+%3Cp%3E+As+expected%2C+BlackBerry+maker+Research+In+Motion+said+Thursday+that+it+had+a+miserable+past+three+months%2C+reporting+a+quarterly+profit+that+got+squeezed+by+slumping+sales+and+service+outages.%3C%2Fp%3E%3Cp%3EWhat+wasn%27t+expected+was+such+a+miserable+outlook+for+the+current+quarter.%3C%2Fp%3E%3Cp%3E%3Cp%3E%3C%2Fp%3E%3Cp%3E%3Cp%3E%3C%2Fp%3E%3C%2Fp%3E%3C%2Fp%3E%3Cp%3EThe+company+said+it+expects+to+earn+between+80+cents+and+95+cents+a+share+on+revenue+of+between+%244.6+billion+and+%244.9+billion.+That%27s+way%2C+way+below+analysts%27+profit+forecasts+of+%241.16+per+share+on+sales+of+%245.1+billion.+%3C%2Fp%3E%3Cp%3ERIM+also+said+it+expects+to+ship+just+11+million+to+12+million+BlackBerry+phones%2C+a+truly+disappointing+forecast+that+is+just+barely+higher+than+the+company%27s+smartphone+shipments+from+a+year+earlier.%3C%2Fp%3E%3Cp%3EMaking+matters+worse%2C+the+company+also+said+that+its+future+platform%2C+BlackBerry+OS+10+–+the+cornerstone+of+RIM%27s+turnaround+plans+–+will+be+delayed+until+late+2012.+The+company+says+it+is+waiting+on+the+development+of+a+special+chipset+for+its+new+devices.+%3C%2Fp%3E%3Cp%3EShares+fell+by+8%25+after+hours%2C+even+though+RIM+%28%29+had+already+warned+investors+two+weeks+ago+that+its+financial+results+would+fall+short+of+the+company%27s+earlier+expectations.+%3C%2Fp%3E%3Cp%3EThe+company+blamed+its+bad+third+quarter+on+lackluster+demand+for+its+new+PlayBook+tablet%2C+on+consumers+opting+for+cheaper+BlackBerry+smartphones%2C+and+on+its+three-day+service+outage.+%3C%2Fp%3E%3Cp%3E%26quot%3BThe+last+few+quarters+have+been+some+of+the+most+trying+in+the+history+of+this+company%2C%26quot%3B+said+Jim+Balsillie%2C+RIM%27s+co-CEO%2C+on+a+conference+call+with+analysts.+%26quot%3BWe+understand+shareholders+may+feel+like+we+let+them+down.+%5BCo-CEO%5D+Mike+%5BLazaridis%5D+and+I%2C+as+two+of+RIM%27s+largest+shareholders%2C+understand+that+sentiment.%26quot%3B%3C%2Fp%3E%3Cp%3EBalsillie+said+that+he+and+Lazaridis+have+decided+to+take+a+salary+of+just+%241+a+year%2C+effective+immediately.+Last+year%2C+both+made+%241.2+million+Canadian%2C+which+was+around+%241.15+million+U.S.+at+the+time.+They+also+each+took+home+a+%241.2+million+cash+performance+bonus.%3C%2Fp%3E%3Cp%3EDespite+the+terrible+results%2C+RIM%27s+co-CEOs+remained+upbeat+in+their+discussion+with+analysts.+BlackBerry%27s+user+base+grew+to+75+million%2C+up+35%25+from+a+year+ago%2C+they+pointed+out.+%3C%2Fp%3E%3Cp%3EThey+also+said+that+the+company+is+%26quot%3Bmore+determined+than+ever%26quot%3B+to+overcome+its+execution+challenges.+They+preached+continued+patience+and+said+that+RIM%27s+transition+to+new%2C+improved+BlackBerry+OS+software+will+slowly+gain+traction+–+once+it+finally+releases.%3C%2Fp%3E%3Cp%3E%26quot%3BWe+ask+for+your+patience+and+confidence%2C%26quot%3B+said+Lazaridis+on+the+call.%3C%2Fp%3E%3Cp%3EBy+the+numbers%3C%2Fp%3E%3Cp%3EThe+Waterloo%2C+Ontario-based+company+said+net+income+for+the+third+quarter%2C+which+ended+last+month%2C+fell+to+%24265+million.+That%27s+down+19%25+from+a+year+earlier.+%3C%2Fp%3E%3Cp%3ERIM%27s+results+included+a+one-time+charge+of+%24485+million+write-down+due+to+underperforming+PlayBook+sales+and+a+%2454+million+charge+for+the+outage.+Without+the+charges%2C+RIM+said+it+earned+%241.27+per+share.