Yahoo logo is pictured in front of the building in Rolle, 30 km (19 miles) East of Geneva, December12, 2012.
Credit: Reuters/Denis Balibouse
Chesapeake probe found no intentional misconduct CEO
CEO, President and co-founder of Chesapeake Energy's Aubrey McClendon Corporation walks through the French quarter in New Orleans, Louisiana March 26, 2012.
Credit: Reuters/Sean Gardner
How to manage the second half of your career
Successfully managing your career after 50 lets you retire later with an improved financial outlook.
PART 3: CAREER
The secret: Success at 50 means a whole a new skill set.
Nearly half of workers in their fifties expect to retire after 65, according to a survey by Transamerica Center for Retirement Studies. Smart plan.
"You can't finance a 30-year retirement with a 40-year career," says Martha Deevy of the Stanford Center's financial security division.
The reality, though, is that many careers don't make it to 65. (The median retirement age is 62.)
Being pushed out early isn't the only risk; losing a job in middle age can leave a hole in your savings even after you get back to work.
You may not always be able to avoid a layoff, but "you can't afford to become complacent," says Geoff Hoffmann of recruiting firm DHR International.
The rules of managing your career in its second half are different from those that worked when you were younger. You need a fresh strategy to get you up the ladder when there are fewer rungs to climb, with stiffer competition for jobs at your level.
TAKE ACTION
Go beyond mentors. Find champions. Early in your career you may have had a mentor who showed you the ropes of your job. Later on, though, you'll need higher-level contacts who can sing your praises when it comes time for raises, promotions, or job cuts, and who can connect you to decision-makers in other departments or firms. "You want credible people who can advocate for you," says Hoffmann.
Related: 5 retirement choices: Get 'em right, live well
They may not be in the next cubicle over or people you're likely to see every day. Put yourself in positions to interact with senior-level people in a meaningful way: Seek out cross-departmental assignments or get actively involved in industry associations.
People are more likely to champion you if they feel that you've been a champion for them too. In your networking, give at least as much as you hope to get.
Show knowledge, not credentials. After 45, pricey degrees may not be worth the investment. You simply have less career time to make the cost pay off. Employers do like to see, though, that you're still learning, says Scott Kane, founder of the job-placement service Gray Hair Management.
Sign up for short courses that teach skills that apply to your industry. (Online providers Coursera and Udacity now offer many for free.) Or take on projects at work that force you to master a new technology.
Focus on transferable skills. Think about the things you've done that could be valuable to a wide variety of employers -- for example, the time you overhauled a training program or spearheaded a cost-cutting team.
Keep track of these accomplishments by regularly updating your résumé and LinkedIn profile.
More secrets to a dream retirement:
First Published: February 18, 2013: 10:02 AM ETOffice Depot confirmed a deal with OfficeMax
Shop Office Depot is pictured in Encinitas, California, 19 February 2013.
Credit: Reuters/Mike Blake
EU executive gets national budget vetting powers
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Apple supplier Foxconn launches a hiring freeze on the largest plant
A man walks past a logo of the Foxconn factory in Wuhan, Hubei Province, on August 31, 2012.
Credit: Reuters/Stringer
Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang joined the Lenovo Board as an observer
Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang attended the Allen Co & Media Conference in Sun Valley, Idaho July 13, 2012.
Credit: Reuters/Jim UrquhartHONG KONG | Wed Feb 20, 2013 8: 02 am EST
Hong Kong (Reuters)-Lenovo Group said Yahoo! co-founder Jerry Yang is to join its Board as an observer, as the world's no. 2 maker of personal computers, is expanding its mobile business to tap global demand for smartphones and tablets.
Yang, who is a co-founder of Yahoo! in April 1995 and served as CEO from June 2007 to January 2009, you will not be able to vote or any of the other rights of Director, Lenovo said Wednesday.
The Hong Kong company will pay $ 61,875 Yang annually and offer equity rights worth $ 135,000 against attending Board meetings and views.
Yang, 44, resigned from Yahoo's Board last year, when he also stepped down from the boards of Alibaba group holding and Yahoo! Japan.
Lenovo, the second-largest smartphone vendor in China, increasing its expansion in business.
In its third quarter, October to December, Lenovo shipped 9.4 million phones, including 9 million smartphones, mainly in China, where its Smartphone business is profitable for the first time.
(Reporting by Anne Marie Roantree; editing by Dan Lalor)
Homebuilding breather, wholesale loan
Free and hollow house sitting next to well-maintained occupied house in thriving eastside neighborhood in Detroit, Michigan January 23, 2013.
Credit: Reuters/Rebecca CookBy Lucia Mutikani
WASHINGTON | Wed Feb 20, 2013 at 9: 19 am EST
Washington (Reuters)-housing construction fell in January but the jump in permits for future home building to high the hope 4-1/2 year housing market recovery remains on track.
Another report Wednesday showed wholesale prices rose for the first time in four months in January as rising costs offset weak gasoline prices. However the slow economic growth should keep price pressures muted.
Housing starts dropped 8.5% last month to an annual rate of 890,000 unit, pulled down by a sharp fall in the category of volatile multi-family unit, the Commerce Department said.
But starts for single-family units hit its highest level since July 2008, and permits for future Home construction are high 4-1/2 years.
"It could be a correction of sorts, but nothing to signal newfound concerns the housing market," says Sean Incremona, an economist at 4CAST in New York.
In a separate report, the Labor Department said a seasonally adjusted producer price index increased 0.2 percent last month after slipping 0.3 percent in December.
The increase of prices received by farms, factories and refineries is below the 0.4 percent gain economists had expected.
U.s. financial markets have moved on a bit from the data.
Details on wholesale inflation report offered no signs of price pressures
In the 12 months through January wholesale prices were 1.4%. That followed a 1.3 percent increase in December.
This should give the Federal Reserve some room to keep your campaign very easy accommodative monetary policy as it tries to stimulate the economy.
The Central Bank of the United States last year launched an open Bond purchase program and said it would maintain it until she saw a significant improvement in the Outlook for the labour market. He hopes the purchases will drive down borrowing costs.
The Fed also pledged to hold interest rates near zero, while unemployment reached 6.5 percent, provided that it does not threaten to push inflation above 2.5%.
Wholesale prices, excluding volatile food and energy costs, edged up 0.2 percent last month after gaining 0.1 percent in December. The so-called core PPI is expected to rise 0.2 percent.
In the 12 months through January, the core PPI was up 1.8%, at least increase from February 2011. It has increased 2.0% in December.
In January, over three-quarters of the increase in overall producer prices may be due to a 0.7% rise in the cost of food, the Labor Department said. Food prices fell 0.8 percent in December. Last month's increase reflected a jump in the price of fresh and dried vegetables.
Gasoline price surprisingly fell 2.1 percent after falling 1.8 percent in December. Gasoline prices at the pump rise almost every week this year and the decline in wholesale gasoline prices last month probably are related to seasonal factors.
The core PPI was lifted from a 2.5 percent jump in the price of pharmaceuticals. Elsewhere, prices of passenger cars fell 0.8 percent after rising 0.2 percent a month ago.
(Additional reporting by Jason Lange in Washington and Chris Reese in New York; editing by Andrea Ritchie)
Analysis: Telefonica back in shape to clear the obstacles of debt
Workers break at the next meeting of Telefonica Tower entrance in Barcelona January 30, 2013.
Credit: Reuters/Albert GeaBy Clare Kane and Josie Cox
MADRID/LONDON | Wed Feb 20, 2013 9: 31 am EST
Madrid/London (Reuters)-Spanish telecoms company Telefonica (TEF.MC) is off for life after one year from the sale of assets and money saving moves and we must now focus on repairing your internal business, increasing your profits and the recovery of profits.
Eight months ago, she was weighed down by 58 billion euros ($ 78 billion) debt, endangering its investment credit rating, with a built up bigger debts than their peers by taking advantage of the credit boom in Spain a decade ago to finance expansion in Latin America, where he worked in more than a dozen countries.
But since last summer, has sold down its stake in China Unicom (0762. HK) for 1.1 billion and 800 million shares of preference share debt for equity. It also scrapped its dividend from 150 euro cents per share for 2012 and a program to buy back shares to save 6.8 billion euros. He also raised 1.45 billion of flying your German O2-branded unit (O2Dn. DE).
As a result, Telefonica is expected to say in 2012 results on 28 February that now has my attitude of net debt to earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) to 2.35, from 2.65 in late June, credit analysts.
This will protect your credit rating and could mean Telefonica won't have to spin out its Latin American side with 8 billion share offer as once expected, or follow rivals with other measures to raise cash.
A Dutch group KPN (KPN. AS) earlier this month launched a share offer 3 billion euro and 1 billion euro hybrid capital issue while Telecom Italia (TLIT. MI) is also planning a hybrid debt issue to help Fund the cost of infrastructure.
