The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office estimates that the Democrats’ revised health care bill will cost $940 billion over the next 10 years, a House Democratic source told CNN Thursday.
CNN has not seen the numbers directly yet nor has the CBO released them publicly. But, according to the source, the bill would cut the deficit by $130 billion during the first decade. And it would reduce the deficit by another $1.2 trillion in the following decade, the source said.
The measure extends health insurance coverage to 32 million Americans, helping to guarantee that 95% of Americans will be covered, the source said. It also reduces Medicare expenditures by 1.4% annually while extending Medicare’s solvency by at least 9 years, the source added.
The source also told CNN the $940 billion price tag is fully paid for. But what’s not clear yet — and what may be revealed later Thursday — is just how Democrats plan to pay for the bill instant payday loan.
One of the reasons House Democrats objected to the Senate-passed version of health reform is the nature of some of the revenue raisers in that bill, in particular an excise tax on insurers that would apply to high-cost insurance plans.
Supporters of the excise tax say it offers a good shot at reducing health care spending over time, since insurers and employers would seek to avoid the tax by opting for lower cost coverage.
Opponents, including unions, say the tax would be passed on to workers, and lower cost coverage would be less comprehensive.
– CNN’s Dana Bash and Brianna Keilar and CNNMoney’s Jeanne Sahadi contributed to this report.
Americans may still be frustrated with the nation’s top banks, but the technology that large lenders are dangling in front of consumers may keep some from leaving.
Bank of America (BAC, Fortune 500) customers, for example, can now deposit checks at an ATM without having to fill out a deposit slip, as a result of the company’s recent conversion of nearly 14,000 cash machines into "envelope-free" ATMs.
Meanwhile, JPMorgan Chase (JPM, Fortune 500) has made waves with a nearly identical service that lets people deposit cash directly into an ATM.
Wells Fargo (WFC, Fortune 500) unleashed its own flurry of tech-driven initiatives over the last year, including a new mobile service that allows customers to transfer as much as $1,000 to another Wells Fargo account holder from their BlackBerry or iPhone.
"Our promise is to be available anywhere and everywhere our customers expect us to be," said Arah Erickson, head of Wells Fargo’s retail mobile banking division.
Big banks have long relied upon cutting-edge technology as a way to retain existing customers or win over new ones. These days however, "gee-whiz" banking products like an iPhone application or smart-ATM have taken on even greater significance.
Offering greater convenience may help soothe consumers who have become outraged over bailouts and big bonuses. But embracing new technology also makes good business sense for banks looking to cut expenses.
A customer that uses a teller to make a deposit, for example, costs the bank $1.34 on average, according to research firm TowerGroup. That same deposit made at an envelope-free ATM costs just 59 cents.
"That saves a lot of money," Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan said during a conference in New York last month, discussing the bank’s recent success in getting more customers to conduct transactions at its recently-updated network of ATMs.
Many of the nation’s top banks have been scouring for ways to cut costs as well as find new revenue streams as a result of the crisis and as the federal government has steadily unveiled a variety of new restrictions, including limits on their credit card operations.
Interestingly though, most banks have been reluctant to expand the ATM much beyond its role as a cash-dispensing and deposit-accepting machine, resisting such available technologies as using the ATM to sell concert tickets or help a customer pay a parking ticket.
"We want it to be as fast as possible for the customer," said JPMorgan Chase spokesman Tom Kelly guaranteed fast personal loans.
Many experts instead suggest that perhaps the biggest push will come in mobile banking. Nearly half of all iPhone users, for example, already do much of their day-to-day banking by phone, according to a study published last fall by Javelin Strategy & Research.
That number however, is expected to balloon in the coming years with 99 million U.S. adults conducting some sort of bank transaction from their mobile phone by 2014.
Top lenders like Wells Fargo and Citigroup (C, Fortune 500) already offer cell phone users a means by which to pay their bills by phone, check their balance or locate the nearest ATM.
It is widely believed that these and other banks will soon allow customers to make a deposit by taking a picture of a check with their smartphone, a burgeoning industry practice called "remote deposit capture."
