Financial life in a big town

The most hyped IPO of the year is here, but you won’t be able to trade Facebook’s stock right when the market opens at 9:30 on Friday.

That’s because Facebook () will trade on the Nasdaq exchange, which doesn’t open up initial public offerings until a bit later in the trading session.

"It’s not a delay or a problem, just a matter of style," said a source familiar with Nasdaq’s process. "We want to have an IPO stand alone at its own special time."

The company in question — right now, that’s Facebook — can decide when to debut and works with Nasdaq to set the time. Technically, an IPO stock could even start trading in the afternoon, as long as it’s well before the closing bell at 4 p.m. ET.

But most recent Nasdaq IPOs have typically begun trading a few minutes before 11 a.m. ET. That’s when Groupon (), Zynga () and Angie’s List () made their debuts.

Still, the opening times vary. For example, Splunk () began trading on the Nasdaq at 11:20 a.m. on April 19. The next day, Proofpoint () opened at 10:25 a.m.

A representative from Nasdaq declined to comment on what time Facebook’s stock will open on Friday.

The trading site StreetInsider.com typically posts that information as soon as it’s available. StreetInsider editor Lon Juricic says the site gets its timing information after Nasdaq releases it to traders in the morning.

How it works: On the morning that an IPO begins trading on the Nasdaq, the exchange starts a process called the "IPO cross." During that time, traders can submit buy and sell orders. The Nasdaq matches up those orders in real-time on its electronic marketplace — a process that typically takes 40 microseconds or less.

Those orders can be entered into the system, but they aren’t actually completed until the stock begins trading.

"It’s really business as usual," a source close to Nasdaq said of the plans for Friday’s trading. "Same policies, same procedures. This time there are just more questions because it’s Facebook."

By comparison, the New York Stock Exchange starts trading IPOs soon after the opening bell. Recent IPOs LinkedIn (), Pandora (), Yelp () and Annie’s () all began trading on the NYSE by 10 a.m.

– CNNMoney’s Hibah Yousuf contributed reporting. 

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Investors are bracing for Facebook’s Wall Street debut on Friday after the pioneering online social network raised about $16 billion in one of the biggest initial public offerings in U.S. history.

More: Why you should resist buying Facebook on its first day of trading

More: Facebook IPO: How long will the euphoria last?

To rapturous applause from employees, Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg rang the bell to kick off trading on the Nasdaq market at the company’s Silicon Valley headquarters at 6:30 a paydayloans.m. Pacific time.

Shares in Facebook begin publicly trading on the Nasdaq stock exchange for the first time Friday at 11:00 a.m., at an opening price of $38 US. Follow our live blog as The Star covers the social networking giant’s historic first trading day, including analysis and reaction.

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Economists have lots of ideas about what can be done to help jumpstart the still weak economy, but they don’t expect Congress to enact any of them any time soon.

A survey of economists by CNNMoney found most don’t expect Congress to pass any kind of economic assistance anytime in the foreseeable future. Only about a third of the 16 who responded to the survey expect some kind of action early in 2013, after the election. Just one expects action in a lame-duck session after the election but before the end of the year. None of them expect action before the election.

"Two weeks after a sudden freeze in hell," is when Bill Watkins, of the Center for Economic Research and Forecasting at Cal Lutheran University, expects Congress to ride to the rescue.

Watkins and his colleagues are the most concerned of those surveyed about the recent weakness in a number of economic readings, including much weaker-than-expected job growth in the March jobs report. They were the only ones who checked the very concerned box.

Another five economists said they were somewhat concerned, but six said they were only a little concerned, and four said they were not concerned at all.

Policies they would like to see passed include comprehensive tax reform, which was endorsed nearly unanimously. Those surveyed were allowed to endorse as many options as they thought would help the economy.

America’s biggest tax breaks

Tax reform would likely lower tax rates for both corporations and individuals, but eliminate many deductions and loopholes. The concept has been endorsed by everyone from President Obama to his likely Republican opponent Mitt Romney, but working out the details in a partisan atmosphere strikes economists as out of reach.

