Financial life in a big town

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. — The United States added nearly 1,400 megawatts of new wind energy capacity during the second quarter of 2008, providing enough electricity to power more than 400,000 homes, according to an industry report released Wednesday.

The American Wind Energy Association said new wind turbines this year will generate some 7,500 megawatts of additional electricity, far surpassing the 5,249 megawatts installed in 2007.

Wind power accounted for more than one-third of the new electric generating capacity installed in the U.S. in 2007, and the industry is projected to grow at a 45 percent pace for the second straight year, said Randall Swisher, the association’s executive director.

"We’re past the point of wind being a marginal player," Swisher said.

A financial bailout package passed by Congress and signed by President George W. Bush earlier this month provided an eight-year extension of investment tax credits for the solar industry but gave just a one-year extension of production tax credits for the wind industry.

Swisher said wind advocates were disappointed they couldn’t secure a more long-term policy, but the industry will work with the next administration on a stable five-year tax credit extension and a federal renewable energy standard internet payday loans.

The government, utilities and financiers also will have to come together to build a nationwide network of high voltage lines that will provide a backbone so the country can fully access its wind potential.

"In 2009, energy will be front and center with the new Congress and the new administration," Swisher said. "Both McCain and Obama have made that clear."

Swisher said the credit crisis and overall economic downturn undoubtably will have some effect on the capital-intensive industry, but it’s too early to predict to what extent.

He said capital in the near-term clearly will cost more and be more difficult to get, but other factors provide a bit of a silver lining. Transportation costs are continuing to come down, and steel prices have dropped significantly in the last few months. A wind turbine, by weight, is 89 percent steel, Swisher said.

Industry growth also is occurring on the manufacturing side. Eight new wind turbine component manufacturing facilities opened in the U.S. this year, nine were expanded and 19 new facilities were announced, according to the trade group.

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WASHINGTON — The Navy will inspect hundreds of F-18 Hornet fighter jets built by Boeing Co. after discovering "fatigue cracks" on more than a dozen aircraft deployed overseas.

The service issued an inspection alert late Thursday for all 636 Hornet aircraft to reduce any safety risk to pilots and the planes. The attack aircraft, which have been used in Iraq and Afghanistan by the Navy and Marine Corps, cost roughly $57 million each.

The Hornet is built by Boeing’s St. Louis-based defense unit.

Each Hornet will be inspected to check for cracks in a hinge that connects the aileron to the plane’s wing. Ailerons are flaps that control a plane’s banking movements and help to stabilize the aircraft in flight.

Failure of the hinge could "result in loss of (the) aileron, possible further damage to the aircraft, or possible loss of the aircraft," according to the Navy.

Most of the inspections are expected to be completed within the next few weeks. The service plans to stagger its inspections and repairs to spare disruptions of any missions, Navy spokesman Lt. Clayton Doss said Friday free credit report.com. The service will then decide whether to ground planes or restrict flights.

The first crack was discovered during a routine flight inspection.

John Pike, a defense analyst and director of GlobalSecurity.org, said carrier-based aircraft absorb more shock and corrosion than land-based models as they slam onto carriers’ shorter runways at high-speeds in saltwater air that can rot the planes.

"Cracks and corrosion. That’s what kills airplanes," said Pike.

There are 112 Hornets deployed on carriers worldwide, including in the western Pacific and the Arabian Sea. The planes affected have flown between 5,000 and 7,500 flight hours, according to the Navy.

The Navy twice has extended the life of the Hornets to a maximum of 10,000 hours of service to help bridge the gap until the Joint Strike Fighter, a new stealth fighter jet built by Lockheed Martin Corp., comes online.

The legacy planes are expected to be retired in 2023.

Boeing representatives did not return calls for comment Friday afternoon.

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Dell (DELL.O: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), the world’s second-biggest computer maker, is seeing softness in demand for personal computers due to the global economic downturn, but hopes to increase market share in emerging markets such as India, a senior official said on Thursday.

