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Honda announced it is expanding a previously announced recall to replace an airbag inflator in an additional 438,000 vehicles worldwide, including 379,000 in the United States.

In a statement posted on its Web site late Tuesday, Honda said the driver’s airbag inflators in these certain vehicles may expand with too much pressure, which can cause the inflator casing to break and could result in injury or death.

The expanded recall includes 2001 and 2002 Accord, Civic, Odyssey, CR-V, and selected 2002 Acura TL vehicles, the statement said. Honda said there have been 12 incidents related to the airbag inflator problem.

One Honda Pilot car and one Acura CL vehicle may also be affected, the spokesman said.

The original recall involving this issue was announced in November 2008 for 2001 and 2002 models of Accords and Civics as well as some 2002 model year Acura TL vehicles, a Honda spokesman told CNNMoney.com. It affected 3,940 U.S. vehicles, and 265 in Canada and Mexico.

Last summer, Honda added 510,150 cars to the recall worldwide, including 443,727 additional units in the United States payday loans in 1 hour.

The recall now affects a total of 952,118 vehicles, with more than 826,000 in the United States.

Although none of the reported problems occurred after July 2009, Honda said it was still expanding the recall because it could not be sure that the inflators in the aforementioned vehicles would work correctly.

Honda said it will notify affected customers by mail and phone with instructions on how to have their vehicles inspected and updated at an authorized dealer. The entire production of each of the models in question is not necessarily included in the recall.

Last month, Honda announced a separate recall of 646,000 2007 and 2008 Fit, City and Jazz models worldwide, after a fire hazard involving a power window switch resulted in a death in South Africa. 

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Today, Norty Cohen opens Buzz-hound Learning Lab in Maplewood, sharing space with Hatch, a focus group and research facility. Among its initial offerings, Buzzhound will offer classes on search engine optimization, the process of improving a website so it ranks higher in search engine results.

Cohen says he sees a strong market for the 10-member classes (prices range from $600 to $700 per person) at a time when there is so much emphasis on reaching customers through the Internet — particularly when research suggests it is critical to rank high in search results. By some estimates, 65 percent of all searchers will go to the first 10 sites they see.

It seems like we hear a lot these days about search engine optimization. Why is that?

There are 100 billion searches a month online. More and more people are using their cell phones to search and that’s where people are finding customers and businesses.

Even though Yellow Pages is still a $16 billion-a-year business, where everything is going is search. If you are in business or if you are in marketing, you need to understand search.

What is the most important thing one needs to know about SEO? And are there any big no-nos?

You need to understand how and why people are coming to your site. And how and what you need to do to improve your content. And to make more opportunities for people to find you online.

… There are people who will say that you can’t fool the search engine, that you can’t do this thing called black hat, where you put in some things that may not be true. I think the biggest no-no is not doing anything and assuming people are going to find you.

You have this lab set to open today low interest rate personal loans. What sort of response are you expecting?

We’ve had several major corporations commit to sending people to the classes. We tried to price it so that it’s incredibly reasonable, while at the same time, there is a ton of information that happens in one day.

There are two instructors, so it is a five-to-one student-teacher ratio. These people are experts much more than myself. Several major corporations have committed to sending several people, and that’s just in our first couple of announcements. We’re really going to start much more heavily marketing next week.

What prompted you to open Buzz-hound?

I’ve been trying to learn this subject for some time. And I found it to be incredibly hard. It was hard to follow webinars. It was hard to follow books. It was sort of like an advanced math problem that you just needed someone to show you how to do it.

And once you got into understanding it, it became very basic. And I realized we could create a business that could truly teach people how to help their businesses.

You’ve said you don’t think this is the sort of thing that can be taught or learned online. Why is that?

Search engine optimization is a language. It’s just like learning any other language. Someone has to show you and speak it for you so you can hear them.

If you go into the lab and you try the programs and the instructor shows you how to use them, it becomes very natural to you. But it’s the whole sort of foreign language aspect to it that makes it difficult to learn.

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Delta Air Lines Inc. has received government permission to operate its namesake service and its Northwest Airlines subsidiary as a single carrier, a Delta executive said Thursday.

The single operating certificate from the Federal Aviation Administration allows Delta to put its code on Northwest flights and phase out the Northwest name. That process will be complete in the first quarter of this year. For now, travelers won’t notice anything different.

Delta, based in Atlanta, acquired Northwest for $2.8 billion in stock in October 2008 to become the world’s biggest airline.

