Monday, December 28, 2009

“New Restrictions Add to Air-Travel Headaches - ABC News” plus 4 more

“New Restrictions Add to Air-Travel Headaches - ABC News” plus 4 more

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New Restrictions Add to Air-Travel Headaches - ABC News

Posted: 28 Dec 2009 06:42 AM PST

New security restrictions swiftly implemented following a botched attempt to blow up an airliner on Christmas Day are making air travel more burdensome and could discourage some business fliers, key customers for the airlines.

Passengers will likely face longer lines at checkpoints and less freedom to move around the airplane during flight. Leisure travelers, such as the families that packed airports to return home on Sunday after the holiday, are likely to put up with the new inconveniences, as they have before.

But business travelers may think twice before flying if stepped-up security means spending hours at the airport. That's troubling to the airlines, because business travelers tend to fly frequently and pay higher fares.

Some business travelers could jump from the major airlines to smaller business jets to avoid wasting hours in the terminal every time they fly, said airline consultant Robert Mann.

The new security measures are "just going to add to the overall onerous way we have to conduct travel," said Kevin Mitchell, president of the Business Travel Coalition. "No doubt it will dampen demand."

Alarmed by the prospect of losing their best customers, airlines are already asking federal officials to make any new procedures palatable to passengers.

Tougher security measures were imposed after a man flying from Nigeria to Amsterdam then to the U.S. on a Northwest Airlines flight Friday tried to ignite an explosive as the plane prepared to land in Detroit. On Sunday, police met another Amsterdam-to-Detroit flight after the crew reported a "verbally disruptive passenger." A law enforcement official said the man posed no security risk to the plane.

Government officials didn't detail the restrictions, saying they don't want terrorists to know about potential security measures. They also declined to say how long the measures would be in effect and said the limits could vary from airport to airport.

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UNA students conduct market research for local business, hoping to boost job prospects - Everything Alabama Blog

Posted: 27 Dec 2009 01:03 PM PST

BUSINESS icon

FLORENCE, Ala. — Ultimately, Matthew Langston wants to work in marketing for a commodities organization.

First, he has to graduate from the University of North Alabama, but having a little practical experience doesn't hurt.

With a marketing research project for a local business, D&D Case Management, completed, the path should be a little easier.

"I gained a greater appreciation for what goes into marketing a new product or a new business," Langston said. "It's an in-depth process, that's for sure."

Giving students that little boost in experience was part of the reason Andrew Luna, director of institutional research, planning and assessment, wanted to incorporate the project into his junior- and senior-level marketing class. Luna said he hoped, too, that local businesses might get help with shaping their marketing plans as a result of the research.

"You can't teach a class like this solely out of a textbook," he said. "Students really need to know these skills before they get into the real-world environment, so, when you combine the two things, it's a win-win situation."

Luna said he started planning for the class last summer, asking for help from UNA's Office of Advancement in finding local businesses that would support the university. Luna then contacted the business owners to determine if they were interested in having students work on a marketing plan.

At the start of the fall semester, Luna compiled a list of eight businesses, from flooring company NAFCO to Weichert Realty. Students, in groups of five or six, developed marketing plans based on issues the business owners wanted to see addressed.

Jay Klos, owner of Grogan Jewelers in downtown Florence, said he wasn't sure what to expect, but he's been impressed with the results.

"We're a 97-year-old business, and everything is changing, so if we don't change, we'll be left behind," he said. "We wanted the students to find out how people had heard about us, what they thought about us, all kinds of things that would help us direct our marketing plan for next year."

Klos said he'd be happy to participate in the program in the future. Luna said he's already lining up businesses.

"We were able to get some real data out of this; we all learned from the process," Luna said. "I'll be teaching it every semester from now on."

(This report was written by Michelle Rupe Eubanks of the TimesDaily.)

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Jobless claims, goods orders signal modest rebound - Tehran Times

Posted: 28 Dec 2009 04:48 AM PST

 View Rate : 142 #            News Code : TTime- 210776        Print Date : Monday, December 28, 2009


Jobless claims, goods orders signal modest rebound

WASHINGTON (AP) -- A fitful economic recovery is drawing strength from a stabilizing job market and signs that manufacturing will contribute to the rebound.

The evidence signals a better-than-expected end to the year, though doubts remain about growth in 2010.

The latest signs of improvement came in two reports Thursday. The Labor Department said the number of newly laid-off workers filing claims for unemployment aid fell more than expected last week.

The four-week average for claims, which smoothes out fluctuations, fell for the 16th straight week, to its lowest point since September 2008, when the financial crisis hit with full force.

Further evidence of a gradually healing economy was a Commerce Department report that orders to U.S. factories for big-ticket durable goods rose in November. The overall increase was less than expected.

But excluding the volatile transportation category, the gains were twice what economists had forecast.

Stocks rose after the positive reports, ending a holiday-shortened session at new highs for the year. The Dow Jones industrial average gained about 53 points, or 0.5 percent.

