Financial life in a big town

Americans’ confidence in the economy in November bounced back to its highest level since July, the latest sign that they are beginning to feel more cheerful about spending during the holiday shopping season.

The Conference Board, a private research firm, says Tuesday that its Consumer Confidence Index rose 15 points to 56.0. That’s up from a revised 40.9 in October _ the lowest level since the recession _ and the biggest jump since the 59.2 reading in July. The November number is encouraging, but far below the reading of 90, which indicates an economy on solid footing.

The confidence numbers are widely watched by economists because consumer spending accounts for 70 percent of economic activity. The confidence of U.S. consumers slipped after the summer amid renewed fears about a second recession. But Americans, who have been grappling with high unemployment and a weak housing market, have shown that they are feeling much more comfortable spending. Over the past weekend, for instance, they spent more than they ever have before during Black Friday weekend, the traditional start of the holiday shopping season.

“Consumers appear to be entering the holiday season in better spirits, though overall readings remain historically weak,” said Lynn Franco, director of The Conference Board Consumer Research Center in a statement low fee cash advance.

Franco noted that consumers’ assessment of current conditions improved after six months of steady declines. Consumers’ anxiety regarding the short-term outlook for business conditions, jobs and income prospects eased considerably.

One barometer of the index, which measures how shoppers feel now, rose to 38.3 from 27.1. The other gauge, which measures how shoppers say they will feel over the next six months, rose to 67.8 from 50.0.

Consumers have several reasons to be more confident as there have been some signs of improvement in the economy. Earlier this month, for instance, the Labor Department reported that the job market improved modestly as unemployment rate nudged down to 9 percent in October from 9.1 percent in September. The month marked the 13th consecutive month of job gains.

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Is this the end of the app as we know it? The app is dead. Long live the web app?

It may be too early to pronounce the downloadable application officially dead, but some tech pundits are already preparing obituaries for this staple of the mobile world.

Protesters expressed fears Thursday that a scheduled cleanup of the private park where they’ve been camped out near Wall Street is merely a ploy to unravel the demonstration.

City officials have informed protesters that they will need to leave Zuccotti Park on Friday so that it can be cleaned, but that they’ll be allowed to return afterward.

As a steady drizzle fell Thursday over the park, owned by Brookfield Properties, confusion was high over when the protesters will be ordered out _ and where they’ll go during the evacuation.

“The cleanup is a pretext to remove us from the camp. And we can return only if we abide by the rules of Brookfield Properties,” said Justin Wedes, 25, a public high school science teacher from Brooklyn who was sweeping the pavement with others. “We’re redoubling our efforts today.”

Brookfield did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the cleanup. City officials remained mum on logistics.

“This is the cleanest protest I’ve ever witnessed,” said Emilio Montilla, 29, a laid-off teacher’s assistant. “We take care of ourselves. We’re self-sufficient.”

A notice handed out to protesters Thursday from Brookfield stated that the cleaning is part of daily upkeep, and that conditions have deteriorated in recent weeks because that upkeep was put on hold by the protesters.

“They’re going to use the cleanup to get us out of here!” Wedes said. “It’s a de facto eviction notice.”

Deputy Mayor Cas Holloway said in a statement Wednesday that the protest has “created unsanitary conditions and considerable wear and tear on the park.” He said Brookfield asked for police help to clear the park so it can be cleaned.

Holloway said the cleaning will be done in stages Friday. Mayor Michael Bloomberg visited the protesters Wednesday to offer assurances.

Allison Esso of Human Services Council, a group that supports the protesters, was wary. “I’m hoping that they’re not trying to undermine their ability to protest,” she said.

The protest, known as Occupy Wall Street, has sympathetic groups in other cities which each stage their own local rallies and demonstrations: Occupy Boston, Occupy Cincinnati, Occupy Houston, Occupy Los Angeles, Occupy Philadelphia, Occupy Providence, Occupy Salt Lake, and Occupy Seattle, among them saving account pay day loan.

