Finance Blog number 1

OTTAWA

Russian-born tycoon Leonid Nevzlin, a former business partner of jailed Russian oil baron Mikhail Khodorkovsky, has bought a 20 percent stake in the dovish Haaretz daily for 140 million shekels ($41 million).

The deal leaves the paper’s founding Schocken family with a 60 percent share. Germany’s DuMont Schauberg publishing company holds the remaining equity.

Haaretz said Sunday that the cash injection would let it invest in unspecified “new technological opportunities.”

Nevzlin immigrated to Israel in 2003 after the Russian government started going after Yukos, the oil company he and Khodorkovsky created.

In 2008, he was convicted in Russia in absentia of conspiring to murder.

Israel deemed the evidence against him invalid and refused Moscow’s request to extradite him.

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Portugal’s Social Democrats unseated the Socialist government in an emphatic election victory Sunday, according to projections, giving the center-right party a strong mandate to enact a grinding austerity program amid a euro78 billion ($114 billion) bailout expected to pitch the country into deep recession.

Jose Socrates, the Socialist leader and the country’s prime minister for the past six years, conceded defeat long before official results were in.

“The Socialist Party lost these elections,” Socrates said in a speech, adding he would resign as party leader.

The Social Democratic Party collected between 38 and 42.5 percent in the ballot compared with about 25-29 percent for the center-left Socialists, according to an exit poll by broadcaster TVIndependente.

State broadcaster RTP’s projections were broadly similar, while the S.I.C channel gave the Social Democrats 40-41 percent and the Socialists 28-29 percent.

The Social Democrats had asked for a clear endorsement at the ballot box that would give them a strong mandate to make tax hikes and welfare cuts and introduce longer-term economic reforms such as making it easier to hire and fire workers _ a proposal parties on the left have balked at.

However, the result would leave the Social Democrats just shy of an absolute majority in the 230-seat Parliament where it will need approval for its policies.

Social Democrat leader Pedro Passos Coelho, probably the country’s next prime minister, may invite the smaller, conservative Popular Party to form a coalition government and bolster his party’s parliamentary support. The Popular Party was projected to come third with 11-14 percent.

Turnout was around 60 percent, the projections said, in line with recent elections.

As in Ireland, where the governing party lost heavily in an election after taking a bailout, the Socialists who have been in power for the past six years appeared to pay heavily for the country’s economic downturn.

The winner faces the formidable task of trying to nurse the debt-wracked country of 10.6 million back to financial health after a decade of negligible growth when it borrowed more than it could afford.

The next government inherits a record jobless rate of 12.6 percent and an anticipated economic contraction of 4 percent over the next two years in what is already one of Europe’s poorest countries. Necessary welfare and pay cuts, tax hikes and promises of strikes from trade unions will also present tough challenges.

Given its continuing difficulties, Portugal still hasn’t escaped the possibility of a financial catastrophe.

The new government must move quickly to enact more than 200 measures over the next two years, cutting expenditure and reforming social and economic sectors in accordance with the bailout terms. At the same time, it has to find a way to engineer the fresh growth that will allow it to free itself from debt in the long term.

Any sign that Portugal is not abiding by the terms of its bailout agreement with its eurozone partners and the International Monetary Fund will likely add fuel to Europe’s debt crisis. There are already signs of bailout fatigue among the continent’s wealthier nations, with Greece’s financial future remaining uncertain as its original bailout appears too small.

With reforms billed as vast changes in Portuguese expectations and way of life, keeping the political peace in Portugal won’t be easy.

The election _ the country’s second in two years _ came after months of political squabbles over how best to reduce the debt burden. Opposition parties refused to accept the Socialist government’s austerity plans, prompting the administration to resign and worsening Portugal’s financial plight.

All three main parties gave their blessing to the bailout deal, though they differ over how to meet the debt targets and other issues such as the possible privatization of public services.

