Finance topics

Australia is the world

fast cash loan is fast becoming a viable financial option for consumers who need a few extra dollars.

The raspberry-colored walls are up — as is the large “American Girl” sign with stars dotting the “i”s.

When the highly-anticipated store opens later this week in Chesterfield Mall, lines of devoted fans are expected to snake outside the store as they wait to buy $100 dolls. But many parents haven’t waited for the grand opening to book children’s birthday parties there, with reservations already scheduled for several months out.

The store’s arrival — and the diehard following it brings along — is being welcomed with open arms by Chesterfield Mall. The shopping center has struggled in recent years with declining sales and a lower occupancy rate than many other area malls.

Katie Reinsmidt, spokeswoman for CBL & Associates, the mall’s owner, said the mall has already been moving in a positive direction this year with a rise in both traffic and sales.

“I think things are turning the corner,” she said.

And the American Girl store can’t do anything but help bring more visitors and buzz, she added.

“Other retailers at the center are anticipating some additional traffic — it will definitely have some cross benefit,” she said. “There’s nothing like it in the mall today.”

That’s what Angie Sicard hopes. Her specialty toy store, Toy Tyme, caters to both girls and boys.

“Families are going to spend so much on girls (at American Girl), that the boys are going to want something, too,” she said. “So they are going to come to our store” or other retailers in the mall.

Wade Opland, American Girl’s vice president of retail, said retailers near new American Girl stores usually see a double-digit sales lift regardless of whether it’s a cookie store or clothing store.

“We’re like the Apple of girls business for a mall,” he said, referring to the high traffic and sales that Apple brings to mall-based stores. “That’s why we’re so sought after.”

Whereas most mall stores pull from an area of about 20 miles, American Girl stores draw customers from a 150 to 200-mile radius, Opland said.

The Chesterfield store is one of three stores American Girl will open this year; the other two slated to open later this year are in Miami and Houston.

But while the retailer, which began as a direct-to-consumer catalog company, has been growing its bricks-and-mortar footprints in recent years, it doesn’t expect to have more than 20 stores nationwide, Opland said. The Chesterfield store is American Girl’s 12th store nationwide and will be the retailer’s only store in Missouri.

The retailer was drawn to Chesterfield Mall for its “premier” mix of stores and because it is in the midst of a growing community with many young families, Opland said.

“Part of our strategy is we want to put these stores where mom, girls, and families live,” he said guaranteed pay day loans. “At Chesterfield Mall, we’re in a prime location where mom can see us and it has a plethora of parking.”

The 10,850 square-foot store, which has an exterior entrance to the mall, is going into the space formerly occupied by the restaurant Wapango.

CBL’s Reinsmidt said Chesterfield Mall has a great location in an area with attractive demographics.

“But Chesterfield had unfortunate luck going into the recession,” she said. “Pretty much anytime a national bankruptcy announcement was made, there was one of those stores at Chesterfield.”

Borders and The Sharper Image are two examples. And some retailers — such as Abercrombie & Fitch, which shuttered its store in Chesterfield Mall earlier this year — have been paring back their number of mall stores nationwide, she said.

In late 2009, the mall began inviting local artists to fill some empty spaces in the mall as part of Artropolis — similar to ailing Crestwood Court’s now mostly-defunct ArtSpace.

By the end of 2011, Chesterfield Mall’s store space was 93 percent leased, up from 84 percent in 2007, according to CBL’s annual report.

But even though it has fewer vacancies, the mall’s sales per square foot in those mall stores (not including anchors) dropped 17 percent to $270 during that same time period. By comparison, sales per square feet at other CBL malls in the area range from $475 at West County Center to $400 at St. Claire Square to $364 at South County Center.

Reinsmidt said one of the challenges for Chesterfield Mall is that there is a lot of space to fill — nearly 500,000 square feet of store space not including anchors. That is more than any of CBL’s other four malls in the region.

