Vancouver displaced Sydney as the least-affordable housing market after Hong Kong among large English-speaking cities, as home prices rose faster than incomes, a study of 325 metropolitan areas worldwide showed.
Vancouver
fast cash loan is fast becoming a viable financial option for consumers who need a few extra dollars.
Billionaire investor George Soros said a fracturing of the euro area would have
The Kansas City Federal Reserve Bank promoted its information technology chief to the bank’s No. 2 post under the institution’s new president, Esther George.
Kelly Dubbert, who has worked at the Kansas City Fed since 1986, will be first vice president at the institution and its chief operating officer, the bank said in a statement on Tuesday.
George took the reins at the bank in October after long-time hawk Thomas Hoenig retired. George’s personal views on monetary policy are not widely known.
Dubbert would participate in discussions at the Federal Reserve’s policy-setting Federal Open Market Committee if George were absent business card design.
Dubbert has a bachelor’s degree from Kansas State University and is a graduate of Harvard University’s Advanced Management Program and the Wisconsin Graduate School of Banking. He had headed the Kansas City Fed’s information technology division since 2006.
After a customer backlash, Verizon Wireless on Friday dropped a plan to start charging $2 for every payment subscribers make over the phone or online with their credit or debit cards.
In a statement on its website Friday, the company said “customer feedback” prompted the decision to drop the “convenience fee” it wanted to introduce on Jan. 15.
Verizon wanted to steer people to electronic check payments, which are cheaper, and automatic credit card payments, which are more reliable.
A petition on Change.org against the fees had gathered more than 95,000 names by Friday afternoon, a day after Verizon, the country’s largest cellphone company, announced the fees. The petition was set up by Molly Katchpole, who earlier this year started a successful campaign to make Bank of America drop a $5-per-month fee for debit card use electronic check payday advance.
Payment processors for power companies usually charge “convenience fees” of up to $5 for every payment made by phone or online, but cellphone companies haven’t taken the step yet. The furor against Verizon hints that they may have to wait further.
Verizon Wireless serves 91 million phones and other devices on accounts that pay the company directly, and more who pay indirectly through other companies. It’s a joint venture of Verizon Communications Inc. of New York and Vodafone Group PLC of Britain.
Australia’s ruling party voted Sunday to overturn a long-standing ban on exporting uranium to India, despite fierce opposition from critics who argued such sales are unsafe because India has not signed the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.
Prime Minister Julia Gillard urged members of her center-left Labor Party during its annual conference to allow the exports in the interest of the national economy, arguing there are safeguards in place to ensure the uranium would be used for peaceful purposes.
“We need to make sure that across our regions we have the strongest possible relationships we can, including with the world’s largest democracy, India,” Gillard said. “That’s why today we should determine to change our platform and enable us, under safeguards, to sell uranium to India.”
The party’s vote to amend an executive policy does not need parliamentary approval.
Australia holds 40 percent of the world’s known uranium reserves. It does not sell uranium on the open market and bans nuclear power generation at home.
But it sells uranium only for the purpose of power generation under strict conditions banning any military applications in bilateral trade agreements with the United States, China, Taiwan, Japan, South Korea and several European countries.
Australia’s previous conservative government started negotiations with energy-hungry India on uranium sales. But the Labor government immediately ended the talks when it came to power in 2007, ruling out exports unless New Delhi signed the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.
Gillard had previously noted that the U.S. lifted a “de facto international ban” on nuclear cooperation with India in 2005 when it signed a deal with New Delhi to trade uranium and work together on civil atomic power generation.
But many Labor lawmakers slammed the policy change, arguing that selling uranium to India in the wake of this year’s nuclear disaster at the Fukushima Dai-ichi power plant in Japan, the 1979 partial meltdown of the Three Mile Island reactor in the U.S. and other nuclear accidents was irresponsible and out of touch.
Labor Sen. Doug Cameron won a standing ovation from the crowd after a fiery speech in which he called the amendment “nonsense.”
