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Dubai says it now has full control of the Atlantis resort hotel perched atop its palm-shaped island.

State-run investment firm Istithmar World said late Friday it paid $250 million to buy out financially troubled business partner Kerzner International Holdings Ltd., which had held a 50 percent stake in the coral-colored hotel. Istithmar already owned half of the property.

Kerzner will continue to operate the resort, which includes a waterpark and 18 restaurants, Istithmar said.

It agreed to give up its stake in the Dubai property and a similar resort in the Bahamas after struggling to restructure $2.6 billion in debt. Canada’s Brookfield Asset Management acquired the Bahamas property in a previously announced deal by agreeing to waive $175 million in debt owed by Kerzner.

Kerzner said it plans to use proceeds from the Dubai sale to reduce its debt load.

Istithmar is part of Dubai state conglomerate Dubai World, which has struggled with high-profile debt troubles of its own. It owns upscale retailer Barneys New York and has a stake in performance company Cirque du Soleil.

“This acquisition is in line with our strategy of managing our assets for value and investing selectively where growth opportunities exist,” Dubai World’s chairman, Sheik Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, said in a statement cheapest personal loan rates.

Istithmar’s parent Dubai World was at the heart of Dubai’s financial meltdown in 2009. It signed an agreement to restructure some $25 billion in debt last March.

The Atlantis is one of Dubai’s better-known tourist destinations. It is a mainstay of city tours, vying for attention with the world’s tallest tower, Burj Khalifa, and more traditional offerings such as the old gold and spice markets. Ads for the hotel greet Dubai airport passengers on arrival.

Atlantis opened for business in September 2008, shortly after a construction fire damaged part of the brightly painted lobby.

A lavish coming-out party for the resort two months later cost $20 million and featured a celebrity guest list that included Robert DeNiro and Lindsay Lohan. Australian pop star Kylie Minogue provided the entertainment.

The 1,537-room hotel is at the top of the Palm Jumeirah, the first of Dubai’s palm-shaped manmade islands and the only one that is developed. Visitors arrive by monorail or by traveling through an underwater tunnel.

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The man polls say has the best shot at becoming France’s next president wants to hire thousands more teachers, renegotiate Europe’s expensive, hard-won bailout package, and re-assess his country’s role in both Afghanistan and NATO.

But Socialist Francois Hollande appeals less for his platform than for his persona: the innocuous, intellectual everyman is many things that conservative President Nicolas Sarkozy is not.

Hollande, 57, is tapping into a French zeitgeist wary of international finance, weary of Sarkozy’s “bling-bling” personality and eager for change. While countries in struggling Europe shift to the right, France may hand the presidency to the left for the first time in a generation, with repercussions for the continent’s direction and France’s future.

Part of Hollande’s appeal is his Mr. Nice Guy image, but he still must convince voters that he’s got what it takes to run a complex, nuclear-armed nation and one of the world’s biggest economies.

Hollande isn’t the only leftist making headlines in this campaign: Firebrand far-left candidate Jean-Luc Melenchon has amassed some of the biggest crowds so far at rallies blanketed in red communist flags. Melenchon, with the charisma that the mainstream Hollande lacks, is complicating the political calculus.

French voters kick off the balloting in two weeks, with 10 candidates from across the political spectrum facing off in a first-round vote on April 22 that will winnow the race down to two.

While Hollande has slipped a little in recent weeks, polls have suggested for months that he would win the expected two-man finale against Sarkozy on May 6 by a broad margin.

The economic crisis in Europe has felled many governments in recent years. A Hollande victory could break from a recent rightward trend in the continent, and put France out of step with other big European countries like Germany, Spain, Britain and Poland _ all run by center-right or conservative leaders. Italy, hobbled by a debt crisis, is led by technocrat Mario Monti.

Some of Hollande’s major proposals could raise eyebrows abroad: As governments enact austerity measures elsewhere in Europe, he wants to hire thousands more teachers. He wants to scrap a European bailout package led by Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel. He has pledged to pull all French combat troops out of Afghanistan by year-end, and says that pledge would be the first thing he tells allies at a NATO summit in Chicago in May.

For many in France, the time seems ripe for a return to a Socialist president: the only one in postwar France was Francois Mitterrand, from 1981 to 1995; throw-the-bums-out has been an election theme in Europe; Sarkozy, in part for reasons of personal style, has been unpopular for years; and the financial crisis and debt crises in Europe have emboldened the left.