+Analysts+polled+by+Thomson+Reuters%2C+who+typically+exclude+one-time+items+from+their+estimates%2C+had+forecast+earnings+of+%241.19+cents+per+share.%3C%2Fp%3E%3Cp%3ERIM%27s+sales+in+the+quarter+rose+24%25+to+%245.2+billion%2C+missing+analysts%27+reduced+forecasts+of+%245.3+billion.%3C%2Fp%3E%3Cp%3ERIM+said+that+it+shipped+14.1+million+BlackBerry+phones+last+quarter.+While+RIM%27s+third-quarter+smartphones+shipments+were+in+line+with+the+company%27s+forecast+of+between+13.5+million+and+14.5+million%2C+RIM+said+phones+were+sitting+on+store+shelves%2C+as+it+sold+fewer+devices+to+end-users+than+it+had+expected.%26nbsp%3B+%3C%2Fp%3E++%3Cp%3E%3Ca+href%3D%27http%3A%2F%2Fmoney.cnn.com%2F2011%2F12%2F15%2Ftechnology%2Frim_earnings%2Findex.htm%27+rel%3D%27nofollow%27%3ESource%3C%2Fa%3E%3C%2Fp%3E+
FORT WORTH, TEXAS
The European Commission, the EU executive, believes that the joint issuing of eurobonds by the 17 euro nations would be the most effective way to tackle the financial crisis, according to a draft paper seen Monday.
The study by the European Commission, the EU’s executive branch, will be presented Wednesday and could intensify a rift with Germany, which rejects eurobonds as a viable option at the moment because it would expose its taxpayers to weaker countries’ bad debt. Germany already funds the bulk of the existing bailouts.
The draft, published by the Financial Times and confirmed by the Commission, said replacing national bonds with one jointly-backed bond would have to be matched by tight financial and budgetary coordination. It also says discipline woul be needed to make it impossible for profligate nations to live on the back of budget-concious member states.
Since Greece pushed the eurozone into its ever-worsening financial mess last year, many member states have seen their cost of government borrowing rise to record levels. Germany’s borrowing rates, meanwhile, have dropped sharply as investors buy up its bonds as a safe haven. That has created a huge imbalance in debt markets within a zone ruled by one currency.
Germany has long been reluctant to bail out member states like Greece, Ireland and Portugal, insisting it was up to their governments to live by sound economic principles and win investor confidence.
The situation worsened dramatically over the past weeks, when Italy was put under such intense market pressure that Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi had to resign to make way for a government of experts led by former EU commissioner Mario Monti.
As the EU’s third-largest economy with debt approaching euro1.9 trillion ($2.5 trillion) and 120 percent of its gross domestic product, Italy is seen as too big to bail out. Faced with a breakup in their currency union, the euro nations have been scrambling for new solutions.
The eurozone currently has a bailout fund, the so-called EFSF, but it still lacks the firepower and nimbleness to support Italy’s finances if it were to be frozen out of bond markets.
The European Central Bank for now is limiting bond market pressures by buying up the government bonds of weak countries like Italy guaranteed cash advance. That has helped keep Italy’s key borrowing rates below the crucial 7 percent threshold that has eventually caused Ireland and Portugal to need bailouts.
