Finance news. My opinion.

Speculators cut bullish wagers on commodities by the most in 2012 on mounting concern that the slowest Chinese growth in almost three years will curb gains in demand for everything from copper to cotton.

Money managers lowered net-long positions across 18 U.S. futures and options by 9.3 percent to 1.01 million contracts in the week ended April 10, the biggest reduction since Dec. 20, data from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission show. Copper holdings tumbled 84 percent, the most since November. Hedge funds are now betting on lower cotton prices.

China

ST. LOUIS  Former Missouri Gov. Roger Wilson and a St. Louis lawyer were indicted on a federal misdemeanor charge late Wednesday for allegedly laundering campaign contributions to the Missouri Democratic Party through a St. Louis law firm, the U.S. Attorney’s office said Thursday morning.

State campaign finance records show that the contributions, $5,000 on Aug. 28, 2009, and $3,000 on Dec. 22, 2009, were from the Herzog Crebs law firm in St. Louis to the Missouri Democratic State Committee.

But Wednesday’s indictment says that the $8,000 actually came from a state-created workers’ compensation company, Columbia-based Missouri Employers Mutual Insurance Co., and Wilson.

They were made at the direction of former MEM board member Doug Morgan and with the knowledge and approval of Wilson, the indictment says, and came through former Herzog partner Ed Griesedieck, who was also indicted. Herzog was repaid for the $5,000 contribution by billing MEM for legal work. The $3,000 contribution was billed to Morgan, but Wilson eventually wrote a personal check to cover the contribution and MEM’s in-house counsel learned of the political contribution.

The other MEM board members did not know about or approve the contributions, the indictment says.

The criminal charge, misappropriation of money by someone in the insurance business, carries a potential penalty of up to a year in prison, but both men will likely face no more than probation and perhaps a fine.

The indictment sheds light on a mystery that has surrounded Wilson for nearly a year.

Since June 2011, when he was ousted as CEO, Wilson has refused to talk about the matter. That silence contrasted with his two decades in public office, when he was known as a straight-shooter who was always quick with a quip.

The indictment is the latest scandal for Columbia-based Missouri Employers Mutual Insurance Co., the state-created workers’ compensation firm that has endured a year of setbacks to its public image.

Two former board members were indicted separately last year for alleged theft and fraud involving other organizations. The company’s former chairman, Doug Morgan, resigned in May, and questions mounted in June when the company forced out its chief executive officer, Wilson, without explanation.

Chuck Hatfield, a longtime political adviser to Gov. Jay Nixon, was retained by Missouri Employers Mutual to help manage the crisis. Jim Owen, a former law school classmate of Nixon, became the CEO.

During Wilson’s tenure, the state-sponsored insurance company made at least one political donation to Jay Nixon’s gubernatorial campaign, even though the governor controls the 5-member board of Missouri Employers Mutual by appointing three of the insurer’s board members.

According to the Missouri Ethics Commission, the firm contributed $4,000 to the “Jay Nixon for Missouri” committee on Dec. 30, 2008. The contribution was made after Nixon’s election but before he took office in January 2009.

A recent state audit took issue with Missouri Employers Mutual’s spending practices, but did not dwell on its political contributions. However, the audit noted that company funds since 2003 were used for $8,000 in political contributions to the Missouri Democratic Party; $7,400 in cash and in-kind donations to the Missouri Insurance Coalition Political Action Committee; and $4,000 in donations to gubernatorial inaugural festivities in 2005 and 2009.

State Auditor Tom Schweich portrayed a company that operates like a private entity, handing out hefty bonuses to employees, while enjoying federal tax-exempt status and other advantages that its private competitors lack.

The company was created by the Legislature in 1993 in response to a crisis in the state’s insurance industry, when small businesses struggled to afford workers’ compensation coverage business card design. As an “independent public corporation,” the firm has avoided about $50 million in federal taxes since its founding, which has enabled it to accumulate a surplus of $163 million and become the state’s leading workers’ compensation provider.

The insurer paid about $1.58 million in severance benefits or settlement payments to four former top executives and employees who either resigned or who left the company in 2009 and 2010, the auditor found. The firm also has bankrolled lavish business jaunts to Hawaii and Mexico, along with sports tickets and suites for its board members, executives, employees and guests.

Amid state lawmakers’ questions about the company’s large surplus and tax-exempt status, Missouri Employers Mutual recently decided to pay its first dividend to members

Griesedieck’s firm worked for Missouri Employers Mutual, but he had another connection.

He also represented a development company in a failed bid for a casino in north St. Louis County.

Last year, federal prosecutors claimed in an indictment that MEM board member and former chairman of the St. Louis County Planning Commission Doug Morgan told at least two friends he was a secret partner in the development company, North County Development LLC.

POLITICAL PAST

Politics ran in Wilson’s family.

Wilson was an assistant elementary school principal in Columbia in 1976 when friends persuaded him to run for Boone County collector, an office his father had held. Wilson’s grandfather had been Boone County sheriff when he was killed in a gunbattle with bank robbers in 1933.

Roger Wilson moved to the state Senate in 1979. Education and law enforcement were his focus, along with the state budget. He headed the Appropriations Committee for six years.

He won his first statewide election in 1992, edging out State Auditor Margaret Kelly in the lieutenant governor’s race. He won re-election in 1996.

Wilson was expected to run for governor in 2000 but dropped that quest in March 1998, citing a distaste for raising the millions of dollars needed for the campaign and a desire to spend more time with his family.

Wilson was nearing the end of his term as lieutenant governor in October 2000, when Gov. Mel Carnahan was killed in a plane crash. Wilson took over as governor for three months, until Democrat Bob Holden was inaugurated.

After leaving the Capitol, Wilson worked for a money management firm. He served as the Missouri Democratic Party’s chairman from 2004 to 2007.

