Finance Blog number 1

Rates of daytime help for the elderly in Memphis fall below national and state averages, according to a survey conducted by the MetLife Mature Market Institute.

Adult day services rose nationally by 5 percent in 2007 to $64 per hour. The average rate in Memphis is $33. The state average is $56 per hour.

The national average hourly rate for home health aides rose 5 percent to $20. In Memphis, the rate averaged $17 and is $20 statewide.

The national average hourly homemaker/companion rate is $18 an hour, which is unchanged from last year. The rate is $15 in Memphis and $17 statewide.

Sandra Timmermann, director of the MetLife Mature Market Institute, said in a statement that adult day centers are opening in “virtually all parts of the country.”

“The trend toward older persons desiring to stay in their homes or ‘age in place’ has increased the demand for in-home care and other programs and services available during the day,” Timmermann said http://easy-quick-payday-loans.com.

According to the National Adult Day Services Association, there are more than 3,500 centers nationwide serving more than 150,000 Americans each day.

Source

The sales office at Infinity at Brickell, a 52-story luxury all-loft condominium tower will be staring in a Canadian version of a Lean Cuisine Spa Meals commercial.

DYL Group, which is developing the project, said in a press release that the building’s see-through windows made the perfect backdrop for the 30-second spot, which will air for one year in Canada beginning late next month http://fcrwizard.com.

The commercial features “a confident woman who eats Lean Cuisine Spa Meals and is pleased with the reflection she sees in the window.”

The 459-skyloft residences are nearing completion and should be done before the end of the year.

Source

A new survey indicates Ohio workers’ confidence in their jobs strengthened slightly in August, the same month the state’s unemployment rate ticked up to its highest level in about 16 years.

Staffing firm Spherion Corp. reported that its Ohio Employee Confidence Index grew 3.2 points to 45.3 in August, up from 42.1 in July. While overall confidence improved slightly, that’s still several points below 50, the base score considered positive.

According to the survey, about 63 percent of workers were confident in the future of their current employer, up 5 percentage points from July. Those with unemployment worries remained in the minority as 15 percent said they expected to lose their jobs, while 72 percent see job loss as unlikely.

The Ohio Department of Job and Family Services reported on Friday that the state’s unemployment rate in August hit 7.4 percent, up from 7.2 percent in July and the highest level since October 1992.

The survey also found that fewer workers are planning to hit the classifieds than in recent months absolutely free credit report. The share of surveyed workers expecting to stay put for the next year jumped 17 percentage points over the month to 62 percent. Less than one in three surveyed workers, 31 percent, said they expect to look for a new job in the next year.

The survey, conducted for the staffing firm by researcher Harris Interactive Inc. (NASDAQ:HPOL) from Aug. 6-8 and Aug. 12-14 polled 2,861 adults, 145 of whom resided in Ohio.

Source

The Bush administration sought unchecked power from Congress to buy $700 billion in bad mortgage investments from financial companies in what would be an unprecedented government intrusion into the markets.

Through his plan, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson aims to avert a credit freeze that would bring the financial system and the world's largest economy to a standstill. The bill would prevent courts from reviewing actions taken under its authority.

“He's asking for a huge amount of power,'' said Nouriel Roubini, an economist at New York University. “He's saying, `Trust me, I'm going to do it right if you give me absolute control.' This is not a monarchy.''

As congressional aides and officials scrutinized the proposal, the Treasury late yesterday clarified the types of assets it would purchase. Paulson would have authority to buy home loans, mortgage-backed securities, commercial mortgage- related assets and, after consultation with the Federal Reserve chairman, “other assets, as deemed necessary to effectively stabilize financial markets,'' the Treasury said in a statement.

The Treasury would also have discretion, after discussions with the Fed, to make non-U.S. financial institutions eligible under the program.

The plan would raise the ceiling on the national debt and spend as much as the combined annual budgets of the Departments of Defense, Education and Health and Human Services. Paulson is asking for the power to hire asset managers and award contracts to private companies. Most provisions of the proposal expire after two years from the date of enactment.

Markets `Fragile'

Paulson spent the morning today appearing on the Sunday television talk shows to build public support for his plan. He urged quick approval by Congress, saying financial markets are “fragile.'' While the plan should have “mortgage relief components,'' he suggested legislative changes should be kept to a minimum.

“We want this to be clean, we want this to be quick,'' Paulson said on Fox News Sunday.

Speaking on NBC's “Meet the Press, he said: “This is not a position where I like to see the taxpayer, but it is far better than the alternative.'' He added that assets bought by the Treasury would later be sold, recovering some money for the government.