But the ECB says its bond purchases are limited and temporary. To materially lower eurozone borrowing rates to sustainable levels, the ECB would have to embark on a massive program of bond purchases.
Germany _ and the ECB, which is heavily influenced by Berlin’s policies _ opposes such a massive bond program, saying it is up to governments to get their finances straightened out.
As a result, the EU study is pushing for eurobonds _ or Stability Bonds, as it calls them _ instead of national bonds as the best way to avoid financial disaster.
“In this way, the severe liquidity constraints currently experienced by some member states could be overcome and the recurrence of such constraints would be avoided in the future,” the draft of the study said.
EU Commission officials were due to pore over the study on Monday but no fundamental changes were expected.
The draft said that eurobonds would “provide the global financial system with a second safe-haven market of a size and liquidity comparable with the U.S. Treasury market.”
The political difficulty, however, would be to impose the same fiscal rigor across the 17 euro nations and fundamentally change the balance of power between the European Union and the national capitals.
The draft says that such fundamental changes would “almost certainly require” changes in the treaty underpinning the EU. In the past, any treaty change has proven to be a tough political task.
On Monday, the issue will almost certainly come up when Greece’s new Prime Minister Lucas Papadimos meets with top EU officials to discuss Greece’s financial difficulties.
Italy’s Premier Mario Monti will visit EU headquarters on Tuesday to discuss similar issues. On Thursday, Monti is to join German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicholas Sarkozy in Strasbourg for what he calls a permanent club of the eurozone’s three largest economies to confront the debt crisis.
There was a time not so long ago that seeing a single wind turbine spinning in the distance was a novel experience for most people.
Not so much any more. There are now hundreds of wind turbines scattered across the province, representing 1,700 megawatts of wind capacity in Ontario alone
Fierce competition for top-tier credit card customers appears to be leading some banks to look in elsewhere for new business: borrowers with spotty credit histories.
Data shows that more new cards went to consumers with less-than-stellar credit scores in the third quarter, while fewer new cards went to those with the best scores.
In the three months ended Sept. 30, credit reporting agency TransUnion found that 25.2 percent of the new card accounts went to consumers with a score below 700.
That was up from 23 percent of cards going to riskier borrowers in the same quarter of 2010.
That translates into almost a quarter million more cards going to consumers who have had some trouble with credit in the past, according to Ezra Becker, vice president of research and consulting in TransUnion’s financial services business unit.
And since TransUnion found that the overall number of cards opened during the quarter was essentially flat from a year ago, that means those were cards that did not go to more creditworthy consumers. In fact, the number of new card accounts opened by borrowers with scores of 800 or better slipped to 45.9 percent, from 49.7 percent a year ago.
The findings were based on the VantageScore system for measuring creditworthiness developed by TransUnion and its peers Experian and Equifax as an alternative to the better-known FICO score. VantageScore says its system, which uses a scale of 501 to 990 and awards higher scores to the least risky borrowers, is used by the top five credit card issuers in the country.
Like FICO, VantageScore’s ratings are based a number of factors regarding an individual’s past use of credit, including their history of making on-time payments, keeping balances below credit limits and the length of their credit history.
Scores around 700 would merit a “C” on the VantageScore scale, which implies that those borrowers had some problems making payments or ran up balances in the past.
Opening up new credit to struggling consumers is an important step. A year ago, TransUnion said about 8 million people had left the credit card market in the prior 12 months, either by choice or because their cards were shut down.
The uptick in lending to consumers who have had trouble with payments in the past “counteracts everything that’s been happening in the last few years,” said Bill Hardekopf, CEO of the card comparison site LowCards.com. He noted that demand is high for consumers in that group because of the dearth of available credit in recent years.
Meanwhile, card companies have been pushing ever-more-enticing offers to consumers with the best scores _ beefing up rewards, trimming interest rates and lengthening the time for no- or low-interest balance transfers. About 80 percent of all new card offers go to those with the top credit scores, according to market research firm Synovate.
