Finance Blog number 1

Leaders of the world

Looking for health insurance? Find a variety of affordable medical insurance plans.

The U.S. bond market is neutralizing budget deficits as an election-year campaign weapon.

Interest payments will cost the government 3.1 percent of gross domestic product this year, according to Office of Management and Budget and International Monetary Fund data compiled by Bloomberg. That

The team at Payday Loan Company is ready to tell anyone yes for a payday loans or cash advance for up to $1000 cash.

The body of a woman wearing a life vest was recovered by Italian coast guard divers Saturday from a narrow underwater corridor of the capsized cruise ship Costa Concordia, raising the death toll to 12 in the week-old accident that has sent some light fuel spilling into the Mediterranean off Tuscany.

Coast Guard Cmdr. Cosimo Nicastro told The Associated Press that the victim was found during a particularly risky inspection of an evacuation staging point at the ship’s rear.

“The corridor was very narrow, and the divers’ lines risked snagging” on objects in the passageway, Nicastro said. To permit the coast guard divers to get into the area, Italian navy divers had preceded them, setting off charges to blast holes for easier entrance and exit, he said.

The woman’s nationality and identity were not immediately known.

Before the corpse was found, 21 people were listed as missing. One of the women on the list is a Peruvian crew member, the others are passengers.

Three bodies were found in the waters near the ship in the first hours after the accident’ since then the rest of the victims have all been found inside the Concordia, apparently unable to get off the ship during a chaotic evacuation via lifeboats and later by helicopters. Some survivors jumped off and swam to safety.

The Concordia hit a reef and ran aground on Jan. 14, while passengers dined, about two hours after the ship had set sail from the port of Civitavecchia on the Tyrrhenian Sea. Costa Crociere has said the captain had deviated without permission from the vessels in an apparent maneuver to sail close to Giglio, a Tuscan island, to impress passengers aboard.

Search and rescue efforts for survivors and bodies have meant that an operation to remove heavy fuel in the Concordia’s tanks hasn’t yet begun, although specialized equipment has been standing by for days.

On Saturday, light fuel, apparently from machinery aboard the capsized Costa Concordia, was detected near the ship.

But Nicastro said there was no indication that any of the nearly 500,000 gallons (2,200 metric tons) of heavy fuel oil has leaked from the ship’s double-bottomed tanks. He said the leaked substance appears to be diesel, which is used to fuel rescue boats and dinghies and as a lubricant for ship machinery.

There are 185 tons of diesel and lubricants on board the crippled vessel, which is lying on its side just outside Giglio’s port. Nicastro described the light fuel’s presence in the sea as “very light, very superficial” and appearing to be under control.

Although attention has been concentrated on the heavy fuel oil in the tanks, “we must not forget that on that ship there are oils, solvents, detergents, everything that a city of 4,000 people needs,” Franco Gabrielli, the head of Italy’s civil protection agency, told reporters in Giglio.

Gabrielli, who is leading rescue, search and anti-pollution efforts for the Concordia, was referring to the roughly 3,200 passengers and 1,000 crew who were aboard the cruise liner when it ran into the reef, and then, with sea water rushing into a 70-meter (230-foot) gash in its hull, listed and finally fell onto its side.

Considering all the substances aboard the Concordia, “contamination of the environment, ladies and gentlemen, already occurred” when the cruise liner capsized, Gabrielli told a news conference.

Vessels equipped with machinery to suck out the light fuel oil were in the area, officials told Italian TV.

Earlier on Saturday, crews removed oil-absorbing booms used to prevent environmental damage in case of a leak. Originally white, the booms were grayish.

Divers resumed their search of the wreckage Saturday after data indicated the cruise ship had stabilized in the sea off Tuscany. Italian news reports said that the divers were also trying to locate the captain’s safe, in case it might contain documentation useful to the criminal probe.

The Italian captain, Francesco Schettino, is under house arrest for investigation of alleged manslaughter, causing a shipwreck and abandoning the ship before all were evacuated. Schettino insists he helped coordinate the evacuation from Giglio’s docks after leaving the ship when the Concordia lurched to one side.

The search had been suspended Friday after the Concordia shifted, prompting fears the ship could roll off a rocky ledge of sea bed and plunge deeper into the sea. An abrupt shift could also cause a leak in the Concordia’s fuel tanks, polluting the pristine waters around Giglio, part of a seven-island Tuscan archipelago.

Source

Officials say a German woman who was listed among the missing from the cruise ship grounding off Italy has been located alive in Germany, bringing the number of people still unaccounted for to 21.

The Grosseto prefect’s office says Gertrud Goergens identified herself to police. Her name was removed from the official list of missing late Wednesday.

Italian authorities released the names of the missing Wednesday as the search for passengers and crew aboard the Costa Concordia was suspended because the ship shifted slightly from its perch on rocks off the Tuscan island of Giglio.