The main challenge for Telefonica now has to fix all the important Spanish business, which lost more than 3 million mobile users last year, the company is now trying to win back business osuetâval Internet, TV, mobile and fixed line services under its brand Movistar synthesis.
But credit analysts say even without an immediate growth in EBITDA, it can protect the debt/EBITDA ratio to it by continuing to hold back on its payments once a hefty dividend.
Average EBITDA for the year 2012 is expected to come about 21.1 billion euros, the lowest level since 2007 and down from 23.7 billion in 2011 and most famous analysts expected to then fall 20.4 billion euros in 2013 20.5 billion euros in 2014 and 20.8 billion in 2015, according to Thomson Reuters StarMine.
In the meantime, they are forecasting, the company will pay cash dividends for the year 2013 only 60 euro cents, followed by 74 cents and 79 cents for 2014 to 2015, well down 130 cents paid for 2011 and 150 cents, which were envisaged for 2012.
"The temporary suspension of the dividend has had a greater impact on free cash flow from other telcos because of the size of the payment. As a result, Telefónica must be able to de-lever to its targets even with a declining EBITDA, "said Nancy Utterback, credit strategist management company Aviva investors.
NO MORE ASSET SALES?
(Telefonica) what should I do and what I expect to do is to keep this figure debt and gradually improving EBITDA, "said Carlos Winzer, an analyst at Moody 's, adding that he believes other big asset sale as a flotation of its Latin American arm was no longer necessary.
The Telefonica into a better profile of the debt markets is already reflected in the price of credit default swaps to insure of Telefonica's debt over five years, which have fallen by more than 550 basis points (5.5 percentage points) in July to only 250 basis points, meaning costs 25,000 euros to insure 1 million of debt.
In comparison, Telecom Italy (TLIT. MI) drives deals at around 330 basis points, down 41 percent from its 560 basis-point high. Since this time last year a five-year CDs, Deutsche Telekom has fallen about 26 percent to 90 basis points while France Telecom has edged just 8 percent lower to 128 basis points.
Telefonica, meanwhile, last month raised 1.5 billion euros in 10-year contract that prices at 230 basis points over mid-swaps, equates to a coupon of 3.987 percent. A year earlier the bond price 6 years of much more expensive mid-swaps plus 300 basis points.
"Spreads are still affected by the correlation of sovereign, but yields have come down substantially," said Utterback.
THE SHARE PRICE
There are also some signs that investors ' capital group draws back to exercise, even though Telefonica has yet to prove he can determine what Spain constitutes a third of operating profits and resolve issues elsewhere in his empire.
One-third of 39 analysts surveyed now have a "buy" ratings on the stock, with the remaining 26, evenly divided between the "hold" and "sell", according to the Thomson Reuters Eikon.
The price of shares in the company also increased 24 percent from their July lows to close 9.795 euros on Tuesday.
"The key thing we are watching is the cash flow stability of major Spanish operation," said Laurent millet, who runs Artemis European agricultural opportunities.
"We wouldn't like to swim more assets," he added.
European comparison TELECOMMUNICATIONS company EV/EBITDA return on capital NET debt debt/equity (euro 2012Est) Deutsche Telekom 3.73 0.71 1.63 38.5 billion France Telecom 3.90 € 5.67 1.43 19.1 billion KPN 5.77 3.81 4.16 11.1 billion Telecom Italia 6,25-6.58 1.75 28.6 billion Telefonica 5.02 6.86 3.32 51.5 billion
(Source: Thomson Reuters Eikon data) ($ 1 = 0.7487 EUR)
(Reporting by Claire Caine in Madrid and Josie Cox of IFR markets in London; editing by Greg Mahlich)
I was a victim of an online dating scam
In a typical con, the perpetrator will spend weeks or even months building up a romantic relationship with a victim through e-mails, texts or phone calls, before eventually asking for money.
Now -- six months later and $1,500 poorer -- Best believes she was the victim of an online dating scam.
"I left my heart out there, and this guy took advantage of it," the 51-year old Best said.
In 2011, the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center received 5,600 complaints from victims of so-called "romance scammers" -- criminals who scan online dating sites, chat rooms and social networking sites for potential victims. The victims reported collective losses of $50.4 million, which is likely only a fraction of the actual losses since many victims are too embarrassed to file a report, the FBI said.
About 70% of the victims were female; more than half were women 40 years or older.
In a typical con, the perpetrator will spend weeks or even months building up a romantic relationship with a victim through e-mails, texts or phone calls, before eventually asking for money. And many of the scammers aren't even in the United States.
"In the process of going back and forth, a scammer is going to try to figure out what makes a person tick, what their vulnerable spots are," said Jenny Shearer, an FBI spokeswoman. "Because a victim has legitimate feelings, they might be inclined to offer financial support for this person."
Related: Debt collection horror stories
For Best, it all started when she signed up for a free online dating site called mingle2. A man calling himself "John" messaged her and through daily phone calls and messages on Facebook, he gained her trust. He spoke with what she thought was a British accent and his picture on Facebook portrayed a nice-looking man with graying hair and a beard.
In July, "John" told her that he was traveling to the United Kingdom to buy antiques for his store. Then one day he called saying he went to Nigeria to buy more, but he was stuck -- he asked her for $5,000 cash to get his purchases back to the States.
At first, Best -- who juggles two part-time jobs working with developmentally-disabled adults and people with mental illness -- resisted, telling John she simply didn't have the money. But he persisted. "He was trying to get me to use my credit cards, borrow from my friends and family," said Best, who earlier told her saga to The Huffington Post.
When he told her days later he couldn't afford to eat, Best gave in, wiring him two $250 payments.
Related iReport: The upside of online dating
But as he continued to push for money, Best realized something was off. She searched Web forums, eventually finding another woman's story of a scammer with the same name. Then she received a nearly $1,000 phone bill from calling the phone number he had said wouldn't charge her.
CNNMoney's attempts to reach "John" on his international phone number provided by Best revealed that it was based out of Nigeria -- a hotbed for online scams -- and has since been disconnected. Attempts to call the U.S. number Best reached him at revealed the number was no longer in service and was hosted by MagicJack, an Internet-based phone service that allows people anywhere in the world to make unlimited calls from a U.S. phone number.
Mingle2, the dating site, did not respond to requests for comment.
Someone claiming to live in the U.S. but who says they're stuck outside of the country and in need of money is a popular ploy among scammers. Others will impersonate U.S. soldiers serving abroad, then ask for money to purchase laptops, international phones or a plane ticket home so their fake relationship can continue. Some even claim they need money for medical expenses from combat injuries.
The U.S. Army's Criminal Investigation Command says they receive hundreds of reports every month from people fooled by phony service members.
"We cannot stress enough that people need to stop sending money to persons they meet on the Internet and claim to be in the U.S. military," Chris Grey, the Army CID's spokesman said in a statement.
Related: How to spot the danger signs of fraud
And in recent months, the International Crime Complaint Center has warned of a new dating extortion scam where scammers bait members of online dating sites into intimate conversations, then threaten to expose them if they don't pay up.
Shortly after the conversations, victims are provided links to a website where their names, photos and telephone numbers are posted, along with the option to view the sexual conversations for $9. Victims are then prompted to pay $99 to have their name removed from the site.
The FBI said there is no indication that the information was ever removed.
Don't get caught in a scam
Some advice from experts at the Better Business Bureau and Internet Crime Complaint Center:
Be on guard. Be especially cautious with people you only know through online messages and phone calls. If possible, try Skype or video chat. Many scammers use fake photos to lure their victims but video messaging is much harder to fake.
Be cautious if someone claims to be local but happens to be out of the country.
Be your own detective. Use search engines to research the person's name and background. Look up their phone number to see if it's listed in the region they claim to be from.
Don't send explicit messages or photos.
Don't send anyone money. 
Healthy living: A happy retirement
Good health means you have to save a bit more -- but that's because you're living longer.
PART 2: HEALTH
The secret: A greasy burger is worse than a bear market.
When it comes to retirement, good health cuts both ways. As any financial calculator will tell you, living longer actually means you'll need a bigger nest egg. But the healthier you are leading up to retirement, the easier it is to build up the savings you'll need.
A recent National Bureau of Economic Research study by James Poterba, Steven Venti, and David Wise found that people who were among the healthiest 20% in their fifties retired with three times the assets of the least healthy. And the healthy also spent down their wealth more slowly.
Related: 8 apps for losing weight, staying fit
Poterba says that's because the impact of health on your finances begins well before you quit working.
"People in good health have lower health care costs, so they have less of a drain on their resources," he says. Also, other research shows that about half of people who retire earlier than they planned cite health as the reason. Staying healthy gives you more power to save for longer.
TAKE ACTION
Know your numbers. According to the U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, one-third of adults with diabetes don't know it, and 20% of adults with high blood pressure are unaware. If you haven't been checked for a few years, do so now. Make sure your spouse does too.
Focus on what you can control. Just because you have a family history of a health condition doesn't mean you'll get it as well.
