Stephen Stanley, chief economist at Pierpont Securities LLC, has derided the Federal Reserve for downplaying improvement in the U.S. economy. Yet his 2.6 percent forecast for growth this year is below the midpoint in the central bank
Spain managed to auction nearly (EURO)2.5 billion ($3.18 billion) in medium-term debt amid strong demand but at sharply higher interest rates reflecting concerns that the country will be caught up in the fallout of the Greek crisis.
The Treasury sold three kinds of notes Thursday, two maturing in 2015 and one in 2016. Of them only one was strictly comparable to previous sales and the interest rate, or yield, on that three-year bond went up to 4.87 percent, from 4 fast payday loan no faxing.04 percent on May 3.
On the secondary market, the interest rate on Spanish 10-year bonds stood at 6.28 percent. The spread _ the difference between it and the yield on safe-haven German bunds _ was 481 basis points.
Spain’s Ibex 35 stock index was virtually unchanged in early trading.
The European Commission has called on EU nations to stick to their promised budget cuts despite voter discontent in France and Greece, but promised new efforts to boost growth to alleviate economic hardship.
EU President Herman Van Rompuy also called for an impromptu informal summit of the 27 EU government leaders on May 23 to discuss economic growth and to prepare for a summit in June focused on job-boosting measures.
In elections on Sunday, voters in France and Greece gave strong support to parties who want to roll back or slow down the spending cuts and tax increases that have defined Europe’s response to its debt crisis.
Kellwood Co. has appointed Jill Granoff, former head of Kenneth Cole Productions, Inc., to be its new chief executive officer.
The Town and Country-based apparel company has diverse portfolio of brands including Vince, Rebecca Taylor, David Meister, Lamb & Flag, Baby Phat, and Sag Harbor.
Granoff replaces Michael Kramer, who left to become chief operating officer of J.C. Penney.
She was also formerly an executive vice president of Liz Claiborne Inc. where she was in charge of the worldwide business of Juicy Couture, Lucky Brand Jeans, and Kate Spade payday loans. She has also held executive positions with Victoria’s Secret Beauty and Estee Lauder Inc.
“I am excited about the opportunity to partner with Kellwood and Sun Capital to optimize the brand portfolio and enhance overall business performance,” she said in a statement. “We have a great platform to accelerate growth and profitability.”
Singapore’s central bank tightened its monetary policy Friday by allowing for a stronger currency to combat the island’s stubbornly high inflation rate.
A jump in global oil prices since October has quickened inflation to near 5 percent in Singapore, which imports all of its fuel. A stronger Singapore dollar would lower the prices of imports while possibly making the country’s exports less competitive.
Unlike most central banks, The Monetary Authority of Singapore uses currency, rather than a benchmark lending rate, to help control money supply. The bank’s statement Friday indicated it would allow the Singapore dollar to rise at a faster rate.
The shift in policy will likely speed the rate of appreciation by one percentage point to between 2 percent and 3 percent a year, said Robert Prior-Wandesforde, director of Asian economics at Credit Suisse in Singapore.
Besides Singapore and Indonesia, policymakers in Asia will likely hold steady or ease monetary policy amid concern about slowing economic growth, Prior-Wandesforde said.
“We doubt Singapore’s monetary tightening move will be replicated in Asia this year,” he said. “The crucial difference is the fact that Singapore inflation is comparatively high.”
The central bank also raised its inflation forecast for this year by one percentage point to between 3.5 percent and 4.5 percent.
“Inflation has come in stronger than expected since October and will remain elevated over the next few months,” the central bank said in its biannual monetary policy statement. “External inflationary pressures are likely to be sustained, largely due to higher oil prices.”
The central bank sets a trading range for the Singapore dollar though doesn’t publicly disclose the details. It intervenes to keep the currency inside the trading band.
The government also released first quarter preliminary growth figures Friday based on data mostly from January and February. The city-state’s economic growth slowed to 1.6 percent in the first quarter from a year earlier, the trade and industry ministry said. The government is forecasting growth of 1 percent to 3 percent this year, down from 4.9 percent last year.
However, compared with the fourth quarter, the economy expanded a seasonally adjusted, annualized 9.9 percent and avoided a recession after falling 2.5 percent in the October to December period. Manufacturing, led by pharmaceuticals and electronics, rebounded strongly in the first quarter from a contraction in the fourth, buoyed by better than expected global demand.
Construction and services also improved compared with the fourth quarter.
“Today’s message is clear: Singapore is reaccelerating,” DBS bank said in a report.
ST. LOUIS Former Missouri Gov. Roger Wilson and a St. Louis lawyer were indicted on a federal misdemeanor charge late Wednesday for allegedly laundering campaign contributions to the Missouri Democratic Party through a St. Louis law firm, the U.S. Attorney’s office said Thursday morning.
State campaign finance records show that the contributions, $5,000 on Aug. 28, 2009, and $3,000 on Dec. 22, 2009, were from the Herzog Crebs law firm in St. Louis to the Missouri Democratic State Committee.
