Actual finance blog

+%3Cp%3EDeserted+by+many+of+his+fellow+Republicans%2C+U.S.+House+Speaker+John+Boehner+surrendered+to+attacks+from+President+Barack+Obama+and+congressional+Democrats+and+agreed+to+a+two-month+extension+of+a+payroll+tax+cut+that+he+derided+hours+earlier.+%3C%2Fp%3E+%3Cp%3EThe+decision+kicks+the+fight+over+extending+the+tax+cut+for+160+million+U.S.+workers+into+early+next+year+without+resolving+deep+divides+over+how+to+cover+the+cost+through+2012.+%3C%2Fp%3E+%3Cp%3EDemocrats+are+focused+on+imposing+a+new+tax+on+income+exceeding+%241+million+while+Republicans+want+to+cut+the+federal+work+force+and+freeze+pay+for+government+workers.+Republicans+also+want+to+attach+policies+to+a+payroll+tax+cut+extension+–+opposed+by+Democrats+–+such+as+a+rewrite+of+the+unemployment+system+or+weaker+rules+for+industrial+emissions.+%3C%2Fp%3E+%3Cp%3EThe+deal+that+Boehner+and+Senate+Majority+Leader+Harry+Reid%2C+a+Nevada+Democrat%2C+agreed+to+yesterday+includes+language+that+calls+on+Obama+to+accelerate+approval+of+the+Keystone+XL+Canadian+oil+pipeline.+Both+chambers+plan+to+pass+the+tax+cut+deal+today+by+unanimous+consent%2C+which+means+most+lawmakers+won%92t+have+to+return+to+Washington+over+the+holiday+recess.+%3C%2Fp%3E+%3Cp%3EBoehner+could+be+in+a+weaker+position+entering+the+2012+negotiations+after+presiding+over+the+tumult+of+recent+days%2C+in+which+Senate+Republicans+opposed+Boehner%92s+stance+and+some+House+Republicans+had+begun+to+defect+as+well.+The+talks+next+year+will+unfold+in+the+months+ahead+of+a+presidential+election%2C+making+Boehner%92s+task+more+difficult.+%3C%2Fp%3E+No+Time+for+Celebration++%3Cp%3E%93I+don%92t+think+it%92s+a+time+for+celebration%2C%94+the+Ohio+Republican+told+reporters+yesterday.+%93Our+economy+is+struggling.+We%92ve+got+a+lot+of+work+ahead+of+us+in+the+coming+year.%94+%3C%2Fp%3E+%3Cp%3EAfter+days+of+relentless+attacks+from+Democrats+and+negative+headlines+in+the+press%2C+some+Republicans+were+pleased+to+see+Boehner+cut+his+losses.+%3C%2Fp%3E+%3Cp%3E%93The+great+danger+would+have+been+if+we+continued%2C%94+said+Representative+Tom+Cole+of+Oklahoma.+%93We+made+our+points.+We%92ve+gotten+some+modifications.%94+%3C%2Fp%3E+%3Cp%3EThe+pressure+for+Boehner+to+cut+a+deal+was+building+for+days.+Republican+Senators+Olympia+Snowe+of+Maine%2C+Scott+Brown+of+Massachusetts%2C+John+McCain+of+Arizona+and+Bob+Corker+of+Tennessee%2C+criticized+Boehner%92s+move+to+reject+the+bipartisan+two-month+extension+after+it+passed+the+Senate+on+Dec.+17%2C+just+two+weeks+before+the+tax+cut+was+set+to+expire.+%3C%2Fp%3E+Isolation+in+Opposition++%3Cp%3EBoehner+became+more+isolated+in+his+opposition+to+the+Senate-passed+bipartisan+bill+after+the+top+Republican+in+the+Senate%2C+Mitch+McConnell+of+Kentucky%2C+issued+a+statement+before+lunchtime+yesterday+urging+the+House+to+pass+the+short-term+measure.+%3C%2Fp%3E+%3Cp%3EMcConnell+said+the+House+should+pass+a+bill+that+averts+%93any+disruption+in+the+payroll+tax+holiday+or+other+expiring+provisions+and+allows+Congress+to+work+on+a+solution+for+the+longer+extensions.%94+%3C%2Fp%3E+%3Cp%3EThat+statement+%93sealed+the+deal%94+in+ending+the+standoff%2C+said+Brian+Gardner%2C+the+senior+vice+president+for+Washington+research+at+KBW+Inc.+%3C%2Fp%3E+%3Cp%3EBoehner+held+a+conference+call+with+Republicans+yesterday.+On+a+similar+conference+call+following+the+Dec.+17+Senate+passage+of+the+two-month+extension%2C+rank-and-file+Republicans+pressed+Boehner+to+oppose+the+measure.+They+did+so+on+Dec.+20+as+the+House+rejected+the+Senate+bill+229-193.+%3C%2Fp%3E+Different+Tone++%3Cp%3EHouse+Republicans+who+participated+in+yesterday%92s+call+said+the+tone+was+much+different+than+after+the+Senate+vote.