Economists saw the new data as further signs that the economy is strengthening as 2009 nears a close. Adding to the optimism was a wave of shoppers — some snowed in by last weekend's East Coast snowstorm — heading to the malls for last-minute purchases Thursday.

"We are seeing progress in a number of areas, from increases in consumer spending and business spending to growth in exports," said Brian Bethune, an economist at IHS Global Economics. "It all adds up to a recovery that is gaining some momentum."

Bethune said he's forecasting that the economy, as measured by the gross domestic product, will expand at an annual rate of around 4 percent in the current quarter. Helping fuel the gains, businesses are boosting orders to factories to restock their depleted shelves. Bethune said growth would likely slow in 2010 to a rate of around 2.5 percent. But he said there will be enough momentum to remove the threat that the recovery from the nation's deepest recession in seven decades might falter.

Other economists agreed that the rebound in factory orders reflected rising confidence by businesses.

Orders for durable goods edged up 0.2 percent last month, weaker than the 0.5 percent gain economists had expected. But excluding transportation, orders rose 2 percent over the October level, double what economists had forecast.

Demand for commercial aircraft plunged 32.6 percent. Total orders for transportation products sank 5.5 percent as demand for motor vehicles and parts edged down 0.2 percent, the weakest showing in five months.

Strength in November came in areas such as orders for machinery, which rose 3.5 percent. Orders for primary metals such as steel grew 1.4 percent. And orders for computers and electronic products jumped 3.7 percent, the biggest gain since February.

Analysts noted that demand for non-defense capital goods excluding aircraft, considered a proxy for business equipment spending plans, posted a solid rise of 2.9 percent.

"Firms are starting to believe they can come out of their shells and start thinking about the future," said Joel Naroff, chief economist at Naroff Economic Advisors. "It looks like the business community has concluded this recovery is for real."

The number of new jobless claims fell to 452,000 last week on a seasonally adjusted basis. That was better than the decline to 470,000 that economists had expected. And the four-week average for claims, which smooths out fluctuations, fell to 465,250.

The decline in claims continued a trend that began last summer. The improvement is seen as a sign that jobs cuts are slowing and hiring could pick up early next year.

The government cautioned that seasonal employment from holidays and other variables in the calendar made last week a difficult one to seasonally adjust.

The actual number of new claims exceeded the previous week's total. But the process of adjusting for seasonal variation reduced the number.

Economists monitor jobless claims as a gauge of the pace of layoffs. Analysts say initial claims need to fall to about 425,000 for several weeks to signal the economy is actually starting to add jobs.

The government said the number of people continuing to receive regular jobless benefits fell by 127,000 to 5.08 million for the week ending Dec. 12. That figure doesn't include millions of people who have used up the 26 weeks of benefits typically provided by states and are now receiving extended benefits for up to 73 more weeks.

The number of people receiving extended benefits jumped to 4.37 million for the week ending Dec. 5, an increase of 141,807 from the previous week.

That surge illustrated that high unemployment persists despite fewer layoffs. It also reflects the fact that 38 states are now processing claims for the extension of benefits that Congress approved last month.

The jobless rate dipped in November to 10 percent, down from a 26-year high of 10.2 percent in October. Some analysts fear unemployment will resume rising in coming months and won't peak until hitting 10.5 percent next summer.

Still, the November jobless report showed that businesses slashed their payrolls by just 11,000 jobs on net in November, the smallest decrease since the recession began two years ago.

Integrys sells marketing business to Macquarie - Marketwatch

Posted: 28 Dec 2009 05:16 AM PST

BOSTON (MarketWatch) -- Integrys Energy Group Inc. /quotes/comstock/13*!teg/quotes/nls/teg (TEG 42.55, +0.08, +0.19%) said Monday that its Integrys Energy Services subsidiary will sell nearly all of its wholesale electric marketing and trading business to Macquarie Cook Power, a subsidiary of Macquarie Group Ltd. /quotes/comstock/11i!mqbky (MQBK.Y 41.73, +0.73, +1.78%) . The deal needs approval from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. Financial terms were not disclosed.

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Recession recovery No. 1 of the Top 10 business stories of 2009 - Baltimore Sun

Posted: 28 Dec 2009 01:34 AM PST

In 2009, the economy was near collapse before pulling back from the brink of depression. Unemployment topped 10 percent, but layoffs eased. General Motors and Chrysler toppled into bankruptcy and emerged smaller and leaner. The Dow Jones industrial average swooned to a 12-year low, then came part of the way back.

It was a year of payback for having lived beyond our means — from Wall Street bankers who devoured risk they couldn't manage to ordinary Americans living in homes they couldn't afford with mortgages they didn't understand.

It was a year of finger-pointing over blame for the worst recession since the Great Depression. Americans pondered how long it would take to mend shattered nest eggs, livelihoods, government balance sheets and economic confidence.

It was a year that gave birth to buzzwords — "new frugality," "new normal" and "green shoots" — that captured the fragility of America's recovery.

The economy's wild ride was voted the top business story of the year by U.S. newspaper editors surveyed by the Associated Press. The collapse of the U.S. auto industry came in second, followed by skyrocketing home foreclosures.