And when the mall’s previous owner, Westfield, refurbished the mall in a $71 million project in 2006, it added more store space with a wing that includes the movie theater, food court, stores and restaurants like the Cheesecake Factory.

“They expanded the small shop space rather than contracting it,” she said.

With so much space, many of Chesterfield’s stores are a bit larger than in other malls, which lowers the mall’s sales-per-square-foot number, she said.

“The stores are really profitable and have great volumes,” she said.

As some stores leave, new tenants continue to come to the mall. Francesca’s Collections opened in the last week or so. And Monsoon, a London-based children’s retailer, is planning to open a store there this summer.

And, of course, there is American Girl. It plans a “soft” opening on Wednesday followed by a grand opening celebration on Saturday and Sunday.

Source

The House on Tuesday passed a bill making it easier for more companies to become publicly traded by bypassing audits and disclosures now required for investors.

The House voted 380-to-41 to pass the bill, which the Senate passed last week. The passage sends the bill to President Obama, who has indicated support.

The measure rolls back some rules the Securities and Exchange Commission enforces on small and medium companies attempting to make an initial public offering or IPOs.

"It is a victory for small companies and entrepreneurs who want Washington to reduce the red tape that stifles innovation, economic growth and job creation," said Rep. Spencer Bachus, an Alabama Republican who heads the House Financial Services Committee.

The bill has sparked concern from the retirement group AARP, investor groups, unions, consumer groups and even the head of the SEC. All of them said the bill could open the door for more failed IPOs and investor fraud.

The bill would relax SEC rules for small and medium-sized companies with less than $1 billion in gross revenue seeking to go public. The measure gives them up to five years, or until revenue tops $1 billion, to supply an independent audit and certain investor disclosures.

U.S. corporate tax rate: No. 1 in the world

Critics said $1 billion is too high a threshold — some 80% of firms going public would be able to bypass disclosures.

It would also make it easier for companies with as many as 2,000 shareholders to avoid registering with regulators.

The bill would also exempt firms from nonbinding shareholder votes on executive pay and benefits packages, which just came as part of the Wall Street reform law. In the aftermath of the financial crisis, the law made it tougher for CEOs to reap bonuses tied to soaring stock prices — particularly when the company is over-leveraged and making risky bets paydayloans.

Critics, including the Council of Institutional Investors, said that easing the rules applied to far too many companies and could make investors wary of investing in them.

"A company (with $1 billion in revenues) has the resources to comply with disclosures," said Jeff Mahoney, general counsel to the Council of Institutional Investors.

The bill would also allow companies to solicit investors — including the use of advertisements — when going public, which is currently prohibited. And it would allow them to raise money from larger numbers of small, less sophisticated investors.

Barbara Roper of the Consumer Federation of America warned the provision would make it easier for companies to take advantage of seniors, luring them to sink their retirement savings into an IPO.

"A retiree who has that nest egg isn’t necessarily a sophisticated investor and shouldn’t be speculating on private offerings," Roper said.

The bill would also allow what’s called "crowd funding," allowing firms to bypass regulations to raise money from large pools of small investors by directly soliciting them over the Internet. Critics are concerned about the potential for fraud.

The only change that the Senate made last week was to require that those working as an intermediary to such crowd funding register with regulators.

"The bill is far from perfect, but it’s a good bill," said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid last week. "It’ll help capital formation." 

Source

Surging oil prices are starting to pinch the pocketbooks of Asian consumers and could quicken inflation and slow economic activity in a region that has led global growth in recent years.

The jump in crude _ the U.S. benchmark is trading near a ten-month high of $107 a barrel from $75 in October _ has sent fuel prices higher across Asia, where only Malaysia is a net oil exporter among the major economies. In Singapore, for instance, a liter of 92-octane gasoline at ExxonMobil stations has risen 6 percent this year to 2.15 Singapore dollars a liter ($6.48 a gallon).

