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The risk posed by asset bubbles in Asia is overstated because surging prices in markets don’t threaten regional economies, said Stephen Roach, chairman of Morgan Stanley Asia Ltd.

“The difference between the asset bubbles in this region and asset bubbles also around the world is that they have not affected the real side of the Asian economy,” Roach told Bloomberg Television in an interview in Hong Kong today.

Concerns about inflation in Asia are “overblown” as excess capacity in the global economy is likely to keep a “lid” on prices for the next few years, said Roach, author of “The Next Asia.” “Beyond that, it’s a big challenge.”

Standard & Poor’s warned yesterday that Asian policy makers may fuel asset bubbles by leaving interest rates “too low for too long” as the region leads a global recovery from the worst slowdown since World War II. Stock and property markets are looking “frothy” in Asia, said David Wyss, an economist at S&P.

The U.S. had “monster bubbles in property credit that ended up stalling home-building activities and personal consumption” and when they burst the “economy went into the tank,” said Roach. In contrast, in Asia “you have bubbles that come and go, but they don’t impact on the real economy free credit reports.”

China’s Economy

Roach also said that Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao’s past warnings that his nation’s growth path is “unbalanced and unsustainable” have become a “serious concern now.”

“Two of the main engines of the Chinese economy, exports and investments, really have reached their point of maximum dynamism,” Roach said. “The Chinese need to change the model and move much more into consumer-led” growth, he said.

China’s central bank last month ordered banks to set aside more deposits as reserves for the second time in a month to cool the economic expansion after loan growth accelerated and property prices surged 9.5 percent in January, the most in 21 months. The China Banking Regulatory Commission told banks the same month to “strictly” follow property lending policies.

China’s consumer prices increased 1.5 percent in January from a year earlier, mainly due to gains in food costs resulting from the cold winter weather, the National Bureau of Statistics said. The gauge rose 0.6 percent from December.

In the fourth quarter of 2009, the Chinese economy grew 10.7 percent from a year earlier, the fastest pace since 2007.

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Microsoft and Yahoo said Thursday that their online search deal has received approval from U.S. and European Union regulators, paving the way for the two companies to combine much of their Internet search business.

Under the 10-year deal, which was announced in July, Yahoo.com and Bing.com will maintain their own branding but search results on Yahoo.com will say "powered by Bing." Yahoo, in turn, will be responsible for getting premium advertisers.

Microsoft will pay Yahoo 88% of the revenue it gains from searches on Yahoo’s sites. Microsoft will also have the rights to integrate Yahoo’s search technology into its own existing Web search platforms.

With the final hurdle out of the way, the companies said Thursday that they will start implementing their partnership in the coming days. Yahoo and Microsoft have set a goal to complete all aspects of the deal in the United States by the end of 2010 and globally by the end of 2012. The companies previously said that U.S. users will start to see the change three months after regulators approved the deal.

"This breakthrough search alliance means Yahoo! can focus even more on our own innovative search experience," said Yahoo Chief Executive Carol Bartz in a statement.

Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer called the regulatory approval "an exciting milestone," noting that the companies are "just at the beginning of this process."

Google (GOOG, Fortune 500) remains the clear dominant search engine, controlling more than 65% of the market, according to online data tracker comScore. But Microsoft’s (MSFT, Fortune 500) Bing and Yahoo (YHOO, Fortune 500) control nearly 30% of the market combined, which analysts say will help the companies attract better advertising partners.

Shares of Microsoft and Yahoo both rose less than 1% in midday trading. 

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Drugmaker Pfizer Inc., which just bought rival Wyeth in October, said Wednesday that it would scrap testing of roughly 100 experimental drugs from their combined research operations to focus more resources on its priority areas.

New York-based Pfizer said it would continue with about 500 research projects. About 70 percent of those — and 75 percent of its late-stage research — fall within what it calls "Invest to Win" areas because of the great need for better treatments.

They are Alzheimer’s, diabetes and metabolic disorders, pain, cancer, inflammatory disorders such as rheumatoid arthritis, and mental illnesses.

Pfizer will reduce the square footage of its R&D facilities by one-third, eliminating six research sites and an unspecified number of workers.

Pfizer maintains a research facility in Chesterfield, though the company is scaling back those operations. The company announced in November that it would eliminate 600 of the 1,000 jobs at the research center and sell the property to Monsanto.

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NEW YORK, N.Y.—Shares of Walmart Stores Inc. moved ahead Monday morning in the first trading since the retail giant announced on the weekend that it’s slashing 11,200 jobs at Sam’s Club warehouse stores.

In New York, Walmart (NYSE:WMT) stock lifted 20.5 cents to US$53.14, as other U.S. retailers also moved on the news, pulling the entire sector higher.

