading stocks rose from fractions to about a point. A few of the more expensive blue chips ran up several points.</br></br>Although it was a clean-cut advance for the, more actively-traded stocks the list as a whole was irregular-. Late profit taking blunted the edge of what seemed a fairly sharp advance. *</br></br>The advance centered on the industrials. Rails and utilities were mixed. Even in the industrials the rise was selective. Chosen stocks among the chemicals, nonferrous Û¢metal, motors and steels made the best showing . A generally irregular pattern was shown by oils, aircrafts, rubbers and motion pictures.</br></br>The general economic background remained cheery. It included a cutback in .iobless benefits by some big firms, the latest boost in steel production and the fresh rise in copper prices. | no | 0 |
Web-Broker Shakeout? Hit the Pause Key | It's better to build than to buy.</br></br>That is the current mantra of online brokerage firms, whose ranks have ballooned in recent years and now number about 140. But with prices and activity on the Nasdaq Stock Market -- playground of online traders -- swooning since March, a shakeout among online brokers seems inevitable.</br></br>"This industry is absolutely ripe for consolidation," says Henry McVey, an analyst at Morgan Stanley Dean Witter. "You've got a glut of capacity out there."</br></br>Yes, yes. But not so fast.</br></br>What's holding things up is a little-known fact: It remains far cheaper for online brokers to acquire new accounts through massive ad spending than to gobble up smaller rivals. | no | 0 |
An Appraisal: Restructuring Game Can Still Be Profitable for Investors | T. Boone Pickens Jr. and Carl Icahn aren't the only ones who can make a buck by playing the restructuring game.</br></br>Investing in companies that are revamping their businesses -- or whose industries and competitive environments have changed so much that they might revamp -- is still a way for investors to earn superior results in the stock market this year, analysts and portfolio managers say.</br></br>During 1985, company after company bought back shares, sold unprofitable units or went private through leveraged buyouts -- all of which are restructuring maneuvers. And the restructuring trend will continue, says Michael Metz, a portfolio strategist with Oppenheimer & Co., because corporate managements are "still under pressure to maximize return" on assets.</br></br>He points out that money is plentiful for share repurchases because companies aren't using their funds for other things; capital-spending projections for 1986, for instance, are even with or slightly below 1985 levels. Money also is plentiful for leveraged buyouts of whole companies or units; banks, which are making fewer loans for operations or expansions, are willing to lend for buyouts and other restructuring programs.</br></br>Mr. Metz concedes there are "less ravishing bargains" in the stock market these days. The 1985 drop in interest rates and relatively moderate level of inflation has pumped price/earnings ratios and raised valuations for many issues in the market, which makes stock buybacks and acquisitions more expensive. | no | 0 |
The property report: On the Web: Start-up firm wants to put real-estate investor on line | [An occasional look at commercial real-estate ventures on the Internet]</br></br>A NEW Internet company called American Real Estate Exchange Inc. is making an ambitious promise to real-estate investors.</br></br>"Our goal is to make buying commercial real estate more like investing in the stock market, where all the information you need is reported in one place," through a site on the World Wide Web, says Thomas C. Lewis, senior vice president of the closely held Bethesda, Md., company. American Real Estate Exchange, or Amrex, plans to officially launch its site this summer, although portions are already accessible at http://www.amrex.com.</br></br>How will it work? Enter a zip code or a county and Amrex does "due diligence" on properties in the area. The Web site displays charts of trends in local demographics; property-tax assessment records; information on local construction; a history of recent sales of buildings in the area; a list of environmental risks; and summaries of relevant news stories about the area.</br></br>Most of that information, which Amrex licenses from a variety of other sources, won't be available until the summer. For now, the site consists primarily of an archive of abstracts of previously published real-estate and environmental news, organized by subject and location, as well as a directory of real-estate investment trusts and publicly traded companies heavily involved in real estate. | no | 0 |
Fannie, Freddie Are Under Fire; S&Ls Questioning Continued Need For Mainstays of Home-Loan Industry | Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac conjure up chocolates or hamburgers in the minds of many consumers, but these two multibillion-dollar corporations sell fare not found in any candy store or McDonald's restaurant: low-interest loans for home buyers and low-risk securities for investors.</br></br>As congressionally chartered corporations, Federal National Mortgage Association (known as Fannie Mae) and Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp. (or Freddie Mac), funnel dollars each year to home buyers. They do this by creating what is called the secondary home-loan market-purchasing home loans from savings and loan institutions or other lenders and then selling securities backed by the mortgages.</br></br>The popularity of the securities, coupled with Fannie Mae's position as the largest borrower after the U.S. government, makes the two D.C. corporations titans of Wall Street and mainstays of the home-loan industry.</br></br>Although the home-loan industry pushed Congress in the late 1960s to use the government corporations to expand the then-tiny secondary mortgage market, a growing number of S&L executives now believe that Fannie and Freddie have done the job too well.</br></br>Fannie and Freddie have helped thousands of S&Ls weather deregulation of the industry and interest-rates swings that began in the late 1970s, woes that home-loan lenders say would have been far worse if Fannie and Freddie had not been around to buy low-interest loans from profit-poor institutions. | no | 0 |
GOP Leaders In Senate Draft Revised Budget --- Reagan Backs Plan to Curb Defense Spending, Drop Social Security Increase | WASHINGTON -- The Senate Republican leadership drafted a revised budget plan that would eliminate any cost-of-living increase for Social Security beneficiaries next year and hold growth in fiscal 1986 defense spending to the rate of inflation.</br></br>President Reagan endorsed the lower military figures in an effort to win passage of the total package. Most of the increased savings from the Pentagon would be used to restore proposed cuts in domestic programs.</br></br>Though relatively small in 1986, the deeper savings from the president's proposed defense budget would amount to $17.7 billion over the next three years when compared with an earlier leadership compromise allowing 3% growth after inflation. Only last week, Mr. Reagan criticized the Senate for being "irresponsible" when it rejected the higher military figures. In accepting the revised budget package, the administration has agreed to more than $21 billion in reductions from its initial spending request for fiscal 1986, which starts Oct. 1, and more than $115 billion in the next three years.</br></br>The GOP leadership, scrambling to win needed votes, backed away from terminating such sensitive items as Amtrak subsidies, the Job Corps, the Small Business Administration, mass transit operating assistance and "impact" education aid for public school districts affected by federal installations. More than $5 billion was restored to student aid and federal health programs, including Medicare and Medicaid, and proposed agriculture savings were reduced in an effort to appease farm-state senators.</br></br>Sen. Edward Zorinsky (D., Neb.) was expected to vote with the Republicans after winning what he estimated were $2.5 billion in restorations for farm programs, and a White House aide predicted narrow victory for the budget package. "We ought to be all right, exactly all right," the aide said. | no | 0 |
CPI at 7%? Bet Your Reserve Dollar | The "surprise" jump in producer and consumer price inflation is not a surprise when you understand the political and economic logic of using one nation's domestic currency -- the U.S. dollar -- as international money. Domestically oriented analysts have been fooled because U.S. inflation responds to the world-wide supply of dollars, not just those in the U.S.</br></br>The Bush administration fervently hopes the latest figures are just an aberration. Such arguments must be used with caution. (The Carter administration used to tell us that if you took away food, energy and housing, the underlying rate of inflation was only 9%.) True, the price of crude oil jumped more than $5 a barrel from November to January. But analysts knew what oil prices were, and they were still surprised. Moreover, oil prices fell sharply for most of 1988 without a fall in the inflation rate. Everything points to a broader acceleration of inflation.</br></br>While some point to rising wages or energy costs, the main cause of the current inflation is the past expansion of what my forecasting firm calls the "world dollar base" -- the stock of high-powered money (currency plus bank reserves) in the U.S., plus the dollars held by foreign central banks. The world dollar base is key because the world operates on a kind of "dollar standard." Other currencies are no longer pegged to the dollar. But most currencies, including the Japanese yen and West German mark, are backed with dollars, as currencies once were backed by gold reserves. The dollar shared this role with gold under the Bretton Woods monetary system of 1944-71. But since 1971, the dollar has been the unchallenged "reserve currency," even with somewhat greater use of the yen and the mark by small countries.</br></br>This change had an important, but overlooked, consequence for the U.S. "twin deficits": budget and trade. Under the dollar standard -- as under a gold standard -- the rest of the world must consume and invest less than its income in order to acquire reserves (sought for reasons I shall note). In economic jargon, this is called running an overall "balance-of-payments surplus." It's analogous to the fact that to put more cash in your wallet, you must pay out less than you earn, beg or borrow.</br></br>But it's different for the reserve-currency country. If other countries increase their dollar reserves, the U.S. must pay out more than it receives -- run a chronic "balance-of-payments deficit." To get a rough idea of the difference, imagine that everyone carried your personal checks around in his wallet instead of money. You wouldn't need to carry any cash -- just your checkbook. And with so many of your checks floating around permanently uncashed, you would always have a fat checking-account balance at your disposal, far beyond what you had saved. | no | 0 |
