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Irish Finance Minster Michael Noonan laid out plans to ease the immediate burden of repaying the country
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The number of people seeking U.S. unemployment benefits dropped last week, the latest evidence that the job market is strengthening.
The Labor Department says weekly unemployment benefit applications fell 5,000 to a seasonally adjusted 359,000. That’s the smallest number of applicants since April 2008. The four-week average, a less volatile measure, declined to 365,000.
The department also made its annual revisions to the past five years of unemployment benefit data. The revisions significantly increased the number of unemployment benefit applicants in recent months fast cash advance. But the downward trend remains intact.
When unemployment benefit applications drop consistently below 375,000, it usually signals that hiring is strong enough to lower the unemployment rate. The decline has coincided with the best three months of hiring in two years.
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Unemployment, debt and a troubled housing market are plaguing families across the country, but for those in the armed forces, there is an even bigger burden to bear.
Often young and required to move frequently, many military families struggle to maintain a two-income household, find affordable childcare and save for the future.
Service members and their families have a tougher time because the military isn’t a high-paying job and most "are very young and without formal financial literacy training," said Robert Joshua, executive vice president at Navy Federal Credit Union, which serves military and civilian personnel and their families.
The average junior enlisted member with less than four years’ experience earns just over $40,000 a year, including housing and food allowances, according to the Defense Department. The salary goes up, however, for service members with families. Those who are married with two kids earn $52,000.
Veterans struggle to find work
"Survival is the basic concern," said Joseph Montanaro, a certified financial planner at USAA, a military-focused financial services company. "When you have that challenge right in your face it’s hard to look ahead 20 or 30 years."
Constantly on the move: Compounding the financial issues military members face is the fact that they are often relocating.
According to the Department of Defense, military families move 10 times more often than civilian families.
For Priscilla Schrubb, who is married to a Marine and has relocated five times, there are plenty of unforeseen costs that aren’t covered in the military’s cost of living allowances, special programs or subsidies.
Flying her family of five from their home in Quantico, Va., to see the in-laws in Texas, for example, is one of them. "When a trip costs $3,000, you can’t take too many of those. We haven’t seen them in five years and that’s a long time for our kids to go without seeing their grandparents."
Military spouses: Their struggles at home
And while the military offers child-care centers on some military bases and subsidizes a portion of the cost, it’s not the same as having family or friends available to provide childcare in a pinch. "This weekend I paid over $30 for a teenager to watch our kids while I went to a meeting at church," Schrubb said. "Not having family support is one of those big things."
During the housing bust, the frequent moves have come at an even higher cost for some military families.
When Scott Haselden, an operations officer for the Air Force, received a permanent change of station in 2007 to Moody Air Force Base in Georgia from Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland, he and his wife, Laura, were unable to sell the home they had bought for $314,900 in 2005 — at the height of the housing boom.
In a bind, the Haseldens rented the property out instead, but the rental income was not enough to cover the payments on their adjustable-rate mortgage. "We were paying $700 a month out of pocket to cover the difference," Haselden said.
The couple finally sold their home, with the help of the Department of Defense’s Homeowners Assistance Program, or HAP, for $220,000 last year. HAP covered the $90,000 difference between the mortgage and the purchase price but in the years before it sold, the Haseldens lost more than $30,000 on monthly carrying costs.
Obama cuts refinance costs for some mortgages
Out-of-work military spouses: For military spouses, constantly moving means constantly looking for work. And when the spouse isn’t working, the family is down to one income.
Andia Dinesen, who is married to a securities forces officer in the Air Force, holds a degree in psychology from Northern Arizona University but has hardly been able to use it. Since she and her husband have moved seven times in 11 years, she has only managed to get one full-time job as a financial counselor — a position she landed just last year.
"There were things that I wanted to do with my degree that were not feasible because we were on the move. I would have to relicense in every state," she said.
About 35% of military spouses work in professions that require state-issued licenses, including teachers, nurses, childcare providers, dental hygienists and real-estate brokers.