But those same top-tier borrowers aren’t trying to open as many new accounts or increase their balances faxless payday advance. “They have plenty of credit available to them,” Becker said, noting that card users have been paying down their balances. In the third quarter, TransUnion found the average combined balance on bank-issued credit cards _ MasterCard, Visa, American Express and Discover_ fell 4.1 percent to $4,762, from $4,964 last year.
Data from credit card companies also shows that while the most affluent consumers are using their cards more, they’re also paying off their balances in full each month.
That means that to increase profits in their card businesses, banks need to find new borrowers who will pay higher interest rates and are more likely to carry balances each month.
“If financial institutions are going to grow, eventually they’re going to have to dip their toes into the water of riskier borrowers,” said Greg McBride, senior financial analyst for Bankrate.com, which tracks credit offers.
Another factor that’s likely playing into more willingness to lend to consumers with lower scores is that there are more individuals on the riskier end of the scale due to the lengthy economic downturn, high unemployment and ongoing foreclosure crisis, noted Bruce McClary, a spokesman for ClearPoint Credit Counseling Solutions. “Sooner or later the people who got bumped out of the credit world have to start re-establishing credit,” he said.
One problem is that the increase in higher-risk borrowers also had an immediate impact on the rate of late payments during the quarter.
TransUnion found that the rate of payments late by 90 days or more _ known in the industry as the delinquency rate _ rose to 0.71 percent, from 0.60 percent in the second quarter.
That’s still down from 0.83 percent in the third quarter a year ago, and a long way off from the 1.32 percent peak in delinquency recorded in the first quarter of 2009.
Although the delinquency rate in the third quarter was still below the historical norm _ the second-quarter rate was the lowest seen since 1994 _ it marks the first quarter-over-quarter increase in almost two years.
“When you have such low delinquency, there’s generally only one direction you can go,” Becker observed. Plus, lenders must take risks if they want to earn anything. If lenders wanted to achieve zero delinquency, he said, they would have to stop lending.
The expansion of new card offers to riskier borrowers also present an interesting bit of timing for the industry, notes Hardekopf.
Card companies “want to get these cards in their hands so they have the ability to use them during the holiday season,” he said. “The time when we all put more on our cards is the fourth quarter.”
As the Occupy Wall Street protests draw attention to the struggles of young adults, among others, some parents are determined to spare their children the burden of college loans.
Many worry about the college funds they’ve been able to build. Last quarter, the average mutual fund that invests in stocks lost 17 percent. The average 529 college savings plan, which invests in a mixture of stocks and bonds, lost 8.9 percent, according to a recent Morningstar 529 plan study.
But if you’ve been worried about your losses, you may have more control than you think about the outcome if you pay attention to a few details.
For example, some 529 plans charge high fees and give you little in return. And some require you to get help from a financial adviser, but often parents and grandparents can do better on their own simply by investing directly in a top-quality 529 plan.
As consumers become savvy about their 529 college savings options, they are moving money from expensive and weak 529 plans into those that grow money more effectively. During a recent 12-month period, plans sold by advisers, which are often more expensive, lost more than a percentage point of market share relative to those sold directly to individuals, according to Morningstar cash advance companies.
But how do you know if you are getting a good deal on a 529?
Start your analysis by finding out from your state’s department of education if your home state offers a 529 and whether you get a tax break by investing in it.
Some states will allow you to invest in any 529 outside your state and get a break on your taxes. But most give you a tax benefit only if you choose the 529 in your state. The usual benefit: You can subtract the amount of money you invest in a 529 from your taxable income when you do your tax return. That’s a good deal.
Some states, however, are even more benevolent. Indiana gives its residents a credit of 20 percent on the first $5,000 they invest a year in their state 529. People from Indiana can save up to $1,040 on a $5,000 investment, said Morningstar. Maine gives residents a $500 grant if they open a 529 before their child’s first birthday. Other states such as Illinois offer less
By day, Wade Brosz teaches American history at an A-rated Florida middle school. By night, he is a personal trainer at 24 Hour Fitness.
