Tuesday, January 26, 2010

“Business tax could take effect in state - Courier-Post” plus 4 more

“Business tax could take effect in state - Courier-Post” plus 4 more

Business tax could take effect in state - Courier-Post

Posted: 26 Jan 2010 04:13 AM PST

TRENTON — New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie says he'll let a tax hike on businesses take effect if the federal government doesn't help the state replenish the unemployment fund.

Employers could see an increase of up to $1,000 per employee in their unemployment tax starting July 1 unless the fund is infused with state or federal money.

The fund helps pay unemployment benefits.

The increase is triggered by a growing shortfall in the Unemployment Insurance Fund. Business taxes are increased by law when the fund's balance dips below a certain level as measured every March. Christie says the fund will be $1.6 billion in debt by March.

"That's not my choice, what I would like to have happen," Christie said Monday. "But on the other hand, we can't continue to run that kind of debt."

The governor said his administration will ask the federal government to forgive the debt, but he said the state can't afford to pump money into the fund to stop the tax increase. New Jersey faces a deficit of more than $9 billion for the 2011 budget year, which begins in July.

Unemployment in New Jersey climbed to a 33-year high of 10.1 percent in December -- the first time since October 2006 that the Garden State's jobless rate eclipsed the national average of 10 percent.

Total employment in New Jersey fell to 3,910,400 in December, with losses in both the public and private sectors.

Manufacturing, construction and financial activities recorded the largest over-the-month private sector job losses and public sector employment was down by 1,200 over the month before.

Christie said that over $3.6 billion has been raided from the fund over the past decade.

David Socolow, the labor commissioner under Corzine, also recommended allowing the fund to replenish before he left his office this month.

Other states are in similar spots. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, 27 owe the federal government money for the unemployment benefits; California is the highest at $6.7 billion, and New York and Pennsylvania have each borrowed more than $2 billion.

Assemblyman Louis D. Greenwald, D-Camden, said an unemployment tax increase would hurt businesses already battered by the tough economy.

"That will only dampen the spirit of economic recovery we've been trying to foster," said Greenwald.

"We threw in over $400 million at the end of last year to offset a UI tax increase," he said. "I think we should avoid a tax increase at all costs."

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BUSINESS: Verizon posts 4Q loss on $3B in layoff costs - Delmarva Now

Posted: 26 Jan 2010 05:10 AM PST

NEW YORK — Verizon Communications Inc. today posted an unusual loss for the fourth quarter, as a charge for layoffs in its shrinking landline business caught up with the growing, and profitable, wireless business.

The nation's second-biggest phone company lost $653 million, or 23 cents per share, in the quarter. In the same period a year earlier it had a profit of $1.24 billion, or 43 cents per share.

Excluding one-time items, mainly consisting of a $3 billion charge for severance and other costs associated with layoffs, Verizon says it earned 54 cents per share. That was a penny below the average analyst estimate, as polled by Thomson Reuters.

Those estimates were already reduced, after Verizon warned early this month that it paid higher-than-expected subsidies to put phones in the hands of customers. Verizon Wireless is fighting to attract high-paying subscribers away from AT&T Inc. and its exclusive iPhone. AT&T reports earnings Thursday.

Verizon's revenue rose 10 percent to $27.1 billion, largely due to the acquisition last January of Alltel Corp. Analysts were expecting $27.3 billion.

Verizon shares fell 59 cents, or 1.9 percent, to $30.68 in pre-market trading.

New York-based Verizon ended the quarter with 222,927 employees, 7,413 fewer than it had in September. The layoffs have come on the traditional phone-company side, as many customers give up their lines in favor of using only cell phones or phone service from cable companies.

Verizon Wireless, already the largest cell phone carrier in the country, added 2.2 million customers to end the year with 91.2 million. However, 1 million of the new customers signed up through a reseller such as Tracfone LLC rather than directly through Verizon. Such customers generally pay much less than customers who sign contracts under the Verizon brand.

