Energy efficiency group PECI landed a $749,153 sliver of the $76 million in stimulus funding announced Friday by the U.S. Department of Energy for more energy efficient buildings.
Portland-based PECI’s award was one of 13 educational grants under the program. It will pay for a PECI team to revise and develop curriculum to train commercial building auditors and operators, who in turn will make sure that buildings are as energy efficient as possible.
The total cost of the PECI curriculum project is $1.5 million, according to the project outline released by the U.S. Department of Energy.
In all 58 projects received funding in the Friday announcement, all of the money going toward improved efficiency — from the development of better insulation to the testing of advanced building controls.
“Energy-efficient commercial buildings will help our country cut its carbon emissions and energy costs while the training programs will upgrade the skills of the current workforce and attract the next generation to careers in the emerging clean-energy economy,” said U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu in a news release.
PECI, originally Portland Energy Conservation Inc., is a nonprofit that helps businesses with energy efficiency.
Free health insurance quotes from affordable health insurance companies. Low cost medical coverage on group, family, or individual.
Hewlett-Packard Co. took steps on Monday to allow printing through the Web from any type of device.
The world's biggest printer seller (NYSE:HPQ) said it plans to add an e-mail address for all its printers so users can send files from computers and mobile phones to printers or store them "in the cloud" for later printing.
The Palo Alto company said it plans to sell tens of millions of Web-connected printers by the end of next year.
It introduced four Photosmart all-in-one printers that include new ePrint software and have the new Web storage and printing capabilities. The devices start at $99.
Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) also said on Monday that it is working with HP on software that will let users connect to Google Docs, Photos and Calendar directly from their printers.
Others said to be working on ways to connect to their content directly through printers rather than computers are Facebook Inc. and Live Nation Entertainment Inc.
Payday loan online from $100 to 1000 loan payday with no faxing. Get a cash advance loan now. Click here for immediate funding.
With many of their rivals on the ropes, Canada’s major banks are nicely positioned to catapult into the top tier of U.S. financial institutions — for the first time ever.
The main reason is that the country’s banks famously skated through the subprime and derivatives meltdown of 2008 with no government bailouts and comparatively few writedowns. As a result they replaced their Swiss rivals as the international standard for banking excellence and readied themselves for cherry-picking the best assets in the distressed banking industry south of the border.
On the surface, it looks like they’re on a U.S. buying spree. Since mid-April, three major Canadian banks — TD Bank Financial Group, Bank of Montreal (BMO) and Bank of Nova Scotia — have collectively acquired six failed U.S. institutions. All the acquisitions were cautiously negotiated with the U.S. Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC), which is taking on a heavy share of the potential loan losses.
But critics say the Big Five are playing it too safe, content to remain third- and fourth-string players in the U.S. markets where they operate, when they should be aiming for the No. 1 spot. If ever there was a time to do it, it’s now, but Canadian banks don’t seem to have the nerve to bust out and become truly global players.
That kind of reticence from the boardroom could be fatal for the future of Canada’s major banks, who run the risk of growing stagnant behind cushy domestic regulations that make it impossible for foreign rivals to compete on an equal footing. Consider that the six recent acquisitions add up to a mere US$22 billion in new assets for the buyers. That’s about 1% of total assets for these pillars of Toronto’s Bay Street — little more than a token gesture to make it seem Canada’s banks are not entirely asleep at the wheel.
Analyst Michael Goldberg with Toronto-based Desjardins Securities agrees the U.S. market offers a rich opportunity for Canada’s super-capitalized banks. "TD in recent years has been most aggressive in building its U.S. franchise," he says. "But reaction has been mixed payday advance. Some investors are very skeptical anytime Canadian companies buy anything in U.S."
Earlier this month, TD Bank (TD) acquired South Financial Group for US$61 million, adding more than 100 branches to its 1,000-plus locations in the Maine-to-Florida corridor. This follows on the heels of buying three small Florida-based institutions closed by regulators.
BMO (BMO), which bought assets of failed Illinois lender Amcore Bank, adds 52 branches in Illinois and Wisconsin, building on an existing network of 288 branches at its Harris subsidiary. Toronto-based BMO made its big U.S. push with its C$718 million (US$682.1 million) acquisition of Harris in 1984. It has since spent about C$2.5 billion (US$2.4 billion) buying U.S. banks, but only reached the No. 3 spot in Illinois by deposits.