Financial firm USAA was among the first to offer such a service when it launched its mobile check deposit product "Deposit@Mobile" to its predominantly military customer base last summer.
Some consumers have been reluctant to embrace such new technologies partly over concerns of having their account information compromised. But whether you have an account with a big lender or not, mobile banking and smart ATMs will at some point become the industry standard.
In fact, some ambitious community banks and credit unions, which have historically not had the economies of scale to implement such cutting-edge technologies, are now capable of offering products to rival the big guys.
San Antonio, Texas-based Randolph-Brooks Federal Credit Union, for example, which is a little more than one one-thousandth the size of Bank of America, has already announced plans to offer a mobile deposit product to its customers, noted Red Gillen, senior analyst at the consultancy Celent.
Customers at Mercantile Bank of Michigan, which operates just seven branches, can just as easily transfer funds as Wells Fargo customers with its MercMobile service.
Gillen said many of the latest technologies, particularly online services like an iPhone or BlackBerry application, don’t require a budget-busting investment by smaller banks.
"It really serves to level the playing field," he said.
OTTAWA–Prime Minister Stephen Harper will test drive his priorities for the G8 and G20 summits this week at an elite conference in Davos, Switzerland, and he’s expected to highlight the environment, development and global economic growth.
While Canada’s official agenda for the end-of-June summits is not yet finalized, climate change will figure prominently at both meetings, a senior government official said.
Economic recovery, banking regulations, aid for mothers and children in poor countries and global security are also top of mind for the prime minister as he leaves Tuesday night for a quick three-day trip.
His speech on Thursday will be the first public unveiling of how Harper sees the two summits unfolding – starting with the Group of Eight industrialized countries meeting in Huntsville, Ont., at the end of June, and followed immediately by the larger Group of 20 summit in Toronto.
While Canada has been widely pilloried for its lack of plans to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, Ottawa wants the two summits to push the world closer to a binding international treaty on emissions reduction, based on the agreement-in-principle reached in Copenhagen last month.
"We want to see a long-term agreement on climate change," said the Canadian official, speaking on background. He stressed that final decisions will need to be made through the United Nations.
The summits, he said, "can play a supportive role online payday loans."
For the G8 summit, Harper plans to make child and maternal health a central theme, several sources said, although it was unclear whether Harper was ready to focus on that topic in his Davos speech.
Ottawa wants to foster collaboration among the richest countries to improve hospitals and health care for mothers and newborns in poor countries.
The federal government also wants to set an example by increasing its own spending on maternal and child health in developing countries – although money has not yet been allocated for this effort.
Stopping the spread of nuclear weapons and other security concerns will also be on the G8 discussion list.
For the G20, Harper will use his Davos speech to signal that the Toronto summit in June will focus on entrenching the global economic recovery.
Specifically, Harper is expected to stress that the rebound is fragile, and that the world won’t really feel like recovery has taken hold until employment rises.
He is expected to signal that he wants all G20 countries to demonstrate that they are living up to their unprecedented commitments to stimulate their economies.
Tena Mayberry, the president of Brentwood-based Century II Inc., has been named as CEO of Century’s parent company, Indianapolis-based Fortune Industries Inc.
Mayberry, who was recently named one of Nashville Business Journal’s Women of Influence for 2010, will also continue to serve as president of Century II, and will remain in Brentwood.
She was named Fortune Industries’ president since last year, after the formerly diversified company decided to focus solely on providing professional employer organization services, such as payroll and human resources, to small and mid-sized businesses.
“I am excited to have the opportunity to lead the company through all the strategic plans we put in place,” she told Nashville Business Journal Monday.
She said she expects FFI to grow as the economy recovers, thanks in part to a continued emphasis on sales even while the company was cutting back on other costs.
“I think 2009 is the worst. We can’t have another 2009,” she said. “Everybody I speak with seems to be ready to start talking positively.”
Departing CEO John Fisbeck offered glowing words.