To Some, Beker Industries Bonds Are A Way to Profit From the '88 Drought | NEW YORK -- The drought of 1988 has spawned a sophisticated investment strategy on Wall Street.</br></br>Some have found that one of the few pure plays on fertilizers is the revitalized bonds of Beker Industries Corp., a fertilizer company that has been in Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings for nearly three years.</br></br>The more than 850% gain in price by these bonds in the past year shows growth unsurpassed by any other company in Chapter 11 difficulty.</br></br>Whether such astronomical price gains will continue, though, isn't clear. To bet on Beker's bonds, investors will have to contend with a number of unknowns, in particular, the earnings potential for a start-up company in a volatile industry.</br></br>Usually, bond prices are more a reflection of interest rates than of a company's earnings. Beker's $65 million of 15 7/8% debentures due 2003, though, are trading like equity because holders will receive common shares in a newly formed company -- Nu-West Industries Inc. -- if Beker's reorganization plan is approved. | no | 0 |
Hill Counsel, Law Professor Arthur John Keeffe, 86, Dies | Arthur John Keeffe, 86, a professor emeritus at Catholic University law school who worked on several committees on Capitol Hill and contributed frequently to professional journals, died of congestive heart failure Oct. 2 at Georgetown University Hospital.</br></br>While serving as counsel to Rep. Wright Patman (D-Tex.), chairman of the House Banking and Currency Committee, Mr. Keeffe wrote a widely noted history of the Federal Reserve System. In 1955, he served as counsel to a Senate subcommittee under Sen. Estes Kefauver (D-Tenn.) that investigated the Dixon-Yates scandal, an issue in the 1954 congressional elections. It involved conflicts of interest in the award of a contract to build a power plant at West Memphis, Ark., that would have fed into the Tennessee Valley Authority system.</br></br>Mr. Keeffe also was counsel to a Senate committee that investigated campaign financing in the 1952 presidential election. In the aftermath of World War II, he was president of a board that reviewed all general courts-martial in the naval service.</br></br>From 1952 to 1983, Mr. Keeffe wrote a regular column reviewing current legal literature for the American Bar Association Journal, and he contributed to numerous other legal publications.</br></br>A resident of Washington since joining the law faculty at Catholic University in 1955, Mr. Keeffe was born in Elmira, N.Y. He received undergraduate and law degrees from Cornell University. He practiced law in New York City and then taught law at Cornell. Except for World War II, when he again practiced in New York City, he remained at Cornell until he moved to Washington. | no | 0 |
Investors Worry About China; D'Long's Plight Suggests Problems With Nation's Stock Markets | Beijing -- A CREDIT SQUEEZE gripping one of China's biggest investment companies is spooking investors and raising questions about the way business is being done in the country's stock markets. But there may be some buying opportunities for the brave-hearted.</br></br>D'Long International Strategic Investment, founded in 1986 by four siblings named Tang from China's northwestern region of Xinjiang, rode years of easy credit to become one of the country's largest private conglomerates. Its holdings include one of the world's biggest tomato- paste makers, China's foremost heavy-truck manufacturer, and U.S. lawn-equipment company Murray. D'Long has stakes in more than 100 Chinese companies, including a dozen securities firms and commercial banks.</br></br>This spring, Beijing's credit-tightening measures -- aimed at cooling a hot economy -- coupled with Chinese media reports questioning D'Long's financial health sent share prices of some of the company's listed affiliates spiraling. The developments set off a chain reaction that threatened to bring down the Tangs' empire and damped already-weak investor confidence in China's stock market. It also shined a spotlight on questionable practices that are seen as widespread in China's financial industry, from stock-price manipulation to the use of price-inflated shares as collateral for bank loans.</br></br>D'Long's predicament "tells us that there still exist big loopholes in China's equity-market structure and corporate governance," says Zhang Yong, an analyst for Great Wall Securities.</br></br>Chinese prosecutors haven't charged D'Long with any wrongdoing, and there isn't any indication that the siblings have broken any laws. Some banks and other creditors have filed lawsuits against D'Long, however, and a Shanghai judge involved says the situation "is under further investigation." Some Chinese media have suggested that D'Long ramped up stock prices and then tapped its financial institutions for funding to finance its ambitious expansion -- allegations that company executives have denied. | no | 0 |
Bad News Makes Taser Stock Price Even More Volatile | When a Montgomery County man who'd been shocked by police with an electric Taser gun died last week, investors recoiled in fear.</br></br>Within 24 hours after the incident, stockholders of the company that makes the Taser lost almost $100 million as the stock of Taser International Inc. plunged more than $9.50 a share.</br></br>The death of Eric Wolle, 45, put Montgomery County in the crosshairs of a controversy that has riled police departments and investors nationwide.</br></br>Cops everywhere have been rushing to buy Tasers, a weapon that shoots out a pair of darts linked by long wires to a powerful battery that jolts suspects into submission.</br></br>And investors everywhere have been rushing to buy Taser International stock. By some rankings, TASR, traded on the Nasdaq Stock Market, has been the nation's No. 1 stock -- up more than 2,000 percent in the past 12 months. Taser stock jumped from around $1.50 a share to $120 before being knocked down by media reports about people who died after being shot by Tasers. | no | 0 |
L4 Sunday* August 26, 1984 | * and Jeanne Goldberg HE RECENT recession has retaught us an old lesson: We desperately need a way to keep tabs on the</br></br>* and Jeanne Goldberg HE RECENT recession has retaught us an old lesson: We desperately need a way to keep tabs on the nutritional health of America, especially high-risk groups like children, pregnant women and the elderly poor.</br></br>; ItÛªs an old lesson because a national nutrition-monitoring system was strongly recommended by the \Vhite House Conference on Food, Nutrition and Health way back in å£969.</br></br>* Readers who remember the shocking discovery in the 1960s of Widespread, poverty-related hunger in the United States, the land of plenty, will also recall the heart-breakingly long struggle to get the Rational government to recognize and tackle the problem. Teams of health experts had to scour the nation evaluating reports and assessing each situation. Only then, when it grew clear that people from every ethnic group and region of the coun-try were affected, did Congress and the executive branch take heed.</br></br>When it came, action was thorough and bipartisan. And it worked: America was fed, from sea to shining sea. Not until 1981, when cutbacks in the federal food programs appeared along with unemployment in the recession, did the shadow of hunger fall upon us again. | no | 0 |
Fed Expected to Hold Rates Steady | The Federal Reserve isn't likely to reduce U.S. interest rates in response to the financial crisis that has swept Russia and many other nations this month, a number of Fed officials said here today.</br></br>The added uncertainty about where the world economy is headed and the likelihood the crisis will be a drag on U.S. growth, however, has virtually eliminated pressure on the Fed to raise rates to keep U.S. inflation low, the officials said.</br></br>William Poole, president of the St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank, who dissented in favor of a rate increase at a Fed policymaking session in May, said he no longer is pushing for higher rates. None of the other officials, including Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan, who are here for the Kansas City Federal Reserve Bank's annual economic conference, would speak for attribution.</br></br>But several of the 14 policymakers here agreed that damage to the economies of nations such as Brazil, Mexico and Canada from sharply higher interest rates and falling stock prices means a weaker world economy and downward pressure on prices for many goods and services. Like the turmoil that began in Asian countries last year, the latest developments will be a serious drag on U.S. growth by lowering demand for U.S. exports, particularly in Latin America.</br></br>At the same time, slower growth around the world and falling prices for many products, especially basic commodities such as oil and copper, and the rising value of the dollar, will keep the cost of U.S. imports falling. That in turn will put downward pressure on inflation in this country, the Fed officials said. | no | 0 |
March Surge in Machine-Tool Orders Boosts 1st-Period Total to 7-Year High | Machine-tool producers booked 55% more orders in March than a year earlier, boosting the 1988 first-quarter total to the highest level for any quarter since the 1981-82 recession.</br></br>Brisk buyer-inquiry rates indicate continued good business for at least the remainder of this year, machine-tool builders say.</br></br>Domestic producers of these complex machines, which are used by durable-goods manufacturers to shape metal parts, received $254.4 million of orders in March, up from $164.2 million a year earlier, the National Machine Tool Builders' Association said.</br></br>In the first quarter, orders totaled $850 million, up 83% from the 1987 initial period, the association said, and the highest quarterly total since the $867 million of the second quarter of 1981. Several large General Motors Corp. and Ford Motor Co. orders in January and February contributed to the unusually strong quarter, but demand is broadly based.</br></br>"We had a fantastic March," says Christopher C. Cole, vice president, machine tools for Cincinnati Milacron Inc., the nation's largest producer. "We had strong automotive orders and strong aerospace orders. And our export business is going strong." | yes | 1 |
