Amid the reams of census data released Thursday showing an unexpected population loss in St. Louis, perhaps no detail was more striking than this:
In a belt of neighborhoods across the near south side, places around Tower Grove Park and Benton Park that have seen countless homes rehabbed and new businesses open in the last decade, the number of actual residents declined by at least 10 percent.
In Tower Grove East and Shaw, Fox Park and McKinley Heights, population fell faster than the city as a whole. The south side contributed almost as much to St. Louis’ 8 percent population drop as did the continuing exodus up north.
The difference is that while people have flowed out of north St. Louis for decades, many of these south city neighborhoods have in recent years seemed to rebound, acquiring the trappings of urban revitalization, from coffee shops to kickball leagues to parents pushing strollers.
It’s a reminder that progress and population growth don’t always move as one and also that the challenges facing a city still struggling to grow again
South Korea’s current-account surplus narrowed to an 11-month low in January as imports surged amid an economic recovery and rising energy demand.
The surplus was $229 million, compared with $2.11 billion in December, the Bank of Korea said in a statement in Seoul today. The current account is the broadest measure of trade, tracking goods, services and investment income.
South Korea has stepped up measures to limit won gains driven by foreign capital inflows, helping keep exports competitive. Overseas shipments contributed to the fastest economic expansion last year since 2002, stoking price pressures and prompting the Bank of Korea to raise interest rates.
“The surplus may narrow sharply this year if oil prices keep rising, hurting the global economy,” Lee Sang Jae, an economist at Hyundai Securities Co. in Seoul, said before the release. “The BOK will likely delay the next rate hike expected in March due to rising global uncertainties surrounding the Middle East crisis.”
The won fell 0.6 percent to close at 1,131.05 per dollar yesterday. The benchmark Kospi stock index lost 0.6 percent. The currency has weakened about 0.7 percent against the dollar this year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Total exports on a customs-cleared basis rose 45.4 percent last month from a year earlier, compared with a 22.6 percent gain in December. Imports climbed 32.4 percent after rising 21.7 percent in December.
Earnings Boost
Overseas shipments have boosted earnings last year at companies including Samsung Electronics Co., Asia’s biggest maker of semiconductors, flat screens and mobile phones.
The Bank of Korea unexpectedly left the nation’s benchmark interest rate at 2.75 percent this month after raising it in January, July and November from a record-low 2 percent. Inflation quickened to 4.1 percent in January from 3.5 percent in December, exceeding the bank’s target of 2 percent to 4 percent through 2012.
The surplus on traded goods narrowed to $1.63 billion last month from $3.68 billion in December, today’s report showed. The services deficit, which measures the flow of travel, transport costs and royalties, was $1.64 billion in January, compared with $1.15 billion in December.
Most of the 26,000 white-collar workers at General Motors Co. will get performance bonuses of 4 to 16 percent of their base salaries this year, but payments to a small number could be 50 percent or more, the company confirmed late Thursday.
Chrysler Group LLC also will give bonuses to its white-collar staff, with payments expected on Friday. Both companies needed government bailouts in 2008 and 2009 to stay in business and make it through bankruptcy protection.
GM said in a statement that the bonuses would be based on each employee’s performance as well as the company’s. The statement did not say how much on average each worker would get. Messages were left by The Associated Press for a company spokeswoman late Thursday.
Chrysler spokesman Gualberto Ranieri would not comment on the matter. Bloomberg News reported Thursday that the bonuses would average $10,000 for the company’s 10,755 salaried workers, but some who aren’t covered by government pay restrictions could get up to half their salary.
“Details regarding salaried performance awards are considered confidential employment records,” Ranieri said.
Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne has said the workers deserve bonuses even though the company lost money because of work they did in revamping or redesigning 16 models since the 2009 bankruptcy.
For both companies, the bonuses come less than two years after they needed government bailouts to survive through bankruptcy protection. GM received a $49.5 billion bailout, while Chrysler got $12.5 billion.
Both companies have performed far better financially than they did before bankruptcy. GM made $4.2 billion in the first three quarters of the year and is expected to post a fourth-quarter profit in the coming weeks. Chrysler lost $652 million last year but is predicting a net profit this year.
The bonus checks at both companies could draw the ire of the United Auto Workers union because they will be much larger for many white-collar workers than checks that are going to hourly employees.
