Finance news. My opinion.

When it comes to the economy, it appears reality has set in among workers.

The Spherion Employee Confidence Index dropped to a new low last month, as workers’ optimism in the economy and job market decreased, along with their confidence in their ability to find a new job.

The survey results come as the nation's unemployment rate skyrocketed to 14-year high of 6.5 percent in October as 240,000 more jobs were eliminated.

That marks the 10th straight month of declines.

The survey found 77 percent of workers believe the economy is getting weaker. But, the index also showed that 65 percent of workers are confident in the future of their employer. That’s up two percentage points from the September report.

Job security remains high, with 74 percent of workers saying they believe they are unlikely to lose their jobs in the next 12 months same day cash advances.

But, they’re also not willing to walk away from what they have, with just 31 percent reporting that they are likely to look for a new job.

"We are beginning to see the full effects of how the recent financial fallout is affecting worker confidence,” said Roy Krause, president and CEO of Spherion Corp. (NYSE:SFN), a Fort Lauderdale-based recruiting and staffing company. “The U.S. job market has been shaken, so it is not surprising that workers are feeling less optimistic about the strength of the economy and the availability of jobs."

The survey of 2,960 employed adults was conducted Oct. 7-9 and Oct. 15-17.

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Carl-Wilhelm Vogel, director of the Cancer Research Center of Hawaii, has resigned after nine years on the job.

The University of Hawaii at Manoa issued a statement on Thursday praising Vogel’s leadership since his appointment in 1999. Vogel told PBN that his last day as director will be Dec. 31, after which he will stay on with the center as a faculty member and continue with research.

He declined to say why he is stepping down.

The university said it will begin a nationwide search for a new permanent director soon and Vogel is expected to assist with the transition of leadership default payday loan.

“UH Manoa is grateful for Dr. Vogel’s many contributions,” said University of Hawaii at Manoa Chancellor Virginia Hinshaw in a statement. “Dr. Vogel will continue his service to UH Manoa as he resumes his research as a member of the Cancer Center faculty.”

The university said the center will continue with its plans to build a new $200-million cancer research facility in Kakaako.

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The Swiss central bank is winning a tug-of-war with markets, giving it room to cut interest rates again as the economic growth outlook worsens.

The Swiss National Bank has pushed the three-month rate for borrowing francs in London, or Libor, closer to its target after flooding the financial system with cash. The Libor rate has dropped more than half a percentage point since hitting a seven- year high on Oct. 10 and is now just 10 basis points above the SNB's 2.5 percent goal.

“The fact that Libor is coming down shows they're gradually regaining control,'' said Jan Amrit Poser, chief economist at Bank Sarasin in Zurich. “The SNB is under considerable pressure to cut rates'' and may move as soon as tomorrow.

Swiss central bank Chairman Jean-Pierre Roth wants to revive an economy whose two main growth engines are faltering. The franc's surge to a record against the euro is hurting exports, which dropped for the first time in four years in September, and the financial crisis is pounding earnings at banks such as UBS AG and Credit Suisse Group.

With markets still in disarray, Roth is trying to convince investors the SNB's monetary tools still work.

That challenge was highlighted after Oct. 8 when the three- month rate kept rising even after the SNB joined other central banks in cutting rates. In response, the SNB loaned $54 billion to UBS to shore up confidence in the banking sector and started swap agreements with the European Central Bank to get francs to banks outside of Switzerland.

Early Move?

Now that the three-month rate is closer to the central bank's target, policy makers may move before their next scheduled meeting on Dec. 11, economists say. Poser says the SNB may cut if the ECB reduces its own benchmark tomorrow and Sylvain Broyer of Natixis says a rebound in the franc's exchange rate against the euro may also lead to a reduction.

Investors have increased bets the SNB will lower rates by the end of the year, futures trading shows. The implied rate on the 3-month Liffe contract expiring in December fell to 2.08 percent at 12:48 p.m. in Zurich from 2.55 percent Oct. 15.

“They certainly have more room to maneuver than they did two weeks ago,'' said Fabian Heller, an economist at Credit Suisse in Zurich. “The SNB has had to take a wide range of measures to regain control of their monetary policy instrument.''

Midpoint

Unlike the Federal Reserve, the Swiss central bank targets a three-month market rate that it says is more relevant to the real economy than the overnight rate favored by the Fed. The SNB announces a range for three-month interest rates at each decision along with a main target rate online pay day loans. At the moment, it's the midpoint of a 2 percent to 3 percent range.

Interbank rates took longer to fall in Switzerland than in the euro region after last month's coordinated central bank action. That was partly because of demand in eastern Europe, where banks have used franc-denominated loans to offer cheaper mortgages.