“Tena Mayberry is a proven top executive and one of the most knowledgeable senior managers in the PEO (professional employer organization) industry,” departing CEO John Fisbeck said in a statement. “Under her direction, FFI is one of the few PEO companies that has been profitable for the last year during this difficult economic environment. … She is an inspirational leader with boundless energy and will lead Fortune as it continues to expand in the U.S.”
Mayberry has more than 20 years of management experience, including time with Contract Sales Managers, Kroger Co., and Norrell Temporary Services. She holds a bachelor’s degree in marketing and business management from Tennessee Technological University.
Fortune Industries (AMEX: FFI) is the nation’s fifth-largest publicly traded PEO, representing 14,000 employees in 47 states.
The number of first-time filers for unemployment insurance fell last week to a nearly 15-month low, according to a government report released Wednesday.
There were 457,000 initial jobless claims filed in the week ended Nov. 28, down 5,000 from a revised 462,000 the previous week, the Labor Department said.
That’s the lowest level since the week ended Sept. 6, 2008. The week being reported included the Thanksgiving holiday.
A consensus estimate of economists surveyed by Briefing.com expected 480,000 new claims for the week.
The 4-week moving average of initial claims was 481,250, down 14,250 from the previous week.
Continuing claims: The government also said 5,465,000 people filed continuing claims in the week ended Nov. 21, the most recent data available. That’s up 28,000 from the preceding week.
The 4-week moving average for ongoing claims fell by 75,750 to 5,541,500.
But the slide in continuing claims may signal that more filers are falling off those rolls and into extended benefits.
Continuing claims reflect people filing each week after their initial claim until the end of their standard benefits, which usually last 26 weeks. The figures do not include those who have moved to state or federal extensions, nor people who have exhausted their benefits.
Obama’s jobs forum. The Obama administration is holding a jobs summit Thursday. The president will meet with labor representatives, financial experts, small-business owners and other business leaders to discuss how to revive the labor market no fax pay day loan.
The 130 forum participants are meeting on the eve of the government’s November unemployment report.
The nation is expected to have lost another 125,000 jobs, with unemployment remaining at a 26-year high of 10.2%, according to a consensus of economists surveyed by Briefing.com.
Last month, the Labor Department reported that the nation’s unemployment rate rose above 10% for the first time since 1983.
A separate report released by outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc. Wednesday showed the pace of job losses slowing to the lowest level in two years, but the number of cuts announced in 2009 have already exceeded last year’s total.
State-by-state data: Only one state reported initial claims fell by more than 1,000 for the week ended Nov. 21, the most recent data available.
Claims in Michigan decreased by 1,242, which the state attributed to fewer layoffs in the auto industry.
Nineteen states said that claims increased by more than 1,000. California reported that claims rose by 14,796; Illinois had 6,168 more claims; North Carolina’s increased by 5,557; Pennsylvania saw a jump of 5,285; and Texas claims rose by 3,500.
U.S. private equity firm Bain Capital is finalizing a roughly 100 billion yen ($1.1 billion) deal to buy Japanese telemarketer Bellsystem24 from Citigroup Inc, three sources familiar with the matter said.
It would be the largest buyout by a foreign private equity firm in Japan in nearly two years.
Bain has beaten off rivals Permira PERM.UL and a team of CVC Capital and Blackstone, which had also made offers in the final round of bidding for Bellsystem24, the sources said, speaking on condition of anonymity because the talks are not public.
Bain is working on final details and an official announcement could be made within the next few days, the sources told Reuters.
“A deal is imminent,” one of the sources said.
Bain had been tipped as the likely buyer when it secured exclusive negotiating rights earlier this month.
But the door was thought to be still open to the other bidders after the deadline for Bain’s exclusive rights passed on November 6 with no deal announced.
Talks had been ongoing with the CVC and Blackstone team after the exclusivity period ended, and that team had improved its bid, one source familiar with the move told Reuters.
Citigroup put Bellsystem24 up for sale as part of a global effort to raise cash and replenish its capital. It has already raised more than $7 billion by selling other assets in Japan including a broker, a trust bank and a fund management arm same day payday loans.