The county government building in Columbia is named after him. A statute of him stands outside the building.

Griesedieck’s profile has been removed from the Herzog website, and a reporter was told Wednesday that he was no longer with the firm.

In his 2008 profile, the firm said that Griesedieck was a partner and member of the firm’s management committee and did corporate and real estate work and acted as general counsel for a number of medium and large corporations throughout the Midwest.

He also is a former city attorney and prosecuting attorney for several St. Louis County communities and hosted the “Ask the Attorney” program on KMOX for 20 years.

He graduated from Notre Dame and St. Louis University Law School, the site says.

Source

A U.K. house-price index rose to a 21-month high in March as first-time buyers sought to take advantage of an expiring property-tax exemption, the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors said.

The gauge rose 3 points from February to minus 10, the highest reading since June 2010, according to a report today e- mailed by London-based RICS, which conducts a monthly survey of property surveyors nationwide. Still, a reading below zero shows more surveyors saw price drops than gains last month.

The figures reflect Britons taking advantage of a two-year stamp-duty exemption for first-time buyers purchasing a home costing less than 250,000 pounds ($400,000) before it ended on March 24. A continuation of this year

Avon Products Inc. says it has tapped one-time Johnson & Johnson executive Sherilyn S. McCoy as its new CEO as the struggling beauty products company looks to regain its past luster.

McCoy will take over the post from Andrea Jung, who will stay on as executive chairman.

Founded in 1886, Avon became a fixture in households across the country as its legions of “Avon ladies” went door to door selling makeup to family, friends and acquaintances.

But North American sales have dropped and its profit has shrunk easy to get unsecured personal loans. Investors and analysts had blamed Jung for being slow to react to declining results and wrap up a bribery investigation that began in China and spread elsewhere.

Avon said Monday that the 53-year-old McCoy will become CEO and a board member effective April 23.

Source

After a battle lasting almost two years, BlackBerry maker Research In Motion has knuckled under to the Indian government, giving security forces in that country access to private instant messages.

Experts say the change, first reported in the newsmagazine India Today, could lead to similar access for other spy agencies and government bodies around the world

Japan must avoid delaying an overhaul of the tax system to prevent government borrowing costs from spiraling in the next decade, the new chief of the country

Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy will today face down the first general strike against his three-month old government as pressure from investors and European peers trumps demands from unions.

Auto workers at factories of Volkswagen AG (VOW3) and Renault SA followed the strike during the nightshift and 100 percent of miners also joined the walkout, union Comisiones Obreras said in a statement. Power demand was 22 percent below that of a typical day, grid operator Red Electrica Corp SA data showed.

The People

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said while he

The new debt-slashing budget plan pushed by House Republicans heated up as a presidential campaign issue Sunday as the proposal’s architect, Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, sparred with top Democrats over its political fallout and downplayed the possibility he could be tapped as a vice presidential candidate.

Senior White House adviser David Plouffe dismissed the GOP plan Sunday as “a lot of candy, not a lot of vegetables,” and charged that it would be “rubber-stamped” as law if leading Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney is elected.

“This is really the Romney-Ryan plan,” Plouffe said, adding that its mix of across-the-board tax cuts and stiff budget cuts “showers huge tax cuts on millionaires and billionaires paid for by senior and veterans.”

Ryan tried to tamp down speculation that he could be tapped for the No. 2 spot on the GOP ticket, although who will be the nominee is far from settled.

“I would have to consider it, but it’s not something I’m even thinking about right now because right _ I think our job in Congress is pretty important,” Ryan said. “And what we believe we owe the country is, if we don’t like the direction the president is taking us, which we don’t, we owe them a specific sharp contrast and a different path that they can select in November. And doing this in Congress is really important.”

The House GOP debt-reduction plan, unveiled last week with minimal Democratic congressional support, is quickly sharpening as a line of division for the fall campaign, pitting GOP and tea party pressure for a reined-in budget against White House and Democratic party alarms about a weakened Medicare system and tax relief for the wealthy.

“This is a sharp, clear difference with two different futures,” Ryan said. Despite growing signs that the U.S economy is struggling back to life, Ryan threw down a marker for the fall national election, saying that the GOP plan is the only alternative to a looming debt crisis versus Obama’s “path of debt and decline payday loan lenders.”

The GOP proposal _ endorsed by Romney last week during a meeting with GOP congressional leaders _ would slice $5.3 trillion from President Barack Obama’s budget over the coming decade through tax reforms and sweeping program cuts. The plan aims to shrink U.S. deficits by $3.1 trillion over the next decade, reducing tax burdens while cutting Medicaid payments and shifting oversight to states and sharply cutting other domestic programs.

House Budget Committee chairman Ryan, who authored a similar plan last year sunk by White House and Democratic congressional opposition, agreed that Romney backed his plan generally. But he said the former Massachusetts governor might not be in complete lockstep with his vision.

“I’m not expecting everyone to enact every little piece,” Ryan said, adding that he expects Romney will back the plan’s main planks.

Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., cautioned that his party would blunt the Ryan plan again as it did last year, also noting the election year “contrast with Democrats.” He said Senate Democrats would offer up a rival tax reform plan on tax day, April 15, calling for increased taxes on wealthy Americans along the lines of the “Buffett Rule” acclaimed by billionaire Nebraska investor Warren Buffett.

“Let’s be fair, you should pay more than your secretary,” Schumer said, echoing Buffett’s complaint that the current tax system allows the megarich to pay at lower tax rates than many of those who work for them.

Ryan and Plouffe spoke on “Fox News Sunday,” while Ryan and Schumer went on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”

Source

French business confidence increased for the second time in nine months, suggesting growth is recovering as European Central Bank liquidity calms the region