Financial thoughts

The city that put Love Canal and Superfund in the environmental lexicon may get back into the business of dealing with toxic waste _ this time willingly. It is considering whether to truck in and treat wastewater left over from natural gas drilling.

The economically struggling city in western New York could use the revenue, and the Niagara Falls Water Board says its specialized wastewater treatment plant can handle more business since the decline of the chemical industry it was designed for.

With New York considering allowing natural gas production in its part of the lucrative Marcellus Shale, the water board is examining whether it would make economic sense to become a destination for the byproduct wastewater of the drilling process, called hydraulic fracturing, said Richard Roll, the public benefit corporation’s director of technical and regulatory services.

“Since we do have a unique kind of wastewater treatment plant that’s very much under-loaded, we’re looking into the possibility that, with the addition of other treatment processes, maybe our plant would be much more amenable to accepting this waste than your typical municipal biological plant,” he said.

Many have criticized the idea, including former Love Canal resident Lois Gibbs, who became a national voice for environmental health. She said she wondered if city officials would ever learn.

“They’re moving away from the chemical industry because the chemical industry is moving away from them, and it’s time to start a new economy,” Gibbs said by phone Thursday from Falls Church, Va., where she’s executive director of the Center for Health, Environment & Justice. “And the new economy is certainly not taking chemical waste.”

Fracking forces millions of gallons of water, mixed with sand and chemicals, deep into shale formations beneath Pennsylvania, New York, Ohio, West Virginia, Texas and other states. Its use has increased dramatically in recent years, raising concerns about the potential impact on water quality. Critics say fracking could poison water supplies, while the natural gas industry says it’s been used safely for decades.

Liquid that comes out of the drilling wells is highly salty and contaminated with substances such as barium, strontium and radium and other things that can be damaging to the environment. Millions of barrels of wastewater must be treated, and municipal sewage treatment plants can’t remove contaminants as efficiently as some of the treatment facilities that specialize in oil and gas industry waste.

The Environmental Protection Agency announced Thursday that it will draft standards for wastewater that drillers would have to meet before sending it to treatment plants.

In Niagara Falls, environmental groups and others say importing chemical-laden waste should be the last thing Niagara Falls should consider, given its experience with the Love Canal environmental disaster. An entire neighborhood was emptied in the 1970s after toxins dumped by Hooker Chemicals and Plastics Corp. into an abandoned canal in the 1940s and ’50s were found to have seeped into basements and backyards, creating panic over birth defects and cancer no teletrack payday loans. President Jimmy Carter declared a federal emergency in 1978, and in 1980 the Superfund cleanup act was born.

Once treated, the fracking wastewater, to be brought in by truck or rail, would either be discharged into the Niagara River upstream of Niagara Falls or be reused in drilling, Roll said. The Niagara River flows between lakes Erie and Ontario, forming a border between western New York and Ontario, Canada.

A coalition of local opponents submitted 25 questions to the water board, and about 15 members attended a board meeting Thursday night hoping for answers about the potential environmental impacts to the river and adjoining lakes, costs, safety, possible impacts on human health and the handling of radiation brought to the surface from deep shale wells.

“We should be learning from past mistakes instead of risking our water so we can accept New York state’s hydrofracking waste,” said Rita Yelda, an organizer for Food & Water Watch, an environmental advocacy group.

“Niagara Falls is known for its tourism, its beautiful scenery,” Yelda said. “A large part of their revenue is tourism, people coming in to see Niagara Falls. How will that be impacted by the increased truck traffic and what they’re releasing into Niagara Falls?”

The Council on Canadians, a social justice advocacy group, also is among those pushing Niagara Falls to scrap the idea.

“Last year the (United Nations) passed two resolutions recognizing water as a human right, and this proposal to treat fracking fluids threatens people’s human right to safe and clean drinking water,” the Ottawa-based group said in a Sept. 22 letter to the water board.

The board took no action Thursday.

Earlier in the day, Roll stressed the board is only just beginning to research feasibility testing, regulatory requirements and potential revenue “to make sure it’s not just workable but it makes sense for everyone to participate.”