Hollande is seen as more of a consensus manager and a listener than visionary. For much of his tenure as party first secretary from 1997 to 2008, he served mostly as a water carrier for party elders _ and only now is coming into his own.

His advisers insist to a foreign reporter that Hollande is no old-school Socialist, but a social democrat wary of the economic challenges coming from 21st-century powers like China and India.

Yet while major parties of the left in Europe reformed and tacked toward the political center in recent years _ like Gerhard Schroeder’s Socialists in Germany, or Britain’s Labour party under Tony Blair, the Socialists in France eschewed such a move.

And when he speaks to the French faithful, Hollande’s class-warfare style rhetoric _ inveighing against the financial world that he calls his “adversary”, and demanding justice for the underclass _ often draws cheers.

Hollande, who once quipped “I don’t like the rich” on TV, got a recent boost in the polls after he announced a proposal to slap a 75-percent tax on income beyond the first (EURO)1 million ($1.3 million) earned each year.

Hollande on Wednesday drew thousands who spilled out of two warehouses at a convention center near the city of Rennes, in the heart of the left-leaning region of Brittany.

The highlight was Hollande’s appearance alongside Segolene Royal, his longtime partner and mother of his four children. Royal, who is also Socialist, was the party’s nominee in 2007 _ and lost handily to Sarkozy payday advance. Hollande and Royal split not long after that election.

On stage, Hollande and Royal appeared just seconds together, and the body language was uncomfortable: they clasped hands from a distance, and smiled to the cheering throng. But the message _ party unity _ was clear. His new romantic partner, political journalist Valerie Trierweiler, looked on from a seat in the crowd.

Hollande’s near 90-minute speech covered his platform: A focus on education, job support for French youths facing high jobless rates, equal pay for women, respect for culture and ethnic diversity. Sarkozy has structured his campaign on a theme of a “strong France.”

Hollande claimed that Sarkozy, who took office promising economic growth, fiscal responsibility and competitiveness in France, had failed on all _ and promised more responsible Socialist leadership.

“People say to us, ‘Watch out, the left is back, it’s going to empty the (state) coffers.’ It’s already happened! ‘Watch out, if the left is back, it’ll raise the debt’. It’s already happened! ‘The Left will hurt competitiveness’ _ It’s already happened,” he thundered. “Well, we’ll do the opposite.”

The rich, he said, will be asked to pay more, and more money will be redistributed “to allow France to pick itself up.”

Unlike Sarkozy rallies, where a preppier crowd often hoists tricolor French flags in abundance, the Rennes gathering mostly brought out young students and retirees.

His campaign has been textbook: He launched a 60-point platform months ago, hewing to many Socialist tenets. At times, he comes across as stiff and cautious, but has made no big gaffes.

Hollande’s biggest challenge has been to try to project presidential caliber. While his pedigree is top-tier as a graduate of the Ecole National d’Administration _ the French breeding-ground school for both political and corporate elites like former President Jacques Chirac _ he has never run a government ministry.

Under his tenure as party boss, the Socialists suffered one of the biggest shockers in recent French political history: Lionel Jospin lost the first round to far-right nationalist Jean-Marie Le Pen in the 2002 presidential race, later won by Chirac. Hollande calls it the biggest blow of his career and one he won’t soon forget.

Hollande was born in the Normandy city of Rouen, the son of a social-worker mother who he admired and a doctor father who backed the political right and whose ideas “forced me to construct my ideas,” Hollande writes in his campaign-season book entitled “Changer de Destin” (Change Destiny).

On Les Guignols de l’Info, a satirical fake news show with puppets, Hollande has long been depicted as innocent, wide-eyed and soft-in-the-middle _ with a dopey, hollow laugh.

But in the Sarkozy era, he’s tapped into frustration about unemployment and perceived economic inequality. While Sarkozy, a former hard-charging Interior Minister, has trotted out his longtime formula of playing up his security credentials, Hollande has focused on what polls show worry the French most: joblessness and the economy.

The body language at the lectern _ where both Sarkozy and Hollande can excel _ speaks volumes. Hollande often leans on his elbows, or flails his arms about in the air, and laughs. Sarkozy cuts the air in crisp movements, and is seemingly less about engaging his audience than displaying resoluteness.

People who have known Hollande for years say his human touch and his assiduousness _ often unseen _ at the ground game of politics set him apart.

