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Loyalty program Groupe Aeroplan Inc. is continuing its aggressive international expansion while its former owner and key partner, Air Canada, is struggling to stay aloft amid the current economic downturn.

In a move that highlights the differing fortunes of the two businesses, Aeroplan said yesterday it is planning to spend about $24 million to launch a new coalition loyalty program in Italy next year.

Aeroplan said it has already signed up several retail partners for the program, which will be 75 per cent owned by Aeroplan and is to be modelled after the company’s Nectar program in Britain. Aeroplan purchased Nectar two years ago for $754 million.

"We have publicly stated that we intend to grow our core business offering and I am delighted that we are making good progress in executing this strategy in Italy," Rupert Duchesne, Aeroplan’s chief executive, said in a statement fast payday loan no faxing.

Originally conceived as an Air Canada frequent-flyer program, Aeroplan was spun off by airline parent ACE Aviation Holdings Inc. four years ago.

Details about Aeroplan’s expansion came just one day after the loyalty program revealed it would lend $100 million to Air Canada, which is struggling to avoid a liquidity crunch brought on by the weak economy and rising cash obligations. The loan is secured against the airline’s vacation division.

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It began 41 years ago when a meandering drive through then-rural south St. Louis County landed Orville Roy at the Chrysler assembly plant in Fenton.

Recently discharged from the Marine Corps, Roy decided to fill out an application. A job offer came two days later and, with it, a legacy was born.

Eventually, three of Orville Roy’s sons, a daughter-in-law and a grandson, Michael Roy Jr., would follow him through the Fenton plant gates.

"It’s been our living, our livelihood," said Michael Roy Sr., 48, Orville’s son.

No more.

On July 10, Michael Roy Jr. and 600 other Chrysler workers will punch their time cards and go down in history as the final shift at a location that has turned out the automaker’s products for a half-century.

"There’s no middle class anymore," said Michael Roy Sr., forced to retire from Chrysler in December due to medical problems. "The middle class is gone."

That may be an overstatement from a former worker angered and betrayed by what he sees as the failure of the United Auto Workers and Chrysler to protect local production jobs now outsourced to Mexico and Canada.

But it still rings true for families, like the Roys, who have come to view assembly line positions at Ford, General Motors and Chrysler as a birthright.

Multigeneration families employed by and loyal to a single car manufacturer have long been "part and parcel of the automobile business," said Michael Smith, director of the Walter Reuther Library at Wayne State University and an expert on the labor movement. "That’s why the auto crisis is so devastating."

Matthew Diemer, an assistant professor of counseling at Michigan State University, said it may be premature to declare the "death" of a tradition of children following parents and grandparents into blue-collar manufacturing jobs.

"But maybe," he allows, "what we’re seeing is the death knell."

COMPLICATED OPTIONS

The bell tolled for the Roy family on April 30, the day Chrysler announced it was laying off what remained of Fenton’s Dodge Ram pickup truck work force. (The company halted minivan production at the Fenton location last year.)

After work that afternoon, 24-year-old Michael Roy Jr. and his mother, Cheryl Roy, repaired to a local tavern to consider a series of complicated options.

In mid-May, Cheryl Roy, made her up her mind. An autoworker for 14 years, she rejected a possible transfer to a Chrysler facility in either Illinois or Michigan and took a company buyout.

Cheryl is collecting severance benefits, searching for a job and staying at the family home in Arnold to care for her husband, Michael Sr., who retired following diagnosis of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis — Lou Gehrig’s disease.

Also looking for work, Michael Roy Jr. wonders what the future holds for a young man who aspired to retrace the footsteps of his grandfather and father.

"I’m good with my hands," he said. "And if you’re good with your hands, what can you do now?"

The official answer: Move from the production of goods and services dependent on nonrenewable resources to the production of environmentally sustainable commodities. Manufacturing the blades used in power-generating wind turbines is a commonly cited example.

State and national leaders across the nation, including Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon, contend that so-called "green jobs" represent the next wave of American manufacturing.

Michael Jr. knows that getting a foothold in the clean energy work force means going back to school. A few credits shy of an associate’s degree, he walked away from his education to accept an offer of a part-time Chrysler job that he saw as a stepping stone to full-time employment personal loans.

Strapped by declining income as he helps tend to his father, Michael cannot afford, in terms of either time or money, to return to his studies at Jefferson Community College.