The Niagara Falls treatment plant was designed to handle waste from the city’s once booming industrial base of electrochemical, organic chemical, ceramics and electrometallurgical plants, Roll said. It already processes imported landfill leachate from three customers that bring the waste by truck, he said.

“We’ve been developing that trade for the past 15 years or so, and that has had the same effect,” he said. “It’s unused capacity that is sitting there waiting to be taken advantage of, and we have a duty to try to make our utility as economically viable as possible for everyone.”

New York environmental regulators last month formally issued proposed regulations for hydraulic fracturing in the Marcellus Shale and scheduled four public hearings. The state hasn’t allowed fracking since it began drafting new permitting rules three years ago.

In neighboring Pennsylvania, nearly 4,000 wells have been drilled in the past few years and tens of thousands more are planned.

Source

Australia avoided recession with its economy growing 1.2 percent in the three months through June after shrinking in the previous quarter due to natural disasters at home and abroad, according to government figures Wednesday.

Storms and record flooding early this year destroyed crops worth billions of dollars on Australia’s east coast and disrupted coal and iron ore exports. Earthquakes also devastated two key Australian trading partners, Japan and New Zealand.

The economy expanded 1.4 percent in the year through June, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said. It contracted 0.9 percent in the January-March quarter. A recession is generally defined as two consecutive quarters of contraction.

Burgeoning demand from China and India for Australian minerals and energy carried Australia through the global financial crisis with only two quarters of contraction, the first in December 2008.

Treasurer Wayne Swan said the rebound from natural disasters added half a percentage point to growth in the three months through June, the strongest quarterly growth in four years.

“Despite being hit by the most costly natural disasters in our history, the Australian economy has continued to forge ahead of most others in the developed world,” Swan told reporters.

“Today’s figures send a really powerful message: that even the biggest natural disasters in our history and the worst global downturn in 50 years can’t knock us off course,” he said.

But the recovery in mining had not been as fast as the government had expected in May when Swan drafted the national budget for the current fiscal year that ends on June 30, 2012.

Some coal mines in Queensland state had yet to return to full production since they were inundated by flood water and rail connections to ports destroyed.

“The impact of the natural disasters has been bigger on our economy than we expected,” Swan said.

The government forecast in its May budget that flooding and cyclones in Australia combined with earthquakes in Japan and New Zealand had cut economic growth in the fiscal year to June 30, 2011 by 0.75 percentage point to a yearly figure of 2.25 percent. Swan said that year figure was down to 1.8 percent.

Flooding in eastern Australia since November killed 35 people, damaged or destroyed more than 35,000 houses and inundated crops as well as coal mines.

An earthquake devastated New Zealand’s second largest city, Christchurch, and killed at least 169 people on Feb. 22. Japan’s northeast coast was laid waste by an earthquake and tsunami on March 11, killing more than 25,000 people.

Source

Billionaire investor Warren Buffett is calling on the so-called mega-rich to pay more in taxes.

Buffett says in a New York Times opinion piece that he would immediately raise rates on households with taxable income of more than $1 million, and he would add an additional increase for those making $10 million or more.

He says he and his mega-rich friends have been coddled long enough by Congress, and says it is time for the government to get serious about shared sacrifice.

He says he has yet to see anyone shy away from investments due to potential capital gains taxes, even when capital gains rates were much higher in the mid-1970s.

Source

Stocks tumbled across the Middle East on Sunday as most regional markets opened for their first day of business following a historic downgrade of the United States’ credit rating.

Mideast markets mostly operate Sunday to Thursday. That makes them the first to react to credit rating agency Standard & Poor’s decision late Friday to cut the U.S. level one notch to AA+ from its top AAA rating. The only exception is OPEC powerhouse Saudi Arabia, which plunged 5.5 percent when it opened Saturday.

The Dubai Financial Market’s benchmark index suffered some of the steepest declines, plunging more than 5 percent in early trading before trimming its losses. The index was down 3.8 percent to 1,482 points by early afternoon.

