Finance news. My opinion.

The jailed founder of the file-sharing website Megaupload is complaining that women inmates are giving him unwanted attention.

In a New Zealand courtroom to appeal a decision denying him bail, Kim Dotcom said he’s gotten unwanted letters from female prisoners and a phone call from a man posing as a prosecutor, according to reports by media outlets.

A government lawyer said during the hearing that a known forger tried to visit Dotcom.

Dotcom told the Auckland court he would not flee New Zealand and wants to fight to get back his money, some of which authorities seized last month.

U.S. authorities claim Megaupload facilitated millions of illegal downloads. They are trying to extradite Dotcom and three colleagues on racketeering charges.

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Fiat Group SpA, which controls Chrysler LLC, has reported that full-year earnings more than doubled as Chrysler posted its first profit since 1997.

The company says it made euro1.3 billion ($1.71 billion) in net profit last year, compared with euro520 million a year earlier, as revenue rose 66 percent to euro59.5 billion.

The results exceeded the company’s guidance. Fiat’s trading profit _ or earnings before interest, taxes and one-time items _ was euro2.3 billion, exceeding the target of more than euro2.1 billion.

Fiat said Wednesday that the results reflected higher Chrysler sales, resilient Fiat Group Auto revenues and double-digit growth at the Ferrari luxury brand.

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Current and former Food and Drug Administration officials say in a lawsuit that the agency secretly monitored their private email after they raised concerns that approved medical devices might risk public safety.

The doctors and scientists who researched the products approached members of Congress and the incoming Obama administration to express alarm that the devices were approved over their objections.

Their lawsuit, first reported Monday by The Washington Post, says the agency monitored email sent from their personal Gmail and Yahoo accounts from work computers over two years. It says those emails included messages to congressional staff and drafts of whistleblower complaints.

The staffers say they were legally protected whistleblowers and the monitoring violated their constitutional rights to free speech and against illegal search and seizure, even though a warning on FDA computers said they had no expectation to privacy. The defendants say they were admonished or lost their contracts to work with FDA in retaliation.

The FDA said Monday it would not comment on ongoing litigation.

The lawsuit says the plaintiffs were among those who complained in fall 2008 to members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee that senior managers at the Center for Devices and Radiological Health “ordered, intimidated, and coerced FDA experts to modify their scientific reviews, conclusions and recommendations in violation of the law.” Then in January 2009, after Barack Obama’s election but before he was sworn into office, nine FDA employees sent a letter to the Obama transition team complaining of corruption within the FDA device review process that they said was endangering public health.

For example, the FDA scientists alleged that the agency approved the use of computer-aided detection devices with breast mammograms even though they had been determined not to be safe or effective, harming women and resulting in unnecessary public health costs.

The suit says FDA officials began secretly referring to the letter’s signatories as the “FDA 9″ and began the secret monitoring. The suit says the agency used spyware on their government-owned computers that allowed them to take “screen shots,” or pictures of what was on their computer screens without their knowledge.

The scientists’ complaints were the subject of a New York Times article on March 28, 2010, that said FDA brushed aside its own experts’ warnings about the risks of radiation exposure from routinely using powerful CT scans to screen patients for colon cancer.

The lawsuit says lawyers for General Electric Co., which applied for agency approval of CT scans for colon cancer screenings, complained that confidential information may have been leaked to the Times. Agency officials used the letter to make a criminal referral to the Office of Inspector General and attempt to have the plaintiffs investigated and potentially charged with serious crimes, the suit says. But the IG’s office found no evidence of criminal conduct and noted that disclosures relating to public safety to Congress and the media were protected whistleblower activity.

The attorney who filed the suit, National Whistleblowers Center Executive Director Stephen Kohn, said spying on employees who raise health concerns stops others from coming forward in the interest of public safety.

“The FDA’s illegal spying program is not just a problem for the six victims in this case,” Kohn said in a statement Monday. “The day we allow the government to spy on employees based on their lawful whistleblower activities is the day we give up privacy for every honest public servant in America.”

