Best financial sourse

Reinsurance Group of America reported a lower profit for the fourth quarter, recording net income of $158.5 million, or $2.15 per share, compared with $196.7 million, or $2.62 per share, in the corresponding period a year earlier.

Quarterly premiums rose 13 percent, to $2 billion.

For all of 2011, the company earned $599.6 million, or $8.09 per share, compared with $574.4 million, or $7.69 per share, the previous year. The company, based in Chesterfield, is a large global provider of life reinsurance with offices in America, Europe, Asia, Australia, South Africa and Mexico, Barbados and Bermuda.

Source

Instant payday loan. In a few quick and easy steps we will help you get up to $1500 the same business day.

Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh left his battered nation Sunday on his way to the U.S. for medical treatment after passing power to his deputy and asking for forgiveness for any “shortcomings” during his 33-year rein.

But in a sign that Saleh’s role as Yemen’s top power broker is likely far from over, he said he would return to Yemen before the official power transfer next month to serve as the head of his ruling party.

Saleh’s departure marks a small achievement in the months of diplomatic efforts by the U.S. and Yemen’s powerful Gulf neighbors to ease the nearly year-old political crisis in the Arab world’s poorest country. An active al-Qaida branch there has taken advantage of the turmoil, stepping up operations and seizing territory.

After months of diplomatic pressure and mass protests calling for his ouster, Saleh signed a deal in November to transfer authority to his vice president in exchange for immunity from prosecution. Still, Saleh continued to exercise power behind the scenes, sparking accusations he sought to scuttle the deal and cling to power.

His departure could help the deal go forward.

Presidential spokesman Ahmed al-Soufi told The Associated Press that Saleh left Yemen’s capital Sanaa late Sunday on a plane headed for the Gulf sultanate of Oman. He did not say how long Saleh would remain there, but added that he would make “another stop before heading to the United States of America.”

A senior administration official said Ali Abdullah Saleh would travel to New York this week, and probably stay in the U.S. until no later than the end of February. U.S. officials believe Saleh’s exit from Yemen could lower the risk of disruptions in the lead-up to presidential elections planned there on Feb. 21.

The Obama administration faced a dilemma in deciding whether to let Saleh enter the U.S. after he requested a visa last month. It has long seen getting Saleh out of Yemen as an important step in ensuring the power transfer goes forward.

But some in the administration worried that welcoming Saleh would spark charges from the Arab world that the U.S. was harboring an autocrat responsible for deadly crackdowns on protesters.

To protect against this, the administration has sought assurances that Saleh will not seek to remain in the U.S.

An official close to Saleh said Sunday the president would undergo medical exams in Oman before heading to the U.S. The U.S. has forbidden him from any political activity in the U.S., the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorize to disclose diplomatic talks.

Saleh is likely seeking treatment for injuries sustained in a blast in his palace mosque last June 3 that left him badly burned. After the attack, Saleh traveled to Saudi Arabia for treatment, leaving many to suspect his power was waning. A few months later, however, he made a surprise return to Yemen and resumed his post.

Under the power transfer deal signed in November, Vice President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi is to be rubber-stamped as the country’s new leader in presidential elections. The political parties that signed the deal agreed not to nominate any other candidates.

In a farewell speech Friday reported by Yemeni state media, Saleh said he was passing his powers to Hadi, whom he promoted to the rank of marshal.

Saleh portrayed himself as a patriot who “gave his life in the service of the nation,” called for reconciliation and apologized for any mistakes.

“I ask for forgiveness from all sons of the nation, women and men, for any shortcomings during my 33 years in office,” Saleh said according to Yemen’s state news agency.

He also called on Yemen’s youth, who have spearheaded the mass protests calling for his ouster and often faced deadly crackdowns by Saleh’s security forces, to go home.

“I feel for you and call on you to return to your homes and turn a new page with a new leadership,” he said.

Yemen expert Gregory Johnsen of Princeton University said Saleh’s departure could help the power transfer deal progress, though it will do little to address protesters’ demands for a fundamental change of how politics in Yemen works.

Throughout his rule, Saleh has put close members of his family and tribe in charge of key state institutions and security forces, Johnsen said. Leaving that network intact could allow Saleh to continue to shape events in Yemen, even without the title of president.

“I don’t think we have seen the last of President Saleh,” Johnsen said.

Inspired by popular uprisings elsewhere in the Arab world, Yemenis took to the streets nearly a year ago to demand Saleh’s ouster and call for democratic reforms. Saleh’s security forces have met them with often deadly crackdowns, killing more than 200 protesters. Many others have been killed in violent clashes between armed groups that support the protesters and security forces.