Pandit's Citi Reign | Vikram Pandit spoke to reporters on Dec. 11, 2007, after Citigroup named him chief executive officer. Mr. Pandit abruptly stepped down Tuesday following a clash with the company's board over the bank's strategy and performance.</br></br>Then-Morgan Stanley CEO John Mack, left, and Mr. Pandit left a meeting at the Treasury Department on Oct. 13, 2008.</br></br>News of Mr. Pandit's departure after five years atop the company came as a shock to Citigroup employees, including senior executives.</br></br>Mr. Pandit, right, answered a question during testimony before the House Financial Services Committee in Washington, D.C., on Feb. 11, 2009. From left, Bank of New York's Robert Kelly, Bank of America's Ken Lewis, State Street's Ronald Logue, Morgan Stanley's John Mack, and Mr. Pandit.</br></br>Mr. Pandit left the White House following a meeting with President Obama on March 27, 2009. | no | 0 |
Green Thumb: The Right Way To Count Your Pile of Money | The latest government figures show that Americans are socking away less for our futures than during any other sustained period since the Great Depression.</br></br>That sounds alarming.</br></br>However, a close look at how the government calculates personal saving suggests the number may be incomplete. Affluent Americans, especially, ought to be figuring their own savings differently -- counting important things that we'll add up below. Once you do your own math, you'll have a clearer snapshot of where your wealth really lies, and a strong foundation to use as you build your financial plan.</br></br>First, a bit about the government figure. This month, the Commerce Department's Bureau of Economic Analysis put the nation's personal saving at negative $116.6 billion for December 2006.</br></br>To get that number, the bureau starts with after-tax disposable income then subtracts "personal consumption" of all sorts. | no | 0 |
30-Year Mortgage Rates Dip Below 6% | Rates on 30-year mortgages fell below the 6 percent level this week for the first time in three months, but economists said they don't expect rates to stay that low for long.</br></br>Freddie Mac said Thursday in its weekly nationwide survey that rates on 30-year fixed-rate mortgages averaged 5.98 percent this week, down from 6 percent last week. The rate was the lowest since late April, when 30-year rates averaged 5.94 percent.</br></br>Since peaking at a high for this year of 6.34 percent in mid- May, 30-year mortgage rates have been headed lower, reflecting in part a slowdown in economic activity in June.</br></br>The economy hit what Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan on Tuesday termed a "soft patch" in June. Greenspan, however, in delivering the Fed's mid-year economic forecast to Congress, sought to allay fears that the slowdown could threaten the sustainability of the recovery. He predicted that growth would soon rebound even as the Fed proceeds with what Greenspan indicated should be a gradual pace of rate increases.</br></br>Frank Nothaft, chief economist at Freddie Mac, said that the Fed's outlook for the second half of this year was "more upbeat than expected," and he said this stronger growth will translate into further increases in mortgage rates and other interest rates set by financial markets along with the rise in short-term rates controlled by the Fed. "However, the rise in mortgage rates will be measured, not extreme, and that will help keep the housing industry stable and affordable in the coming months," he said. | yes | 1 |
Ground This Mission | IN JANUARY 2004, President Bush announced an ambitious plan "to gain a new foothold on the moon and to prepare for new journeys to worlds beyond our own." It seemed, we noted then, an odd moment to embark on a dispensable project of great expense -- given a yawning budget deficit, pressing health care and educational needs, and a long-term struggle against terrorism. Now, as the country faces another great expense in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, NASA has unveiled its proposal for making Mr. Bush's vision a reality. Both the moment for embarking on this endeavor and the justifications for it seem odder than ever.</br></br>The agency's new administrator, Michael D. Griffin, says that the $104 billion project, which would put American astronauts on the lunar surface by 2018, can be done without adding to the agency's budget (beyond keeping pace with inflation) and without taking away from the agency's valuable programs outside the area of human space flight. We hope he's right, but given NASA's history of cost overruns and inevitable cost pressures, both assertions seem optimistic. If they don't prove true, after all, Mr. Griffin won't be around to answer for them -- and yet another NASA chief will have to deal with yet another program that's gone way over budget.</br></br>More fundamentally, we believe that the needs of NASA -- and the country -- can, at this point, be better served by continuing and expanding robotic exploration. In a visit to The Post the other day, Mr. Griffin emphasized the inherent limits of robots; NASA, he said, had concluded that a human could achieve in a single day what it would take a robot 90 days to do.</br></br>But sending a human into space costs far more than dispatching a robot. The inherent risks of human spaceflight can be minimized but not eliminated. And humans, at least in the near future, will not be able to remain on the moon, Mars or elsewhere nearly as long as robots; the rovers Spirit and Opportunity are still cruising the Martian surface after landing in January 2004. All in all, 90 days to one seems like a pretty good trade-off.</br></br>Indeed, Mr. Griffin was refreshingly candid in acknowledging that favoring humans over robots wouldn't make sense if science were the only consideration. He argued, instead, that "extending the range of human habitat out from Earth into the solar system" -- and, indeed, beyond -- is critical for human survival. "In the long run, a single-planet species will not survive," Mr. Griffin said, adding, "There will be another mass-extinction event. If we humans want to survive for hundreds of thousands or millions of years, we must ultimately populate other planets." | no | 0 |
As Debate Nears, Kerry Focuses on Economy; Bush's Commitment to Middle Class Questioned | -- Democratic presidential nominee John F. Kerry delivered a populist message to this long-suffering industrial region, visiting a picket line and telling blue-collar workers here Sunday that President Bush has been dishonest about the economy's health.</br></br>On a swing through the Mahoning Valley near Youngstown in eastern Ohio, the senator from Massachusetts told a crowd full of union workers that "I've got your back," and he portrayed Bush as disengaged from economic suffering. "This administration, every time it's had an opportunity to make a choice for you . . . they've made a choice that helps the powerful, they've made a choice to help the people who are the most helped already," he said.</br></br>The town-hall-style forum in a high school gymnasium, in which Kerry discussed a lack of health insurance, low wages and the outsourcing of jobs overseas, was part of an effort by his campaign to shift the national debate to economic issues in advance of Friday's debate.</br></br>In Ohio, the Democrat sought to tie together his foreign and domestic criticism of Bush by charging that Bush had been untruthful about both. A day after a television ad by the Kerry campaign accused Bush of "lying" -- a word Kerry disavowed in Thursday's debate -- Kerry repeatedly questioned Bush's credibility, saying Americans "really need to know that the president is being straight with them."</br></br>Kerry's emphasis on pocketbook issues was a calculation that the campaign could use the momentum gained from his strong debate performance to change the subject from terrorism, where Bush has broader support. In an appearance on "Fox News Sunday," Kerry strategist Tad Devine said that "the race has closed" and that the economy and health care "are the issues the American people want debated." | no | 0 |
Of the Rich, by the Rich, for the Rich; Are Congress's Millionaires Turning Our Democracy Into Plutocracy? | IF YOU think Congress is out of touch with the American people, maybe it's because so many of its members do not pay mortgages, save for the education of their children, worry about medical bills or take part in many of the other experiences of middle-class life.</br></br>Already, at least 28 U.S. senators - more than a fourth of the body - are millionaires, according to federal financial disclosure records. In the House of Representatives, there are 50 millionaires at a bare minimum, or about 11.5 percent of the membership. By comparison, less than one half of 1 percent of the population has a net worth of $1 million or more. Put it another way: Millionaires are at least 30 times more common on Capitol Hill than in American society.</br></br>And the trend toward a legislative plutocracy is increasing. The House is by far the most democratic and populist of our national governmental institutions. But funding a campaign for a House seat is more and more out of reach for people who don't have substantial personal capital to risk.</br></br>The latest statistics on the use of personal wealth in congressional campaigns are staggering. Non-incumbent candidates running for the House this year have already dumped $7.2 million of personal funds into their campaigns, a 375 percent increase over the amount of personal wealth used by non-incumbent House candidates at the same point in the 1991-92 election cycle. Just as remarkable, the millions these candidates have already taken out of their own bank accounts for the fall elections are nearly one-third of the amount the class has thus far raised.</br></br>And consider this: Last year, Republican House candidates gearing up to run against sitting Democrats raised $2.65 million from individuals and political action committees; they raised almost as much, $2.55 million, from themselves. | no | 0 |