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The Crowne Plaza hotel near Lambert-St. Louis International Airport is facing foreclosure next month.

An analyst said Thursday the hotel is among about 17 hotels, all owned by Columbia Sussex Corp., pushed toward default by Wachovia. Foreclosure of the Crowne Plaza is scheduled for Feb. 14.

A hotel representative referred questions to Crescent Hotels and Resorts, of Fairfax, Va., the Crowne Plaza’s operator. Crescent’s corporate counsel and a spokesman for Columbia Sussex, based in Crestview Hills, Ky., did not return calls seeking comment.

Owner Gary Andreas of H&H Financial Group Inc., a hotel consultant, said the Crowne Plaza, just west of Lambert on Interstate 70 at Lindbergh Boulevard, has struggled recently in the all-important category of revenue per available room, or REVPAR.

“Suffice it to say the REVPAR had been declining for the last three years,” he said. “This year it had essentially bottomed out quick cash. It was at a level that it would be difficult for a full-service hotel to survive.”

Wachovia, now Wells Fargo, was the lender on the package of Columbia Sussex hotels put on a “default schedule” in 2010, Andreas said. That move indicated that the hotels’ debt exceeded the amount the lender was willing to refinance, he said.

“It’s almost like a preforeclosure,” Andreas added.

Efforts to reach a Wells Fargo representative were unsuccessful.

The 351-room Crowne Plaza, built in 1990, opened as a Radisson hotel. The eight-story hotel is notable for the sharp-angled design similar to others that Andreas said were completed in the early 1990s in Pittsburgh and Cincinnati.

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Greek debt talks are said to be progressing but officials have yet to announce a deal to scale back the nation’s overwhelming debt load.

Negotiations between the government and experts representing the private banks and investors that hold Greek debt — the Institute of International Finance — have been ongoing since last Wednesday.

But the outcome still remains uncertain ahead of a key two-day meeting of eurozone finance officials that starts Monday.

The lead negotiators from the IIF, Charles Dallara and Jean Lemierre, left Athens Saturday to attend "long-standing personal appointments" in Paris, according to a statement.

In a statement, Dallara stressed that progress has been made over the last few days and that the "elements" of a deal "are coming into place."

"Now is the time to act decisively and seize the opportunity to finalize this historic deal and contribute to the economic stability of Greece, the euro area and the world economy," said Dallara.

The IIF also said Dallara and Lemierre are available to Greek officials by phone "should this be necessary."

The lure to leave the euro may prove irresistible

At issue is an agreement to reduce Greece’s debt load by writing down the value of Greek bonds owned by the private sector by 50%.

In addition to the writedown, the deal is expected to include a debt exchange, in which investors would swap Greek bonds for new 30-year securities with an interest rate, or coupon, of about 4%.

The exchange could result in "real" losses of up to 70% for the private sector.

But it could also ease the burden on the Greek government as it struggles under a massive €350 billion pile of debt and a deepening recession.

The talks have been hindered by disagreements over the terms of the debt exchange and signs the participation rate may fall short of expectations.

The stipulation that investors voluntarily accept the writedowns has also been a stumbling block.

A non-voluntary writedown could trigger credit default swaps, a form of insurance that investors use as protection against a default.

Eurozone officials have insisted that the agreement be voluntary, arguing that credit default swaps could spread chaos in the financial system. But investors who have purchased credit protection might have an interest in holding out for a default.

The private sector owns over €200 billion worth of Greek debt, so the 50% writedown would translate to €100 billion.

That would help shrink Greek government debt to 120% of gross domestic product by 2020, according to eurozone officials. Currently, Greece’s debts are equal to about 160% of GDP.

Both sides are under pressure to reach agreement before Monday’s meeting of euro area finance ministers, known as the Eurogroup.

The restructuring of Greece’s private sector debt is a key condition for the nation to receive additional bailout funds from the European Union and International Monetary Fund.

Greece is facing a €14.5 billion bond payment in March that it may not make without another injection of emergency financing.