At GM, hourly workers are expected to get around $3,200 each, about 5 percent of their base pay, while they’ll get $750 at Chrysler, about 1.2 percent of their base pay.
GM said in its statement that more than 96 percent of the salaried workers will get bonuses of 4 to 16 percent of their base pay. Fewer than 1 percent, the company said, will get 50 percent or more. Bonus sizes grow depending on a worker’s level of responsibility.
GM said its top 100 earners are still covered under government pay restrictions imposed on companies that received government aid. Chrysler’s top earners also are affected, but a number was not available Thursday night.
Cash salaries have been capped at $500,000, but further compensation can be made in stock. Many of the executives still will take home more than $1 million.
Italian economist Tommaso Padoa Schioppa, one of the intellectual architects of the euro and a member of the European Central Bank’s first executive board, has died. He was 70.
Padoa Schioppa, economy minister under Premier Romano Prodi, died Saturday night after suffering a heart attack during a dinner in Rome with friends, according to one of those present, his one-time deputy Vincenzo Visco.
The unexpected death stunned Italy’s political and business elite, who remembered him as a passionate promoter of the European project and its single currency.
“He was among those who knew how to translate the European ideal into concrete and learned analyses and projects, giving in particular a lasting contribution to the birth of the euro and the eurozone,” Italian President Giorgio Napolitano said.
During his seven year term at the ECB, Padoa Schioppa was one of the six members charged with guiding the euro through its first vital years after being introduced in 11 member nations on Jan. 1, 1999.
“He contributed decisively in the early years of the euro to the reputation of the ECB as a major actor in international and European cooperation,” ECB President Jean-Claude Trichet said in a statement. The eurozone, he said, “is losing a man of reflection, of action and of vision, fully dedicated to European unity.”
Prior his appointment to the ECB, Padoa Schioppa held many prestigious posts in the Italian business and banking world. He first gained international recognition as the director-general for economic and financial affairs at the European Commission 1979-1983.
In 1993 he became deputy director-general of Banca d’Italia faxless payday loans. He surprised many in 1997 when he moved to Consob, Italy’s stock market watchdog. As chairman he fought to introduce reforms in the Italian stock market particularly those to clamp down on insider trading.
More recently, the Greek government tapped him to help deal with the country’s debt crisis and Fiat Industrial named him to the board just last week.
But it was his role in shepherding in the euro that made his mark.
Schioppa was the executive board director with special responsibility for international relations, payment systems and banking supervision. He traveled widely lecturing in important financial centers from New York to Tokyo and Beijing advocating the importance and potential of the euro.
An ardent supporter of the European project, the trilingual Schioppa acknowledged the challenge that lack of political union presented to the euro. He repeatedly argued that “a strong currency requires a strong economy and a strong polity, not only a competent central bank.”
With the euro well on its way, Prodi named Padoa Schioppa economy minister after winning the 2006 elections and tasked him with the difficult job of trying to revive Italy’s zero-growth economy. It was a post he held until Prodi lost to Premier Silvio Berlusconi in 2008.
Padoa Schioppa, educated in Milan and Massachusetts, was married with three children.
Funeral arrangements weren’t immediately announced. Rome’s mayor offered city hall for the wake, noting that Padoa Schioppa’s death was a loss for the entire nation.
(Corrects payroll tax figure in sixth paragraph.)
The Obama administration proposed a year-long reduction in payroll taxes of 2 percentage points as part of a broader compromise to extend Bush-era tax cuts temporarily, a congressional aide said.
The proposed reduction was offered as an alternative to renewing the “Making Work Pay” tax credit, a creation of President Barack Obama that expires Dec. 31 along with lower income-tax rates enacted in 2001 and 2003, the aide said, speaking on condition of anonymity. Some Senate Republicans oppose the credit.
Negotiators also are discussing including Obama’s proposal to allow a full deduction for equipment purchases that currently must be deducted over time, an administration official said. The proposal would accelerate $200 billion in tax savings for companies in the first year and benefit 1.5 million companies and several million individuals who run businesses, according to White House estimates.
Total revenue lost from the so-called expensing proposal over 10 years would be $30 billion; companies taking the immediate deductions wouldn’t be able to write off their expenses through depreciation in years to come.