Smith agrees that Michael’s best hope rests in furthering his education,

A former autoworker himself, Smith laments that the days when a union membership card served as a portal to a middle class lifestyle are slowly disappearing.

"The jobs that dad and grandpa had, that didn’t require anything more than a high school education, are no longer around," Smith said. "Even auto working is not just about putting on hubcaps anymore. It’s a lot more sophisticated."

ITS OWN REWARD

That was not the case when Orville Roy, now 80, began working his way through various administrative departments, including payroll, in 1968.

"In the old days, if you knew somebody and you wanted to get hired, all you had to do was ask for a recommendation," he said.

All the better if that acquaintance happened to be a blood relative.

Putting aside their disappointment that jobs once performed in Fenton are now held by workers in Canada and Mexico, Michael Sr. and Cheryl Roy acknowledge their family of six has done all right by the nation’s No. 3 domestic automaker.

"We have four kids that wanted to play sports and take dance classes and do all sorts of things," said Cheryl. "Somebody had to pay for it."

Until Cheryl went to work in the pickup plant in 1995, that somebody was her husband, who had started as a "floater" in the chassis department 11 years before.

"I worked on the line, and that was punishment," said Michael Sr.

"I’ve shoved in engines, I’ve thrown tires and I’ve thrown bumpers," said Michael Sr., lapsing into autoworker jargon to describe the tasks he performed at Fenton. The "punishment" of the line, though, had its own reward: By the time Michael Sr. retired late last year, he was earning $29.95 an hour, plus the heralded UAW benefit package.

There was also the intangible benefit, Michael Jr. noted, of spotting a Dodge Ram on the road and thinking, "I made that truck."

TUG OF TRADITION

Michael Jr. never matched his father’s salary.

Nor, because his tenure paralleled Chrysler’s shrinking market share, was Michael Jr. ever offered a full-time position at the plant.

Michael Jr. can lay claim, however, to a dubious distinction: He worked both the last day and night shift to produce a minivan at the South Plant and, later, was assigned to the last North Plant night shift to build a pickup.

Michael Jr. was circumspect last week as he reflected on the irony of a callback has placed him on a shift that will soon assemble the final Chrysler product ever built in Fenton.

"It’s frustrating," Michael Jr. said. "But (unlike his dad and grandfather) I haven’t put my whole life into it."

Resolved that the time has come for him to move forward, the son of Michael Roy Sr. and grandson of Orville Roy nonetheless feels the tug of the tradition that began on a long ago leisurely drive that wound up, improbably, at a car factory.

"I was kind of hoping," Michael Jr. said wistfully, "that my grandkids would work there."

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The Bulgarian government that emerges after July 5 elections will seek an international bailout to repay the country’s short-term debt, Raiffeisen Centrobank SA Chief Economist Peter Brezinschek predicted.

The ruling coalition of Socialist Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev may be defeated by GERB, a party set up by Sofia Mayor Boiko Borissov, who won European Parliament elections on June 7, polls show. Borissov said on June 18 his country needs to “immediately” sign a deal with the IMF.

“There are informal discussions with the IMF — this is not official yet, they haven’t reached a conclusion,” Brezinschek said in a June 26 interview in New York. “After the elections, a new government will be in power and we’ll have an official announcement that Bulgaria will get assistance from the IMF in conjunction with the European Union.”

Bulgaria, like Latvia and Belarus, lacks sufficient reserves to cover debt coming due this year and may have to tap “official sources” for more capital, the World Bank said on June 22. The Balkan state, which joined the EU in 2007 and pegs the lev to the euro in a currency board, will have “the majority of the short-term refinancing needs met by the financial aid from the IMF,” Brezinschek said.

Gross foreign debt is equivalent to 107 percent of the economy and foreign reserves slumped 16 percent in the second half of last year. The budget surplus fell 83 percent in the first four months to 352 million lev ($249 million) and may be wiped out by year-end.

New Government

The government and the central bank have rejected calls for an international bailout similar to those received by fellow EU states Hungary, Latvia and Romania and by Belarus, Serbia and Ukraine outside the bloc. Bulgarian officials maintain the currency peg is backed by central bank reserves of $16 billion.

GERB led in a June 24 opinion poll by Mbmd agency, with 24 percent, while the Socialists were second with 18.5 percent, and the Movement for Rights and Freedoms, a junior coalition partner that represents ethnic Turks, were third with 14 percent. The survey of 1,202 people was conducted between June 18 and June 22 and had a margin of error of 2.8 percentage points compare carinsurance.

