Finance news. My opinion.

The International Monetary Fund on Thursday approved euro28 billion ($36.56 billion) in funding for crisis-hit Greece over the next four years, while Standard and Poor’s said that the country’s new bonds were still vulnerable to a default.

An IMF’s executive board granted the immediate release of euro1.65 billion ($2.15 billion) of these funds as part of the country’s second bailout, a statement said.

Greece will receive a total euro172.7 billion in rescue loans from its eurozone partners and the IMF to keep it afloat in the next few years, as dizzily high borrowing rates have blocked its ability to raise money on the international bond markets.

IMF spokesman Gerry Rice said “continued reform efforts to improve competitiveness and restore economic growth will be key to overcoming the crisis.”

Without the bailout, Greece would have been forced into a messy default of a euro14.5 billion bond repayment due on March. 20, a move that could have sent shockwaves throughout the global financial system and further destabilized the group of 17 countries that use the euro as their currency.

The new bailout cash was approved after Greece secured a massive debt-reduction deal with banks and other private bond holders, swapping old government bonds for new ones that have better repayment terms.

The ratings agency Standard and Poor’s assigned a CCC score _ or still vulnerable to default _ and said Greece’s sovereign rating would remain in selective default until the exchange was completed next month.

The country has survived since May 2010 on a first rescue loan package worth a total euro110 billion ($143 payday loan.63 billion). In return for both bailouts, Athens has imposed harsh cost-cutting measures, slashing pensions and salaries while repeatedly increasing taxes. The countries main political parties have promised to honor commitments after elections expected in late April or early May.

Also Thursday, Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos said he would ensure the terms of the bailout deals would be met if he is part of the next government.

Venizelos is the only contender for the leadership of the majority socialist PASOK party in a vote this Sunday. Once he takes over the party helm, he will resign as minister to focus on the election campaign.

“It is hypocritical to say that you can sign commitments and then say you are not bound by them. That’s an insult to our intelligence,” Venizelos said.

PASOK has seen its popularity plunge and opinion polls indicate no party will win an outright majority in the election, amid public anger over austerity measures.

Meanwhile, a European Union inspector has reported rare progress in Greece’s effort to reform its large civil service _ one of the key austerity measures and a condition of receiving the bailout.

Horst Reichenbach, heading an EU task force sent to Greece to assist painful structural reforms, said there had been a “number of very positive developments” including an improvement in clearing tax arrears.

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Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, set to leave office next year after a decade in power, said his nation must adopt political change to support an economic transformation that has produced rapid development at the cost of a widening wealth gap.

The company behind the lightning-fast processor in the new iPad thinks it can soon become the predominant microchip business in the world.

Chips designed by ARM (), the British microprocessor company you’ve probably never heard of, are in a stunning 95% of the world’s mobile phones and tablets, including the new iPad Apple announced this week. ARM’s chips represent 30% of the entire semiconductor market sales, which is nearly double Intel’s 16%, according to IHS iSuppli.

But ARM’s ambitions are even grander.

"We want to see that doubled to 60%," said Warren East, ARM’s CEO, in an interview conducted at last week’s Mobile World Congress. "We think we’ve got the right sort of technology for everything from very, very tiny intelligent sensors, through the consumer electronic swathe, right through to servers."

ARM is in a unique position in the chip industry because it doesn’t actually make microprocessors. Instead, ARM designs chips and licenses those different architectures to more than 300 companies around the world, including giant players such as Samsung, Nvidia (), Texas Instruments () and Qualcomm (, Fortune 500).

The company is particularly successful in the rapidly growing mobile market, partially because it is good at what it does, but also because of the dumb luck of being in the right place at the right time.

ARM got its start in 1991 designing modem chips for cell phones. They were fairly limited microchips that were built for one purpose: to communicate with cell towers without sucking up too much of the phone’s battery. But around the turn of the century, handset manufacturers began to realize that there was excess computer power left over in those ARM-based chips that could be used to build a user interface.

Soon after that realization, the "feature phone" was born, which ultimately evolved into the modern day smartphone. Taking advantage of the situation, ARM now designs chips for two purposes: the same-old modem processor and an applications processor that controls the user interface for Android, iOS, Windows Phone, BlackBerry OS and the like.