Mortgage Rates Slide for a 7th Straight Week | A week of troubling economic data helped push fixed mortgage interest rates to a new low for the year, representing the seventh consecutive weekly decline, according to the latest survey from Freddie Mac.</br></br>Surveys of national consumer confidence and manufacturing activity in the past month have suggested the economy may be slowing, said Freddie Mac Chief Economist Frank Nothaft. The S&P Case-Shiller National Home Price Index, meanwhile, showed first-quarter home prices fell by the steepest annual rate since the third quarter of 2009.</br></br>"Fixed mortgage rates followed U.S. Treasury yields lower this week amid financial market concerns that the current lull in the economy is continuing," Mr. Nothaft said.</br></br>The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 4.55% in the week ended Thursday, down from 4.60% the prior week and 4.79% a year earlier. Rates on 15-year fixed-rate mortgages fell to 3.74% from 3.78% the previous week and 4.20% a year earlier.</br></br>Five-year Treasury-indexed hybrid adjustable-rate mortgages held steady from last week at 3.41%, but are down from 3.94% a year earlier. One-year Treasury-indexed ARM rates rose to 3.13% from 3.11% the prior week but are down from 3.95% a year earlier. | yes | 1 |
U.S. Dollar Falls In Quiet Trading; Gold Rises $2.40 | The U.S. dollar eased against most major currencies yesterday in quiet trading as dealers consolidated positions after two hectic sessions.</br></br>In late New York trading, the dollar stood at 2.2930 West German marks, down from 2.3115 marks Wednesday, and it fell to 180.05 Japanese yen from 180.60 yen. The British pound firmed to $1.4568 from $1.4538. But the Canadian dollar dropped to 71.89 U.S. cents from 71.95 U.S. cents.</br></br>Traders used the day to recover from the whipsawing of the two previous sessions. The dollar plunged Tuesday in reaction to Treasury Secretary James Baker's remarks that the Reagan administration wanted the dollar to fall further. But the currency rebounded Wednesday when Federal Reserve Board Chairman Paul Volcker said the dollar had "fallen enough."</br></br>Mr. Volcker's comments spooked a group of traders holding short, or oversold, positions, Wednesday, and sent them scrambling to cover those exposures.</br></br>Dealers and analysts said they expect the currency to level off in the near term, but then gradually fall. "People are much more cautious and much less sure of a decline in the dollar," said Peter Wild, vice president of foreign exchange for Bank Julius Baer & Co., New York. "But we're not ready for an upswing or reversal." | no | 0 |
Hank's Likely Headaches | It's hard not to feel some sympathy for departing Treasury Secretary John Snow. He worked tirelessly for President Bush, trudging all over the country to plug the administration's policies. In 2005 Snow spoke at the Detroit Economic Club, the Omaha Chamber of Commerce and the Sony Technology Center in Mount Pleasant, Pa. For all his trouble, Snow earned only perfunctory public gratitude from the president and was subjected to repeated rumors that the White House was unhappy with his performance. Worse, he seemed to have had little effect on policy or the economy.</br></br>The same fate may befall Snow's anointed successor, Henry "Hank" Paulson, head of the highly profitable investment banking firm Goldman Sachs. Of course, it's not supposed to be this way. Paulson comes advertised as a Wall Street take-charge guy who will improve public economic confidence and reassert control over policy.</br></br>But how is that to happen? Unless he blunders badly, Paulson's role as chief economic spokesman doesn't matter much. Most Americans don't know the name of the Treasury secretary and don't care. What they care about is $3-a-gallon gasoline and 6.5 percent mortgage rates.</br></br>It's possible that Paulson will have more influence on policy than Snow had. As economist Roger Kubarych of HVB America points out, there's no shortage of challenges: trying to avert big bankruptcies (GM) in the auto industry; preventing disorderly shifts in global currency rates; curbing federal spending on retirement benefits; fixing the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp., which insures defined-benefit pensions. The trouble is that Bush's positions on most issues are already set. Even if they weren't, many powerful interests -- Congress, the United Auto Workers, China, AARP -- may limit what Paulson can actually accomplish.</br></br>To excel as Treasury secretary, Paulson needs something no one wants: an economic crisis that enables him to act as hero, much as then-Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin (also once head of Goldman Sachs) and then-Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan did during the 1997-98 Asian financial crisis. Any new upset would spotlight Paulson (assuming the Senate confirms him) along with the new Fed chairman, Ben Bernanke. What are the odds of a crisis? Not great -- but not negligible, either. After three years of strong performance (5.3 million new jobs, 4.6 percent unemployment), the U.S. economy could be at a tipping point. Two problems loom: one traditional, one not. | no | 0 |
Stocks Rebound After Report Of Weekend Citigroup Meeting | -- Wall Street twisted its way through another difficult session Friday, discouraged about the economy's prospects but still managing a higher finish after some concerns about the beleaguered financial sector lifted late in the session. The major indexes ended the week mixed.</br></br>The Dow Jones industrial average rose 27.23, or 0.20 percent, to 13,595.10 after being down more than 120 points in the session. The Standard & Poor's 500-stock index rose 1.21, or 0.08 percent, to 1509.65, while the Nasdaq composite index rose 15.55, or 0.56 percent, to 2810.38.</br></br>For the week, the Dow dropped 1.53 percent and the S&P feel 1.67 percent. The Nasdaq managed a gain of 0.22 percent.</br></br>Word shortly before the close that Citigroup's board plans to meet in an emergency session over the weekend helped the company's stock and other financials pare steep losses.</br></br>Friday's session ended a week made turbulent not only by bad news from the financial sector but also by spiking commodity prices and hints from the Federal Reserve that it might be less generous with interest rate cuts in the coming months. A highly anticipated Labor Department report Friday showed employers added 166,000 jobs in October -- the most in five months -- but didn't give stocks much of a lift a day after a sharp pullback as investors' unease about the financial sector blanketed trading. | no | 0 |
Industry Output Resumes Climb During October: October Gain Slowed ... | United Press International Output of the nationÛªs mines, mills and factories resumed its upward climb in October following a slight dip the previous month, the Federal Reserve Board reported yesterday.</br></br>158.6 per cent of the 1057-59 average, up five points above its revised September level of 158.8. In September, the key</br></br>A sharp increase in auto assemblies led the October advance. The index moved up despite declines in production of furniture, some household I appliances, iron and steel, parts changed little last month, while output of industrial and commercial equipment and some other non-dur-able materials increased somewhat.</br></br>The October gain of five points was only about half as ! large as the average monthly igain of 9.6 points so far this</br></br>It carried the index 13.1 points or about 9 per cent above October, 1965, when it stood at 145.5 per cent of the 1957-59 average. | no | 0 |
Lettuce Workers Strike Over Pay Guide Dispute | Harvest of up to 30 percent of the nationÛªs iceberg lettuce has been i halted by a United Farm WorkersÛª strike prompted by growersÛª adherence to the Carter administrationÛªs anti-inflation wage guidelines.</br></br>But there is disagreement over whether the guidelines apply in the case of low-paid lettuce workers and a possibility that the dispute, if protracted and coupled with more bad weather over the California lettuce fields, could lead to higher lettuce prices.</br></br>Contending they are covered by the guidelines, which seek to limit annual wage increases to 7 percent, the growers have restricted their money offers for each of the next three years to 7 percent across the board.</br></br>The UFW argues that 55 to 60 percent of tlie lettuce workers earn less than $4 an hour and are thus exempt from its piÛªovisions. Moreover, the union rejects the voluntary guidelines as unfair and is seeking wage increases amounting to about 40 percent over the next three years.</br></br>Negotiators for the two sides are sharply split, and last Monday more than 1,600 members of the union struck five large farms in CaliforniaÛªs Imperial Valley. The farms reportedly produce between 20 and 30 percent of the nationÛªs winter iceberg lettuce crop. | no | 0 |
Let's Hear It for the Home-Grown Green! | If the Redskins or the Capitals had gone on the block a decade ago, there might have been some Washingtonians among the bidders. But we wouldn't have seen the likes of Daniel Snyder or Ted Leonsis.</br></br>That's because Snyder, who runs a fast-growing Bethesda marketing firm and is in line to buy the Redskins, and Leonsis, an executive of America Online Inc. and future majority owner of the Capitals, represent something remarkably new in the Washington region: an entrepreneurial class with widespread wealth based on a record- setting stock market and a giant wave of technological innovation.</br></br>It's too early to guess what this affluence means for the local economy and the local culture. But assuming the sales of the two teams go forward, we will soon see what happens when two of the city's most visible institutions wind up in the hands of a new breed of aggressive, impatient-for-success entrepreneurs.</br></br>Of course there were moguls of great wealth here before America went online in the mid-1990s. But fundamentally, Washington was a world capital where business took a back seat to politics. Its economy was anchored in real estate, banking and federal jobs, contracts and lobbying. Fortunes tended to grow incrementally and to be handled conservatively.</br></br>That's all changed now. The 1990-91 recession mowed down much of the Washington region's old business leadership and in its place has come a younger, opportunistic crowd. It's a clan with gobs of money, a group that seems determined to spend, invest and enjoy its wealth with the urgency and personal involvement with which that wealth was accumulated. | no | 0 |