Europe: Still a huge pain in the neck for investors

Officials from the EU, IMF and European Central Bank arrived in Athens last week to begin reviewing the government’s finances.

The troika, as three institutions are known, is beginning the process of negotiating a second bailout for Greece, valued at €130 billion.

Greece has struggled in the past to implement the austerity measures and structural reforms that are a condition of its existing bailout loans.

Prime Minister Lucas Papademos, a former ECB vice president, was appointed last year to impose more budget cuts and revive Greece’s moribund economy.

The big concern is that Greece could default in a disorderly way, a development that could force the nation out of the euro currency union.

That would likely cause the Greek banking system to collapse and plunge the nation’s economy deeper into recession. It could also drive up borrowing costs for other vulnerable euro area economies, such as Italy and Spain.

The spread of a debt contagion in the eurozone is seen by most economists as the single biggest threat facing the global economy. 

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A Saudi oil official said that whether Japan or other countries continue to buy Iranian oil was an “internal matter,” reflecting the unease in many nations after the latest U.S. sanctions on Tehran and Iran’s threats to choke off the Strait of Hormuz in response.

The comments by the Oil Ministry official were reported on Monday by the Saudi daily Al-Watan a day after Japanese Foreign Minister Koichiro Gemba met with senior Saudi officials in the kingdom’s capital, Riyadh.

The newspaper said that Japanese officials asked Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest oil exporter, to make up for the potential loss of Iranian oil for Japan. The Asian nation is now even more heavily dependent on oil and natural gas imports after last year’s tsunami forced the shutdown of nuclear reactors.

The latest U.S. sanctions target Iran’s central bank and are aimed at hindering Tehran’s ability to receive payment for its oil exports.

Al-Watan quoted the senior Saudi official as saying that “the issue of buying or not buying oil from Iran is an internal matter to be decided by these countries.” The official was not identified.

Still, Saudi officials have said that Gulf oil producers are ready to step in and offset any loss of Iranian oil in the market, though it remains unclear if the necessary pipelines that would reroute the oil away from the strait are all fully operational. One pipeline with a capacity of about 1.5 million barrels per day being built by the UAE has yet to be completed.

China, a major Iran oil importer, has resisted the sanctions effort. The Asian powerhouse’s deputy foreign minister, Cui Tiankai, said Monday that China’s trade relations with Iran have nothing to do with Tehran’s nuclear program and that sanctions alone cannot resolve the dispute.

The West maintains that Iran is enriching uranium with an eye on developing a weapon, an allegation Tehran denies. Iran says its program is for purely peaceful purposes.

The official Saudi Press Agency said Gemba’s meeting with Saudi Oil Minister Ali Al-Naimi and other top officials “dealt with the current situation in the international oil market and the importance of its stability Online payday loans.”

Iran has repeatedly raised the specter of closing the Strait of Hormuz, through which about a sixth of the world’s oil flows, if the U.S. and its allies impose measures targeting its oil exports.

Many analysts and officials have played down the comments as bluster by the Islamic Republic, noting that such a move would hit Iran hard given that it receives over 80 percent of its government revenue from oil sales.

But on Sunday, an Iranian newspaper quoted a senior Revolutionary Guard commander as saying that the country’s leadership had decided to close off the strait if its oil exports were targeted. The remark marked an escalation of earlier warnings that Tehran could easily close the waterway if it so desired.

The threats have rattled global oil markets, with the U.S. benchmark crude futures contract for February delivery hovering at slightly under $102 per barrel in electronic trading in Asia while its North Sea counterpart, Brent, was trading at above $113 per barrel in London.

Japan has been supportive of the U.S. and its allies’ efforts to pressure Iran over its controversial nuclear program. But Asian buyers of Iranian crude, in particular Japan and South Korea, are worried about the impact of the sanctions both on international crude prices and their economies.

Gemba, who is on an eight-day Mideast tour that began Thursday, later traveled to Qatar where they discussed the effect of santions on the oil market. He is slated to travel to the United Arab Emirates for meetings there on Tuesday.