Higher oil prices have already made Asian policymakers think twice about cutting lending rates and implementing other stimulus measures designed to boost economic growth as shockwaves from Europe’s debt crisis spread. If crude gets much higher, it could force central bankers to raise rates, sacrificing growth to tame inflation.

The backbone of Asia’s economy has traditionally been exports to the U.S. and Europe but a growing middle class and a boom in purchasing power in recent years in countries such China and Indonesia have made Asian consumer demand increasingly vital to the global economy.

“I spend most of my day on the road driving clients around to see properties,” said 27-year-old Singapore real estate agent Timothy Chen, who switched last week to a less expensive, lower-octane gasoline to help stem his rising fuel bill. “It’s frustrating because I’m paying more for petrol but I’m not making more money.”

Some in the region, such as Singapore and Hong Kong, import all of their crude and are particularly exposed to higher energy prices, which boost transport and production costs, and therefore the cost of most goods. The cost of crude has spiked recently amid investor optimism that an improving U.S. economy will boost demand and fears that rising tensions over Iran’s nuclear program could lead to global supply disruptions.

“Rising oil prices appear more like a tax on global growth, eating into spending power in the U.S. and Europe, and hitting many Asian economies at a time when they are slowing,” said Gerard Lyons, chief economist at Standard Chartered Bank. “The impact of oil prices on the global economy can never be underestimated. Rising oil prices are usually the biggest threat to continued global growth.”

Asia’s strong trade and government surpluses have so far helped it absorb higher global oil prices without a significant impact on the region’s inflation and economic growth. The International Monetary Fund is forecasting gross domestic product in Asia will expand 6.7 percent this year from 6 no fax payday advances.3 percent last year.

However, GDP forecasts won’t take the sting out of higher fuel costs, especially for the region’s poor.

Hanoi motorbike taxi driver Nguyen Van Hung, 42, said he had to raise his fare by 1,000 dong (5 cents) per kilometer after the government boosted gasoline prices by 10 percent to a record high earlier this month.

“My customers just walked away when I told them I had to raise the fare,” said Hung, who earns about $5 a day and supports a family of four. “They said they could not afford that much.”

Even if the most recent data suggest inflation remains largely in check, Asia may still be hurt by the recent surge in oil prices since it can take months or years for higher energy costs and tighter monetary policies to work their way through an economy, said Sean Darby, chief global equity strategist with Jefferies in Hong Kong.

“Well after the oil shock occurs, the economy will still be impacted,” Darby said.

South Korea, Taiwan and Thailand are the biggest net crude importers relative to the size of their economies while India _ with trade and government deficits and an inflation rate at 6.6 percent in January _ is in a weak position to absorb higher energy costs, analysts said.

Another worry is that higher oil prices will force countries that subsidize consumer fuel costs _ such as India, Indonesia and Thailand _ to spend more on crude and less on other public expenditure that could help economic growth.

China raised gasoline prices 3.3 percent last month to equal a record high of 9,380 yuan per liter ($4 a gallon), but China has in the past been able to absorb increases. Since 2003, gasoline prices have nearly tripled while the country has averaged growth of about 10 percent a year.

“Asia has shown in recent years that high prices are not a barrier to the region’s continued rapid economic growth,” said Daniel Martin, Asia economist with Capital Economics in Singapore.

But if prices jump because of a supply disruption from a violent conflict over Iran’s nuclear program while the global economy slows, the impact on Asia would be worse than, say, a scenario in which prices rise more gradually because Europe has stabilized and the global economy and oil demand are growing faster.

____

Associated Press writers Sharon Chen in Singapore and Tran Van Minh in Hanoi, Vietnam contributed.

Source

The tax bills of Mitt Romney and Warren Buffett raise a long-running question: Why do Americans get taxed less on their investment gains than on their paychecks?

