Saturday, February 25, 2012

Why Your 2012 Tax Bill May Jump By $8,000

AMT taxFrom Mitt Romney to Warren Buffett, people are clamoring for fairer taxes. But thanks to yet another lapse by our lawmakers in Washington, more than 20 million taxpayers may pay a tax that was originally designed to hit only the ultra-rich -- and the increase could cost you as much as $8,000.

When it was first designed, the alternative minimum tax, or AMT, was meant to make taxes more fair. The idea behind the AMT was to make sure that rich people didn't use deductions to zero out their taxes every year.

Because of inflation, though, the AMT threatens to snare more taxpayers every year. So far, Congress has always acted to pass a "patch" to keep those additional millions of taxpayers from having to pay AMT.

In this election year, though, getting any tax law through the House and Senate will be tough. And If lawmakers don't act, the Congressional Budget Office says that the average tax increase will be $3,900, with some paying more than $8,000 extra.

The worst part of not knowing whether you'll have to pay AMT in 2012 is that if you don't have enough tax withheld from your paycheck, you could end up owing interest and penalties.

What to Do

To be safe, you should consider either raising your withholding or planning to make estimated tax payments, which are due starting in April.

But you do have at least some control over whether and how much AMT you owe. Although the AMT is complicated and involves a host of calculations, the big item that hits most people who pay AMT is state and local tax, whether it's state income tax or the property taxes you pay on your home. Usually, you can deduct those tax payments, but the AMT doesn't allow it.

So if you're in a high-tax state and an AMT patch doesn't come soon, start thinking about whether you can spread those taxes out, paying some in 2012 and some in 2013. If you can, it could help keep you from wasting a potential deduction and getting stuck with the AMT.

More on taxes:

NEXT:

Motley Fool contributor Dan Caplinger is hoping for an AMT patch, but he's not holding his breath. You can follow him on Twitter here.

Source: http://www.dailyfinance.com/2012/02/03/why-your-2012-tax-bill-may-jump-by-8-000/