“What you notice most about Francois is that he’s well-balanced, has integrity, and feels good about himself,” said Frederic Bourcier, the Socialist Party’s First Secretary in the region around Rennes, alluding to the image of Sarkozy as hasty, tempestuous and aggressive. “We need something new.”

He also said Hollande had reworked himself, with an image makeover ahead of the campaign that included trimming his midsection, and that could serve as an inspiration for the country.

“This guy is tailor-made for France nowadays,” Bourcier said.

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Tensions with Iran are adding at least 30 cents to a gallon of gasoline in the United States, and experts say gas prices have only just begun to rise.

Gasoline prices have surged over 10% in the last two months, largely tracking the runup in oil prices, which have increased by a similar amount and are now at a 9-month high.

Several factors have caused oil prices to rise, including the sense that the economy is improving and supply disruptions in a handful of minor oil producing nations.

But the biggest factor by far, say analysts, is fear that tensions with Iran will lead to an all-out war that causes a disruption in oil supplies.

"The market right now is fairly well supplied," said John Kingston, director of oil, at the analytics firm Platts. "You’ve just got a significant fear factor that things could get worse."

Kingston noted that OPEC is actually producing more oil right now than is needed to keep pace with global demand. As such, stockpiles are rising.

Gas spending and prices by state

And thanks to the recession and better fuel efficiency, gasoline demand in the United States, the world’s largest consumer, is actually the lowest it’s been in a decade, according to the Energy Information Administration.

Yet gas and oil prices continue to climb.

The fear is that Iran’s 2.2 million barrels a day in exports could be cut off. Iranian oil is already being sanctioned, but so far most is still finding its way to market, just at lower prices.

Worse, there’s fear the 17 million barrels a day that flow through the Strait of Hormuz, one fifth of the world’s total production, could be disrupted by an Israeli attack.

That’s a big reason why gasoline prices in the United States averaged $3.37 in January, the highest for any January ever, according to AAA.

"It’s a market that’s caught fire," said Ben Brockwell, an analyst at the Oil Price Information Service, which collects data for AAA. "And it doesn’t look like there’s any circuit breakers to stop it."

Indeed, Brockwell noted that while retail prices are up 36 cents a gallon in the last two months, futures prices have risen even higher — 82 cents over the same time period.

Unless the situation with Iran cools off and future prices decline, consumers will likely see that 35-cent-a-gallon difference in the form of a similarly paired price hike at the pump in a matter of weeks.

Iran’s ‘distressed’ oil to keep flowing - at deep discount

"I definitely think the market is psyching itself up for a new record," he said, referring to the previous average high price for gasoline, which was $4.11 a gallon set in the summer of 2008. "Probably before memorial day."

That possibility has got a lot of people freaked out. Everyone from the Obama administrations to the American Petroleum Institute has been trying to talk down prices in the last few days.

Many economists say gasoline prices sustained above $4 a gallon could stunt the growth of the fragile worldwide economy — a fact which diplomats shuttling to Israel must be well aware.

It’s thought the Israelis are considering an attack on Iran as a means to disrupt its nuclear program, which Iran says is for peaceful purposes but many suspect is intended to produce a bomb.

But if Israel can’t be persuaded to hold off an attack, $4 gas will look cheap.

"If Israel does hit Iran, all bets are off," said Mike Fitzpatrick, editor-in-chief of Kilduff Report’s Energy Overview. "$150 [oil] is the first marker we’ll hit."

Oil at $150 a barrel could translate into over $5 a gallon at the pump. 

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ST. LOUIS • The money to renovate the Edward Jones Dome could come partly from higher fees for tickets and parking.

Those are among the possible sources of public funding listed in a financial plan the St. Louis Convention and Visitors Commission has sent to the Rams. The plan is meant to explain how to pay for $124 million in renovations to the Dome.

It lists a ticket surcharge and the creation of a new parking district, with a vehicle surcharge, as options. The plan also lists bond refinancing, tax credits and tapping the reserves of the Dome’s owner as other options.

The one-page financial plan, however, is short on specifics and does not list how much money each source of public funding would generate. It lists only the total they would bring in: $59.5 million.

The lack of specificity is highlighted by one of the listed sources: “Other City, County and State money as may be provided.”

And at least one of the listed items — refinancing of bonds issued by the Regional Convention and Sports Complex Authority to build the Dome — is not currently allowed, according to the authority’s website.

The CVC, which manages the Dome for the authority, wants the Rams to pay for $64.5 million of the renovation costs.