In fact, for much of the past century, long-term capital gains have been taxed at lower rates than ordinary income, although often at levels higher than today’s 15% rate.

And for much of the past century it’s been a contentious issue.

One side says preferential treatment for capital gains is just plain unfair. The tax code, they say, is being used to help the rich get richer, since they make more of their income from capital gains than anyone else.

Their solution: Tax capital gains as regular income.

Then there’s the counter argument — that capital gains, if anything, should be taxed more lightly, or better yet, not at all.

Capital gains are double taxed: One of the principal arguments for taxing capital gains at a lower rate is double taxation.

The corporate tax ’shell’ game

It goes like this: Stock prices are bolstered by corporate profits, which are subject to corporate tax. Therefore, gains made on stocks have already been taxed.

Tax experts like Len Burman and Martin Sullivan say that double taxation is dumb — actually, they’re more likely to use the term "inefficient."

But they also note the limitations of the double-taxation argument: Some capital gains really are only taxed once.

For instance, some assets that produce capital gains are not subject to a corporate tax. Think real estate, art or a pass-through business.

And some capital gains escape taxation altogether. A beneficiary of an estate does not owe tax on the capital gains accrued on an asset during the lifetime of the person who died.

Many gains are just inflation: One reason to keep capital gains rates lower is inflation. That is, some portion of one’s gains can be attributed to inflation between the purchase and sale of an asset. And sometimes it’s the whole kahuna.

Tax expert Bruce Bartlett, in a 2001 paper, cited research showing that after accounting for inflation investors booked a real investment loss of $231 billion on nominal gains of $3 trillion between 1946 and 1977.

Where the candidates stand on capital gains

To help mitigate the inflation hit, lawmakers have typically taxed capital gains at a lower rate than ordinary income or let investors exclude some portion of their gains from taxation.

A lower rate spurs the economy: The most common argument for a lower gains rate is that it spurs investment and risk-taking, which can lead to economic growth and higher federal revenue.

Burman doesn’t doubt a lower rate might spur investment and risk-taking. But there’s no proven correlation with economic growth, he said. "It doesn’t prove there’s not a relationship. It’s just not the silver bullet it’s made out to be."

In part that may be because it’s hard to quantify risk-taking, Bartlett noted in his new book about tax reform, "The Benefit and the Burden." But he also asserts that that impact of a lower gains rate on growth is "ambiguous."

Policy experts worry that a high capital gains rate can cause investors to hold onto assets longer than they otherwise might, preventing them from using their gains to reinvest in other assets.

Then again, some say a higher rate won’t deter investors.

"I have yet to see anyone — not even when capital gains rates were 39.9% in 1976-77 — shy away from a sensible investment because of the tax rate on the potential gain," billionaire investor Warren Buffett wrote in a New York Times op-ed.

Possible solutions

A lot of arguments made to justify a low capital gains rate are really about "general flaws with the tax system, not a reason to lower the capital gains rate per se," Burman said.

One argument for not singling out capital gains for special relief: They are not the only kind of capital income that can be double taxed or hurt by inflation. So are dividends.

And creating special tax breaks for capital gains gives people a reason to seek out tax shelters.

One proposed solution is to tax capital gains and dividends as ordinary income but significantly lower ordinary income tax rates.

That was the recommendation of President Obama’s bipartisan debt commission and the Bipartisan Policy Center’s Debt Reduction Task Force. And it’s what President Reagan and Congress did when they reformed the tax code in 1986.

"If you tax capital gains as ordinary income it raises a lot of revenue to cut other rates," said Burman, who worked on the 1986 reform and was a member of the Bipartisan Policy Center task force.

"It maintains high progressivity while lowering rates and it closes down the biggest opportunity for tax shelters." 

Source

BRUSSELS

The European Central Bank

Just hours after Greece gave in to painful new job and spending cuts, European ministers declared Thursday that Athens didn’t go far enough and demanded more within a week in exchange for a euro130 billion ($170 billion) bailout to stave off bankruptcy.

