Actual finance blog

Lowe’s is planning to stick by its decision to yank its ads from a reality TV show about American Muslims despite the growing opposition the home improvement chain is facing over the move.

California Sen. Ted Lieu put a statement out on Sunday that he is considering calling for a boycott of Lowe’s Cos., sparking criticism of the chain from both inside and outside of the Muslim community.

On social media web site Twitter, actor Kal Penn is began directing people to a petition on signon.org in support of the TLC cable network show, “All-American Muslim.” By Monday afternoon, there were about 9,200 signatures.

On Monday, U.S. Representative Keith Ellison of Minnesota, who is Muslim, released a statement condemning Lowe’s for choosing “to uphold the beliefs of a fringe hate group and not the creed of The First Amendment.”

And Democratic state Rep. Rashida Tlaib of Detroit, the first Muslim elected to the Michigan Legislature, voiced her concerns directly with the company. She wrote a letter to Lowe’s CEO Robert Niblock.

“I told them I was extremely disappointed that you give credibility to these hate groups,” Tlaib said. “People of Muslim faith are being attacked. It’s disappointing, disheartening.”

Meanwhile, Lowe’s, based in Mooresville, N.C., said it stands by its Sunday statement that it pulled the ads after the show became a “lightning rod for people to voice complaints from a variety of perspectives - political, social and otherwise.” The company also said that “dozens” of other advertisers pulled their advertising from the show.

“All-American Muslim” premiered last month and chronicles the lives of five families who live in and near Dearborn, Mich., a Detroit suburb with a large Muslim and Arab-American population. TLC spokeswoman Laurie Goldberg said “All-American Muslim,” which airs on Mondays on TLC and ends its first season on Jan. 8, has garnered a little over a million viewers per week.

“We stand behind the show All American Muslim and we’re happy the show has strong advertising support,” she said.

Lowe’s stopped running commercials during “All-American Muslim” after a conservative group known as the Florida Family Association e-mailed companies to ask them to stop advertising on the show. The group said the program is “propaganda that riskily hides the Islamic agenda’s clear and present danger to American liberties and traditional values.”

Florida Family Association, based in Tampa, Fla., said that more than 60 advertisers that it e-mailed, from Amazon to McDonalds, have also stopped advertising on the show. But so far, Lowe’s is the only major company to confirm that it pulled ads from the show.

Amazon and McDonald’s and other advertisers did not immediately return calls seeking comment.

Meanwhile, Atlanta-based Home Depot, which was cited by Florida Family Association as a company that stopped advertising, said Monday it never intended to run any ads during the show. But spokesman Stephen Holmes said one commercial ran “inadvertently and without our knowledge.”

The controversy highlights the fine line companies must walk when they select shows to advertise on.

Branding expert Laura Ries said Lowe’s made two mistakes. The first was advertising during a show that could be construed as controversial. The second was pulling advertising too quickly.

“For a big national brand like Lowe’s, they’ve always got to be incredibly careful when advertising during any show that could be deemed controversial,” she said. “Will it seriously damage the brand in the long term? Probably not. But it is a serious punch in the stomach.”

Overall, analysts said the furor is unlikely to damage Lowe’s brand in the long term.

“For a company that generates $50 billion in annual revenue, I don’t view this as something that will have a meaningful impact,” said Morningstar analyst Peter Wahlstrom. “I’m hopeful this blows over and I’m certain management is as well.”

Still, some worry Lowe’s ad flap could do damage to Muslims living in the Metro Detroit area.

Florida pastor Terry Jones held an anti-Islam rally earlier this year outside Dearborn City Hall after being barred from protesting outside a Muslim mosque in the city. A burning of the Quran in March at Jones’ church in Florida led to a series of violent protests in Afghanistan that killed more than a dozen people.

“Metro Detroit and Dearborn have been the focal point of a number of anti-Muslim movements,” said Dawud Walid, executive director of Council on American-Islamic Relations’ Michigan chapter. “There are organized forces in our society that want to marginalize American Muslims to the point where they don’t want to see any portrayals of Muslims that regular Americans can connect to.”

—

Corey Williams in Detroit, Rachel Zoll in New York and Mitch Stacy in Tampa, Fla., contributed to this report.

Source

COLUMBIA, Mo.

Developers asked the Ballwin Board of Aldermen Monday for help financing a development at the old Rothman Furniture location at Manchester Road and Seven Trails Drive.

The board has approved the development of a Wendy’s fast food restaurant and U-Gas at 14799 Manchester Road.

