Finance topics

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.

Source

Get free instant insurance rates for universal, whole, variable and term life insurance from the nation's leading Insurance companies.

Turnout was low as Egyptians voted on Sunday for the upper house of parliament, in elections that are the latest step in the country’s planned transition from military to civilian rule.

Few voters showed up to cast their ballots at polling stations in Cairo, one of 13 provinces where the first stage of elections for the largely advisory Shura Council are taking place. A second stage will take place on Feb. 14-15.

“We now feel we have a role in shaping the country’s future,” said Mohammed el-Hawari, a professor at Cairo’s Ain Shams University and one of those who did vote.

The Shura Council is composed of 270 members. Only two-thirds are elected while the rest are appointed.

Islamists dominated elections for the People’s Assembly, the more powerful of the two houses of parliament, in voting that ran from Nov. 28 through January. Turnout was heavy in these elections, which were the first since the Jan. 25-Feb. 11, 2011, mass uprising that ousted Hosni Mubarak.

One secular party, the Free Egyptians, had announced that it was boycotting Shura Council elections to protest what it described as violations of Egypt’s election laws by Islamist parties during the People’s Assembly vote.

The secularists say that that Islamists made heavy use of religious slogans and campaigned too close to polling stations. Islamist spokesmen have denied using slogans inappropriately, and said that all groups campaigned too close to the stations.

Secular and liberal alliances, including youth parties which led the anti-Mubarak uprising, have performed poorly in elections.

Once the Shura Council elections are complete, according to Egypt’s transition plan, the parliament is tasked to select a 100-member panel to draft the country’s new constitution. The ruling military council which took power after Mubarak’s ouster is then scheduled to transfer power to an elected civilian president by the end of June.

The army generals have been accused of mismanaging the transitional period, of not carrying through sweeping reforms, and of keeping Mubarak’s regime intact.

The voting comes a few days after hundreds of thousands of Egyptians poured into the streets to mark the first anniversary of their uprising and to press the military council to step down.

Source

Free online car insurance quotes. Get insurance rate comparisons, and buy your auto insurance policy instantly.

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. 

Source

Prime Minister Mario Monti

iBooks 2 will be a

Manufacturing in the New York region expanded in January at the fastest pace in nine months, reflecting improving orders, sales and employment.

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York

President Barack Obama will speak today at the White House at 11:20 a.m. Washington time on steps he plans to make the U.S. government leaner, smarter and more consumer-friendly, a White House official said business card templates.

Source

China

Everybody knows that January predicts the stock market’s direction for the year and that the best time to sell stocks is at their spring peak. And among stock market experts, it’s a sure bet that the market will soar in the year before an election.

But what passes for stock market wisdom is suspect when given a closer look. The most common error comes when people spot two events and assume that one causes the other.

And it drives economists, math geeks and plenty of money managers nuts.

“If you look at enough data in enough different ways, you’re going to find something that isn’t really true,” says Edward Keon, who leads a mathematics team at Prudential Financial.

The same seasonal patterns seem to pop up year after year. Some are valuable and some meaningless, Keon says _ like saying stocks tend to rise or fall depending on the month, the temperature in New York City or who wins the Super Bowl.

People “are simply being fooled by randomness,” says Burton Malkiel, professor of economics at Princeton University and author of the finance classic “A Random Walk Down Wall Street.”

Spend enough time digging through numbers and you’re bound to find some that always take the same path, he says. “But none can reliably predict the future.”

Here’s an examination of some of the oldest Wall Street aphorisms.

___

The claim: As goes January, so goes the year.

The idea is that January works as a barometer for the stock market’s full-year performance: A strong first month often leads to a year of gains, and a weak one to a year of losses.

It comes from Yale Hirsch, father of the Stock Trader’s Almanac, and looks reliable. Since 1929, the calendar year has followed January’s lead 60 out of 83 times, according to Howard Silverblatt, senior index analyst at Standard & Poor’s. That’s a .723 batting average.

The suggestion that January somehow directs the course of the next 11 months is what irks economists and investors, including Dan Greenhaus, chief market strategist at the brokerage BTIG.

Expecting to hear praise for January’s forecasting powers, Greenhaus attacked the idea on his blog Jan. 2, the day before U.S. markets opened for 2012. He took the S&P 500 index’s returns since 1950, including dividends, and found that the four months following January also appeared to work magic. When April is down, the next 12 months return a negative 0.2 percent. When April is up, the S&P 500 returns 12.8 percent. It’s a similar story with February, March and April. But why?

“It’s true that if January is up, the year is up most of the time,” he says. “But if you look at any month, you’ll find the market tends to be up over the next 12 months. And the reason is very simple: the market tends to be up.”

The S&P 500 has climbed in three out of every four years since 1950. Pick nearly any month in which stocks rose and most of the time you’ll find that the year was headed in the same direction.

But what if stocks fall in January? It doesn’t mean the next 11 months will follow. Sometimes, the stock market starts the year in a hole and digs its way out. In 1992, the S&P 500 dropped 2 percent in January, then ended the year with a modest gain of 4.5 percent.

“If you’re starting in the hole, then the 12-month period is starting in the hole,” Greenhaus says. “That should be intuitive. Instead it gets treated as some sort of prognostication tool. It’s just what happens.”

___

The claim: Sell in May and go away.

Like a flock of migrating birds, the stock market tends to travel south or north depending on the season. It rises through the winter months and falls late in the spring. Investors struggle through the summer until November rolls around and the market picks up again.

“Sell in May and go away” is a well-worn saying, but the numbers seem to back it up. Since 1990, the three months starting in July have been the worst quarter for the S&P 500. Last year, the S&P hit its peak on April 29, then hit bottom Oct. 3, right on cue.

Even many skeptics think “sell in May” probably has something going for it _ but they can only guess why.

“It’s harder to debunk this one,” says Nick Colas, chief market strategist at ConvergEx Group.

The flow of money into retirement plans and mutual funds may have something to do with it. Colas says databases that track cash moving into stock funds show patterns similar to the stock market trend: A strong start that evaporates as the year progresses.

In the first four months of 2011, Americans added $13 billion to U.S. stock funds, according to the Investment Company Institute. But they pulled $6.5 billion in May and then began withdrawing much more. By the end of the year, retail investors had pulled $131.8 billion out of U.S. stock funds.

Some tie the summer sluggishness to vacation season. Trading desks are thinly staffed in the weeks before Labor Day. Fewer traders means a drop in trading volume, which makes it easier for markets to take bigger swings, often down.

Here’s where that explanation falls short. Traders return to their desks after Labor Day in September and trading picks up. But for all major stock indexes, September is historically the worst month of the year. Since 1950, it’s the only month in which the stock market has fallen more than it has risen.

Source

Consumer confidence in the U.S. rose last week to the highest level in more than five months and the pace of firings declined, showing an improving job market is bolstering the biggest part of the economy.

The Bloomberg Consumer Comfort Index (COMFCOMF) climbed to minus 44.8 in the period ended Dec. 31, the best reading since mid-July, from minus 47.5 the prior week. Applications for jobless benefits (INJCJC) decreased by 15,000 during the same time to 372,000, according to Labor Department figures.

A pickup in hiring will further lift Americans