The Portuguese Communist Party and its like-minded rival the Left Bloc, which are each projected to get less than 10 percent of the vote, have fought against the bailout demands but could potentially support the Socialists in Parliament against a right-of-center coalition.

The left-of-center parties are especially disinclined to accept reforms which scrap long-standing welfare entitlements and make it easier to hire and fire workers _ a measure the Social Democrats views as crucial.

Luisa Diogo, a 56-year-old high-school teacher, said the country’s near future is already mapped out and she felt “sad and powerless” while facing years of hardship.

“Europe is changing. All those postwar policies designed to give dignity to the old, the infirm and the unemployed are being taken away,” she said after voting in Lisbon.

The Bank of Portugal has predicted that economic hardship will be “particularly severe” in coming years, with an “unprecedented” drop in family income.

Over the past decade Portugal recorded average annual growth below 1 percent. It took advantage of cheap loans as a member of the 17-nation eurozone to build up debt, which financed its western European lifestyle of welfare entitlements and job security.

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Federal regulators are seeking to block VeriFone Systems Inc.’s proposed purchase of rival electronic-payment provider Hypercom Corp.

The Justice Department on Thursday filed a civil antitrust lawsuit in federal district court to stop the deal, warning it would harm competition in the market for point-of-sale terminals in the U.S. Such terminals are used by retailers and other firms to accept electronic payments with credit cards and debit cards.

VeriFone Systems announced plans to buy Hypercom in November in an all-stock deal valued at $485 million, including $65 million of debt.

Christine Varney, head of the Justice Department’s antitrust division, said that allowing VeriFone to buy Hypercom would likely drive up prices for point-of-sale terminals since the two companies together control more than 60 percent of the U.S. market for terminals used by the largest retailers.

Last month, Hypercom said it would sell its U.S. payment systems business to France’s Ingenico SA for $54 million in cash to alleviate antitrust concerns about the deal with VeriFone cash advance to savings account. Verifone would then acquire Hypercom’s networking products operations.

But that was not enough to satisfy the Justice Department since Ingenico is the only other significant provider of point-of-sale systems in the United States.

The sale of part of Hypercom’s business to Ingenico, the Justice Department said in a suit filed in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., would not create a new, independent competitor in the market and would make it easier for VeriFone and Ingenico to coordinate pricing for point-of-sale terminals.

“The proposed divestiture does not resolve the significant competitive concerns posed by the merger, and in some ways exacerbates them,” Varney said in a press release.

Verifone had no immediate comment. And Hypercom did not respond to requests for comment.

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U.S. manufacturing probably cooled in April to a pace consistent with steady growth in the industry that’s leading the expansion.

The Institute for Supply Management’s manufacturing index fell to 59.5 last month from 61.2 in March, according to the median estimate of 59 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News. Figures greater than 50 signal expansion. In February, the gauge reached 61.4, the highest since May 2004. Another report may show construction spending rose in March for the first time in four months.

Caterpillar Inc. and Cummins Inc. are among manufacturers profiting from growing emerging economies such as China, as well as increased capital investment in the U.S. Federal Reserve policy makers last week said the expansion was “proceeding at a moderate pace,” buoyed by stronger business spending.

“Manufacturing has been very strong,” Stephen Stanley, chief economist at Pierpont Securities LLC in Stamford, Connecticut, said before the report. “There is domestic strength being backed up by growth in certain areas of the world like Brazil and China.”

The Tempe, Arizona-based group will release the ISM results at 10 a.m. today New York time. Estimates ranged from 58 to 62.

Caterpillar, the world’s largest maker of construction equipment, posted first-quarter profit that topped analysts’ estimates and raised its full-year earnings forecast as sales surged in developing countries.

Global Growth

“We expect that the pace of world economic growth will support continued recovery in the key industries we serve,” Doug Oberhelman, chief executive officer at Caterpillar, said in a statement last week.

Manufacturers of machinery and equipment have outperformed the broader stock market. The Standard & Poor’s Supercomposite Machinery Index has gained 13 percent so far this year, compared with an 8.4 percent increase for the broader S&P 500 Index.