“The development for Bulgaria principally depends on the new government, how the new government will create an environment for foreign direct investors to invest,” Brezinschek said.

‘Diminishing’

The country’s investment inflows “are diminishing, and the risks to Bulgaria’s ability to access the external financing it needs to cover its external debts have risen,” the Economist Intelligence Unit said in a June 26 report.

Foreign direct investment shrank to 955 million euros from 1.92 billion euros in the same period a year ago, the central bank said on June 17.

Most of Bulgaria’s FDI is channeled toward industries that support domestic demand such as banking, real-estate and utilities. The country must divert FDI flows into more industries that support exports to achieve more a sustainable expansion, Brezinschek said.

“If they can manage that, and maintain the currency board until this change in the industrial structure takes place, I would feel confident,” he said. “Otherwise they have to give it up because it’s too confident.”

Croatia Bailout

Croatia will also “definitely” need an IMF bailout, Brezinschek said, adding there are “some indications there have been contacts” between the government and the IMF.

“We have packages for Hungary and Romania of about $25 billion,” he said. “I would say it’s half to two-thirds of that amount that would be sufficient to stabilize them. It’s a question also of how long the aid will be provided. If it’s just two years, like Hungary, then it’s not more than $15 billion to $20 billion.”

Bulgaria’s economy shrank an annual 3.5 percent in the first quarter, the first contraction in 11 years. Croatia’s gross domestic product may drop as much as 4 percent this year as consumption and investments decline, central bank Governor Zeljko Rohatinski said in May.

East European nations have received more than $90 billion in international aid since September to avoid defaults.

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A federal appeals court upheld a 2-year-old ban on Monsanto Co.’s genetically modified alfalfa in a case a biotech food opponent calls a "turning point" in the regulation of such crops.

The ruling by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday leaves Creve Coeur-based Monsanto with two options. It can appeal the case to the U.S. Supreme Court or hope for regulatory approval after the Agriculture Department completes a comprehensive environmental review.

"The ruling is disappointing, both to our company and the growers," said Garrett Kasper, a Monsanto spokesman.

However, Monsanto said a dissenting opinion by one of the three judges provides a "sound argument" if the case is appealed to the Supreme Court.

Monsanto got regulatory approval for biotech alfalfa in 2005. A year later, two alfalfa-seed farms and a coalition of environmental groups sued the government, challenging the decision to approve the crop without

requiring an environmental impact statement.

The groups cited concerns that conventional and organic alfalfa could be contaminated through cross-pollination, preventing crops from being sold. They also claimed biotech crops have led to overuse of herbicides and given rise to "super weeds" resistant to glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup.

A U.S. District Judge in San Francisco issued an injunction that banned the planting of biotech alfalfa after March 30, 2007. By then, more than 260,000 acres of the Roundup Ready alfalfa had been planted payday loan.

Monsanto intervened on the government’s behalf after the injunction, joined by Forage Genetics Inc., an alfalfa breeder that licensed the technology.

Nationwide, 23 million acres are devoted to growing alfalfa, most of which is used as animal feed.

But biotech opponents say the case is much broader because it marks the first time a thorough environmental review has been required for regulatory approval of a genetically modified crop.

Such a study will help regulators and the public understand any risks associated with crops that are genetically engineered to help farmers ward off weeds and pests, they say.

"This is a major victory for the public, for farmers and for the environment," said George Kimbrell, staff attorney for the Washington-based Center for Food Safety, a plaintiff in the case.

A draft copy of the environmental study on genetically modified alfalfa is expected later this year, according to the Agriculture Department. That will be followed by a public comment period and a final report.

Monsanto is still hopeful for government approval of Roundup Ready alfalfa and believes the results of the environmental impact statement could help with future reviews of new biotech crops.

Meanwhile, a lawsuit challenging the government’s approval of Monsanto’s Roundup Ready sugar beets is pending.

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One of Canada’s most distinguished journalists, Andrew Phillips, is joining the Toronto Star as business editor.

Most recently editor-in-chief of The Gazette, of Montreal, Phillips brings a wealth of experience to the task.