The CVC released the document late Thursday after a public records request from the Post-Dispatch. The CVC released its renovation plan on Wednesday but declined to release the financial document, and St. Louis and St. Louis County officials also initially declined to discuss funding details.

Officials said they did not list specifics or dollar amounts because the document was not meant to be a detailed financial analysis. The idea was simply to show the Rams that there are a variety of public funding options available, they said.

“All of them might be used or some of them might be used,” said Mike Jones, a senior policy adviser to St. Louis County Executive Charlie A. Dooley. “It’s all going to depend on what improvements end up being made.”

No decisions have been made on what area would make up the parking district, what the charges would be, and whether they would be levied only on game days or year-round. Also, no decisions have been made on how much a ticket surcharge would be. The city already charges a 5 percent amusement tax on Rams tickets.

Jeff Rainford, St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay’s chief of staff, pledged that proposals to levy new fees or taxes would go before city voters — if those proposals go beyond what is generated as part of the “game day experience.”

“People who don’t go to Rams games or take part in the NFL experience don’t have to worry about being nicked for this without a vote of the people,” he said short term personal loan. “They will not pay any more for this facility without a public discussion and a public vote.”

Rainford also said a referendum would be needed if the city were to eliminate the 5 percent amusement tax or redirect the revenue to help pay for construction costs.

Dooley’s office has similarly pledged to give voters final say on some issues.

“Anything related to increasing a current tax or creating a new revenue source (in the county) would need to be voted on by the people,” Jones said.

The Dome, which opened in 1995, was largely financed with $256 million in revenue bonds, and the repayment of that 30-year debt will be $720 million. Every year, Missouri spends $12 million to pay off the debt, and St. Louis and St. Louis County each pay $6 million annually.

Highlights of the Dome renovation plan include adding large window panels and a 96-foot-wide video screen and scoreboard; building a three-story pavilion connected to the Dome via a bridge over Broadway; and replacing four luxury suites and 1,800 regular seats with 1,500 club seats.

The CVC is required to come up with a plan that, by March 2014, would make the Dome a “first-tier” facility. The Rams have until March 1 to accept or reject the CVC plan, and until May 1 to make a counteroffer.

“Until we know exactly how much we need, there’s no point in going through a financial analysis,” Kathleen “Kitty” Ratcliffe, the CVC’s president, said in explaining the lack of funding specifics.

The one-page financial plan, however, lists estimated costs for the proposed renovations. The biggest cost, $24.5 million, would be for improvements to entrances, bathrooms and common areas, followed by $21.5 million for changes to box suites and concourses.

Many of the proposed improvements would increase revenue at the Dome, but the Rams — not the CVC — likely would reap the biggest rewards from those upgrades. That could be why the CVC wasn’t shy in asking the team to front 52 percent of the bill.

Under the terms of the lease, for example, the Rams keep all ticket receipts, so the team will benefit most from the addition of pricier club seats.

The improvement plan would upgrade concession areas and increase food and beverage sales outside of the Dome. The lease gives the team all net revenue from concessions sold on game days.

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The director of the International Monetary Fund said Monday that Europe needs a stronger financial firewall to stop the spread of debt contagion in the eurozone.

Speaking in Berlin, IMF chief Christine Lagarde supported a plan to fold the resources of the European Financial Stability Facility into its permanent replacement, known as the European Stability Mechanism, which has yet to be fully established.

The EFSF is valued at €440 billion, while the ESM is expected to have €500 billion in lending capacity. Combining the funds could result in a total firewall worth €1 trillion, according to eurozone officials.

The goal is to shield larger euro area economies from the debt crisis that has pushed Greece to the brink of default and resulted in bailouts for Ireland and Portugal.

"We need a larger firewall," said Lagarde. "Without it, countries like Italy and Spain, that are fundamentally able to repay their debts, could potentially be forced into a solvency crisis by abnormal financing costs."

European recovery? Wait till 2013 (at least)

Lagarde stressed that the ESM should be funded with "real tangible capital," as opposed to the loan guarantees that make up the EFSF.

The comments came as finance ministers from the 17 nations that use the euro currency, known as the Eurogroup, met to discuss ways to speed up implementation of the ESM. They are also expected to hash out the details of the fiscal pact European leaders proposed in December.

In addition to calling for a stronger firewall, Lagarde said eurozone officials need to do more to boost economic growth, which could include additional action by the European Central Bank.