“We already talked about seeing a little bit of softness in demand. We were pretty clear about that number of weeks ago,” Chief Marketing Officer Mark Jarvis told reporters.

Dell, which trails Hewlett-Packard (HPQ.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) in the computer sector, in August posted a steep drop in second-quarter profit, as slow demand for PCs spread from the U.S. corporate sector to the public sector and small businesses, and to Europe and Asia.

But Jarvis, who reports to CEO Michael Dell, said Dell would outpace the industry in unit shipments in the second half of the year, as it sharpens its focus on markets such as India, where the companies are stepping up investments on technology cash advance in one hour.

“We believe that an economic slowdown will eliminate some of our marginal competitors and will give us the ability to gain share and we are strategically focused on gaining that share in a number of markets,” Jarvis said.

“We are extremely bullish on India,” he said.

Chief Executive Dell told reporters in Shanghai on Wednesday the company was performing well in unit shipments compared with the overall industry, and expected to grow faster than the industry this year.

The company said in August it had slashed 8,500 jobs out of a planned 8,900 headcount reduction, as it realigns its business to confront slowing demand. 

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United Airlines parent UAL Corp (UAUA.O: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) posted a quarterly loss due to July’s record-high energy prices and a drop in the value of its fuel hedges as oil later plummeted, but the results were not as bad as Wall Street expected, and the company’s shares rose more than 10 percent.

The loss underscores the troubles UAL and its rivals had last quarter as they grappled with skyrocketing fuel bills that peaked alongside crude oil in July.

The carrier suffered an additional noncash loss of $519 million, however, as its hedges — designed to blunt the impact of rising fuel — lost book value as oil began a rapid descent.

“While oil prices are lower in recent weeks, they continue to be volatile,” UAL Chief Executive Glenn Tilton said in an e-mail to employees.

“That said, the convergence of falling oil prices with our capacity flexibility, strong improvement on costs and competitive revenue put us in a position to make our margin and return United to profitability,” Tilton said faxless online payday advances.

Minus the noncash loss, the carrier’s results easily beat market expectations. UAL shares rose $1.30, or 10.3 percent, to $13.97 in morning Nasdaq trade.

The airline industry has been battered by soaring fuel costs, which peaked alongside crude oil as it notched a record high in July. Oil has fallen about 50 percent since it touched its high.

Nevertheless, airlines are rapidly downsizing to offset fuel bills. UAL, which intends to reduce its domestic capacity by 14 percent in the fourth quarter, is cutting 7,000 jobs from its workforce of 55,000. 

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CARACAS–Venezuela's economy minister expects OPEC to agree to cut oil supply at an emergency meeting next week to stem crashing world prices by bringing supply and demand into better balance.

The minister, Ali Rodriguez, who is a former OPEC president and a longtime advocate of Venezuela's hawkish stance to bolster prices, reinforced the emerging position among the organization's members that supply will be reduced Oct. 24.

"It is likely there will be a cut" at the meeting, he said in an interview broadcast on state television late Friday.

OPEC's president has said a cut is likely and Qatar's oil minister has said it could be about 1 million barrels a day from an organization that supplies the world with about a third of its oil supply no checking account payday advance.

Oil prices have plunged in recent weeks as a global credit crunch has spurred fears of recessions worldwide that would slash demand for oil. Prices lapped up at $150 a barrel in July but have fallen to less than half that this week.

Leftist Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez depends on oil revenue to sustain his high spending on the majority poor of his nation. If oil stays at its current levels for long, he likely will have to use other sources of income – such as loans or savings funds – to keep programs of food subsidies and free health clinics.

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Diversified electronics maker Samsung Electronics Co Ltd said it is re-entering the U.S. computer market with a range of branded products that build on its component supply strengths.

The Korean-based company will introduce on Tuesday new ultralight notebooks designed to appeal to potential buyers of Apple Inc’s ground-breaking MacBook Air and smaller “netbook” models from the likes of Asustek Computer.