"Comprehensive tax reform would be great, but highly unlikely," said David Wyss, a fellow at Brown University.

Also getting the support of most economists is some extension of the Bush tax cuts, although they split on whether it should be for all taxpayers or if the extension should exclude high-income taxpayers.

Another third support another extension of the partial payroll tax holiday that has been in effect since the start of 2011 and runs through the end of this year.

"The pace of economic growth is too tepid to allow for the simultaneous expiration of the tax policies at the end of 2012," said Sean Snaith, economics professor at the University of Central Florida.

The survey also found 40% support repealing the health care reform and about a quarter would like to repeal the Dodd-Frank financial services reform.

"The uncertainty imparted on the economy by both Dodd-Frank and health care reforms are black clouds over the private sector and they both need to be reworked into more moderate forms," said Snaith.

Some believe that the economy will be better off if Congress does as little as possible.

How Congress is killing the recovery

"There was a time in this recent period where the economy benefited from the assistance of government actions, but now it is time for the government sector to resume its place on the sidelines," said Russell Price of Ameriprise Financial. Price would like to see an extension of the tax cuts for all but upper income households along with comprehensive tax reform.

The economists surveyed forecast only modest growth and hiring for the rest of this year. 

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After one of the fastest and steepest runups in recent memory, it’s possible gasoline prices may have peaked.

Retail gas prices fell more than half a cent Friday to a nationwide average just above $3.90 a gallon, according to AAA, continuing a decline started late last week that has shaved almost 4 cents off the price of gas.

The decline mirrors a moderate drop in crude oil prices, which account for roughly 70% of the cost of gas.

Crude prices have fallen for a few reasons, but the biggest is Iran’s decision to negotiate over its nuclear program.

Gas spending and prices by state

"All of the bad things we were really worried about don’t look like they will happen," said Kevin Lindemer, an independent energy consultant that has worked for Irving Oil and Cambridge Energy Research Associates. "If we have an uneventful summer, there’s nothing fundamental that should cause prices to go much higher."

But having an uneventful summer is still a big if.

Iran could walk out of the nuclear negotiations — beginning Saturday in Istanbul — at any time. A hurricane could hit the Gulf of Mexico. Protests could again rock the Middle East.

But barring a big event, it appears the world is adequately supplied with crude oil.

"Oil prices should fall," said Chris Lafakis, an economist at Moody’s Analytics. "That should provide a tail wind for the economy."

As tensions ease with Iran, markets become less fearful of a major disruption in oil supplies. Iran, after all, has repeatedly threatened to close the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the world’s oil passes.

But there are other factors pushing down oil prices as well.

Saudi Arabia: Assurances from Saudi Arabia that the country stands ready to cover any loss of oil from Iran due to tightening sanctions appears to have calmed markets.

The economy: A weaker jobs report from the United Sates last week and growing fears of a slowdown in China are tempering demand projections. High prices and better fuel efficiency in the United States have also been cutting into demand payday loans guaranteed no fax.

Pipeline reversal: Pipeline operator Enbridge plans to reverse the flow of a pipeline in the U.S. Midwest.

The pipeline currently brings oil from the Gulf of Mexico to Cushing, Okla., where there is a bottleneck of supplies. Reversing that flow will add another 400,000 barrels a day to global oil markets.

Return of offline supplies: On Thursday, the International Energy Agency said it expects some of the 1.1 million barrels of oil a day that’s currently offline from places such as Canada, the North Sea, and South Sudan will return to world markets in the second half of the year. IEA expects an additional 700,000 barrels a day in oil production from non-OPEC countries in 2012.

IEA also notes that OPEC production is at 3-1/2-year highs.

"Amid rising actual OPEC production, and a sizeable implied build in global stocks, prices have subsequently eased," the agency said in its report. "For now at least, the earlier tide of remorseless market tightening looks to have turned."