Delta and Northwest are now one airline, meaning that for the first time pre-merger Northwest operations will be combined into Delta’s operations, Chief Operating Officer Stephen E. Gorman said in an internal memo.

Labor issues remain, however. While pilots and some smaller work groups from both carriers are operating under joint contracts and seniority lists, flight attendants and gate and reservation agents and ramp workers have not resolved representation issues. Pre-merger Northwest was heavily unionized, while pre-merger Delta was not — its pilots were its only major work group to be in a union.

Meanwhile, more than 80 percent of pre-merger Northwest aircraft have already been painted over with the Delta livery. Employees of both carriers are wearing the same uniforms, and the two carriers frequent-flier programs have already been combined under the Delta SkyMiles brand.

But operationally, the two carriers have been kept separate while Delta sought the FAA certificate.

Delta plans to operate Northwest-coded flights until all seats and fares are consolidated in Delta’s reservations system. Once that occurs, it will remove the distinction for passengers of purchasing on Delta or Northwest, and the Northwest website will be folded into Delta’s.

Still unresolved for Delta is its effort to lure Japan Airlines Corp. away from its alliance with American Airlines and into Delta’s SkyTeam alliance. There’s been no word on a decision by JAL, which is said to be teetering on the verge of bankruptcy.

Delta also is dealing with the aftermath of a failed terrorist attack on a Northwest flight from Amsterdam to Detroit on Christmas.

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Exxon Mobil may be getting more than it bargained for with its recent plan to purchase natural gas giant XTO Energy.

The $41 billion deal would make Exxon the country’s largest shale gas producer, drawing more attention to a controversial area of drilling that analysts say could invite tightened federal regulations for the entire industry.

When the acquisition was announced last week, it was generally seen as a smart business move. XTO (XTO, Fortune 500) is a big player in the so-called "unconventional" gas business — specifically, gas that lies in shale rock formations.

That business is booming. It’s one of the fastest growing energy sectors in the country. But some of the shale is near major population centers, and residents near the drilling are worried about air and, especially, water pollution from the chemicals used to extract shale gas.

"A $41 billion investment is going to make anyone with an environmental eye look sooner and deeper," said Kevin Book, a managing director at ClearView Energy Partners, a Washington, D.C.-based firm that tracks political developments in the energy sector. Exxon’s (XOM, Fortune 500) entry into the field, along with interest from other international oil companies, means that shale gas has hit the big time, Book said.

The shale gas industry has been operating in relative obscurity and with minimal federal oversight: A 2005 law exempted it from the federal Safe Drinking Water Act. State regulators do the policing.

Although there are air pollution and land issues associated with shale gas drilling, what most concerns people is the water. Extracting shale gas relies on a method known as hydraulic fracturing, where a huge amount of chemical-laced water is injected down the well hole to fracture the rock and allow the gas to flow out.

State regulators and the industry say the process is safe, as the gas lies thousands of feet below the water table.

But residents near the drilling, which includes much of the New York metro area, Dallas-Fort Worth, and other large population centers, fear the chemicals may contaminate the drinking water.

The federal Environmental Protection Agency has only just begun looking into the issue payday loans for bad credit.

Book said several bills in Congress include provisions that direct the EPA to study the issue more broadly, and could ultimately lead to further regulation. "These are the placeholders," said Book. "Is a change in the law coming? Probably."

Pushing up the price of clean energy

A change in regulation could result in gas companies having to pump out the injected water and removing the chemicals before disposing of it back in the ground. That could add anywhere from 8% to 30% to the cost of operating a well, said Neil Dingmann, a Houston-based analyst at Wunderlich Securities.

Yet pushing up the price of natural gas is not something environmentalists are keen to do. Natural gas is much cleaner source of electricity than coal and emits about half the carbon dioxide. Making it more expensive would only deter industries from using it, and push them toward cheaper and dirtier power sources like coal.

Exxon is so concerned about a change in the law it has a clause with XTO that allows it to walk away from the deal if Congress bans hydraulic fracturing or makes it prohibitively expensive, according to filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Exxon declined to comment for this story.

Dingmann also said there’s another reason Exxon may bring new attention to this type of drilling: They are a high profile company.

"It’s not the energy committee going after some company nobody’s heard of," said Neil Dingmann, a Houston-based analyst at Wunderlich Securities. "It’s big, bad Exxon."

Soon after the XTO deal was announced Chairman of the House Energy and Environment Subcommittee Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., issued a statement.

While acknowledging natural gas’ environmental benefits, Markey questioned the environmental safety of the drilling and raised anti-trust issues.

"I intend to convene hearings in the Subcommittee early next year so that our members can take a closer look at this proposed transaction," he said. 