The three-month rate for francs was unchanged seven days after the Oct. 8 moves, compared with drops of more than 10 basis points for similar rates on dollars and euros. In response, the SNB started seven-day currency swaps with the ECB.

“It was important for them to satisfy Swiss franc liquidity needs outside their immediate borders,'' said Eoin O'Callaghan, an economist at BNP Paribas in London.

Swiss Recession

Central banks in Europe are gearing up for a second round of rates cuts after the U.S., China, Hong Kong, India and Japan lowered borrowing costs over the past week. The ECB will tomorrow cut its benchmark to 3.25 percent from 3.75 percent and the Bank of England will reduce its rate by the same margin, taking it to 4 percent, said economists in separate Bloomberg News surveys.

The Swiss economy will probably slip into recession next year, the University of Lausanne forecasts, dragged down by the banking industry. Gross domestic product will shrink 0.6 percent before growing 0.5 percent in 2010, the university's CREA economic institute said Oct. 29.

Financial services account for about 12 percent of GDP and have contributed about 22 percent to growth in recent years, said Bruno Parnisari, an economist at the government's Economy Ministry.

Franc Strength

A stronger franc is making Swiss products less competitive abroad just as a global economic slowdown hurts exports. Switzerland's manufacturing sector contracted for a second month in October, while the European Commission forecasts that the euro region, Switzerland's most important export market, is probably already in recession.

The franc has surged 4.8 percent against the euro since Oct. 1, rising to a record 1.4315 on Oct. 24. It was at 1.5053 at 12:41 p.m. in Zurich.

“Looking at the shake-out we're seeing in the export sector, things are really falling off the cliff,'' said Janwillem Acket, chief economist at Bank Julius Baer in Zurich. “For the SNB, the situation is clear. I see them cutting to 2 percent by the end of the year and then cutting again in March to kick start a turnaround.''

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The Texas Workforce Commission has approved a $1 million training fund to provide skills training for veterans ending overseas active-duty military.

The fund will provide veterans returning from overseas the skills upgrades that employers identify as necessary for future Texas economic growth. Private state employers can apply to TWC for training grants by partnering with established training providers such as community colleges, apprenticeship training programs or community-based training programs.

Research shows that some active-duty service members exiting the military face challenges transitioning to civilian life and the workplace. To assist those veterans, TWC established the Texas Veterans Leadership Program, modeled on the successful Vietnam Veterans Leadership Program, which TWC Chairman Tom Pauken, himself a Vietnam veteran, established during the Reagan administration one hour cash. Some 28 veterans resource and referral specialists are based in local work force development areas across Texas to assist their fellow veterans with job-search activities, training opportunities and other resources.

“Veterans deserve our utmost appreciation, and we should honor their service by easing their re-entry into the Texas work force,” says Pauken. “Through these training funds, veterans — particularly those who have been deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan — will receive important skills training to meet the demands of Texas employers.”

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With less than two weeks to go before the presidential election, Democratic nominee Barack Obama has a solid 13-point lead over Republican opponent John McCain in Pennsylvania, according to a new Quinnipiac University poll.

The poll found Obama ahead 53 percent to 40 percent in the Keystone State, compared with 54 percent to 39 percent in Quinnipiac's last poll Oct. 1

The economy is the most important issue for Pennsylvania voters, who trust Obama 54 percent to 36 percent to handle the issue, compared with 55 percent to 36 percent in the previous poll.

“Sen. Obama leads comfortably in Pennsylvania, mostly because he has pulled ahead in the four key suburban counties surrounding Philadelphia where Keystone State races are decided,” said Clay F. Richards, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute.

“Obama is leading among whites and blue collar workers, but white men and 15 percent of Sen. Hillary Clinton’s primary supporters are clinging to Sen. McCain, probably not enough to change the tide in the closing days of the campaign,” Richards added.

Obama also polled higher than McCain in key battleground states Florida and Ohio, the Quinnipiac poll found low fee cash advance. The Illinois senator is up 49 percent to 44 percent over his Republican counterpart in Florida, and leads McCain by an even wider margin — 52 percent to 38 percent —in Ohio.

According to Hamden, Conn.-based Quinnipiac, no one has been elected President since 1960 without taking two of these three states in the Electoral College.

Pennsylvania voters give higher approval ratings for the Democratic nominee for vice president, Joe Biden. Fifty-four percent of likely voters have a favorable opinion of Scranton native Biden, with 22 percent having an unfavorable opinion of him. Only 38 percent of likely Pennsylvania voters had an favorable opinion of Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin; 43 percent had an unfavorable opinion of her, according to the poll.