Breaking into the crowded U.S. market involves taking share from more established players. The Korean electronics maker sees other Asian brand-name players as vulnerable, especially Toshiba Corp, Sony Corp and Lenovo.

Samsung is also coming out with models aimed at business professionals and the market for bulkier laptops known as “desktop replacements,” a Samsung executive said.

Like Apple’s Air, Samsung’s X-Series premium lightweight notebooks come with options for either a hard drive or solid state memory no teletrek payday advance. But Samsung’s X360 is priced at $2,499 and carries 128 gigabytes of flash memory, twice the 64 gigabytes that comes with the Apple Air selling for $2,598.

“These products really go after Apple and Sony. This is the MacBook Air killer,” Bret Berg, the senior product manager for Samsung’s U.S. computer division, said in an interview.

The X360 weighs 2.8 pounds and has an ultra-thin, tapered wedge design with a magnesium allow chassis, an aluminum top and a “pebble”-style keyboard.

Samsung’s hard-drive version, the X460, starts at $1,899 for a 160-gigabyte hard drive, twice the capacity of Apple’s existing MacBook Air model that is priced at $1,799 for an 80-gigabyte drive. The X460 weighs just under 4.2 pounds. 

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OTTAWA–Prime Minister Stephen Harper leapt on the news that Canada created a record 107,000 new jobs last month as evidence his government has the right policies for the economy.

The massive number – the largest since Statistics Canada began tabulating labour statistics in this manner in 1976 – shocked economists who had been forecasting a modest pick-up in the 12,500 range.

"When I say that notwithstanding the challenges our fundamentals are strong, let me repeat we’ve had GDP (gross domestic product) numbers up dramatically, we’ve had employment numbers up dramatically," Harper told a rally in Brantford, Ont.

However 90 per cent of last month’s new jobs – 97,000 – were part-time, and the official unemployment rate remained at 6.1 per cent because more Canadians were looking for work.

"It seems like everyone has a paper route these days," commented CIBC World Markets economist Avery Shenfeld. "How else to explain how Canada created 97,000 part-time jobs in a single month, during a period of severe economic strain across the country?"

The Canadian Labour Congress said the "low-quality" new jobs offer "an omen of tough economic times."

But Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said the numbers show the government has handled the economy properly, including by cutting taxes last October to stimulate activity.

He noted that the International Monetary Fund predicts Canada will top the G7 in growth next year with a modest 1.2 per cent advance.

With most economists judging the economy is in or near a recession, the September job increase may be seen as a correction of the 55,000 lost jobs in July, which also threw economists for a loop.

BMO Capital Markets economist Douglas Porter noted the latest numbers come from a survey in mid-September, "just as financial turmoil began to gather serious momentum," and may already be old news. But they show the domestic economy "carried much firmer momentum heading into the storm than many other nations."

Statistics Canada concedes the survey of 53,000 households has an error factor of plus or minus 43,500 jobs from the 107,000 number, 90 per cent of the time.

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An agreement suspending federal litigation over the fate of Wachovia Corp. was extended until Friday after a lawyer said a "grand solution" between bidders Citigroup Inc. and Wells Fargo & Co. was being negotiated.

"There are negotiations between Wells Fargo and Citigroup about a possible grand solution that would preserve the shareholder value for Wachovia as represented by the Wells Fargo deal," said Wachovia lawyer David Boies, according to the transcript. Such a deal "would involve not a single choice between Citigroup and Wells Fargo," he added, without elaborating.

Wells Fargo and Citigroup are competing for control of Charlotte, N.C.-based Wachovia’s $448 billion of deposits in 21 states. Citigroup offered $2.16 billion for the banking operations. Wells Fargo’s later bid, originally valued at $15 billion, was for the whole company, an offer Wachovia prefers to consummate. The bank seeks an order that the deal is valid.