Project Manager William Biermann asked the city for financial support through a tax-increment financing district. Biermann said the taxes raised would be used to pay to remove dirt and materials excavated from the site payday loans for bad credit. He said the cost of the work had been miscalculated by up to $700,000.

The board may consider support in the future. Biermann said the project was going to be completed despite the cost mistake.

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

Asian stocks fell Wednesday after the U.S. government revised its economic growth estimate downward and climbing yields on Spanish bonds magnified worries over Europe’s debt load.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index fell 1.7 percent to 17,941.62. South Korea’s Kospi lost 1.7 percent to 1,795.81 and Australia’s S&P ASX 200 index lost 1.2 percent to 4,082.40.

Japanese stock markets were closed for a public holiday.

Stocks on Wall Street slipped Tuesday after a government report showed the U.S. economy grew at a 2 percent annual rate from July through September, down from an initial estimate of 2.5 percent. Economists had expected the figure to remain the same.

The Dow Jones industrial average lost 0.5 percent to close at 11,493.72. The Standard & Poor’s 500 fell 0.4 percent to 1,188.04. The Nasdaq composite fell 0.1 percent to 2,521.28.

Higher borrowing costs for Spain, meanwhile, renewed worries about Europe’s debt crisis. The higher rates suggest that investors are still skeptical that the country will get its budget under control despite a new government coming to power this week.

Investors have been worried that Spain could become the next country to need financial support from its European neighbors if its borrowing rates climb to unsustainable levels.

Greece was forced to seek relief from its lenders after its long-term borrowing rates rose above 7 percent on the bond market. The rate on Spain’s own benchmark 10-year bond is dangerously close to that level, 6.58 percent.

But fears of the debt crisis spreading elsewhere in Europe were allayed somewhat after the International Monetary Fund announced a plan to provide quick cash on flexible terms to countries facing sudden financial stress.

Concerns remain that Europe’s debt crisis is pushing the region toward recession, which would slow industrial activity in Europe and in countries around the world that export to Europe.

Benchmark oil for January delivery fell 65 cents to $97.36 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract rose $1.09 to finish at $98.01 per barrel on the Nymex on Tuesday.

In currency trading, the euro fell to $1.3466 from $1.3509 late Tuesday in New York. The dollar rose slightly to 76.99 yen from 76.97 yen.

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.

Source

Egyptian riot police firing tear gas and rubber bullets stormed into Cairo’s Tahrir Square Saturday to dismantle a protest tent camp, setting off clashes that killed one protester, injured hundreds and raised tension days before the first elections since Hosni Mubarak’s ouster.

The scenes of protesters fighting with black-clad police forces were reminiscent of the 18-day uprising that forced an end to Mubarak’s rule in February. Hundreds of protesters fought back, hurling stones and setting an armored police vehicle ablaze.

The violence raised fears of new unrest surrounding the parliamentary elections that are due to begin on Nov. 28. Public anger has risen over the slow pace of reforms and apparent attempts by Egypt’s ruling generals to retain power over a future civilian government payday advance lenders.

Witnesses said the clashes began when police dismantled a tent camp commemorating the hundreds of protesters killed in the uprising and attacked about 200 demonstrators who had camped in the square overnight in an attempt to restart a long-term sit-in there.

Police fired rubber bullets, tear gas and beat protesters with batons. A 23-year-old protester died from a gunshot, said Health Ministry official Mohammed el-Sherbeni. At least 676 people were injured, he said.

Source

U.S. manufacturing is recovering from a slump, and inflation may be peaking. The latest government reports suggest businesses and consumers may be seeing some relief after the economy stumbled earlier this year.

Industrial production rose in October at the fastest pace in three months. Factories made more trucks, electronics and business equipment.

At the same time, Americans paid less for gas, cars and computers last month as overall prices fell for the first time since June.

The data follow a strong report on retail sales in October and point to an economy that is growing at a solid pace in the October-December quarter. Still, the resurgence in the price of oil and a possible recession in Europe threaten to drain the economy’s momentum.

“The continued resilience of manufacturing is encouraging, since this should be the sector most exposed to the global economic slowdown,” said Paul Ashworth, chief U.S. economist with Capital Economics.

Output at the nation’s factories, utilities and mines rose 0.7 percent last month, the Federal Reserve said Wednesday.

Factory output, the largest component of industrial production, increased a solid 0.5 percent. It was the fourth straight monthly gain.

Production of autos and auto parts surged. Business equipment rose for the sixth straight month. Electrical equipment, appliances and transportation equipment all climbed.