So far eleven bodies have been recovered; 21 people remain unaccounted for.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP’s earlier story is below.

ROME (AP) _ The first victim from the Costa Concordia diaster was identified Wednesday _ a 38-year-old violinist from Hungary who had been working as an entertainer on the stricken cruise ship.

Sandor Feher’s body was found inside the wreck, and identified by his mother who traveled to the Italian city of Grosetto, according to Hungary’s foreign ministry.

The $450 million Costa Concordia cruise ship was carrying more than 4,200 passengers and crew when it slammed into a reef Friday off the tiny Italian island of Giglio after the captain made an unauthorized maneuver. The death toll stands at 11, with 22 people still missing.

Italian rescue workers suspended operations Wednesday after the cruise ship shifted slightly on the rocks near the Tuscan coast, creating deep concerns about the safety of divers and firefighters searching for the missing.

Jozsef Balog, a pianist working with Feher on the ship, told the Blikk newspaper that Feher was wearing a lifejacket when he decided to return to his cabin to pack his violin. Feher was last seen on deck en route to the area where he was supposed to board a lifeboat.

According to Balog, Feher helped put lifejackets on several crying children before returning to his cabin.

Italian authorities earlier released the names of 24 passengers and 4 crew still missing, a list that includes six bodies which have been pulled from the ship since Monday. The missing included 13 Germans, six Italians, four French, two Americans and one person each from Hungary, India and Peru.

Instruments attached to the ship detected the movements early Wednesday even though firefighters who spent the night searching the area above water for the missing could not detect any movement.

“As a precautionary measure, we stopped the operations this morning, in order to verify the data we retrieved from our detectors, and understand if there actually was a movement, and if there has been one, how big this was,” said Coast Guard Cmdr. Filippo Marini.

By late afternoon, officials still did not have enough data to reassure them that the ship had stopped resettling. The latest victims were discovered after navy divers exploded holes in the hull of the ship to allow easier access.

Premier Mario Monti offered his first comment on the disaster Wednesday, telling a press conference in London that it “could and should” have been avoided.

Monti also thanked the residents of Giglio, which has a wintertime population of about 900, for opening their doors to the 4,200 refugees who struggled ashore with nothing and were given clothes, food and shelter.

And he acknowledged concerns about the 500,000 gallons of fuel still aboard the ship.

“Everybody can be assured that the Italian authorities are both taking care of the prevention and limitation of any environmental negative implications of this accident, as well as in the first place providing all the necessary help to those affected.”

Passengers were still making their way home, with consistent claims that crew members were ill-prepared to handle an emergency evacuation.

“The crew members had no specialized training _ the security man doubled as the cook and bartender, so obviously they did not know what to do,” passenger Claudia Fehlandt told Chile’s Channel 7 television after being embraced by relatives at Santiago’s airport.

“In fact, the lifeboats, even the ones that did get lowered, they did not know how to lower them and they cut the ropes with axes,” she said.

Much of the focus has been on the cruise ship captain’s actions.

In a dramatic phone conversation released Tuesday, a coast guard official was heard ordering Capt. Francesco Schettino, who had abandoned the ship with his first officers, back on board to oversee the evacuation. But Schettino resisted, saying it was too dark and the ship was tipping dangerously.

“You go on board! Is that clear? Do you hear me?” the Coast Guard officer shouted as the Schettino sat safe in a life raft and frantic passengers struggled to escape after the ship rammed into a reef off the Tuscan coast. “It is an order. Don’t make any more excuses. You have declared ‘Abandon ship.’ Now I am in charge.”

The officer confronted him with an expletive-laced order to get back on board, which has quickly entered the Italian lexicon. The four-word phrase has become a Twitter hashtag and Italian media have shown photos of T-shirts bearing the command.

Schettino, later in the same exchange, denied having abandoned the ship, replying that he had tripped and fell.

“I did not abandon a ship with 100 people on board, the ship suddenly listed and we were thrown into the water,” Schettino said, according to a transcript published Wednesday in the Corriere della Sera paper.

Jailed since the accident, Schettino appeared Tuesday before a judge in Grosseto, where he was questioned for three hours. The judge ordered him held under house arrest _ a decision that federal prosecutors are planning to challenge.

Schettino’s lawyer, Bruno Leporatti, told a news conference Wednesday in Grosetto that house arrest made sense given there was no evidence the captain intended to flee. He cited the fact that the captain coordinated the evacuation from the shore after leaving the ship.

“He never left the scene,” Leporatti said. “There has never been a danger of flight.”

Leporatti added the captain was upset by the accident, contrary to depictions in the Italian media that he did not appear to show regret.

“He is a deeply shaken man, not only for the loss of his ship, which for a captain is a grave thing, but above all for what happened and the loss of human life,” the lawyer said.