The banks began filing lawsuits against one another last week. Citigroup claims that Wachovia entered into an exclusive negotiating agreement when the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. on Sept. 29 brokered a deal for Citi to buy Wachovia’s banking operation. Wachovia filed its own lawsuit asking a federal court to block Citigroup’s lawsuit, which was filed in New York state court.

The parties on Monday agreed to suspend their legal actions until Wednesday.

U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan in Manhattan Wednesday agreed to extend the delay until Friday, canceling a hearing scheduled for that afternoon, after Citigroup and Wells Fargo made their requests for more time to reach a settlement instant faxless payday loans.

New York-based Citigroup and San Francisco-based Wells Fargo are continuing their talks with the Federal Reserve to resolve the dispute, the banks said.

Wells Fargo may buy Wachovia and sell parts to Citigroup, said a person briefed on the negotiations who declined to be identified because the talks are private. Citigroup would get branches in the Northeast and about a quarter of Wachovia’s deposits. Wells Fargo would take the branches in the South and Mid-Atlantic states, the person said.

The fate of Wachovia’s securities brokerage operation, which is based in St. Louis, was not discussed. But under the original Citigroup deal, Wachovia Securities would have remained part of Wachovia Corp. along with Wachovia’s Evergreen mutual fund operation. Wells Fargo’s deal would have included, all of Wachovia’s operations, including the securities brokerage, which employs about 4,800 people in St. Louis.

Wachovia has a limited role in the talks, Wachovia General Counsel Jane Sherburne said.

Wachovia is "unfortunately somewhat caught in the middle of this negotiation between Wells and Citigroup," she told Kaplan, adding that her bank "will facilitate in whatever way we can a negotiated settlement of this matter."

Sherburne warned Kaplan that a settlement of the dispute must be reached soon.

"The further this litigation proceeds," she said, "the more difficult it becomes to sustain a negotiated settlement posture between the other two parties."

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Britain will inject up to 50 billion pounds ($87.2 billion) of government money into the country’s banks as part of a multibillion pound package to shore up the financial system.

After frantic overnight talks that followed dramatic falls in the share prices of some of Britain’s biggest banks, Finance Minister Alistair Darling rushed out measures Wednesday he said would help boost lending and restore confidence.

“This is beginning a process of un-bunging a big problem where banks won’t lend to each other for long periods,” Darling said.

Under the plans, Britain will inject new capital into the banks in the form of preference shares or similar instruments, and make available at least 200 billion pounds of liquidity in a bid to free up lending in the banking system.

The decision follows days of crippling pressure on British banks, some of which have lost nearly half their value on the stock market amid investor fears they could collapse if they are not handed a massive liquidity lifeline (pay day loan).

HBOS, which last month agreed to be taken over by rival Lloyds in a government-brokered deal, welcomed the plan.

“The government’s announcement represents a very real and serious intention on the part of the authorities, following consultation with the banking industry, to bring stability and certainty to the UK banking system.

“HBOS believes that this initiative is very much in the interests of its shareholders and customers.” 

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Anheuser-Busch Cos. shareholders will meet on Nov. 12 to decide whether to approve InBev NV’s $52-billion takeover of the St. Louis-based brewer, Anheuser-Busch announced today.

The special shareholders meeting will take place noon at the Crowne Plaza Hotel Hotel & Exhibition Center Meadowlands in Secaucus, N.J.

Two weeks ago, Anheuser-Busch announced that it had set Oct. 3 to be the record date that establishes which shareholders can vote on the proposal. Investors must have owned A-B shares on Friday to be able to vote on the deal, which will create the world’s largest brewer (fast cash loan). If approved, shareholders will get $70 for each A-B share.

On Sept. 29, InBev shareholders approved the proposed acquisition as well as changing the new company’s name to Anheuser-Busch InBev. They also approved the appointment of Anheuser-Busch chief executive August Busch IV as a director in the new company.

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