Demand for ARM-based chips has risen sharply of late, as the cell phone architecture made its way into disk drives, printers, cars, Internet-connected TVs, microcontrollers, and tablets. This year, Hewlett-Packard (, Fortune 500) is introducing its first server running on ARM-based chips, and Microsoft (, Fortune 500) will release a version of Windows 8 that will run on tablets powered with processors designed by ARM.

As a result, ARM’s share of the overall semiconductor market has soared, doubling in just three short years. Smartphone and tablet sales will continue to help ARM’s share rise, and the new markets ARM is entering could help the company arrive at its goal of doubling its share again three years from now. For instance, IHS iSuppli predicts ARM will grow its share of the PC processor market to 22% by 2015, up from practically nothing today.

Meanwhile, semiconductor behemoth Intel (, Fortune 500) tried — and failed — for many years to get a foothold in the mobile marketplace, as ARM’s 21-year old expertise in power management gave it a leg up.

But recently, Intel scored some big wins after finally convincing handset makers that its chips could play nicely in mobile. Global telecom giant Orange and Indian carrier Lava announced last week that they are planning on shipping a device based on an Intel reference design next quarter, and Lenovo launched a similar phone last month.

Motorola Mobility (), which is being acquired by Google, said last month that all of its future devices will run on Intel chips. And Chinese smartphone giant ZTE said last week that it too would soon begin to ship phones with Intel inside.

Despite Intel’s deep pockets and recent surge, ARM isn’t fazed. The company believes its power-sipping, mobile-friendly architecture will ultimately become the world’s most pervasive.

"Intel’s offerings today are better than they were years ago, and undoubtedly there are going to be some Intel design wins," East said. "But I look at the capabilities of those products and see the same kind of capabilities that were in ARM products several years ago." 

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China says its trade rebounded in February after a Lunar New Year slowdown but a broader measure gave clear signs both global and Chinese demand are weakening.

Customs data Saturday showed exports grew 18.4 percent over a year earlier, up from January’s 0.5 percent contraction. Imports jumped 39.6 percent, up from the previous month’s decline of 15 percent.

China’s exporters have been hurt by weakening global demand amid Europe’s debt crisis and U.S. economic troubles. Imports have been supported by relatively strong Chinese economic growth but that also is easing.

Combined data for January and February showed export growth fell to 6.9 percent over the same two-month period last year, well below December’s 13.4 percent. Imports for the two-month period rose 7.7 percent, down from December’s 11.8 percent.

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The United States added 227,000 jobs in February, again surprising economists with the breadth and brawn of the economic recovery. The country has put together the strongest three months of pure job growth since the Great Recession.

The unemployment rate stayed at 8.3 percent. It was the first time in six months that the rate did not fall, but that was only because a half-million Americans, perhaps finally seeing hope in the economy, started looking for work.

The Labor Department also said Friday that December and January, already two of the best months for jobs since the recession, were even stronger than first estimated. It added 61,000 jobs to its total for those two months combined.

Economists were expecting February job growth of 210,000.

“Overall, another very strong payroll report and there’s every chance that March will bring more of the same,” said Paul Ashworth, chief U.S. economist with Capital Economics, an economic consulting company.

Since the beginning of December, the country has added 734,000 jobs. The only better three-month stretch since the recession was March through May 2010, when the government was hiring tens of thousands of temporary works for the census.

Stocks rose steadily through the morning. The Dow Jones industrial average climbed 48 points to 12,956. Last week, it closed above 13,000 for the first time since May 2008, four months before the financial crisis.

The improving jobs picture figures to improve the re-election chances for President Barack Obama and to complicate the political strategy for the Republicans competing for the right to replace him.

Obama was traveling Friday to a manufacturing plant run by Rolls-Royce, the maker of aircraft engines, in Virginia, which is expected to be closely contested in November. He planned to propose steps to help manufacturers create products and jobs.

Hiring in February was broad-based and improved in both high-paying and low-paying industries. Manufacturing, mining and the professional services industry, which includes accounting work, all added jobs.

And government _ federal, state and local _ cut only 6,000 jobs in February and a revised 1,000 in January. Last year, they cut an average of 22,000 jobs a month, taking some of the economic punch out of job creation in the private sector.