Criminal charges including manslaughter and abandoning ship are expected to be filed by prosecutors in coming days. Schettino faces a possible 12 years in prison if convicted of the abandoning ship charge alone.

_____

Barry reported from Milan.

Source

FRANKFURT

+%3Cp%3ETORONTO%97The+Toronto+stock+market+opened+higher+as+oil+and+gold+prices+rose+and+traders+digested+positive+economic+news.%3C%2Fp%3E+%3Cp%3EThe+S%26P%2FTSX+composite+index+was+up+25.01+points+at+11%2C660.39.%3C%2Fp%3E+%3Cp%3EThe+Canadian+dollar+added+0.24+of+a+cent+to+96.67+cents+US%2C+with+gains+accelerating+after+the+release+of+statistics+showing+wholesale+trade+grew+more+than+expected+in+October.%3C%2Fp%3E+%3Cp%3EWall+Street+also+opened+higher%2C+with+the+Dow+Jones+up+46.7+points+11%2C913%2C+the+Nasdaq+ahead+12.4+points+at+2%2C567.73+and+the+broader+S%26P+500+up+4.7+points+at+1%2C224.34.%3C%2Fp%3E+%3Cp%3EAnd+commodities+were+mostly+higher%2C+with+the+January+oil+contract+up+85+cents+to+%2494.38.%3C%2Fp%3E+%3Cp%3EThe+February+gold+contract+added+US%245.70+to+US%241%2C603.60+per+ounce%2C+while+copper+shed+a+penny+to+US%243.32+per+pound.%3C%2Fp%3E++%3Cp%3E%3Ca+href%3D%27http%3A%2F%2Fwww.thestar.com%2Farticle%2F1104172%27+rel%3D%27nofollow%27%3ESource%3C%2Fa%3E%3C%2Fp%3E+

The Toronto stock market was set for a higher open Tuesday as crude oil prices rose and traders took in positive data from Europe

Ford Motor Co. said Thursday it will resume paying a dividend in March, more than five years after it halted payments because of its financial problems.

The company’s board approved a quarterly dividend of 5 cents per share. It will be paid on March 1 to shareholders of record as of Jan. 31.

“We have made tremendous progress in reducing debt and generating consistent positive earnings and cash flow,” Executive Chairman Bill Ford said in a statement. “The board believes it is important to share the benefits of our improved financial performance with our shareholders.”

Its stock pared its loss for the day after the announcement. Ford shares fell 4 cents to $11.04 per share in midday trading. Before the dividend was announced, it had traded as low as $9.84 earlier in the session.

The company stopped paying a dividend in September 2006, when it was deeply in debt. The company lost $12.7 billion that year fast cash advance.

But since then Ford has shed brands like Volvo and Mercury, closed factories, offered buyouts to thousands of employees and earned praise for new products like the Ford Explorer SUV and Ford Fiesta subcompact. Ford reported its tenth straight profitable quarter in the third quarter of this year, and it earned $6.6 billion in 2010.

“We have demonstrated our capability to finance our plans and we are confident that we can begin to pay a dividend that will be sustainable through economic cycles,” Chief Financial Officer Lewis Booth said in a statement.

Ford spokesman Todd Nissen said the New York Stock Exchange halted trading of Ford shares temporarily just before the noon announcement. Trading resumed about 10 minutes later.

Source

House Republicans intend to propose a gradual increase in Medicare premiums for wealthy seniors to help cover the cost of renewing Social Security payroll tax cuts and benefits for the long-term unemployed, officials said Wednesday.

The precise details remain to be worked out as the leadership consults with rank-and-file Republicans about the legislation, which has grown significantly in recent days and is expected on the House floor next week.

GOP officials described the plan on condition of anonymity because no final decision has been made.

In addition to the extension of payroll tax cuts and jobless benefits that are at the heart of President Barack Obama’s jobs program, House Republicans plan to include a provision to avert a 27 percent cut in payments to doctors who treat Medicare patients. All three face a Dec. 31 deadline for action.

In addition, GOP leaders eager to attract votes for the measure are likely to include conservative-backed provisions to speed the construction of a controversial oil pipeline from Canada to Texas and block a proposed Environmental Protection Agency rule restricting toxic emissions from industrial boilers.

Across the Capitol, Democrats set the stage for a second politically charged vote in the Senate later in the week on their proposed surtax on million-dollar earners to help pay for the renewal of the tax cuts and unemployment benefits.

Senate Republicans blocked an earlier bill along the same lines, and the Democrats’ decision to call for a second showdown comes as they seek to brand GOP lawmakers as protectors of the rich at the expense of the middle class.

The move is “nothing more than another bill that’s been designed to fail, so Democrats can have another week of fun and games on the Senate floor while tens of millions of working Americans go another week wondering whether they’re going to see a smaller paycheck at the end of the year,” said Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky.