Scotiabank (BNS) is the third Canadian lender to take advantage of U.S. government-assisted acquisitions, snapping up R-G Premier Bank of Puerto Rico, building on the 17 branches it already has on the Caribbean island. However rival Banco Popular de Puerto Rico acquired the deposits of Westernbank at the same time, securing its position as the largest insured bank on the island, despite the fact that Scotiabank has been doing business in tiny Puerto Rico for 100 years.
Canada’s big banks can afford to casually dabble in foreign markets because their domestic operations are reliable money-making machines that deliver billions of dollars in profit quarter after quarter.
But those profits come at the expense of Canadian consumers and small businesses, poorly served by a clubby group of banks whose domestic operations are perhaps the least competitive in the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), an international group of 31 developed countries, including the U.S., Australia and South Korea, with free-market economies.
If Canada’s major banks are not prepared to go big in the U.S., they should just pull stakes and go home
The Federal Trade Commission is expected to vote Wednesday on approval of Google Inc.'s proposed $750 million acquisition of AdMob Inc.
TechCrunch cited an unnamed source it said has been briefed on the matter that the vote is coming on Wednesday and that Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) is prepared to fight in court if the deal is blocked by the FTC.
The Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg have reported that the FTC was seen leaning towards such action. On Tuesday night the Journal reported that the agency is concerned that the deal will reduce the mobile in-application advertising market from three to just two key players: Google and rival Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL).
The FTC last month said it was seeking sworn declarations from Google’s competitors and advertisers, a sign taken to mean that it was lining up opposition to the sale.
The Journal said some of its unnamed sources complain that analysis of the mobile ad network is too narrow, not including players such as Millennial Media Inc., Greystripe Inc., Jumptap Inc., or on a broader level Yahoo Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) and Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ:MSFT).
If you’re retiring this year, you will need $250,000 in savings to cover your family’s medical expenses during your retirement, Fidelity Investments announced on Thursday.
That’s up just more than 4% over last year and a 56% spike compared to 2002, when Fidelity first issued its Retiree Health Care Costs Estimate.
Each year Fidelity forecasts what a U.S. couple retiring at age 65 would need to cover their health care expenses during retirement, presuming they qualify for Medicare and do not have an employer-sponsored plan.
The spike in what couples must save can be attributed to higher costs associated with treatment costs, new technologies and general price inflation, said Fidelity, which assists companies in planning their employee benefit programs.
But some experts say the estimate can be misleading because a multitude of factors, including life expectancy, could push costs higher or lower than averages.
"It’s important to recognize that most people aren’t average," said Paul Fronstin, director of health research for The Employee Benefit Research Institute, an independent public policy organization.
And based on Fidelity’s findings, retired couples would spend $10,000 a year over an average 25 to 30 years of retirement, which is on par with what they pay now, says Bill Losey CFP, a New York-based financial planner pay day loan lenders.
Still medical costs are expected to become a larger chunk of retirement expenses and many retirees are still unprepared.
The Fidelity study found that only 3 out of 10 retirees saved specifically to cover health care costs while they were working. And 47% said that monthly out-of-pocket costs and insurance premiums were higher than they had anticipated.
Fidelity reported that average health care costs were $535 a month, or one-fifth of a couple’s total monthly expenses of $2,842.
Though Losey says the figure may unnecessarily scare people, he added that a little fear might not be such a bad thing if it improves awareness and planning, especially in the face of health care reform.
"This statistic is going to scare people," says Losey, "but maybe in a good way that forces people to get off their behinds and eat better, exercise more, and hopefully keep their health insurance costs in check."
Mexico’s economy may expand more than expected in 2010 as the nation recovers from last year’s global slump, central bank Deputy Governor Manuel Sanchez Gonzalez said in an interview yesterday.
“Everything points towards the direction of a recovery,” Sanchez said in Sydney. While the central bank forecasts growth of 3.2 percent to 4.2 percent this year, “I’m ready to be surprised as to the results of the economic recovery,” he said.
Mexico’s $1.09 trillion economy was the worst performer in Latin America last year, shrinking 10.1 percent in the second quarter and 6.2 percent in the third quarter from a year earlier. Gross domestic product may expand “slightly” more than the government’s current 3 percent estimate this year, Deputy Finance Minister Alejandro Werner said Feb. 5.
Sanchez is among policy makers visiting Sydney this week to attend a symposium organized by the Reserve Bank of Australia to celebrate its 50th anniversary. The Basel, Switzerland-based Bank for International Settlements is also hosting a meeting of central bank officials in Sydney.