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NEW YORK–General Motors Co. said Friday it will shut down Saab after talks to sell the brand to a Dutch carmaker collapsed, marking the third time this year that a deal by GM to sell an unwanted brand has fallen through.

GM said it had a small window of time to complete the deal and issues arose during the sale talks with Spyker Cars that could not be resolved. GM vice-president John Smith said: "Like everybody, we would have preferred a different outcome, and we all worked very hard for that different outcome and we’ve come up short."

Saab employs about 3,400 people worldwide, most of whom work at its main plant in Trollhatten, Sweden. The brand has 1,100 dealers, that General Motors said will continue to honour warranties as the brand winds down.

Chris Budd, owner of Budds’ Saturn Saab in Oakville – one of three Saab dealers in the GTA – said he feels as if he’s "lost a friend."

"I’ve had the Saab franchise longer than I’ve been married," he said, having carried the brand since 1977.

He blames the recession – not GM – for its demise.

Martin Olivera, service adviser at Saturn Saab Hummer on the Queensway, however, puts the blame squarely at GM’s feet.

"Truthfully, GM destroyed Saab," he said. "They made it into an American car, not a European car."

To enthusiasts, Saab became appreciated for quirks like placing the ignition lock between the front seats. It was the first to offer heated seating in 1971 easy to get unsecured personal loans.

GM bought a 50 per cent stake and management control of Saab for $600 million (U.S.) after it split from Swedish truck maker Scania in 1989. It bought full ownership in 2000 for $125 million. But even after the GM takeover, Saab remained closely associated with Sweden and its history of making safe, reliable cars.

GM never made money on the acquisition and industry analysts complained that under GM, Saab lost its uniqueness in the crowded luxury segment.

GM first sought a buyer for Saab in January as part of its restructuring, which included plans to cut the number of its brands to four from eight. It was previously in talks to sell Saab to a consortium led by the Swedish sports carmaker Koenigsegg Group AB, but it turned to Spyker after Koenigsegg withdrew from the talks in November.

GM’s failure to sell Saab is the third deal to sell an unwanted brand that has failed this year.

In September, dealership chain owner Roger Penske scrapped plans to buy Saturn after an agreement to get cars from France’s Renault fell through. GM is now phasing out Saturn.

GM’s board last month ended a deal to sell the European Opel brand to a group led by Canadian auto parts maker Magna International Inc., fearing that Opel was too heavily integrated into GM’s global operations and that GM technology would fall into the hands of competitors.

With files from Brendan Kennedy

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Staples Inc reported third-quarter results that topped analyst estimates and forecast higher sales in the current quarter as trends improve at its North American retail business.

The results, which sent Staples shares to their highest level since September 2008, contrasted those reported by smaller rivals Office Depot Inc and OfficeMax Inc, who both posted sharply lower quarterly sales in October.

Staples continues to gain market share against those two rivals in North America, Sanford Bernstein analyst Colin McGranahan said in a research note.

Traffic in the company’s North American stores rose for the first time in nine quarters. Sales at North American stores open at least a year, or same-store sales, were flat in the third quarter after posting declines since last December.

CEO Ron Sargent said initiatives to boost its business in core areas like ink and paper during the recession were paying off with higher same-store sales.

“The North American retail and Staples business delivery (sales) trajectory are encouraging,” J.P. Morgan analyst Christopher Horvers said in a note to clients. He added that the profit outlook for the current quarter seems low compared with the company’s sales view.

The company also said it had a good start to the holiday shopping season over Thanksgiving weekend, and would ratchet up efforts to lure customers this year with promotions on items like printer ink. Staples cut back on marketing and promotional spending in 2008 in response to a bleak retail environment.

“I think it probably will be a pretty promotional holiday season,” Sargent said during a conference call.

Q4 FORECAST IN LINE

Office-supply retailers have suffered in the tough economy as both corporate customers and other shoppers have curbed their appetite for nonessential items, especially expensive goods like furniture and business machines.

Staples said it expects fourth-quarter earnings of 36 cents to 38 cents a share before one-time items, and a sales rise of 1 percent to 3 percent.

Analysts on average were expecting Staples to earn 37 cents a share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. They had forecast sales of $6.14 billion, a decline from last year’s fourth-quarter tally of $6.17 billion.

Third-quarter net earnings rose to $269.4 million, or 37 cents a share, from $156.7 million, or 22 cents a share, a year earlier.

Excluding one-time items, it earned 39 cents a share in the quarter, which ended on October 31, beating analysts’ average forecast of 38 cents.