+%3C%2Fp%3E+%3Cp%3E%93It+wasn%92t+truly+a+conference+call%2C%94+Representative+Jack+Kingston%2C+a+Georgia+Republican%2C+said.+%93It+wasn%92t+a+solicitation+of+opinion.%94+%3C%2Fp%3E+%3Cp%3EThough+most+House+Republicans+still+want+a+yearlong+deal%2C+Kingston+said+that+it+was+time+for+the+party+to+move+forward.+%3C%2Fp%3E+%3Cp%3E%93This+takes+the+whole+thing+off+the+front+page+and+that%92s+a+good+thing%2C%94+he+said.+%3C%2Fp%3E+%3Cp%3ESome+House+Republicans+said+yesterday+they+don%92t+think+Boehner%92s+agreement+to+pass+the+two-month+extension+puts+him+in+immediate+danger+of+losing+the+support+of+the+Republican+majority+he+leads.+%3C%2Fp%3E+%3Cp%3ERepresentative+Sean+Duffy%2C+a+freshman+Republican+from+Wisconsin%2C+said+Boehner+was+trying+to+reflect+the+views+of+his+colleagues.+Duffy+said+he+is+pleased+that+a+tax+increase+will+be+avoided+in+January+and+doesn%92t+think+the+saga+would+hurt+Republicans+in+the+2012+election.+%3C%2Fp%3E+%3Cp%3E%93I+think+the+American+public+will+look+at+the+economy+and+job+growth+and+the+lack+thereof%2C%94+Duffy+said.+%93I+don%92t+think+this+is+an+indicator+of+what+will+happen+next+year.+%3C%2Fp%3E+Provisions+Extended++%3Cp%3EWithout+congressional+action%2C+the+payroll+tax+for+employees+would+rise+in+January+to+6.2+percent+from+the+current+4.2+percent.+The+tax+funds+Social+Security.+The+deal+also+averts+an+end+to+emergency+unemployment+benefits+set+to+expire+on+Dec.+31+and+assures+doctors+their+Medicare+reimbursement+rates+won%92t+be+reduced+starting+in+January.+%3C%2Fp%3E+%3Cp%3EMichael+Feroli%2C+%3Ca+topic_url%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Ftopics.bloomberg.com%2Fjpmorgan-chase-%26amp%3B-co%2F%22+href%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bloomberg.com%2Fapps%2Fquote%3Fticker%3DJPM%3AUS%22+density%3D%22sparse%22+title%3D%22Get+Quote%22+ticker%3D%22JPM%3AUS%22+class%3D%22web_ticker%22%3EJPMorgan+Chase+%26amp%3B+Co.+%28JPM%29%92s+New+York-based+chief+U.S.+economist%2C+said+economic+growth+would+be+reduced+by+0.5+percentage+points+in+the+first+quarter+and+1.5+percentage+points+in+the+second+quarter+of+2012+if+the+payroll+tax+cut+and+expanded+unemployment+benefits+weren%92t+continued.+If+they+are+extended+for+the+year%2C+he+expects+growth+of+2.5+percent+in+the+first+half+of+the+year%2C+he+said+in+a+Dec.+16+note+to+clients.+%3C%2Fp%3E+%3Cp%3EHouse+Ways+and+Means+Committee+Chairman+Dave+Camp%2C+a+Michigan+Republican%2C+will+introduce+the+legislation+in+the+House+today+that+will+implement+the+agreement.+%3C%2Fp%3E+Unanimous+Consent++%3Cp%3EThe+measure+will+be+brought+up+in+the+House+under+unanimous+consent+to+avoid+requiring+lawmakers+to+return+and+could+be+cleared+in+the+Senate+later+in+the+day+using+the+same+process.+%3C%2Fp%3E+%3Cp%3EThe+legislation+includes+one+difference+from+the+version+passed+by+the+Senate.+A+yearlong+payroll+tax+cut+extension+would+apply+to+the+first+%24110%2C100+in+wages.+To+prevent+someone+from+shifting+all+their+income+into+the+first+two+months+of+the+year%2C+the+Senate+bill+limited+the+tax+break+to+the+first+%2418%2C350+a+worker+earns.+%3C%2Fp%3E+%3Cp%3ERepublicans+changed+the+bill+to+apply+the+tax+cut+to+the+full+%24110%2C100+in+wages%2C+according+to+information+provided+by+Camp%92s+office.+That+makes+it+easier+for+payroll+processors+to+continue+the+tax+cut+if+it+is+extended+beyond+February.+%3C%2Fp%3E+%3Cp%3EWorkers+who+earn+more+than+%2418%2C350+during+the+first+two+months+of+the+year+will+pay+an+additional+2+percentage+point+tax+when+they+file+their+returns+in+2013.+%3C%2Fp%3E+%3Cp%3EThe+bill+is+HR+3630.+%3C%2Fp%3E++%3Cp%3E%3Ca+href%3D%27http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bloomberg.com%2Fnews%2F2011-12-22%2Fhouse-s-boehner-senate-s-reid-said-to-agree-on-u-s-payroll-tax-cut-plan.html%27+rel%3D%27nofollow%27%3ESource%3C%2Fa%3E%3C%2Fp%3E+