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Monday, February 20, 2012

Yahoo! Finance: The Daily Ticker

Yahoo! Finance: The Daily Tickerhttp://finance.yahoo.com/rss/blogs/daily-ticker/ en-USCopyright (c) 2011 Yahoo! Inc. All rights reserved2011-12-27T21:10:31-05:005Yahoo! Finance: The Daily Tickerhttp://finance.yahoo.com/rss/blogs/daily-ticker/ http://l.yimg.com/a/i/us/nws/th/main_142c.gif?Very Scary?: The World Won?t End in 2012, But Might Feel Like It?s About ToFollow Yahoo!'s The Daily Ticker on Facebook here! As 2011 comes to a close, the world is looking ahead to 2012 with a mixture of hope and trepidation. Despite the Mayan prophecy, "the world won't end in 2012, but at times it will feel as if it is about to," writes Daniel Franklin, editor of [...]http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/daily-ticker/very-scary-world-won-t-end-2012-might-151018357.html2011-12-27T15:10:18ZDaily Tickerblogs/daily-ticker/very-scary-world-won-t-end-2012-might-151018357Emerging Markets, ETFs and Dividend Stocks Rule in 2012Follow Yahoo!'s The Daily Ticker on Facebook here! 2011 was the year of market uncertainty. Investors flocked to safe haven investments like gold, U.S. treasuries and the U.S. Dollar as volatility rocked global markets and the European sovereign debt crisis unnerved investors who dumped stocks and jumped ship. Quite frankly, 2011 left a sour taste [...]http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/daily-ticker/emerging-markets-etfs-dividend-stocks-rule-2012-150954976.html2011-12-27T15:09:54ZDaily Tickerblogs/daily-ticker/emerging-markets-etfs-dividend-stocks-rule-2012-150954976Occupy Wall Street: 2011 ReflectionsFollow Yahoo!'s The Daily Ticker on Facebook here! As 2011 comes to a close, we're taking a look back at how we covered some of the biggest news stories of the year. Below are links to our coverage of Occupy Wall Street and related issues. What started in September with a small, seemingly random group [...]http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/daily-ticker/occupy-wall-street-2011-reflections-080955204.html2011-12-27T08:09:55ZDaily Tickerblogs/daily-ticker/occupy-wall-street-2011-reflections-080955204Policymakers Could Make Global Economic Crisis Worse Next Year: Dan FranklinFollow Yahoo!'s The Daily Ticker on Facebook here Dan Franklin, editor of "The World in 2012," does not mince words: "There is a danger going into 2012 on both sides of the Atlantic that policymakers are going to make things a lot worse." Many experts and pundits throw out predictions at the end of ever [...]http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/daily-ticker/12-28-policymakers-could-global-economic-crisis-worse-080910438.html2011-12-27T08:09:10ZDaily Tickerblogs/daily-ticker/12-28-policymakers-could-global-economic-crisis-worse-080910438?Economic Martial Law? Is Coming in 2012: Gerald CelentFollow Yahoo!'s The Daily Ticker on Facebook here! Gerald Celente, publisher of The Trends Journal and founder/director of the Trends Research Institute, has made many bold predictions before, but his latest prognostication is a dark omen for the financial markets. Speaking in a deadpan tone and without blinking an eye, he tells Aaron Task in [...]http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/daily-ticker/economic-martial-law-coming-2012-gerald-celent-080845061.html2011-12-27T08:08:45ZDaily Tickerblogs/daily-ticker/economic-martial-law-coming-2012-gerald-celent-080845061The Best of The Daily Ticker: 2011 ReflectionsFollow Yahoo!'s The Daily Ticker on Facebook here! As 2011 comes to a close, we're taking a look back at some of our most important interviews of the year from President Bill Clinton to House Speaker John Boehner to the CEO of Starbucks Howard Schultz and "The Donald." Below are links to our episodes with [...]http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/daily-ticker/best-daily-ticker-2011-reflections-164916925.html2011-12-23T16:49:16ZDaily Tickerblogs/daily-ticker/best-daily-ticker-2011-reflections-164916925Top Yahoo! Financial Term Searches: 2011 Year in ReviewFollow Yahoo!'s The Daily Ticker on Facebook here! This year marks the 10th anniversary of Yahoo!'s Year in Review. It puts a spotlight on the top stories and trends of the year based Yahoo!'s network of nearly 700 million monthly unique visitors and billions of consumer searches. The top search term on Yahoo! for 2011 [...]http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/daily-ticker/top-yahoo-financial-term-searches-2011-review-164901027.html2011-12-23T16:49:01ZDaily Tickerblogs/daily-ticker/top-yahoo-financial-term-searches-2011-review-164901027Politics 2011: ?The Stench of Washington?Follow Yahoo!'s The Daily Ticker on Facebook here! The year in politics can be summed up in two words: Dysfunction and Scandal. Evident throughout 2011, D.C. dysfunction peaked with the summer debt-ceiling debacle, which resulted in the U.S. losing its triple-A credit rating from S&P. (See: Who Will Save the Lifeguards?) Because of the way [...]http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/daily-ticker/12-23-politics-2011-stench-washington-164829602.html2011-12-23T16:48:29ZDaily Tickerblogs/daily-ticker/12-23-politics-2011-stench-washington-164829602Jim O?Neill: 2012 Will Be Good for the BRICsFollow Yahoo!'s The Daily Ticker on Facebook here! 2011 was not a particularly good year for Brazil, Russia, India and China, a.k.a. the BRICs. The iShares ETFs for China and Brazil are down about 20% each this year while the Market Vectors Russia ETF is down almost 30% and The Indian Fund is down about [...]http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/daily-ticker/jim-o-neill-china-won-t-landing-2012-190742349.html2011-12-22T19:07:42ZDaily Tickerblogs/daily-ticker/jim-o-neill-china-won-t-landing-2012-190742349Financial Fraud Against Older Americans Peaks this Holiday SeasonFollow Yahoo!'s The Daily Ticker on Facebook here If this year is anything like last, baby boomers and older Americans should be on guard this holiday season. Instances of financial abuse and fraud against the elderly increased from November 2010 to January 2011, according to a recent report from MetLife, which found overall investment fraud [...]http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/daily-ticker/boomers-beware-tis-season-financial-fraud-against-older-165702705.html2011-12-22T16:57:02ZDaily Tickerblogs/daily-ticker/boomers-beware-tis-season-financial-fraud-against-older-165702705CFPB Head Raj Date: Competitive Markets Need One Set of RulesFollow Yahoo!'s The Daily Ticker on Facebook here! As 2011 comes to a close, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, created in the wake of the financial crisis, remains without a director. It is still trying to do its best at protecting you, the consumer. Since the agency officially opened its doors at the end of [...]http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/daily-ticker/raj-date-competitive-markets-one-set-rules-142046892.html2011-12-22T14:20:46ZDaily Tickerblogs/daily-ticker/raj-date-competitive-markets-one-set-rules-142046892Goldman?s Jim O?Neill: ?Our Future Prosperity Depends on China?Follow Yahoo!'s The Daily Ticker on Facebook here! It should come as no surprise that Jim O'Neill, the Goldman Sachs executive who coined the "BRIC" concept a decade ago, still defends these countries (Brazil, Russia, India and China) as the world's growth engine. In his latest book "The Growth Map" he delves into the story [...]http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/daily-ticker/goldman-jim-o-neill-future-prosperity-depends-china-133813261.html2011-12-22T13:38:13ZDaily Tickerblogs/daily-ticker/goldman-jim-o-neill-future-prosperity-depends-china-133813261Jim O?Neill: Risk of European Contagion Now ?Significantly Reduced?Follow Yahoo!'s The Daily Ticker on Facebook here! The European Central Bank kicked off its new borrowing facility with a bang Wednesday, lending $645 billion to 523 banks at 1% for up to 3 years. Both the dollar volume of loans and the number of banks seeking funds exceeded expectations. "In view of everything that's [...]http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/daily-ticker/jim-o-neill-risk-european-contagion-now-significantly-210447424.html2011-12-21T21:04:47ZDaily Tickerblogs/daily-ticker/jim-o-neill-risk-european-contagion-now-significantly-210447424BlackBerry-Maker RIM?s Demolished Stock Gets Bounce As Buyers Sniff AroundFollow Yahoo!'s The Daily Ticker on Facebook here! The stock of BlackBerry-maker Research In Motion rose modestly on Wednesday on reports that several potential buyers had recently looked at the company. One of those reports, by Reuters, said that one potential buyer, Amazon, stopped looking at the company because they weren't interested in buying it, [...]http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/daily-ticker/blackberry-maker-rim-demolished-stock-gets-bounce-buyers-193821382.html2011-12-21T19:38:21ZDaily Tickerblogs/daily-ticker/blackberry-maker-rim-demolished-stock-gets-bounce-buyers-193821382EU Carbon Tax on Flights: ?A Small Step In The Right Direction? Says EconomistFollow Yahoo!'s The Daily Ticker on Facebook here! 'Tis the season to travel, travel, travel and like almost everything else this year, the cost to fly is not getting any cheaper, especially when you factor in all the additional fees. There are fees to change your travel plans and fees to use your frequent flier [...]http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/daily-ticker/eu-carbon-tax-flights-small-step-direction-says-181657174.html2011-12-21T18:16:57ZDaily Tickerblogs/daily-ticker/eu-carbon-tax-flights-small-step-direction-says-181657174Retail Rematch: Jeff Macke vs Barry RitholtzFollow Yahoo!'s The Daily Ticker on Facebook here! Does this scenario describe you over the next few days: at the mall, standing in line as you struggle with all those shopping bags containing presents which will be left under the Christmas tree? It's the vision retailers are happily painting this year and industry trade groups [...]http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/daily-ticker/retail-rematch-jeff-macke-vs-barry-ritholtz-145527706.html2011-12-21T14:55:27ZDaily Tickerblogs/daily-ticker/retail-rematch-jeff-macke-vs-barry-ritholtz-145527706Nomi Prins: How Many Regulators Does It Take to Screw Investors Out of $1.2B?Follow Yahoo!'s The Daily Ticker on Facebook here! Three-plus years since the subprime mortgage crisis -- aided and abetted by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac -- triggered the collapse of Lehman and bailouts of the big banks and AIG, scant little progress has been made to safeguard the markets, investors or the economy. To add [...]http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/daily-ticker/nomi-prins-many-regulators-does-screw-investors-1-123025921.html2011-12-21T12:30:25ZDaily Tickerblogs/daily-ticker/nomi-prins-many-regulators-does-screw-investors-1-123025921?There?s No Reason to Own a Bank?: Barry Ritholtz?s 3 Reasons to Avoid Today?s Hot SectorA day after getting slammed, financial stocks rallied sharply Tuesday as fears about Europe receded, at least for a day. Jeffries led the way, surging 24% after reporting better-than-expected fourth-quarter results and holding a conference call designed to assure investors they are not another MF Global. Other winners included JP Morgan, Wells Fargo, Citigroup and [...]http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/daily-ticker/no-reason-own-bank-3-reasons-avoid-today-202807292.html2011-12-20T20:28:07ZDaily Tickerblogs/daily-ticker/no-reason-own-bank-3-reasons-avoid-today-202807292Political Gridlock Is Bullish for Markets: David KotokFollow Yahoo!'s The Daily Ticker on Facebook here! David Kotok, chairman and chief investing officer of Cumberland Advisors, continues to see the glass as half full. Back in August, Kotok told Aaron Task and Henry Blodget that the market sell-off could be attributed to political concerns, not market fundamentals. As investors sprinted for the exits, [...]http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/daily-ticker/political-gridlock-bullish-markets-david-kotok-171306385.html2011-12-20T17:13:06ZDaily Tickerblogs/daily-ticker/political-gridlock-bullish-markets-david-kotok-171306385Kotok: Europe ISN?T a Total Train Wreck and the ECB Is Doing More Than You ThinkFollow Yahoo!'s The Daily Ticker on Facebook here! This week began the same way as last week ended: With rising fears about Europe and concerns policymakers aren't doing enough to address the sovereign debt crisis. On Monday, Eurozone finance ministers confirmed plans to contribute 150 billion euros (about $195.5 billion) in loans to the IMF [...]http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/daily-ticker/kotok-europe-isn-t-total-train-wreck-ecb-140436124.html2011-12-20T14:04:36ZDaily Tickerblogs/daily-ticker/kotok-europe-isn-t-total-train-wreck-ecb-140436124

Source: http://finance.yahoo.com/rss/techticker

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Sunday, February 12, 2012

Group: No candidate very pro-U.S. on trade

Published: Jan. 22, 2012 at 5:17 PM

LOS ANGELES, Jan. 22 (UPI) -- A non-profit, non-partisan group that promotes U.S.-made products at home and abroad says no presidential candidate is very pro-American on trade.