But Wednesday’s indictment says that the $8,000 actually came from a state-created workers’ compensation company, Columbia-based Missouri Employers Mutual Insurance Co., and Wilson.
They were made at the direction of former MEM board member Doug Morgan and with the knowledge and approval of Wilson, the indictment says, and came through former Herzog partner Ed Griesedieck, who was also indicted. Herzog was repaid for the $5,000 contribution by billing MEM for legal work. The $3,000 contribution was billed to Morgan, but Wilson eventually wrote a personal check to cover the contribution and MEM’s in-house counsel learned of the political contribution.
The other MEM board members did not know about or approve the contributions, the indictment says.
The criminal charge, misappropriation of money by someone in the insurance business, carries a potential penalty of up to a year in prison, but both men will likely face no more than probation and perhaps a fine.
The indictment sheds light on a mystery that has surrounded Wilson for nearly a year.
Since June 2011, when he was ousted as CEO, Wilson has refused to talk about the matter. That silence contrasted with his two decades in public office, when he was known as a straight-shooter who was always quick with a quip.
The indictment is the latest scandal for Columbia-based Missouri Employers Mutual Insurance Co., the state-created workers’ compensation firm that has endured a year of setbacks to its public image.
Two former board members were indicted separately last year for alleged theft and fraud involving other organizations. The company’s former chairman, Doug Morgan, resigned in May, and questions mounted in June when the company forced out its chief executive officer, Wilson, without explanation.
Chuck Hatfield, a longtime political adviser to Gov. Jay Nixon, was retained by Missouri Employers Mutual to help manage the crisis. Jim Owen, a former law school classmate of Nixon, became the CEO.
During Wilson’s tenure, the state-sponsored insurance company made at least one political donation to Jay Nixon’s gubernatorial campaign, even though the governor controls the 5-member board of Missouri Employers Mutual by appointing three of the insurer’s board members.
According to the Missouri Ethics Commission, the firm contributed $4,000 to the “Jay Nixon for Missouri” committee on Dec. 30, 2008. The contribution was made after Nixon’s election but before he took office in January 2009.
A recent state audit took issue with Missouri Employers Mutual’s spending practices, but did not dwell on its political contributions. However, the audit noted that company funds since 2003 were used for $8,000 in political contributions to the Missouri Democratic Party; $7,400 in cash and in-kind donations to the Missouri Insurance Coalition Political Action Committee; and $4,000 in donations to gubernatorial inaugural festivities in 2005 and 2009.
State Auditor Tom Schweich portrayed a company that operates like a private entity, handing out hefty bonuses to employees, while enjoying federal tax-exempt status and other advantages that its private competitors lack.
The company was created by the Legislature in 1993 in response to a crisis in the state’s insurance industry, when small businesses struggled to afford workers’ compensation coverage business card design. As an “independent public corporation,” the firm has avoided about $50 million in federal taxes since its founding, which has enabled it to accumulate a surplus of $163 million and become the state’s leading workers’ compensation provider.
The insurer paid about $1.58 million in severance benefits or settlement payments to four former top executives and employees who either resigned or who left the company in 2009 and 2010, the auditor found. The firm also has bankrolled lavish business jaunts to Hawaii and Mexico, along with sports tickets and suites for its board members, executives, employees and guests.
Amid state lawmakers’ questions about the company’s large surplus and tax-exempt status, Missouri Employers Mutual recently decided to pay its first dividend to members
Griesedieck’s firm worked for Missouri Employers Mutual, but he had another connection.
He also represented a development company in a failed bid for a casino in north St. Louis County.
Last year, federal prosecutors claimed in an indictment that MEM board member and former chairman of the St. Louis County Planning Commission Doug Morgan told at least two friends he was a secret partner in the development company, North County Development LLC.
POLITICAL PAST
Politics ran in Wilson’s family.
Wilson was an assistant elementary school principal in Columbia in 1976 when friends persuaded him to run for Boone County collector, an office his father had held. Wilson’s grandfather had been Boone County sheriff when he was killed in a gunbattle with bank robbers in 1933.
Roger Wilson moved to the state Senate in 1979. Education and law enforcement were his focus, along with the state budget. He headed the Appropriations Committee for six years.
He won his first statewide election in 1992, edging out State Auditor Margaret Kelly in the lieutenant governor’s race. He won re-election in 1996.
Wilson was expected to run for governor in 2000 but dropped that quest in March 1998, citing a distaste for raising the millions of dollars needed for the campaign and a desire to spend more time with his family.
Wilson was nearing the end of his term as lieutenant governor in October 2000, when Gov. Mel Carnahan was killed in a plane crash. Wilson took over as governor for three months, until Democrat Bob Holden was inaugurated.
After leaving the Capitol, Wilson worked for a money management firm. He served as the Missouri Democratic Party’s chairman from 2004 to 2007.
The county government building in Columbia is named after him. A statute of him stands outside the building.
Griesedieck’s profile has been removed from the Herzog website, and a reporter was told Wednesday that he was no longer with the firm.