Canadian Gold and iron producer Eldorado Gold Corp. said Sunday it will buy European Goldfields Ltd. in a deal worth about $2.4 billion, increasing its ability to produce gold.

The Vancouver, British Columbia, company said its offer values each European Goldfields share at 13.08 Canadian dollars ($12.59), based on Eldorado’s closing stock price on the Toronto Stock Exchange Friday.

That comes to 2.5 billion Canadian dollars. It’s a 10 percent premium to European Goldfields’ closing price on the Toronto Stock Exchange Friday.

Eldorado said the deal will create a company with a market capitalization of about 11 billion Canadian dollars ($10.59 billion) and help diversify production. It expects to increase annual production to reach more than 1.5 million ounces of gold by 2015. In October, the company said it expected to produce 650,000 ounces of gold this year.

Eldorado operates in China, Turkey, Brazil and Greece. It has six active mines and other projects in development.

European Goldfields, which is based in Whitehorse, Yukon, operates a mine in Greece and is developing projects in both Greece and Romania pay day loans. It said it has gold reserves of 10 million ounces within the European Union. It is also a partner of Aktor SA, the largest construction company in Greece.

“Integration of European Goldfields’ business with our own will provide Eldorado with the dominant gold mining business in the Aegean Region,” said Eldorado CEO Paul Wright in a statement Sunday. He added that European Goldfields’ partnership with Aktor will help the combined company safely develop operations in Greece.