Brosz took the three-night a week job at the gym after his teaching salary was frozen, summer school was reduced drastically, and the state bonus for board certified teachers was cut. He figures that he and his wife, also a teacher, are making about $20,000 less teaching than expected to, combined.
“The second job was to get back what was lost through cuts,” said Brosz, a nationally board certified teacher. “It was tougher and tougher to make ends meet. I started personal training because it’s flexible hours.”
Second jobs are not a new phenomenon for teachers, who have historically been paid less than other professionals. In 1981, about 11 percent of teachers were moonlighting; the number has risen to about one in five today. They are bartenders, waitresses, tutors, school bus drivers and even lawnmowers.
Now, with the severe cuts many school districts have made, teachers like Brosz, who hadn’t considered juggling a second job before, are searching the want ads. The number of public school teachers who reported holding a second job outside school increased slightly from 2003-04 to 2007-08. While there is no national data for more recent years, reports from individual states and districts indicate the number may have climbed further since the start of the recession.
In Texas, for example, the percentage of teachers who moonlight has increased from 22 percent in 1980 to 41 percent in 2010.
“It’s the economy, primarily,” said Sam Sullivan, a professor at Sam Houston State University, which conducts the survey.
Rita Haecker, president of the Texas State Teachers Association, said cuts in education have forced many teachers to take furlough days. It’s an extra strain because, unlike in the past, many teachers are now the primary breadwinner, either because they are a single parent or their spouse is unemployed, Haecker said.
“It affects their morale in the classroom,” she said. “The last thing we want is our teachers worried about how they are going to pay their bills.”
The average salary for a public school teacher nationwide in the 2009-10 school year was $55,350, a figure that has remained relatively flat, after being adjusted for inflation, over the last two decades. Starting teacher salaries can be significantly lower; compared to college graduates in other professions, they earn more than $10,000 less when beginning their careers.
“I think people have felt the need to supplement their teaching salaries in order to have a middle class lifestyle,” said Lawrence Mishel, president of the Economic Policy Institute, which published a study this year concluding the average weekly pay of teachers in 2010 was about 12 percent below that of workers with similar education and experience.
The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, which collects data on student performance across the globe, advised the United States earlier this year to work at elevating the teaching profession in order to improve student performance. The recommendations included measures like raising the bar for who is selected to become a teacher, providing better training and better pay. In many nations where students outperform the U.S. in reading, math and science, including Japan and South Korea, teachers earn more than they do in the United States.
“International comparisons show that in the countries with the highest performance, teachers are typically paid better relative to others, education credentials are valued more, and a higher share of educational spending is devoted to instructional services than is the case in the United States,” the OECD report concluded.
While moonlighting isn’t unique to teachers, they do tend to have second or third jobs at a higher rate than other professionals. One researcher estimates their moonlighting rates may be four times higher than those of other full-time, college educated salaried workers.
Eleanor Blair Hilty, an education professor at Western Carolina University, said most teachers make around $5,000 through outside work. Yet when asked if they would quit if given a raise in the equivalent amount, most said no. Her conclusion: teachers are getting something more from their second job other than an extra paycheck.
“A lot of it has to do with what I think is wrong with the teaching profession,” Hilty said, noting that teachers have little autonomy and control over what and how they teach. “They found their moonlighting jobs to be satisfying.”
Policies on moonlighting vary by district; some have no written guidelines, while others merely advise teachers to ensure any outside work doesn’t interfere with their duties at school.
In North Carolina, a survey conducted in 2007 found 72 percent of teachers moonlight, whether it’s an after-school job or summer employment.
“There’s a culture of silence,” Hilty said. “Everybody knows that moonlighting goes on and they know it’s part of what teachers do but nobody likes to talk about it very much.”