While the 2011 outlook has improved, the increase would have been greater if not for the impact of the disaster in Japan, Caterpillar said.

Toyota Motor Corp., the world’s largest automaker, on April 20 extended production cuts at its North American plants for more than a month because of limited parts availability after Japan’s March 11 earthquake and tsunami.

Auto Production

The company’s North American unit, which canceled five days of production from April 15 through April 25, said plants in the region will continue to be closed on Mondays and Fridays and run at 50 percent on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays through June 3. Toyota will also shut U.S. plants for one week starting May 30, it said.

Demand from countries like China and Brazil is spurring U.S. exports of machinery and consumer goods. Sales overseas reached the highest level on record in January before falling in February for the first time in six months, according to Commerce Department figures.

Columbus, Indiana-based Cummins, a maker of diesel engines, more than doubled its first-quarter income from a year earlier and boosted its forecasts for sales and profit this year.

“Our first-quarter results reflect continued strong growth in key international markets, especially China, India and Brazil,” Chief Executive Officer Tim Solso said in a conference call last week. “We are seeing significant growth in demand for our products and services in nearly every geographic market we serve instant payday loans.”

Tax Break

The business spending that helped lead the economy out of recession is being helped this year in part by President Barack Obama’s compromise at the end of last year with congressional Republicans on taxes. Companies can depreciate 100 percent of investments in capital equipment in 2011.

“Household spending and business investment in equipment and software continue to expand,” Fed policy makers said this week after their policy meeting.

The Commerce Department is projected to report a 0.4 percent rise in March construction spending after a 1.4 percent decrease a month earlier, according to the median forecast in the Bloomberg survey.

Bloomberg Survey ==================================================== Construct ISM ISM Spending Manu Prices MOM% Index Index ==================================================== Date of Release 05/02 05/02 05/02 Observation Period March April April —————————————————- Median 0.4% 59.5 83.0 Average 0.4% 59.6 81.5 High Forecast 2.0% 62.0 86.0 Low Forecast -0.8% 58.0 61.5 Number of Participants 37 59 15 Previous -1.4% 61.2 85.0 —————————————————- 4CAST Ltd. 1.0% 59.6 — ABN Amro Inc. — 59.0 — Action Economics 0.4% 59.5 83.0 Ameriprise Financial 0.3% 58.0 82.0 Banesto 0.2% 60.2 — Bank of Tokyo- Mitsubishi -0.8% 60.1 — Bantleon Bank AG — 60.4 — Barclays Capital 0.3% 60.5 — Bayerische Landesbank — 60.0 — BMO Capital Markets — 58.9 83.0 BNP Paribas 0.3% 58.0 — Capital Economics 0.5% 59.0 — CIBC World Markets — 60.0 — Citi -0.2% 59.0 81.0 ClearView Economics 0.5% 60.0 80.0 Commerzbank AG — 60.0 — Credit Agricole CIB — 60.0 — Credit Suisse 0.8% 59.5 86.0 Danske Bank — 59.5 — DekaBank 0.6% 59.2 — Desjardins Group 0.2% 59.0 — Deutsche Postbank AG — 59.0 — DZ Bank — 60.0 — First Trust Advisors 0.5% 60.5 — Helaba — 60.0 — HSBC Markets 0.8% 59.0 — Hugh Johnson Advisors — 62.0 — IDEAglobal 0.5% 60.0 82.0 Informa Global Markets 0.4% 58.5 80.0 ING Financial Markets — 60.5 83.0 Insight Economics 0.5% 60.0 — Intesa-SanPaulo 0.4% 60.2 — Janney Montgomery Scott 0.0% 60.2 — Jefferies & Co. 0.5% 58.0 — Landesbank Berlin 2.0% 59.5 — Landesbank BW 1.0% 59.5 — Maria Fiorini Ramirez — 59.5 — MET Capital Advisors — 61.7 61.5 Moody’s Analytics -0.4% 59.2 — Morgan Keegan & Co. -0.2% — — Natixis — 59.6 — Nord/LB — 58.5 83.0 OSK Group/DMG — 59.0 — Parthenon Group 0.1% 59.4 83.8 Pierpont Securities — 60.2 — PineBridge Investments 0.8% 58.0 — PNC Bank 1.0% 60.0 — Raiffeisenbank International — 58.0 — RBC Capital Markets — 59.0 — Scotia Capital — 58.7 — Societe Generale 0.5% 59.5 86.0 State Street Global Markets 0.2% 59.3 83.6 Stone & McCarthy Research 0.5% 59.5 — TD Securities 1.5% 58.5 — UniCredit Research — 60.0 — University of Maryland 0.2% 60.5 84.0 Wells Fargo & Co. 0.4% 59.4 — WestLB AG 0.3% 60.5 — Westpac Banking Co. 0.0% 59.9 — Wrightson ICAP -0.2% 59.5 — ====================================================