Walmart said it will close 10 underperforming warehouse locations, at a cost 1,500 jobs, as it works to improve sales at its Sam’s Club stores.

Sam’s Club has fallen short of expectations for the Walmart chain in the U.S. and abroad.

Walmart already pulled its Sam’s Clubs stores out of Canada, laying off 1,200 people at six stores in Ontario last year.

Sam’s Club had been in Canada for only about five years. Walmart Canada president and CEO David Cheesewright said at the time that the stores didn’t perform to the company’s standards no fax payday loans.

In the U.S., Sam’s Club employees found out about the cuts during a mandatory meeting on Sunday morning. The stores are undergoing various changes as the company turns over the task of in-store product demonstrations to an outside marketing company.

The job cuts represent about 10 per cent of the warehouse club operator’s 110,000 staffers across its 600 stores. That includes 10,000 workers, mostly part-timers, who offer food samples and showcase products to customers.

Walmart also eliminated 1,200 Sam’s Club workers who recruit new members.

During Walmart Stores’ most recent quarter, revenue at the Sam’s Club division slipped nearly one per cent to US$11.55 billion while U.S. Walmart stores posted a 1.2 per cent sales increase to $61.81 billion.

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The cost of living rose less than forecast in December, indicating the economic recovery is showing few signs of stoking inflation.

The consumer-price index rose 0.1 percent following a 0.4 percent gain in November, Labor Department figures showed today in Washington. Excluding food and energy costs, the so-called core index also increased 0.1 percent from a month earlier.

Companies may have little success raising prices with unemployment projected to average 10 percent this year, the highest annual rate in seven decades. Federal Reserve policy makers have said they expect “subdued” inflation in coming months, allowing them to keep interest rates close to zero to help fuel growth.

“Consumer pricing pressures remain very subdued,” said Russell Price, a senior economist at Ameriprise Financial Inc. in Detroit, who accurately forecast the rise in the core rate. “It gives the Fed further leeway to continue keeping rates where they are well through 2010.”

Stock-index futures trimmed losses and Treasury yields fell after the report. Futures on the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index expiring in March declined 0.3 percent to 1,141.9 at 8:34 a.m. in New York after losing 0.7 percent earlier. The yield on the 10- year Treasury note dropped to 3.7 percent from 3.74 percent late yesterday.

Last Year

Americans paid 2.7 percent more for goods and services in 2009. The annual gain followed a 0.1 percent rise in 2008 that was the smallest since 1954 as energy costs plunged the most since those records began four years later.

Prices excluding food and energy rose 1.8 percent in 2009, matching the previous year as the smallest gain since 2003. Service costs, which make up 60 percent of the CPI, rose 0.9 percent last year, the smallest gain since 1945.

Economists forecast the consumer-price index would rise 0.2 percent in December from a month earlier, according to the median of 77 projections in a Bloomberg News survey. Estimates ranged from a 0.1 percent drop to a gain of 0.3 percent.

The core index was forecast to rise 0.1 percent, according to the Bloomberg survey.

Fed policy makers’ long-term forecast for their preferred measure of inflation, the Commerce Department’s index tied to consumer spending and excluding food and fuel, calls for gains in a range of 1.5 percent to 2 percent. That gauge, which is typically lower than the CPI, was up 1.4 percent in the 12 months to November.

Energy Prices

Energy costs increased 0.2 percent in December, less than the previous month as gasoline and fuel oil costs slowed.

The year-over-year gains in the consumer price index are getting bigger as crude oil prices increase from an almost five- year low in December 2008. Energy costs last year jumped 18.2 percent, the most since 1979.

Crude oil futures traded on the New York Mercantile Exchange averaged $74 need a personal loan with bad credit.60 in December, compared with $78.15 the previous month. Prices have rebounded this month, averaging $81.59 a barrel.

Gasoline prices in December averaged $2.61, compared with $2.65 a gallon the previous month, according to AAA. Prices for regular-grade gasoline at the pump have climbed to an average of $2.71 so far this month.

Food Costs

Food costs, which account for about 15 percent of the CPI, increased 0.2 percent in December, reflecting higher prices for fruits and vegetables, dairy products and cereals. The cost of food for all of last year dropped 0.5 percent, the biggest decline since 1961.

Delhaize Group SA, owner of Food Lion supermarkets in the U.S., said in a statement yesterday that revenue fell for the first time in five quarters on declining food prices. The Brussels-based company said U.S. retail food deflation accelerated to 2.1 percent in the fourth quarter and prices in its stores fell 0.92 percentage point more than the cost of goods sold.

Rents, which make up almost 40 percent of the core CPI, were unchanged. Owners-equivalent rent, one of the categories used to track rental prices, held steady last month after a 0.1 percent decline. Owner-equivalent rent hasn’t risen since August.