For them, transferring a license from one state to another amid frequent relocations is extremely difficult. "When you are moving every 18 months to three years, spouses often have to leave behind a job," said Gerri Walsh, foundation president of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, or FINRA.
As a result, the unemployment rate for civilian spouses of active duty service members is 26%, according to a Feb. 2012 report by the Department of Defense. That’s over three times the national unemployment rate of 8.3%.
Those who are employed are also more likely to earn less than those in the general population, even though 35% of military spouses have at least a bachelor’s or advanced degree.
Last month Michelle Obama and Jill Biden addressed the National Governors Association, urging state governors to pass legislation that supports military spouse license portability, which would allow them to transfer an existing license to a new state with less paperwork and hassle.
"It’s very easy for us to recognize the men and women in uniform because they’re in uniform," the First Lady said at the time, "but their families serve, too."
Filed under: Uncategorized, legal by Forest
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The price of gasoline is less than a dime away from last year’s high.
At an average of $3.90 per gallon, Americans have never paid more at this time of year and prices are expected to keep climbing with two months remaining before the traditional kickoff of the summer driving season.
Prices peaked last year in May at an average price of $3.98 per gallon. The all-time record is $4.11, set in July 2008 as the economy went into a tailspin instant payday loan.
Gasoline prices have risen this year along with the price of crude oil. Benchmark U.S. crude is up by 8 percent already. A barrel added another 7 cents to reach $106.93 Monday.
Natural gas prices are close to a 10-year low at $2.22 per 1,000 cubic feet.
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Islamists that dominate Egypt’s new parliament looked Saturday to solidify their power over the country’s political direction as lawmakers chose a 100-member panel to draw up the country’s new constitution.
The selection process has sparked a fierce debate in Egypt. With so much at stake, a bloc of secular and liberal lawmakers boycotted Saturday’s voting by both houses of parliament, accusing the fundamentalist Muslim Brotherhood _ the country’s most powerful political force _ of trying to pack the panel with its supporters and ignoring minority concerns.
Fears among liberals have spiked over the past week after parliament decided to allocate half of the 100 seats on the panel to its own members, and when a leading Islamist deputy said that the country’s most prominent democracy advocate, Mohamed ElBaradei, would likely not be included.
In a sign of the Brotherhood’s intentions, the group posted on its website a list of its nominees for the 50 seats to be allocated to lawmakers. It contained 37 Islamists and 13 lawmakers from other parties. With the Brotherhood holding nearly half the seats in parliament, the movement will likely be able to push its choices through.
Egypt’s ruling military council last year issued an interim constitution that gives elected members of the parliament’s two houses the right to select those who will draft the new constitution. The old 1971 constitution was suspended after the uprising that ousted longtime ruler Hosni Mubarak.
After the panel writes the constitution, the document will be put to a vote in a national referendum. However, the ruling military council left the guidelines for the process vague enough to spark a sharp debate between liberals and Islamists on who should be included.
Egypt’s Islamist groups, including both the Brotherhood and the ultraconservative Salafis, make up nearly three-quarters of parliament after sweeping the vote in the first post-revolution elections that began in November.
They passed a vote last week to appoint 50 of the panel members from among lawmakers in parliament, while the rest will be drawn from broader society.
Liberals, among whom are youth groups and secular parties that led the uprising but performed poorly in elections, say that a permanent constitution should not be written solely by the victors of a single election.
They argue that the constitutional process should include a wide range of members from the country’s different ideological currents, professional syndicates and unions, women, and members of the Christian minority. They say that parliament’s decision to have its members dominate the process violates earlier Brotherhood pledges to draft the charter by “consensus” and fear it represents a capitulation to the hardline Salafis.
“The Islamic political forces want an all-out dominance on the constitutional writing,” wrote Emad Gad, a liberal lawmaker, in the private-owned Al-Tahrir daily. He added that even before the panel has been seated, Islamists have prepared their own drafts of the constitution.