Joel D. Joseph, chairman of the Made in the USA Foundation, said the group awarded points if the candidates opposed NAFTA and other free-trade agreements, like those recently enacted concerning Panama, Colombia and South Korea. Points were also given to those who supported bailing out General Motors and Chrysler. In addition, the foundation evaluated how the candidates would respond to China's trade policies.

"None of the candidates are really very pro-American on trade. They talk like they are, but this survey judged the candidates by their actions as well," Joseph said in a statement. "For example, we based points on what cars the candidates have owned and if their campaigns purchased imported T-shirts and other products."

Out of a potential 100 points, President Barack Obama, a Democrat, led the pack with 75 points, but lost points for supporting new free-trade agreements and for being soft on trade with China.

Pro-free trade candidate Ron Paul came in second place with 60 points. The Republican Texas congressman, although a supporter of free-trade, has opposed trade agreements such as NAFTA because he said they are really managed trade, not free trade.

Republicans Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum tied with 50 points each -- a mediocre rating on trade, Joseph said. Santorum would have beat Romney had he purchased American-made T-shirts for his campaign, although he has noted that his sweater-vests are made in the U.S.A.

In last place is former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich with 20 points. Gingrich favored NAFTA and other trade agreements, opposed bailing out the U.S. auto industry, but earned 20 points by driving American-made vehicles.

Source: http://www.upi.com/Business_News/2012/01/22/Group-No-candidate-very-pro-US-on-trade/UPI-34711327270629/

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Thursday, February 9, 2012

Netflix reshuffles marketing

Published: Jan. 21, 2012 at 11:18 AM

LOS ANGELES, Jan. 21 (UPI) -- U.S. movie rental company Netflix said its chief marketing officer Leslie Kilgore would be replaced by its vice president of marketing Jessie Becker.

Becker has been with Netflix for 11 years, one short of Kilgore's 12 years as the head of marketing, The Hollywood Reporter said Saturday.

Becker's new post is an interim assignment. Kilgore, meanwhile, will move over to a non-executive position on the company's board of directors, the company said.

"Leslie has been instrumental in our long-term success and our recent return to solid growth. We are delighted she is joining our board of�directors and will continue to be a key part of Netflix," said co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Reed Hastings.

The move, however, comes after a series of costly marketing errors, including an attempt to divide the company's down-streaming computer business from DVD rentals.

That move would have sharply increased subscriber costs. But the company backtracked on the decision after consumers complained, many of them dropping their subscriptions in the process.

Source: http://www.upi.com/Business_News/2012/01/21/Netflix-reshuffles-marketing/UPI-40711327162695/

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Sunday, February 5, 2012

Disney paid Iger $31.4 million in 2011

Published: Jan. 21, 2012 at 11:31 AM

LOS ANGELES, Jan. 21 (UPI) -- U.S. entertainment giant Walt Disney Co. said top executives received substantial raises in 2011.

Chief Executive Officer Bob Iger was paid $31.4 million in 2011, a raise of 12 percent from 2010 and 45 percent from 2009, The Hollywood Reporter said Saturday.

Iger's total pay included $15.5 million in bonuses and an annual stock award worth $12.9 million.

Chief Financial Officer Jay Rasulo was paid $9.9 million, a $300,000 pay raise from 2010. Executive vice president and chief human resources director Jayne Parker was paid $3.1 million, a 15 percent raise, the Reporter said.

Disney's top lawyer, Alan Braverman was paid $6.9 million, also taking home a $300,000 raise over 2010.

Executive vice president of corporate strategy and business development Keven Mayer missed out, however, with his pay falling from $4.1 million to $3.6 million, the newspaper said.

Source: http://www.upi.com/Business_News/2012/01/21/Disney-paid-Iger-314-million-in-2011/UPI-70981327163517/

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Saturday, February 4, 2012

Warnings mount on euro crisis as G20 gathers (Reuters)

WASHINGTON/FRANKFURT (Reuters) ? Seven world leaders on Thursday demanded Europe act more decisively to quell its debt crisis and a European Central Bank study warned that the entire euro currency project was now in peril.

As the world's top finance chiefs gathered for talks in Washington, an open letter by the leaders of Australia, Canada, Indonesia, Britain, Mexico, South Africa and South Korea stressed the risk of the euro zone crisis spreading worldwide.

"Euro zone governments and institutions must act swiftly to resolve the euro crisis and all European economies must confront the debt overhang to prevent contagion to the wider global economy," the leaders wrote in the letter to France, currently chair of the Group of 20 leading economies.

As stock prices around the world fell on fears of a new economic slump, U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner stepped up his warnings to Europe to act quickly to stem the crisis and provide enough resources to prevent a Greek default. But he expressed faith Europe would act.

"They recognize that if you let, as the United States did in the early part of 2008, the momentum of these concerns build, they're very hard to arrest, much more expensive to arrest," Geithner told a forum in Washington. "So you're going to see them act with more force in the coming weeks and months."

Finance ministers from the G20 leading developed and emerging economies will meet for dinner in Washington on Thursday to discuss the crisis, but they have no plans to issue a communique to outline a response.

That may be disappoint investors already alarmed about the inability of policymakers to come together to tackle the world's economic problems as they did to fight the financial crisis of 2007-09.

World stocks plunged on Thursday as investors fretted over the grim global growth outlook including data pointing to a slowdown in China, one of the world's key economic engines.

European stocks fell around 4.5 percent and the Dow Jones Industrials were down nearly 4 percent.

Investors flooded into the safe haven of U.S. Treasury debt pushing yields to new lows a day after the Federal Reserve announced a plan to shift its balance sheet to longer-dated paper to keep lending rates low and bolster the U.S. economy.

The European Union's monetary affairs commissioner, Olli Rehn, vowed that European leaders would not allow an uncontrolled Greek default, nor would the country leave the euro zone.

Rehn did not rule out the possibility of a Greek debt restructuring, but said this would be difficult to do in an "orderly" way.

In Athens, Prime Minister George Papandreou said further austerity measures were vital to Greece, even as workers striking in protest shut down the country's transport system.

"There is no other path. The other path is bankruptcy, which would have heavy consequences for every household," he said after a meeting in parliament with deputies from his ruling Socialist party.

ECB WARNS EURO IN DANGER

The ECB study was a parting shot from ECB chief economist Juergen Stark, who resigned this month after opposing the bank's policy of buying troubled countries' bonds. It was perhaps the most strongly-worded warning about the future of the euro from a central banker.

"Greatly increased fiscal imbalances in the euro area as a whole and the dire situation in individual member countries risk undermining stability, growth and employment, as well as the sustainability of (Europe's Economic and Monetary Union) itself," said the research paper, which was published by the ECB but not endorsed by it.

The study co-authored by Stark recommended euro zone countries face tough new debt rules, have their deficits approved at a European level and if they reneged, face automatic fines.

The European Union's new super-watchdog, the European Systemic Risk Board, warned that the knock-on effects of the debt crisis that began in Greece in 2009 had led to considerably higher risks of financial instability in Europe.

"The high inter-connectedness in the EU financial system has led to a rapidly rising risk of significant contagion. This threatens financial stability in the EU as a whole and adversely impacts the real economy in Europe and beyond."

The board, chaired by ECB President Jean-Claude Trichet, called for "decisive and swift action" from policymakers, widely seen as being slow in the fight to contain the crisis.

The IMF has pressed for a recapitalization of European banks -- and has faced some opposition from bank executives and EU governments who have argued balance sheets in the region are sound.

Canadian Finance Minister Jim Flaherty also joined the chorus of non-European officials warning that a new global credit crunch could bite if Europe failed to act quickly.