Caution ahead: However, all analysts warn that the situation can turn quickly, and some remain skeptical that Iran will stay out of the headlines throughout the summer.

"The odds of a military conflict are higher than what’s being discounted today," said Robert McNally of the Rapidan Group, an energy consultancy. "I think the market is relatively complacent."

Gasoline prices could also rise as the industry switches over from winter gas to cleaner summer blends.

Tom Kloza, chief oil analyst at the Oil Price Information Service, noted that the switch currently underway in the Chicago region led to a 40 cent spike in prices there.

Despite the recent dip in gas prices nationally, Kloza is sticking to his earlier prediction for a national average of $4.25 a gallon by Memorial Day — which would be a new record high.  

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President Barack Obama says his call for raising taxes on millionaires is not a redistribution of wealth, but a way to free up money for crucial investments in the U.S. economy.

Pitching the so-called Buffett rule for the second straight day, Obama dismissed the notion that the plan is a gimmick. He says it is necessary in order to tackle the country’s massive deficits.

The rule is named after billionaire investor Warren Buffett, who says he pays a lower tax rate than his secretary. Obama was flanked during his remarks at the White House Wednesday by several business executives and their assistants who he says agree with the principles in the Buffett rule.

The Senate will vote on the plan next week, though it has little chance of passing Congress.

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With little more than three months until the interest rates on federally subsidized student loans double, students are pushing lawmakers to help them out.

On July 1, the interest rate on federal subsidized loans will double to 6.8%. That means students taking out loans for the next school year will eventually dig deeper in their pockets to pay them off.

Quiz: What the rich really pay in taxes

Nearly 8 million students have subsidized student loans, which means the federal government subsidizes the interest rate for lower- and middle-income families based on financial need.

Without congressional help, students borrowing the maximum $23,000 in subsidized loans are poised to pay an extra $5,000 over a 10-year repayment period.

That’s why the consumer advocacy group U.S. Public Interest Research Group delivered 130,000 student petitions to lawmakers on Capitol Hill on Tuesday, asking Congress to stop the rates from doubling.

College degree = $650,000 more in earnings

"We’ve got 110 days to fix this problem," said Rep. Joe Courtney, a Connecticut Democrat, who is sponsoring a bill to extend current interest rates. "Middle class families, every single day, are struggling in terms of making sure their kids have a chance to succeed in life."

Subsidized student loan interest rates used to be 6.8%. But when Democrats took over the House in 2007, they passed phased-in cheaper rates for subsidized student loans. The rates fell to a current low of 3.4% for subsidized Stafford loans this past school year. The rates are scheduled to revert back to 6.8% for the 2012-2013 school year.

Student loans are a big deal. The Federal Reserve of New York last week reported that the $870 billion in student loan debt tops $693 billion in credit card debt and $730 billion car loan debt.

And with unemployment just below 24% for teenagers and 14% for those ages 20 to 24, more young people are going back to school or staying in school, according to new data by Equifax. Last year, new student loans grew by 4%, the firm reported Tuesday in its National Consumer Credit Trends Report.

Additionally more students struggle to pay back those loans. Student loan delinquencies involving payments more than three months late rose 14.6% in 2011 from the year before, according to Equifax.

President Obama urged lawmakers in his State of the Union address to stop this student loan rate hike from going into effect. But the deficit-conscious Congress has yet to act, especially since extending the 3.4% rate would cost $5.6 billion a year, according to FinAid.org.

While the president has focused on expanding access to college for low- and middle-income children, lawmakers have taken several steps to whittle away at student aid.

Congress has eliminated subsidized loans for graduate students, as well as most discounts. They also cut $8 billion out of the Pell Grant program for low-income students and reduced the income threshold for eligibility for a full Pell Grant.

The impending higher interest rates on subsidized Stafford loans worries Samantha Durdock, a sophomore at the University of Maryland in College Park, who currently has $8,000 in subsidized Stafford loans and expects to borrow another $15,000.