The movement has also drawn reaction from world leaders, including President Barack Obama, former Polish President Lech Walesa and Iran’s Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Walesa said Thursday that he supports the New York protest and is planning to either visit or write a letter to the protesters. He said the global economic crisis has made people aware that “we need to change the capitalist system” because we need “more justice, more people’s interests, and less money for money’s sake.”

Khamenei said Wednesday that the wave of protests reflects a serious problem that will ultimately topple capitalism in America. He claimed the United States is in a full-blown crisis because its “corrupt foundation has been exposed to the American people.”

Khamenei’s remarks came a day after U.S. officials said the Obama administration plans to leverage charges that Iran plotted to assassinate Saudi Arabia’s ambassador into a new global campaign to isolate the Islamic republic.

Protesters, who have been living, sleeping and eating in the park for the duration, say they are in it for the long haul, despite the onset of cold weather.

On Wednesday, police arrested four people outside JP Morgan Chase offices where Wall Street protesters called in vain for a meeting with Chairman and CEO Jamie Dimon. Protesters accused the police of rough handling. An Associated Press photographer witnessed police officers heading into the crowd of demonstrators to make the arrests.

Meanwhile, about 700 members of the Service Employees International Union marched through the Financial District; the union, which represents 23,000 office cleaners, is gearing up for contract negotiations with the Realty Advisory Board.

More protests are planned in Toronto and Vancouver this weekend, and European activists also are organizing.

A lawyer for a woman pepper-sprayed during an action last month is demanding that the Manhattan district attorney prosecute an NYPD deputy inspector on an assault charge. Commissioner Raymond Kelly said the matter was being investigated by police internal affairs and the Civilian Complaint Review Board.

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Russia’s finance minister has said he will step down rather than serve under Dmitry Medvedev if the president becomes prime minister next year as planned.

Alexei Kudrin has been finance minister since 2000 and his conservative fiscal policies are widely credited with helping Russia weather the 2008-2009 global financial crisis.

He is close to Vladimir Putin, the current prime minister, who Saturday announced his intention to return to the presidency next year. Putin said he would then name Medvedev prime minister.

Kudrin told reporters from Russia’s state news agencies in Washington later Saturday that he would not serve in Medvedev’s government because of disagreements over economic policy.

He specifically cited Medvedev’s plans to increase military spending.

“I do not see myself in the new government, and it is not just that I have not been offered the job,” he told reporters on the sidelines of the annual meeting of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank. “I think that those differences of opinion that I have will not allow me to join the government.”

During Putin’s presidency from 2000 to 2008, Kudrin stashed some of the revenue from Russia’s oil exports in a stabilization fund cash advance loan no fax. In doing so, he had faced strong opposition from other government ministers who wanted the money for expenditures, but when the financial crisis hit and oil prices fell, those savings proved crucial in reducing the blow.

Medvedev’s spokeswoman, Natalya Timakova, said it was too soon to discuss the composition of the next government.

“President Medvedev and Prime Minister Putin proceed from the understanding that all federal officials are continuing to perform their duties at their place of work,” she was quoted by state news agencies as saying. “If someone has other ideas, they should be ready to change their place of work.”

Putin’s spokesman said Kudrin has never hidden his disagreements with Putin or Medvedev on economic policies.

“He is a professional economist,” Dmitry Peskov was quoted as saying. “He is an economist with a capital letter.”

Kudrin, 50, had been mentioned as a possible prime minister under Putin if he returned to the presidency.

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Canada and the U.S. will continue along a long, slow path of tepid economic growth for the rest of this year and next, economists say.

“Growth will be very near the stall rate and next year won’t see much of a recovery,” said Warren Jestin, chief economist at Scotiabank.

Jestin joined other chief economists from Canada’s big banks as they presented updated forecasts to the Economic Club of Canada in Toronto on Thursday.

Their cautious view was echoed by U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke Thursday.

Speaking to the Economic Club of Minnesota Thursday, U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said policy makers will discuss the tools they could use to boost the recovery at their next meeting this month and stand ready to use them if necessary.