To contact the reporter on this story: Bob Willis in Washington at bwillis@bloomberg.net

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Treasuries rose as Japan’s nuclear crisis worsened, the U.S. and its allies prepared to attack Muammar Qaddafi’s ground forces in Libya, and speculation intensified that Portugal will need a bailout.

U.S. debt extended its advance after a government report showed new home sales unexpectedly fell. The five-year note yield dropped for the first time in a week on demand for a refuge after Japan said people in Tokyo should avoid giving tap water to infants and as workers struggled to reconnect power to a nuclear reactor damaged by the March 11 earthquake.

“You have to respect the headline risk still out there with all of the uncertainty coming from Asia, the Middle East and Europe, which is giving the market a bid,” said Paul Horrmann, a broker in New York at Tradition Asiel Securities Inc., an interdealer broker.

The yield on the benchmark 10-year note dropped five basis points, or 0.05 percentage point, to 3.28 percent at 10:20 a.m. in New York, according to Bloomberg Bond Trader prices. The price of the 3.625 percent note maturing in February 2021 rose 3/8, or $3.75 per $1,000 face amount, to 102 27/32.

Five-year note yields decreased four basis points to 2 percent, while yields on two-year notes were two basis points lower at 0.63 percent. Yields on 30-year bonds slid four basis points to 4.40 percent.

Yields on Portugal’s and Ireland’s debt rose to record highs on concern euro-area leaders are struggling to find a comprehensive solution to the region’s debt crisis. Stocks fell, pushing the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index down 0.7 percent.

Radiation Levels

Treasuries rose as radiation levels at Japan’s Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear power plant hampered efforts to repair reactors and a U.S.-led alliance considered attacking Qaddafi’s ground forces to augment the no-fly zone imposed in Libya.

Portugal’s Prime Minister Jose Socrates faces a vote in parliament today against his deficit-cutting plan that threatens to push the country toward early elections and the need for a European Union bailout.

The nation’s government may collapse, Nicola Mai, a JPMorgan Chase & Co. economist in London, said in a research note to clients yesterday.

“The likelihood that the Portuguese government will fall this week looks high,” Mai wrote. “This suggests that the sovereign will likely access” the European Union’s rescue fund “in the near term, despite the current government’s efforts to avoid this outcome.”

U.S. Housing

Treasuries extended their gains as the Commerce Department reported that purchases of new homes fell 16.9 percent in February after slumping almost 9.6 percent in the previous month. The median forecast of 77 economists in a Bloomberg News survey was for an increase of 2.1 percent.

The U.S. economy grew at a 3 percent annual rate in the fourth quarter, according to the median forecast of 81 economists in a Bloomberg News survey before the Commerce Department’s report on March 25. The government reported last month a 2.8 percent pace of expansion.

The difference between yields on 10-year notes and Treasury Inflation Protected Securities, or TIPS, has narrowed to 2.39 percentage points from 2.57 percentage points on March 8, which was the widest since 2008. The spread, known as the break-even rate, is a gauge of expectations for consumer prices over the life of the debt.