Related: 5 retirement choices: Get 'em right, live well
"DNA isn't your destiny," says Laura Carstensen of the Stanford Center on Longevity. "Research shows a very small number of factors make a big difference." Those probably won't come as a surprise: whether you smoke, how much you drink, your weight, and your exercise routine (you've got one, right?).
Any smoking is bad, but how much alcohol or weight is too much? Here's the scoop: No more than seven drinks a week for women or 14 for men, according to the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. For weight, check your body mass index at cdc.gov to see if you are in the healthy range.
You don't have to become a triathlete. Just 2½ hours of moderate exercise a week can make the difference, according to the Centers for Disease Control.
Need some extra motivation to hit the treadmill? People who are fit in middle age battle fewer chronic ailments in the last five years of life, so they get to enjoy more of their retirement being active and feeling good.
More secrets to a dream retirement:
Longevity costs, but it's a bargainGood health actually means you have to save a bit more -- but that's just because you're living longer. Every year retired people devote a lot less of their budget to health care.Average lifetime health care costs, starting at 65 Average annual health care costs in middle years of retirement Notes: Annual costs for households with husband ages 70 to 74. Costs include Medicare, home health care, and insurance premiums. Source: Center for Retirement ResearchFirst Published: February 18, 2013: 9:57 AM ET
HP's CEO-elect says m is not excluded a & but not core
A woman gestures in front of the BHP Billiton sign over the half year results briefing in Sydney on the February 16, 2011 photo, file.
Credit: Reuters/Tim WimborneLONDON | Wed Feb 20, 2013 6: 38 am EST
London (Reuters)-incoming boss of BHP Billiton (BHP.AX), Andrew Mckenzie, said Wednesday, the largest miner in the world would not exclude transactions under his stewardship, although the strategy will remain focused on current assets.
McKenzie is the latest by a new generation of bosses, as head of the world's largest mining groups, at a time when the incoming leaders are preaching austerity, unlike big ticket acquisitions which bruised its predecessors.
"It would be wrong to say that m is completely excluded & A, but it is not central to the strategy that I've outlined," he told reporters. "This is what we have runs extremely well."
Mackenzie was the point man in Canada BHP and BHP now Chief Financial Officer, Graham Kerr, of HP's unsuccessful $ 39 billion bid for Potash Corp (pot.).
(Reporting by Clara Ferreira-Marques)
China restates plan to extend property tax program to new cities
A man watches a construction crane lift a piece of steel at the Shanghai Tower (R) at the financial district of Pudong in Shanghai January 21, 2013.
Credit: Reuters/Carlos BarriaBEIJING | Wed Feb 20, 2013 5:40am EST
BEIJING (Reuters) - China's cabinet on Wednesday restated its intention to extend a pilot property tax program to more cities and urged local authorities again to put price control targets on new homes, in the latest effort to calm frothy real estate markets.
The policy pledges - made in a meeting of the State Council chaired by outgoing Premier, Wen Jiabao - broadly restated measures China has rolled out in the past three years of steady campaigning to rein in excessive home price rises.
A statement of the meeting published on the government's website, www.gov.cn, said property prices are stabilizing and came as markets anticipated a raft of new measures to temper stubbornly high house prices.
It did not detail when and how the pilot property tax program - currently operating only in Shanghai and Chongqing at rates of between 0.5 percent and 1.2 percent - would be expanded.
Buoyant prices in some cities are mostly due to China's urbanization and shortages in home supply will likely persist in these places in the near term, the government said.
"In recent years, all localities and departments have carefully implemented the government's policies to control the property market," the statement said.
"(They) have achieved positive results by effectively curbing the speculative purchase of homes and gradually stabilizing the real estate market."
The statement, which listed five areas where the government can control the housing market, mentioned an expansion of property taxes in passing.
Some investors are expecting Beijing to announce new measures to temper stubbornly high house prices that have largely defied the government's cooling efforts so far.
Average home prices in China's 100 biggest cities rose 1 percent in January from a month earlier, a private survey showed, quickening from December's 0.2 percent rise in the eighth consecutive month of gains.
China is due to release official January home price data on Friday, February 22 at 0130 GMT.
China's attempt to control home prices is in its third year, although efforts were partly undone last year by the central bank's monetary policy easing and two interest rate cuts to boost a slowing economy.
Rising house prices anger ordinary Chinese unable to afford homes and threaten social stability. But falling home prices also unnerve investors who worry a property slump could hobble the world's No 2 economy.
China's Wen has pledged to restrain home costs, but average prices still rocketed 10 times in the country's biggest cities in the 10 years of his Premiership.
(Reporting by Langi Chiang and Koh Gui Qing; Editing by Nick Edwards and Sanjeev Miglani)
Zombie foreclosures: Borrowers hit with debts that won't die
Even though Christopher Warner's mortgage debt was extinguished upon his foreclosure, debt collectors are still seeking $120,000.
In these so-called zombie foreclosures, borrowers move out of their homes after their bank schedules a foreclosure auction only to find out months or years later that the auction never took place or the bank never transferred the deed to the house. That means the borrower still technically owns the home, leaving them on the hook for property taxes, fees and for homeowners' association dues.
Since the housing bubble first burst seven years ago, almost two million properties have started the foreclosure process but never completed it, according to RealtyTrac. In half of those cases, the homeowner is fighting to stay in the home. But there are close to one million properties that are in some sort of foreclosure limbo. While no one knows the exact number, it's estimated that tens of thousands of those properties could be zombie foreclosures.
Many of these homes are in low-income communities where foreclosures are so difficult to sell that lenders sometimes delay taking possession of the property to save on taxes and other costs that then stay under the borrower's name.
Those debts can then go unpaid for years because the borrower is unaware they owe them, further slamming their credit score and making life after foreclosure even harder.
Related: 10 great foreclosure deals
"The most frustrating part is that I can't move on," said Rose Nathan, a 37-year-old office manager.
Nathan lost her South Bend, Ind., home in January 2009, after working out a deal with CitiMortgage to voluntarily walk away in a "deed in lieu of foreclosure."
"On Christmas Eve, the bank called and told me a sheriff's sale was coming and I had to move out right away," she said. "So that's what I did -- seven days after New Year's."
She sold her belongings and moved to Hawaii. Nearly two years later, she received a property tax bill from the City of South Bend for $5,000. The bank had never taken possession of the house.
Citi told her attorney, Judith Fox, that the holdup was due to a lien on the home that they were never told about. Nathan said she knew of no liens at the time of the transaction. Upon doing a title search, Fox found no evidence of a lien until well after the bank agreed to the deed-in-lieu deal.
Related: Million-dollar foreclosures
Meanwhile, the unpaid debt has crushed Nathan's credit score. The deed-in-lieu alone lowered her score by 80 to 120 points, but the unpaid debt meant her credit kept taking a hit. Eventually her credit card companies cut her off, even though she said she was making her payments.
Her auto loan now carries a 25% rate. Her car insurance premiums have skyrocketed. She can only afford a one-bedroom apartment where she lives with her three kids. And forget about buying another home. "Nobody will give me a mortgage," she said.
Citi declined to comment on the case. Nathan said she has since paid off the lien with the hope that Citi will take the deed on the home.
Mustapha Sesay, a 45 year-old father of two, thought he had lost his Brandywine, Md., home in 2008. But two years later, a debt collector called telling him he owed $70,000.
The holder of his second mortgage had never forgiven his debt -- even though the lender holding his primary mortgage had foreclosed on the home.
Typically the second mortgage holder is out of luck if there isn't enough cash from the foreclosure sale to pay off both the first and second lien, said Cheryl Cassell, director of the housing counselor network for the National Community Reinvestment Coalition. But, depending on state law, second mortgage holders can sue homeowners to pay off the notes -- even after they lose the home in a foreclosure or the lender can sell the debt to a collection agencies.
Related: 100 hardest hit foreclosure neighborhoods
In Sesay's case, the debt collector calls every week or two. He has had little luck stopping it. "I talk to credit counselors, lawyers," he said.
Sesay would have been well on the way to credit score recovery. But now, he said, "I could move to Alaska in winter and no one would lend me ice."
Bill Purdy, a real estate attorney in Soquel, Calif., said borrowers can't always trust lenders to file foreclosure paperwork properly. In November 2011, when his client Christopher Warner's Felton, Calif., home was auctioned off, his mortgage debt was fully extinguished -- standard practice based on California law.
Warner's lender, however, recorded $120,000 on its books as debt -- the difference between what he owed and what the house sold for -- and gave it to a collection agency. The debt has lowered Warner's credit score by an additional 100 points, he estimated.
"It nearly put me into bankruptcy," he said. He has hired Purdy to get the debt collectors off his back.
In a $25 billion settlement with the state attorneys general last spring, the nation's five largest mortgage lenders agreed to inform borrowers of any decision to forgo or delay a foreclosure. But victim's attorneys said the banks have not been careful about following that policy.