Global policy makers have to be “very careful” about how quickly they withdraw stimulus measures after cutting interest rates and boosting public spending to counter the deepest global recession since World War II, Sanchez said yesterday.
“There is a tradeoff between sustaining the stimulus measures and having some risks as to maintaining those,” he said. “You have a risk of withdrawing too quickly, of leaving those measures too rapidly, so that this recovery may be interrupted. You want to be very careful to maintain those stimulus measures for the right time.”
Inflation Outlook
Central banks also have to remain watchful of inflation and maintain price stability, he said.
“Every country has different situations as to the inflation prospects, but I’m confident also that the inflation pressures will continue to be relatively subdued in the near future,” Sanchez said.
Mexico’s inflation in December was 3.57 percent, the slowest since 2006.
The central bank kept the benchmark interest rate unchanged at 4.5 percent in January for a fifth straight meeting and warned that higher costs for state-controlled goods such as gasoline may fuel broader price increases. The latest monetary policy position is consistent with the central bank’s growth forecasts, Sanchez said.
The region’s second-largest economy probably shrank about 7 percent in 2009, the most since 1932, the central bank estimates.
“I’m very optimistic about the prospects of the Mexican economy in the short term and long term,” Sanchez said. “We had a very harsh recession last year. We’re going to have a very important improvement relative to the base we had last year.”
The fourth quarter probably showed “very good dynamism of economic activity” and the unemployment rate has declined, Sanchez said.
BAGHDAD–Iraq gave final approval Sunday to a deal by a Shell-led consortium to develop one of its largest oilfields, marking a crucial step toward the nation’s postwar rebuilding by boosting the production of its most lucrative resource.
Royal Dutch Shell PLC and its partner, Malaysia’s state-run Petronas, won the right to develop the 12.5 billion barrel Majnoon field last month during Iraq’s second postwar bidding round. As part of the deal, Shell and Petronas will pay the Iraqi government a $150 million (U.S.) signing bonus.
At a Baghdad signing ceremony, Oil Minister Hussain al-Shahristani hailed the deal as a "major step that will transform the region from an area of misery and deprivation into a prosperous one."
Shell chief executive Peter Voser refused to say how much money will be spent on the project.
The oil deal for Majnoon, located in Basra province near the Iranian border, was one of seven the Iraqi government awarded last month.
The 20-year contract calls for the companies to be paid $1.39 per barrel produced above current output levels. The firms have said they hope to raise production from the current 45,900 barrels per day to 1.8 million barrels per day by 2020.
The Majnoon field was discovered in 1976 and was partially developed until the Iran-Iraq war halted work. Oil production resumed in 2002.
For Iraq, the oil deals mark a crucial step forward in the country’s so-far faltering bid to raise oil output. Although it sits atop the world’s third-largest proven reserves of conventional crude oil, Iraq produces a comparatively modest 2.5 million barrels per day, of which about 1.9 million barrels a day are exported.
Of the seven deals awarded in December, Iraq’s Cabinet has approved four, including Majnoon, and has asked for changes to proposals for the remaining three – awarded to consortiums led by Russia’s private oil giant Lukoil, China’s CNPC and Russia’s Gazprom – before signing off on them as expected by the end of January.
Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond President Jeffrey Lacker said the U.S. economy will probably expand at “a reasonable pace” this year on growth in spending by households and businesses.
“Housing should continue to recover from a very depressed state, consumers should gradually expand spending, business investment should make something of a comeback,” Lacker said today in remarks to the Maryland Bankers Association in Linthicum, Maryland. Even with a resumption in growth, “the level of economic activity will disappoint many people for quite some time,” he added.
Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke and his fellow policy makers have left the benchmark lending rate in a range of zero to 0.25 percent since December 2008 to revive lending and end the worst recession since the Great Depression.
Policy makers will need to “choose carefully when and how rapidly” to remove monetary stimulus, Lacker said without indicating his own views on the timing.
The risk of a “pronounced” reduction in inflation has diminished, Lacker said.
“During the recovery period ahead we may face an increasing risk of inflation edging upward, which has sometimes occurred during past recoveries,” he said. “While that risk appears to be minimal at this point, we will have to be careful as the recovery unfolds to keep inflation and inflation expectations from drifting around.”
Not Strong Enough
Growth hasn’t been strong enough to reduce the unemployment rate. The U.S. lost 85,000 jobs in December after revisions showed payrolls increased the prior month for the first time in almost two years, a report today from the Labor Department showed. The jobless rate held at 10 percent.
