Finance Blog number 1

When disasters strike, scam artists and opportunists often come out in full force instant payday loan lenders.

It’s an unfortunate combination

A published report says that the telephone numbers of relatives of dead military personnel have been found in files amassed by a detective employed by a Sunday tabloid newspaper.

The Daily Telegraph’s report in Thursday’s edition could not be independently verified, and the newspaper did not identify the source of its information. There was no indication whether any of those telephones had been hacked.

The BBC reported that relatives of some soldiers say they have not been contacted by police, but that a newspaper had asked them about possible hacking absolutely free credit score.

The News of the World, the newspaper which is the focus of a criminal investigation, issued a statement saying it would be “absolutely appalled and horrified” if there was any truth in the allegation.

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Politicians in Spain’s northeastern Catalonia region used police helicopters to get to the regional parliament to avoid some 2,000 demonstrators protesters who tried to blockade the building Wednesday to protest planned budget cuts in education and health.

A police spokeswoman said the situation was tense as the deputies arrived at Ciutadella park in central Barcelona. Regional President Artur Mas was among at least 10 politicians who arrived by helicopter.

Scuffles broke out as police pushed protesters back so the deputies who arrived on foot could get in.

The politicians were heckled and at least two were sprayed with paint, the spokeswoman said, speaking on condition of anonymity in keeping with police rules.

The spokeswoman said there were no immediate reports of injuries but Spanish daily El Pais cited unnamed medical sources saying 23 people were treated for injuries.

Some 400 police packed the Ciutadella park to ensure protesters could not enter by climbing over the railings. Outside, a riot police vans stood guard at the main park entrance.

“I think it is important to be here protesting against the spending cuts, because to cut social spending with the excuse of the crisis is a big farce,” said protester Mariela Pita.

After the politicians entered the parliament, hundreds of protestor left the area but were expected to return later in the day for when the politicians leave the building credit reports free.

The demonstration was part of nationwide protests over the past month by young and unemployed people angry at the country’s handling of the economic crisis. The highlight of the movement was a near month-long, round-the-clock makeshift protest camp in Madrid’s Puerta del Sol plaza.

The vast majority of the protests have been peaceful.

The Barcelona protest was criticized by politicians across the country.

“Aggressions and insults against politicians are aggressions and insults against the people’s representatives,” said Ramon Jauregui, spokesman for the Spanish central government.

“I can accept the protest by 2,000 people but I would remind those 2,000 people that 3.2 million people voted those deputies that were hassled,” he said.

But Gaspar Llamazares of the United Left coalition said the protests represented a “social fracture” in Spain, where the economic crisis has left close to 5 million people unemployed.

Last week hundreds of protesters gathered outside the national parliament in Madrid to demonstrate against labor reforms.

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Associated Press Writer Ciaran Giles contributed to this report from Madrid

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As farmers in the Bootheel wait to hear if the Army Corps of Engineers will blow holes in the Birds Point levee, a move that would flood nearly 140,000 acres of farm land, farmers in the rest of the state are staring down water-related problems of their own.

A rainy April has meant that farmers haven’t been able to plant corn, and even if the weather remains dry and sunny, it could be at least a week before they can get into their fields.

“You can drive through the state and not see a tractor moving, which is unheard of,” said Blake Hurst, head of the Missouri Farm Bureau. “The whole state is shut down.”

Farmers were able to plant some corn in early April but will likely have to replant most of it. Some also applied chemicals, which could be washed away with all the rain. With seed and fertilizer prices high, that could mean farmers are watching profits wash away, too.

“We’ve got a few acres planted already. Not sure if we’ll have to replant,” said Craig Boschert, who farms 1,000 acres of corn and soybeans near Portage des Sioux, which is north of Florissant along the Mississippi River. “You sure don’t want to waste it. Corn’s pretty pricey right now. It’s not very often you spend three weeks without turning a wheel. That’s pretty rare.”

A late corn planting could eat into profits.

“If things get too late, that lowers the yield possibility,” said Pat Westhoff, director of the Food and Agricultural Policy Research Institute at the University of Missouri-Columbia. “You just don’t have the same yield potential, and then you risk frost damage in the fall.”