City News: Lonegan, Booker in Tax Bout | METUCHEN, N.J. -- Republican Steve Lonegan and his Democratic opponent for an open U.S. Senate seat, Newark Mayor Cory Booker, took in a similar amount of household income last year, but the sources of their money and the taxes they paid contrasted sharply, documents made available Monday showed.</br></br>The two are running in a special Oct. 16 election to fill the Senate seat held by Frank Lautenberg, who died in June. Mr. Lonegan has made Mr. Booker's financial transparency and earnings a campaign issue, and the Newark Democrat released 15 years of his returns Friday in response. Mr. Lonegan's campaign allowed reporters to view three years of his tax returns Monday.</br></br>Mr. Booker's total income was $509,719 last year, and Mr. Lonegan and his wife's was $515,280, the documents showed.</br></br>Mr. Booker, a nationally known Democrat, has supplemented his mayoral salary with hundreds of thousands of dollars from speaking fees across the country. He made $347,594 in speaking fees last year and brought in a total of more than $1.3 million since 1998.</br></br>Mr. Lonegan's tax returns depicted a modest investor who has swung between profits and losses on a handful of rental properties and stock holdings. | no | 0 |
Stocks Slide As Oil Prices Rise Sharply --- Expectation of Cuts In Earnings Estimates Drives Down Shares | NEW YORK -- Stock prices tumbled because of soaring oil prices and the growing expectation among investors that analysts are about to unleash a torrent of reduced corporate-earnings estimates.</br></br>The October futures contract for crude oil advanced $1.66 a barrel to close at $31.43. There were news reports of violence against Americans in Kuwait, which could spark a military confrontation. Oil's climb helped drive the Dow Jones Industrial Average down 31.93 points in light trading to 2596.29.</br></br>Bonds rose slightly, with traders reluctant to change positions ahead of today's report on how the nation's work force fared last month. The consensus expectation is that the unemployment rate will be unchanged from July's 5.5%.</br></br>The dollar continued to slump against most other major currencies. The yen continued to rise on speculation that Japanese interest rates are likely to increase while those in the U.S. decline.</br></br>Although rising oil prices didn't help, it was reports of analysts readying earnings-estimate cuts that sent shivers through the stock market. For example, Smith Barney downgraded its estimate for Motorola, and the stock plunged 7 5/8 to 61 1/2. | yes | 1 |
Home-Equity Borrowing Is Less Enticing These Days; Interest Rates Up As Market Slows | Home-equity loans and lines of credit are still a popular way for homeowners with a mortgage to borrow. The interest is much lower than on other forms of consumer borrowing and, generally, interest you pay on loans up to $100,000 is tax-deductible.</br></br>In the past few years, with housing prices soaring nationwide and short-term interest rates at or near record lows, many homeowners have used the equity in their houses to finance home improvements or college tuition or to pay off high-interest debt.</br></br>But times are changing. Interest rates on short-term home-equity lines of credit have spiked even as the housing market is slowing, which means that homeowners will have less of a cushion to fall back on should they be unable to repay borrowed money.</br></br>A home-equity line of credit charging 4 percent two years ago is now over 7.5 percent and is expected to hit 8 percent by the summer, said Greg McBride, a senior analyst at Bankrate.com, which tracks loans. That's because a line of credit, the most popular way to borrow against home equity, is a variable-rate loan and rates have gone up as the Federal Reserve has increased its benchmark rate.</br></br>Still, home-equity loans and lines of credit are often the most attractive option for homeowners looking to borrow, and traditional cash-out refinancing of first mortgages has fallen out of fashion since rates began to rise. | no | 0 |
Discover Seeks Fed Approval for Buybacks, Dividend Increase; Company Plans to Increase Quarterly Dividend to 24 Cents and Repurchase up to $1.6 Billion in Stock | Discover Financial Services proposed a 20% increase to the credit-card company's dividend and up to $1.6 billion in stock buybacks over the next year, moves that would need approval from the Federal Reserve.</br></br>The announcement comes as the lender was among 29 of the 30 largest institutions that the Fed said have enough capital to continue lending even when faced with a hypothetical jolt to the U.S. economy lasting into 2015.</br></br>The so-called "stress test" is an annual test of big banks' financial health, and positive views can clear the way for the companies to reward investors with dividends and buybacks.</br></br>Discover on Thursday said its proposed actions include an increase to the company's next quarterly dividend to 24 cents a share from 20 cents previously. It also intends to repurchase up to $1.6 billion in stock during the next four quarters ended March 31.</br></br>The company said the actions would be subject to a "non-objection" from the Fed later this month, and the dividend increase will also need approval from Discover's board. | no | 0 |
'SUNDAY MORNING': 15 Years Of Civility, And Kuralt | When Charles Kuralt began anchoring "CBS News' Sunday MorningÛ on Jan. 28,1979, Jimmy Carter was in the White House, inflation was raging, and many of his most loyal viewers were still in grammar school.</br></br>This morning af 9, fhe CBS show marks its 15th anniversary. With its trademark solar graphics and easy pace, ÛÏSunday Morning" has built up a devoted following of all ages who wake up to features on music, the arts, news, sports, weather, and a ÛÏPostcard From Nebraska.Û Each week ends with a scene from natureÛÓmigrating birds, Alaskan whales, roaming wolvesÛÓreminding viewers that the best part of this country may be the scenes we rarely see.</br></br>ÛÏ1 know in television terms we donÛªt have an awful lot of viewers, but those we do have seem to be loyal. They look forward to itÛ said Kuralt With the show earning 25 Emmy nominations and eight wins, networks should bottle the chemistry that makes ÛÏSunday MorningÛ so watchable. Kuralt who will turn 60 in September, offered some thoughts: ÛÏPart of it of course, is the length. An hour and a half is a lovely amount of time to have,Û he said. And the time of day: ÛÏI picture them with a cup of coffee and the Sunday paper in their laps, and watching Û÷Sunday MorningÛª that way. It is a leisurely time of morning for a lot of people and I think they are able to sit still for our somewhat leisurely program at that time on Sunday morning.Û</br></br>But the showÛªs success is more about its variety of news and feature stories, especially on artists and musicians, that attract viewers who span generations and backgrounds. ÛÏVery rarely on television do you see a good 10- or 12-minute story about Leonard Bernstein or Pavarotti or Leontyne Price,Û or so many of the artists and musicians who are profiled on the show. ÛÏIt fills a little blank spot in television, I think.Û And itÛªs the art and music features that ÛÏstick in your mind,Û he added.</br></br>The showÛªs features can have a haunting effect, lingering in oneÛªs memory for days. Credit is due to past and current producers (Missie Rennie is currently in charge) and the diverse contributors and their array of topics: pianist and composer Billy Taylor (on jazz), EugeniaZukerman (classical music), author and critic John Leonard (television and films), Nebraska folklorist Roger Welsch, humorist Bill Geist, and recent additions Tim Sample (a Maine humorist) and reporter Martha Teichner. | no | 0 |
Long Term Interest Rates Have Climbed Back Again | IT IS NOW just about <7 year since the Great Money Crunch of 1966 reached its peak and brought interest rates to the highest levels in 40 years. A lot has happened since then, but, in two important respects, the situation in the money markets looks a lot like it did a year ago.</br></br>For one thing, after declining through the fall and winter as the Federal Reserve shifted to easy money, long-term interest. rates have climbed back again. Corporate and Government bonds are actually above their 1906 highs, while mortgage rates and tax-exempt bond yields have retraced more than half their fall-winter dip. Short-term ralesÛÓ on 90-da.v Treasury bills, bank Certificates of Deposit, etc.ÛÓare still below last year's tops. Init they have also been heading up.</br></br>For another thing, the climate in the markets is again unrelievcdly pessimistic. As was the case a year ago, most market men are convinced that interest rates are going higher stillÛÓ short-term rates, especially.</br></br>THICKF, ARE also some differences from a year ago. however, and they are worth noting, too. To officials at such financial agencies here in Washington as the Treasury and the Federal Reserve Board, these contrasts are ns significant as the similarities.</br></br>There is, for example, no air of crisis in the market these days. Even those who expect interest rates to go higher do not talk of panic, as they were doing a year ago. | no | 0 |