"We’re very excited to add Andrew’s authoritative thinking to the Star," said Michael Cooke, the Star’s editor. "He will help strengthen the paper’s coverage of the Ontario economy in the midst of global turmoil."

Before taking the top newsroom job at the Gazette in 2004, Phillips was editor of the Times Colonist in his hometown of Victoria, B online cash advance.C.

Phillips also has been Washington editor and London bureau chief for Maclean’s magazine. He covered the fall of communism in Europe as well as the first Persian Gulf War.

Business editor Mark Heinzl, who has held that position for 2 1/2 years, is returning to business writing. Heinzl spent 13 years as a financial journalist with The Wall Street Journal. Cooke noted that, with his knowledge and experience, Heinzl’s return to reporting will further bolster Star coverage.

The transition takes place July 6.

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Exxon Mobil Corp., the world’s most profitable oil company, has teamed up with a small Ontario battery maker to promote the use of cars that do not consume a drop of petroleum.

Out of character, maybe, but officials from the Irving, Tex.-based oil titan were in Baltimore yesterday to launch a new car-share program called AltCar, which is composed of a fleet of 10 low-speed electric cars that will be rented to the public out of the Maryland Science Center.

The zero-emission cars, called the Maya-300, are the creation of Electrovaya Inc. of Mississauga. The company manufactures the lithium-ion battery packs that power the vehicles, which are assembled in Ontario.

But it’s what lies inside those batteries that explains Exxon’s role. The company’s chemical division has produced a new kind of separator film or "membrane" that can increase the power, capacity and safety of lithium-ion batteries.

"Exxon wants to show it’s a technology company," said Sankar Das Gupta, chairman and chief executive of Electrovaya, who attended the Exxon-organized launch in Baltimore. For Exxon, the event amounted to good public relations for a company regularly criticized by environmentalists, but Electrovaya shareholders had the most to gain.

Its stock soared 60 per cent, or 45 cents, yesterday to $1.20 on the Toronto Stock Exchange. In the past month alone, shares jumped 275 per cent.

The program also gives good exposure to the five-door Maya-300, which sports a shell imported from China and has several safety features, including an airbag system affordable health insurance oregon. The electric car can drive up to 190 kilometres on a single charge with its speed capped at either 40 or 55 kilometres an hour, depending on local regulation.

Exxon put $500,000 (U.S.) in the AltCar program. The money bought the vehicles from Electrovaya and developed a science centre exhibit to showcase green vehicle technology. They will be rented in two-hour intervals for $29.

"ExxonMobil is helping make vehicles more efficient," Jim Harris, a senior vice-president at ExxonMobil Chemical Co., said in a statement. "We believe that advances in technology are the solution to many of the toughest energy challenges."

The question is whether Exxon, which posted a jaw-dropping $45.2 billion record profit in 2008, is serious about promoting electric vehicles, or is simply engaging in another "greenwashing" exercise to clean up its dirty public image.

Only recently did it accept the science behind global warming and stop funding groups that denied man-made climate change is occurring.

"Of all the oil companies to try and create a green sheen for themselves, Exxon is certainly to be the least likely to succeed," said Joel Makower, a corporate sustainability consultant and editor of online news site GreenBiz.com.

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Eastman Kodak Co., the photography pioneer whose Kodachrome film inspired Paul Simon’s 1973 hit of the same name, said it will retire the 74-year-old product this year after sales dwindled and most labs stopped processing it.

Revenue from Kodachrome represents a fraction of one percent of Kodak’s total sales of still-picture films, the company said Monday. Kodachrome became the world’s first commercially successful color film in 1935, Kodak said.

The Rochester, N.Y., company has seen its profitable film business evaporate as digital cameras gained dominance. The company lost $4.53 billion in market value in 2008 as it struggled to show investors it had a place in the new technology.

"The majority of today’s photographers have voiced their preference to capture images with newer technology — both film and digital," said Mary Jane Hellyar, Kodak’s outgoing president of the film, photofinishing and entertainment group. Kodak derives 70 percent of its revenue from commercial and consumer digital businesses, the company said.

Photofinishing labs that process Kodachrome film have dwindled to one worldwide, Dwayne’s Photo in Parsons, Kan fast cash advance., Kodak said. The lab will offer processing for the film through 2010, and Kodak estimates Kodachrome film supplies will last until September or October of this year.

"I love to take a photograph," Paul Simon sang in "Kodachrome," which reached second place in 1973 on Billboard’s Hot 100 list. "So mama don’t take my Kodachrome away."