With corn fetching near record high prices, some farmers are feeling especially frustrated.

“I got my anhydrous (ammonia) and fertilizer on April 12. I got three days in, but it’s been wet and rainy and cold since then,” said Brent Hoerr, who farms corn and soybeans north of Hannibal. “I’ll probably have to replant.”

Some farmers could forgo corn planting altogether and switch to soybeans, which are planted later in the season.

“Agronomists say that planting after, say, 10th or 12th of May, you start losing yield,” said Gene Danekas, of the Missouri Field Office of the National Agricultural Statistics Service.

“Normally, earlier planted corn seems to do better, but if they can get most of the corn in in the next three weeks, we’ll be in reasonable shape. Soybeans we’ve got until June. The corn is really the big push.”

Some of the corn has already been sold on the futures market, making some farmers jittery about delivering the goods.

“Especially with commodity prices, with $7 corn, they’ve marketed a lot of it already,” Danekas said.

While farmers around the state keep their fingers crossed that the sun continues to shine, they’re keeping an eye on their fellow farmers in Mississippi County, whose fields could be under water soon.

Some worry that the farmers may not be covered by crop insurance because policies only cover natural disasters, not man-made ones.

“Everyone’s urging the corps to take every alternative possible,” Hurst said. “If they blow that levee, it’s 147,000 acres under water. That’s some of the best land in the world.”

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New Zealand’s central bank kept its benchmark interest rate at a record low as the nation recovers from the most devastating earthquake in 80 years, sending the country’s currency lower.

“The outlook for the New Zealand economy remains very uncertain,” Governor Alan Bollard said in a statement today in Wellington after leaving the official cash rate at 2.5 percent. “Given the outlook for core inflation and continued economic disruption from the earthquakes, the current level of the cash rate is likely to remain appropriate for some time.”

Bollard has scope to leave borrowing costs unchanged until late this year because economic growth is forecast to be as slow as 0.8 percent and price increases have been slower than forecast. He cut the key rate by half a percentage point in March after earthquakes in the southern city of Christchurch hurt consumer confidence and spending.

“Growth is coming from an extremely weak starting point,” Dominick Stephens, chief economist at Westpac Banking Corp. in Auckland, said before the release easy payday loans. “The pace of recovery from the recession has been tepid so far. There is still a lot of slack in the economy relative to its potential.”

The New Zealand dollar declined after Bollard’s decision and his statement that the economic outlook “remains very uncertain.” The currency slid to 80.45 U.S. cents as of 9:03 a.m. in Wellington from 80.80 cents just before the announcement.

“Higher oil prices and the elevated level of the New Zealand dollar are both unwelcome,” Bollard said. “They will have some dampening effect on economic activity.”

The currency is being buoyed by demand from carry traders who borrow in countries with low interest costs to fund purchases in markets with higher yields. They are seeing returns rebound from two-year lows as the U.S. Federal Reserve and Bank of Japan show no urgency to tighten monetary policy.

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Japan’s top automakers helped lead the Nikkei 225 index out of negative territory Friday after a key auto parts supplier announced the early resumption of some operations that had been halted after last month’s devastating earthquake.

Renesas Electronics Corp., a key provider of microprocessors that control brakes, engines and transmissions, said operations would resume early at its Naka factory in Ibaraki prefecture, where production was temporarily halted after the March 11 quake and tsunami that wreaked havoc along Japan’s northeastern coast.

Renesas had earlier said it intended to restart partial manufacturing at the Naka factory in July. The company said it is working “with more than 2,000 additional support workers dispatched from outside Renesas Electronics companies to help speed up the resumption of production as much as possible.”

Japan’s Nikkei 225 index rose 0.3 percent to 9,713.94, with automakers posting major gains. Toyota Motor Corp. rose 3 percent, Honda Motor Corp. bumped up by 2.3 percent and Nissan Motor Corp. jumped 3.6 percent.

However, some major Japanese exporters slipped as the yen gained against the U.S. dollar. Canon Inc. dropped 1.3 percent and Sony Corp no fax pay day loan. was down 0.6 percent.

The Nikkei was one of a handful of exchanges open in Asia on the Good Friday holiday.