The CPI is the broadest of the three monthly price gauges from the Labor Department because it includes goods and services. A report yesterday showed the cost of imported goods was unchanged last month. The Labor Department is scheduled to report December wholesale prices on Jan. 20.

Prices of Services

Almost 60 percent of the CPI covers prices consumers pay for services ranging from medical visits to airline fares and movie tickets.

United Airlines, the third-largest U.S. carrier, discounted fares to as low as $55 each way in an effort to boost travel during the winter months. The carrier’s Chicago-based parent UAL Corp. made the announcement this month in a statement and followed one-way discounts offered by JetBlue Airways Corp.

Retailers offering discounts during the holiday shopping season to spur demand weighed on earnings for some companies.

GameStop Corp., the world’s largest video-game retailer, reported fourth-quarter earnings that fell short of estimates because of disappointing sales. The Grapevine, Texas-based company offered a $50 discount on Nintendo Co.’s top-selling Wii console from Wal-Mart Stores Inc.

“The macroeconomic environment put a damper on people buying as many video-games as we expected,” Chief Executive Officer Daniel DeMatteo said in a Jan. 8 interview. He said sales were impacted by “economic weakness.”

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UPS announced plans to cut 1,800 jobs as part of a restructuring plan intended to streamline the company’s domestic management structure.

The cuts will eliminate management and administrative positions across the country, UPS (UPS, Fortune 500) said in a statement Friday. Approximately 1,100 employees will be offered voluntary separation packages; other impacted workers will receive severance benefits and access to support programs.

"The decision to reduce our workforce is difficult and we appreciate the significant contributions of those who will be affected by this change," said Scott Davis, UPS chairman and chief executive. "But we believe this will allow us to sharpen our focus on profitable growth while being even more nimble in serving our customers."

UPS said the restructuring plan, which takes effect in April, will reduce the number of districts in the company’s small-package operation to three from five and the number of regions to 20 from 46. The consolidation does not involve closing operating facilities.

The announcement came the Atlanta-based company said its expects to beat its earnings estimate for the fourth quarter of 2009. The company previously projected it will earn between 58 cents and 65 cents per share during the final quarter of last year. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expect earnings per share to fall to 63 cents, a 24% decline compared to same period in 2008.

UPS said it expects to incur a charge in 2010 as a result of the restructuring plan, but said it will be offset by cost savings.

Shares of UPS were up more than 5% in early trading.  

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The University of Wisconsin System Board of Regents on Friday unanimously approved three capital projects at UW-Milwaukee, including the purchase and redevelopment of Columbia St. Mary's Hospital to allow for expansion of the land-locked east side campus.

The capital projects are part of a broader initiative to support the institution’s research activities and to reinforce its impact as an economic driver in the state.

The approved projects include:

• The first phase of the Kenwood Integrated Research Complex;
• The purchase and redevelopment of Columbia St. Mary’s Hospital; and
• Replacement of the Neeskay research vessel.

Regent president Chuck Pruitt told the Board that UW-Milwaukee’s Research Growth Initiative is a central pillar to the UW System’s efforts to boost educational output and stimulate job creation, as advocated in its Growth Agenda for Wisconsin.

“These capital investments will ensure that we have the facilities needed to enhance the university’s impact as an economic driver for Milwaukee and all of Wisconsin,” Pruitt said in a press release from the UW-System.

In his presentation before the board, UW-Milwaukee Chancellor Carlos Santiago told Regents that the projects represent the future not only of the university, but of the city, region and state cash advance payday loans.

“We’re moving the pendulum to a more balanced perspective for a research university. We have not taken money from the fine arts or from the humanities to do this. We are providing opportunities with new dollars for the faculty, and new faculty in particular, to avail themselves of the opportunities that Milwaukee provides. That is really what this is all about,” Santiago said.

To use a flexible pool of funds provided by Gov. Doyle and the state Legislature in the 2009-11 Biennial Budget, the Regents were required to approve a detailed expenditure plan for the UW-Milwaukee Initiative, identifying specific projects and sources of funding. The Board had previously approved UW-Milwaukee’s plans to build a new facility for the School of Freshwater Sciences Research at its meeting in December.

Senior vice president Tom Anderes told the Board that, with the approval of the three projects on Friday, $176 million of the UW-Milwaukee Initiative’s $240 million in funding, including all of the taxpayer-supported borrowing, will have been committed. That leaves $64 million of approved funding capacity for future projects, including $25.6 million in program revenue supported borrowing and $38.4 million in gifts/grants.