"Even though graduation is several years away, I am worried about the amount of debt I will have," Durdock said at the Capitol Hill event. "If interest rates double, the extra debt might also impact my ability to pay basic expenses like rent." 

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A top European Central Bank official says the 17 countries that use the euro will probably see a “very mild recession” this year and that higher oil prices should not have a lasting impact on inflation.

Benoit Coeure, an ECB executive board member, told Japan’s Nikkei newspaper that growth was held back by scarce bank credit and necessary government budget-cutting because of problems with debt in some eurozone countries.

He added that higher oil prices and increased value-added taxes on consumer purchases in some countries had led the bank to raise its outlook for inflation but that “insofar as they are temporary, higher energy prices should not have a lasting impact on inflation.”

Coeure said that whether inflation rose over the longer term would depend on whether higher oil prices were reflected in higher wages, creating so-called second round effects or a wage-price spiral.

He said in an interview text made public Sunday that “there are good reasons to believe that second-round effects will be limited.”

Coeure is one of six members of the ECB’s executive board, the body that runs the bank day to day at its Frankfurt headquarters. He also sits on the 23-member governing council, which decides interest rates.

Higher prices have become part of the bank’s discussion of the economy in recent days thanks to higher prices for crude and an easing of the eurozone debt crisis with a successful debt reduction and second bailout for Greece. Fears of a deeper recession and financial crisis pushed inflation concerns to the background in the last two months of last year when the bank cut interest rates.

But inflation increased in February to 2.7 percent, above the bank’s goal of just under two percent, and ECB President Mario Draghi said at his news conference last week that it was likely to remain over 2 percent for all of this year before falling payday advance. For 2013 the bank projects inflation between 0.9 and 2.3 percent.

Draghi made renewed mention of the bank’s primary mission of keeping inflation under control, as spelled out in the basic EU treaty, saying that task was “of the essence.”

That, along with expectations of a mild rather than deep recession, lead some analyst to think the ECB will not lower its benchmark rate below the current record low of 1 percent and may leave them unchanged into next year. Lower rates help growth but can worsen inflation if done at the wrong time.

The bank has helped bring a period of respite from the eurozone debt crisis with two offerings of more than euro1 trillion ($1.32 trillion) in cheap, 3-year loans to banks. The loans added around euro500 billion net in new cash to the banking system, given that some of the money was moved to the new loan offering from previous ECB loan programs.

The money has helped weaker banks repair their finances and led some of them to buy government bonds. That lowered borrowing costs for indebted governments such as Italy and Spain. High borrowing costs fed by fears of default are what drove Greece, Ireland and Portugal to seek bailout loans from other eurozone countries and the International Monetary Fund.

The eurozone economy shrank 0.3 percent in the fourth quarter, and two quarters of negative growth is one definition of recession.

The ECB’s staff projections foresee growth between minus 0.5 percent and plus 0.3 percent this year.

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OTTAWA

President Obama unveiled a $3.8 trillion budget request Monday that hikes taxes on the rich, spends new money on infrastructure and education, but does little to reform the entitlement programs that pose the biggest long-term threat to the federal budget.

"We built this budget around the idea that our country has always done best when everyone gets a fair shot, everyone does their fair share and everyone plays by the same rules," Obama said in his budget message.

But the budget forecasts a deficit for fiscal year 2012 that will top $1.3 trillion, before falling in 2013 to $901 billion, or 5.5% of gross domestic product.

The deficit projections, which have hovered near $1 trillion for each year of the Obama presidency, mean that Obama will not satisfy his 2009 promise to halve the deficit by the end of his first term.

White House officials described the budget as a continuation of two major speeches given recently by the president — one in Kansas where he promised Americans a "fair shot," and last month’s State of the Union.

The budget also offers fresh insight into how the White House plans to comply with last year’s Budget Control Act, which allowed Congress to raise the debt ceiling in exchange for caps on discretionary spending accounts.