“Prime Minster, you are wrong! Ministers, you are wrong!” he shouted to thunderous applause. “This is a bad move for the Labor Party, it’s a bad move for international peace.”
Others argued that India was too important an economic power to ignore.
“India, like China, is a rising superpower and it has to be upfront and center in our foreign policy and our foreign trade,” said Labor member Richard Marles. “(This amendment) will pave the way for our two countries to fulfill our shared destiny as nations and friends.”
The motion passed by a vote of 206 to 185.
Lawmakers, responding to pleas from industry and foreign governments, have tentatively agreed to block the Obama administration from requiring that lithium batteries be treated as hazardous cargo because of the danger of fires during flight.
The deal came in talks on a long-term funding bill for the Federal Aviation Administration, Rep. Nick Rahall, D-W.Va., told The Associated Press. The bill will effectively block new battery-shipment rules by insisting the U.S. follow international standards, which are less stringent, said Rahall, top Democrat on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.
Pilot unions said the international standards don’t provide enough safety and are weaker than rules the administration proposed nearly two years ago but never made final. The unions and the National Transportation Safety Board for several years have sought new rules on air shipments of the batteries to prevent fires that can cause air crashes and deaths.
“We’re very concerned that unless this issue is addressed we’ll continue to see accidents and we’ll continue to see fatalities,” said Mark Rogers, who heads the Air Line Pilots Association’s committee on hazardous cargo.
The U.S. shouldn’t “adopt an existing international standard on lithium batteries that’s generally recognized as inadequate,” Robert Travis, president of Independent Pilots Association, which represents UPS pilots, said in a statement.
The FAA bill “is an opportunity for the U.S. to lead by setting a higher standard on the carriage of lithium batteries,” Travis said.
A fire broke out five years ago in cargo containing lithium batteries and other goods on a United Parcel Service plane, forcing an emergency landing in Philadelphia. No one was killed, but one of the pilots said he was able to escape with seconds to spare. The cause of the fire wasn’t conclusively determined, but batteries were suspected.
Last year, another UPS plane with a fire raging on board, and carrying thousands of lithium batteries, crashed near Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, killing both pilots. The accident is still under investigation, but preliminary reports indicate investigators have focused much of their attention on the batteries.
The use of rechargeable lithium-ion and non-rechargeable lithium-metal batteries has soared since the late 1990s. Millions of products from laptops to cellphones to watches contain the batteries. And, in an age of increasing globalization of trade, those products are often shipped by air to and from the United States and other countries.
But the batteries can catch fire if they are damaged, exposed to high temperatures or packaged incorrectly. Lithium-ion battery fires can reach 1,100 degrees, close to the melting point of aluminum, a key material in airplane construction. Lithium-metal battery fires are far hotter, capable of reaching 4,000 degrees.
The administration proposed regulations that would have threated lithium batteries and goods containing the batteries as hazardous materials requiring special labeling and training of workers who package and handle them.
But they were opposed by a broad swath of powerful industries, including battery-makers, electronics manufacturers and retailers, cargo airlines, and at least a half dozen foreign governments who said they would disrupt international trade. The opponents said the regulations would cost them hundreds of millions of dollars in added packaging, paperwork and employee training. The rechargeable battery industry alone says the rules would cost more than $1 billion in the first year.
Opponents of the proposed rules turned for help to Congress, where House Republicans passed an FAA funding bill that requires the U.S. to follow standards set by the International Civil Aviation Organization, a UN agency, effectively blocking the rules. The Senate did not include the measure in its version of the funding bill, but under the tentative deal reached Friday, the House-Senate compromise bill would include it.
Kara Ross, a spokeswoman for United Parcel Service, said the cargo carrier wasn’t aware of the agreement reached by lawmakers but supports the House provision.
A spokesman for PRBA-The Rechargeable Battery Association declined to comment.
Besides Rahall, the other lawmakers involved in negotiations were Rep. John Mica, chairman of the House committee, Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., and Kay Bailey Hutchison, senior Republican member of the Senate committee.