Under the deal proposed Sunday, European Goldfields stockholders will receive 0.85 Eldorado share and a fraction of a Canadian cent for each European Goldfields share.

The acquisition requires approval from a majority of Eldorado shareholders and two-thirds of European Goldfields shareholders. Shareholders from both companies will meet in February to vote on the deal.

Source

With winter fast approaching, the bailiffs of Budapest are in a race against the clock.

They have only days before temperatures plummet and evictions are frozen by law. Demand for their services is soaring, and in the last seven weeks at least three people in the capital have committed suicide over the prospect of losing their homes.

Ani Beres, a 58-year-old woman whose family farming business went bankrupt, sat on her bed and spoke of hurling herself out of the window as the debt men knocked on the door of her 9th floor apartment this week. Her last line of defense was a throng of angry family members and activists trying to get in their way.

Hungary’s eviction crisis has its roots in 2005, when hundreds of thousands of Hungarian families began taking out mortgages and other loans in foreign currencies _ overwhelmingly in Swiss francs _ to take advantage of lower interest rates and a strong Hungarian forint.

But the Hungarian currency has plummeted over the past two years as the economy, highly dependent on exports, spiraled downward in the global economic crisis.

Today, the currency is falling further as the economy teeters on the verge of recession. Hungary’s credit rating is threatened with downgrade to junk status. Investors are spooked by the government’s unorthodox economic policies. And exports to Western Europe are being buffeted by the eurozone’s own debt crisis.

In a sign of the depth of the currency shock, authorities said Thursday that state security services will investigate possible speculative attacks on the forint after it plunged to an all-time low against the euro this month.

While a Swiss franc was worth 150 forints in 2008, it has now risen to around 250 forints and the Beres family’s 8-million-forint loan ($34,500, euro25,700) has ballooned to at least 12 million forints ($69,000, euro51,400).

The family depends on welfare payments of 48,000 forints ($208, euro155), not enough to live on, much less to repay their loan.

“We get food from the neighbors to survive,” Beres said. “You can ask them!”

A bailiff backed by several police officers had come to evict her family, whose home was bought at auction by real estate investors after she was unable to repay a foreign-currency bank loan.

“We took out the loan to invest in our vegetable-growing business … but we went bankrupt and had to sell everything,” Beres said, as her husband, Laszlo, screamed at the bailiff in the stairwell and had to be restrained from attacking him.

“I’m hopeful we can sort things out. But I’ll do it, I’ll jump out right here in front of everyone!” she said. “How many people need to die in this country until a solution is found?”

Hungary was a favored destination for international investors during the years after the first post-communist elections in 1990. But in the 2008 global recession, it became the first EU country to receive a bailout from the International Monetary Fund to avoid defaulting on its loans.

Last year, Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s government decided to forgo IMF support so it could apply its unconventional economic policies, including allowing people to pay back foreign currency loans at exchange rates much lower than current market rates, with banks forced to absorb the difference.

Last week, however, the government announced it would seek a “safety net” from the IMF and the EU but denied that the financial assistance would take the shape of a new loan, thereby giving the IMF undeniable say in Hungary’s economic policy.

Despite Orban’s intention of keeping a “free hand” in economic matters, analysts are skeptical lenders will be so considerate.

“The government would like to preserve its total independence … but it’s unlikely that the IMF would provide money without having some say,” said Zoltan Arokszallasi, a macroeconomic analyst at Erste Bank in Budapest.

A government ban on evictions in place during the first half of the year will return Dec. 1 because of the freezing weather, so the number of forced expulsions has risen greatly during the past weeks as lenders or the new owners attempt to take possession of their properties.

There have been at least three suicides during recent evictions in Budapest.

On Oct. 6, Eva Stiaszni, a 49-year-old subway conductor slammed the door when authorities came to throw her out, sent a farewell text message on her cell phone to her 21-year-old daughter and jumped to her death from her apartment window on the 9th floor of a low-cost housing estate.