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Stone: Hitler, business worked in tandem - Concord Monitor

Posted: 26 Jan 2010 04:56 AM PST

Adolf Hitler was a psychopath and a monster but rose to power thanks to big business leaders and other supporters who appreciated his vow to destroy communism and control workers, Hollywood filmmaker Oliver Stone said yesterday.

Stone, who is working on a 10-part documentary on the 20th century titled The Secret History of the United States, said the German dictator was "enabled by Western bankers" and managed to "seduce" Germany's military industrial complex.

"Hitler is a monster. There is no question. I have no empathy for Hitler at all. He was a crazy psychopath," Stone told reporters in Bangkok. "But like Frankenstein was a monster, there was a Dr. Frankenstein. He is product of his era."

Stone was in Bangkok to give a lecture to high school students on the role of film in peace-building as part of a visit organized by the Vienna-based International Peace Foundation.

He said the aim of his documentary, which two historians are helping him with, was to offer a fuller understanding of the 20th century and how those lessons may be relevant to President Obama in 2010.

"What has America become? How can we in America not learn from Germany in the 1930s," the Oscar-winning director asked.

Earlier in the day, Stone told about 300 students that his 1991 movie JFK was his most controversial to date and that the United States remains in denial over the possibility that someone other than Lee Harvey Oswald could have assassinated John F. Kennedy.

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Global Trust in Business Rebounds Slightly - ABC News

Posted: 26 Jan 2010 03:23 AM PST

BOSTON (Reuters) - Trust in business worldwide rebounded modestly last year, after plummeting in the face of a severe recession, but informed adults believe companies will revert to their old ways as memory of the downturn fades.

Fifty-four percent of adults told the Edelman Trust Barometer that they trusted business last year, up from 50 percent in 2008, according to survey results released on Tuesday. Corporations' public image improved most sharply in the United States and Italy, while it fell in Russia.

But after a credit crisis that shook the world economy and led big financial institutions including Bank of America Corp and Citigroup Inc to turn to Washington for financial help, trust in banks fell dramatically.

In the United States, just 29 percent of survey respondents said they trusted banks, less than the 68 percent who did in 2006. People in the United Kingdom, Germany and France also reported sharp, albeit less dramatic, declines in trust.

Banks are now the third-least-trusted industry worldwide -- beating out only media companies and the insurance sector and far down from their onetime ranking as the third-most-trusted of 13 sectors, said Richard Edelman, president and chief executive of U.S. public relations firm Edelman, which commissioned the study.

After seeing big banks receive hundreds of billions of dollars in government support -- and continue to fight for the right to pay their top officials millions of dollars in bonuses -- average people have come to think of the banking sector as one in which the rule "heads I win, tails you lose" applies, Edelman said.

The most-trusted sectors were the technology, biotech and auto sectors.

PROFIT NO LONGER KEY TO TRUST

Another major change in public thinking the survey highlighted is that people no longer regard a company's financial performance as a signal that it is trustworthy.

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Uncertainity on Bernanke Vote Raises Economic Fears - KIVI-TV

Posted: 25 Jan 2010 05:58 PM PST

 

 

Uncertainty on Bernanke vote raises economic fears

 

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Ben Bernanke's prospects of being confirmed again as Federal Reserve chairman appear brighter today.

Three more senators, including Republican leader Mitch McConnell, predict he'll be confirmed.

Economists are warning that Bernanke's defeat could raise the risk of a "double dip" recession if political jousting over a successor were to drag on for months. But the economists regard that as a worst-case scenario.

Lynn Reaser, chief economist for the National Association for Business Economics, says the recovery remains fragile, with spending still weak, credit tight and job creation scarce.

A Bernanke loss would heighten uncertainty about Fed policies on interest rates and stimulus measures.

Investment strategist Edward Yardeni says Bernanke devised the unconventional supports for the economy and likely knows how best to safely wind them down.

But even more worrisome for the markets and the economy would be if Bernanke's Senate foes are seen as having meddled with the Fed's independence for political reasons.

(Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

 

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