Al-Qaida’s active Yemeni branch has also taken advantage of the security collapse to seize territory in the country’s south, even taking control of a town 100 miles from the capital Sanaa earlier this month.

The protests have continued despite the power transfer deal, which many say falls far short of their demands. They also reject the immunity clause, saying they want to see Saleh tried for his alleged role in the protester deaths.

Source

The free credit score industry has been booming since the recession as a lot of people hit hard times and want to keep an eye on how the recession has affected their credit standing.

With the worst recent financial record in the industry and poisonous labor relations, American Airlines wasn’t a very attractive target for buyers.

That view is changing now that American and parent AMR Corp. are reorganizing under the bankruptcy process at the same time that most other airlines have returned to profitability. Mergers have reduced competition and helped drive up fares.

Suddenly, American Airlines is in play. US Airways Group Inc. has hired advisers to study AMR, according to a source familiar with the situation, and reports say that Delta Air Lines Inc. and buyout firm TPG Capital are also weighing bids. None of the companies would comment.

Industry insiders expect every major U.S. airline to take a look at AMR. Despite losing money every year since 2008 and missing out on the airline merger mania of the past few years, American is still the world’s third-biggest carrier by passenger traffic. In bankruptcy, AMR could shed billions in debt, reduce its costs and still afford new planes _ a trifecta that has caught the eye of rivals.

“Everybody has to be thinking about how to deal with AMR in two years,” said Darryl Jenkins, a consultant who has worked for airlines on previous mergers. “They will be the most efficient carrier with a new fleet. They’re going to be very desirable.”

AMR’s CEO has said the best course for American is to remain independent. But if another airline makes an offer that sounds good to creditors and the bankruptcy judge, then it could make more sense for AMR to simply sell itself.

Wolfe Trahan & Co. analyst Hunter Keay put the chances of AMR emerging from bankruptcy as a stand-alone airline at no better than 20 percent. He thinks that with Delta’s access to borrowing and US Airway’s connections to deep-pocketed TPG, there could even be a bidding war for AMR.

Several other airlines or other suitors could pursue AMR. Each combination would carry its own pros and cons:

_ US Airways would get needed size. In the last few years, it failed in bids to buy or merge with Delta and United and now finds itself the nation’s fifth-largest airline.

“The combination that makes the most sense is US Airways with American because they both need a bigger presence to appeal to business travelers,” said Saranthi Syth, an analyst for Raymond James Financial Inc.

The US Airways hub in Philadelphia could help American expand service from the eastern U.S. to Europe and take pressure off American’s trans-Atlantic bottleneck at New York’s Kennedy Airport, said Bob McAdoo, an airline analyst for Avondale Partners.

Other analysts, however, said US Airways wouldn’t offer much help in key markets such as Asia, where American is weaker than United and Delta. Its hubs, including Charlotte, N.C., and Phoenix, are in the kind of secondary cities from which American has been retreating. And such a deal would merge two airlines with already poor labor relations and pilots represented by different unions.

US Airways has not yet discussed a merger directly with American, but has hired investment adviser Jim Millstein and Barclays Capital to study how a deal might look, a source with knowledge of the situation said free online credit report. This person requested anonymity because the status of the airline’s examination of American has not been publicly disclosed.

_ Delta would love to get American’s routes in Latin America, but analysts think a combination of these two would be too big to win regulatory approval without major divestitures _ both are already big in New York, for example. That has some experts thinking that Delta is only interested in cherry-picking parts of AMR if it is broken up.

_ United Continental Holdings Inc., the world’s biggest airline, would benefit by adding American’s operations at London’s Heathrow Airport. But a United bid would face the same _ or even tougher _ regulatory scrutiny than a Delta offer, and the company is still busy absorbing Continental. But few would be surprised if United is intrigued.

“If Delta is going to take a look at AMR, United will take a look at AMR,” said Sterne Agee analyst Jeff Kauffman.

_ TPG Capital would have one advantage: not being an airline, it would presumably face fewer regulatory hurdles. It has worked amicably with AMR and its new CEO. But it’s not clear how a buyer that’s not an airline will help boost AMR revenue and some analysts don’t believe TPG will be a serious bidder in the end.

American’s labor unions, despite a history of poor relations with management, are wary of a takeover. James C. Little, president of the Transport Workers Union, which represents American’s mechanics and other ground workers, said he fears that a buyer would send aircraft-overhaul work overseas. American employees do most of that work in the U.S., while rival airlines have outsourced it.

For now, at least publicly, American Airlines is taking the position that it would prefer to remain independent.