1. ECONOMY'S FALL — AND REBOUND: In the first three months of the year, the economy suffers its worst slide in 27 years. The Federal Reserve, which already had slashed interest rates to a record low, plows money into the economy in new and novel ways.

After four quarters of decline, the economy returns to growth during the July-to-September period, signaling the end of the deepest and longest recession since the 1930s.

The rebound is sluggish and powered mainly by government stimulus to entice people to buy homes and cars. In the meantime, the unemployment rate tops 10 percent for only the second time since World War II.

A total of 15.4 million people are unemployed, and work remains scarce. The recession wipes out 7.2 million jobs. The Federal Reserve says it could take five or six years for the labor market to return to normal.

Americans' nest eggs are starting to heal. Yet experts say it will take years to recoup their losses. Net worth rose 5 percent last quarter but remains far below its pre-recession peak.

2. AUTO INDUSTRY COLLAPSE: U.S. auto sales plunge to a 26-year low, hastening General Motors' and Chrysler's collapse into bankruptcy protection. Both companies emerge much smaller.

GM axes several major brands, including Saturn, Pontiac and Hummer, and thousands of dealerships. In March, CEO Rick Wagoner is ousted by the government, which by the summer is GM's owner. His replacement, 25-year GM veteran Fritz Henderson, is fired in December. Chairman Ed Whitacre replaces Henderson even though the former AT&T CEO acknowledges knowing little about cars.

Chrysler emerges from bankruptcy under the control of Italy's Fiat. In November, Chrysler announces a plan to spend $23 billion to overhaul or replace all of its Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep and Ram models by 2014. The overhaul hinges on cost savings from combining purchasing and engineering with Fiat, and using Fiat's smaller, more fuel-efficient designs to replace aging Chrysler vehicles.

3. FORECLOSURES HEAD HIGHER: Home foreclosures top 4 million, as more people lose their jobs and can't afford to pay their mortgages. As a result, increasing numbers of people with fixed-rate loans and good credit are losing their homes.

The Obama administration's plan to help financially strapped homeowners, announced in March, results in 680,000 loan modifications, far short of the government's goal of up to 4 million.

By the end of the year, a record 14 percent of homeowners with a mortgage are either behind on their payments or in foreclosure. Bargain-priced foreclosures are dragging down home values in neighborhoods across the country. Nationwide, American homeowners have lost $4 trillion in home equity since the housing bust.

4. WALL STREET CLAWS BACK: In March, major stock indexes tumble to 12-year lows. Then the fever breaks. Seven months later, in October, the Dow Jones industrial average is back above 10,000 and still advancing. In the nine months since the turnaround took hold, the Dow scoops about 3,900 points, or 59.5 percent, on signs that layoffs are slowing, corporate profits are climbing and factories are producing more.

5. SMALL AND MID-SIZE BANKS FAIL: 140 banks collapse as consumer loan losses keep rising and commercial real estate loans sour. It's the biggest number in any year since 181 banks failed in 1992 at the end of the savings-and-loan crisis.

The banks have been undone by real estate, construction and industrial loans that soured as the recession has deepened. Defaults are up as developers abandon failing projects and landlords can't meet their loan payments.

Small- and mid-sized banks hold lots of those loans and have been hurt more than big institutions by the sinking commercial real estate market, especially in states like California, Georgia and Illinois. As defaults rise, these banks must set aside more money to cover losses.

6. U.S. SPILLS RED INK: The federal deficit triples to record $1.4 trillion as financial bailout and war costs soar. It's more than the total national debt for the first 200 years of the Republic, more than the entire economy of India, almost as much as Canada's, and more than $4,700 for every man, woman and child in the United States.

7. MADOFF SCANDAL: Disgraced financier Bernard Madoff is sentenced to 150 years in prison for his multibillion-dollar Ponzi scheme. A year after Madoff's scheme collapsed in December 2008 — with headlines of $50 billion in losses — investigators and investors are still struggling to measure the full scope and impact of the largest securities fraud in history.

8. FEDERAL AID FOR ECONOMY: Government stimulus programs spur sales of homes and autos but raise doubts about whether the economic recovery can be lasting if federal aid is withdrawn.

9. A NEW FRUGALITY: Consumer spending, which accounts for about 70 percent of U.S. economic activity, shows tentative improvement but remains far below pre-recession levels. Evidence mounts that many Americans have become lasting coupon-cutters, scrimpers and savers. Consumer confidence in November rises to 49.5 from 48.7 in October. A reading above 90 means the economy is on solid footing; above 100 signals strong growth.

10. FINANCIAL REFORM STALLS: An Obama administration plan to overhaul regulation of financial industry slows over industry opposition and renewed signs of a stabilized financial system. The House approves a plan in December that would grant the government new powers to split up companies that threaten the economy, create an agency to oversee consumer banking transactions and shine a light into shadow financial markets that have escaped federal oversight. But the legislation faces an uncertain future in the Senate.

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