The Brotherhood has long assured liberals that it doesn’t intend to rule Egypt alone, but many secular Egyptians accuse the Islamist group of maneuvering to do just that.
Before parliamentary elections, the Muslim Brotherhood said it would only field candidates for 30 percent of the seats in parliament, only to eventually contest more than 80 percent easy payday loans. The group also previously said it would not field a presidential candidate from within its ranks or the broader Islamist fold, but the group recently backtracked and says it is now considering putting forward a candidate for the presidential ballot.
The new constitution is expected to curb presidential powers and give parliament more authority, a drastic change to Egypt’s political system. Although the changes are intended to prevent the abuses of power associated with Mubarak, liberals fear that empowering the legislature will also empower the Islamists who have a majority there.
Another key concern is the role of Islamic Shariah law, which is subject to a wide variety of interpretation.
The old 1971 constitution says Shariah is the “main source of legislation,” but many in the hardline Salafi bloc that makes up nearly a quarter of parliament’s members want specific mention of statutes based on strict interpretations of Shariah: mandating segregation of the sexes, banning banks from charging interest and punishing theft by cutting off thieves’ hands.
Another divisive issue is the role of the military and the future of the country’s military rulers. The ruling generals want assurances they won’t lose their political clout and that parliament will have no say over the military’s budget.
Antimilitary youth activists fear the Islamists will give the military what they want, in exchange for the generals allowing them carte blanche in writing the constitution.
“We are before a historic mission,” said parliamentary speaker Saad el-Katatni, a member of the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood. “There will be no exclusions for anybody,” he said, adding that the constitution should not be written by “the majority,” but instead by “consensus and partnership.”
That pledge however has been called into question by the exclusion of ElBaradei, whom Brotherhood parliamentarian Mohammed el-Beltagi said on his Facebook page Friday would normally be included “only if he didn’t oppose the current road map” for drafting the document.
ElBaradei had criticized the parliament _ the product of the first open elections after decades of dictatorship _ as not fully representative, and the process of drafting the constitution as rushed. He posted in a message on Twitter that the charter “is not a fast food meal.”
Parliamentarians also dropped an earlier proposal to give a quota of 25 seats to representatives of prominent Egyptian institutions, which prompted a young liberal-leaning lawmaker Mustafa al-Nagar to boycott the voting process.
He posted on his Twitter account that he would not take part in the panel’s selection because it is “an exclusion to all Egyptians.”
Liberal judges and activists have filed legal challenges to the 50/50 panel makeup.
With drums and chants, youth activists rallied outside parliament against Islamists and the military for what they see as sabotaging the revolution.
“No Salafis, no Brotherhood. The constitution is for all Egyptians,” they chanted. “We said the military hijacked the revolution … They (Islamists) said no, the military is sweet like sugar.”
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O’Fallon, Mo. • This time last year, O’Fallon Brewery was fading out of sight.
After growing for most of a decade, St. Louis’ second-largest craft brewer hit a wall. Its co-founders ran out of cash. Beer-making ground to a halt. Six-packs on store shelves dwindled.
But now O’Fallon is on pace to sell more in 2012 than ever before. And next month, the company will launch a new brew, its first since the near-death experience.
The downs and ups at O’Fallon highlight the growing pains of the fast-growing craft beer industry, here and nationwide. It also highlights the challenges many entrepreneurs face as they try to scale up from mom-and-pop to middleweight. In this case, rebirth required a new owner and a key change in partners.
While big brewers such as Anheuser-Busch InBev have seen sales slip in recent years, the world of small craft brewers is hopping. Sales grew 14 percent in the first half of 2011, according to trade group Brewers Association, and industry watchers say it hasn’t slowed since. New small breweries are popping up like sunflowers — including at least a half dozen either open or in the works in St. Louis in the past year.
But as demand for boutique beers has grown, some brewers have struggled to keep pace — both with output and with the business savvy needed to grow efficiently. Tony and Fran Caradonna were no exception.