Flaherty told the Canadian Broadcasting Corp that European nations could "get ahead of the game" if they were prepared to increase the euro zone's bailout funds to 1 trillion euros from 440 billion euros.

BANKS IN FOCUS

The crisis has raised pressure on European banks, and particularly French lenders, which are heavily exposed to Greece and other troubled euro zone sovereigns.

France's biggest bank, BNP Paribas denied a Reuters report that it was in talks with the Gulf state of Qatar on taking a stake in the bank.

French finance Minister Francois Baroin told reporters in Washington that any liquidity problems for euro zone banks were addressed by global central bank efforts to set up new liquidity facilities last week.

He said the euro zone's top priority is "reducing deficits as quickly as possible." Leveraging Europe's bailout fund could be achieved at a later date to "give it more systemic firepower."

(Additional reporting by David Ljunggren in Ottawa, Regan Doherty in Qatar, Daniel Flynn Jan Strupczewski, Rachelle Younglai and Lesley Wroughton in Washington, Lionel Laurent and Julien Ponthus in Paris, Ross Finley in London, Lefteris Papadimas in Athens, Martin Santa in Frankfurt; Writing by Paul Taylor and David Lawder; Editing by Andrea Ricci)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/business/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20110922/bs_nm/us_g20

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Blue chips drop 4 percent on recession fears (Reuters)

NEW YORK (Reuters) ? Stocks fell further on Thursday, with the Dow industrials briefly down 4 percent, as a bleak outlook from the Federal Reserve and weak data from China heightened fears of a global recession.

The Dow Jones industrial average dropped 413.38 points, or 3.72 percent, to 10,711.46. The S&P 500 dropped 38.84 points, or 3.33 percent, to 1,127.92. The Nasdaq Composite dropped 81.79 points, or 3.22 percent, to 2,456.40.

(Editing by James Dalgleish)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/business/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20110922/bs_nm/us_markets_stocks

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IMF director: World economy enters dangerous phase (AP)

WASHINGTON ? The head of the International Monetary Fund says the global economy has entered a dangerous phase and that heavy debt burdens could "suffocate" a recovery.

Nations must work together to meet the growing risks, IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde said Thursday. Banks must provide more capital, and governments need credible plans to get their debt under control.

Lagarde worries that some governments lack the political will to shrink rising deficits. That appeared to be a shot at the United States, where Congress has struggled to reach agreement on a deficit-reduction plan.

"The current economic situation is entering a dangerous phase," said Lagarde at a news conference kicking off the annual meetings of the 187-nation International Monetary Fund and its sister lending organization, the World Bank.

Lagarde says nations will make progress this week during the annual meetings and that they will ultimately meet the challenges ahead.

The gathering of world finance leaders comes at a perilous time for the global economy. World markets are plunging on fears that the U.S. economy has weakened and is adding few jobs, while Europe is confronted by a deepening debt crisis.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell more than 400 points at one point Thursday.

"I still think a double-dip recession for the world's major economies is unlikely, but my confidence in that belief is being eroded daily," World Bank President Robert Zoellick said Thursday, warning that the world remained in a "danger zone."

Earlier this week, the IMF slashed its growth forecasts for this year and next. And in a separate report, the IMF said the global financial system is facing its greatest challenges since the 2008 financial crisis.

Europe's troubles center on Greece. The Mediterranean nation could default on its debt next month unless it receives a $10.9 billion installment from a bailout fund managed by the European Central Bank, the European Commission and the IMF.

A default by Greece could destabilize other financially troubled European countries, such as Portugal, Ireland, Spain and Italy. It would also deal a blow to many European banks, which are large holders of Greek government bonds.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said Thursday that the United States has a huge stake in seeing Europe succeed. He said European governments would "act with more force" to resolve its debt crisis in the coming weeks.

He also said that the IMF had adequate resources to help in the European debt crisis. The IMF is already providing support to a bailout package for Greece.

Olli Rehn, the European Union's top economic official, said the 16 other euro zone countries won't abandon Greece and allow it to default on its massive debts.

"An uncontrolled default or exit of Greece from the euro zone would cause enormous economic and social damage, not only to Greece but to the European Union" and the rest of the world, Rehn said.

The U.S. economy appears to be slightly more stable than Europe. Still, more than two years after the recession officially ended, it is barely growing. Consumer and business confidence is low. In August, employers added no net jobs, and consumers didn't increase their spending on retail goods.

On Wednesday, the Fed said it will try to push long-term interest rates lower and make consumer and business loans cheaper by shifting $400 billion out of short-term Treasury securities and into longer-term bonds. Economists, however, doubt the plan will do much, and stocks plunged after the decision was announced.

President Barack Obama has proposed a $447 billion job-creation package. But the president's lacks support in Congress. Republicans strongly oppose his proposal to pay for it with higher taxes on wealthier households, hedge fund managers and oil companies.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/economy/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110922/ap_on_bi_ge/us_global_finance

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Jobless claims fall but recession still feared (Reuters)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) ? Americans filed fewer new claims for jobless benefits last week but the decline was not enough to dispel worries the economy was dangerously close to falling into a new recession.

Applications for unemployment benefits dropped 9,000 to 423,000 in the week ended September17, the Labor Department said on Thursday. That was roughly in line with expectations.

With recession fears mounting, the Federal Reserve warned on Wednesday of "significant" risks to the economy as it announced a new program to boost growth through cheaper borrowing costs.

"Job growth this month is probably not going to be stellar," said Rudy Narvas, and economist at Societe Generale in New York, who said the data supported the Fed's decision to take further measures to spur growth.

"The economy is chugging along near stall speed," he said.

Fears of a renewed downturn are growing around the world. Reports in Europe and China showed private sector business activity declined sharply this month as the euro zone debt crisis and a stalling U.S. recovery hit confidence.

Seven world leaders demanded Europe take more decisive action and a European Central Bank study warned that the entire euro currency project was now in peril.

The Fed's warning and the weak European and Chinese data hammered global stocks, including U.S. equities. Worries about the global economy also led the dollar to rally as investors dumped riskier assets like European and Brazilian stocks.

A separate report from the Conference Board showed U.S. economic activity rose more than expected in August but still suggested it would not accelerate much any time soon.

The private firm's Leading Economic Index increased 0.3 percent. Still, "there is a growing risk that sustained weak confidence could put downward pressure on demand and business activity, causing the economy to potentially dip into recession," said Ken Goldstein, an economist at the firm.

The U.S. economy grew at under a 1 percent annual rate over the first half of the year, and forecasters think it's bumping along at a sub-2 percent pace now. Employment growth braked to a halt last month, raising recession fears.

MOVING AVERAGE RISES

While initial claims for state unemployment benefits dipped last week, the trend has moved higher. A closely watched four-week moving average of new claims edged up to 421,000, the highest level since the ended July 16.

Excluding one week in early August, first-time claims have held above 400,000 since early April, showing a still troubling pace of layoffs. A Labor Department official said there was no discernible effect from recent storms.

"It doesn't look very robust at all," said Robbert Van Batenburg, head of global research at Louis Capital Markets in New York. "Jobless claims are just one of the symptoms of what's happening with the economy."

Package delivery giant FedEx Corp said moderate global economic growth was a factor behind the firm's move to cut to its profit outlook for the full year.

Many analysts are skeptical the Fed's new program, which attempts to put downward pressure on borrowing costs by focusing its bond holdings more toward longer-dated debt, would do much to lower the country's lofty 9.1 percent unemployment rate.