Borrowers can get credit counseling from community advocacy groups, like those affiliated with NeighborWorks America and NCRC. They can call the Mortgage Help Hotline to connect with a counselor near them. The organizations don't charge for their services and they are experienced in working with borrowers in trouble.
First Published: February 20, 2013: 6:28 AM ET
Sony set to make a pre-emptive strike at Microsoft with PS4
One man looks at Sony Corp products at an electronics store in Tokyo December 25, 2012.
Credit: Reuters/Yuriko NakaoBy Tim Kelly and Elizabeth Iverson
TOKYO | Wed Feb 20, 2013 4: 13 am EST
Tokyo (Reuters)-Sony Corp is expected to show off new PlayStation console in Wednesday's pre-emptive strike against Microsoft Corp's bid to make its Xbox world leading hub for home entertainment.
Rare PlayStation event in New York comes amid industry speculation that Microsoft is set to unveil a successor to its Xbox 360, which beats the seven year old PlayStation 3 online network with features such as voice commands in interactive games and superior connectivity for smartphones and tablets.
"Their focus is on creating a beachhead for next-generation consoles, and this is what 20 February is all about," said P.J. McNealy, CEO and founder of digital world research. "The reality is they have been playing catch-up."
Pushing forward the Microsoft Xbox and Nintendo Co Ltd's new Wii U can help revive business hurt Sony Electronics from a deficiency of the hit gadget sales crash TV and convergence of consumer interest about tablets and Smartphones, built by rivals Apple Inc and Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
Tablets and Smartphones already represent about 10 percent of the market of $ 80 billion. These mobile devices, analysts predict that within a few years will be as powerful as the current slew of game consoles only.
After six years of Sony's PlayStation sales were just shy of the 67 million Xbox installed base and well behind 100 million Wii sales, analysts said.
Lackluster start in November of a successor to the Wii, Wii U, gives Sony a chance to focus on download Microsoft as all three battle of bringing casual games of tablets and Smartphones. Nintendo cut its target of selling 4 million 5.5 million for the year ending March 31.
TORRENT
Microsoft's response to the threat of casual games is a software that gives users additional content and allows them to surf the Internet from their mobile devices. Xbox already streams Netflix and ESPN and links to tablets and smartphones using the Windows or Apple iOS and Google Inc. on Android. The Sony PS3 online network is funny.
"For Sony, they have to go out and make this event the definitive statement on why PlayStation gamers should adopt or the PlayStation 4 PlayStation Orbis or whatever they end up calling it," said Greg Miller, Executive Editor of PlayStation video game site IGN.com.
Sony's purchase in July of United States cloud based gaming company Gaikai, for $ 380 million hints that the Japanese company will pursue a similar streaming strategy of Microsoft. Sony, industry observers say, may also offer an expanded range of free games to counter the threat of casual games.
Sony, which under its CEO Kazuo Hirai focuses on games, mobile devices and cameras have a hit product. But by betting on PS3 successor, Hirai, whose most profitable business is a life insurance risks deepening electronic consumer losses, since he would have to sell the consoles at below production costs to get a grip on the market.
This choice is made more difficult because the other two pillars of the new Sony's Hirai-cameras and mobile-are a waste of money.
Sony is expected to post a $ 1.4 billion operating profit in the current fiscal year. Though much of this rebound is tipping gains on real estate, including $ 1.1 billion for New York-based.
The PlayStation event in New York begins at 2300 GMT (1800).
($ 1 = 93.5200 Japanese yen)
(Additional reporting by Reiji Murai; editing by Ryan MA)
Judge of the United States accepts the BP spill collected 810,000 barrels
Oil flow from BP'S ruptured well in the Gulf of Mexico, in this frame Grab captured from BP live video channel on July 11, 2010.
Credit: Reuters/BP/exhibitionLONDON/SAN FRANCISCO | Wed Feb 20, 2013 12: 12 pm EST
London/San Francisco (Reuters)-a u.s. judge ruled on Tuesday that BP Plc (BP.L) recovered from 810,000 barrels of oil spill 2010 site and that this amount should be exempted from certain penalties it may face, cutting the maximum fine of as much as $ 3.5 billion.
A few days before he led the spill related to the civil process to begin on February 25 in New Orleans, United States District Judge Carl Barbier considers these barrels, since "collected" during the spill. BP has tried this reduction the total penalty.
"" The Collected oil flowed from an underground tank, through a well, by preventing blow out and never came into contact with ambient sea water and was not released on the environment in any way, "the ruling said.
Earlier the British oil company said the United States Department of Justice supports your claim that the oil recovered directly from the leaking Macondo well should count when it comes to the fines that can be levied under the Clean Water Act, United States.
"Under the clean water Act, civil penalties shall be assessed only for the oil that has actually entered the environment and possibly damage caused," BP said in a statement on Tuesday.
BP repeated that the overall 4.9 million barrels spill forecast made by the Government of the United States in its claims against BP, including barrels recovered, is too high by 20 percent.
The maximum fine under the law is $ 4,300 per barrel, so the calculation based on 4.9 million barrels spilled would have forced BP to pay as much as $ 21 billion under the clean water Act, on top of all the other fines and penalties if BP is found guilty of "gross negligence."
Without gross negligence finding, the fine can be up to 1,100 US dollars per barrel, or $ 5.4 billion — so the potential fine was cut by almost $ 900 million with the decision on Tuesday.
Separately, Barbier signed on Tuesday $ 1 billion civil settlement between the Government of the United States and Transocean associated with the spill, which was struck last month. Transocean's deepwater Horizon rig was destroyed in a blowout.
Overall civil case under Barbier was in re: oil spill by the oil rig "deepwater horizon in the Gulf of Mexico, 20 April, 2010, No 10-Dr-02179 in United States District Court, Eastern District of Louisiana.
(Reporting by Andrew callus in London and Braden Reddall in San Francisco; editing of Hans-Jürgen Peters and Richard pullin)
Stock-index futures signaled more gains
1 of 2. Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, 1 may 2012.
Credit: Reuters/Brendan McDermidLONDON | Wed Feb 20, 2013 5: 47 am EST
London (Reuters)-the United States stock index futures pointed to a slightly firmer opening on Wall Street on Wednesday, with futures for the S & P 500 & Dow Jones 0.1 percent higher at 0936 GMT, while those for the Nasdaq 100 added 0.2 percent.
United States producer prices, housing starts and building permits for January are all due at 1330 GMT, with data expected to show a slight acceleration in factory price pressures alongside the ongoing recovery in the housing market.
The market focus, however, is likely to be the minutes of the Federal open market Committee United States of January meeting due at 1900 GMT, which will be scanned for clues as to how long the monetary policy is likely to remain ultra flexible.
Earnings season continues with Devon Energy CORP., Fluor Corp. and Nûfijld survey among those due to report.
With the season now three quarters of the way through, 28 percent of the S P 500 companies & missed forecasts for full-year profit, with 41 percent of revenue nedostigane, according to Thomson Reuters StarMine data.
Dell Inc (DELL.O): the world's no. 3 maker of personal computers, reported a 31 percent drop in profit, hurt by shrinking consumer business, as investors weigh the founder Michael Dell offer to buy the company.
Search Media Inc (Dmd.N): the company said it was exploring separating its business media from your domain service name, identifying who sent its shares up almost 20% after hours trading.
Boeing (BA.N): the aircraft maker has found a way to fix battery problems with its 787 Dreamliner jets grounded, which includes increasing the distance between cells, a source familiar with the plans of the United States, the company said Thursday.
Life technologies (life.O): $ 11 .2billion-plus sale of life Technologies Corp is looking unlikely discrepancy in price expectations with the company has left potential buyer Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. (TMO.N) skeptical a deal as buyout firms offer came up short, people familiar with the matter said this week.
Herbalife (HLF.N): diet supplements the company raised earnings forecast for 2013 him late Tuesday.
Heinz (HNZ.N): the FBI is looking into possible insider trading in options on the ketchup Maker before the deal, its blockbuster last week to be acquired by Warren Buffett and Brazil at 3 G Capital.
Sina Corp (SINA.O): the operator of China's largest online portal Posted better-than-expected fourth-quarter revenues and profit amid concerns about slowing growth of the Chinese online advertising.
Milennial media (mm.N): the mobile advertising company fourth quarter sales missed Wall Street expectations, and the company forecast for first quarter earnings below analyst estimates, sending its shares down as much as 33 percent after the Bell.
Marriott International (Mar.N): hotel operator, reported better than expected quarterly results, assisted by the rise in international travel and higher prices and said that it expected its revenue to increase room further in 2013.
Nabors industries (NBR.N): the owner of the world's largest onshore drilling rig fleet, reported a 44 percent jump in profit, but revenue fell as large customers reduced spending against the backdrop of the worst delays in gas-directed drilling in more than a decade.
General Services, Inc. (TSS.N): payment processor said it will buy a prepaid debit card provider NetSpend Holdings Inc. (NTSP.O) for about $ 1.4 billion in cash to expand its presence in the market of prepaid cards and target new customers.