New CEO Thomas Horton, in a letter to employees two weeks after the bankruptcy filing, said “opportunists” might try to buy the company while it’s down but that “the best path for American is the one that leads us back to the top.”

McAdoo, the Avondale analyst, thinks American will most likely remain independent because its labor unions and new CEO might prefer that to being bought by another airline that has its own unions and CEO.

“Here’s a guy (Horton) who just got promoted to CEO,” McAdoo said. “Is he going to want to give up that title, and pair up with a company where he isn’t the CEO?”

Gordon Bethune, a former Continental Airlines CEO who evaluated offers for Delta during that airline’s bankruptcy, said AMR greatly helped its chances of remaining independent by filing for Chapter 11 when it still had $4 billion in cash _ enough to buy time.

“They don’t need financing,” Bethune said. “They don’t need to go begging and get involved with somebody they don’t want to get involved with.”

Source

Ben Bernanke presided over his first meeting as Federal Reserve chairman in March 2006 believing the nation could achieve a “soft landing” from falling home prices. Three months later, Bernanke had begun to grasp that he and others might have underestimated the risk housing posed to the economy.

Newly released transcripts of Fed meetings during Bernanke’s first year as chairman show that, among Fed officials, he often expressed the most concern about housing. But no official, according to the transcripts, recognized the extent of the damage a housing bubble would cause Payday advance. A year later, its collapse helped send the nation into the worst recession since the Great Depression.

In fact, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, then a Fed official, expressed confidence in September that “collateral damage” from housing could be avoided.

Source

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy meet today for the first time in 2012 as they seek to craft a master plan for rescuing the euro over the next three months.

The two leaders gather in Berlin to flesh out a new rulebook for fiscal discipline negotiated at a Dec. 9 summit that seeks to create a

Chalk it up to the holiday spirit — or just smart tax planning — but charitable giving is looking up this month.

Giving in December is already up 15% from 2010, according to the latest tally by Network for Good, a site that enables donors to contribute to more than 10,000 charities across the country. In November, donations rose 20% over the same month last year.

"This year looks a little better, but not back to pre-recession levels yet," said Katya Andresen, Network for Good’s chief strategy officer.

But the best is yet to come. While one-third of all online giving for the year occurs in December, a whopping 22% happens in the last two days of the year, according to Network for Good’s online giving study. That end-of-year rush can mainly be attributed to donors looking for some last-minute tax savings.

"It’s traditional to think about charity in December and of course, it’s the end of the tax year," Andresen said.

Still, with less than 48 hours left in the calendar year, it’s unlikely this will be a substantially better year for charities after three years in a row of lackluster giving.

Largest donations of 2011

After sinking in 2008 and 2009, donations still lag far behind pre-recession levels. Total charitable contributions from individuals, corporations and foundations increased slightly in 2010 to $290.9 billion — but remained below 2007’s $310.6 billion, according to Giving USA, a foundation that tracks charitable contributions cash advance loans.

Although Geoffrey Brown, executive director of the organization, says it’s still too early to say how 2011 will fare in comparison to last year, "giving is probably going to be flat, if anything," he noted.

Stagnant wage growth, high unemployment, Europe’s debt crisis and uncertainty about the economy have weighed on donors, while the government has drawn down support substantially, explained Daniel Borochoff, president of the American Institute of Philanthropy.

"This year was a little better than last year, but, of course, last year wasn’t so good," he said.

In a survey by the Chronicle of Philanthropy, 54% of 152 organizations said they raised more money in November and during the first part of December than they had at the same time last year. Nearly 60% of charities predicted they would have an overall gain in donations in 2011, while 28% said donations would fall this year.

"This was a year in which there were certainly disasters both at home and abroad, but not at the scale that we have seen in the past," explained Stacy Palmer, editor of the Chronicle of Philanthropy.

"Even Japan giving was small, it was nothing like the crisis in Haiti," she said referring to the earthquake and tsunami that rocked the Asian nation in March. 

Source

OTTAWA

Some of Canada

Unemployment rates rose last month in more than half of the nation’s largest metro areas, driven higher by weak private-sector hiring and natural disasters.

The unemployment rate increased in 210 metro areas in May, the Labor Department said Wednesday. It fell in 131 cities and remained unchanged in 37. That’s a sharp reversal from April, when unemployment rates dropped in more than 90 percent of metro areas.

Nationwide, the unemployment rate ticked up in May to 9.1 percent and employers added just 54,000 net jobs. Employers added an average of 220,000 jobs per month in the previous three months.

Tornadoes and flooding shut some companies down in the South in late April and May. And a parts shortage stemming from the March 11 earthquake in Japan affected U.S. auto production. The metro employment data isn’t seasonally adjusted and as a result can be volatile from month to month.