Lagarde also said the eurozone needs to move toward greater "fiscal integration." She pointed to a number of options for "fiscal risk-sharing," including the creation of so-called euro bonds, an idea that has proved controversial.

She welcomed steps the ECB has taken so far, including a long-term lending program that has already pumped nearly €500 billion into the banking system payday loans in one hour.

"That has helped enormously," Lagarde said, adding that "there is a role for the ECB to play in terms of monetary policy."

European banks need to raise more capital, but they must do so in a way that will not cause credit conditions to contract, cautioned Lagarde.

She said governments with large deficits need to continue to tighten public finances, although she warned the aggressive budget cuts could increase the risk of a deeper recession. However, nations that are in better financial shape should contribute to the "common effort" by scaling back fiscal consolidation, she added.

World Bank warns on risk of global recession

Separately, Lagarde said the IMF will lower its growth forecasts for "many part of the world" when it releases an update to its World Economic Outlook early Tuesday.

She called on global policymakers to do what is necessary to prevent a deeper decline, saying last year’s economic problems were driven "by a lack of a collective determination to reach a cooperative solution."

"Now the world must find the political will to do what it knows must be done," she said.

While the debt crisis in Europe is the biggest threat, Lagarde also pointed to the challenges facing the U.S. economy.

"The United States, as the world’s largest economy and the center of the global financial system, has a special responsibility," she said.

Despite signs of a modest recovery, the U.S. economy remains hindered by high unemployment and a weak housing market.

In addition, U.S. policymakers need to get past the "partisan impasse" on how to reduce the nation’s long-term debts, without stifling economic growth, she said. 

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Vancouver displaced Sydney as the least-affordable housing market after Hong Kong among large English-speaking cities, as home prices rose faster than incomes, a study of 325 metropolitan areas worldwide showed.

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The Obama administration will ask Congress to raise the nation’s borrowing limit by $1.2 trillion this week, marking the third and final increase from a deal negotiated over summer.

Treasury officials said Tuesday that the increase is necessary because the government will be within $100 billion of its current limit by Friday.

The debt limit is the amount the government can borrow to finance its operations. The latest increase will boost that limit to $16.4 trillion. Officials say that should be enough to allow the government to keep borrowing until the end of 2012 _ just after the presidential election.

Congress can reject the request, although Obama can veto their objection. If Congress doesn’t act by Jan. 14, the increase will take place automatically.

The national debt has soared because the government has run record deficits over the past decade. The borrowed money has helped pay for two wars, stimulate the nation’s economy after the worst recession since the Great Depression and finance broad tax cuts initiated during the Bush administration.

The enormity of the debt has also stoked intense partisan debate in Congress over spending and taxes. Polls show growing voter anger with the inability of both parties to reach solutions to the country’s budget problems fast cash now.

In August, Congress and the administration agreed to raise the borrowing limit by $2.1 trillion in three steps. The deal was reached hours before a potential default on the nation’s debt and only after the parties also agreed to cut more than $2 trillion from the deficit over the next 10 years.

Still, the parties are at odds over how to reduce the deficit. In November, a bipartisan panel failed to meet a deadline to agree on $1.2 trillion of the cuts. That means automatic cuts of that amount will begin in January 2013 _ a condition included in last summer’s deal.

Republicans want to modify the timetable for the automatic cuts, largely because it includes steep cuts to the nation’s defense budget.

Congress agreed to raise the debt limit by $400 billion in August and by another $500 billion in September.

House Republicans voted against the second increase. But they failed to block it because the Senate approved it. The increases are scheduled to take effect unless both chambers vote against them.

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Shares of Abercrombie & Fitch Co. tumbled on Wednesday after the retailer of preppy teen apparel reported third-quarter results that missed expectations due to higher costs and a slowdown in Europe.

After losing market share to cheaper competitors during the recession, Abercrombie & Fitch has focused on expanding internationally with flashy flagship stores in places like Milan and Paris and on closing underperforming stores in the U.S.

But it is facing challenges on two fronts, higher costs and the increasingly shaky economy in Europe. In a call with analysts, CEO Mike Jefferies said the company stood by its European expansion plans.

“Our European business, while slowing somewhat during the quarter, is very robust and healthy by any objective measure,” he said. “If anyone is inclined to believe that a softening of our business in Europe this quarter in the face of severe macroeconomic headwinds is a major issue for our model, frankly, I think they are missing the forest for the trees.”