Michelle Hartman, a language arts and science teacher at a Plantation, Fla., elementary school, is balancing two other jobs, one as an organist with the local Presbyterian church, playing at church services, weddings and funerals, and another doing janitorial work twice a week at her father’s accounting firm.
The single mother has a master’s degree in educational leadership and has been a teacher 15 years. But she says she cannot afford to leave any of her extra jobs, which she said brings in about $6,000 year, in addition to her $46,000 teaching salary.
“I’m tired some days,” Hartman said. “But no matter what, it doesn’t matter because I know I need to be there for the students.”
Yet working an extra job inevitably does take a toll. On top of their work in the classroom, teachers have to grade papers and plan lessons _ work they often do at home. One study on teachers who moonlight in Texas cited the case of a teacher who ended up grading papers at the restaurant where she worked. The same study found that all the teachers interviewed reported that moonlighting had a negative effect on their health. In the Texas survey, a majority said moonlighting was detrimental to their work in the classroom.
“Yes, they go 100 percent, but they’re still tired,” said Dave Henderson, a retired professor who worked on the study for many years.
Albert Ochoa, a middle school art and publications teacher in Austin, Texas, works at least five hours a night at UPS as a shipper, a job he’s had since graduating from college in 1977. Even though he is now toward the higher end of the teacher salary schedule, he said he cannot afford to quit either job.
He said he’d have to earn another $2,000 a month in order to support his wife, who is on medical disability, and son, and not work a second job. “I’ve had opportunities to go work full time at UPS and do other things,” Ochoa said. “But I enjoy what I do. I like teaching.”
Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi has won a much-watched vote in Parliament but it shows he can no longer count on an overall majority in the Chamber of Deputies.
In parliament, 308 voted in favor, 321 abstained and no one voted against.
The opposition immediately demanded that Berlusconi resign to calm financial markets, although he has always refused those calls.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP’s earlier story is below.
ROME (AP) _ Premier Silvio Berlusconi geared up for one of the most critical votes of his long political career Tuesday, as his main ally urged him to resign and Italy’s political uncertainty rocked financial markets for yet another day.
Berlusconi did not immediately respond to the demand, but he has repeatedly resisted all calls for his resignation before his term ends in 2013.
Berlusconi’s government is under intense pressure to enact quick reforms to shore up Italy’s defenses against Europe’s raging debt crisis. However, a weak coalition and doubts over Berlusconi’s leadership have ignited market fears of a looming Italian financial disaster that could bring down the 17-nation eurozone and shock the global economy.
“We asked him to step aside, take a step to the side,” Northern League leader Umberto Bossi told reporters ahead of a key vote in Parliament that could force Berlusconi’s resignation. Bossi is the volatile ally who also brought down Berlusconi’s first conservative government in 1994.
On the face of it, Tuesday’s vote is just a routine measure to approve 2010 state finances, but it has now become a test of Berlusconi’s political strength.
Italy’s center-left opposition said it would abstain in Tuesday’s voting, to make it clear just how fragile Berlusconi’s forces in Parliament are. If he is backed by fewer than 316 deputies _ or less than half of the 630-member chamber _ it would show the prime minister can no longer count on a majority in the lower house of Parliament, even though the government could still mathematically win the vote.
Bossi said the man Berlusconi has already picked as his successor, former Justice Minister Angelino Alfano, should now lead the government.
But it would be up to the Italian president, Giorgio Napolitano, to decide whether to appoint a new leader or dissolve parliament and call early elections. He would likely sound out political leaders before deciding.
Added Bossi: “Today, nothing will happen.”
Italy is the eurozone’s third-largest economy, with debts of around euro1.9 trillion ($2.6 trillion). Representing 17 percent of the eurozone’s gross domestic product, it is considered too big for Europe to bail out like the continent already has done for Greece, Portugal and Ireland.
Even worse, a substantial part of Italy’s debt needs to be rolled over in the next few years _ the nation needs to raise euro300 billion ($412 billion) in 2012 alone _ just as interest rates for it to borrow have been soaring.