While the S&P downgrade weighed on the market, it was also dragged lower by a lower than expected quarterly profit from Arabtec Holding, the Emirati construction giant that helped build the world’s tallest tower in Dubai. Arabtec shares fell 4.9 percent to trade at 1.4 dirhams (38 cents).

Egypt’s benchmark EGX30 index fell over 4 percent by midday local time, bringing its year-to-date losses to more than 32 percent.

S&P’s cut could shake investor confidence in the world’s largest economy and send tremors coursing through global markets. Traders worldwide are eagerly watching to see how far larger and more liquid markets in Asia and Europe react to the downgrade when they begin opening Monday.

Financial ministers from the Group of Seven leading economies were preparing to hold a teleconference likely before Asian exchanges open to discuss efforts to stabilize world markets guaranteed cash advance.

Other Gulf markets also opened sharply lower. The Abu Dhabi index slumped 2.5 percent, while Qatar’s market shed 3 percent.

Farouk Miah, an analyst at NCB Capital in the Saudi capital Riyadh, said Mideast traders are concerned that debt problems in the U.S. and Europe could drag on oil-dependent economies in the region.

“A lot of people were expecting a downgrade. I think the bigger concern is the oil price falling” because of slumping demand in the West, he said.

Saudi Arabia’s stock market was the only one in the region to open Saturday. The Tadawul’s main index edged slightly higher Sunday, creeping up a tenth of a point following the previous day’s rout.

Miah attributed the uptick to day traders looking to make a quick profit, not a sign of renewed confidence. He expects Mideast markets to slump further if other global markets tumble on the U.S. debt downgrade.

In Israel, the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange delayed the start of the week’s first session after pre-market trade showed the benchmark index dropping more than 6 percent because of concerns over the U.S. debt rating cut.

Exchange spokeswoman Idit Yaaron said the start was pushed back by 45 minutes “so market players will have time to react logically and not under pressure.” It tumbled 5.7 percent amid heavy trading to trade at 1089 points by late morning.

Source

The merger of Express Scripts with Medco would create a behemoth with a finger in 30 percent of the nation’s prescriptions

European Union leaders appointed Italy’s Mario Draghi as the next president of the European Central Bank on Friday _ a move that gives investors much-needed certainty over who will lead the institution in its pivotal role in the fight against the crippling debt crisis.

The timing of Draghi’s appointment had come under doubt as fellow Italian executive board member Lorenzo Bini Smaghi had until Friday refused to leave his post.

With Bini Smaghi staying on the executive board, France would not have a representative on the six-person board once current ECB chief Jean-Claude Trichet departs on Oct. 31. The French had previously implied they would only support Draghi if a Frenchman or woman takes Bini Smaghi’s spot.

However, a European official said Friday that Bini Smaghi had now agreed to step down by the end of the year. The official was speaking on condition of anonymity because the moved had not officially been announced yet.

The European Parliament and the ECB board had already given their approve to Draghi’s appointment.

Delaying his appointment until their next summit in September would have underlined divisions among EU leaders, who have already struggled to find a common line on debt-stricken Greece and the best way of containing the financial crisis that has also pushed Ireland and Portugal into needing massive bailouts.

The ECB has played a central role during the debt crisis that has afflicted the 17-country eurozone over the past 18 months or so payday loans guaranteed no fax. For example, Trichet overrode criticism from some of the more hawkish officials at the bank when he backed a multibillion euro (dollar) bond-buying program intended to ease the pressure on the more indebted countries.

More recently, the ECB has found itself in the difficult position of raising interest rates to keep a lid on above-target inflation levels even though the weaker eurozone economies remain weak.

The decision on Draghi was expected a day after EU leaders gave their clearest sign yet that Greece will get a second bailout in the coming weeks, on top of last year’s euro110 billion ($156 billion).

“We agreed that there will be a new program for Greece,” said German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

The stronger language on aid for Greece was also made possible after debt inspectors from the EU and the International Monetary Fund reached a final deal Thursday with the government in Athens on euro28 billion worth of new austerity measures.