South Korea’s Kospi index was flat at 2,198.30, and mainland China’s Shanghai Composite Index was down 0.6 percent to 3,007.63 as investors booked profits following a week of gains. The smaller Shenzhen Composite Index was down 0.7 percent to 1,273.01. Taiwan’s TAIEX rose 0.1 percent to 8,969.43.

Markets in Hong Kong, India, the Philippines, Australia, New Zealand and Singapore were closed.

On Wall Street, strong earnings from large companies like Apple Inc. and UnitedHealth lifted stocks broadly higher Thursday. Gains were spread across the market, with all 10 company groups that make up the S&P 500 index closing the day with gains.

The Dow rose 52 points to close at 12,506. The S&P 500 rose 7 points to 1,337. The Nasdaq rose 18 points to 2,820.

The euro rose $1.4577 from $1.4544 late Thursday in New York. The dollar dropped to 81.85 yen from 81.90 yen.

Oil was untraded in Asia due to the holiday.

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Asia’s share of the second tranche of European Union bonds sold to help finance aid to Ireland dropped by almost 50 percent, reflecting the securities’ longer maturity and weaker Japanese demand, the EU said.

Asian buyers accounted for 11 percent of the 4.6 billion euros ($6.5 billion) of seven-year securities issued to raise money for Ireland and Romania, the European Commission said. That compares with Asia’s 21.5 percent share of an EU sale of five-year bonds in January. It’s still above Asia’s 4 percent average for EU bond sales between December 2008 and this year.

The decline yesterday resulted from the inability of some Asian central banks to buy bonds with maturities of more than five years and from lower demand in earthquake-stricken Japan, said Gerassimos Thomas, the Luxembourg-based director in charge of the sale at the commission.

“The seven-year maturity is an odd maturity for a benchmark issue and the situation in Japan is obviously difficult,” Thomas said today by telephone. “Despite that, the transaction was an overwhelming success.”

The commission, the 27-nation EU’s executive arm, sold the seven-year bonds at a yield of 8 basis points more than the mid- swap rate. It said the books for the securities paying a coupon of 3.25 percent were oversubscribed more than three times and were closed in less than two hours.

AAA-Rated EFSM

As a result of the issue, the commission will disburse 3.4 billion euros to Ireland through the European Financial Stabilization Mechanism and 1.2 billion euros to Romania under the Balance of Payments facility, which is for EU nations outside the euro area. The AAA-rated EFSM is responsible for providing 22.5 billion euros of the Irish rescue package of 85 billion euros.

The U.K. represented 29 percent of yesterday’s allocation, Germany and Austria a combined 16 percent and France 9 percent, according to the commission quick cash. The Americas accounted for 6 percent and the Middle East and Africa a joint 4 percent, it said.

Asset managers and banks were the “drivers” of the transaction, each accounting for 36 percent, the commission said. Central banks and other “official” institutions represented 18 percent, while insurance and pension companies took 8 percent, according to the commission.

The commission-run EFSM plans to raise as much as 17.6 billion euros this year and 4.9 billion euros in 2012 for Ireland. This year, the EFSM intends to issue four to five benchmark bonds worth 3 billion euros to 5 billion euros each. Three of those sales, including the issues yesterday and in early January, are due in the first half.

Japanese Government

The separate European Financial Stability Facility, which is overseen by euro-area governments, is providing 17.7 billion euros to Ireland. In the EFSF’s inaugural bond sale in late January — 5 billion euros of five-year notes — Asian investors represented 38 percent of the allocation. The Japanese government bought more than a fifth of the issue.

The EFSF plans to raise up to 16.5 billion euros this year and 10 billion euros in 2012 to finance its share of the Irish bailout. Because of buffers meant to ensure its AAA credit rating, the EFSF is raising a total of almost 27 billion euros this year and in 2012 in order to lend 17.7 billion euros to Ireland.

The EFSF intends this year to sell a total of three benchmark bonds worth 3 billion euros to 5 billion euros. The second EFSF sale is due before July.

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Congress will probably approve a measure this week to keep the U.S. government in operation through April 8, Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois, the majority whip, said yesterday.