The ministers gave the debt-ridden country until the middle of next week to find an extra euro325 million ($430 million) in savings, pass the cuts through a divided parliament, and get written guarantees that they will be implemented even after the elections of a new government in April, said Jean-Claude Juncker, the Luxembourg prime minister who chaired Thursday’s meeting of finance chiefs of the 17 euro countries.

The new austerity plan, which makes sharp cuts to the minimum wage and thousands of public-sector jobs, ignited fresh criticism from unions and the country’s deputy labor minister, who resigned in protest after Greece agreed to the deal. Even debt inspectors conceded that the new measures would keep the country in a recession for a fifth straight year.

But Greece’s finance minister warned that the alternative will likely be worse.

“Unfortunately the choice we face is one of sacrifice or even greater sacrifice _ on a scale that cannot be compared,” Evangelos Venizelos told reporters, after the meeting with ministers from the 16 other countries that use the euro.

Other European officials warned that more severe steps still might be necessary.

“Greece still has its homework cut out,” Jan Kees de Jager, the Dutch finance minister, said after the meeting. “A lot of measures need to be clarified and taken.”

A European official said earlier he still saw 10 to 15 issues before the deal could be concluded, including doubts that Greece could lower its debt level down to 120 percent of its annual economic output by 2020 and that labor market reforms would restore the country’s competitiveness. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the negotiations.

On top of that, the ministers were seriously considering a plan proposed by France and Germany to force Greece to set up a separate account dedicated to repaying its debt, said Olli Rehn, the EU’e economic affairs commissioner.

Such an account would be an unprecedented intrusion into the fiscal affairs of a sovereign state in Europe. The plan underlines the frustration that has built up in the eurozone over Greece’s slow reforms over the past two years.

Rehn, calling it a “relevant possibility,” did not say whether only money from the bailout would be channeled into the account, or whether it would also contain Greek tax revenue.

Greece is under immense pressure to reach a rescue deal. On March 20, it has to redeem euro14.5 billion ($19.3 billion) in bonds _ money which it doesn’t have. The country’s total debt is euro350 billion ($464 billion) _ equivalent to 160 percent of its annual economic output _ and unsustainable even for a healthier economy easy payday loans.

Greek Prime Minister Lucas Papademos earlier Thursday said that all major party leaders in the country’s coalition government had backed the latest round of cuts, including a 22 percent cut in the minimum wage, firings of 15,000 civil servants and an end to dozens of job guarantee provisions.

The support of all major parties was a key demand from Greece’s international creditors _ but European ministers indicated that they still needed written assurance from the political leaders before Wednesday, when the ministers planned to meet again.

Once all the demands have been fulfilled, the eurozone will give Greece the green light to start implementing a separate bond swap deal with banks and other private investors designed to slice some euro100 billion ($132 billion) off Greece’s debt load.

Rehn indicated that the eurozone was relatively content with that deal, but reserved final approval until Wednesday. The swap deal will see investors exchange their old bonds for new ones with half the face value, lower interest rates and longer repayment deadlines. It has to be launched quickly since it is expected to take several weeks to complete.

A forced bankruptcy would likely lead to Greece’s exit from the euro common currency, a situation European officials say would hurt other weak countries like Portugal, Ireland and Italy. Financial analysts fear an uncontrolled default could trigger a chain reaction similar to the financial meltdown that followed the 2008 collapse of U.S. investment bank Lehman Brothers.

Greece is expected to rush the new austerity measures through parliament by late Sunday, but Papademos’ government is facing growing dissent from the majority Socialist party, which has seen public support in opinion polls drop to single figures.

Unions called for a 48-hour strike for Friday and Saturday in opposition to the new cuts, while Yiannis Koutsoukos, the deputy labor minister who quit Thursday, accused debt inspectors of using “shameless and blackmailing tactics” with the government.