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As President Barack Obama said in his recent jobs summit, future jobs will be found in cultivating alternative energy sources to create a cleaner environment. According to the Renewable Energy Policy Project, efforts to rein in Missouri’s carbon emissions have the potential to generate more than 22,000 manufacturing jobs in wind, solar, geothermal and biomass industries.

In addition to job creation, carbon reduction and energy savings are among the key reasons green training is important.

The potential for new jobs in Missouri spurred the IBEW/NECA Electrical Industry Training Center to consolidate 70 courses into one comprehensive green curriculum to keep pace with rapidly changing technology that includes greater understanding of energy-conversion rates of solar panels. Traditional solar cells are comprised of crystalline silicon, which has a relatively poor light absorption rate, requiring considerable thickness just to harness 11 percent to 16 percent of the sun’s rays. With silicon accounting for half the cost of a solar cell panel, we are now training on "thin film" technology installment payday loans. "Thin film" panels are less expensive, easier to install, more durable and have the potential to capture up to 35 percent of the sun’s rays.

Another part of green training is the study of advances in geothermal energy, which taps the steady flow of heat from the Earth in winter and displaces heat in the summer. This advanced training is applied to geothermal pump installations that can reduce utility costs up to 70 percent, compared with conventional systems.

Also key is understanding the dynamics of energy transfer in wind turbines, which convert the wind’s kinetic energy into electricity for homes and businesses.

The next phase of green training will be smart grid technology. It will produce a network among electric utilities to distribute power more efficiently while modifying consumer use to control energy costs.

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Oprah Winfrey knows how to keep viewers on the edge of their seats.

In the last 10 minutes of her show, Winfrey confirmed that she will be ending her syndicated "Oprah Winfrey Show" in September 2011.

"After much prayer and months of careful thought, I thought that next season, season 25, will be the last season of ‘The Oprah Winfrey Show,’ " she told the audience.

"You may hear a lot of speculation in the press about why I’m making this decision now, and I wanted you to hear it from me," she said. "Twenty-four years ago on September 8, 1986, I went live from Chicago to launch the first show. I was beyond excited, and a little nervous."

Winfrey remained calm after her announcement, even when guest Ray Romano joked that she was going to make this is his mother’s saddest and happiest day by simultaneously having Romano on and confirming the Oprah era had come to an end.

"I knew what a miraculous opportunity I had been given, but I certainly couldn’t have imagined the yellow brick road of blessings," Winfrey said, pausing as she became visibly and audibly choked up. "You, the viewers, have enriched my life beyond measure. You have graciously invited me into your kitchens, living rooms and lives. Some of you have literally grown up with me; we’ve grown up together.

"Whether you’ve been there in the beginning or just started last week, I hold it dear. It still means as much to me to spend an hour with you as it did in 1986," she said.

And then, the answer to the most obvious question: why leave the show? Oprah didn’t give much of an answer.

"Here is the real reason: I love this show, this show is my life, and I love it enough to know when it’s time to say goodbye. It’s the perfect number, the exact right time," she said.

She encouraged her fans to stick out the next 18 months as she and her production team pull out all the stops to make the last season of "Oprah" one that will "knock your socks off."

"The countdown to the end of ‘The Oprah Winfrey Show’ starts now," she said. "Until that day, I intend to soak up every meaningful, joyful moment with you. I’ll see you on Monday." 

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Tom Downey is stepping down as president of the Children’s Museum of Denver to take the helm at Venoco Inc. CEO Timothy Marquez’s charitable foundation.

Mike Yankovich, currently the Children’s Museum’s COO, has been appointed by the museum board as interim president, effective immediately, the museum announced late Friday. He has been with the museum since 2003.

The museum features interactive exhibits and activities for young children. Downey, who has been its president since 2005, is leaving to become president of the Timothy & Bernadette Marquez Foundation, which supports health care and education programs in Denver; Kalamazoo, Mich.; and Santa Barbara and Ventura counties in southern California.

Timothy Marquez founded and heads Venoco, a Denver-based oil and gas company (NYSE: VQ). He and his wife also founded and provided initial funding for the Denver Scholarship Foundation, which supports the city’s college-bound students.

Previously, Yankovich was the Children’s Museum’s VP of guest experience and director of education.

"The board was unanimous in selecting Yankovich as the interim president and is excited to have him at the helm during this period of transition," Deborah Wapensky, CFO of Vectra Bank Colorado and chair of the Children’s Museum’s board of directors, said in a statement.

Downey will continue at the Children’s Museum in a "transitional role" until Dec. 15, the museum said.

"I have been incredibly honored to have served with a team as motivated, well-tenured and experienced as the staff at the Children’s Museum," Downey said in a statement released by the museum. "While I will miss the team greatly, I could not pass up the opportunity offered by Tim and Bernie Marquez to support an array of nonprofits pursuing improved education and health for the community."

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