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St. Louis should be in a better position to weather the latest round of airline consolidations — and a bankruptcy filing by another major carrier — than some other U.S. cities, aviation officials say.

Delta Air Lines halted its daily nonstop service between St. Louis and Washington’s Reagan-National Airport last week. But the Atlanta-based carrier expects to add a fifth flight later this year to New York’s La Guardia Airport, where it is beefing up its presence.

The latest round of airline mergers — which include the pairings of Southwest Airlines and AirTran and United Airlines and Continental — have communities bracing for lost competition and skimpier schedules.

But Lambert-St. Louis International Airport already took the brunt of its lost flights in the decade that followed American Airline’s acquisition of Trans World Airlines in 2001. Prior to that acquisition, TWA was the dominant carrier at Lambert.

Today, Lambert’s flight schedule is spread over 13 air carriers, said Airport Director Rhonda Hamm-Niebruegge. Southwest Airlines now offers more daily flights — 84 — than any other airline serving Lambert.

“It just happened to us first, which was hard,” Hamm-Niebruegge said. “It did give us time to see the value of diversification and going out and trying to broaden your base.”

In recent months, Southwest Airlines has merged with fellow low-cost carrier AirTran Airways. St. Louis is one of 33 markets served by both airlines. In July, AirTran moved to a gate and ticket space inside Lambert’s Terminal 2, near Southwest.

Southwest spokeswoman Laurel Moffat said the airline is working on obtaining Federal Aviation Administration approval to operate as a single carrier. Southwest expects to receive the single-operation certificate by the end of the first quarter.

But the process of absorbing AirTran into the Southwest brand is expected to take several years, she said. AirTran serves Atlanta and Orlando from St. Louis. Southwest already has picked up AirTran’s service between Milwaukee and Lambert.

The AirTran merger with Southwest will cause “a lot of problems” elsewhere — including AirTran’s hub in Atlanta — but none is expected in St. Louis, said airline analyst Michael Boyd my credit score. Same is true for the United-Continental merger.

“Honestly, you have fewer brand choices,” he said. “But we’ve looked at this. There aren’t any great changes in terms of access for St. Louis.”

Last month, Delta Air Lines and US Airways concluded a swap of slots at Reagan-National Airport and La Guardia Airport, respectively.

The move nixed one Delta flight between St. Louis and Reagan. But Delta expects to add a flight to La Guardia this spring, giving it five direct flights between Lambert-St. Louis and that destination.

Delta completed its merger with Northwest Airlines in 2008.

United and Continental completed their merger in October 2010 and are still integrating their operations. A spokesman said the company is working toward adopting a single United brand identity late this quarter. So far, no changes have been announced in St. Louis.

Hamm-Niebruegge said the destinations currently served by United and Continental flights don’t compete.

United has daily flights to Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport, Denver, San Francisco and Washington’s Dulles Airport out of Lambert. Continental flies to Cleveland, Houston and Newark.

Hamm-Niebruegge said nothing has changed with American Airlines’ local plans either.

AMR Corp., American’s parent company, filed for bankruptcy protection in November and made immediate assurances that there would be no immediate changes to the flight schedules in St. Louis.

Overall, St. Louis is “in a steady state right now,” said aviation consultant Darryl Jenkins, chairman of the American Aviation Institute.

The only thing that would upset the status quo would be a jolt to the area economy — good or bad, Jenkins said. Dramatic improvements to the region’s economic condition could mean more flights. Conversely, a loss of employers would mean fewer planes.

“I think for the foreseeable future, St. Louis will probably keep the city pairs it has and keep those frequencies,” Jenkins said.

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Stocks barely budged Wednesday, and investors held on to their gains from a strong opening to the year. It wasn’t much, but after the lurching, up-and-down weeks of 2011, investors were grateful for the winning streak.

Strong December sales helped the stocks of automakers and specialty stores. Banks, health care companies, and utilities fell slightly. Netflix surged after its first good news in months.