European shares traded flat Wednesday, consolidating after sharp gains in the previous session, held back by weak earnings newsflow and as traders cited account a few minutes ago to the Federal Reserve of the United States January policy meeting. .EU
Dow Jones .DJI received 53.91 points, or 0.39 percent on Tuesday to 14, 035.67 points, only 0.9% of its record. The standard poor's 500 index & .SPX closed up 0.73 percent at 1, while the Nasdaq Composite 530.94 Index .IXIC added or 0.68 percent to 3, 213.59.
(Reporting by Toni Vorobyova; editing by Susan Fenton)
"Amazon tax" payoff starts to arrive in some U.S. states
By Nanette Byrnes
Wed Feb 20, 2013 6:06am EST
n">(Reuters) - Sales tax from Internet commerce, a prize pursued for years by U.S. state governments, is starting to arrive in California and a few other states, providing millions of dollars in new revenue, though not as much as a benchmark study once forecast.
After fighting hard to get e-tailers such as Amazon.com Inc to start charging sales tax, and eventually passing a law requiring collection, the California Board of Equalization reported last week it took in $96.4 million in September-December 2012, its first full quarter of collections.
Coinciding with the holiday shopping season, that result put the state well on its way to meeting its forecast budget of $107 million in new e-taxes for the fiscal year that began July 1, 2012, as set by the California Department of Finance.
But that revenue falls far short of ambitious expectations set in 2009 by a University of Tennessee study that greatly influenced the online sales tax debate nationwide.
The study estimated that California, if it did not act to collect more online sales tax, would miss out on as much as $1.9 billion in 2012 revenue. Nationwide, it estimated, states would fail to collect $11.4 billion in 2012.
The Tennessee study fueled states' demands in recent years for more tax power over online commerce. Like California, more states will be collecting new e-revenues in months ahead. So it is too soon to make firm judgments, but early results suggest the Tennessee study and others like it were over-ambitious.
"To the extent the estimates being used are overstating reality, and I think they are, it is not solving anyone's deficit problem," said Jeff Eisenach, a managing director at economic research group Navigant Economics.
Eisenach co-authored a study on e-commerce and sales tax and said he advises being "conservative rather than hopeful."
Eisenach's study, sponsored by NetChoice, a trade group that opposes online taxation, pegged the national online sales tax potential at $3.9 billion, about a third of Tennessee's number.
The dawning of sales tax as a reality in the world of online commerce marks a turning point not only for the states that are starting to collect it, but for Internet vendors and consumers.
Amazon, for instance, for many years and in most states, did not collect sales tax, enjoying as a result a pricing advantage over older, bricks-and-mortar retailers. That is changing fast.
At the moment, Amazon is collecting sales tax in nine states including California, and will add seven more in the next year. In some states the online retailer has struck agreements to collect, in others like California and New York it is complying with new state law.
Having to do that may partly explain a recent deceleration in growth for the world's largest online retailer, said RBC Capital Markets analyst Mark Mahaney, though he added that over time that effect should ease.
For consumers in states where the tax is now being charged online, it means an end to tax-free shopping on the web, at least when it comes to the largest and most developed e-tailers.
Despite moderating revenue expectations, more states are sure to keep pushing for e-commerce taxation because that is where the growth is. Online sales growth has outpaced that of traditional stores for years. By 2015, $175 billion a year will migrate online from stores, Deloitte Consulting estimated.
HIGH HOPES FROM UNIV. OF TENNESSEE
In the long struggle between states and e-tailers over online sales tax, the Tennessee study was widely cited by those who have pushed for more taxation at the state level and for national legislation to address the issue.
Some state politicians have used figures similar to that of the Tennessee study as a basis for building future Internet sales tax receipts into their budgets.
Virginia Governor Robert McDonnell has projected the state could get $1.6 billion in online sales tax over the next five years. He has predicted that Congress will pass by July 1 a bill to give states the right to require online retailers to collect sales tax. Though this measure has languished in Congress for years, it has recently gained some new political support.
On Thursday, 53 members of the Senate and the House of Representatives reintroduced the bill in Congress.
Representative Steve Womack, a Republican from Arkansas, where the nation's largest brick-and-mortar retailer Wal-Mart Stores is based, said the lack of collection of sales tax online is hurting state and local governments.
"It affects everybody," he said at a press conference for the bill. "It affects schools. It affects policemen, it affects firemen, it affects anybody engaged in public service."
Amazon quickly pledged its support for the national legislation, as it has done in the past.
At the same time, in New York, Amazon and Overstock.com are fighting a state sales tax collection law.
Retailers there are collecting the tax as they fight it out in court. Online retailers have remitted $360 million in sales tax on more than $4 billion in taxable retail sales as of February 2012, according to the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance.
That is 90 percent of all taxable online sales, New York said, but far less than the $2.5 billion the University of Tennessee study predicted for the state over the same period.
In Georgia, the most recent state to require sales tax collection by remote sellers, local retailers said Amazon is not collecting sales tax though the law has required it to do so since January 1. The state's proposed fiscal 2014 budget includes $18 million in new Internet sales tax revenue.
Amazon declined to comment.
"If this revenue doesn't come through we'll have to cut education or some other important area," said Georgia Senator Steve Henson, Democratic leader of the state Senate.
Professor William Fox, leader of the Tennessee study, said that the difference between his study's estimates and lower state collections may reflect the fact that smaller e-retailers often are exempt from collection.
Broader trends support the study's findings, he said, including the fact that sales tax collections have lagged overall economic growth. To Fox, that suggests that untaxed e-commerce has grown, continuing to sap sales taxes.
(Additional reporting by Alistair Barr in San Francisco and Kim Dixon in Washington; Editing by Kevin Drawbaugh and Chizu Nomiyama)
Боинг близо до определяне на Dreamliner батерия: източник
Burnt auxiliary power unit the battery, removed from all Nippon Airways (Ana) Boeing 787 Dreamliner plane Co that makes emergency landing on 16 January, 2013 in Takamatsu, is inspected by the manufacturer in the headquarters of the GS Yuasa Corp in Kyoto, Western Japan, in this handout photograph taken on January 26, 2013 and released by the Japan transport safety Board (JTSB) 5 fevruari2013.
Credit: Reuters/Japan transport safety board/exhibitionBy Ali Kotoky
NEW DELHI | Wed Feb 20, 13 3: 55 am EST
New Delhi (Reuters)-Boeing Co (BA.N) has found a way to fix battery problems with its 787 Dreamliner jets grounded, which includes increasing the distance between cells, a source familiar with the plans of the United States, the company said Thursday.
"Differences between bins will be larger. I think that's why there is overheating, "said the source, who declined to be identified because the plans are private.
50 Dreamliners in commercial services are grounded in the world last month after a string of battery-related incidents, including a fire on board a parked aircraft in the United States and the in-flight problem on another plane in Japan. While the Dreamliner is cleared to fly again, Boeing will be starved of delivery payments.
The logical solution would be for Boeing to install ceramic tiles between each cell and add a vent of the battery box, Simeon Kanamura, a professor at the University of Tokyo Metropolitan, who has conducted research with several Japanese battery manufacturers, told Reuters on Tuesday.
Earlier on Wednesday, the President of the State-run Air India AIN.UL said Boeing is hopeful of getting the Dreamliner back in operation since early April.
"They said that these planes have to start flying again by early April. They may not be secure, but they have hope, "said Rohit Nandan.
Air India has six and 21 Dreamliners it has ordered more. The issue of compensation from the airline's Boeing jet problems would be taken once the planes are flying again, said Nandan.
"Good progress", a spokesman for Boeing in Seattle said in response to questions about the restart of the possible flight in April.
"We have been in close communication with our clients, since this matter arose. The details of our conversations with customers are confidential, "he added.
Spokespeople for Japan's all Nippon Airways Co Ltd (Ana) (9202. T), which is the biggest fleet of Dreamliners, and Japan Airlines Co. Ltd. (JAL) (9201. T) said they were aware of the proposed April schedule.
Ana and JAL have been most affected because they own about half of the lightweight, efficient jetliners in service as one strategic move to gain market share from its American and European rivals.
(Reporting by Erika Kotoky; additional reporting by Bill Rigby in Seattle, Yoko Kubota and Mari Saito in Tokyo and Devidutta Tripathy in New Delhi; editing by Daniel Magnowski)
Insurer USAA can't cash in on Residential Re cat bonds: S&P
By Sarah Mortimer
LONDON | Wed Feb 20, 2013 6:46am EST
LONDON (Reuters) - U.S. insurer USAA will not be able to cash in on two of its catastrophe bonds, because losses from superstorm Sandy and other 2011 natural disasters were not high enough to trigger a payout, Standard & Poor's said.
Insurers and reinsurers use "cat bonds" to manage their exposure to natural disasters by transferring some of the risk to capital market investors.
Cat bond investors such as pension funds receive an income in return for agreeing to pay some of the issuers' claims if an earthquake or hurricane strikes and losses from it meet a predetermined amount.