A failure by the government to support the U.S. financial system could lead to “a depression,'' Senator Charles Schumer, a New York Democrat told reporters yesterday. “To do nothing is to risk the kind of economic downturn this country hasn't seen in 60 years.''

Buyer of Last Resort

The Treasury is seeking authority to step in as buyer of last resort for mortgage-linked assets that few other financial institutions in the world want to buy, following government takeovers of mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and insurer American International Group Inc.

“Democrats will work with the administration to ensure that our response to events in the financial markets is swift,'' House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said in a statement.

The majority party will seek to reduce mortgage foreclosures and create “fast-track authority'' for an overhaul of financial regulation, Pelosi said. Democrats will ensure “the government is accountable to the taxpayers in any future actions under this broad grant of authority, implementing strong oversight mechanisms.''

The proposal will include curbs on executive pay for the companies whose assets the government will be buying, Steve Adamske, a spokesman for Representative Barney Frank, said yesterday in an interview.

Preventing Foreclosures

Democrats also will include a plan to stem foreclosures, which may involve tapping the loan-modification abilities of the Federal Housing Administration, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., and Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, Adamske said. Frank, a Democrat from Massachusetts, is chairman of the House Financial Services Committee.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said that while he has misgivings about the rescue plan, “the consequences of inaction could be catastrophic.''

“While the Bush proposal raises some serious issues, we need to resolve them quickly,'' he said yesterday in a statement. “I am confident that, working together, we will.''

House minority leader John Boehner, an Ohio Republican, said yesterday he is reviewing the proposal but didn't say whether he was inclined to support it.

“The American people are furious that we're in this situation, and so am I,'' Boehner said in a statement. “We need to do everything possible to protect the taxpayers from the consequences of a broken Washington.''

Protection for Taxpayers

Congress, which may pass legislation as soon as Sept cash til payday loan. 26, needs to “make sure there are protections built in for taxpayers,'' said Schumer, a New York Democrat on the banking committee. Lawmakers should ensure “taxpayers who gave the money will be put ahead of the stockholders, bondholders and others.''

Yesterday on Capitol Hill, legislative aides wearing polo shirts and jeans instead of their usual business suits filed into the House Financial Services Committee hearing room to question Treasury officials including David Nason, assistant secretary for financial institutions, and Neel Kashkari, a senior adviser to Paulson and former investment banker at Goldman Sachs Group Inc., where the Treasury secretary was previously chief executive officer.

Paulson is seeking an expansion of federal influence over markets that hasn't been seen since the Great Depression, said Charles Geisst, author of “100 Years of Wall Street'' and a finance professor at Manhattan College in New York.

Depression Era Agency

Geisst likened the plan to the Reconstruction Finance Corp., which was chartered by Herbert Hoover in 1932 with the goal of boosting economic activity by lending money after credit markets seized up.

President George W. Bush said he called leaders in both houses of Congress and “found a common understanding of how severe the problem is and how necessary it is to get something done quickly.''

“This is going to be a big package because it's a big problem,'' Bush said following a meeting with Colombian President Alvaro Uribe at the White House. “We need to get this done quickly, and the cleaner the better.''

Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama said in a radio address that he “fully supports'' Paulson and Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke's efforts to stabilize the financial system. The plan, however, should benefit both main street and Wall Street, he said.

McCain Comments

Republican Presidential nominee John McCain “looks forward'' to reviewing the proposal while focusing at least in part on “minimizing the burden on the taxpayer,'' said Jill Hazelbaker, communications director for the McCain campaign.

The ban on legal challenges of actions by Treasury is “distasteful, it's unfortunate and it's bad precedent, but this is an emergency and you have to act,'' said Jerry Markham, a law professor at Florida State University and author of “A Financial History of the United States.''

“What you don't want happen is to have lawsuits that will slow things down and cause problems,'' he said.

The proposal would raise the nation's debt ceiling to $11.315 trillion from $10.615 trillion and require the Treasury secretary to report back to Congress three months after Treasury first uses its new powers, and then semiannually after that.

Paulson would gain discretion to act as he “deems necessary'' to hire people, enter into contracts and issue regulations related to a revival of U.S. mortgage finance, according to a three-page proposal. The Treasury would “take into consideration'' protecting taxpayers and promoting market stability.

Reverse Auctions

The Treasury may hire managers to purchase the assets through so-called reverse auctions, seeking the lowest prices, Treasury said yesterday. The document specifies that Treasury may buy only assets issued or originated on or before Sept. 17.

The House will pass legislation to implement the plan by the end of this week, and the Senate will act soon after, Frank said on Sept. 19 in an interview on Bloomberg Television's “Political Capital with Al Hunt.''