Manufacturers “are benefiting from the strong growth in emerging markets, and domestic businesses are confident enough in the future to continue expanding purchases of capital equipment,” said Daniel Meckstroth, chief economist for the Manufacturers Alliance/MAPI, a trade group.

Production was dragged down this spring after the Japanese earthquake and tsunami disrupted key supply chains for automakers and other manufacturers. Rising food and gas costs and shaky financial markets caused consumers to cut back on big purchases.

The auto industry has rebounded to drive most of the growth in factory output. Many U.S. auto plants, which depend upon parts from Japan to produce various models, are seeing supply chains flow more freely.

Higher output at auto plants has allowed dealers to stock popular models that were in demand this spring. As a result, October sales were 7 percent higher than the same month last year. Light trucks were the biggest contributor.

A steep drop in gas prices was a key reason the Consumer Price Index dropped 0.1 percent in October, the Labor Department said. Food prices did rise, but at the slowest pace this year.

Excluding volatile food and energy costs, so-called “core” prices rose 0.1 percent.

Slower inflation could give the Federal Reserve more leeway to lower long-term interest rates to help the economy.

Still, oil prices have been climbing in recent weeks and hit $100 a barrel Wednesday for the first time in four months. They have been rising as the economy improves while tensions rise in countries that hold some of the world’s major sources of crude.

If those prices translate into higher gas prices, consumers could pull back on spending and slow economic growth.

Strong consumer spending helped the economy grow at an annual rate of 2.5 percent in the July-September quarter. The October gain in retail sales suggests similar growth in the final three months of the year.

Instability in Europe might also hurt the U.S. economy. A shaky euro would likely strengthen the dollar, making U.S. goods appear more expensive to overseas buyers. And exports to Europe already account for about one-fourth of U.S. corporate revenue, analysts say.

Europe’s economy is barely growing, and sharp government spending cuts might tip it back into recession. If that happens, slowing output by U.S. manufacturers could hinder the broader economic recovery.

Source

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

ATHENS—Greece’s prime minister launched efforts to form a coalition government to run the country for the next four months, arguing Saturday the move is vital to securing a mammoth new debt deal and demonstrating commitment to remaining in the eurozone.

George Papandreou won an early morning confidence vote in the Socialist-led parliament on a pledge that he was willing to step aside and form a cross-party caretaker government. But it remains unclear whether the main opposition conservatives and other parties will take part in the talks and drop a demand for an immediate general election.

Hours after winning the vote, Papandreou met with President Karolos Papoulias.

“Cooperation is necessary to guarantee — for Greece and for our partners — that we can honor our commitments,” Papandreou said at the start of Saturday’s hourlong meeting.

“I am concerned that a lack of cooperation could trouble how our partners see our will and desire to remain in the central core of the European Union and the euro,” he said.

Papandreou, midway through his four-year term, was forced into the move by his austerity-weary Socialist party after he abandoned a disastrous proposal to hold a referendum on a new European debt deal. The idea was quickly scrapped this week after throwing world markets into renewed turmoil and drawing an angry reaction from European leaders.

Frustrated with Greece’s protracted political disagreements, the country’s creditors have threatened to withhold the next critical 8 billion euros ($11 billion U.S.) loan installment until the new debt deal is formally approved in Greece.

Greece is surviving on a 110 billion euros ($150 billion U.S.) rescue-loan program from eurozone partners and the International Monetary Fund no fax cash advances. It is currently finalizing a second mammoth deal: to receive an additional 130 billion euros ($179 billion U.S.) in loans and bank support, with banks agreeing to cancel 50 percent of their Greek debt.

“My immediate aim is to do everything I can to create a broad cooperation government … I am not tied to my post,” Papandreou said.

“Cooperation is required for the country. We must not go to elections at this moment because it would have catastrophic consequences for the Greek economy and the livelihoods of Greek citizens,” he said. “The (new debt) agreement is very significant and will relieve much of the burden on the Greek citizen.”

Socialist party officials insisted any new government would need until late February to secure the second deal, warning that a snap poll could scuttle it. They insisted Saturday that Papandreou’s offer to step aside was sincere, and called on Antonis Samaras, leader of the conservative New Democracy party, to urgently reconsider his party’s position.

“If Mr. Samaras were willing to back a new government, the prime minister would resign today,” Yiannis Magriotis, a deputy public works minister, told private Skai television.

Prominent political analyst Ilias Nicolacopoulos argued it would be difficult for Samaras to avoid the coalition talks altogether — even if he remains reluctant to share power with Papandreou.

“There will be a tough game of poker — all of last week was a poker game — to determine what type of government can be formed,” he told AP television.

Source