Ratings agency S&P took the two bonds - 2011 and 2012 class 5 notes sold through USAA's Residential Re vehicle - off CreditWatch Negative, meaning it now considers them to be less risky for investors than it previously estimated.
It downgraded the two cat bonds in November, believing at the time that the risk to investors had increased as a result of Sandy, which crashed into the U.S. east coast in October, causing billions of dollars' worth of damage as it wrecked homes and businesses.
The transactions are structured as "aggregate" bonds, meaning they only result in a payout if there are enough losses on an annual basis to reach a pre-agreed trigger point.
Losses for USAA from Sandy and other natural disasters in 2011, such as tornadoes that struck central and northeast U.S. in June, did not amount to enough to trigger a payout, S&P said.
The trigger points were $1.365 billion for the Res Re 2011 notes and $1.571 billion for the Res Re 2012 bond. Both are due to mature on May 31.
S&P said it had received updated loss estimates from USAA concerning Sandy and the U.S. tornadoes and the new estimate of covered losses from the four events was less than the total estimated in November.
- For more details on cat bond transactions, see the Thomson Reuters Insurance Linked Securities Community, click here
(Reporting by Sarah Mortimer; Editing by Helen Massy-Beresford)
Colleges find a new way to get grads hired
Artificial-intelligence spiders read thousands of online "help wanted" ads to check on the job market in real time.
Not the hairy, creepy kind, but rather artificial-intelligence spiders that crawl through search engines and read thousands of online "help wanted" ads to check on the job market in real time -- instead of two years after the fact, which is how long the federal government can take to report on labor trends.
The technology is helping colleges and universities quickly add and update academic programs so their graduates can land real-world jobs. And, at the same time, eliminate programs that leave students in debt with skills employers don't want.
So far the use of the technology is limited, but it's likely to increase as colleges and universities face growing pressure to help drive economic recovery and justify the cost of higher education.
"It's not just good enough anymore to educate a student," said Elaine Gaertner, director of the California community-college system's Economic and Workforce Development Centers of Excellence, which use spidering technology. "You have to educate him with a purpose."
That's often hard to do when a college is relying on federal labor data, which can be years out of date.
"It's like looking in the rearview mirror," said John Dorrer, a program director at Boston-based advocacy group, Jobs for the Future. "We're training people for jobs that don't exist, and not training people for jobs that do."
Related: Manufacturing jobs boom is for real
Employers say that's why, in a time of persistent unemployment -- only two-thirds of recent graduates were employed six months after graduation -- there are 3.6 million jobs sitting empty nationwide.
The National Association of Manufacturers estimates that 600,000 manufacturing jobs remain unfilled because companies can't find skilled applicants. And 93% of IT employers say they're having trouble attracting qualified employees, according to the Computing Technology Industry Association.
Yet 72% of educators believe they're doing a good job of preparing students for the workforce, while only 45% of graduates and 42% of employers think so, a McKinsey & Co. survey found.
That disconnect could soon change. Universities where graduates are having trouble getting jobs risk losing business, while those that are nimble and responsive stand to gain, said Matthew Sigelman, CEO of Burning Glass Technologies, which provides spidering services to colleges.
"Schools that can make sure their graduates do well are seeing a meteoric rise in their standing," he said.
One of those is Boston's Northeastern University, which employs an "experiential learning" approach that requires undergraduates to work in real-world settings for up to 18 months. More than half go on to full-time jobs in those places, and more than 90% are employed or in graduate school within nine months of earning their degrees.
Northeastern has also been using spidering technology for more than three years as it expands to satellite campuses in Seattle and Charlotte N.C., where real-time "help wanted" listings have revealed high demand for workers with training in finance, taxation, and project management (Charlotte) and science and technology (Seattle), but a dearth of qualified workers.
Related: How does your community college stack up?
At its Boston campus, Northeastern has been mining data to find out who is hiring and for what jobs, then seeking out the top employers to find out what type of graduates they need, said Sean Gallagher, senior strategist and market-development officer.
Like most other schools, Northeastern previously used state and federal government labor data. "The inflection point, from my perspective, was the economic downturn in 2008. After that, you could see that these forecasts were entirely out of date," said Gallagher.
The intense focus on preparing students for the workplace has driven a 46% increase in applications to Northeastern over the last five years.
Based on real-time labor-market information, the Lone Star College System in Houston will close three programs next fall, in aviation management, hospitality management and computer support.
The community college found that employers prefer four-year to two-year degrees in the first two cases, and were outsourcing work in the third in order to lower labor costs. But the school is adding programs to train oil and gas drillers and CT-scan technicians, for which there is burgeoning demand.
Cabrillo College near Santa Cruz, Calif. thought its program in medical assisting was doing well -- until spidering technology showed there wasn't much hiring going on and a survey of recent graduates confirmed that fewer than 30% had found jobs in the field.
Related: Jobs recovery favors highly-skilled workers
So the college raised the program's standards to a level employers needed, making it more rigorous and adding further instruction in English-language skills and math.
"We didn't pay a great deal of attention to this data while the economy was growing and unemployment was low -- but when the recession began, it became clear that we could no longer assume that program completion would result in employment," said Rock Pfotenhauer, a dean at Cabrillo.
Employers' demands have shifted so quickly that Archana Mani found her master's degree in information systems, which she earned in 2001, insufficient to get a job after she took a break to raise her children.
So she enrolled at Oakland Community College near Detroit, which had discovered through spidering technology an urgent need for programmers who could build and test new software applications.
"I can see that demand, now that I'm at work," said Mani, who completed the program and got a position with a quickly expanding branch of Hewlett-Packard in Pontiac, Mich. "They are looking to fill a lot of jobs."
This story -- one in a series about workforce development and higher education -- was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, nonpartisan education-news outlet based at Teachers College, Columbia University.
Boeing engineers split the contract negotiations to resume
Boeing 787 descends into Everett, wash. traveling with a crew from Fort Worth, Texas February 7, 2013.
Credit: Reuters/Kevin p. CaseyBy Bill Rigby
SEATTLE | Wed Feb 20, 2013 2: 21 am EST
Seattle (Reuters)-the largest group of engineers working in the planemaker Boeing Co. approved the new contract offer in a vote on Tuesday, possibly paving the way for full agreement by Boeing is trying to focus its resources on fixing problems with the battery on its 787 Dreamliner.
However, members of the Union representing around 23,000 engineers also get it to call a strike, right, as a Union some leverage as the sides head back to negotiations.
According to the Seattle-based society of professional engineering employees in aerospace (SPEEA) members "professional"-that perform basic engineering duties planes Boeing narrowly voted in favor of the adoption of the Treaty, while a smaller group of members of the "technical"-which support engineers-voted to reject it. Both groups voted in favor of authorizing the Union to call a strike.
The groups negotiate together, but their contracts are separate.
Partial labour resolution proteglâsi calling is crevasse of light for Boeing, which is struggling to get to the bottom of the battery malfunctions of its 787 and needs engineers in its factories to meet its planned production ramp-up.
"There are ways to negotiate an agreement," said Ray Goforth, SPEEA Executive Director, in a statement.
"With this second rejection by technical workers at the Boeing takeaways, it's time for the company to stop the loss of resources and to improve its offer to reflect the value and contributions of technical workers lead to Boeing. In this way, we can avoid a strike and focus on fixing the problems of the 787 and restore confidence in Boeing. "
Boeing welcomes the adoption of the professional members, but said he was "deeply disappointed" that the technical staff rejected the offer and authorized a strike.
"Our goal throughout this process has been to make sure the SPEEA-represented employees are rewarded for contributions they bring to this company every day," said Ray Conner, head of Boeing commercial airplanes.
The two sides differ over the Boeing plan for defined benefit pensions axe new employees-standard procedure for most companies in the last time-and the introduction of a defined contribution retirement plan, effectively shifting more costs to employees.
"The realities of the market require us to make changes so that they can invest in new products and to win in this competitive environment that will allow us to continue to provide a solid future for our team," said Connor.
Washington State Governor Jay Inslee called on both sides to settle differences after the vote.
"I spoke with representatives of Boeing and SPEEA company tonight to urge both sides to resume negotiations and lead to a resolution as soon as possible," he said in a statement.
(Additional reporting by Alwyn Scott and Eric Johnson m.; editing by Daniel Magnowski and Mark Potter)
Russian central banker slams vast criminal cash exports
Russia's Central Bank Governor Sergei Ignatyev leaves after a news conference in Moscow in this February 15, 2013 file photo. Nearly $50 billion (32.38 billion pounds) was transferred out of Russia illegally in 2012 and more than half this sum may have been controlled by a single group of people, the central bank said on February 20, 2013.
Credit: Reuters/Grigory Dukor/FilesBy Douglas Busvine and Katya GolubkovaMOSCOW | Wed Feb 20, 2013 6:43am EST
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia's central bank chief said nearly $50 billion, or 2.5 percent of the national income, had been sent abroad illegally in 2012, much of it controlled by a single group of people - whom he did not identify.