Taking Kodachrome away means taking 20 percent of Dwayne’s Photos annual sales away as well, said Grant Steinle, whose father founded the business in 1956. Steinle, vice president of operations at Dwayne’s Photo, declined to say what the firm with 60 employees makes in annual revenue.

"We’re very sad to see this," Steinle said. "Kodachrome has really been an icon of the 20th century."

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It’s been a long time coming, but Canadian cellphone users are finally set to experience the sorts of wireless plans and services – unlimited local calls, flexible contracts, cheap data plans – that consumers in some other countries have enjoyed for years.

The country’s $12.7 billion wireless market is about to undergo a massive shakeup with the arrival of several new players following Ottawa’s decision to boost competition in the sector through an auction of wireless airwaves last year.

In fact, observers say Canadians are already starting to benefit from lower prices and more customer-friendly plans as existing giants Rogers Communications Inc., Bell Canada and Telus Corp. rush to shore up their sizable subscriber bases.

Most of the activity so far has been at the incumbents’ discount brands – Fido (Rogers), Koodo (Telus) and Solo (Bell) – where talk and text plans are available for as low as $15 per month and controversial "system access" fees have been dumped.

"They’re trying to get a head start because they know, once these new entrants come in, they’re going to be fighting for the same customers," said Jamie Chadwick, managing director of Save Cell Communications, a Toronto company that helps subscribers save money on their wireless bills.

Chadwick said the country’s low rate of wireless penetration has created a potentially huge opportunity for newcomers to carve out lucrative business.

Only about 70 per cent of Canadians own cellphones, according to industry statistics. That compares with more than 85 per cent in the United States and more than 100 per cent in some European countries, where there are more mobile devices than people.

"The large majority of people who don’t currently have a cellphone," Chadwick said, "don’t have them for one simple reason: It’s too expensive."

First out of the gate is expected to be Public Mobile. Led by CEO Alek Krstajic, the company aims to launch before year end in Southern Ontario and parts of Quebec with $40-a-month plans that include unlimited local calls and text messaging.

"We need flat-rate billing," Krstajic said during a telecom conference this week in Toronto. "And not just flat-rate to my favourite 10 friends or unlimited nights and weekends. Unlimited is like freedom. It’s either unlimited or it isn’t."

In some respects, Public Mobile’s plan is similar to a monthly $45 unlimited local calling plan that Microcell Telecommunications introduced six years ago in Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal under the Fido brand.

Dubbed City Fido, the short-lived plan encouraged consumers to ditch their home telephones with TV commercials that featured giant spools of spiralled telephone cords being unrolled throughout a city, creating a tangled mess of old technology. Microcell eventually ran out of money and was bought by Rogers in 2004.

Other new faces on the block are Globalive Wireless and DAVE Wireless (Data & Audio Visual Enterprises Wireless Inc.).

Anthony Lacavera, the CEO of parent Globalive Communications Corp., has said Canadians are fed up with poor customer service and inflexible three-year contracts that prevent them from shopping around for the best deal.

Out of the three new entrants, Globalive is the only one proposing to build a national wireless carrier with the key exception of Quebec. Backed by Egypt’s Orascom Telecom Holdings SAE, the company paid $442 million for spectrum and is proposing to launch two brands before the end of the year, one of which will take the name of Globalive’s Yak long-distance service.

Lacavera has said he wants to offer a wide-range of devices to a mix of consumers and small and medium-sized businesses, leveraging the experience and market clout of his Egyptian partners. He also has talked about bundling wireless offerings with home phone and Internet services – a key tactic used by Rogers, Bell and Telus to lock in subscribers high quality business cards.

"We want to be able to provide services to a broad segment of the market over the long term," he said in a recent interview.

It’s not clear yet if DAVE Wireless plans to follow a similar model. Dave Dobbin, a former Toronto Hydro Telecom president, has refrained from talking in-depth about its plans, citing competitive reasons. The company paid $243 million for spectrum in major cities across Canada and is backed by an investment fund led by XM Canada satellite-radio founder John Bitove and New York private investment firm Quadrangle Partners.

What is known is that DAVE is proposing to build a 3G high-speed network in 10 cities and has signed a roaming agreement in the U.S. with T-Mobile. It also plans to launch under a different name.