A run up in oil prices early this year and the devastating earthquake in Japan, which disrupted global supply chains, had weighed on U.S. growth earlier this year.

Even as those headwinds to growth were facing, a spending battle in Congress that left the country nearly unable to pay its bills over the summer hammered confidence.

"The two ... clouds still over us are the European crisis and the deep concern that you can see across the world and around the country about whether the political system in the United States is up to the challenges we face," Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner told a forum.

(Additional reporting by Richard Leong and Emily Flitter in New York, and by Rachelle Younglai and Margaret Chadbourn in Washington)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/business/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20110922/bs_nm/us_usa_economy

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Creutz, Kedrosky Discuss Zynga-Facebook Relations

Micron's Outlook After CEO Appleton's Death

Feb. 3 (Bloomberg) -- Ashok Kumar, senior technology analyst at the Maxim Group, talks about the

Feb. 3 (Bloomberg) -- Ashok Kumar, senior technology analyst at the Maxim Group, talks about the legacy of Micron Technology Inc. Chief Executive Officer Steve Appleton and the outlook for the company. Appleton, who took charge of Micron at 34 and went on to become the memory-chip industry?s longest-serving chief executive officer, died after crashing an experimental plane in Boise, Idaho. He was 51. (Source: Bloomberg)

Source: http://www.businessweek.com/video#video=lzOWhmMzovNZJdh-ZL30HznruTHmf1R5

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Egypt clashes ease but protesters determined to fight on

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Egypt clashes ease but protesters determined to fight on

EGYPT-PROTEST:Egypt clashes ease but protesters determined to fight on

By Marwa Awad

CAIRO (Reuters) - Clashes between rock-throwing protesters and riot police eased in Egypt on Saturday as activists argued over how to build momentum in their push to oust the country's ruling generals.

Six people have been killed in Cairo and Suez in street battles between riot police and thousands of young men incensed by the deaths of 74 people at a football match on Wednesday - Egypt's worst soccer disaster.

Many blamed the government for the deaths in Port Said, with some saying it was a deliberate attempt by remaining loyalists of ousted leader Hosni Mubarak to tip Egypt into chaos.

The fans turned their anger on the Interior Ministry in central Cairo and were joined by revolutionary youth groups to attack security forces who defended the building with continuous volleys of tear gas, batons and live gunshot rounds.

Some of the young protesters said their aim was not to overrun the ministry but provoke a reaction from the authorities that would encourage more people to join them.

"The majority of Egyptians don't want to protest or rally. We are working on galvanising. It is coming, gradually," said Mohamed Fahmy, a revolutionary socialist.

But the loose collection of groups leading the protests lacked a clear strategy and some admitted it was proving hard to secure the support of a population weary of insecurity.

Ahmed Shaban, 25, said: "We want the army to go and the interior ministry to be restructured. We will stay out here until that happens".

Another young man arrived carrying a box full of gas masks. His companions each took one and headed towards a street that lay enveloped in tear gas.

Further towards the ministry building, dozens of state security trucks lined a street and hundreds of riot police and army officers were milling around, yelling orders or wiping eyes smarting from the tear gas.

"The interior ministry forces are handling the situation. The army has not been deployed yet," a ministry source said.

A security source said army troops were told to be ready for deployment later on Saturday to protect government buildings, but that no such orders have been issued yet.

In Suez, police defended the state security headquarters and a Justice Ministry compound using razor wire and tear gas. A doctor at a morgue said he received two corpses of protesters shot dead by live ammunition.

Medics and witnesses reported four dead in Suez and two in Cairo, one of those an army officer, in two days of street fighting. A Reuters correspondent in the capital heard firing and found gun pellets on the ground.

Hundreds of protesters blocked roads near state security headquarters in the second-largest city Alexandria overnight.

Officials said at least 1,000 people were hurt in Port Said on Wednesday when fans invaded the pitch after local team al-Masry beat Cairo's Al Ahli, Africa's most successful club.

Witnesses said most of those who died were crushed in a stampede towards stadium exits that had been bolted shut.

Fans were puzzled at how match officials allowed the game to continue even as rival supporters threw stones and fired flares, and pointed to a thin police presence given the tense build-up.

The soccer stadium deaths have heaped fresh criticism on the military council that has governed Egypt since Mubarak stepped down a year ago. Critics regard the generals as part of his administration and an obstacle to change.

The army leadership, in turn, has presented itself as the guardian of the "January 25 revolution" and promised to hand power to an elected president by the end of June.

(Reporting by Marwa Awad and Patrick Werr; Additional reporting by Ashraf Fahim, Ahmed Tolba and Omar Fahmy; Writing by Tom Pfeiffer Editing by Maria Golovnina)

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Source: http://www.moneycontrol.com/news/wire-news/egypt-clashes-easeprotesters-determined-to-fight-on_662559.html

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Spanish lawmakers pass wealth tax to cut deficit (AP)

MADRID ? Spain's Parliament restored a deficit-reducing wealth tax Thursday in its final session before dissolving to make way for an election that opposition conservatives are favored to win.

Most opposition parties criticized the tax bill as a desperate electoral maneuver by the beleaguered ruling Socialists, who argue it is only fair to hit the rich harder in times of crisis, highlighted by Spain's 21 percent jobless rate.

Still, there were only two votes against the new tax for no party wanted to be seen as coddling the wealthy in an election year. The yes votes totaled 176 ? most from the Socialists ? while 166 deputies abstained.

The government says the tax will affect 160,000 people whose net worth is more than euro700,000 ($950,000). It will run for only two years ? 2011 and 2012 ? to bring in euro2 billion ($2.7 billion) just as Spain needs it the most as it works to cut its deficit from 9.2 percent of GDP last year to the EU limit of 3 percent in 2013.

The net worth threshold is roughly seven times the one in a law the the same government suspended in 2008. At the time, the economic crisis was just starting to bite hard and the government argued that the tax ? a levy on a person's assets minus their debts ? hit the middle class too hard.

Parliament will formally dissolve Monday to allow time for campaigning for Nov. 20 general election. Debate will be dominated by the staggering jobless rate, anemic growth and debt woes that prompt worries Spain might still need an international bailout.

The opposition Popular Party, which is favored to win the election, said the Socialists have left a major piece of business undone: a decree extending this year's budget numbers into 2012, since there will not be time to pass a new budget for 2012 by the Dec. 31 deadline.

The conservative party said this shows the Socialist government wants to avoid debating the public finances and acknowledging during an election campaign that its growth forecasts ? 1.3 percent GDP growth this year ? are too optimistic. The European Union, the International Monetary Fund and many private economists have issued lower forecasts.

"They do not want to acknowledge the inconsistency of their predictions," said Soraya Saenz de Santamaria, a Popular Party spokeswoman.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/business/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110922/ap_on_bi_ge/eu_spain_financial_crisis

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Romney’s ‘Very Poor’ at Highest in 35 Years as Safety Gaps Grow

February 03, 2012, 3:48 PM EST

By Mike Dorning

Feb. 3 (Bloomberg) -- Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney?s statement that the ?very poor? don?t concern him comes at a time when the portion of Americans living in deep poverty is the highest in more than a generation while assistance varies widely and is often inadequate.

?Virtually any food bank in any city in America would tell you that they have not been able to keep up with the demand,? said Bill Shore, founder and chief executive officer of Share Our Strength, a national charity that fights childhood hunger. ?That means more rationing of food, not allowing families to take as much as they would have before and being open shorter hours.?