While Bernanke said that Congress and President Barack Obama must put the federal government’s finances on a “sustainable trajectory” over the long term, he warned that policy makers should not “disregard the fragility of the economic recovery.”

Growth in Canada and the U.S. will come in at about 2 per cent this year, Jestin said.

Look for Canada, with its strong domestic economy, to outpace the U.S., where the housing market and jobless rate, continue to drag down growth.

“The U.S. is like a vehicle with a broken transmission. It doesn’t matter how much gasoline you put in the tank,” said Derek Burleton, deputy chief economist at TD Bank Group.

That’s the Catch-22 facing Obama, who delivered a televised address Thursday outlining a jobs creation payroll.

The U.S. president’s plan included a reduction in payroll taxes for small businesses, payroll tax cuts for employees, aid for the long-term unemployed, funds for infrastructure spending and money for laid-off teachers and veterans.

Next week, Obama is expected to send a plan on how to offset the spending to the special 12-member congressional committee charged with coming up with $1.5 trillion (U.S.) in deficit cuts.

“This is certainly an unprecedented period in U.S. economy history,” BMO chief economist Sherry Cooper said.

In Canada, labour market data for August, to be released Friday by Statistics Canada, is likely to continue to show improvement, economists said.

It’s more evidence that the domestic economy is holding up well, even as exports pull down growth.

Meanwhile, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development slashed its growth forecasts for the U.S. and Japan and said central banks around the world should be ready to ease monetary policy if economies weaken further.

The U.S. will grow 1.1 per cent in the third quarter and 0.4 per cent in the fourth, instead of the 2.9 per cent and 3 per cent predicted in May, the OECD said in its interim economic assessment.

Japan will expand 4.1 per cent in the third quarter before stalling in the fourth, and the three biggest euro economies will grow 1.4 per cent and then shrink 0.4 per cent.

With files from the Star’s wire services

To read about Obama’s job creation plan see A2

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A friend of mine recently told me about a break- in at her home. The front door was smashed off the frame and all her jewellery was stolen. The loss of heirloom pieces that had belonged to her mother was devastating. As a result, she installed an expensive burglar alarm system including cameras at both the front and the back of the house. While Statistics Canada reports that alarm systems and motion detectors have led to a steady reduction in home break-ins in recent years, they may not deter a determined thief. They should be combined with other measures that help keep burglars from finding your home an attractive target. Here are some things you can do at little or no cost: 1.    Take your name off your mailbox: This will prevent thieves from calling 411 to get your phone number. Many thieves will call a house they are planning to rob first to see if you are home. 2.    Never leave a note on the door: If you are going out and expect a delivery, resist the temptation to leave a note on the door asking the post office to leave the package with your neighbour. 3.    Stop mail or newspapers: Before you go on vacation, stop mail and newspapers. Even if you leave town for a weekend, have a neighbour pick up these items plus unsolicited fliers. 4.    Get a yappy dog: Dogs are not free, but if you have one that barks when people come to the door, pay attention. He may know something you do not. Even the most affectionate puppy like mine can scare away bad guys. 5.    Prune trees or shrubs: If you have verdant greenery close to the house, tame it regularly so burglars do not have a place to hide. 6.    Hide you spare key carefully: A key left under the door mat, on the ledge over the door or under a flower pot is an “open door” invitation to a dishonest person. Be more creative, or leave it with a neighbour. 7.    Doors and windows: Always lock doors and windows and change the locks if you move into a new home or lose the key. Combination locks are becoming more popular because it is easier to change the code than replacing the whole lock. Put security bars on basement windows and secure sliding doors with a stick or a metal bar. 8.    Don’t leave valuables in the open: If a thief can see valuables like art, electronics, jewellery or silver through a door or window, you could become a target. Consider a bolted down, fireproof safe. 9.    Make the house look lived in: Have the grass cut and the driveway shovelled when you are away. Keep a car in the driveway. Use timers on lights, radios and TVs. Don’t put a message on your voice mail announcing your absence. 10.    Put neighbours on alert: Let your neighbours know how long you will be away and if someone is coming to feed the cat. Make sure they have a way to contact you in case they see something strange happening around your home. 11.    Don’t widely advertise your plans: Never mention you are going to be away to strangers or tweet your plans to all of your 10,000 followers. 12.     Hire a house-sitter: Getting a friend to house-sit while you are away is a great way to keep your house safe from burglars. And if you have pets that need care, in-house care for them could be an added bonus. Desperate, dishonest people are hard to deter. But they may also take the path of least resistance. With a little preparation, you may be able to prevent that path from leading to your front door. Also see: How to protect your password from hackers and 7 ways to protect your credit cards on vacation.