“My daughter never asked for my help or anyone else’s,” said her 77-year-old mother, Ica Stiaszni. “How did she end up in a such a state that she was driven to her death?”

At the Beres home _ after much shouting, pleading and threats _ the bailiff agreed to the family’s request for a three-month stay of eviction.

But their problems are far from over.

“We’ve been looking for an emergency home for months and have not found anything,” Beres said. “We have no place to go.”

Source

President Barack Obama has signed legislation giving tax breaks to companies that hire unemployed veterans, telling businesses “if you are hiring, hire a veteran.”

Obama says Monday that the legislation will help about 850,000 veterans who are currently unemployed and tens of thousands who will be returning from Iraq and Afghanistan in the coming months.

The bill passed Congress last week with rare bipartisan support.

The brief moment of unity was overshadowed by the apparent failure of lawmakers from both parties on a special panel to reach an agreement on $1.2 trillion in savings ahead of a Wednesday deadline low fee payday advance.

The legislation signed by Obama creates tax breaks for companies that hire jobless veterans and helps provide vets with job training and counseling. It also repeals a 2006 law that would require the federal, state and local governments to withhold 3 percent of their payments to contractors.

The veterans’ legislation is the first proposal included in Obama’s $447 billion bill to win congressional approval.

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Searching for help, President Barack Obama lobbied the skeptical leaders of Russia and China on Saturday for support in keeping Iran from becoming a nuclear-armed menace to the world, hoping to yield a “common response” to a crisis that is testing international unity.

Yet Obama’s talk of solidarity with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Chinese President Hu Jintao was not publicly echoed by either man as Iran moved anew to the fore of the international stage _ and to the front of the fierce U.S. presidential race.

Obama, at home in Hawaii and holding forth on a world stage, also sought to show aggressiveness in fixing an economy that has weakened his standing with voters. He pushed Hu about American impatience with China’s economic policy, touted the makings of a new pacific trade zone and showered attention on the lucrative Asia-Pacific export market.

The United States’ vast worries about Iran grew starker with a report this week by the U.N. atomic agency that asserted in the strongest terms yet Iran is conducting secret work with the sole intent of developing nuclear arms. The U.S. claims a nuclear-armed Iran could set off an arms race among rival states and directly threaten Israel.

Russia and China remain a roadblock to the United States in its push to tighten international sanctions on Iran. Both are veto-wielding members of the U.N. Security Council and have shown no sign the new report will change their stand.

With Medvedev on the sidelines of an Asia-Pacific summit here, Obama said the two “reaffirmed our intention to work to shape a common response” on Iran.

Shortly after, Obama joined Hu, in a run of back-to-back diplomacy with the heads of two allies that hold complicated and at times divisive relations with the United States. Obama said that he and the Chinese leader want to ensure that Iran abides by “international rules and norms.”

Obama’s comments were broad enough to portray a united front without yielding any clear indication of progress. Medvedev, for his part, was largely silent on Iran during his remarks, merely acknowledging that the subject was discussed. Hu did not mention Iran at all.

White House aides insisted later that Russia and China remain unified with the United States and other allies in preventing Iran from developing nuclear weapons, and that Obama, Hu and Medvedev had agreed to work on the next steps. Deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes said the new allegations about Iran’s programs demand an international response, and “I think the Russians and the Chinese understand that. We’re going to be working with them to formulate that response.”

As the president held forth on the world stage in his home state, Republicans vying to compete against Obama for the presidency unleashed withering criticism in a debate in South Carolina. It was a rare moment in which foreign policy garnered attention in a campaign dominated by the flagging U.S. economy.

“If we re-elect Barack Obama, Iran will have a nuclear weapon. And if you elect Mitt Romney, Iran will not have a nuclear weapon,” said Romney, the former Massachusetts governor. Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann warned that Iran’s attempt to develop a nuclear weapon is setting the table “for worldwide nuclear war against Israel.”