The U.S. Congress has mandated that the Fed pursue low inflation and full employment. The 7.2 million drop in payrolls over the past two years has been the biggest decline as a percentage of total jobs since the end of World War II.
“The labor market could conceivably recover more slowly than many expect, which would restrain consumer spending and dampen growth,” Lacker said. “But household incomes and household confidence could conceivably rebound more vigorously than many expect, in which case consumer spending could expand more briskly.”
Services Expanded
Service industries expanded in December, with the Institute of Supply Management’s index of non-manufacturing businesses rising to 50.1 percent from 48.7 percent in November. Manufacturing last month expanded at the fastest pace in more than three years, the ISM said in a separate report.
The economy probably expanded at a 4 percent annual rate in the fourth quarter, according to a Bloomberg News survey.
Federal Open Market Committee members maintained an outlook for “moderate growth and subdued inflation” in 2010, minutes of their Dec easy online payday loans. 15-16 meeting showed. “A moderate pace of expansion would imply slow improvement in the labor market next year, with unemployment declining only gradually,” the minutes said.
The U.S. central bank’s efforts to restore liquidity and credit have resulted in the expansion of its balance sheet to $2.24 trillion in total assets, up from $858 billion at the start of 2007. As a result of the Fed’s direct purchases of $1.7 trillion in mortgage-backed, federal agency, and Treasury bonds, banks now hold more than $1 trillion in reserves in excess of what they are required to hold against deposits.
No ‘Huge’ Increase
Lacker said he doesn’t expect the conclusion of Fed purchases of mortgage-backed securities scheduled for the end of March to lead to a “huge” increase in mortgage rates.
Central bankers are now discussing how they will eventually exit their low-rate policy and drain excess cash in the banking system to head off inflation. The timing of such moves depends on economic performance, the minutes showed.
“A few members” suggested “it might become desirable” to expand the scale of asset purchases and continue them beyond the first quarter if the outlook for growth weakened or mortgage markets deteriorated, the minutes said. One member thought the purchases could be scaled back, and said it “might become appropriate” to begin selling assets if the recovery “gains strength over time,” the minutes said.
Banks haven’t started to circulate their reserves into expanding credit. Loans and leases of commercial banks in the U.S. declined to $6.8 trillion in November from $7.2 trillion a year earlier, according to Fed data.
Criticism of Policy
Proposed congressional audits of monetary policy would lead to criticism of decisions to increase the benchmark interest rate, Lacker said to reporters. The House voted last month to approve a proposal by Representative Ron Paul, a Republican from Texas, to end a ban on audits of monetary policy over Bernanke’s warnings the measure threatens to compromise Fed independence.
“The kind of audits of recent monetary policy decisions that the Paul amendment would allow are almost certainly going to result in criticism of interest rate increases,” Lacker said. “They are going to be biased in one way.”
The central bank hasn’t “settled on an approach” on how its various tools will be used with the federal funds rate, he said. “One option you might want to consider is that our policy rate is the interest rate on excess reserves and we let the fed funds rate trade with some spread to that.”
Bank of America said late Wednesday it planned to return the entire $45 billion in bailout money it received from the government over the past year.
The move would allow Bank of America, the nation’s largest lender, to wriggle free from a variety of government restrictions it has had to abide by, including pay caps for its top executives.
It could also smooth what has been a difficult search for a new chief executive.
Outgoing CEO Ken Lewis is scheduled to depart by year end. Bank of America’s board of directors originally hoped to select a successor by Thanksgiving.
"We believe that this is good news, not only for the U.S. taxpayer and our company, but for the country as it is a milestone indicating that public policy has succeeded in helping our industry and the economy begin to recover," Lewis said in a statement.
The payback would be made largely through the sale of $18.8 billion of securities that would convert into common stock, according to the company. The stock sale will be put to a shareholder vote in coming months.
In addition, the bank said it would supplement the $18.8 billion with $26.2 billion in cash.
Last fall, as the government tried to stabilize the financial markets, Bank of America received $25 billion in aid under the Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP.
That number grew to $45 billion in the following months as the bank sought to cover losses it absorbed through its purchase of Merrill Lynch at the height of the crisis in September 2008 payday loan online.
There had been speculation earlier this fall that the company was exploring options to pay back part of the money it had received from the government.
But many believed that it would be at least several more months before the Charlotte, N.C.-based lender could get completely out from under the government’s thumb.
The move, of course, will save Bank of America from having to make any further dividend payments on aid it received from the government. So far this year, the company has paid out $2.54 billion to the Treasury Department.