In all, 142.1 million Americans reported that they had a job in February, the highest since January 2009, during the depths of the recession. Manufacturing payrolls are the highest since April 2009.

And over the past three months, the number of employed people has risen by 1.45 million, the biggest three-month gain since March 2000.

The government uses a survey of payrolls to determine how many jobs were added or lost each month. That is the survey that produced the 277,000 number. But the payroll survey tends to undercount small businesses and does not count the self-employed.

It uses a separate survey of American households to calculate the unemployment rate cash advance flexible payments. That survey picks up hiring by companies of all sizes, including small businesses, companies just getting off the ground, farm workers and the self-employed.

The household survey found that 428,000 more Americans reported having jobs in February. When the economy is improving, many economists say, the household survey does the better job of picking up the shift because it detects small business hiring.

In the household survey, only people who are out of work and actively looking for a job are counted as unemployed. And one reason why the unemployment rate had fallen steadily over the previous five months, from 9.1 percent last August to 8.3 percent in January, was that so many people who were out of work gave up looking for a job.

But over the past two months, that trend appears to have reversed. In February, 476,000 people re-entered the labor force. Since the start of the year, that figure is almost 1 million _ the strongest two months since January and February 2003.

A catchall measure of the unemployed and the so-called underemployed _ people who are working part-time but would rather by working full-time _ fell to 14.9 percent, the lowest the three years.

That figure includes three groups: the part-time workers who want full-time work, people who are unemployed and looking for work, and people who are unemployed and have stopped looking.

Other economic indicators have improved markedly in recent weeks. Consumer confidence in February was the highest in a year, and unemployment claims, the best measure of the pace of layoffs, have averaged 355,000 a week, near a four-year low.

Service companies, which employ most Americans, are expanding faster, according to a private survey this week. The industries of mining, educational services, transportation and warehousing are particularly strong.

Some companies have to hire because they can’t squeeze any more work from their employees. Worker productivity rose last year at its slowest pace in a generation, suggesting companies will have to hire to meet growing demand.

Wages are still rising only modestly. Average hourly pay increased by 3 cents in February to $23.31. In the past year, it has gone up only 1.9 percent, trailing the rate of inflation.

The factors restraining the U.S. economy seem to be easing, or at least less damaging than they used to be. Greece has struck a deal to get an international bailout and avoid a default later this month that could have rattled the world financial system.

And while the price of gas has crept up almost every day for a month, and is the highest on record for this time of year, that has less of a bite when the economy is growing and people feel more confident.

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Asian stocks rebounded Thursday on signs that a debt relief deal for Greece will go through and as an upbeat report on U.S. payrolls added to optimism about the world’s biggest economy.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 index rose 1.3 percent to 9,697.99. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng gained 0.7 percent to 20,765.51 and South Korea’s Kospi edged up 0.4 percent to 1,989.46.

Growing investor participation in a massive Greek debt relief deal bolstered the mood in stock markets. By Wednesday night, investors owning around half of Greece’s privately held debt had committed to a bond swap that would see them accept losses to avoid facing even bigger ones in case Athens defaults.

Greece needs at least 67 percent of investors to sign up by Thursday night, so it can get a related euro130 billion ($171 billion) bailout from European countries and the International Monetary Fund.

A private monthly report on U.S. payrolls that estimated companies added 216,000 workers last month, beating expectations, also helped boost investor sentiment.

“Risk assets are set to benefit from the improved sentiment, though trading may still be cautious ahead of a slew of events later this week,” including interest rate decisions by the European and British central banks and U.S. jobs data, strategists at Credit Agricole CIB wrote in a research note.

In mainland China, the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index rose 0.9 percent to 2,416.54 and Australia’s ASX/S&P 200 was up 0.5 percent to 4,165.10. Benchmarks in Taiwan, Singapore and New Zealand also rose.

On Wall Street on Wednesday, the Dow Jones industrial average closed up 0.6 percent at 12,837.33. The S&P 500 index gained 0.7 percent to close at 1,352.63. The Nasdaq composite index 0.9 percent to close at 2,935.69.