Bush said yesterday he's unconcerned that the price tag on the package may seem high.

“I'm sure there are some of my friends out there that are saying, `I thought this guy was a market guy, what happened to him?''' the president said. “My first instinct was to let the market work, until I realized, while being briefed by the experts, how significant this problem became.''

The Bush administration seeks “dictatorial power unreviewable by the third branch of government, the courts, to try to resolve the crisis,'' said Frank Razzano, a former assistant chief trial attorney at the Securities and Exchange Commission now at Pepper Hamilton LLP in Washington. “We are taking a huge leap of faith.''

Source

The Bank of Israel will probably leave its benchmark lending rate unchanged next week, ending a string of four increases, on concern the global credit crisis will slow economic growth.

The bank will hold the rate at 4.25 percent, according to 15 of 17 economists surveyed by Bloomberg, with the rest predicting a quarter point increase. The Jerusalem-based bank will announce its decision at 6:30 p.m. tomorrow.

“We don't expect the bank to raise rates — not because of inflation, which was actually high in August, but because of the situation in the world,'' said Yaniv Hevron, an economist at Psagot Investment House Ltd. in Tel Aviv. The global turmoil “will come to Israel eventually.''

Gross domestic product will probably expand 4.4 percent this year, the slowest since 2003, and growth may slow in 2009 to 2.9 percent, Merrill Lynch & Co. said in a Sept. 12 report before the collapse of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. set off a new round of turmoil in world financial markets.

The Central Bureau of Statistics will provide its preliminary estimate for 2008 GDP growth on Sept. 24.

While annual inflation has been above the government's target of between 1 percent and 3 percent since November, reaching 5 percent in August, the pace will probably slow, Migdal Capital Markets Ltd faxless payday advance. said in a Sept. 18 report, citing commodities prices.

Preventing a further deterioration in economic growth is more important than grappling with inflation, Migdal said, and the bank may lower the rate in the first quarter.

Last Week

Last week, the yield on the benchmark 6.5 percent Shahar bond due in January 2016 rose to 5.87 percent from 5.55 percent a week earlier. The shekel gained about 2.6 percent to 3.5150 per dollar as of Sept. 18.

The Tel Aviv Stock Exchange's benchmark TA-25 Index fell 10.8 percent to 842.03. Africa Israel Investments Ltd., the property developer controlled by diamond billionaire Lev Leviev, led the declines, shedding 40.5 percent. Delek Group Ltd., a property and energy holding company, was the next-biggest loser, falling 27 percent.

Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni won the Kadima Party primary Sept. 17 to replace Prime Minister Ehud Olmert as leader. Livni, who won 43.1 percent of the votes cast, defeating three rivals for party leadership, now begin talks to form a new coalition with herself as prime minister.

Source

The board of the Hawaii Tourism Authority will hold a special meeting on Sept. 29 to once again decide whether executive director Rex Johnson keeps his job.

The HTA put out the notice of the meeting on Friday afternoon.

Johnson, who has run the HTA since 2002, is under fire for forwarding adult-oriented and racist jokes on his state-owned computer. A month ago, the HTA decided to cut Johnson’s salary and the length of his employment contract to one year, but refused to fire him.

The Honolulu Advertiser obtained some of the e-mails that Johnson had forwarded and last week described some of them, including “jokes” referring to Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama in an offensive manner. HTA board members said they hadn’t seen the actual e-mails before deciding Johnson’s fate and Gov. Linda Lingle called on Johnson to resign or be fired.

Pressure has built in recent days for the HTA to act payday loans. On Friday, several community organizations, including the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the Japanese American Citizens League of Hawaii and the Hawaii Women’s Political Caucus held a news conference at the State Capitol and faulted the HTA board for not taking action after the content of the e-mails was revealed.

“We cannot stand by and allow the Hawaii Tourism Authority to give credibility to what Mr. Johnson has been circulating,” said Alphonso Braggs, the Hawaii NAACP branch president.

The meeting on Johnson will be held at 9:30 at the Hawaii Convention Center and board members will likely move immediately into closed session. The only item on the agenda is “Discussion and/or action regarding the employment agreement with Rex Johnson.”

Source

Bank of Japan Governor Masaaki Shirakawa said there's no end in sight to the financial-market turmoil that sent Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. into bankruptcy and wiped $19 trillion from world stocks since October.

“When these developments will calm down is not in sight,'' Shirakawa told a parliament committee today in Tokyo. “We are closely watching how things will develop.''