More than 20 million Americans live in a household with income of less than half the federal poverty rate, the level social scientists often use as a category for the very poor, according to census data for 2010. Last year that meant an annual income below $11,057 for a family of four.

The portion of the population in that category was the highest in at least 35 years and has almost doubled since 1975, from 3.7 percent then to 6.7 percent in 2010.

Romney told CNN on Feb. 1 that ?I?m not concerned about the very poor? because they have many programs to help them. He later clarified his remarks, telling reporters on his campaign plane that low-income people have an ?ample safety net,? including Medicaid, housing vouchers, food stamps and the Earned Income Tax Credit.

Facing a barrage of criticism from Democrats and one of his Republican competitors, Romney said yesterday on Las Vegas television station KSNV?s ?Face to Face with Jon Ralston? that he ?misspoke? in the CNN interview.

?Biblical Call?

Without referencing Romney, President Barack Obama yesterday twice mentioned caring for the poor in remarks to the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington. He cited ?the Biblical call to care for the least of these -- for the poor, for those at the margins of society.?

Former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich, a rival for the Republican presidential nomination, responded with a message to followers of his Twitter account. ?I really believe we should care about the very poor unlike Gov. Romney,? he wrote. ?Poor needs trampoline so they can swing up?

Several providers of services for low-income families and analysts said Romney?s statement that the safety net protected families in deep poverty didn?t square with reality.

Holes in Net

?The social safety net has great big holes in it,? said Candy Hill, senior vice president for social policy and government affairs at Catholic Charities USA. ?In real time on the ground, we?re seeing exponential increases of people coming to our door for basic needs: emergency financial assistance, food, housing.?

Eighty-eight percent of local Catholic Charities agencies had to turn away people or place them on wait lists for services, according to the organization?s most recent quarterly survey of local affiliates, covering July through September 2011.

Ramon Garcia, county judge of Hidalgo County, Texas, said Romney is ?oblivious to what is going on down here.? Garcia is located in a metropolitan area near the southern tip of Texas where 15.8 percent of the population lives on less than half the federal poverty level.

?When you see how people are living and the increasing numbers of people who are being assisted by food banks and at our 11 health clinics, it is disappointing,? said Garcia, whose office is administrative rather than judicial. ?By law we have to spend 8 percent of our budget on indigent health care, but that isn?t enough to meet all of the demand.?

Recession?s Impact

Arloc Sherman, a senior researcher at the Washington-based Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, said changes in federal assistance in the 1996 welfare overhaul law have left poor families more vulnerable in an extended recession with jobs hard to find.

?It?s a safety net that has been shifting and provides more support for working families than it did 20 years ago,? Sherman said. ?But if you happen to not have a job, the safety net has weakened and is less likely to keep you out of the deepest forms of poverty.?

Even so, temporary assistance programs included in the 2009 stimulus package and later legislation Congress passed in 2010 have helped some families avoid falling into deep poverty, Sherman said.

About 2.4 million Americans were lifted above the $10,000 income threshold by benefits not fully captured in the census count because of those temporary expansions of assistance, Sherman said.

Aid Expansion

Those programs include a more generous Earned Income Tax Credit and child tax credit, extended unemployment benefits and a higher maximum payment, expanded eligibility for food stamps and a higher maximum food stamp benefit and the expired ?Making Work Pay? tax credit, Sherman said.

More than 46 million Americans received food stamps in November, the most recent month for which figures are available, down from an all-time high of 46.268 million in September, according to the U.S. Agriculture Department. The number of recipients set records every month from December 2008 until June 2011.

Food stamps, officially known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, is the only federal entitlement available to most legal residents based solely on need, said Sheila Zedlewski, a fellow at the Urban Institute.

?Food stamps isn?t going to pay your rent or for your gas,? Zedlewski said.

State Variations

Since the welfare overhaul in 1996, cash assistance for families varies widely by state, she said.

?In California, there is still cash assistance for you,? she said. ?In other states, it?s more likely to be emergency assistance. It is typically one to three months of a welfare payment, and you?re not to come back for a year after that.?

Thirty states pay no cash assistance to families who make more than 30 percent of the federal poverty level, she said.

Zedlewski said assistance for the poor may be reduced as state budgets contract and with the loss of billions of dollars of federal assistance for welfare and job programs that were included in the stimulus package.

Still, Ron Haskins, a former senior adviser on welfare to then-President George W. Bush, said a surge in federal spending on food stamps, unemployment insurance and Medicaid has largely provided for the poor.

?The safety net has functioned very well during the recession,? said Haskins, now a fellow at the Brookings Institution. ?There are people who fall through the cracks, but I don?t think that?s a huge problem.?

While the recession has exposed shortcomings in cash assistance, the emphasis on work-based assistance has mostly helped low-income families, including the working poor who are now eligible for unemployment insurance during periods of joblessness, Haskins said.

?The real problem is that the very poor don?t work enough and don?t marry enough,? Haskins said. ?President Clinton and the Republicans did something about that in the 1990s.?

--With assistance from Frank Bass in New York and David Mildenberg in Austin, Texas. Editors: Joe Sobczyk, Jim Rubin.

To contact the reporter on this story: Mike Dorning in Washington at mdorning@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Steve Komarow at skomarow1@bloomberg.net.

Source: http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-02-03/romney-s-very-poor-at-highest-in-35-years-as-safety-gaps-grow.html

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Friday, February 3, 2012

Disney employees now allowed to grow beards

Starting Friday, Disney parks and resort employees can grow beards and goatees so long as they're a quarter-inch or shorter.

The Happiest Place on Earth - now with more facial hair!

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Mickey Mouse can finally grow that goatee he's always wanted.

Until now, Disney (DIS, Fortune 500) parks and resort employees had been prohibited from growing beards and goatees. Starting Friday they may do so, so long as they're a quarter-inch or shorter.

Separately, the company has instituted a "casual Friday" dress policy for Disney staff members that don't deal with guests.

"Disney Look guidelines are periodically reviewed in relation to industry standards, as well as the unique environment of our theme parks and resorts," Disney spokeswoman Betsy Sanchez said in an email.

"While we are careful to maintain our heritage and the integrity of our brand, a recent review of our guidelines led to a decision that an update was appropriate at this time."

The lift of the beard ban follows earlier fashion reforms at the Happiest Place on Earth. In 2000 the company moved to allow mustaches, and in 2010 it decreed that women were no longer required to wear pantyhose with skirts.

There are still some fashion restrictions on Disney "cast members," as staff who deal with guests are called. Visible tattoos and body piercings are verboten, as is unnatural hair coloring.

"The Disney Look is a classic look that is clean, natural, polished and professional, and avoids 'cutting edge' trends or extreme styles," the company says on its website.�To top of page

First Published: February 3, 2012: 6:01 PM ET

Source: http://rss.cnn.com/~r/rss/money_topstories/~3/3pu0-VzFDr4/index.htm

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Analysis: Emerging markets face capital exodus again (Reuters)

LONDON (Reuters) ? A sell-off precipitated by global recession fears and the deepening euro zone debt crisis has resurrected the specter of capital flight, a threat that still haunts emerging markets for all their vaunted strengths.

Three years after the collapse of Wall Street giant Lehman Bros sparked a stampede out of higher risk assets and sent emerging economies reliant on foreign funding into shock, such fears have resurfaced in recent days amid heavy emerging equity and bond losses accompanied by sharp currency weakness.

Persistent hopes that developing economies can defy a Western downturn are set to be dashed the second time in four years, once again threatening to wrong foot investors who have bet big on the resilience of these markets.