And conservative leader Antonis Samaras insisted that Papademos call a spring general election _ a move that could make it more difficult for coalition parties to work together.

Almost two years of austerity have taken their toll on Greece. Unemployment reached a record 20.9 percent in November, up from 13.9 percent a year earlier, with more than 1 million people without a job. In the 15-24 age group, unemployment has spiked to 48 percent.

Source

Construction spending surged to a near 1-1/2 year high in November as investment in public and private projects rose solidly, cementing expectations of

strong economic growth in the fourth quarter.

Construction spending increased 1.2 percent to an annual rate of $807.1 billion, the highest level since June 2010, the Commerce Department said on Tuesday.

Spending in October was revised to a 0.2 percent fall, after initially reported as a 0.8 percent rise.

Economists polled by Reuters had expected construction spending to rise 0.5 percent in November.

Overall construction spending was up 0.5 percent compared to November 2010.

Private construction spending rose 1.0 percent, advancing for a fourth straight month. Spending on residential projects increased 2.0 percent, with solid gains in both multifamily and single family homes.

The housing market is showing some signs of recovery, with builders breaking more ground on new projects to meet growing demand for rental apartments. It is becoming less of a drag on the economy and is expected to significantly add to growth in 2012.

Private nonresidential construction was flat in November after declining 0.6 percent the prior month.

Spending on public sector construction rebounded 1.7 percent in November as outlays on federal projects jumped 5.3 percent after dropping 7.5 percent in October.

State and local government spending rose 1.3 percent after falling 1.2 percent the prior month.

Read more

There was no “Mission Accomplished” banner. No victory parade down the center of this capital scarred by nearly nine years of war. No crowds of cheering Iraqis grateful for liberation from Saddam Hussein.

It took the U.S. military just 45 minutes Thursday to declare an end to its war in Iraq with a businesslike closing ceremony behind concrete blast walls in a fortified compound at Baghdad International Airport. The flag used by U.S. forces in Iraq was lowered and boxed up. On the chairs _ nearly empty of Iraqis _ were tags that listed not only the name of the assigned VIP, but the bunker to rush to in case of an attack.

With that, and brief words from top U.S. officials who flew in under tight security, the U.S. drew the curtain on a war that killed 4,487 Americans, by the Pentagon’s count, and more than 100,000 Iraqis.

The conflict also left another 32,000 Americans and far more Iraqis wounded, drained more than $800 billion from the U.S. treasury and diverted resources from Afghanistan, where the Taliban and al-Qaida rebounded after their defeat in the 2001 invasion.

“To be sure the cost was high _ in blood and treasure of the United States and also the Iraqi people,” Defense Secretary Leon Panetta told the roughly 200 troops and others in attendance. “Those lives have not been lost in vain. They gave birth to an independent, free and sovereign Iraq.”

Many Iraqis, who saw their country devastated through years of fighting, disputed that.

“With this withdrawal, the Americans are leaving behind a destroyed country,” said Mariam Khazim, a member of the Shiite Muslim sect that has dominated politics since the end of Saddam’s Sunni-led regime.

“The Americans did not leave modern schools or big factories behind them,” said Khazim, whose father was killed when a mortar shell struck his home in Sadr City. “Instead, they left thousands of widows and orphans. The Americans did not leave a free people and country behind them. In fact, they left a ruined country and a divided nation.”

The low-key ceremony stood in sharp contrast to the start of the war, which began before dawn on March 20, 2003, with a “shock and awe” airstrike in southern Baghdad where Saddam was believed to be hiding. U.S. and allied ground forces then stormed across the featureless Kuwaiti desert, accompanied by reporters, photographers and television crews embedded with the troops.

Now, the final few thousand U.S. troops will head out in orderly caravans and tightly scheduled flights, leaving behind a nation free of Saddam’s tyranny but fractured by violence and fearful of the future. Bombings and gun battles still occur almost daily. Experts are concerned about the Iraqi security forces’ ability to defend the nation against foreign threats.