The 10-year note yield will advance to 3.92 percent by year-end, according to the average forecast in a Bloomberg survey of financial companies, with the most recent forecasts given the heaviest weightings.

Fed’s Outlook

The Federal Reserve said following its March 15 meeting that “conditions in the labor market appear to be improving gradually” and higher energy prices will have a temporary effect while reaffirming its plan to buy $600 billion of Treasuries through June to keep borrowing costs low.

Dallas Fed President Richard W. Fisher said today in a speech in Berlin that he sees “extraordinary speculative activity” in the U.S. after the central bank pumped record amounts of stimulus into the economy.

Fisher, who votes on monetary policy this year, reiterated his view that no further monetary stimulus will be needed after the Fed finishes its planned debt purchases.

The central bank is scheduled to purchase $6.5 billion to $8.5 billion of debt maturing from May 2018 to February 2021 today, according to the New York Fed’s website.

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A new language can be heard on the slopes of this popular ski resort in northern Japan: Chinese.

Foreign tourists and investors have flocked to scenic Niseko in recent years, giving this rural region a badly needed economic jolt. It is a rare success story that, if replicated, could help lead Japan out of two decades of stagnation.

Australians were the first to arrive in the early 2000s, followed by skiers from Hong Kong, Singapore and elsewhere in Asia. Mainland Chinese, while still relatively few, are the latest _ and potentially the biggest _ wave.

“This place has so much potential. It’s such a nice break from the chaotic situation in China,” Guy Cui, a 48-year-old Beijing resident in the financial industry, said as he stepped out of a spacious, modern cabin and squinted in the sunlight.

Last year, he came with 25 friends and relatives over the Lunar New Year holiday. This year, the group swelled to 52. “This is the trend of the future,” Cui predicted, prompting a friend to joke that Niseko will be overrun with Chinese in 10 years.

In some ways, what’s happening here is a reversal of roles: 20 years ago, Japan was dispatching rich tourists and buying up trophy real estate around the world, prompting people to worry that Japan Inc. would take over the world. Now, Japan’s growing dependence on China and other newly wealthy neighbors is creating some consternation at home.

“It’s rather like the American fear of the Japanese in the late ’80s. It’s fear of these rich outsiders coming in and dominating,” said Alex Kerr, an author and sustainable tourism consultant in Japan. “That’s what happens when a country that thought of itself as the unquestioned dominating leader suddenly discovers that there are others with more money.”

Japan has set the ambitious goal of tripling its number of foreign tourists from 8.6 million last year to 25 million by 2020. With its population shrinking and economy flat, Japan must open up to trade, investment and tourism, Prime Minister Naoto Kan declares, if it is to reverse a slow decline. But it’s a tall order in this historically insular country.

Foreigners account for about half the hotel nights in Niseko during the winter, and they’re snapping up condominiums too. Major developers from Hong Kong and Malaysia plan to turn the place into an Asian Whistler, the Canadian ski resort.

Residents welcome the new money but worry about overdevelopment, the environment and, in particular, China’s rise.

Japanese media have played up Chinese purchases of forest land around Niseko, spurring rumors that the buyers plan to strip the hills of lumber and drain the streams of water _ fears that appear to be unfounded.

“We’re not sure who’s doing what with that land,” said Yukio Yamamoto, a Niseko native whose house now stands in the shadow of sleek holiday condominiums. “We want people to come here to the community and invest in it and care for the land.”

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Set amid rolling hills on the island of Hokkaido, Niseko has plenty going for it: hot springs, clean air, fresh seafood, stunning views of Mount Yotei _ an extinct volcano that resembles Mount Fuji _ and 45 feet (14 meters) of powder snow a year, one of the highest levels among resorts worldwide.

It was popular among Japanese during the country’s economic heyday, but went into decline after domestic skiing peaked in the early 1990s. Now, the main village of Hirafu has morphed into a bustling hodgepodge of condominiums, cabins and pubs with a distinctly international feel.