The measures have to be passed by the Greek Parliament next week for the bailout funds to be released. If lawmakers fail to back the package, then Greece will likely be staring at a default on its debts.

Even if it gets a second bailout, many economists think that Greece will have to restructure its debts in some shape or form in the coming years, especially if the economy shrinks further.

Source

What happens when you cross the world’s largest social network with one of the hottest business models in e-commerce? Facebook wants to find out.

Facebook is launching a deals program Tuesday in five U.S. cities, following on the popularity of Groupon and other services that offer deep discounts _ for example: $50 worth of food at a local eatery for $25.

By allowing small businesses to leverage the Internet while helping consumers score great deals, these group-couponing services have become some of the fastest-growing businesses in the world.

Facebook now wants a part of that. It hopes to exploit its existing networks of friends and family when it begins testing offers in San Diego, San Francisco, Atlanta, Dallas and Austin, Texas.

Many deals sites have a social component. For instance, if you get three friends to buy a LivingSocial voucher, yours is free. Groupon’s offers become valid only after a certain number of people purchase them.

But the deals are circulated to users through email, and the community aspect is secondary.

Facebook is hoping to change that.

“We’re building a product that is social from the ground up,” says Emily White, director of local for Facebook. “All of these deals are things you want to do with friends, so no teeth whitening, but yes to river rafting.”

Starting Tuesday, when Facebook users in the five test markets log into the site, they will see a deals insignia at the bottom of the page.

Clicking on it brings up a list of currently available offers. A user can buy one, click the “like” button to recommend it to others or share the offer with friends through Facebook’s private messaging system. When users purchase or “like” a deal, it shows up in their friends’ news feed.

That means “the discovery of the product can happen in lots of different places,” White says.

To get the program started, Facebook has enlisted 11 companies that already supply deals elsewhere. Restaurant reservation service OpenTable will broadcast offers for local eateries, while online ticket seller Viagogo will market events.

Not all offers involve discounts. Some are experiences people may not otherwise have access to, such as a backstage pass to Austin City Limits concerts, a tour of the Dallas Cowboys’ new stadium, or a children’s sleepover at the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco with live-snake demos.

In some cases, you’ll get a “friend bonus” _ an additional discount _ if at least one other person in your social network buys a deal.

Leveraging social tools and direct sharing among friends will be “a key to success for daily deal companies” going forward, says Lou Kerner, social media analyst at Wedbush.

This is not the first time a social network has made a foray into disseminating deals. Twitter launched its own daily deal program called Earlybird Offers last year but canceled it after just two months. Last November Facebook launched a product called Check-in Deals that allowed users to “check in” via their mobile phones when they visit certain businesses and in turn receive discounts and other special offers. Location-based social network Foursquare has a similar program.

Offers through Facebook can last anywhere from a day to a week. The social network won’t disclose how much commission it takes. (With Groupon and others, the deal site typically takes up to half the revenue.)

There are hundreds of Groupon copycats willing to accept lower commissions, but many small businesses prefer to partner with larger companies such as Groupon and LivingSocial because they reach more potential customers.

Facebook will bring deals to even more people. While Groupon has 70 million members and LivingSocial has 28 million, Facebook has 500 million people worldwide.

Add to that the fact that many small businesses already have a Facebook presence, and the social network becomes a good fit for daily deals, says Greg Sterling, senior analyst for Opus Research.

As a share of overall Web surfing, visits to group-buying sites grew ten-fold over the past year, according to research firm Experian. LivingSocial had 7 million unique visitors in March, up 27 percent from February, making it one of the 10 fastest-growing websites in the U.S., according to ComScore.

“Groupon and LivingSocial have shown how much demand there is out there,” Sterling says. “Facebook, if they do this right, can have a big hit on their hands.”

Source

In late 2007, facing vocal opposition and a lawsuit from a group of area residents, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. dropped a planned expansion of its Glen Carbon store.