The world's biggest central banks agreed yesterday to pump $180 billion into the global financial system to restore confidence after banks hoarded money on concern more will follow Lehman into bankruptcy. The Bank of Japan said it will offer up to $60 billion to local and foreign financial institutions to help them borrow dollars.

“Tensions in global financial markets have risen over the past week and demand for funds in money markets has grown,'' Shirakawa said. “If we took no action, tensions in financial markets might have grown further and affected economic growth.''

The cost of borrowing in dollars for three months jumped the most since 1999 this week, with the crisis spreading abroad as U.K. mortgage lender HBOS Plc slumped and Russia poured money into its banks. Interbank lending rates have since fallen, and world stocks rallied today after the U.S. government started planning new laws to halt the credit-market meltdown.

Shirakawa said the hoarding of cash by banks overseas may put pressure on Japan's money market faxless payday loans. When financial institutions have difficulty raising dollars, they tend to borrow in yen and then convert the cash to U.S. currency, pushing up interest rates in yen money markets, he said.

`Wheel Stops Turning'

“The markets are open around the clock and they've become globalized to such an extent that if a wheel stops turning in one place it causes trouble for the entire system,'' Teizo Taya, an adviser to Daiwa Institute of Research and a former Bank of Japan board member, said on Bloomberg Television.

Central banks will continue to discuss measures they can jointly take to ease global market turmoil, Shirakawa said.

When asked whether the Bank of Japan would consider cutting interest rates, the governor said his board doesn't predetermine policy and “every option'' is possible. At 0.5 percent, Japan's key rate is the lowest in the industrialized world.

Shirakawa also said the central bank holds some securities issued by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the U.S. finance-mortgage companies bailed out by the U.S. government this month. He declined to disclose the amount.

Source

State bean counters are recommending the Georgia Department of Transportation use more than $450 million in gasoline taxes from this year's budget to plug a shortfall that cropped up at the end of the last fiscal year.

The unexpected deficit turned up during an audit of DOT budgeting practices requested by Gov. Sonny Perdue.

Unless the shortfall is erased, the agency will be forced to void contracts for road projects the state already is committed to build, John Thornton, director of the Georgia Department of Audits and Accounts' State Government Division, told members of the DOT board's Finance Committee on Wednesday.

"I'm not aware that we've ever done anything like this," he said. "(But) this is a very necessary adjustment and very appropriate."

Thornton's comments came during a presentation of the audit's preliminary findings. A final report is expected within two weeks.

Thornton said the DOT's bookkeeping is plagued by a "breakdown of controls and processes" that led to the deficit.

He said the problems came to a head in fiscal 2007, when the agency spent more than $5 billion, far in excess of typical DOT budgets.

While that year set a record for new construction spending ­ — $2.7 billion — Thornton said the department's financial plight was aggravated by large numbers of change orders and "supplemental agreements" that drove up the costs of projects.

The audit found that the DOT's budgeting procedures typically involved committing funds to projects before the money actually was in hand direct payday loan cash advance. Both legal opinions and court rulings have held that such practices violate Georgia's Constitution.

"You've got to have the money up front before you enter into a contract," Thornton said. "Advance spending on construction projects, when you really get down to it, caused the shortage."

Board members also received a second audit of DOT operations on Wednesday. The second report criticized the agency's Office of Right of Way for inadequate management of the $230 million the state spends each year buying property to make room for transportation projects.

In one of the more dramatic findings, the audit identified $157 million that the DOT has spent on parcels for projects that are no longer in the agency's plans.

Finance Committee Chairman Sam Wellborn said the board will hold a special meeting on Sept. 26 to discuss and possibly act on the audits.

Source

Asian policy makers see little risk their countries will be hit by a crisis similar to the economic meltdown of 1997, downplaying concern the U.S. turmoil will infect the region's financial system.

“This is nothing'' compared with 1997, Bank of Thailand Governor Tarisa Watanagase said on Bloomberg Television in Bangkok today. “The direct impact is very limited, although we may see some slowdown through the trade channel later on.''

Central banks continued to pump money into their financial systems to ensure liquidity as investors sold shares of Australia's Macquarie Group Ltd. and Kookmin Bank, South Korea's biggest lender. Asian banks have limited exposure to Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., which filed for bankruptcy earlier this week, officials say.

“The risk to Asian banks is more from the impending economic slowdown and market turmoil than from direct exposure to the distressed U.S. financial institutions,'' said Ritesh Maheshwari, a Standard & Poor's analyst in Singapore. Their “strengthened balance sheets as a result of healthy profits can withstand the impact of likely losses from direct exposure.''