Italy’s borrowing rates spiked Tuesday to their highest level since the euro was established in 1999. By mid-afternoon, the yield on Italy’s ten-year bonds was up 0.08 percentage point at 6.62 percent, down from an earlier high of 6.74 percent. A rate of over 7 percent is considered unsustainable and proved to be the trigger point that forced the other three eurozone nations into accepting financial bailouts.
Even the business leaders who once enthusiastically backed the media mogul’s leadership have been upset for months, saying Berlusconi’s government has failed to revive Italy’s stalled economy.
“(Italy) cannot go forward” with the soaring spread. “The country cannot stay in these conditions,” said Emma Marcegaglia, who leads a politically influential Italian business lobby.
The opposition center-left has long demanded the 75-year-old leader’s resignation, citing sex scandals, criminal prosecutions and legislative priorities it says are aimed at protecting his own business interests rather than those of the country. However, it has failed to come up with a leader who can unite the opposition.
Berlusconi appeared to be frantically trying to line up vote after vote, with at least two party dissenters visiting his Rome residence Tuesday as parliament resumed debate ahead of the vote.
One, lawmaker Isabella Bertolini, told reporters upon leaving she would vote in favor of the government. She said Berlusconi had laid out for her “all the possibilities and options that he’s evaluating: Stay, step back, step aside.”
Finance Minister Giulio Tremonti hurriedly left a eurozone finance ministers meeting in Brussels to get back to Rome for the vote.
But at least one deputy from Berlusconi’s People of Freedom Party won’t be there. Lawmaker Alfonso Papa, who is being investigated in a corruption scandal, is under house arrest.
If he gets through Tuesday’s hurdle, Berlusconi has indicated next week’s vote on the austerity measures would be a confidence vote. If it loses that, he would have to resign.
Antonio Di Pietro, a leader of a small center-left opposition party, told Sky TG24 TV that Berlusconi’s “political adventure has been over for a while now.” However, he doubted that Berlusconi would voluntarily leave.
One of Berlusconi’s closest allies, lawmaker Francesco Cicchitto, told reporters that coalition leaders will take stock immediately after the vote.
“One thing at a time. First the vote, let’s let it happen. Then we’ll reflect,” he said.
International financial officials and the markets, meanwhile, fretted over how long it was going to take for Italian lawmakers to approve measures promised weeks ago by Berlusconi to rein in Italy’s galloping public debt.
“I’m not making any judgment on Mr. Berlusconi personally. But I think there is a problem of confidence,” French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe told French radio RTL.
During a G-20 summit last week, Berlusconi had to take the humiliating step of asking the International Monetary Fund to monitor the country’s reform efforts. On Wednesday, a separate European Union monitoring mission is to begin work in Rome to review financial reforms taken so far.
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.
PetroChina Ltd., China’s biggest oil and gas company, saw its third-quarter profit jump 7.8 percent as higher crude oil prices and output helped to offset losses in its refining business.
The Beijing-based company reported Thursday a profit of 37.4 billion yuan ($5.9 billion) in July-September, compared with 34.7 billion yuan a year earlier.
PetroChina reported a refining loss of 41.5 billion yuan ($6.5 billion) as higher costs for imported crude oil outpaced the gains in prices for its products.
But weakness in the refining sector was offset by a 45 percent increase in crude oil prices over the same period a year earlier, to $103.78 per barrel. The company’s output in the first nine months of the year rose 5.1 percent, to 959 free credit score.3 million barrels of oil equivalent.
Like other Chinese energy and resource companies, it has actively sought access to resources overseas to help diversify its risks and ensure a steady supply of oil and gas needed to power China’s fast-growing economy.
PetroChina increased its refining by 10 percent in January-September, or about 2.7 million barrels a day. But it derives a larger share of its revenues from oil and gas production than rival Sinopec, which is mainly a refiner, helping to shield it from losses due to government controls on fuel prices.
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