Iran has insisted its nuclear work is in the peaceful pursuit of energy and research, not weaponry.

U.S. officials have said the report by the International Atomic Energy Agency was unlikely to persuade China and Russia to support tougher sanctions on the Iranian government. But led by Obama, the administration is still trying to mount pressure on Iran, both through the United Nations and its own, for fear of what may come should Iran proceed undeterred.

More broadly, Obama sought Saturday to position the United States as a Pacific power determined to get more American jobs by tapping the explosive potential of the Asia-Pacific.

For businesses, he said, “this is where the action’s going to be.”

“There is no region in the world that we consider more vital than the Asia-Pacific region,” he told chief executives gathered for a regional economic summit.

The president went so far as to saying the United States had grown “a little bit lazy” in trying to attract business to the United States.

Obama’s aides said he was blunt with Hu in expressing concern about China’s undervalued currency, which keeps its exports cheaper and U.S. exports to China more expensive.

Deputy National Security Adviser Mike Froman said Obama made it clear that Americans are growing “increasingly impatient and frustrated” with the state of change in China economic policy. China had a $273 billion trade surplus with the U.S. last year and U.S. lawmakers say the imbalance hurts American manufacturers and taken away American jobs.

Underscoring the search for some good economic news ahead heading toward a re-election vote, Obama announced the broad outlines of an agreement to create a transpacific trade zone encompassing the United States and eight other nations. He said details must still be worked out, but said the goal was to complete the deal by next year.

“The United States is a Pacific power and we’re here to stay,” Obama said.

The eight countries joining the U.S. in the zone would be Australia, Brunei, Chile, Malaysia, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam. Obama also spoke with Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda about Japan’s interest in joining the trade bloc.

In a sign of potential tension with China, Froman shrugged off complaints from China that it had not been invited to join the trade bloc.

He told reporters that China had not expressed interest in joining and said the trade group “is not something that one gets invited to. It’s something that one aspires to.”

Addressing the European debt crisis, Obama said he welcomed the new governments being formed in Greece and Italy, saying they should help calm world financial markets. Obama’s ever increasing attention to the Asia-Pacific is driven in part by Europe’s own financial woes and the U.S. need to get more aggressive in tapping its export options.

Obama will be in Honolulu through Tuesday, when he leaves for Australia before ending his trip in Indonesia.

Source

A new study contends that Scott Air Force Base has an annual economic impact on the St. Louis area of more than $3 billion, up from $2.1 billion cited in a similar study done a decade ago.

The study was commissioned by Scott and the Leadership Council Southwestern Illinois and was conducted by Woolpert LLC. Its findings were made public on Tuesday.

The study concludes that more than 136,000 area residents benefit directly from Scott either through employment at or retirement from the air base or through jobs that provide goods and services to the base. Scott is the largest employer south of Springfield in Illinois. It also is the sixth largest employer in the St credit score. Louis area, according to the Post-Dispatch employer database.

Scott has nearly 5,800 active duty military and 2,000 Air National Guard and Air Force Reserve members stationed there. The base also employs more than 3,100 federal civilian employees and more than 2,400 non-appropriated fund contract civilians and private business employees.

(EDITOR’S NOTE: The story was updated to correct the relative size of Scott Air Force Base among local employers.)

Source

The threat that floodwaters will inundate Thailand’s capital could ease by early November as record-high levels in the river carrying torrents of water downstream from the country’s north begin to decline, authorities said Sunday.

Bangkok’s immediate prospects remain uncertain, however, as the front lines in battling the flood from north, east and west of the city draw closer daily.

The relatively rosy longer term projection from the Flood Relief Operations Center came just a day after reports that Bangkok’s main Chao Phraya river was overflowing its banks and at its highest levels in seven years.

People should not be too concerned because the spillover could be drained, said the center’s chief, Justice Minister Pracha Promnok, in a televised news conference. He also said water in an overflowing main canal in Bangkok was receding, and drainage efforts east and west of the city were working well.