The Asian financial crisis, set off by plunging currencies, led to the collapse of companies as they buckled under billions of dollars of debt, forcing Indonesia, Thailand and South Korea to turn to the International Monetary Fund for bailouts. The region has since accumulated more than $3.3 trillion of reserves, about half of the global total.

BOJ's Shirakawa

“I don't think a financial crisis will take place in Asia,'' Bank of Japan Governor Masaaki Shirakawa said yesterday. “The situation of Asian economies is different from the time of the 1997-1998 crisis. They have plenty of foreign reserves.''

The Japanese central bank today added 2.5 trillion yen ($23.9 billion) to its financial system in its third day of fund injections, while Reserve Bank of Australia pumped in A$3.015 billion ($2.4 billion).

“There is a credit crunch everywhere, even in Japan, but it's relatively better here as Japanese banks are still okay,'' said Susumu Kato, chief economist in Tokyo at Calyon Securities, a primary dealer required to bid at government debt sales. “Domestic institutions don't want to give money to foreign institutions, so the BOJ stepped in to stabilize the market.''

Lehman's bankruptcy, the sale of Merrill Lynch & Co. to Bank of America Corp. and the U.S. government bailout of American International Group Inc. this week has sparked concern of more financial failures, sending the cost of short-term credit higher in the U.S. and Europe. In Asia, money market rates have remained relatively low.

Asia Vs U.S.

The difference between what the Japanese government and banks pay to borrow yen for three months reached its lowest in six months cash advance loan no fax. By contrast, the so-called U.S. TED spread expanded to the widest since Bloomberg began compiling the data in 1984.

The London interbank offered rate, or Libor, rose 19 basis points to 3.06 percent, the British Bankers' Association said yesterday. The increase was the biggest since Sept. 29, 1999.

Japan's banks and insurers, including Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc., have announced a combined 245 billion yen of potential losses tied to the collapse of Lehman, while lenders in China said they have about $384 million of exposure to the U.S. securities firm.

Potential losses of Japanese banks “seem to be within the levels that can be covered by their profits,'' Bank of Japan's Shirakawa said. “There's no concern that the latest events will threaten the stability of Japan's financial system.''

Thailand, which triggered the Asian financial crisis with the devaluation of its baht in July 1997, has no shortage of capital and the nation's lenders are “strong and resilient,'' Tarisa said today.

Thailand's Tarisa

The banking industry is “a lot more cautious and risk adverse ever since the 1997 crisis,'' she said. “We had learnt from the crisis. I don't think there is any chance at all that one of our banks will come into problems.''

The exposure of local banks in the Philippines to Lehman is between 0.3 percent and 0.4 percent of their total assets, central bank Governor Amando Tetangco said in a Bloomberg Television interview today. Losses stemming from the holdings may hurt bank earnings though won't damage their capital, he said.

Australia's bank regulatory system is strong enough to give customers “certainty'' about the state of their lenders, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said even as he warned that it was a serious time for the nation's financial institutions.

IMF Bailouts

During Asia's 1997 financial crisis, Indonesia, Thailand and South Korea spent most of their currency reserves attempting to prop up their exchange rates after investors abandoned them. The IMF arranged more than $100 billion of loans to the three countries after their currencies collapsed.

“Emerging Asia should be relieved that, unlike the 2001 tech bubble burst and the 1997-98 financial crisis, the `action' has started elsewhere for a change,'' said Paul Gruenwald, an economist at Australia & New Zealand Banking Group Ltd. in Singapore. “As a result, the region seems likely to pass through the current credit crisis relatively well.''

Source

• Florida Hotels Holding Inc. (Hotel Riande) $21.5 million
• Aventura Mall $230 million
• Courvoisier Centre $112 million
• Eden Roc Hotel $75 million
• Gables Marquis Condo on Coral Way $46.8 million
• Key Biscayne Retail Center $18.7 million
• KRA Tower across from Monthy's in the Grove $36 million
• Admirals Port Apartments on Las Olas $52.5 million
• Canyon Ranch $47 million

Broward County

• Trump Hollywood Condo $226.5 million
• WSG Hollywood Development (Downtown Hollywood) $20 million
• EL-AD San Michele LLC (Condo project Weston) $293.2 million
• Acquiport Amsdell (Warehouse) $45 million
• Courtyard by Marriott in Plantation $120 million

Palm Beach County

• Tischam Speyer Archstone Smith Delray Beach LP (Cameron Park) $29.9 million
• MS LPC South Congress Holdings LLC (Terraces at Centre Delray) $84.2 million
• 215 Brazilian Holding LLC $18 million
• T-Rex in Boca Raton $100 million

Source