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The New York City subway is to resume some services Monday.

The city’s public transit system, the country’s largest, has been down because of the threat of the approaching Hurricane Irene. Subways, trains and buses are slowly coming back on after inspectors look for any damage.

Officials said commuters should expect long lines and long waits.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP’s earlier story is below.

Many travelers heading to and from the East Coast still face days of delays even as airlines start flying again Monday at major airports that closed for Tropical Storm Irene.

More than 11,000 flights were canceled nationwide over the weekend, and hundreds more will be scrubbed Monday morning, a flight-tracking service said.

There’s no easy way to squeeze all those displaced passengers onto scheduled flights, especially if airports around New York _ the nation’s busiest airspace _ encounter delays reopening Monday. And ground transport alternatives remain limited, with bus and train service disrupted into Monday as well along the East Coast.

Airlines won’t say how many passengers have been grounded since Irene came ashore in North Carolina on Saturday.

FlightAware, which tracks cancelations, put the total around 650,000, noting that many of the 11,800-plus flights canceled so far were on regional airlines that use small planes. Some travel experts suggested much larger numbers _ 1 million or more.

Finding open seats will be especially difficult this week because it’s the last gasp of the summer vacation season.

“We’re coming into the Labor Day holiday weekend, so a lot of those flights are already full,” said Todd Lehmacher, a spokesman for US Airways.

Airlines resumed flights Sunday at airports around Washington, Philadelphia and Richmond, Va. But the longer closure of the New York area’s Kennedy, LaGuardia and Newark, N.J., airports means travel delays will continue rippling across the country.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates the three airports, said late Sunday that Kennedy and Newark would open to arriving flights at 6 a.m. Monday, with departures beginning at noon. LaGuardia was to reopen at 7 a.m.

New York City officials said they weren’t sure Sunday evening when mass transit would be fully restored after shutting down Saturday, though some local bus service has resumed. The subways remained closed, and downed trees and high water still covered commuter train tracks across the region. Airline officials said those disruptions would affect their ability to get back into gear.

“It’s really dependent upon mass transit and the airport being ready to support the start-up,” JetBlue CEO Dave Barger told NBC.

Long-distance bus and train companies also saw lingering effects from Irene, which was downgraded early Sunday from a hurricane to a tropical storm as high winds ebbed.

Greyhound scrubbed bus travel between Richmond, Va., and Boston all weekend. A spokeswoman said buses would begin to roll north out of Richmond Monday morning and the company hoped to be running in New York by midday.

Amtrak said trains from New York to Florida will be canceled Monday, as will the car train between Lorton, Va., and Sanford, Fla. Some lines in North Carolina and Florida will be open.

Amtrak said in a statement Sunday evening that many routes south of Philadelphia will resume operation, while it canceled many trains between New York and points north. The railroad said separately that its inspections are revealing problems with wiring and signals, as well as trees blocking the tracks. Passengers with paid tickets on canceled trains can rebook or receive refunds by calling 800-872-7245 or visiting Amtrak.com.

But United, Continental, Delta, American, JetBlue, Southwest, AirTran and US Airways canceled hundreds of Monday-morning flights to the New York and Boston area.