In his 2008 profile, the firm said that Griesedieck was a partner and member of the firm’s management committee and did corporate and real estate work and acted as general counsel for a number of medium and large corporations throughout the Midwest.
He also is a former city attorney and prosecuting attorney for several St. Louis County communities and hosted the “Ask the Attorney” program on KMOX for 20 years.
He graduated from Notre Dame and St. Louis University Law School, the site says.
A U.K. house-price index rose to a 21-month high in March as first-time buyers sought to take advantage of an expiring property-tax exemption, the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors said.
The gauge rose 3 points from February to minus 10, the highest reading since June 2010, according to a report today e- mailed by London-based RICS, which conducts a monthly survey of property surveyors nationwide. Still, a reading below zero shows more surveyors saw price drops than gains last month.
The figures reflect Britons taking advantage of a two-year stamp-duty exemption for first-time buyers purchasing a home costing less than 250,000 pounds ($400,000) before it ended on March 24. A continuation of this year
Oil prices rose to near $107 a barrel Wednesday in Asia after a report showed U.S. crude supplies fell unexpectedly, a sign demand may be improving.
Benchmark oil for May delivery was up 52 cents to $106.59 a barrel at midday Singapore time in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract fell $2.49 to settle at $106.07 per barrel in New York on Tuesday after Saudi Arabia said it could pump more oil to cover any shortages.
Brent crude for May delivery was up 12 cents at $124.24 a barrel in London.
The American Petroleum Institute said late Tuesday that crude inventories fell 1.4 million barrels last week, breaking a two-month trend of growing supplies. Analysts surveyed by Platts, the energy information arm of McGraw-Hill Cos., had predicted an increase of 2.1 million barrels.
Inventories of gasoline fell 1.4 million barrels last week while distillates rose 600,000 barrels, the API said.
The Energy Department’s Energy Information Administration reports its weekly supply data later Wednesday.
Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest crude producer, said Tuesday it can quickly boost output by 25 percent if there is a sudden disruption in global supplies instant payday loans. Crude has jumped from $75 in October as traders worry a military conflict over Iran’s nuclear program could cut that country’s crude exports.
The European Union and the U.S. have imposed sanctions that make it tougher for Iran to sell its oil. In response, Iran has threatened to block oil shipments in the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of world’s oil supplies pass.
Kuwait said Tuesday it is increasing crude production and that Iran has assured its neighbors that it won’t block the vital waterway.
“The Saudis have been cranking up output, presumably in an attempt to dampen further price increases,” energy consultant and trader Ritterbusch and Associates said in a report. However, “increased output won’t necessarily reduce the Iranian risk premium.”
In other energy trading, heating oil was up 0.7 cent at $3.26 per gallon and gasoline futures gained 0.5 cent at $3.36 per gallon. Natural gas fell 0.3 cent at $2.33 per 1,000 cubic feet.
Home prices fell in December for a fourth straight month in most major U.S. cities, as modest sales gains in the depressed housing market have yet to lift prices.
The Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller home-price index shows prices dropped in December from November in 18 of the 20 cities tracked. The steepest declines were in Atlanta, Chicago and Detroit. Miami and Phoenix were the only cities to show an increase.
The declines partly reflect the typical slowdown that comes in the fall and winter.
Still, prices fell in 19 of the 20 cities in December compared to the same month in 2010. Only Detroit posted a year-over-year increase. Prices in Atlanta, Las Vegas, Seattle and Tampa dropped to their lowest points since the housing crisis began.
Nationwide, prices have fallen 34 percent nationwide since the housing bust, back to 2002 levels. A gauge of quarterly national prices, which covers 70 percent of U.S. homes, fell to its lowest point on records dating back to 1987.
“The pick-up in the economy has simply not been strong enough to keep home prices stabilized,” said David M. Blitzer, chairman of the S&P’s index committee. “If anything, it looks like we might have reentered a period of decline as we begin 2012.”
The Case-Shiller monthly index covers half of all U.S. homes. It measures prices compared with those in January 2000 and creates a three-month moving average. The December data is the latest available.
Home values remain depressed despite some hopeful signs at the end of last year payday advances.
Builders are growing more optimistic after seeing more people express interest in buying this year. Sales of previously occupied homes are at their highest level since May 2010. More first-time buyers are making purchases. And the supply of homes fell last month to its lowest point in nearly seven years, which could push home prices higher.
Homes are the most affordable they’ve been in decades. And mortgage rates have never been cheaper.
Much of the optimism has come because hiring has picked up. More jobs are critical to a housing rebound.
But home prices tend to lag behind sales, which are still below healthy levels. And a large number of vacant homes are sitting idle on the market, which means prices will likely stay unchanged for several years.
Conditions are improving for those in position to buy a home. Still, many people can’t afford to buy or are unable to qualify for mortgage. Some people in position to buy are holding off, worried that prices could fall even further.
The biggest reason why prices are still falling is foreclosures, which are still high across the country. Foreclosures and short sales _ when a lender accepts less for a home than what is owed on a mortgage _ are selling at an average discount of 20 percent.
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