White House Meeting
Obama is bringing Democratic congressional leaders to the White House this afternoon to discuss negotiations with Republicans on extending tax cuts and unemployment aid, another administration official said.
In the past, lawmakers have debated a broad-based tax holiday. In 2001, a temporary suspension of the 15.3 percent payroll tax was advocated by senators including New Mexico Republican Pete Domenici and New Jersey Democrat Jon Corzine. Both have since left the Senate.
The administration is now proposing cutting the levy by 2 percentage points for workers for a year, in lieu of the Making Work Pay credit, the congressional aide said.
The current payroll tax is comprised of a 12.4 percent levy that funds Social Security, half paid by workers and half by their employers, on the first $106,800 of wages. The 2.9 percent Medicare tax also is divided evenly between employer and employee and applies to all wages.
For low-income workers, the payroll tax often constitutes their only tax liability credit report.
Employer Portion
Negotiators would have to decide whether to grant the holiday to both workers and employers. Democrats such as New York Senator Charles Schumer also have proposed legislation to create a hiatus for American companies that repatriate jobs that previously had been moved offshore.
Obama on Dec. 4 told Democratic leaders in Congress he’d reject even a temporary extension of the Bush-era tax cuts if the legislation doesn’t encompass his own policies, which include the Making Work Pay tax credit that adds as much as $800 per year to a married couple’s paycheck, an administration official said. Obama also wants the renewal of more generous credits for the working poor, college students and adoptive parents, enacted in 2009.
Senate Republicans such as John Cornyn of Texas and Orrin Hatch of Utah have said the Making Work Pay credit is a poor inducement to work and a transfer of wealth to people who often don’t pay income taxes.
‘Taking Money’
“What it amounts to is taking money from people who do pay taxes and giving it to people who don’t necessarily pay taxes,” Cornyn said during a debate on the Senate floor in February 2009.
Oregon Senator Ron Wyden today said the payroll tax is part of the discussion because “the Bush tax cuts don’t produce jobs.”
The increase in the U.S. unemployment rate to 9.8 percent, reported Dec. 3, prompted more discussion of job-creating measures in the tax package, such as a payroll-tax holiday, Wyden, a Democrat and a member of the Senate Finance Committee, said in an interview.
“What the package needs to do more is to create good- paying family-wage jobs,” he said.
Obama is confident of reaching a deal to extend the tax cuts and renew expired federal aid for jobless workers in the next few days, Bill Burton, deputy White House press secretary, told reporters today.
South Korea’s top trade official on Sunday defended a hard-fought compromise with the United States on a stalled free trade agreement by rejecting accusations that his government gave up too much to seal the deal.
Kim and U.S. Trade representative Ron Kirk reached a final agreement Friday after marathon negotiations near Washington that focused on U.S. demands that South Korea rework the deal to address its big trade surplus in automobiles.
The South Korea-U.S. free trade agreement was originally signed in June 2007, but steps to ratify it stalled amid changes in government in both countries, the global financial crisis and American demands not just on autos but that South Korea loosen restrictions on American beef imports.
South Korea, which long said it would not budge on the initial deal, ultimately compromised and addressed key U.S. concerns on autos, though says it dug in on beef and got benefits in return such as the U.S. agreeing to a two-year delay in the elimination of South Korean tariffs on pork imports.
“I cannot agree with some views that (the agreement was the result) of our unilateral concession,” Kim, the trade minister, told reporters Sunday at a packed news conference, calling it a “win-win” deal.
Kim returned to South Korea on Saturday after participating in final negotiations in the U payday loans.S. Before becoming trade minister he was South Korea’s chief negotiator on the original agreement, which was concluded in April 2007 after 10 months of talks that just barely beat a deadline imposed by Congress.
The push to move the deal forward came after talks last month in Seoul between President Barack Obama and his South Korean counterpart Lee Myung-bak failed to achieve a breakthrough.
Last week’s effort also took place after North Korea’s deadly artillery barrage on a small South Korean island, though Kim said the attack had no impact on Seoul’s willingness to compromise and that he engaged in the negotiations “completely” from an economic point of view.
Hours before Kim spoke in Seoul, Obama praised the deal as a landmark agreement that promises to boost the domestic auto industry and support tens of thousands of American jobs.
“This agreement shows the U.S. is willing to lead and compete in the global economy,” he told reporters Saturday at the White House, calling it a triumph for American workers.