Airlines said passengers should call ahead and make sure they have a confirmed seat before going to the airport, but the 670 flights that FlightAware said airlines had canceled for Monday is a small share of the nation’s daily flights.

Airlines also moved several hundred planes out of the storm’s path to avoid damage, which will further slow the return to normal service.

When blizzards hit the East Coast in December and February, it took some passengers days to get home. That could happen again.

Sara Hesselsweet of Norwalk, Conn., and her family were to fly home Sunday from vacation at Lake Tahoe on the California-Nevada border. After their flight was canceled, American Airlines told her it couldn’t find seats for her, her husband and 2-year-old son until next Saturday.

So the family decided to fly from Reno, Nev., to Dallas and on to Chicago, where they would rent a car to drive back to Connecticut.

“We checked Philadelphia, D.C., Boston, the Carolinas _ we couldn’t get a flight anywhere,” said Hesselsweet, sitting amid a pile of carry-on bags in the Reno airport.

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Thousands of extra police officers were stationed on Britain’s streets Friday, as the country faced its first weekend since riots raged through suburbs and town centers, leaving a scarred landscape of broken glass and torched buildings.

Police in London, which saw the worst violence, have charged almost 700 people with violence, disorder and looting, and the city’s mayor said Londoners wanted to see tough sentences handed out to the guilty. Hundreds of stores were looted, buildings were set ablaze and five people died amid the mayhem that broke out Saturday in London and spread over four nights across England.

Police, meanwhile, hit back against claims they were too soft in their initial response to the disorder.

Prime Minister David Cameron said officers had been overwhelmed at first, outmaneuvered by mobile gangs of rioters. He said “far too few police were deployed onto the streets. And the tactics they were using weren’t working.”

That changed Tuesday, when 16,000 officers were out on London’s streets _ almost three times the number of the night before. Cameron said the extra officers will remain on patrol through the weekend.

Hugh Orde, president of the Association of Chief Police Officers, acknowledged that police had faced “an unprecedented situation, unique circumstances” _ but said it was police themselves, rather than “political interference,” that got the situation under control.

“The more robust policing tactics you saw were not a function of political interference,” he told the BBC. “They were a function of the numbers being available to allow the chief constables to change their tactics.”

Cameron vowed “swift justice” for perpetrators, and courts were struggling to cope with a flood of defendants.

Across the country, more than 1,700 people have been arrested. Courts in London, Birmingham and Manchester have stayed open around the clock since Wednesday to deal with hundreds of alleged offenders.

The alleged looters and vandals included an 11-year-old boy, a teenage ballerina, a university English student from a prosperous commuter town, and Natasha Reid, a 24-year-old university graduate who admitted stealing a TV from a looted electronics store. Her lawyer said she had turned herself in because she could not sleep for guilt. A judge told her she would probably go to jail when she is sentenced later.

Another was Chelsea Ives, an 18-year-old chosen as a volunteer ambassador for next year’s Olympic Games. She is accused of burglary, violent disorder and throwing bricks at a police car during riots in north London on Sunday.

Newspapers reported that Ives was charged after her parents saw her rioting on TV and turned her in. She was ordered detained until a court appearance on Wednesday.

Mayor Boris Johnson said it was fitting that “significant sentences” were being handed down.

“That is, frankly, what Londoners want to see,” he said.

Although the rioters came from all Britain’s ethnic communities, the violence stirred fears of heightened racial tensions _ especially in Birmingham, where three South Asian men were killed Tuesday when they were hit by a car, reportedly driven by black youths.

Hours later Tariq Jahan, whose 21-year-old son Haroon was killed, urged calm guaranteed approval cash advance loans. So far, he has been heeded.

“This is not a race issue,” he said. “The family has received messages of sympathy and support from all parts of the community _ all races, all faiths and backgrounds.”

Home Secretary Theresa May said she was banning a march planned for Saturday by the far-right English Defense League in the central England town of Telford amid fears of violence.