In early February, the place was swamped with families from the Chinese-speaking world, particularly Hong Kong, for the Lunar New Year, marked with fireworks at the base of Mount Annapuri.

Property agents say Hong Kong and Singapore buyers account for 70-80 percent of condominium and land purchases, with interest emerging from Malaysia and mainland China. Japanese developers are largely absent, still gun-shy from an early 1990s property market collapse.

“The Japanese are complacent,” said C.J. Wysocki, a Hong Kong-based American lawyer for GE’s aircraft business. He built an apartment building with 10 units in Hirafu and sold several to wealthy Asians. “The foreigners are the ones who are saying this place is amazing, it needs to be preserved.”

Foreign tourists spent nearly 200,000 hotel nights in area accommodations last winter, up from just 7,800 eight years ago, according to the Niseko Promotion Board, which has hired Korean and Chinese speakers to field questions and maintain its foreign language websites.

Mainland Chinese visitors accounted for 6,100 nights and are expected to top 40,000 within five years, said Tomokazu Aoki, the board’s deputy administrative director.

Hokkaido has seen a spike in Chinese visitors after the 2008 hit movie, “If You Are the One,” which introduced the island’s rugged beauty to Chinese viewers.

They aren’t big skiers yet _ most hopscotch the island on bus tours to hot springs, lakes and discount shopping centers. But the sport is catching on _ 20 million now ski, up from 5 million a couple of years ago, the China Ski Association estimates _ and demand for resort vacations is expected to increase.

“The wealth will grow, the skiing population will grow, people will want to be more international,” said Thomas Liu, a Hong Kong native who lives in Beijing and came to ski with his family.

Malaysia’s YTL Corp. bought one of Niseko’s four main ski areas, including the Niseko Hilton, for $66 million last year. Pacific Century Premium Developments, the real estate arm of Hong Kong businessman Richard Li’s PCCW, bought the nearby Hanazono Resort in 2007.

Both plan upscale condominiums and villages with boutiques and fine dining to remedy the lack of shopping that is essential to drawing Asian tourists.

“Niseko is such a natural destination for what we call new wealth,” said Francis Yeoh, the managing director of YTL, who likened Niseko’s potential to the beach resorts of Bali in Indonesia or Phuket in Thailand.

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Stocks are falling in midday trading as worries about another jump in oil prices overshadow a solid report on the U.S. job market.

Crude oil rose more than 1 percent on Friday to trade above $103 a barrel, its highest level since September 2008. Markets have been rattled over the past two weeks as higher oil prices threaten to undermine the economic recovery.

The Dow Jones industrial average is down 51 points, or 0.4 percent, to 12,206 payday loan no faxing. The S&P 500 index is down 7, or 0.5 percent, at 1,324. The Nasdaq is down 13, or 0.4 percent, to 2,787.

News on the U.S. labor market was encouraging. The government reported that employers added 192,000 jobs in February. The unemployment rate dipped to 8.9 percent from 9 percent the previous month.

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Bank of England Governor Mervyn King said increasing the benchmark interest rate to make a gesture in the fight against inflation would be “self-defeating,” as he predicted above-target price gains will persist through 2011.

“To raise interest rates just to make a signal, a gesture is self-defeating,” King told lawmakers in London today. It would “undermine the whole point of this framework,” he added.

Central bank officials split four ways on policy last month amid differences on the outlook for inflation after consumer prices rose an annual 4 percent in January, double the bank’s target. King said today there was no evidence that businesses and households think high inflation is here to stay.

“I don’t believe we’ve yet seen significant evidence of a pickup in medium-term inflation expectations,” he told Parliament’s cross-party Treasury Committee. Still, it’s “reasonable to believe that if we continue to experience above- target inflation for long enough there could be an upside risk to inflation expectations.”