The sale of Bellsystem24 initially drew strong interest from a number of private equity firms including Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co KKR.UL, which teamed up with trading house Itochu Corp before dropping out of the race.
The deal will likely reach or exceed 100 billion yen, sources said, making it Japan’s largest buyout by a foreign private equity firm since March 2008, when Permira bought agrichemical company Arysta LifeScience Corp for more than $2 billion.
Bellsystem24 is Japan’s largest telemarketing firm. It competes against Moshi Moshi Hotline Inc and Transcosmos Inc in Japan.
Bellsystem24 is now owned by Citigroup Capital Partners, which was known as Nikko Principal Investments, a private equity arm of brokerage group Nikko Cordial, which was bought by Citigroup in 2007.
Nikko Principal paid 220 billion yen to buy Bellsystem24 in 2004. The sale price would be lower than the purchase price but Citigroup had made returns from the investment by restructuring the company’s debt to take some cash out, a method known as recapitalization.
Bain’s financing will be supported by banking units of Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc, Mizuho Financial Group Inc and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc, according to sources familiar with matter.
Jes Staley is taking over as head of investment banking at JPMorgan Chase & Co, in line to succeed Jamie Dimon as chief executive of the No. 2 U.S. bank.
“With the credit crisis largely behind us and the economy recovering, the timing was right to begin the succession process,” Dimon said in a statement Tuesday.
Staley, 53, who joined the bank in 1979, returns to the investment banking unit after stints at JPMorgan’s private bank and asset management operation.
JPMorgan said Bill Winters, 48, co-CEO of investment banking, is leaving the company.
The other co-CEO, Steve Black, 57, becomes executive chairman of the investment bank to oversee the transition to Staley as the new CEO.
Staley will report to Black, who will work through a transition period until the end of 2010, the bank said.
Mary Callahan Erdoes, 42, chief executive of JPMorgan’s private bank, succeeds Staley as head of asset management.
Winters and Black were deeply involved in the acquisition and integration of Bear Stearns Cos.
JPMorgan shares were up about 5 cents in premarket trading at $44.86.
(Reporting by Elinor Comlay; Editing by Derek Caney and John Wallace)
Last month, Missouri gambling regulators essentially put the President Casino’s license up for grabs.
Now the company that owns the casino is crying foul.
Pinnacle Entertainment has asked a state appeals court in Kansas City to overturn a ruling by the Missouri Gaming Commission that said Pinnacle must reapply for a license if it hopes to move the President or replace or repair the aging Admiral Riverboat on which it sits.
That ruling, Pinnacle argues in an appeal filed Thursday, essentially revokes the President’s license — one of just 13 allowed in the state — because it ties the casino to the Admiral, which is widely expected to fail its next Coast Guard inspection in July. Pinnacle would like the court to overturn the decision and give it time to fix the President.
It is the latest step in a long discussion over what to do with the casino, which Las Vegas-based Pinnacle bought for $45 million in 2006 as part of its development of Lumi
If not, pay heed to this story.
Jacqueline Boone, who lives in England, had an accident in a rented car while visiting Toronto in 2006. While driving out of an underground parking lot downtown, she swerved to avoid a head-on collision with a car coming down and hit a wall.
Boone called the company, Advantage Car & Truck Rentals, immediately to report the damage.
She believed she was protected from extra costs since she had paid $25 a day for a loss-damage waiver, which is supposed to cover repairs to a rental car in an accident.
But when she checked her credit card bill online, she found an extra $5,558 in costs for the transaction.
Advantage later wrote to say repair costs weren’t covered because of a clause in its contract that excluded collisions with a stationary object – that is, a wall.
With her husband, Boone decided to fight Advantage in Ontario’s small claims court. She found the forms online and prepared a case.
She said the car rental office near the airport was poorly lit in the evening when she arrived. It was virtually impossible to read the terms and conditions in the agreement. Also, the clause excluding collisions with stationary objects was never brought to her attention. She wasn’t asked to initial it, as with other parts of the contract.
"Jackie asked the clerk whether we would be covered for everything with the loss-damage waiver that we purchased at an exorbitant rate. He said we would be," Robert Boone says.