They launched O’Fallon in 2000, and along with brew master Brian Owens, made, bottled and even delivered beer themselves. Sales grew, slow but steady, to 2,900 barrels — the equivalent of about 980,000 12-ounce bottles — in 2008 around the Midwest. They had a couple of rough years in 2007 and 2008, but demand continued to grow, so the O’Fallon hired a Wisconsin brewery to make their bottled beer, expanded to 11 states, and signed on with a small distributor in Missouri. Sales doubled, but the deals left them strapped for cash. By early last year, the whole operation was on the ropes. The Caradonnas had to cut hours for their handful of employees, and stop making beer while they looked for investors.
“It was our baby,” Fran Caradonna said. “But it was time to bring in some new ideas and new skills.”
Enter Jim Gorczyca.
A longtime marketing executive at Anheuser-Busch, he was ready to strike out on his own. Like Tony Caradonna, he was a brewery tour guide growing up in south St. Louis. He met the Caradonnas and they reached a deal: Gorczcya would buy a 96 percent stake in the brewery, the Caradonnas would stay on working there, and they would relaunch O’Fallon with a mix of big-beer business savvy and craft beer’s focus on flavor.
The sale closed in May, and Owens went right back to work, pumping out kegs at the brewery and road-tripping to Stevens Point, Wis., to supervise the bottling operation paperless payday loans. Loyal customers were glad to see the beer back on shelves, Owens said, and O’Fallon gradually won back tap handles in bars. By the end of 2011, sales were about the same as they had been in 2010 — 6,000 barrels.
Next month, O’Fallon will add a new brew to its lineup, a summer seasonal called Kite Tail. It’s a cream ale, crisp and light, flavorful but also designed to draw more traditional beer drinkers — who may not want lots of hops and dark, heavy beers — into a craft brand like O’Fallon.
“There’s an opportunity to build a bridge back to the mainstream,” Gorczyca said. “We need to invite the broader audience over to craft.”
The brewery has made other tweaks, too. To save money, it’s entering longer-term contracts with suppliers and trying to take advantage of seasonal price swings for ingredients. It’s buying billboards and ads to launch Kite Tail, and rolling out new, more eye-catching tap handles for each of its five brews.
But the biggest change is this: One day last week, a delivery truck with a Bud Light logo on its side pulled up at the brewery. One of the first things Gorczyca did when he took over was sign deals with Anheuser-Busch’s wholesalers across Missouri. O’Fallon’s sales force grew exponentially.
“Now we have hundreds of guys out there selling our beer every day,” he said.
And they are selling more of it. Gorczyca says O’Fallon is on pace to move 13,000 barrels this year — twice its prior peak. As a private company, O’Fallon doesn’t share financials, but Gorczyca said he expects to turn a profit by year’s end. Next year, he hopes to do 15,000 barrels, large enough to achieve “regional brewery” status with the Craft Brewers Association. Getting over that hump — there were 80 “regional breweries” in 2010, with the only local one being Schlafly parent St. Louis Brewing Co. — would help put O’Fallon on the map.
“There’s a magnitude there,” Gorczyca said. “It gives you some credibility.”
The other thing O’Fallon is planning to raise its profile is a new home, something with a bit more presence than its yellow warehouse in a little industrial park off Interstate 70. Beer-lovers come by — even though a sign on the front door says they don’t give tours these days — but Gorczyca said he envisions a bigger brewing facility, a proper bar, and a nice place to eat. Probably to open in the second half of next year.
“We’ve kind of run out of space,” he said. “And we want a place where people can come visit.”
Cisco Systems is riding the wave of connected televisions with a splashy $5 billion acquisition deal for NDS Group, a privately held British TV software company.
NDS makes software for about 90 cable and satellite companies around the world, enabling content to be delivered to set-top boxes and DVRs as well as mobile devices. That software is in about 125 million households. NDS also powers the user interface for 40 cable and satellite providers, including DirecTV (, Fortune 500) and Britain’s Sky.