Mundell on Supply-Side Economics | Robert A. Mundell, a Columbia University economist, won the Nobel economics prize yesterday. Following are excerpts from an article he published in the July-August 1990 issue of the Rivista di Politica Economica, an Italian economics journal. (Reprinted with permission.)</br></br>Supply-side economics emerged as a political force partly as a reaction against the steep progressivity of personal and corporate income taxes and partly as a result of the breakdown of the international monetary system in 1971. The principal features of the supply-side program were a reform of the tax system, featuring a drastic slashing of marginal tax rates, and a reform of the international monetary system to one based on stable exchange rates anchored by gold or some alternative international asset.</br></br>The United States had enacted high income tax rates after it entered World War I, and they were only gradually lowered, to a maximum rate of 25% under {Treasury} Secretary {Andrew} Mellon. But in June 1932, during the last year of the Hoover administration, marginal income tax rates were suddenly raised again to a maximum level of 60%. They remained at or (frequently) considerably above this level for half a century. The grand bargain entered into by both Democratic and Republican administrations up to 1981 was the exchange of punitive marginal income tax rates to satisfy the political left in exchange for sweeping tax loopholes to placate the political right.</br></br>The collapse of monetary discipline with flexible exchange rates in 1973 and the subsequent oil embargo and increase in oil prices led to an inflation that further exacerbated the progressivity of the tax system. At the same time the absence of a stable monetary environment led to rising interest rates and exchange rate fluctuations that, almost arbitrarily, altered relative labor costs and international competitiveness. The exchange rate was determined increasingly by volatile international capital movements rather than the requirements of international trade. Reform of the international monetary system was therefore the second pillar in the platform of supply-side economics.</br></br>Supply-side economics addressed itself directly to policy considerations rather than theoretical abstractions. It would be a mistake, however, to believe that it lacks any less of a scientific foundation than the older demand-side schools of monetarism and Keynesianism, or the new classical school. Its own academic credentials lie in the solid allocation-theoretic literature of neo-classical economics and the policy-oriented models of global monetarism and macroeconomics. | no | 0 |
DIGEST | Volkswagen said it will accept that U.S. courts have jurisdiction over the company's legal dispute with General Motors. The companies have been arguing since 1992, when GM's worldwide chief of purchasing, Jose Ignacio Lopez, defected to Volkswagen. GM accused Lopez of taking trade secrets with him. America Online of Vienna and Netscape Communications will jointly offer a media deal that enables advertisers to reach the combined audiences of AOL and Netscape's popular Web site. Industrial production rose for a second straight month in May and businesses showed signs of rebuilding depleted inventories, a move that could mean even greater output and more jobs. The Federal Reserve said output at the nation's factories, mines and utilities rose 0.7 percent in May after an identical advance a month earlier. The Commerce Department said business inventories rose 0.4 percent in April after shrinking 0.3 percent the previous month.</br></br>House Minority Leader Richard A. Gephardt (D-Mo.) for the first time opposed renewing China's most-favored-nation status, a trade designation that makes it easier for China to sell goods in this country. The shift puts Gephardt in opposition to the Clinton administration.</br></br>Debate on Alan Greenspan's nomination to serve a third term as Fed chairman was adjourned in the Senate until June 20, when a vote will be taken on confirmation of him and two other Fed nominees.</br></br>The EEOC said it will meet with Texaco after finding that the oil company discriminated against some black employees. Spencer H. Lewis Jr., district director of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, made the finding in a letter dated June 6. A company spokeswoman said Texaco disagreed with the findings.</br></br>Texas Instruments-Acer plans to indefinitely delay expanding its Taiwan semiconductor wafer plant in the wake of slowing demand and falling prices for computer chips. The joint venture between Texas Instruments and Taiwanese computer giant Acer will put off the installation of a second eight-inch wafer facility, which was expected to produce 16-megabit dynamic random access memory, or DRAM, chips beginning in early 1997. | no | 0 |
Fed Perceived Recession on Oct. 2; Minutes of Policymakers' Meeting Boost Expections of More Rate Cuts | Federal Reserve officials concluded early last month that the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks had pushed the nation into a recession, according to minutes of an Oct. 2 policymaking session released yesterday.</br></br>Details of the minutes, including the policymakers' conclusion that the economy is in a slump, reinforced the view among many economists that the Fed is not done cutting rates. The economists generally expect the Fed to lower its target to 1.5 percent, probably in two quarter-point steps at meetings scheduled for mid-December and late January.</br></br>"The economy appeared to have been growing very little, if at all, prior to the terrorist attacks, and the dislocations arising from the [attacks] seemed to have induced a downturn in overall economic activity," the members of the Fed's top policymaking group, the Federal Open Market Committee, concluded, the minutes said.</br></br>"Looking ahead, the members generally saw a relatively mild and short contraction followed by a gradual recovery next year as a plausible forecast but one that was subject to an unusually wide range of uncertainty, notably in the direction of a potentially much weaker outcome in the nearer term," they said.</br></br>The minutes are a summary of the officials' discussions, not a transcript, and the word "recession" does not appear in the minutes. But the officials clearly were referring to a recession when they used the words, "downturn in overall economic activity" and said they foresaw a "short contraction" of the economy. | yes | 1 |
[Headline Missing]Buffalo Bill Remembered | In 1908 and 1909 my father was foreman of a ranch 30 miles from Cody that belonged to Buffalo Bill's sister. The sister ran the Irma Hotel in Cody, where two of my father's brothers worked.</br></br>Buffalo Bill would bring hunting parties out to the ranch for a hunt, which my father would guide. Buffalo Bill would ask my mother for a drink. She had no drink in the house, so she gave him weakened sweetened vinegar, which he endured.</br></br>In 1937, when some girlfriends and I were on a trip West, we went to Cody, then to Yellowstone Park. When we stopped at the Shoshone Dam on the way, I looked at the far horizon, trying to imagine my young mother with a new baby in those "wild" surroundings. Mildred L. Askegaard Arlington</br></br>As a former Cody resident, I found the article on "The Cowboy Town of Cody" in the July 1 Travel section well done, to a point. That point was the discussion of the Buffalo Bill Historical Center.</br></br>This wonderful museum is a $25 or $30 million edifice situated in a town of 6,500 people. There is not a single cent of tax money invested in it-only donations and entrance fees. The complex has four museums occupying a good city block of land with a parking lot and a beautiful Indian meeting ground. | no | 0 |
Business and Finance | GERBER AGREED to be acquired by Swiss drug giant Sandoz for $3.7 billion, or $53 a share, a hefty premium apparently intended to thwart rival bids. Gerber, which dominates the U.S. baby-food market, quietly searched for months for a buyer or joint-venture partner. The deal gives Gerber the global sales, marketing and distribution network it has found elusive, while allowing Sandoz to sharply expand its food business. Gerber's stock rose 45% to $50.125.</br></br>The Gerber transaction lacks a lockup agreement, a provision to ward off competing bids that has been absent from big acquisitions after a judge all but invalidated such accords in Paramount's suit against QVC.</br></br>---</br></br>Flagstar agreed to pay about $54 million to settle the bulk of the litigation regarding race-bias charges against its Denny's restaurant chain, people familiar with the cases said.</br></br>--- | no | 0 |
Consumers Turn to Home Entertainment as Budgets Tighten over Recession Fears | Unemployment is rising, real estate values are falling and consumers are getting the jitters about the economy. But it's a great market if you're selling bathroom fixtures, body oils or Billy Joel tapes.</br></br>The reason: For many Americans, trimming the household budget begins at home. "The home becomes more the center for one's life when times are hard," says Lonnie Fogel, spokesman for Atlanta-based Home Depot Inc. As a result, bad times mean a boom demand for products that appeal to the stay-at-home-and-save crowd.</br></br>Northeast real estate markets are in the pits, but Home Depot's nine home-and-building materials stores in the region are having a growth in sales of kitchen cabinets, whirlpools, power tools and other home improvement items. Home Depot even opened new stores in Connecticut and on Long Island in New York this fall. Both regions set record sales on opening day.</br></br>When people aren't buying new houses, "they will decide to make their {old} homes more comfortable and act on repairs that have been postponed," Mr. Fogel explains. "If people are looking for ways to save money they're going to do more themselves."</br></br>"Recessions, that kind of stuff, are good for the record industry," says Stan Golman, senior vice president of retail operations at Tower Records, a unit of MTS Inc., in Sacramento, Calif. "People have to buy lower cost entertainment." | no | 0 |
Housing Slowdown Hurting Mortgage Bankers; As Home Sales Decline Across Nation, Industry Layoffs and Consolidations Increase | After 12 years as a real estate broker, Marilyn Korman was ready for a career change. Business had slowed and the heady days of fat commissions were in the past. So the New York woman landed a job as a loan-production officer at the Dime Savings Bank in October.</br></br>Six months later Korman was laid off by the bank, becoming a statistic of hard times in the mortgage-banking industry brought on by a slowdown in home sales.</br></br>"We knew that real estate was bad, so we knew volume in banking wouldn't be good," she said. "I thought that better times would be ahead of us."</br></br>Some mortgage bankers say the industry is facing a crisis. Others say it is going through a natural cycle.</br></br>What is clear is that the rapid expansion that took place during the boom years of the mid-1980s has all but stopped in its tracks. In its place are consolidations and layoffs as mortgage bankers and brokers hunker down for lean times. | no | 0 |