But exiting TARP won’t come without a cost. The company said it would reduce its fourth-quarter results by $4.1 billion as a result. The company is expected to report a loss of $524 million in the current quarter.
Bank of America noted however, it did not plan to exercise its right to repurchase warrants, or rights to purchase company shares, owned by the government.
Bank of America (BAC, Fortune 500) shares finished more than 1% lower in regular trading Wednesday, but jumped more than 3% on the news after the bell.
Russian consumers are benefiting from a stronger ruble that’s boosted incomes and offset tight credit while a lack of investment is hampering a rebound in manufacturing, a series of economic reports showed today.
Real disposable incomes posted the biggest jump in more than a year last month and retail sales rose from September, signaling consumer demand is returning following October’s 3.4 percent gain in the ruble against the dollar.
The economy of the world’s biggest energy producer is showing signs of recovery as a return of global demand for commodities supported exporters and domestic demand rebounded after the ruble gained to the strongest level this year. Russia’s record 10.9 percent economic contraction in the second quarter eased to an 8.9 percent decline last quarter.
“Household consumption is stabilizing after lagging behind the rest of the economy,” said Olga Naydenova, an economist at Otkritie Financial Corp. in Moscow. She expected a broader improvement in indicators last month as “people have learned to adapt to the changing situation, and budget spending on social needs also helped.”
The ruble lost 0.8 percent to 29.0506 per dollar at 4:22 p.m. in Moscow, paring its weekly gain against the U.S. currency to 0.6 percent. The ruble slid 0.5 percent to 35.3348 against the central bank’s target currency basket.
Retailer Gains
OAO Dixy Group, Russia’s third-largest publicly traded food retailer, added 4.62 rubles, or 2.1 percent, to 219.99 rubles in Moscow. The stock has gained 323 percent so far this year. The shares of X5 Retail Group NV and OAO Magnit, Russia’s two biggest food retailers, are up 234 percent and 274 percent in 2009, outperforming the 30-stock Micex Index, which has jumped 114 percent this year.
Disposable incomes climbed a monthly 6 percent in October and rose 3.9 percent compared with the same period last year, the biggest annual jump since September 2008, the Federal Statistics Service said. Retail sales rose 3.2 percent from September and declined 8.5 percent on an annual basis compared with a 9.9 percent drop the month before.
The government has made spending on social needs, including benefits and pensions, a priority of its stimulus program, which deployed 2.5 trillion rubles ($86.4 billion) to bolster the economy with tax breaks, loan guarantees and subsidies.
‘Too Early’
Service industries, which account for about 40 percent of the economy, rose for a third month in October, advancing to the highest since September 2008, VTB Capital said on Nov. 5, citing its Purchasing Managers’ Index.
“Although the economy is no longer declining, it is too early to speak of a recovery,” Alfa Bank analysts led by Ekaterina Leonova said in a Nov. 18 report. “Signs of improvement are still very fragile and do not constitute a trend.”
The ruble appreciated 3.4 percent against the dollar for its second consecutive monthly gain in October. Imports account for about 49 percent of the consumer goods sold in Russia, the government estimated last year.
A stronger currency has increased spending power for the domestic market as “it transfers incomes into people’s pockets,” said Clemens Grafe, chief economist at UBS in Moscow.
Wage declines also eased last month as exporters returned to profitability. Wages fell an annual 4.5 percent in October, compared with a 4.9 percent decline the previous month. Retail sales have fallen for nine consecutive months, the longest period of declines on record.
Manufacturing Slump
Rebounding consumer demand isn’t reflected in the country’s manufacturing sector. Russia’s industrial slump deepened in October as companies failed to build up inventories and credit remained tight even after eight central bank interest rate cuts since April.
Output in October fell 11.2 percent from a year earlier after the decline eased to 9.5 percent in September. Manufacturers are struggling to stay profitable as banks rein in credit, hampering investment even as demand picks up for commodities, Russia’s chief export.
“High interest rates and sharp ruble appreciation may have added pressure to the competitiveness of Russian goods,” said Anton Nikitin, an analyst at Renaissance Capital in Moscow. “In this environment, fourth-quarter GDP growth might be weaker than we previously thought.”
Shrinking output may spur the central bank to further loosen monetary policy, Nikitin said.
Bank Rossii is scheduled to hold a board meeting on Nov. 24 where a rate decision may be discussed, First Deputy Chairman Alexei Ulyukayev said yesterday.
Powered by WordPress -- XHTML 1.0