Sales fell 6 percent to $6.52 billion but beat analysts’ average estimate of $6.45 billion. 

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All three working-age generations – Boomers, Generation X and Generation Y – agree that the youngest ones are more difficult to manage than other generations, a Conference Board of Canada analysis has revealed.

The two older generations, the board’s November study found, believed Gen Y workers "require more close supervision, are less likely to follow procedures and are less results-driven than other generations."

On the other hand, Gen-Y – people aged 18 to 29 – "may not understand why their Boomer or Gen-X colleagues fail to recognize how busy their lives can be," the report found.

The board did their own national workplace survey and analyzed other data about the consequences of a new wave of multigenerational angst sweeping Canadian workplaces.

Two factors were exacerbating the angst, the board said: an ever-aging workforce and a wrenching shift "away from hierarchical structures" that Boomers are comfortable with to "a more team-based approach" in workplaces that suits Gen-X and Gen-Y more.

"No longer are younger workers largely dependent on the older generations for information and knowledge," the board said. "Younger workers can now access information online and many are often the most expert person at a given skill or task."

Hence, the conflict is "arguably now even greater than before."

Statistics Canada data show that while 14.1 per cent of the Canadian workforce in 2001 was nearing retirement age, 16.9 per cent was by 2006 and more than 20 per cent will be by 2016.

Bosses have the delicate task of getting these three generations to cooperate at work and adapting the environment to get the best work out of each, the board said.

Standing in the way are ingrained myths and perceptions on all sides, which its study attempted to explode. The Conference Board warned against "managing by stereotype."

Boomers were defined as people age 45 to 64 and Gen-X as 30 to 44. For both, the world they grew up in shaped them, be it Sixties idealism or skepticism wrought by corporate downsizing and the political upheaval of 1989, the board said.

All three generations agreed Boomers are "less comfortable with technology, less open to change and less accepting of diversity." The difference was in the degree.

Among the Gen-Y myths the study exploded was their over-confidence. The results showed the youngest workers were more cautious than their older co-workers gave them credit for.

Gen-Y employees told the survey they "strive to have a life that will make them happy." They agreed they are "less willing to work hard and feel they are owed more." They admitted they "seem to have a negative effect on productivity but a positive effect on morale because they are younger, full of energy and complain less than other generations."

They know they’re "often unreliable, tend to do things their own way and do not always follow the rules," the study found. But there’s a good reason for that, Gen-Yers told the board: "One group strictly wants to follow processes while the other wants to get stuff done."

Another challenge for bosses, the study said, is to temper the perceptions each generation has of the other. Among them:

Gen-Y found Gen-X "annoying and aggressive."

Gen-X said Boomers are "have difficulty giving up control," while Gen-Y said Boomers "live to work rather than work to live."

Boomers described Gen-X as "loners" who "lack patience."

And Gen-X contended Gen-Y "think they know everything."

In particular, the study found, Gen-Y workers said they like someone to review their tasks, while Boomers absolutely don’t.

And while Boomers were uncomfortable with the other two generations’ reliance on emails to communicate, the study found the perception of younger generations as careless with spelling and grammar wasn’t true. While 88 per cent of boomers felt it was important to be careful with grammar and spelling, 83 per cent of Gen-Xers and 85 per cent of Gen-Yers agreed.

Similarly, 87 per cent of Boomers said they were careful with details, as did 81 per cent of Gen-X and 79 per cent of Gen-Y.

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Big St. Louis hotels that depend on corporate meetings and charity events for much of their business will face a lean winter and are unlikely to recover fully until 2011, a hotel analyst said Monday.

Among them is the Chase Park Plaza, the Central West End landmark that is falling short of income projections made in 2006, when real estate investment trust Behringer Harvard took over as majority owner. The $180-million deal included $95 million for an ongoing renovation.

In a conference call script attached to a quarterly financial filing last week, Behringer Harvard’s chief accounting officer Bryan Sinclair said the firm had "recognized" a $5 million reserve for an unpaid rent balance from its 5 percent partner, Kingsdell LP, which runs the Chase Park Plaza.

Kingsdell’s owner, Jim Smith, said Monday that hotel revenue is short of the projections but added that Behringer Harvard’s action is no indication the Chase Park Plaza is in financial trouble.

"The lease payments are just internal cash flow," he said. "We are 100 percent current on our debt payments. We pay all our taxes."

The complex at Kingshighway and Lindell Boulevard is comprised of 350 hotel rooms, 51 corporate apartments, 86 condominiums, meeting rooms, restaurants and a movie theater. The $4.5 million penthouse condo remains unsold but 65 percent of the condos have been purchased, Smith said.