Consumers are bound to be the biggest winners in the coming flurry of competition, but already some are predicting several new competitors will meet the same fate as Microcell and Clearnet Communications, previous wireless challengers that were ultimately scooped up, by Rogers and Telus, respectively.

Krstajic, a former executive at both Bell Mobility and Rogers Cable, told several hundred attendees at the Canadian Telecom Summit this past week that two of the three new players would not be around in 12 months.

Not surprisingly, as Public Mobile’s chief executive, he argued that Globalive and DAVE Wireless would be the most vulnerable because both are proposing to go head-to-head with the deep-pocketed existing players.

By contrast, Public Mobile plans to build an ultra-low cost network between Windsor and Quebec City using a slice of unwanted spectrum called the G-block, which its backers, including American firms Columbia Capital and M/C Venture Partners, purchased for just $52 million, about a fifth of what the others paid in the same markets.

Public Mobile’s strategy targets the roughly 30 per cent of Canadians who do not yet own cellphones, while deliberately avoiding high-end devices such as the iPhone and the BlackBerry, which require both voice and data plans.

Krstajic said he is hoping to fly under the radar of the incumbents by focusing on a segment of the market that the existing players have already deemed unprofitable.

The challenge for Public Mobile will be proving that it can build a successful business on a chunk of wireless spectrum that virtually every other big carrier in the world has ignored. Furthermore, the company is betting that there will be a future for bare-bones cellular services at a time when the industry is rapidly moving toward all-in-one smartphone devices.

Amit Kaminer, an analyst at telecom consultants The SeaBoard Group, said he believes the current round of wireless challengers stand a better chance of succeeding on their own than did their predecessors.

"The new entrants coming in now are coming in with a new value proposition and a new cost structure," he said. "Rogers, Bell and Telus say it takes $2 billion to build a network, but that was 20 years ago. It doesn’t cost that much now."

Kaminer cautioned that making inroads in the Canadian market will not be easy. Canadians might not always be thrilled with their current wireless service, he said, but all three existing players have "sharpened their pencils" in recent months when it comes to pricing, customer service and product offerings.

"Rogers, Bell and Telus are going to put a lot of money into retention," he said. "If you’re a subscriber whose contract is ending, it’s going to be very hard for you to leave because they’re going to throw everything at you but the kitchen sink."

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some rays of hope for the unemployed. Can the recovery last? Most important: Where are the jobs?

Get the answers when Anderson Cooper and Ali Velshi host our panel of experts and check in on virtual town halls across the country.

Thursday, June 18 at 8p.m. ET

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(CNN) — China can expect 7.2% growth in 2009, according to the World Bank, which says the country’s fiscal policies in the face of a global financial slowdown have kept the Chinese economy "growing respectably."

The 7.2% projection for the nation’s gross domestic product — a basic measure of an economy’s performance — follows China’s November announcement that it would inject $585 billion into its economy to offset declines in industrial and export growth.

"China can have the confidence to focus on forward-looking policies and structural reforms," said senior economist Louis Kuijs, the main author of the World Bank’s China Quarterly Update, released on Thursday.

Government-influenced investment has soared, and housing sales and imports have recovered, but exports remain very weak, according to the update.

Though signs of stabilization have emerged, "global growth prospects remain subdued," and a lot of uncertainty remains, the World Bank said pay day loans.

The bank forecast that exports are likely to grow significantly less in the coming decade than in the previous one.

China needs more domestic demand — and therefore reforms that channel resources to growth sectors and support domestic markets and urbanization — the World Bank said.

"Such reforms could be pursued all the more boldly and successfully if they are flanked by a well-functioning public finance system and social safety net," the update added.

It noted that longstanding problems, such as local governments having trouble matching funds, hampered fiscal initiatives.

The $585 billion in stimulus spending announced by China in November included the loosening of credit restrictions, tax cuts and massive infrastructure spending.

In March, the World Bank cut China’s economic growth forecast for 2009 to 6.5%, down a full percentage point from its November projection.

In 2007, before the global economic slowdown, China’s gross domestic product grew 13%. 

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some rays of hope for the unemployed. Can the recovery last? Most important: Where are the jobs?

Get the answers when Anderson Cooper and Ali Velshi host our panel of experts and check in on virtual town halls across the country.

Thursday, June 18 at 8p.m. ET

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — A flurry of banks officially escaped the clutches of TARP after cutting checks to the U.S. government Wednesday, marking the first major payback of the billions of dollars in aid invested in banks last fall.