One area where McCain scored higher than Obama in the Quinnipiac poll was the issue of foreign policy. Asked whom they trust more to handle foreign policy regardless of whom they supported for president, 47 percent said McCain, and 45 percent said Obama.

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European Central Bank President Jean- Claude Trichet urged banks to start lending again after policy makers put them on to the “the path'' of recovery by pumping record amounts of cash into money markets.

“I expect the banks to normalize their relationships, meaning that they start lending to each other and that they lend to their clients,'' Trichet said in an interview on French radio RTL late yesterday. The banking system is “on the path to normalization,'' he said.

The cost of borrowing dollars in London fell last week for the first week since July after the ECB offered lenders as many euros as they wanted and joined counterparts in promising unlimited dollars as well. Central bankers and governments have stepped up efforts to end the 14-month-old credit crunch that's threatening to tip the global economy into recession.

“We're facing a very important market correction which is lasting,'' Trichet said, declining to say the credit crunch is over. “We are facing a very serious systemic liquidity crisis.''

As well as offering unlimited amounts of dollars and euros to banks, the ECB this month cut interest rates for the first time since 2003 and loosened rules on the collateral it will accept from banks when making loans. European governments including those in France, Germany and Spain committed 1.3 trillion euros ($1.7 trillion) to guarantee bank loans and take stakes in lenders.

Still, in a sign the crisis continues to reverberate, the Netherlands yesterday put 10 billion euros into ING Groep NV after the biggest Dutch financial-services company said it expects its first quarterly loss.

Lehman Collapse

Trichet said policy makers are acting to give banks the ability to refinance and boost their capital after September's collapse of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. prompted lenders to hoard cash. That sent the cost of credit surging, hurting the economy by choking off money to consumers and companies.

ECB council member George Provopoulos said the central bank “remains vigilant and will do what is needed'' to both reduce inflation and ensure stability in markets, according to an interview with To Vima newspaper published yesterday. Colleague Ewald Nowotny told Austrian state broadcaster ORF-TV that, while the crisis should be “under control'' by the middle of next year, the economy will suffer for longer.

Trichet criticized investors for creating the crisis by behaving with too much “short-termism,'' which he blamed for amplifying the rise and the decline of markets. He said that having mis-priced risk, financial markets should now be subjected to greater transparency and regulation to curb their volatility electronic check payday advance.

Review Financial System

“We said there was an underestimation of the risks and of the price to be paid for these risks,'' he said. The crisis “must force us to review the entire international financial system.''

ECB council member Erkki Liikanen told Finnish state broadcaster YLE TV1 yesterday that regulation will be strengthened across borders. “All national regulators of banks operating across borders must join forces,'' he said. “It will be a part of EU legislation and I'm sure it will even be agreed on a multinational level beyond that.''

While the ECB this month cut its benchmark rate by a half- point to 3.75 percent, with inflation still almost double its 2 percent limit, Trichet said its focus is “entirely oriented to ensure price stability.''

“We will always, at any moment, do what is necessary so that I can continue to say to our citizens `you can have confidence, you will have medium-term price stability','' Trichet said. Such a goal should lend confidence to financial markets as “there's now more than in the past the recognition of the fact that price stability'' helps expansion and hiring, he said.

`Important Slowdown'

The ECB president described his 15-nation euro-area economy as being in a “very, very important growth slowdown,'' driven by tighter credit and also by this year's record fuel and food costs. Nowotny predicted the growth rate next year “will be significantly below what we have in 2008.''

Such an outlook explains why investors expect the ECB to cut its benchmark rate to 3.25 percent by the end of the year, Eonia forward contracts show.

The ECB, which next releases economic forecasts in December, in September predicted growth of 1.4 percent this year and 1.2 percent in 2009. With the crisis worsening, the International Monetary Fund this month said it expects the euro-area to grow 0.2 percent next year, the weakest since the single currency began trading in 1999, after 1.3 percent in 2008.

Trichet acknowledged his own central bank had taken on risk by boosting liquidity and accepting lower-rated securities for loans.

“We're taking risks and we've made decisions that increased our risks, because we were facing a systemic liquidity crisis of first importance,'' he said. The ECB is an “inspirer of confidence,'' Trichet said.

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Overnight money market stress eased in Europe on Thursday but lending rates remained above central bank targets, reflecting banks’ firmly entrenched aversion to counterparty risk.

Rates have remained elevated despite massive liquidity injections by central banks around the world as the ongoing crisis in the financial system has prompted banks to hoard cash and refuse to lend to each other.

The European Central Bank kept key rates unchanged as expected at 4.25 percent but some in the market expect the central bank to cut rates in the coming months to deal with economic weakness that could result from the banking crisis.