The situation was dire in many respects in the capital’s northern outskirts and Thailand’s central provinces, which suffered the worst of the flooding after heavy monsoon rains since July.

Off a highway heading north of the city, Associated Press reporters found people scrambling for safety in flooded streets.

The Thai military used boats to help rescue stranded residents near a domestic airport in northern outer Bangkok that has been the flood-operations headquarters and a shelter for evacuees.

Mothers walked in hip-high water with children strapped to their backs, while other people waded through the murky water holding belongings in plastic bags atop their heads.

There are concerns the Don Muang airport itself may be vulnerable, and the European Union canceled an aid-handover ceremony scheduled there Monday due to “unforeseen circumstances.”

In Nonthaburi province, just north of Bangkok, a 7-foot (2-meter) crocodile was captured while resting on dry land outside a restaurant, presumably after pulling itself out of the surrounding floodwaters. Thai television showed the beast, which had reportedly escaped from a farm, with its snout taped shut and its scaly body covering most of a boat that was carrying it away.

An Associated Press photographer saw two crocodiles that had been killed in Nonthaburi, and unconfirmed recent reports have claimed up to 100 crocodiles may have escaped from farms in the region.

Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra has said the waters may take up to six weeks to recede to manageable proportions around Bangkok payday loans guaranteed no fax. The government has cautioned that rumors have been quick to circulate and people should check all information, advice that follows strong criticism of the government for missteps and confusion since the crisis began.

Residents of Bangkok and its suburbs have settled into a routine of waiting and worrying.

Many are hoarding supplies, and supermarket shelves have emptied faster than they can be restocked. Bottled water, batteries and canned food were among the first items to go.

At a supermarket in central Bangkok’s business district _ which is not under immediate threat _ sandbags lined both entrances Sunday, forcing shoppers to step over to go inside. Many of the shelves were bare, with the handful of shoppers inside grabbing the few snacks that were left. Cat food and toilet paper were gone.

While larger stores in Bangkok have kept their prices fixed, smaller merchants were raising theirs in the flooded zones north of the city. A Rangsit resident, Taweetit Hongsang, complained that the price of a papaya, 10 baht (33 cents) a week ago, had shot up to 30 baht ($1).

The desperate battle to route the water away from the city has led to several conflicts in which people have used force to try to protect their own neighborhoods by removing flood barriers.

Bangkok Governor Sukhumbhand Paribatra said Sunday one crew of city workers was unable to carry out reinforcement of one barrier because of “a group of people opposing the mission and harassing” them. He said it was necessary to withdraw them “since they are not trained to deal with unruly and armed outsiders.”

In evident response, Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra said she had delegated high-ranking police officers to protect workers carrying out anti-flood duties.

The flooding that began in August has killed 356 people in Thailand and the $6 billion cost estimate could double if Bangkok is badly hit.

The flooding is the worst to hit Thailand since 1942 and is proving a major test for Yingluck’s nascent government, which took power in July after heated elections and has come under fire for not acting quickly or decisively enough to prevent major towns north of the capital from being ravaged by floodwaters.

Source

ST. LOUIS 

U.S. stock futures are falling ahead of a report that will give investors a new look at the direction of the job market.

The government will release its weekly estimate of the number of people who applied for unemployment benefits for the first time last week. Economists expect that applications rose to 405,000 from 398,000 the previous week.

Kraft Foods rose more than 6 percent in premarket trading after the company said that it plans to split into two. One company will focus on snacks and the other will target the grocery business.

Ahead of the opening bell, Dow futures are down 77, or 0.5 percent, to 11,755. S&P 500 futures are down 8, or 0.7 percent, to 1,246. Nasdaq 100 futures are down 14, or 0.6 percent, to 2,288.

Source

Americans prefer using their debit cards at the register. But a small fee could change that.