In currencies, the euro rose to $1.3156 from to $1.3150 late Wednesday in New York. The dollar rose to 81.21 Japanese yen from 81.19 yen.

Benchmark oil for April delivery was up 14 cents to $106.02 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract rose by $1.46 to end at $106.16 per barrel in New York.

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Basketball star LeBron James is the new face of Dunkin’ Donuts — in Asia.

James will serve as "brand ambassador" for Dunkin’ Donuts and Baskin-Robbins ice cream in China, Taiwan, India and South Korea, a company spokeswoman said Monday.

The Miami Heat player has signed a "multi-year marketing partnership," but the company would not reveal how much money is involved.

Dunkin’ Donuts and Baskin-Robbins is a subsidiary of Dunkin’ Brands Group ().

James has played more than 600 games with the National Basketball Association. He is a seven-time All-Star and a two-time MVP. 

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Asian exporters, battling a slump in demand, are calling for their central banks to intervene after capital inflows contributed to the best start to the year since 2006 for the region

Is it possible to solve the nation’s debt woes just by hiking taxes on the rich?

Probably not.

Even if marginal income tax rates were almost 100% for the richest Americans, that still might not yield enough new revenue to keep debt under control.

The findings, reported Thursday by the Tax Policy Center and the Pew Charitable Trusts, underscore the necessity of finding a balanced approach to budgeting in the near future.

The report assumes current tax policy as a starting point, and targets debt at 60% of gross domestic product, widely considered to be a sustainable level.

"Increasing the top two or top three individual income tax rates alone cannot achieve the debt-to-GDP targets under some … scenarios," the report said.

"You just have a very big gap and not that much income up there to fill it," said Eric Toder of the Tax Policy Center.

Of course, politicians aren’t advocating for the top rates to go anywhere near 100%.

Take Obama for instance.

He wants to let the top two tax rates — currently 33% and 35% — revert to their pre-2001 levels of 36% and 39.6%.

Most folks in the top two brackets, however, would still benefit from the continuation of the 10%, 15%, 25% and 28% rates on the portion of their income subject to the lower brackets.

By historical standards, those rates are pretty low. While income tax rates for top earners have been below 40% since 1986, they were as high as 91% in the 1960s.

Republicans want to go the opposite direction, with every remaining 2012 candidate now promising reductions in marginal income rates for most taxpayers.

To balance those tax cuts out, and still lower deficits, Republicans must be prepared to slash huge amounts of spending from the budget, a difficult task when Pentagon spending is still off-limits for many party leaders.

And that’s just not feasible.

The looming debt problem is just too big. Reducing it by spending cuts alone would require draconian changes that could hurt the economy far more than a mix of spending cuts and tax increases.

America’s debt challenge

And that’s what the Pew study illustrates so effectively. An approach to deficit reduction that focuses only on spending cuts, or only on revenue, is likely to produce quite a bit of pain for targeted groups.

With federal spending on track to expand further over the next decade, most budget experts agree that lawmakers must consider an all-of-the-above approach that means tough choices for both parties.

President Obama’s fiscal commission, which never gained the necessary traction with the White House or Congress, acknowledged as much.

"Together, we have reached these unavoidable conclusions: The problem is real. The solution will be painful. There is no easy way out. Everything must be on the table. And Washington must lead," the report said.

The commission recommended hiking taxes, cutting military spending, getting health care costs under control, increasing the social security retirement age, among other proposals.

The plan went nowhere.

And with lawmakers from both political parties locked in election mode for the rest of the year, there are few indications any real steps toward deficit reduction will be taken until at least the new year.  

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Wendy’s is still recovering from its split with Arby’s.

The Dublin, Ohio-based company on Thursday said it swung to a fourth-quarter profit of $3.9 million, or 1 cent per share, compared with a net loss of $10.8 million, or 3 cents per share, last year, when it was still a single company with the Arby’s roast beef chain.

Revenue rose 6 percent to $538.5 million.

The figures confirmed preliminary results released in January that showed revenue at restaurants open at least a year climbed 4 percent in North America, the highest in nearly eight years bad credit payday advance.

Wendy’s sold Arby’s to a private equity firm last summer to focus on improving its namesake brand.

Wendy’s says higher prices and new menu items helped drive sales and traffic in the quarter.

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