Now, Glen Carbon officials are reviewing a new proposal to expand the Walmart at Cottonwood Plaza, as well as a proposed new Sam’s Club warehouse store nearby at Illinois Route 159 and Center Grove Road.

Mayor Robert Jackstadt said that he was pleased by the interest in new retail investments in the community but that the proposals would be reviewed by village officials before any final decisions.

Jackstadt said such investments “could lead to new construction and other jobs, new property values and sales taxes, which can all benefit all existing village taxpayers.” But he said the proposals would be reviewed for compliance with ordinances and the village’s comprehensive plan.

Glen-Ed Citizens for Fair Growth raised questions about parking, traffic congestion and negative effects on small businesses in opposing the earlier plan to make the Walmart store a 24-hour Supercenter guaranteed payday loans. Village officials gave the project a green light, but the citizens group sued. The lawsuit was pending when Wal-Mart dropped the proposal in December 2007, citing a decision to slow its development of Supercenters.

Karen O’Koniewski still heads the group, now called GlenEd Citizens. She advised members and supporters of the new proposals in an e-mail Monday morning. She said she had not received any responses by mid-day.

O’Koniewski said the group had been largely inactive for about a year. She recently moved from Glen Carbon to Edwardsville.

The village board’s building and development committee approved a site plan for the expansion last week and forwarded it to the village’s planning and zoning commission. The building and development committee will review the Sam’s Club proposal at a special meeting at 5 p.m. today.

Source

On the cusp of the most commercially romantic day of the year, some retailers are stepping into the exclusive (and profitable) market for all things wedding.

Urban Outfitters Inc., the parent company of Anthropologie, Free People and Urban Outfitters, is debuting a new wedding brand, called BHLDN (that’s pronounced beholden) on Valentine’s Day.

Following in the footsteps of J.Crew, the Urban Outfitters’ collection will feature wedding gowns, bridesmaid and party dresses, vintage-inspired jewelry, headpieces, shoes and lingerie.

But while J.Crew found a successful place in the wedding marketplace with silk taffeta and duchesse satin dresses that range from $285 to $3,000 each, Urban’s new venture is not exactly cheap chic.

Prices range from $1,000 to $4,000 for gowns, and $200 to $600 for event dresses. But spokeswoman Jennifer D’Aponte says that these dresses that are timeless (read: no matchy-matchy bridesmaid dresses in lavender taffeta). There’s even a floral print wedding gown!

In early May, décor and tabletop items like vases, dishes, silverware, tablecloths, candelabras, place cards, chargers, ribbons, cake servers and toasting glasses will round out the collection high quality business cards.

For now, BHLDN will be available through its online boutique, but the first store is expected to open in the second half of the year.

For those still reeling from a recession hangover, famed wedding dress designer Vera Wang also debuts a new collection of more affordable dresses and accessories this week. With prices ranging from $600 to $1,400, her collection for David’s Bridal officially launched in 150 stores on Feb. 11.

It’s not her first foray in mainstream offerings: Wang partnered with Kohl’s on a lower priced clothing and accessories line called Simply Vera Vera Wang in 2006. But this time, Wang is sticking to what she does best: weddings. The White by Vera Wang line will expand to offer bridesmaid dresses and shoes later in the year.

RentTheRunway, which Savvy Spending has covered before, recently launched a wedding section on its site, too. For $50 to $125, members can rent rehearsal dinner, engagement party dresses and a slew of bridesmaid options. But no wedding gown rentals as of yet. 

Source

China, the largest wheat consumer, says the drought in the country’s main growing region may be prolonged, as prices surge to a record.

About 115.95 million mu (7.73 million hectares) of wheat, or 42 percent of the total planted in the eight major producing provinces, is affected by the dry spell that may last into the spring, Minister of Agriculture Han Changfu said in a statement on the department’s website yesterday.

Rain on the North China Plain has been “substantially” below-normal since October, the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization said Feb. 8. Continued drought could force China, largely self-sufficient in wheat, to buy more grain from overseas suppliers, said Jason Britt, an analyst at Central States Commodities Inc.