But nothing else moved much. The Dow Jones industrial average edged up 21.04 points, or 0.2 percent, to close at 12,418.42. The Dow opened the year with a 180-point gain Tuesday, which brought it to the highest level since July.

“At least thus far in 2012 we haven’t followed the path of 2011, where if it’s a good day, there’s a bad day right away,” said Ryan Detrick, senior technical analyst with Schaeffer’s Investment Research.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 index and Nasdaq also had big gains Tuesday but only moved a fraction of a point a day later. The S&P inched up 0.24 to close at 1,277.30. The Nasdaq fell 0.36 to 2,648.36.

“It’s healthy to see that after a big rally,” said Randy Warren, chief investment officer for Warren Financial Service. “People need to sit back and think about it.”

Retailing industry stocks rose 0.8 percent as a group after post-Christmas sales came in 5.3 percent better than a year ago. Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. rose 1.8 percent, and Ross Stores Inc., which sells discounted clothes, rose 0.7 percent.

Big-box stores fell, though. Analysts have been concerned that some stores raised holiday sales with deep discounts that will hurt profits. Wal-Mart Stores Inc. fell 1.1 percent, making it the second-biggest decliner among the Dow’s 30 stocks. Target Corp. fell 2.2 percent and Kohl’s Corp. fell 1.4 percent.

Automakers delivered a strong end to 2011, helped carmaker stocks. Analysts had been expecting December to be a strong sales month for cars on the theory that more confidence in the economy would unlock pent-up demand. Ford Motor Co. rose 1.5 percent and General Motors Co. rose 0.5 percent after those two companies and Chrysler reported strong increases in December and full-year sales low fee payday loans.

Visa Inc. fell 1.8 percent and MasterCard Inc. fell 3.3 percent. Janney analysts downgraded both to “neutral” from “buy” and predicted that Americans will keep cutting their personal debt.

The biggest winner in the S&P 500 was Netflix Inc., up 11.4 percent. The company, which delivers movies and TV shows online and by mail, said customers had streamed more than 2 billion hours of video in the fourth quarter.

The yield on 10-year Treasury notes briefly popped above 2 percent, then fell to to 1.98 percent in the afternoon. Yields have been falling over the past year as investors have loaded up on low-risk investments. A rise in yields suggests that investors are more willing to take risks by parking money elsewhere in exchange for higher rewards.

The price of gold rose $12.20 to $1,612.70 per ounce. Oil rose 26 cents to $103.20.

European markets declined, and the euro fell back below $1.30, to $1.2945, within a penny of its lowest level in a year. Another increase in Italy’s borrowing costs renewed worries about Europe’s efforts to restore confidence in its debt-hobbled governments.

In other corporate news:

_ Acme Packet Inc., which makes phone equipment, plunged 19 percent after saying its quarterly profit and revenue would be well below analyst expectations.

_ Yahoo Inc. fell 3.1 percent after the company named Scott Thompson, president of eBay Inc.’s PayPal division, as CEO _ its fourth in five years. Yahoo has been without a permanent CEO since firing Carol Bartz in September. EBay fell 3.8 percent.

_ Fallen photography pioneer Eastman Kodak Co. fell 18 cents to 47 cents after The Wall Street Journal, quoting people familiar with the matter, reported it is preparing a bankruptcy filing in case its efforts to sell some of its patents fail. On Tuesday, Kodak said its stock could be removed from the New York Stock Exchange if it doesn’t rise above $1 in the next six months.

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Chinese and Indian manufacturing gauges rose in December, suggesting that Asia

Corn traders are bullish for a fifth consecutive week on speculation that dry weather in South America is damaging crops, boosting demand for U.S. supplies at a time when stockpiles are predicted to shrink to a 16-year low.

Nineteen of 25 traders surveyed by Bloomberg expect corn to advance next week. Lower-than-average humidity and dry soil will curb crop development in Argentina and southern Brazil through at least Jan. 7, according to T-Storm Weather LLC, a forecaster in Chicago. Argentina is the world