The violence was triggered by fatal police shooting of Mark Duggan, a 29-year-old father of four who was gunned down in north London’s Tottenham area on Aug. 4 under disputed circumstances. A protest demanding justice on Saturday devolved into a riot, which spread to other parts of London and beyond.

Britain’s police watchdog apologized Friday for “inadvertently” giving the impression immediately after the shooting that Duggan had fired at officers. The Independent Police Complaints Commission said, “We may have verbally led journalists to believe that shots were exchanged.”

A gun was found in the car Duggan was traveling in, but ballistic tests showed that a bullet found lodged in an officer’s radio was police issue.

Britain’s Parliament was called back from its summer break for an emergency debate on the riots Thursday, with Cameron promising authorities would get strong powers to stop street mayhem from erupting again.

He said authorities were considering new powers, including allowing police to order thugs to remove masks or hoods, evicting troublemakers from subsidized housing and temporarily disabling cell phone instant messaging services.

He told lawmakers that he would look to cities like Boston for inspiration, and mentioned former Los Angeles, New York and Boston Police Chief William Bratton as a person who could help offer advice.

Bratton said he received a phone call Friday from Cameron asking him whether he would consider becoming a consultant for British police. He said he thanked Cameron for the opportunity and will continue speaking with British officials to formalize an agreement.

“This is a prime minister who has a clear idea of what he wants to do,” Bratton told The Associated Press in a telephone interview. “He sees this crisis as a way to bring change. The police force there can be a catalyst for that. I’m very optimistic.”

Cameron also said the government, police and intelligence services were looking at whether there should be limits on the use of social media sites like Twitter and Facebook or services like BlackBerry Messenger to spread disorder.

BlackBerry’s simple and largely cost free messaging service was used by rioters to coordinate their activities, Cameron’s office said. An 18-year-old woman was charged Friday with using BlackBerry messaging to encourage others to take part in violence. Several others have been charged with inciting violence on Facebook and Twitter.

The government said it planned to hold talks with police chiefs, Twitter, Facebook and Blackberry manufacturer Research In Motion Ltd.

But any move to disable the services temporarily is likely to be strongly opposed by civil libertarians.

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The Toronto stock market headed sharply higher following a bruising series of losses as traders look to an afternoon announcement by the U.S. Federal Reserve for direction.

The S&P/TSX composite index gained 120.57 points to 11,791.53.

The Canadian dollar was down 0.2 of a cent to 100.72 cents US after earlier moving below parity, going as low as 99.95 cents US.

The Fed is holding its regularly scheduled meeting on interest rates and while the central bank won’t be moving on rates, investors will be looking for any hint about plans for any further stimulus measures to soften the blow of a slowing economy.

The main Toronto index has fallen almost 14 per cent just since July 22, reflecting a lack of confidence that political leaders and central bankers can manage Europe’s debt crisis and mounting expectations of the U.S. going back into recession.

A downgrade of U.S. government debt by Standard and Poor

For weeks this spring, a coalition of Missouri power companies and consumer groups worked to hammer out compromise legislation that would pave the way for a second nuclear plant in Callaway County.

Though the bill never made it to a vote in the session’s final hours, it raised hopes that, after years of planning and debate, the bill could move forward. The compromise, which some hoped could be ratified in a special session, would allow Ameren Missouri to charge customers up to $45 million for an early site permit in exchange for certain consumer protections.

But two months later, the supposed compromise has apparently evaporated.

“I think we are stuck,” said Sen. Brad Lager, R-Savannah, who sponsored the legislation that ultimately died online payday loan lenders. “I think it will take time and term limits to potentially bring the change needed to break through the gridlock.”

The impasse seemingly has little to do with nuclear power or the $45 million that Ameren wants to pursue a permit from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The main obstacle, rather, is a separate proposal to overhaul the state’s renewable energy mandate, which legislators combined with the nuclear permit issue as the session wound down.

The proposed measure would have reduced the amount of clean energy that utilities are required to add and capped the rate impact for industrial power users at $100,000