Finance news. My opinion.

Japan is setting stricter, clearer safety guidelines for nuclear power plants to ease public concern about restarting reactors idled after the disasters a year ago.

Facing a national power crunch, the government is anxious to restart two reactors in Fukui, western Japan, before the last operating reactor of the 54 in the country goes offline in May.

But the government has faced strong public opposition due to the meltdowns at the Fukushima Dai-ichi power plant, and local leaders are reluctant to give their approval.

Authorities say the new safety guidelines are more extensive than past “stress tests,” which were essentially computer simulations meant to test how reactors would cope in the event of major earthquakes, tsunamis or other emergencies. Many questioned the objectivity of the tests and whether they guaranteed the plants’ safety, even though two reactors passed the tests.

If utilities can show they meet the new guidelines, authorities hope the public will be convinced that the reactors are safe to restart, including the two in Ohi, Fukui prefecture.

The new guidelines, based on 30 recommendations adopted last month by the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, require nuclear power plants to install filtered vents that could reduce radiation leaks in case of an accident, as well a device to prevent hydrogen explosions, among other steps. No deadline is cited by which these steps must be taken.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Osamu Fujimura said the government can order utilities to restart reactors regardless of local opposition, because obtaining residents’ consent is not legally required.

The plan will be officially announced later Friday after Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda and three Cabinet ministers in charge of nuclear crisis management finalize the measures pay day advance.

All but one of Japan’s 54 reactors have been shut down for inspections, required every 13 months. None have been restarted since the March 11, 2011, tsunami set off meltdowns in three reactors at the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant.

The reactor on the northern island of Hokkaido goes off line in early May. If none of the reactors are restarted, Japan could face power shortages this summer. Before the crisis, Japan depended on nuclear power for one-third of its electricity.

To make up for the shortfall, Japan has expanded production at conventional gas- and oil-fired plants.

But officials in cities and towns near Fukui are requesting explanations for the rush.

“Why rush? It’s too soon to decide. I think they should gain understanding from the public first,” said Yukiko Kada, governor of Shiga prefecture bordering Fukui.

Toru Hashimoto, the outspoken mayor of Osaka _ a top shareholder of Kansai Electric Power Co. that runs the Ohi plant in Fukui _ criticized the government for compiling the new guideline in two days.

Economy and Trade Minister Yukio Edano said earlier Friday that many of the safety measures have been already taken and the new guidelines aim to set even higher standards.

Fukui, home to 13 reactors clustered in four complexes along the Sea of Japan coast, is called Japan’s nuclear alley.

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For Express Scripts, Medco Health Solutions will be a very big pill to swallow. Could it bring on a little indigestion?

With $70 billion in revenue last year,  Medco far outsells Express Scripts Inc.’s $46 billion. Medco employs 23,200 people versus 13,100 at Express Scripts.

Yet the smaller pharmacy benefit management company is buying the big one, in a deal that closed on Monday.

Observers are betting that Express Scripts will be able to successfully digest Medco, although they expect burps and hiccups.

“These are two top companies doing the same thing,” says Judson Clark, an analyst at Edward Jones investments in Des Peres. Both handle pharmacy benefits for employer health plans.

“There will be a couple of headaches, sure. But it’s not like the airlines coming together and merging reservation systems and everyone ending up stranded in Tallahassee,” Clark said.

Express Scripts has a track record. This is the third time it has doubled its size or more through acquisitions since 1998.

“If anybody can pull this off, it’s Express Scripts,” said Ed Lawrence, a finance professor at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, who co-authored a company-financed study of Express Scripts’ economic impact on St. Louis.

Still, mergers produce anxiety — among employees worried about at least $1 billion in cost-cutting, among senior executives who must figure out how to integrate the separate businesses, and among customers who worry whether merger glitches could affect their prescriptions.

The company says it’s working to avoid the latter.

“Service and stability are our job one,” said Express Scripts spokesman Brian Henry.

Although both dispense drugs, the firms have different strengths.

Medco has a reputation as the better company at the nitty-gritty of getting drugs to patients. Express Scripts is best at “understanding what motivates patient behavior,” says Clark.

For instance, Express Scripts is good at getting patients to actually take their drugs, and converting patients to cheaper generic drugs.

Express Scripts will try to take the best of both, which raises the question of which executives will end up running what.

Big mergers set off a game of musical chairs in management, as the company tries to cut costs.

Fear about that “permeates the entire organization,” says Stuart Greenbaum, former dean and professor emeritus at the Washington University business school.

Some firms settle those turf disputes quickly. Others drag them out, cutting executive staff by attrition and internal competition.

All that can have an effect on efficiency.

“You want to get a full day’s work out of people, not have them spending half the day polishing their résumés,” Greenbaum said.

When big companies merge, customers sometimes feel the effect as new leaders change rules and customer-relations staff is shaken up. Competitors often use that opportunity to swipe customers away.

There may be some of that in the Express Scripts deal but probably not much, says analyst Clark. The company’s customers are mainly big employers.

“The process of rebidding is not easy,” says Clark. “It’s not easy for HR to undertake, and they are not eager at the prospect of doing it again just for kicks.”

Putting systems together and closing duplicate operations also can cause headaches.

“The IT side is often a very difficult challenge,” says Greenbaum. “Talk to the airlines, and they’ll tell you that sometimes it blows up in your face and sometimes it goes smoothly.”

Firms often take that slowly, integrating systems over a year or two.

For customers, the question is how much they’ll benefit from the deal.

The merged company may have more clout to demand better prices from drugmakers and the drugstores.

How much patients and employers will share in the savings remains to be seen. Critics say the company’s dominance will allow it to keep much of the savings. The smart management move would be to pass along much of the savings “and be very visible about it,” said Greenbaum. That would head off cries for more regulation later.

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The International Monetary Fund wants measures attached to a potential loan to Egypt to have

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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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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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

South Korean inflation may accelerate above the government

British Prime Minister David Cameron faced opposition calls to abandon his health-service revamp and cut sales tax as scrutiny of the coalition government