Wednesday's findings by the Bank of Russia, one of the country's most respected institutions, amounted to an indictment of lawlessness and corruption in the system of "Kremlin capitalism" that has taken hold under President Vladimir Putin.
They also sent a parting shot from the soft-spoken Sergei Ignatyev, who retires as chairman in June after 11 years largely free of controversy. A successor has yet to be named.
"You get the impression that they are all controlled by one well organized group of people," Ignatyev, 65, told Vedomosti newspaper in a front-page interview after the study found that more than half the flows involved firms linked to each other.
"With a serious concentration of efforts by law enforcement agencies, I think it is possible to find these people."
He called for urgent legislation what would allow banks to close down accounts being used for dubious purposes and also urged lawmakers to tighten rules for setting up companies.
Ignatyev was citing the findings of a study that the bank said it would publish later on Wednesday. By lunchtime in Moscow, only Ignatyev's interview had been posted on the central bank's web site (www.cbr.ru), not the study itself.
In a further indication of its sensitivity, Ignatyev did not touch on the subject of illegal capital flight in testimony on Wednesday morning to the Federation Council, the upper house of parliament. Nor was he asked about it by lawmakers.
Asked by a reporter before his testimony to identify the "well-organized group" he mentioned in the interview was making half the illegal transfers abroad, Ignatyev declined comment and left the upper house without speaking to journalists.
The Kremlin also did not comment, beyond saying that it thought the figures were exaggerated, and there was no word from the wealthy businessmen known as "oligarchs" who struck it rich after the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991.
Meanwhile, in the State Duma lower house, the former head of the chamber's ethics committee resigned his mandate after revelations that his family owned a number of apartments in the U.S. state of Florida.
The lawmaker, Vladimir Pekhtin, has denied wrongdoing two months after Putin announced a drive to "de-offshore" the economy by imposing restrictions by officials on investing abroad.
DRUG MONEY, KICKBACKS
The central bank study found that $49 billion, or around 2.5 percent of gross domestic product, was spirited illegally out of Russia last year.
"It can be payment for narcotics ... 'grey' imports ... bribes and kickbacks to officials (and) managers making large-scale purchases," Ignatyev told Vedomosti. "It can be schemes to avoid tax."
Anti-corruption activists say that capital flight can take any number of forms, with some banks shifting money through complex paper trails, shell companies and so-called "encashment" schemes designed to evade regulators.
Big state enterprises in particular are involved in shifting large sums of money abroad, sources say, while Russia's super-rich oligarchs use offshore centers to safeguard their businesses.
Statistics show that Cyprus is the largest source of foreign investment into Russia. Most of that money coming from the island is itself Russian in origin, bankers say.
The amount of dirty money flowing in and out of Russia has more than doubled over the past eight years, robbing the country of productive capital and driving a huge underground economy, a recent study by a U.S. think tank found.
Global Financial Integrity, based in Washington, estimated that an average of $62 billion in money earned from corruption, human trafficking, arms smuggling and other illegal activities has entered or left Russia each year since the start of 2004.
That is a 228 percent increase from the $27.06 billion in illicit funds seen annually on average in the prior decade, the study found.
MAGNITSKY CASE
The most high-profile recent case of suspected illegal capital flight was investigated by investment fund lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, who died in a Russian prison in 2009.
Magnitsky's employer, Hermitage Capital, has accused law enforcement officials of stealing $230 million by seizing control of its companies and fraudulently securing a tax rebate.
Investigators in Switzerland and other countries are investigating the flows of the so-called "Magnitsky money", some of which, Hermitage says, ended up in real estate investments in the Gulf trading hub of Dubai.
Russian officials have denied any wrongdoing. They have instead pressed ahead with plans to try Magnitsky posthumously for tax evasion, and to prosecute Hermitage founder Bill Browder, a British citizen, in absentia.
Of the total illegal outflows in 2012, the central bank estimated that $14 billion was related to trade operations, with the remainder made up of $35.1 billion in "dubious" capital transfers.
The latter represents 60 percent of last year's officially reported total net capital outflow of $56.8 billion, according to the study.
The Kremlin "took note" of the findings, but made clear that it did not share the central bank's views, pointing to other officially backed research that concluded that illegal capital flight from Russia is far lower.
The research, by a state-backed investment fund, concludes that the figure for capital outflows is "highly exaggerated", Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said on Wednesday.
"We take all points of view into account, but our position is that this is a natural process," Peskov said. "Illegal outflows, if we are talking about the laundering of dirty money, are a matter for law enforcement agencies."
(Additional reporting by Darya Korsunskaya; Writing by Douglas Busvine; Editing by Timothy Heritage and Alastair Macdonald)
Lidl Finland finds horsemeat in beef meals
HELSINKI | Mon Feb 18, 2013 1:57pm EST
HELSINKI (Reuters) - Retailer Lidl LIDLUK.UL said on Monday it has withdrawn products from its stores in Finland and Sweden after finding traces of horsemeat.
Lidl in Finland said it found traces of horsemeat in the Coquette beef goulash meal and Coquette ravioli after pulling them from stores as a precaution during the weekend.
A spokeswoman for Lidl in Sweden said it had withdrawn a goulash soup product and a penne pasta meal with Bolognese sauce.
"We have been testing all beef products since the horsemeat issue began," said Lidl Sweden spokeswoman Caroline Forsshell. She said the products had been made by a German supplier.
The goulash in Finland was produced by German group Dreistern-Konserven GmbH & Co, Lidl Finland said in a statement.
Dreistern-Konserven on Friday announced horse DNA was detected in cans of its 'Rindergulasch' product.
Europe's horsemeat scandal, which has triggered recalls of ready meals and damaged confidence in the region's vast and complex food industry, erupted last month when tests carried out in Ireland revealed that beef products contained horsemeat.
(Reporting By Jussi Rosendahl; Editing by David Cowell)
Ally banking subsidiary sells mortgage unit to Walter
n">(Reuters) - Ally Financial Inc's banking subsidiary said on Monday it agreed to sell a mortgage unit to Walter Investment Management Corp (WAC.N) as the U.S. auto lender continues to pull back from the home loan business.
Ally Bank said in October that it was selling its business lending operation, which buys mortgages from other lenders and makes loans through brokers. The transaction, which includes 300 employees, is expected to close on February 28.
The companies did not disclose the terms of the deal.
Ally Financial, which is 74 percent owned by the U.S. government after a series of bailouts, is focusing on U.S. auto lending and Internet banking as it works to pay back taxpayers. In May, the lender's Residential Capital mortgage unit filed for bankruptcy, and Ally announced plans to sell its international operations.
Ally Bank also said in October that it was selling collection rights on $122 billion in mortgages. Reuters reported last month that Ocwen Financial Corp (OCN.N) was in the lead to buy the portfolio.
Ally Bank has said it plans to continue making a "modest level" of jumbo and conventional mortgages through third-party lenders.
(Reporting By Rick Rothacker in Charlotte, North Carolina; Editing by Marguerita Choy)
Six secrets to a dream retirement
Saving for retirement is easier if you spend a moment thinking about your future self.
Hiding in plain view, however, are other keys to post-work bliss that are at least as important as savings rates and stock returns. Especially from your mid-forties, say, to your early sixties, you'll make money-related decisions that have clear implications for the near term but that require some imagination for you to see their critical impact on how you'll live 10, 20, or 30 years down the road.
After consulting retirement experts and poring over the latest academic research, MONEY has identified five of these secrets and, as a sixth, found a new twist on that admonition to save, save, save.
This story will lay out these hidden retirement drivers -- including your investments, health, career, family, midlife changes and debt -- and help you make use of them in your planning. You'll also see how they could affect your finances in the years after you call it a career, based on numbers crunched by Jack VanDerhei at the Employee Benefit Research Institute, whose computer model simulates 100,000 possible market paths.
INVESTMENTS
The secret: 16.6% is the magic number.
How much do you need to save to retire? It's a vexing question because different generations of savers have different luck.
Some feel the market winds at their back during their careers, while others trudge through with low returns. Wade Pfau, professor of retirement income at the American College, which trains financial planners, has crunched the numbers to find a safe level of saving that would have worked in every historical market stretch going back to periods beginning in the 19th century.
Related: 4 ways the market could really surprise you
He found that setting aside 16.6% of income and putting it in a diversified portfolio of stocks and bonds did the trick every time. (Good news: Employer matches count toward that savings rate.) That's if you're consistent about saving over 30 years.
A slow starter must ramp up higher -- a 45-year-old with two times salary saved would have to go for 20%. "During some boom times, workers could get away with saving less, but you can't count on above-average returns," says Pfau.
That's a useful warning right now because investors face some real challenges in the coming decade. Part of the problem is basic math: The 10-year Treasury bond yields less than 2%, and the Federal Reserve gives every indication that rates will stay low for years. "Current yields are a good predictor of bond returns," says David Blanchett, head of retirement income at Morningstar Investment Management.