In July 2008, Boone flew to Toronto for her day in court. She faced several lawyers on the other side. "My wife has no legal training, but with help from guidelines downloaded from the Attorney General’s website, she put the case together and won it," her proud husband says.
She cited another case, Tilden Rent-A-Car vs. Clendenning, in which the contract denied coverage for accidents if the driver had consumed any alcohol auto loan interest rates.
Clendenning hit a pole after having consumed alcohol and pleaded guilty to impaired driving. He won in court when the rental company wouldn’t pay for the damage.
In the Ontario court of appeal in 1978, Justice Charles Dubin said many standard-form contracts are signed without being read and understood.
A company seeking to rely on "stringent and onerous provisions" in a contract shouldn’t be able to do so without having first taken reasonable measures to draw the terms to the other party’s attention, he said.
Advantage launched an appeal, which was dismissed on June 2 of this year.
Superior court judge Andromache Karakatsanis said the small claims court judge had not made any errors.
In the circumstances of the case, a reasonable person would have known that Boone was not consenting to the exclusion, notwithstanding the clause in the written contract, she said.
"Advantage stands behind the facts and allegations made by it in the court proceedings, which are now a matter of public record," company spokesman Bruce Taylor says about the case.
The company was ordered to pay for the repair costs, plus $8,000 in court costs.
The Boones hired a lawyer for the appeal, so they’re still out of pocket.
They hope to inspire others to fight against contracts with unfair terms.
"We are the kind of people who stand up for what they believe in and will not be bullied when we have been wronged," Boone says.
"I hope that a precedent has been set for all those who are wrongly treated by car rental firms to stand up and be counted."
Write to onyourside@thestar.ca
or check the On Your Side blog at ellenroseman.com
But he’s made mistakes in handling his own money and still lives in his mother’s basement.
He hopes to be out by his 30th birthday next month.
"My dad is a successful accountant and my mother has been in finance for as long as I can remember," he says. "My parents just never taught me about the subject of money, nor did I think to ask."
He spent frivolously, having owned six cars by the time he got his first university degree.
Then, he borrowed $60,000 to pay for his MBA studies and moved to China for two years. He found a job there, but racked up another $10,000 in consumer debt.
Goodman likes the idea of teaching young people about personal finances in school – as long as they learn why they need to care about their money.
"Sometime in your life, something will change. And if you’re not prepared for the unexpected, you can get into trouble," he tells me.
"I never learned why it was important to save money until it was too late. I could have paid my debts faster and not had to move back home."
He tries to help others avoid the same plight in his book, Following the Goods: Financial Management for the Young and Ambitious, which he published himself and sells at his website, www.followingthegoods.com.
What if schools started teaching money skills to all students? What would be on the curriculum?
Compound interest is a good place to start, says high school teacher Mike Gentile, who has taught Grade 12 economics.
"Most students are completely shocked to understand how debt functions," he says. "The greatest consternation stems from the basic concept of amortization, where the lender is paid the bulk of the interest costs up front low rate payday loans."
He shows students how they can pay up to twice the original amount borrowed if they spread the interest over many years.
The shorter the better when it comes to loan repayments: That one lesson can help them save thousands of dollars once they start buying cars and homes.
Gary Rabbior, president of the Canadian Foundation for Economic Education, has three simple concepts he’d teach youngsters:
Students can go through school without ever being taught how to make decisions, he says.
They need a rational, step-by-step model to guide their future decisions on working, spending, borrowing, saving and investing.
They also need to consider the impact their decisions have on other people.
Rabbior thinks there’s too much focus on preparing budgets in money management courses.
"Almost no one works with a budget. Out of 100 people, maybe three will do it," he says.
"We’re pushing people into the details of something they’re likely never to use."
It’s better to focus on the big picture, he says. Are you saving enough to pay for what you want? Are you taking on more debt than you can handle?
(You can find a free 125-page book, Money and Youth, and help for parents and teachers at www.moneyandyouth.cfee.org.)
eroseman@thestar.com
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