__
Associated Press writers Hyung-jin Kim in Seoul and Erica Werner, Julie Pace and Ken Thomas in Washington contributed to this report.
The University of Minnesota has named Dr. Aaron Friedman dean of the University of Minnesota Medical School, replacing Dr. Frank Cerra, who will be stepping down at the end of the year.
Friedman, currently chair of the department of pediatrics at the Medical School, will take over as dean on January 3, 2011 pending approval by the University's Board of Regents, according to the University of Minnesota.
Friedman has served as chair of pediatrics since arriving to the University of Minnesota in 2008 payday lenders. Before his arrival, Friedman was also chair of pediatrics at Brown Medical School and the University of Wisconsin-Madison
Cerra, who announced his plans to retire in February, has served as dean since 1995.
Come in, we’re open!
That’s the message that the United Way of Metropolitan Dallas is sending to agencies looking to work with the nonprofit.
This week, United Way posted an RFP on its website, searching for new applicants for funding.
This is the first real movement in United 2020, a three-pronged plan with a series of goals focused on health, family incomes and education that is designed to help nonprofit partners achieve measurable changes in area communities.
“It was a big step for us,” said Gary Godsey, president and CEO of the United Way, who has projected that in five years, the plan will raise $315 million. “We’ve never had an open process for funding in the past.”
To provide information to current and potential partner agencies, Godsey has held five community orientation meetings through North Texas.
“We’re going out of our way to be as helpful as possible to anyone who reaches out to us for help,” he said.
The Dallas United Way currently partners with 91 agencies. That number could change under the new system. Some current partners could be cut, and new ones could be added.
“Our intent all along is not to get rid of anybody,” Godsey said. “It’s about taking our resources and aligning them specifically around a few things within which we can make an impact guaranteed high risk personal loans.”
Upcoming deadlines:
Oct. 8 - Companies can submit an RFP for review. The United Way will give an early determination of whether the application qualifies for submission.
Nov. 8 - The deadline for submitting an RFP. “It’s a hard and fast one,” Godsey said.
January 2011-March 2011 - Site visits to those agencies that make it to “phase two” of the process.
March 2011-April 2011 - Deliberations by volunteer United Way panels
May 2011 - The United Way board will vote on a recommendation package and announce partners.
“This is the most exciting work that I’ve been involved in, in the years that I’ve been working with the United Way,” Godsey said. “The hope of what it can be if it’s embraced by the community — it can be truly life-changing.”
Editor’s Note: Lisa Bormaster, publisher of the Dallas Business Journal, is on the board of directors of the United Way of Metropolitan Dallas.
Intel Corp. has agreed to buy Infineon Technologies AG's wireless unit for approximately $1.4 billion in cash, the companies said Monday.
The unit will operate as a stand-alone business of Santa Clara-based Intel (NASDAQ: INTC). Infineon's chips are used in smart phones including Apple Inc.'s iPhone 4.
The technology will expand Intel's Wi-Fi and 4G WiMAX offerings and be used in Intel Core processor-based laptops and Atom processor devices, including smart phones, netbooks, tablets and embedded computers.
"The global demand for wireless solutions continues to grow at an extraordinary rate," Paul Otellini, Intel's president and CEO, said in the announcement. "The acquisition of Infineon's WLS business strengthens the second pillar of our computing strategy — Internet connectivity — and enables us to offer a portfolio of products that covers the full range of wireless options from Wi-Fi and 3G to WiMAX and LTE business card design.
The deal is expected to close in the first quarter of 2011, subject to regulatory approvals and customary closing conditions.
It is the second major acquisition for Intel in recent weeks. The company on Aug. 19 announced it had agreed to acquire the security software maker McAfee Inc. (NYSE: MFE) for approximately $7.68 billion.
The Republican race for Arizona Attorney General is razor thin and could run beyond election night.
As of 11 p.m. Tuesday night, Andrew Thomas had 2,000-vote lead on Tom Horne in their bitter primary fight. Some Phoenix-area media outlets said late Tuesday the margin was down to 1,000 votes.
Thomas had 50 percent of the vote versus Horne's 49 easy to get unsecured personal loans.5 percent. The race could go down to early ballots dropped off at polling places Tuesday.
Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio is backing Thomas, while more moderate Republicans side with Horne.
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