On the eve of “Cyber Monday,” online retailers reported an even stronger start to the holiday shopping season than brick-and-mortar stores.
Research firm comScore reported on Sunday that e-commerce spending jumped 26 percent on Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, compared with the same day a year ago. ComScore reported $816 million in online sales for the day, up from $648 million.
The 26 percent growth rate for online sales compares with a 7 percent retail sales increase reported for Black Friday by ShopperTrak, which gathers data from individual stores and shopping malls. At $11.4 billion, the brick-and-mortar sales total still dwarfs the online total.
Gian Fulgoni, comScore chairman, said in a statement that e-commerce enjoyed a banner day, despite some analysts’ predictions that early store openings on Black Friday could hurt online sales.
“With brick-and-mortar retail also reporting strong gains on Black Friday, it’s clear that the heavy promotional activity had a positive impact on both channels,” Fulgoni said.
Thanksgiving is also a big day for online sales, and comScore reported an 18 percent increase this year compared with a year ago, with $479 million in sales.
Online sales also have been strong throughout November pay day loans. Online sales through Saturday rose 15 percent compared with the same period a year ago, according to comScore, which is based on Reston, Va. Through the first 25 days of the month, online sales have totaled $12.74 billion.
ComScore said 50 million Americans visited online retail sites on Black Friday, up 35 percent from a year ago. Each of the top five retail sites reported double-digit gains in visitors, in percentage terms, led by top retail site Amazon. Walmart ranked second, followed by Best Buy, Target and Apple.
Next up is Cyber Monday, when many online retailers run promotions for the first business day of the week following Thanksgiving. Cyber Monday sales topped $1 billion last year, making it the heaviest day of online spending ever. ComScore’s Fulgoni expects another record will be set this year.
ComScore reported online sales for Black Friday two days after another researcher, IBM Corp.’s Coremetrics unit, reported a smaller online spending gain for Black Friday. Coremetrics reported a 20 percent increase, compared with comScore’s 26 percent.
The chairman of the Federal Communications Commission has come out against the merger of cellphone giant AT&T and T-Mobile USA.
Julius Genachowski made his position known in a document he circulated to fellow commissioners Tuesday.
Genachowski recommended sending AT&T Inc.’s proposed $39 billion takeover of T-Mobile to an administrative law judge for review and a hearing. That’s what the FCC does when it opposes a merger.
According to an FCC official familiar with the matter, an agency analysis concluded the merger would result in higher prices for consumers, less innovation, less investment in the U.S. and fewer U.S. jobs.
The review also cast doubt on AT&T’s claim that only the merger would allow it build out “4G” high-speed wireless Internet access to cover 97 percent of the population, up from about 80 percent. The agency concluded AT&T would likely do so anyway to remain competitive with Verizon Wireless.
The official wasn’t authorized to speak publicly.
AT&T spokesman Larry Solomon said in a statement that the chairman’s action was “disappointing.”
“It is yet another example of a government agency acting to prevent billions in new investment and the creation of many thousands of new jobs at a time when the U.S. economy desperately needs both,” he said. “At this time, we are reviewing all options.”
The FCC would be the second government agency to oppose the deal. The Justice Department filed a lawsuit with the U.S. District Court in Washington in August to stop it, and that trial is expected to start Feb. 13.
Genachowski’s proposed order recommends the administrative law judge begin the hearing after the trial is done.
The deal announced in March would vault the combined No. 2 carrier AT&T and No. 4 T-Mobile into the top spot ahead of Verizon.
Dallas-based AT&T has about 101 million wireless subscribers. T-Mobile, the Bellevue, Wash.-based subsidiary of Deutsche Telekom AG of Germany, has 34 million. Verizon Wireless, a joint venture between Verizon Communications Inc. and Vodafone Group PLC, has about 108 million, while Sprint Nextel Corp. has 53 million.
Ameren Missouri recently signaled plans to slash its energy efficiency budget for electricity customers next year, arguing that reducing energy use was shortchanging its shareholders.