House Approves Permanent Small-Business Tax Break; Break Allows Small Businesses to Write Off up to $500,000 in New Equipment Purchases | The House voted Thursday to make permanent a tax break allowing small businesses to write off up to $500,000 in new equipment purchases.</br></br>While the move adds to momentum for congressional efforts to extend a range of now-temporary tax breaks, it also sharpens a conflict between the House and Senate over whether to extend the breaks permanently or temporarily.</br></br>Thursday's vote was 272-144, with several dozen Democrats joining Republicans to support the measure.</br></br>The list of temporary tax breaks, many of which expired at the end of 2013, has grown over the years and now includes over 50 separate provisions affecting businesses as well as individuals.</br></br>By now, the cost of making them all permanent is proving to be prohibitive--almost $1 trillion over the next decade. But many of the breaks are so popular or important that lawmakers are reluctant to eliminate them. | no | 0 |
Private Commercial REITs Get Into the Game | MAKE WAY for private REITs.</br></br>Private real-estate investment trusts are increasingly becoming a popular way for individuals to invest in commercial real estate.</br></br>Like public REITs, they offer investors a way to reap fatter yields than they are likely to get in any other sector of the stock market these days. And like public REITs, they buy everything from office buildings to shopping centers to warehouses.</br></br>But private REITs have a few things that some investors might find more appealing than public REITs. They also have a few traits that some investors might find turnoffs. At the end of the day, deciding to invest in publicly traded REITs or private ones comes down to the style of investing and amount of liquidity you prefer.</br></br>Shares of public REITs trade on stock exchanges so investors can buy and sell shares as they please, which offers them liquidity as their shares can easily be converted into cash. Meanwhile, shares of private REITs, which are sold through financial advisers, aren't traded on a stock exchange. There is no public trading market for these companies' shares. Depending on the fund, investors can only cash out a few times a year, when the value of their stake is determined by REIT management. In other cases, they can only redeem shares. | no | 0 |
Regaining the Lead In the Global Race; Surging Economy May Hold Edge for Years | For a president whose greatest passion seems to be winning the global economic competition, last week's news must have been awfully sweet.</br></br>A flurry of economic indicators showed the U.S. economy surging, even as Europe and Japan remained mired in recession. U.S. unemployment fell sharply and consumer confidence shot up - all in a week that began with the free fall of the Tokyo stock market.</br></br>Beyond these short-term numbers, some economists see a fundamental shift of America's position in the global economy. They argue that the United States has emerged from a period of economic "restructuring" - a polite term for brutal layoffs and cost-cutting - as the most vigorous and competitive economy in the world - and may be poised to retain that distinction for years to come.</br></br>You could almost imagine President Clinton running to the White House balcony and shouting: "We're Number One!"</br></br>Certainly, there's a lot worth shouting about. Consider some of the recent signs of the U.S. economic renaissance: | no | 0 |
Hybrid Funds Boost Flows | Long-term mutual funds had estimated inflows of $902 million in the latest week on an increase to hybrid funds that more than offset declines from the bond and equity categories, according to the Investment Company Institute.</br></br>The funds tracked by ICI have posted outflows in six of the last seven weeks, as volatility in the stock market related to the U.S. debt ceiling and concerns about stagnant domestic economic growth and the European sovereign-debt crisis has rattled investors.</br></br>For the week ended Aug. 31, equity funds had outflows of $131 million, compared with outflows of $3.2 billion in the prior week. Investors withdrew $748 million from U.S. equities but added $617 million to foreign funds.</br></br>Meanwhile, ICI reported bond funds had outflows of $76 million, compared with week-earlier outflows of $20 million. Investors pulled $303 million from taxable funds, while inflows to municipal funds totaled $227 million.</br></br>Investors also added $1.11 billion to hybrid funds after prior-week inflows of $871 million. Such funds can invest in both stocks and fixed-income assets. | no | 0 |
THE WASHINGTON POST, MONDAY, APRIL 14, 1980 | IÛªve Just been talking with Jesse Jack* : son about his plans for a May 17 protest : march here, and IÛªm still trying to</br></br>Joblessness among black teen-agers, particularly in cities, is at once a social ; waste, a national disgrace and a ticking ; time bomb. So perhaps what Jackson has in mind is a demand for special jobs f programs for this specially disadvan* j taged group.</br></br>* Not really, he told me. He said he re* 1 cognizes the political folly of making 7 demands only on behalf of black people : during a period when an awful lot of ÛªWhat he has in mind, said the Chicagoan, is to demand better job oppor* tunities for everybody. After all, he</br></br>He agreed. ÛÏWe have to focus atten* lion on the need to straighten out the Whole economic situation,Û he said.</br></br>Û¢1 told him I thought the attention is already focused. What is missing is not attention but ideas for doing something about the problem. 1 begin, I said, with the assumption that Jimmy Carter wants an improved economy at least as much as Jesse Jackson and that if he knew how to produce it, he would have done so the day before yesterday. | no | 0 |
Bankers Ask Federal Cuts In Spending | SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 24 Last year the nationÛªs bankers met in Chicago and one after another pleaded for freedom to raise interest rates as the i marketplace dictated.</br></br>Today they met in San Francisco and were noticeably silent on the same subjectÛÓ after increasing loan rates across the board three times in the last 10 months.</br></br>For much of the last year the powerful American Bankers Assn, has given the strong impression ÛÓ seconded by many of its members ÛÓ that the Government should raise income tax rates to take some of the pressure off the banks for controlling inflation.</br></br>Now the association, meeting here in its annual convention, has apparently softened its position and wants to think about it a while.</br></br>It only seems to be longer than a year ago that Treasury Secretary Henry H. Fowler stood before the bankers and advised great caution in raising interest rates and suggested that bankers shouldnÛªt ÛÏjump to conclusionsÛ about ÛÏunjustifiedÛ fears of inflation. | no | 0 |
International Finance: Buyout Firms Race to Build Yuan Funds To Tap China | HONG KONG -- Foreign firms that include some of the biggest names in U.S. private equity are rushing to raise Chinese funds that offer a new route to getting deals done in the world's fastest-expanding major economy.</br></br>In the latest example, Carlyle Group LLC is in advanced discussions to raise a local-currency private-equity fund of several billion yuan, according to people familiar with the situation, after already setting up a previously undisclosed smaller yuan fund earlier this year for growth-capital investments.</br></br>Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. also is actively studying setting up a yuan-denominated fund, according to people familiar with the situation.</br></br>In recent days, other foreign private-equity firms and banks, including Blackstone Group LP and Macquarie Group Ltd., have announced plans to raise a total of about $4.5 billion in funds from local investors.</br></br>The allure of the Chinese market is powerful for U.S. private-equity firms that have watched dozens of leveraged buyout deals sour over the past year amid turmoil in credit markets and a global recession. By contrast, China's economy is emerging from the global financial crisis in better shape than many had expected, expanding 7.9% in the second quarter. | no | 0 |
Measuring the Economy May Not Be as Simple as 1, 2, 3 | The Census Bureau tomorrow will release the latest statistics on poverty in the United States, the income level of an average household and the number of Americans still lacking health insurance.</br></br>A growing chorus of experts and politicians is raising questions about the data that frame Americans' understanding of their nation's well-being. From poverty levels to health insurance, inflation to personal savings, widely accepted statistics are overstating some problems and understating others, miscounting people, and sending policymakers down blind alleys.</br></br>"We're getting at best an impressionistic sense of what's going on in the economy," said Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.), who recently introduced legislation to establish an independent commission aimed at overhauling government economic statistics. "Major policy decisions are being made based on data that is inadequate to the task."</br></br>This seemingly technical problem has real-world consequences, allocating federal assistance to some who don't need it while cutting off others who do, raising the costs of programs like Social Security, or pushing policies for problems that may not exist.</br></br>For example, since poverty levels are not adjusted for regional costs of living, the working poor in expensive urban centers like Washington are routinely excluded from federal programs because their income lifts them above the official poverty line. The rural poor in low-cost states like Arkansas often can afford considerably higher standards of living than their urban compatriots. Yet they may be eligible for food stamps, housing aid, free school lunches and other programs that exclude the urbanites. | no | 0 |