Interbank overnight dollar rates fell for a second day running in London, after a record surge earlier this week as quarter end funding pressure eased and the U.S. Senate passed a revamped $700 billion bank bailout plan.

Overnight dollar Libor rates fell more than a full point to 2.68125 percent from 3.79375 percent on Wednesday while euro overnight rates also eased.

Rates further out jumped, with benchmark three-month rates — which now cover the year-end period — fixed higher in dollars and euros.

Three-month dollar Libor rose to 5.31750 percent, their highest since January, up from 4.15000 percent on Wednesday payday loans online. The euro-zone equivalent for euros hit its highest since the launch of the single currency, at 5.31750 percent.

“The liquidity provisioning which central banks have made has effectively drawn a line under how bad things can get but not addressed underlying problems over the value of assets that are held by counterparties,” said Richard McGuire, fixed income strategist at RBC Capital Markets in London. 

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Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger sent an open letter on Thursday to all members of the California Congressional delegation urging them to vote in favor of the $700 billion federal financial bailout package, formally called the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act.

“This plan is critical to the well being of every community in California and across the nation. Swift action in Congress is needed to restore confidence in our financial system,” the letter states.

“This is how serious the situation is: Our State Treasurer warns that the credit market has already frozen up to the point that it chills even the state of California’s ability to meets its short-term cash flow needs,” he wrote, adding that the state will be unable to sell voter-approved bonds for highway, school, housing and water construction projects.

He says the “situation is urgent” and that the crisis demands swift and bipartisan leadership.

California members of the U.S. House of Representatives voted 29 to 24 in favor of the failed bailout package on Monday. This is how they voted, as reported by the Associated Press:

• Voting for the legislation:

Democrats: Howard L. Berman (Valley Village), Lois Capps (Santa Barbara), Dennis Cardoza (Atwater), Jim Costa (Fresno), Susan A. Davis (San Diego), Anna G. Eshoo (Menlo Park), Sam Farr (Carmel), Jane Harman (Venice), Michael M. Honda (San Jose), Zoe Lofgren (San Jose), Doris Matsui (Sacramento), Jerry McNerney (Pleasanton) George Miller (Martinez), Nancy Pelosi (San Francisco), Laura Richardson (Long Beach), Jackie Speier (Hillsborough), Ellen O fast cash advance. Tauscher (Alamo), Maxine Waters (Los Angeles), Henry A. Waxman (Beverly Hills).

Republicans: Mary Bono Mack (Palm Springs), Ken Calvert (Corona), John Campbell (Irvine), David Dreier (San Dimas), Wally Herger (Chico), Jerry Lewis (Redlands), Dan Lungren (Gold River), Howard P. “Buck” McKeon (Santa Clarita), Gary G. Miller (Diamond Bar), George Radanovich (Mariposa).

• Voting against the legislation:

Democrats: Joe Baca (Rialto), Xavier Becerra (Los Angeles), Bob Filner (Chula Vista), Barbara Lee (Oakland), Grace F. Napolitano (Norwalk), Lucille Roybal-Allard (East Los Angeles), Linda T. Sanchez (Lakewood), Loretta Sanchez (Garden Grove), Adam Schiff (Burbank), Brad Sherman (Sherman Oaks), Hilda L. Solis (El Monte), Pete Stark (Fremont), Mike Thompson (St. Helena), Diane Watson (Los Angeles), Lynn Woolsey (Petaluma).

Republicans: Brian P. Bilbray (Carlsbad), John T. Doolittle (Roseville), Elton Gallegly (Simi Valley), Duncan Hunter (Alpine), Darrell Issa (Vista), Kevin McCarthy (Bakersfield), Devin Nunes (Tulare), Dana Rohrabacher (Huntington Beach), Ed Royce (Fullerton).

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Central banks including the U.S. Federal Reserve may begin accepting assets denominated in foreign currencies as collateral to increase liquidity in the world's financial markets, the Nikkei newspaper said.

Six central banks including the Fed, European Central Bank, Bank of Japan and Bank of England are discussing the plan, Nikkei reported today without saying where it got the information or naming the other two banks get a free credit report.

Central bankers struggled to restore confidence in markets last week as banks hoarded money on concern more financial companies will follow Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. into bankruptcy.

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Fitch Ratings is withdrawing its underlying A rating on the Orlando-Orange County Expressway Authority’s $203 million refunding revenue bonds, series 2008A.

Due to market conditions, the Expressway Authority did not issue the refunding bonds.

The Orlando-Orange County Expressway Authority is responsible for the construction, maintenance and operation of toll roads in Central Florida bad credit payday loans.

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