Many of the high profile recommendations made in the budget were first floated by the administration last year as part of a deficit reduction plan rolled out in September.

Spending: The administration is proposing a series of investments focused on infrastructure, education and domestic manufacturing, including old favorites like $30 billion to modernize schools and an additional $30 billion to retain and hire teachers and first responders.

One key element of that plan is a six-year proposal to spend $476 billion on surface transportation, a big increase from current levels, and much more than other proposals lawmakers are considering.

At the same time, the White House had to comply with the spending caps enshrined in the Budget Control Act, which total in the neighborhood of $1 trillion in discretionary spending over a decade.

That means many programs will see their funding cut.

"Every department will feel the impact of these reductions as they cut programs or tighten their belts to free up more resources for areas critical to economic growth," Obama wrote.

Discretionary spending is projected to fall from 8.7% of GDP in 2011 to 5.0% in 2022.

The budget details 210 places where programs will be cut or eliminated, for savings of $24 billion in 2013 and $520 billion over a decade.

For example, the budget eliminates an Air Force satellite system that is "no longer needed to meet mission requirements."

And the budget proposes consolidating the Bureau of Public Debt and the Treasury’s Financial Management Service.

The president would also like to cut some mandatory spending, including select farm subsidies and federal employee retirement and health benefits, for savings of $217 billion over a decade.

Military spending will be reduced. The Pentagon plans to spend $487 billion less over 10 years, a course that Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta has already laid out in some detail.

But even with some cuts, annual deficits are still projected to be more than $500 billion every year for the next decade, and the budget would add $7 trillion to the debt held by the public between 2013 and 2022.

Taxes: The budget proposes a tax hike of $1.5 trillion, which includes a provision that will allow the Bush tax cuts to expire for high-income earners, a long-held Obama position 100% free credit score.

Obama would like carried interest to be taxed as ordinary income, which means money managers would pay more than double the rate they currently pay on a portion of their compensation.

‘Dirty Harry’ weighs in on deficit

The budget also incorporates the Buffett Rule, a guideline to ensure that the wealthiest do not pay a lower overall tax rate than those who earn substantially less money.

Specifically, no household making more than $1 million will be a allowed to pay less than 30% of its income in taxes.

It also calls for a year-long extension of the payroll tax cut and unemployment insurance.

In addition, the White House wants to reform the individual tax code in a way that "eliminates inefficient and unfair tax breaks for millionaires while making all tax breaks at least as good for the middle class as for the wealthy."

On corporate taxes, details are scarce, but administration officials said that the president will unveil a plan to reform the corporate tax code later this month.

Entitlements: Because the president’s budget does little to address how to curb the growth in entitlement spending, it’s unlikely to stabilize deficits beyond the next 10 years.

National debt: The five-minute primer

The budget would cut more than $360 billion from Medicare, Medicaid and other health programs over a decade. But that’s a drop in the bucket when compared to the rapid expansion of costs expected for entitlement programs.

"While [Obama’s] budget stabilizes debt over the next decade, the real problem arrives thereafter, as entitlement costs spiral out of control and revenues are inadequate to deal with a wave of retiring baby boomers," Pete Domenici and Alice Rivlin, who led their own debt task force, said in a joint statement.

Of course, proposing significant cuts to Medicare and Social Security during an election year is a politically risky move, but by not saying much on the issue, the White House opened itself to criticism.

House Appropriations Committee Chairman Hal Rogers took Obama to task on Monday, saying the proposal "falls exceptionally short" on entitlement spending reform.

"It is imperative that both the President and Congress put greater focus on addressing the exploding costs of these programs," Rogers said. "Without meaningful action in this area, the nation’s debt and deficit crisis will continue, increasing the risk to our nation’s financial and economic future."

What’s next: Obama’s budget request is essentially a blueprint of his fiscal priorities — the programs he would like to fund or cut, the new investments he would make and how he would pay for it all.