Coffee Surges 9.5% As Speculators Buy In Technical Rally | NEW YORK -- Coffee futures on the Coffee, Sugar & Cocoa Exchange charged higher Friday in a rally fueled by speculative buying.</br></br>The most active December contract tacked on 9.5% to end five cents up at 57.85 cents a pound after a shopping spree the coffee pit hadn't seen since late April.</br></br>Coffee futures have been in an overwhelmingly bearish trend since peaking at $3.18 a pound in May 1997. In the nearer-term, coffee drifted below what is considered as an average cost of production -- 80 cents -- in October 2000 and hasn't looked back.</br></br>The break to the upside came at the bulls' insistence, as they pushed the market with an eye on speculators' preplaced buy-orders above 54 cents for December futures, and 50.5 cents on the September contract.</br></br>Once those levels were pierced, the buying wave came with a vengeance. Buy-stops were abundant and ripe, and their triggering fueled the rally that absorbed all the producers' selling around. | no | 0 |
DIGEST | Cisco Systems, which makes Internet equipment, said fiscal second- quarter net income rose to $825 million from $282 million as revenue rose 53 percent. Excluding acquisition expenses, its profit was $906 million, or 25 cents, a penny better than analysts expected, compared with $609 million, or 17 cents. The company also set a 2-for-1 stock split, payable in March.</br></br>Bank of New York agreed to provide information about its customers to Federal Reserve regulators in the wake of an examination into fund transfers from Russia. The bank agreed to report quarterly to the New York Fed Bank and state regulators about transactions of customers it has identified as potential money-launderers. The bank said it would devise a plan within 45 days to identify those customers involved in "known or suspected criminal activity against" the bank.</br></br>Nokia Oyj extended its lead as the world's biggest maker of cellular phones, boosting global market share to 26.9 percent last year from 22.5 percent, according to Gartner Group's Dataquest unit. Motorola and Ericsson held on to the No. 2 and No. 3 spots, respectively, but Motorola's share slipped to 16.9 percent from 19.5 percent, while Ericsson's share dropped to 10.5 percent from 15.1 percent. Europe had the biggest percentage of mobile phone sales, and Asia-Pacific beat the United States for the No. 2 spot. Sales in Latin America doubled.</br></br>Five large hedge funds released a report offering recommendations on risk management and business practices for the industry, in response to Long-Term Capital Management's near-collapse in 1998 after it lost $4 billion. The report was prepared by Soros Fund Management, Caxton, Kingdon Capital Management, Moore Capital Management and Tudor Investment, each of which manage more than $3 billion.</br></br>Raytheon, the third-largest U.S. defense company, plans to sell $500 million of its businesses this year as it trims debt and focuses on more profitable units, the company told analysts and investors at a conference in New York. | no | 0 |
Blue Chips, Other Indexes Slump for Day, but Gain for April | THE DOW JONES Industrial Average slumped below the 8500 level yet again, but it and other major indexes still finished April with their biggest monthly gains this year.</br></br>In heavy end-of-month trading, the Dow industrials slipped 22.90 points, or 0.27%, to 8480.09, up 6.1% for April and up 1.7% since the year began. It was their biggest monthly gain since October.</br></br>Stocks had bounced up and down throughout the day following a soft reading on manufacturing activity in the Chicago area and an inconclusive comment on the economy from Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan.</br></br>Speculation that the Fed might cut target interest rates as soon as next week to stimulate the economy helped push Treasury bond prices up sharply. Stocks appeared poised for a small gain until a surge of month-end profit-taking knocked them down just before regular trading ended.</br></br>"You would expect to see some people step in and make some sales. A lot of these stocks are up 25%, 35%, 40% since the beginning of March," said Robert Harrington, head of listed trading at brokerage firm UBS Warburg. | no | 0 |
What's News-- | A fire at an oil and gas well in Mexico could burn for weeks, said state oil monopoly Pemex.</br></br>Sony's turnaround strategy was thrown into doubt after the electronics maker reported weak quarterly results and cut its profit forecast for the year by 40%.</br></br>AstraZeneca appointed a new CFO and disclosed two U.S. Justice Department investigations into its drugs as it said net profit fell 18% in the third quarter.</br></br>Exxon posted an 18% fall in third-quarter earnings on its refining business, while Shell posted a 31% slide in quarterly profit on weak refining margins and a rise in exploration-and-production expenses.</br></br>The world's largest commodities traders are bolstering their presence in the growing spot market for liquefied natural gas. | no | 0 |
Europe Wrangles Over Greece; Finance Ministers Struggle With Long-Term Fix, but Get Closer on Short-Term Cash | (Please see Corrections and Amplifications below.)</br></br>European finance ministers meeting Sunday in Luxembourg moved toward approving a fresh quarterly installment of Greece's [euro]110 billion ($157 billion) bailout loan, but they remained divided over the details of a far harder task--extending Greece a giant new package that would support it for years to come.</br></br>Meanwhile, finance ministers and central bankers from the Group of Seven industrialized countries held a conference call late Sunday to discuss the crisis, according to people familiar with the matter. Natalie Wyeth, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Treasury Department, confirmed a G-7 conference call was held but declined to provide any details. A senior euro-zone official said the U.S. urged a fast resolution of the Greek issue.</br></br>In Athens, Prime Minister George Papandreou said his country was negotiating a new deal of roughly the same size as the one granted just last year--about another [euro]100 billion--and urged his parliament to back him in a vote of confidence scheduled for Tuesday. The Greek premier, fresh from a cabinet reshuffle meant to lift his political fortunes, will travel to Brussels on Monday for talks with European Union leaders.</br></br>Europe thought it had put Greece's troubles to rest last spring with a mammoth bailout that rewrote the contract among the euro's member countries. Now, Greece needs more help, and there's fatigue all around. | no | 0 |
Yuan Climbs As Beijing Eases Grip | Six months after China pledged to increase the flexibility of the yuan exchange rate versus the dollar, there are fresh signs that Beijng is gradually loosening its grip on the currency.</br></br>The yuan rose to its highest level against the dollar in a month on Thursday after the People's Bank of China adjusted its daily target exchange rate upward. Traders took that as a signal that China would allow a faster rate of appreciation in coming weeks as President Hu Jintao prepares for a visit to Washington in mid-January.</br></br>The yuan has risen 2.8% against the dollar since June 19, when China ended its rigid peg to the dollar. However, U.S. producers complain that the yuan remains far undervalued and that by actively intervening to prevent it from rising, China gives its manufacturers an unfair advantage.</br></br>The Treasury has voiced its concerns to Beijing about its policy, but for the most part takes a hands-off approach.</br></br>Supporters of China's approach say that the yuan's current rate of appreciation is more or less in line with that which occurred in the three years before it was fixed during the 2008 crisis, when it gained 20% against the dollar. | no | 0 |
Tom Davis: Expanding the Economic Pie | Do they understand that the only way to increase jobs in Fairfax is to attract companies to our county and encourage the ones already here to stay and expand?</br></br>Do they understand that 8 percent to 10 percent of the jobs in Fairfax County - that's 35,000 to 40,000 jobs - disappear and have to be replaced every year even in good times? That we have lost more than 25,000 other jobs to the recession?</br></br>Do they understand that jobs come from business, which generates so much of the tax revenue to fund transportation improvements, quality schools, parks, libraries, health care services and other elements that make Fairfax County such a desirable place to live and work?</br></br>Certainly Audrey Moore doesn't. But luckily, Tom Davis does, and so do his Republican colleagues in the race for the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors.</br></br>I have stood by and watched Moore dismantle programs and attack policies that worked; that helped the county prosper and grow; that brought the commercial-industrial portion of the county real estate tax base from 11.7 percent in 1978 to our promised goal of 25.5 percent in 1987; that made us the envy of much of the nation for our dynamism, our educational system and our outstanding quality of life. | no | 0 |
Global Slide Of Dollar Deepens;Trading Against Mark Weakest Since War | The dollar yesterday continued its steady, but orderly, slide in global markets, closing at the end of trading in Europe at the lowest level against the German mark since the end of World War II.</br></br>Experts said that the dollar's weakness is the direct result of general economic malaise in the United States and higher interest rates in Japan and Europe that are attracting investment there. The trading also reflects widely held expectations that the Federal Reserve Board will soon lower short-term U.S. rates even further to fight an incipient recession.</br></br>"The best thing that could happen now for the United States," said foreign exchange expert Geoffrey Bell of the New York company bearing his name, "is a falling dollar that would work against recession by improving exports and reducing imports."</br></br>At the close of trading in Europe, the dollar was down to 1.5605 marks, compared with 1.5685 on Tuesday. Trading in New York hit a low of 1.5540 before rebounding slightly to close at 1.5660. Against the yen, the dollar also retreated, closing at 147.65 yen in New York, down from 148.85 the day before.</br></br>Government officials have shown little concern over the dollar's recent weakness, and there were no signs of intervention in the currency market by the United States or any of its economic partners in the so-called Group of Seven industrial nations. On the contrary, a number of experts argue that a declining dollar-which foreshadows the probability of lower interest rates-is the preferred medicine for the declining American economy. | yes | 1 |
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