Cisco (, Fortune 500) said NDS’s technology will be incorporated with its Videoscape system, which the company unveiled at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Videoscape is Cisco’s cloud-based solution to help its partners deliver content to users on any device, whether it’s on a TV, an iPad or a smartphone.
"We are on the cusp of a whole new wave of digital entertainment experiences that will make video content much easier to find, navigate, interact with and enjoy, on any device and network," said Marthin De Beer, Cisco’s video chief.
The video market’s transition to Internet-connected devices is critical to service providers, which drive about a third of Cisco’s revenues.
It’s a market that’s attracting big-name players, including Apple (, Fortune 500), Google (, Fortune 500), and most recently Intel (, Fortune 500), which is developing its own Internet-based TV service, according to a recent Wall Street Journal report.
Cisco CEO John Chambers called the NDS bid "one of the most strategic acquisitions we’ve done" and "the best talent acquisition in our history."
Cisco hopes to be the backbone of Internet-based TV services. At last month’s Mobile World Congress, Suraj Shetty, Cisco’s head of marketing, mapped out a future in which a Cisco user interface would control all content available on a user’s television, including Netflix (), cable programming and on-demand programming.
It’s similar approach to the one Apple is taking with Apple TV, though Apple’s $99 set-top box is complementary to customers’ primary cable or satellite service.
Since Apple TV users have to switch between cable or Apple TV content, the company hasn’t yet had much success with its service. Some analysts believe it will become a key player in the market once it delivers on its rumored all-in-one television set.
Seeing an opportunity to get a jump on potential rivals, Cisco said it believes NDS is worth a hefty price tag. It’s the fourth-largest acquisition in Cisco’s history, and the first billion-dollar purchase since Tandberg nearly two years ago.
For many years, Cisco had been one of Silicon Valley’s biggest buyers of technology companies, but its shopping spree quieted recently amid a corporate restructuring that led to massive layoffs and the elimination of many non-core businesses.
The $5 billion Cisco is paying for NDS includes debt and retention-based incentives. NDS is majority-owned by private equity fund Permira, and 49% owned by News Corp. ().
Goldman Sachs, the investment bank blistered by a resigning employee this week for how it does business, said Friday that it will try to strengthen internal rules to prevent questions about conflicts of interest.
A Delaware judge almost killed a deal between two energy companies last month because Goldman had ties to both parties: The bank collected a fee for advising one company, and a Goldman banker owned stock in the other.
Goldman was stung Wednesday by an Op-Ed article published in The New York Times by a young banker who was quitting the company. He accused Goldman executives of privately insulting clients and not acting in customers’ best interest.
The bank did not offer specifics Friday on the review of its policies.
The energy deal was a $21 billion buyout of El Paso, a Houston natural gas and oil company, by Kinder Morgan, a Houston natural gas pipeline company. The judge ultimate allowed the deal.
Goldman collected a fee for advising El Paso on the deal. The judge criticized Goldman for failing to disclose that one of its lead bankers on the team, Steve Daniel, personally owned $340,000 of Kinder Morgan stock.
People like Daniel “get paid the big money because they are masters of economic incentives, and keenly aware of them at all times,” said the Delaware judge, Chancellor Leo Strine.
Goldman had disclosed other conflicts: Its private-equity arm owned a stake in Kinder Morgan, and it controlled two seats on Kinder Morgan’s board.
“We regret that El Paso’s board wasn’t aware,” said David Wells, a spokesman at Goldman. “We are reviewing our policies and procedures with the goal of strengthening them.”
The judge noted that Goldman CEO Lloyd Blankfein had called El Paso’s CEO, Doug Foshee, and read from a script prepared by Daniel, the banker, that began, “Hello, Doug _ it’s been a long time since we have had the chance to visit.”
In a footnote, the judge said the script had the “troubling side effect” of reminding his staff of the treacly 1980s love song “Hello,” by Lionel Richie.
The Op-Ed by the young banker, Greg Smith, caught fire online. On Friday, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg visited Goldman headquarters to voice his support. He called the scathing public resignation “ridiculous.”
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