The pound fell 0.2 percent today and traded at $1.6266 at 15:33 p.m. in London. The yield on two-year government bonds climbed 1 basis point to 1.39 percent.

The nine-member Monetary Policy Committee last month kept the benchmark rate at a record low of 0.5 percent and its bond- buying program at 200 billion pounds ($326 billion).

Policy Split

Policy maker Andrew Sentance said that a half-point rate increase was needed, while Chief Economist Spencer Dale and Martin Weale argued for a quarter-point increase, minutes of the meeting showed. Adam Posen maintained a push to increase bond purchases.

In its quarterly Inflation Report last month, the Bank of England said its central projection was for inflation to peak at 4.5 percent in the third quarter and slow to below 3 percent, the upper limit of the target, in the first three months of 2012.

King said today a decline in the pound, along with higher energy and food costs, spurred price increases payday loans. Sterling has fallen about 24 percent on a trade-weighted basis since the start of 2007, making imports more expensive. Oil prices have risen above $100 a barrel and in the past 12 months corn has jumped 92 percent while wheat gained 62 percent.

Policy makers’ quarterly economic forecasts published last month assumed oil prices would be “broadly flat,” though they’ve risen since, King said. The path for costs isn’t clear, and that muddies the outlook for inflation.

Middle East

“An awful lot will hinge on how far this rise in oil prices persists, or whether as the political situation in the Middle East begins to become clarified it falls back again,” he said. “These are very uncertain factors and these are the things that do move inflation around.”

King said inflation may be tempered by the squeeze on the economy from government budget cuts. That view was supported by the European Commission, which today lowered its forecast for U.K. growth in 2011 to 2 percent from 2.2 percent in November and said it expects inflation to subside later this year.

“There will be a choppy recovery,” King said. “We’re expecting the recovery to continue,” he added, though “not at a particularly exciting rate.”

Above-target inflation forced King to write his fifth consecutive letter of explanation to Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne last month and he may need to write more “through the rest of this year,” he said. He also said there’s no agreement between them to keep the key rate low to offset the fiscal squeeze.

“That kind of conversation has never taken place,” he said. “I’m confident he’s not trying to hint to the Monetary Policy Committee about what we should and should not do.”

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Albert Pujols last year was the fourth-highest-paid employee of any St. Louis company, according to a Post-Dispatch review of publicly available data. But he could rocket to the top spot if he gets the deal he wants from the Cardinals in ongoing contract negotiations.

David Farr

$24.8 million

chief executive

Emerson

Farr is region’s highest-paid business leader, but $16 million of his 2010 earnings will come in stock awards set to pay out in 2014.

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Matt Holliday

$17 million

outfielder

St. Louis Cardinals

After the 2009 season, the Redbirds signed Holliday to a seven-year deal worth $120 million, the team’s biggest contract ever.

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Ahmad Chatila

$16.8 million

chief executive

MEMC

Chatila started at MEMC in 2009, the most recent year figures available, and received $14.5 million in a one-time award of stock options.

—–

Albert Pujols

$16 million

first baseman

St. Louis Cardinals

Some of Pujols’ paycheck last year was deferred, but he’s due another $16 million this season, the final one in his seven-year contract guaranteed unsecured personal loan. He also earned an estimated $8 million in endorsements from sponsors, according to Bloomberg Business Week.

—–

Chris Carpenter

$14.5 million

pitcher

St. Louis Cardinals

Carpenter is nearing the end of a five-year, $64 million deal. The team has the option to extend his contract in 2012 for $15 million.

—–

Hugh Grant

$13.2 million

chief executive

Monsanto Corp.

Grant’s $1.4 million annual salary was frozen last year, but stock options and a one-time stock award of $5.6 million boosted his pay considerably.

—–

Sam Bradford

$13 million

quarterback

St. Louis Rams

The Rams’ rookie signal-caller just finished the first season of his six-year, $78 million contract. If he meets certain incentives, he could earn up to $86 million.

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Sources: Securities and Exchange Commission, ESPN, staff research.

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