Finance news. My opinion.

Little more than half a decade since China entered the World Trade Organization, a resulting trade deficit has triggered the loss of more than 100,000 jobs in Ohio, says a report from the Economy Policy Institute released Wednesday.

A study by the Washington, D.C.-based group pegs the nation’s net job loss to China between 2001 and 2007 at about 3 million jobs, 102,700 of which were in Ohio. About 17,000 of the Ohio jobs were lost between 2006 and 2007.

The report found Ohio absorbed the fifth-highest net job loss. The share of workers displaced in the state accounted for less than 2 percent of Ohio’s 2001 work force. By comparison, Idaho lost a net 14,700 jobs since 2001, and the total accounted for more than 2.5 percent of its 2001 work force – the highest percentage among the states.

Driving a “crisis in manufacturing employment” in the nation, the report states, are the effects of monetary exchange rates and an imbalance in U.S. exports and its Chinese imports. Exports to China are commodity-intensive, while Chinese imports are almost exclusively manufactured products.

The report pegged the U.S. trade deficit with China last year at $262 billion, up from $84 billion in 2001. That’s an average annual increase of more than 20 percent.

The report acknowledge the nation’s trading relationship with China resulted in workers being re-employed in other industries, but it found displaced workers lost an average of $8,146 in pay yearly since 2001 absolutely free credit report. About three of every four displaced American workers moved into jobs that paid hourly wages of $17.80 or less, or at most $35,600 a year.

The report also found about 90 percent of the U.S. net job loss was spread evenly among workers with a high school education, some college training and a college degree.

The report calls for a “fundamental change” in the U.S.-China trade relationship, particularly with exchange rate policies and labor standards in the Asian nation’s economy.

For details, click here to download the full report.

The nonprofit institute bills itself as a non-partisan think tank advocating a fair economy.

Albert Betts, Commissioner of Workers' Compensation for the Texas Department of Insurance, will retire at the end of August.

Betts was appointed to the newly created post in 2005.

"We have laid a solid foundation for the system going forward, including working to reform the agency itself," Betts said in a statement. "It remains critical that injured workers get the service they need from their workers' compensation insurance carrier as well as the agency, and that efforts be continued to keep workers' compensation costs at a reasonable level for Texas employers."

Source

Hungary's central bank raised its benchmark interest rate to the highest in more than three years to prevent food and energy prices pushing up other costs, and said it may refrain from lifting borrowing costs again.

The Magyar Nemzeti Bank in Budapest raised the two-week deposit rate by a quarter of a percentage point to 8.5 percent with a “safe'' majority, President Andras Simor said at a Budapest press conference. The decision was expected by 16 of 21 economists in a Bloomberg poll.

Hungarian consumer prices have been rising more than twice as fast as the central bank target for 19 months, and were 6.6 percent higher in April than a year earlier. The bank may now pause to gauge the effect of raising rates by a full percentage point since March.

“There is just as much a possibility for further tightening as there is that the tightening won't happen,'' Simor said. Monetary conditions “must remain tight for us to approximate inflation to the target.''

The forint traded at 244.39 per euro by 5:25 p.m. in Budapest from 244.35 late on May 23. The yield on the benchmark five-year bond rose to 8.87 percent from 8.80 percent.

Budget Measures

Hungarian inflation in the past 1 1/2 years has been fueled partly by tax increases implemented by Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany in 2006 to narrow the European Union's widest budget deficit. The measures slowed economic growth to 0.8 percent in the fourth quarter of last year, the lowest rate in 11 years.

Economic expansion picked up to a 1.6 percent annual pace in the first quarter and the central bank predicts that it will quicken to 2.2 percent this year, 3.2 percent next year and 3.7 percent in 2010.

The bank, in its quarterly update of its inflation forecast published today, raised its forecast for average inflation this year to 6.3 percent from 5.2 percent and for 2009 to 4.2 percent from 3.6 percent. Inflation will be probably reduced to 3 percent in 2010, instead of 2009 as is its official target.

“Inflation is expected to remain above the long-term target on the 5-8 quarter horizon of monetary policy,'' the bank said in its inflationreport.

`Close to Peak'

The pace of consumer-price increases has slowed for four months through April, to the lowest rate since September, while the forint has gained 3.6 percent to the euro this year, cutting the cost of imported products payday loan.

This gives policy makers a chance to pause before potentially raising rates again, economists said.

“Interest rates are close to the peak, if not at the peak,'' Anders Svendsen, an economist at Nordea Markets in Copenhagen, wrote in a note to clients. “In the absence of'' food or energy price “shocks, we expect today's rate hike to be the last in this cycle.''

Risks that inflation will be faster than the current predictions are “more pronounced'' than factors that may potentially slow price increases, Simor said today.

Core inflation, which strips out some volatile food and energy prices and is one of the central bank's most closely watched figures, rose in April to an annual 5.6 percent from 5.3 percent in March.

`Biggest Problem'

Producer prices, an early indicator of inflation, also rose at a faster pace in March than the month before, rising to an annual 5.7 percent from 4.9 percent in February.

“The biggest problem is that cost shocks are being prolonged and there's an increasing chance that inflation expectations will get stuck at a level that is not in line with the inflation target,'' Simor said. “That is the biggest worry of the Monetary Council.''

After three consecutive rate increases, the monetary council wants to “keep the door open'' for holding rates unchanged next month and also for raising them again. He said policy makers today also discussed holding the rate unchanged and cutting it to 8 percent.

“We think the rates will hold at the current level until year-end, and no longer see the scope for rate easing in late 2008 as we find it unlikely that the central bank will become more confident about the pace of disinflation,'' Pasquale Diana, an economist at Morgan Stanley in London, wrote in a note to clients.

Source

Hawaii Volcanoes National Park remained closed Thursday because of high levels of sulfur dioxide in the air.

The park closure began Wednesday because of the dangerous levels of sulfur dioxide.

The gas is being emitted at Kilauea volcano from a new vent in Halemaumau Crater, the park said. The volcano has been erupting since 1983.

The National Park Service said the park will reopen when conditions improve. The closure included the Volcano House hotel and the Kilauea Military Camp, both of which are on park grounds.

The National Weather Service had forecasted normal trade winds to shift, causing an increase in vog and sulfur dioxide levels online payday advance. Vog is also expected to drift across Oahu over the next several days.

The park was closed for two days earlier this month because of high levels of the dangerous gas.

The park averages about 8,529 visitors a day, according to data from the National Park Service, making the busiest attraction in Hawaii.

Source

Budget carrier Skybus is cutting five flights from Piedmont Triad International Airport in an effort to deal with rising fuel costs, the carrier announced today.

Effective April 15, service from PTI to these five cities will be changed or discontinued:

–Gulfport/Biloxi, Miss., service will be discontinued.

–Gary, Ind., Wilmington, Del., Punta Gorda, Fla., and New York/Stewart service will be reduced from two daily nonstops to one.

Customers holding reservations on discontinued routes will be notified by e-mail and will receive automatic refunds. Passengers holding reservations in cases where service is reduced from two flights to one will be given the option of rebooking on the remaining flight, changing their reservation to a different day, or receiving a refund fast payday loan no faxing.

"With oil prices well above $100 a barrel and showing no signs of any significant decrease, we had a choice - we could sit back and hope things get better, or we could take aggressive action to deal with this industry-wide problem," Skybus CEO Bill Diffenderffer said.

Source