"The process has just begun as real money investors haven't yet exited....All the ingredients are in place for a similar crisis to occur. The question is what magnitude," said Benoit Anne, head global emerging markets strategy at Societe Generale.

Since Aug 1, emerging stocks (.MSCIEF) have tumbled 22 percent to underperform world markets (.MIWO00000PUS), down 15 percent. Sovereign hard-currency bonds are at their weakest in over two years while local-currency debt (.JGEGDCM) year-to-date returns have turned negative in dollar terms.

Evoking memories of 2008 when investors offloaded emerging assets for more liquid securities such as U.S. Treasuries, this latest wave of foreign-led selling has been especially punishing on recent market darlings Indonesia, South Korea and Russia.

In the last seven weeks, the Korean won has skidded 12 percent lower while Russia's rouble has dropped 13 percent versus its dollar-euro basket. Brazil has lost 14 percent of its value against the dollar this month, chalking up its biggest one-day falls since October 2008.

This sudden exchange-rate weakness has unnerved investors, who have until now regarded currency appreciation as an added sweetener to returns generated by emerging stock and bond bets.

Record allocations to emerging debt in the last 21 months have mostly been unhedged as investors confident of currency appreciation shorted the dollar and euro to buy bonds in rand or reais. But the latest flight to the dollar has shattered the assumption that emerging-currency appreciation would be steady.

"It's become expensive to hedge currency exposure now and many investors are exiting unhedged local-currency positions, just as they had exited equity positions weeks earlier," said Murat Toprak, emerging markets strategist at HSBC.

NOT-SO-SAFE HAVENS?

Overall positioning in emerging assets is still heavy, suggesting prices may still have further to fall. Bank of America-Merrill Lynch's latest survey found a third of investors remain overweight emerging stocks this month.

"Institutional investors are keeping emerging markets as their last overweight but if they see more redemptions, they will be forced to sell to raise additional cash," said BA-ML global equities strategist Kate Moore.

Jitters are also growing over emerging debt, among the few asset classes along with gold and U.S. Treasuries that data from funds tracker EPFR shows attracting new money in the febrile markets of recent months.

"My sense is that the real money is still quite complacent about positioning. People are not well prepared for a huge cash outflow from emerging markets. So far we've only seen a speculative position washout," said Kieran Curtis, a debt portfolio manager at Aviva Investors.

Much of the new cash since the Lehman crash comes from so-called crossover investors such as pension funds who are only just beginning to venture into emerging markets -- their tolerance for volatility in these markets remains untested.

JPMorgan notes that the Brazilian real has been a major beneficiary of inflows from dedicated overlay funds sold to Japanese retail investors since 2009 and there is "significant uncertainty" how they will react to further market turbulence.

Foreign ownership of some local bond markets are at all-time highs, raising their sensitivity to global risk appetite.

"In some markets -- Indonesia, Hungary, Malaysia and Mexico, for instance -- foreign investor exposure has grown disproportionately quickly to the size of the market. Duration in these markets is thus most at risk from an unwind of global real money flows," UBS said in a note.

QUICKER RECOVERY?

But many argue that the longer term structural shift of portfolio allocations in favor of emerging markets will moderate the magnitude of the current selldown.

"When it comes to portfolio money, you have pension funds looking at two-percent returns on U.S. 10-year debt and no great likelihood of great equity performance," said Charles Robertson, global chief economist at Renaissance Capital.

Emerging local bonds offer yields of 5-12 percent.

Given the rude health of their public finances, these markets could rebound quickly when the global backdrop improves as evident following the Lehman bust. Net capital flows to emerging markets, for instance, jumped from $715 billion in 2009 to $1.1 trillion in 2010, data from the Institute of International Finance (IIF) show.

"If recovery is quicker and stronger, you don't want to sell out everything," said Renaissance's Robertson.

Since 2007, developing economies have cut external debt issuance by a third, IIF said. In the private sector, the stock of external debt owned by foreign private creditors has fallen 26 percent in the last three years.

Lower reliance on foreign cash may prevent a repeat of 2008 when capital flight sent countries such as Ukraine and Romania to the International Monetary Fund for emergency loans and necessitated recapitalisation of Russian and Kazakh banks.

But that may not be enough to stem near-term fears stalking the markets.

"My problem is not with the fundamentals but the fact that a lot of emerging assets are in the hands of people who will panic," said Alia Yousuf, portfolio manager at ACPI Investment.

"Are we really at the stage when people would rather hold Kazakhstan than the U.S.? I don't think so."

(Reporting by Sujata Rao and Sebastian Tong; editing by Ron Askew)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/economy/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20110922/bs_nm/us_emerging_capital_flight

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Warnings mount on euro crisis as G20 gathers (Reuters)

WASHINGTON/FRANKFURT (Reuters) ? Seven world leaders on Thursday demanded Europe act more decisively to quell its debt crisis and a European Central Bank study warned that the entire euro currency project was now in peril.

As the world's top finance chiefs gathered for talks in Washington, an open letter by the leaders of Australia, Canada, Indonesia, Britain, Mexico, South Africa and South Korea stressed the risk of the euro zone crisis spreading worldwide.

"Euro zone governments and institutions must act swiftly to resolve the euro crisis and all European economies must confront the debt overhang to prevent contagion to the wider global economy," the leaders wrote in the letter to France, currently chair of the Group of 20 leading economies.

As stock prices around the world fell on fears of a new economic slump, U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner stepped up his warnings to Europe to act quickly to stem the crisis and provide enough resources to prevent a Greek default. But he expressed faith Europe would act.

"They recognize that if you let, as the United States did in the early part of 2008, the momentum of these concerns build, they're very hard to arrest, much more expensive to arrest," Geithner told a forum in Washington. "So you're going to see them act with more force in the coming weeks and months."

Finance ministers from the G20 leading developed and emerging economies will meet for dinner in Washington on Thursday to discuss the crisis, but they have no plans to issue a communique to outline a response.

That may be disappoint investors already alarmed about the inability of policymakers to come together to tackle the world's economic problems as they did to fight the financial crisis of 2007-09.

World stocks plunged on Thursday as investors fretted over the grim global growth outlook including data pointing to a slowdown in China, one of the world's key economic engines.

European stocks fell around 4.5 percent and the Dow Jones Industrials were down nearly 4 percent.

Investors flooded into the safe haven of U.S. Treasury debt pushing yields to new lows a day after the Federal Reserve announced a plan to shift its balance sheet to longer-dated paper to keep lending rates low and bolster the U.S. economy.

The European Union's monetary affairs commissioner, Olli Rehn, vowed that European leaders would not allow an uncontrolled Greek default, nor would the country leave the euro zone.

Rehn did not rule out the possibility of a Greek debt restructuring, but said this would be difficult to do in an "orderly" way.

In Athens, Prime Minister George Papandreou said further austerity measures were vital to Greece, even as workers striking in protest shut down the country's transport system.

"There is no other path. The other path is bankruptcy, which would have heavy consequences for every household," he said after a meeting in parliament with deputies from his ruling Socialist party.

ECB WARNS EURO IN DANGER

The ECB study was a parting shot from ECB chief economist Juergen Stark, who resigned this month after opposing the bank's policy of buying troubled countries' bonds. It was perhaps the most strongly-worded warning about the future of the euro from a central banker.

"Greatly increased fiscal imbalances in the euro area as a whole and the dire situation in individual member countries risk undermining stability, growth and employment, as well as the sustainability of (Europe's Economic and Monetary Union) itself," said the research paper, which was published by the ECB but not endorsed by it.