Still, hundreds of lenders, including industry leaders Bank of America (BAC, Fortune 500) and Citigroup (C, Fortune 500), remain under the government’s thumb, leaving many banks to cope with life inside the confines of the Treasury Department’s controversial Troubled Asset Relief Program.

Banks have been working particularly hard to break free from TARP for several months now, decrying the various restrictions that have come with government aid, including restrictions on compensation for executives and other top earners.

But regulators have conceded little, fearing that many banks may be ill-equipped to withstand another bout of economic turmoil in the months ahead. There have also been concerns that banks may scale back on lending after returning TARP funds.

Small and mid-sized lenders, many of whom were strongly encouraged by regulators to participate in the program shortly after its launch last fall, have been met with some resistance in the application process, said David Katz, a partner in the financial markets practice at Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe.

"I think a lot of those institutions are very upset and unhappy," he said. "They have not been told no, but [regulators] are not moving very quickly."

Before last week’s announcement, only about two dozen banks, mostly community-based lenders, have won approval to redeem preferred shares the government acquired last fall. That represents nearly $1.9 billion in taxpayer money.

At the other end of the spectrum, the ten financial firms that were approved to exit TARP last week, including JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs and American Express, are poised to return a combined $68 billion in funds to the Treasury.

When will other big banks escape TARP?

But some large lenders have opted not to apply to pay back money just yet, including Pittsburgh-based PNC (PNC, Fortune 500) and Wells Fargo (WFC, Fortune 500), two companies that have been widely recognized as two of the nation’s healthiest banks.

While the pair have cited acquisitions of rivals made late last year and the tough economic climate for remaining within the program, it is clear that both banks, and others, will have to raise capital in excess of what was required by the government’s stress-test program to win their freedom from TARP.

Wells Fargo, which has publicly groused about the program as well as the stress tests, had hoped to rely, in part, on the bank’s revenue power to fix its $13 no fax cash advances.7 billion capital shortfall, said Raymond James analyst Anthony Polini.

But after consistently sparring with regulators over the past 10 months, the San Francisco-based banking giant is quietly acquiescing instead, choosing to earn its way out of TARP in a matter of months. Wells received $25 billion in TARP funds last fall.

"I think Wells is just getting a little tired of the process," said Polini. "The bottom line is it will probably be easier if it can put two solid quarters under their belt."

PNC, having already filled its $600 million capital shortfall, could follow closely behind, although some analysts suspect it may not pay back the $7.6 billion in TARP funds it received until some time in 2010.

Experts suggest that other big recipients of government aid, including SunTrust (STI, Fortune 500), Huntington Bancshares (HBAN) or Marshall & Ilsley (MI), are likely candidates to emerge from TARP in the near future. These three regional banks, which took hold of a combined $8 billion in government aid, have successfully managed to raise capital in the last month.

Some even think Bank of America (BAC, Fortune 500), which was required to raise nearly $34 billion, by far the most strained of the 19 big banks tested, is poised to earn its freedom from the program. BofA chief Ken Lewis has said publicly in recent months that he is anxious to return money to U.S. taxpayers.

The bank has already raised nearly all of the capital mandated by regulators. And if its controversial purchases of Merrill Lynch and Countrywide continue to bolster the company’s bottom line, much as they did in the first quarter, the bank could soon be allowed to pay back the $45 billion in government aid it has taken in since last fall.

"Despite all the questions raised about Bank of America, if management makes it a priority, they will find a way," said Linus Wilson, an assistant finance professor at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette.

The timetable for rival Citigroup to exit TARP however, remains a bit more cloudy.

Speaking at a forum Monday hosted by CNNMoney.com parent Time Warner, Citi chairman Richard Parsons said that the embattled bank planned to pay back the roughly $50 billion in government assistance it has received. But he was unable to provide a timetable for doing so.

As part of the repayment process, banks have to prove to both the Treasury Department and their respective regulator that they will remain well capitalized and will continue to lend after returning TARP funds. One additional stipulation is that banks must be able to issue debt without government assistance.

Most experts doubt, however, that regulators will impose stricter standards on banks that want to exit TARP in the future — assuming, of course, that banks do not hit another rough patch.

"It might actually be easier," said Raymond James’ Polini. "But it depends on the economy." 

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