But the request is just that — a request. And it’s one that Congress can accept, reject or modify.

Even if Obama’s budget is adopted — which it won’t be — the estimates for deficit reduction may or may not pan out depending on how close to reality the administration’s forecasts for unemployment, interest rates and economic growth prove to be.

In any case, Obama’s 2013 budget is only the first step in a convoluted process that involves no less than 40 congressional committees, 24 subcommittees, countless hearings and a number of floor votes in the House and Senate.

If all goes well, a formal federal budget for government agencies will be in place by Oct. 1, the start of the 2013 fiscal year. 

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Iran will soon unveil “big new” nuclear achievements, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Saturday while reiterating Tehran’s readiness to revive talks with the West over the country’s controversial nuclear program.

Ahmadinejad spoke at a rally in Tehran as tens of thousands of Iranians marked the 33rd anniversary of the Islamic Revolution that toppled the pro-Western monarchy and brought Islamic clerics to power.

Ahmadinejad did not elaborate on the upcoming announcement but insisted Iran would never give up its uranium enrichment, a process that makes material for reactors as well as weapons.

The West suspects Iran’s nuclear program is aimed at producing atomic weapons, a charge Tehran denies, insisting it’s geared for peaceful purposes only, such as energy production.

Four rounds of U.N. sanctions and recent tough financial penalties by the U.S. and the European Union have failed to get Iran to halt aspects of its atomic work that could provide a possible pathway to weapons production.

“Within the next few days the world will witness the inauguration of several big new achievements in the nuclear field,” Ahmadinejad told the crowd in Tehran’s famous Azadi, or Freedom, square.

Iran has said it is forced to manufacture nuclear fuel rods, which provide fuel for reactors, on its own since international sanctions ban it from buying them on foreign markets. In January, Iran said it had produced its first such fuel rod.

Apart from progress on the rods, the upcoming announcement could pertain to Iran’s underground enrichment facility at Fordo or upgraded centrifuges, which are expected to be installed at the facility in the central town of Natanz. Iran has also said it would inaugurate the Russian-built nuclear power plant in the southern port of Bushehr in 2012.

Iran’s unchecked pursuit of the nuclear program scuttled negotiations a year ago but Iranian officials last month proposed a return to the talks with the five permanent U.N. Security Council members plus Germany.

“Iran is ready for talks within the framework of equality and justice,” Ahmadinejad repeated on said Saturday but warned that Tehran “will never enter talks if enemies behave arrogantly.”

In the past, Iran has angered Western officials by appearing to buy time through opening talks and weighing proposals even while pressing ahead with the nuclear program.

Washington recently levied new penalties aimed at limiting Iran’s ability to sell oil, which accounts for 80 percent of its foreign revenue, while the European Union adopted its own toughest measures yet on Iran, including an oil embargo and freeze of the country’s central bank assets.

Israel is worried Iran could be on the brink of an atomic bomb and many Israeli officials believe sanctions only give Tehran time to move its nuclear program underground, out of reach of Israeli military strikes. The U.S. and its allies argue that Israel should hold off on any military strike on Iranian nuclear facilities to allow more time for sanctions to work.

Before Ahmadinejad spoke Saturday, visiting Hamas prime minister from Gaza, Ismail Haniyeh, also addressed the crowd, congratulating Iranians on the 1979 anniversary and vowing that his militant Palestinian group would never recognize Iran’s and Hamas’ archenemy, Israel.

Also at the Tehran rally, Iran displayed a real-size model of the U.S. drone RQ-170 Sentinel, captured by Iran in December near the border with Afghanistan. Iran has touted the drone’s capture as one of its successes against the West.

The state TV called the drone is a “symbol of power” of the Iranian armed forces “against the global arrogance” of the U.S.

The report broadcast footage of other rallies around Iran, saying millions participated in the anniversary celebrations, many under heavy snowfall.

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