But energy efficiency rebates for natural gas customers are staying intact, at least for the next year.
On Wednesday, the Missouri Public Service Commission voted unanimously to deny Ameren’s request to eliminate rebates on energy-saving items available to its 126,000 natural gas customers.
St. Louis-based Ameren agreed at the beginning of the year to fund rebates for an array of natural gas-saving items, from insulation to Energy Star doors, weather stripping and water heaters. The agreement was part of a broader settlement that allowed the utility to boost gas delivery rates by $5.6 million.
But Ameren sought to eliminate many of the most popular rebates soon afterward on grounds that they weren’t cost-effective. The cost of the improvements did not pay off in energy savings, the company argued.
Consumer advocates at the state Office of Public Counsel and Department of Natural Resources balked at the request because the utility had agreed to fund the program through the end of 2012 and later to have a third party evaluate the results low fee pay day loans.
The PSC ordered Ameren to maintain the natural gas efficiency programs following a hearing last month. The commission said ending the programs prematurely “will undercut the effort to have the agreed-upon usage data necessary to evaluate the programs.”
The agreement that Ameren signed requires the utility to fund the energy efficiency programs for three years at an amount reaching one-half percent of gross operating revenue for expenditures on cost-effective programs.
According to the PSC order, Ameren’s own evidence presented in last month’s hearing showed the utility knew that, using its own tests, some of the rebates weren’t cost-effective at the time it agreed to fund them.
Utility representatives declined to discuss the commission’s decision.
While the PSC will require Ameren to continue funding its gas efficiency program as it had promised, regulators have no similar signed agreement to require the utility to maintain electric efficiency programs.
A New York businessman called a “mini-Madoff” because he was arrested weeks after the billion-dollar swindler was sentenced Friday to 25 years in prison and ordered to pay $179 million in restitution _ money he doesn’t have.
Nicholas Cosmo, who apologized as he was sentenced, has had a gambling problem since high school, his lawyer said. He was arrested in January 2009 and pleaded guilty last year to mail and wire fraud.
“I’m going to be working until they put me in the grave,” said one of the victims, Ellen Gabriel, of Yaphank, N.Y., who did not address the court but wept throughout the hearing. The hairdresser said she lost $130,000 _ “my entire life savings.”
Gabriel added that she had researched before investing: “It’s not like we were stupid.”
Four victims did address the court.
“Everything that these people said about me, for the most part, is true,” said Cosmo, the former head of the Long Island-based Agape World and Agape Merchant Advance in New York City.
Agape solicited investors to fund short loans to help companies get temporary financing. Cosmo promised up to 80 percent returns but admitted using investors’ money for personal investments.
“It wasn’t my intention to ever hurt anyone. But I hurt them and I stand here as a guilty man,” Cosmo told the court. “I am truly sorry from the bottom of my heart. I know that probably falls on deaf ears. There’s not a day that goes by that I am not ashamed for what I have done.”
Unlike the more notorious Bernard Madoff, who admitted cheating charities, celebrities and institutional investors out of billions, Cosmo targeted mainly blue-collar workers.
“He preyed on people’s personal relationships and trust,” said Assistant U.S. Attorney Demetri Jones, who had urged a 40-year term. “The victims are everyman _ generations of families.”
The more than 4,000 victims include teachers, police officers, firefighters, nurses and construction workers, Jones said. “They’re not banks. They’re not corporations. They’re people.”
Investors believed they would make returns as high as 80 percent a year from interest collected on short-term loans to businesses. But an investigation revealed that “much of the money paid back to investors … was actually money provided by subsequent investors” _ a Ponzi scheme.
Cosmo also spent 21 months in federal prison for a 1999 mail fraud conviction.
He had been free on $1.25 million bail until October 2009, when U.S. District Judge Denis Hurley revoked bail after finding Cosmo had violated bail conditions barring him from access to any computer or the Internet.
Cosmo “will bend the rules if he feels it will serve his interests,” the judge said at the time. “He is unlikely to abide by any condition or conditions of his release.”
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