He would not provide hotel occupancy rates but said the economic downturn and renovation of some hotel rooms had pushed down the rate. But Smith added that next year the owners will pay off the construction loan on the condo portion of the complex and "significantly pay down" the hotel loan.

Hotel analyst Gary Andreas, a partner at H&H Financial in Chesterfield, said the Chase Park Plaza is among area hotels hurting from reductions in corporate meetings.

"And a lot of charitable groups have cut back on fancy functions," he added.

Andreas said big hotels are unlikely to see a significant turnaround until late next year. Hotels in most cities, including St. Louis, look to return to normal in 2011. Chase Park Plaza appears to be performing as well as its competitors, he added.

"I’ve not heard any rumbling that they’re in trouble," Andreas said.

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Federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty warned card companies and banks if they don’t comply with a proposed voluntary code of conduct for the multibillion-dollar credit and debit markets he would bring down the hammer of regulation.

The code, which was designed to address merchants’ claims they’re being gouged, won high praise from retailers and small business owners but drew more cautious response from credit card companies and banks.

While critics worry that a voluntary code would not be enforceable, Flaherty said Thursday he would not hesitate to get tough.

"If we are unsuccessful … with the voluntary code, then we can create an involuntary code," Flaherty said in Ottawa. "We have that power to do that.

"But we’d rather do it in concert with the important stakeholders and arrive at a conclusion that will work for everybody rather than use the heavy hand of regulation. But if we have to, we would, of course."

The long-awaited code contains proposals that would give merchants more clout in dealing with global credit card giants, payment processors and big banks over card fees.

The Retail Council of Canada estimates such fees cost $4.5 billion a year and lead to higher prices for consumers.

Among other things, the code would give merchants the ability to cancel contracts without penalty following notification of a fee change, to offer a variety of discounts for different payment options – and control how debit transactions are processed. Additionally, banks could only issue premium credit cards to consumers on consent or request.

"This is the first time the card companies, the banks and their processors are going to have to compete for the merchants’ business. We’re no longer the milk cows. We’re the customer," said Diane Brisebois, president of the Retail Council of Canada.

However, critics say Flaherty missed an opportunity to go further by making the code mandatory and they’re worried the measures could get watered down during the 60-day public consultation period.

Liberal Senator Pierrette Ringuette said without enforcement, fines or penalties, Visa and MasterCard will be able to cherry-pick which measures to follow. "`Pretty please,’ will not make them abide," Ringuette said.

Liberal MP Dan McTeague said many merchants wouldn’t be able to opt out of their contracts for fear of losing customers. He was also disappointed consumers were not given the same opportunity to cancel their card contracts without penalty.

MP Glenn Thibeault, the NDP’s consumer protection critic, agreed that consumers have no one to complain to if provisions of the code are breached. "With this government, big business is the one that ends up always being on the winning end of any type of voluntary code of conduct."

Credit card companies expressed concern about the impact of the code on market competition.

This "should resolve a commercial dispute for which the global retail lobby operating in Canada has sought government intervention over private negotiation," said Kevin Stanton, president of MasterCard Canada. In particular, he noted the code "could alter the competitive landscape."

Visa said it was "disappointed that the code would allow merchants to supersede consumer choice at the point of sale," adding the announcement "significantly undermines" the introduction of competition in debit.

The proposed code could mean Visa’s new chip card readers, which accept its debit cards, may have to be reprogrammed and 2.5 million Bank of Montreal MasterCard Maestro debit cards already on the market may have to be reissued, a source said. It was not immediately clear who would bear those costs.

The Canadian Federation of Independent Business, which had lobbied for a voluntary code, called it "an early Christmas present."

The Interac Association welcomed the code but said it would work with government to "fill in" the details.

The Canadian Bankers Association said most of the measures don’t apply to banks. Still, it cautioned "customers are best served by an open, competitive marketplace."

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A stronger Chinese yuan is part of the reforms that Beijing needs to implement to increase domestic consumption and help ease global imbalances, the head of the International Monetary Fund said on Monday.

IMF managing director Dominique Strauss-Kahn said that the global economy appeared to have turned a corner toward recovery but that the biggest risk to the global outlook was a premature removal of stimulus measures.

In prepared remarks to a financial conference in Beijing, he added that, despite strains on the current global monetary system, he still expected the dollar to remain the principle reserve currency “for some time.”

(Reporting by Jason Subler; Editing by Ken Wills)

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