The study co-authored by Stark recommended euro zone countries face tough new debt rules, have their deficits approved at a European level and if they reneged, face automatic fines.

The European Union's new super-watchdog, the European Systemic Risk Board, warned that the knock-on effects of the debt crisis that began in Greece in 2009 had led to considerably higher risks of financial instability in Europe.

"The high inter-connectedness in the EU financial system has led to a rapidly rising risk of significant contagion. This threatens financial stability in the EU as a whole and adversely impacts the real economy in Europe and beyond."

The board, chaired by ECB President Jean-Claude Trichet, called for "decisive and swift action" from policymakers, widely seen as being slow in the fight to contain the crisis.

The IMF has pressed for a recapitalization of European banks -- and has faced some opposition from bank executives and EU governments who have argued balance sheets in the region are sound.

Canadian Finance Minister Jim Flaherty also joined the chorus of non-European officials warning that a new global credit crunch could bite if Europe failed to act quickly.

Flaherty told the Canadian Broadcasting Corp that European nations could "get ahead of the game" if they were prepared to increase the euro zone's bailout funds to 1 trillion euros from 440 billion euros.

BANKS IN FOCUS

The crisis has raised pressure on European banks, and particularly French lenders, which are heavily exposed to Greece and other troubled euro zone sovereigns.

France's biggest bank, BNP Paribas denied a Reuters report that it was in talks with the Gulf state of Qatar on taking a stake in the bank.

French finance Minister Francois Baroin told reporters in Washington that any liquidity problems for euro zone banks were addressed by global central bank efforts to set up new liquidity facilities last week.

He said the euro zone's top priority is "reducing deficits as quickly as possible." Leveraging Europe's bailout fund could be achieved at a later date to "give it more systemic firepower."

(Additional reporting by David Ljunggren in Ottawa, Regan Doherty in Qatar, Daniel Flynn Jan Strupczewski, Rachelle Younglai and Lesley Wroughton in Washington, Lionel Laurent and Julien Ponthus in Paris, Ross Finley in London, Lefteris Papadimas in Athens, Martin Santa in Frankfurt; Writing by Paul Taylor and David Lawder; Editing by Andrea Ricci)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/business/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20110922/bs_nm/us_g20

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As Facebook Files for Its IPO, a Look Back

FacebookIt's hard to believe that Facebook has been around for less than eight years. Initially conceived as a way for Harvard students to socialize with each other, it rapidly transformed into the most influential online social network in the world, fundamentally changing the way hundreds of millions of people connect, relate to, and stalk each other.

On Thursday, the site that made it possible for you to reconnect with your third-grade girlfriend and unfriend your annoying cousin started its latest evolution into a publicly traded company. As its IPO filings offer a glimpse behind the blue curtain -- and the company's move points to the next iteration of the world's most loved (and hated) networking site -- we decided to take a look back at some of the high points in Facebook's brief but captivating history.

Source: http://www.dailyfinance.com/2012/02/03/as-facebook-files-for-its-ipo-a-look-back/

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Money manager pays $2.5M to settle fraud case (AP)

WASHINGTON ? A former California investment executive is paying $2.5 million to settle federal charges that he hid a computer error that resulted in financial losses for clients. He will also be banned from the securities industry for life.

The Securities and Exchange Commission says Barr M. Rosenberg, the co-founder and former chairman of AXA Rosenberg, learned of the coding error in June 2009. But the SEC says he told others to keep it quiet and not fix it immediately The error was not disclosed to clients until April 2010, after they lost $217 million.

The investment firm is also paying $242 million to settle civil fraud charges.

AXA Rosenberg, based in Orinda, Calif., is owned by French insurance company AXA SA.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/stocks/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110922/ap_on_bi_ge/us_sec_fraud_charges

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Don't Get Audited! The IRS's Dirty Dozen Red Flags

Audit By Joy Taylor, assistant editor, The Kiplinger Tax Letter Ever wonder why some tax returns get intense scrutiny from the Internal Revenue Service while most are ignored? The agency doesn't have enough personnel and resources to examine each and every tax return filed during a year -- it audits only slightly more than 1% of all individual returns annually.

So the odds are pretty low that your return will be picked for review. And, of course, the only reason filers should worry about an audit is if they are fudging on their taxes. But even if you have nothing to hide, an audit is no picnic.

Here are 12 red flags that could increase your chances of drawing some unwanted attention:

Read more: http://www.kiplinger.com/slideshow/tax_audit_redflags/13.html#ixzz1kgDBQ7GI
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Source: http://www.dailyfinance.com/2012/01/30/dont-get-audited-the-irss-dirty-dozen-red-flags/

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Spending cuts may be fantasy but what is the alternative?

"Departments need to make more fundamental changes to achieve sustainable reductions of the scale demanded by the Spending Review," it warned. "Short-term measures, though successful to date, will not be sufficient." Failing to do so would be so deeply damaging to front-line services that the politics would inevitably get ugly.

There is no alternative to the Treasury's fantasy cuts, though, the IFS stressed. The black hole blown in the public finances since 2008 is now estimated to be �114bn ? of which �102bn can be blamed squarely on the financial crisis with the other �12bn put down to Labour's over-optimism, the IFS said. Under Labour's March 2010 �73bn consolidation plan, it added, the deficit would only have fallen from this year's �127bn to �76bn in April 2017 ? �52bn more than under the Coalition.

Remarkably, for all that pain, in historic terms the cuts will only return UK public spending in 2017 to the same real-terms level as it was in 2005. What has made the consolidation so difficult to stomach, though, were the "12 years of consecutive real increases" in spending from 1999 to 2010.

"People get used to the high level of services they enjoy and then adjust their expectations," Ms Crawford said. "Fiscal repair is a bit like going to the dentist. You know it's going to hurt but it'll be better in the long run if you do it."

Of course, growth is vital to trimming the UK deficit, which the IFS noted was larger in 2007 than in all other leading economies bar Ireland, Greece and Portugal. But, Mr Johnson said, there is little the UK can do that isn't "fiddling" at the edges. Even a temporary �10bn to �20bn net giveaway in the March Budget ? through VAT, 2p off income tax, a National Insurance holiday, or investment spending ? would deliver negligible growth, while risking fiscal credibility.

"We're talking about GDP growth of one or two tenths of a percent more," Mr Johnson said. "What's driving the economy is what's going on in the rest of the world."

With the world in such perilous condition, the IFS judged it best that the Chancellor to stay his hand. Any firepower should be reserved for fighting the nasty recession a eurozone break-up would cause. Under Oxford Economics' scenario of Greece, Portugal, Ireland, Spain and Italy all leaving the euro, the UK would be plunged into a contraction of 1.7pc this year and 0.9pc next. Unemployment, which it expects to top 9pc in 2012, would hit 10.7pc.

In that event, "the case for a fiscal stimulus package would be strengthened considerably", the IFS said, arguing that George Osborne should outline a Plan B for the potential meltdown in the Budget "to avoid accusations that he was changing direction".

The bigger goal is to get the "micro policy right", Mr Johnson said, by ensuring the tax system is efficient and effective. Beyond that, the Treasury's best hope is that the Europeans can lift Britain out of the rabbit hole.

Source: http://telegraph.feedsportal.com/c/32726/f/568312/s/1c54c21a/l/0L0Stelegraph0O0Cfinance0Ceconomics0C90A550A90A0CSpending0Ecuts0Emay0Ebe0Efantasy0Ebut0Ewhat0Eis0Ethe0Ealternative0Bhtml/story01.htm

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