“That sends a little bit of a shiver through the market,” Britt said by telephone from Kansas City, Missouri. China may import 1 million metric tons of wheat this year, compared with 9.8 million tons by Egypt, the top buyer, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Drought-affected provinces including Hebei, Shanxi, Henan, Shandong, Jiangsu and Anhui have received “precious snow” since yesterday which will help relieve some of the dryness, the National Meteorological Center said on its website. Rain and snow are forecast to continue today, it said.

‘One Big Rain’

Wheat futures jumped to 3,064 yuan ($465) a metric ton on the Zhengzhou Commodity Exchange today, a record for the most- active contract. The price on the Chicago Board of Trade, a global benchmark, was little changed at $8.8425 a bushel after jumping to $8.9325 a bushel yesterday, the highest since 2008.

Most crops in China’s wheat region are irrigated and only about 5 percent of the area’s annual precipitation normally falls in the December-February period, said Mike Tannura, a meteorologist at T-Storm Weather in Chicago.

“Even though it’s been dry relative to average, 95 percent of precipitation occurs from March through November,” Tannura said. “It’s a concern, no question about it, but one big rain in March and all of a sudden they’re back above average.”

Major wheat growing areas have received about 0.25 inch (0.6 centimeter) of precipitation since Dec. 1, about 20 percent of the usual amount, he said.

Food Costs

China pledged to spend an extra 6.7 billion yuan ($1 billion) to boost emergency water supply and irrigation resources, according to a government statement. This is in addition to 10 yuan per mu in direct subsidies to encourage farmers to water wheat, and another 10 yuan to fertilize weakened seedlings, it said.

Rising food costs have stoked inflation in emerging economies instant personal loans guaranteed. The past month’s protests in North Africa and the Middle East were partly linked to food costs.

China’s consumer prices advanced 3.3 percent last year, breaching a government target of 3 percent. The January rate may have accelerated to 5.4 percent, according to the median estimate of 26 economists surveyed by Bloomberg, from 4.6 percent in December. Inflation in Indonesia, Southeast Asia’s biggest economy, was 7.02 percent last month, a 21-month high.

The People’s Bank of China on Feb. 8 raised the one-year lending rate by a quarter of a percentage point to 6.06 percent and the one-year deposit rate an equivalent amount to 3 percent.

Top Consumer

The provinces most affected by the drought are Shandong, Jiangsu, Henan, Hebei and Shanxi, representing 67 percent of the country’s wheat production in 2009, the FAO said. China has 14 million hectares (34.6 million acres) planted with winter wheat in those areas, of which about 5.16 million hectares may have been hurt, it said, citing government estimates.

China is the largest wheat consumer, representing about 17 percent of global usage in the year to June 30, the London-based International Grains Council predicts. The country’s wheat output may have dropped to 114.5 million tons at the last harvest from 115.1 million tons a year earlier, the USDA estimates. Macquarie Group Ltd. expects production to drop a further 4 million tons this year.

Premier Wen Jiabao visited Shandong last week during the Lunar New Year holiday to inspect conditions on the ground, according to the Xinhua News Agency. The country has to “prepare for the worst and do our best to combat the drought to ensure a good harvest,” Wen was cited as saying.

While the UN says global food prices climbed to a record in December, grain stockpiles have been replenished since 2007-2009, when the U.S. State Department estimates there were more than 60 food riots worldwide. Combined inventories of corn, wheat, rice and soybeans will end this year at 457.6 million tons, 21 percent more than in 2007, USDA estimates show.

China has abundant wheat stockpiles which will lessen the impact of the drought on supply, Li Qi, an analyst at Everbright Futures Co., wrote in a report. Inventories are the highest in seven years, Li said.

–William Bi, Feiwen Rong. With assistance by Whitney McFerron in Washington. Editor: James Poole

To contact Bloomberg News staff for this story: William Bi in Beijing at +86-10-6649-7578 or wbi@bloomberg.net

Source