One of the biggest increases was in Tuscaloosa, Ala., which was struck a deadly tornado that killed 41 people in late April. The unemployment rate there rose from 8.1 percent in April to 9.3 percent in May.

Toyota, Ford Motor Co., Nissan Motor Co. and Chrysler were all forced to shut down some or all of their North American factories because of the parts shortage. At least 13 metro areas in South Carolina and Louisiana, where many factories are located, saw significant gains in their unemployment rates. Detroit, Ann Arbor and Battle Creek, Mich., also saw big increases.

The sharpest increase in unemployment was in Yuma Ariz. The unemployment rate there rose from 25.3 percent in April to 27.9 percent in May. Competition from farmers in neighboring Mexico has left some cotton, wheat and lettuce growers out of work. Agriculture drives about 40 percent of Yuma’s economy.

Many of the areas with the steepest declines are tourist destinations. Hotels and tourist attractions add workers for the summer season. Ocean City, N.J., reported the sharpest decline. The unemployment there fell from 13.3 percent in April to 11.6 percent in May.

Other steep drops were in three California metro areas: Madera-Chowchilla, Santa Cruz-Watsonville and Salinas. All three cities are big farming communities that demand more seasonal workers at this time of year.

Source

Global stocks recovered Tuesday after another big sell-off on Wall Street, as investors awaited a key speech from U.S. Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke following a run of weak economic news.

Fears over the global economy have grown due to a raft of underwhelming economic indicators around the world, particularly out of the U.S., which culminated in last week’s much weaker than expected U.S. payrolls report for May.

As a result, there is speculation that the Fed may retain its super-loose monetary policy for much longer than initially thought.

The Fed’s current $600 billion monetary stimulus is due to expire this month and the prevailing view in the markets until recently was that the central bank would drop the program and possibly start raising interest rates by the end of this year.

However, the recent soft batch of economic data has led some in the markets to speculate that the Fed may consider more monetary stimulus and keep interest rates at the record low of near zero percent well into next year.

Bernanke’s speech later at the International Monetary Conference in Atlanta, Georgia could have a huge impact on markets.

“Bernanke’s speech provides the Fed chairman with an opportunity to update his views on the state of the economy,” said Neil MacKinnon, global macro strategist at VTB Capital. “In light of the soft data on house prices, industrial production and the labour market there is no doubt that the Fed’s projection of 3.1-3.3 percent GDP growth for this year is demanding.”

In the run-up to the speech, which is due to be delivered around 1945 GMT, stocks were relatively solid. European shares were further buoyed by news that retail sales in the 17 countries that use the euro rose by 0.9 percent in April, three times the rate anticipated.

In Europe, Germany’s DAX rose 0.6 percent to 7,130 while the CAC-40 in France was 0.6 percent higher at 3,887. The FTSE 100 index of leading British shares was up 0.3 percent at 5,878 .

Wall Street was also poised to recoup some recent losses, which have pushed the main indexes to their lowest levels since late March free business cards. Dow futures were up 0.4 percent at 12,132 while the broader Standard & Poor’s 500 futures rose 0.5 percent to 1,291.

The other big theme in the markets, aside from the state of the global economy, remains Europe’s debt crisis.

Last Friday’s effective decision by the European Union and the International Monetary Fund to give Greece the next euro12 billion batch of bailout funds and signals it may get a second bailout have helped ease worries that the country will default on its mountain of debts.

The relief is particularly notable in the performance of the euro, which was trading near one-month highs of $1.4674. Earlier, it struck its highest level since May 5 at $1.4682.

Asian shares, meanwhile, turned in a mixed performance.

Though Japan’s Nikkei 225 closed up 0.7 percent at 9,442.95, South Korea’s Kospi index slipped 0.7 percent to 2,099.71,

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index lost 0.4 percent to 22,868.67 while mainland Chinese shares gained as investors kept on snapping up bargains following recent sell-offs. The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index gained 0.6 percent to 2,744.30, while the Shenzhen Composite Index of China’s smaller, second exchange gained 0.7 percent to 1,132.69.

Oil prices meanwhile continued to trade in a fairly narrow range around the $100 a barrel mark ahead of a meeting of the OPEC oil cartel. Benchmark crude for July delivery was up 11 cents to $99.12 in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Analysts are looking for clues on what OPEC will do about oil production when the cartel meets Wednesday in Vienna. OPEC ministers could decide to try to lower oil prices by increasing production. Some OPEC officials have said that they believe oil prices are too high and threaten global economic recovery.

____

Pamela Sampson in Bangkok contributed to this report.

Source