Republicans oppose higher taxes, and GOP aides in the House pointed out that the proposed higher Medicare premiums for the wealthy would fall on some of the same individuals whom Democrats want to tax.

Senate Republicans included higher premiums in their own alternative measure last week. It would have required seniors earning more than $750,000 to pay more for Medicare Part B, which covers doctor visits and other costs apart from the expense of hospitalization.

According to Medicare’s website, monthly Part B premiums will be $99.90 in 2012 for beneficiaries with individual income of $85,000 or less. The cost rises gradually, reaching $319.70 for anyone whose income exceeds $214,000.

The dispute over taxes is one of several that must be settled before legislation can reach Obama’s desk, and Democrats sought to put the onus on Republicans.

Republicans have said in recent days that to cover the cost of doctor fees under Medicare, they intend to cut funds from the year-old health care bill that is the president’s signature domestic achievement.

Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., who is chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, dismissed that approach during the day as “not a good idea. That’s going to cause more problems than it solves,” he said, and urged Republicans to concentrate on drafting legislation that can clear both houses.

Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, and other GOP leaders must contend not only with Senate Democrats, but also with disgruntled lawmakers inside their own party who are reluctant to extend a payroll tax cut that they claim has failed to produce any jobs. The proposal to take a piece out of the president’s health care bill is likely to be an attractive addition to these Republicans, as is the renewal of current reimbursement rates for doctors who treat Medicare patients.

Officials said the emerging House bill is also likely to extend several features of Medicare that would otherwise revert to lower payments for some hospitals as well as for ambulances in rural areas, some mental health services and therapy services from non-hospital providers.

Source

Asian stock markets edged higher Thursday as speculation that China might ease its monetary policy soothed fears that the German economy _ Europe’s strongest _ may be succumbing to the continent’s debt crisis.

Benchmark oil hovered above $96 per barrel while the dollar fell against the euro and the yen.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng posted a 0.5 percent gain at 17,944.72. South Korea’s Kospi rose 0.4 percent to 1,790.29 and Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 gained marginally to 4,052.30. Benchmarks in Singapore and Taiwan also rose.

Japan’s Nikkei 225, reopening after a one-day public holiday, fell 1.3 percent to 8,208.47. Shares in India, Malaysia and Indonesia also fell.

Speculation that China’s central bank was aiming to ease its tight monetary policy helped spur a wave of buying in Hong Kong, analysts said. But the official Xinhua News Agency said Thursday the move _ lowering reserve requirements for six rural banks in eastern Zhejiang _ was administrative rather a policy shift. The banks’ reserve requirements had been raised a year earlier after they failed to lend enough to farming businesses.

There have been signs that China’s campaign of interest rate hikes and credit controls to tame stubbornly high inflation has been working, giving it leeway to ease monetary policy as the world economy stumbles.

“The positive catalyst today is the expectation that the China tightening cycle might loosen,” said Jackson Wong, vice president at Tanrich Securities in Hong Kong.

The chatter helped push up Chinese banking shares. Hong Kong-listed Agricultural Bank of China Ltd. jumped 3.3 percent and Industrial & Commercial Bank of China, the country’s biggest commercial lender, rose 1.9 percent.

Global markets were spooked Wednesday by the poor results at an auction of German debt, which met with only 60 percent demand. Germany’s Financial Agency blamed “the extraordinarily nervous market environment payday loans.”

The weak buying suggests that Europe’s crisis might be infecting strong nations that are crucial to keeping the euro currency afloat. Germany bears much of the burden of bailing out weaker neighbors such as Greece and Portugal.

Analysts at Credit Agricole CIB said the European debt crisis remains “the major concern for the markets” and that the German debt auction signals the spread of “the contagion to hard core economies” in the region.

Borrowing costs for Italy and Spain rose from levels that already were considered dangerously high. Europe lacks the resources to bail out those countries, its third- and fourth-biggest economies.

In the U.S., the government released a mixed batch of economic reports. Slightly more people applied for unemployment benefits last week, a sign that layoffs continue.

Consumer spending was sluggish but incomes rose a bit more than expected. Orders for long-lasting manufactured products fell for a second month and business investment dropped off.

The Dow fell 2.1 percent to close at 11,257.55. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index fell 2.2 percent to 1,161.79. The Nasdaq fell 2.4 percent to 2,460.08.

U.S. markets will be closed on Thursday for the Thanksgiving holiday and will have shortened hours on Friday.

Benchmark crude for January delivery was up 4 cents at $96.21 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract fell $1.84 to settle at $96.17 in New York on Wednesday.

In currency trading, the euro rose to $1.3379 from $1.3326 late Wednesday in New York. The dollar dropped to 77.07 yen from 77.35 yen.

Source