U.S.-Iraqi ties are no doubt closer than they were during much of Saddam’s rule but are still short of what Washington once envisioned. Iranian influence is on the rise. One of the few positive developments from the American viewpoint _ a democratic toehold _ is far from secure.

“You will leave with great pride _ lasting pride,” Panetta told the troops seated in front of a small domed building in the airport complex. “Secure in knowing that your sacrifice has helped the Iraqi people to begin a new chapter in history.”

Many Iraqis, however, are uncertain how that chapter will unfold. Their relief at the end of Saddam, who was hanged on Dec. 30, 2006, was tempered by a long and vicious war that was launched to find nonexistent weapons of mass destruction and plunged the nation into a bloodbath between rival Muslim sects.

An insurgency that rose up within months of the April 2003 fall of Baghdad scuttled reconstruction plans and forced the Americans to keep up to 170,000 troops in Iraq years after Saddam was captured.

Iraq nowadays is far quieter than at the height of the war, but with an uneasy peace achieved through intimidation and bloodshed. The number of Iraqi neighborhoods in which members of the two Muslim sects live side by side and intermarry has dwindled.

The forced segregation, fueled by extremists from both communities, has fundamentally changed the character of the country. And it raises questions about whether the Iraqis can heal the wounds of the sectarian massacres after the Americans leave.

Some Baghdad neighborhoods, such as Hurriyah, are still guarded by thick blast walls and security checkpoints. Widespread corruption, bureaucratic hurdles and electricity shortages continue to stifle Iraq’s economy.

It was hard to find an Iraqi on Thursday who did not celebrate the exit of what they called American occupiers, neither invited nor welcome in a proud country whose capital, Baghdad, was once among the world’s great centers of culture and learning.

Some said that while grateful for U.S. help ousting Saddam, the war went on too long. A majority of Americans would agree, according to opinion polls, though many initially supported the war as a just extension of the fight against terrorism after the 9/11 attacks.

One of the many ironies of the war is that Saddam had not tolerated al-Qaida, which planned and carried out the attacks. With Saddam gone and the country in chaos, al-Qaida in Iraq became the terror movement’s largest and most dangerous franchise, attracting fighters from North Africa to Asia for a war that lingers on through suicide bombings and assassinations, albeit at a lower intensity.

The ceremony at Baghdad’s airport also featured remarks from Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff who served two tours in Iraq, and Gen. Lloyd Austin, the top U.S. commander in Iraq.

Austin led the massive logistical challenge of shuttering hundreds of bases and combat outposts, and methodically moving more than 50,000 U.S. troops and their equipment out of Iraq over the last year _ while still conducting training, security assistance and counterterrorism battles.

As of Thursday, there were two U.S. bases and about 4,000 U.S. troops in Iraq _ a dramatic drop from the roughly 500 military installations during the surge ordered by President George W. Bush in 2007. All U.S. troops are slated to be out by the end of the year.

President Barack Obama had no comment on Thursday’s ceremony but told soldiers at Fort Bragg in North Carolina this week that the “war in Iraq will soon belong to history, and your service belongs to the ages.”

Despite Obama’s earlier contention that all American troops would be home for Christmas, at least 4,000 forces will remain in Kuwait for some months. The troops could be used as a quick reaction force if needed.

The U.S. will leave behind thousands of diplomats and security contractors.

“We will have to be working closely with the Iraqis to ensure the security of our civilians,” Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in a statement.

Still, the disappearance of uniformed troops marked a defining moment in Iraq’s history.

“It is a great achievement for the Iraqi people,” said Hayder al-Abadi, a Shiite lawmaker in Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s coalition. “Iraqi politicians have made their way and have made the independence and sovereignty a reality here. The Americans have committed a lot of mistakes in Iraq and they failed to protect the country.”

Source