The legislation, proposed by House Republicans March 11, would reduce discretionary spending by about $6 billion and fund the U.S. government for three weeks, replacing a measure that expires March 18. Democrat Durbin, speaking on CNN’s “State of the Union,” said the Senate would take up the measure once it passes the House, where Republicans have majority control.

Enacting the sixth stopgap spending measure of fiscal 2011 is needed to prevent a government shutdown and will provide lawmakers and President Barack Obama with more time to work out a deal to fund U.S. programs through the fiscal year that ends Sept. 30, Durbin said. Congress needs to advance the measure to facilitate an agreement addressing the nation’s long-term fiscal straits, Durbin said.

“We’re not going to balance America’s budget in the next six months,” Durbin said. Republican lawmakers, led by the House, propose cutting $61 billion in government spending this year, which Durbin rejected as part of this year’s budget. “That goes way too far,” he said. The Democratic-controlled Senate rejected that proposal March 9.

Fiscal Issues

Long-term fiscal issues can’t be resolved in stopgap funding bills, Durbin said. “We’re looking at this in honest and hard terms about how we deal with this deficit, not in a matter of six months but over a period of time so that we responsibly cut spending and don’t do it at the expense of America’s economic growth.”

The three-week measure worked out between the White House and lawmakers from both parties would forestall a shutdown of non-essential government services after March 18 business card.

Senator Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican and the minority leader, said on “Fox News Sunday” yesterday that the short-term bill puts the U.S. on a “slow path” toward the $61 billion target.

While Senate Republicans will support the latest spending bill, they will insist on deeper budget cuts as a condition of funding the government through Sept. 30 and of voting to raise the debt ceiling, McConnell said.

“My prediction is not a single one of the 47 Republicans will vote to raise the debt ceiling unless it includes with it some credible effort to do something about our debt,” McConnell said.

Political Bickering

President Barack Obama on March 11 urged lawmakers to work out a deal that keeps the government running through the end of the fiscal year, saying the public expects them to “stop with the political bickering.”

“We can’t keep on running the government on two-week extensions,” Obama said. “That’s irresponsible.”

Representative Kevin McCarthy, a California Republican who is the majority whip, vowed a government shutdown wouldn’t happen and said Obama and Senate Democrats hold the keys to an agreement on financing government operations through the end of the fiscal year.

“We think that Democrats need to step up and actually produce something,” McCarthy said on “State of the Union.”

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Payroll gains in the U.S. probably accelerated in February, buoyed by more seasonable temperatures and a pickup in manufacturing, economists said before reports this week.

Employment increased by 190,000 workers this month, the most since May 2010, after a 36,000 gain in January, when winter storms depressed the count, according to the median forecast of 59 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News ahead of Labor Department data on March 4. The report may also show the jobless rate increased to 9.1 percent from 9 percent.

Business spending on new equipment and gains in exports explain why companies like Intel Corp. are investing in new factories and hiring. Nonetheless, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke in testimony before Congress this week may reiterate that he is dissatisfied with the pace of expansion and the amount of time it’s taking to bring down unemployment.

Factories remain a bulwark to the expansion Faxless payday loans. The Tempe, Arizona-based Institute for Supply Management’s manufacturing index, due March 1, held at 60.8 in February, the highest level since August 2005, economists forecast in the Bloomberg survey. Readings greater than 50 signal growth.

The jobs report is projected to show factories boosted staff by 25,000 workers this month after a 49,000 January gain that was the biggest since August 1998, the survey showed.

Factory Orders

Orders to U.S. factories probably rose 2 percent last month, the most since September, economists said ahead of a March 4 report from the Commerce Department.

“2010 was a strong recovery year across the board and 2011 is shaping up to be even better for our semiconductor, service and solar businesses,” Michael Splinter, chief executive officer of Applied Materials Inc., said in a teleconference with analysts on Feb. 24.

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The federal government is on the hot seat for allowing Internet service providers to impose usage limits and charge extra for customers who exceed them.

The issue came to a head last week, when the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission denied independent service providers the right to continue offering unlimited Internet plans.

Industry Minister Tony Clement issued a statement this week, saying he