A new Associated Press-GfK poll finds that about two-thirds of consumers use debit cards more frequently than credit cards. But when debit card holders were asked how they would react if they were charged a $3 monthly fee for their debit card, 61 percent say they’d find another way to pay.

If the fee was $5, 66 percent would do the same. If the fee was $7, the figure rises to 81 percent.

The findings come at a time when consumers are seeing unwelcome changes to their debit cards and the checking accounts to which they’re linked. Although banks haven’t started imposing monthly fees for debit cards, there are signs higher costs could be on the way.

Starting in October, a new cap will sharply limit the revenue banks can collect from merchants whenever customers swipe their debit cards. That revenue has been a critical income source for banks; merchants paid issuers $19.7 billion for debit transactions in 2009, according to the Nilson Report, which tracks the payments industry.

Consumers are already seeing the fallout. Chase, PNC Bank and Wells Fargo ended or scaled back their debit rewards programs citing the new regulation. The availability of free checking accounts also declined last year for the first time since 2003.

And more changes could be in store.

Chase, for example, is testing a $3 monthly fee for debit cards on new accounts in northern Wisconsin. In Atlanta, it’s testing a $15 monthly fee on basic checking accounts.

Among the AP-GfK poll respondents who say they would leave their debit cards in their wallets in the face of such fees, more say they’d pay with cash, 53 percent, or check, 42 percent, rather than another form of plastic.

“Cash or checks _ they’re not very expensive,” said Aaron Alto, a 44-year-old resident of Grand Rapids, Minn. Alto says he’d be annoyed enough to look for an alternative to his debit card if the fees approached $10.

Debit card fees would cause 22 percent to switch to credit cards, and 12 percent say they would switch to a prepaid spending card.

For now, the notable preference for debit could be linked to a negative sentiment about credit cards; nearly half of respondents to the AP-GfK poll say the interest rates they’re charged are unfair.

That may be because 30 percent had their interest rates hiked in the past two years. That’s more than twice the number who say their rates were lowered.

Forty-two percent of respondents also say the fees and penalties on their cards are unfair; 37 percent say card issuers recently raised those potential charges.

The higher rates and fees may have surprised consumers in light of the new regulations that were intended to protect cardholders and put an end to questionable billing practices.

Under the rules that went into effect last February, cardholders are now entitled to 45 days notice before their rates are hiked. Card issuers are also prohibited from raising rates on existing balances, a once-common practice that consumer advocates had long decried.

Additionally, the one-time penalty fees for late payments are capped at $25 per violation. But there’s no limit on how high banks can hike interest rates on purchases or the default interest rates that kick in when customers are late on payments.

Earl Law, a 61-year-old resident of Buffalo, N.Y., said the penalty rate on a few of his cards is 30 percent.

“It’s absurd. It’s usurious,” he said. “If you’re struggling with debt, that’s the last thing you need. You’re asking people to fail.”

Despite the widespread discontent with interest rates, the regulations are having a clear, positive impact in one area: monthly statements. Nearly half of respondents say they’re now easier to understand.

Part of the reason is that the new law requires credit card issuers to spell out the cost of carrying a balance. For example, statements now include a chart that shows how long it would take to pay off a balance if only minimum payments were made. The chart also includes the total amount the cardholder would pay over that time, including interest charges.

The increased transparency might be one reason why the majority of consumers _ 78 percent _ say they plan to stick with their cards, despite their grumblings about high rates and fees.

It could also be that consumers have grown numb to unpleasant changes. In the months leading up to the passage of the new regulations, many cardholders saw their interest rates hiked, credit limits slashed and inactive accounts shut down.

The poll was conducted June 16-20 by GfK Roper Public Affairs and Corporate Communications. It involved landline and cell phone interviews with 1,001 adults nationwide, including 715 who have credit cards and 706 debit card holders. Results from the full sample have a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 4.1 percentage points; it is 4.8 points for those with credit or debit cards.

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