Related: 5 retirement choices: Get 'em right, live well
Stocks are less predictable -- but risks today include a wobbly global economy and an aging population who may prefer holding bonds to stocks. The more you can save, the less you have to worry about this stuff.
Take action
Do more than the max. For higher earners, "maxing out" your 401(k), as satisfying as it feels, might be a trap. Within your 401(k) you can save $17,500 in 2013. Those 50 and older can save an additional $5,500.
Because of IRS rules that prevent plans from benefiting mainly higher-income workers, some plans limit the contributions you can make even more, says Rick Meigs, president of 401khelpcenter.com. Step up savings by adding to a Roth IRA, where after-tax money can grow tax-free. You may not be able to invest directly in a Roth if your salary is above income limits. (Starting at $178,000 for married couples filing jointly in 2013, the amount you can contribute begins to phase out.) Fortunately there's a backdoor: Save in a nondeductible IRA, which you can then convert to a Roth.
Buy cheap funds -- it's like saving more, but easier. One wrinkle of Pfau's study: He didn't include investing expenses in his returns. If you pay a management fee of 1% a year on your funds, says Pfau, the safe savings rate jumps to over 22%. You have one advantage over past investors who enjoyed more bullish times, though. You can buy index funds and ETFs that cost 0.10% or less.
Get in touch with the future you. Behavioral finance research suggests that saving is easier if you spend a moment thinking about your future self. Look at an age-morphed photo of your face, and you are likely to put away more, says NYU researcher Hal Hershfield. You can get a glimpse of your older self via a mobile app, such as Aging Booth (IOS, 99¢; Android, free).
Related: Your future self thinks you should save more
Know when to dial down risk. Five years before retirement, zero in on how much you'll need to pay essential expenses, says financial adviser Harold Evensky of Coral Gables, Fla. Shift the equivalent of one year of expenses to cash or short-term bonds so that if stocks plunge when your quitting date is in sight, you'll know you'll have some extra time for markets to recover. This cushion will help keep you from selling in a panic.
More secrets to a dream retirement:
First Published: February 18, 2013: 9:50 AM ETDraghi dismisses talk of currency war, but watching euro
European Central Bank President Mario Draghi testifies before the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs at the European Parliament in Brussels February 18, 2013.
Credit: Reuters/Eric VidalBy Robin EmmottBRUSSELS | Mon Feb 18, 2013 12:10pm EST
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - European Central Bank President Mario Draghi sought to take the heat out of a debate about currency wars on Monday but said the ECB would still have to assess the economic impact of the euro's strength.
The euro hit a 15-month high against the dollar earlier this month, complicating the ECB's policy-making tasks by weighing on growth and feeding expectations that it may have to take fresh policy action, which some ECB members oppose.
While he expected a very gradual recovery in the euro zone later this year, Draghi said the euro's exchange rate was important for growth and inflation and that it could threaten to pull down inflation too far.
"We will have to assess in the coming projections whether the exchange rate has had an impact on our inflationary profile, because it's always through price stability that we address issues like that," he told European lawmakers in Brussels.
The Group of 20 nations, responding to feverish debate last week about competitive devaluations between the world's economic powers, said on Saturday there would be no currency war - essentially countries competing to weaken their currencies.
Japan's expansive policies, which have driven down the yen, escaped direct criticism in a statement thrashed out in Moscow by G20 policymakers.
While Japan and the United States are pursuing loose monetary policies, the ECB is starting to unwind some of its crisis measures - a contrast has helped drive up the euro.
"Most of the exchange rate movements that we have seen were not explicitly targeted, they were the result of domestic macro economic policies meant to boost the economy," Draghi said.
"In this sense, I find really excessive any language referring to currency wars," he said, adding that the euro's exchange rate was "around its long-term average."
The G20 statement was not disappointing, he said.
"What I did say at the G20 in Moscow, I urged all parties to (exercise) very, very strong verbal discipline," Draghi said.
While G20 finance ministers and central bank governors can promise not to devalue their currencies directly, there can be no guarantees while central banks are pumping money into economies to make them grow again.
The euro's real effective exchange rate is up some 2.2 percent since the start of the year, and has risen by as much as 3 percent.
"SHAM DISCUSSION"
In Vienna, another ECB policymaker, Austria's Ewald Nowotny, said the euro's exchange rate versus the dollar was moving in a range seen previously and that the appreciation against the yen had not been dramatic.
"That means if it stays likes this we are having a sham discussion," Nowotny added, calling talk of a currency war "absolutely unnecessary".
Draghi reiterated the ECB's view that the euro's exchange rate is not a policy target but he added that "it is important for growth and price stability".
The ECB targets inflation of close to, but below, 2 percent.
"Inflation is expected to decline to below 2 percent in the near term," Draghi said.
Turning to the economic outlook for the euro zone, Draghi said weakness in early 2013 should be followed by a very gradual recovery later in the year.
"The risks surrounding the economic outlook for the euro area continue to be on the downside," he said, though he did not single out the currency's strength as a growth risk.
However, Draghi did say the appreciation of the euro was one of the "downside risks" to price stability, though overall these were broadly balanced.
He said repeatedly that the ECB's monetary policy is "accommodative" and stressed that the central bank's top priority is to enhance its transmission across the euro zone.
(Additional reporting by Michael Shields in Vienna, writing by Paul Carrel. Editing by Jeremy Gaunt.)
Gulf Keystone says court judgment may not come until June
LONDON | Mon Feb 18, 2013 2:10pm EST
LONDON (Reuters) - Oil explorer Gulf Keystone (GKP.L), defending its ownership of a huge oil field in Iraqi Kurdistan after it was sued, said the outcome of the court battle may not be known until at least June.
The English Commercial Court said a judgment may take more than three months from the conclusion of the trial, expected at the end of this month or in early March, the company said in a statement on Monday.
Gulf Keystone has long been touted as a potential takeover target for an oil major looking for a foothold in Kurdistan, but the court case has been cited as a potential obstacle to any deal.
The company has been contesting claims made by Excalibur Ventures at the English Commercial Court in a trial which started in October.
The claimant, which commenced legal action in 2010, asserts it is entitled to an interest of up to 30 percent in all of Gulf Keystone's blocks in Kurdistan.
Gulf Keystone said on Monday that it continues to vigorously dispute the allegations and claims made by Excalibur.
Excalibur was ordered by the court to pay 4.7 million pounds as security for Gulf Keystone's costs on February 15, said Gulf Keystone, on top of the 6 million pounds it paid for the same purpose last year.
Shares in Gulf Keystone, which have fallen 7 percent in the last month, closed at 200 pence on Friday, valuing the firm at 1.75 billion pounds ($2.7 billion).
($1 = 0.6442 British pounds)
(Reporting by Sarah Young; Editing by Paul Sandle)
Reader's Digest parent company files for bankruptcy again
Copies of the Reader's Digest magazines are seen in Port Washington, New York, August 18, 2009.
Credit: Reuters/Shannon StapletonBy Ilaina JonasNEW YORK | Mon Feb 18, 2013 4:31pm EST
NEW YORK (Reuters) - The owner of magazine Reader's Digest, once the staple of doctors' offices and coffee tables, has filed for bankruptcy for the second time in less than four years, citing a greater-than-expected decline of the media industry.
RDA Holding Co and more than two dozen affiliates filed for a pre-negotiated Chapter 11 bankruptcy plan the company says will allow it to reduce its $534 million debt load by 80 percent, according to documents filed Sunday in U.S. Bankruptcy court in the Southern District of New York.
Its international operations are not part of the filing.
It is the second time the company filed for bankruptcy protection since 2009.
Despite emerging from bankruptcy as a smaller company in 2010, "its business plan and financial forecasts did not adequately account for the steep declines that the media industry has suffered over the last few years — as evidenced by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company's recent return to Chapter 11," Robert Guth, the company's president and chief executive officer, said in court documents.
Nor did the company's plan "adequately reflect the fragility of RDA's wide-reaching international footprint," Guth said.
Under the terms of the restructuring plan, $464.4 million of its senior notes will convert to equity, leaving the company with $100 million in debt.
Wells Fargo & Co and holders of its senior secured notes have agreed to $105 million in debtor-in-possession financing to allow the company to continue operating under bankruptcy. The company plans to exit bankruptcy within four months, court documents say.
DeWitt Wallace and his wife Lila Acheson Wallace founded Reader's Digest in 1922. The magazine offered readers stripped-down versions of articles about health, home and family from other publications. It eventually began the best-selling consumer magazine in the United States. Today it operates print and digital magazines, books, music and videos worldwide and has more than $1.1 billion in assets, according to court documents.
Distressed-debt investor Alden Global Capital and hedge fund Point Lobos Capital LLC are listed as among the company's largest stakeholders, according to the filing. Luxor Capital Group, as administrative agent for a $10 million loan, is listed as one of its largest unsecured creditors.
(Editing by Andrea Ricci)
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