Its shares dropped more than 14 percent in late morning trading.

Abercrombie reiterated that it plans to open 40 international mall-based Hollister stores during the year. About 25 have opened as of Oct. 29. It plans to open five international flagship Abercrombie & Fitch stores in 2011. It said it would open Abercrombie & Fitch flagship stores in Amsterdam and Munich in 2012, in addition to previously announced flagships opening in Hamburg and Hong Kong.

Meanwhile, high costs pressured results. The cost of goods sold was up 34 percent during the quarter. But the company did not raise prices, in order to drive sales in its U.S. stores.

“We chose to keep our average unit retail prices down in these stores, which, combined with double-digit average unit cost increases, puts significant pressure on our gross margins,” Jeffries said.

He said the company likely would likely raise prices in the future, and not doing so “left dollars on the table,” in the third quarter.

The New Albany, Ohio-based retailer’s net income rose to $50.9 million, or 57 cents per share, for the three months ended Oct. 30. That compares with $50 million, or 56 cents per share, a year ago. Analysts polled by FactSet expected earnings of 72 cents per share.

Revenue rose nearly 22 percent to $1.08 billion from $886 million. Analysts expected revenue of $1.07 billion.

U.S. revenue rose 14 percent to $920.2 million. International sales rose 56 percent to $255.7 million.

Revenue in stores open at least one year, a key gauge of a retailer’s performance, rose 7 percent, including a 4 percent gain at Abercrombie & Fitch, a 6 percent gain at Abercrombie kids stores and an 8 percent gain at surf-themed Hollister Co.

Shares fell $8.01, or 14.4 percent, to $47.69 in late morning trading after falling as low as $46.69 earlier in the session. The stock had been down 3 percent since the beginning of the year.

Stock fell in the broader market as oil topped $100 a barrel for the first time since July and concern about Europe’s debt crisis lingered. The Dow fell 121 points in morning trading.

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Male CEOs with faces that are wider relative to facial height achieve better financial performance for their firms, according to research from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

Elaine M. Wong, assistant professor in the school’s department of communication, analyzed the features of 55 U.S. CEOs and found that in general, the wider the face, the higher the company’s return on assets.

She did not find the same correlation with women. She hypothesizes that wider faces – which her research also links to greater aggression – may have been an evolutionary necessity for men, but not women.

The successful group of current and former CEOs included Herb Kelleher of Southwest Airlines, who turned a pioneering business model into a high-flying success; Kenneth Wolfe, who expanded Hershey chocolate into new markets, dramatically increasing revenues and William Stavropoulous, who made Dow Chemical Company an industry leader.

All have faces that are wider rather than narrower, according to Wong’s research.

The Star asked her to put some Canadian CEOs to the test.

Jim Balsillie, co-chair of Research-in-Motion, the BlackBerry maker whose fortunes have tumbled this year, has a relatively narrow face, according to Wong’s calculations, forecasting less stellar results.

She put Tim Horton’s CEO Paul House and Loblaw’s chief Galen Weston Jr. squarely in the middle of the pack of 55 U.S. CEOs.

U.S. CEOs with lower facial ratios included Paul Allaire of Xerox, George Fisher of Kodak, and Richard Fuld of Lehman Brothers.

Wong cautions against eyeballing it because looks are deceiving. Barack Obama appears to have a thin face, but it only looks that way because he’s tall and thin. Precise measurements reveal he has a relatively wide face.

Even Wong and her fellow researchers don’t eyeball it. They use computer software to standardize the photos and measure the distance between cheekbones and the distance between the brow and upper lip.

But if Obama has a wide face, how to explain the current state of the U.S. economy? How to explain that a year ago, RIM, run by Balsillie and his partner Michael Lazaridis, was flying high?

The research reveals a trend, not an absolute that will hold true in every case, says Wong. And facial width is only one factor among numerous other variables.

The research was based on previous work by the University of Toronto’s Nicholas Rule, Ph.D., an assistant professor of psychology and Canada Research Chair in Social Perception and Cognition.

Rule’s research showed that people are able to judge successful CEOs from less successful ones based on photographs. They can even judge success later in life based on photographs taken in university.

Studies at Brock University have found that hockey players with wider faces tended to be more aggressive, with more penalty minutes, says Rule.

“It suggests there is something about the face,” says Rule. “What these studies are doing is saying indeed it’s the facial metrics.”

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